Dancing All the Way

This morning, I did my first 2-mile walk, since Sunday, 07/13/08. I stopped walking so that I could experiment with ways to keep myself healthy (see my blog "Clearing the Hurdle"). I'm trying to track what works best by eliminating past procedures, and tracking each new procedure as it is added. For the past couple of days, my back has been in good condition. I say "good" because there is still a slight ache that I am attributing to my stubborness about getting my composting material into the ground in a timely manner (healthy eating generates a lot of fruit and vegetable scraps).

When I left the house, I walked 3 blocks to the St. Anthony track. When I got there, I could feel the slightest heaviness across the upper portion of my gluts, probably from walking the uneven, pebbly, construction-scarred streets from my house to the track. So, I'm thinking that I will do only 1 mile. Once on the almost smooth, but slightly tilting track, I walked maybe 2/10 of a mile, still feeling the heaviness, when I remembered how bouyed up I used to feel when I incorporated music into my past walks. So, I put in my earplugs, and pulled up my playlist "St. Anthony Walk", one of my compilations of songs that I feel are good for walking. I put the playlist together, test it on a walk, and edit as needed (part of my "Health" hobby). I decided that I would start the playlist, and monitor how each song made me feel as I walked.

The first song on the playlist is Al Green's "L-O-V-E". As I walked, I matched my gait to the music, letting my left foot fall at each strike of the cymbal (where a person would clap, if clapping to the song). My movements created a rhythmic flow to my hips, and a certain length and pace to my stride. And, the pain immediately subsided. I held my abdominal muscles in, and my posture stayed erect, but I imagined letting my upper body give in to a slight forward pull. I listened to this song maybe 4 times, then went on to Bob Marley, but couldn't duplicate the previous feel with his first 3 songs, so I skipped to his "Waiting In Vain". I kinda did a modified reggae bounce, that also got my hands involved. I don't know so much that I matched my stride to his rhythm, as I just lifted my whole body off my skeleton, so to speak, and continued down the track, without the ache. Brian Jack's "Zydeco Boogaloo" had me moving my shoulders in an upwards bounce peculiar to some zydeco dance steps, and Chaka Khan's "Foolish Fool" allowed me to match my movements to her various exclamations throughout the song. Her next song on the list didn't help, so I skipped it. The last song, Dave Grusin's "Mountain Dance" allowed me to match my gait again, but at a much faster pace, so I was literally dancing down the track.

BTW, I walked the whole two miles. Once I left the track, I removed the earplugs to walk the 3 blocks back home; the slight heaviness/ache came back, but with even less intensity.

So, if you ever see me on St. Anthony's walking track, and I'm moving a little out of sync with everyone else, just smile with me, and know that I may be listening to a different drummer, and dancing all the way down the track.

Clearing the Hurdle

Well guys, I've cleared my first hurdle. I've lost 3 pounds (as of yesterday morning, 7/21/08). In my first post, "My First Retirement Hurdle-Weight Gain", I stated that I wanted to lose 16 pounds by 9/15/08, but I didn't mention that I was going to tell a few of my friends what my starting weight was. I did that, but I told them not to tell anyone else, so don't try to get it out of them. I haven't actually gotten on the scale in front of any of them, but I may be able to do that today, and we (my friend and I) can go on from this point, but I will keep to the original 16-lb. commitment. To (re)start my weightloss project, this past week, I:

• Made the commitment to lose the weight, and put some accountability to it by telling my starting weight to a few people.
  


• Followed Weight Watchers healthy eating plan, the Flex Plan.
  


• Ate lots of fruits and vegetables; bagged some and ate them while doing errands.
  

• Ate consciously, considering the effect of what I ingested. For example, my sister pointed out, "You're going to be blogging later, about weight gain, if you eat that second helping." I stopped, thought about what I had already eaten that day, and decided that I could have the second helping.
  


