Younger Next Year/Vibram Five Fingers

So much to do - so little time.  I'm not alone, right?  Fitting everything into a day feels all but impossible most days. And I've got some grim determination brewing about now - things I'm determined to accomplish.   The big one is losing another 50 pounds. I've been saying "I've got to lose my last 50 pounds," and then I realize, who says that?  When did something like a 50 pound weight loss get thrown out there as a trivial, clean-up chore?  And yet I've lost 125 pounds, so 50 feels like it should be a breeze.  I obviously know how to lose weight - the old fashioned way, diet and exercise.  This morning I rose a half hour earlier and added to my day 1/2 hour on the elliptical trainer.  I've decided to start my day by rolling out of bed, putting on exercise clothes, getting Joey out of his crate and making him watch me exercise for 1/2 hour before our morning time at the beach.

So, 1 1/2 hours of exercise in the morning and then at least three classes at the health club during the week (Pilates, weights, and dynamic movement) should really make it possible to meet my fitness and weight loss goals. Grim determination.  There are two reasons this is imperative.  Most important, the book Younger Next Year (did you order it?).   If we look back to the early days of man, there was a rhythm to the year and the body adjusted accordingly.   In the spring and summer humans ate lots of fresh produce and expended a lot of energy, walking miles a day in search of prey, sprinting when they spotted a meal - during those times the body put on lots of muscle and grew strong.   Then in the fall, with winter coming, metabolism slowed and humans ate foods that would layer on the fat to get them through the winter.  Spring and Summer were for growth and vitality.  Fall and Winter were times of muscle atrophy (decay) and calorie conservation.
Modern man has it all wrong.  We give ourselves a fall/winter message year round - a decay message while we pack on the calories.  Your body is either growing and putting on muscle or it is in decay.   And age is really not as important as one would think - by giving yourself a year-round spring message, you can live young up to the very end.  

This is what I am doing to give my body a springtime message:

• cardio 1/2 hour/day and I'll work up to a full hour - that includes some minutes going full tilt like I'm sprinting on the Serengeti in pursuit of my dinner
• eating for health - simple, unprocessed foods, not too much 
• taking care of my teeth - bad oral health can cause inflammation and heart disease
• weight lifting which is important for bones and also balance
• taking care of my beauty - I want to look like a spring chicken as well as feel like one!
• spending time outdoors
• taking supplements (Vitamin D, calcium, Q-10, Vitamin C, fish oil, complex B and Iron)
• getting deep restful sleep - not too much, not too little
• quick naps to recharge myself

I'm determined to be fit and beautiful by this time next year or before.  I am a good looking woman but our culture is thin obsessed and if I'm going to date, I don't want to eliminate possibilities because of the extra pounds.  I'm not going to settle for someone who is not taking care of himself and I don't expect him to settle either.   Body beautiful is something that has eluded me but really it is SO do-able with discipline.  Once the weight is off I'll take a trip to Thailand for a surgery vacation and have everything nipped and tucked.  My goal is to enjoy how I look in a bathing suit.  

And face it, in this culture, no one wants the fat girl.  I have been teased and tormented my entire life about my weight and it's time to put that behind me. Fuck you world for caring so much about washboard abs and perky boobs.  It shouldn't be a showstopper but it is - men are primitive creatures, all about aesthetics at the expense of substance.  Kaveh would say I'm generalizing again and lumping all men into a hateful category, but really girls, aren't I right?  They may say they want intelligence and talent but at the end of the day, they're all about youth and beauty...period.  It sucks.

Well, this is a shallow, slightly bitter post today!  I have no deep thoughts today.  Just grim determination for a better life through discipline.   I don't anticipate being happy for a good long time so in the interim I'll be athletic and obsessed with thinness and beauty, like everyone else.

The challenge today is to think about turning up the heat on your health and fitness so that you can live the last half or third of your life as the best time of your life.  If you don't exercise daily, why not?  And don't tell me it's a time thing...I know you watch TV.

Sarah=obnoxious today.  Sorry.   I'm still so very sad - it's hard to be upbeat all the time.

Peace,

Sarah

PS.  Picture is of my Vibram Five Finger shoes.   I wear them all the time these days and for the first time in my life I can walk for miles with no pain.   I not only have no foot pain, but my whole skeleton feels better.  They're frigging amazing and they're catching on.   Lately a lot of people have come up to me and asked if I like them because they've been considering getting a pair.