Things I managed not to learn

I learned a lot from my grandmother - Mamaw as we called her. I learned to sew and to cook and that boys were a dime a dozen and if one went away another would come along. That last one is pretty good advice for girls in high school. Not that all boys are replaceable, but she taught me that any boy who couldn't see my value wasn't worth my time and those kinds of boys were easily replaced. She had a lot of spirit. Could be grouchy and a bit nuts, but she had spirit. 

I also learned what NOT to do for weight management. Looking back I'm kind of glad that I didn't follow her examples because I would be all sorts of a mess today. My grandmother had an hour glass figure and spent all of the time I knew her battling her weight. I take after her except that the sand keeps settling in the middle. LOL 


Things Mamaw and her friends did to lose weight that were kind of insane. 

There were the basic diets where you only ate one type of food. Forget balanced meals. Eat only cabbage or turnips - whatever the fad of the moment was. 

Diet pills. They never took them the way the doctor told them to. Nope, they traded them, took a handful and just generally abused the heck out of them. 

Exercise. Why work when you can slip into a sauna suit? 

They had a club. Groups can be very supportive and helpful when you are struggling. Sparkpeople, My Fitness Pal & Daily Mile being a wonderful examples of that. Not their grop. If you gained weight the entire group stood up and oinked at you. Yep, they oinked like a pig to remind you that you were a big pig with no self control. After meetings they would all go to the local pizza joint for the buffet. For some reason the pizza consumed after meetings didn't have calories. 

Diet pills not working? That's why God invented laxative pills. 

Big event coming up? Never ever eat more than 400 calories a day if you plan to fit into that dress. 

That was their way of staying in shape. Scary now to look back and think about some of the crazy stuff they did and told me to do. Tried the sauna suit once. Gross. I did not like wearing pools of my own sweat. I could not have handled being oinked at and I was too young for diet pills. Thankfully none of their lessons ever took with me and while I got very fat (much to the dismay of Mamaw and her friends) I have been able to find better, healthier ways to handle it.

Morning Check In

Not a bad day - not as good as the previous days, but still above my goal for steps.  March starts tomorrow, so I'll start working on my goal for stairs too.  #7 on fitbit friends list, but I don't think that will last long.  Several people are close to me in number, so we will likely be going back and forth again for ranking as the day goes by.  Competition is good for me.  :-)

Me too!!

I saw this on Scrambled Legs Running - facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scrambledlegsrunning

My version of running slower than a lot of people walk.  I don't care.  It's running.  :-)

Creating My Life

Life isn't about finding yourself, Life is about creating yourself. - George Bernard Shaw 

That's one of my two favorite quotes. I love Shaw - he was something else. That's how I want to be remembered - as someone who was a character - someone who created her life instead of just getting through. 

For a lot of years it really wasn't that way. I let life control me and that's part of how I ended up so overweight. The journey back to who I want to be has been interesting so far. I've learned a lot about myself and quite a bit about other people too actually. 

Some people are super supportive and want me to succeed, grow and prosper. Lots of those people are here on online and I may  never meet them, but they take a second to send me happy thoughts. It makes me feel great when so many people take time out of their lives to wish me well. Thank you all. 

Sadly, not all people are supportive. There haven't been many, but a couple of people in my life simply can not handle the change. I've severed ties with one and may have to with another. I do wish them well, but my life does not have a place for people who are going to drag me down. 

Part of creating my life is making choices. I always made choices, but sometimes I would choose to do nothing and let life flow by or let other people decide for me. Not any more I am in charge now and every day I get to make the choices that determine how my day will go. Even when everything around me is horrid and I wish for nothing more than to go and hide - even then I have a choice. I can choose to hide and let it get the best of me or I can choose to deal with it and become a stronger person. 

Creating my life also includes planning. How does that old adage go "failing to plan is planning to fail" I hated it when my dad used to spout it off, but turns out he was right. Now I'm working on learning to plan because that's how I will succeed. 

Another important thing that comes with creating my life is letting myself have it. I am worth it and I deserve it. It's ok to be a little selfish and go to the gym even when there is stuff to do. I deserve that hour a day and taking it is a good thing.

So I've quit trying to find my life and have set off to create it.

Running for Beginners

There are a LOT of running plans for beginners out there.  Couch to 5k is a good one - but this one made me smile.  I love how it ends with Leap For Joy on week 12  That's how I see running.  It's fun.

Motivational quote puzzle

Eat for fuel, not comfort.  Exercise to feel better

Morning Check In

Not a good day as far as my food intake goes.  I was HUNGRY.  And snacky.  I had pizza for dinner.  It was gluten free, but it wasn't calorie free.

One bad day does not a failure make.  I'll just have to improve today.

Moved up a bit on ye old friends list.  Right now I am 7 out of 45