Just. Breathe.

I've been avoiding this blog post like the plague. I know it has to be done. I don't want to do it.  Suck it up, buttercup, and go. It's time to get back to the serious business of health and weight loss.  Two years and two weeks ago (roughly), I made a commitment on this site to finally get to my goal weight. What actually happened was that I lost about half of the total weight I needed to lose, and stalled. For.over.a.year.  On the up side, that means I maintained a 35-pound loss for a year. Yay. I've never done that before, so congratulations to me. On the down side, that means I've not reached that goal weight yet, and the clock is ticking. I'm not getting any younger, and I am going to slay this demon before I die. [Morbid, yes?] I've done a little soul-searching to figure out why my head wants to lose this weight when my body fights with every fiber of its being. I'm not 20 anymore, my life is pretty great -- why does it matter to...

I found a notebook where I'd drawn out some ideas for the blog, made plans for new/different exercise programs, and jotted down recipe ideas, and decided I should get back to it. When I first started blogging last year, I had a goal (weight loss) and used this forum for accountability. I now have another few goals, so let's see if it will work this time. Losing the rest of this weight is of course a goal. I've been stuck here for about a year (some down, some up in the last 12 months, but generally the same place). On the one hand, that tells me that maintenance is something I CAN do -- good to know. OTOH, I don't want to be at THIS weight! I'm working through what that means for me - I don't do well with deprivation, counting calories makes me feel deprived, and this is almost completely about what my brain says. I know that no amount of exercise will make up for a crappy diet - but I'm still struggling with the changes that will stick. A few things I...

I'm not a big fan of resolutions - new year or otherwise - perhaps because of the pressure the word implies. Last January, however, I made one determination -- to get the weight off for the last time. Let's see how that turned out: I lost 35 pounds. That's a little more than half my goal. I've gone from a size 18/20 to a 12/14. I've lost 6" in my hips and 5" in my waist. My triglycerides dropped from 200 to 40, cholesterol from 220 to 194, HDL up from 25 to 60.  Other goals and accomplishments: I can run a 5K without stopping. My pace on a mile has dropped from around 13 minutes to under 12 minutes. My usual two+ mile runs take about 25 minutes. I've completely changed the way I (and the family) eat. I don't count calories or weigh portions, and I'm always satisfied when I finish a meal. I've experimented with countless new recipes, with only a few "let's not do this again" experiences. I've blogged most...

I'm back in blogging land after a little while off. Please pardon the randomness of this post. Christmas was excellent, and yes, we had snow in Texas on Christmas Day! I'm sure it wasn't the first time, but I definitely can't remember a specific time it happened. And COLD. Like 19 degrees cold. I literally sat on the couch all day and watched the traditional Christmas movies: A Christmas Story , Miracle on 34th Street , Die Hard ... We'd already watched Holiday Inn and White Christmas . I played with my new tablet (!) and completely vegged out. Perfect Christmas day. Our backyard, photo courtesy of Bug. Poor plants. Poor basketball. I did make a chicken soup that day. I've got a favorite chicken tortilla soup recipe, but I've never converted it to Paleo -- it had corn and beans in it, not to mention the tortillas, sour cream and cheese that tops it. We'd gone to a party where one of the guests brought a soup that was very close to Paleo - it onl...

I don't call myself a runner. I'm a person who, mostly in the interest of getting rid of weight, runs from time to time. I don't dislike it as much as I used to, but it still takes some serious mental talking to get me out the door. When I hurt my knee in July and had to stop for a while, I tried to be disappointed. Mostly I was concerned about stalling my weight loss or gaining because I was going from 3-4 workouts a week to not much. It was a hot summer, so running outside wasn't really an option. I can't say that I missed it all that much. Here it is two months later, and today, I went for a run. I had no idea what to expect -- I set the 2 mile route and figured I just see what happened. Started with a .1m warmup walk. When I first started the run, I was worried - I could feel the knee and the muscles around it tensing up. But after about 30 steps, it stopped. I went about 1/2 mile and took a short walk break to get a drink (and get up the hill). My first m...

I can't believe I've been doing this for 20 weeks. That's like 1/3rd of a year. Yeah, I do math. That's a pretty big deal to me, actually. Twenty solid weeks of paying attention to what I eat, making myself move more, not "cheating" or making bad choices for more than a few hundred calories. On to the countdown... This was a good week. I've stayed on Paleo, but I will admit to sneaking a couple handfuls of cereal, just because it was there. It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, so I moved on. Only put feta on my salads twice, not because I couldn't do it more, but just because I knew it would still be good without it. And I lost two more pounds. Grand total in 20 weeks: 23.1 pounds. Slightly above average, and that works for me. ________________________ My next measurable goal is to have lost a total of 30 pounds before my mission trip to Haiti in July. That's eight weeks from now, and I think I'll be able to stay on trac...

A year and a half ago I finally joined the Facebook nation. Now it looks like I'm jumping on the blog wagon. I like the idea of blogging. I've always liked the idea of journaling, and have had sporadic success when I make up my mind to journal as a way to keep my sanity. But if I edit myself on the off chance that someday I meet a terrible fate and Gibbs and Dinozzo have to go through all my stuff, do I REALLY want anyone to read what I think? So do I ever really write the truth in something private that stays in a drawer in my room? And if not, what on earth makes me think I'll be honest blogging? Or maybe it's not that kind of blog. I don't have to use this venue to throw my opinions on everything to an unsuspecting world. Lord knows there's enough of that going on. And while I know a little about a lot of things, I'm not an expert on any one thing that would fill that gaping hole in the web -- and if anyone knows what topic isn't already covered s...