gwennefarrell

I’m at my trailer and I have to admit when I am here I tend to get lazy and not work out anywhere near as much. This time I made a commitment that I would at least keep up my training so today I diligently did my intervals. Running here at the resort has a couple of challenges. Firstly I am having a bit of an arthritis flare up so running on the hard pavement is not the greatest. Secondly, the resort has tons of speed bumps meaning you have to be cognizant about timing your steps. I realized a simple solution for both is to instead of running along all the lanes that I could run loops on the grass around the large park. I’m going to give that a try on Saturday.

My husband suggested that I write about how I have reduced my sugar intake but still manage to make some pretty awesome desserts. There really is no such thing as a no sugar diet, well not if you are truly eating healthy. Natural sugar is found in all fruits and many vegetables. I, for example, eat a lot of berries especially blueberries. Yes, they contain sugar but they have so many other benefits that it would be ridiculous to give them up. Veggies like carrots and corn also have a high sugar content but again they are part of my healthy diet. Moreover, carbohydrates convert into sugars when you eat them but again it is not sustainable to live completely carb free. You can be successful by removing refined sugar from your diet and opting for healthy carbs. Also a good tip is getting into the habit of checking nutrition labels to see the sugar content. Seemingly innocuous products such as pasta and BBQ sauces can contain huge amounts of sugar that you don’t need. My advice is to look for the healthier options even if they are more expensive.

But let’s talk about sugar alternatives. My personal favourite is the Splenda brand. I find that for most recipes Splenda works as a great alternative. I should note that the Splenda brown sugar blend does contain sugar though at a much reduced level than if you are using real brown sugar. When I first decided to cut back on sugar I relied on recipes from Splenda (note their classic cheesecake is amazing) but then I started to branch out. I have literally dozens of recipes I have found on the internet that I can make using a sugar substitute. Most have turned out really well (the attempt as marshmallows not so much) and some I am still working on (the Splenda angel food cake is getting close to perfect). I have also learned that I can convert most recipes to remove refined sugar and replace on a 1:1 ratio with Splenda. Sometimes it is a bit of trial and error but I have perfected most of my go to recipes.

There are other products that can be helpful in reducing sugar. Unsweetened apple juice or applesauce are a great way to add sweetness without adding refined sugar. My best discovery was Hersey’s no sugar chocolate chips. I use those for everything from cookies to chocolate sauce to hot chocolate. The problem with them is they are only available in the USA and while my husband has a stockpile of them at our apartment in Renton, until he’s allowed to come home again I will have to ration the few bags I have left. I will tell you the parents in my neighbourhood love the fact I make low sugar cookies for the kids. There is also a new no sugar ice cream hitting the shelves here in BC, Enlightened. I’m still looking for it and can’t wait to try it.

Finally I want to say that it is ok to indulge in real sugar. Last weekend my sister and I did a ‘high tea’ takeout. Yes, there were several sweet treats including scones with jam and cream which I love

I am currently at my trailer (note for those of you in B.C. the trailer is within my health region) enjoying some alone time. I think it will be a nice mental health break as I can just sit back and relax for a few days. I am opting to reduce the workouts a bit but will still do training and I picked up lots of healthy food to keep me on track.

I started working with my coach 4 months ago. If you recall that 1st day did not go well despite the fact it was 10 intervals of walking for 4 minutes and running for 1 minute. Unfortunately my bad leg rebelled at being forced to use muscles that had been pretty much ignored for nearly 30 years. My coach immediately had me take a step back as her goal has always been for me to build up slowly and get me to that 10k injury free. She added some strength training for my joints and cut my intervals back to 4:30 minutes of walking and 30 seconds of running. The 2nd week at my attempt at training went really well and helped me be motivated to keep going.

I don’t have any sort of plan for this training, I just report in to my coach at the end of the week and she tells me what to do the following week. Sometimes it has been to only increase my intervals for 1 of the 3 days the following week. Other times she has recommended I reduce the walking intervals others it is increase the running intervals. Often when the changes happen she has me reduce the number of intervals from 10 to 8 when we make changes to see how it goes. I ensure I give her a complete update each week so she can decide what to do next. Always it is with the advice that I need to listen to my body. This is probably the best advice she has given me.

