Goal: 
105

Easily, effortlessly, comfortably, healthily, happily, honorably, diligently and permanently by 
Feb. 18, 2003

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The Power of Commitment

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Week 2: 
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> Journal:  
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Week 1:
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My SMART TECHNIQUE Odyssey:  A Journal
(Or, my life and times with "The Mommy Diet")

Week 2 for Out of the Blue (that's me)

Phase 2: Reprogramming your responses to Food & Exercise

"I love the sound of the waves murmuring on the CDs; it brings me home to Hawai`i. I grew up weekends on a Hawaiian shoreline and the associations are soothingly and comfortingly positive. There, we have a word for that sound: hâwanawana, which roughly translates to "whispering."  My subconscious listens to this CD's health-changing, weight losing whispers with great interest and compliance.
 ~ Out of the Blue

Happy,
Healthy,
One with God.

Slim
Trim
Fit!

105 and vibrantly alive!"

"Load your mind with pictures capturing your preferred tomorrow." ~Gary Carter

"Light tomorrow with today." ~Elizabeth Browning

"Nothing tastes as good as losing weight feels." ~annie

"If we eat wrongly, No doctor can cure us; If we eat rightly, No doctor is needed." ~Dr. Victor G. Rocine, 1930

"I may always be short, but I'll be damned if I'll be stout much longer!" ~littleteapot

To thine own self be true.

Age only matters if you are wine or cheese.

I eat to live, not live to eat.

Watch your thoughts; they become your words.

Watch your words; they become your actions.

Watch your actions; they become your habits.

Watch your habits; they become your character.

Journal: Week 2

DAY 8: Friday, December 13, 2002

DAY 8

A gift to our health and the best that we can be: DH assembled the Linex 3.40 upright exercise bike from megafitness.com while I posted on the SMART TECHNIQUE forum.

Forum Post: Nitty-gritty Water Questions:

Dear SMART Specialist:

I am Out of the Blue. I'm happy to "meet" you. I've enjoyed your answers to various posts and thank you for helping us.

Since water has become such a prominent part of my life, I'd like to refine/fine-tune my knowledge of it as it relates to the FOOD LOVERS PROGRAM and also use that knowledge to help my friends.

Why are diet Coke/Pepsi and artificially-sweetened drinks (Crystal Light, Sugar-Free Kool Aid) not advisable on the FOOD LOVER'S PROGRAM?

I was asked this but was not able to go beyond the most obvious answer of "less chemicals." I have two dear friends/co-workers who are on WW.

For several years, our workplace has provided bottled water for all of us at no charge. Yet in spite of its ready availability, they will walk over to a nearby fast food restaurant to fill up their super-size plastic cups (you buy the cup and you get all future fillups for free). All day, they sip diet Pepsi instead of water.

I think a definitive answer will first help me understand why diet sodas are not advised and not included in the FLP's 100 oz a day. Perhaps my enlightenment on this will help my friends see that their Coke/Pepsi fixes may be working against their weight loss goals, although WW says diet sodas are A-OK.

They are both intelligent women who are open to knowledgeable answers, one that I am at a loss to provide them.

Water has definitely become a positive part of my life. Any further tips to maximize water's benefits will be appreciated from one and all.

Thanks in advance.

Positively yours,
Out of the Blue The Power of Commitment

 

DH and I are both "thumbs up" on the exercise bicycle.  We once purchased one from Sears over 20 years ago when I was still a student. We used it for a few years, but as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for..."  For years thereafter, it took up space and functioned more as a clothes hanger and guilt-inducer. We gave it away without a second thought when a neighbor expressed interest in it.

I love to bike, but now that the weather outside is turning wintry and my metabolism is back (within a week of listening to the SMART CDs and by sticking to the Food Lovers Program), it made good sense to invest in an indoor exercise/stationary bike again.  A small investment, we think, for our health.

Our old exercise bike was impossibly noisy. This new bike with an electromagnetic resistance flywheel is quantum leaps ahead in its design and operation:  Whisper quiet. With a console with a digital speedometer, odometer, pulse monitor, calorimeter and timer.

So far, the Fat Lovers Program is working well.  No hunger pangs.  No sense of deprivation.  And most of all, the program is delivering what it promises -- what has eluded me:  my metabolism is burning hotter.  And the proof is that I am up and moving.  Easily, effortlessly, comfortably, immediately and permanently.

And to think that I was not even aware that the SMART TECHNIQUE kit included an eating plan when I ordered it, so focused was I on the subconscious reprogramming.  It was a bonus.  As has been said, sometimes the best things in life are free.  What a gift this eating program is to me. 

I spent most of my free moments researching this program's forum as well as the "other" forum with Provida's sister program called Michael Thurmond's 6 Week Makeover (6WMO). I learned volumes just by reading real people's experiences and their acquired wisdom, especially in the food department.  Instead of taking breaks formerly had me looking for something to munch on whether I was hungry or not, I hopped on the bike for a mile or two.

Phase 2 must've kicked in from the first hearing last night, as I was on the cycle and went for a total of 6.5 by day's end.  My butt was a bit sore, but tolerable. I needed one of these:

I want a hard butt. A desensitized, "callused" one will do for now.

