The biggest setback has been exercise. We have continued to go walking intermittently, but not every day. On our walk tonight we discovered how it has affected us. On the negative side, it was a lot harder going the full mile, we tired and were out of breath more easily, and we really felt the distance we walked. On the positive side, we are still walking twice as fast as we were when we started, we were still able to walk the full mile, and we still didn't need to stop and rest for 2-3 mins after every block.
We stopped eating the healthier foods as much, too. We've kind of gone back and forth between smaller portion sizes and the amounts we used to eat. It's sort of like how we've gone walking occasionally. We catch ourselves eating more again and less healthy food, so we back off. Then we backslide and start eating more snack foods and less healthy foods. Then it starts over again when we notice it and try to correct it.
The unhealthy lifestyle is so much easier. I think it's why so many of us aren't as healthy as we can, or should, be. It is so much easier to just eat whatever we want and avoid exercising. How many of us drive to the store when we really can just walk or ride a bike? Especially if it isn't too very far? How many of us give in to the temptation of that piece of cake, or that chocolate bar, or especially that soda pop?
Lee and I started naming positives as we were walking so that we won't get too depressed. First of all, when we fall back on old habits, we don't let ourselves give up, we DO try to get back on the horse (figuratively speaking). We have still been going walking when we used to give up for months or even years every time we stopped. We have also still been eating less most of the time. Sure, we splurge a few times every week, but we are more conscious of what we're doing and how we're eating. We also haven't gone back to the amount of junk food we used to eat. I think the most important part of all this is that we haven't given up.
We knew going into this that it wasn't going to be easy. We had a lot of success at first, we were bound to hit some snags. The best part of all is that we keep on going and we're doing it together!
