Ok, I didn’t actually weigh in today, but whatever.
Saturday I got back on the wagon and went off sweets. I’m doing 24 WW points a day instead of 22, and I do not know why, but the pyschological difference is fucking *profound*. I’ve been managing 1 or 2 APs a day, so I’m working with a base of 25 or 26 points daily, and that plus the WPA of (divided out evenly) 5 points a day is…no strain at all. My high day of days I counted this week was about 35 points, and I felt like I’d eaten A LOT, but I wasn’t frustrated with hunger at any point.
I’ve lost a smidge of weight in the last five days; it’s visible, if not really meaningful in amount at this point. (I didn’t weigh in because 1. I don’t trust the scale, but more because 2. my tummy’s been gassy and bloaty since yesterday (oh, the things you didn’t want to know) and while I Understand that that sort of thing affects weight and is transitory, I also Understand that it’s depressing and so I’m just not doing it until I feel like I’ve gotten myself more solidly back on track.) But it’s nice to feel like I’m making a difference.
I find I can’t use the WW online tool to keep track of points, because it’s got me set at 22 and I get upset when it tells me I’m going over points. This is amazingly stupid and yet amazingly debilitating. So I’m keeping track of points elsewhere, and just using that thing to find out how many points something is worth.
Two years ago on around Oct 7th I went off sweets for 40 days. That’s what started me losing weight. I’m doing it again. I’ve tried it several other times in the last couple years, but haven’t had the stick-to-it-iveness that that first time had. Now I’m doing it in the same time period of the year because hey, I know I can. This may be dumb, but if it works, it works.
I think he’s probably right. I’ve lost fifty pounds and maintained that loss for over a year. I really pretty much have trained myself to eat better–I genuinely make an effort to eat more fruits and vegetables and to eat smaller portions (in fact, larger ones are actively less appealing to me), I drink a lot of water, I exercise pretty regularly, if not *vigorously* enough, and I *know* where my downfall lies: it’s in sweets.
Basically, I’ve won.
The problem, as Rob put it, is that what I view as the finish line–142 pounds–is a goal that’s visible, theoretically attainable, and not, perhaps, not exactly *relevant*. The relevant part is achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, which I’ve done. My back is healed. I can walk miles and miles and miles. I don’t (*knock on wood*) get sick often. I am not *fit*, in my opinion, but I’m healthy.
So maybe I need to do some more re-thinking. I can maintain this weight (or preferably a weight four or six pounds lower from where I am right *now*, but nevermind that) with really what amounts to very little active effort on my part. Maybe what I need to be thinking about now isn’t weight loss, but fitness. Maybe that’ll help shake my focus around some.
—
Going to a con this weekend. No idea what kind of food’ll be available, though I’m told the only decent Chinese restaurant in Ireland is near the hotel. If there is indeed decent Chinese, I have a general plan to Eat Too Much Of It, but mostly I’m going to try to stick to the book.
*snort* You may not be at the weight you wish, but you are, most certainly (and with no lechery in my tone or manner) fit. Fit is not “cut like a comic heroine”. Fit is “is not limited physically, feels good, and looks good.”
How are you, by any reasonable standard, not fit? Are you using modern media standards? Hollywood? Comic book?
*regards self image for a moment*
I’ll just go call the kettle black for a while, now. But I’m right.
I’m not fit by my own standards. I’m not talking about being Hollywood-thin; I never will be, even if I’m in the best shape of my life. My body isn’t shaped like that. But (while I grant you high school is not like the real world) in high school I swam between 15 and 20K a week and danced several nights a week, and I was in good shape then. I’m in nowhere near that kind of condition, which is what I would regard as “fit”.
Pot, kettle, black, yes, but everybody should at least grasp the fundamental idea that I hold myself to absurdly high standards by now… :)
My exercise program recommended re-evaluating your goals every once in a while. We also set goals in fitness, weight, and nutrition every few weeks. Really, the program helped me shift my focus from looking at the physical (weight/size) to exercise/fitness.
Oh, I liked The Ultimate Workout Log,
That has really always been my weakness, not exercising long/hard enough. Right now though all the walking at school is completely kicking my ass.