The Research is Killing Me

Well, I continue to be very busy with work and work-related activities (like calculating quarterly sales tax, yech) but I've got my next post roiling around in my brain.

I've been visiting a lot of sites--mostly medical--and doing a lot reading and bookmarking. I think I'm going to have to break my post up into at least two posts. Things are awfully complicated.

Please bear with me. I'll write something worth sinking your teeth into as soon as I can.

In the meantime:

Gratitude statement: I'm glad I got a good walk in today.

The Hard Truth, Told by a Winner

I have a lot of work coming up and am trying to find the time to write a post for this blog that requires a fair bit of research. Please bear with me. I might be somewhat MIA for awhile.

In the meantime, I really recommend you become a regular reader of this blog: Debra's Just Maintaining. It's a relatively new blog, so reading all her archives won't take long at all.

This is a hard blog to read. Debra has done what so many are striving for: she's lost a large amount of weight and kept it off for about 7 years. But Debra does not wear rose-coloured glasses. She has worked extremely hard to keep this weight off. She likens maintenance to a sometimes full-time, always part-time job. She recognizes that long-term maintenance is something that only a small percentage of people succeed in doing.

It's not easy reading, no matter where you are on your personal weight-related journey. But I highly recommend you read her. Then, get on with your life, because it's yours to live.

Gratitude statement: No matter how hard life is (and today it's feeling hard), I still have the strength to soldier on.

Perhaps "Mindful" is the Better Word

I continue to read thoughtful bloggers who are convinced that intuitive eating is simply a license to gorge oneself. I won't repeat the three posts I recently devoted to this topic here, here and here. They speak for themselves.

I will, however, make a modest proposal: I will no longer call it intuitive eating, but rather "mindful" eating, a term that I feel better conveys the awareness and carefulness that are central to this approach.

My gratefulness statement for today: I am grateful that I can walk.

Gratitude

I'm a big bookmarker. When I find a blog I like, I bookmark the page. I find it easier than following.

Tonight, looking through my bookmarks, I came upon a site called "Nourishing the Soul" and saw this post, which really speaks to me.

Gratitude--OK, it's Thanksgiving here in Canada and it's sort of appropriate to think about gratitude, but making a statement of gratitude every day...now that's something I think I can do.

Today, I'm really grateful for many things, big and small:

-having the money to get my fridge repaired: being without a fridge for 24 hours was pretty horrible;
-making the best turkey I've ever made in my life;
-having a beautiful family;
-going for a little walk.

Let's see if I can put at least one gratitude statement at the end of each blog post from now on. Feel free to call me out if I forget!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The turkey's in the oven, the Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes will be going in soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends...and to all my readers. We have much to be thankful for!

Complain!

I have had a leakage problem with my 3 year old Whirlpool washing machine for over two months. Long, long story not worth telling here.

I expressed my displeasure with the company on a website called "my3cents.com" and...after a bit of "to-and-froing", I will be receiving a new washing machine and having the old one taken away for the cost of a new warranty: $150. I had a legitimate complaint and the company responded correctly.

Moral of the story: complain, someone is listening.

Once a Year

Once a year, for the past four years or so, I come to Quebec City (which is certainly one of the most magical places in North America--yes, this is an advertising plug!) to interpret at a 2 hour meeting.

Once a year, for the past four years, I have felt utterly terrified. It's a high-level meeting and tends to be technical and we receive no information on the exact topic. Every year, there are vocabulary surprises. For the past three years, I have hired a very competent colleague here in Quebec City as my team mate.

This year, for the first time, I didn't feel absolutely out of control scared. Yes, we did get lobbed a few terminological bombs but we worked together as a team, helping each other out of some rather tight spots.

This is the first year that I haven't sat at the airport feeling like a total failure. I feel calm and good and boy, does it feel nice.

Last year, I posted after the same meeting, sitting here in the airport. I quoted Eleanor Roosevelt, and she's worth quoting again today:

"Do one thing every day that scares you."

Do you?

How Do You Feel About This?

A message from the U.S. Surgeon General:

An Interesting Blog

While there is much to be said for personally blogging one's weight loss/weight maintenance/weight issues, I am also interested in a less personal and more scientific approach.

Enter Obesity Panacea, where the big issues are discussed. I for one, intend to read it regularly. Check it out.

Does the Middle Way Exist? Yet More Heresy from NM

You've spent a few years eating poorly: lots of junk food, very little in the way of unprocessed, healthy foods. Perhaps this is the way you learned to eat as a child and you never knew there was any other way to do things, so you've developed a lifelong habit of overeating "garbage".

To makes things worse, ever since you were old enough to get your license, "moving you body" has meant getting in the car to get from point A to point B. Your idea of exercise was taking out the garbage or looking for the TV remote control.

And then, one day (or over a period of time), you realized that something was wrong with the picture. Maybe it was constant acid reflux, high blood pressure or just simply not liking what you saw in the mirror.

And you resolved to make a change...a RADICAL change: no more junk food, lots more fresh food; no more driving when you could easily walk; maybe the decision to buy a bike for exercise, or join a gym.

And you really went for it, heart and soul. You made the changes; you felt better, lighter, pleased as punch with yourself.

Suddenly, life threw you a curve ball (or two or 27) and all these recent good habits seemed just too hard to keep up. And you went back to the bad old days.

Here's what I'm wondering. And here's where the heresy comes in.

Is there middle ground between the "bad old days" and perfection in all that you eat and do all the time?

If you can't take the heat (i.e. always being on plan), is the only alternative to get out of the fire (and binge to your heart's content)?

Do you have to chose between the way of the warrior or the way of the slug?

Is it all or nothing?

Is it the fast lane or the no lane?

Or can you find a "middle way"--slow, with fits and starts, but your way and your speed?

Even if you drop off the diet bandwagon for awhile, does it mean that your only alternative is to go back to the bad habits? Can't you keeping applying those new, better eating habits, even if you're not formally on a diet? Can't you keep up that evening walk, even if you let your gym membership slip?...

And in so doing, keep building the new habits until, slowly, they become second nature?