Social Eating – I survived it by thinking it through and being mindful of everything I ate. I had decided in advance that I was going to eat, choosing the best I could with what was available and if that wasn’t too good, just keeping the quantities reasonable. I did. Saturday afternoon was a gathering in their home for the loss of a husband and father. He was a wonderful, kind, humorous guy and we told stories about his great Halloween costumes. There was also food, buffet style, all afternoon. I graised on the vegetables, I had a chicken on a stick, I ate Chinse chicken salad without the dressing, and I treated myself to a crumb of a cookie left on the platter. I passed on the pizza (normally I would have had some) and the Krispy Kreme donuts (not much of a temptation – too sweet for me). Yikes, does this sound like I was more focused on the food than the people that afternoon (I hope not). I will say though that it is easy to obsess about food when dieting. I think that many people who are naturally thin do not have that obsession with food.

Saturday night was a tri tip dinner and I ate in moderation. I also only drank one glass of wine. Best of all, there was dancing and I danced! I do have to be mindful of injuries. A couple of years ago I danced at a wedding and ended up with a chronic problem in my right heel – a heel spur and plantar fasciitis. It is under control now with orthotics but I think I will always have to be careful with it. I have also ended up with a sore hip and concern about my knees with dancing and thats another reason to loose weight – less strain on the joints!

Sunday my husband and I hosted a Father’s Day Lobster Brunch at the yacht club. And I cooked it the way I wanted to, with butter, hollandaise sauce, the works. I did bring strawberries and asparagus so I had some healthy side dishes. I ate a moderate serving and was fine. Only one glass of champagne too.

The moral of the story is that I can do it if I set my mind to it and keep mindful throughout challenges. Thats something that is emphasized in yoga, always being mindful of the present moment.

I exercise 5 to 6 hours per week. Why do I still gain weight? The answer is easy, I eat too much. Here’s my normal schedule (these are hour long classes except for the scuba):

I am pretty regular with the above schedule missing sometimes one day a week from the above. During May however, I was working more and did miss more classes which probably contributed to climbing to 179.

Now to loose weight I need to change it up, increase the exercise and descrease the food. I’ll talk about the food another day. On the exercise I have been upping the anty this week. I am doing all of the above plus adding another 15 minutes to an hour each day of yoga. On Tuesday I taught an evening yoga class in addition to the morning pilates. Today the weather was bad so instead of scuba I did a very intensive Power Sculpt class. I have to be careful with this class. The last time I went I hurt my ankle from the jumping and it took months to heal completely. I currently have a sore right shoulder and a twinge of neck pain so I am being careful with the shoulder, using lighter weights or no weights. It’s tough getting old.

I have a migraine this morning. My migraines are hormonal and started about 10 years ago when I hit perimenopause. It’s been a long perimenopause for me. I know that I am very close to menopause but officially not there yet. I am hopeful that the migraines will go away or slow down then. Fortunately I am able to take Imitrex which knocks them out within an hour or 2. There is a correlation between being overweight and estrogen stored in the fat which could affect my migraines. We’ll see in a couple of months if I notice a difference. I do log all migraines so will have at least some anecdoctal evidence.

I started my personal weight loss plan yesterday. We all know that to lose weight you have to eat less and exercise more. So here’s my first two items. I am cutting out wine with dinner during the week. This should save me 100 calories per day or so (I usually drink 1 – 2 glasses per night). I usually exercise 5 to 6 days per week. That’s right, I exercise regularly and still gain weight (because I eat too much). I still need to pick up the exercise to break the pattern. I do yoga and most of it is gentle. I love traditional sun salutations but am not strong enough to take a power yoga class. So I will do sun salutations at home. They are aerobic for me and I started yesterday with 4. Today I did 6. I will build up over time.

That’s it for my first post. I need to finish setting things up and learn how this blog works.