Showing posts with label lifestyle changes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifestyle changes. Show all posts
Read the new entry at the new blog:
Yummy Big Breakfast The Day After Organic Co-op Pick-Up & Learning To Eat Less, bit by bit, cause I'm a Diet Marathoner, not a Sprinter
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Read the new entry at the new blog:
Watch The "Self-Hate" Talk AKA Hate the Fat but Love the Fatty (especially if that fatty is you)
Please update your links/follows. THANKS, and be well this Wednesday!
Read the new entry at the new blog:
Happy Columbus Day! Do something new (that's diet-friendly), discover something exciting (that keeps you motivated) today!
SparkPeople Email Quote, The Quest for Change, Dancing with Celia on Columbus Day as Hispanic History Month Nears End--Just to To Get the Week Going!
Please update your links/follows.Happy Columbus Day! Do something new (that's diet-friendly), discover something exciting (that keeps you motivated) today!
Read the new blog:
Looking for what works...not just what doesn't....
Please change your links and follows. THANKS.
Read it at TWO YEARS TO HAPPY WEIGHT AFTER
Sorry, that one goes off on something of a rumination/rant/whatever. I don't even know what the heck happened mid-post.
Please change your links/follows to the new blog. THANKS.
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Sorry, that one goes off on something of a rumination/rant/whatever. I don't even know what the heck happened mid-post.
Please change your links/follows to the new blog. THANKS.
~~~~~~
My immediate thought: Not just men, baby!
I gotta admit that for years since I first had my health breakdown, my previously revved-up sex drive took a dive. I actually spent 1.5 years (when I was 30-31 and first ill) having NO sex drive. None. My immune system was too busy attacking me to let my body even have a minute desire for whoopie. After that I had good years, bad years, but nothing like my sex drive BEFORE I got sick.
Well, as my long-term blog readers know, I began training with a certified Stott Pilates instructor in June of 2008 --yep, for 2 years I've been regularly training and it hurts the wallet like a motha' but my hubby and I decided for health and other reasons (whoopsie!), it's worth it to us. A few months (I forget but like 3, 4 months) after I started, I began to feel...unblocked in ye olde pelvic region. And the longer I've done it, the more I want the wild thang. About a year ago, I started to want it ALL THE TIME. Okay, not all the time, but let's say more than once a day. Hubby, as you can imagine, thinks this is a very good effect from Pilates.
If your sex drive has taken a dive in middle age--or before or after--and you're sedentary, honestly, I'm telling you, I'm begging you, give tough physical training a try. I mean vigorous, get sweaty, breathe hard, feel sore the next day type of exercise. Get the blood going to, not just arms and calves, but to those erogenous zones. Strengthen your pelvic/thigh/Kegel/butt muscles. You will really enjoy just being strong enough to do new positions (or positions you hadn't done in a while due to lack of flexibility, lack of muscle, or just plain lack of interest).
I am way more flexible in the sack now. And my thighs and butt and abdomen are really muscular under the huge layer of fat. Now, here's a bit of an embarrassing thing to type: The intensity of the Big O's increased. I hadn't had a multiple in ages and had one again. I've had blended ones (which I never had before).
If nothing gets you to exercise, mind-blowing O's should do it for ya. Give it a shot. You might not turn into the Energizer Bunny of Boinking, but you may simply regain the desire and ability to follow through with your beloved one. That makes EVERYONE happier. (For men, regular ejaculation decreases risk of prostate cancer. I wonder if regular O's can decrease a woman's ovarian cancer risk? Has that been studied?)
Come on. Exercise for your heart and your sex life.Your partner will likely offer to happily pay for YOUR gym membership or YOUR trainer when the sexy effects are evident. :D They might even go to the gym with you (just let them read that linked article).
Happy, healthy boinking to you all....
I came across an article just now called "Unhealthy Habits Often Hard to Break," and here's a portion I'd like to quote:
So, the stages:
1. pre-contemplation (resisting change)
2. contemplation (change is on the horizon)
3. preparation (getting ready)
4. action (time to move)
5. maintenance (staying there)
Well, I've gone through all the first four all and creating this blog was part of it, too. Yes, I was fully in "action," then that pretty much stopped. I ended back in contemplation/preparation toggling. From the little bit of preview I read of Dr. Prochaska's book online, the contemplation includes the emotional arousal (ie, the inertia starts to crack, I guess). The preparation continues the self-evaluation of "contemplation" and then moves to commitment. Yeah, makes sense.
