Losing weight in spite of myself.

I began this blog in February 2011 as a way to help me not quit trying to lose weight, and to learn a few things. It's been an interesting and powerful experience. It certainly confirms what I've long suspected--that although I am a genuinely happy cheery person in the main, I am NOT a happy cheery dieter. I DETEST losing weight. I resent being overweight in the first place and I am a virtuoso in the art of self-sabotage. And YET--I'm doing it! I'm fighting and kicking and EATING all the way down, but the weight is finally going down. The plan I was following in February was a half-baked one largely based on wishful thinking. I gained a little weight and decided to get real. I knew I couldn't just join weightwatchers or count calories or do any one plan and expect to be successful. I decided if I was going to bother to make the effort to lose weight I was going to throw everything I could think of at the problem. And so I do. My real "Day One" for this blog is April 1, 2011. I joined weight watchers, I joined caloriecount.com (awesome website), I read the blog losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com religiously, I keep this blog faithfully, I joined the health programs sponsored by my insurance, I use the principles from overeater's anonymous, I use my church's 12 step program as well, I subscribe--and use--Healthy Cooking Magazine.



The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.

The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.

There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.

Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!







Thursday, November 14, 2013

High Protein

Ok, to finish yesterday's thought. Funny how other people's crazy ideas seem obviously problematic, but my own dumb ideas make perfect sense. :)  Human nature.  As I mentioned, yesterday was a pure quack diet--Day 5 of the "Lazy Zone" from faddiets.com.  The thing that was appealing about this besides the total lack of any thought on my part, was that the day included Chinese food from the grocery store.  YUM!  Sensible eating plans NEVER include grocery store Chinese--unless it's a special indulgence carefully worked into your schedule. Technically, this was carefully worked into the schedule too--except that I wasn't the one doing the thinking and working so it just felt like carte blanche to have Chinese. EXCELLENT!

The price of eating a foolish lunch on the Lazy Zone was to follow this plan:
Breakfast--a Slim Fast bar
Lunch--Chinese
Dinner--a Healthy Choice Dinner (I added a salad with diet dressing as well)

And that's all. Obviously no one in their right mind would want to do this for more than one day, and because I knew I didn't have to--it was ok to stick to it.  I had quite the temptation to fall off the wagon too.  There was a power outage just before I left work. It was rumored that it would last for hours. That meant I couldn't microwave my dinner. Which meant that we would need to go out for dinner. (Heaven forbid we eat something simple like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) I was starving at the time and breaking the diet (which was by all counts stupid anyway) sounded great.  Darn power came on as I was walking home.  Catherine wanted to eat out too, but I was tough--I needed to not cave in and she needed to eat the food in the fridge so we don't have a bunch of leftovers molding in the fridge while we're on vacation.

So yay! Gold star for yesterday, and thank heaven today is "high protein" which means normal food--but with an eye to protein. Cottage cheese with fruit and a bagel for breakfast. A chicken salsa salad for lunch, string cheese for snack. Dinner is more iffy---eating down fridge food--I'll probably have the veggie lasagne. Then starting tomorrow--I'm off on a wonderful Disney vacation--horrible food, but tons of exercise--it usually washes out more or less.

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