dianaschnuth

I don’t know his name, but he pushes a trash can around downtown, picking up litter. He’s employed by the Downtown Toledo Improvement District, identifiable by his bright blue-and-yellow attire. He’s very polite and friendly, as are most of the Clean & Safe Team members, and always nods and says hello when he sees me.

Last week, we crossed paths during my lunch walk, and we stopped to talk for a moment. He told me I was looking good (in a sincere, non-creepy sort of way) and that he almost hadn’t recognized me. When, in the course of our conversation, I told him I’d lost 20 pounds, he asked me what I was doing. So I told him: Weight Watchers. I don’t expect that he’ll *really* look into it like he said he would, but maybe I helped to plant the seed for him, like so many people did for me.

I’m 1.2 pounds away from my 10% goal — that is, having lost 10% of my initial body weight when I joined WW. Things have been moving slowly in the weight-loss arena lately, but mainly still moving in the right direction. I’ve been so close to my 10% for so long, it seems.

And I’ll be damned if I let Thanksgiving pull me farther away from it.

Even so — and I don’t plan to admit this to my Leader on Tuesday — I don’t plan to track Points tomorrow. I’m going to eat breakfast before we head out to Cleveland, and encourage Aaron to do the same. I’m going to try to get up early enough to do a little exercise in the morning (my normal pushup training, plus some calisthenics — we’ll see how that pans out). I’m going to bring a bottle of water with me in the car for the two-hour trip. I’m only going to eat things that really appeal to me (passing on the mashed potatoes, but definitely going for the sweet potatoes and the stuffing). And I’m going to stop BEFORE I’m full. But I’m not planning to actually write anything down, either during the meal or after I get home.

The offset for this unthinkable day of debauchery is the assumption that I will have used up all 35 of my weekly Flex Points in that one day, thus precipitating a more strict weekend than I usually have. I plan to bring my journal with me wherever we go out to eat for the rest of the weekend, and stick to my daily allowance. (I usually use up the majority of my Flex Points on the weekends.)

I’m hoping that the carrot-on-a-stick in the form of my 10% Goal will help me not pig out like a fiend tomorrow, and help me stay the course this weekend. This is the lowest weight I’ve been since… shit. Since drum corps, in early college, over ten years ago. I’m feeling good, better than I have in years (if not quite as good as I used to after three straight months of intense drum corps action). In my early thirties, feeling almost as physically fit as I did in my early twenties — I’m not going to screw this up. No fucking way.

One day like this could easily set me back a week or two on my weight loss. And I’m not going to let it. I’m too close to my goal.

Well, my FIRST goal, anyway…