Hence, a few days ago, I switched from contemplation--feeling again the need to change with regard to my dieting/health efforts, probably ignited by the bit of regain during the illness and reading some of the fatfighter blogs again-- to preparation. When I felt better from the flu, I printed a shopping list with healthful stuff for my hubby to buy me, and then I scheduled exercise training for next week. And I began actively blogging again. (I also am in preparation mode for another important thing in my life I want to change, but that is not health-related, so I won't go into it here.)
I have been in a half-hearted action mode for three days now, er, semi-action? By semi-action I mean that I've taken action--am conscious of food choice, am making better choices, am preparing meals instead of gobbling fatty take-out, am ordering diet products online--but it's not at the level that I need to be (action-wise) to see strong progress.
But ya know, it is something, and I shouldn't denigrate it. Bad habit that, too. Affirmation, throw me an affirmation! :)
But I am in action. Yes, that's good. Action includes "environmental control", and just buying good food and preparing sane meals (or even planning to buy sane meals, as opposed to crazy-ass meals) is part of that control. Throwing out junk food is environmental control. Setting up a journaling time, bringing out the scale, all that is environmental control. So, yeah, here I am. Action stage.
I've never been in a "goal achieved" maintenance. Ever. I've been in maintenance of sorts to keep 25+ pounds off. That hasn't been as easy as one would think, and maybe part of me has always been in a sort of maintenance (ie, maintaining this 272-276 weight range and not the 296-300 weight range).
Man, must be nice to be at goal and on "automatic" to keep it off. But that's nowhere near where I'm at.
Anyway, I know myself at this point. For me, falling back into contemplation is really, really easy. It's the "mojo gone" stage for me. It's the, "I really am behaving badly, and I need to do something", but I don't do anything stage.
How do I stay in "action" mode and move into "better action" in order to make the future I envision happen, one day, one day far ahead, way ahead, the place where I'm into "maintenance"?
Geez. Wish I knew.
I'm just glad to be past the threshold and into "action" for now. I've been contemplative way too long.
So, which stage are you in? Is it where you need to be now? Are you stuck or toggling?
I do wish to give a shout out to some bloggers whose persistence in weight loss/fitness gain/blogging have helped me move from contemplation to preparation to action this time around:
Katschi of *Fitcetera*, a gorgeous blond who's lost 70 lbs so far and posts pics of her meals (which I just love seeing, weirdo that I may be).
Lyn of Escape from Obesity who is so insightful of her own weaknesses and strengths and refuses to give up, no matter the blips or regain. Her persistence and unflinching introspection about the roots of her overeating/bingeing have, I suspect, helped many of us look deeper at our own internal landscape. Her courage and honesty are beautiful.
Heather at Setting Her Free, who is maintaining and I do not doubt will always maintain due to her gumption and focus. She lets me see that the struggle goes on, but it can be done. Plus her beautiful, smiling face just makes ya feel good. :)
Thanks, ladies.
To ensure good health, some experts say, we need to learn the science of behavior change -- that the body part people most need to contend with is not their beer bellies or love handles, but their brains.
Dr. James Prochaska, director of the cancer prevention research center at University of Rhode Island and co-author of the book "Changing for Good," said most behavioral changes, such as losing weight and stopping smoking, involve six stages.
A person who denies or fails to recognize the problem is in a stage he calls pre-contemplation. After that comes contemplation (acknowledging the problem without being ready to change it), preparation (getting ready to change), action (changing behavior) and maintenance (not falling off the wagon). The final stage is termination, meaning the behavior has been tamed and no longer poses a threat.
When people skip straight to action, they are likely to return to their bad habits before long, Prochaska said. Instead, they should think in terms of advancing from one stage to the next.
"Behavior change equals progress, not immediate action," he said.
So, the stages:
1. pre-contemplation (resisting change)
2. contemplation (change is on the horizon)
3. preparation (getting ready)
4. action (time to move)
5. maintenance (staying there)
Well, I've gone through all the first four all and creating this blog was part of it, too. Yes, I was fully in "action," then that pretty much stopped. I ended back in contemplation/preparation toggling. From the little bit of preview I read of Dr. Prochaska's book online, the contemplation includes the emotional arousal (ie, the inertia starts to crack, I guess). The preparation continues the self-evaluation of "contemplation" and then moves to commitment. Yeah, makes sense.
