…there was cheesecake.

Kidding!

Whenever I have started something new in the past, I have always gone ‘whole hog’. Be it a new diet, a new exercise regime or even a new job. Little stops just weren’t for me. Five minutes of walking? Start with five minutes? Pfft. Why start there when I can start with an hour (and end up hurting ankles, knees, hips, whatever). Cut bread out of the dinner meal? Nah. I’ll cut it out of every meal.

Even in my writing, I’ve never been one to sit down and write give minutes here and there. If I can’t settle in for a good amount of writing time, I don’t want to do it.

Life isn’t like that, though. Even when we do plan out large chunks of time to do certain things, other things come up. Other things get in the way. Plans change.

So instead of jumping into things with lists and schedules, tables and time slots, I am taking things calmly and slowly.

At the moment, I am focusing on the Buddhist staple that everything changes. The idea is that if you learn to accept that everything changes – even within a moment – then you will learn to let go. It is through holding onto things – like people, negative emotions, bad situations – that we bring fear and pain into our lives. If we can step back and let go enough to observe the changes, we will start to find peace.

Right now I am at the very beginning in that I am trying to be mindful of everything that changes. It has helped me to tune into my body and what stresses me. For instance, I went into my emails this morning to start work and my breathing became faster like I was starting to panic.

How many mornings has this happened without me noticing and thus working through the morning in a panic state?

So what’s the saying… ‘Keep calm and carry on’?

Around November or December of last year, I began losing motivation with my dieting and exercise and needed to get my head back on track. I took the holidays off with the vow that the new year would bring a new me. I started off the year not with exercise but with a week of drinking more water.

I lost four pounds by drinking more water.

Anyone who has dieted, is dieting, or has anything to do with weight loss will tell you water is very important.

Did you know that a good amount of the time you think you are hungry, you are really thirsty? Talk about making a difference in how much you eat if you drank when you were truly thirsty.

The question is how much you are supposed to drink. Drinking too little or too much water can have bad consequences, so how do you know what’s safe?

The longstanding advice of eight to twelve ten ounce glasses OF WATER day won’t steer you wrong. If you’re like most of the world, you’re probably not getting this much, so the increase will be an improvement. You might have to urinate a bit more often, but that doesn’t last forever, I promise.

You might hear, however, that to calculate how much water you need, you have to divide your weight in pounds. The number you get is the number of ounces you should drink a day.

That sounds great in theory, but I for one cannot drink five 750ml bottles of water a day. It makes me feel ill.
So I take the middle of the road stance. Three 750ml bottles, which is more than the eight to twelve bottles and less than the weight in half calculation.

A good way to keep track of whether or not you’re drinking enough water is to keep an eye on the colour of your urine. Yep, check the potty. Lighter is better. The darker your urine, the more likely you are dehydrated.

According to The Bloke, there are three kinds of people in life: starters, runners and finishers.

I think The Bloke is a runner, to be honest, but I fall quite squarely into the starter category. I can be a runner and a finisher when I need to be (as can we all) but starting is what gets me excited. I like to get the ball rolling, start seeing results and then go on my merry weigh.

Naturally, I’m a yo-yo dieter.

Because I’ve realized the ‘starter’ quality of my personality, I focus on the little accomplishments I have been making every day. I know I’m in this for the long haul, but I keep that fact pushed to the back of my mind so I can keep the starting excitement going.

But, along with being a starter, I’m also impatient.

For healthy weight loss, impatience isn’t all that great. Being sick of being fat doesn’t mean the pounds melt off. Heck, if I woke up tomorrow at my ideal weight, I think I might panic and eat chocolate cake or something.

Impatience is doubly bad because I have PCOS. Normal, healthy weight loss is about one to two pounds per week. For women with PCOS half a pound to one pound lost per week is pretty damn good. My body is a great starter – I’ve lost up to six pounds in one week before. But then it slows down. It hates the running stage.

And so, I must wait, work out, be patient and be proud of what I have accomplished so far.

I’m wondering, though – do you get impatient?