[email protected]

Changing the subject a little.
Where does one start when ones to *change* her life style?!
I am talking about Loosing weight - changing personality - eating
differently - feeling healthier - being what I want to be not what I
am. Even though I am very happy........
And why do I want to change me?

Marianne - who went through menapause early some years ago......

Tracy Oldfield

I think you've asked the most important questions, am I
happy with myself and if not, why not? When you find
out where to start, can you let me know?? LOL

Tracy

Changing the subject a little.
Where does one start when ones to *change* her life
style?!
I am talking about Loosing weight - changing
personality - eating 
differently - feeling healthier - being what I want to
be not what I 
am. Even though I am very happy........
And why do I want to change me? 

Marianne - who went through menapause early some years
ago......

Kerry Kibort

Marianne,
You start with whats the most important to you. Make a
list and number the items in order fo importance.
Start small and reward often. Post thoughts you want
to keep in your mind everywhere. Try to read different
philosophies and open your mind.
Kerry

April Spitzer

Marianne, when I want to change something, I decide what it is and then get
the books about it and read read read..

April


----Original Message Follows----
From: Kerry Kibort <kkibort@...>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Is it menapause!!
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 19:29:19 -0800 (PST)

Marianne,
You start with whats the most important to you. Make a
list and number the items in order fo importance.
Start small and reward often. Post thoughts you want
to keep in your mind everywhere. Try to read different
philosophies and open your mind.
Kerry

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

DiamondAir

> From: tonitoni@...
> Changing the subject a little.
> Where does one start when ones to *change* her life style?!
> I am talking about Loosing weight - changing personality - eating
> differently - feeling healthier - being what I want to be not what I
> am. Even though I am very happy........
> And why do I want to change me?


I try to set short, medium, and long-range goals, then figure out what I
need to do to get to those goals. Goals need to be concrete things, that are
measurable. If you set a goal like "eat healthier", it's really hard to know
if you're doing it, to know when you've achieved your goal. A more
concrete goal would be "Eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day". That's something
you can track in a notebook. Or "Don't add any sugar to my tea, coffee, or
breakfast cereal" or "Substitute whole-grains for white flour in all my
cooking". If you break your goal of eating healthier into mini-goals like
this, and tackle one of them every 4 - 6 weeks (the amount of time it
generally takes to change a habit), you will slowly and surely improve your
eating habits over the course of several months. This is the same for any
nebulous over-all goal.

Only you can answer the question of why you want to change, what, and how
much. If you can think of concrete things you want to be able to do, you can
tailor your goals towards accomplishing them. A health/fitness goal might be
to hike up to a local mountain or butte, or to do a 5k run, or to walk to
and from the grocery store every shopping day. Or it might be something
bigger and longer term like a walking trip of Europe or a major mountain
climb. I remember going through a goal-setting course a few years ago (back
when I was gainfully employed, and my employer paid for it), and I thought
"what a bunch of hocus-pocus". But now that I'm older, and my time is more
limited (so that I do need to decide which things I want to focus on in my
time), I've found that having concrete goals out in front of me is very
helpful towards prioritizing my daily schedules, and changing my daily
plans and habits.

If you have specific health/fitness/weight questions, about how to change,
etc. I'd be glad to help answer any I can. Both my husband and I have been
trainers/coaches and competitive athletes. I spent the majority of my life
being overweight, out of shape, eating terribly and feeling worse. I was
told I was "unathletic" and "uncoordinated". Then I met a really great coach
who changed my life. Since then, this "unathletic" and "uncoordinated" woman
has competed at a university and national level in several sports. I
strongly believe in the power of the human to change, grow, and overcome
anything.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-
Mom to Mackenzie (8/28/96) "This is a great life!"
and Asa (10/5/99) Who walks backwards
http://www.geocities.com/the_clevengers Flying Clevenger Family

[email protected]

---
>
>
> I try to set short, medium, and long-range goals, then figure out
what I
> need to do to get to those goals. Goals need to be concrete things,


What a neat plan. Splitting each goal into parts - eating 5 fruit a
day, and then cutting out sugar etc sounds far easier than doing the
whole thing at once - I know I have treid several times!!

Before I had children I was 8 and half stone. 5 children later I am
13 stone - being an *older* mother also doesnt help.......

So I can set goals within goals - but loosing weight isnt the only
gaol - or change. How does a rather shy reserved person become more
out going! AND how does one become a country girl again, when one
lives in town - and is likely to do so for a long time yet!!!!!

Just a middle aged womans rambles........

marianne

DiamondAir

> From: tonitoni@...
> Before I had children I was 8 and half stone. 5 children later I am
> 13 stone - being an *older* mother also doesnt help.......

LOL, this reminds me. I co-habitated with my British boyfriend for awhile
(many years ago), and I remember the first time I stepped onto his scale,
looked down and thought. "OK, I'm 10, but 10 what??? A perfect 10?" :-). I
had no idea what stone was. For those who don't know, I think it's about 14
pounds per stone, right??
AFA the weight goes, I hear you! I gained over 60 pounds with each pregnancy
(despite daily exercise and a good diet) so each time it has been a long,
hard effort to take it all back off. Again, I try to break it down into
little goals. One thing that worked well for me was that I would try to eat
healthy, be very active on a daily basis, and get regular exercise but I
wouldn't really focus on "dieting", except for one week a month I would have
a "get tough" week, where I would really crack down on what I was eating,
and be very intense about exercise. I usually lost about 1.5 pounds that
week and 1 - 1.5 pounds the rest of the month, so I lost about 3 pounds a
month total but 75% of the time I didn't feel deprived :-).

> So I can set goals within goals - but loosing weight isnt the only
> gaol - or change. How does a rather shy reserved person become more
> out going!

OK, brainstorming here. How about going to certain activities - like a book
discussion group or a knitter's guild or something that interests you? Have
you heard of "Toastmasters"?? Here in the US (at least), it's a group that
helps reserved people learn to be more outgoing and get public speaking
practice.


>AND how does one become a country girl again, when one
> lives in town - and is likely to do so for a long time yet!!!!!

I guess that depends on whether or not there's anything rural near to you.
Can you take horseback riding lessons at an arena? Or take a bicycle out on
weekends and toodle through the countryside? Go on a hike? Start a small
vegetable garden (you can even do it in containers on a patio)? Take a
weekly walk through a botanical gardens? Here in the U.S. we have something
called "4H" where kids (and adults) can get involved in raising animals or
doing craftwork and then display their work at a yearly fair that takes
place in the summer. Rural kids/adults often do things like raising dairy
cattle or goats, but urban kids/adults can participate by raising things
like Guinea Pigs (Cavies), rabbits, birds, etc. or doing quilting, canning,
baking, or other crafts. Is there a group like this where you live? Or some
sort of "country fair" you could participate in? Just some rambling
thoughts...

Isn't this what unschooling is all about - for us adults as well as kids.
Find our interests and pursue them!

Blue Skies!
-Robin-
Mom to Mackenzie (8/28/96) "This is a great life!"
and Asa (10/5/99) Who walks backwards
http://www.geocities.com/the_clevengers Flying Clevenger Family