I lost 3 lbs this week!! That's a total of 40 pounds! This is an incredible feat for me considering Halloween was last week and we had an onslaught of Halloween candy at our house all week. I am sure I usually gain at least a couple of pounds the week of Halloween because I have a MAJOR weakness for chocolate. I am proud to report that I did not have a single piece of Halloween candy! (Except for the homemade clean and sugar free candy I made for myself.) The cool part was that I wasn't even tempted!! That's a major accomplishment in my life!
My faith and motivation to exercise has been renewed this last week as well. I've noticed that with my body it's the food I eat that has almost all of the impact on my weight. If I eat junk I gain weight, if I eat healthy I loose weight. Adding or not adding in exercise doesn't seem to have much of an effect. Actually the weeks I exercise more I seem to loose less weight. However I know that exercise is good for our bodies and protects against heart disease and gives me more energy. So I know that I want exercise to be a part of my life. Well the last couple of weeks I had decided that I would exercise only a few days a week instead of 6 days a week. It was time consuming and it wasn't helping me reach my goals. Well then Halloween activities and sicknesses came in and I didn't exercise hardly at all the last couple of weeks. I wasn't feeling too guilty about it though because I was still keeping on track with my diet and still loosing weight. Well if you read my post a couple of days ago you'll know that I have chronic back pain and it's been going on for as long as I can remember. I remember practicing the piano as a young child and my back just killing me. Anyway, it got much worse during my pregnancy with Aubrey and has been consistently bad since then. It did start lessening when I began this fitness program, but didn't go away entirely. Anyway, the funny thing about chronic pain is when it's bad, it feels like it's always been that bad. It's hard to remember a time when it wasn't as bad. That's how it was for me the last couple of weeks. I had forgotten that the months proceeding this time the pain was much less. After I wrote that post last week I had an "Aha" moment. I realized that my back was seeming worse and that I hadn't been exercising very much. I decided to do an experiment and start exercising again every day and see what would happen. Well guess what, the day I exercised my back pain dropped significantly! I generally don't like pain tolerance scales, but it's the only way I can kind of communicate the improvement. I would say I went from a pain scale of about an 8 before exercising and then dropped to about a 2 after exercising. It was immediate and significant! It felt like a miracle being able to find a solution with something so simple - exercise! I know I've heard about the good effects of exercise my whole life, but it's hard to believe it can actually help that much on such an acute pain in my back. I tell you what, I am now a Believer when it comes to exercise. I am going to have to find a way to fit it into my everyday schedule because they effect is so dramatic. Much more helpful than the 6 months I went to a physical therapist and the 3 years I went to the chiropractor. Not that I don't think those methods are helpful. I am actually planning on going to the chiropractor this week and have him put my back in place and hopefully I can get the pain to lessen even more! I just feel like the physical therapist or chiropractor can't do all of the work. The main work of keeping our back or body in good working order is on our plate and we have to do our responsibility - which of course is diet and exercise.
I am so grateful for all of the "aha" moments I've had through this journey. I know that these moments are coming as inspiration from my Heavenly Father. He wants me to be healthy and have a productive and happy life. And I know as I have done my work and made the leap of faith to change my life, he has guided and directed me on my path.
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