Below 3000 (No, not pounds!)

Wohoooooooooooooo

Today I celebrate moving out of the 3000's. I probably will be biking most of my way to 3650 and my bum which has never known to be flabby is going to be granite by the end of it!

Continuing on from my last post I have been trying to relax and let go of that picture of myself I think I ought to be. I have been hanging on to that for dear life and admittedly been rather tense and intense about. So I have been trying to wrap it into a glittering bubble and let it fly off into the distance. How does one know one has let it go? I can visualise it going but how do I KNOW it is gone? Bet with you there is no definite answer to that so I let that question go too.

Concentrating not on what I could or should do, but what I actually am doing is certainly an improvement. It helps me think more clearly and be honest with myself.

Bouncily yours........

New definition of success for me

I have just been reading about John Wooden, THE most successful basketball coach of all times and one of his maxims struck me in the context of weight loss. His website is fascinating.

John Wooden did not discuss winning or losing with his players because he thought that that was a byproduct of preparation. He focused on the process of making his players into the best team they were capable of becoming.

His definition of success is not how much you have achieved, accumulated or how powerful you have become. He believes that success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.

As I have started concentrating on daily exercise and action towards becoming a super fit person this is making a lot of sense. I focus on that daily action rather than a weight goal which I may or may not be able to achieve. It is about being present, in the now. Think about anything you are frustrated about not being able to achieve. It is highly likely that you are frustrated because you are more attracted by the idea of achieving than the idea of what you have to do to achieve it. So it is about falling in love with what needs doing?

Just saying it out loud is interesting: Success is a byproduct! It takes away the significance from that moment when you finally hit that goal, that moment when you make it, reach the top, are a success.

Success is a byproduct will become my daily mantra. Peace of mind and relaxing about weight would mean so much more than hitting htat goal.

What are goals for

if one can not change them. I have been trying to go with my head through the wall and have been getting exactly nowhere. So it ain't working, I am getting it.

Slight changed of tactic and I am focusing more on being fit and strong. Fat, fit and strong is better than fat, flabby and weak I guess (she says with moderate enthusiasm because deep down all she wants is to be slim).
The stationary bike is back in the living room for the time being. It is just not nice in our garage come gym when it is cold and wet outside. Also in the gym I can not watch the backlog of films I have recorded . So I am peddling my heart out in the living room, 20km a day. Today I was so engrossed in this film that I ended up doing 30km. Fine by me. Tomorrow it is back into the gym to do a session of weight lifting.

When I was redefining the goal it came to me how many things I still want to achieve which are physical and depend on me being good shape:

Dive into water
This might sound funny to most but I simply have not been able to do it. And they have tried to teach me, including this strange boyfriend I had in Munich who was a Psychiatrist in training. He ensured that I got out of that relationship double fast when he took me to meet his psychiatrist mentor for 'tea' (nobody in Germany invites people for 'tea' other than those who have ambitions of grandeur) First I was quite flattered, she lived in a very posh villa but I realised very quickly that I had been asked so that she could have a chance to look me over. He obviously wanted (or, even worse, needed??) her approval. I was young and rebellious, so I obliged and gave her plenty of reasons to disapprove. He never taught me to dive from the pool side and I think I had a very lucky escape there.

Crawl
No not on all fours but in the water. I am stuck with my breast stroke and want to do more.

Hand stand
This is a hangover from being one of the worst at sport in school. I think the way sports teachers reinforced our beliefs that we were not very good at anything sporty was a crime. But they obviously preferred to spend their time with the best and gave up very easily if people like me did not pick up quickly enough whatever they were teaching. So I still can not do a hand stand (but at least I can suck my big toe!)

Learning to ski
Oh my, another one of those school memories. We went on only one ski trip from school and on the first couple of days everybody started out on the nursery slopes so they could assess our skills. Thinking back, my expectations were so low of myself. I was not alone on that front and was immediately grouped with the nerds who were bad at sport in general. None of us had ever been on a pair of skies. Of course our group ended up the entire week on the nursing slopes close to our youth hostel and the rest of the school went off, skiing off big mountains, having great days out. Guess where the best teachers were during that week? Ever heard of self fulfilling prophecies?

Tandem hang gliding
Hurling off a mountain secured to a nylon wing yeahhhhhhh (there is a weight limit and I am not within range)

Triathlon
This ambition has been with me forever and I will just have to bloody do it or I will still be talking about it when I am 60. Being able to crawl would be good, being able to run would be useful too .............................

I am still kicking

Wow, that was a long and unplanned break.
My Kiniesologist prescribed Walnut tincture to help balance my thyroid. It did not exactly balance but send my thyroid activity stratospherically up into overactive. I ended up feeling crap with constant chest pain and throat ache for about 3 weeks. I got lots of the side effects described for overactive thyroid, all apart from weight loss(!). Ah well. If you are reading this and have an under active thyroid problem, I can highly recommend you try Black Walnut tincture. After reading up on it, the general consensus is that is has a stimulating effect on the thyroid and I can confirm that.

Back in the saddle I have started to catch up on this years kilometer goal and have done 76 km in the last three days. When the thyroid is back in balance I feel like a new born person - it is like magic!

Could have done without this little episode but it is all character building I guess. Weight is about the same as it was three weeks ago.