5 pounds gone!!!

Today marks one week of my latest dieting scheme. And I just weighed myself - I've already lost 5 pounds! I was shocked! I'm not doing anything exciting or unhealthy. All I'm doing is this:

• excercising for a little bit as soon as I get out of bed in the morning. Since I'm living in hotels which don't always have an excerise room, I've got one of those "8 Minutes in the Morning" books. The one I have is for people who don't like lifting weights, so all the exercises use your own body weight for resistance, and instead of doing many repititions, you simply hold the excercise for a longer time until you reach failure. I kind of scoffed at the excercises when I first saw them, but believe me, I feel them! I also do a bit of stretching, just because it feels good.
• I'm also forcing myself to eat breakfast every single day. This is the hardest part for me. But from everything I've read, eating breakfast kick-starts your metabolism, which is obviously important for weight loss. Not eating breakfast puts your body into starvation mode, which means you end up losing your muscle mass, not your fat.
• I also make sure I eat lunch and dinner, with a snack in between. I make sure I have protein and lots of veggies at each meal. I still eat carbs, but I try to keep it to healthy whole-grain stuff.
• I'm carrying a water bottle around with me and making sure I drink lots of water throughout the day.

And that's it! I have even had a chocolate bar, and when I went to a movie, I had some popcorn. And still 5 lbs gone!

Yeah for me!

5 pounds gone!!!

Today marks one week of my latest dieting scheme. And I just weighed myself - I've already lost 5 pounds! I'm not doing anything exciting or unhealthy. All I'm doing is this:

• excercising for a little bit as soon as I get out of bed in the morning. Since I'm living in hotels which don't always have an excerise room, I've got one of those "8 Minutes in the Morning" books. The one I have is for people who don't like lifting weights, so all the exercises use your own body weight for resistance, and instead of doing many repititions, you simply hold the excercise for a longer time until you reach failure. I kind of scoffed at the excercises when I first saw them, but believe me, I feel them! I also do a bit of stretching, just because it feels good.
• I'm also forcing myself to eat breakfast every single day. This is the hardest part for me. But from everything I've read, eating breakfast kick-starts your metabolism, which is obviously important for weight loss. Not eating breakfast puts your body into starvation mode, which means you end up losing your muscle mass, not your fat.
• I also make sure I eat lunch and dinner, with a snack in between. I make sure I have protein and lots of veggies at each meal. I still eat carbs, but I try to keep it to healthy whole-grain stuff.
• I'm carrying a water bottle around with me and making sure I drink lots of water throughout the day.

And that's it! I have even had a chocolate bar, and when I went to a movie, I had some popcorn. And still 5 lbs gone!

Yeah for me!

Inspirations

One of the best things about dining by yourself is that you are free to listen to all the conversations going on around you. This happened to me last night. I was eating an amazing halibut and shrimp dinner, drinking a glass of Yellowtail Shiraz, and eavesdropping on the family sitting behind me. Two of them, a couple, had just returned from teaching English in Korea. From the sounds of it, although they are both from Vancouver Island, they met and fell in love in Korea. Anyway, I got to hear all about their adventures, the people they met, the memorable food, how many times Air Canada lost their luggage, etc. I could relate to so many of their stories, and I found myself taking part in their conversations in my head. I even chuckled out loud a few times. It got me all excited about going overseas again.

There were two other women at the table (the mothers, I think). They were talking about their weight, and how they had both been working so hard at losing it. One of them had lost 50 pounds and was just soooooo excited about it! She felt she had only 20 pounds left to go, and was struggling with them - they weren't coming off as fast as the first 20 did. But, she was just so positive and energized. It made me feel great! And guilty about all the food I was eating....

Anyway, the point is, I often talk to friends and family about my travels and my desire to shed a few pounds, but I always leave those encounters feeling guilty (for wanting to leave) and discouraged ("but I like you just the way you are, you don't have to lose weight"). But listening in on conversations that have nothing to do with me, but everything to do with me, was totally inspirational!

At long last an update....

Aaahhh…life has been treating me well these days. Although I’m working full-time, I feel like I’m on a vacation, especially this week. I’ve been working on Vancouver Island and will be here for the next three weeks. I’ve been so consumed in my mind and my heart lately with various life things – mostly concerning where my life is going to go next. Being here, near the ocean, I feel more connected and have been able to just let all those worries float out to sea.

I arrived in Victoria Monday morning and drove up the coast to Campbell River. I stayed at a lovely B&B. The owners had a beautiful golden retriever named Bentley, and of course we connected immediately. This house was right on the banks of the river, and I took him down to the river yesterday morning. He liked to just float in the river….I understood was he was feeling…I like to do that too!

I connect to places so easily – it’s funny that I was sad to leave a place after staying there only one night. But by the time I arrived in Comox I had already forgotten about it and fell in love again with this new town. After checking into my hotel (which was rather regal – complete with red carpeting and a soaker tub), I wandered down to the marina and looked at the boats. I leaned over the dock and stared out at the ocean, enjoying the breeze on my face and the smell of the salt water. My mind had wandered off to who-knows-where, but I was brought back to reality by aggressive splashes in the water. There were two sea otters playing mere feet in front of me. It was so cute! They were flipping this way and that, teasing each other, having fun. It brought me joy, just like the dolphins in Zanzibar and the Maldives did. I had dinner at the marina afterwards, and I giggled at the waitress as she told that it was “white trash Tuesday” meaning the special was pork chops in mushroom sauce served with fries. Sounds like home, eh?

I went for a long walk that night, and I was convinced that the average age of the population was around 72. I didn’t pass many pedestrians on foot, but I passed a good many in their motorized scooter-wheelchairs. But nevertheless, when I was in the hospital this morning, looking at the list of locum docs, I sure got excited about the possibility of spending more time here in that capacity.

So now here I am in Nanaimo. I’m on the 14th floor of a waterfront hotel with a glorious view of the ocean below. I feel so spoiled! And this room has a Murphy bed, which is totally cool. Adds a certain level of funkiness to the room. I am quite content.