• Stopped walking, and concentrated on 20 minutes of stretching and ab work before getting out of bed, and light stretching before going to bed.
  


• Concentrated on hobbies: gardened (composted daily), did 2 sewing projects for my granddaughter, blogged, read. I also started treating this weightloss project as a hobby.
  


• Stopped taking doctor-prescribed Feldene (a take-as-needed anti-inflammatory), but I did take Calcium & Vitamin D, and Benefiber. BTW, I am currently taking no other prescribed medications.
  

On Sunday morning (7/20/08), I realized that my back pain wasn't a saucer-sized ache with heat radiating from my upper left glut. I didn't have the sharp catch, in my lumbar vertebrae , when I bent over, and then tried to stand again. I found could stand for long periods without feeling upper glut fatigue. I dug in the yard, and went shopping without having to push a shopping basket just in case my back tired, and I needed support. Now, some of this improvement may be attributed to less stress from work, more time to "rest" (if anyone lets you rest in retirement!!!), higher barometric pressure, a lot of things, but I have not felt this good, physically, in a long, long time. I will follow the advice on Don Miguel Ruiz in "The Four Agreements", and assume the best assumption, that it is the positive changes that I am making. We will see, as I continue on to my next hurdle.

My First Retirement Hurdle - Weight Gain

Oddly enough, my first retirement hurdle is not of a financial nature. It is not the emotional lack of going to work. It is not even the fear of boredom. My hurdle is my weight gain. Once I "decided" to retire, I proceeded to pack on 16 of the 32 pounds that I had lost on the Weight Watchers At Work Program (WW).

My "decision" to retire came about due to my job being offshored, or sent to Manila. When a job is offshored, a company hires employees in other countries, to perform a particular job, usually for less pay. But that is a subject for a future blog.

I found out about the offshoring project early in 2007, but was so busy with actually implementing it, that I didn't have time to sabotage my own WW journey. As a matter of fact, WW lent structure to the chaos that was my life of deadlines and constant change. In January 2008, even though the job started winding down, as almost all phases had been completed, the contrary result was that my remaining 6 months moved at warp speed. With retirement seminars, retirement decisions, debates with Human Resources, and lunchtime meetings that pulled me away from my WW meetings, I put my attention to weight loss on hold. I could actually hear my own voice saying, "You know, I'm going to concentrate on weightloss when I retire". I think that is one of the biggest lies I've ever told myself. With all of the wining and dining of well-wishers before the retirement, I couldn't even get into that perfect dress (bought as a reward at reaching my lowest weight 6 months before) that I planned to wear to my retirement luncheon. Then, after the retirement, the adjustment to a more sedate, laid-back lifestyle did me no favors.

The first sign that my new lifestyle wasn't working was when my 2-mile morning walk became a sluggish, grueling chore. At times, I felt like I couldn't propel myself not one step further, but I persevered, taking pride in the fact that I was "making progress" in my move to a healthier me. Well, how healthy could I become if I kept telling myself the other ultimate lie, "I'll start my healthy eating tomorrow"? The anwser came this morning, when I felt a sharp pain in my lower back that told me my weight gain was probably putting undue pressure on a not-so-good back.

I always said that if a doctor told me to stop doing "this or that" because the "this or that" was affecting my health, I would stop doing the "this or that". Well, the doctor never did, but isn't that another lie of sorts, putting the responsiblity on someone else's shoulders? I am so angry with myself for re-gaining this weight, after working so hard to lose it, and I want to get past this feeling, so the lying stops now, and the commitment, true work, and accountability begins.

I commit to lose the re-gained 16 pounds by Sept. 15, 2008, allowing myself enough time to lose approximately 2 pounds per week. My strategy will be the subject of another blog.

Thanks to my son, Chris, for encouraging me to blog --- yeah! technology is amazing! To see Chris' blogs (on saving money), please click here.

Also, please feel free to post advice, tips, encouragement, or questions. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.