Let's Get Physical

              This week's meeting topic is Finding Your Focus. The word focus means a center of interest or activity and close or narrow attention or concentration. For a weight watcher it has a bigger meaning. When you're on the weight loss journey and you lose your focus, you may wind up going back to the behaviors that helped you gain the weight in the first place. It happens to me. Work, children, parents, mates and friends could get in the way of your path for weight loss. This does not mean that you do not focus on those things; they're important too. One of the things that I did not focus on was me. Once I got that down, I just had to stay on track.And there in lies the rub. Here are some things you can do to regain your focus on your weight loss journey;
Back To Basics: For me, going back to basics means I take out book one again and start with the behaviors I learned when I first joined Weight Watchers. Sometimes you becomes a little lax with your portions. I have definitiely done that. A couple of years ago when I stopped going to my weekly meetings, then I stopped paying attention to my portions, and the weight came back.
Read Your Journal: I totally recommend a journal for at least three months. Even if journaling is not your thing, journaling for about three months will help you with some of your hurdles. Writing down when you went off program or when you scored a big victory is very important. That journal becomes the instruction manuel of YOU.
Read About Other People: When I feel discouraged about my weight loss, I go on line to the Weight Watchers website sight and read the success stories of people who needed to lose 100 pounds or more. These people have been where I am but have come out on the other side to bring others with them. If I read about four or ten of these success stories, I feel a little more empowered.
Go Shopping In Your Own Closet: For most of us, there is a piece of clothing you loved so much that even though you gained too much weight, you could not part with it. I happen to have a few of those things. Go into your closet and try something on. Even it it doesn't fit perfectly, it may inspire you to keep moving forward.
Give Yourself An Active Challenge: You may want to start jogging or run a marathon or join a class. These things give something to CONCENTRATE on. Before you know it, you're feeling really excited about it and your back on track.



This is Cindy, me, Tamra and Sheryl before the 5K

The crew at the end of the 5K

                        This week I got really physical. I think with my recent yo yo weight loss I was becoming discouraged. The excess rain in New York did not help. I was not exercising as much because I could not walk a few miles every morning. In my last blog I had a WHAT IF moment that led me to use the stairs in my building for an exercise on a rainy day. But that was only the beginning. The next day was our monthly 5K where a group of my meeting homies and anyone who wants to join us does a 5K Walk around Manhattan, talking and taking pictures along the way.

                        On Saturday, I told Jake we were taking a little adventure. We took our maiden voyage outside of our neighborhood on our bikes. I was a little terrified because we had to cross parkways and go over highway bridges ( I have a fear of bridges. I close my eyes when we go over them in a car). But you know what.. it was not so bad. Jake felt like it was the adventure of a lifetime. I let him lead the way and watching him navigate pathways, those little legs pumping , let me know that we both did a good thing. We rode our bikes to Pelham Bay Park. There were a lot of hills going up to the bridges and on the path. There was even one hill that I had to hold my head back to look up. I gave it a try, pumping my chubby legs and I made it all the way up that hill without getting off my bike and walking. During the whole ride I stayed on my bike. I didn't think I could do that but I surprised myself. If someone had told me last year that I would ride a bike miles away from home and up big hills, I would have laughed at them. As it turns out I laughed at myself. When I got to the top of each hill I was giddy. Me, my 200lbs+ and Pinky Tuscadero went up hills. I am amazed once more at what I am capable of doing with my body. Jake wanted to do it again the next day. I told him we would definitely do it again next weekend.

                         I told my massage therapist, Roxanne, all the things I did in the past week. She asked me what parts of my body did I need her to work on. To both our surprise, I was not in pain. My thighs did ache the day after the stair climbing but by Saturday, they didn't hurt anymore . If they had, I probably would not go on my bike ride. I would have missed out on an extraordinary experience with my son.Getting myself together was far more important than I realized.
                         This week I lost weight. I lost 4.6lbs. This brings my current weight loss to 42.2lbs. Here is my activity for the week;
Tuesday : 7,352 steps al day
Wednesday: Climb 103 flights of stairs
Thursday: 5K + all day= 14,623 steps
Friday: 7397 steps all day
Saturday: Rode bike for 90 minutes ( we were out for 2 1/2 hours but I'll deduct for down time)
Sunday: Rest day
Monday: three 20 mins dvd workouts
                         
                          This week I am going to try to stay on focus. I will keep up with the activity as best as I can. Jake and I will ride our bikes to Pelham Bay Park again and I am going to join my friend Cindy who will be in the Kidney Foundation Walk in Mahattan.