Weighing My Options and Exercising Choices: My Cirque du Soleil Moment

Those extra pounds didn’t accumulate on my body overnight or without overindulgence on my part, although it sure seems like it happened that way. Any first-semester psychology student would accurately diagnose my mindless grazing at the buffet table as a case of being in a serious state of denial. That all ended the day I unexpectedly caught my reflection in a storefront window. Very odd indeed! It perplexed me how my head appeared to have somehow become attached on top of my mother’s body. No more blissful denial.

I’ve dieted a few times in my lifetime, but it’s different now. Besides the uncomfortable realization that there are more pounds to lose now, a sluggish metabolism and aging body have teamed up to make my commitment to lose weight a painfully slow process. The numbers are at least going in the right direction for the first time in … well, let’s just say a long time and leave it at that.

The fact that my husband and I decided enough is enough at the same time has undoubtedly been the best avenue to success. Past attempts to lose weight were dismal and short-lived. Either he was trying to diet and I wasn’t ready to stop my love affair with chocolate, or I was ready to change my lifestyle while he was munching potato chips.

We’ve teamed up to work on portion control and be more ‘calorie conscious’. I think it’s safe to say I’ve been unconscious about what I’ve been eating and my emotional connection to food for quite some time. A helpful tool is the online calorie calculator we use to estimate what our daily intake should be, based on height, current weight, and activity level. I want to state for the record that I think it’s totally unfair that short people require far fewer calories than taller ones. That said, the good news is that after the first year Mike lost 27 pounds and I lost 23. I know it doesn’t sound as impressive as some commercials on television would lead you to believe is possible. I’ve tried to reconcile myself to the idea that if a quicker method sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Besides watching the numbers on the bathroom scale go down, the experience of needing to buy clothes in a smaller size was a bonus reward. I really needed some new pants, because I was at risk of looking like those teenaged boys who walk around with their pants sagging off their derrières. Before a mental image presents itself, you can rest assured that’s not a fashion statement I’m eager to emulate.

Several months ago after I celebrated purchasing some new clothes, I hit one of those aggravating plateaus and got stuck at the same weight. My metabolism had adjusted to the lower caloric intake and I was no longer losing pounds. Since I can’t change my height (high heels don’t seem to count) and I’m not exactly fond of the idea of starvation, that left only one last component in the equation. It was time to start exercising.

Like so many of our adventures, one story leads to another. Our stationary exercise bike had been located (‘stored’ might be a more accurate word) in Mike’s hobby room for years, where the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ syndrome became a factor for me. Mike wanted more space and if the bike were moved into the main house, there might be a greater likelihood that I would actually be inclined to use it.

The short version is that we rearranged a portion of the living room and found a location for the bike next to the cat tree. Mike even installed a small ceiling fan to make the atmosphere more comfortable and inviting. Just to make this picture complete, our kitties both find it quite amusing to take turns perching on the top tier of the cat tree and so they can watch me pedal.

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Weighing My Options and Exercising Choices: My Cirque du Soleil Moment

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