Day 15: In the Spirit of SparkPeople - realistic goals

 

The trusty Spark mug

It's morning, fellow refugees!  Monday morning, at that!  How did the weekend go?  Are you assessing how you did?  Giving yourself some kudos, or some corrections?

I was getting on the scale this morning (yes, I'm one of those "every day, pop up on the scale and see what it says" types), and patting myself on the back, before a number would even appear.  Because I *know* I've been doing the right things for myself.

I know I've been eating my fruits and veggies.  I know I've been drinking my water.  I know I've been getting some moderate (and fun) activity in, and regularly.  OK, maybe my sleep hasn't been as long as I'd like, but it's summer time, and the sunlight does linger!  But I'm mentally giving myself credit for doing the things that I know will support my health and well-being.

So when the scale pretty much said, "meh!", it was NOT going to bother me.  Instead, I went down the path of, "I did NOT do the weekend overindulge and see the scale RISE thing!"  Good for me!

You see, for the pandemic year, and if I'm honest with myself, pretty much since retirement, I've been on the old path of the yo-yo... being good "for a while", then indulging for a while.  This is NOT a good path, and I know it.  It's how I got to my highest weight back in 1989, and how after maintaining a healthy weight for nearly five years, saw it head back that way in 1994-1995 (worst rapid gain, ever!)... etc.  What I have learned since is to look at the reasons for eating, to do the mental emotional work needed to understand what feelings ARE, and try to recognize and deal with them before having to do a post-analysis when I find my spoon at the bottom of an ice cream carton!

Back on the path of self-care with more consistency for the past few weeks, I am well aware that so far, this is NOTHING in the timeline of self-care.  But it *is* a motivating start.  

Some things we just have to forgive ourselves for if they throw us off track for a while.  And we have to remind ourselves regularly that we are worthy of that self-care, "no matter what".  The important message to self is to treat this ONE day as though it is the only one I have.  Because it is.  

So let's take care of ourselves, with good nutritious food, with moderate activity, with hygiene, with mindfulness... and with compassion for those selves on this one and only Monday, June 21, 2021 we'll ever get. Let's LIVE, for LIFE is good!💗😍🙏🙋

Spark on!

Day 11: Motivation for hot days

 The motivation for hot days is to get out early for anything active.  Like moving hoses to wet down the lawn before the sun hits it.

Anybody else "old enough" to remember these sprinkler hoses?

Would you believe our local weather topped the century mark (100 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time since 2018, yesterday?  We got to 102.  Today they are predicting 104!  So, here I was, 6:30 a.m. this morning, putting the hose in place, setting a timer for 20 minutes, heading back out and moving it.  I'm going to be doing this until the sun moves around the trees and starts hitting the yard.

Why, some of you may ask, since I live in the suburbs, do I not have one of those automatic sprinkler systems?  That's a bit of a story, but kind of boring.  There is such a system... but it doesn't work.  I broke it myself, many years ago, and didn't have the budget to fix it.  I was trying to use a cord edger, going to spruce up the joint... and sliced through a control wire for the sprinklers!  Since I am capable of setting and moving hoses, and since I am a "good citizen" when they tell us not to water... it just never got up to the top of my priority list!  Over the years, more and more neglect has been deployed on it, disconnecting the water supply to it when the furnace was installed, for example.  And, of course, it completely demoralized my wanting to try to spruce up the yard!

Don't we all have things of this nature?  We put them on a "nice, but not now" list.  How many of us have done this with self-care?  Uh... not sure I can count all those hands!  Have we let one level of neglect pile upon another?

Failing to maintain ourselves, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually leaves us functioning not at our peak, barely limping through life, giving all of ourselves to others... until, like that control wire... one more thing snaps us!  After the snap, layers of additional neglect lead us into a deteriorated condition.