At last week’s update I admitted to her the recent change had actually been quite easy and I was looking forward to what would come next. Today I reflected on what I have accomplished. After 4 months I have only missed 2 days of training and that was during my last trip to the trailer. Those 2 days gave me both a short mental and physical break and allowed me to step up my motivation. But I realized while we have gone slowly, I have come a long way. That 1st full week of training I managed to run a total of 5 minutes, 10 intervals at 30 seconds. Today I did 33 minutes of running, 10 intervals at 3:30 minutes each with only 1:30 minutes of walking in between. Wait, I ran for 33 minutes, how the hell did that happen? Well apparently building slow and steady is an effective way for me to get to my goal. Yes, I was covered with sweat by time I finished today but I had a huge smile on my face.

One other thing I want to note, I give these old muscles a lot of respect for getting me here. I always do a leisurely 10 minute walk before I start my training and then a good 20+ minute walk afterwards. Doing so means I have not really felt any strain on my muscles and so they continue to work with me.

The bottom line, my coach absolutely knows what she is doing.

This week I knew I was going to have some challenges. Because of my blood tests on Wednesday I knew I wasn’t going to get my morning walk done. However, the day went quite south and the only walking I did that day was 1 hour with the dog. I had ramped my walking up on Monday and Tuesday to make up for the planned missed walk and then did some extra Thursday and Friday to make up for the 2nd missed walk. End result was by today I had done my usual time and distance for the week. Yes, I could have just let that day go but I am on such a roll with my training I wanted to keep going.

I thought I would talk about what I eat. Before I started on this life changing journey I usually only had 1 meal a day and normally it would be from a restaurant. Now I have 3 meals every day and probably eat more than what I had previously. The difference is in what I eat as now it is mainly healthy choices.

Before I do my first workout of the day I always eat breakfast. I have a list of go to choices such as fiber cereal, fruit with plain yogurt, rolled oats or an egg. Sundays we sleep in a bit and then enjoy a nice breakfast which can be pancakes, french toast or sometimes a ham, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich (homemade and using whole wheat English muffins which are awesome). I keep everything as healthy as possible and even make whole wheat waffles which turn out great. I’ve learn it is really about eating balanced meals whenever possible.

Lunch is always hard for me because I don’t necessarily feel like eating but I know I need to have something as I do a workout after lunch (note I read an article saying you may lose more weight by exercising before meals but I think it would drop my glucose too much as I do very long workouts). I now lean towards a light lunch such as an apple with cheese, toast with peanut butter or my favourite which is a spinach and feta salad. I try to balance my lunch with what I had for breakfast to make sure everything is well rounded.

For dinner I make sure to have a protein, carb and lots of vegetables. Fortunately I like most vegetables but admit I prefer them to be quite crisp (some I just like to have raw). Yes, I eat red meat at least once a week but more often it is chicken or pork. I’m also trying to make sure that I have fish as often as I can. As for the carbs, I love quinoa and eat it frequently. I also enjoy brown rice (though it takes forever to cook) and maybe once a week I’ll have potatoes (because of the potassium content and my brother’s diet they have to go through a process before cooking them). I’m always conscious of choosing healthy carbs and they make up a small portion of my plate.

As for snacking I try to avoid it and just eat meals at regular intervals. I do admit especially on training days I can feel hungry part way through the afternoon. I keep a bag of roasted almonds handy so when I feel the need to have a snack I just grab a few. They are a great source of both protein and fiber and they do the trick every time.

As you can see, I don’t diet. I haven’t banned any food from my lifestyle, I just make proper choices and those choices have helped me lose 94 lbs. Ok, that and walking 100+ km each week. So keep the word diet out of your head and replace it with healthy choices so that you can sustain a healthy lifestyle.

Another training day. I have to admit the change up from last week has (dare I say) been pretty easy. Dropping the walking intervals from 2 minutes to 1.5 minutes doesn’t really feel that much different. One more set to go this week and then we’ll see what the new instructions are from my coach.

Yesterday I had my quarterly blood work done. Now this was quite the episode because the lab was a zoo. Even though I had pre-booked an appointment that didn’t seem to matter. Moreover, I overheard that 3 of the 4 techs were ‘new’ and of course I got one of those. She had significant difficulties finding a viable vein (that is normal for me) and then insisted she use a regular needle instead of a pediatric butterfly (baby needle) to draw the blood. This resulted in her digging around for the vein and in doing so I believe that is why one of my tests shows hemolyzed cells (potentially skewing the results) and making it so she could barely get enough blood for the tests to be run. Sigh, I get they are under pressure too but I wish they would consult with someone with experience when they have a difficult case like mine.

