Sunday, May 6, 2007

Two Steps Forward One Step Back/Do the best you can

Hello to all, if you are following my posting you may have noticed that I have been gone for a few days. I took a few days off and went to a wonderful quilt retreat. It was an opportunity full of fun, anxiety and challenges but I'm back and happy to say that I made it and successfully I might add.
I titled my note today with two titles since this sums up how the last four days have been.
During the last four months I certainly have been taking two and three steps forward and at a fast clip. I'm so proud of my progress and the things that I'm learned and done. However, with this quilting weekend a new challenge quickly emerged and it is one that we will all face at one time or another in our fitness and healthy lifestyle conversion.
I was submerged in a stressful, since it was new, and uncontrolled atmosphere with limited structure and many temptations. I prepared myself by packing my own breakfast and snacks and just knew that going into this that I would have things outside of my element.
During the lunches and dinners I chose items as carefully as I could and put small portions on my plate. I made sure to eat my snacks on time and tried to drink as much water as I could. I also was able to get two different walks in which really helped the hind end area as the chairs were not the best, even with the extra padding down there :)
I was so happy to meet a fellow person and now friend that is on a similar journey. She has worked very hard over the last several months to lose weight and was also facing the same obstacles as I was facing. It was great to be able to share the ups and downs of this journey with her and to know that I had another person who understood my feelings.
My friend did a great job and we both left knowing that tomorrow we would hit hard our regular routines and just know that this was one little step backwards and that we did the best that we could.
Mary, you are great. I know how hard you are working to change you and your family and it can be tough. We made it through this weekend and both of us have learned invaluable lessons on how to live our lives with our health as being in the forefront.
I'll be looking forward to hearing about your next four steps forward and can't wait to see you again.

1 comment:

Mary said...

Kathleen, like I said as we left the retreat yesterday, hopefully the next retreat I can show just HALF the willpower you had this past weekend, you are truly an ispiration! I'm so glad we met and became friends. I'll be watching you and cheering for you every step of the way! Thnaks for everything! -Mary