It's Monday morning. Not my favorite time, but the sun is shining and I have piles to do today. A trademark registration to file, a complaint to finish answering, a letter to write to a client. I also should really mow the yard; I haven't done that in awhile, and it's a meadow out there, probably complete with wildlife. It's the letter and the complaint response that will take up most of my day. But I think I'll go for a walk first and get that done so that it doesn't get lost in the day.
I didn't sleep well last night; it was hot in my bedroom. Even with an outside temp in the 60s, that room gets warm. So I watched Mr. Brooks on the TV/VCR/DVD that hangs from the wall at the foot of my bed.
For breakfast (which I'm eating on time, now) I'm having a container of Activia (which is 70 calories). I'm also having two scrambled eggs and one slice of italian sourdough bread with 1 tbsp of peanut butter and a pat of butter.
I went for my walk. It's lovely down by the Mohawk River; the rowers were out, the river was blue, and the walk was quiet and comfortable. I walked back and forth along Riverside Park four times, for 6,326 steps. Took about 45 minutes. I'm sleepy now. Taking a nap for an hour will help that and freshen me up for getting my work done.
Damn, I'm hungry after eating those two eggs. The bread/peanut butter takes the edge off that. My mother used to tell me that eggs "stick to your ribs," meaning that you don't get hungry after eating eggs, but that isn't true; eggs make me hungrier, at least in the short term. Eggs, you see, have no fiber, nothing to fill my stomach. Just excellent protein, which is fine, but I can't (at this moment; this may change) eat eggs by themselves and expect to not be hungry afterward.
It's now 2 p.m., which is after my lunchtime. I forgot to eat at noon again, but I did take another (short) walk instead of the nap. So far today I'm up to 8,116 steps. Isn't 15,000 steps/day the goal for a fit person? I'm more than halfway there.
Lunch was a peanut butter sandwich on sourdough italian with 2 pats of butter, a plum and a can of diet ginger ale. I'm eating up the fattening-est (is that a word?) food as I start in with the walking regime. This is mostly because I have neither veggies nor money at this moment.
Tess and I went to BJ's to get food and paper towels tonight. $126 later, I have some chicken thighs, a lot of Activia yogurt, a bag of baby spinach, bleu cheese, and Tess has sausage, celery, and cranberry juice. We also have paper towels, aspirin and cat food — the damn cats eat better than we do based on the cost of their food — geez!!.
We went to Friendly's for dinner before BJs. It IS possible to eat healthy in Friendly's; you just have to order their salads and not order their ice cream or other dinner entrées. Make sure to tell them to put the dressing on the side, and that you want grilled, not crispy, chicken in the salad. Et voila! One healthy meal.
Of course, Friendly's isn't the only restaurant that needs to have its salad dressing curtailed; most of them slobber the stuff all over the salad, turning a perfectly good salad into caloric hell. I dip the leaves gently into the side-bound dressing and savor the flavor without guilt-tripping over the calories.
I had the apple-walnut-bleu cheese salad, which was quite tasty for a $10 meal that includes diet Coke and ice cream (I did not have the ice cream). I was hungry when we walked into the restaurant. Tess had a BBQ chicken sandwich. I wasn't even tempted. But I'm hungry now. Yes, I plan to eat a dish of ice cream tonight. Lite Mint Chocolate Chip. From Stewart's. Later.
Later came and I did indeed have a delightful dish of Lite Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream from Stewart's. It was delicious. I do love mint. And chocolate. I was hungry when I ate it, and am still a bit hungry but I'm going to bed now before I do any more damage.
Tomorrow is another day.
Oh, I walked 10,667 steps today. Not half bad for someone as sedentery as am I. I'll try to get up to 15,000 by the end of this week.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Journal - 30 August 2009
Today is Sunday, 30 August 2009, the first day of this public, accountable weight-loss venture, and I had a plate of leftover spaghetti for breakfast. The spaghetti had marinara sauce on it, and I added 10 Swedish meatballs (you know, those little things you buy at BJ's). I also had an Activia yogurt before breakfast. I'm still hungry. Funny, that; one would think that spaghetti would be filling.