Hence, a few days ago, I switched from contemplation--feeling again the need to change with regard to my dieting/health efforts, probably ignited by the bit of regain during the illness and reading some of the fatfighter blogs again-- to preparation. When I felt better from the flu, I printed a shopping list with healthful stuff for my hubby to buy me, and then I scheduled exercise training for next week. And I began actively blogging again. (I also am in preparation mode for another important thing in my life I want to change, but that is not health-related, so I won't go into it here.)
I have been in a half-hearted action mode for three days now, er, semi-action? By semi-action I mean that I've taken action--am conscious of food choice, am making better choices, am preparing meals instead of gobbling fatty take-out, am ordering diet products online--but it's not at the level that I need to be (action-wise) to see strong progress.
But ya know, it is something, and I shouldn't denigrate it. Bad habit that, too. Affirmation, throw me an affirmation! :)
But I am in action. Yes, that's good. Action includes "environmental control", and just buying good food and preparing sane meals (or even planning to buy sane meals, as opposed to crazy-ass meals) is part of that control. Throwing out junk food is environmental control. Setting up a journaling time, bringing out the scale, all that is environmental control. So, yeah, here I am. Action stage.
I've never been in a "goal achieved" maintenance. Ever. I've been in maintenance of sorts to keep 25+ pounds off. That hasn't been as easy as one would think, and maybe part of me has always been in a sort of maintenance (ie, maintaining this 272-276 weight range and not the 296-300 weight range).
Man, must be nice to be at goal and on "automatic" to keep it off. But that's nowhere near where I'm at.
Anyway, I know myself at this point. For me, falling back into contemplation is really, really easy. It's the "mojo gone" stage for me. It's the, "I really am behaving badly, and I need to do something", but I don't do anything stage.
How do I stay in "action" mode and move into "better action" in order to make the future I envision happen, one day, one day far ahead, way ahead, the place where I'm into "maintenance"?
Geez. Wish I knew.
I'm just glad to be past the threshold and into "action" for now. I've been contemplative way too long.
So, which stage are you in? Is it where you need to be now? Are you stuck or toggling?
I do wish to give a shout out to some bloggers whose persistence in weight loss/fitness gain/blogging have helped me move from contemplation to preparation to action this time around:
Katschi of *Fitcetera*, a gorgeous blond who's lost 70 lbs so far and posts pics of her meals (which I just love seeing, weirdo that I may be).
Lyn of Escape from Obesity who is so insightful of her own weaknesses and strengths and refuses to give up, no matter the blips or regain. Her persistence and unflinching introspection about the roots of her overeating/bingeing have, I suspect, helped many of us look deeper at our own internal landscape. Her courage and honesty are beautiful.
Heather at Setting Her Free, who is maintaining and I do not doubt will always maintain due to her gumption and focus. She lets me see that the struggle goes on, but it can be done. Plus her beautiful, smiling face just makes ya feel good. :)
Thanks, ladies.
I very much like Lyn's post today. She clearly shows by her own life's examples how she made changes that added up to weight loss. It's a post I needed to read because I have been so down on myself for losing focus and will.
I stopped to consider that I HAVE made changes and I DO feel better and I am wearing a smaller size and my sugar is in control and I'm exercising regularly and vigorously 3x a week for months and months (after years of total inactivity).
I have made some changes and those have kept me from regaining all the poundage I lost. I need to make more changes to lose MORE, yes. But if I made some changes, I can make others. I can gain groud.
Anyway, I recommend Lyn's practical and inspiring post, which includes this short list of tips:
~
I stopped to consider that I HAVE made changes and I DO feel better and I am wearing a smaller size and my sugar is in control and I'm exercising regularly and vigorously 3x a week for months and months (after years of total inactivity).
I have made some changes and those have kept me from regaining all the poundage I lost. I need to make more changes to lose MORE, yes. But if I made some changes, I can make others. I can gain groud.
Anyway, I recommend Lyn's practical and inspiring post, which includes this short list of tips:
Instead of seconds at dinner, you just take seconds of vegetables.
Instead of wasting ten minutes circling the parking lot for the closest space, you park far from the store and just WALK there.
Instead of asking your kids/husband/friend to bring the laundry upstairs for you, YOU do it.
