Responding to a Blogging Challenge

So, one of my favorite bloggers, Conversion Diary, has issued a challenge to post something everyday for seven days, starting today. Well this is a challenge indeed, for a number of reasons. First of all I have not  posted anything to my blog since my son, Michael, died last November. I hope the reasons for that are self-explanatory. (I would start to post to my blog, but couldn't think of anything worth talking about in light of that life-changing event.)

Oh, I have other excuses: I keep a one-year old every day and this week my three grandsons (ages 12, 10 and 7) will be here as well, and the weather is rainy with a chance of rain, and I need to plan indoor activities for them. . . etc., etc. etc.

But then I remembered that the woman issuing this blogging challenge has six children under the age of 10 and they all live with her ALL THE TIME.  She homeschools, blogs, writes books - and that barely scratches the surface of her active life. Needless to say I am in awe of her. So I decided to participate in her blogging challenge.

One last thing for today's post: not to sound too much like a country song, but my dog died last week, so the grandchildren will help to fill an otherwise empty house.

Thanks for the challenge Jen!



Motivations and Milestones (continued)

It's been a while since I mentioned my personal weight loss program. I say 'personal' because I'm not following any commercial programs, like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig.  The only requirements on my plan were: no alcohol, no candy, no bread and exercise 3-4 times per week.  I started this plan at the beginning of Lent, but early on I decided I would continue the regimen after Lent and until I had lost at least 50 pounds.

Well, I have lost 30 pounds so far!! Woo Hoo!!  But, I can tell that I am at a crossroads of a sort.  There are too many days that I am tempted to NOT work out and while I have stuck with my diet restrictions, there have been days that I have eaten too much, or things I should not have.  I know it is not uncommon to reach plateaus on a long-term journey like this.  And I know that I can't allow momentary lapses and temptations to derail my plan.

So this week, I've decided to step up my work-out schedule - go to the gym more often, increase the length of time I work out, etc. and kind of start over with the diet, you know, go back to what was working in the beginning. I know that I can do this, I just need to believe in myself again and not lose sight of the long-term goal.

What have you found that works to move you off the plateau you're on in your own journey?  It might not even be a weight loss journey.  Maybe it is a spiritual journey or a self-improvement program of another type.  If you have any tips, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for stopping by.

Diet Update - Motivations and Milestones

I promised to post a few milestones on this journey - what I'm calling my "Last Chance Diet". My first milestone was giving up three food groups for Lent: bread, candy and alcohol.  [What? Those aren't food groups?] This has been easier than I thought it would be - only with God's grace I know. Then, DH and I joined a fitness center at our church.  Since both of us have been off this treadmill, so to speak, for a while now, it has been somewhat painful to start exercising again, to be sure. I also wanted to be diligent about writing down everything I ate, but hey, two out of three isn't bad, right?

The result: I've lost 12 lb. since the beginning of Lent.  Now that's what I call a motivation! My next challenge is continuing my Lenten diet restrictions even after Easter. I plan on continuing at least until the fall family wedding, but I guess the real question is, can I make this a life-long commitment and should I? Specifically I'm asking, can I give up bread, candy and alcohol for the rest of my life? Should I? I can make arguments both for and against. If I can give them up for a season, surely I could learn to live without them forever, but do I need to be legalistic about it? I'm sure there are other things I should give up eating too.

One consideration is whether I can simply limit my intake of these things. For example, I knew when I gave up smoking in 1979 that I could not ever smoke even one cigarette again. I knew how addictive that habit was and that I would never be able to stop at one cigarette. I'm afraid the same might be true for at least two of the things I've given up for Lent! [Can you guess which two? Ha!]

One more thing that I will put in the "motivation" category - I was riding in the car with one of my grandsons about a month ago when I told him that I was giving up alcohol, among other things, for Lent.  He immediately looked up at me with the biggest smile on his face and said, "That's what I've been praying for Gran."

Really? Really? How can I disappoint that boy? Sigh!