Reporting in Week 4 Post Competition

This past month has been difficult reflecting back it is probably the hardest month I face each year. Thanksgiving is a single days big meal. Christmas time really isn't that bad, a few more sweets than other times, but nothing I can not minimize the damage. January is when I tend to get depressed or be prone to it. But April starts off with a family breakfast and munch fest at my mom's house while watching General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is my youngest son's birthday on the 3rd of April so we usually go out to eat for that. Our Anniversary is on the 18th, and our oldest daughters birthday is on the 26th. This year we had all those things, plus we had a luncheon celebrating my youngest boys baptism. May we had a luncheon after my brothers baby was blessed as well as another luncheon to celebrate a baby blessing of some dear friends of ours. Follow that up with a funeral luncheon for my Aunt and a Mothers Day dinner at my sisters and I think I could have easily gained my weight back had I not kept my portions in check. I will admit that I struggled this month, but in the end as of Saturday morning the scale had not changed since the previous week. My low day was on Thursday morning when I weighed in just above 250 lbs. Unfortunately by Saturday morning I weighed in exactly the same as last week. Probably due to the lesson I learned while moving more.

Exercise this week consisted of some Yoga and some jogging. Wednesday was my peak performance for jogging. I started off on a 2 mile jog and ended up jogging 4.9 miles and I felt like I could have kept going...that is until morning came. It was in the morning that I began to realize a learning experience was being set up. It was apparent to me that in the morning I was having a difficult time moving and even stretching became difficult. Though your body can do it without warm ups and cool downs. It requires a lot more time to recover afterwards. I also learned that if you do not warm up before you stretch, your muscles do not want to stretch willingly. Friday's stretches did not feel very effective either, but I went jogging for a mile and found myself feeling okay, but not great. As I was getting dressed my back felt like it was trying to slip a disc in my lower back. I knew exactly what had happened when I felt it. the muscles where just too tight. A trip to the Chiropractors and I was back on track, but I was a little behind on the exercises. Sweat has been hard to come by the last couple of weeks. I have put in some good workouts, but I don't think I have challenged myself enough. All in all I feel pretty good...not great, but pretty good about this week.

Distractions are bound to happen. Don't feel guilty. Guilt is an emotion prone not only to weigh you down spiritually, but physically as well. Be kind to yourself and maintain an eye of faith on your goal. Believe it will happen and it will. Though my weight has not gone down my clothes are definitely telling a different story and I continue to become Physically what I already am Mentally.

Using weight as your sole indicator as to whether you are going to be happy or not, is not a good idea. Weight is a good goal only if you recognize that weight is not what your real goal is. We want to be able to fit into nicer clothes, we want to breath better, we want to look better, we want more energy, we want better health, or we want to conquer our appetites. In other words we are looking to increase our freedom. That is why we want to lose weight. If we get what we really want we will recognize that Eating Less and Moving More is how we get and keep what we really want, and we will appreciate the process.