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.