The Long Hall

Disclaimer - Not my actual hall.

The year has flown by and I suddenly realized that I have been seriously neglecting my blog!  I constantly think of things I want to write about but then never find the time.  This year has marked a great deal of new parenting experiences for me.  Everything from potty training, to preschool and as usual losing weight and depression.

I've done so much research regarding preschool and potty training that I think I have stored up enough information to write a whole blog about both.  Separately.  So I won't address those here today, I'll touch on them later.

When it comes to losing weight and depression I have some good advice to finally impart on both of those fronts.  As you may know if you're a frequent reader of my blog I have struggled with both ever since having my daughter 3 years ago.  I've had what can only be viewed as a miraculous breakthrough over the past 2 months that I plan to impart here over the series of the next few weeks.  I can only hope that my experience can help others so that maybe they will not need to struggle for 3 years like I have. 

I feel like I have lost 3 years of my life.  Gone to depression and sadness.

Sorry about the downer in this entry, but I feel the need to shock others into taking action.  I needed that myself, and had no one to do it to me.

Why is this called the long hall?  Well, the final part of this re-introductory post is to touch on how I'm losing weight.  I've struggled not just the last 3 years with weight, but my whole life.  I've always been like a yoyo, but never so overweight that I have high blood pressure and pre-diabetic.  That is where I have been since having my daughter.  Over the years I've tried so many fad diets - weight watchers, slim fast and calorie counting.  I've tried and failed repeatedly at exercising.  I walk a lot, and have always walked a great deal throughout my life.  Gee, at least my heart should be healthy, right?

At the beginning of June I received a magazine from my mother in law called prevention.  It had a detailed work out in it that outlined how someone who is sedentary could lose weight, and specifically target their belly fat.  It was a special plan laid out for women because our bodies respond differently than men's to exercise.  I tried it and over the whole month of June lost 6 pounds.  I felt better, I looked better.  Sadly I fell off the wagon at the end of June because my brother came to visit.  I got back on it 2 weeks ago and have done even better.

Tomorrow I plan to write another post about how I'm doing it.  I lost 4 pounds last week and tomorrow is my official weigh in for this week.  So far, I have lost 2 pounds this week! 

The long hall?  I find the hardest part about being parent is actually finding the time and place to exercise.  Sure if I was rich I could afford a babysitter just so I could run or go to a Zumba program (assuming  could even afford that).  But I'm not rich.  In fact I don't even fall onto the scale as middle class.  My family is considered in the low income area.  That makes these things more difficult.  I started out trying to get my cardio by doing those DVD's on Netflix for exercise, like dance workouts.  That is impossible to do with a toddler underfoot and I quickly discovered that not only do I not have rhythm but I have the exact opposite.  My dreams of being a prima ballerina are down the tubes I guess.  I don't live somewhere where I can go running outside.  I can't go to a park, first of all they're all at least a 20 minute drive away and I can't afford the gas everyday but honestly I really just didn't have enough motivation to get in the car and go somewhere.

The long hall.  I began to run in my house.  You heard me right and no I don't have a treadmill.  I have a hallway that meets my greatroom.  It's exactly 20 passes.  I began to run that.  Using the couch to 5K system (I'll talk about that more tomorrow) I was able to get off my butt and go for it.

For the first time in my life, I'm running.  I've never been a runner.  I have a bum knee and hip issues from my pregnancy.  But I'm running!  Granted I will not be in the Olympics this year but I may someday participate in one of those 5K's for a charity.  I feel great and feeling great means more to me than seeing the numbers go down on the scale.  Well, maybe...

I'm going to finish there for today.  This is a pretty long post but I guess I had a lot to write about.  I'll be back tomorrow to do my second official weigh in and to detail my workout and diet plan more.