Boxing Day (Day 6) - food for thought

Results upward blip (1 lb) but I have been on my bike and shall take a long walk today.

Now, for some food for thought. I was checking out my statistics and if I am reading them correctly (a bit dubious) my biggest hits came on the night I wrote about the finals on Dancing With the Stars. So my question is, was the mention of Jennifer Grey the attraction, or was it Bristol Palin’s name, or was it DWTS that brought me the hits? Or, could it have been the exciting intro “tension mounts”? I purposely have dropped these names to see if celebrity is what brings attention, though I know I have faithful friends who read my tiny little mind every day!

I am realistic enough to know the answer. The world has an almost mystifying fascination with celebrity. The rag mags (and some not, supposedly, rag mags) write about what the stars eat for breakfast. Who cares? I would rather not know, especially all the negative behaviors. I don’t care if Gayle King slept with a flight attendant. Please, leave her some dignity. Is Oprah on prescription drugs? Who cares? And shall we talk about Lindsey Lohan? I’d rather not.

The curious thing is that the worst behaviors get the most attention. I can assure you that I don’t buy the magazines but when you stand at the cash register and wait (forever) in line, naturally you look at the covers. That’s how I know about the above stuff. But I would much rather not. I would much rather see a headline about who won the Nobel Peace prize, but you never see that as a screaming headline. That is a secondary or even third rated story on the fifth page of a main newspaper. Did it even get awarded this year? Lio Xiaobo for his long non-violent struggle for human rights in China. Like that name just tripped off my tongue (or yours). This man has championed for a billion people but we don’t know his name. Why is that? Don’t say because we are ignorant. We know Paris Hilton’s name because it is in the blooming paper every day, every paper, and what on earth has she done for the planet? Snorted cocaine? Really, journalists, get a grip on the real stories. I don’t care about these so-called celebrities. I want real news, real up beat caring stories and I want to hear about them more than once. Let them be uplifting and readable and let’s know the names of the real heros.

Now I will get off the soap box and brave the madness of Boxing Day Sales.

Status - Day Two Excavating My Authentic Self

I couldn’t help toying with everyone yesterday. The result - 1.4 lbs

My feelings on this event? Incredulous! Disbelief! Did I read something incorrectly yesterday? Happy though. Knowing it’s do-able with just a little effort.

Riding into town on the bus yesterday I found “self-talk” going around and around in my head and most of it was extremely negative. My girlfriend’s email to me did shake some sense into me, at least for the rest of that day. But here it is, first thing in the morning and I am ready to go into the negative talk about a negative body image. Yes, I must lose weight, for health reasons, not because I want to be knock ‘em dead gorgeous (well, maybe just a little). As I said a while back, I’ve had my day in the sun. But the truth is that I want to live to a ripe old age and carrying around extra weight is not the road to old age.

So here it is. Oprah is not the role model we want to emulate in this arena. The person we should be applauding is Richard Simmons. Does that surprise you? But it’s true. He is a true success story on how to keep weight off. How long has he been doing this – gosh, it must be decades now. I remember him when I was a young woman. I was going to write a ton about him but as my server is super slow, suffice to say he is only 5 years older than I and has kept his weight off for over 30 years. Talk about a success story. Can we do it, can I do it? I must, I will, I will self-talk my way to healthy habits . Richard Simmons Official Site and Clubhouse: Weight Loss and Fitness Tools and Motivation

Lest you think I am some humungous slug. I am not. I am about 30 pounds over my ideal weight, for my age. But every year I seem to put on an additional 3 or 4 pounds and it is harder and harder to get those 3 or 4 pounds off, hence we are now up to 30 pounds. Ten years of 3 pounds. Ladies crossing the threshold of 40 – beware. Those under 40, start healthy habits NOW. It only gets harder.

This is not about self loathing. It is not about being a model. It is simply trying to meet the challenge of staying health and reaching my goal of longevity. (to be discussed at a later time).

I will be happy whilst doing this – not to alarm anyone into going over the top.

Let’s still enjoy our holiday season!

And a tip from Richard today:

To do leg-lifts, you simply stand up and lift your leg parallel to the ground. And when you lift your leg, remember, you're lifting the largest muscle in your body. When you add hand movements to your leg-lifts, your body is working even harder because you're using your upper and lower body at the same time. So now you're burning more calories.

Day One

So, the question is, how did I fair the first day? I managed to fast until 10:00 when I had a banana. Not bad, healthy snack. Then at 10:30 a lovely gentleman from my floor came to give me a Christmas gift before heading off for the holidays. What should it be but my favorite chocolate bar – a mini Toblerone. Oh dear, could I withstand temptation? Well, I lasted until 3:00 when I had half of it with my afternoon glass of water (notice I managed to avoid caffeine?).

A dear friend sent me an email that was very encouraging as well. She told me how wonderful I was despite my pudginess. What are a few pounds here and there, she said? We have to live. I felt very happy that she thought so well of me but I have to set an example to all womanhood. I can persevere. So I must get on that wicked scale and take a peak. Bear with me while I check it out . . . .