Instead of putting whole milk on your cereal, you use skim.
Instead of watching TV all evening, you do some exercise and go to bed early.
~
With the holiday season in full swing, I've been a bit concerned about how entrenched unhealthful foods are part of the gift-giving tradition. Fatty cakes. Butter-laden cookies. Sugary treats in huge portions in pretty cans and jars and boxes.As people fighting the fight against fat, we know that cookies, candies, and cakes are things that ought to be RARE treats (or, in the cases of those with bad triggers, banned altogether or modified significantly into less-dangerous versions).
But what do I see, including from women and men as big as I am (or bigger)? People with kids...
They stuff them with candy, cookies and cakes. Not just once week or once a month, but regularly. And moreso in this holiday time.
With childhood obesity a major health concern (some call it an epidemic) in the US (and other nations), we really need to take a look at this. A good hard no-excuses sort of look.
Imagine if we had grown up with our parents more disciplined about what cereal we ate in the morning (no KABOOM or Cap'n Crunch, but whole grain and no sugar--fruit instead?). Imagine if a candy bar or pack of animal crackers was a special weekend treat, and not a regular afterschool yumsy, if the daily treat was apples and oranges and carrots with hummus or celery with Laughing Cow light or a whole grain role with peanut butter. Imagine if our parents stocked the pantry with stuff that was clean, nutritious, no to low-sugar, high fiber, and fresh.
Would we be where we are?
Maybe. :)
But I think we train kids to like what they like. I love fruit because my parents loved fruit and had plenty of it around and made smoothies before smoothies were a commonly enjoyed commodity around town. They used olive oil and vinegar, not bottled dressings. They offered us beans almost daily, so we were all bathroom regular.
But I was the one who grew up from age 2 in this country, so I got the junk cereals that were mostly sugar and refined grains. I got candy bars after school. Sno-cones daily in summer. Pocket money for potato chips and other crap.Of all my siblings, I am the ONLY one who got superobese (or even obese, for that matter). My brothers and sisters, who grew up in another country, much more physically active and eating more natural foods and much less junk--they didn't develop the crazy food relationship I did. They didn't grow up with junk food commercials on television sending them off into cravings for Milky Ways and pizza and burgers and fries and Starburst and cupcakes and whatnot.
So, when I see someone, especially a parent with weight issues, struggling, on diets, struggling to lose, that same parent buy candy and cupcakes and sugary cereals for their kids, I wonder about the dissonance. Why give them the taste habits and food issues we have? Why not hand them pears and grape tomatoes and mango slices and low-fat string cheese and almonds and raspberries? Why not end the crazy food cycle NOW?
I've begged a particular family member not to inflict our curse on her own kids. She and I are both obese. She has two kids who are currently normal weight. When I see the kids fed crap, it hurts. When I see kids catered to (ie, they don't want to eat the wholesome fair, and just pick at, say, white bread and then rush to eat a handful of candy), I want to cry.
In 20 or 30 years, they'll be where we are. Oversized and health-impaired.
It frightens me, and I don't even have kids.
I, both my nieces and both my nephews are overweight to obese. (Three of us obese, one overweight.) Five out of five of us born in the sixties and seventies in the immediate family--all too big. I don't want the next generation to have this curse. I want them to radiate good health and love good, clean food and be active and be happy and live vibrantly.
If it's not good for us to eat, big as we are, then it's not good for kids to eat, especially in their formative years, when they need the BEST nutrition to build bones and spare teeth from decay and develop the strongest neuromuscular system.
Junk ain't for us. But junk ain't for kids, either.
Why do we not see that?
Maybe it's long past time to tax the hell out of junk foods and treats. How many cupcakes will a kid buy if they're 5 bucks each? How many candy bars if one uses up their whole allowance? I'd rather tax crap that does nothing for one's wellbeing and use that money to subsidize fruit and veggies, so they're more affordable for a family's budget.
I am vowing not to buy junk for the kids in my family anymore. (This will be sooo hard. Habits die hard.) And I'm gonna work hard to break the holiday junk-food giving tradition. I'll find alternatives--sugarless, low-fat, or just plain better treats--like dark chocolate (I've tasted excellent sugar-free varieties) or dried fruit or nuts.
I want the people I love to be healthy and live a long, long time. And I want to be healthy and live longer, too, so I can enjoy their company for years and years.
~
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