Sunday Feb 12

early morning and well done IRS winner.  Wow!!!  

Well my carb and sugar free run of over a week when some flying food got me right in the chops.   Decorating 6 doz valentine cookies, three had their way with me.  Consequently feeling yucky and bloated and defeated.

still no walking of any consequence, but the wonderful rain has begun.  Snow be gone!!!!!!!!

Ocean so glad that all is well.

Have a lovely retirement contemplating day!!

Weight this morning: 133.6

Macronutrients yesterday:  Cals - 1,372, Carbs - 163, Fat - 58, Protein - 51, Sugar - 84, Fiber - 4

­Exercise yesterday:  No exercise

Veggies/fruits yesterday:  0 (goal is 7!)

Plans for today:  Clean house, laundry, walk, crosswords

The speech went very well.  I shared a lot about how my values, my talents, and my identity - being of service to others, assuming leadership roles and shouldering the responsibility for team performances, and enjoying the emotional and other rewards of being the person who could fix everything - had blinded me to my own needs and the importance of managing myself. 

I shared that when I finally hit bottom solving my health and weight problems actually got easier.  That therapy has helped a lot.  That eating real, nutritious food, instead of crash dieting, has worked for me.  That losing slowly worked for me (it took a year and a half to lose 100 pounds - that's 1.6 pounds/week).  That changing my focus from *losing weight* to *maintaining a healthy weight* was a big shift in the right direction for me.  And that having my husband be diagnosed with cancer finally taught me the real difference between what I can and cannot control. 

Yesterday, my adrenal glands were pumping overtime, which made it hard to eat enough.  But last night I slept like a log!  Today's going to be all about protein, veggies, fruits, and fluids. 

BTW, the weather here is nuts - 81 degrees yesterday! 

Sounds like a very inspiring talk.  Well done Ann!

Would have loved to had heard your speech! Would love the 81 degrees too!

Sounds like you did a great job.  Congratulations!  What group did you give the speech to?

Thank, momsy.  The event was our town's annual Heart Health Month benefit luncheon that focuses on women's heart health and benefits our hospital's cardiac health programs (surgery facilities, medical and monitoring services, cardiac rehab, etc.).  

Sounds like a great talk!  I have been meaning to ask you what type of yoga you practice.  If I remember right, you have seasoned yoga instructor --- does she have a particular style?  

Shel -- my teacher, a 68-year-old American woman, has been doing yoga for 35 years and has been teaching for nearly that long. She has numerous teaching credentials and follows the teachings and practices of B.K.S. Iyengar and his students with whom she has studied.  She also mentions Judith Lasater a lot.  

Our class is designed for women 55 and older.  A few women in the class have been studying with her for 20 years.  I'm one of her newest students, but not THE newest.  

My introduction to yoga was in the early 1970s with (cough) Yogi Bhajan and Kundalini yoga.  ;)  Interesting stuff, and he was a real character.  But it wasn't my cup of tea.  Since then I took an occasional yoga class (usually some form of hatha yoga), but didn't have a yoga practice.  Other than that, I just sometimes "got down on the floor and rolled around a lot."  

And now I have a big fat 8.5 months of yoga under my belt.  ;)  The practice is gentle, uncompetitive, and brings benefits so slowly it's hard to notice them developing until you've got the benefits.  I've seen improvements in my strength, muscle tone, flexibility, balance (a big one for me!), stamina, breath and even calmness.  But as anyone who does yoga knows, it's hard to grok someone else's explanation of how yoga works / happens without doing yoga yourself.

Everybody in the class is just a regular person.  Some of the students have known each other since elementary school.  There's a lot of chatting and laughing some days.  Other days (especially lately) we do a lot of Vinyasa (faster, flowing, breathing) yoga.  And occasionally she'll work us on specific body areas, e.g., abs / core, which is more of a workshop style class.  Rarely, she even does a class that's focused more heavily on restorative poses.  

And on days when the teacher cannot attend, another student will lead the class.  A lot of the students are retired teachers who have no difficulty shepherding others through the class.  

It's all very interesting.  

LOL: Another good quote akin to Shel's about ice cream yesterday: "cookies...three had their way with me"!  I need to try and remember these for future use.

114.25; 1979 calories. I think I'm going to keep the calories up around here and see what happens. I'm feeling less bony as I get used to myself at this weight. I saw a woman yesterday who truly was underweight and I don't look anything like that. Though my shoulders, knees and collarbone seem somewhat prominent to me, my ribs and hips aren't sticking out.

DH and I had a good day yesterday: We met friends from home in Bradenton for lunch at a great restaurant on the water.  On the way home we went to Venice beach and snoozed on some adirondack chairs for an hour or so, then split peel and eat shrimp, wine, and key lime pie for dinner on the rooftop deck of Sharkeys restaurant overlooking the ocean. Ended the day sitting on our lanai talking.  Very nice day... We are going to Englewood beach today as it will be the only opportunity I have to go before I fly home on Saturday. The call of retirement is really strong here...