Suspense . . . . !

Stupidity vs Angst

I did the unforgiveable. You know what I am talking about. It’s the time of year when the scale is a girl’s worst enemy. That’s right. I just got on the scale and now I feel crappy and it isn’t even 5:00 a.m. How am I going to face the day?

This is where PEP talk comes in. I have to remind myself that I can fast for 48 hours because I did it successfully, with no pain whatsoever, last January when I prepared for my colonoscopy. What I did once I can do again (and again, and again . . . ) The difference being that then it was demanded of me and now I am being whoosie.

To every woman who has ever been on a diet (and who hasn’t?) we need to find the formula that will scare us out of our whoosie-ness. What is it in our brains that allows us to ignore truly scary statistics that say a percentage of women will have a heart attack before she is 50? And other stuff like that which I confess I tune out most of the time. Part of my particular problem is that I was always naturally slim and I simply haven’t accepted the fact that I have become a whale. I still think of myself as a minnow. That is, I have been thinking of myself as a minnow until I felt my thighs this morning. They have fallen down to my knees.

OMG, have you ever heard of thighs that low? Neither had I. I started pressing around and investigating and feeling quite ill about it. I hadn’t had my first sip of coffee yet and hoped that I was still dreaming. Sadly, I wasn’t. After a whole cup of coffee I ventured to feel them again and groaned so loudly Thumper ran under the bed and hasn’t been seen since.

Why am I doing this to myself before 5:00 in the morning? Don’t ask me. I must be a sucker for punishment. Obviously. How many people get up at 3:45 a.m. to go to work?

I wrote in my gratitude journal this morning that I was grateful that I had determination. That is what psychologists call self-talk. Will it work?

It’s December 21^st. Shall I give myself 10 days to see if this self-talk will get me below my fighting weight (that being my weight 2 weeks ago --- come on, be fair! A girl has to have some wiggle room!) That’s 6 lbs. Can I go down 6 lbs in 10 days given the fact that I have 2 more lunchs, Christmas dinner and one invitation out? Can I do it? Louder, Can I do it? Yes, Yes, Yes.

Yoga, Jogging and Exercise

I don’t know if my family and friends really believe me when I quote my various health practitioners’ surprising appraisal of my various body parts but this body of mine is kind of a miracle. Despite the decrepitude of 50 some odd years I get comments like this one from my new physiotherapist “your flexibility is remarkable, much better than mine” (she’s 27). My optometrist was impressed by the perfect symmetry of my eyes which he said he had never seen before, it is so rare. For years my G.P. was impressed with my perfect reflexes, my “text book perfect blood pressure” and the lowest cholesterol level he had ever seen. My manicurist said I had amazingly smooth feet. And yet, my body is falling apart. I have a pinched sciatica nerve that is not going away any time soon. I hobble out of the car or bus like a woman of 95 (and I’m being cruel to the 95 year old women out there). Despite all my down dogs and sun salutations I have not been able to keep age at bay.

I’ve read a lot of useful information about keeping my brain nimble. I do crossword puzzles (in pen), I Sudoku my little heart out at least once a day. I surround myself with friends of all age groups. I read, I write, I do arithmetic problems. I have even thought of taking up nuclear physics (my brother John raised his eyebrows at that one). Well, that might be a bit extreme but I have started reading more horticulture books. The point being, I have been concentrating on keeping Alzheimer’s a remote possibility and thus neglected a little thing called sciatica. I thought my nearly daily walks, my yoga (twice on weekends), the occasional dumbbell lift and my sit-ups would be adequate to keep this miracle body in shape. Imagine the shock of being told that I had osteoporosis. How much osteoporosis, I asked, is it just the beginning stages? “no, you have full blown osteoporosis.” Before I could actually reel from the shock I got the second blow. “You also have high blood pressure”. How could that be? I’ve always had text book perfect blood pressure. My nemesis flashed through my mind, of course, that’s the problem. Too much stress at work. The doctor wanted me to go on pills but I resisted valiantly. He gave me some papers to read which I did read, cautiously because medical jargon is not my thing. Not that I don’t understand it. I understand it all too well. I ventured to read the papers and then I made the fatal mistake of pulling out my own medical book and reading about high blood pressure. I took to my bed and called my mother.

“Mum, did you know blood pressure can kill you?”

“What did the doctor tell you?” my mother is ever practical.

“He said I should cut back on my salt intake and exercise, lose some weight.”

“What have you been eating lately?”

“Nothing much, just soup and sandwiches.”

“Check out your soup, it’s loaded with salt.”

Soup is killing me? I rose from my death bed to look at my soup cans. I was stunned by the amount of salt in prepared soups. I realized that I had been eating soup nearly every day during the winter months. So I cut out all prepared foods, including soups and three months later I had my blood pressure checked and I was back within normal range.

The moral of the story, when we are looking at the big picture the little things can creep up and can kill you!