Showing posts with label kick-in-the-butt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kick-in-the-butt. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Lighter by 11 lbs!!

Yes, thatz me. After six months!! I had gone for my well check to the doctor's tody and was completely taken by surprise when he told me this!! Espcially because, I hdn't been working towards weight loss. All my efforts this past half year was to lessen my neck, shoulder n back pain. If this is what the side effect is, then I am loving it!!

So let's jot down what different I did these past six months, so that I can try to stick to these changes, making it more as part of my lifestyle to remain fit and healthy. To speak the truth, After this revelation, I have become a little ambitious and want to come within my BMI range in another six months.

Here's the list, not in any order.

  • Made exercising a routine, despite the pain. Did: aqua, yoga, pilate, walking, running plus P.T.
  • Involved kids with me. They kept me motivated.
  • Morning breakfast: fruits (usually a banana) and a cup of milk
  • Dinner no later than 7 p.m. 
  • For some reason, If I get late for dinner, skipped carbs. Sometimes, replacing dinner with a cup of milk. (This I did, coz mostly My pain us aggravate so much in the night that I didn't feel like eating. Turns out, a plus fr weight loss)
  • Made a rule of not eating out for the entire family, more than once a month. Most importantly, stuck with it. (Again this rule was made coz of different reasons, but contributes majorly)
  • Lots and lots of water intake. With driving kids around throughout the day, I used to forget to carry it with me. Now, I keep a crate in the car all the time. And keep myself hydrated.
  • Switched to gluten free bread. This was done coz we had noticed that the wheat breads were leaving us with a bloated feeling soon after.
  • Introduced lots of fruits in the diet. This was done to encourage kids, turned out beneficial for me too.
  • Minimized sending DH to the grocery store to a great extent, especially to the Indian Store! He has this habit of getting calorie-rich food items just coz they look new and interesting.

These are all I can remember for now. Hopefully, will enter the next year with these healthy habits as an essential part of all of us.

Do you have any suggestions/ideas that worked for you?

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The year of the dragon!!

Can't believe that we already are done with first half of the second month pf the calendar. The year 2012 is just flying by too fast for a snail-pacer a.k.a me! The new years eve was just a few days ago, when we had gathered in a small group and wished each other on the stroke of midnight. And now we are done with th valentines celebrations too! And here, I wasn't even done deciding what resolutions (that I hv been thinking of) should I finally stick to this year!

Well, truth be told, the standard ones were carried forward from last year and were being followed as gestly as they always are i.e. with the much unavoidable (looong) intermittent gaps.

And yes, you can claim a reward, for you guessed it right! The very first of these said promises to myself is all about losing weight, exercising more and eating healthy!! Since this is a much accepted fact that my happy days of hogging-more-and-still-not-putting-an-ounce are long over(though it was a very reluctant and delayed acceptance), and that I have reached that stage in life when every new store-bought item of clothing, somehow, mysteriously stitches itself within a few weeks of its purchase date ( and of course, all receipts being discarded), I am left with a huge stack of clothes in my wardrobe, in which I have to wriggle and wiggle my torso. And given the amount of time, I usually get to deck myself up and leave the house, I am left with just a pair of blue denims mixed and matched with a couple of tops, chosen according to the colder or warmer days. God forbid, something happens to that prized possession of mine!! So, in essence, after a long period of hesitation, yours truly, has managed to drag herself to the basement of her house and haul herself on the said treadmill and actually managed to start working out. That she has shedding any pounds cannot be said, as the weighing machine had to go out of order at this fortune moment and if she is dropping any sizes is again irrelevant as the clothes have conspired amongst themselves and continue to shrink. The only positive (if you can see that) is that if she misses on those sessions, her little gym instructors(read daughters) say, "hey! You are getting fat! You need to exercise!" That, they get to watch uninterrupted shows on television as momma huffs and puffs on the machine, is an entirely different story!


Resolution one A, can be put as an extension to the above and that is of healthy eating, which has succeeded so far, if you count the number of times we ate out last year. Almost, every weekend, we were shoving those grease-laden junkies inside ourselves, on the pretext of being too tired or too long way to home. That we haven't yet gone on any of our those shopping expeditions is not to be counted. Also, to be ignored, is the fact that we have been to such parties/get togethers, where the food was ordered from such 'unfit' foodie joints.


The second taken over from the year-long-gone is the one on anger/stress management. And no, I am not talking about not taking it out on the much-harassed DH. No sire! That cannot be! Not with me! That, I have decided, can be rated at par with the skies meeting the earth! I, as mortal as I am, need to make some practical resolutions this year. And that would mean- a blank- as I still have no clues, what might work for me on those front. See, I told you, the year is going fast! In truth, Number of solutions have been duly attempted and failed last year. So, any help, on this front, would be greatly appreciated. The thing that worries me now is, the kids picking up on those negative vibes and thowing it back at me. So, me needs to magically transform myself into a role-model who just smiles through those times! Difficult to picture it, isn't it? At least 50% of the times, sounds achievable? But the big Q remains, HOW??


