Saturday, February 19, 2011

Skeeters an' Gators!

Hidy Ho Journal & Friends,



What a weird week! 

My step-dad used to say... 

"If the skeeters don't get ya, 
then the gators will!"

Need to skip the face spackle til my eye gets better. This is day two of Vampire Eyes. :-O

Don't look if you have a weak stomach... LOL!




PS: I've had these before, though not as dramatic, and they say there is nothing to do but let it fade. Guess I'll go to church Sunday like a movie star, wearing shades!

From Dr Phil's book: "I want you to choose to feel very calm and very relaxed. Get up each morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and see yourself as the someone you will become, a person with a greater level of dignity and worth..." (right now it's cracking me up to look into the mirror!)

My verse for today: "But I trust in you, O Lord; I say "You are my God." My times are in your hands."

My quote for today: "Remember this: your body is your slave; it works for you."  --Jack LaLanne

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta
=^..^=

DAY 554


Friday, February 18, 2011

FEB 18 Buns of Steel Campaign

Hi Journal & Friends,




 Quick update: I am feeling hopeful! My campaign to build Buns of Steel (to relieve the pressure on my tailbone) seems to be working. Thank you for the great ideas!!



True, it's slow. I AM being realistic. But after only 3 days, I can see a tiny bit of improvement, a downshift in the pain levels. I had originally thought to give it 3 MONTHS to see if it would work... so this is extremely encouraging! 


(Get it? Buns... bunny... oh well, it tickled my weird funny bone!)


From Dr Phil's book: "Make time for exercise... then protect that time. NO EXCUSES. Let nothing interfere, absolutely nothing."

My verse for today: "Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy."

My quote for today: "Too many people make excuses like I am too old, or I don't have the time, or it costs money. Then when they get sick they go to the doctor and want a shot in the backside to make them  healthy." --Jack LaLanne

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta
=^..^=

DAY 553

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

FEB 16 No More!

Hello Journal & Friends,


That's IT! No more. 

I heard myself yesterday, and it was awful. I was whining and complaining and moaning and groaning... and realized that playing the victim was getting me NOwhere fast!



My low back is trying to go out again, and the pain in my tailbone area is getting worse... go to bed in pain, wake in the night in pain, wake in the morning in pain... and the tears were more from frustration and self-pity than the awful pain. As I was whining to Jim to please rub my back, I finally heard myself. Yuck!!

Then I remembered some stuff I'd been reading, and decided that's IT. No more victim. I'm going to DO something. And before ya'll nice people tell me to see a doctor... I did. And they chalked it up to the usual: Hey, you're fat. Well, put nicer than that, but it's the same thing. "It will improve as you lose weight".

Thing is... it's getting worse. Unbearable levels. Sleep-ruining levels. Don't wanna move or exercise levels. Grumpy levels. Oh poor me levels. 

So... I decided I've got NOTHING to lose by being Proactive. I wrote out a list of exercises that I hope will help, and started, that very day.



Yesterday I dusted off my Gymboss timer and my pink dumbbells!




If you missed my post about my Gymboss timer, it's great for timing interval workouts. Here's a link, and about halfway down the page, that explains the benefits of Tabata type timing in exercise. 

I also did PUSH UPS... well, wall push ups, hee hee. I saw a very large man on the tv show Heavy doing them, and thought "I could do that!" Also some stretching and leg lifts and other muscle building squeezes... you know, the glutes, where you SIT, ha ha. I'm hoping to build muscle to replace the missing cushion of fat, and ease the pain on my cracked tailbone. (Has anyone done this? Any experiences or advice about that??)

Here is part of what I read that inspired me and put my "suffering" into perspective, from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey... it was about the story of Viktor Frankl:

Frankl was a determinist raised in the tradition of Freudian psychology, which postulates that whatever happens to you as a child shapes your character and personality and basically governs your whole life. The limits and parameters of your life are set, and, basically, you can't do much about it.

Frankl was also a Jew. He was imprisoned in the death camps of Nazi Germany, where he experienced things that were so repugnant to our sense of decency that we shudder to even repeat them.

His parents, his brother, and his wife died in the camps or were sent to the gas ovens. Except for his sister, his entire family perished. Frankl himself suffered torture and innumerable indignities, never knowing from one moment to the next if his path would lead to the ovens or if he would be among the "saved" who would remove the bodies or shovel out the ashes of those so fated.

