100 Days are Over - And we are just begining

Everyone looked so AWESOME this morning. Proud of their bodies, their new muscles, and positive habits. There was the sparkle of success in their eyes. It was great. We have learned so much about ourselves, our bodies and what we can do with a little bit of a push start. We will continue to make healthy choices by getting up and moving, choosing foods that make us feel better and not slow and sluggish.
PLUS we learned that there is no bad food and it is okay to have that occasional bag of popcorn and a soda or a bite of birthday cake or whatever. We like the way healthy feels!
Congratulations to all of you beautiful women!! You done good!

Do You Want to be a Mermaid or a Whale?

I got this e-mail via a friend and I just had to share it!! Enjoy...............

This pretty much says it all!!Recently, in a
large French city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman
appeared in the window of a gym. It said:¨THIS SUMMER DO YOU WANT TO BE
A MERMAID OR A WHALE?¨A middle aged woman, whose physical
characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded
publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern: Whales
are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans)..
They have an active sex life, they get pregnant and have adorable baby
whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with
shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places
like Patagonia, the Barren Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia. Whales
are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible
creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans.. They are
loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world. Mermaids
don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside
the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or
human? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to
them not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them.....where
is IT ?Therefore, they don't have kids either.. Not to mention who wants
to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store? The choice is
perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when
media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful,
but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man
who makes me shiver and a piece of chocolate with my friends. With time
we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in
our heads that when there is no more room it distributes out to the rest
of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated
and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will
think, ¨Good grief, look how smart I am...¨

Challenge

I love this!

Heading down the home stretch.

Finishing

We are almost done with the 100 Day Heart Challenge - we may have crashed along the way but we are all going to burst through that ribbon with our arms held high.
Maybe I shouldn't use the word "finish" It is the begining of a healthy lifestyle. Moving more, making healthier choices and loving ourselves for who we are.
Dang I just got donut crumbs all over my key board!! Just kidding. It was celery (do they have crumbs?).

I am on vacation this week. What is cool about it is that I have planned lots of physical activities. Not once have I planned to go anywhere to eat. I have not monitored my eating this week but know I have made a lot of healthy choices verses what I would have several months ago. I went hiking with only water - no treats. I ate yogurts when I was craving sweets. I ate half of what I served myself or was served to me. I did eat cake, grilled cheese sandwiches and other things I have given up for the most part.
The thought that I have not lost weight during this 100 day HC has really eaten away at my spirit. I feel I have failed all the people that have worked so hard putting this all together. As I mentioned in my previous posts a lot has changed.
I hope to fight the feeling of failure and continue on trying to become healthier and more active. AND i do hope for a 40 lb weight loss sometime within the next year or so.

What do we teach the next generation?

I will be a first time grandma the end of September. FUN!! As we near the end of the 100 days I reflect on what I have learned, how firm I have gotten, how much healthier I eat AND at the scale which shows no weight loss. Am I a failure? Depends how you look at it. Some scales show that people have lost 25 or more pounds.... looking at it that way I am.

What we compare ourselves to is often how we determine that we are a failure. Didn't we learn that we must be a certain body size by looking at what the world found as "beautiful" Some of us can no more change ourself to look that way than we could will ourselves to be able to time travel. Yet as a child we didn't know that...

What are you teaching you children, grandkids etc to compare themselves to? How are you teaching them to just be healthy and to accept that one person's perfect size may be a size one and anothers may be a size 12 etc.

Have you discovered that you just want to be healthy or are you still comparing yourself to someone you have no chance in hell of looking like?