For lunch, eaten at 4 p.m., I had a peanut butter sandwich on sourdough Italian bread with 2 pats of butter. Also a can of DelMonte Lite Pear Halves (net wt. 15 oz). That's 3.5 servings of pears-and-"lite"-syrup at 60 cal/serving = 210 calories from pears and their "lite" syrup. Feeling hungry still, but now it's time to go for a walk. It's a lovely, lovely day outside, too. Why I'm sitting in here blogging is a mystery.
Scheduling food is a Problem for me. I get working and forget to eat until I'm absolutely ravenous. Then I eat — and eat — and eat — and eat. Today, for example, I am playing the Family Psychologist (ain't no one less qualified than am I for that role). My dad's cousin is considering whether or not to sell a condo she bought in her favorite large city. However, her thought processes are being clouded over by the fact that her cat needs to be put down. So, an hour later, she still doesn't know whether to sell or keep the condo (if it were me, I'd keep it, but that's me) and she's somewhat more reconciled to the fact that the cat needs to be put down (which is sad indeed; he's a young cat and, she says, he's the best cat she's ever had). This conversation was what I did in place of eating a timely lunch. Well, there's always tomorrow.
For lunch, eaten at 4 p.m., I had a peanut butter sandwich on sourdough Italian bread with 2 pats of butter. Also a can of DelMonte Lite Pear Halves (net wt. 15 oz). That's 3.5 servings of pears-and-"lite"-syrup at 60 cal/serving = 210 calories from pears and their "lite" syrup. Feeling hungry still, but now it's time to go for a walk. It's a lovely, lovely day outside, too. Why I'm sitting in here blogging is a mystery.
Scheduling food is a Problem for me. I get working and forget to eat until I'm absolutely ravenous. Then I eat — and eat — and eat — and eat. Today, for example, I am playing the Family Psychologist (ain't no one less qualified than am I for that role). My dad's cousin is considering whether or not to sell a condo she bought in her favorite large city. However, her thought processes are being clouded over by the fact that her cat needs to be put down. So, an hour later, she still doesn't know whether to sell or keep the condo (if it were me, I'd keep it, but that's me) and she's somewhat more reconciled to the fact that the cat needs to be put down (which is sad indeed; he's a young cat and, she says, he's the best cat she's ever had). This conversation was what I did in place of eating a timely lunch. Well, there's always tomorrow.
I actually did go for a walk today, in Riverside Park, Schenectady, which is by the Mohawk River: 4,228 steps. Hey, it's a start. It took me just over 1/2 hour. And I am sweating.
Dinnertime is another peanut butter sandwich on sourdough italian bread, two clementines (I love clementines...), a bottle of Lipton's green tea (that gives me — gak — 200 calories, most of which are affixed in 21 grams of sugar; guess I'll make my own green tea from now on that I can brew myself and sweeten with sugar substitute).
I intend to eat a dish of Stewart's Lite Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream tonight. This is not a disaster as long as I do it in moderation, which I intend to do. I'll get into how effective my moderation is tomorrow.
I did indeed eat my dish of Lite Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream tonight, and I did indeed eat only one dish of it.
So far, so good. This is a one-day-at-a-time proposition, and tomorrow is another day.
Hey, I'm not hungry. Amazing.
Hello World - 30 August 2009
This is the beginning of my weight-loss journey. I don't plan to use a pay-for-it program like Weight Watchers® or NutriSystem® or even HMR®; I will blog my progress and, I hope, accomplish my goals, holding myself accountable to me and to anyone who wants to read and follow my progress and my thoughts on my progress (or lack thereof).
I just weighed myself. I'm 5'9" tall and 250 pounds. Yuck. My goal is 160 lbs. 90 pounds to go. Well, the longest journey begins with a single step, and this is a long journey coming up. I'll weigh myself again in a week.
This gives me a BMI of 36.9. A NORMAL BMI is 18.5-24.9. An OVERWEIGHT BMI is 25-29.9. OBESE is 30 or more. My goal weight of 160 will give me a BMI of 23.6, which is well within normal limits. It may be that I'll decide to get down to 145, which would give me a BMI of 21.4, but that's a decision I'll make later. Right now, 160 is a nice, round number; if I get obsessed with weight loss, I'll diet down to 145 (hey, that would be the first time I've been closer to 100 than to 200 lbs since I was in high school; that's probably not realistic...).
