Thursday, April 26, 2012

Week #17: Be Your Own Best Friend

By the end of my Weight Watchers week, I usually have some sort of idea what I want to say about the meeting topic. This week, I'm sitting here at a loss for words.

If I'm honest with myself, it's probably because this is an area that I still struggle with. And not just in the weight management part of my life. Perfection? I'm always striving for it, obviously never getting it.

I guess the takeaway from this is that you don't have to conquer every issue out there in order to reach (and maintain) your weight loss goals. I've kept the weight off for just shy of fifteen years, and there are still things I struggle with. But the struggle is manageable enough that it doesn't impact the end result.

Does that help? Does that make it seem more doable?

I found the final flip chart this week to be really thought provoking, so I'll repost it here:

What Food Can Do

Food can fill our stomachs.
It cannot fill our souls.
Food can nourish our bodies.
It cannot nourish our hearts and minds.
Food can make our taste buds happy.
It cannot make us happy.
Food can give momentary pleasure.
It cannot give lasting pleasure.
Food can distract us from our pain.
It cannot take away our pain.

-Author Unknown

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Week #16: Put Color On Your Plate

I know I'm not the only one who wants to eat food that looks tasty. I'm pretty sure that's one of the major sources of Pinterest's recent popularity - people wanting to look at tasty food!

For me, enjoying the look of food often means lots of color. I've shared in the meeting room an experience I had making a meal several years ago. I made some mashed potatoes, served it with some chicken breast, and if I remember right some corn kernels. And plated it on our regular china...beige plates. BO-RING.

Take a look at some of the recipes I've made recently here, and you'll see a lot of color. Don't be surprised by all the vegetarian/vegan options there - I don't eat meat anymore, so that's what I make these days. Many of you eat meatless every once in awhile anyway, or could easily throw some cooked meat into many of the dishes I've linked to. But look at all those different fruits and veggies - great variety of colors (and vitamins & nutrients, too).

Friday, April 13, 2012

Week #15: Exercise Plan B

I'm sitting here listening to one of the better rainstorms we've had here in San Diego recently. Even in a city with beautiful weather (mostly) it's handy to have an exercise Plan B. And really, it's not even just weather that can necessitate having a plan B.

Over the years, the following items have gotten in the way of my exercise routine:

Inclement weather (mostly I'm up for being in the rain, but I do have my limits)
Smoke and ash from massive wildfires
Illness
Lazy-Ass-Itis*
Injury
Sleeping through my alarm (unintentionally and intentionally)
Working late
Going into work early
Doctor/Dentist/Eye Doctor appointments
Being bored with my exercise routine
Holiday gym hours
Travel

There are probably even other things I didn't think of, and I'm guessing that with all these different things, any of you could find something that would disrupt your routine. Plan ahead with a list of things you can do "just in case" so that when any of these things happen, you know what your options are and don't get caught empty-handed!

*Yes, that's a thing

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Week #14: Anchors Aweigh!

Lifetime Keys have gotten smaller over the years....

As dedicated as we are on this journey (and you're totally dedicated, right? RIGHT?) it's sometimes easy to go temporarily insane and forget why we wanted to adopt a healthy lifestyle in the first place. That's when an anchor comes in handy.

As we discussed this week, an anchor is an object, gesture, phrase, anything at all that can help you get back in touch with the empowered thoughts and feelings you've had all along. Like in The Wizard of Oz, you've had those resources to succeed within you the whole time. Sometimes you just need a reminder.

Here's one of the things that reminds me of what I'm capable of:


If I ever think I can't do something, all I need to do is remind myself what a pain in the tuchus it was to run my first marathon. As a side note, what I love about this photo is the finish time clock. Do you really think I ran 26.2 miles in just over three and a half hours? That's something like an eight minute mile - I wish! What really happened is that back when I ran this race, the San Diego Marathon (now the Carlsbad Marathon) offered an "early start" for those "slower" runners who thought they'd take over 4 hours to finish. So instead of starting with the elite runners at 7:30, we could start at 6:30 and get a jump on things. So the finish clock in that photo is based not on my personal start time, but the official regular start time. Add an hour to that clock and you've got my real finish time.

Trust me when I tell you that running for that long is NOT easy. So whatever weight loss has to throw at me? I can totally handle it.