Well...ummm...Here I am again...after 5 months.  But this is how my mind works.  When I decide I want to do something (like lose weight and be healthy and walk daily) it takes me a long time to figure out all the details on how I'm going to do that, what's involved in it and what are the pitfalls I'm up against and how am I going to succeed.  I can't help it - this is the way God created me and my mind.  It's the way I funtion.  Some people don't understand this and try to make me feel guilty for not immediately doing what I want to do.  I don't meet their expectations and so I am chastised and they want me to feel guilty. 

Well...I'm done with feeling guilty for not succeeding and not following through.  It does not mean I wont follow through - it just means I haven't yet.  I'm ok with that.  My brain is still working out all the details - and I am ready for a new start now.  I have a new plan.  It will include the old plan of walking one mile every day for the rest of the year but it's changed just a bit. 

During my "becoming healthy" hiatus, I did become successful at a more important foundational goal.  I am reading the Bible almost every day.  I am reading much more than my goal of 5 minutes per day.  It's awesome!  I actually feel like I have a firm foundation under me now.  That was the most important goal - the foundational one.  God knew what he was doing when he re-directed me and my energies to get my priorities straight. So now that that is a habit - I can move on to the next step in getting my life back on track.

After making the previous commitment to walk a mile a day in 2013 I found that I could not do it.  My legs were not working. I was at the point where I was unable to walk much at all - even normally. I had to go to physical therapy and learn some stretching and strengthening exercises. I'm still not back to normal - but I'm getting there.  I might not be able to walk a mile everyday yet but I can walk some and build up to it.

Here's my new plan.  I'm getting the Samsung Galaxy S4 today.  I am not getting it for this, I'm getting it for other reasons, but it does happen to have a cool gimicky feature called S Health.  I can use it to track steps, feelings, food, and other things.  Once I get the phone I'm going to learn all I can about S Health and see what I can do with it and what I can't.  I'm also thinking about getting the Jawbone Up 

http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-6448_7-10014602.html

The thing I like about it is that it will remind me to get up and move after I've been seditary for a certain period of time.  I can set it to remind me every 30 minutes or every hour of being seditary to get up and move. This is a great selling feature for me and why I will chose this device over the S Band from Samsung that works with the phone.  I've been having a hard time remembering or having the desitre to get up every 30 min - 1 hour.  This will work if I commit to obeying it.  That's what I want to do. It's a simple thing in order to be more active and healthy.   It will also track my steps and my sleep pattern among other things. It also keeps track of how much active time I have in my day and how much seditary time and helps me to re-evaluate and make better decisions.

My new goals:
Move every 30 - 60 minutes
Walk daily - 1 mile or work my way up to 1 mile
     Treadmill at aptarment fitness center
     Walk at Home DVDs
     Walk at home while watching tv or movie
     Walking trail around the golf course in apartment complex

I will add a food component to my goals soon.  The new phone with the S Health apps should help with that. If nothing else I can discipline myself to taking a picture of EVERYTHING I eat and drink - to keep track of my food intake and NOT deceive myself.  That will be a start. Eventually I want to track calories and healthiness of the food and drink I'm consuming. And even further along I want to eat the Southbeach way. It makes the most sense to me.

So step number 1:   Buy the Galaxy S4 today after work and maybe the Jawbone Up if they have it at the store, and start becoming familiar with S Health. Tomorrow I'll move on to step 2. 

Days 3 and 4

Day 3 - Oops!   I didn't walk at all. I did however get the Fitbit Zip and wore that all day. Don't have enough steps in yet. I'll get there. I'm kinda scared because my left hip and knee are acting strange. I'm going to walk today but I'll probably just walk and not do all the other movements in the walk at home videos. I don't want to twist something and make it worse. I'm hoping if I walk 1 mile each day and be careful with food intake, I'll lose weight and maybe my knee and hip will get back to normal and then I can do more.

Day 4
I'm finding it hard to walk first thing in the morning. I need to Eat That Frog! Just get it over with in the morning so that it's done and I don't have to worry about it all day.  After it becomes a habit then I will add another mile or some other activity in the evening.  It might be awhile before I am able to do that but it's a goal for the future.

Getting my motivation back.

I've taken 769 steps already today (been sitting all morning so that isn't much.) Yesterday I took 3282 steps - after getting the Fitbit and wearing it.  To get my first badge I need to take 5,000 steps in one day. That sounds really easy - especially if I do the 1 mile walk. :-)    I just found my motivation for today. I am going to see how many steps I get in with the 1 mile walk.  Here I go...

Started the 1 mile walk with 769 steps already showing on my fitbit today.
Ended the 1 mile walk with 2788 steps for the day so far.
That means this particular 1 Mile Walk gives me 2019 steps.
That means if I can do this again this evening (I'm not promising anything) I will get another 2000 steps in before bed. I will probably make the 5,000 needed for my first badge even if I don't walk another mile tonight - but I will burn more calaries if I can do another mile.  If I decide to do it - I want to use a different Leslie Sansone 1 mile walk - the other one I've done is 15 minutes (this one I just did is 20 minutes) and I want to compare the number of steps to see if they are the same or different. Another good motivation for me.  An experiment and research motivates me more than health or losing weight I guess. Not sure why.

