Changing It Up

I finally went for a walk this morning.

Not a long one, was just a wee jaunt around a couple of blocks, but it was a start.

A start of what, I hear you say.

Well...

It’s a start to me not creaking around the place and generally feeling like a geriatric sloth.

My body, as a rule, doesn't like movement a whole heap. But it also doesn't like sitting or standing or anything else for that matter so I've decided to ignore it for a while. It’s just being an attention whore.

The ironic thing about joint pain and other various maladies of a rheumatic nature is that they generally respond well to exercise. Exercise that you do not feel even remotely inclined to do because you are usually feeling like arse when you contemplate doing it.

But I figured if I didn’t shift my posterior soon it would seize up all together and since I like the thought of still being able to amble about the place (and also of not turning into a really tubby Tigress) I figured there is no time like the present.

Now here is Western Australia they don’t do daylight savings so theoretically you can be up and at ‘em at about 5am if you so desire.

I don’t.

So at 7am, or thereabouts, I arose, ignored the opinion my body gave about this action, donned my exercise gear and went haring out the door before I could change my mind. I did do the barest amount of stretching to loosen the stiff bits first but due to the fact that I am stretchier than most I thought it best not to overdo this.

Once on the move, things felt ok (I think my body was in shock to be honest). I wasn't able to go hilariously fast like I could previously but we'll go with the whole ‘baby steps’ approach on this one (though preferably without the staggering).

After a brief conversation with a few flies, I made it home again and sat, feeling not quite so broken, contemplating life’s vicissitudes. Not too bad for a first effort.

I will confess though that this sudden desire for movement has not come about in a vacuum. I have been researching various ways to get my body behaving a bit better (and to lose a bit of excess junk in the trunk) and there is no shortage of techniques to examine. Supplements, shakes, protein bars, eating plans, meal replacers....this list is endless and quite frankly, rather repetitive (not to mention very expensive in some cases).

I just want to eat well and consume as little amount of crap as possible...not rocket science but sometimes a girl needs a little help. You see my body has quite a fondness for sugar and lets me know about it on frequent occasion:

“Ooooh look, chocolate, you like chocolate, I know you like chocolate, let’s have some chocolate...”

“Let’s NOT have some chocolate, Jesus Christ I can’t take you anywhere!”

“But I want chocwit” *sad face*

“You’ll have to chat to pancreas, I’m sure she will not be impressed with all the crap you’re trying to feed her”

“Oh pancreas is an old fuddy duddy, never does anything exciting”

“No just sits there producing insulin that stops me dying when I eat chocolate...just SAYING”

“Meh”

And so it goes, sometimes I win, sometimes body wins. It’s a 50/50 chance on any given occasion.

Thus enter Cyndi O’Meara and her site “Changing Habits” (see link below). Now this dietician turned part-time activist has a simple philosophy: don’t eat any crap (that’s no dodgy numbers, no refined stuff, nothing artificial, almost no gluten) and shift your butt for 40 minutes, three times a week.

This, I can work with; food as nature chucks it at you. And I must say, after nary a week of this clean eating/paleo business, I can feel a difference.

So I have spent the remainder of my morning planning a couple of meals including a shopping list and generally being ridiculously organized (I'm almost concerned).

I will keep you posted.

And in the interests of furthering the achievement of my goals, I should sod off and eat something.

“I want chocolate”

“There isn’t any so f**k off”

“But I reeeeeeally need chocolate, let's go buy some!”

“Sure....but you have to walk all the way to the supermarket?”

*crickets*

“That’s what I thought”

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Check out Cyndi O’Meara’s website below J

http://changinghabits.com.au/meet-the-changing-habits-team/cyndi-omeara