Life on a Diet
I’m on a diet and I don’t like it. I always gain weight in the summer as I’m not working and at home with the boys all day. However, this year I managed to outgrow my school/work clothes, or at least they’re indecently tight.
Unfortunately, this is a normal trend for me. I gain in the summer, spend August, September, and October losing the weigh, eat everything in sight in November and December, and then diet and attempt to maintain in the Winter and Spring. While I enjoy exercising (I really do!), I also like to eat, which means it’s a never ending battle.
I’ve tried all the fad diets and many of the healthy maintenance programs, but I get frustrated when results aren’t apparent immediately. Plus, most of those cost money and I really don’t want to spend money on diet programs. I’ve found the best thing for me is to count calories (1200 a day for a diet), measure portions, keep a food diary, drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, and exercise. It’s not easy and it’s not fun, but I’ve got to get back into my clothes. This week, I’ve lost three pounds, which is great, but I’ve got quite a few more to go. School/work starts next week, which means less snacking (and computer time), but that’s a good thing.
I can’t wait till November!
AAR Heather
I found just what I was needed, and it was entrteaiinng!
Oh man, if I had a penny for every time I heard the
Claire – Good luck to you! Don’t weight yourself if you don’t want to. For me, feeling my clothing getting looser gives me more satisfaction than weighing myself. To me it’s not about the number itself, it’s about how I look and how healthy I am.
I started a weight loss/health improvement plan about 3 weeks ago. Because my diet was so bad before this, I’m not going on a diet per se, I’m trying cut more of the junk out and try to eat better foods. The biggest thing though is that I’m back at the gym. Pre kids I coudl work out at lunch at my job and did this for many years. I’m about 40lbs over my pregnancy weight of 7 years ago. I’d really like to lose 10-20 as a starting point. I’m going 3 times a week and have worked up to slow jogging. I have not weighed myself yet. I know I should but I think I would be so discouraged to know what the number is. I can feel my shorts are getting looser though so I’m making progress. What got me going was after going to the MD last month and my BP was 136/91. I have never had bp before and while I don’t know if my weight had anything to do with it, I know my sedentary lifestyle wasn’t helping.
Good job Heather …3 pounds in a week is great.
SusanDC.. I thought your comments about climate change were a riot! :)
When the only exercise you get is typing on the keyboard all day you don’t burn a lot of calories that is for sure. I am however one of those weekend warriors that has to get it all in then. Fortunately that is when I love to cook big meals also.
Fried foods and sweets are my biggest weaknesses. I don’t think I could stand to have my BMI done. However, it could be a real eye opener.
It is the little things like taking the stairs and parking at the back of the parking lots that I try to focus on as well not going for that oreo cookie PACKAGE that seems to be calling my name from the kitchen cabinet as I type this comment. I’m going to ignore it though. Yes, I am.
Oh, I know how you feel. I like to exercise, but I love food and have a hard time resisting temptation. Like you, I’ve found what works best for me is to count calories and watch my portion sizes. And 3 pounds this week is great!
My family got me a Wii Fit for my birthday (no insult intended, they assured me!) and when I took the initial body analysis test, I was horrified to see my BMI (definitely rates as overweight) and my actual weight. I weigh more now than I did when I gave birth to my second child! So I’m trying really hard to watch my portion controls – seems when I actually measure, I tend to give myself two or three portions instead of what should be one. And I’ve vowed to stop eating a late-evening desert/snack before bed. Too, I plan to walk my son to school every day once school starts again. But what makes things so hard is that when I’m not trying to lose weight, food means nothing to me. Once I determine I must lose weight, food is all I think about and I constantly think I’m hungry. It’s so frustrating!
I think I’ve been on a diet since the Carter administration. My metabolism is quite slow and has only got slower as I’ve aged, so for me 1200 calories a day is maintenance, not weight loss. If the next Ice Age ever arrives and food becomes scarce, my body’s prepared. However, as I live in the 21st C in a major American city, I can’t count on climate change to force me to eat less. I do try to exercise regularly (leave the car behind and walk as much as possible, take the stairs instead of the escalator, go to the gym, etc) and eat properly, but bread and sweets exert a siren call to me, and I’m not very good at resisting temptation.
Three pounds a week is pretty great!
I’ve also been trying to prevent myself from struggling to get into my clothes. I think the sucky economy is helping= i’ve been unemployed for 4 months and i’ll be an unemployed grad student this coming fall…which means I can’t eat out and snack away my money. And it also means I can’t be spending money on looser clothes, so I need to fit into the ones I already have.
Thanks! I understand completely. A good weight for me is not thin by any standards. I like to be comfortable in my clothes, healthy, and active. It’s certainly a struggle.
More power to you Heather. The Battle of the Bulge is an ongoing one, since I love to cook and I love to eat, and I have been ‘plus-sized’ my entire life. But still… I also like to be active, and adding on extra pounds makes that more difficult.
Good luck!