Motivation and other 'ation' words: the semantics of weight loss and lifestyle moderation.

This is part of Jayne's Round 2 Blogger Challenge. 

I am afraid that this heading sounds like something that belongs in a peer reviewed academic journal, but I am really trying to examine what gets us going and what keeps us going - be that in a weight loss endeavour, in training to run a half marathon or just in cleaning the oven.

My motivation to do something about my weight was fairly straight forward.  I am obese.  I was more obese (when I started my 12wbt 'journey' in February) than I am now .  Frankly, I did not like the way I looked or felt and I was also starting to be concerned that I would end up immobile and chronically ill with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, you name it.

I love feeling fit and strong. I used to hate that feeling of getting down on the floor with the kids only to realise how hard it was to haul my massive carcass back up. I often had to lean on the furniture to manage it. It was slow and it was not graceful.

Now I can just hop up and down, no worries. I don't want to go back to feeling weak. That is why I will include resistance training as part of my life from now on.  But is this motivation?  Or is it incorporation of that behaviour into my life?

There are other 'ation' words which I have turned to in my quest for weight loss and fitness.  For example, there are things and people that fill me with inspiration.  This may be because, by their achievement, they have shown me what is possible.  For an amazing example, have a squizz at this:
http://bellaxthree.wordpress.com/my-transformation-with-12wbt/

Or I may be inspired because the accomplishment of someone else in circumstances so difficult puts things into context and perspective for me to say, "Pfft,  not eating too much and doing a bit more training?  Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Via Pinterest

Then there's determination.  This helps but I have found it is not a long term thing.  For me, determination comes and determination goes as my eye catches something shiny that makes me lose focus. 

From weheartit.com via Pinterest

The same can be said for perspiration.  Yes, I enjoy a good workout, but it's not enough to make the total lifestyle changes that I need.  A nice warm shower...  all that perspiration is down the gurgler.  And while I know this smacks of desperation I have also tried supplication:  "Dear God, if I could just lose 30 kilos overnight, I would never ever let myself get that way again.  Amen".    Apparently God doesn't work quite like that - how mysterious. 

To paraphrase Mish, motivation is good to get you started, but it's consistency and tenacity and personal integrity that will change lifestyle and form good habits - weight loss and other health and wellbeing benefits will come as result of that.  As far as these things go -

{I'm a work in progress}

weigh in time already....

Just a little update - lost 1.5kg this week. 

Yes, that is all well and good.  But last week I put on 1.3kg, so since the start of Round 2, I have lost 0.6kg.  I would like to be losing weight a little quicker than that!!

So, time to put my JFDI* on and stop going up and down within the same 2 kilo bracket as I have been doing for the last 6 weeks.  I don't quite know why, but I have found it really hard to get back into the mindset that I had going on for the majority of Round 1. 

*JFDI is 12wbt speak for going into robot mode and just getting on with what needs to be done.  I have to admit I have not always been a fan of this little acronym and I have thought it a bit jingoistic in the past.  BUT there are times, my dear reader, when it speaks very clearly to me.  This is one of those times. (By the way, I am sure you can work out what JFDI stands for.)

Here is what I am going to do:

• revisit my goal and ask myself if that is really what I want and if I am truly prepared to do the work it takes to achieve that goal.
• revisit my commitment to achieving that goal
• keep an eye on my excuses, some of which I am finding are still on high rotation and are, frankly, very convincing (well, they're tricking me anyway).

Inspiration...

During this past week of the 12wbt we were given the challenge to look at inspiration and to make an inspiration board.  At the risk of coming over all Oprah, I found that it was a really uplifting exercise and it was about much more than losing weight or aiming for a particularly gorgeous bod. (I am realistic after all.)

I had the best fun doing it because it really made me look at what makes my heart sing, what challenges me, what warms me, what I'm aiming for, what gives me joy, what motivates me and what my vision of a beautiful life looks like...

I made my inspiration board on pinterest.  Here's the link if you want to have a bit of a look: http://pinterest.com/jljm/inspiration/

Here are a couple of the things that inspire me.


Obviously, I'm trying to lose weight and get fit.  So pictures of people doing one legged wall sits, for example, inspire me.  Or this one.... which combines my ambition of being able to run far enough to employ fartlek training, with my enjoyment of juvenile sniggering.

from Pinterest

But I also had a bit of a perspective check doing the board.  One of the people I am truly inspired by is Aung San Suu Kyi who is the leader of the democracy movement in Burma.  Since 1988, she has been under house arrest in Rangoon on and off for 18 years.  She has seen her sons only a couple of times during that time and she was unable to be with her husband as he died of cancer in the UK.  She has sacrificed a lot for a cause and a country she believes in. 