One day, naked and alone in a small room, he began to become aware of what he later called "the last of the human freedoms" -- the freedom his Nazi captors could not take away. They could control his entire environment, they could do what they wanted to his body, but Viktor Frankl himself was a self-aware being who could look as an observer at his very involvement. His basic identity was intact. He could decide within himself how all of this was going to affect him. Between what happened to him, or the stimulus, and his response to it, was his freedom or power to choose that response.

Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.

Frankl... began to devolop the first and most basic habit of a highly effective person in any environment, the habit of proactivity.

It means that... we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions... We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

Viktor Frankl suggests that there are three central values in life --the experiential, or that which happens to us; the creative, or that which we bring into existence; and the attitudinal, or our response in difficult circumstances...

My own experience with people confirms the point Frankl makes -- that the highest of the three values is attitudinal... in other words, what matters most is how we respond to what we experience in life. (end quote)


Photobucket

Well, there was more, but that's long enough! Time to be proactive... time to DO!


Edited later to add: I had an Angel call me. She had her own experience with a fractured coccyx, and suggested 4 different types of physical therapies I could try at home. I am so grateful I could almost cry! Only out of relief and hope, this time. Thank you SO much, You-Know-Who-You-Are!!

From Dr Phil's book: "Get off your duff and get moving."

My verse for today: "Be merciful to me O Lord, for I am in distress."

My quote for today: "Sitting around on your big fat gluteus maximus talking about the good old days... The good old days are right this second. You've got to exercise VIG-OR-OUSLY! Life is tough. Life is a challenge. Life is a battlefield... Life is an athletic event, and you must train for it."  --Jack LaLanne, at age 91

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta
=^..^=

DAY 551


Monday, February 14, 2011

FEB 14 My Hero

Hi Journal & Friends,


Feeling better today... my Sweetie surprised me last night by giving me the perfect gift to make me smile... and this was AFTER the heart-shaped balloons and one beautiful red rose. :-)






 I had been trying to squeak out money to buy canvases, and had settled on much smaller sizes than I really wanted. They are humongously expensive! The size I really wanted cost about $37 each, and I needed three for a triptych.  Ouch.


But when he saw what I was settling for, he handed me some cash he had squirreled away, and told me to buy the BIG puppies! That was so sweet of him, since he had been saving up to buy something for himself.


He knew I had been discouraged, and this really touched me that he would do this for me. My hero.


Happy Valentines Day, all!






Loretta
=^..^=

Sunday, February 13, 2011

FEB 13 Feelin' Sad

Hello Journal & Friends,

I was talking to my sister, Karen, Saturday, and heard myself talking about someone ELSE who was "playing ostrich". You know... sticking their head in the sand, avoiding facing a thing. 



Uh oh. 

Later, I realized I had been doing the same thing. I had been avoiding some very deep feelings of sadness.  As if by avoiding them, they would eventually fade away. Yeah... right. How's that workin' for ya??!! It's not, for the last couple of weeks.



So... I'm sitting here, finally feeling it. And it stinks. But it's better than soothing it with food. 

And I think it's legit, this feeling... I don't feel guilty or anything. I guess I thought if I gave in to "feeling it", I might get stuck there and wallow, once again, in self-pity. So my brilliant plan to avoid THAT was to not feel the sadness. Duh! Yet it's still there, just under the surface, putting pressure on me to soothe it. Aaagghhh!!!!

Why sad?? Because I thought missing out on life was behind me.

That I had made all this progress, and I was back participating in life again. Yet there were TWO events recently I missed out on, due to lack of mobility... which is due in large part to my size.

And it hurts... very much.



One was an important family get-together, and due to where it was held I couldn't go (it was not wheelchair accessible). The other was an all-day workshop and seminar for Christian artists that I was invited to attend. Again, due the length of it and other details... I had to decline. And believe me, I am usually a "can do" thinker. I spent DAYS trying to figure out a way. But reality caught up with me, and I had to admit it was just too soon... I didn't yet have the strength and mobility to do what was needed for this hands-on workshop.

And I am sad and in tears... I guess I thought missing out was behind me, and I wasn't emotionally prepared to accept it again. 

We don't get our way in life all the time, do we? That's life. It is what it is... and whatever other cliche's you want to stick in at this point. :-}

All I can do is continue... to get stronger, to get more mobile, and tell myself that NEXT time I won't miss out. But honestly, that doesn't lessen the sting. Just being honest here.

This feeling-our-feelings thing, instead of numbing them with food... no one ever said it was easy. But it's what I've gotta do. It's normal... a part of life. And I can't avoid it and play ostrich. I want to learn to promptly face my stuff, not stuff my face. Process it, and move on. Always moving on. 



