Attainable goals — a good place to start
I have gained a stomach roll, and quite likely much more than that, but I don't own a full-length mirror, so I will just talk about my stomach today.
This may have started after I completed our family book project. Or maybe its origins are when I found Pringles on sale for a few consecutive months. Maybe it was when I started eating to stay awake again. But the real trouble began when I found some shortbread-based chocolate chip cookies at Walmart — eighteen huge cookies for $5.00. Who could resist? My son could resist, that's who. So the onus fell on me to eat all of these cookies by myself.
I stop at Walmart on my way home from my Saturday job, so it was easy to measure how many cookies I was consuming per day. I often had one or two cookies left over at the end of seven days. So my average was about two to three cookies per day. "That's not terrible" I told myself as I continued to restock these cookies week after week after week.
Then came Christmas and I thought I would buy a little bit of candy in lieu of Christmas baking. Nothing major. Just $19.59 worth of Tootsie Rolls, foil wrapped peanut butter cups and some hard sweet and sour candies to be shared among my family. Oh, and a few boxes of Toffifee chocolates, and some Cheezies, and chips.
My stomach starts to feel queasy just reading that paragraph. This stash did last throughout the month of December and into January. My son did help me out with most of the above, but I had to eat all the cookies alone.
Needless to say, I've been having a hard time cutting my toenails lately. I prefer to think of this as losing my flexibility, but my cut-to-the-chase mother asked me if maybe I couldn't bend to reach my toes because of my little paunch. "No, Mom. I am just not very flexible anymore," I replied, noting the fact Mom did have a point.
As the candy jars emptied and the chip and Cheezies cupboard ran dry, I still had one last job to do — polish off the last of the cookies. By the time this happened, I was feeling about six months pregnant and thought maybe I had a tumor. "Yes, that would explain everything!" I told my deluded self. I was quite certain there was nothing growing in my stomach but I did picture a big wad of shortbread chocolate chip cookie dough caught up in my digestive tract.
"I need to do a 10- day cleanse!" I optimistically told myself. I really need to find someone besides my cats, my household appliances and myself to talk to. Yes!! That's it. As soon as the cookies were gone, I would cut out sugar, milk, coffee, flour and red meat. Yeah, right! That wasn't going to happen. So I thought I would just cut out "one of the above" to determine what food group was causing me to bloat up like a balloon. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wasn't going to do it. Then it hit me. I would cut out one food. And that food would be my most favourite cookies in the world.
I ran out of cookies a week ago and I can already wear my jeans again. While I was at it, I thought I could do one more thing. I would not snack after supper.
It has been five days and I know I am on the "cleanse" that is attainable for me to endure. My stomach is so happy to have a break. I know I need to do more than cut back a little. I really need to start moving more. I don't sit still a lot during my daycare days, but I am certainly not stretching my muscles either. I wasn't lying when I told my mom I am not very flexible these days. Maybe I'll start with the stretches the physiotherapist gave my son, for his back. Start small. That is the key for me. Eating less is a start. Eating smarter is a good idea. I read a little on "eating smart" and I cannot commit to that. So I choose to "eat foolishly" from time to time with an eye on eating better.
I know I need to move more. Sleep and lethargy are my guiding lights at the moment and I know this is not good. But it completes me.
It isn't a full body cleanse nor is it a full body workout. But "eating less" and "stretching a little" is a very good place to start.
