Main Blog Updated: Terrific Quote From a Smart Blogger, organic share pick-up day--and a coop recommendation for South Florida peops--plus assorted pics from Saturday's "Dali Miami" outing, and sort of not "there" yet where I need to be on "get recommitted" week...but I will get there...

Terrific Quote From a Smart Blogger, organic share pick-up day--and a coop recommendation for South Florida peops--plus assorted pics from Saturday's "Dali Miami" outing, and sort of not "there" yet where I need to be on "get recommitted" week...but I will get there...

New Blog Updated: Quote for the Dieter's Day: Think HEP, not DIET

Read the new entry at the new blog:

Quote for the Dieter's Day: Think HEP, not DIET

 

Have a slimming Saturday!

New Blog Updated: Quote for the Dieter's Day: It's not Self-Denial; It's Self-Love...

Read the new entry at the new blog:

Quote for the Dieter's Day: It's not Self-Denial; It's Self-Love...

 

Please update your links/follows. Have a healthful Saturday!

New Blog Updated: I Wanna Be A Member of the 5% Club!

Read the new entry at the new blog:

I Wanna Be A Member of the "Five Percent Club!"

 

Please update your links and follows. THANKS.

Happy Thursday!

How Committed Am I...Are You?

The clock in my soul  is ticking furiously, inexorably...and it sounds like it's saying. HURRY, HURRY. Are you gonna commit?

Am I committed enough to my goals? My weight goal in particular, I'm asked, which, if I don't meet will shorten my life and impede my other goals...

I can't help but be honest. Not much. Some. Some, that's all. I am watchful for parts of the day, but not all. I focus on other things easily. I don't keep up the strategies.

Some. A bit.

Some days, utterly minimally.

It's bothersome to me to be that uncommitted. It's a lack of a certain virtue I desire: perseverance. 

Perseverance is such a lovely word, such a beautiful character attribute. But I really lack it. In more areas than just diet. It goes hand in hand with its virtuous sibling: commitment.

I have several goals that have sat curbside while I dither, while I sink into blues, rise up a bit, sink down, while I fritter, while I dream, while I don't fully commit, while I don't work hourly, by the minute, on persevering in that commitment.. Dreaming is of no use if the action necessary to realize the dream is missing.

I'm missing in ACTION, so literally it's not at all funny. It's tragic.

My "I'm 50" midlife crisis has me really having alternating attacks of regret, nostalgia, anxiety, futurefear, wishing, more nostalgia, frenzied pep talks, depressed naps, more anxiety, self-berating, etc. I'm ridiculous, frankly. It's embarrassing to be so out of it and unfocused and unproductive and NOT MEET GOALS. 

Geesh.

So, why is this question of commitment suddenly on my mind. I got a mail message from  Sparkpeople with it's "Healthy Reflections." Here's it is in case it helps you, makes you think:

Are You Giving Your Goals Your Best Effort?

Your dreams deserve better than a half-hearted effort. Meet your goals with a weak handshake and they'll soon be waving you goodbye. Since you probably don't want to look back on a life full of "almost made it" memories, it's time for total commitment. Leave it all on the field, don't hold anything back. Is there anything more satisfying than pouring out your entire being, straddling the cliff, reaching your total limit, then looking up and realizing that oh-my-gosh-I-can't-believe-I-really-did-it? And is there anything more tragic than failing and realizing you could have done more? If you feel "tuned out" of your current life, that's okay. Make your first goal to build a life that you can get "in"-to. Then don't look back. Make every day count and live purposefully, live energetically, live completely. 

I don't have enough time left to keep wasting it, ya know. I don't wanna die FAT.

I. Do. Not. Want. To. Die. FAT!

I do not want to die having unrealized four other dreams of mine besides the weight thing.

And the clock keeps ticking....

QUEENLY QUOTES: How to Lose Weight in Simple Terms

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

--Michael Pollan, author of IN DEFENSE OF FOOD.

~

Sparkly Factoid: Eat These Foods for Achy Joints So You Can Keep Exercising!

These six foods could be your best medicine: berries, ginger, avocado, flaxseeds, omega-3-rich fish, and soy. Research shows they help stifle joint-damaging inflammation, according to John La Puma, MD, author of ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine.

--from "Six Foods that Knees Dig"

~

Queenly Quote: How To Fail

People don’t succeed because the give up what they want the most for what they want right now.

hat tip to Roni's Weigh

Queenly Quote: Toughest Is Eventually Easiest

"In this age, which believes that there is a shortcut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest."

--Henry Miller

Did Ya Have a Perfect Day? If Not, TRY AGAIN!

Lyn posted about working at it one day at a time, aiming for a perfect day.

I decided to take the one-day challenge. One perfect day. Well, okay, nearly perfect. I exercised for 50 minutes and I ate within my self-selected points count (38 pts, which is 1900 calories). It would have been perfect had I had more greens and slept 8 hours. I only slept 5 and a half.

