Staying motivated is important when you have a chronic, not-going-away health issue. I’m always on the lookout for anything that will help my lazy-bones keep moving. Although, in full disclosure, I do admit that pain slows down my drive. Then again, I do know that forcing myself to move around will keep me… moving around.
My biggest challenge of late is the soft squishiness circling around my midriff. Ok, let’s call it what is; I have developed a jelly-belly. It’s odd because for most of my life weight gain was not an issue. In fact, friends were always trying to feed me. All I can say is – menopause left its mark!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not speaking from a stance of vanity. The problem is, my jelly-belly makes it harder for me to walk around with my walker, and not walking around makes my jelly-belly larger.
What’s a gal to do?
Well, it’s not rocket science, is it?
There are two key behaviours that I must change. First, I must stop putting so many tasty food items in my mouth, and secondly, I need to start getting off my butt!
As for the food intake, I need to switch things up and change my eating rules. First up, I’ll need to enroll my partner, who is our tasty meal maker, in supporting my efforts by reducing my portions. I may also gently request, we, or at least I, have more vegetables and less potatoes. These are good suggestions but I know the real game-changer will be conquering my television snacking habit.
As for the getting off my butt, well that my friends… is a much bigger challenge.
To help kick my proverbial ass, I purchased a FITBIT. This nifty tech device, that in addition to being a pretty cool wristwatch, claimed to track daily steps and chart calorie intake and burn off. Apparently, an average daily step goal of 10K is doable for most people. Whoa! Just reading that was enough to tire me out. I knew my step count would be much lower than average, but I was willing to be realistic and give it a go.
Unfortunately, I quickly discovered recording my daily count wasn’t possible because my motion of walking with a walker is more of a shuffle than a step, and the FITBIT is not designed to capture such movement. My efforts did not count.
I tried a number of workarounds, all of which proved to be pointless. Boy was I ticked off!
My FITBIT has become my TICBIT.
Ho hum, it’s back to the motivational drawing board for me, but in the meantime, I’ll go for a wee walk and mentally count my steps.
All I know is the jelly-belly’s got to go!
