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.