From Dr Phil's book: "Heal your feelings so that your eating behavior is no longer fueled by harmful emotions."

My verse for today: "I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul."

My quote for today: "Getting out of shape is like a thief in the night that sneaks up on you. I always tell people that it is never too late. I tell them about the folks in their 90's that doubled their strength and endurance." --Jack LaLanne

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta
=^..^=

DAY 548


Friday, February 11, 2011

FEB 11 Friday Fav & What Day Is It??

Good evening Journal & Friends,


I woke up this morning with a horrible backache, thought it was Saturday, and was ready to decorate my house for a full-blown Pity Party!!


Jim was off work today, took pity on me (oh poor me, I got some pity, woo hoo boo) and gave me a back rub. Then I had Medicine (coffee). 


Then I remembered something about... what was that?? Oh yeah... gratitude. Ugh. Okay, I'll try...

I grumbled: "I'm thankful for the back rub... for pain pills... for coffee... for a light schedule today... for God's patience towards me..." 

Then I remembered something else... I had read just yesterday about this lady that says she gets up each day and chooses to be happy. That's how she begins her day. Oh yeah, life can then come along later with a boatload of doo doo, and rain on her parade (ewww, how's that for mixing metaphors!).

But the point is... she at least starts OFF choosing to be happy. That nudged my attitude a teensy bit in the right direction.

Then I opened my email. And read my latest feed from No More Bacon. Today he put together an interesting list of links he called "19 Awesome Things I Found on the Information Super Highway".

My favorite was the link to Nerd Fitness,  who shared this video. Totally worth it. I NEEDED to see this today. A good kick in the pants!

I've cancelled my Party plans.



From Dr Phil's book: "Impulse moments are critical for you to manage... you need a real strategy worked out in advance."

My verse for today: "Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me."

My quote for today: "Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure, and separates the victim from reality." --John W Gardner, 1912 - 2002

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta
=^..^=

DAY 546


Thursday, February 10, 2011

FEB 10 Clap! Clap! Clap!

Good Evening Journal & Friends,

Holy cannoli! I watched a video from Sean at Daily Diary of a Winning Loser, and threw out my post that I just wrote. Instead, if you want to be inspired... motivated... encouraged... do yourself a favor and go watch his video, here! Go, Sean, go!




I've been reading Sean from shortly after his beginning, and went back to catch up on the posts I missed. He was one of the first bloggers to leave me a comment, and he made me feel welcomed, and encouraged me to DO this. 

That was back when he was a Little Shot... now he is a Big Shot, and there is no way he can keep up with all his followers. But I highly appreciate his support back in my beginner days. It meant a lot to me, to see someone DO it, paving the way and being an inspiration.



He's been working on a book, and I can't wait to support him by buying a copy. No... I don't buy "diet" books any more. But this one feels like it's the story of change from a friend. Even though some might not think I agree with his philosophy about food (since I do low carb), I actually DO, in my own way.

Sean had food issues. At 505 pounds, well, duh! How well could I relate. So, he started out by making peace with food. He ate whatever he wanted, just not ALL of it.  He had a calorie budget, and simply stuck to his budget. 

And over time, he naturally made better and better nutritional choices. He took a lot of flack in the beginning from the "cleaner eater" crowd. They didn't understand why he took that approach. I did. I started at 460... boy, did I ever understand!

And he was honest with himself along the way. Because he realized that, bottomline, it wasn't really all about the food.

I totally agree with his approach! I just can't do "sugar". We don't all have the same physiology. But I still use basically the same approach, only within the guidelines of No Sugar (and stuff that turns to sugar quickly in the body, like starches). And once you learn how to shop, cook, and bake without sugar, there are tons of choices. So over time, I've gradually made better nutritional choices, though I still have a long ways to go in that department, that's for sure. 

But I would highly recommend his simple approach. If you haven't found your own "path", then check Sean out. Go back, and read from the beginning. It's chock full of inspiration and epiphanies along the way. Oh, did I mention he's gone from 505 to about 230 pounds??
I promise you, you won't be disappointed!


PS: Invite you to join the discussion in the Comments, where we talk in a little more detail about Sean's approach, and how I personalized it.

From Dr Phil's book: "You will want to resist things that are new and that you don't understand... you can overcome this by consciously taking on the attitude of a willing spirit."

My verse for today: "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music."

My quote for today: "For the person that is really progressing and they read up a lot and they have a lot of energy and discipline, they don't need a trainer. It depends on the individual. I don't need a trainer--I am my own trainer." --Jack LaLanne

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta
=^..^=

DAY 545


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