Posted by JLx on September 12, 2007, at 21:31:28
In reply to Re: Self-esteem and FAT » JLx, posted by ClearSkies on September 12, 2007, at 13:45:37
> I've been noticing that the "outlying" boards have been so very slow in traffic lately - it's really discouraging. I don't think it's a matter of what the type of post, really I don't! Just take a look at the Relationships and Substances boards... people just AREN'T posting there. I say, Keep It Up.I usually primarily post on Alternative and poke my head in once in a while on the others to see what's up. Alternative hasn't had so many posts lately either compared with times past. There was a computer prob there for a bit wasn't there, where we had to change passwords. Perhaps that scared some people off or something.
> My therapist, who has been helping me get to my 2 year point in sobriety, has been helping me plan the next steps for me. Getting myself more active - I am the original role model for the couch potato, and I come from a fine family of couch potatoes - is critical in my mental health, yet it's a place where I keep falling down.
Well, I know what you mean. I have had a strength training book and all the weights for, um, I guess it's at least two years now, but have yet to muster the will to do it. (The iron dumbbells came in handy one winter when I had no power for three days though. I heated them in my gas oven and put them in my bed to warm it!)
I have been walking regularly for 20 some years now. It helps to have a dog as motivator there. When my dog got old and then died, I really slacked off for a few months. Then I got a new dog and he was killed by a car too, so I slacked off again for a few months. Big mistake. I felt really out of shape when I began again. And this is just walking.
Now I have a golden retriever who needs lots of exercise. It's been too hot all summer to do as much as I'd like, but now it's cool and it feels good to get out. I'm trying to walk a little faster and longer than before. I have two nice places to walk, a paved bike trail that goes along a river for nearly two miles and nearly 7 miles on a mountain bike trail in a little wooded park. I usually takes the woods walk so the pooch can be his wild and free self.
Exercise really helps my depression and overall sense of well being. I have a treadmill too but rarely use it as it doesn't get my dog out. I know somebody who puts her dog on her treadmill, but I don't know about that! Treadmills can be cool when you're first getting in the walking habit since you can just jump on it when you get a spare 10-15 minutes to start with.
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> I don't want to wallow in anything - I want to be accepting of myself at any size. I can romanticize about how lovely I looked at a slender 21 years of age, but the truth was that I was terribly depressed and a very ill young woman then. I don't really want to go back, and I don't want to rose tint the image I have of myself, 24 years younger and 20 lbs lighter.> ClearSkies
Yeah, I was pretty messed up when I was younger too.
I have no illusions now about how I'm going to look so great if I lose a significant amount of weight, as I'd like, because I know everything is just going to sag more. What I am seeking now instead is to feel better physically, have more energy, feel lighter moving around. I feel better already since I quit the sugar and grains, and I've lost 8 pounds. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but still it's that much less I'm dragging around. When my dog got old she used to raise her paw sometimes when we walked in the winter, like it got a cramp or something from the cold. So I'd pick her up and hold her close to my body to warm her and keep walking. She weighed 20 pounds and it was amazing how much I felt that extra 20 pounds when I was carrying her. You don't feel it when you lose it gradually so I'm going to try to remember that when I lose 20 pounds here. Which will be just around the corner. ;)
JL
poster:JLx
thread:780987
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/esteem/20070330/msgs/782554.html