I think I've always had pet peeves. I've always had things that get on my nerves. However, as I've gotten older, more and more things annoy me. I am a little worried that I'm going to become that cranky old lady who scares the neighborhood kids because I'm so annoyed by everything. The plus side for me is that I don't really tend to interact with a lot of people in my neighborhood so they probably won't be scared of me. Now I'm concerned that I'm sounding psycho, so I'm going to get to my blog and stop with the introduction.
Here are my top five pet peeves, in no particular order:
1. Being an inconsiderate audience: Being up in front of a group of people is tough. No matter how often you do it or how good you are at it, it isn't an easy thing to do. As an audience member, it doesn't matter what the situation is, you should be polite. Don't talk to the people around you, especially in a loud voice. If the presenter asks you do participate and it isn't unreasonable or ridiculous, do it. They are likely trying to make their presentation interesting and engaging. Don't work on anything else because that is rude and disrespectful. If you are attending a performance, be respectful to all of those around you who are also there to see the performance. It isn't about you. It's about the performers. Think how you would like to be treated if you were the presenter or performer and treat the person that way.
2. Poor customer service: My husband and I have just experienced this. We had some problems with our toilet and called one plumber who didn't really solve our problem. We called a second plumber and they came out and we thought they had solved our problem, but there was an issue with the toilet still running. We called them back and they said they would have someone come out on two different days. We discovered the second time that we weren't even on their calendar. We've walked out of a restaurant without ordering because we were ignored by our waitress. Customer service is huge for me! I will pay a little more to have good service and will never go to a place again or use a service again if the service is bad.
3. Irresponsibility: If you say you are going to do something, do it. If you say you are going to be somewhere, be there. I don't think I need to say anything else about this one.
4. Rudeness: Only in very rare circumstances does being rude have any benefits. Most of the time, it just makes the situation worse. It doesn't hurt anyone to say please, thank you, or excuse me. And on a related note, it doesn't make it better to say "No offense," before you say something offensive. It's still rude. All that does is alert someone that you are planning on being rude. Treat people the way you would like to be treated. It's really that simple.
5. Lashing out at someone just because you are having a rough day or because you are mad at someone else: I know this could fit under rudeness, but I feel strongly enough about this one to make it a separate peeve. I know that people get in bad moods. I know that it is easy to take it out on the nearest person, but that's not right. Just because you are in a bad mood or have had a rough day doesn't mean that you can lash out at someone else. It's not right. It's not okay. And apologizing later, doesn't make it okay either. It's good that you realize you did the wrong thing, but it still isn't okay.
So there are my pet peeves. It was tougher than I thought it would be. I don't know if it was because I had a hard time narrowing it down or because I don't have as many peeves as I thought.
All right. Day 3 is done and it was interesting. See you later today for day 4. :)
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
30 Day Challenge - Day 2: Where I Want to Be in Ten Years
Day 2...hmmm...this challenge is making me think already. Ten years from now. I might as well get some basics out of the way.
In ten years:
I think the reason that I struggle with this blog post is that I don't see my life changing much in ten years. I'm happily married and don't see that coming to an end before the time that we swore to in our vows. We love our house and have many long term plans that will help make this place even more perfect for us. I like teaching and don't see myself changing professions any time soon. So the majority of things in my life are likely to be very much the same as they are now.
However, there are some things that I know will be different. I am going to be at my goal weight and will have maintained it for several years. By then, I'm sure that I will have developed the habits and routines that make that easier for me. In ten years, I should have done my first half marathon. Yeah, I know, that's a long way to go, but I want to do it at least once, if for no other reason than to say that I have done it. It's something that has always been beyond my reach but now it's not so crazy or unreasonable. I hope to do a 10K this year and will keep working towards my goals and will reach them!
I hope that I will have realized my desire to be a middle school librarian. After years of delaying and excuses, I finally finished my master's degree, passed the Praxis, and am fulling qualified to be a librarian. Unfortunately this is not a great time to have that particular aspiration. In our school district, all high school librarians were replaced with para-professionals and that has happened at one middle school too. This means a lot of librarians without jobs in their field of choice. Not the ideal market to be a newbie looking for a job. Fortunately I'm not without a job waiting for a librarian position. But, if I'm completely honest, whether I'm a librarian or not will have a huge impact on some of the decisions I will make about my future employment. Assuming that "85 and out" will still be an option in ten years, I will be pretty close to the age where I will have a chance to take early retirement. I don't know whether I will be thinking about that much in ten years, but I think about it now.
