Back to Reality

I haven't posted in a while because I feel, well, stuck. I know I'm not the only one who has taken on a task of healthy weight loss and then lost interest or enthusiasm in the endeavor. But I think that's what has happened. I've made small changes to my eating habits and turned them into the norm. I've made little tweaks to my daily activities, and now I do them everyday. I still struggle with exercising. I have a hard time finding not only time, but the forum to do it with such small children that I can't leave alone. I'm not making progress like I had planned or even think is acceptable. Because of this, I feel I am stuck.

I am stuck in a weight loss rut. My energy for this is gone. My excitement at the prospect of fitting into my smaller clothes has dwindled away. My desire to beat everyone in the Biggest Loser Challenge has been replaced by my laziness and despair.

I've not given up. But I almost feel as though I've kind of given in.
Now I am at a crossroads and have 2 options.
Option 1- Give up. Go back to the easy way of living and eating and see what happens. I'm pretty sure, from experience, that I won't see any changes in my body or mood or energy level anytime soon with this option. I won't be fitting into any smaller sized clothes. I won't build up my sense of self worth. I don't think this is the good path to go down.

Option 2- Start over. Well, in essence, start again. My mom gave me this little book in my stocking a few years back. It had all kinds of really cool stories about people who failed, but turned those failures into massive successes. The tag line was "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." I have never forgotten that. I thought it was pretty inspirational. Failures are a part of life. They are what make us smarter. They are what make us better. They are what make us stronger. And they help us learn our true potential. So I failed. So what? I'm going to try and fail better next time around. This is my resolve today. Fail better.

I was keeping track of my stair progress and saw no real pattern. I did this for two weeks, from Wednesday to Wednesday to Tuesday. Here is what I found. Every day is completely independent of the days before and the days after it. No two days call for the same amount of stair climbing. However, when I put my mind to it and think about it throughout the day, I can turn a slow day into a big stair-climbing success. The days ranged from going up and down only 4 times a day to doing it 20 times and everywhere in between. So on average, I went up and down 11 times a day. That's kind of a lot if I think about it. This is without really even trying.

I can add more steps to my day. Not just the vertical kind. I can walk more throughout my day. I work efficiently when I'm cleaning the house. If there are things to be taken upstairs or put in another room, I pile them until I can take them all at once. I think I'm going to try to split that up and just put away whatever I pick up when I pick it up. Yes, this might make everything take a little bit longer, but if I can just add 100 more steps to my day, I think I'll start seeing a difference. Another thing I can do is squat instead of bend. Squatting and lunging are things that I can do without even trying. I am always picking up a baby, a toy or a basket of laundry. Why bend and put unnecessary strain on my back when I can strengthen my legs and squat or lunge for it instead. I'm going to try doing that and maybe that will help me a little bit more as well.

I understand that these changes are so small compared to the exercising I should be doing. But if I can incorporate these things into my day and make them an everyday habit, I feel like I am giving myself that much more of an edge when I finally do find the time to workout in the traditional sense. I have become a lazy person. I didn't use to be. I don't want to be. These are ways I can end that vicious cycle I find myself in.


I'll let you know how I am doing with my new resolve.