Daily Activity Log - Day 6

Loved the surprise I got today when I left the house to go on my walk this evening.  As I walked out my front door, I was met with unexpected cooler air and there was a light breeze.  Ahhhh!  It was delightful!  Since I had no idea and it was really a gift to me. Amazing what a difference that made as I started out.  As I was taking it all in with almost childlike joy, I got a call from my sister.  She's one of my most favorite peeps in the world!  She wanted to chat and we talked for my entire walk.  It made my sussy even sweeter! Walked 33 minutes and felt great.

As I finished up my walk I decided to hang on the porch as my sister and I continued our conversation. I sat in my antique rocker, relaxing and soaking up the beauty of the outdoors.  I snapped a pic of one of my favorite things about my front porch...my porch swing.   Thought I'd share. Take a peek below:

Happy Porch! My sweet & relaxing reward after my evening walk.

I also got in my first day of my "bat wing"challenge.  It is just two exercises that guarantee to transform your arms IF you do them everyday for 4 weeks.  I am pumped to try it!  I am going to share the full article tomorrow that gives full details (including youtube videos) telling us how we can get our toned arms back!  Woohoo!

As I have been winding down tonight by watching the Olympics (gotta love the timing of those coming on TV and inspiring more commitment to working out) I'm gonna get to bed a little earlier and call it a night for now.  As I do, I remind myself that I have put in 6 days of walking and that's 6 more than I had walked the week previously.   Celebrating the littlest of victories as I take my body back, one pound at a time!

Nite, nite!

Daily Activity Log - Day 5

I walked another 30 minutes, yesterday (actually 34 minutes, but who's counting!).  It was a little tougher for some reason. As I walked, I thought to myself, what's going on girl?  Why is today tougher on you?  As I huffed and puffed walking through the neighborhood, something dawned on me.  I was thinking on some not so good thoughts. Found myself still dealing with some old cobwebs of unhealthy thinking.  You know what I realized?  Thoughts can be killers or they can inspire and motivate you.  Gotta focus on what I can control and let go of what I can't.  Grateful for the grace of God that helped me get my booty out the door in spite of the mind clutter.  Gonna keep on keeping on! 

Hey - later today I am going to try do a post sharing an article that a facebook friend of mine shared yesterday.  It's about flabby arms (of which she called "bat wings!") Ha!  Loved that analogy!  Gonna start implementing the two exercises she shares and see how they work out for me.

Will be walking again this evening and look forward to some more "one-on-one" time with my faithful friend, Exercise!

Have a great day and remember; let's take our bodies back, one day at a time, one pound at a time!

Daily Activity Log - Day 4

Took yesterday off.  But, woohoo!  Got another 30 minute walk in today! My legs seemed to have appreciated the day off yesterday as they had been soooo sore the last 2 days.  But not today.  Today, I was energetic and even going at what seemed like an even faster pace as I scurried with great resolve.  You see, I had almost been sabotaged as I was getting ready for my walk.

I had a busy day today and it was near 7:30PM as I was wrapping things up.  I came in and announced to my husband that I was about to go walk.

Hubby: "I thought you were going to go to the store."

Me:  "I am...right after I walk."

HUGE victory for me guys!  You see, that was one of many the ways that I had previously justified that I really didn't have time to get in a walk.  (Lord only knows how many other excuses I had.) After I would finish up with work, I'd be like, "I have so much to do. I better just go out now and get my errands done before it's too late, etc."  But not this time!  I was walking by golly, come hell or high water as they say!  That's how I really felt, too!

The exchange between my hubby and I really was on my mind when I walked the hills of my neighborhood this evening.  I realized that the fact that I had made the commitment to walk daily, several days back rather than saying, "I am going to TRY to walk" was really significant.  I got to thinking about the revelation of "exercise being my friend" and how when you make a commitment to a friend you need to be a good friend and not bail out on them.  If we have plans to meet a friend for lunch, we don't just blow them off and do something else.  If we have a day scheduled to go see a movie with a friend, we don't blow that off either.  We go and enjoy the time with our friend and reap the benefit of that relationship.  We make time for each other because we value the relationship and enjoy them and invest in each other.

WELL, once again I saw the new mindset that really was being formed in my mind as I walked this evening.  I really DO need to treat my daily 30 minute walking date with my BFF (that being Exercise) like I would any other commitment with a friend.  But in this case, it really is like being a friend to myself.  Wow.  Deep things happening in the old heart and soul as I walked.  Pretty cool.