Well, I think that pretty much covers my life in ten years. It's not real exciting or dramatic or even that much different than it is now. But I think that is a good thing. It means I have a happy and contented life with so much that I have always wanted and a plan to get some of the things that I still want, and hopes that dream will finally come to fruition. It's a pretty good place to be if you are me. :)
So with writing as a daily part of my life, I continue on my journey continuing to realize how lucky and blessed I am.
On a side note, Vince and I just had a dork moment together. We are sitting on our couch writing our blogs for the exact same 30 day challenge that we both are doing. (His blog is here if you are interested in reading it. It's really good!) This blog is a struggle for both of us. We both agreed that we have so much that we have always wanted and the dreams we had have come true with each other. :) Is it any wonder that I love him as much as I do?!?
In ten years:
- I will be 53 years old
- If I continue on with USD 259, I will have been working the district for 28 years
- I will have been married to Vince for 18 years
- We will have been living in our house for 16 years
I think the reason that I struggle with this blog post is that I don't see my life changing much in ten years. I'm happily married and don't see that coming to an end before the time that we swore to in our vows. We love our house and have many long term plans that will help make this place even more perfect for us. I like teaching and don't see myself changing professions any time soon. So the majority of things in my life are likely to be very much the same as they are now.
However, there are some things that I know will be different. I am going to be at my goal weight and will have maintained it for several years. By then, I'm sure that I will have developed the habits and routines that make that easier for me. In ten years, I should have done my first half marathon. Yeah, I know, that's a long way to go, but I want to do it at least once, if for no other reason than to say that I have done it. It's something that has always been beyond my reach but now it's not so crazy or unreasonable. I hope to do a 10K this year and will keep working towards my goals and will reach them!
I hope that I will have realized my desire to be a middle school librarian. After years of delaying and excuses, I finally finished my master's degree, passed the Praxis, and am fulling qualified to be a librarian. Unfortunately this is not a great time to have that particular aspiration. In our school district, all high school librarians were replaced with para-professionals and that has happened at one middle school too. This means a lot of librarians without jobs in their field of choice. Not the ideal market to be a newbie looking for a job. Fortunately I'm not without a job waiting for a librarian position. But, if I'm completely honest, whether I'm a librarian or not will have a huge impact on some of the decisions I will make about my future employment. Assuming that "85 and out" will still be an option in ten years, I will be pretty close to the age where I will have a chance to take early retirement. I don't know whether I will be thinking about that much in ten years, but I think about it now.
Well, I think that pretty much covers my life in ten years. It's not real exciting or dramatic or even that much different than it is now. But I think that is a good thing. It means I have a happy and contented life with so much that I have always wanted and a plan to get some of the things that I still want, and hopes that dream will finally come to fruition. It's a pretty good place to be if you are me. :)
So with writing as a daily part of my life, I continue on my journey continuing to realize how lucky and blessed I am.
On a side note, Vince and I just had a dork moment together. We are sitting on our couch writing our blogs for the exact same 30 day challenge that we both are doing. (His blog is here if you are interested in reading it. It's really good!) This blog is a struggle for both of us. We both agreed that we have so much that we have always wanted and the dreams we had have come true with each other. :) Is it any wonder that I love him as much as I do?!?
Monday, February 18, 2013
30 Day Challenge - Day 1: My Relationship
This is an easy topic for me to write about. The challenge will come in finding new things to say. I talk about Vince and our relationship quite a bit. He's my favorite person in the whole world and I like to gush about him. So my challenge is to come up with a unique blog about our relationship.
Vince and I met online in 1997, before meeting people online was the thing to do. We both went to the same chat program and met through a mutual online friend. She told me that she knew a guy who was a great poet and she thought I would like his poetry. So that was how our conversation started. For a long time, we talked a little here and there, but nothing too deep or meaningful. I wish I could tell you the moment that things changed, but I don't know that there was one specific moment. It was a whole bunch of conversations, a million small things, and a friendship that grew into more than I had ever imagined it would become.
