Staying Alive, What to do when you can't exercise and Where's the motivation???!!

A sweet beautiful new friend of mine (Deborah) reminded me today that I'm suppose to be writing in this blog.....I mean I did say I'd write some motivational thoughts and info on losing weight (and the battle that entails), keeping the weight off (and the battle that entails) and how you can stay sane with all the advertisements for food and skinny models! And it only stands to reason that in order to get the words on this blog for you to read and contemplate (and yes sometimes roll your eyes at) I have to write!  I'm smiling....I love to write and I want to motivate, so Deborah or anyone else reading this...when you don't see something on here for a while, get out the old cattle prod and give me a poke!

So first off, let me say to forget the skinny models...some of them are way way too skinny and some of what you see is air brushing.  What I'm talking about here is the real world.  I'm talking about you and me on past 50 and doing our best to stay alive in the best fit body we can get.  Below is a video from YouTube featuring Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth dancing to the Bee Gees famous song "Staying Alive".  Now I have to tell you that someone spent a lot of time and had some real talent to put that video together.  In case it hasn't dawned on you, Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth and the films in this video were long gone or way past their time when the Bee Gees recorded "Staying Alive".  To produce that video the person who put it together had to be dedicated, committed, and had a goal in mind that he/she saw through to fruition.  And so it is with losing weight.  It doesn't just happen.  You have to have a goal, be dedicated and committed.  You have to envision the final product (the new you).  You have to want to change and believe you can make something (a new you) out of the old you....and yes sometimes you have to be creative.

Sometimes (oh who am I kidding) lots of times, life just is not a bed of roses and doesn't go just like we planned it, hoped it would go, dreamed it would go....oh no, you can almost surely count on a stumbling block or two or three along the way to the new you.

Let's say for instance, you have bum ankle.....you know the kind where the tendon aches when you power walk, do killer wall squats, lunges or just exercise too strenuously.  And you let it go and you let it go and you let it go......(getting my drift here) until finally that old ankle says "Look fool, either you give me some rest or I'm going to do some real serious damage and I'll shut you down for a long time!"  Oh listen, don't mess with your body.  If somethings wrong and you don't take care of it or give it the rest it needs, it will stop you in your tracks.  And then what do you do.  You've been eating healthy, counting calories taken in, burning calories by exercising, making progress, getting in your 10,000 steps a day and then BOOM, dead in your tracks.  What the heck do I do now

OK Peggy,....don't make this a riddle....tell me, tell me, tell me now  what do you do when you can't exercise for a while!!!!! INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!

?.........well other than go into panic condition and fear you will gain all your weight and lost inches back (which believe me you'll do if you've had a lifelong battle with weight), you just have to take a few steps backward, take a deep breath and use your head and all you've learned about how to lose and keep the weight off.  First LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.  When it truly tells you it needs to rest; when you're truly in pain....REST YOUR INJURY!  I'm not talking about you just "wanting to rest" and not go exercise, I'm talking about your body saying "sister or brother, this is not a joke, we may have a real problem here, let's rest for a while or go see a doctor".  And I don't mean rest for one afternoon...I mean rest for a few days or a week. 
BUT PEGGY.....I'LL BE TAKING FIVE STEPS BACKWARDS AND I'VE WORKED SO HARD!!!  OK  calm down you know what you have to do.  You lose weight by burning more calories than you take in....so if you can't burn calories because you are taking a required break from exercising, you have to take in less calories.  Plan your meals carefully, if you have a sweet treat once a week or a hamburger, on the weeks you can't exercise, skip those little extras.  Eat more fruits and veggies.  And do the exercises you can do that don't further injure the area you're needing to rest.  If you have an ankle problem, you can still lift weights and work on your arms and upper body.  If you have a shoulder problem, you can still do leg presses and work on your lower body. 

Remember this is a life-long deal.  We are going to have road blocks along the way and we need to have a plan for dealing with those road blocks....so they don't become setbacks.  We need to be able to substitute things and compensate where we might fall short.  Conversely if you have a big meal (which you're going to do now and again).....you are going to have a piece of coconut cream pie or brownie alamode every once in a while.............oh don't play innocent....it's me you're talking to here.....I've walked in your shoes.....hell I'm the cobbler who made the shoes!!  And you will (you should)  do that, When you do...enjoy every morsel and then compensate with some extra exercises.   And when you can't exercise, because of an injury, compensate by backing off with equivalent calories.

This is not rocket sceince my friend.  This is using the basics of losing weight and keeping it off...for the rest of your life. We are in this fight together and we're trying to get fit and by doing so.....

We're "STAYING ALIVE"!!!

http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=mz3CPzdCDws

If you have an injury....listen to your body....but don't lose your commitment!

Remember.....
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Thanks again for the reminder Deborah.....keep them coming and I'll do my best to keep my promise to write in this blog and hopefully motivate someone.

PS.....I've been promising a before and after of me.... so here you go....

Before                Now....but still a work in progress...