DAY 187 Perfect 10 Update & Unknown Fact

Hello Journal & Friends,

Today is Week 6 of The Perfect 10 Challenge.

 I just came from the Steve's blog,  the Leader of this challenge, and discovered that his Father passed away suddenly. My heart goes out to him... that is life-altering.

Steve is a really nice guy, and has a generous heart. He is always supportive of others on this journey, and I know he would not anyone to stop. So out of respect for Steve and all the time and effort he has put into leading this challenge, I will go on with my update. 

My goal for the Challenge was to exercise 6 days per week. I accomplished that, with one change. 

My knees, which are kinda bone-on-bone inside, have been bugging me, and getting worse. I must admit, I am a little disappointed. I thought that as I lost weight they would hurt less. Maybe I am expecting too much too soon?? 

Anyway, I had to stop using my rebounder, and substitute a stretching routine instead. I didn't actually "jump"... my feet never left the rebounder mat. I just did a little "bounce". And it was a fantastic muscle stimulator, lymph system jiggler, and all around energy-jazzer-upper. Can you tell I liked it??!! :-)

But... it is what it is. So, Plan B. I will do the stretching. And hope that my new Skinny Self will have stronger, better feeling knees. I am looking for stretching/strengthening exercises for the knees and legs. Can't afford a personal trainer or physical therapist, but what a treasure of info there is to be had on youtube! LOL!

Now, for the Unknown Fact about me....  I don't think I have mentioned this before. I am a Lefty. No, not a communist... I am Left-Handed. 

For all you Righties, you may think "so what?". But it makes a difference growing up in a world geared to being right-handed. Scissors, tools, appliances, guitars, notebooks with the notebook rings at the left (in the way when you are trying to write)... all kinds of items are made assuming the person is using their right hand. So, from a young age we learn to adapt, and find alternate ways to git er dun. I think it's a blessing in diguise! It helps make us more creative thinkers. :-)

Some famous Lefties

in history include:

Michelangelo

Leonardo DaVinci

Peter Paul Rubens

Pierce Brosnan

Jim Carrey

Charlie Chaplin

David Duchovny

Cary Grant

Hugh Jackman

Michael Landon

Steve McQueen

Sylvester Stallone

Carol Burnett

Judy Garland

Nicole Kidman

Demi Moore

Julia Roberts

Oprah Winfrey

Mark Twain

H.G. Wells

Celine Dion

Bob Dylan

Paul McCartney

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Richard Simmons

Jay Leno

David Letterman

Henry Ford

John F Kennedy, Jr

Albert Einstein

Dr Albert Schweitzer

Bill Gates

John D Rockefeller

Mark Spitz

Joan of Arc

Mahatma Gandhi

Ronald Reagan

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Franklin

Winston Churchill

Napoleon Bonaparte

Aristotle

I am in good company!!

Here is an online store, just for Lefties: Anything Left Handed 

From Dr Phil's book: "Problems don't get better with inattention."

My verse for today: "For God does speak--now one way, now another."

My quote for today: "Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time."  --Jim Rohn

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

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DAY 186 Real Love a Week Early

Hello there Journal & Friends,

Last Saturday MyGuy came home from running errands, and was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

I wondered what he was up to...and when I went into the living room there was a huge balloon bouquet. He was so proud of himself. I, however, was puzzled. We finally figured out that he thought the next day was Valentines Day. He was a week early! He was sooo cute in his confusion! 

So now I get to enjoy my balloon bouquet all week, and smile that THIS year, for the first time, he didn't buy me anything with calories. :-)

Which got me to thinking all week about Real Love...

My first marriage was a disaster. I was 17 1/2 years old. The only reason it lasted for 1 1/2 years was because my Mother said "it won't last 6 months." So, of course, I had to prove her wrong.

But we were both too young. We didn't have a clue as to what real love was. We didn't know it was not a "feeling". When you are feeling it, that's nice, but that's not the core of it. I'm not talking about infatuation... I'm talking about the real deal.