As always when I have my blood work done I spend the afternoon obsessively checking my lab account to view the results. Once I have them I then spend sometimes hours analyzing and researching their meaning. This might be ok when a test shows out of range but that certainly wasn’t the case yesterday but I still had to check into everything. I have decided going forward that I need to stop doing this when the tests are normal because it simply feeds into my neurotic traits.

So what did the tests show? First my A1C. As a reminder this is a measure of how glucose is being held in your blood and is an indication of your average glucose levels over the past 3 months. Normal is an A1C of 4.5-5.9%, (5.7-5.9% is considered pre-diabetic) and 6% and above is diabetic. My last A1C was 5.4% and at that time I was still on medication. Yesterday it was 5.2% which is absolutely normal!!! I had hoped I would still be in the normal range but this is an excellent number and I was thrilled.

The other tests I have done quarterly is for cholesterol/triglycerides as they want diabetics to monitor this closely. The target levels for diabetics is actually different from non-diabetics because of an increased risk factor. Well, I have exceeded all the targets my doctor has set for me. LDL (bad) cholesterol is low, HDL (good) cholesterol is way above the target and my risk ration is now in the ‘ideal’ range. My lab account lets me go back and compare all of my blood tests and it has just been amazing to see how these numbers have morphed especially over the last year. The end result is that they show me as being healthy.

So what does this mean in terms of my exercise and eating plan? Absolutely nothing! What I have done over the past couple years is obviously working so now is not the time to slack off. To be honest when I saw that A1C number it just motivated me even more to keep doing what I am doing and getting into the best shape I have ever been. Moreover, it makes me want to spend the rest of my life being healthy.

I started my new interval training today. Instead of increasing the amount of time in the running intervals my coach actually had me decrease the time in my walking intervals. I don’t really question why when she gives me my new targets, I just do it. Moreover, I used the interval feature on my Fitbit for the 1st time and it actually worked fairly well.

Those of you who know me know that we have a menagerie of pets that live with us. Tom and I have 2 cats and a dog while my sister has a cat and a dog. Everyone gets along well and each one of them is terribly spoiled. So how do they help with weight loss? I’ll be honest, most of it with the cats is the mental side of things. One of my cats is super sensitive and can always sense when something is wrong. That is when he throws all 17 lbs of his weight across my lap and refuses to move until he seems to determine that everything is ok. Really, petting a purring cat that is trying to make you feel better makes it so you just can’t help but smile. Our other cat is my snuggler. If I am struggling to sleep (which is often the case) he comes and just buries his face in the crook of my arm and purrs to the point where it sounds like he is humming. This of course helps me relax and sometimes lets me get in a couple hours of deep sleep. Unfortunately this particular cat also believes he is our alarm clock. Everyday at exactly 5am he starts screaming telling us all it is time to get up. The problem is I can’t quite get him to understand that Sunday is our sleep in day (by that I mean not getting up before 6am) and his very vocal alarm still goes off at 5am.

Now our dog has actually been part of my journey with weight loss. In February 2020 our beloved old dog, Hammie, crossed the rainbow bridge. She was 14 and by that point nearly completely blind, very deaf, diabetic and full of arthritis. Obviously her and I had long since given up on going for walks. So, just before the pandemic was officially proclaimed I got us a puppy, an adorable Corgi named Scottie (aka Mary Queen of Scots). Obviously it had been a long time since I had looked after a puppy and I certainly had forgotten exactly how much energy they have. The only way to quell that energy was to take Scottie for walks. Seriously, with her stubby little legs and the fact that she seems to be inherently quite lazy, she would often times give up on walking and just lay down on some random front lawn (I should note that she is a drama queen so when she would do this it was accompanied by very loud, long sighs). I kept at it with her and eventually got her doing longer, unprotested walks. We now do a 2 1/2 mile walk every morning and that seems to give her the exercise she needs. The vet and I have now been discussing taking Scottie on short runs with me a couple times a week to keep her weight in check (because Corgis have such long spines you need to be very careful about their weight).

Ultimately, pets can help whether it is giving you some of the mental support that you need or in forcing you to get out every day and take them for walks (there have been very few days that I haven’t walked Scottie). And really, if you have a super high energy dog like I do it is good for them as well.

There is one thing I learned today, if you step outside and say to your dog, hmm, maybe I should put on my rain jacket then you absolutely should. 1 1/2 miles into our walk today the rain started and I had opted to risk not wearing that jacket. While Scottie loves being in the rain, I am not keen on getting soaking wet and dealing with a dog who takes this kind of weather as a cue that it is a good day to sniff every blade of grass along the route. Won’t be making that mistake again.

