Action: my war against indiscipline!

13/05/2013

Well I recorded a weight loss of 3.5lbs this week! Imagine this though, I was disappointed with my lack of discipline on Saturday! Not that I was perfect the rest of the week, but this day I was appalling so I will skip right to it! I was at the market with my sister and my lovely niece and nephew when we came across a stall selling the Nigerian equivalent of dumplings, ooh I squealed I've not had those for ages, you'd think with all the hard work I had done the squealing should have been excitement enough but before you could say jack robinson there I was cuppa in one hand buns in the other! Was there a gun to my head? A threat to my life or a sudden shortage of food?    ( Shame wont let me answer that) I'd like to know where these bouts of indiscipline come from, really, I'm beginning to think there should be pill to combat it! Yes really, because it is becoming quite evident that this war is going to be everlasting! 

Now the loss was a saving grace you know, and I had some good food to help me with this loss. There was the smoky bean salad from this month's slimming world magazine, my besty jollof rice, I will post the recipes on my blog for those interested! 

My  target for this week is to go back to having my hearty breakfast at home, somehow that part of my armour seems to have been broken!   

Let’s sort it out!:My personal war against indiscipline -Part 4

Now I’m going back to my routine of work, Slimming World, Tae Kwon doh and dance! Surely the War continues and the next battle is to be sure that 

1. I fit the new exercise routine into my life at all cost. Somehow I get the distinct feeling that some of my sedentary bits are going to be sacrificed ( I will talk about  that when i understand what that is going to be). I have been given instructions on the mini exercise routine for everyday and the pumped up version for weekends. My Gosh I need prayers ..God help me!
2. That I get back on plan with Slimming world! My WAI plan for the next 8 weeks while mr workout crazy  Akiti is not here is to here is to eat more fish ( yeah he’s not a bit fan, so i don’t cook it much , too much wahala) and more veg. To be fair to my darling Mr Akiti he does eat veg, but he wants it chopped finer than my true ( I want it done quickly) abilities! I have looked at this month’s mag and found some inspiration there. Therefore my food plan for this week is Smokey Bean Chilli and rice (p35), Omelette with SW chips, they had grilled salmon with noodles and stir fry vegetables however i may do something with baby tomatoes and pasta. I will also get some Tilapia or crocker and make fish stew. There is a dessert I amy also try on page 94, although i still think 4 syns is a bit dear for a desert!
3. Is to stay real, by understanding the limitations of my current abilities  and do the work to improve them. This also means that I should not be sad or mad when things to dont go according to plan. 
4. I think I’ve said it before  but unless its been agreed before this blog was published,  I am not going to engage in any event, outing or other engagement that means i will miss SW, TKD or dance class. In pragmatic terms this means until I am happy with myself, or I have achieved my target weight and reached my black belt I will not be be available monday to thursday until further notice. Don’t hate peeps, it’s me not you!

Let’s sort it out!:My personal war against indiscipline -Part 3

So now we are on day 4 of my war against indiscipline- the exercise was intense and I was finding it hard, I mean I was trying but sometimes it was as if my legs had minds or their own and they would just not do what I asked of them.  I definitely did not want the trainer, to think that I was not trying.  Now that is the exercise stage of things, but what about diet?  Keeping on top of your diet when you are not in charge of your household is hard work, ( yes, those words again!) and to be honest, I don’t want to be defeatist but it does feel like an insurmountable task.  95% of the time, the food is smothered in oil and so making good choices remains hard. 

Day 5 is a rest day.  I found my splenda, the one good choice I did make, hampered by my own silly forgetfulness.

Day 6 Turned out to be a good day... the exercise was just as hard, but the trainer took the time to make sure that my form was good, ie. I was doing the exercises the correct way.  the last time, he introduced these kicks into warm up, and funny or ironic actually.. i had to get out of the side kick habit, that’s from Tae kwon Do. we spent a long time on that. It also turns out that i had not been landing correctly when doing my jumping jacks!  The correct explanation to the pain in the knees.   All in all it was a good session, I have one more week before i return to the UK, am worried about being able to keep up without the trainer!

