Fire Up For Fall Update

I feel like I'm being very selfish.  I'm reading all your blogs plus a few others, and they're really helping me keep focused and consistent, but I've only done the bare minimum of commenting, and I've been terrible about responding to comments.  Sorry!!  I'm all about me, me, me these days, and isolating more than I know is good for me.  I'm beginning to wonder if the Lyme Disease that I had earlier in the summer has messed with my emotional health and thinking, or maybe this is just a phase where my emotions are running stronger than usual.

Scale went back up 0.8 pounds this morning, to 246.4.  Since I did well eating and working out, I'm OK.  I worked out a little harder than usual to clear my head, but it didn't really work; 30 minutes on the elliptical at level 10, plus some free weights.  The ellipticals at the firehouse and the work gym are very different.  Level 10 at the work gym is about equivalent to level 4 at the firehouse one, and the moving arms are so low that it's hard to get my arms to stretch.  I tried one out at Sears (thinking of buying one), and it was really nice!  The stride was nice and big, you can change the focus area by changing the incline, and the arm poles really do work out my arms.  I think it would provide a nice challenge for a long time, and take away my winter excuses for not exercising.

Today's exercise will be a round of golf this afternoon at a work tournament.  I'm nervous because I've only played once this year

Positive Picture:  here is my obedience school dropout!  Digging after some animal, and then smiling for the camera with her dirty face.

1. What have you done this week to achieve your goals?  I worked out every day in some form or another, and stayed within my calorie goals.  I didn't get (too) upset when the scale didn't move until the end of the week.

2. What have you done to make yourself feel fabulous?   I went to the first Meditation Based Stress Reduction class on Tuesday.  I'm really looking forward to this class to help me understand (put aside) some of the reasons why I packed on the pounds and teach me better self acceptance.  Second class is tonight!

3. What is your go to food or activity when you've had a bad day?  A big plate of pasta with alfredo sauce, bacon and garlic, and maybe a bottle of champagne.  As I've reduced my pasta eating, I realized that pasta makes me gassy!  That's helped me stay away from it.  Now that I'm getting more into exercise, I'm beginning to use a workout to clear my head when I've had a bad day.

4. What's the last thing you did that you were really proud of?  I lost weight and got below 250 pounds in the last few weeks!  I spent so many years thinking it was really complicated and it wasn't going to work for me, but when I stopped making excuses and started moving my butt, the weight nicely started to come off.  Reading blogs of people that have lost and maintained the loss is really helping me to see that it is actually possible to get down to what I weighed when I was 25 and be healthier at 50 than I was at 40 (or 30).

5. Fun Time:  What was your favorite school subject, and your least favorite? Why?   Funny to read that so many folks disliked math and science because they were my favorite.  I wanted to be an astronomer, or maybe a poet, but my mother said, "Why don't you do something useful like be an architect?"  I ended up as an engineer and now all of my family saves things for me to fix.  I think I like math and science because there IS one right answer, and it is knowable, ie, not like words where there can be infinite interpretations or views.

Have a great week all!  I'm going to practice letting go of the firehouse, letting go of thinking that they were going to fill my empty spaces.  Practice accepting that things are the way they are and letting stress about that disappear.