For the first six and a half years we were together, our relationship was long distance. He was living in California and I was living in Connecticut and then Kansas. We spent hours on the phone talking about anything and everything. We really credit that with the strength of our relationship because we talked about everything and there was nothing off limits. We know everything about each other. We shared stories from our childhoods. We talked about our families and friends. We talked about our past relationships and the baggage we carried with us because of them. We talked about our hopes and dreams and started developing dreams together. We talked about our future and made plans for what our life would be like when we were together.
For the first several months we were physically in the same place, I didn't want to let go of him for a minute. It seemed like a dream come true. I was so happy that I didn't know how it could possibly be real. He was here with me and we were together every day. He wasn't going to have to leave me in a week. He was really staying with me and we were together. I know we were both worried about living together and whether it was going to be as great as we hoped and planned for it to be. It was even better than we had thought it would be. We moved from being a couple living separately to a couple living happily together without any problems. It was so smooth and I didn't think it could possibly happen that easily.
Then we moved to being engaged. I almost managed to blow the proposal by having the worst week ever, but Vince was persistent and I said yes, of course. :) For those of you who know me well, you will not be surprised to know that I moved instantly into planner mode. For those of you who know Vince well, you will not be surprised to know that he had no problem with me being the planner and let me go at it. I became a little obsessed with the wedding planning and Vince tried to keep me from going overboard...or at least from sharing all of my obsessed thoughts with him. We managed to get through it all and still wanted to be married to each other, even if I obsessed over cute Hershey's miniatures wrappers and color coordinated M&Ms. Our wedding day was wonderful and beautiful and still stands as the happiest day of my life. Our reception was so much fun. It was a great party and a stupendous way to celebrate with friends, family, and champagne!
Our life since then has continued to be amazing. We've been through so much together: the loss of loved ones, the purchase of a house, a summer of trying to get pregnant and all the issues and hormones that went with that, traveling together instead of away from each other, home repairs, buying a new vehicle, and so many more little things that make up our lives together.
I can't imagine my life without Vince. He is truly the perfect man for me and while our relationship wouldn't work for everyone, it is exactly what we want and need. I couldn't be happier and look forward to seeing where we go from here and know I will have fun as long as he is with me.
Vince and I met online in 1997, before meeting people online was the thing to do. We both went to the same chat program and met through a mutual online friend. She told me that she knew a guy who was a great poet and she thought I would like his poetry. So that was how our conversation started. For a long time, we talked a little here and there, but nothing too deep or meaningful. I wish I could tell you the moment that things changed, but I don't know that there was one specific moment. It was a whole bunch of conversations, a million small things, and a friendship that grew into more than I had ever imagined it would become.
For the first six and a half years we were together, our relationship was long distance. He was living in California and I was living in Connecticut and then Kansas. We spent hours on the phone talking about anything and everything. We really credit that with the strength of our relationship because we talked about everything and there was nothing off limits. We know everything about each other. We shared stories from our childhoods. We talked about our families and friends. We talked about our past relationships and the baggage we carried with us because of them. We talked about our hopes and dreams and started developing dreams together. We talked about our future and made plans for what our life would be like when we were together.
For the first several months we were physically in the same place, I didn't want to let go of him for a minute. It seemed like a dream come true. I was so happy that I didn't know how it could possibly be real. He was here with me and we were together every day. He wasn't going to have to leave me in a week. He was really staying with me and we were together. I know we were both worried about living together and whether it was going to be as great as we hoped and planned for it to be. It was even better than we had thought it would be. We moved from being a couple living separately to a couple living happily together without any problems. It was so smooth and I didn't think it could possibly happen that easily.
Then we moved to being engaged. I almost managed to blow the proposal by having the worst week ever, but Vince was persistent and I said yes, of course. :) For those of you who know me well, you will not be surprised to know that I moved instantly into planner mode. For those of you who know Vince well, you will not be surprised to know that he had no problem with me being the planner and let me go at it. I became a little obsessed with the wedding planning and Vince tried to keep me from going overboard...or at least from sharing all of my obsessed thoughts with him. We managed to get through it all and still wanted to be married to each other, even if I obsessed over cute Hershey's miniatures wrappers and color coordinated M&Ms. Our wedding day was wonderful and beautiful and still stands as the happiest day of my life. Our reception was so much fun. It was a great party and a stupendous way to celebrate with friends, family, and champagne!