For today, another success!   (sticking my tongue out at Ann Marie, my encourager/pusher - and laughing)

Hmmmmm....I just looked at my Fitbit Dashboard again and saw that my daily goal is 10,000 steps.  I guess I better start getting creative and finding a way to get all those steps in every day.  But I still made my goal of 1 mile - so that is a success!!!

Day 2

Day 2 of the one year challenge and I did a different 1 mile Walk At Home video - this one was 20 minutes as opposed to yesterday's 15 minute mile.  I guess the one yesterday is faster because it's a little more intense.  This is the one I did today:  1 Mile Walk

Off to a good start for the year!

2013 Another Start

Well....I've started 2013 off on a positive note.  I've taken the Walk At Home 1 Mile per Day Challenge and I walked a mile today.  I have also purchased the Easy Yoga for Arthritis DVD which I've started working on. The whole thing is too long for me right now, but I'm making some progress - it's a good DVD for stretching and loosening up my body.

How did my body get so stiff in the last year? I have very little movement left.  A year ago I wasn't in so much pain just walking and standing and doing normal daily activities.  Well...that's about to change. I'm tired of these limitations and I aint takin' it no more!  Who says that I can't be in shape and active as I get older?  I'm determined to turn my life around and become active and energized and healthy!

I did the one mile walk today but I wasn't able to do everything - there were times I had to just walk because of limitations, I was unable to do the kick backs and a few of the other moves - but I kept walking for the whole mile. After a couple more days I should be able to do all the movements with Leslie.

I think I'm going to start over and even change the focus for a bit. I'm going to experiment with starting a new habit - see if I can make it a daily habit - before working on the losing weight.  I'm going to put God first in my life. This isn't a purely academic exercise, it's what I hold as the highest value in my life. I need God's guidance in every aspect of my life, so of course I need to put Him first. Putting Him first in my day is symbolic but also get's my day started on the right foot - with my mind centered on Him and His will.

I'm going to start each day spending time with Him, beginning with the Beth Moore Bible study that I'm doing , Breaking Free. When that is finished I will Read one of the books in the Bible - I'll pray about which one to read. I'm sure God has a plan.

So...every morning I will get up and make coffee and feed the cats and do my Bible study - focusing on what God wants me to get out of it, praying and committing my day to Him.  I'm going to have to get up early for this on days I have to go out - like on Thursday and Sunday and any days I have early appointments.

I will make it a point during my time with God in the mornings to ask Him what I should be doing for the day. I would like Him to direct my path and help me to make good decisions. I also want Him to guard my mouth from saying unkind things and from speaking without thinking and saying foolish things.

If I can make this a habit - do it for a week or two then I can try to add exercise to my day and try to make it a habit - right after my time with God.

I tend to want to do everything at once - change all my bad habits and add good ones - all of them at one time. It gets overwhelming and confusing.  I need to set my focus on one thing at a time.

End of week 3

This is the end of week three. I haven't been posting and haven't been exercising - I guess I feel guilty that I haven't been exercising.  Maybe that's why I haven't posted.  I just exercised to Core Rhythms for about 20 - 30 minutes. It's not easy with my knee area feeling stiff. But I did it. I also haven't been exercising because I'm afraid of what's wrong with my body - although I think that once I lose the weight the problems will disappear - but I don't know that for sure.

I have to get serious. Too many women in my family are/were overweight and end up in wheelchairs and using walkers and having multiple physical problems.  I don't want to lose my mobility and I would like to become more active than I am and enjoy life!!!

I have been eating better for the most part. Haven't bought any bread for the house. Buying good snacks (vegy's and hummus and stuff) and haven't bought any ice cream - not even no sugar added klondike bars. That's pretty good. When I had to buy lunch or breakfast out I bought wendy's chili or salads. Made a few bad choices but not many. Don't know if I've been losing weight yet. Dr. Patel asked me not to check the scale until I come back to see him. I haven't done it yet. My appointment with him is in two weeks. So I have two weeks to change get in the habit of exercising and if I do it every day for two weeks then I should lose more weight and maybe inches too.

Almost two weeks

I'm almost at the end of phase one of the South Beach diet. I've done ok even though not perfect. I exercised less than half those days, but at least I did exercise some. I want to begin focusing more on exercise and ramp up the weight loss - molding my body.

I get to buy a bottle of wine tomorrow night and have a glass - to celebrate my two weeks of being on my diet and getting this far. Wine is allowed on phase two. It will be nice to have a glass.

I need to work on my house. Heather came over today and said it's a mess. She's right.
I also want to make book thongs - saw some in the book store today. They look easy to make. Didn't buy any because they were around $6.

Gotta read and try to make myself exercise tonight.