Keep On Keepin' On

Small steps.

I know what my goal is. To lose weight, to be skinnier (not skinny--old people don't look good skinny. They just look skinny...frail...old), to be fit, to be in good health. It ain't easy and it's not happening fast, but if I look closely, it may actually be happening.

One of the keys to a healthy lifestyle is having a plan. Recently I realized I was trying to do too much. At the end of the week I wanted a break, a day off. I needed to pace myself.

Motivation. I think I did better this week. I didn't do as much, but I carried through better. On Friday morning I got up and headed to the gym for my workout, followed by a 2 mile walk. This morning I got up and headed to the park for a 3 mile walk. I made it through the week with enough motivation to keep going. Small steps.

Energy. I had planned to spend the afternoon reading. But as the day wore on I kept doing tasks; laundry, another coat of paint on a table I'm refinishing, cleaning up a desk, washing out a cupboard... tasks. Trips up and down stairs as I put things away and straightened up little piles that had accumulated through the week. Even that 3 mile walk this morning on a hot and very humid day didn't wear me out. I did read, but I did much more.

Shape. The scales show little difference, but the mirror suddenly does. Today I wore a ribbed tank top that was on the Goodwill pile. It didn't look great, but it did look better than at the begining of the summer and for a long walk on a hot day, it was fine. Small steps.

My body feels tighter. At the end of the day, my gut that looks like I swallowed a balloon in the afternoon, today looked like the balloon had lost a bit of air.

Small Steps.

All I can do is keep on, keepin' on. Someday maybe I'll reach my goal. Thinner. Fitter. Lighter. Hopefully around 130. Keep on....

Last Friday, I took off and skipped my favorite yoga class because I was tired after all the classes I attended through the week. This week I was hoping to pace myself better, because the truth is, Friday is not a good day to take off. I don't usually work out over the weekend. THOSE are my days off.

The gym I workout at is a bit unusual. They have classes called TBC for Total Body Conditioning. Their policy is to mix up the workouts each day which means you don't 'go to yoga, M-W-F' or to a cardio class at 10:30 every Tuesday and Thursday. Sometimes yoga means 'yoga flow--a movement class. Sometimes it means Pi-Yo which emphasizes core conditioning. Sometimes it is on Monday, sometimes it is on Tuesday.

The pros of this method is that your body does not develop muscle memory which weakens it's conditioning. (It never learns what to expect.) The difficulty with this system is scheduling. I may have something planned on a day I could really use the yoga class and I may be free on a day when a class I need isn't offered.

Another thing they do that seems new to me, is that at the beginning of each month the routine for each class will be a bit easier as new moves are introduced. By the end of the month the moves are intensified as we grow into them. Muscle memory outfoxed again.

When I first tried attending this gym I was turned off; annoyed that I couldn't get a simple schedule. Over the years, I've learned to embrace the system. I plan to go 3 days a week and I take what is available that day. It is working. Now that I go with the flow, I've learned how much stronger I am getting, and that makes me feel good.

I still like taking Fridays off, though. By the end of the week I'm ready for a day off.

I guess I'm still working on that whole pace thing.

Ouch

I found a book in the library that seemed to be written for me. It is called the Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook. In a nutshell, a young(er than I am) woman found herself at a crossroads in her life where she seems to be spinning in the wind, no direction in mind. She has just left her job and on the same day her boyfriend leaves her. What does she do? What most of us would do. She holes up in her house with her cookies and icecream until the time for licking her wounds has passed. Then she straps on her walking shoes and her pedometer and gets ready to move on.

I too, have experienced a big change in my life. Right after my youngest daughter got married, we moved to Pittsburgh and I retired. I wasn't as shell shocked as the girl in the book, but it was a big adjustment. However the real commonality between the main character and myself was the Gung-Ho Attitude.

In the book, each chapter starts with the number of steps she has walked that day. While holed up in the house it was something like 32 steps, 111 steps, 51 steps. You get the idea. Nothing!

Then when she decides to move on she laces up her athletic shoes and hits the road. At the end of the day she has walked 11,232 steps! And the next day her diary reads... OUCH!

In our neighborhood, 'flat' is a term that does not exist. The roads go up and down, and around, but there is no flat. On the day that I decided to pick up my pace I set out. I have walked these roads for 3 years now, so I did the whole 2 1/2 mile route. I rarely paused. I walked at a good strong pace. I huffed up those hills and pounded down. When I got home, I congratulated myself and collapsed on the couch while Rachel Ray prepared a delicious pasta meal. By mid afternoon my muscles were tightening. By the next morning I could barely move. It was 3 days before I was back to normal.

Ordinarily, that would have stopped me, but not this time. I will stay the course. The question is, what have I learned?

The answer---Baby Steps. My new plan is to do one mile at a pace I can manage. Each day I time myself. What used to take 25 minutes I am now doing in 20 minutes, but this has taken a couple of weeks. I used to stop on the way up the hill, but I've learned where the burn point is and I am powering (it is a slow power, ha ha) through it. When I'm comfortable I will raise the bar to 1 1/2 miles. So far I feel good! This is working.
Today's total--11,500 steps.