Our life since then has continued to be amazing. We've been through so much together: the loss of loved ones, the purchase of a house, a summer of trying to get pregnant and all the issues and hormones that went with that, traveling together instead of away from each other, home repairs, buying a new vehicle, and so many more little things that make up our lives together.
I can't imagine my life without Vince. He is truly the perfect man for me and while our relationship wouldn't work for everyone, it is exactly what we want and need. I couldn't be happier and look forward to seeing where we go from here and know I will have fun as long as he is with me.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Trying something new
I've decided that I want to blog more. I've said a lot about my journey, and I'm not abandoning that. However, I don't always have something to say about that part of my life. So I'm going to try something new: I'm going to do a 30 blogging challenge. I have seen a lot of different challenges out there, but I don't really want to take pictures of everything right now and I don't want to have to write about things I don't care about. So I went to Google and found a challenge that I think I will like.
Here it is:
Here it is:
I know that some of you won't be interested in this part of my blog, but it's a different type of challenge for me that I'm kind of excited about. Hopefully life will be calm enough for the next 30 days that I'll be able to blog every day. That's part of my goal.
I'm going to continue on my journey with a new twist. If nothing else, it's sure to be an interesting ride. :)
Sunday, January 13, 2013
A Whole New Paradigm
Well, crap.
Damn, this hurts.
Some variation of those thoughts ran through my head a million times yesterday. Most of the time they were profanity laced and I'll spare you from that.
For those of you who missed it, I'm injured for the first time in my journey. I went to a step aerobic class that I had been to the previous Saturday and completed without any problems. I felt fine and, in fact, my knees were feeling better than they had been all week. I started with the warm up without any problems and we were just starting the routines. Nothing too intense to start off with. I was feeling pretty good because I remembered a lot of the first routine without having to re-learn it all. I was doing a split basic step off the step and when I put the left foot down, I felt a pop in my left calf. It hurt, but I thought maybe it would be okay and tried to keep going. About two steps later, I knew that wasn't going to be the case. Long story shorter (yeah, I know it's been pretty long already), I got down to the front desk with assistance, called Vince, and we headed off to the west side Wesley ER. And as I said in my FB post, it is much nicer than the ER on Hillside.
After a pretty painful examination, the doctor said I didn't tear anything, but I did strain my calf. The plan of action is keep it wrapped so there is compression on my calf, cool packs three times a day, ibuprofen regularly, crutches as needed (not supposed to be more than a couple of days), and take it easy. A couple of important notes: I despise crutches! And I really suck at taking it easy when I have to. As my mom said when I talked to her earlier, I don't mind hanging out at home doing nothing as long as I have the option to do something if I want to. If I can't do anything else, hanging out at home doing nothing seems like a punishment of some sort.
For the first time in a really long time, I woke up on a Sunday morning and got dressed in pajama pants and a t-shirt and went to sit on the couch. It felt weird and wrong. I usually get up, put on workout clothes, and head to the basement to do my step workout. I didn't like not being able to follow my routine.
Yes, I know: I'll get back to my normal routines quicker if I slow down and rest now. Yes, I know: my body needs time to heal and if I don't give that time, then I'll risk getting hurt worse. Yes, I know: this happens and it could have been much worse. Yes, I know: I'm not a superhero and don't heal instantaneously.
However, none of that helps with the feelings I'm having. As much as I never would have dreamed it, I look forward to working out. It's become part of who I am. I love how I feel after I workout. I like that I'm losing weight and getting in shape. Now, I have to put all of that on hold, though I know I can still lose weight without working out. I have to push the pause button and accept, with limited bitchiness, that I HAVE to take it easy. Complaining won't make the time go faster and will just make those around me dread having to be around my miserable self.
So now I have to have a new paradigm. I have to shift my thinking for a while. Instead of pushing as hard as I can, I have to slow down and take my time. I have to make myself relax and take it easy. And when I start up again, I have to go slow and not push too hard. This could possibly be the toughest part of my journey so far.