Day 7 was not supposed to be a rest day, we have now moved to stay with my Aunty and the facilities are different and the trainer has gone to play basket ball.

Let’s sort it out!:My personal war against indiscipline - part 2 ( 23/04/2013)

Part 1, was really a light hearted look at indiscipline and its possible impact on one’s day to day ability to keep up with a slimming programme.  The real question has to be how am I going to wage my own war on my own indiscipline.

Some recent examples of acts of indiscipline

Sitting in a car, dressed up by the way, eating bread and butter and drinking full fat coke

not making good choices even when they are available, particularly when eating out.

not exercising control at the haagen das cafe

too much chocolate- enough said

not taking my lunch to work

or whilst on hols, not leaving enough time to eat at home, and then eating Mr Biggs meat pies( my biggest down fall whilst in Nigeria)

too much birthday cake

sugar instead of canderel or Splenda

Unfortunately for me, my acts are repetitive, in the sense that they are not new temptations.  Some might call them challenges, but I  have decided they are actually just acts of pure indiscipline. At the time of making these notes, I was on holiday up in the Mid West Region of Nigeria. Not much within my control foodwise and it would have taken all of my resource and energy to execute the SW way in this town where I dont live.  

However having said all that the one act of indiscipline I could over come was the sedentary lifestyle!  So I had Mr Akiti put me through my paces! So far  I have done 3 lots of intense exercise almost akin to the insanity work out. I feel so much better now, not sure if any weight has come off, but I feel its all in motion now and there is no turning back from my desire to get on a proper healthy lifestyle. After the first work out I was really invigorated and raring to go.  The next day we were travelling so it was a couple of days after before i took up the mantle again.  You may not be able to tell from the photographs, but believe it my body woke up. All of a sudden my knee hurt ( too much weight if you ask me) and my thighs in one hour realised they had muscles. I was not deterred for day 3, but oh my!

On Day 3,  Jumping jacks that i had done so easily became difficult, my arms felt like lead, and my knee hurt, so eventually I had to say to Mr Insanity Akiti and he decided it was the intensity of the exercise and not to worry, but he did change the number of the jumping Jacks and increased an alternative style, but even that was a bit of a challenge ( a real one)

After this we did the floor work. dont get me wrong, I have exercised at this level before, and even Mr Akiti was pleasantly surprised at my flexibility, but when the opportunity to do those workouts were removed I was not disciplined enough, to seek out other opportunities. One might suggest that i did not want to, I was lazy ( hell no) or that i did not have enough will power and so on and so forth. however, I believe that element of me has changed, as as i return to Lagos tomorrow  I will continue on my personal war against indiscipline.

Let’s sort it out!:My personal war against indiscipline - Part 1

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In the mid 1980s General Ibrahim Buhari presided over a decree that was generally referred to WAI ( War against Indiscipline). I recall that it was very serious and people took notice of it. Apparently it’s intent was to instill public morality, discipline and social order with cvil responsibilities. For example lining up in an orderly fashion to board a bus or to gain access to high demand services, the promotion of hard work, patriotism, eradication of economic sabotage and corruption.   

They were interesting times and I find myself wondering why when we had such an effective tool, my homeland is still one of the most corrupt and indisciplined  places on this planet and seem’s devoid of patriotism! You could talk a lot about this decree, i mentioned it to a couple of my colleagues and they both came up with some interesting comments, so people still remember it.  That was on a national scale though, clearly it was designed to check your behaviour as an individual too after all doesn't charity begin at home?.  I have cause to be thinking about indiscipline in relation to myself because over the last few weeks, i have exercised little or no discipline in certain areas of my life and its now coming back to haunt me.