So, let that be our reminder to ourselves, as we face the heat of Summer, and the busy-ness of lives... to be of most use to our "mission" we have to first maintain ourselves!  There are several elements of this, and we have to keep them all in balance:  

• Accept that good nutrition supports us in all these ways, including supporting our immune systems.  
• Engage in activity to encourage functional strength and endurance.
• Don't forget that sufficient and high-quality sleep or rest if a huge part of maintaining the human body.
• Stretch the mind and soul, look beyond ourselves, and appreciate things that inspire us.
• Express gratitude, so we don't forget how blessed we truly are!
• Remember to laugh, cry, shout... for having emotions is part of the human experience, and it's OK to have them, happy, sad or inbetween!
• And important for all, but especially the introverted among us:  Take time to breathe (don't over-schedule, we all have a current capacity).

If you can't do it all (and who can?), take it in small bits.  Do ONE thing to feel better today.

From my 'fridge, placed there during a time of struggle.

Life *is* GOOD, now let's go live it, in this one and only Thursday, June 17th, 2021 we'll ever get.  We are worth it!💗😍🙋👍

Observations on the splintering of folks from SparkPeople.com

I've been watching our collective behavior since they announced that the SparkPeople.com site is going away in about a month, now.  

1. We are all going through phases of grief. 

2. Smaller groups are splintering off, based on their "landing zones".  Those landing zones come in several flavors:

a.  By tracking tool. 

i.  Some of the tracking tools have communication embedded.  MyFitnessPal, for example.  I had a friend go there several years ago, after having been an active Sparker, finding their list of foods robust.  But she was disappointed by the communication feature, and ended up returning to Spark for that part of her needs!

ii. I personally have gone to cronometer, a Canadian developed system.  It has a free version, which seems sufficient for my own needs for now.  But there is always the possibility that curiosity and geekiness might drive me to experiment with the more detailed "paid for" version.  For now, I'm happy.  But that means I won't see any of my former Sparker friends who move exclusively to MFP.

iii. For US Residents, we can try out Spark America, or the individual version Spark360.  I've been there, but it doesn't yet have a food tracker.  It reminds me a lot of a combination of features from the old Spark:  articles, steps through the start up, good advice content.  And the exercise gives "points".  It has no communication among the membership.  I am told by the Spark support team that eventually they will add some of these features, some time after August 17th!   

b. By communication site.

i. Some of the Maintenance group are over on Anja's Google Group.  It's for everyone who is aspiring to maintain.  No requirement for being at a specific goal weight NOW, or length of time, just if maintaining is your goal, this WAS a great group with maintenance specific tools and conversations, and if you are NEW to maintenance it was vital for many of us! Maintenance Google Group

ii. Various Facebook groups, some large and public, some smaller and private are out there.  I'm not a fan of HUGE groups, one can get lost in them... but have managed to get invited to a smallish one that suits me well.

 iii. BlogSpot (or Blogger, they are the same, Blogger is where you create your userid/profile, BlogSpot is the domain where your blogs are created by default) and various other Blog hosting sites.  The major disadvantage of these is that there isn't much of a way to "advertise" our individual existence.  Fortunately, Anja gave us a "start page" for the Maintenance group, and if you scroll down on this Google document, you'll find an interactive list of other Spark maintenance bloggers.  Maintainer Group Start Page

I'm sure there are other slivers of Sparkers, but what I hope we have in common is taking with us what we learned over our years as Sparkers!  And I hope that where ever we are, whether we call it that or not, we continue to "Spread the Spark" as Chris Downie encouraged us to do, encouraging one another, helping ordinary people (like us) realize that they CAN get healthy and reach their goals.  

 

Day 10: I think I like a morning blog

 A morning blog takes me back to my "pep talk to self before the workday" pre-retirement.  It might be a different slightly later morning, especially in Winter, but it's a good habit / routine to get into.

The flowers are growing and blooming... welcome, June!

I wanted to beat the heat.  Predicted high today is 100* F, and it will hit about the time that the Ace and I go out to walk in the afternoon, so I took a little turn around the neighborhood this morning already!

I like this route, it looks like a cartoon character head.

