Courage and Determination: How to Tap into Yours

I was recently at a friend's blog (Carla Birnberg) where she did a post based on someone she happened to notice (with the help of her observant young daughter) who was doing tricep dips in a wheelchair. This was incredible to see,and she said that it must have taken some true "grit."

I agree that it is truly impressive.

Lately, I don't think I've have been showing any grit in my endeavors.

However, back when I was first trying to lose the excess weight (I lost over 145 lbs and went from morbidly obese to a healthy BMI), I think I did show grit.

You see, I had a condition known as plantar fasciitis, and what it boils down to is this: My heels were chronically inflamed. My heels were always swollen and in pain. Standing felt like I was standing with knives sticking into my heels and every step felt as if the knives were being turned and slid in deeper. And it was constant.

I am reminded of the original Hans Christian Anderson version of "The Little Mermaid," where, when she walked on human legs, it felt like she was walking on knives. Once I developed plantar fasciitis, I knew how she felt.

Despite this constant pain and the fact that just walking across the room was painful enough to bring tears to my eyes, one of the ways I lost the weight was through walking. I walked everywhere, miles and miles every day. When I got up each morning, the pain would be so bad that I stooped and shuffled painfully to the bathroom, wincing with each step. Out in public, the pain was just as bad, but I walked straight and with a fast pace, because I didn't want anyone seeing me to realize how much pain I was in. I even went on hiking trips with my husband and we hiked up mountains.

The doctors tried steroid injections, and they worked for a couple of months - and then they didn't. I was told that I could have a surgery on my heels which only had a 50-50 chance of working. I was NOT told that losing weight would help, and yet, after I lost a significant amount of weight, the pain went away.

Wish I could find some of that grit again now though.

I don't remember where, along my weight loss journey, the pain from my plantar fasciitis went away. I just know that somewhere along the way, I had lost enough weight that I no longer had the chronic pain.

And here's where I make a confession.

 I have mentioned before that I have let some of the weight I lost creep back on. Although I have still lost a lot of weight overall, I have gained enough of it back that my plantar fasciitis is back too. I see it as my wake-up call. It's time to find my grit. It's time to get back that courage and determination I somehow found years ago when I first started this weight loss journey.

My bus driver missed my stop today and wouldn't let me off until the next stop, and I was literally in tears about the pain the extra walking caused. I don't want to be this person. I will not suffer chronic pain when it is perfectly in my control to do something about it.

But how am I going to tap into that determination again? How do I find the courage to start walking despite the pain, as I did at the beginning of my weight loss journey all those years ago? And how did I find it back then?

And you might be wondering how you can tap into that determination and courage too. So I have made a list.

1. Make a decision. You have to make the decision to do whatever it takes to reach your goals. You have to decide that nothing is going to be allowed to get in your way. When my husband gave up smoking (before we met), he had to make a decision. He had to say to himself that he wasn't going to smoke another cigarette ever.

2. See yourself as the person you want to be. When I first started working out and eating healthy, my perception of myself changed. I started to see myself as someone who cared about her health, as someone athletic. I started to visualize myself as the person I hoped to become through my healthy journey. Healthy, fit people didn't binge on cookies, so neither did I. When my husband gave up smoking, he no longer considered himself a smoker; he was a non-smoker or an ex-smoker, but he no longer saw himself in the same cigarette-smoking light because that would have made it easier to fall back into bad habits. Non-smokers don't pick up cigarettes and start smoking.

3. Remind yourself why you are doing it. Everyone has their own reasons for wanting to attain a goal. My reasons are personal ones. I want to be healthy for myself, so that I no longer experience chronic pain. I want to be healthy for my children, so that I can not only be a good example for them but also so that I will be around for a long time in their lives. I want to be healthy for my husband, so that he never has to become my caretaker and do things for me due to me no longer being able to do them myself. I feel better when I am a healthy weight, and I am more confident.

4. Take the first step. Whether it is eating a healthy lunch, skipping dessert, going to the gym, going for a long walk or joining a slimming club, taking the first step towards your goal is paramount in making sure you are going to achieve it.

5. Take the next step and then the next... Each step you take is another step towards your goal, and, if you get yourself to take each step, eventually all of those little steps are going to add up and you will find yourself closer to your goal than you imagined.

6. Reward yourself along the way. I'm not talking about giving yourself some dessert because you've been "good" all week. I'm talking about buying a new dress to suit your new size or getting a new haircut. Going out with friends can be a reward you give yourself. Doing anything that feels like a reward but doesn't set you back in reaching your goal, and planning it ahead for all of those smaller milestones along the way, can give you something to look forward to and more impetus to reach your goal.

