Monday, October 3, 2011

You May, or You May Never Lose weight....


.....but you do have to exercise. You have to get in the habit of moving your body in some way, shape or form. Let's forget body weight for a minute.....

#1 regular exercise makes you stronger for just about every part of your everyday life no matter what you weigh, how old you are, or how deconditioned you've let yourself get. I'm not talking about getting "weightlifting" strong, I'm talking about not getting winded by walking up a flight of stairs. Forget about running a marathon, how about getting up off of the floor?

#2 regular exercise may be what motivates you to start eating less, or eating better by reconnecting you with your body. It becomes more clear when you start to exercise that it doesn't feel nice when your body feels heavy, and it doesn't feel nice when your body feels weak....this is why we avoid exercise in the first place.

#3 regular exercise changes you physically. Even if you don't see it right away, you feel it. You will eventually see it, but not if you quit, and for sure if you never start. Moving our bodies makes our muscles work, which in turn activates our muscle giving our muscles shape. No muscle, no shape = blob. Big blob, or small blob, no one wants to be a blob.

During these last 3 years my bodyweight has fluctuated as much as 20 lbs. Twenty pounds, although ridiculously nothing compared to 120lbs, is quite a bit of weight. It's enough bodyweight to take you up a clothing size. No matter what you weigh, going up a size and not fitting into your clothes sucks. Regular exercise helps you to "live in your body", it can help to stop 20lbs from turning into so much more.

The hardest part of being heavier for me was my Bikram's yoga practice. It sucked having to squeeze into Lycra tights that had become too small, physically and mentally. Losing parts of my practice because my thighs had become too large to wrap around eachother or getting more winded from having to move more bodymass around in the extreme heat was a little depressing too. Even feeling as if everybody in class could see I had gained weight and was judging me. But I kept going, I never quit. I wanted to run away, I wanted to hide, but what would be my excuse? To be honest
I think I didn't quit because it had become so much a part of my life it was not a choice, it's what I did.

You have to schedule in some sort of exercise. I know it seems hard, we are all so busy, everyone of us. And maybe we all do it in our own time, and maybe we have to experience our bodies failing in some way....I did. So I'm not here judging. I should have done it myself a long time ago!

Don't wait for something to go wrong. Don't wait to lose weight. You can start moving your body now, just pick something, anything, and do it consistently until you start feeling better....you will start feeling better. Start to change your life right now, it's changing whether you want it to or not anyway. You can chose to get weaker, sicker and older.....or stronger, healthier and feel more alive and younger than ever before, even if you never weigh 125lbs!


4 comments:

Juci SFG said...

That was well put, Ma'am! I couldn't have said it better myself :)

"Forget about running a marathon, how about getting up off of the floor?"
That's the point...

Tracy Reifkind said...

Juci,

I remember what it was like having to lift my heavy body from off the floor....it was more of a roll at first to gain speed for the lift! And I was young....the older you get the weaker you get if you don't do something about it.

Maribel said...

You are so right. As busy as I am, I HAVE to do some sort of exercise now. It's for my mental health and those around me as well.

I think the problem many people face is that feeling that they need to excel in whatever it is. I don't know how many times I've heard someone say "oh, I can't do yoga, I'm not flexible". THAT is WHY you would do it, to gain that flexibility, along with all the other benefits. Everyone has to start somewhere, but they HAVE to start!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Maribel,

I think the problem is that people have no idea how weak they get as they age. and then all of a sudden getting back control of your body seems more and more impossible.