By WARREN STUTESMAN
Wow it’s 2019. I guess that if you are reading this you made it here too. At one point in my life, and I am guessing in some of yours also, there were bets that we would never make it this long. I know that if things had stayed the same in my life that I would have started fertilizing the grass long ago.
When I came to the realization that I needed to change and do it now not later the first thing that I did was throw away my cigarettes and then I threw out my worm dirt, aka chewing tobacco. Soon thereafter I quit drinking and within a couple weeks life started getting better.
Fast forward 30 plus years and I find myself in another unwanted situation. As many of us seem to do as we age I have gained a bit of weight. In my case more than a bit and I find it as debilitating and life threatening as the aforementioned bad habits.
A while ago I went to my VA Hospital and joined the MOVE weight loss program. They have supplied me with great counseling and a personal dietitian to help keep me on the right track. This is not a diet I am on, this is a lifestyle change.
Every year at this time we as a nation make and then later break a lot of New Years resolutions. Why do we break these pledges that we made just a short time ago? Because we did not change our life styles.. We wanted to have our cake and eat it to. Sorry about that but I needed to interject just a bit of levity or people will worry about my mental health
A recent survey showed that 45 percent of the people asked wished to lose weight. Most of these pledges will be broken without the proper planning. We have been tipping the scale so now lets tip it in our favor.
If you truly wish to lose weight then the first thing to do is start planning your meals ahead of meal time. If we wait until the last moment then more often than not we will over eat. Second make sure that you have a support team. Family is best because they are always around but if that is not an option check out local weight loss groups. Third make this your one and only pledge to work on. To many changes and we will quit them all when even one fails. Fourth make small changes, don’t go to the cupboard and just throw out all of the snacks. Don’t exercise so much in one day that you cannot move for a week, that will not help you. Don’t totally restrict yourself from treats, a little snack each week or so will help keep you from breaking down and going on a potato chip binge.
I need to apologize to everyone for being so serious this article but I really hope that what I have shared may help someone on their journey of weight loss.
In case you wondered my birds are doing awesome. I have oh so many Chickadees’ and Nuthatches coming this year that my feeder is like a bee hive.
I had a close call with a bird while driving on Zimowske road in Mio. I saw a group of Ravens on a road killed deer and when I passed by an Eagle flew up out of the ditch and I braked hard praying the whole time, please don’t let me hit the Eagle. I swear that the tail feathers scraped my roof top.
That’s all for this month and may I wish you all a happy and successful year.
Please remember to help keep our woods and waters clean.
Warren “Toad” Stutesman
