Good advice

I think I might just turn the reins of the Shrinking Knitter over to foggyjpinsf, who has been a welcome and frequent commenter lately. Yesterday s/he wrote:

But my rule of thumb is this: Don't do anything to lose weight that you're not willing to do to keep it off.

How I wish I'd had that advice 10 years ago, 'cause I sure wasn't willing to continue killing myself in the gym in order to maintain 128 pounds.

The trainers at the gym actually did suggest that any workout longer than 45 minutes was essentially wasted effort. I didn't believe them and, in my own mind, proved them wrong. I did, after all, lose almost 50 pounds in five months.

But they had the last laugh, because I couldn't maintain it.

[They didn't really have the last laugh. They have no idea to this day that I gained back all my weight because shortly after I reached my all-time adult low of 128 I moved to the Middle of Nowhere. Where there is no gym.]

And that's also not completely true. We've had a home gym right from the start, which at first was a Stairmaster, a rowing machine and a weight bench. We later added a treadmill. And, of course, we've always had the outside hills.

Mr. Shrinking Knitter has frequently noted that I seem to do better in a gym environment. Something about being around others with the same goal and intensity seems to spur me on. It's taken a long time to adjust, obviously, and I even tried going to a gym for a while. But three months of driving 40 minutes one-way to sweat for an hour seemed not quite worth it to me.

And, frankly, the gym I used 10 years ago was soooo nice, compared to the one I eventually found here. Spoiled? Who, me? Maybe just a little bit.

And obsessed with the pedometer? Maybe just a lot! I find myself checking the tally before and after a deliberate 20-step march across the living room, just to make sure it works right. Honestly? Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. So yesterday's total of 10,501 might be a little low. I walked four miles outside and expected an 8000 reading after that, but it was only 6000-something. I guess as long as it reads at least 10,000, I'll have done what I'm "supposed" to do.

I'm going to really have to work to get that number today, since I'll be sitting on my butt in the car for a couple hours, sandwiched around sitting on my butt at the movies for a couple more. Rocky Balboa opens today at a theatre not-so-near me, and I'm taking myself to a matinee. I can't remember the last time I did that.

I'm prepared to be inspired, as I was when the first Rocky movie was released. I just hope I'm not disappointed.

Film at eleven. Heh.