Weight Loss as a Way of LIfe

I am not on a diet! I repeat - I am not on a diet. DIET implies that one looks to the day when one can be off the diet, or you end up stopping or breaking the diet. It is said that true weight loss takes time, will power, and is a way of life ... not a program you are on. They are right but it is not always easy to assimilate "what they say" with "what you believe."

Not wanting to "brag" too soon but I have been working in ernest over the last month on getting my weight and physical health under control. My commitment came when I tipped  the scales at 209lbs. Short of breath, bloated, uncomfortable in my clothes, inactive and feeling each of the years of my life as I approach my 70th birthday. So I decided to get back in control as much as I could.

Since Gregory entered Lieberman I have been working with a personal trainer at LA Fitness which is just a few floors beneath my condo. This week I realized that working out at the gym has become part of "what I do" rather than having to force myself to go to the gym when I really don't want to. I have doubled the sets I do on each machine and have been walking the treadmill.

I began a 21 day challenge, led by Son my personal trainer, and have been able to make good decisions about NO sugar, MINIMAL carbs, and SMALLER portions. I have been substituting one or two meals a day with SHAKEOLOGY shakes. I have been doing an online course from DailyOm called "Permanent Weight Loss Through Self Hypnosis" and it seems to be working to help with the challenge and meal substitution.

The greatest obstacle to achieving and maintaining my ideal weight is that I love food. I love how it tastes and how it looks. I am a sucker for sweets. Comfort foods are comforting. And temptation is everywhere: at parties, when you walk past the bakery, when you are eating at a restaurant, after dinner while doing the dishes, while watching TV.

I have been making good decisions, “walking past” temptations, and have fewer cravings but I think that pasta, carbs, bread, cake, raspberry or apricot sweet rolls, chocolate, candy bars, donuts, pies et al will always call to me. I am working at being able to hear the sirens (winged creatures whose singing lured unwary sailors onto the rocks) and ignoring them!

My weight is down from 209 to 203. Like quitting smoking, the longer you are seeing success the harder you work to not break the chain. I am working harder!

Panchamaya Kosha Session One

After discussing the model and its levels we began our Yoga session. Corinne demonstrated the various stretching and activities in "floor position" and in "chair position." Most of the ones I did were on a chair as I am so out of shape, recently had a bad case of Vertigo, and my back and hips have been bothering me. (This is not a poor me but information by way of your understanding the session.)

As the stretches and exercises progressed I found myself becoming more and more limber and finally ended up moving to floor style. I do not think that I have been as aware of my body in a long time (if ever) then when we were going through the stretches/exercises in this mindful way.

After the stretches/exercises we did a brief Yoga Nidra meditation mainly doing a "body scan" where Corinne led us through a mindful look at our bod, from the top of our head to the tips of our toes, in relation to breathing, the "inside" of it and the "outside" of it.

When I first started meditation classes I would say that many people think Yoga is physical stretching and exercising when it is really a way to calm and quiet the body so as to be better able to meditate.

While that is still true, I am afraid that I discounted Yoga too much. In this one short session, I became so aware of my body and its relation to the space around and the space inside that I now understand better the relationship between the physical and how it supports the mindful meditation.

I have continued to become more aware of how breathing relates to meditation, my study of Buddhism, and my emotions and sure enough here it shows up again in Yoga. I am excited about these sessions and look forward to the next ones to see what they will bring.

I might mention here that I have known for a while that I am very physically out of shape and needed to do something about it. The message hit home when I took myself to the emergency room with the Vertigo attack. It scared me. I thought my blood pressure had gone sky high (when it really was only registering the distress of my body with the Vertigo.) But the scare was enough for me to decide that thinking about doing something does NOT count as DOING something.

I surprised me with my quick actions: 1) Began discussing weight loss and made goals with my Psychologist, 2) Renewed my membership at LA Fitness, 3) Committed to a year of personal training at LA Fitness, 4) Began my weight loss program by weighing in and beginning a log of everything that I ate, 5) Beginning a six week Yoga Kosha session with Corinne.

I am airing my laundry here because by talking about it and by processing it, I think I will be able to try harder to succeed with this program of regaining my health. I DO NOT WANT TO BE OR FUNCTION LIKE AN OLD MAN, EVEN THOUGH I AM AN OLD MAN!

Also, as a reminder, this is being posted on my writers BLOG because I need to move on and separate my Alzheimer's Life from my Personal Life. No less love for Gregory but he is now safely ensconced and embraced. I need to do the same for myself.