After my workout today I showered and changed into real clothes (note, real clothes because I often spend the day in workout clothes) and realized something, I now tend to tuck my shirt into my pants. If you have never been really overweight you won’t get this but the usual trick was always wear your shirt on the outside of your pants to cover up things like your fat rolls and muffin tops. Well, I don’t do that anymore. If I have a nice blouse that looks better tucked in, that is what I do. The best part is I don’t even think about this anymore, I just do it when I am wearing a blouse that should be tucked in. It’s been a long time since I could do this and it feels pretty good.

Now I am on maintenance for my weight loss. My final goal was 92 lbs and currently I alternate between about 93 and 94 lbs. I have not changed my eating habits though my workouts have increased a bit due to the ongoing 10k training (oh, and walking the dog a bit more as she needs to shed .6 lbs to be at her ‘ideal’ weight). But what I have noticed is I am still getting smaller. I’ve gone from a very small size 8 to a comfortable size 6 yet the scale is not moving. To be clear, I am not trying to get the scale to move though obviously will be good with it if it happens. So how can this be?

Really it is simple. I’ve written before about how the same size mass of muscle weighs more than an equal size of fat. What is going on with my body is there is getting to be very little fat and an awful lot of lean muscle mass. To give you an example, my arms have gotten so slim that my watch tends to ride half way up my arm. But, if I flex that same arm there are amazing muscles that become apparent. The same can be said for my legs (which have always been on the bulky side). I now have very defined quads that not only can I feel but are pretty obvious to anyone who is looking at them.

Weight is not coming off but I am still moving forward. I previously mentioned the American Heart Association says if you lose 1 lb of fat and gain 1 lb of muscle you may think you didn’t score because the scale didn’t move but in fact it is a 2 pointer, trading off that fat for muscle. Yes I know I have been doing this trade off for nearly a year now but it is becoming so much more apparent when you see my body.

One of the things I also recognized has changed for me is really looking at my body. If I stand in front of a mirror now I see muscles I really didn’t know I had. No, I am nowhere near body builder quality (and don’t want to be) but I notice when I move I can see very defined muscles. Those muscles are lean as opposed to bulky but they are definitely are there.

The bottom line is losing weight or not my body continues to transform. Who knew that I would end up appreciating lean muscle mass or even having it for that matter but I do. Every time I sit back and reflect on these type of things it just keeps me motivated to keep going.

Another successful day of training at my new interval level. At the end of the session I thought, good run. I just can’t help myself now. I am at the point where there is very little I need to do to get me motivated on training days, I just remind myself of things as I run such as ‘you’re gong to run a 10k’. Those types of mantras just keep me going and by not thinking about how may more intervals or how much longer I have to run it allows me to focus and get to the end.

I wanted to talk a bit about choices you can encounter. For example, as I have often mentioned I don’t consider myself to be on a diet. Rather, I just became more cognizant of what I eat each day. I still feel I eat way more than I did before I started this journey, I just eat better. But, sometimes I have to make a choice as to whether I want something I don’t normally eat and whether I should somehow offset that or not.

Yesterday was take out Wednesday where my family supports local restaurants and it was my pick for what we should order. I opted for Chinese food as I hadn’t had that in so long. I also recognized if that was my choice I had some other options to make. Should I just take a cheat day and not worry about the extra calories and carbs or should I strategically offset with what I would be eating for other meals. I chose the latter though I will note I don’t do that 100 % of the time but absolutely most of the time. So, I adjusted what I had for breakfast and lunch opting for super healthy low carb meals so that I could indulge a little at dinner. Usually when I am presented with this kind of choice I ask myself which is going to make me feel the best, just eating that ‘bad’ meal and knowing eventually I’ll work it off (though I normally feel bad when that is the decision I have made) or compensate a bit beforehand so that I can actually enjoy the meal. I always tend to feel better when I can actually enjoy the meal instead of having that voice of guilt in my head.

Making choices that work sometime require some planning. The holiday season last year is a good example. My husband was coming home for the first time in 10 months, we had some special dinners planned, there would be holiday meals, and likely more alcohol consumed than normal. I decided that for me after doing all that hard work to reach a goal it was ok to relax a little. That didn’t mean I went all in, I tried to stay away for the worst foods and while I reduced my workouts I still tried to do one each day. Did I gain a few pounds, yes. Did I feel guilty, no. I opted instead to enjoy myself with the full intent of being back to my normal food and workouts as soon as the holidays were over. The end result, within 10 days I was back to the weight I had been before they started. It was worth it and quite frankly I felt I deserved it.

