Exercise and Goal Setting

[MoonGal]

I know because of eating disorders and people's lived experience that talking about diet is vorbotten in detail so I will keep this personal, relevant and general.  This is about goal setting so on topic.

I am in a struggle with my weight - since my hysterectomy (and both ovaries) were taken out year before last, since my back injury, a few years before that, since being on an anti-psychotic since last year- AND an anti depressant for the past 10 years - i have piled on weight. i am rotund (mostly around the middle) and unhappy with it. I feel compulsed to eat since being on the anti-psychotic - and sugar is high on that compulsion.  I am vegan, so everything I eat is vegetable based, and there are now vegan everything subsitutes, chocolate, soy ice cream... biscuits. OMG.

I have been sober for 6 years this coming May - and I KNOW how to put down a harmful substance, I have decided to stop cold turkey, one day at a time - the icecream and chocolate - because i have been trying to reduce to no avail... yet the very thought of that of my 'comfort' food being 'gone' is sending me spare. 

So goals for next 14 days are - replacement!
Desserts will be fruit (fruit salad, or mandarines, or pinaepple, or a banana - etc still cut up in a bowl so it feels like dessert.).
Post-dessert before bed chocolate will be a small hot (oat) milk cocao drink, not sweetened.

I will avoid the sweets isle in the supermarket like I avoid the drive through or pubs. Not "my place".

I need a strong and reverberating mind image to assist with this to substitue in my mind when I start obsessing about the things I am choosing to not eat... - something calming, wholesome, kind...
But am so strung out about this I can't seem to come up with one. 

Anyways, i thought it would help if i set my intention down in my 'community' just like I did with the excercise goals.

I walked 1.2 kilometres this morning in 20 minutes (that is a 5 minute gain from last week.)

[Shaz51]

hello @MoonGal, @CherryBomb, @Mazarita, @snoopy, @Former-Member , how are you today ??

well I only did a little bit today , got my hair done today , had a doctor`s appoinment and then it rained ,

[NikNik]

Hi @Shaz51

Raining here too - but a welcome relief from the heat! How great is it to get your hair done! Did you make the most of it?

Your post reminded me to post my own update! I travel a bit for work and stay in random hotels, so I was very pleased when I found the hotel I was in on Tuesday had a gym - which was completely empty!

I was very excited to make use of it 🙂

[Shaz51]

that is great @NikNik,

and yes it was a  good afternoon and when i got home , my hubby made me a nice  cup of coffee

[Appleblossom]

Hello all.  I have only just found this thread.

May I join?

My exercise goals have varied a lot at different times.  At the moment I am into "functional exercise".  In the last 2 days I certainly raised a sweat doing gardening.  Its totally out of control since I neglected it before christmas and being away etc. Travelling involved a bit of walking ... and I had 2 short swims which was wonderful.

Like you @MoonGal I struggle with weight and food intake.  I tend to try similar approaches though I am not vegan.  We probably need to to reduce portion sizes ... as I eat with my son and keep him company .. and he can pack it away too.  I dont want weight loss to be too much of a focus ... but it would be lovely if it was an outcome of an active life enjoying healthy food.

[Shaz51]

Hello @Appleblossom, you are very welcome , how are you ?

with us doing domestic house cleaning and mowing we are sweating all the time while drinking lots of water ,doing little bits at a time can make all the difference ,

[Mazarita]

Hi @Appleblossom, welcome, and yes I think 'functional exercise' defintely counts.

@Shaz51, it seems like you get a lot of exercise with your work. I work up a sweat in a short time doing domestics. Good on you for the fitness you must already have happening there.

@NikNik, sounds like fun getting a gym all to yourself!

@MoonGal, I hear you on the weight problems and good on you for starting on an eating plan to compliment your exercise. I am also into working on accepting my body as it is at any given time and loving it as much as possible, even though I also hope in the future to be a healthier weight.

Today I walked for about an hour all up: 45 minutes down the beach to get to my support group and then about another 15 minutes getting around and getting home by bus. Legs were good to me. Happy with that for today.

[Appleblossom]

I agree that acceptance and loving our bodies as they are is important @Mazarita for coming to terms with our health issues, pain, disability and as sexual or celibate (as I tend to be lately) beings.

[MoonGal]

@Appleblossom - of course you can join in! Welcome...

I too did not want to make weight or body image a focus of my exercise goals, but in truth it sitting there like Uluru, I had been trying to 'cut down' on the various sugary things but that just wasn;t happeneing. In my first post I talked about not wanting weight loss to be part of the 'plan' but I was kidding myself if I thought 1.2 kilometre waddle a day was going to start reducing weight when I consumed more kilohoules than exercise output is possible!

I try to be accepting of my body, with all its flaws and droopy bits - I'm in my 50's was 'buff' for a few years when I stopped drinking alcohol and went vegan, was swimming three times a week. I loved my body then, but mostly I have never been an admirer... I noticed this morning my tattoos are droopy (OMG!) oh well... them's the body breaks.

Yesterday I bought a rockmelon and some (underripe!) bananas and made a slurry in the food processor (added 4 dessert spoons of caramel sauce because the bananas were underripe they were not sweet!) and froze it - so I could have it like a dessert. It made a kilo, so that is not much sugar across the whole lot. It tastes nice, and is cold and desserty while not packing the punch of the so-good soy icecream... I also bought some other fruit to eat if I start to crave chocolate! 

I still get functional exercise too - vacuuming, we have a monster vacuum cleaner that weighs a ton, dragging it around is a work out in itself. This is one home duty that I loathe immensley, I always end up crippled at the end of it. 

I am just waiting for some cold sore lesions to heal up before I get in the pool (pools are not exactly sterile!) with my new bathers (which i still haven't tried on! But they are 4 sizes bigger than my old pair so hopefully will stretch around Uluru! 🙂

Need to get out now for our walk, doggits are restless and wanting to go - thety are great excercise mates.

[MoonGal]

@Mazarita, Your 45 minutes of walking is inspiring! I live in an area where I can walk to shops, the library etc - so I do mostly - but yesterday got to 39 degrees so I cheated and went by car. (I di do an early morning walk tho). 

@Shaz51, I must remember to drink more water! You sound like you have your physical work and body needs well belanced.

@NikNik, Great to have the gym to yourself! What equipment is your favourite?

@CherryBomb, you talked bout drop backs. OMG! I watched the video.... Well done for even trying. My spine is a mess, I have no intervetebral discs left at all in my lumbar spine, so its bone on bone - I almost fainted just watching that video! 

@CannonSalt, how's things going for you?