7. Don't give up. Even when you do take a step backwards, don't throw in the towel. Keep going. For every step back, become even more determined to take several steps forward. There will be times when it seems harder than usual; don't let those times keep you from continuing. The only thing that can keep you from reaching your goal is you.

How determined are you?

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Hiking Up The Wrong Mountain

You might think that the above title of this post is a metaphor, and I'm sure I could come up with some profound post using it as such. But it's not. Today, my husband Robert, my daughter Angelica and I really did hike up the wrong mountain.

To be fair, I didn't know, at the beginning of the walk, that I was even going to be hiking up any mountain, let alone the wrong mountain. My husband suggested we walk our dog Mercury to a park with a lake that was only about 2 miles away. I should have realized that there would be more to our walk than that though, because he bought me some new hiking shoes just a couple of days ago.





As we passed the park, my husband said, "I fancy walking up there," and he pointed to what appeared to be a group of trees at the top of a very distant mountain. "It's Barbury Castle," he told Angelica and me. Seeing the look of apprehension cross my face, he tried to assure me, "It's not as far as it looks. You know that we always walk to places that look like they are a long way off and find out that they are not really that far."

I thought about my new shoes and how they were already rubbing my feet the wrong way (as new shoes tend to do), and then I thought about how many times in the past my husband had mentioned wanting to hike to Barbury Castle. I sighed internally and began the treck with my husband, my 18 year old daughter and our border collie.

The trip was all uphill and mostly in rough terrain, both dirt and long grass. And today was blisteringly hot. I had expected to be rained on and had not been prepared (meaning I hadn't put any sunblock on my fair skin) for the hot sun that shone on us during the entire hike.

We'd never hiked to Barbury Castle before. Angelica mentioned that she really would love to have a cold drink and something to eat, so Robert pointed to another little group of trees that were a short distance away from the place we were heading and told her that there was a cafeteria there where we would stop. We knew that Mercury would need some water by then too.

We saw lots of rabbits, horses, squirrels and other wildlife along the way. There were also fields of wheat. It really was a beautiful hike. I had my mobile phone with me, so I used it to take some pictures during our hike.













When we finally reached the top of the mountain and the place where Barbury Castle should have been, we found out that we had hiked up the wrong mountain. We had, instead, reached the Liddington Castle hill fort. Barbury Castle was on another mountain. We could see it from where we stood. There was a dial showing us the different direction of the various local sights and it pointed out which direction Barbury Castle was from us. Angelica was not pleased.



But we had her take some photos of us there at the top, and we took some of her too.











We may not have been at the location of Barbury Castle, but there was a moat.



There was no cafeteria for us to stop in at. There was no food for Angelica to fill her tummy with and no cold drinks for us. On our way back though, Mercury found a water trough for horses and drank his fill. At one point, we wound up stuck in a field surrounded by a barbed wire fence and had to carefully climb over it and then lift our dog over it too.

We got to see a horse with one blue eye and one brown eye.





We did manage to stop at a gas station when we were most of the way home. I had a Diet Coke, Robert had a Cherry Coke and a Starbar, and Angelica had a Coke and a Starbar. (Robert bought me a Starbar too, but I brought mine home and tucked it away in my Syn Tin for eating when I have enough syns available.)

When we got home, we looked our hike up on Google maps and found out that, all in all, we had hiked 10.25 miles. I was sunburned and tired, but the walk had been an enjoyable one. It was good to know that I could do the hike. There was a time in my overweight past when a hike like today's would have been beyond my ability.

And there you have it; sometimes hiking up the wrong mountain can be a pleasant experience and can teach you something about yourself.

Of course, Robert still wants to hike to Barbury Castle.


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Walking & Picking Fruit

Robert and I went for a walk on a wildlife trail near our house. We had seen some fruit on the walk in the past, so we brought some plastic containers and bags with us and used our walk to look for fruit to bring home with us. I would have loved to have found some apple trees, but we didn't find any. We did, however, find plums and blackberries.





The plums were very small, just a little bit bigger than cherries. Despite their size, they were incredibly juicy and very sweet. We picked a huge bowl's worth of them.



It took us a while to find the blackberries. The first blackberries we found were not very plentiful, but we kept walking and took some paths that we don't normally take. Eventually, we came across loads of ripe blackberries. We ended up bringing home enough to fill two big bowls.



I would have to say that it was one of our most productive walks!

Walk Your Daughter To Work Day

Today is Walk Your Daughter To Work Day. I can't help but wonder how many people will actually take part in this today. I thought it might be a good idea to help parents make the choice to walk their daughters to work with them today by listing some reasons why it is a good thing to take part in.

