Damage Control

After an exhausting winter of working before/after school, plus my other jobs, it was time to assess the damage done from the lack of exercise on my body for 3 months.  It snapped me back into reality; a bumpy road was ahead.

This past winter I was so cold I told myself surely I would freeze to death if I changed for the gym no less went outside to exercise.   Then I fell on the other excuse; I was tired.  I knew I was not eating cakes, cookies, and all the other foods that made me weigh over 400 pounds, so I told myself I would be ok when summer came.  In hindsight, I am now calling this, “Dead wrong winter logic.”

The scale was not my friend when I got up the courage to get on it, and t is hard to believe that when my hibernation period ended, I had to quit eating rice-cakes, gluten-free pretzels and all the other snacks that once helped me change my eating habits.    Walking with my girlfriend the other day I said, “I cannot believe all I did was stop exercising, and I am in this mess.”   Humans do not hibernate the way animals do.  They sleep and starve; we eat ourselves warm.

The day I took all my summer snacks out of the freezer was the same day I tried on my summer clothes; I put all the snacks back in the freezer.   In the supermarket, I am intently studying the banana rack to make sure I find smallest one; not the size I dropped in my cart all winter.   The apple industry is promoting “fist-size” apples, and today I filled a bag with apples the size of plums!  I have re-instituted the “one bag in the house snack” rule, and I am back to practicing math bagging up portion sizes. 

A teacher I work with, who also struggles with weight issues, explained to me that dealing with a weight problem was similar to a ride on a roller coaster.  We would have ups and downs, but the ride would keep going.  Tears streamed down my face as I said, “I’ve never done this before.  I always threw in the towel and quit.   I want to be on your roller coaster now. “She hugged me and said, “You have been riding with me for years now.”

For anyone who doesn’t believe exercise is where it is at maintaining a weight loss, they cannot be eating food to survive.  It seems like my body was so grateful for everything I gave it last winter, it hung on to the calories with all its might.  Where was this wisdom last winter?  

A recent visit to the doctor ruled out thyroid problems, so once again there was no one to blame but myself for the extra pounds I picked up this winter.  Change was in order.  Out came my exercise calendar where I dutifully fill in all the squares with the many different things I do each week.

  I headed out doors to walk away my troubles.  Never mind that my knees and entire body felt like it had been hit by a train, I was exercising anyway.  I called my neighbor to inflate the tires on my bike, and my kayak rack is going back on my car.  The 4 different pair of sneakers for all of the different exercises I do are once again lined up in the hallway.  I am returning to the active life I forged for myself for the past 5 years; I even missed walking the straight and narrow.

The calendar now has quite a few squares filled in, and I am not as afraid of the summer bin of clothes I refused to touch a month ago.  The roller coaster is still moving, and I am staying on it!