Friday 15 June 2012

Enthralling stories from exercise to shopping

Well last week I confessed about not doing enough exercise.  I laid out some goals for this week that I wanted to try and reach as far as exercise went and on the whole I did ok.  I got myself going for 3 out of the 4 days I'd planned to and even got myself going tonight even though I've managed to pick up my daughters' cold.  Next week's plan will be similar with a little more added in.  I want to manage at least 4 cardio days and 2 gym work-outs.
Now onto a bit lighter fare.  Big moment this week as I finally went out and had much needed shopping spree for some clothes, or at least what passes for a shopping spree as a guy ... a pair of new runners and two pairs of jeans.  Yes, yes, I know I really over did it.  The reason why this was big news wasn't so much the shopping part (tho that in itself does happen once in every blue moon) but that I felt I'd gained enough weight to go and spend money on clothes.  I'm sure just about anybody who has battled with weight issues understand why I was waiting.  I just didn't want to waste money on clothes that would only fit me for a little while.  You see, in my head, my dip in weight was only a temporary situation, I was going to start focusing on my diet and work at getting my weight back up any day now, and it would be a shame to spend a bunch of money on clothes that were only going to fit me for a short time.  That short time turned out to be nearly 3 years ... have I mentioned before I can be fairly stubborn.
That's not to say I haven't bought jeans in 3 years.  Why, just last May I bought myself a pair of jeans when I was up in Prince George for work.  Of course that was more because I'd ripped a nine inch gash up the calf of the only pair of jeans I'd brought with me and my Frankenstein hotel room repair with a handy dandy sewing kit was, well, lets just say that it wasn't the prettiest looking piece of work.  But, like I mentioned ... stubborn, so those jeans I purchased were the same size as what I usually buy, not so much what I needed size-wise at the time.  Needless to say, there has been a fair bit of a) hiking up my pants so as to avoid looking like I was trying for some gangsta chic or b) Belt cinched so tight that jeans were bunching out under the belt.
But no more.  With the hard work over the past couple months, I was able to go into a store on Tuesday, grab a pair of jeans that was my normal size, try them on, and have them actually fit.  Its not a huge milestone, it may even seem kind of silly, but it did feel nice to have a little more affirmation that my weight is back up to a healthy minimum point.

Thursday 7 June 2012

Bad Todd needs to ramp up the accountability

Well, I've been very bad lately.  There's no way to pretend otherwise.  You would think after my last post were I felt so inspired after a positive clinic visit it would have been easy to keep the momentum going and to build on my current stable health, but in real life things rarely go the way one would think.  The last time I posted in my Blog was 10 days ago, that's the longest I've gone without a blog posting since I started this thing.  It's not that I haven't had anything to say, it's that I've been fully aware of how lazy I've been and have avoided posting so that I don't have to face myself and get my arse in gear.  It's kind of like when I was a teenager in high school.  My mom always knew I wasn't doing as well as I could in school because I'd just avoid the topic all together.
Now I don't want to overstate things, it hasn't been all bad.  I've been keeping 100% to my treatment schedules and for the most part have been eating quite well.  In the past that would have been something I was pretty satisfied with, but as far as exercise goes I've been severely lackadaisical.  Why has this been happening, well there's a couple of factors/excuses, none of them particularly justifiable.  Anyone who's here in the lower mainland knows that the weather lately has been bloody awful, even by Vancouver standards.  It's not so much that it's been raining a lot that has sucked (though it has) as it has been just the consistent blah-iness.  After I get home from a full days work, play with the girls for a bit until their bed time, the truth of the matter is that I'm fairly tired.  Combine that with the fact that when I then look outside and just see the perpetual grey bleariness my motivation  for exercise has just been sucked right out of me.  So, now that I've gone all confessional for a bit, that's great and all, I fully own my inactivity, but what to do about it.  Well it's fairly simple really.  Tomorrow, regardless of weather, I'm going to go for a good walk half an hour at least at a good clip.  On Saturday, I'm going to do the same.  I'll take Sunday off and then go again Monday, Wednesday and Friday all the while picking up the pace a bit each time.  After each time I go, I'm going to post in my facebook status how far I went (I'll also post it on Cysticlife).  Clearly I need to up my accountability until I get back into my exercise routine again.  This is where you the faithful reader comes in.  For this upcoming week, if I don't update my status on any of those days I've listed above, you'll know I haven't done my Cardio and have my full permission to berate, needle and pester me as much as you want.