Frustrations, more ideas, good news, and . . . ducks?

May 25, 2016

May 25, 2016

I have so much to say, but I don't know where to start. I guess I'll just start typing, and I can edit so it makes sense, right?

I've been getting very frustrated that I haven't been able to lose weight or any inches. I had some inspiration the other day that we've been making efforts to work on.

First, I have a very hard time drinking water. I believe I've mentioned it before, but I really don't like drinking water. However, the thought came to me the other day that that could be a lot of why I'm not losing any weight: I don't drink enough, of anything. I paid attention to how I drink during the day, and realized that I probably drink a total of 16 - 20 oz of any liquid on an average day! I just don't think about it. Now, there are days that I might get about 40 - 50 oz, but my water intake usually stays around 20 oz. The daily recommendation is at least 64! That has to change.

Sorry if it's not a completely clear image.

I've set an alarm to go off every hour to remind myself to drink some water, now I just have to make myself take more than a swallow. I think that's why I don't drink more. When I'm thirsty, I take a swallow or two of what I'm drinking, it satisfies the thirst (or so I think), and I move on.

When I'm at work, I have a lot harder time on certain days. On the days we do exams (I'm working in an optical store and the Optometrist is only in twice a week), I'm usually so busy that I don't sit down at my desk for more than a minute or two at a time; and sometimes it's so hectic that it's at least 30 minutes before I can even take a breather. On those days, I often can't even stop for lunch, just snack when I get a chance to take a bite or two. I think I'll just have to be more diligent before and after work, and on the days that we aren't really busy.

The second idea that came to me is that we eat too many processed foods. We eat a lot of frozen foods, boxed foods, and instant foods. A lot of this is for convenience, and time restrictions, but the biggest reason is because it's cheaper. We want to cut back on pre-made foods, as well as starting to limit our carb intake. We won't be going fully paleo, but cutting back. The difficulty that we're going to run into now is that our food stamps (Yes, we're on food stamps. I'm not going to get into it so don't start. We don't make enough to pay our bills and buy food so we get help with food so we can pay our bills. Enough said.) have been cut by about 1/3 of what we were getting. Now we have to try to pay for fresh foods, which can be so much more expensive. I know that it's going to be worth it for our health, but it's not going to be easy.

Speaking of not easy, we started calisthenics this week. Can I just say a big fat "OUCH!!!" Just 20 minutes of calisthenics left us sweating, out of breath, and feeling more worn out than either walking or aerobics! The after-effects didn't just leave us sore, I was in literal pain! We are going to keep it up, but I can now say that I must be a glutton for punishment . . . or just very determined to lose weight.

Ok, enough of that. Now I want to tell you a story about our walk today. We went out for our 1.5-mile walk, and almost half-way through we found a female mallard duck making a lot of noise on the side of the road, but staying right by the corner. If you haven't guessed already, her babies were trapped down a storm drain!

Not picture from today.

Not picture from today.

We couldn't just ignore her, so we called the city dispatch so that they could send out Animal Control. They weren't on duty yet, so we had to just walk on and hope that they would help her when they could. I'm still hoping they were able to help her and her babies! Sadly, it's such a common occurrence that you can find a lot of pictures about rescues like this all over the internet. Maybe I'll take a moment after I finish this to make sure they're not still there.

Finally, for the best news of all: we took our measurements this weekend and compared them to a year ago when we started charting it. The results: Lee has lost a total of 4.5 inches in his waist! He is looking so good, and everyone is commenting on how they can see the results. Unfortunately, Lee can't see it, himself, but we usually are the last to see things like that on ourselves. I am so proud of him! Weigh-in is next weekend; we're crossing our fingers.

Adrenaline junkies?

I have a few things to talk about today. The title mentions one, but there's more. I'll start with our walk yesterday.

Yesterday morning started out pretty bad for me. I won't go into personal details, but let's just say that I was VERY depressed. Lee took the chance to use one of the tools that he has learned for dealing with stress and depression: he suggested that we go for our walk. As I said in the last blog, usually we go walking on Saturdays around 8, yesterday we left around 7. We weren't going to wait. It didn't take long for the exercise, serotonin, and adrenaline to do the job. Let me just say for those of you out there that suffer from depression: while it doesn't solve your problems, a regular workout program does wonders for the mind, body, and soul; and if you are feeling really bad, get up and move, no matter how you do it. It really is hard to focus on what's bringing you down when that serotonin starts working.

