About time I did these - it's been a week since I got Harpered! I haven't fully decided on my goals yet, but I have a feeling that if the non-negotiables are right, the goals will fall into place anyway.
1. Every day, do 30 minutes to 1 hour minimum of exercise. This can be anything from a boot camp to a walk - just move. On what would normally be a rest day, do a 30-minute+ walk or ride.
2. Drink an absolute minimum of 2 litres of water per day.
3. Structure my work hours. Being a home worker doesn't mean I have to be a procrastinating time-waster!
4. Start daily meditation/silence period in order to help stop stressing/overthinking.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Setting the bar high
This morning finds me a rather tired girl because I went to my second boxing session with Breaking Point and, if anything, it was even harder than the first one I did on Wednesday night because at least in that one we got a cardio "break" from either boxing or catching and I lasted a lot better because of that. Today I was with a nice young girl who was very patient with me being so unfit by comparison with her, but MAN, could she hit and kick! I was really surprised how painful it can be if you don't catch properly - the impact goes all the way up through your forearms and right up to the traps, always my weak/bad spot due to my long hours at the computer for work and my habit of hunching my shoulders when anxious or stressed. But probably a lot of other people there were in the same boat - it's just that not one other person there was even close to my weight, and I don't think many were anywhere near my age either.
So that's why the topic for today's post - how high DO we set the bar? I can see merit in pushing yourself, certainly. If you never push yourself right out of whatever comfort zone your body is enjoying, nothing is more certain than that you will quickly plateau and stop improving. However, the other side of the coin is that for a person like me, with more than a smidgin of inferiority complex in my make-up, it can be very discouraging to see just how far behind I am compared to "normal" people and it tends me make me want to give up.
And actually, reading that last paragraph over, it's veering perilously close to overthinking territory, but I think I reined it back in time. hehehe! ;)
Either way I look at it, I need to adjust my attitude and thoughts. Firstly, I think I did well today considering that Mel is younger, heaps fitter and a hell of a lot lighter than me. I didn't truly keep up with her, but I didn't give up even though I really, REALLY wanted to because my traps were screaming at me. And next time, even if I was paired with her again, I know I'd do better. Secondly, I need to drop the inferiority stuff. So WHAT if I'm older/slower/fatter/not fit? If I keep letting that stop me, I'll never do another thing because nothing will change without me making changes. I will be stuck in Groundhog Day, where I have already been for far too long.
So I'm going to do what my blog title says - suck it up. Find my inner mongrel - I know she is there!
So that's why the topic for today's post - how high DO we set the bar? I can see merit in pushing yourself, certainly. If you never push yourself right out of whatever comfort zone your body is enjoying, nothing is more certain than that you will quickly plateau and stop improving. However, the other side of the coin is that for a person like me, with more than a smidgin of inferiority complex in my make-up, it can be very discouraging to see just how far behind I am compared to "normal" people and it tends me make me want to give up.
And actually, reading that last paragraph over, it's veering perilously close to overthinking territory, but I think I reined it back in time. hehehe! ;)
Either way I look at it, I need to adjust my attitude and thoughts. Firstly, I think I did well today considering that Mel is younger, heaps fitter and a hell of a lot lighter than me. I didn't truly keep up with her, but I didn't give up even though I really, REALLY wanted to because my traps were screaming at me. And next time, even if I was paired with her again, I know I'd do better. Secondly, I need to drop the inferiority stuff. So WHAT if I'm older/slower/fatter/not fit? If I keep letting that stop me, I'll never do another thing because nothing will change without me making changes. I will be stuck in Groundhog Day, where I have already been for far too long.
So I'm going to do what my blog title says - suck it up. Find my inner mongrel - I know she is there!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
I'm not "in the zone" - I'm just doing it
Yes, more Harperesque ramblings from me today. I think it's gonna go on for a while. Hehe. :)
I have been thinking this week about how for the last five or six months, my complaining and whining and procrastinating about my weight loss had reached almost Olympic levels in terms of how good I got at it. THE biggest thing I got out of last Sunday was that there is no special day, no special time, no special mindset required to lose weight and be healthy. I honestly never really thought about just how overrated motivation is, maybe because I managed to maintain mine for such a long time prior to falling off the wagon (and being run over by it several thousand times, I might add). So I thought I was "cured". And what does that even mean? That after being overweight (well, OK, let's be honest - morbidly obese) for the vast majority of my 43 years on this planet, that a bit over a year "in the zone" was going to stick and last and I'd never, ever be tempted to go back to where I'd been at my worst and I could afford to "relax"? When I think about it now, I was being so naive, not to mention childish. What I really needed to realise and accept is that my genetics, combined with my background and history, mean that for however many more years I get on this planet, I will always have to be vigilant and mindful when it comes to food. I do believe in time that if I really make a big effort to change my eating so that I eat only when I am hungry, it will become more automatic and I won't have to think about it as much, but right now, when I'm coming from a place of eating what I like, when I like, how much I want (i.e. lots), vigilance is certainly what I need.
But oddly enough, the one thing I was mostly resisting recently, exercise, is what is going to help me the most. The more I do physically, the better my body works, the better my mind works, which means I have less urges to eat crap for any reason under the sun and my hunger signals become more real and genuine. It's a no-brainer, really. So why, for so long, didn't I just suck it up and do it? That's easy - I was waiting until I "felt like it". No wonder I didn't start! I could have waited another century and I wouldn't have "felt ready". And none of us has that!
