New Changes

Sparkpeople.com

So last week I had some blood work done and part of it wasn't good. It's not too alarming, but it can change into something bigger if I ignore it. I really don't want to look back in twenty years thinking I could have saved myself a lot of health problems if only I'd lost weight.
So, I'm making some life changes. I'm trying to eat a bit healthier and loose the weight. I am a member of Sparkpeople.com. If you're a member, feel free to add me.

School is in full swing here and with my current weight loss goal and taking care of the kids I am busier than usual. As you know Sierra is in K12 6th grade. We're doing Algebra, and that is by far one of the worst subjects ever! I'm learning right along with her.

I also signed up my son on ABCMouse.com. He seems to enjoy the story time and games. :) So in a way I'm now "home schooling" two kids. Though Wyatt's attention span is short, so he only gets 30 mins on the PC before he's ready to quit.

As far as blogging, I've lost my muse for now. I'm sure it'll be back, so keep watching for more updates.

Blessings, Love, and many light filled days to you.

SWC

Getting Back to Me

I feel good. Despite our living situation which constantly plagues my good humor, adding an exercise and diet routine I think is very healthy for me both physically and mentally. It feels like one more step toward a better future.

Before my life went to hell, I had started to loose weight. I joined curves and met some very nice women. I LOVED curves. I realize their circuit gets a bad rap because its not very challenging for some people. But for someone like me who is morbidly obese and has an anxiety of working out with men, it was the perfect solution. Not to mention I got a lot of one on one with the trainer.

With the YMCA I have yet to actually see a trainer. There was one attendant there, but he seemed more like a custodian than there to help you. So far I've stuck to just walking on the treadmill for 10 minutes. That's sufficient to make me a bit light headed, so I'm sticking with that for now. But I also added swimming to my day today.

I love getting in that pool! Though I'm not a strong swimmer, I did venture out to the 8 foot part of it today. I was very proud of myself for being brave. I've never wrote about this before, but I believe I drowned in a past life. So me and water kind of have this love/hate thing going.

I love to be in it, love to meditate while floating on the water. But I also get paranoid when I know my feet can't touch the bottom. So most of the time I stay in the 3 ft area. My daughter is the same way and she hates to get her face wet.

The good news is I lost weight this week, though its not much. Remember I just started this on Tuesday. So on Tuesday I weighed 265 lbs. Today, 263. So not much difference but its a start.

My muscles aren't as sore. I think the swimming is really helping with that. Tomorrow is a skip it day to just rest and then back for more on Monday. I hope I can convince Dh to go with me then since he won't have to work. Its so much better when we do this together.

Have a wonderful and lazy Sunday everyone!

Joined the YMCA

So today I joined the YMCA. The whole family went tonight. Dh lifted a few weights while me, baby boy and Sierra went out on the playground to play. For some reason the child watch area was empty so I had to stay with Wyatt. But after about 20 mins Dh came out so I could go in and do a workout myself.

I did the treadmill for 10 minutes. Just walking with an incline but I need to build up to actually running on the thing. Before I started I weigh...

265 lbs which is pre-pregnancy weight. So I can't even blame it on the baby.

Here's today's pictures.

Wish me luck! Joining the YMCA and using the fitness area is really forcing me to face one fear of mine. I hate working out with men around. Especially ones that are muscle bound brutes. Ok so I know not all men with huge muscles are brutes, but its just what comes to mind when I see huge muscle men.

But no one paid me any mind at all. And by the end of my 10 minutes I was a bit shaky. So for now I think that's my cut off time.

Obesity is a Crime

That's the headline I expect to read sometime in the future. Certainly officials are trying to make it so, for children at least. A Cleveland, Ohio third grader has been taken from his mother for being overweight. Granted, he is severely overweight. No third grader should weigh 200 lbs.  But that doesn't give a good excuse for ripping this child from his parents. These parents are not beating their child. They are not making him wear rags or going without. They are working with a doctor to loose weight.

This is what happens when government gets involved where they don't belong. This child isn't being abused. Is he in perfect health? No. But he's also in no physical or mental danger. There are so many children out there being abused and neglected that will not get help because social workers are busy removing children who don't need their help. This is not a problem social services should be involved with.

Some people are just predisposed to being overweight. I should know, I am one! And so is my daughter. Guess what, she's not thin either.

Obesity is a problem, but it's not one that we should point fingers at and say abuser or unfit parent. The damages of removing the child from his home is far worse than any potential health hazard from being overweight.

Just ask Anamarie Regino, a 3 yr old removed from her home for weighing 90 lbs. When are people going to realize that everyone comes in different shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. Making obesity illegal is wrong, plain and simple. It is NOT child abuse.

“Literally, it was two months of hell. It seemed like the longest two months of my life,” mother Adela Martinez said.

Her daughter, 3-year-old Anamarie Regino, weighing 90 pounds, was taken from her parents and placed into foster care a decade ago.

Anamarie didn’t improve at all in foster care, and she was returned to her parents. The young girl was later diagnosed with a genetic predisposition.

“They say it’s for the well-being of the child, but it did more damage than any money or therapy could ever to do to fix it,” Martinez said.

Anamarie Regino, who is now a teenager, agreed.

“It’s not right, what [Dr. Ludwig] is doing, because to get better you need to be with your family, instead of being surrounded by doctors,” she said.

 

Mortality

Death is no more than passing from one room into another.
Helen Keller

This week I can't help but to think of my own mortality. My mother came close to leaving this world on Thanksgiving, and it's really brought home that I'm not a kid or young adult anymore. We can leave this world at any time. Our actions or inactions will decide our fate. 

Death to me is just a transition to a new place. I neither aim for it, nor wish to avoid it at all costs. It simply is. That said, I don't believe on putting the peddle to the metal and speeding toward it. Yet, isn't that what my mother has done by living an unhealthy lifestyle for 60 years? She's ate what she wants, however much she wants her entire life. And that has led to two heart attacks on her 60th birthday. She is healing btw, but we still do not know how much damage to her heart was done.

I certainly don't want to spend my 60th birthday in the hospital fighting for my life. Yet, what am I willing to do to avoid it? Well I need to go back on the diet I started last year. And somehow work in an exercise routine. It would help tremendously if I had my own space! That way I could control what kind of foods are in the household and how the food is prepared. Here there is a table with way too much temptation and loading foods with fat is just how it's "suppose" to be. It's hearty food and delicious. It's just way too tempting to pile a lot of food on our plates and gorge oneself.

And then we come to our activity, or lack thereof. I am self conscious of exercising with people present. I've tried before and I'm just too shy. I always feel like people are judging me. That's why I liked when I joined Curves last year because IF there were people there, it was all women with "real" bodies. Not stick thin or beefed up with muscle's like some other gyms. Most of the time though I could time my visits where the area was mine alone. I went in, sweat my bottom off, and left with none there to witness. Maybe I can check into joining a YMCA or something. I thought about it before but I didn't have transportation. 


I know one thing, if this week hasn't taught me anything else, it's that I don't want to be my mother.