De-constructing my thoughts on slow losses

What is it that makes me frustrated when my loss is slow? What pushes me to want large losses each week?
Thoughts	Good things about this thought	Counterpoints
Causes me to question what I am doing, if I am doing something wrong	Self examination and examination of choices is a good thing, might help me to identify some small thing in what I am doing that isn’t a great choice for me.	-I know that even in a week where my choices aren’t all great, overall I am doing a fantastic thing for myself.  Something that will improve my health for the rest of my life. -In my heart and mind I know I am doing really, really well. I have the pictures to prove it.
I have thought about how long my next goal will take at a certain rate of loss and smaller losses will push that goal completion date back	Having goals is a good thing – they can prompt us to make an effort to achieve something great.	-This is not a race I am not in a competition with anyone. -Setting goals of losing a certain amount in a certain time is not the best type of goal I can set – because many things can influence what happens on the scale – so it isn’t really a goal I have great control over.  Therefore finding another type of goal is probably a better strategy.
I want to look awesome fast	Wanting to look good is a legitimate desire and can prompt some excellent behaviours (like getting in exercise to improve my body)	-Looking good is not the best benefit of what I am doing – the health benefits are so much more important.  Plus, the societal things that push us to “look good” are not good and drive many people to many very bad things.  So I don’t want to give too much control to that way of thinking.
A little bit of competitiveness	A little healthy competition can be a good thing – pushing me to explore my limits	-The weight loss is not a competition.  I can look for other ways to express my competitive side by challenging myself to do better at some kind of physical activity etc.
Driving urge for quick results	Wanting to achieve a worthwhile goal in a reasonable amount of time is a laudable idea.	-I know that the short term mentality that drives that kind of “quick results” thinking is poisonous in so so so many ways for us as people, for our planet, for our society etc. -Even if it takes me 5 years to reach my goal, those 5 years will happen whether I am working on improving my health and slowly losing weight, or if I am back to old unhealthy habits and gaining weight. -Research says having unrealistic loss expectations is one thing that commonly leads to failure as people give up when they don’t reach these goals.
The idea that the sooner I reach my goal weight the sooner I am done	Looking forward to reaching my goal weight is a good motivation for me.	-This is not a journey to a fixed destination – the journey itself is the thing.  I will be on maintenance for life after I reach my goal.  That is why this is about changing my lifestyle not about losing some set amount of weight in some arbitrary time frame.

Neglected Yard - and the exercise it causes!

Well my poor yard has been woefully neglected for the last couple of years.  The weeds have gotten completely out of control. But this year I cancelled the tv and am intending to be out there for a little while several days a week to slowly but surely take back some of the territory from the ever encroaching quack grass.  Did one flowerbed today.  It is a pretty small one but before judging know that the dirt in it is closer to rock than dirt and almost completely overwhelmed by quack grass roots.  So there was a lot of work involved in getting it pretty much cleared out.

Haven't decided which of the far too many flowerbeds I will tackle next.  I think the area right behind the one I just did - near the rhubarb plant.  Would like to actually harvest some of the rhubarb this year for a crisp or something like that.  So wish me a productive next little while as I work on getting some of my yard back!

Just a small note on my last two mini goals
Fitness: Physio exercises.  I did not do well on this mini goal and see that I will need to go in to the physiotherapist and see if she can give me some prompting that will help me to get to it a bit better.  I obviously am not putting enough importance on it right now - maybe something she says will help.
Eating/Food: Mindful and slow eating.  This one was a bit hit and miss. I did well on it sometimes and other times I was back to old bad habits of wolfing down my food.  The one this week will hopefully help me to reinforce what I did learn on this one.

Grateful for my decisions

I want to give myself a thank you.  I am seeing so many things on the WW boards the last little while that make me grateful that I allowed myself to fully embrace this challenge.  Going ahead and starting Pilates when I was at 230 some pounds, never letting anything the scale does really phase me for long (and in fact the only time I ever really experienced any real discontent was on the excessively high loss day).  Not being scared to try different things and really embrace this new lifestyle.  Some of the decisions are founded on ideas shared with me by others on the WW boards - like the monthly pictures.  I can tell you that it makes me feel great when I look at that progress - that is a decision I know will keep my motivation going if it ever tries to slip on me.  Here's to many more decisions that help make me a healthier person!

Mixing things up a bit

So I have been realizing that since I got better from being so sick I have gotten back to my pilates and still walking of course.  But, I hadn't really gotten back to doing my wii on the days when I wasn't at pilates.  So this morning I had to do my weigh in so I did a nice little 57 minute workout on the wii (with the Wii routines).  And it was fun and I don't know why I haven't gotten back into it more than I have.

Here's to keeping things fresh (even if it is kept fresh by reanimating an old exercise or routine).  Encouraged by someone's post on the WW boards I have decided I need to find a time to go out dancing.  I haven't done that in a really long time and I want to do it again soon!

New Pics - May Comparison

Well time for another set of new pics.  I will put it in below.  I am getting to the stage that I am not seeing quite as much difference now (the front pictures especially haven't made much change) but each little change that I spot when I look at the comparisons continues to keep me motivated and moving!

I was out at a May Day rally today so didn't get much activity in just a short 15-20 minute walk.  But tomorrow I am scheduled into a 6am pilates class followed by an equipment private session.  I don't know what crazy part of me thought it would be a good idea to do a 6am class - but I guess I will see how it goes!

Click to see full size picture

Essentrics, shoes and shoes

I went to an essentrics class today at Lead Pilates and it was just as great as the other classes I have taken.  I really, and truly love going to classes there!  But I found doing the class in bare feet this time was not great - my poor little feet got sweaty and started to slip a bit.  Which got me thinking that I sure do wish those shoes I had purchased (they are kind of like the "barefoot" vibram shoes but without the individual toes) had worked out for me.  But alas I had to return them.  At the time I had also tried on a whole pile of the Vibrams but none fit properly - they all put pressure on my one little toe in an unpleasant way.  Oh well.  I guess maybe I will just have to settle for some of the toe socks with the little grippers on the bottom.

But on the other front regarding shoes I did get a nice pair of sandals at this big shoe sale today.  They were marked down a long way and they were really comfy - it will be nice to have a slightly dressier sandal to wear this summer.

TRX butt kicking

Well my TRX class kicked my butt today in a good way.  Lots of work on the legs (they were like jelly when I was done).  But I am still going to do at least some of my physio exercises tonight.  Want to keep working on that mini-goal and I am a long way away from it yet.  Although I would say I probably did about 35 or 40 squats today so maybe that counts off the squats portion of things for today - I will just do the other ones.

Also took my brother's dog for a little walk/run tonight too.  So all in all it was a good active day!