Chinese Water Torture doesn't have a chance against the workout that I just found for myself. Water-boarding, that's for sissies in comparison to this workout! This workout is pure torture. Absolute! Let me tell you how this torture came about. I sit at work. I have a lot of down time. I had read a story awhile back, (sorry, can't remember where) about a gal who took one break at work, changed into workout clothes and tennis shoes and climbed up and down the steps of the building where she worked. I thought about how cool that was. But even more so I thought about what an awesome way to get a quick 15 minutes of activity in. After all, 15 minutes is better than nothing in the middle of a day where I'm just sitting around on my keister. I talked about it at work. I decided that I could break my lunch down (we only get a half hour paid lunch, no other breaks per say......haa haa haa, if you know me you are probably saying she needs a break from what? sitting at her desk and reading or working on a cross stitch project between customers! haa haa haa). Anyway, I digress. I had originally decided that I could break down that half hour. 15 minutes for eating and 15 minutes for stair climbing. I had the best intentions. Really I did. But I kept 'forgetting' about my plan. I forgot to bring my tennis shoes. I didn't want to get all hot. I didn't want to rush my lunch. What if I got back and was panting like a dog and a customer needed my attention? Excuses excuses excuses. And then it hit me. The last two hours I'm here, I rarely do anything. I get no customers...and I'm only here to be the second person and as a supervisory override for the person that is doing the work and occasionally back them up if they get more than one thing at once or if they have to run to the bathroom. (yeah, my job is a piece of cake.). I devised a plan that if I left the one door open, that worker could easily call out and I'd be able to be there in a jiffy. That way I could do my stair climb thing after that time when I wouldn't have to worry as much about scarfing down my lunch and being all hot and having a customer come up to me while I'm panting from exertion! 
So yesterday I threw my tennis shoes into my bag. The hour rolled around when my time to do the steps was upon me. I won't lie and say I didn't think about making an excuse. I did. But I totally ignored it! But then I just said no wayI'm doing this!! And I put on my tennis shoes. I started strong. I was counting my flights, but around 15 trips up and down I lost track. We are only in a one story building so it literally is 8 steps up....make the turn on the landing.....8 steps up......swivel on foot on the top landing....8 steps down...make the turn on the landing....8 steps down.....swivel on foot and back up. 16 steps up...16 steps down. That 15 minutes went by soooo SLOW! But my heart beat was up. I was hot. I was sweaty. My legs were ON FIRE!!! (look at those pink cheeks....which isn't all that visible in the picture,but even my arms were RED!) I LOVE IT! I had grand plans to go 30 minutes...but 15 was quite enough for my first day. I did learn that I need to leave my cell phone at the bottom (otherwise I checked the time every minute and consequentially moan because only one minute had passed and I was soooo ready to stop). I also need to devise a way to count my flights easily so I can mark my progress! Today my calves are tight, but I'm not in pain or really hurting. So upward and onward!(by the way, I'm not mocking water-boarding, I'm just poking fun at my workout and simply saying how difficult that 15 minutes really was for me)Today there is a small potluck here at work to celebrate my co-workers birthday. I will be partaking a bit. But a BIT is the operative word. I don't have to eat a hogs load of food! I can do this! I made cookies for the potluck. Banana-chocolate-peanut butter cookies. My husband calls these cookies crack, because they are that scrumptious that you just can't stop. Seriously, how COULD you go wrong with those three things together. Not exactly healthy, but good none-the-less. I had ONE cookie last night (and yes, I had the calories set aside for it!).
I've tried the deprivation routine with my lifestyle. Saying "MaryFran, you are not allowed to have any cookies..." (insert voice over of Adam Sandler in the movie Waterboy here) "mam, mam mam maamaa says that cookies are the devil!" That doesn't work any longer. I want the changes that I'm making to be for the rest of my life. It's not going to work if I say I will never have another cookie...or another piece of cake....or pizza from the greasy joint that serves the best pizza. It's unrealistic and just sets me up for failure. I ate a smidgen of the cookie dough and I ate ONE small cookie. Yes, I actually said I ate ONE cookie. The thing is, I didn't eat 6 cookies...or a dozen cookies.....I didn't even eat two cookies. I ate one cookie. I gathered my will power and ate my one cookie and then I walked away.
I am not saying that I can do that everyday. I'm not saying that cookies (or pizza or cake or any number of foods) are not trigger foods. They are. They trigger me to want to eat and eat and eat. However, I know that I have to figure out how to manage to still have these ultra yummy favorite things in my life, in essence how to partake, hear the trigger and stomp the *&^# out of the trigger. It's LIFE and I'm losing weight so I can LIVE....and that includes baking cookies for a co-workers birthdays. I can't bury my head in a corner and refuse to live. If I hadn't felt as if I was feeling strong enough to know that I could resist the temptation, I would not have made them. This week I made cookies to celebrate life. I won! (as a side note, the cookies, half came to work today to be scarfed down by my co-workers and the other half are going with my husband to his work for his clients!)
.
Nothing is slowing me down! I'm stomping on the stress in terms of my weight loss. I am not succumbing to the temptation to eat away my sorrows!
