Good-bye February

Since we are one day away from March, I feel it appropriate to say good-bye to February. That is not to say I do not like the month, because it is one of my favorites. It is more of a good-bye to all the funky and weird feelings I had during the month, especially from my last blog post. The uncertainty and feelings of failing myself.

I actively made the decision that March is going to be better than February. I have already have a list of goals to put up on my team's spreadsheet. It is just a matter of waiting for it to be created so I can do so. There is no way I can let myself fail at this point. Being scared is no longer an excuse, it is only an emotion and when it tries to become an excuse I have to be proactive and nip it in the bud. I am in control of my destiny and my body, physically putting food into my mouth.

So some goals for March:

1. Eat 5 fruits/veggies a day
2. Exercise everyday
3. Lose 4.5 lbs
4. 2 weeks of eating beans at one meal

This past weekend I was able to sit down and make up my lunch/dinner menu for the entire month of March. I am totally ready to go and am happy that I know what to expect, all of the thinking is taken out of "what is for dinner?" I am fortunate (in some ways) to eat "my food" by myself because I go by serving sizes so something that has 8 servings will last me 8 days. I am able to stretch food for a long period of time. Fortunately I do not get bored easily or else we would have some serious problems when it came to food choices. All of the recipes for the month are new to me so experimenting will be fun and seeing what I like and do not like.

I have read a few blogs recently, that speak of desire and lack of hope in the possibility of losing weight to be healthier/happier. I have a few questions for you to contemplate and try to answer. 

• What is the real reason you want to lose weight? (For attention or to be healthy?)
• Have you given yourself a fair chance to lose weight? 
• What is stopping you from losing that weight?
• Are you cheating (food wise) without realizing it?
• Is your brain on board for you losing weight?
• Are you allowing enough time for you to make a difference in eating/exercising habits before throwing in the towel?
• Are temptations around you all the time? Why do you give in?

I challenge you to try to answer these questions and then look in the mirror at yourself and respond to those questions. The first thing in being successful is getting your brain to realize that you need to do it because of your health. Some people do not have the opportunity to get a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and even 5th chance to try to fix their weight. They die due to complications of any number of health related weight problems.

Finally, I pose this question to all of you. Are you worth it to be healthy and fit?

I know I am worth it and I am certainly going to prove it to myself during the month of March. 

☺Ashley☺

Mentality

I have been struggling over the past few days mentally with the changes that my body is going through. It is never easy to lose weight especially when you get to a point that you have not been at for over a decade. I know that change is never easy for body and mind. The struggles for me have been mostly mentally. 

Five years ago when I dropped the weight that I had, I got to a point where I was comfortable with my weight and stopped trying to lose weight altogether. Then I gained the weight back. The past few days I have struggled with that mentality that I am at a comfortable weight and I do not want to lose any more. Yet there is this nagging feeling in the back of my mind telling me that I would be taking the easy way out if I chose to stop and attempt to maintain. I read all of these signs on tumblr about how seeing the results you want is never easy and you need to be uncomfortable to achieve anything.

I am actively letting that nagging feeling grow and come to fruition. I need to step away from the mentality that I am okay and be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I do not want to be scared because of the unknowns in the road that lies ahead of me. At the same time I refuse to regret not trying to see who I blossom into physically but also mentally.

I guess that is what my point of this post is. We as losers focus on our weight loss and then when our brain has a second to catch up with the changes it says "What the hell are you doing? Stop doing that!" Yet, it is important to help our brains wrap around the fact that we are changing for the better, because we need to do so for any number of reasons. So many people lose the weight and then gain it back because their mind convinces them that it is okay to cheat once in a while. Then it occurs more and more until before you know it, an additional 20 lbs is added onto the scale. It is crucial that we continue to be aware of what our minds tells us is acceptable and realizing the reality of what we need to do and be aware of our choices.

Another thing I am struggling with is phantom fat. That underlying thought that you have not lost the weight and when you look in the mirror, you fail to see what you look like but instead what you once were. Those feelings that I still look as big as I once did occur often but I have hope that they will go away because every once in a while I catch a glimpse in the mirror of how awesome I look. It helps to take pictures along the journey to see the changes and know that I look fabulous.

I just have to be patient with two things to catch up with my weight loss: my mind and skin. 

☺Ashley☺

Posture

I had the fortunate experience of being told that my posture absolutely sucks. It was said in relatively nicer words but I totally got the hint that I really need to work on improving my posture. The Wii fit was also yelling at me that I am "unbalanced". It finally clicked that the reason my middle back is always hurting is not because I need to lose weight but because my posture is out of whack and really needs to sorted out quickly. Due to me standing predominantly on my right leg, I also see the possibility of having hip issues in the future if things are not fixes and quickly.

What I find interesting is posture says a lot about who you are  as a person. It is the first thing people see before you open your mouth to talk to them. There is a silent form of communication that our brains pick up and we can instantly tell if a person is having a good day/bad day, confident/insecure just by the way they carry themselves and their posture.

Between standing and sitting, the latter is where we run into the most trouble. This is especially true since we have become such a digital age where we are sitting in front of the computer so often. With the screen being in front of us, we tend to lean forward with our head and neck and then our spine follows to bring about a curvature in the spine. Have you seen some of the older woman who have a hump in their back or lean forward all the time? Well, you better believe we will see more people like that because of the way we sit in front of the computer unless we consciously correct ourselves. It is very hard to be aware of your posture no matter what your doing and try to actively correct it.

I am one day in to actively checking my posture and it is incredibly annoying. My only hope is that it will get easier and my back will not hurt as often once I correct the issues. It is certainly a work in progress though like anything in life. I am aware of my crappy posture and must work to improve it.

I am providing some sites that you may find interesting to look at. The first is about why posture is important and gives some good analogies. The second are some easy exercises that you can do to help improve that posture.

☺Ashley☺