While we were walking, we decided to try some different types of moving to mix it up, as well as exercise other muscles. We basically just experimented with different ways to move our arms, and different ways to walk. One example is to pump your arms as if you are running, pushing your arms back and forth further than they move naturally. Another example is to do jumping jack arms, another is to just hold your arms out to the sides and let resistance work on your muscles. We also tried walking backward and sidestepping, as well as other ideas. We decided that on weekdays we don't have time for any of these, so we'll just work on alternating speeds on those days. On weekends, however, we have more time to spend on other types of movement.

Today we started out with the intention of taking a leisurely walk in the rain. Let me just say this: I don't think we know how to walk leisurely anymore, lol. Before long, we started doing some of the arm movements we discussed; then after a few blocks, we started some of the walking alternatives. We talked about it and decided that we must be adrenaline junkies now. We like how we feel after exercising and it just doesn't feel right anymore to take time off. Any day we can't exercise for reasons beyond our control, we get down and are up and ready to go the next morning.

Our efforts are paying off again. We did measurements and were weighed again yesterday after our walk. I am at least maintaining my measurements and weight, but I'm excited to say that Lee has lost 1-2 inches from his waist and chest and has lost 3 pounds in two weeks! We've realized that the biggest and hardest obstacle that we have to overcome now is our eating habits.

We've made efforts to limit our intake and add fruits and vegetables, but now it's time to really make some changes. We have decided to take most of our snacks out of our daily diet. We won't be purchasing anything in bulk anymore because that just leads to binging on it because it's there. We will only have snack foods in limited quantity, and try to avoid purchasing them until we want them. Of course, we aren't going to take anything away from our diet, just severely limit them. For example, yesterday we went on a date to Aggie Icecream and got single scoop cones instead of buying a half-gallon which we might binge on. Today we're making cookies and only baking 3 per day and freezing the rest.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to lose the weight that I want to. I've worked so hard over the last year and more, and have actually put on weight. However, I've maintained my overall measurements and I'm feeling so much better, have more energy, and most of the time I'm happier. I'm not giving up, but I'm going to try to not let it get me down.

Unexpected inspiration!

Today we had some unexpected inspiration. It's Saturday so, of course, we went on the mile-and-a-half walk this morning. We got out a little later today because we went out to eat breakfast for a mini-date, then stopped at the weekend outdoor market on our way home. We were originally going to go out around 8/8:30, as we usually do on Saturdays, but this morning we didn't leave until about 10:00. I think it might have been inspired.

As we were about 2.5 blocks from the end of the walk, a car approached us from behind, then pulled up next to us. A man we don't know leaned out of the window and started talking to us. He told us with a smile that, "Thanks to you guys, I've joined a da** gym." He said that he and his wife see us walking every day, and we have inspired them to go walking every day now, as well. He laughingly told us that he can only get around the block a time or two because he's so out of shape, but that we need to keep it up because we are an inspiration. He then said goodbye, did a U-turn, and drove away.

We were a little awed by the experience, and a little bit in shock. We have had so much support and encouragement from all of you who read this blog, and we are so grateful for that support. However, we didn't know we were an inspiration to complete strangers in our own neighborhood. We don't know who he is, but he has now inspired us to keep going. We've talked before about our religious beliefs; today we discussed it, and we can't accept that the timing was coincidental. If we had gone out at our normal time, we may not have had this wonderful experience.

It gets hard sometimes to keep going. Weather restrictions, health, mental health, and even pure laziness are, at times, very BIG obstacles. We started this blog last year as much for our own inspiration as to inspire others. We hoped that if we had the responsibility of keeping up the blog, it would help us be more motivated to keep going. It has worked out that way, too. We also hoped that we could inspire others, but mostly that we could show people that they aren't alone in their struggle to get healthy. You have all shown us that we aren't alone, either.

I'll close with another "Thank you," and the pictures from today's walk.