Walking Away the Pounds

I just adore Leslie Sansone! I have about a dozen of her DVD's and recently sent two of my older ones to a friend and I hope she loves them, too. One was somewhat emotional, my Walk Away the Pounds Express 4 Mile Super Challenge. It was, you see, my first Leslie Sansone DVD. I worked out to it back in 2003 and 2004 a lot. But, her newer DVD's are much better and I enjoy them more. It was time to pass it on to someone else who needs it and will really enjoy it until they are ready to advance to her newer workouts.

I love Leslie and I always will. I spend a lot of time wishing she'd come out with a couple more of her great 5-Mile DVD's like the 5 Day Slimdown. I don't know why it matters since most days I do only 3 miles of it. I can do 5 miles and some days I decide to push myself and do it, but I feel incredibly tired when I do that and I'm not sure my body quite wants to do 5 miles every day. Maybe I shouldn't care much what my body wants, but I hate that exhausted feeling when I push too hard.

I remember at 280-300 pounds, struggling like crazy to get through a mile and now I can pretty easily do 3 miles and, with some effort, do 4 or 5 miles and I realize how far I've come. A lot of it is because I am slimmer, but recently I was feeling like I had a stomach virus and went to the doctor and my blood pressure was 118/76 and that was huge for me! Normally, it was running 140/100 or even higher. So, while the weight loss has helped, I really believe that working out with Leslie consistently the last couple of months has really been my turning point.

I think my exercise 5 days a week is really great for me in ways that have nothing to do with weight loss. In fact, the last few months, I have not lost a pound, but I do feel that my clothes are looser, so I know it has a toning effect. I also breathe better and feel my pulse rate is slightly lower. My blood pressure has decreased and, while I haven't checked it, there's a good chance it has impacted my cholesterol positively. There are things that are less measurable, too. I feel less stressed, more confident and more lively. I'm still waiting for that energy boost that a lot of people claim happens. I do believe it will, but my body is taking a while to adjust. So, I'm giving it what it needs and waiting for it to catch up.

I think what's really important here is that I have faith in the process. I know that, whatever the scale shows, exercise is good for me. It makes me look and feel better, but I've hit my body with a lot of change in the last 5 months or so and it needs a chance to adjust and I'm surprisingly at peace with that because I know eventually it will begin to come off again. I just have to keep the faith.