Considerations....

I have been getting a lot of feedback from friends and Kat, a lot to consider.  There are 2-3 areas that are resonating with me to change; focus on diet vs. exercise, countering my negative talk, the biological effects of hormones.

It has come up several times that the key to health and weight loss is more diet than exercise (defining exercise as cardiovascular workouts, not muscle building).  Gaining muscle and being aware of what I am putting in my body have been a recurrent theme I've been hearing for the last couple of weeks.  SO...I am trying to begin to shift my focus from exercise to diet.  I know I felt better when Kat and I were mostly gluten free.  I don't know if it was the lack of gluten, but I want to get more gluten free in my diet.  I am also looking at cutting way back on my diet Snapple intake.  I stopped drinking soda (have been sober since 4/8/2009), now its time to look at cutting back on the Snapple.  When I was in Weight Watchers (WW), I learned that if a drink is non-carbonated and has less than 5 calories per serving, it was considered water.  So I drink diet Snapple as my water/fluid intake.  What is all that aspartame doing to my body?  I know that there is a lot of controversy as to how the body reacts to it.  SO....I will begin to cut back the amount I am drinking and increase my water intake.

I am also seeing that my negative talk has increased.  It's hard when I feel that I am trying but there are no or few results.  I know there are reasons and things that I want to loose weight for, but mostly, I just want to be healthy.  I want to find the healthy way to loose weight, to be energetic, to interact with my family/friends/environment/the Earth.  I see that I am still finding ways to beat myself up; I'm not succeeding, so I must be doing something wrong.  I may not be doing anything wrong, I have to keep in mind that my body is doing what it is doing as a effect of not only my diet and exercise, but other influences including my hormones.

Hormones are not just the gender specific ones like estrogen or testosterone, insulin is a hormone, adrenaline is a hormone.  So not only is my body fighting the whacked menstrual cycle hormones, it is fighting against my stress hormones, and who knows what other hormones.  I am looking at what supplements I can take to help my body come back into hormonal balance.  Looking at what I can do to provide support for my adrenal glands, for my ovaries, and my pituitary.  Am I looking for a quick fix, maybe, but it is all integrated.  I know that there is an imbalance because of the physical symptoms I am experiencing.  Supporting my body through the changes shouldn't be harmful.  I"m not looking to reverse the change, but to find a way to make the transition a little smoother.

So here  I am, floundering, trying to strike a balance.  How does one find balance in today's world?  With all of the expectations upon us, on our families, on our children, how do we find that healthy balance between a good thing and too much, between active and too busy, between giving to others and saving some for ourselves? It's about balance, and that balance isn't just within the body, but emotional and spiritual as well.  I've been so focused on the physical and how things in my emotional and spiritual effect the physical, I haven't really looked at how to strike the balance for my other facets.  Balance....