I Go Out Walking

Francois and I love to go out walking most days, as long as it is not pouring rain. I must say though that right after a rain a walk smells delicious. It is late spring and almost summer so the Alberta Wild Roses are out. It was amazing to walk around a bend in the path a few mornings ago and be hit with the incredible floral scents. Lilacs are out in full bloom right now too.

Consistency is the new habit that I am building. It is a powerful habit. Doing something every day, day after day builds new pathways in the brain. Rael Kalley my habits coach has me working on creating this exercise habit over my 100 Days Of Fire. At first I hated it, but now I am actually looking forward to it. It seems to be working. I have gone for a walk at 10:00 PM to make sure it happened, so I must be committed to it.

The parks in Calgary are fabulous. There are so many great pathways to take. Lately we have been to Edworthy Park, Bowness Park, Bakers Park, Nose Hill Park and all of the other parks attached to it. I think though one of my favorites has been the park out at Cochrane. There is a path in the backwoods there that will give you quite the work out. I would not recommend going in the rain because you may slide ride off the trail but it is a very cool walk in the park. There are also these awesome stairs that you can climb to get right up to the big cowboy sculpture.

Each day that I go out walking I consider it a miracle. I really did not like to exercise in any way only a few short months ago. It took saying an affirmation, "I love to exercise," 6 times a day for four months before I was even ready to try it. Now that we do it every day we don't like to miss it at all, and I am still saying "I love to exercise." I am now starting to mean it when I say it. Learning to Lie To Myself has been a useful tool.

The journey of weight-loss is continuing one step at a time. Each day that I go out I get a little closer to my goal and the scale is showing it as well.

How is your journey coming? Tell us about it below and be sure to sign up for updates from my blog at the top right hand corner of the page.

100 Days Of Fire

Have you ever felt like you needed to just burn some things out of your life?

Rael Kalley my habits coach in April was encouraging me to do a 100 Day Challenge. To me it seemed a bit extreme. I had to ask myself how badly do I really want change? Maybe I like the pain of not changing better than the pain of disciplining myself to change.

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Good things come to those who wait.

Or is it only the things that are left behind by those who hustle?

I don't know, there has to be some good excuse for being non-committal.

Inside I know he is right. I just don't like it. I want to fight it.

Who wants to light fire to the way that they are and purge out all of the ugly at one time? That sounds painful.

I was in the army. It was about 100 years ago. Right after we all got off the ark. Things were different then. The grass was greener. The sky was more blue. It was easy to leap into the flame and get shot at, and swim the river, and get gassed with tear gas. That was then. This is now. I have a different body now. Invasion of the body snatchers came and stole that old body away. I could do 100 push ups back then. I could hang upside down on monkey bars and do 50 crunches. I could take a punch to the stomach and punch back. I could run 10 km before breakfast. Now I couldn't do one push up. Literally, not one. There would be much moaning and groaning and weeping and wailing and nashing of teeth if I tried. If you hit me in the stomach your fist would sink in about 2 feet and I would double over and die. I wouldn't leap into anything accept maybe bed, or perhaps the buffet line at a Chinese Restaurant.

100 days of discipline. 100 days of fire. Hmmmmm I think that I hear a pizza calling my name...

100 days of sticking to the program. I get to pick the program, but then I have to stick to it.

100 days of committed exercise. I have to decide. Is it 3 times a week? Is it 5 days a week? Is it 7 days a week? I get to decide but then I have to stick to it.

At military boot camp, I did not get to decide. I had to do it. They literally threw us out of the beds at 4:35 am if we did not respond to the 4:30 wake up call. We had to run 10 km even if we only felt like running 1 km. We had to keep up. If we puked, they did not care. If we cried they did not care. If we quit, they dragged us along. Then they punished our entire group for the one who was lagging. That was a great way to make friends.

I used to have that girls body in the photo above. That was me. Except I had dark hair. I carried a gun. I was in the army. I thought of myself as a superhero.

100 days of fire.

Okay I will do it.

For 100 days I committed to some business goals. I have to make 10 calls a day.

For 100 days I committed to my eating program. I went back to Fit For Life because it works for me.

For 100 days I committed to 5 days a week of exercise.

I started May 1st.

We have been walking 6 days out of 7. Sometimes more than once.

I am already down by 13 pounds.

Only 80 days of fire left. I am getting my body back!

What would you commit to for 100 days?