Livin' Well

I managed another fifteen minutes on the treadmill this morning. I actually did twenty, but the last five minutes were at a slow pace. It felt good to get on there.

I’m also doing well at not eating two hours before bed. It’s a bit of a challenge. We have some chocolate in the house right now, and it’s hard to resist at 9:00 pm when I feel like I could have a nibble of something. Even if there wasn’t chocolate, I’d usually go for a piece of cheese on cracker or something similar. It feels good not going to bed full, and feeling guilty about what I’ve munched on during the evening.

I wasn’t supposed to weigh myself for a month, but I thought that I have a peek this morning since I’ve been doing well. It served me right. No movement. In fact, I thought that I’d double check and step on for a second time, and it went up half a pound. So, I get it. Don't weigh for a month because I won't fixate on half or one pound fluctuations that could be a result of anything. Like I still have to pee.

I’m not only tackling my weight, I’m also trying to change some of my silliness when it comes to dieting. I usually get obsessed. Weighing morning and night. In the morning I always go through a certain ritual. Go to the bathroom, have a shower, have good thoughts, then (before I get dressed, of course) tentatively stand on the scale. I celebrate when my weight goes down and berate myself when it goes up. And we’re talking one pound, people. Or even half a pound. I want to stop that. I want to lose weight, but I really want to get healthy.

It’s amazing that even though I decided that this time I would do it differently, and not obsess, that I have to keep reminding myself of that decision. Like this morning while I was on the treadmill. Originally, I decided to take it slow. Fifteen minutes three times per week and slowly work myself up to thirty minutes a day. Then while walking today I thought, I should do thirty, and I imagined getting on everyday and losing lots of weight and being fit. Don’t get me wrong, visualization is great, but what I was doing was trying to do it perfectly right from the beginning. Yeah for me, that I caught myself mid-thought. “Slowly, Debbie. One step at a time.” Funny! I didn’t mean to be corny ant tie that in with the name of my blog, but it does fit as my mantra. I try to be perfect right from the start and then feel so defeated when I fail. I’ve got to slow down and focus on my accomplishments instead.