The tale of the lady with chronic illness, injuries, memory loss and petsitting hullabaloos

Sarah_TheJourney

Yup, just about covered everything there!

Hi, I’m starting over. But this time I’m not going to beat myself up about it because that never has worked out well for me…

Nothing will change UNLESS I MAKE CHANGES

I mean, it’s not funny but it is….
My week so far: Decided to help out friends by petsitting their Weiner, Nana. Who is a wiggly line. That’s it. No controlling a wiggly, darting line…. Non. She’s obsessed with looking at my cats which makes the wiggly line faster and the cats run up walls. Now, a leash has worked wonders but my old lady body is slowing to a crawl as the stress is beating up the chronic illness and the injury screams, “HEY! Don’t forget me!”.
Pop into that mix my doodle, a herding/calming kinda fella who actually now looks 4 years older and could do with a holiday himself! Yesterday he just kept looking at me and rolling his eyes! He’s trying to calm her, redirect her and be a good boy, thank you very much, “but MOM, have you seen what’s she’s doing NOWWWW!” he’s too tall to block her path and has nearly gamboled quite a few times! Poor thing will enjoy a quiet Friday…

And so my one cat, who really does like to befriend everything, even the mocking bird who calls for him every morning, no, I kid you not, has been left bewildered because the wiggly line just won’t stay still long enough to greet! So instead of him, seemingly to Nana, sitting and looking at her to “just WIND HER UP”, he’s been popped outside. He and the bird are at the front door begging to come in but I just need ONE MEMENT

In a bid to wear out the wiggly line, we walked off 40 mins yesterday morning. Nana WIGGLY walked the whole way and still had energy for her AND the pack for the rest of the day. I on the other hand, should of known better! I aggravated my injured knee and sat (tried to sit) and elevated my knee which just doesn’t math out when you’re trying to move more to lose weight! If stress could do it, I’d of been at goal by lunchtime Monday (nana was dropped off at 10am!)

So, I look for energy in the form of food and *remember that I’m losing weight, then feel guilty but I’m so exhausted of my knuckles dragging on the floor because I’M.JUST.SO.TIRED!

Habits are easy to make and difficult to break!

All this to say, after another sleepless night, something’s gotta give! Maybe, juuuuuust maybe, Nana’s energy was the kick in the butt I needed to DO SOMETHING about it all!

Here’s to week 1 of the Christmas countdown weight loss to get my knee surgery Goal

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

AnnPT77

Hello, and welcome!

Amusingly, your affirmation (or whatever you want to call it) in there is almost exactly the same as something I put in my visual journal about the time I committed to losing weight:

But that was over 10 years and 50 pounds ago, when I was a mere callow youth of 59. Now I'm 69, 50 pounds lighter, and I hope nudging ever so slightly closer to actual adequate adult maturity and functioning. But maybe I'm not. That's maybe a stretch, given we're talking about me. But regardless of my adequacy or lack thereof in that or any other way, my main point is: This can work, this calorie counting for weight loss thing.

Here's another aphorism (or whatever you want to call it) that may apply: The majority of our days determines the majority of our results. That day with wiggly guests so a person walks too much one day, followed by theoretically not enough walking the next day: Those are each just one day.

For one thing, they average out: (Too many steps + not enough steps) divided by two days = a decent average number of steps per day, maybe enough to average out to a decent few days, if the knee twinges keep interfering with more moderate walks for a while. That's fine.

For another thing, there are lots of days between now and Christmas. These two days are one each. That's a drop in the ocean. The totality of life is the ocean. Daily life habits - the things we do on repeat the majority of days - those matter a lot. Focus there, I'd say. Routine habits are a power tool for weight loss. Yes, change is hard. Persistence and commitment are useful.

Imperfect days are part of the process. Days that get gradually better on average over a period of time . . . that adds up. It can add up to surprising results by, oh, say . . . Christmas.

You can do this. Chip away at it. Improve the averages. Work on the habits. It'll be fine.

Best wishes!

Alatariel75

Sarah, welcome, you make me laugh!!

I have a 9 month of working dog x (I did NOT mean to adopt a working dog) affectionately known (among other things) as the squiggly man, and he sounds like just your wiggly guest in terms of energy and upkeep!!

Everything Ann says is so spot on, swings and roundabouts, my friend!!

A majority of good choices will lead to results.

Sarah_TheJourney

Ahhhh, thank you so much AnnPT77 & Alatariel75, I appreciate your understanding 😉.

All the floofs, the feathers and the knees are still accounted for AND I stayed within my plan yesterday. Wooohooo.

Sadly, woke this morning to the news that my 97 year old Grandad had passed away, surrounded by family while they visited him with their lunch. Peacefully amongst chatter. Now I’m looking for flights next week from CA to the UK.
what a change 24hrs can make.

Miss Wiggles goes home to her post Disney clan today, after I bare my teeth to the dentist.
Still the plan is the plan and one aha moment this morning, all soggy eyed and snivelling was that Kcals work anywhere 🥳🥳.