My body is tired, but it's slowly remembering what it used to be able to do a few months ago, and the only way is better, stronger, faster. Woot! :)
I have been thinking this week about how for the last five or six months, my complaining and whining and procrastinating about my weight loss had reached almost Olympic levels in terms of how good I got at it. THE biggest thing I got out of last Sunday was that there is no special day, no special time, no special mindset required to lose weight and be healthy. I honestly never really thought about just how overrated motivation is, maybe because I managed to maintain mine for such a long time prior to falling off the wagon (and being run over by it several thousand times, I might add). So I thought I was "cured". And what does that even mean? That after being overweight (well, OK, let's be honest - morbidly obese) for the vast majority of my 43 years on this planet, that a bit over a year "in the zone" was going to stick and last and I'd never, ever be tempted to go back to where I'd been at my worst and I could afford to "relax"? When I think about it now, I was being so naive, not to mention childish. What I really needed to realise and accept is that my genetics, combined with my background and history, mean that for however many more years I get on this planet, I will always have to be vigilant and mindful when it comes to food. I do believe in time that if I really make a big effort to change my eating so that I eat only when I am hungry, it will become more automatic and I won't have to think about it as much, but right now, when I'm coming from a place of eating what I like, when I like, how much I want (i.e. lots), vigilance is certainly what I need.
But oddly enough, the one thing I was mostly resisting recently, exercise, is what is going to help me the most. The more I do physically, the better my body works, the better my mind works, which means I have less urges to eat crap for any reason under the sun and my hunger signals become more real and genuine. It's a no-brainer, really. So why, for so long, didn't I just suck it up and do it? That's easy - I was waiting until I "felt like it". No wonder I didn't start! I could have waited another century and I wouldn't have "felt ready". And none of us has that!
My body is tired, but it's slowly remembering what it used to be able to do a few months ago, and the only way is better, stronger, faster. Woot! :)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
133.1 - D'OH!!!!!
I wish I could blame my scales for that rather sobering reading, but I can't. Honestly, what did I expect? Yes, I did move house and I did a fair bit more incidental exercise than I usually do, but I still found the time to inhale WAY too much shitty, crappy food. So what choice do my scales have but to tell me the plain, unvarnished truth? They are just a machine - they deal in facts and figures, not emotions. So I'm going to take a leaf out of their book a la the CH way.
Today I weighed myself and I was 133.1kg. And soon I will be less than that and going down. That's it. No breast-beating, tears or recriminations or justifications. I ate too much for what my body needs, so I gained weight. It ain't rocket science!
Tonight I want to go do some boxing. I have missed boxing - I love getting my frustrations out of my system in such a healthy way. And since my future life is going to include retraining my brain not to turn to food the instant something - well, ANYTHING - goes wrong, then I'm going to need the physical outlet of something like exercise, whatever it is, to help me through the adjustment.
I can do this because I'm going to make the decisions that will enable me to do it.
Today I weighed myself and I was 133.1kg. And soon I will be less than that and going down. That's it. No breast-beating, tears or recriminations or justifications. I ate too much for what my body needs, so I gained weight. It ain't rocket science!
Tonight I want to go do some boxing. I have missed boxing - I love getting my frustrations out of my system in such a healthy way. And since my future life is going to include retraining my brain not to turn to food the instant something - well, ANYTHING - goes wrong, then I'm going to need the physical outlet of something like exercise, whatever it is, to help me through the adjustment.
I can do this because I'm going to make the decisions that will enable me to do it.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Ground Zero
Last Sunday I attended a Craig Harper workshop called Renovate Your Body. It was a truly awesome and thought-provoking session and I got so much out of it that I almost cannot put it into words. It sounds corny and simplistic to say that it was possibly life-changing, but that is honestly how I feel right now. It has, I believe, given me a new way of thinking about this weight loss journey that I seem to have been on forever and a day without ever reaching my goals, and perhaps that's the point. I think the reason I haven't managed to complete the job is because my thinking HAS been faulty. Well, no more. Now I know a more helpful and productive way to think. Of course, this doesn't mean now the weight is going to melt off me and I'm "cured" forever. ;) Oh, no, far from it! Now the hard work starts. Now is the time to set goals, realise what is going to be non-negotiable for me in the future and do what it takes to live an "exceptional" life. Another thing I learnt on the weekend is that "exceptional" doesn't need to be a word which, if you apply it to yourself, sort of sounds like major big-noting or egotism. What I want it to mean for me is "uncommon" and "being the exception". Because being "normal", or trying to be, has got me precisely nowhere. I now know if you want to get the results, you have to do what others aren't prepared to do or don't want to do. I want to be one of those who IS prepared and is OK about it, and doesn't feel like their life is lacking because they can't eat Macca's whenever they feel like it and they can't go out and get pissed every weekend. That is the exception I want to be, and in that kind of "exceptional", I know, lies freedom from the never-ending hamster-in-a-wheel merry-go-round yo-yo journey I've been on, let's face it, since I was five!
So...I'm excited! Let's do this! :)
So...I'm excited! Let's do this! :)
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