Exercise by any other name is...a mood lifter

I've been having some problems with my emotions lately. Depression, blues, funk - call it what you will. Funny thing...I feel better today and I think there is direct correlation with my physical activity.

Saturday Tom and I did interval training for a half hour together. I immediately felt better. Then Sunday and Monday I worked in the yard, doing strenuous bush trimming and hauling for at least an hour and a half a day.

The result being, the last few days I've slept better, woken earlier and felt better. Emotionally, I mean. More optimistic, more hopeful. Not that the cloud cover has totally cleared, but there are rays of sunlight glinting through.

Some truths are so simple. To lose weight, exercise more and eat less. When you suffer from emotional lows, exercise releases endorphins that ease the pain.

Would that all truths would be so simple. Or rather, would that even these truths were as easy to implement as they are to understand. Could it be, I wonder, that my body is sending me into these downward spirals to force me to get active as a desperate act of self-preservation? I wouldn't be surprised. We are, after all, fearfully and wonderfully made.

Diets Are The Devil

Ok. Lesson learned: never, ever, ever diet again. Ever. I started that soup diet thingy I posted about. Lost 4 pounds in as many days...then fell off the wagon and ate in a very unhealthy manner for a week. Will I never learn? Dieting doesn't work, atleast not for me. What works is eating healthy, eating mindfully, and exercising. Boring but true.

Ah well. I'm trying not to be discouraged.

Beginnings

Today I started my new routine. I will be working on Mondays and going to online school the rest of the time. That opens up workout periods. So this morning I dutifully got up. I did my first home-yoga-practice and meditation. Then I went to the gym and ellipticaled (nice word, huh?) for thirty minutes (3.46 miles). The rest of day was spent doing school, cooking and talking to twyla. It was a good day.

Ready, set, go...jump start diet

While at my Mom's house last week, the topic of being a fatty came up, as it did several times. Mom and I are almost exactly the same size. Mom told me about a jump start diet she did last year. We decided to do it together over the next few weeks. I'm going back to Georgia in six weeks for a couple of days for my aunt's 75th birthday, a time for me to meet family I've never seen before. We decided to race to see who could lose more in 6 weeks. So, that seems like a nice length of time to lose 15 pounds or so. I hope, anyway.

Unfortunately, I've regained all but 5 pounds of the 30 I lost 2 years ago. So maybe this will be a way to get me back on track. The diet is one that doctor's give overweight patients going into surgery, to help them drop 15-20 pounds. I'll list it in brief below. The idea is to drink lots of water, avoid fried food, processed food and sweets. There is starchy food allowed only twice in the 7 day plan, meet only twice, and dairy once. You make up a huge pot of vegetable soup and eat that once or twice a day. The soup is made with cabbage, spring onion, celery, green pepper and diced tomatoes.

So, here it is, by the day: (veggies include all non-starchy varieties, prepared in a healthy fashion, as much raw as possible. Fruit excludes bananas, except on day 4. Starch only on day 2 and 7. )

1. soup, fruit
2. soup, veggies, baked potato with butter
3. soup, veggies, fruit
4. soup, 1-3 bananas, 1 serving yogurt or milk
5. soup, meat (chicken, beef or fish, cooked in a healthy fashion), fresh tomatoes (up to 6)
6. soup, meat, veggies
7. soup, veggies, fruit, 1 serving brown rice

So, I will do this for a week and see what happens. Although not appropriate or even do-able over the long term, it may be a good jump start to healthy, controlled eating.