Morning Weight: 160.6
Morning Exercise: Strength training
Yesterday Evening's Exercise: None - I didn't get home from work until after 8:30.
Yesterday's Calories: 1440
Vitamins: 1-A-Day, D, B-Complex, Calcium, Glucosamine
Any day now I'll be into the single digits and have less than 10 more pounds to lose. I mark my chart again on Monday. Maybe I'll be to 159 by then. That would be cool.
It's hard to believe that I have been this successful and that I am getting this close to my goal weight. Eight months ago this task seemed so daunting, but by having a plan, sticking to it, and focusing on each individual day I've been able to stay on task. Blogging has helped considerably. When I sit down to write it helps me collect my thoughts and recap my previous day. It forces me to be honest with myself about what I did well and what I could have done better. It's also when I press the reset button. Each time I sit down to blog I'm reinforcing my goals and thinking about my plan for the new day. It has helped tremendously with reminding me to take my vitamins. At first, I wouldn't think about my vitamins until I was putting up my stats from the previous day. Now I remember my vitamins the second I think about walking to the computer to write my daily blog entry. Maybe someday I'll be able to remember my vitamins without blogging about them. Perhaps they'll become as much a habit as exercise. Only time will tell, I guess.
It has become impossible to not exercise. I had lunch with Brenda, one of the primary owners of Castle Creations, yesterday. She wants to get into the habit of exercising daily but she was talking about how much she hated to exercise. She reminded me of me so much, when early on in this process I complained practically incessantly about how much I hated to exercise. I'll never forget the day it was pointed out to me how much I was sabotaging myself by all of the negative self-talk about disliking exercise. That was a turning point for me. From that day forward I have tried keep a positive attitude towards exercise. A funny thing happened along the way. I stopped hating it. And sometimes I even kind of like it. The words we speak to ourselves and others really do make a difference.
The other big change has been my relationship with food. It has become much less important to me. I don't think about eating very much and when I do think about eating it is usually in the terms of calories and fuel. What portion of my daily allotment of fuel (calories) should I consume with this meal?, is usually the question I ask myself. This detachment from food has made this process much easier for me. I truly believe to be successful at losing weight and maintaining long-term weight loss, one has to lose their obsession with food. I just don't care about it much, anymore. There are some down sides, like my husband does not get nearly as many home cooked meals. It's not unusual for dinner to be a light snack of some kind. But the less I care about food as something that I enjoy and brings me comfort, the more I gravitate to food that is easy, healthy, and nourishes me with the least amount of effort. There are so many other things to enjoy in life. Food does not need to be a source of pleasure. In a way, food as a source of pleasure is almost too easy. There are so many ways to enjoy life - many of them require moving your body, stretching your imagination, or taxing your mind - yet they require effort. Hmmm...I have never really thought about it that way before. I need to let that idea simmer for while...
My weakness is still sweets. Obviously, I count my calories and that limits the sweets I can eat, but I do have two sweets of choice. The first is dark chocolate that is at least 80% Cacao. I read over and over again that dark chocolate has some substantial health benefits. I buy the big bars and have a serving (about 1/3 of a bar) or a half serving on most days. I like it because it is so chocolaty that a little bit satisfies my desire for chocolate for the day. I don't let myself chew it, I stick a square in my mouth and let it melt. That way I am truly enjoying the flavor and texture of the chocolate and it lasts a while. A serving is about 200 calories. The other sweet that I indulge in with some regularity is tootsie pops. One tootsie pop has 60 calories, but it lasts a long time. It's usually right after a meal that I want one, when I am not feeling quite satisfied. Again, I try not to bite them, so they last a long time and by the time it is gone I feel sated and satisfied. And it's only 60 calories.
The down side of my little sweet treats is that I worry that it keeps my sweet tooth alive. There are studies out there that talk about how bad sweets are for us. There is even one article that I read that talks about how sugar makes us stupid. Sometimes I think I should give up the tootsie pops, if not the dark chocolate (which really does seem to have some redeeming qualities), but at the same time being able to pop a tootsie pop in my mouth often keeps me from reaching for other foods that would result in a lot more calories a lot more quickly.
So, the big changes in the last 8 months? I am enjoying my exercise a lot more and I always, always, always do it. (Except when I intentionally take rest days, of course.) I no longer care very much about food. For the most part, it's fuel, and thinking about, preparing, and eating food is no longer a significant part of my daily life.
10.6 pounds to go. I'm going to make it!! What a journey this has been!
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