172.4 The Little Engine That Could

I haven't talked about my weight directly for a while and there's not a lot to say. I'd like to be closer to 170, but life has gotten in the way. Or, I could say that I've let life get in the way. In the way of what? Well, mostly exercise! I'm thinking that it's always like this in the winter - I can hear people snorting that we don't have winter out here, but we do, sort of. What it boils down to is that I don't like to be cold so I don't want to walk when it's colder than 70 degrees and windy. We do have a lot of wind out here. I have started doing Wii Fit Plus again and that is always fun and good for me. But I often just seem to run out of time and then realize I haven't exercised.

I know what I need to do and that is build my day around an exercise schedule rather than trying to find time for it after everything else gets done. I know it. Now I just have to do it. If I can lose 80 pounds, I can stick to a schedule! "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can". Sound familiar?

171.2 A Good Habit

It's warming up so I think I'll be out walking tomorrow and in the (heated) pool by mid week. I know, it's tough, but somebody's got to do it and I've volunteered. I think upping the exercise with the Wii Fit Plus yesterday really did help, and I have stopped gorging before bed. What got into me? Nuts, peanut butter, all sorts of crazy things got into me before bed. I was hungry at bedtime last night, but I stood my ground after eating an apple and fell asleep. It felt great to get up and see that my weight is heading back down.

I am so glad that I trained myself to get on the scale every morning. It's habitual now, and one of the best habits I've ever had. Just like the weight loss, the maintenance is hinging on weighing myself everyday.

171.6 Old Friends

Today I had breakfast with my walking buddy Linda, but instead of walking, we ate breakfast together. It was just too cold and windy to walk. It was great to see her again and to get caught up. I really am aware that when I see old friends after being apart for awhile, that there's a rhythm that we find ourselves returning to, and off we go. We are going to walk for sure on Monday, when the temperature promises to be in the low 70's. I think we can manage that just fine.

And I met up with a second old friend today, my Wii Fit Plus workout program. I hadn't done it or had breakfast with it :) in almost 150 days. Now that's a long time, but explainable because I have tended to use it when the weather is too hot to be outside. And just like seeing Linda again, I quickly got in the rhythm of it and off I went. I want to write that I was just awesome doing all of the workouts, but that wasn't true. However, after some false starts, it became clear that if I stood up straight and used my abs to support me I did much better. In fact I did better than I have ever done on a few of the workouts. So now I can hardly wait to try again tomorrow to see if I can't get even higher scores. Like I've said before, I love the Wii Fit. We're going to continue to be best friends forever and get together a lot more often.

178.6 Back On The Wii Again

A couple of days ago I got the Wii Fit Plus out from under the coffee table and started it up. The first thing that surprised me was that it announced that it had been... ahem... 45 days since I had been on it. That didn't seem right to me until I remembered that we had been away for about two and a half weeks, and I'd had my eye surgery and so on. The Wii Fit does keep a calendar that comes up whenever you sign in, so I couldn't argue with it.

The second big surprise was that I had lost so much skill in balance and coordination which is measured by most of the activities that I do on it. I'm not sure why I didn't realize that that would occur, but now I have proof that there is truth to the adage "use it or lose it".

I also use a brain skill practice site called Lumosity (lumosity.com). With my family history of dementia, I am determined to do all that I can to stay intellectually healthy. Lumosity provides a balanced workout of brain games designed to improve memory, attention, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility. Much to my dismay, I also went down in all of the areas that I have worked hard over the past four months to improve in.

So now that the vacations are over, the surgery is over and I am getting back into some semblance of a routine, let's hope I can recover all of the skills I seem to have lost recently. And, maybe losing a few more pounds while I am at it is a good idea, too.

185.0 Focusing on Exercise

I've really been focusing on the exercise element of this program because I know it's extremely important for me to keep moving both for burning calories and for keeping my arthritis from crippling me. Doctors have discovered that the best way to treat arthritis is to move, not sit around. And, I really love it.

I love the Wii Fit Plus, I love the feeling of accomplishment when I do the elliptical, and I love my water workout. I'm not a big fan of lifting weights, but thanks to my recent physical therapy I can do 3 reps of 15 lifting 4 pound weights. I know that's not very much, but when I started, two pound weights were hard for me to do. My short term goal is to move up to 5 pound weights.

So, I think it's time to drop another pound. I'm ready.