Category: Diet

Morning all,

Well, I’m one thrilled individual!

Last year on this day, I was approximately 174 pounds or so on a 5’3.5″ frame. I say “approximately” because I couldn’t bear to weigh myself at that time…I only weighed myself several weeks later.

Today, I’m officially 129 pounds!

To say I’m psyched is a weeee bit of an understatement.

I accomplished this by, quite simply, being smart. I started shunning all the junk food that was out there, started exercising (started quite slow I’ll admit – walking a little bit farther each day), started weight lifting, and never never never NEVER gave up on my goal. Sure, there were days in which I figured, what the hell, I’ll never break this plateau, why even bother….but then my inner strength always rose to the challenge and I stayed the path.

One of my favorite benefits from this weight loss and weight lifting time is that I have superbly respectable deltoids/biceps and triceps…and can wear tank tops and sleeveless karate gi’s (karate uniform) to my Martial Arts classes. I think I’m in the best condition I’ve ever been in my life!

This attitude carries over to how I’m raising my kids. No, I’m not a militant mom who tells my kids the evils of sugar and processed carbs…instead, they simply have witnessed my own personal journey and have started emulating many of my healthy habits. We take karate together (lots of fun!) and also have pushup contests at home (tremendous amounts of fun as we try to make our collapse as funny as possible).

However, I have to admit….the biggest benefit to this year-long journey of mine is the phrase I’ve etched indelibly into my mind and forehead – “I can DO this!”. Not matter what “this” is, I have the courage and strength and fortitude to tackle anything….tackle and succeed. The only barrier to my success is reality – everything else, I can focus my intense mental concentration and achieve the ultimate.

It’s a very humbling thing to realize.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Some people like adding protein to their weight loss regime, like:

Morning,

Well, I’m a happy little earlobe, let me tell you! Yesterday I visited my surgeon (’twas 9 days after I was sliced and diced), and had my big huge honking bandage removed. My gosh, the man should be a master tailor – the incision healed beautifully and I was cleared for physical therapy and stretching.

This is excellent news for several reasons – one, I can participate with my karate classes in the pre-workout stretches. While I’m no where near able to join active karate sessions, mind you, just being able to get back on the floor with the other students is ‘way neat.

And about the pushups – during class yesterday, I snuck to the woman’s room 3 times and did 30 pushups each time. I’m ‘way out of condition, compared to earlier, but hey, these things happen. The 10 pushups completed in the advanced class made for a nice 100.

Pullups, I hear you ask? Today, I decided to amuse myself by trying my chinup bar again – I’ve been doing 1.5 unassisted chinups every 15 minutes or so. The last time I did this, my arms were shot for 24 hours afterwards…we’ll see how things go tomorrow.

And by far the most important! Today I was able to take my first hot bath since prior to surgery! Oh it was heaven. The dried blood from my bandages had soaked off as well, and I can see all that’s left is a nice neat 5 inch line down my thigh.

Recovery-wise, I still have a dull ache when walking up or down stairs; I figure that’s because my muscles are still quite weak. So hopefully with time I’ll be back to my usual vibrant self.

And that’s me update for today,

Barbara

ps – Some nice bath oils!

Morning,

Well! Today is Day 8 after my surgery, and yesterday I found out something sooo startling to me, it really just got me sitting and thinking and realizing some important truths about my own abilities.

Along with those lovely bone tumors on my femur, I also have a shortened fibula on my left leg. This results in my foot seemingly not being attached to the center of my leg; it appears to flop over to the side. With me so far? Okay, great!

Let me backtrack for a moment and talk about my first few weeks of karate (during the early summer of 2007). While I could balance easily on my right foot, I could never hold a position for more than 1.623 seconds while standing on my left. I attributed this towards my physical condition, of course, and just accepted it as, that’s my body, deal with it.

However, there’s this one sensei at my dojo who kinda sorta didn’t accept that a lot…I vividly remember him telling me, I could do better, and me responding, no no no, I could not. He dropped the issue after that, and life went on.

Zoom up to yesterday. After all the self-knowledge I’ve accumulated these past two weeks, I remembered that time…and thought to myself, hmmmm, I wonder….is that really the way I am, or could I choose to break through my perceived physical barriers and determine what really is the reality?

End result – I’m up to 10+ seconds now of balancing on my left leg. The sensei had been right all along; it was me who was preventing my own physical improvement.

I should write a book on everything I’ve been learning these past few weeks, let me tell you.

What an eye-opening experience!! While I’m still no where near completely stable on my (ahem) good leg wrt balancing, that will come with practice; I know that now.

Honestly, it’s truly amazing how your own perceptions of yourself can either limit your achievements or give you the wings to fly. ’tis quite humbling, that.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want some success posters? Lookie here!