Getting Back on Track

Ok, I am still struggling but I am holding my own in the war on weight. The stress I spoke of in my last entry is still a clear and present danger. Those of you who are trying to lose weight know what stress in your life can do to your weight loss program. Well I am fighting back so I’ve brought in the support troops, otherwise referred to as my wife. Earlier in my journal I mentioned starting or becoming a part of a weight loss group as a support mechanism. It helps when you can share with people who share similar stories and shore you up when you need it. In my case my wife is my support and including her in my program has yielded immediate results. She has motivated me to get up and exercise in the morning which is not me at all. I am an evening person. In any case she got me out to the Al Buehler fitness trail at Duke University . Now I have been there before but it is far from my favorite place to work out. It is a difficult work out that takes you through the woods, across streams, up and down hills in a torturous 3 mile trek. At least its torturous for me, a 51 year old baby boomer who hates running. But you should never under estimate the desire for an individual to look good in front of people whom they have a close relationship, especially someone of the opposite sex. At least that’s true for the male of the species. Well after that work out I felt great and I feel like I am back on track. And my wife is helping to make sure that I stay on track.

Next week I will start sharing with you some details of what my work outs are like. I’ll try to give you some idea of what each week is like for me.

Stress

This week has been chock-full of stressful events, even more than in the past couple of weeks. I haven’t lost any weight but I have managed not to gain any either. The stress related to several family crisis, getting my house ready to sell and traveling between Maryland and North Carolina on a weekly basis is making it difficult for me focus on sticking with the program. My weight loss plan does works for me when I stay true to it, but sticking with the plan is proving difficult. Even so I am determined to try to lose 10 more pounds before the end of the year. So far the benefits of my efforts have been a fitness level that has greatly improved.

Still I’ve got to better manage the stress that is resulting in the anxiety that I feel these days. I am finding out that maintaining a healthy lifestyle also means managing stress. People respond to stress in different ways. That response just like stress itself can be defined as either positive or negative. When it comes to stress it is not the situation but our reaction to it that causes anxiety. But stress well managed can be beneficial by strengthening you for future encounters. Here are a few tips I found to managing stress while on a diet that I plan to put into practice.

• Make a list of stressors in your life: these can be people or events.
• List your typical response: the food your reach for, in a response to stress.
• List alternate responses, other than food, to the stressors, for example:

1. Call a relative or friend
2. Take a nap
3. Take a hot shower
4. Go for a walk

Use the list whenever tempted to overeat.