My Oola Journey: From Fat to Fabulous

Saturday morning I wrote about this journey.  It is now Sunday evening, and I have had some time to reflect.  I have had some time to think about what my counselor said, as well as review my OolaPlan.  Here's what I've discovered.

It's not that I don't have enough time that is the problem; it is time management.  I have taken some very key steps to working toward my goal.  So, let me share.

First of all, I took my counselor's advice and exercised for a very limited amount of time -- about 20 minutes each day.  It is not a lot but it is better than not moving at all.  It is progress. I slept really well for the first time in months.  A much-needed 11 hours, and it was a glorious sleep!  Yes, it's a lot but considering I spend most of my life in a sleep-deprived stupor, I do allow myself that luxury on the week-ends.  Oh, and it wasn't I slept until noon, either.  I woke up at 8:00 a.m.  I just fell asleep exceptionally early.

I did my grocery shopping yesterday instead of today.  It is a change.  It also forced me to plan out my meals in advance; all of our dinners for the week.   I have lots of fruits and veggies to snack on, which will be sliced up tonight and ready to go.

Cooking for the entire week is an afternoon-into- evening project. I must confess, it is not particularly fun.  But while waiting on various things, such as the charcoal in the BBQ pit to light, I went for a walk.  All of this is being done in an effort to ward off careless eating habits, which I have gotten into over the past year.   During the week, I come home dead tired and late, so as far as I can tell, this is the only way I am going to be able to have a decent meal.  So, I have prepared my salad, low-cal beef stew, spinach stuffed shells, and cooked up two types of chicken. I have frozen fish filets in the freezer which literally take minutes to cook and egg beaters for when I'm in a real pinch.  All of this food will be packed into storage containers so they can be microwaved in minutes.  Tastier and certainly far healthier than what is in the frozen food aisle.

Yes, this is all just baby steps but for me it's more like, giant steps.  Mother-may-I kind of steps (those of you from the 60's will understand that reference).  Today I ran for the first time in -- oh say, 20 or more years?  I have been feeling in my spirit like I want to run -- even able to envision it, but lacking the courage to do it.  Today, I did it.  It was about 3 blocks. (and no, it didn't take me 20 minutes to do it -- I also walked intermittently!)    Not a lot but certainly more than I dreamt I could muster. 

I'm ever the work in progress.  I am starting to feel good about me.  Las Vegas is very much about the exterior.  I've got my inner groove going, now it's time for the outer.  I'm just at the very beginning of my journey but I believe it will be a good ride.

So for those of you who don't believe it can be done, hang with me.  Let's prove our inner naysayers wrong.  Join me on this journey.  I am sure there will be slip-ups but also, some very good successes.  And let's face it, if I can do it?  Anyone can!