Feelings are the caboose, not the engine.

Love is a choice... the feelings follow that choice.

Love gives.

Real love is patient and kind, even when you don't feel like it.

Love is a choice.

If you are going through a rough patch, choose to act as if... the feelings will follow.

I am not just spouting some self-help psycho-babble. I have lived this.

I learned what love really was all about when I had an encounter with God back in 1975. I finally learned what it felt like to be accepted, warts and all. How it felt to be loved totally, and not rejected even when I messed up. To be encouraged and supported.

I learned that love is a choice, and the good feelings which follow that choice do not determine it's presence or absence. 

It is strong and solid, like a rock. Real love can be counted on. It's a commitment, not a goose-pimply feeling. When that happens, it's fun... but a love that has survived 32 years of the fires of marriage has been tested, and some of the fluff has been burned away. The burnished gold that is left is dependable, and strong, able to withstand raging floods of emotions and firestorms of anger and disagreements. 

My second marriage to MyGuy is solid. But it's taken work. I remember one time, I was packing my suitcases to leave. That was it, I'd had it! But "real love" intervened... and reminded me about patience and forgiveness. And we survived...lots of tests. We love each other in spite of our faults.

When all calms down, the sweet scent of longlasting real love fills the air once again. Breathe in, breathe out. It's still there. And it's a wonderful thing, and worth all the "choices" to stay the course during the hard times.

By the way... don't like Valentine's Day??

Want to know who to blame for this dasterdly deed?

Then click HERE to discover the possible culprit. ;-)

From Dr Phil's book: "Choose the right attitude and the right behavior to generate the right results."

My verse for today: "Love is patient. Love is kind."

My quote for today: "The four most important words in any marriage...I'll do the dishes." --Anonymous

DAY 185 Good News/Bad News & The Grouchies

Hello Journal & Friends,

Today I am trying really hard to get rid the grouchies.

Have you seen that commercial where the guy stops people from talking to him by saying "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee"??

It bugs me NO END to have to use MY time to fix the messes created by other people's incompetencies! And this morning it was about medical insurance... and the phone rang BEFORE MY COFFEE.... Aaarrgghh!

So I figured I would write about being 100% responsible for my life. Ha ha ha ... that ought to be what I need to hear, right??

Well... if someone told you that you, and you alone, are 100% responsible for the state of your life....how would you respond? Would you feel like it was "bad news" that YOU are responsible for the mess you are in...be it overweight, in debt, substance abuse, in trouble with the law, or whatever??

I don't look at it that way. To me, the Bad New is also the Good News. In fact, it's not really bad news in the first place.

If I made the choices that got me INTO this mess... then I can make choices to get me out.

That means I have within my power the ability to make DIFFERENT, BETTER choices to change direction, and create a healthier future. It's like being the owner of a great big beautiful and powerful car. I can run it off a cliff...or I can change direction and drive it to a better future.... it's my choice.

I remember when I first read what Dr Phil McGraw wrote in his 10 Life Lessons (here). The second one is called Life Law #2: You create your own experience. Here is the whole text:

Life Law #2: You create your own experience.

Strategy: Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life. Understand your role in creating results. 

You cannot dodge responsibility for how and why your life is the way it is. If you don't like your job, you are accountable. If you are overweight, you are accountable. If you are not happy, you are accountable. You are creating the situations you are in and the emotions that flow from those situations.

Don't play the role of victim, or use past events to build excuses. It guarantees you no progress, no healing, and no victory. You will never fix a problem by blaming someone else. Whether the cards you've been dealt are good or bad, you're in charge of yourself now.

Every choice you make — including the thoughts you think — has consequences. When you choose the behavior or thought, you choose the consequences. If you choose to stay with a destructive partner, then you choose the consequences of pain and suffering. If you choose thoughts contaminated with anger and bitterness, then you will create an experience of alienation and hostility. When you start choosing the right behavior and thoughts — which will take a lot of discipline — you'll get the right consequences. 