So I'll continue on my journey, slowly, and, with as much resolve as I can muster, to not let it color my outlook on things. I apologize in advance if I'm bitchy. I promise I'm working on it. :)
Damn, this hurts.
Some variation of those thoughts ran through my head a million times yesterday. Most of the time they were profanity laced and I'll spare you from that.
For those of you who missed it, I'm injured for the first time in my journey. I went to a step aerobic class that I had been to the previous Saturday and completed without any problems. I felt fine and, in fact, my knees were feeling better than they had been all week. I started with the warm up without any problems and we were just starting the routines. Nothing too intense to start off with. I was feeling pretty good because I remembered a lot of the first routine without having to re-learn it all. I was doing a split basic step off the step and when I put the left foot down, I felt a pop in my left calf. It hurt, but I thought maybe it would be okay and tried to keep going. About two steps later, I knew that wasn't going to be the case. Long story shorter (yeah, I know it's been pretty long already), I got down to the front desk with assistance, called Vince, and we headed off to the west side Wesley ER. And as I said in my FB post, it is much nicer than the ER on Hillside.
After a pretty painful examination, the doctor said I didn't tear anything, but I did strain my calf. The plan of action is keep it wrapped so there is compression on my calf, cool packs three times a day, ibuprofen regularly, crutches as needed (not supposed to be more than a couple of days), and take it easy. A couple of important notes: I despise crutches! And I really suck at taking it easy when I have to. As my mom said when I talked to her earlier, I don't mind hanging out at home doing nothing as long as I have the option to do something if I want to. If I can't do anything else, hanging out at home doing nothing seems like a punishment of some sort.
For the first time in a really long time, I woke up on a Sunday morning and got dressed in pajama pants and a t-shirt and went to sit on the couch. It felt weird and wrong. I usually get up, put on workout clothes, and head to the basement to do my step workout. I didn't like not being able to follow my routine.
Yes, I know: I'll get back to my normal routines quicker if I slow down and rest now. Yes, I know: my body needs time to heal and if I don't give that time, then I'll risk getting hurt worse. Yes, I know: this happens and it could have been much worse. Yes, I know: I'm not a superhero and don't heal instantaneously.
However, none of that helps with the feelings I'm having. As much as I never would have dreamed it, I look forward to working out. It's become part of who I am. I love how I feel after I workout. I like that I'm losing weight and getting in shape. Now, I have to put all of that on hold, though I know I can still lose weight without working out. I have to push the pause button and accept, with limited bitchiness, that I HAVE to take it easy. Complaining won't make the time go faster and will just make those around me dread having to be around my miserable self.
So now I have to have a new paradigm. I have to shift my thinking for a while. Instead of pushing as hard as I can, I have to slow down and take my time. I have to make myself relax and take it easy. And when I start up again, I have to go slow and not push too hard. This could possibly be the toughest part of my journey so far.
So I'll continue on my journey, slowly, and, with as much resolve as I can muster, to not let it color my outlook on things. I apologize in advance if I'm bitchy. I promise I'm working on it. :)
Monday, January 7, 2013
A Mixed Bag
I was looking around on the internet and came across an article on Yahoo about the health risks of obesity: http://news.yahoo.com/poll-few-americans-know-risks-obesity-085408215.html. Sometimes I read articles like this to help keep me motivated about the good that I'm doing in my life and how I need to continue on my journey. It's sort of an interesting article, though I must admit that none of the information in the article was a surprise to me. I've known how harmful my obesity has been to my health, but have chosen to ignore it or pretend that it wouldn't happen to me. I've struggled with several of the issues listed in the article to greater or lesser extents: high cholesterol, borderline high blood pressure, snoring/sleep apnea, arthritis in my knees, and infertility. Those last two are probably the hardest to realize that I did to myself. However, this blog post isn't about regrets or bad choices in the past. At this point, you might be asking exactly what this post IS about. And now I will let you know.
