Getting Fit - The Last 5-10 Pounds

I've been working to get fit for 6+ months now, having started with exercise last fall and adding a healthy diet as a New Year's resolution. To date, I've lost between 15-20 pounds, so I know it's working. But it's working as slow as slow gets. And in everything I've read, they say the last 5-10 pounds are the hardest.

Some people say it's self-sabotage. Or that because you are close to your goal you ease up and become less disciplined. Others simply say the weight loss becomes so slow that you give up.

I'm determined to make it and to keep it off, and wanted to share some of what's worked for me so far and ask for your advice for continued success.

Here's what's worked for me so far.

• Setting the clock weekdays for 1 hour earlier and using the time for a morning workout. I mix up the workouts too, some mornings doing yoga and ab exercises, other mornings cardio or workouts with weights.
• Establishing my daily caloric output. There are a lot of online tools to do this, but my favorite is www.caloriecount.com. This site lets you plug in your body type and activity level, and calculates approximately how many calories you expend in a day. Then it gives you the opportunity to add specific activities, like yoga, bicycling, or cleaning for example. I'm sedentary, having a job where I sit most of the day, but I add in my daily workout and any additional physical activities (like when I spend 4 hours doing intense cleaning).
• Once I know how many calories are being burned in a day, all I have to do is keep my caloric intake less than that number. And calorie count helps you track that as well (along with your nutrient intake).

Sounds simple enough. But it is hard. Hard to get up early in the morning when everyone else is sleeping. Hard to limit my caloric intake when I really would LOVE to have one of those girl scout cookies (actually I would prefer the delicious, best I've ever had in my life, coconut cupcakes that my neighbor baked and brought over recently).

So I guess the main thing is to keep plugging away at it, even after a day of blowing the caloric deficit or omitting the daily workout. The main thing is to get it right on a routine basis, and not sweat the mess ups.

Your Story - A Poem

Recently, my daughter was given an assignment to write a poem following the format of the Mother to Son poem by Langston Hughes. The theme was "life" and metaphor was required. What she wrote is so beautiful, that I had to share it here.

Your Story

by Katherine Tuttle

Well, Grace, I'll tell you:
Life is your story written in ink.
It has misspelled words,
And pages missing.
There will be times when you don't know what to write,
And there will be times when your pen runs out of ink -
Dry.
But don't quit writing.
I've been correcting my mistakes,
And I've been turning and filling up my pages.
Keep writing because if you do,
You will be able to cross out your mistakes, or tear out the page,
And start the chapter over again.
Grace, don't stop writing.
Don't let the jumbled sentences get in your way.
Keep going.
Don't let your story be unfinished.
Don't put your pen down yet
Because your story is still ahead of you.
That is life, your story written in ink.

What's Your Spiritual Gift?

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind — just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you — so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:4-9

At church, several weeks ago now, our pastor preached a sermon that talked about spiritual gifts. It was a good and moving service, and I was quite taken aback when the pastor went around the room and individually named spiritual gifts that each person in our congregation was blessed with. Wow.

She really nailed my daughters. She named faith as a spiritual gift of my oldest, and joy, a gift of my youngest. What really surprised me was the gift she named for me. Teaching. Teaching? Really?

Funny, but when I was a younger working adult and went back to college, I wanted to get a degree so that I could become a teacher, but the counselors discouraged that choice, and so I focused on marketing instead. And my jobs since then have all been in sales-related fields. My passion has always been writing. So where does teaching fit into all of this?

But it does. Sales and marketing is a matter of educating a prospect on the benefits they will receive with your product or service. So I am teaching in my job. And as far as writing, it would be swell to think that something I wrote had an impact on someone in a manner that they felt they learned something.

So teaching as a spiritual gift is cool. And I hope to learn other meaningful ways in which to teach.

Book Reviews - The Time Traveler's Wife and The Giver

Since I am behind on numerous book reviews, I'm going to bundle a few together and keep them brief so as to get these posted as quickly as possible.


The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What I liked - the fascination with time travel and the relationship between Henry and Clare at various stages/ages in their lives.

What I didn't like - at times it became confusing and I found I would have to look back in the book to reorientate myself with the timing.

I do want to see the movie now that I've read the book.



The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this classic young readers story about 12-year old Jonas, who is selected to be the Receiver of Memory in a community where roles are assigned and everything in life is orderly, predictable, same, and perfect. Or so the community believes. As Jonas receives memories of generations; pain and pleasure, warmth and cold, even color, he learns about and makes a life changing decision. Unfortunately, the ending is unclear and left to interpretation, the only reason I didn't give this story 5 stars.