Some of the folks over at 6WBMO forum are prolific writers (and successful weight releasers) and I absorbed as much knowledge as I could from their writings.  In particular, last night I read Rikki Moreno's posts.  She is a fount of information.  Besides being knowledgeable, she is an exceptionally giving person. 

On the Pili (emotional/heart) level, I feel a kinship with her.  She too goes the extra mile.  And we're both info addicts -- loving to learn and understand and willing to ferret out answers. I like helping people and so is she. 

I know her incredible success of 60 pounds since July, 2002 has much to do with her giving spirit.  The Golden Rule and Universal Laws at work. As she does unto others, her unconscious and superconscious / Higher Power are doing unto her.

You get only if you give. 

And in that spirit, I worked on this site with hopes my experience may help others by my open and honest sharing of my SMART TECHNIQUE experience.  I started a Links/Info page with loosely organized info from posts that caught my eye. 

It is my giving:

>> Food Tips & Info

DAY 9: Saturday, December 14, 2002

DAY 9

Starry, Starry Night

A huge El Niño storm is expected to arrive today, and after being drenched twice in cold rain (Carmel, last month, and at Disneyland, two weekends ago), resulting in recalcitrant colds, we're playing it safe by staying indoors.  

What to do on a rainy day?

The prospect of staying in all day got my creative juices flowing.  I worked on improving this site's navigation with a revised index/entry page, researched the forums for additional info and reread the workbook.  

In between, I hopped on the exercise bike and peddled up a storm (pun intended).  I must gush about the exercise bike some more.  It is great!  I went a total of 10 miles by day's end.  That's NEVER happened!  I also know it is hardly the bike doing it, but my Pili -- subconscious -- having a healthier relationship with exercise. "The bike is our friend."

In the afternoon, DH and I pored over the grocery list.  He is the real cook in the family; he is a self-taught gourmet cook and wine connoiseur who surpassed my abilities a long time ago.  This SMART fare is definitely a shift in cuisine for him, but he is game.  He wants to do this program with me.

Do I count my blessings?  You betcha!

So I'm relegated once again to being the chief grocery list and menu maker, which is plenty fine with me.  Some of these ingredients and foods are new to us, and I am grateful that we live near a Trader Joe's. Getting the Pure Protein bars (for emergencies at work) was not a problem.  

He dove right into making the turkey-mushroom-onion meatloaf for tonight and Annie's Chili for this coming week, following recipes I got off the 6WBMO forum.  These will make a welcome variation from all that chicken last week.  

Eating meatloaf without smothering it with sugar-and-salt-laden catsup was a new experience for me.  Before ST, I was the ultimate Del Monte catsup fiend, often kidding that it was my beverage of choice.  Well, the meatloat wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. 

My tastebuds are definitely being freed of its salt and sugar addiction.  I could taste the sweetness of the onions and savored the experience. I love the flavors of onions and garlic; thank goodness, they are unprocessed food.

All in all, experiencing the SMART program has been an unexpectedly positive one. Yes, it is entirely possible to do this program honorably, diligently and with results.  And without the rigor and deprivation of rigidly strict low carb, high protein diets.

So far, the rain is still up north.  Just saw a news report of a mudslide in Corte Madera, Marin County.  Down here in Southern California, it is still a starry, starry night.  

DAY 10: Sunday, December 15, 2002

DAY 10

Still no rain in sight.  But spending my weekend indoors has not been in vain.  I am finally getting over the nasty cold I had since getting drenched at Disneyland two weeks ago.  Maybe I'll now be able to deep breathe as Mary Holmes instructs on the CD!

I was reading the Size-A-Week (SAW) thread and was inspired to get on its workout program now that I know how to calculate my target heart rate for my age:  (220-51).6 = 101.4 = MY TARGET HEART RATE at age 51.

I have social commitments this week that preclude my doing SAW, I decided to do the workout segment only.  It would get me on a defined one-week program of workouts: 40 minutes of walking or biking at the target heart rate / then 45 the 2nd day /45/50/60/60/.

So I hopped on the exercise/stationary bike and pedaled while I watched PBS' Collected Stories about a respected mid-50s professor who takes under her wing a callow 20-something student/protégée who is a child of suburban privilege (and entitlement), an elegant film that touched on issues of age, generation gaps, artistic license, and betrayal. (But I digress)

The point is: my mind was fully occupied. Engrossed. Mind occupation for me is essential for me to stick with any exercise routine. 

And the new exercise bike was blissfully quiet. The pace was easy enough for someone like me who is out of shape, and I was able to keep my heart rate between 100 and 110 without stressing.

More importantly, being goal-oriented, I had a definite goal to reach: a total of 40 minutes. Lo and behold, this was surprisingly easy to do and I am greatly encouraged to keep the metabolic fires stoked to keep the fat burning off my body.  

I welcome the SMART CDs, the SAW exercise regimen and my stationary bike in my life.  And apparently, so does my subconscious. It is definitely paying attention to the message: GET MOVING! 

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