Thanks! I was happy to win a lot of points for my team. I didn't have a lot mentally invested in the times because I was swimming a bunch of new events that I've never done before (400 IM, 200 back) and I sure don't yet have a good endurance base. Plenty of room to keep improving! All in all, a very positive weekend that makes me want to go back to practice!
Becky, you are brilliant! (And you had a year off, didn't you? Interesting ...)
Everyone, Becky went to Atlanta a few years ago for some extraordinary swimming event and did brilliantly there. She has form for swimming fast and well.
I've looked at the FINA website and there are two blokes with excellent swimming caps + ear protectors or something. Just a fantastic piece of headgear.
Count me in with the group that finds the word "restriction" vaguely repulsive (using that word in the context of "makes me inclined to go the other way"). I thought JayEll's "I don't go to war with myself" said it quite well - it reminds me of a time not long ago that I used to really talk smack to myself. Maintenance hasn't been about control or restriction for me - it has been about making *better* choices, mostly about food quantity, more consistently.
There's a whole big world out there to enjoy, and being healthier and more fit is my game plan for maximizing what I can experience in whatever time left I have (hopefully, plenty). I've been a much happier person since I started taking the long view of thinking that I have 50 more years to optimize myself.
Report from the state meet: I came away with top 3 finishes in all 6 of the events I swam (1 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze), and best of all - and still a bit mind-blowing to me - I made a national cut time for the first time in my life (50 backstroke = 34.40), plus it appears that I have also qualified in multiple events for FINA Worlds in Montreal this summer. I am outliving my competition!
Becky, you are amazing. How cool to know you through this forum.
JayEll, I really really admire your choice vs. restrict mentality. That is exactly the mental place I would like to get to with my eating. I am CHOOSING to finish eating at the close of dinner because I prefer not to feel overfull, prefer to do other things than keep eating and prefer staying slim to gaining fat. There are moments when I really believe it, and many many hours when I don't. But I keep working at it.
And for the record, this is day 9 without eating after dinner (assuming I stay out of the pantry for the rest of the evening tonight). I am supposed to weigh in tomorrow morning but the fear of disappointment is great.
Aw, you guys. ALL of you need to share in this, because I am inspired on a daily basis by what we accomplish together and in our own ways. The support is unrelenting - y'all make it easy to stretch for the next level!
I just read the sentence from Jay about not going to war with herself. I think I've been at war with myself for a long time, and I've been losing all around lately. I'm pretty much in a freefall food wise, though my exercise is still pretty alright. I'm judging and critical of myself, something capped off last night by a pretty horrific pic that popped up on FB that I haven't been able to go back and look at again. And I don't care. I continue to eat too large a quantity and with too much sugar and grease. None of my clothes fit right and I feel terrible. And I'm not stopping for anything or anybody. At this moment I'm planning out how I can put my healthy dinner in the fridge and eat out tonight. Again. And wondering about buying a larger pair of jeans. I don't know how to snap out of my head anymore.
I also don't like the word restriction, but I despair at finding my footing any other way.
Birchie - you and I were on the weight lifting forum around the same time. I think often of Cheryl and Alena, they were always so positive and uplifting. I've needed them lately.
131.2. Might as well eat at night; apparently I must simply eat the extra calories during the daytime without knowing it. Didn't think I was doing that, but I'm really REALLY good at maintaining this extra weight :>(
Oh Shannon, I so feel your pain. Sometimes when I get to feeling like you are now, I find one thing that I CAN exert control over and do it (making it to the gym, eating all my veggie servings or reaching my protein goal for the day) even if it's not diet/exercise related (finishing a paper re-write or cleaning my bedroom), then use that victory to fuel my self-confidence enough to meet another small goal. It can take days, but I can usually bring back some sense of self-control and THEN tackle the harder work of portion control or refusing seconds.
I know I don't post here very often, but I do follow this thread faithfully.
I hear you on the whole diet/maintain/exercise fatigue thing.
While I've managed to maintain, this winter has been awful. I've struggled every day!
I know what to do, and I know how to do it, but all I really want to do is eat comfort food, greasy food, Cheese! Peanut butter! And forget about obsessing about every single thing I put in my mouth, and did I get to the gym, or get in a walk, or get to work on time, or whatever!
Our kids are grown, and we have 2 tv's and my hub, records on my tv, to save for later, so he can watch something else in the meantime. Drives me nuts!
We've also had a major shift in things at work. My boss brought on a person we did not need! Now, some days, I find myself wandering around looking for something to do. Who knows why he did this? On top of that after 6 months, she's awful help. Given her previous education, and employment she should be decent, but turns out, she has NO CLUE! And she won't listen. The vet tech and I have given up, we don't even offer to help her anymore when she gets in a bind. The school of hard knocks, the best educator.
I'm holding on for spring and summer and warm days and my garden!
I was happy to win a lot of points for my team. I didn't have a lot mentally invested in the times because I was swimming a bunch of new events that I've never done before (400 IM, 200 back) and I sure don't yet have a good endurance base. Plenty of room to keep improving! All in all, a very positive weekend that makes me want to go back to practice! 
I am outliving my competition! 
ALL of you need to share in this, because I am inspired on a daily basis by what we accomplish together and in our own ways. The support is unrelenting - y'all make it easy to stretch for the next level!