Double thumbs up - it's kid friendly and a book I can enjoy even with my 10-year old!

New Years Resolutions for 2011

Anyone reading - please feel free to hold me to these. I appreciate your checking in with me from time to time to see how I'm doing and to keep me honest. I'll do the same for you if you like, just let me know in the comments.

2011 New Years Resolutions and Goals

1. Get fit - enough so that I can wear a 2-piece bathing suit this summer (if I decide I want to).
2. Eat healthier - less meat and more fruits and veggies - the closer to being how it is offered from the Earth, the better.
3. Read the bible, cover to cover. Something I've always wanted to do and have started a few times, but never finished.

Realistic? I think so. Anyway I'm keeping it simple to better my odds of success. Too many years' goals get lost and abandoned, and I want these to stick. Good luck to everyone in the new year!

To Blog or Not to Blog

My last blog post was September 13 and it was a book review. Prior to that, I had been fairly regularly posting to this blog, and I had been keeping up with my blog subscriptions. All that has changed however, and I'm wondering if I want to get back into it now or not.

I truly enjoyed all the blogs I followed, but I found it to be a tremendous drain on my time. Maybe I subscribed to too many, as I did enjoy reading a variety of posts and interesting tidbits from various authors. It just began to take too much time.

And so did writing posts. And I always questioned if it was interesting enough to justify the time it would take for anyone to actually read the post. But I so enjoyed it! So I'm contemplating.

I've read about a zillion books (OK, a slight exaggeration), and could have a ton of book reviews to post. Not sure about other content though. Anyway, anyone want to weigh in. . .?

Book Review - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the best books I've read in ages, and the first fiction by Sue Monk Kidd! The Secret Life of Bees has it all - excellent characterization, moving description, realistic dialog, and a real good coming of age storyline.

Lily Owens learns about love and forgiveness when she finds her way into the home of three black beekeeping sisters in Tiburon, South Carolina. It’s set against a civil rights backdrop in the 1960s, and captures many of the emotions surrounding this turbulent and misunderstood time.

What I liked best about The Secret Life of Bees is the writing itself. Sue Monk Kidd delivers very well developed characters and outstanding description. The people are as real as if they lived down the road, and the description vivid. I highly recommend this book.

My Kids Can’t Have Everything – Learning to Say No

As much as it is important that our kids learn the lesson that they can't have everything, I think that is an equally important lesson for me (and other parents). My kids can't have everything. Let's face it, most of us would do anything to give more to our kids and to enable them to be involved in the activities we all deem so important.

Our desire for our kids is strong. We want them to be socially accepted, get and have the same things as their friends, wear new clothes, have the latest gadgets, participate in extracurricular activities, become well-rounded, and have the same opportunities as their peers.

Now these are tough economic times. And I'm at the point where I am working in essence three jobs to keep our current standard of living – which isn't much of a standard if I say so myself. It's all about paying for the kids activities and needs. My husband and I have essentially put our needs and wants on hold, which I imagine is far more common than some people would have you believe.

Recently, I said 'no' to my daughter's request to add soccer to our already busy schedule. She had assumed we would acquiesce to her playing soccer since she has played for the past several seasons. But we did not. We've decided not to add another activity, rather we are asking that she choose between her current activity of karate, or soccer – but she isn't doing both.

And she nearly cried because she loves them both. And of course, I want her to be able to do both, but I really need to be firm on this one for a couple of reasons.

First, adding soccer simply makes life far too busy, and we've been doing it for years now. Every spring and fall she signs up for the recreation soccer team and she has a blast. And I have to admit, we enjoy going to the games also, watching her play and grow in her skills, and in socializing with the other parents. But, adding practice one or two nights a week and a game each week on Saturday is completely impractical (I did previously mention three jobs, didn't I?). It's just too much.

Secondly, the cost. While soccer is relatively inexpensive compared to other choices kids have today, it still isn't free. And after the modest registration/sign-up fee, you still have the cost of soccer cleats, shin guards, ball, etc., unless we get lucky and one of the items still fits from last year. We don't usually get that lucky though. Plus the costs of providing snacks for the team when it's your turn.

So, while this is hard as hell for me, I plan to stick to my guns. I think saying no to your kid sometimes is harder on the parent than on the kid.

I often say that kids get too much today, but I don't think the blame can reside solely on the kid. They are young and learning the ways of this world. In their innocence and hope they ask for lots of things they want. That's natural. But it is us parents that don't say no that we should blame. I wish I could give my kids the world, but the better gift to give might just be the realization that nobody gets everything.