Still walking...

I have continued to walk each day, my youngest challenged me to do 21 minutes rather than 20 and I took him on that challenge.

I also need to do more exercise to lose more weight I am stagnating where I am.  I also need to watch my portions, which is a HUGE problem as well because I really like food, and darn me for being such a good cook!  Just kidding...sort of. :)

As humans it is easy for us to go back to what we know even if that is no longer working.  That is the predicament I find myself in right now.  I know that working out in the morning with a cardio/strength video, plus walking, plus portion control worked really well and I 'easily' lost about 20-25 lbs.  Yeah it wasn't really easy but I made rapid and sustainable progress.

Well I fell off the wagon a bit in the sense that I didn't continue to lose, and I mostly have stagnated as I mentioned before and I have fluctuated+/- 7ish pounds.  So in one sense that is a victory because that fluctuation is fairly normal.  But in another I have failed because my goal was to continue to lose.

What I Know

  • I need to work on portion control
  • I need to do more exercise
  • I really do not like exercise while I do it but I feel better afterwards
  • I know that my patience for exercise is low and I cannot do more than 30ish minutes at a time, I can occasionally go longer but those are the exception.

What Has Worked In The Past

  • Using a Food Scale (I no longer do this)
  • Exercising first thing in the morning (I am awake and out of bed but not motivation)
  • Weighing myself daily (I no longer do this)
  • Taking my 20 minute walk (I still do this)

 Why I am making changes

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Attributed to Albert Einstein

While it is someone comforting to return to what you know it can also be a huge blocker and de-motivator as you no longer see the results you want.  We change all the time, we get older, wiser, forgetful etc.  Our body functions differently as we age and quite frankly if we don't accept this fact and make change to reflect the reality of our lives we will beat our heads against a metaphorical brick wall. 

I personally don't enjoy failure so I need to make a change if I want different results.  Looking back at my list of things that worked in the past, I do need to revisit the things that I no longer do to see if they still work if I actually do them.  If not then I need to change them.

The Plan

This morning I began my day not with exercise because that is not working, I did something different.  I did a stretching/yoga style routine it was quick, only 10 minutes, and it got me moving.  I know that I need to work on my flexibility so this was a good addition.  Additionally, I did a weigh in this morning, and while the number reflected back at me was not what I wanted to see, it was not as bad as I feared.

I plan on keeping up with those two changes, I think they are important.

The next plan is to focus on taking my walk in the middle of the day with a focus on getting outside even in the cold.  This hopefully will serve multiple purposes.

  1. Breaks up the day
  2. Gets me out of my chair
  3. Provides me with some solitude which I based on my Monday I need to start doing again
  4. Helps build my endurance.

The final step in my plan is to move the exercise I used to do in the morning to the evening when I used to do my walk.  There was a time when I was successful doing that as well as doing in the morning. I am confident that some if not all these tweaks will work and I will try them out for at least 3 weeks but preferably 4 weeks.  Then tweak again as necessary.

 

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