Follow-up/Fill-in-the-Blank Friday

YAY! We made it through the week and what a week it was... Wanted to take a few moments to sip my coffee, chat with my peeps, and do a little follow-up/touch base/check in. So pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, and hang with me for a while, this is gonna be a long one...

I'm realizing that I blurt out a lot of things, make a lot of 'goal' type statements and then let them flop around in the blog-o-sphere/recesses of my brain and don't do much to actually be accountable for them, one way or another.

So here goes... First off, thank you to EVERYONE who 1) listened to my self serving rantings in my previous post about the dread of clothing shopping, and 2) offered suggestions, hints, tips, resources or the "OMG ME TOO!" Please keep 'em coming!!!

I'm feeling much more empowered to seek out professional help. Heck, it helped my brain (yes I just admitted that, and no, I have no problem talking about it.), why not my closet? It will be put slightly on hold for now due to 1) time to spend a day in Phoenix and 2) money to drive up there and either take a friend with me (Ohhh Juulleeeee...) and/or meet with some friends up there (::cough:: Michele, Abby, mOnkey ::cough::). No matter when I do it (I wrote on my 2010 to-do listy of love that I would go 4/15/10) I'll provide a full report! Promise!

In my angst, er, fear, I mean thinking about all this, I did come across a wonderful resource: www.myshape.com You create a free account, take a mess of measurements, they determine your 'shape' and show you a whole mess of outfits that match your shape for purchase.

ALL of the outfits I saw were Ah-Mazing! Totally the styles I like and could see myself wearing. The measurements I put in were half-a$$ because I really need another person to help with a couple of them. I'm going to enlist some help this weekend to get proper measurements done not only for the site but for my own use...

Bringing me to my next goal update: my "goal" weight. I've been really, really, really struggling with this one. I committed to this first 12 week cycle to fat burning and getting through that "last" 10 pounds.

I will spare you all the internal turmoil that thinking about that goal has caused me [trust me, the Princesses & I were near all out rebellion and I almost completely ditched the goal].

The gist is that the Awesome Ramona, supplemented with Two Fit Chicks , helped me have a HUGE A-Ha moment, remove my fear of finishing, shift my thinking away from the scale again and reminded me that living the lifestyle and taking time to tighten the reigns short term to be extra focused on my goal can coexist peacefully in my mind.

So I've readjusted the short term goal a bit to reduce my body fat by 5% or more, and if the scale happens to show a 5-10# drop, all the better. I'll be doing measurements once a month with my Accumeasure callipers and using this website. I'm not looking for accuracy in measurements, just for a consistent measure.

I shall reserve the rant on body fat calculations for another day... till then, I shall let you chew on this for a while.

That brings me back to the article I shared in my previous post. The reason I *wanted* to share it got lost in the quagmire of my rantings, but I'm now reminded of it after re-reading the article from Mark's Daily Apple(an awesome resource, BTW, for a truly getting a grip on the lifestyle aspect of this journey. You may not adopt his way of eating - I haven't - but you can learn a LOT about developing a chilled out attitude.)

The whole point of both of these is this: The number really doesn't matter.

The size on your pants, the number on the scale, the notch on a calliper, a tick mark on the measuring tape, the results on a lab report* - all numbers, all measures of a single moment in time, all as accurate as the method used create it.

Do what you will with those results, the measurements, the numbers, but don't make them of supreme, singular importance. Use the numbers as tools and make informed decisions based on them of how you are going to proceed from that moment to the next.

Think of it this way: You could have 3 pairs of pants, each measures 18" across the top when laid flat, yet each one has a different number on the tag. If each pair fits you the same way, does the one with larger number make you 'fat' while the smaller number makes you 'thin'?

Nope.

It means the people who made your clothes can't agree.

So stop making the numbers so important and focus on consistently doing something each day to get you closer to where you want to be, and soon you will see your numbers/measurements of each instance in time falling more in line with what you want them to be.

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* Yes, I do realize that some numbers on the lab result are important, and need to be watched closely... I'm not trying to minimize a high glucose level, or out of control triglycerides, but we're not getting into that kind of detail. I'm talking conceptually, no specifically. K?

k.
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Speaking of food, weight and goals... remember these little goodies from a couple of weeks ago

Yeah... they're still there. Though I gotta say the Kinder egg's days are numbered. Not because I want the chocolate - because I want the toy inside! :)

As for other goals I'm working on, I've gotten about 30 miles into my Walk to Rivendell, I'm still plugging away on my test, and I'm still 'training' (aka looking forward to, and doing what I can to build my endurance) for the Race for the Cure (but need to pay the entrance fee still... oops!), and I'm so happy to report that the hubby & I have had dinner at the dining room table nearly every night this week (which means it's been consistently clear of clutter!

yay!)

*whew*

And /finally/ we come to the 'fill in the blank' portion of the blog! ::throws confetti::

If you made it this far, YOU are a trooper!

Today's fill in the blank is inspired by the awesome MizFit herself, Carla. I was listening to the podcast on goals (Go! Listen!) and she blew me away with how she applied the principle of the Zone to all aspects of her life... The concept of "you're only as far from the Zone as your next meal."

She took it a step further:
I'm only as far from being an awesome mom as my next interaction with my child.
I'm only as far from finishing my book as my next sentence.

Without further adieu, fill in the blank:

I'm only as far from ______________ as my next____________.

Remember: No wrong answer, answer as many times as you'd like, feel free to steal from others.
Have at!