The Experiment

I have been keeping a secret from you and it's time to come clean. (No, I'm not actually 349 pounds and a man, but good guess.)

My secret is that I haven't worked out since Sunday. No treadmill. No arms pumping. No feet pounding.

No perspiration.

It's an experiment.

I read a blog last week about a woman who was currently 26 years old and had lost 135 pounds a few years ago. (Oh, to have the hopefulness and metabolism of a 26-year-old!) She walked, ran, worked out like crazy to get where she wanted to be and then one day decided she didn't want to do that anymore. She wanted to eat -- sensibly -- but not be consumed by a hardcore, unrelenting exercise schedule.

So she stopped. She never ran again. She walks, leisurely. Takes the stairs vs. the elevator. Posts recipes for things like lasagna and scones and swears to eat them all. Just not so much of them, I guess.

So after my gigantic blister blunder on Saturday, I strapped my tennis shoes last Sunday and simply couldn't bear it, even with multiple layers of Band-aids. So Jim and I went for a short 6-mile bike ride instead. I didn't break a sweat, but it was fun.

Monday, I lifted some weights in the morning and putzed around outside, pulling a few weeds. Tuesday I took my dog for a walk, in flip-flops, that couldn't have amounted to much more than a mile. This morning I did a quick arm routine with hand weights again and then tonight I made two trips to the end of the driveway with garbage cans and watered some flowers.

And I've been sleeping in. Sleeping until I wasn't tired anymore.

And I've been eating normally.

And so far, I have not gained any weight. Knock wood, please.

Why am I doing this?

1. To let my blister heal. Duh. I need to evaluate these new shoes before the 30 days are up and I need a to start with a clean slate to know for sure if they're going to work.
2. To see what will happen. I'm curious to know what "normal" living is like and want to see what my new body will do without the calorie burn. How will it react to this?
3. To give my body a "shock" to see if I can eventually get off this plateau. I'm still working on finishing those last 10. And I've been stuck for more than a month. Maybe a break, where I get good sleep and let my body recover, will be just the ticket.

It scares me. A lot. But I keep telling myself that I know my head has changed ... that I know how to eat properly now, that I know how to exercise to take the weight off and that I am determined enough to do it, even if I take a break. I know there's no way I'm going to undo all the good I've done. So if I gain 2 or 3 or 5 pounds, I can get them off again and will.

I just need to learn how my body works. I need to "test" myself and this new brain to make sure the assumptions I made above are really true. And I don't want to live in fear all the time ... fear of missing a workout, fear of eating the wrong thing, fear of not being so strict with myself.

So far, so good. I'll keep you posted.

But if you see that my butt swells up overnight, I'd like you to mention it and suggest that I do something about it.