Day Four

Well, here I am again, back on the road to recovery. Having an overweight body has been a constant in my life for most of my life. Consistency and keeping motivated have been my constant challenges. I'm starting really slow this time and my goal is consistency over intensity and quantity. I've often done the path of the rabbit from the Aesop's fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare. Now I'm aiming for slow and steady like the tortoise.

Somehow I got to the mindset to actually begin again. I can't really list my reasons for how and why I started this path up again. What is key for me now is making exercise a part of my daily life. And I've been successful since Monday, 11/12. Yes, this is only day four, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot.

As I said, I'm starting slow. Right now I'm using a couple of old Richard Simmons' video tapes: Toning Uptown and Toning Downtown. I'm alternating the days in which I work my upper and lower body. Thus far, I've completed 2 sessions of upper body and 2 sessions of lower body. I plan to do each tape one more time this week and probably rest on Sunday.

I've been resistant to starting aerobice exercise. I was planning to go outside for a walk yesterday but it didn't happen. Today, I popped in a Leslie Sansome one-mile dvd and that felt just right. I've been telling myelf the last couple of days that I needed to do 2 or 3 miles a day at least each day - and I just shut down to the idea. One mile was an acceptable compromise between my body and my mind. The intensity and the mileage will increase as I become stronger.

I plan to incorporate tai chi and some yoga into my workout as well but will keep things simple for now. I have plenty of aerobic and strength training videos/dvds and I belong to a gym as well. I have alot of resources for exercise and support from others. My brain keeps jumping ahead to what future workouts will look like. But I have learned that I need to keep focussed on my workouts one day at a time. Otherwise, those future workouts will remain a fantasy and never happen.

Nutrition-wise, I've cut down on calories and have eliminated certain unhealthy junk foods. I've also been adding more vegetables to my diet but there's room for improvement in that I want to make sure I eat enough veggies every day. I'm not following a strict diet plan yet and I haven't been keeping a food log. My focus is more on the exercise now. But I am definitely eating healthier than I was a week or so ago.

The result is, I feel better in my body. I've dropped 5 pounds. I have more energy and my outlook on life is more positive. I'm at my highest weight ever (280 lbs on 11/12, 275 lbs today) at 5'6" and 45 years of age. I have a long way to go to get to my goal weight (125 lbs). There is no rush. Slow and steady wins the race.