dianaschnuth

So, here I am, at the beginning of Week #7 of Weight Watchers. I’ve acclimated myself to how the program works. I know the Points® values for the foods I eat most often. I’ve adjusted my way of eating, slowly but surely, toward more veggies and less meat.

Now it’s time to really make the commitment.

Because I’ve lost less than three pounds in the past six weeks. And I want to see more results.

Meetings are helpful, and weigh-ins impose a sense of accountability that might not otherwise be in effect (despite my incessant blogging about my weight). Still, when I’ve gained nearly a pound in a week without meaning to, it’s hard to hear about the woman who’s lost 57 pounds — and not just hear about her, but hear HER, herself, explaining what’s different now, saying how she’s still got a long way to go, and referring to Flex Points as “devil points.”

It makes me want to cry sometimes. What are these people doing differently from me, that they lose five pounds in a single week, and I can’t even do that in a month and a half? What’s wrong with me?

I ask myself that a lot, it seems.

Of course, when I get like this, it makes me want to crawl into a little hole and eat one-point fudge bars all evening, and not do the things I should be doing (mainly exercising), and that doesn’t help matters. Me skipping out on Aikido tomorrow would be a Very Bad Idea™, since I need to get back into the swing of things.

But, damn, I’m just so depressed. I’d rather curl up on the couch and take a nap.

Aaron tried to cheer me up, and he did a pretty good job of it, too. “You’re all depressed over 0.8 pounds?” he asked, and reminded me that I’m still headed in the general direction of where I need to go. That was helpful, and made me feel better, to an extent.

I need a little Aaron on my shoulder all the time, to drown out the little Diana on the other shoulder that berates me for sleeping in too late and not exercising enough and generally being a schmuck in so many ways.

I had this carefully crafted blog intro I wrote out at work today, all about this song I remembered from Junior High choir called “Little By Little,” and how the lyrics apply to my life.

Instead of using said intro, I’m just going to tell you that I started my running program this evening, after much hemming and hawing and giving up before I started and getting reinvigorated by things I read online.

Tonight, I spent 20 minutes alternating a one-minute run with a three-minute walk. I just went around the one-mile block that I generally walk if I want a pleasant but not too lengthy walk. It was just about dusk, which made me a little more comfortable about running in the potential presence of other people (since, even if someone were outside at dusk, they wouldn’t see me very well, anyway).

The first running minute was a piece of cake. I could have kept going, no problem, but I knew better. The second stint of running was a little more challenging, but not bad. Actually, none of them were “bad” at all. They were all short enough that I didn’t feel like I was going to die at the end, like I usually do with running (because I push myself too hard right off the bat). The only stretch of running that felt long was the last one, and that was partially because it WAS long — I was almost home, and there was someone outside in his driveway; so instead of stopping right in front of him, I ran past and crossed the street toward my house and tacked on another 20 seconds to my running time.

Tomorrow is Aikido, for the first time in over a month (the longest break I think I’ve taken from Aikido since I started nearly one year ago). I’m going to ease myself back into Aikido, going every Wednesday for a while, then easing back into a Wednesday / Saturday routine, and maybe eventually going to Mon / Wed / Sat. For now, though, I’m planning to do an evening walk/jog on Tuesdays and Thursdays, try to do one on Sunday mornings (can I make myself get up?), and do Aikido on Wednesdays. After I’m sure I’m acclimated to that, then I’ll start filling in Aikido and maybe some strength training in the remaining days (or in addition to my run?).

Man, that felt good. I always forget how good exercise feels!

Beyond the jump: unfair comparisons, and current weights & measures.
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Aaron and I like to go out to eat on weekends. It’s what we do. It wasn’t what we did once upon a time, when we were both poor college kids, but it’s what we do now.

Eating out wasn’t easy when we were on Atkins, almost five years ago, but we knew what we could eat and figured out how to adjust our dining to suit. Once we got into the groove of Atkins, there were very few places where we couldn’t finagle ourselves some meat and veggies without bread or starch.

Enter Weight Watchers.

This isn’t a more challenging plan overall; in fact, I appreciate being able to eat pretty much whatever I want in moderation. There are things to stay away from, as a general rule, but very few (if any) completely forbidden foods. It’s all about planning ahead.

In that vein, I decided to make a “short list” of restaurants and entrees that would work out well for my current diet. So, when Aaron gets up on Saturday morning and asks me where I want to eat, I can pull a name out of my arsenal of good choices, instead of playing the “I don’t know — where do YOU want to go” game until we’re both so hungry that I just give in to the siren song of the Chinese buffet.

Some places have online menus with nutritional information; for those places, I look online and decide on two or maybe three different menu items to choose from when I get there. For restaurants that don’t have their own nutrition facts online, but that are easily researchable, I take my digital camera (for lack of a cameraphone) and photograph my plate of food. That way, I can go back later and tally up what I ate (and compare it to my mental calculations of what I’d *thought* I ate).

So, without further ado, I present The Short List:
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I know it seems like weight loss updates are all I’ve been posting lately; at least, it does to me. I’ve been spending more time playing Culdcept Saga and figuring out some blog coding tweaks than sitting down and blogging, so I haven’t really been posting any substantive blog entries of late. I wish I could promise that will change… but I can reliably promise no such thing. I can but try.

At any rate, I’m back on the decline! Tuesday’s WW weigh-in had me down 2.4 pounds from last week, and today’s Spring Challenge weigh-in had me down 1.5 pounds from my spring starting weight. Any way you look at it, it’s good news.

BUT. Next week starts my vacation.

Am I taking a vacation from healthy eating and exercise? Not entirely. I’m planning to continue tracking my food until the day we leave for Hawaii, and begin tracking again the day we return (or once the jet lag subsides). While I’m in Hawaii, I’m going to stick to reasonable eating habits: not stuffing myself overfull, not going completely ballistic on booze and sweets, and definitely staying active. We’ll be in Hawaii, for gods sakes! Beautiful weather, all the time. Swimming, walking — I might even join the local Aikido club for an hour’s romp.

I honestly don’t expect to gain much (if any) weight during those seven days. That’s the plan, anyway.