I have to say that a very simple lifestyle change resulted in my being, at 41, in the best shape of my life since I was in high school. I can also eat, well, whatever I want in whatever quantity I like without appreciable effect. I do not work out.
What I did was, I moved.
I moved to a place where there was nothing between me and the grocery store (or anywhere else) but my feet. And later a bicycle.
So in the morning I bicycle with my kids about 2 kilometers to school, then they stay there and I bicycle to the grocery store and load up a couple kilos of groceries and go back home. On a Big Shopping day I take the bicycle cart and haul quite a few kilos home (though lately Eldest has been doing that because I pay him for it). We bike to swim lessons, soccer practice, speech therapy for the one kid, you name it, we cycle to it.
You know, if you have to cycle 3 kilometers to the McDonald’s you find yourself more indulgent when the kids ask to go. Or I do anyway. Also, they ask less.
It’s the only solution I have found to the motivation problem: forced labor. I had no choice, as we lacked the money for taxis back then. It’s three years later and now I don’t even think about it. However, I have resisted getting a Dutch driver’s license for this very reason. I suspect if I had a choice I would go right back to my slothful ways.
Now it is winter so I am considering getting a driver’s license again and I rue the decision not to do it which I made last Fall when it was lovely weather. But I don’t quite rue it enough.
Still, every summer we go back to Atlanta to visit and every summer I gain weight. It’s too hilly to be practical in atlanta and they lack the lovely cycle lanes and sidewalks. You take your life in your hands if you cycle there except in a very few isolated spots.
Finagle: You are an evil, evil person, and probably a false prophet to boot. I hope you’re proud.
lieu: Has there EVER been a thread in which you didn’t make a funny comment? Every time I think you’ve outdone yourself, you outdo yourself again.
My goal in life is to be you.
shiftless: Coulda been worse … you coulda watched a Jack Black movie.
Labelless: Rice cakes falling from the pantry are indeed a sign. The starving people in China are feeling bad for you, so they’re encouraging you to eat more.
I hate exercise because it doesn’t do for me what the experts claim it’s supposed to do. It doesn’t give me energy. In fact, for the first month, it zapps my energy. It doesnt’ help me get up and down stairs. I can walk three miles five days a week for several months and I still have trouble getting up and down stairs. (I’m 50 lbs overweight, not 150. It shouldn’t be that hard.) What’s up with that? where’s this fantasy energy boost?
Then there was the time I tried swimming for exercise. I like swimming. I find it relaxing. I didn’t lose any weight in two months of regular exercise and I got tendonitis in my shoulder.
my current exercise program is an eliptical machine. Don’t ask how it’s going. I’m still too out of breath from this morning’s mile to answer.
I think some of us just weren’t made for extended effort.
Pass me some Turtle Tracks ice cream. I’ll share the peanut M&Ms.
My prob with exercise routines is that they’re sooooo boring. The only thing I can stick with is walking around an interesting neighborhood after lunch on weekends. It’s not nearly enough exercise tho.
