Happy birthday to me! I turned 43 a few days ago, which means I’m close to my healthaversary or whatever we health bloggers call the date we started doing what we’re doing. In my case, it was three weeks after my 40th birthday.
I’ve been hanging out at this liminal point weight-wise for quite a while. Part of me would like to be “done” and on maintenance (scare quotes around done because are we every done?), but part of me thinks that’s an insult to the person I was, and there was nothing wrong with her, or with who I am now, for that matter. I don’t expect an easy resolution here!
What I’m focusing on instead are attitudes and behaviors I want to try to be happier and more satisfied with my life. So, for my birthday, I’m trying out yoga.
I’ve been feeling anxious and irritated, and using food to try to medicate those feelings away. I was trying to use regular exercise (elliptical, walk/jogs, classes) to help mitigate those feelings, but that exercise was feeling mechanical, something to get through. Music was something to motivate me to move faster and to distract me from what I was doing with my body.
All well and good, and I’m sure it was good for me, but it wasn’t doing anything for my irritation and my cravings. I decided to try yoga. My understanding was that yoga wouldn’t do much for calorie burning, but my goal was to quiet the mind, not burn the fat.
I’ve tried three classes so far, and I’m shocked–I think it’s helping in quelling the cravings. I’m a total skeptic when it comes to what I consider woo woo stuff, and yoga is the ultimate in woo woo in my book.
But yesterday, there was a chocolate cake in the office kitchen. I was very hungry, as I was eating lunch late. Instead of eating the cake, I really wanted to eat my lunch (my kabocha lentil tagine-yum!). I told myself after I ate that, if there was something left I could think about it then. Sure enough, there was one piece left when I returned to wash my bowl. I passed it by. It was still there later, and I still didn’t go for it.
I have NEVER passed up on cake in my entire life. I was the kid who swiped frosting flowers off of my sister’s birthday cake before we sang happy birthday. It wasn’t hard; it just wasn’t what I wanted. The power of yoga, or new mental perspective? I don’t know.
The other thing I’m trying is a pressure cooker! My DH got it for me for my bday. It’s sitting on my counter, all shiny with its sticker still on it. I’m so excited! I’m reading all these cookbooks to figure it out.
I ordered two pressure cooker cookbooks from Barnes and Noble, which I’ve grown to like better than Amazon. The prices are close, same free shipping after $25, but it’s FAST-I got my books the next day, whereas Amazon takes a week just to ship my stuff. Well, one of them. The other one, mysteriously, was a book about Hawaii. Is Barnes and Noble trying to tell me something?
So I’ll try something in my new cooker soon… gulp!
What new things are you trying?