When I first read the whole thing, I had a bad case of the "yes, buts".....

yes, but you don't know my situation...

yes, but he did this to me, or she did that... 

yes, but I am not responsible for what THEY did...

yes, but you don't know how I was raised... 

yes, but what about what happened to me as a child....

It took me a LONG time to realize that he was not talking about what THEY did or did not do... but rather, MY part in it..my response...how I chose to respond to what life has blessed me with or thrown in my face. He is not blaming the victim, the child, or the wronged person for the treatment...he is talking about NOW...how we choose to behave as an adult.

I finally got it...I am in charge of me NOW...regardless of the circumstance, I can choose how I respond. And, um, that includes dealing with incompetent medical insurance flunkies, like this morning! LOL!

When I was a little kid, I remember spilling my glass of milk all over the dinner table. My step-dad asked what happened?? I answered: "It spilled." His reply was: "No...YOU spilled it." 

Another time I was whining that so-and-so did something to me...he asked what was wrong? I told him: "They made me mad!!"  He said to me something I always remembered, even though at the time I didn't understand it: "No, no one can MAKE you feel any way."

In this journey to lose weight and regain my health, I have had to acknowledge that I did this to myself. That was a hard pill to swallow in the beginning. It's a lot easier to think of yourself as the poor victim...somehow more sympathetic, or so we think. But that is a trap! 

It takes away all your power to change...the power that comes from believing that you can make GOOD choices NOW and create a better future.

Okay, I think the grouchies are gone now. :-)

From Dr Phil's book: "Take a problem-solving approach to emotion-provoking events."

My verse for today: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee."

My quote for today: "Being fat is hard. Losing weight is hard. Choose your hard." --Author unknown

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

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DAY 184 Toon Tuesday & the Missing Files

Hi Journal & Friends,

Yippee ki yoo! It's Toon Tuesday, my favorite day of the week. :-D

I am so excited. Last week on Toon Tuesday I wrote about the painting that I now want to finish (here is that post).  How NOT finishing it had been all tied up with how I felt about not being able to accomplish this weight loss journey in the past. How I found the message of the painting too upsetting, so I avoided it. And how NOW, I am excited to go ahead and finish it.

After living in our new home for 15 months, yesterday I FINALLY unpacked the last of my studio boxes (did I mention yesterday I was working on Time Management?!). And guess what I found?? The missing reference files for that very painting! This must be a "sign", right? LOL.

So I thought I would post some of them, and at the end explain why, to me, this corresponds to my weight loss journey (you can click pics to enlarge).

This first is a Value Study. If it looks decently balanced in terms of black and white, you have a much better chance of ending up with a successful color painting. It's helpful to keep it simple in the beginning stages... you don't have to mess with color, just the basics. Not everyone does this... and I don't even do it every time. But this was a large and complex composition, and I didn't want to put months into it, only to realize it was a dud design. ;-)

Now for the Color Cartoon. This is just a rough color study, to see if I like the color palette I chose. I did about 3 of these, but this is the one I liked the best.

The rest are just Studies for some of the elements in the painting.  The idea is not perfection, but familiarization. I now know all about a South American Capybara. Yep, I love doing the research part for a painting! I probably spend way too much time on it, just because I find it fascinating and fun. :-D

When I see the preparations for this painting, I think of the effort I had to do in order to succeed on this journey. In the beginning, it was black and white simple. The basics. And no matter what else I later added, that foundation is always there, solid and true. 

If we want to be successful, we MUST be willing to do the work. Physical, mental, spiritual, emotional. It takes effort. I am not one of those that will tell you "oh, it's easy."  For me, it has not been. Maybe it's because I am older, and working on changing a lifetime of deeply ingrained thinking and habits.

But I am willing to do whatever it takes. If it gets easier... yippee! If it never gets easy, I am STILL going to succeed. I may need to make adjustments here and there, just as I adjusted the colors in my painting. I may need to correct mistakes now and then, just as for my painting. 

