172.2 Be Careful What You Ask For!

Today was another wonderful day at my ESL class. Often as I am driving the half hour to get there I will turn to my inner spirit and ask for help to make it a good class. This morning I asked for energy and enthusiasm as I worked with the students.

I thought I was asking for that energy and enthusiasm for myself, but I wasn't specific in my request. For two hours, I had the liveliest, most energy filled, enthusiastic group of students I've taught in a long time. It was fun, it was challenging, it was great, but never have I had a class so on fire, so full of questions, and so talkative. It was fun, but totally exhausting. I'm sure I burned up a lot of calories just keeping up with them. I wonder if I want to be more specific in what I ask for next week. Probably not! Today was great!

171.8 Cool, Clear Water

I'm thinking about changing the name of my blog to Susan's Drinkin'! Not really, but upping the amount of water that I drink is certainly helping with these last few pounds. I knew that water was good for me, good to flush out all of the impurities in my system, but this morning I learned something else about water. Maybe this should have been really obvious to me, but I just never put it all together. My chiropractor said that as you increase the amount of fluid/water you drink, you up the number of calories burned because your kidneys have to work harder, doing the work they are meant to do. Talk about motivation!

And, yesterday I was able to zip up my "celebration" pants, the very, very tight pants I bought about 3 months ago to wear when I reached my goal. Now I just have to keep it all together and see that 170.0 on my scale.

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.

185.4 The Lure of a Nap

I just woke up from a very delicious nap! I slept for about an hour and a half. I should have written that I woke up from a very long, delicious nap. I always feel a little guilty when I take a nap, and so I rarely do... now. I used to suffer from severe depression and I devoted every afternoon to sleeping for long periods of time. Ever since that time (which was a long time ago now), I have connected naps with depression and guilt, and weight gain!

But today I was tired. I lifted weights and then did the elliptical for 25 minutes and then was just plain tired. I could write a long list of reasons why today it was okay to nap, but I won't. It doesn't matter, really. So, I've decided that I can take a nap now and then and just let it go. I won't go back to napping everyday. I've got too much to do and napping draws me away from staying aware, present and ALIVE! And, there is the matter of not burning very many calories while napping.

So now it's time for my water workout. That makes me feel very much alive!

188.0 The Wii Fit and Me.

My recent return to physical therapy is working. How do I know? I pulled out the Wii Fit board, dusted it off, and was amazed at how much better I'm doing on both the balance and the aerobic exercises. Working on balance involves moving my weight backward and forward and side to side on the Wii Fit. One of my favorites is the ski slalom in which I have to ski down a mountain going through all the gates. If I miss a gate or go too slow, I lose points. I also can float a raft down a river trying not to hit the shoreline, while at the same time avoiding the bee that will get me if I go too slow. And then there is the table tilt where I have tilt the table so the balls will drop through strategically placed holes. Speed is important here too because if the balls roll too fast in any direction they fall off the table and I have to start over again.

The aerobic section is really fun because, among several activities, there is step. And I am now doing advanced step and it feels like dancing. Since my back surgeries I'm not supposed to dance so doing step is really fun. You follow the movements of characters doing it with you so there is even a sense of community, a virtual community of people keeping the rhythm and burning the calories together.

The other day I wrote about the study in the WSJ that determined that a gentle nudge from a person or computer can help people keep exercising. The Wii Fit tells me how I am doing and offers tips (if I want to read them).

If you have a chance, try out the Wii Fit. It's fun, gets the metabolism going, and is a great source of encouragement, especially if you are into little virtual people :).