K.I.S.S.!

Hi, I'm Tracy and I am overweight.
By a lot.

I have tried various things over the years, my first really big try at losing weight was when I tried Yoga....mind you, I was trying yoga during the same period of my life that my daily diet consisted of a triple whopper and large fries, and that was my entire caloric intake per day.

Guess what, it didn't work.  Sure, I gained a bit of flexibility from the stretching, but did it do anything for my weight? Nope.

Next was a diet that came express from an infomercial.  Believe me, the funds came express from the bank account as well!  Did that one work? You bet it did.  I dropped 52 pounds within a few months.  It was a super restrictive diet, with an immediate and insane slash to my calories.
They even had a website set up for support, except on the website, you weren't allowed to say 'burger' or 'soda' or anything that was not expressly recommended by the plan lest you send the others into a total feeding frenzy....you had to replace whatever the offending food with the word 'ick'.

A rather silly thing to do in my personal opinion.  As soon as I thought I could handle the occasional cheat day and brought back my regular 'ick' foods as advised by the website support, I gained back all 52 pounds and then a few extras.

Food isn't the only enemy in the battle of our bulge. My biggest enemy in this particular battle is myself.  I was brought up eating a certain way and I will say that changing this is one of the most difficult things that I have to do.  And I have to work on it EVERY DAY.  My progress is slow, but I am proud that I am making progress.

I have tried to win this from every angle.  I ate what I wanted, when I wanted it and tried to exercise it off. Guess what again, you can NOT outrun a bad diet, even if you manage to exercise off your excess calories, you really don't do much for your insides...packing your veins with fat, driving your cholesterol up, wearing down your gallbladder, and let's not forget the diabetes.
It IS possible to be thin and in bad health!

I saw a post on Facebook earlier today and it was an old acquaintance asking for a recommendation for gastric bypass.  A few replies later, this person was talking about needing to drop over a hundred pounds and going out for dinner (tonight) at a fast food place.
Ahem, it doesn't work like that!

My mantra of late is K.I.S.S.! (Keep It Simple Stupid!)
Stop it with the shortcuts, they don't work!  Gradually replace the garbage in your diet with REAL food.  Introduce these things to your tastebuds a little at a time.  Get your tail up off the sofa and get it moving.  Give your body what it needs to heal itself and it will!

Just doing this has helped me drop 40 pounds and keep it off for a year now.
Is it hard? You bet it is!  Do I still have a long way to go? Yup!
But more importantly....is it worth it?   Oh hell yes!

Yoga and a Big Girl....Fail!

Ok, I’ve admitted to myself that I’m no longer comfortable in my own skin.  When I was younger I was always small…to the point of looking like a little boy, flat chest, no hips, nothing girlish at all about me.

SO!  Thinking that it might be better to start off slow, and also being afraid of a broken bone trying to jog or *shudder* do aerobics, I figured the best plan of action was simple stretches, right? 

My first goal is to get a little flexibility back.  To be able to get down on the floor and play with the baby or pick up toys without having to get up ass-first.  You know how I mean get up on all fours and butt-up, then squat, then stand (with luck).  Hmmm, like a 2-year-old with no sense of balance does!
Ok, enough rambling and getting to the point.  I figured…stretch…meditation…breathing exercises = yoga! 

Being pleased with my decision, I promptly googled ‘yoga for beginners’ there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 9,086,589,763,209,875,437,625,474 yoga stretches and poses?!?!

I spent the better part of a day on Google yesterday feeling a bit overwhelmed.  Not to mention that if you try to Google images of said yoga poses to see what they are supposed to look like…it cross referenced a LOT of porn, hehe!

Feeling confident in myself, well, not so much as "myself" as in my decision to DO SOMETHING, I printed out all the little directions for about 25 warm up stretches and postures. 

Needless to say I looked nothing like the happy little trim cartoon figure that illustrated these ‘very simple’ postures for broken-down-old-beginners.  And I think I have a rug burn on my forehead now.

Adamant in moving on with my life and my new chosen direction, I managed to do all the exercises, although I look nothing like a tree and only managed to give the sun a half-hearted salutation.
About halfway through my ‘relaxing, weight losing, stress free postures’, I became aware that my breath was starting to come in ragged gasps and I was afraid that I would fall over while imitating said tree and knock myself unconscious.  No such luck! 

30 minutes later I finished and stretchy and am looking forward to being able to breathe again sometime soon!

Go Me!!!!