Katie P. - It doesn't sound stupid to wonder how you keep your eyes open - I remember wondering that when I first heard about this sort of surgery!

About weights: I don't know if it helps, but I think you can increase by more than 2 lbs. at a time if you're willing to have, say, your 5s out and your 10s out, and start with the 10s and then switch to the 5s when you need to. I do that a lot. That method lets me work my way into using heavier weights, but I don't need so many sets of dumbells. You just have to give yourself permission to switch back to the lower weight in the middle of the set. I find that if I plan to switch, I don't feel badly doing it. And that really does help me gradually increase what I can do with the heavier weight. I'll even do, say, half of the first set with the heavier weights and half with the lighter, and then do the entire second set with the lighter weights.

And that's a cute little girl in that jogging stroller. :)

Kelly - I've had the same experience of eating better (and often less) when I'm exercising regularly. And it might be the heightened bodily awareness, but honestly, I kind of just think it's because I'm happier then. Food is a comfort drug. It is. It gives you that nice, buzzy, unfocused feeling. Lovely.  But, for me, exercise stops my brain thinking awhile too - it's so intensely physical that when I'm doing it I can kind of switch off my thinking, at least a little bit. And I think all the time. Sometimes I think I'm an introvert just because I'm talking so much inside my head that I can't stand to hear talking on the outside too.

So, if exercise is giving me that nice unfocusing buzz, I don't need food to do it at much.

And, rereading that, I am also realizing I'm a little weird. 

But really, it's an egg-and-chicken thing, I don't know which comes first, and they tend to build on each other, but I feel better when I exercise, and I only really exercise when I'm feeling pretty good. If I can start up either the feeling good or the exercising, the other will inevitably follow. And if I'm feeling pretty good, I don't so much need to eat junk.

It spirals the other way too, of course. Sadly. But it's good to know the good way it spirals, because sometimes I can use good habits to catch myself when I'm spiraling down. And the good habits - even when I'm not feeling them - can turn me around. Not all the time, of course. But they certainly help. Good habits are like the little trees on a cliff in a Looney Tunes cartoon - enough of them catching at your clothes as you fall down the cliff will eventually slow you, and if you're Bugs Bunny and not Wile E. Coyote, one of them will eventually hook you and stop your fall. Ha.

I'm not sure how to make sure I'm Bugs Bunny.

No, really, I think it's always the good grace of the Holy Spirit that stops us, and His grace that prompts us to pray to the Father to ask for help when we're falling. But I think that sometimes He (never wasteful) uses the grooves of our good habits (the ones that He's helped us learn) to help set us on our way again.  And that might have very little to do with food, which is, after all, not as important as the body itself, or the person herself. And I know that. But sometimes it works like that, I think, that He uses what He's already taught us, reminds us of the things we already know how to do, to help us recover. 

Katie J. - the food journaling doesn't seem to take too long; I just keep the site in an open tab (I use Opera as my internet browser) and add to it throughout the day. It's only tricky when I eat something that's not in there, but I don't mind guessing or getting a close substitute. It's only as useful as it is easy, for me anyway, so I don't let it take too much time!

I'm so sorry about your injury! Don't feel bad about "just" lifting weights though - I think a weight routine can do a lot more than people give it credit for!  I hope you can find a physical therapist that can help, though, so you can get back to the exercise you really like.

Also, I like your idea of doing the yard for fun, health and, someday, profit. :)

Christa - I think your comment on working out with Barbie demands that you give us a description of the clothes the instructor was wearing. Were they neon? Spandax? Neon Spandex? Neon Spandex . . . . with ruffles?  :D

Okay, and now I'm curious: does anyone else exercise partly because it shuts your brain up for a little while, and lets your body have its turn? I honestly feel like exercise helps keep me balanced, because I could live so easily in my head - but I like the physical world, and I do better when I'm more connected to it. Anyone else like that at all?

-Jess