Yesterday's exercise - an exercise on how to not be perfect , but just get it done.

My plan was to put onThe Complete Collection of Sweatin' to the Oldies , and boogie down with Richard Simmons. At one time I had got in better shape by following this guy as he enticed us to exercise. What I love about Richard Simmons is that he was at one time very fat, and he is sympathetic. But he does not use criticism as a motivator. Anyway, I could not get the movie player to work. What was I to do? I simply took the spirit of the idea, started marching around and waving my arms around for the twenty minutes. My son was playing some music in the other room so I exercised to that. I had the familiar aerobic glow by the end of the session. I had done it - not perfectly, but it had got done.

Later on that evening I came across Barbara Sher on UTube that spoke to perfectionism so eloquently. Like much of life, fitness and health can become joyless, impossible, limiting pursuits if we go about them in a perfectionist manner rather than taking one step at a time and enjoying the view on the walk. I believe this gentle approach is crucial to obtaining and gaining fitness, avoiding emotional eating, and indeed obtaining any personal goal.

My morning exercise - Starting the day off with a Bang!

Today, I didn't even think about it, I just walked Buckwheat in the morning before I did anything - even drinking my latte! It made it easier because I slept in my jacket, I can't quite figure out why that happened :) But then all I had to do was grab a pair of pants and some shoes and we were off.

And my dog Buckwheat appreciated it too!

Actually he is on his own 100 day fitness challenge - he has a little extra weight, and a few pounds can be dangerous for a dog. I must admit that the difference between us is that Buckwheat loves to exercise, anytime of the day. And I am sometimes a bit reluctant to get out there.

After the brief walk, I took him to the park to play ball, and while that did not exercise me, our walk afterwards did. So I had both the walk and the 20 minute exercise done - in the morning. This is the secret of the 100 day goal challenge - start the day off with a strong win.

Day Seven of my personal 100 day fitness challenge - One week along this journey to health

I've made it a whole week!

It is funny how knowing that I need to record my fitness and weight successes and failures motivates me. I guess it is having you all bear witness to my plan. Let me review my goals and see how I am doing on these:

1.Eat five fruits and a vegetable salad per day. Well, I am getting there. I'm not really that much into salads everyday, maybe I will substitute a good vegetable soup since it is getting cold here.

2. Take my dog - "Buckwheat" - for a short walk before I have my latte. Yes, indeedy deed - Buckwheat is happy to be on his own fitness challenge. I am not making those walks before my latte everyday, but I am getting them in.

3. Eat a healthy breakfast. I don't really think I have missed this one - well maybe there was a cinnamon roll involved somewhere. :) I do feel better if the breakfast has real protein - like an egg.

4. Get at least twenty minutes of additional exercise per day besides the walk with Buckwheat. That one I have not made a habit, and as I look at it - it seems ridiculous that I have not. Just twenty minutes!

5. Participate in the program laid out by Jorge Cruise: 8 Minutes in the Morning - Sorry, Jorge, I have not started with the weight lifting process that you have laid out. I do have the book and one set of weights. I know that lifting weights, especially in the morning, raises your metabolism and can add hugely to weight loss and fitness.

6. Get some more sleep! I do not know what amount is realistic for me in my situation: - I work evenings and I have to get up early to get my son off to school. I just know how I feel when I do this. And weight is very tied to a lack of sleep, when you do not get enough sleep your body goes into a panic mode and starts storing weight.

Okay, I see what I have done, and what more I have to do. I am actually adding one more goal:

7. Learn how to eliminate emotional overeating. I am observing my feelings about food as I eat - or decide not to eat, and I am exploring some powerful ways of learning to release feelings and help with emotional overeating - like using EFT.

Please stay with me on my journey, I will explore each of this topics more as I continue towards ending the year the healthiest I have been in my adult life.

Looking at my "before " picture

Well, I posted my picture to my site today, and it makes me a little sad. True, I have never liked to have my picture up, even when I was young and gorgeous - and thinner. But seeing that double chin and potato like shape reminded me - some of those pounds have got to go.

The trip to the beachhead was way too hard as well. I want to be able to enjoy hiking around, fitness is the only way towards that. But I kept charging on and felt better. I love those beautiful places, and want to challenge myself to bring as many hikes as I can into my exercise routine. I feel strongly that the more towards fun that I go, the more I will be on my path. Life does not have to be such a miserable struggle!

