(not my scale or feet)

1. Running will never be easy for me but I can do it in intervals.

2. Exercise alone – at least in the amount of time I am willing to devote to it – will not help me lose weight.  (18 weeks exercise – no loss of lbs.  Add food journal – lose weight)

3. I do not look forward to exercising – but I can still do it anyways. (And it feels wonderful when it’s done. )

4. When I am done with exercising my usual hour on the treadmill, I look “interesting”.

5. On less motivated days, I can talk myself into exercising by pretending “I’ll at least just walk a couple of miles”.  Most often I do far more.

6. Exercise happens each week because I plan for which days it can happen.

7. Treadmill time without music would be far more difficult.

8. Every time I exercise, I understand why people do not do it.  It’s hard. Very hard.

9. My default is lazy and passive, but I am still exercising three times each week.

10. To accomplish exercising, I must keep it simple.  Treadmill. Basement. Mostly morning. Nowhere to drive, no one to meet. (occasionally push mow the lawn, walk in the neighborhood, elliptical – – but mostly treadmill.)

11. If I contemplate doing this for the rest of my life….I cannot contemplate doing this for the rest of my life.  A week at a time.

12. Keeping a food journal of everything I eat is eye opening.

13. A kitchen scale helps keep me honest in what to log into my food diary.

15. Portions on packaging are rarely realistically what I’d prefer to eat.

16. I have gotten better at adjusting to smaller portions and NOT cleaning my plate.  Or making that cheesecake from Bravo’s last 3 days.

17, I can still eat cheesecake and chocolate and maintain (or even lose) weight.  I cannot eat cheesecake and chocolate every day and lose weight.

18. Keeping a food journal is often tiring – but since it works – I will do it forever if need be.  Better than NEEDING to do it (i.e. counting carbs as a diabetic).

19. Weighing in every morning is what works best for me.  I usually take the best of three.

20. I have exercised and kept a food journal successfully about 6 years ago – and lost 35 lbs.  I stopped – thinking I had everything under control.  I did not.  I re-gained the weight.  I would like to stick with it this time – even if it’s hard.  Or boring.

21. Being female and menopausal has made being successful at these efforts more difficult.

22. Some people love to exercise.  Or love to run.  I mostly do not understand those people but I have glimmers of enjoying the challenge of exercising.

I am so very blessed to live a life in which there is too much food available to me. I live a life in which I need to deliberately add exercise to my day to day life to increase my fitness level.  Some people live in a country where they may have only one small meal a day (if that) or “exercise” by walking miles for clean water.  Or some people would give anything to be able to exercise.  This knowledge helps me to limit my whining.

On to the next year!