Walking is healthy for both you and your daughter. The effort of walking helps with circulation and benefits the heart.

Walking with your daughter is a great way to bond with her. It gives you extra time with your child and allows your child to talk with you. It's a great way to learn more about what your child likes, and, in my experience, children tend to open up and talk quite a lot when out walking with a parent.

Walking with your daughter is a great way to show your child, through your actions, that health and fitness are important to you. Children learn best through the examples that we show them.

Taking your daughter to work with you helps her get to know you better. It's a way for your child to learn a little bit more about what your day away from them is like.

Did you participate in Walk Your Daughter To Work Day?

Finding Time For Walking Despite A Busy Schedule

Walking is one of the easiest ways to exercise throughout
the day. Experts recommend taking 10,000 steps a day for optimal health benefits. You don't have to set aside a large chunk of time and go out for a long walk to get your walking fitness done. There are some easy ways to fit walking into a busy schedule.

Park at the far end of the parking lot when going to work or shopping. You can even park a block away. The few minutes that it will take you to walk that little bit further will increase the amount of steps you take for the day without eating into a large bite of your time.

Use the stairs. If a building you work in or a store you visit has a choice between stairs or elevator, take the stairs. You'll get a quick boost to your heart rate and help get more of your daily steps completed.

Take short ten-minute walks. Just go outside and walk around the block or walk around the building you are working in. Doing this a few times a day adds up to a lot of walking without interfering with your other daily activities.

Walk early in the morning or late in the evening. Setting aside time to walk before your day has begun or once your other activities have been completed means you can spend more time just walking and enjoying the sights around you.

Walk your children to school. Cars can be a hazard near schools anyway, so take the simple approach and walk your children to school. It will help with traffic congestion around the school and will benefit your children’s health as well as your own. If you live too far away, just drive part of the way to the school and walk the rest.

Four Pounds Down!

I lost 4 pounds this week!

The really great thing about this loss is that I was really relaxed about it this week. I ate lots of healthy food and did not go hungry once. I added a little bit of exercise back into my daily routine, but only a reasonable amount. I varied my exercise to keep it fun.

And I lost 4 pounds!

Exercise this week was fun. I still went with my husband to walk the dog late at night, usually for an hour. And this week, I added in bicycling, the elliptical crosstrainer and the Wii Fit (with handweights). On one day, I would go for an hour-long bike ride with Robert. On another day, I would spend 45 minutes on the elliptical crosstrainer. On another day, I would spend an hour on the Wii Fit with the first 30 minutes on the stepper using handweights and varied arm lifts. On Saturday, Robert and I took the dog for a two-hour morning walk to and around a nearby lake. And so on.

Now, I know I won't see a 4 pound loss every week, but if I can continue in this manner and still lose weight, whether its four pounds or half a pound each week, I'll be pleased. I only have 24 pounds left to reach my goal weight!

Is My Improved Fitness Showing?

Being pregnant means it is harder for me to notice the weight coming off from me, because my belly is still growing. It is difficult for me to see the results of my weight loss except for in my face for now, at least until the baby arrives.

Today, I was walkign my daughter Gabby to school and pushing the double stroller with my two year old and three year old in it. We wound up behind a mother and toddler and they were walking really slowly. I assumed it was because of the toddler's uncertain steps, but as I came alongside them, I realized that the 20-something mother was very pregnant and the toddler was pulling against her hand trying to speed her up. We started up a conversation, and I found out that she was due just two weeks before me.

Later, after the children were dropped off at school, we ran into one another again, and she stopped to chat with me. (I was at the bus stop waiting for a bus to take my two little ones and I to the hospital for a prenatal appointment.)

First, she was amazed that I was only due two weeks after her and that this was my 7th baby. She said I just seemed too fit and energetic for that!

That comment absolutely made my day! Most days, I hobble with pregnancy-induced pain from my hip, but I am learning to ignore the pain and do my best to walk normally and quickly anyway so as to make my time spent walking shorter. And I have never before been referred to as being "fit" and definitely not "energetic!" Even in my early 20s with my first few pregnancies back in my "thin" days, I always felt tired and sluggish. I would look at other pregnant women and mothers and be jealous of how energetic they seemed!

I have noticed that, where I used to take 45 minutes or longer to walk 2 miles with my husband, I can now do the same walk in usually about 30 minutes. So, maybe even if I can't physically see the results in my body of all of this weight loss right now, at least I am starting to be shown the results that are appearing in other ways.