It's amazing how we will blow ourselves off and take care of everything and everyone else, isn't it?  I really, really thought about this a lot towards the end of my walk.  Again, recognizing how detrimental that way of thinking is to us.  And ironically, the very people we are "taking care of" rather than ourselves, end up getting ripped off of not having the best "us" we can be.  Back on that thought again, I am a better wife, mother, friend, boss, employee, etc. when I take care of ME!  Duh! Speaking of...

I am going to get off to bed now. That is ANOTHER commitment I making to taking my body back...Getting good sleep!  Getting good rest is so good for our health and one of the best things we can do for our body!  So, going to say toodles and tata for now ladies!

Sweet and slender dreams ~

Daily Activity Log - Day 3

Got my thirty minute walk in today. Praise God! I must say, my legs and butt checks are going a little overboard in reminding me of my accomplishments of yesterday and the day before! ;)  Mega sore! All I can think of is that I have walked 3 days in a row when the week before I walked zilch!  Yay me!  Anyway, I am encouraged to keep on keeping on. Tomorrow is Friday and lots of big plans for the weekend....Hope is in the air!

Until tomorrow ~ Sweet and slender dreams!

Daily Activity Log - Day 2

Walked another 30 minutes today in the neighborhood after work. I felt sore most of the walk, but kept telling myself this was good.  You are just walking and exercise is your friend!  Ha!  I kept my running shoes right by the front door all day.  Since I work from home, I would pass them throughout the day.  They were a visual reminder of what I had to look forward to at the end of my work day.  I really, really am embracing exercise as my new BFF.  It is amazing how this new way of looking at it has helped motivate me.  Another motivator is how my legs feel sore.  It's like they are applauding me for what I did yesterday.  And, I totally dug how my quads or thigh muscles began to talk to me throughout the day as I would bend down or get up from my chair. ;)

Love that as I go to bed tonight, I can say to myself, you walked again today.  Praise God you are no longer agreeing with defeated and hopeless thoughts. Today I agreed with the truth.  My choice to go walk today will effect my tomorrow in a positive way.  Thank you Lord for the grace you have given me to overcome every obstacle that is in my way.

Good night all!  Can't wait to hang out again tomorrow with my BFF....Exercise really is our friend! ;)

Daily Activity Log - DAY 1

I had a revelation yesterday!  Exercise is truly my friend!  Of course she is!  I don't know why I had not realized it until now. But, from this day forward, I am going to make this my new mindset, my new theme, my new motto.  I am going to embrace her.  To celebrate her.  To look forward to our daily visits.  Why have I neglected our relationship and taken it so lightly?  I just haven't been thinking right.  After all, she gives so much back to me when I invest time in our relationship.  I always feel better about myself after we spend time together.  I have really taken our relationship for granted.  But no more!  I am going to make a wholehearted effort to spend time with her daily.  As I do, I am going to journal about it here on my blog. She won't mind.  She actually loves the attention! ;)



DAY 1 With My BFF: EXERCISE

So my first day back was yesterday and I walked 30 minutes, briskly in my neighborhood at the end of my work day.  We have lots of hills and inclines.  As I began walking,  I was thinking to myself, "Hey!  I am finally doing something!  I am out here walking!  Yay!  Way to go Bec!"  It is amazing how great I felt by just taking the action step of putting on my shoes and walking out the flippin' door!  My butt and thighs were already feeling it by the end of the walk and I LOVED IT!  Could also feel the positive effect of just doing something!  I even made better food choices that evening, which is always a very positive plus of what happens to me when I make the big first step of doing some form of exercise.  Some how it motivates me to not want to "waste" the work out by eating poorly.  Even as I was walking, my mind was already planning on ways to cut back on calorie intake, coffee, sugar, etc.  Exercise really is my friend!  And, she is yours too!  Yay God, yay me, yay exercise!

Here's looking forward to hanging out with my BFF again tomorrow!

Starting Over...Again!

Yesterday was a big day for me!  You see, it was DAY ONE of starting all over again!  I literally fell off my horse, so to speak, in my goal of losing weight and it has taken me over a year to get back on it.  If you go through and read all my previous blog post, you can see how motivated I was when I started, back in January of 2011, to take my body back. But now, here I am, eleven pounds heavier. So, what the heck happened?


HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED

After talking with my sister yesterday morning and my hubby, something must have gone off in my brain.  My sister spent a good long while on the phone with me reminding me of all that I and my family had been through in the last year.  She was talking to me about stress factors and as she was adding them up for me, it turned out to be quite a load of what the experts call the "biggies" in the stress department that we had experienced and we are even still going through, including a huge move out of state. She also shared what she had been doing for the last few weeks, going swimming and going to the track every evening.  As I listened, something must have begun to start clicking in the right direction for me. So at the end of my business day, I looked up at my husband and said, "I am going for a walk."  I went by myself and did a 30 minute, very brisk walk in my hilly and inclined neighborhood and I must say that I felt GREAT!  Well, I was a bit winded as I walked rather briskly, but it was great to be moving.  As I approached the last ten minutes, I could actually feel the muscles in my thighs begin telling me about it and I LOVED IT!  I was finally out of my rut, doing SOMETHING!  THANK GOD! 

While walking, I thought, I should get back on my blog, record my efforts and try once gain with that as well. So, when I got in from my walk, I went back to very first post and read through all of my previous 33 posts here on the 52 Club. My heart was stirred, saddened and observant of what had derailed me.  I read about my great progress in the beginning and my genuine enthusiasm. But by my third week into working out, and  taking new steps toward my goal, I had gotten really sick and was bedridden for an entire week.  Understandably, that had knocked me off my routine and had slowed down my momentum a little. But, as I continued to read, I saw that I had gotten back up.  So, what was it then that had caused me to finally give up?

As I read my second to the last post, I noticed that I had made reference to some "family drama."  I only had one post after that.  I stopped and remembered what the drama was and realized it had probably been the turning factor.  I really think that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me in giving up.  It seemed to be the ultimate culprit that created so much mental and emotional drain for me that I really believe it was the cause of my demise of my personal goals and focus.  I don't believe nor intend to use it as an excuse, but honeslty have concluded it played a much bigger part than I had even realized.  You see, I had discovered that one of my most precious and sweetest family members had been going through some horrible and continual emotional abuse by her new sister-in-law. I was devasted to learn all the horrific details! The pain of her abuse, the extend of it and all the injustice and the bizarre turn of events of cover up by the abuser and her family was just more than I could take.  To top it off, they ended up actually twisting the truth and blaming my abused family member and even myself  rather than owning up to the 2+ years of abuse.  Talk about evil!  It was just plain awful! I let it psyche me out, distract me and most of all suck the very life out of me. I lost my focus and honestly became depressed about the hopelessness of the situation. Most of all, I slowly began to take my eyes off the Lord and the weight of the situation ironically became the weight on my body.


WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

It is a bummer to have stopped what was a great beginning of really taking my body back!  And of course I regret that now. But as I am starting over again, I am hopefully all the wiser about keeping my focus on my ultimate desitnation and the goals I have to accomplish to get me there.  I have learned that I have to take better care of myself, not just physically, but emotionally too.  I have to make taking care of me a top priority or I am no good to anyone else, especially my family!  I have to remember to give all my cares to the Lord DAILY and trust him to make a way where there seems to be no way.  I have to remember that God is for me, so who can be against me.  I have learned to remind myself to stay focused on God and his faithfulness, his grace and that he will somehow, someway, someday work everything out for good. One good thing already has been that I have  also learned a lot more about abuse, why people do it and why others allow it.  (Even started a facebook group called, "Understanding Abuse" that has been an encouragement to myself and others.)

 Lastly, I have learned this:  Today turns into yesterday and if you don't choose to do something today for your tomorrow, your tomorrows will always look just like yesterday.  So, by the grace of God, yesterday I chose to start all over again to take my body back!


THIS TIME AROUND....


This time around, I am going to try and use this blog as more of a journal and logging my activities.  I want to keep the blogging less of a burden and to encourage myself with baby steps of my progress. By progess, I literally mean, just doing SOMETHING!  I have seriously been so mentally and emotionally highjacked that I am convinced the battle is more in my mind than anywhere else.  So, I will do daily activity post that will be just for recording the action I took for the day towards reaching my goals.  Then from time to time, (rather than trying to do so daily like before) I'll post motivation and inspiration post that help me and maybe they will help some of you guys too!  If you want to join in on the daily activity post, for your own accountability or just to have some group support, I'd love it!  You can add comments and say something like - "Hey, I walked a mile today.  Yay me!"  or whatever.  I am even considering renaming the blog, but still undecided on that one.

Meanwhile, I am hoping that my starting over again may inspire others who have stopped and started themselves; maybe even several times.  So, as I am getting back up on the saddle and I ride this old familiar horse of losing unwanted pounds to get my health and body back, I hope you will join me.  I will leave you with this quote from a very famous singer and I hope you will take it as a challenge and be inspired along with me:

 "Take a deep breath, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again." ~ Frank Sinatra

Let's get going girlies!