What's the goal?

Hungry? Sore? Disillusioned? Join the crowd. As a blog I read this morning stated, 'If it were easy, no one would be overweight.' But I'm beginning to think that there has to be some way that this all becomes a lifestyle, not unlike that of our forbears who ate and exercised as part of their regular daily work. We're in this spot because we don't work in the same way they did. Instead we sit at desks. And we don't eat the way they did, either. We have food fixed and frozen or packaged for us with stuff we'd never put in it ourselves.

I'm thinking all the admonitions to climb stairs and park at the far end of the parking lot may really be the way to put "exercise" in my day without me feeling put-upon. And I'm also thinking that losing weight has to be for the long haul and, if so, then it will also be a 'long haul.' Maybe 8 months is too optimistic for losing 50 pounds, because if I lose it even that slowly, it will still not be slow enough to maintain down the road.

So, what is the goal if it's not weight loss? Is it mobility? Is it endurance? Is it balance (as in equilibrium)? Is it flexibility? Is it prevention of accidents? Is it appearance? Yep! All of those things result in a better quality of life and make me capable of doing whatever I am called to do. That's a good thing. Are those things measurable? Well, except for appearance, probably not. I may not see results; instead, I will experience them. That means I need to be alert to identify my successes. Feel free to provide help along those lines!

One question I'm struggling with this week is why do I have such a hard time eating a normal portion at dinner? It tastes so good and I enjoy it! I want MORE! This has got to be some kind of emotional issue, right? Any ideas out there?

Update: blood pressure's back to normal-ish. Weight is down. Blood sugar is normal-ish. I lengthened my cardio workout by five minutes and upped the number of reps for the ab machine. Hooray for incremental progress! Hang in there everyone! Marmie