Source

I just have to eat less and exercise more.  It's not hard. 
Living imprisoned in a different country from your family, with the expectations of everyone who wants freedom for Burma riding on your shoulders is hard.

It's been fantastic looking at the inspiration boards of other 12wbt'ers....  Here is a particular favourite from the beautiful Golden Girl.

http://travelshome.weebly.com/1/post/2012/06/my-inspiration-board.html

{And a little inspirational message to leave you with and don't let anybody tell you any different.  Sorry it's a bit small!}

Week 2 Blogger Challenge - Exercise

Thanks to Jayne for the Blogger Challenge this round.....  Click here to see this week's responses.

Ah, exercise. 
Or training as Michelle Bridges calls it.  (I love that.... makes me feel like an ath-a-loit!)

Me and Usain - fine examples of training athletes.  (Source:  greenoble.com)

I actually love exercise.  Always have.  Love the challenge it provides of doing a bit more, going a bit harder, pushing through a bit of discomfort.  If weight loss were about exercise, I would be a healthy weight and have no trouble keeping there.

Now this is not to say that I am super fit or anything -- just to say that I struggle more with the food side of things.  Which is a shame really, given that weight management is governed approximately 80% by nutrition and only 20% by exercise! 

I like to mix up my exercise, but I mainly go to the gym.  I have recently started Pump classes and I really like the challenge of inreasing my weights and getting stronger generally.  I have a knee injury which means I can't run and I am also restricted about walking, so I like to go on the rower, bike and cross trainers at the gym which means I can get my heart rate right up and get a good work out for the old heart and lungs.  I also have some exercise DVDs which I do on days I don't get to the gym and the dogs are also always grateful for any extra walks they might get to go on.  Love that incidental exercise.

Having kids, and trying to encourage them to be healthy and to incorporate exercise as part of their life, we try to exercise with them too.  This might be a walk along our local beach boardwalk (which, I must confess usually finishes with a hot choc at the breakwater cafe!) or riding the recently opened rail trail.  I do love a bushwalk as well.  So there are lots of options and no excuse to be bored!


Exercise also has added wellbeing benefits in that it helps me sleep well and it helps to clear my mind for some reason!  As someone who has had depression several times - and insomnia as part of that - sleep is something I am really grateful for and I don't take it for granted.  I also often work through little problems or get good ideas while I am exercising, so that's a little added bonus.

{So let's just get out there, move a bit - move a lot if possible - give it time and see what health, weight loss and general wellbeing improvements will come our way.}

Wednesday Weigh In, Week 2

Not happy, Jan....

That about sums it up.  I put on 1.3kg this week.  Just like that.  Easy peasy lemon squeazy. 

This was a hard post for me to write.  I didn't want to admit that this had happened.

But there you go.  I've often said this weight loss thing is about so much more than weight for me.  And so it proves.

Let's just see how I deal with this week's set back.

Weigh in Wednesday, round 2, week 1.....

Wednesday weigh ins are here again and in the interests of being open and honest I'll continue to post my results, come (or go) what may!

This morning saw a loss of 0.4 kilos since Monday morning (this is a quirk of the 12wbt, that in the first week we weigh in after only two days.)  So that means I am now 99 kg and that I have lost 8.2 kilos in total.  (Gee I wish I hadn't put that 2kg on in the pre season.....  sigh).

Looking forward to what next Wednesday will reveal...

Pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again...

Round 2 of the Michelle Bridges 12wbt officially started today.  Yay!  I'm excited to see the new nutrition and exercise plans and to get stuck into it again wholeheartedly. 

Over the intervening time between the end of round 1 and now, I put on 2 kilos.  Yes, that's right - 2 kg.  Today I weighed 99.4kg.

Normally, I would be gutted by this atrocity and be very severe on myself.  I would plan days of austerity and hunger in order to lose the extra weight.  Then I would not follow through on these plans.

Subsequently, I would then become even harder on myself, to the point of self loathing.  This would most likely be followed by some unwise eating choices which would compound the original problem.  These choices would no doubt involve milo.

Talk about a vicious cycle!

Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Or is it just me?

For someone who can string a sentence together and can appear quite lucid when necessary, it continues to baffle me why I can be tempted to think and act this way.

Well, not this time, buddy.  Not this time, my gentleman.  Of course I'm disappointed that I thought I could relax on my eating and exercise and allow a few of my favourite excuses a free rein. 

{But I did, so there's nothing for it but to pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again.}