The scale was .6 pounds down.

I'm aiming for another perfect day today. :)

One day at a time...because like it or not, you will have those days, and you can make them good or bad, better or worse, best or worst...or even perfect.

As Lyn said beautifully:

One perfect day, you can do. And if you can do it once, you can do it again. Don't think about the other days. It is ONE day. You only have to do it for ONE day. Then at the end of your perfect day, hug yourself, go to bed, and get back up in the morning committed to doing ONE perfect day. Again.

One day leads to another. Like the momentum of footsteps taking you to a goal, the days carry you forward. They are going to carry you, regardless. In a month you will be a month older. Will you be a month heavier? More miserable? Or will you be a month lighter and happier? Because believe me, the good days string together and create something more masterful and wonderful than weeks and months. They create joy. They become peace and clarity. They lead to a new you.

If you have a hard time visualizing a perfect eating day sort of meal plan, how about some of these to spur you on?--

Women's Health's meal plan for steady blood sugar

Men's Health's meal plan for craving control

High Fiber meal plan

A vegetarian meal plan at 1500 calories

A low-carb meal plan

Vegan meal plan

Oprah's Seven-Day meal plan

High Calcium Meal Plan

A 1200 calorie meal plan with meal replacements

Take 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise-- a bracing walk, an energizing DVD, some yoga, a refreshing swim, a hike in the woods or desert, a jog through the park, a spell on the trampoline, some focused weight-lifting, a bit of dancing in your living room to salsa music--and add several glasses of water to a good, calorie-controlled meal plan, and, presto, a perfect fatfighting day!

Then utter thanks for being able to breathe, move, and for having food at hand to nourish your body. These are great gifts in a world where many go hungry and many are unable to walk or run or jump or just do one abdominal crunch.

Always be grateful for being able to enjoy a day of becoming that new you.

Have a perfect today!

~

Pilates: 10, 20, 30....really?

When I signed up for Pilates at the Pilates Room, after my first session, I did some web-searching on "the man" himself, Joseph Pilates.

I came across this quote, which I sort of smirked at with an, "Oh, yeah, sure":

You will feel better in 10 sessions, look better in 20 sessions, and have a completely new body in 30 sessions.

I figured my body had been messed up since childhood by assorted diseases, too many steroids and Rx drugs, and a wacky immune system; and it had been misshapen for so long by excess adipose that, for me, it might be more appropriate to rack up the milestone numbers this way: 100, 200, 300 sessions.

Well, I've only had 6 sessions and I feel better.

Color me a bright shocked fuchsia.

I feel my body. I feel it. I'm aware of it.

I notice how I'm sitting and change posture. I notice what my tummy is doing when I wash dishes. I find myself body conscious. Not self-conscious (that's the lot of most of us big gals, our constant companion in public), but body conscious. What is my body doing, how is it aligned, am I balanced, what's my pelvis doing down there in relation to my hip bones.

Kinda cool.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how I feel and look after the 20 and 30 session benchmarks. I still suspect that for a "new body", 30 is just not gonna cut it. I'll need to see it to believe it. I doubt Joseph P. had a morbidly obese, middle-aged woman in mind when he chose that two-digit numeral. But if I can have a whole new body in 300 sessions, then I've got 294 to go.

It's an adventure now!

Quote for the Day for Those Undergoing Change

Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser.

--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Quotation for the Fatfighting Day: "Choose your hard"

From Lyn of Escape from Obesity (who so often has wonderful, quotable blog entries):

I would rather be in WalMart having a tantrum that I didn't get to buy the junk foods I crave, it isn't fair, and it sucks, than in that old, fat, 278-pound body having a tantrum that I cannot lose weight, it isn't fair, and it sucks.

Being fat is hard. Losing weight is hard. Maintaining is hard.

Choose your hard.

Queenly Quotes: "Slow and Steady Wins"

"No one expects you to make changes all at once or to drop ten pounds in a week. That would just be unrealistic! So don't be discouraged if you don't see changes overnight. Challenge yourself to keep up your spirits no matter how you are doing. As long as you continue doing your program, exercising, and eating right, you will see changes. Remember: When you change your habits day by day and lose weight at a slow, healthy rate, you are more likely to maintain the changes and keep the weight off."

--Harley Pasternak, author of THE FIVE FACTOR DIET, in "Harley's Daily Challenge"

Banshee Wails...at the Entertainment Industry

Once, interviewing C.C. DeVille, the guitarist for Poison who’s known for his over-the-top antics, I was asking about his comeback from rock ’n’ roll excesses: Drugs, alcohol and weight gain.

“You can be the biggest drug addict in the world, and they will still like you in this town. But if you’re fat, they treat you like a leper,” he said to me. “You know what I’m talking about, right?”

--Chelsea J. Carter, "From 'Morbid Obesity' to 'Wow!'