Hello Lovely Ladies!
Well, I am back again - trying once more to get healthy once and for all. It is nice to see the familiar faces as well as some new ones. I hope your week is off to a great start!
The past few months for me have had their ups and downs. I gave myself a birthday gift in December of signing up for one of those exercise bootcamps. For three weeks, five days a week, I got up at 5am and exercised for an hour in the outdoors - even in the pouring rain, even when I was laying in the mud and frost. I never thought I would be able to do something like that, and proving to myself that I could did a lot to boost my self-esteem and my resolve to get healthy and fit. I was able to take 6 minutes off the time it took me to run/walk a mile and I doubled the number of situps and pushups I could do in a minute. I also ate right and kept a food log during that time.
Then came Christmas, and it all went out the window. It took me until the end of February to get back on track. For two months, I went back to my old ways, eating too much and not enough good food and not exercising.
When Lent started (February 25th for those of you who do not observe), my husband and I decided we would each give something up. He gave up eating out, and I gave up eating things with added sugar, both real and artificial. Since we are together for most of our meals, that means I have almost elimated my eating out as well. It has been almost three weeks, and I have not slipped up once. As someone who regularly drank 3+ diet sodas a day and had desserts several times a week, I am feeling very happy. But I know I will have to be careful once Lent is over not to just slip back into my old habits.
My husband has been doing really well on the exercise front - when I started the bootcamp, he joined a gym with one of his coworkers and has been going practically every day. That compelled me to get back to exercising, too. Also, my workplace started a 'healthy living' initiative - several women (no men at our library - yet) have joined - we replaced our breakroom snacks with healthy alternatives, we exchange healthy recipes, arrange times to go to the gym together (we get a discount at our local Y), and offer support to one another. So, I joined back at the gym, and have been going regularly. I have found this time around that two things are making a difference: going with other people, and doing various things like classes and different machines rather than just the one thing every day.
My next step in a return to healthy living was to come back to 3FC, since I have found this such a great place to come and share and support one another. I need all the help I can get!
AmericanUK - Congratulations on getting out of the 300s!
That is awesome and you should be very proud of yourself. Don't beat yourself up over past behavior. It is what you are doing now that counts. That's great that you've been able to give up the sodas. That is really tough!
Jacquie - hello and nice to meet you! It sounds like you are doing the things you need to do to take care of yourself. That is important and something we neglect all too easily!
DC - congrats on losing the inches! That's awesome! Good for you for not worrying about the scale, either.
Keeper - I've never been to a Curves so I don't really know how hard a workout it is, or what your personal fitness/body issues will allow. Do you leave there feeling like you got a workout? Or is it too easy?
Debbie - what results??? Inquiring minds want to know!