One of my former personal trainers and I started posting maps of our rides / runs and trying to "name the shape" last year... gave us some laughs.  There are so many games one can play with the tech toys.  😆😆

And, I kind of took leave of my senses yesterday afternoon.  Remember the sunrise/sunset paddle events I mentioned a couple of blogs back?  I thought the sunrise one was sold out because the link in their e-mail sent me straight to sign up for the sunset one.  Well, yesterday, a fresh e-mail showed up with a link to the sunrise one.  And I signed up for it, even though I know I'm going on the kayak and Carl outing on Saturday morning.  The sunrise paddle is on Friday morning, at I have to be there at 5:15 a.m.  Yikes!  Wish me luck.

Who knows?  This may turn into a Summer time "new thing"!

Here's hoping my Spark buds are settling into their new routines, finding tools that work for THEM, in their very own experiments of ONE.  If some of them are helped by finding me here, cheering them on, that's awesome!  💗💗

Now let's all get out and LIVE in this one and only Wednesday, June 16th, 2021 we'll ever get.  Because we're worth it, each and every one.  And LIFE is good!🙋🙏😸

Day 8: Testing wake up time and simmering steel cut oats

 

I used to do this almost every morning!

This morning it is strawberry season.

This coming Friday, the kayak rental company my friend and I tried out is hosting a "sunrise" paddle on the lake near my house.  The challenge is that you have to be at the launch area about 5:30 a.m., launch no later than 5:45 a.m., in order to be out on the lake for sunrise!  This morning I tried testing my readiness and awareness by getting up at 5.  I'm not so sure about this.  I used to regularly get up between 4 and 5, simmer those steel cut oats and blog while they were simmering.

The challenge is that I've been retired for three and a half years, and the pandemic got me in the habit of "I've got nothing to do, anyway, I'll just stay up later watching TV... sleep in in the morning... etc."  Now, with the angles of the sun returning to the Summer patterns, my natural tendency to awaken in the morning is creeping earlier, but it has not rebounded to the pre-sunrise times of years past!

Plus, it takes me longer to get ready in the morning... I move slower than when I was a working woman!  Whine, whine, whine.

Plus, there is a tandem sunSET paddle, in a couple of weeks.  It runs from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.  And my friend has already signed up for THAT one.  

Plus, the kids have invited me to join with her parents for kayak and Carl either Saturday or Sunday same weekend as the Friday sunrise paddle.  Perhaps I would be better off signing up for the sunset one!  Hmmmm.  Decisions, decisions!

An hour later:  it is obvious I waited too long.  Sunrise is sold out!  One less decision to make.  I signed up for the sunset one.  Which means my friend will be at the same one.

In the process of signing up, I discovered that I put the "safer swimmer" float away differently than I did last time and I'm having trouble finding it!  Yikes!  I've looked in a LOT of places, and I know it was in the car and I brought it inside a day later...

Guess that will be the obsession of the day... where is that float?

So let's get out and LIVE this one and only Monday, June 14, 2021 we'll ever get.  Let's make the best choices we can to support our health and well-being, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  Because LIFE is good, and we are each and every one worth taking care of!💗💪😍

P.S. After a short walk outside, FOUND the Safer Swimmer float!  It was actually in one of the places I had looked, but I had wrapped it in a towel and forgotten I'd wrapped it!

Day 6: A hike in a state park

 I had to get up a little early, just to make sure I got my stuff together.

Then I decided I should take a before picture, sort of a progress photo, because I'm going to work to get the pandemic padding off... confirm, yes, it still shows up in photos.  Also this was the grin that comes of trying to beat the flash of the old camera.

Our target for today's hike was a nearby lake and it was an adventure finding it because it's been a few years since I'd been down there and there's road construction between home and there.  My friend Gerri drove, and somehow we managed to find where I used to do open water swim practice with others in training for triathlons.  We meandered around... took RunKeeper a while to find satellites, and we stopped and chatted with a couple of sets of other walkers, in a social-distanced outdoorsy way... met a couple of dogs, one of which was the most darling female German Shorthaired Pointer, who warmed up after her hu-mom and we chatted a bit, and let me stroke her trademark ears.  Ahhhh! That makes it a great day, right there.  Unfortunately, I didn't get photos of either the other folks we chatted with, or even my friend, because... well... because I didn't!

