Sparking Through Virus-Challenged Times!

After a mysterious fall off my bicycle this past April (see my blog here: www.sparkpeople.
com/mypage_public_journal_
individual.asp?blog_id=6676203 )

I've been both skittish and lazy about getting back on the bike.

The easiest way to deflect from any physical activity is my flight into work. As a therapist contracting out to an Employee Assistance company, I have been very busy engaging with clients via telehealth throughout these virus-challenged times. I enjoy my work, but I realize I'm misusing it to avoid exercise and haven't taken the reigns up as yet to do something about this.

On the other hand, I've upped my willpower considerably to manage the scale through both regular and intermittent fasting. My weekly fasts are at least 40 hours, sometimes as long as 60 hours. During my intermittent days I only eat from noon to 8 pm. When I eat I stick pretty closely to my basic food rule of keeping flour and sugar to a bare minimum.

The amazing thing about this is that despite all these restrictions, I'm not losing weight. But I AM successfully maintaining and not gaining weight. With so many things that are BEYOND my control, zipping the lip is one area in which I can take charge! My typical spread in weight has been mostly between 215-220 with occasional drops near my record lows of 210...yesterday was 211.6. I can live with this. Occasional blips up to 220 brings the cavalry out in me...lol!

I've done okay avoiding much emotional fallout from these virus-challenged times, however, I admit to feeling daunted by the upcoming long, dark months of winter. I'm concerned that we may not be able to make our usual holiday mid-West sweep for the holidays in November due to virus concerns.

I no longer have the fitness center outlets. One thing I have instigated has been a small group of 4 of us local guitar players get together at my home every 2 weeks to play music together. I cancelled the last one when the virus upsurge caused me to worry. However, I since felt it was too much to cut that out and as before, I just said, "hey, let's mask up, wash up and PLAY!" So that has been a helpful reprieve.

Take care everyone! Let's SPARK our way to the other side of this virus!

Don