I feel like I’ve been doing pretty well through this midlife transition. For anyone who hasn’t experienced it, there are a lot of things that happen to our body, in your life, with your family, sometimes where you live, if and where you work…it can be quite a time of upheaval.
I write about life’s changes regularly on my blog, Inspire My Style, and love sharing how to stay healthy, fit and age naturally.
One area that has caught up with me and continues to be really irritating is controlling my weight.
I’m aware of the belly fat, the changes and shifts of weight due to menopause and the slowing metabolism. I get it.
But the bottom line for me is, I don’t want to go out and buy new clothes in bigger sizes. Don’t want to do it.
And I’ve done really well for 64 1/2 years, but it’s getting harder to maintain the size I’ve worn for so long. Darn.
So I’ve done some soul searching, some whining and some (modified) swearing at the scale in the last few weeks. And when I was really honest with myself I realized that I am the culprit. Of course. No revelation here, folks.
I’m the one who eats the food, who does or does not work out or walk, it’s up to me. Yes, my body and slower metabolism make it harder to maintain, but no one is forcing me to graze and snack every time I walk through the kitchen.
I created a program for women in midlife called Midlife Magic, to combat the belly fat, bloating and weight gain. It works really well when I follow the plan, and a big part of the success is writing down what you eat on an Accountability Journal.
Well, I decided that I could keep track in my little head and didn’t have to record my food intake every day. Guess what? I was wrong. I lost track of those little bites and snacks here and there, made some poor choices with food, and 2 – 3 pounds jumped right on board. Doggone it.
Time to Get Back to Basics
So this week I decided to go back to the plan, to write down everything I am eating (as well as workouts &water consumption), and added another layer to the mix, which is counting calories for weight loss.
I’ve stepped up the workouts a little bit and am striving to walk 10,000+ steps a day instead of 8,000. I do a lot of walking inside as well as my daily walk outside.
I’m determined to rid myself of these excess few pounds. To some, it might seem silly or unnecessary, even a bit conceited, to go to such lengths over a few pounds. Seriously. What is the big deal?
Well for me, it goes back to how I feel, my confidence, and my wardrobe. I want to wear what I already own and feel good in those clothes.
It’s only been 5 days and one pound is gone. The other 2 or 3 will be harder, I know that. But I’m determined to get rid of those pesky buggers in my battle with the scale.
I’ll post an update in a couple of weeks, but I am determined to maintain a healthy weight that I am happy with and keeps me feeling confident about myself. Scale, you’re not going to beat me!
Update 10/17/19: So, it’s been almost a month since I decided to lose those pesky pounds, and my report today is that I’m down 2, with one more to go.
I think the difference has been doing three things faithfully:
- tracking what I eat
- counting calories
- increasing my daily activity level by walking more
The lifestyle of a blogger includes a lot of sitting, much more than my previous home staging career, so I have to get up and move around to save my sanity as well as work off a few calories.
It’s getting colder out, too, so my walkabouts have been indoors. I am not a cold weather person! But I will get the activity in somehow and actually enjoy stepping/marching in place, doing a light jog around the house, and finding other ways to get the steps in.
I’m pretty pleased, and my clothes feel better, too.
