My 2021 post seems so long ago for some reason, I guess because I was pretty active for being in the middle of a pandemic. Yet I've felt largely inactive the last few years and my body is feeling it--painful back, sore knees, weak hands. Recommitment. Is that a dirty word? Do we beat ourselves up too much for not sticking to resolutions that we don't want to try and fail again? Well, if so, I haven't learned that lesson fully, and so I'm back on the wagon again. Chronicles mainly at Less is More for now.

Running a Bit

 Yes walking, but I want to incorporate running into my workouts. I feel like I have let the feeling of being "old(er)" creep into my mindset and way of being and that I am avoiding risk and change too much.

I loved running and can remember the young me running from married student housing down to the river north of the UofM campus. It was 3 miles and I would run through heat and cold and loved it. Yes, my legs get sore, and yes I have gained weight and lost muscle, but I'm back at it and wanting to reinvigorate myself and my body. As March comes in like a lamb, not a lion, I will commit to the process of renewal and recharging myself, mind and body. Through this I hope not only to be a better me, but to be a better person for those I love and care about in my life. I can only hope that will matter.

New Commitment (Who Needs New Year for Resolutions?)

 Sunday, April 18--A new commitment.

I looked at another diet community that promised that they and I would use psychology to lose weight. That I needed to think about food in a new way. 

No. I've done that. This blog reminds me that I've done it and can do it again. I paid attention to myself during this time and did what I knew I needed to do.

Fast (though in some ways it seem so slow and so long) forward, and here we are, perhaps on the cusp of the changing face of a pandemic, perhaps it's only an illusion. The fact is, we don't know. Could other versions of the coronavirus take hold strongly enough that even those of us who have vaxxed up with be subject to the deadly possibilities of essentially a new virus? I can't wait any longer in my house for the day when I'll have all the ways I can be active again, because I don't need to. I drove close to where my work location is to get my haircut, and during rush hour. I hated it, and I remembered that I could spend over an hour in the car to get to my office to sit to do work to go to a meeting where I would sit again, and so on. Yes I walked in between, but not so much that I can't do that at home as well if I incorporate more action, more cardio, and more avoidance of what I shouldn't do and shouldn't have.

I've stopped drinking more than one drink a week, mainly due to GI other medical concerns. It doesn't suit me anymore.

I don't bring in food to my house that I know I'll indulge in, like potato chips or ice cream. 

I eat a 90% vegetarian diet with 10% fish.

And today, I just recommitted to cardio. My one walk per day and a little gentle yoga just won't cut it. I know it. I have to do something about it.

I'm back to P-90 or my other exercise tapes in the morning, and plan to alternate cardio and strength. I will also walk and bike on weekends, but have to develop a workable plan for that. I send Sunday evenings with my 95 year-old father-in-law, so Sunday mornings I need to leave early if I'm going to bike. Soon, my Spring teaching term will end and I can bike weekday mornings. Once it's not 37 degrees when I wake up as it was this morning, that will be an encouraging time to bike 20 miles. 

It doesn't take more time either. I spend far too much time checking social media, or roaming around online, reading what I consider to be interesting things, but which are not helping AT ALL. They contribute to my spreading backside. I will also cancel a couple of streaming services and go back to contributing to PBS Passport and then one other--Netflix or HBO max. I don't spend much time watching television anyway, so I think it makes sense to cancel those things that I do on my butt.

Whew! Lots of commitments, but so far, the proof is yet to come. That's why I'm returning to this. It helped before--why not assume it can help again.

So long?

 "So long" is an odd phrase. We say it when we say goodbye, though I haven't heard this much lately. It seems a remnant from my childhood. Chicagoism? But to write it as a title makes me think it's been so long since I began many of these blogs. I wonder about the time I took to work on these and what they signify for me. A virtual diary that I now don't want to simply throw away, though this is one that I may let go. So I may say "so long" since it's been so long since I had the desire to write here . . . . 

Montreal

Looking at blogs I've started but not been active on, and knowing my writing has to take another form with increased focus. Keeping this "alive" as long as it takes to consider where to go from here. Stay tuned . . . .

Still Walking, Not Running

Hmmm. Looking back on this blog makes me realize that I am in a recurrent cycle of overdoing, getting hurt or sidetracked for some reason, and then having to find a way to get back in shape. Maybe I should pay more attention to these cycles?

Nahhhhhhhhhh . . . .

Just kidding. Of course I should. I plan, however, to consolidate blogs so as to have one place to write about not me as the focus but life as the focus, with me as one of the wretched pawns . . . . Let's try that again: with me as one of the active agents in charge of her own destiny and whose work might also help to change life around me . . . . I had written in the first draft of this post--with me as active agent working against the forces that might otherwise change us and our planet for the worse. In other words, it's the three R's: Resistance, Refusal, and Re-creation--but that "working against" doesn't seem as useful as working for something else. How does one resist without getting hardened? How can one achieve a counter agenda by positive thinking and action?

Here's to 2018 and a new year in which to make a difference.

Almost three years later--July 8, 2016

No walking by itself, but after knee surgery and weight gain, I have biked and walked/ran my way back to a better weight (still some weight loss to go) after a health concern increased my chance for stroke, heart attack, etc.  I walked at the Abbey of Gethsemani and loved it there. Focus. One thing at a time. So seeing this blog, I think I may try again to have time for one solitary thing. Perhaps instead it will be lunch with just me and watching nature, or meditation, or something. But time with a singular and unhurried purpose is very important. I need to explore more possibilities.

June 2017:  Still exploring!