One reason I’m glad I go to Curves to work out is that just being there motivates me to take care of myself. It IS caring for myself, in that I exercise there, but also, just being in that atmosphere motivates me to care for myself.

So, a few days back, one of the trainers bugged me into doing their 21-day marathon (it’s an eating program for 21 days). I’ve done them before. I’ve done their Food School, which is even more educational and intense (weekly meetings, information, etc).

So I agreed and paid for the marathon. Then I wasn’t really happy I did that, and didn’t have energy to open up the info and look it over. Homeschooling just saps so much energy somehow.

But the night before I was to start, something bumped me to do open up the files, and so I did. I bought the stuff I’d need for the Day 1 menu.

So now I’m finishing Day 2, and I’m actually really glad I’m doing this. I’m not hormonally, emotionally glad. Just factually glad. I’m doing it. It’s good.

Here are my measurement results for today, Sept 3, 2020:

Body fat, for example, was 36.4 in March, 2020, and today it’s 36.5. My muscle percent was 28 in March, and now 28.3.

I’m happy that I’ve generally been holding OK these months of quarantine, summer, travel.

Also, I weigh like 165, and what I’m glad about that is that my “normal” weight used to be 175. I’ve spent most of my life around 175 lbs; my body always pulled that number. But now I’ve moved what I feel “normal” in down to 165. I feel normal at 165. I’m hoping to lower that ingrained perception of what is my normal weight, but I want to acknowledge the progress I’ve made.

Along those lines, I want to say how thankful I am that I have worked hard on keeping my weight down. I have done this very imperfectly and with such stops, starts, spurts. I’m thankful for what I’ve been able to maintain. It has not come easily.

It helped when when I accepted that I will not have a smooth linear downward weight loss, then a flat horizontal maintenance. I will quit, be de-motivated, be re-motivated, start again and again and again. It’s OK.

About my percent of body fat, Healthline.com gives these guidelines:

For women, an “acceptable” level of body fat is 25-31%. A “fitness” level is 21-24% body fat. They quote another sources based on age says that women aged 40-59 (I’m currently 44) should be in the 23-33% range. So I’m thankful that I’m close to “acceptable.” It would be nice to get into the “fitness” range, but I’m not sure I want or will be able to do that.

For muscle mass, the same site says that a woman 36 to 55 years old, should have a muscle mass of 29-31%. Wow, at 28%, I’m not too far from this– and for this I am also thankful.

Healthy visceral fat is under 13.

So, there we go.