Finding ME– Starting the New Journey

It is Sunday morning— beautiful sunny day— and I am working to find me!  If you have read my previous blogs, you know I have mixed  feelings about retirement running the gamut from being excited to being confused to being lost so I sat myself down and had a good talk with me and decided that I am a “project person” and now I have the time to make ME a project!!  Through the years, I have had a lot of projects– school, family, Sunrise— usually multiple projects associated with each of these, but as I walked myself through my crazy past I did realize that no where was I one of the projects?! Oh I was a part of all of them of course, but never could I really title one of them:

Charliss

so I believe that I will now make me a project and that I will use this blog as part of my journey.  It may be rather boring to many of you so I will apologize ahead of time and suggest that you save this for bedtime reading!!  I will still put on some of my short stories and poems and I will probably have a rant or two about something. I have joined weight watchers (for about the 100th time!) and would also like to share my journey about that.

 In the Beginning:

Well, first I needed to make some divisions so I can set goals for different parts and show progress in those areas.  I will try to address an area in my weekly blogs (so the first thing was to set a day to blog and make it routine!)  I am starting on Sundays and hopefully that will help me to set myself up for a week of success!

I have labeled my divisions: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Psycho-social. (Ever heard of these before, nursing facility folks???) In fact, this will probably have a bit of a “care plan” feel to it, but it will make Amanda’s job of admitting me to the nursing home — when the time is right-— a lot easier. She will just give them my “care plan”.

For this  beginning I have labeled each of these but I plan to go into depth with the individual divisions each week and share with you any special progress with the other divisions should it develop! I will start with the Physical.

For the most part, I feel I am in pretty good shape physically if you count any diseases or complaints but in pretty “not so good” shape if you count restricting my activities because of my weight!  (Whew– there I have said it. Crazy that I feel like I am sharing a secret when the evidence is there for all the world to see!)

Now trying to lose weight has kind of been a hobby of mine for years starting with belonging to clubs like TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) in high school and several trips to Weight Watchers through the years. 10 years ago I even had surgery with a lap band put into place and at that time, did lose about 80 pounds, but have put several of them back on. I had to even have that band redone a few months ago with the suggestion from my physician that if it didn’t work, he would consider another option of surgery which is a sleeve. When I realized that the update of the band hadn’t worked, I did think about the sleeve but wanted to try Weight Watchers ONE MORE TIME!!!

June 3rd was my first official day of this journey. I started with buying the program on line and paid extra to go to meetings because I felt I NEEDED those meetings to keep me focused and I liked the tips I got from the other members.  Still I didn’t actually pick a meeting until June 24th which was a Saturday morning.  Stepping on the WW scales showed that I had lost 13.8 and I was quite excited. However– it is a drop in the bucket for what I hope to lose and I have just begun a long journey and the light at the end of the tunnel is pretty dim– not dark but dim!

I am learning things every week and my progress has slowed down a  bit but for the first time in my life! I feel I have truly committed myself to this project.  One of the first things I realized was that I have always felt like the things I put in place such as being a member of one of these meetings or having that surgery was all it should take and the pounds should just melt off but I never truly committed to the other part that was vital and that is: me buying in— it is me realizing that these are tools but without me using the tools, that is all they are! Just tools.

Now it helps that the plan is so easy that I can follow it on my IPhone so it stays in front of me daily.  I have also added a very despised word to my vocabulary: WALK!  Those who know me know that I will run (in my car) over a little ole lady at the grocery store to park close to the front door and limit, when possible, shopping trips to those stores that have the riding carts! and it is now time to change a bit of the mindset!!

I live on a hill about half way up the hill, so now I have Will take me to the top on his way to work, and I walk back.  It is downhill so not so tough yet but starting tomorrow, I will increase it by about half a block by walking around a circle at the top of the hill before I start back down.  It really isn’t a lot, but making myself do it each morning is a bit of a stretch! I get credit on my WW app for exercise, so I wear this little ditty on my hip that counts the steps and my weekly goal is to increase my daily steps by 500 every day.  I heard that you are supposed to shoot for 10,000 steps a day BUT at this point, this seems a long way out there!!

I also am changing my food selections from the store– the frig contains lots of fruits now– washed and ready for me to grab when I want something quick and legal, and if I eat fast food (which used to be my staple), I figure my points prior to ordering.  This app lists a ton of restaurants and the points for each of their selections.  I have found that if the local restaurants aren’t listed here, I can get on the internet and google them and most have already calculated the points but if they haven’t, there is a calculator that will let me put the nutrition information in and walla…your points are there before you know it!!

This also includes beginning to cook again and plan meals and buy groceries that aren’t just microwave ready– another re-learning curve for me.  When my hips were bad, I lived with Amanda and family and she is an awesome cook, so popcorn was about all I had to master. Then when I moved out and Will (my son) and I shared a house, and we had really different schedules so fast food became our mainstay.  Well lots of learning and planning ahead and I think I am going to welcome this change of focus but it remains to be seen!! If I find something especially yummy, I will share them with you and of course, I will also share the flubs cause there will be plenty!!

Well, think I will close this out for now and next Sunday will update you on the progress.  Have a blessed and wonderful week!