I am obese. I hate those words, but there they are. I am obese. Fat. Dripping with excess adipose tissue. Funny, I don't see myself as fat, but that's because I avoid looking at myself in a profile view in a mirror. When I look at the profile, yes, I am indeed very apple-shaped. Not a good shape for lots of reasons.
I'm doing this because I don't like my current shape. Forget the health issues associated with obesity, of which, yes, I am aware: I just plain don't like being fat. There are lots of reasons why I am fat, most of them having to do with self-defense in bad life situations, but those bad life situations are done. They don't exist anymore except in my own head. My head is killing me: how sick is that?
My first mini-goal is to lose 20 pounds by Christmas, and Christmas is in 16 weeks. That's 1.25 pounds per week, which is a dramatic amount. Think of it: 3,600 calories go into one pound, so that's 4,500 calories per week that I'm talking about not replacing as I burn them off. Hey, I like 4,500 way better than 1.25, so I think I'll do this by talking about calories at least along with pounds.
If all goes well, I should be down to 230 pounds by Christmas. That will give me a BMI of 34, which is still "obese," but is better than my current 36.9.
How will I do this, you ask? Well, there are several modifications I can make to my life.
I just weighed myself. I'm 5'9" tall and 250 pounds. Yuck. My goal is 160 lbs. 90 pounds to go. Well, the longest journey begins with a single step, and this is a long journey coming up. I'll weigh myself again in a week.
This gives me a BMI of 36.9. A NORMAL BMI is 18.5-24.9. An OVERWEIGHT BMI is 25-29.9. OBESE is 30 or more. My goal weight of 160 will give me a BMI of 23.6, which is well within normal limits. It may be that I'll decide to get down to 145, which would give me a BMI of 21.4, but that's a decision I'll make later. Right now, 160 is a nice, round number; if I get obsessed with weight loss, I'll diet down to 145 (hey, that would be the first time I've been closer to 100 than to 200 lbs since I was in high school; that's probably not realistic...).
I am obese. I hate those words, but there they are. I am obese. Fat. Dripping with excess adipose tissue. Funny, I don't see myself as fat, but that's because I avoid looking at myself in a profile view in a mirror. When I look at the profile, yes, I am indeed very apple-shaped. Not a good shape for lots of reasons.
I'm doing this because I don't like my current shape. Forget the health issues associated with obesity, of which, yes, I am aware: I just plain don't like being fat. There are lots of reasons why I am fat, most of them having to do with self-defense in bad life situations, but those bad life situations are done. They don't exist anymore except in my own head. My head is killing me: how sick is that?
My first mini-goal is to lose 20 pounds by Christmas, and Christmas is in 16 weeks. That's 1.25 pounds per week, which is a dramatic amount. Think of it: 3,600 calories go into one pound, so that's 4,500 calories per week that I'm talking about not replacing as I burn them off. Hey, I like 4,500 way better than 1.25, so I think I'll do this by talking about calories at least along with pounds.
If all goes well, I should be down to 230 pounds by Christmas. That will give me a BMI of 34, which is still "obese," but is better than my current 36.9.
How will I do this, you ask? Well, there are several modifications I can make to my life.
- The first is to exercise more than I do. Right now, I sit behind my desk and clack on my computer for exercise. Walking would be good. Swimming would be better.
- The second is to write down absolutely every morsel that enters my mouth. That will tell me what I can change and what needs to be tweaked and what's actually good.
- The third is to write this blog, where I will record my progress and discharge my emotions (for yes, I am indeed an emotional eater).
- The fourth is to not match my significant other, Jim, mouthful for mouthful. If he eats 10 mouthfuls, I will eat 8. He tells me that before Christmas is not the time to start losing weight, but I disagree: I think that before Christmas is the best time to do this. I'm doing this for me and me alone, and don't want to be distracted or derailed (and it's very, very easy to distract or derail me from eating healthfully).
- The fifth, and most painful, is to cut out all processed sugar from my diet. I love processed sugar. I can dine on ice cream. Make a delightful meal from a king-sized package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Stopping that will be tough. I have three quarts of ice cream in the freezer at this moment.
So. Join me on my quest for the healthy body. The output won't be the perfect body, but that's ok; I'm 53 years old and have learned not to expect perfection. The output will be much healthier than is the input. And that's the goal.
-Nancy
-Nancy
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