For some reason, that I can never figure out, I always read some of the comments after articles that I read especially if they are about issues that are important to me. What I realized as I was reading the comments was that it is sad how many people think that it is okay to be horribly mean to people who are overweight. I've heard and/or dealt with negativity most of my life. Comments that are just a little mean as a failed attempt to be funny all the way to comments that are hurtful and ugly. I don't understand it. I don't know why people think that is okay. No matter what a person weighs, they are still a person with feelings that can be hurt. And there is nothing helpful about being negative to a person who is struggling, whether it is because of their choices or not. Physically, it is a struggle to be overweight. Everything is harder. So why make it more difficult emotionally? I've never heard someone who has lost weight say thank you to the people who made fun of them or belittled them because they made such an important difference in their journey. I know I'm thankful to those who have been supportive and kind as I have been on my journey. Losing weight is tough enough. As someone who has quit smoking as well as started on a journey to be healthier, I will tell you that as tough as it was to quit smoking, it has been harder to stay focused on my journey. Food is a part of life and can't be avoided. When I quit smoking, I could avoid areas where people were smoking or places where I always smoked. In fact, from the time I quit until the time I moved out of that apartment, I rarely went out on the balcony because that was where I smoked most of the time I was home. Food is everywhere. Eating is often a social activity: Treat days at work, going out to eat with family to celebrate, meeting at the bar after work for drinks and snacks, and so on. So I guess my point with this part of my blog is to remind people to be kind. You never know what someone is going through or where they are in their journey and being mean, even if you are trying to be funny, is never helpful. Treat each other with kindness. I'm working on this myself. Being kind sometimes seems harder than it should be, but it is important.
Now to a more positive part of this blog. I had a conversation with a friend, who is also on her journey to being healthier, about how her doctor had told her on one of her visits. that she was no longer morbidly obese. I was early enough in my journey that I didn't think about it much because I knew I wasn't far out of being morbidly obese, if at all. Reading this article today got me thinking about that conversation and I wondered where I was on the scale. I googled obesity scales and found this one:
Now, it's not the most official or, frankly, flattering, but it illustrates what I was looking at. When I started this journey, I was morbidly obese. It's not a happy thing to admit, but it's the truth. When I checked today, I realized that I'm not morbidly obese or even severely obese any more! I'm still obese and still have growth (or loss) to go, but what a positive realization!! I was so excited! Of course, this is one of those weird things that is hard to share with everyone, because it sounds kind of weird. So I thought about sharing it on Facebook and decided not to then I thought about not sharing it. However, I decided that this was the perfect format to share this information. If you are reading my blog, you are interested in my journey for whatever reason. :) So you should understand why this is exciting for me!
Now as I continue on my journey, I try to remember to be kind and to keep my successes in mind, even if they are a little strange sounding.
For some reason, that I can never figure out, I always read some of the comments after articles that I read especially if they are about issues that are important to me. What I realized as I was reading the comments was that it is sad how many people think that it is okay to be horribly mean to people who are overweight. I've heard and/or dealt with negativity most of my life. Comments that are just a little mean as a failed attempt to be funny all the way to comments that are hurtful and ugly. I don't understand it. I don't know why people think that is okay. No matter what a person weighs, they are still a person with feelings that can be hurt. And there is nothing helpful about being negative to a person who is struggling, whether it is because of their choices or not. Physically, it is a struggle to be overweight. Everything is harder. So why make it more difficult emotionally? I've never heard someone who has lost weight say thank you to the people who made fun of them or belittled them because they made such an important difference in their journey. I know I'm thankful to those who have been supportive and kind as I have been on my journey. Losing weight is tough enough. As someone who has quit smoking as well as started on a journey to be healthier, I will tell you that as tough as it was to quit smoking, it has been harder to stay focused on my journey. Food is a part of life and can't be avoided. When I quit smoking, I could avoid areas where people were smoking or places where I always smoked. In fact, from the time I quit until the time I moved out of that apartment, I rarely went out on the balcony because that was where I smoked most of the time I was home. Food is everywhere. Eating is often a social activity: Treat days at work, going out to eat with family to celebrate, meeting at the bar after work for drinks and snacks, and so on. So I guess my point with this part of my blog is to remind people to be kind. You never know what someone is going through or where they are in their journey and being mean, even if you are trying to be funny, is never helpful. Treat each other with kindness. I'm working on this myself. Being kind sometimes seems harder than it should be, but it is important.
