Health Update

I have lost 27 pounds so far. It's been slower lately but that's because I am much closer to my goal; my ideal number is 18 pounds away. Oy, getting where I want to be is taking forever. But yay for me, I've come a long way, right? And I'm doing it in a healthy way that I can see sustaining for the rest of my life.

One of the changes I'm making is becoming a physically active person. All my life I've focused on my brain/smarts, and my relationships with people--but never my body. I never played sports, didn't work out on my own, and just wasn't interested in getting strong, lean, fit, or healthy. I wanted to look good, sure--which is why I did crash diets and quick fixes. Somehow things changed for me and I have four overarching tenets that guide me.

Have I told you my mantras I repeat daily?

--Have a healthy heart and strong body free of disease. I want to stave off the ailments that come with being overweight, especially high blood pressure, diabetes and dementia. There are many others but those are the three most on my mind.

--Honor the temple that houses my spirit.

--Look good and wear whatever cute clothes I want.

--Live up to my motto: She believed she could, and so she did.

So guess what. I've started playing racquetball. My companions have only been the twins so far but I think I could play a real game with a not-very-skilled adult and hold my own. I don't know. I dominate the court when I'm with the 8-year-olds, I will say that. Before I was too scared to try something new but to my surprise, I am really having fun.

I also want to sign up for a 5K fun run. A RUN! Remember when I ran on my birthday three times longer than I had before? I may not have mentioned that my hips killed for weeks after that. I had to take the jet packs off and go back to walking. I looked up the symptoms online and I think I had a flare-up of the uber-glamorous granny condition, bursitis. Not cool. So I have slowly introduced running back in to my routine. And I do mean slowly. Yesterday I logged about 4 minutes on the treadmill at 5.5 mph, in my entire 45 minute session. BUT!!! My hips feel just fine today. To make sure I did yoga today (Jillian Michaels' power yoga which you can imagine, was not gentle and sweet) and I feel normal. I think that if I take it slow like that I can work up for running a 5K for real. Bryce and I talked about the whole family doing the Santa Run in December, which is not competitive at all. Everyone's dressed like Santa, for heaven's sake! How fun would that be?

So those two things have really pushed me out of my comfort zone but now they're kind of IN my comfort zone, you know? Woo!

One more thing, I want to do a cartwheel. I've never been a pro but it's not too late to become one, hm?

When it comes to clothes, I have a favorite black knee-length pencil skirt that used to be a tight 14 and now it's practically falling off my body. That's the sad thing, saying goodbye to some old favorite clothes (because I do have quite a few favorites). But it's a good sad. I've avoided buying many things through this transition but I did buy myself a new pencil skirt in a size 8 and I'm almost there. Single digits, people.

I feel that healthy eating is my new normal, for the most part--a few slip ups here and there but I'm learning from my mistakes. Logging my food choices has been key. It's not always easy, especially when I'm surrounded by temptation or exhaustion (my reasoning takes a back seat when I'm tired). But this little saying spoke to me:

And I was like, YES.

So that's what's going on in the heath department (aka, the road to better living).

Come join me!