The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
What are you doing to keep fit physically? Most mornings I take a 30min walk outside before getting ready for work. We live on a .2mile circle which has gotten the name "gerbil track" due to the times I walk it over and over and over. I also stop at Curves 3-4 nights after work on my way home. Some nights my son & I get outside and play catch.
I try to keep an eye on my fat & sodium intake. Fitday.com helps me with this - been using it since 2002. I try to drink 48oz (3-16oz bottles) water daily. They say to drink 1/2 your body weight - that 4th bottle would be too much. I try to get 5 servings fruit/veg daily.
I get to the doctors and dentist usually on schedule.
Funny you should ask that! Since moving to this new area about 9 months ago, I started putting on some weight. Apparently this area's favorite pasttime is going out to eat after meetings (yeah, like someone really had to twist my arm!). Anyhow, I have since bought an elliptical trainer and have been using it faithfully. At first it was 2 minutes at a time and at the end of the 2 minutes I thought I was going to die! Now I'm up to almost 20 minutes 4-6 times a week! I haven't lost a whole lot of weight yet (only about 10 lbs.), but I'm tightening up, which is nice. I used to work out a bit before I moved, but I really got depressed when I moved here, even though it was for very good reasons. When I started having pain in my arms and legs (and of course immediately thought I was dying of PVD or some other circulatory problem), I panicked and said enough is enough already.
We both swim 1 mile every morning. We have a large pool (48 ft long) so it takes me about an hour and a half to swim the laps that equal at least 1760 yards.
We are very careful about fats, and we eat no junk food. I am also careful about sodium, as I have a bit of a tendency to retain fluid. We do not adhere to any particular "diet" which we consider in many cases to be dangerous. Mostly we enjoy fruits, veggies, whole grains, yogurt, fish, and chicken, and as you say, lots and lots of water!!. No red meat, and very little white food. We love potatoes, and they are loaded with potassium, so once a week or so we will have a baked one. No white bread or pasta. Very little refined sugar. Only that which is incidental in the yogurt, because we like the flavored kind.
Hubby walks the dogs a mile a day. I stay home and get my housework done then. That's about it. We are both slender...I am a size 6...
This has been a life style change over the past five years or so, and has really paid off in good health and physical strength.
Thanks for asking Barbara. Diva
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"Speak your truth quietly and clearly..." Desiderata
My jobs; both the permanent one I have and my seasonal job have kept me in awesome shape......its like I am getting payed for my workout lol! The best thing I have done most recently for my healths sake is quitting smoking. Today is day 17 and I am going strong!!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!
Talk about making me feel bad!!!!! I have always been bad at staying fit. I go through my cycles. I will exercise and work out, then fall off the wagon. My eating habits have always been terrible. I have been gaining weight over the past 3 years--it is making me so mad, but yet I do nothing about it. This year has been the worst! I used to go to curves 3-4 times a week (which I absolutely loved!!!), but now I have a teaching job, and I live out in no man's land--it would take me about 1 1/2 - 2 hours most of which would be driving time and I feel like I shouldn't be away from my kids that long after school each day. Actually I guess I just find a ton of reasons--excuses not to. I keep telling myself I will do it tomorrow--funny how tomorrow never really gets here!
Thanks for the topic and making me think!!!! Now I just have to MOVE!!!!!!!
Well, I joined a gym. I am there every morning at 5am. I got a personal trainer (we have a love/hate relationship). I do a cardio work out and then lift some weights (not to bulk up, but to tighten up) I also do not drive to work. I take a ferry from one town to the next and then walk to work from the ferry dock. I do the same thing on the way home. Add to that chasing around after three kids and that is my physical activities. ( I wish I could swim, but don't have the place to do it. )
Now for the eating. No read meat. No junk. I eat a lot of veggies, chicken, and fish (this has been hard because I hate fish nothing processed. Watch the sodium and carb intakes. I snack on carrots and peas during the day. I drink water. No pop, no coffee, no juice. The worst I do is on Saturday nights. I have a slice of homemade pizza with the family, but now it includes a salad.
And then spiritually I work on a relationship with HP go to meetings and work my program.
That's about it.
Much Love,
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"Today's problems can not be solved if we still think the way we did when we created them" -Albert Einstein
I go in waves. When I'm home, I'm pretty good about it, but I work on projects that are usually far from home, so lots of times I'm living in hotels for a week. When I'm away from home it's a lot harder, especially because eating at Applebee's 3 meals a day feels so icky, and it's harder for me to get a good night's sleep on a hotel bed, and when I'm tired I'm less inclined to exercise.
But, I have to say, al-anon is pretty much resposible for me feeling OK exercising or taking care of myself at all. Growing up, exercise was scoffed at and basically not allowed, and when I told my mom I was jogging a while ago, her response was, "but honey, joggers are a**h****!" So I credit al-anon for showing me that there was this weird thing called self-care and that I could do it as a way of acting "as if" I felt like I deserved to be healthy, until I started to come to actually believe it.
Sorry, sidetrack! I try and cook with no/low salt and fats, eat whole grains, I love fruits and veggies. I run or walk or jog, mostly in the hills near where I live, or on a treadmill if I'm at a hotel. It's so clear how it helps me too! I never realized that physical health was an important component of emotional and spiritual health.
