As always, I feel Weight Watchers reads my mind and the meetings are spot-on. This last meeting, we were asked to partner up with someone, discuss “I could lose weight if only…” I think we all do this – if I only had more time, if I only had money for a personal trainer, if I only had a personal chef to make me delicious healthy meals, if I only had a supportive spouse who didn’t bring potato chips into the house, if I only had blah blah blah…
Well my thing is exercise. I never find the time for it. So I told my partner. She said she walks around the neighborhood lake every Saturday morning before yoga (which is taught by my kickass husband!). She said we could walk together. I hemmed and hawed, saying Emerson’s schedule is difficult, the dogs, the this and the that. She said she knows where I live, it’s 10 minutes to the lake, 20 minutes around the lake, 10 minutes home… do I really not have time for that? I can bring Emerson in the stroller. So I said sure, some time we could do it and forgot about it.
Friday around 4:45 this woman emails me and asks if we can switch to Sunday. Sundays we do the farmers market and then I had plans, so I said I was busy. Darn, I am out of town next weekend so we’ll have to wait until I return. She replies, “Well then I guess we’ll have to do Saturday. See you at the lake at 8:30!” Damnit, I was stuck!
So I set my alarm for 7:30, got myself together, woke E at 8 and by 8:30 we were at the lake. We did the walk around the lake, then walked to a nearby playground. We took the long way home, walked by another playground and then another. I got home at 10:30am and felt more awake than I would have after a big cup of coffee. I was a sweaty, disgusting mess but I felt great. Not only that, Emerson also got some great activity time at the playgrounds. We came home, had a snack, played indoors for a bit to cool down and calm down before her noontime nap.
Usually while Emerson naps on Saturdays, I am a bump on a log. I may write my article for Savings.com, may fritter away time on the Internet, may even take a nap myself. This Saturday I had so much energy I started gutting the house. I listed a bunch of stuff on eBay and Freecycle and started organizing our home office.
Now, I am not going to lose 50 pounds by doing a 20-minute walk once a week, but it’s better than nothing. And having a neighbor and friend hold me accountable forces me to do it. And this weightloss is about permanent life changes, baby steps to a new me.
Of course we can’t all afford personal trainers and chefs, but we can make very small changes to our life for the better. Summer is a great time to start new habits – longer days, fresh fruit, weather nice enough to take a walk or swim some laps in the local pool. What do you feel is holding you back from losing weight? What can you do to overcome that obstacle?