MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2022, YOWIE!!!

 MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2022 YOWIE!!!

(Sorry to be personal today)

I stepped on the bathroom scale last Thursday.  From this time six months ago, I’m up over TWENTY POUNDS (and I’m not talking about my investment in the British Stock Market!!! - and I don’t have such investments!!) 

I know my attitude (my mind?) likes sweets, likes bread, likes desserts - and I have an aversion to vegetables.

OUCH!!!!  

All that extra weight is making me slower on the Granny Basketball court, is making me want two (and even more) naps in a day.  It is making my knees weaken (carrying 225 pounds over 205 pounds is about a 10% increase in my body weight).

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SO WHY?

Well, eating more (and the wrong things), exercising less, and sitting on my butt in that favorite recliner would seem to be the problems.  But those are external problems - the real problem is between my ears.  I have to KNOW that I am slowly killing myself (well, maybe not quite “killing” myself, but you get the picture).

WELL 

I had a quote “It isn’t what you eat between Thanksgiving and New Year that makes you fat, it is what you eat between New Year and Thanksgiving.  So, I’m not in that New Year to Thanksgiving period - time to get real - and time to lose the weight.

(And, I know better, I just left it to slip through my mind!!)

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OUCH!!!

(This topic deserves more - I have to get good and angry with myself first)

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(A day later)

I’m breathing a bit easier this morning.  Obesity is defined as a body-mass index 30 or higher.  I’m at 28.9 (too close - but not quite “obese”).  BUT - that is STILL too much.

Yes, I’m upset with myself for adding the pounds on.  But not quite as irate as I was yesterday

I’ve been here before.  

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In my first year teaching at the University of Texas, I had four large classes (larger than Quinnipiac or Dakota State).  Between those classes, I had decided I needed some “energy”. So I got some energy bars - the kind with extra chocolate frosting.  Thinking back, I’m not sure they were labeled as “energy” bars - but they were in the same aisle as the energy bars and a lot cheaper as they were the generic store brand (for me, the HEB brand).

After my first semester, I saw my doctor who said I was pre-diabetic - that woke me up.  That did land me in the “obese” category on my BMI analysis.  I was up forty pounds that time!!!  So, I went to work losing weight - saying ‘no’ to things.

There are a lot of diets out there and - as a yo-yo dieter I’ve tried some of them.  I was overweight when I was in Connecticut and did the more official “Atkins diet”.  

Basically, my diets consist of:

Cutting out white sugar

Cutting out white flour

Cutting out ice cream.

And, being careful

So, nothing sweet and no bread.  Lately, bread has been essential in my diet - and almost always with real butter on it.  I’m not sure I should cut out butter, but if I cut out bread and flour products I probably will cut back on butter!!!

I will also power up my exercise program.  Two years ago I was in the top 1% of the Map My Walk app on my phone.  Last year (2021) I was in the top 4% of the Map my Walk app (so I slipped and wasn’t walking as much).  

In the change process, it helps to HATE the old system and to LOVE the new system.  I HATE being overweight - I know better - I’ve slipped and fallen and I WILL be better with my weight!!!  No more ice cream when I come home from working at the senior living facility; no more late-night snacks when I come home from work; and if I am out with friends - I will be a responsible adult and choose appropriate food - and try to avoid the sugar, flour and negative things.

And, I will fight the “inner person” who is trying to tell me “Hey - you’re 74 years old, you are going to die anyway, so why sweat the weight.  Let it be - live life abundantly, live big, enjoy that slice of bread slathered with butter.  That’s probably the bigger fight!!

LOVE WINS

Karen

January 10 2022