Pressing On

Minus 2 pounds. That’s all I have to show for my first month of attempting to be healthier

(Below is an exert of a conversation with myself)
Me1: *sigh*, louder *sigh*, louder and brazenly disappointed that you hear on the other side of the room *sigh*. This is unfair.
Me2: But aren’t you now exercising almost daily and most days with a friend?
Me1: Well.. I suppose
Me2: And haven’t you successfully and consistently counted your calories for almost a week and a half – even the weekend – even the five pieces of pizza that you are now aware you should never ever eat again no matter how many decks you are working on? This has to be a record.
Me1: Ya, but see…
Me2: And really aren’t we looking to develop positive behaviors?
Me1: But I want to just wake up and magically have obtained all of my weightloss and healthy lifetime goals.
Me2: That’s very sad for you.

I’d continue with the conversation, but Me1 feels the need to wallow and be sad for a bit longer. On the bright side, I have made some real changes. My crazy, wonderful friend has faithfully shown up each time to exercise. My very patient husband has started measuring more (at least telling me how many handfuls) of food he dishes out when cooking. I am using a great tool on my phone called LOSE IT!, which helps me keep track of my calories eaten, calories burned, and sends out a weekly summary to anyone I add which tells them how I did for the week. It gives me that accountability that I know someone other than myself (who is really good at making excuses) is looking at what I enter in. It also means that if I cheat and decide to only add three pieces of pizza to my daily calorie intake instead of the five… it means I’m lying. And then I’m lying to people that care enough about me to willingly accept a random e-mail once a week that says what I’ve eaten for the week. And that would be really low of me.

So… here’s to pressing on and to the month of September.

Momentum

Once you’ve got it, caught that bug, the fever and chills, you begin to feel impervious to distractions or problems. The world (or at least that surrounding you) begins to click back together and you know you can accomplish anything. Daydreams shift from scenarios and fantasies outside of your world to the future improved you. The skinny or smarter or better you. The happier or funnier or more-likable you. The you with more money, more time, more patience. Momentum is the fuel that gets you up for 8 am classes at school and it’s what can get you through long sunless Michigan winter days in the office. Momentum is the awesome video montage in every movie with the corny soundtrack that grabs you.

Momentum gives your motivations something to snack on the roadtrip towards your desired destination.

It precipitates itself around you and others begin to feel it too.

I feel it. I’m beginning to breath it. Now I just can’t loose it.

Some Assigned Reading...

Time Article discussing Organic Foods.

Haiku

A friend at work is into Haiku's and hosts Haik-uesday. Its been making my noodle think...


Family and Friends visit
Yummy foods are everywhere
Oh, Diet-Schmiet

On another note, turns out when I know someone isn't coming Friday morning to exercise and there are people sleeping in my basement I have no ambition or desire to exercise in the morning. Not that I don't want people to visit, just maybe in the future I'm going to sign you up for calisthenics at 6AM :-D.

Can't say I didn't give fair warning!

"You need to work on your balance" - Wii Fit Plus Male Trainer

So perhaps one of my goals should be posting on time...

I am proud to report though, that great things are brewing at the headquarters of Me Getting Healthier. This morning my alarm went off at 5:45 am and after lying in bed long enough to finish listening to the song and remind myself why I was being rudely awakened so early I jumped (um... well I really rolled over and then nearly fell, but jumped sounds better) out of bed. About half an hour later a rather dedicated or perhaps slightly crazy friend came over and we then preceded to the basement to exercise.

Amazing, astonishing, and really a bit disgusting. I dislike the morning incredibly.

But I have either a really crazy or very dedicated friend, or both.

She approached me after my last post with a thought, that perhaps I would wake up if I knew someone else was waiting on me. A reasonable hypothesis. This of course meant she had to wake up too, which is less fun on her part. We've decided to meet at 6:15 at my house Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to exercise. We're shaking it up a bit, changing out Cardio videos on Mondays, using the Wii Fit on Wednesdays, and DDR Fridays. The idea being that if its varied enough we won't get tired of it and stick to exercising and waking up early longer.
Tuesdays and Thursdays seemed like good days to meet for lunch and walk somewhere. So if anyone else feels like walking...

I have to admit, waking early and exercising does give me that smug sense of Hah! I exercised!. At the very least, if I took the effort to wake up and exercise, I am much less likely to cheat on my diet.

So that's one piece of the puzzle that seems to be falling into place. Now for the eating portion. The little annoying Wii board avatar this morning told me I needed to eat less.
It is suprisingly blunt.

So that's where I'm headed. Over and out.

Learnings

So I have learned somethings about myself and diets...

A. If there is bad food and good food in the house, I will eat the bad food. Every time.
B. If we go out to eat and there is a buffet, I will eat more than I should. I like buffets.
C. It's easy to make excuses for things when people are visiting.
D. If it's your husband's birthday and he decides he's going to eat whatever he wants, the whole weekend, I will decide that rule applies to me as well.

With all that said I feel more empowered in moving forward. Or rather when you're backed up against a wall you really can only ever move forward.

What I'm most interested in is figuring out how to create the motivation to wake up in the morning early enough to exercise. I have done this in the past, I know its completely possible, but I simply can't find the desire to pull myself out of bed and face the day. I am a fan of my bed - its the most comfortable, wonderful piece of furniture I own, maybe I need a crappier one?

Any ideas???

In the Begining...

Today, in the world of Me-on-a-diet, went reasonably well. There were no grouchy "I hate life" moments or "Ugh... I hate this stuff" or my personal favorite... "when I'm done dieting I'm eating an entire bag of rye bread chips". (Yes, they make bags of just the rye bread chips that come in Chex Mix).

I didn't jump out of bed to exercise, unlike my husband, but I did get up, weigh myself and drink a SlimFast (which is currently replacing my normal peanut butter and jelly sandwich) and went to church. I did eat the left over Chinese food from last night for lunch, but there wasn't much and my husband started his Caveman Diet today and didn't want to waste food. Maybe not so great.
Dinner was half a chicken thigh and then zucchini, carrots, okra, beets, and parsley (the whole plant, roots included). I learned today that I actually like okra and beets, which was surprising. I thought I hated them. So much so that still upon hearing their name I want to pull a face, but I can't now because apparently I like them.

My husband and I also went for a 25 minute bike ride right after it rained today, which was great because it cooled off significantly, but bad in that you had trouble breathing as the air was rather heavy. All in all I give today a thumbs up for the start of the diet. I've certainly had worse.

Memories of the Curve's diet where I had to eat eggs and sauerkraut come to mind...

The true test will be tomorrow around three o'clock at work. When I am very hungry and potentially grouchy. I am not the most gracious dieter, being addicted to carbs and all. I also tend to become defensive over being told I can't eat certain foods. I might not have even wanted a milkshake, but now, because I'm on a diet I do. Plain and simple. Oh and birthday cake ice cream with sprinkles would be nice too. *sigh*. I'm going to go and read now and not think about food any more.