This week has a new choice. I realized I am getting extremely bored walking on the treadmill. It is likely because when we had that nice stretch of weather I was able to do some outdoor walking and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yesterday the treadmill in particular was a very tedious experience (today was ok because it was training day and then my 2nd workout I was able to do with a walk to the beach). My choices are simple, keep doing the treadmill until the weather cooperates again, quit doing some of the workouts or find a way to shake things up a bit. I’ve opted for the shake up. Next week I will dust of my bike and try at least once a day to do a long ride. I had tried biking last summer but my legs weren’t quite ready for that. Well, that was 30+ lbs ago, my legs are incredibly strong now and my cardio is even stronger so I think it will work this time. This choice will keep my head in the game while providing some cross training for me.

Choices can be tough but the important thing is opt for what is best for you. There is no reason to feel bad if you make a choice that you know is wrong, learn from it and make a better one next time. Life is here to live and enjoy, not to always having to confine yourself. Just keep yourself on track and you will get to that end zone.

Well I did it, upped my intervals today so that I walked 2 minutes then ran 3 minutes for 10 intervals (up from 8 last week). I admit the last 2 we a little more challenging but in general it wasn’t that difficult. Cardio wise I am great but my legs were a bit tired by the end of it. Bottom line is I ran for 30 minutes today and it didn’t kill me.

Up until I was in my late teens I took dance classes with this lovely artistic (read extremely eccentric) woman who had danced on Broadway and in various films during the 1930’s. She used to have this saying, ‘horses sweat, men perspire and women glow’. Umm, not me. I sweat and I mean sweat heavily and always have. As I matter of fact I am sure I start sweating at the thought of working out. The challenge is what do you do when your workout sessions are 1 1/2 hours long? Trust me being in soaking wet clothing trying to workout is not pleasant. My chiropractor came up with a great suggesting, moisture wicking clothes (I had never heard of them) and she sent me off to Eddie Bauer. I bought two pairs of their workout pants as well as a thin jacket made of the same material. I was able to get them on sale by buying a size too small but of course by time I really needed to wear them they fit great. I have to say that has made a huge difference for me as now I am reasonably comfortable even when running (though note, there is always some sort of terry cloth close by).

The next important issue is your feet. Now I have always invested in good supportive walking shoes (due to the bad knee) however, when I first started doing my marathon walks each day it began to kill my feet. I had to buy a foot bath so that every night I could soak them. My chiropractor again came up with a recommendation to purchase Incrediwear socks which are compression socks. What a difference that made to my feet. Yes, sometimes after I have put in an 18km day I still need to soak my feet but those socks have helped immensely. Then I started running and that means a whole different type of shoes. My coach insisted I not just buy some brand name running shoes but instead go to a store that caters to runners. Fortunately we have such a store close to where I live. This was quite the process as they made me try on numerous pairs of shoes and for every pair I had to show them my gait so they could determine the proper fit. At the end of the process (and a good chunk of money later) I had the best shoes possible for my foot size and for my gait. They also suggested I get some moisture wicking socks which helps prevent you feet from rubbing if you sweat like I do. So, walking days are the compression socks, running days are the running socks. I should note, which ever of these you decided to use, both are quite costly.

So what about during the warm weather? For me that means a tank top and shorts as I am walking to the beach and back a couple times a day. As a matter of fact after last summer I had the darkest tan I have ever had on my legs (note that means I was the colour of the average caucasian person during winter months). Having said that, as someone who has had a pre-cancerous mole removed I take extreme caution. I apply a good SPF sunscreen 1/2 hour before I head outdoors. I also always wear a brimmed hat as well as sunglasses (the sunglasses are due to cataracts that have developed in both eyes and the optometrists advised to always wear sunglasses in the sunlight). While being comfortable in warm weather is important, so is protecting your skin. Trust me I learned that even with SPF 50 sunscreen the sun still gets to your skin. Just make sure you are not trading off comfort for safety.

I think I am actually starting to become a runner. I don’t know how that happened, just somehow during this training I stopped seeing it as an onerous chore. Instead, now I get excited on training day (as my husband says, who are you and what have you done with my wife?). Next week, following the directions provided by my awesome coach, I am kicking my intervals up from 8 to 10 and I’m already thinking about how I can’t wait to see how I do. Who knew I could ever turn into this person.

