Exercise, tracking, and calories done for the last two days. Zumba yesterday. Today was just light exercise. Back is bothering me. Must have done more moving my daughter than I thought.
Today's subject:
I have always been on or off of a weight journey.--- I was the fat girl in kindergarten. Had some thin years but more overweight and obese years. --- but what pushed me to drop 70 pounds and keep it off these 7 years was my sister going into hospice care after a long illness. It hit me that emotional eating was going to ruin my health and that life can be very short and my family needs me. @fightingthetideofaging it is awesome that you are secure in your habits. I know that I can be great for periods of time, but emotional eating is a monkey on my back. MFP challenges and daily accountability are so important to me. Thanks @RangerRickL for taking this on! - and @craigo3154 for your backup , @hawkins410 for being my challenge buddy.

3 yesses today. Needed a rest day so lots of leisurely paced walking and some stretching.

I discovered a love of health and fitness while trying to lose baby weight after my second. I lost 35lbs and felt so strong and confident. Then got pregnant again a few months later. Bounced back pretty quickly after my daughter was born (thank you extra breastfeeding calories!) but maintaining has been an up and down journey. About a year ago we started to let go of a lot of the healthy habits we had made and I put on 15lbs. I tried here and there to get it off but didn't have much success. I felt so uncomfortable in my body, disappointed I had lost so much strength and was unable to fit in my clothes comfortably with no budget to buy more. I lost sight of being proud of what my body could do and instead was focused on what it looked like... that is not the example I want to set for my girls. About 2 months ago I was ready to get back on track and take control of my health and found this group about the same time. The accountability has been exactly what I needed. Down 6.5lbs and I'm totally ok with it being a slow process to adjust our lifestyle and find balance.

@fitastic2day great pic. So true.

pass day ....

I done well at the party buffet, but unfortunately my glass seemed to be self filling and I have absolutely no idea how much I drank, I have put a number in my diary, but it could be higher or lower than that .. just a best guess and my best guess also puts me over on calories anyway

I did manage to get my exercise in thou 35 minutes spin bike before I had my bath to go out and dancing at the party

Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes, one-hour walk
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

What prompted my start: looking in a mirror in a hotel room and not being happy with what I saw. (end of 2013)

What made me continue until now: the energy I get from working out, the fact that I am more happy and confident with how I look, the vision of my dad who went from highly active and fit to overweight after stopping with exercise, the wish to be physically active for a long time to come especially now that I have a daughter.

Late update, so maybe nobody will read it.

yes x3, Went for 48 minute walk to expore local paths near the Wilderness Gathering and this also meant that I remained in calorie deficit by a tiny tiny margin. I have the UAC to thank for staying as close to 'on track' as I have during this festival.

My why.

Well I could say that I am unhappy with the way that I look, I don't like looking fat in clothes or without them on and I am embarrassed taking my kids swimming but truthfully I've felt this way for a long time and tried to loose weight many times and sometimes I've succeeded for a time. So it's not really the reason this time, but I hope it will be a benefit.

I could say that I am worried about my health. I'm within 5 years of the age my father had a stroke, my last Cholesterol results showed a deterioration and I have felt very tired after eating and in the evening and I keep expecting my blood tests to show I'm becoming pre-diabetic. But truthfully all my health markers are still fine, and I've not had a doctor tell me that my weight is an issue. So this is not really the reason either, but again I hope that stopping worrying about health issues that are not there yet will be a benefit.

The real reason is that I've realised that life is passing me by, and that I am hung up on several issues in my life and I don't really progress on to the next thing because I keep going round in circles on these issues. I've become interested in 'Grit' and the realization that I do know how to loose weight (I know the theory and I've actually done it a couple of times) but that I let my impulses get the better of my future self. I've had a few false starts this year but this attempt to loose weight (and gain strength) is about pushing through the obstacles and learning determination and how far I can get by following a straight forward approach and not giving up before it has the time to work. My most important markers are the number of days I have tracked in MFP and my Net calorie average. I am currently up to 42 days with a net average of -450 Cal per day and this is by far the longest period of continuous logging and consistent dieting that I have put together for many years. previously a bad day or two and I would give up, and try again a few weeks later (back at square one, or actually a little bit heaver than the previous attempt). I have many reasons to eat food in addition to nutrition (comfort, reward, 'don't waste it', and 'why not') but no control. I want to develop that control, and develop it to the point that I am proud of my body and that I don't need to obsess over my food and exercise to maintain that position.

@am_change "Choose your Hard", I like this. It is about understanding and accepting what the 'Hard' is. How long it takes to reach a goal and the cost that you have to pay along the way.
@lamlam2013 "I knew the weekends would be hard." Then the goal is to 'manage' the weekends as best you can and make enough progress during the week to outweigh the weekends. You didn't say why you needed the pass day but you can compensate during the week.
@fitastic2day You have a great sister. also "Normally a day like today would totally undermine my progress and derail me. Oh no! This gal will not go quietly into the night!" I understand this, way to go.

marthall wrote: »

Late update, so maybe nobody will read it.
..

@marthall. This is the UAC group. We read (and care).

marthall wrote: »

The real reason is that I've realised that life is passing me by, and that I am hung up on several issues in my life and I don't really progress on to the next thing because I keep going round in circles on these issues.
...

This is the story of most peoples lives. The difference is that you recognised it and are doing something about it. This puts you ahead of 90+% of the population (maybe 99+%).

I only picked the eyes out of your post, but the whole post is inspirational. Well done on staying on track.

Exercise? Yes; an hour of walking and fun yard games
Calories? Yes
Tracking? Yes

I began a healthier lifestyle when I realized that my old ways were keeping me from fun experiences. I was always tired and little exercise wore me out. I was very unhappy, and becoming healthier made that change.

@am_change Thank you