At work, I have been completely overwhelmed, with losing one member of my team recently, and the remaining one on a 3 week vacation, and the management team deciding that two areas of the company need more attention, and both fall into my realm of responsibility. So I've hired a new employee who started Monday, so it's been even more crazy this week for me, trying to get her oriented with what she needs (good thing, at this point, that she is very independent) in the 1/2 hr or so I have each day between meetings. But I am feeling very hopeful that she will clear up the backlog (in this case, technical documentation) and then make good progress in improving the situation.
On the exercise front, I've been having a hard time getting back to cycling, since most nights I am working late after the kids go to bed (which is also getting later and later), and then too exhausted mentally to force myself to cycle. But on the hopeful side - actually the ecstatic side - I finally found a belly dance class for me and my 12 year old daughter. We attended our first class on Monday. It is mid way through a series of 10 beginner classes, but we joined it as a drop in. It is PERFECT. I have not done much dancing in my life, other than some square dancing and folk dancing, and one set of ballroom dance classes. I could give a speech in front of hundreds of people, but would be completely immobilized if I thought they were looking at my body. I used to be so self-conscious that when I was a teenager, and a charades would break out at a party, I would hide in the bathroom until they were over. I'm not much better now, I just have better ways of hiding.
Anyhow, the only "skinny" person in the class is my daughter. All the other ladies are more like me - when we wiggle our hips, plenty is jiggling also. Which is what belly dancing is all about. The instructor is super fun and friendly, and explains everything very well. A good half of the 1hr 15min session was devoted to deep stretches in the hips and legs and back. Each dance move started very slow and deliberate, then we brought it forward to a full speed. So even if I was left behind (which was actually rare!), I could still feel good that I had made very good progress. Not bad at all, since some of the ladies are on their third time through this set of beginner lessons.
When I awake in the middle of the night Monday, and visited the bathroom, I realized that my lower back was not stiff and sore like it almost always is. Amazing. I know that I have found the right place for me! My daughter also enjoyed the lessons, and our chance to do something together as just a girls night out.
The photo is of my instructor Lisa, owner of the Ammara Dance Studio in New West, BC. Isn't she beautiful?
On the pain side, I have gone through too many rounds recently of being in pain in my neck and shoulder and right arm. The last couple of times, it was not an issue with the head/C1 alignment. Fortunately, my good friend Andrea was able to recommend another chiropractor, who was able to provide some relief from the knots I had gotten myself into. But it seemed like a pretty desperate state, to have 2 chiros and 1 massage therapist working on me (I was going to an appointment almost every week), and still not keeping me pain free. So finally I was forced to take one week off, to focus on relaxing and stretching, and limiting my time on the computer (I replied to emails on my Blackberry instead :-) ). That seemed to help. Now with the belly dance lessons, I am very hopeful that I should be able to keep pain free. This week I was fine right up until yesterday, when I was overwhelmed and pushed myself too hard, and now I'm feeling some warning signs again.
On the gardening side, I have made huge progress on cleaning up and making my garden even more fantastic than last year. So that has given me lots of hope, as well as exercise to counteract tension, and build some strength.
On the weight side, I am hovering at 6 - 8 pounds below my starting weight. My daughter is trying to help. Daddy has offered her $2 for every pound below the initial 3 pounds which I am by end of June. So her efforts have amounted to $6 - $10 so far. Poor girl. I have just not been able to give this the priority, with everything else going on. But I have not lost ground. So that is hopeful.
Sounds like you've got a good plan there--don't focus on the weight loss as the goal, but the enjoyment of the activity. The weight loss will come as a byproduct.
ReplyDeleteI read an interesting strategy for dealing with food:
Http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/06/06/to-keep-to-your-diet-pretend-youre-constantly-breaking-it/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverDiscoblog+%28Discoblog%29
Garden Lily here, having technical difficulties....
ReplyDeleteTim - Thanks for your encouragement. I have a friend in Weight Watchers at the moment, and I suppose their plan lines up fairly well with what that article claims: their point system is supposed to guide you in what is "enough" in a day, so you can eat that amount and be assured that you are not starving or depriving yourself, you're just eating "enough". I think the real trick, as you say, is to make lifestyle changes, and ones we can enjoy rather than just suffer through.