Today I walked Buckwheat before my latte, even though it was cold. Just a little walk and it made a difference.


I wish I could say that I exercised as well, but I didn't - but I did do something that restored me - I slept. Sleep has been linked to weight loss and I believe it! Here is to a great after picture!

At least I walked the dog

I got that walk in today, before my latte! Straight up the hill near our house. I also got seven and a half hours of blessed sleep. My energy feels good and I can sense how these habits will help me eliminate emotional eating as well as up my metabolism.

Now I am going to work. I have to think ahead to plan my way there, as unfortunately there are lots of food minefields there: cans of pop, desserts to avoid.

I will tell you how I am doing in further posts.

Can I eliminate emotional overeating?

Yesterday was a tough one for me as I came up against what I found to be one of my triggers towards overeating and generally eating the wrong foods: feeling unappreciated. I am clear that one of the ways that I need to work this 100 day goal challenge is find ways that I can eliminate emotional eating.

Where do I start? I had a challenging day at work: after spending a huge amount of time helping a nursing student, I got behind in my charting. No job is over until the paperwork is done. I received a C-section patient who was in a state of panic over being a mother - the baby wouldn't nurse, etc. At the same time I had a baby start in distress. I was being pulled in all ways. The final straw was when I asked for approval for my overtime and the supervisor spoke to me in very humiliating ways. Then my co-workers told me that I spent too long with the students, and my feet hurt.

On the way home I began listening to Art Bell talk about aliens (the other planet type) to amuse myself. My youngest kid was not down with that, and was rude to me in the car. We started engaging in an extremely immature radio war and screaming match. I hadn't heard from first born since I dropped him off at his fancy college. (The ugly head of envy here!) Obviously, I would probably never hear from him again.

Buckwheat, our dog was appreciative, to his credit. One good thing.

I had brought home some chips and dip from the retirement brunch for a nurse I had worked with. This was an emotion wrought event for many reasons, one of them being that she as well as I is a breast cancer survivor. Anyway, as I came home after this night I found myself stuffing those chips and dip in my mouth in a totally unconscious manner. I think biting the chips "helped" with the anger, and eating the creamy dip felt soothing.

I overate, that is for sure. I actually felt nauseous and yet I kept eating.

How can I avoid the triggers and eliminate emotional eating?

Turning the tanker around: Changing my habits

Turning an oil tanker around in a Bay is fraught with difficulties and takes time. So does changing the habits towards fitness.

I woke up today at 8:15. It is now 10:27 and I have not done my exercise yet. That is because I had my latte before I walked Buckwheat. It is difficult, because I have sooooooooooooo much to do in my life: working on my online business, being with my child, etc. And I can do these activities with my latte in hand. However, I must take care of my body first - it is the instrument that I go through life with. And Buckwheat loves his walks!

However: I did have a relatively healthy breakfast: one egg and cheese fried in two tsp. butter ( can I get back to poached eggs?) and dry whole wheat raisin toast. And of course the latte. I could have added some tomato or fruit salad with my egg.

And I dug around and found some Richard Simmons videos for the aerobic portion of this goal. Barbara Sher speaks of the wisdom of taking small steps towards your goal: in other words if you don't have time to exercise today, at least make it easy to do so tomorrow.

Okay, enough talking! Buckwheat is waiting patiently for his walk!

Day Two of the 100 Day Fitness Challenge

Well, I must admit I am proud of myself for getting this blog up yesterday, just one few minute before the end of the day. I am utilizing the power of the Internet to support my weight loss goal in one important way: I am documenting my activities. Like in Weight Watchers: whether you ate a carrot or an entire carrot cake, there is power in writing it down.

These are the ways I am going to go about accomplishing my goal to be at the highest degree of fitness of my adult life by the end of the year:

1.Eat five fruits and a vegetable salad per day.

2. Take my dog - "Buckwheat" - for a short walk before I have my latte.

3. Eat a healthy breakfast.

4. Get at least twenty minutes of additional exercise per day besides the walk with Buckwheat.

5.Participate in the program laid out by Jorge Cruise: 8 Minutes in the Morning

6. Get some more sleep!

Each of these steps is formulated to get me into healthier habits that will bring about my fitness. I will discuss each of these steps in the posts that will come.

September 23, 2009 - Day one of my 100 day fitness challenge

I am embarking on making the last 100 days of the year the healthiest of my life.