I have for a significant amount of time been trying to lose weight with Slimming world, but of recent times my success has waned and to be honest I could easily complain that slimming world is hard, it not my fault, I had to go out, I was busy, and so on and so forth, and on occasion on a Monday night at SW in Limbury, Luton I have been known to spout out all sorts of rubbish as to why I have put on weight as opposed to having lost. In actuality I can hand on my heart say that I think SW is the best eating plan available because its the nearest you are going to get to real life, in my opinion anyway. Here is where i could go on to wax lyrical about SW, but i will curb it for now. if you want to know more about Slimming world though click www.slimmingworld.com  or if you live in Luton or Dunstable you can look for slimming in Luton and Dunstable on Facebook. what I want to talk about is indiscipline. the elements of Buhari's WAI that I think can be applied to my issues:

1. Promotion of hard work

Some people say that anything good in life generally comes from hard work  and yes it does not seem fair that some people ( like those i would generally call skinny rats) can seem to eat what they like when they like and not put on an ounce of weight. I know of someone of similar age to me that can still fit into their school uniform, how just is that? Some of us though have to work at keeping weight at bay.  Slimming world is hard work thought because you have to make decisions, you have to consider the impact of what you are choosing. You have to make time to cook, you need to be assertive in restaurants and so on.  Like anything else, when its working for you, you don’t feel that it is hard work, in fact you would probably say its easy, but throw in a curved ball - a party, a night out, difficult work pattern - to mention a few and then it becomes a whole new ball game. That is when you have to do that extra piece of work that it seems the skinny rats don't. Hard work also means a little bit of sacrifice- yes i have said it - sacrifice, we have to cut down on certain foods we like.  

One thing I understand is that we all have the capacity for hard work, we do it all the time at work, at home, school etc losing weight or any other goal is just another element, and more importantly its something we should be able to do for ourselves. 

2. Patriotism

Dictionary.com : patriotism is the devoted love and support and defence of one’s country or national loyalty

Well that’s the formal definition, but by extension should we not love ourselves and behave or act in a manner that is good for  us after all, most of us would not commit acts of treason so why do things that are not conducive to what we are trying to achieve. Is it because failure at it  does not carry a jail sentence or death by firing squad?  I believe that is is lack of discipline end of. One might at this point question the difference between indiscipline and lack of will power.  Some might say that indiscipline relates to individuals within a group, compared to will power which is the ability to control ones actions. Eitherway they are both relevant in our ever increasing quest for perfection. 

3. The eradication of economic  sabotage and corruption.

This is my favourite element!  its clear what this means on a national scale, and you have only to recall the scandalous behaviour of the banks, and other financial institutions  to see how groups of people can be totally devoid of any morals or good values! So how does this apply in one’s personal quest to be slimmer. My break down goes as such.  In terms of sabotage, lets say for example  as a result of religiously incorporating SW into your life, you drop 2 dress sizes- you throw out all your old clothes and buy new ones. Then some curved balls come along or you just simply fall off the wagon and the weight starts to come back on, what do you do? do you go and buy new clothes, can you afford that? That could be classed as sabotage (albeit not necessarily deliberate) economic and also emotional. After all, apart from the clothes, if the weight came on because of continually eating out, then that’s also adding strain to the finances, and the ability to make good choices whilst out will put a strain on how you feel about your self, hence the emotional sabotage and that not mentioning the health impact.  

The other part of this element is corruption..ok not your whole scale fraud like the what happened in the banks for example, but this is the bit where we as people have to be honest with ourselves, honest about our goals  and what we are doing to achieve those goals.  So when we joined Slimming world we are given a book with a whole lot of instructions and tools on how to do the plan, if you don't read it or make sure you understand it how do you expect to get to your goals, worse, what if one goes to class, and having put on weight does not admit to not reading the book, or to having more than the 250ml of semi skimmed milk that we are allowed?!( just a couple of examples, trust me there are many more) You may have told yourself that the extra bit of milk wont hurt, or eating chips off your husband or wife’s plate does not count, but in the end its deception and it sabotages your otherwise good efforts. 

Apart from the example of not having read the slimming world book, all the examples cited are real examples that apply to me personally. There are some other examples, but I really just wanted to say that really in so far as one is a healthy human being, the main reason we carry so much extra weight is lack of discipline. That is my personal opinion and the reason, I get quite vexed with myself when I have not done well