Becoming Journey

Where have I been?

Lots of folks have asked me where I have been since June. Frankly it's a question I have been asking myself too. I can give you all the reasons I have been too busy to blog and you'll believe me:
- My husband and I separated. While my mother-in-law was living with us.
- I've been negotiating custody of our 2 1/2 year old. Still unsettled in my mind.
- I have welcomed into my home - my nanny, her husband and her 18 month old; a 17-year-old high school exchange student from Argentina who's here for a year; and a friend's husband who has been living with us during the weeks.
- The company I work for was bought. I got a promotion and (just for fun) a demotion. However, I believe I saved my job.
- I have been on 6 work trips in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Dallas.
- My commute went from 5 minutes to 45 minutes in May and in November went from 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes.

I am sure there is more but this is a lot of what I have been dealing with.

I decided that divorce, custody, and saving my job were more important than taking care of myself and consequently stopped going to the gym and completely stopped questioning negative beliefs. The great part of this experience was a vivid consciousness that this was what I was doing.

"Oh," I'd think. "I am choosing to neglect myself, interesting." And then I would go on with the business of self-neglect.

I'd see a book or magazine article about self-care and think: "hmmm, I know how to do that, wonder why I'd not."

But I never tried to break the cycle. I just tried to watch it. Until one day, I packed a lunch and headed to the gym. Not exciting or dramatic. No epiphany. I just WANTED to take care of myself again. And that's how it's been the past few weeks. Delicious self care, more of me to go around, and incredible amazement at how the mind is mastered.

Anyway I saw this great article today about a woman who has lost 175lbs and this advice from her blog completely reminded me of what I have learned about myself in my weight loss journey.

{EXCERPTED}

Things I've learned about losing weight:

* Workout everyday no matter what. Even when you are tired and are feeling bad. Those are your best workout days, you have more energy and feel better after your workout.

* Count calories and write everything down. Writing everything down makes you accountable. One of the links I have is an excel spreadsheet to calculate how much you eat at each meal and how many calories you eat each day. I own a scale that you can input a code for different foods and it tells you how many calories are in them. It takes figuring the calories out for yourself out of the equation.

* Drink half your weight in ounces of water per day. For example: if you weigh 200 pounds you need to drink 100 ounces of water per day. I marked my water bottles in the beginning to keep track of how much water I had drank.(Yes I recycle the bottles.)

* Stay away from salt and processed foods. Use fresh as much as you possible.

* If you can't be honest with other people, be honest with yourself. Sometimes it is the hardest thing you have to do.

* Ask for help if you need it. People are so willing to be part of the success, that they will help you as much as they can. There are some people who will sabotage you. If you have them in your life, tell them how you feel and if it doesn't change, limit your time with them as much as possible.

* Write a journal and take pictures. You will be so happy you did. When you don't see a difference in the mirror, you can look back at where you used to be. It also works when you put your beginning picture side by side with your now picture.

* If you go off your program get right back on. Don't wait until tomorrow, or Monday, just do it after you take a breath, and don't beat yourself up for it. No one is perfect.

* There are only bad excuses not to workout.

* Once you set your foot in the gym, everything else takes care of itself.

* If you are not sweating, you're not pushing yourself hard enough.

* I will have to work on my program the rest of my life. There are no shortcuts to healthy living.

* Being obese is so much harder than getting fit.

* Let the world see who you are under all the protection you wear.