Map of our hike.

We came home via a different route, finding more/different road construction and detours... and got close enough to where the NEW YMCA combined with a Middle School were to take a self-directed detour and see them!

The school and Y front, through Gerri's windshield

The outdoor pool... looks inviting!

Home and showered now, and taking time to blog to decompress a bit before heading out to check on Sister #1's kitties.  

These are Ginger and Spice (left to right)

That's about it for news from me today!  Here's hoping all my fellow Spark refugees are settling into their new spots and that we're communicating enough to find and support one another, this one and only Saturday, June 12, 2021 we'll ever get.  We are all worth taking care of... and finding our own joy!  💗💗🙋🙋

Day 5: Companion animals

 Because of the change in blogging venue, and the possible influx of new/different readers, this post is by way of introduction of the animals in my current life.  But it starts with reference to a couple that I only know on-line through social media.

The above picture today is of Skittles (small blue guy) and Chumley (Cockatiel), companions to my son's girlfriend's parents.  Yesterday I got the brief notice via a Facebook status that Chumley had unexpectedly and suddenly died.  So I'm keeping my fellow parents of the other half of the couple close in my thoughts today.  Girlfriend headed over to her parents home right away when she got the news.

I never met the pictured birds.  I've met Kiwi and Scout, two cockatiels who live with GF and my son and Carl.  But whenever an animal has lived with humans for a while, it's going to be a big loss when they go, be they birds, cats, dogs or (shudder) snakes!  We project qualities onto our companions, and we learn from them.  

Carl?  He's the canine that my son acquired two years ago.  I puppy-sat on Mondays which was my son's physically in the office day, up until the pandemic shutdown caused him to not have any in the office day, but work 100% from home.

Carl on his trip to his fur-ever home had a stop-over to meet Grandma (me), two years ago last month!

Now he's a big boy:

I also provide food and shelter for two indoor-outdoor kitties, by name The Prisoner (kitten #6 on the vet papers just had to get this geeky moniker), and Rubia (she's blonde).  

Baby Prisoner, kitten #6

The Prisoner, adult

Rubia taking the high ground.

Rubia is my "sink" cat.  She prefers streaming water to drink.

They are known to do the synchronized cat nap thing.

And also to check each other out and assert dominance!

What have I learned from the animals in my life?  Well, since the cats are "demand" feeders, and I leave food out for them all the time, I've learned that their appetite/hunger meters are NOT broken!  They seem to stay fit effortlessly.  They don't eat when they aren't hungry, and they leave food in the bowl!  I've learned not to attempt to train a cat contrary to its nature.  

I've learned that Carl needs human supervision so that he can stay active and fit.  Thankfully, he also keeps his humans active.  One of our fellow Sparkers used to say that if she and her husband lived a life that was healthy for their border collie, it would be healthy for them, as humans, too.

Do you have companion animals in your life?  What lessons have they taught you?  

Now let's all head out and live in this one and only Friday (already) June 11, 2021 we'll ever get.  Each day is a gift, whatever it brings... may it bring us healthy choices, and LIFE, for Life is Good!💗💗

Day 4: A morning cuppa Spark

 

Happy Thursday, Former Sparkers and newcomers alike!  Today's photo is my trusty SparkPeople mug being filled with my morning cuppa!  Feel free to fill your own favorite mug and start your day here!  

Figure the Spark mug brings happy memories to me, and seeing it might just trigger a few of the same for others.  Do you remember the early days, when SparkPeople had a store, and you could support it by purchasing merchandise?  That's how long this mug has been in my cupboard, and it is among my favorites not just because of that, but because it was "gifted" to me by my kid sister, ALICIA363, as you would know her from SparkPeople.  I had broken an earlier mug from Sparkpeople, posted in my blog about it, and lo and behold, a while later, this one was gifted to me.  I have three Spark mugs left, in blue, red, and orange.