Now to a more positive part of this blog. I had a conversation with a friend, who is also on her journey to being healthier, about how her doctor had told her on one of her visits. that she was no longer morbidly obese. I was early enough in my journey that I didn't think about it much because I knew I wasn't far out of being morbidly obese, if at all. Reading this article today got me thinking about that conversation and I wondered where I was on the scale. I googled obesity scales and found this one:
Now, it's not the most official or, frankly, flattering, but it illustrates what I was looking at. When I started this journey, I was morbidly obese. It's not a happy thing to admit, but it's the truth. When I checked today, I realized that I'm not morbidly obese or even severely obese any more! I'm still obese and still have growth (or loss) to go, but what a positive realization!! I was so excited! Of course, this is one of those weird things that is hard to share with everyone, because it sounds kind of weird. So I thought about sharing it on Facebook and decided not to then I thought about not sharing it. However, I decided that this was the perfect format to share this information. If you are reading my blog, you are interested in my journey for whatever reason. :) So you should understand why this is exciting for me!
Now as I continue on my journey, I try to remember to be kind and to keep my successes in mind, even if they are a little strange sounding.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Time to Reflect
A friend of mine posted a reflective statement on Facebook and it made me think. I've been very focused on where I want to be. Maybe I should take a little time to look back and see how far I've come. New Year's Day always seems to be a time to reflect on the previous year.
I just looked at pictures from Christmas last year and am shocked with what I see. I honestly didn't realize how big I was then. I guess I had just gotten used to it and didn't think about it. I knew I wasn't happy with how I looked, but I just wasn't willing to do anything about it. I didn't have a lot of energy, but then again, I didn't need a lot for as little as I did.
Finally in April, I had enough. I was ready to make a change. I was tired of not liking how I looked and felt. I started small and kept it quiet because I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to accomplish anything. But it worked and I kept working. I made changes and stepped up my physical activity. And I kept going! I didn't give up. I didn't quit.
So now I look at what I've accomplished:
Here are my goals for 2013:
It's good to reflect as I'm sitting here in my workout clothes after having already done my workout for the day. :) Wow, how my life has changed! I know I wasn't in workout clothes this early, or honestly at all, last New Year's Day.
So I'm going to continue on my journey with the pride that comes from reflecting on where I've come from and the knowledge of where I am going.
Happy New Year! May 2013 be a blessed year for you!
I just looked at pictures from Christmas last year and am shocked with what I see. I honestly didn't realize how big I was then. I guess I had just gotten used to it and didn't think about it. I knew I wasn't happy with how I looked, but I just wasn't willing to do anything about it. I didn't have a lot of energy, but then again, I didn't need a lot for as little as I did.
Finally in April, I had enough. I was ready to make a change. I was tired of not liking how I looked and felt. I started small and kept it quiet because I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to accomplish anything. But it worked and I kept working. I made changes and stepped up my physical activity. And I kept going! I didn't give up. I didn't quit.
So now I look at what I've accomplished:
- I have lost 79 pounds.
- I have competed in seven races: six 5Ks and one 4 mile.
- I have set my routine to workout at least five days a week.
- I am running when I do races now. Not the whole race, but some of it.
- I eat healthier and pay attention to what I'm eating.
- I am willing to share my journey with anyone who wants to hear about it.
- I do group workout classes when I always hated them before.
- I wake up in the mornings when I don't have to get up and workout, included Christmas and New Year's Eve and Day.
- I come home from work and workout as a way to get rid of stress.
- I have a new batch of healthy recipes that I love to make and that we love to eat.
Here are my goals for 2013:
- I want to lose another 21 pounds, at least. I'll re-evaluate when I reach that goal.
- I want to compete in a 10K race.
- I want to continue to do a race every month, though January is looking challenging.
- I want to continue to try new recipes and have a list of favorites for all seasons.
- I want to continue to blog on a regular basis.
It's good to reflect as I'm sitting here in my workout clothes after having already done my workout for the day. :) Wow, how my life has changed! I know I wasn't in workout clothes this early, or honestly at all, last New Year's Day.
So I'm going to continue on my journey with the pride that comes from reflecting on where I've come from and the knowledge of where I am going.
Happy New Year! May 2013 be a blessed year for you!
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