As with any procrastinator, one of my New Years resolutions is to lose weight. It’s amazing how many of us think that a brand new year will suddenly turn our way of life around. How long does it last for you? A week? A month? Do you get going and last a couple of months? Well, my resolution this year wasn’t only to lose weight and try to become healthier, it is actually to look great for my upcoming wedding as well. This has given me a little more of a push, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough.
In an earlier posting, I mentioned my home based business as well as my Bi-polar symptoms. These two combined with a regular 8 hour day at work, the monstrous house asking to be cleaned and my two lovable kitties – doesn’t make for an easy workout. By the time I get home each night, I’m drained. Somehow I gather up the energy to get upstairs asap and jump on that horrible treadmill. It’s actually been a pretty great addition to our “weight room”, which consists of the treadmill, a set of changeable weights, a torso track and large rubber ball.
After running for half an hour, I like to do 100 calf lifts on my stairs and finish off with 10 rushes up and down. I’ll alternate some days with some weight training and 100 reps on the torso track.
My fiance and I have been working on this exercise program now for most of the year, I know that’s just January so far, but even a week of newly exercising will start showing some improvements. Even if it’s just sleeping better and having a better attitude.
I heard not too long ago that some people have trouble with how their body is changing and after exercising the last few weeks, I can see the problem. Working out will start toning some areas quicker than others, which results in over accentuating other areas. For example, my legs, butt and thighs have started to lose fat from all the cardio. However, my stomach and obliques look worse and don’t appear to be changing at all. I’ll be the first to say that perhaps I’m not working those areas out quite enough, and certainly not enough to keep up with my lower half. Though I understand it, it’s still frustrating.
Another problem some will notice is when you start to tone up, some clothes might not fit quite as well as they did before. But this does NOT mean that the exercising isn’t working. I have been trying to ignore the scale and not see only the weight loss, but also how I’m looking. If my fiance comes around a corner, to suddenly stop in the middle of a statement to me – only to comment on how gorgeous I’m looking. Well, there has to be some obvious changes going on.
I know I’m my own worst critic, but it’s very difficult these days to look “good”. I’m highly interested in partial and nude art, so I have book after book of beautiful and sexy people. I noticed the other day in one of them that has it’s chapters categorized by years, just how “normal” I would look if I lived 50 years ago. These women had natural beauty that a lot of models these days don’t have. Their bodies are more common with the average women today. So how can we feel as though we don’t make the cut since women in the 21st century are supposed to be sickly thin without any of the curves God gave us?
Enough on the soap box. I simply think I need to keep a relatively conservative expectation on what I’m going to look like. I’m not 23 anymore. I know that keeping myself healthy at this point, is far more important than starving myself.
But it’s just not that easy.
Perhaps all of that was just another excuse for something I want, but won’t put enough effort into achieving. Hmm, I’m starting to see a pattern here. Honestly, when I sit back and think about all that, I think I’m probably doing pretty good. I’m not overworking myself, but I’m trying to do something.
And doing something is far better than getting home each night, dropping down onto the couch and watching “Nanny 911″ while stuffing my face with cheetos.
