Proud of myself

Well, I'm not proud of how I'm keeping up this blog! It's been nearly a month since my last post and that's a long time for me. BUT I am proud of how I am getting back into doing a little bit of yoga at home on a regular basis.

I like yoga and I have practiced it on and off most of my adult life. ... mostly off 😋 In the 90s I developed a special liking for Kundalini yoga. It's unlike other yogas in that it uses lots of movement instead of just getting into positions and staying there. Mom and I even got to know a Kundalini Yoga instructor and would go to her house for personal sessions. That instructor later became a trusted and loved friend who helped me take care of Mom in her early dementia years. Thank you Debbie!

Anyway - last year I joined a gym and started going to their yoga classes. It wasn't Kundalini, but I still liked it. Any good yoga is a workout for energy, flexibility and strength. Since the pandemic hit I have not gone to the gym, and I don't expect to go any time soon. I could watch a YouTube video and follow along, but I like just exercising on my own, so I sit cross-legged on the floor and I go thru a series of movements that I remember from my Kundalini classes. It only takes 10 minutes, but it really loosens me up and gets the blood flowing. 

My signature tag line is 

"Blessed be the flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape."

It's not just a cute saying, it is also something I believe is true for my body. I need to stay flexible. Can you touch your toes? I can touch my toes and bring my nose to my knees. At least I can now, after getting back into a routine of doing my daily yoga!

It was a book called Atomic Habits (thank you Toastmasters Book Club and Mary Helen for making me read it) that got me started again - lots of cool little tricks in that book to get yourself to do things you want to do. I haven't gotten to any part in the book yet that gets me to clean my office though 😞

Speaking of PROUD

Especially in this time where we're hearing others speak of the Covid 15 - meaning pounds gained while stuck at home ... I am especially proud of Jim and me for keeping our weight down. 6 years ago Jim lost a lot of weight and I lost a little. We went on a very strict doctor-led diet called NutriMost. We paid big bucks for guidance, supplements, and daily checkins with the doctor. We followed it to a T. Jim lost 50 pounds during the 2 month diet, then another 25 over the next year. I lost 15, then another 10.

Every day since then, we weigh ourselves. When the weight creeps up, we smack it down with healthy food, low or no carbs, and generally not eating much. I used to be hooked on sweets. Now, I can't remember the last time I had a cookie. We go out for an ice cream cone once every couple of months.

We'll have the occasional pasta meal, and we've been getting takeout from Flanigans of ribs and potato but when we see 2-3 extra pounds on the scale, Jim makes our dinners look like the photos below. In the lower left corner - that's not mashed potatoes, that's mashed cauliflower.

And here is a recent photo from one of our YouTube shows. 

We could each still stand to lose 10 more pounds, but that would probably mean giving up our wine, and I'm just not willing to do that!