Dropping out -- diving in

Christine · Post by **Christine** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 8:04 pm

Hey y'all, I started this a couple months ago and somehow I dropped out fairly quickly. I know where I have messed up, and having gotten the book I'm reading more insights that are soooo true! --happy about that, and I even got an 8-lb. sledge hammer and was starting to do Shovelglove! Then all kinds of crappy stuff happened. Plumbing got replaced, had to replace the bathroom (and that's still happening), stuff all over the place in the house, no room to do Shovelglove, all kinds of true excuses. I even went back to Medifast and spent a whole month wasting money but not losing any weight. Stopped Medifast, picked up the book again, and am diving in again. OK. Doing better now. Just had to vent. Love to you all!

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:35 pm

Welcome back! Just try to remember that there is not much that can get in the way of just having three moderate meals a day. Everything but sweets works, including fast food and convenience food, if the place is torn up. Even without exercise, No S is still a winner.

So much more fun than Medifast!

And give yourself time. A year is a good way to think about it.

Christine · Post by **Christine** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:36 pm

OOlala, thank you! You are right. I am going absolutely CRAZY (or was) trying to do Medifast while working at a frustrating job, coming home to a mess, contractors who haven't shown up half the time, work that has to be done over again, and on and on... And this is our master bathroom that we're talking about. So we sleep upstairs (in the mess), use the commode and sink in the powder room on the first floor, and shower in the crappy bathroom in the basement. When the plumbing got re-done, they didn't do the hook-ups to the toilet and sink in the basement. That's for the next and last go-round with the plumber replacing all the pipes.

So yes, I have had quite a few impromptu dinners that are not allowed on Medifast.

All adding up to one PSYCHO B!+CH for the last almost-a-month!!!

I do like doing Shovelglove. I miss that. But I've got absolutely no room to do it right now. So you're right -- what I need to do is adopt the extreme discipline of No S in order to free myself from the psychological mayhem of "trying to eat right".

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:42 pm

Actually, I'm a little curious about your not being able to do Shovelglove. It seems it wouldn't take up much space for simulated shoveling, woodcutting. churning, etc. But I know how it can feel weird in a cramped space even when there is space.

Outside the back door?

Christine · Post by **Christine** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:17 pm

Well -- the only place I can do it normally is in the "den" in the basement which is taken up by the giant box holding the bathroom countertop, amidst piles of tools, insulation, table saw, wood, etc. So before the bathroom fiasco, I had plenty of room to do it there. Outside the back door-- technically that would work, but I'm spoiled, I like the A/C pouring out on me in the room!

But what I was starting to do was bring my workout clothes to work, changing in the bathroom before I left for the day, and going on a nice run/walk for a half hour before heading home. Not having to change clothes or shower (there's no shower room), just drive home, plus do my normal walk with my friend for an hour after I get home. However, there's just not enough time in the day to stay late at work (this week) and do this as well.

I don't like walking with her because she is shorter than I am, her stride is shorter, and it doesn't do anything for me at all, aerobic-wise. But I would feel bad if I stopped doing that, since that seems to be all she wants to do, exercise-wise. She doesn't like classes, she doesn't like running, so that's why I started doing my own thing after work.

Next week I have to support a class that's happening in Germany, so I have to be on German time, showing up at 2:00 AM all week! Which means I'll come home at about 11 or 12, get my ONE-PLATE lunch, and zone out on the sofa and try to get in a shower before hubby gets home and dinner is required. Then try to get some sleep before I get up at 1:00 AM.

Exercise is becoming a really valuable thing for me to try to fit in "when I can".

Ugh.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:51 pm

Christine wrote:
I don't like walking with her because she is shorter than I am, her stride is shorter, and it doesn't do anything for me at all, aerobic-wise.

I think if you're breathing while you're walking, it's doing something for you aerobically. I've recently read an article, The Surprising Shortcut to Better Health, that said humans were meant to stroll. If you think about it, the nomads didn't power-walk across the desert and most folks who do a lot of walking just "walk."

This video was originally linked to at the urban rangering site. Note -- this guy isn't power-walking or walking "aerobically" -- he's just putting one foot in front of the other.

Christine · Post by **Christine** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 2:29 pm

Hi wosnes, great article, thank you!

I agree that people need to just move. I love the idea of having a lifestyle that keeps me moving naturally, and *really* don't like that I have to take time out of my day to specifically, artificially, move just to stay healthy. I actually think about this a lot, and loved it when I was humping computers around all day and lost 15 lbs. without even dieting. Wasn't my regular job, though, so it didn't stay lost

I always feel like a hamster in a wheel, no matter what I do. I like Shovelglove, and I think doing Shovelglove helps to not feel like that, but it's still artificial movement.

And also I wish I didn't have a sedentary job, but my career field has been good to me, and at this point I can't imagine what I could do that would allow me to naturally move a lot throughout the day, and make money at it.

So what makes the most sense to me, is that since I don't have much time at all to artificially create this movement, I want to do it as hard as possible in as short a time as possible. Walking with my friend for an hour is sort of a waste of time for me in that sense. I get a better feeling after my half hour of running/walking than I do after an hour walking. I feel a lot better physically, and my mood/mind feels better, and being a chronically anxious/depressed sort of person, I need this a LOT.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:47 pm

I'm sure that even a slow walk does do us good, but I agree that I need to feel some intensity. I have a friend who walks dogs so she walks for hours a day often, but she is afraid to go to a dance class with me for fear of not being able to keep up. I want to keep up, so pushing myself is important. I have a hard time walking with her, too. I slow down for her; she never makes an attempt to speed up for me. I only walk with her because it's nice to be outside when we talk and we do like looking at landscaping and architecture.

I know what you mean about that A/C, too. I run very hot and like to have an air flow! I don't even go to some of my dance classes that I love in the hottest months because the studios are so stifling.

It is a drag that we have to fit vigorous movement in artificially, but 14 minutes seems a decent tradeoff. I sometimes have to schlepp quite a lot of stuff to work back and forth, or I would park farther away and walk the rest of the way. I can't see myself rolling my bag and carrying my lunch and my purse for a mile at the beginning and end of the day, esp. when I have to start teaching at 7:10 a.m. I'm praying they give me the later starting time next school year. And when I walk briskly, I get pretty sweaty. Not sure I could work like that. How does Reinhard do it?

I don't know if it would take the place of Shovelglove for me, but I could be more active with housework and gardening although only certain tasks are vigorous. And the real housework I need to do is decluttering, which is mostly anxious paper shuffling.

Christine · Post by **Christine** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:48 pm

oolala53 wrote:I have a hard time walking with her, too. I slow down for her; she never makes an attempt to speed up for me. I only walk with her because it's nice to be outside when we talk and we do like looking at landscaping and architecture.

I know what you mean about that A/C, too. I run very hot and like to have an air flow! I don't even go to some of my dance classes that I love in the hottest months because the studios are so stifling.

Yep, my friend and I like to look at landscape and architecture a lot, especially since she's a realtor and comments about all kinds of houses etc. that she's seen and what's going on with her listings. It's interesting. And I love houses and decorating, so that part of the walk is nice for me too. But now that our lovely Virginia summer has started (90+ degrees and 100+ humidity

) I don't feel like going outside at all.