Just 4 Today, I’ll drink my fiber twice (done once!), drink 2 liters of water (about 1/2), walk 5 miles (yesterday — 2.22), NOT eat between meals & NOT take seconds.
An Unbalanced Life
I know I’ve told this story before but because of my experiences this week and catdog’s comment from yesterday, I’m going to mention it again:My first experience with obesity was in the mid 1980s. I’d been overweight for a long time, but until then I could always keep it at a “respectable” 10 or 15 pounds. But, in the mid-1980s something happened (stress, changes to my metabolism, who knows?) and my weight shot up dramatically — reaching close to 200 pounds.
Twenty years ago, I divorced my husband — walked away from that stress — and reshaped the priorities of my life.
I went on a sort of crash diet. I ate only prepared foods and popcorn, so I knew exactly how many calories I was eating and walked 7 miles a day. And not surprisingly, the extra pounds fell off like magic.
Well, it wasn’t magic — I’d been eating about 800 calories a day and burning about that many through walking so I had a calorie deficit of nearly 2000 calories a day during that period. Of course I lost weight quickly. I couldn’t keep that up forever though — who could? As soon as reached my weight loss goal, I was right back to my unrestricted portion sizes and office-candy.
And everything was still OK — because I was walking 7 miles a day. I remember walking around and around the Reference Room on rainy days because I couldn’t get outside to walk. I kept that weight off for 2 or 3 years. And I thought I could do it forever.
Then I got run over by a car — it knocked me down by hitting me right on my left knee. Thankfully, it didn’t break. But it was 5 years before I could do any distance walking again. And it just so happened, my life hit another high-stress patch at just the time, I could have used a good 7 mile walk each day.
Finding Balance
So, I didn’t walk and I wasn’t controlling my diet.
I’m NOT going into detail about it, but over the next decade my weight shot up to above 200 pounds. Of course it did. And I couldn’t stand to think about going through the torture of intense weight-loss again.
But, we know it doesn’t have to be torture. THIS time the process is different for me and catdog and all of you — because we’re working on finding balance. And most days, we ARE pretty much in balance.
If some days we don’t exercise quite as much as we’d like, it’s OK — because we’re in control of what we’re eating. And if (on other days) we eat a bit more than we would on a regular day, that’s OK too — because we’re in the habit of getting regular exercise.
AND because we’re touching base here at Eat4Today & we’ve got the support of friends from around the world, we’ll hang onto that balance. Just 4 Today.
What are you going to do today?
15 Comments
Great post, kb! Thanks for sharing your story with us newbies. And congrats for figuring it out in the end. And for the reminder about balance, and that we don’t have to beat ourselves up for eating a Hershey’s kiss every now and then.
Thanks Beth — I actually don’t think we should ever beat ourselves up — for anything. It’s all sort of an experiment. And if we’re doing stuff we don’t like, it’s probably because we haven’t figured out how to stop.
We need to find the little tricks that lead to control and balance. AND part of balance is having a bit of fun now and then.
I think.
I don’t know what’s wrong, but it didn’t take my comment. I’ll try again.
What I said is, I agree with both Beth and you. Don’t beat yourself up over one little thing. It gets you off track of your real goal.
J4T I’ll drink 2 liters of water, and I’ll be breaking out some blankets. It’s supposed to get down to 45F tonight.
Hope everyone has a good day and a great w/e.
45!! Wow. 87 here right now, with a low of 77 last night.
I believe in moderation in all things. I just know myself well enough that if I have one piece of chocolate today, it will lead to two tomorrow and four on Sunday. So until I reach my goal, no chocolate. Once I get there, though, Godiva watch out!
Yep it’s supposed to be 45 tonight, and I’ve been looking forward to it. I’m more of a winter person usually.
Moderation is a good thing, but I’m like you. I know myself and if I don’t watch it, things will get out of control. Right now my biggest problem is gourmet cinnamon rolls at a local store. I can never go to that store without picking up some.
Cinnamon rolls are my special weakness, fam. If there was a bakery close by, I’d be in BIG trouble! That’s why it’s good that Panera is 20 minutes away. Why don’t you send me the calories in the next one you have?
I’m NOT a winter person, although I am missing the turning leaves and that little nip in the air. The smell of woodsmoke. Pumpkins in the fields. If the season would just stop there, I’d be happy. It has to get cold and icy and dark and icky, and it ruins it.
Balance in all things. If one day doesn’t work the next will. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot but also that you’ve now got a handle on things, KB. Have a great weekend all.
Balance is one of my problems. I’ll go too far one way or the other, and the snapbacks just add feedback to the system.
Cinnamon rolls, winter, blankets… Eating Season is coming, so get your shields in order.
KB- Today I got up at about 7am, hit the sidewalk at 7:26am and walked to the clinic. The mammogram appt. was 8:15, I got there at 8am. After that, I got my flu shot across the street at the flu clinic, which took a big 10 minutes, then went to the pap smear appt. which was scheduled for 9:45am.
I decided to stand up while waiting instead of sitting down. That standing lasted longer than I thought it would as they had some sort of delay with the first patient of the day that just rippled on down. I think I stood up for about 45 minutes.
After that I went and got my shingles shot at the shot clinic (for other kinds of shots besides flu, Rx’d by your doctor). The young woman who gave me the shot said I was the first person she had dealt with who had asked for the shot rather than being referred at the doctor’s behest.
Bear with me for a commercial: Everyone should look into getting a shingles shot– suffice it to say, shingles is an EXTREMELY painful malady which can prevented in most instances by the shot. If you’ve had chicken pox, or the chicken pox shot (yes !), you should probably look into getting the shingles shot.
After all that, and a salad for lunch, I went to the dentist. That took two hours.
Other errands ended up taking a lot more time, and I didn’t get home until 6:45pm. I am exhausted, but managed to check an awful lot off my to-d0 list.
I was careful with dinner and feel I’m back on track. BTW, the nurse commented that my blood pressure was excellent.
Tomorrow is another very full day– I am going to a conference that will last from 9 to 4pm. Should be on my knuckles by Sunday night !
Hi catdog — THAT sounds totally exhausting. What an incredible day.
Thank you very much for telling me about the shingles shot. I have a physical scheduled for the week after next (I scheduled this in JUNE — Thank God, we don’t have Universal Health Care, they say if we did — we’d have waiting lines. Can you imagine?) and I’ll ask my doctor for one.
How long do they last?
Here’s a link for more info re: shingles vaccine: WebMD
Edited by katiebird to embed the link
Here’s the CDC’s (pdf) sheet that is distributed with the shot.
Edited by katiebird to embed the link
Thanks catdog — I wonder why this vaccine hasn’t been publicized more?
KB- The shingles vaccine was just approved in the last year or so, and word isn’t getting around as it should.
I mean, they are talking EVERYONE 60 and over should get it !
And since one variety of shingles causes BLINDNESS, you would think people would get interested. Not to mention THE HELLISH PAIN OF REGULAR SHINGLES.
However, since we’re spending every spare (and no so spare) nickle on Iraq, I guess there’s just not much left for A FREAKIN’ MAJOR HEALTH ISSUE !
Now back to your regularly scheduled anti-obesity programming….
(Oh, and thanks for the edits up there.)
As soon as I get a chance I’ll add a link to the Health Care Links section about this.
I DON’T ever want shingles.