Sometimes we take new ideas for a test run... do a "sketch" to familiarize us with the idea, see if we like it and how it works for us.  Like my sketches of the different elements for a painting. Some I try out, and discard... others work well, and I keep.

And sometimes, when I am in the middle of a painting, my husband will walk into the room and look at it with a fresh eye. He is honest, and doesn't "flatter me". He gives me the respect of telling me the truth. Sometimes he'll see something I missed, and will point it out. THEN I see it, and can correct it.

The same is true on this journey. We help each other by being honest, and we learn from one another. That is a treasure!!

I hope you find all these little sketches interesting. 

Enjoy the Journey,

Loretta

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DAY 183 Week in Review & Pink Happy Tears

Gooood Monday Afternoon , Journal & Friends!

Since I no longer do a weekly weigh in, I decided to make Monday my day to do a review of the previous week... how it went, what went wrong, what I could do better or different, triumphs and trials! 

Overall, I'm fairly on track. Just plugging away, day after day, trying to be consistent. That was my big downfall in the past. I might have made faster progress, but it was 3 steps forward, then boom! 3 steps back. Now I am just going for consistency. And it's working.

As far as learning normal portions: still within my calorie count. Pouted a couple of times when I ran out of calories before I ran out wanting to eat! Harumph!! But I don't write hot checks any more to the Calorie Bank, and my fridge doesn't accept credit cards.  So, I stopped.  Forces me to learn to balance my expenditures better throughout the day, so I am not broke too early!

I could do better in the nutritional department. As usual, I need to get in more veggies. I am a work in progress there...after all, you don't get to be over 400 lbs by being in love with veggies!! 

So now, they are courting me, wooing me, and trying to win my love. Every once in a while I get a little heart flutter over one that I discover I really like. My current sweetheart is Mr Eggplant. :-D

And now for some FUN news about my exercise: I was so happy Sunday while doing my DVD exercise, I almost had "happy tears" over my pink dumbells. I was actually feeling the muscles in my back, near the shoulder blades, working... moving around, sliding, squeezing, doing their job. And it felt good! It was hard, yes, but good! I tried to find a video on youtube that was the same movement, so I would know what to call that particular exercise. But no luck. I know it has a name... where you curl your arms up and down in front of you, sort of out to the side, like a bird warming up his wings, up and down, and curling them around to the front...oh well. I am sure I murdered that description! 

My point is, I loved it!! 

 

I've been working on improving my Time Management. Results: eh... let's just say, I'm a work in progress. I see improvement, so I choose to be "realistically" encouraged.  Meaning, I won't fool myself into thinking it's "good enough". But I will be a friend to myself, and acknowledge I am getting better.

The Mental part of this journey is paramount. I  take that seriously, and put in the time to work on my thinking. And it DOES take time. This daily blog has been a key in my success, because it forces me to tune in daily. Not get busy, and fall into the "there's always tomorrow" syndrome. 

If everyone got bored and tired of me, and disappeared, I would still be here, pecking away at the keyboard. By having to put my thoughts down into a coherent sentence, it crystalizes things in a way that helps me connect with ME. And feelings and thoughts that are fuzzy come into focus, and must either stand up to scrutiny, or be kicked out. 

There just can't be room any longer in my brain for thoughts that don't take me CLOSER to my goal... that don't help me get healthier... that are not true... that are not in my best interest. Yes, I struggle at times with negative thoughts, doubts, self-pity, discouragement.

But I am not polite any more to Stinking Thinking. I show them the door pronto! I am a very picky hostess when it comes to who gets to live in my head now!!

Gotta go...Time to throw those pink dumbells around!

From Dr Phil's book: "Whatever the situation, you can choose your reaction. No matter what the circumstances, your interpretation of those events is of your own choosing."

My verse for today: "I press on toward the goal..."

My quote for today: "Every passsing minute is a chance to turn it all around." Tom Cruise, in Vanilla Sky

DAY 182 Day of Rest & Favorite Photos

Hi Journal & Friends,

Just for all of you who are braving lots of snow! :-D

Enjoying the chilly Journey,

Loretta

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