Daily Bread #54

 

 

It has been a full year since I started this journey, so it was time for another before/after pic.

In this year, I have turned into an exercise nut, lost over 100 pounds, ditched my C-Pap machine, and ALL my prescription meds.  My body is in good shape except for my knees, but surgery should fix them before too long.  I’d like to lose another 40 pounds, which feels totally doable at this point, and I certainly don’t want to gain any weight back.  The health benefits I have achieved have been simply too miraculous.  I saw my regular doctor this week, for an unrelated minor issue, and she was amazed with the changes she could literally see.  She said that my motivation and dedication has been impressive.  So nice to have a doctor express such a positive message rather than what was before primarily concern.

There were 9 of us tonight at the meeting, and at the end, when one person had not spoken at all, I asked him if he had anything to say,  He did!  As a program participant and not a facilitator, I don’t have to be at all tentative.  The group dynamic is so important and me being the class clown sometimes seems to help when the discussion is lagging.  Plus, I just can’t help myself.  I loved it that after the meeting someone I don’t know that well reached out for a spontaneous hug.

A couple of us had reached out to some our original cohort members who had not attended for awhile.  One of them came! It was so great to see her!  She promised to come next week too.

We talked some more about “drifting” and someone came up with a nautical image of being at sea without a rudder.  This equates to being “off plan” and not having a quick and easy way to reset your direction to where you want to go.  The danger of not having a rudder is that you might drift into the open sea and never reach land.

What being  off or on plan varies by individual.  Some can have a meal or a day when they chose to eat less sensibly, and the next meal or day, they are back on course.  Kind of like stopping and dropping anchor to do some snorkeling and look at all the pretty fish.  For others they need to stay always on board, with their hands on the wheel.

This is so much harder for people with young children or with adult family members who aren’t particularly supportive.  It doesn’t bother me when Anne eats her sweets or chips, but some people may need to ask their family members to not eat ice cream right in front of them.  It can also be harder with extended family members, particularly if they are older.  Neither Anne of I have any surviving parents or siblings, which is not exactly an advantage in the larger scheme of things, but it does make things easier to be the “respected elders.”  I can tell my adult children and nieces and nephews what I need them to do to help me with this program and they (mostly) listen and do what I say.  We are going out to dinner tonight with one of our sons.  I will ask both him and my wife not to order any appetizers (which are really hard for me in restaurants) and I am completely confident that they will comply.

Family members NEED to be supportive if they want us to be healthy and live longer.  IT is one important way they tell us that they love us.  I DID suggest last night that some people might want to play the guilt card fairly heavily in order to bring their family members in-line.  “What, you want me to die?  You are literally killing me!  Get that damn ice cream OUT of the house!”

We also talked about “de-cluttering” and how messy apartments or houses or kitchens with no counter space, refrigerators and freezers stuffed with things that aren’t so great for us to eat, can all increase our stress levels and make staying on course much harder.  Luckily, I have Anne who is a compulsive neat-nik.   Everyone needs a wife like her I think.

I was up a tad this week, (.6 of a pound) which was due not so much to what I did this last week, but what I did not do in the last couple of days.  It may be TMI, but more prunes will be in my food plan this coming week.

Go boldly where others have gone before.  Mind your rudder, steer that ship.  Land Ahoy!

L’Chaim!

(My stats for the last week – up .6 pound, drank at least 7 gallons of water and exercised for over 620 minutes.  My cumulative weight loss so far is 103.1 pounds.)