I came over here and read the comments from yesterday's post.  I found some new people navigating their way over to read, and that makes my heart sing.  It's kind of like we've "graduated" or "transferred", and we're finding ways to keep in touch. 

My old routine with Spark was to log in, spin, and go search out the blogs of friends to get my morning motivational nudge!  Many of these friends were found by following their comments home to their Spark pages, reading a bit, and discovering a kindred spirit.  They live, physically, all over the world.  They were and are at different places in the journey of establishing a healthy lifestyle that supports whatever their individual needs may be!  This is the part of Spark that it's so important to me to preserve.  As solo, disjointed blogs, on many different platforms, that just might not happen... but a woman can dream, can't she?  😍

Early here, just finishing up breakfast with that cuppa, and will soon head out to start my day: check on sister #1's cats and feed them.  I have a workout with my personal trainer on tap for noon.  It's going to be a HOT day here, possibly the hottest so far this year, so I might just avoid yard work in favor of the air conditioned indoors.

Now let's go "work on it", making the best choices we can manage, this one and only Thursday, June 10, 2021 we'll ever get.  Because each of us is worth taking care of... and LIFE is good!  💗💗

Day 2: It Starts with Honesty, for me.

 

At home, May 27, 2021

You can see from the photo above that I have regained since retirement and pandemic took their toll.  This finish line photo from September 30, 2018 I was already heavier than my fastest running weight.  But the lax attitude of "I'm not competing any more, what does it matter" has made a difference, and slowly, over the past 3 years, I have been re-gaining.  I've made some efforts to control it, but those efforts seemed to only last a week to a month, before the "why try?" attitude reinserted itself.

Wineglass Half Marathon, 2018

Which brings us to NOW, with the demise of SparkPeople.com... and the recognition of what I need to do, what I need to value, to move into the future I want for myself.

Do I want to race again, someday?  That's a maybe, maybe not.  This sets up the "I'm going to stop myself from doing something that may harm me" subconscious drive to overeat and *anchor* myself in a heavier body!

Onward!  I clearly have some things to work on, and it starts with attitude.  Perhaps the goal is NOT to run again or do another triathlon, but it certainly has to be to live in a healthy body.  Which brings us to something that has happened recently, with my somewhat sloppy approach to food.  On June 2nd, I took my blood pressure, since I hadn't done so since March.  I scared myself... it said "High Blood Pressure Stage 1".  I had been enjoying normal, healthy blood pressure for several years, thanks to having improved my eating and exercise habits... but this slow slide down the path of "what does it matter" and "why try" was not taking me to a good place.

So I started cleaning up my eating habits, one day at a time for the next week (see, it's only been a week), and I started measuring every day.  Measuring makes a difference.  Knowing that I'll be measuring again tomorrow makes a difference.  The next day it dropped to "elevated".  Then it's been "normal" every day since.

You see, we don't always see the immediate results of our choices, especially with something like blood pressure or cholesterol.  Having the cuff at home and taking those measurements is ONE means of motivating myself to "do better" with the food.  As for what it means to "do better" it means more fresh fruits and veggies, less fat and sugar.  I KNOW how to do this.  My own hurdle is wanting to do it.

The silver lining of losing SparkPeople.com, if there is one, is that it has turned a process like behavior (check in, spin the wheel, etc.) into a project like one:  "find a new venue and start fresh, build your support structure".  And that is what I'll be doing here.

What's YOUR motivation to be healthier, day by day?  I'm hoping that this one and only Tuesday, June 8, 2021 we'll ever get will be one of making choices that we either KNOW will help us be healthier and more at peace with ourselves, or choices that we want to try out.  The experiment(s) of ONE continue!  Let's keep in touch and stay strong!💗💗💪💪