To take a better care of myself, is the third one. Currently, I can easily be passed as someone atleast seven years older to my actual age. With the dry shabby unmanegaeable pile of straws sitting on my head, a rough cracking skin on the hands and the forever- tired eyes, I have let myself take a back-seat all these years. The year of the Dragon will see me more at the dignified spas enjoying those rivetted facials and massages, manicures and pedicures, if I ever get around to follow this one, that is.

What I already have started doing, is nurturing my soul(which,for me, is biggie). With half a dozen of books already read and done with, and a spiritual connection with myself being attempted (via the path of meditation), and another few attempts to explore the artistic side in me(if it even exists), I can give myself a pat on the back on that front. Among the books check-marked are The Kite Runner, A thousand Splendid Suns, the Help, Buddha, 11/22/63, the Litigator( which, by the way, reminded me why I had stopped reading Grisham), Micro (apply comments from previous). The list contains the dragon tattoo trilogy and the likes. Pursuing a hobby, I feel, helps one to connect with the self.


And the BIG one is - to kick myself out of the house!! And get myself to actually do something!! The past five years have seen me Dancing and jumping around the kids, and with them now erupting with those bouts of independence, me needs to find something more to involve myself with. With statements like "I already know that" when The naive me try to show them new stuff(like ipad) and "I actually read that book myself" when the oldie me offer to read the new book brought just a couple of hours back, My poor heart would lay broken somewhere, if I still fail to get the signs and move on.. And no, blogging is not it! It has to be something else. Something, that takes me out of the comfort I have led myself to within the defined premises. Cuz when the littlest one declares, each morning, that she wants to go out too, and when she, too, eventually will be out five days a week, I do not want myself left blankly staring at the four walls of my heaven. No! I need to go out and experience the hell to salvage my sanity!!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

A bottle of motivation

The weather is getting colder. Makes me want to snuggle into the covers as stepping out of it means my feet will go numb. Any amount of layering, or socks fail to warm my feet up and this in turn makes my entire legs feel lifeless. Even my fingers are icy cold as I type. Outside, it's quite windy as I can see the last few leaves on the trees being blown away. They seem to be in some kind of a race as they fly across, rather in a hurried fashion, by my window. The ones on the ground seems like doing multiple somersaults. It's amazing how our lush green street has suddenly taken a bare and lifeless look. These very woods which once guaranteed privacy has now exposed the houses on the other side of the street. You can see through these woods now, which is still not too bad, as the green grass near their feet can still be seen, mixed with the various leaves strewn across. Soon, they will be all white, covered with snow. I shouldn't be complaining as the month of November has unusually been very bright and we did enjoy fair amount of sunny afternoons. But cold weather makes each and every muscle of my body immobile. I lose my energy, my enthusiasm... And this means more this year as it just flickers my already weak plans of taking a better care of myself.. Of exercising.

Not only I am too much out of shape, I have put on a lots of weight and a few minutes of any hard work makes me puff and pant. Last Year, this time around, I was rigorously following a routine and had managed to lose two dress sizes. Hadn't dropped a single pound but with a few months of an active lifestyle had not gainied a single pound either. My set goal, then, was to lose 'just 10 pounds' till next season. This year, same time, instead of losing, I have added 10 more pounds to my already soccer ball-shaped figure and yes, have gained those 2 dress sizes back! Obviously, I struggle each morning to fit my entire torso in those little waisted jeans now. The t-shirts hugs my baggy paunch and the winter jacket completes the look by making me look like a full-term pregnant woman! To add to it, I had given away all my fatsy wardrobe as I had read somewhere that the biggest motivation to lose more is to get rid of ur fatty attires!! Now, me -blinded with my short term achievement - followed that advise to the heart!! Yeah! Go on.. Laugh at me!

OK, so the entire problem is ME Me mEe- I wish somebody could sell me motivation in a bottle like they sell so many other things. The basement of our house is a well-equipped mini-gym in itself. But, I realise that I am not an equipment person. To me, a walk on a treadmill feels lousy as compared to a jog on the street. More of an aerobics, yoga, steps, pilate kind of a person. And not to mention, we have all kinds of such dvd's in our stock. All one need to do is insert it in the player and switch it on andflow with it. DH even downloaded all kinds of apps on my android and ipad! Still, my routine lasts for three days at the max!

Something or other comes up.. Kids' sickness, a late night, an early appointment, a quarrel.. so many of the excuses ready not to leave the coziness of the bed each morn. "I am not a morning person" I declare and try to fit in the routine later during the day. When the kids seeing me doing the crunches think mommy is playing see-saw and come and sit on my knees/ back/tummy. Afterall, I was the one who made them, so they have all the right in this world to claim each and part of my ever-so-aching body! Determined, I command DH to come home early as I plan to join some group classes. JKG, that he is, says ok. It turns out that the classes that google up are either not within my defined radius from our home or do not fall in my specified budget. Some which qualify, do not offer any evening hours. Damn! Seems like the entire universe is conspiring in not letting me shed that baby weight yet!!

So, you see where the problem lies?
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