I never thought of myself as obese, well not until my health took such a bad turn. Even at my largest size I just thought I was me. I joked about being a short fat chick not realizing that somewhere I did know I was extremely overweight. Maybe never really looking at myself as obese is the reason I seem to still be carrying a lot of extra baggage.

Now that I have lost all this weight I seem to have the opposite problem, I can’t see myself as being thin. I know what the scale says, I know I have become quite muscular, I know I am probably the most fit that I have ever been but now I still think of myself as that short fat chick I used to joke about. I just can’t seem to get my head wrapped around the fact that I am small, not the 1X I was for so long.

My sister has been telling me for the past couple months that I have to start recognizing who I am today. She tells me the clothing I buy is too big and that I need to start trying on smaller sizes. I balk at that because I am a size 8 (medium) and I am terrified to try on anything smaller in case it doesn’t fit. I did start buying blouses in a small as I acknowledge the upper half of my body (in my mind) has shrunk far more that the lower part. Besides, it wasn’t that long ago that I got into those size 8 jeans and I haven’t really lost weight since then.

Today I went shopping for some summer clothing as what I had left in my closet from last summer was all in a size 14 which I know I can’t pull off. I bought several nice blouses and thought a couple pairs of capri pants and walking shorts and I would be good to go. I selected what I wanted and in a size small all the blouses fit nicely. But then I tried on the pants and shorts and I literally stopped breathing for several seconds, size 8 no longer fits, everything was simply too big. I stood in the fitting room for a while talking myself into getting all of the items in a size 6 but that annoying voice in my head told me not to do it because that small a size may not fit. After a number of deep breaths I advised the sales clerk I needed to try on a smaller size and she quickly replaced all the items for me. I tried them on and was shocked, I have gone from a size 18 down to a size 6 for a total of 12 dress sizes.

When I take a step away and look at things I realize that while I have done awesome at weight loss, I haven’t quite done enough to lose that excess mental baggage. I know that while I have improved my physical health I still have a ways to go to improve my mental health. I really want to do some work on my self-esteem though it is difficult when you really don’t see anyone outside of your immediate family. Still, today taught me that I do need to work on that self-esteem so that when I say I am healthy I mean totally healthy.

Today has been a tough day. I had a Zoom meeting at 1am which meant getting up at 12:30am. The meeting was supposed to end by 8am but it stretched to 9am. Normally by this time during the day I have done over 2 hours of walking and am starting on my 1st set of strength exercises. Today I didn’t hit the treadmill for my interval training until 9:30am then by time I had showered, had lunch and done a few important errands it gave me just enough time to write this before joining my 1pm meeting. I realized that my interval training is about all I could get in today but I had been afraid that might happen which is why I have done a lot of extra walking over the past several days. I figure I am actually going to end this week with more steps than I normally do.

My family had suggested to me that I just skip working out today and boy would it have been easy to do that. I am all hyped up on caffeine (which I normally avoid), I am tired due to lack of sleep and quite frankly a nap sounded like a good idea. But no, I am on a roll with my interval training and while today there was enough going on that I would have had a good excuse to take a day off, I just wouldn’t let myself. I do admit while the 40 minutes of interval training went well, the 35 minutes of walking afterwards seemed to take me a couple hours. The important thing though is I still did it and mentally it felt pretty great to push through today.

I often find myself thinking of excuses as to why I can’t workout. Sometimes it is simply because I am having a bad day. Other times it is because I have a really challenging schedule (I know, I’m supposed to be retired but I do a lot of stuff each day). Maybe it is because I just really want to sit on the couch and read a good book. I have worked really hard not to fall into this trap. I know that if I do then it becomes easier the next day to do it again. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been clear about taking time off but it is always planned and with a determined restart date but I don’t make hasty decisions not to workout. I do everything I can to keep going.

I’ve learned it is important to recognize your excuses for what they are, a way to avoid doing something that is really hard. Being committed to this journey sometimes can seem like it shouldn’t be for the faint of heart because you need to be diligent. I don’t know why but I learned this quickly once I had made the decision to get moving. So, when that little voice pops into my head telling me all sorts of good reasons why I can’t do this today I immediately change the channel and tell myself why I can do this. It’s important that you keep yourself in the right frame of mind in order to mute that annoying little voice but if you stay positive and keep reminding yourself of the end goal you will get there.

Now, onto my next meeting and then maybe a nap.