Innies and Outies

I'm way behind in posting and reading blogs and hope to catch up today.  Haven't posted since Saturday, and I realized something this morning.  When I miss more than 2 days posting and reading, I start to feel very disconnected from our blog community and all my blog friends, who I consider to be everyone whose blog I've read in this weight loss and fitness arena.  I feel "apart from" rather than a part of something that has become a major source of support, friendship and inspiration in my life (not to mention recipes!)

The disconnected feeling is similar to how I feel when I go a couple days without an AA meeting, which happens very rarely.  It's not that I feel like drinking (or in the case of blogging, bingeing my brains out), but I seem to become aware of something very fundamental missing from my life.  If I'm on vacation I'm much less aware of the absence of these conventions that have become so ingrained in my daily practices.  But when I'm just being lazy or busy or a combination of both, I start to get irritable, even moving into self pity.  I guess that's why AA's been such a fantastic addition to my life, besides the obvious benefit of helping me finally stop drinking many years ago after years of trying to do it on my own.  With apologies to Barbra Streisand, I'm a "person who needs people".

These musings got me thinking about extroverts vs. introverts.  I googled the terms, even though I know what they each are and some of the characteristics that each of these styles plays in personality and behavior.  I found one link that I liked because rather than the old-fashioned notions of extroverts being outgoing, loud and have many friends while introverts are shy and have few friends (I actually found a site that said that!), it talked about the 2 tendencies reflecting where people get their energy and inspiration from; either from within themselves or from other people.  Interesting that the site that appealed to me most was not one devoted to pshychology; rather to corporate leadership and business strategies.  And because of that focus, they also had a list of suggestions for optimal ways to interact with each type in professional settings.  You can see the brief summary here.  You can read it in a minute if you're interested.

I'm definitely more extroverted overall.  My need and desire for frequent human connection is more than just liking people.  I found a good quote at this site that sums it up:  "The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on Carl Jung’s theories about psychological type preferences, identifies introversion and extroversion, among other qualities. In general, introverts find socializing tiring, while extroverts feel energized by interacting with others. That doesn’t mean that introverts are necessarily shy or misanthropic–in fact, they may be very outgoing–but they need time alone to recharge." 

Yep - I definitely am energized by being with people, both literally - in person, as well as virtually, via this wonderful community of fellow humans who interact through blogging and commenting.  Like an introvert, I definitely need time alone, but more for rest and reflection than getting energized and fueled with motivation and inspiration.  When I'm alone too long, my head gets squirrely and can take me into neighborhoods I'd best not go...like self-criticism, pessimism about possibility for change, even wandering into the kitchen to fill an emptiness I can't identify.  But get me into a place with other people where I'm not dwelling on "all me all the time" (God forbid), and I come alive.  It's so interesting how "all God's chillun'" are so different...even folks who are a lot alike.

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My weigh in yesterday to officially end Tammy's summer challenge found me at 208.5.  That means my net loss for the month was a staggering .5 pounds.  This isn't rocket science...and I'm not beating myself up, but in a month I should have been able to easily lose 10 pounds...that is, if I did what it takes to lose weight.  Good days, bad days, neutral days in the wrong configurations do not = weight loss.  I'm not giving up.  I've had some success this month in the water consumption arena that I chose to focus on in Loretta's challenge.  I've been drinking at least 96 oz each day, and I know that has probably helped me not gain during a month where my efforts have been shoddy at best. 

I'm establishing a few goals for the next ten days until the September 10th Friday weigh in:
1.  Write down all food eaten each day with approx. calorie counts - goal of no more than 1600/day
2.  30 minutes exercise 5 days/wk minimum
3.  Continue water consumption of 96 oz/day at least
4.  100% cash register honesty in my reporting binges - no omitting of the truth.  There are so many totally honest bloggers who really admit when they have "episodes" of eating.  I often leave out certain details for fear I'll sound like a broken record of failure with working my goals.  I never think others are failures when they struggle.  Rather I'm blown away by people's honesty.  So that's my other goal for the month.

That's it from me today.  But since I'm a people who needs people, I'll be back soon!  What about you?  Are you an innie or an outie?