A day of giving thanks . . .

. . . for all the things along the way.

Loss and Losing Weight

Some of you know I have recently lost five pounds and have told me that's great and I must have found a strategy that works for me. Yes and no. Those five pounds were lost due to grief over the death of a dear friend. I simply couldn't eat. This is not a good plan and I do not recommend it. Keep as many of your friends alive as possible.

But I figure as long as the scale is moving in the right direction, I should take advantage of that. At this time last year, I was feeling very pleased with myself for having lost 23 pounds. I maintained that weight loss for a long time. But inner slugs being what they are (and mine is incredibly successful, not to mention sneaky as hell), I have now gained back roughly half that amount.

Inattention + Inactivity + Indulgence = Smug Sedentary Slug

So here's the real plan, in case anyone is interested. I have no credentials whatsoever to give this advice and you should probably disregard all of it and talk to your doctor instead. It's pretty basic stuff, but this is what seems to work for me. When I follow it. And that's the hard part, isn't it?

• No alcohol. No brainer, right? But I'm always surprised by people who are trying to lose weight, yet continue to drink alcohol. I pretty much don't drink at all anymore, though I will on occasion have a glass of wine. It just doesn't agree with me. But I am convinced that, in addition to the calories it packs, alcohol somehow changes a person's body chemistry and makes it darn near impossible to lose weight. No facts at all to back that up, just experience.

• No food after dinner. None. Well, duh. But this is the one that is hard for me. Surely it wouldn't hurt to have just a handful of crackers? Maybe some cheese? And popcorn would taste so good right about now. Stop. Don't do it. You ate dinner, right? You are not hungry, you are bored. Do something else. Drink a big glass of water. Or go to bed early for a change, you probably don't get enough sleep.

• Drink more water. You already do? Drink more than that. Ice cold water. Your body has to heat up the cold things you ingest and that takes energy. Besides, all that water flushes out the bad things. Yes, that is the highly technical scientific description of the process.

• Exercise more. For me, right now, any exercise at all is more. For you, it may mean something else. Whatever you're doing, do more. Change the balance. A cardiologist once told me (after saying my heart was in terrific shape and I had simply pulled a muscle and to stop worrying my way to a heart attack) that if you want to maximize weight loss, you should exercise an hour or two before bedtime. He said if you raise your metabolism at a time of day when you are not likely to be eating anything for several hours, your body burns stored fat instead. Makes sense to me. But it's really hard to do. Do it anyway.

• Eat less, more often. I know, another no brainer. Eat smaller portions, but eat several times a day. It works. But it also requires advance planning and that is where my plan suffers. Make the time to buy, prepare and pack up healthy snacks to bring with you to work. Don't eat chips or sweets. Eat yogurt. Eat fruits and vegetables. Don't ever get stuck with nothing (good) to eat. Because then you will head to the vending machine or the fast food place or be ever so grateful your co-worker brought in a dozen doughnuts to share because you are absolutely starving and your common sense has left the building. You can prevent that, you know. Plan ahead.

• A word about cravings: If you have a craving for something you know you shouldn't eat -- I'm making a huge assumption here that everyone knows what is and is not fattening -- it might be a good idea to go ahead and indulge. I know, that sounds contrary to losing weight. I disagree. In my experience, what most people do is wait until the craving is so strong they can't resist it any longer and are prepared to commit several felonies if anyone tries to stop them, and then indulge to excess. They eat the entire bag of chips instead of just a few, the entire carton of ice cream instead of three spoonfuls. They order everything off the menu at Taco Bell, when if they had just given in last week, one chicken taco would have satisfied them. Be sensible. Don't kid yourself by making up excuses to indulge (and really, if you keep ice cream in the freezer or cookies in the pantry and tell yourself you are not going to eat them, they're just for company, you are not being honest), but if you absolutely have to satisfy a craving, do it while you still have some control and can be moderate.

And that's it. Pretty much just plain old, long-winded common sense. It may not work for you at all, but I'm going to do my best to follow my own advice. It has worked for me in the past. We'll see what happens this time. I won't be blogging about this on a regular basis, but you can follow my so-called progress by checking out those ticker things over on the side. I tried to set easily (HA!) obtainable goals on those things, but once I've walked 50 miles, I'll re-set it for 50 more. And after I lose the first 20 pounds, I'll start to work on the next 20. Oh, believe me, there are at least 20 more. The weight ticker won't change as often, since I refuse to weigh myself more than twice a week, but the exercise one should change daily.

Well, that's the plan. It's good to have a plan. You want to tell me about yours?

Just Messin' Around

People have been telling me to take it easy, get some rest. So today I decided to mess with my blog and see whether I could break anything. It turned out to be not such a "restful" process -- hey, this borders on craft, far as I'm concerned -- but so far it all seems to still work.

The old blog was sort of blah and boring. I kind of like the new look.

What do you think?

Addendum:
Ok, so I added a little exercise thing over there ----- >
And then I had to mess around and figure out how to change the mileage on it. But just to be completely honest here, I have NOT YET actually walked 1.5 miles. Just wanted to see how it worked.

So I guess now I have to replace the batteries in my treadmill (so the LCD thing works and I know how far I walked) and . . . walk. At least 1.5 miles.

Who knew this was going to be such an ordeal.

One Good Thing -- how hard could it be?

McB has challenged me to come up with One Good Thing about today. But I have to do it before the end of the day. I've been trying all day to think of something and this is just not as easy as you might imagine. For example:

My commutes to and from work today were uneventful; but it only takes four minutes each way so perhaps avoiding disaster for that short a period of time doesn't qualify.

I did not say or do anything at work today to get myself fired; but my boss was not in the office at all today so that doesn't really count either.

But, hey, my boss was not in the office pestering me half to death today so I was very productive and got a lot of work done; but it was mostly stuff he should have done had he been there and not so much my own work and that's not good it's just frustrating.

I didn't have to buy lunch today because I ate the lunch I brought yesterday yet didn't get around to eating; but it was a salad and it was, um, kind of wilty and . . . not so good.

Sigh. You see? This is not an easy task, but I will persevere.

It was bright and sunny today; but I forgot my sunglasses at home and while I didn't have to be out in it for more than four minutes at a time (see above re commute) it was hard to see and my eyes are watering even now just thinking about it.

Last time I checked I had not said anything today, publicly or privately, that would offend or anger anyone; but the day is not yet over and you just never know.

Geez, you'd think McB could wait and issue this challenge on a weekend when there are All Sorts of Good Things to report. I'm telling you, the woman is a tyrant.

Hmmm, what else . . . well, the neighbor's tree that is leaning precariously did not fall on my house today; but the wind is supposed to pick up a bit here tonight and, well, let's just hold off on that thought for now.

When I got home from work the dog was still in the back yard where I left him this morning and the cat was still in the house; but they each seemed to want to be elsewhere so from their perspective maybe that is not such a good thing and it makes me a little nervous that the cat seems to think there is Something of Great Interest in the garage.

It's cold enough tonight for a fire in the fireplace and I have a new book waiting to be read and I'm pretty sure there's some popcorn around here somewhere; but instead I'm sitting upstairs at my computer agonizing over this and having flashbacks to the spaced-out college history professor who gave bizarre writing assignments like the one to Define and Defend Ten Good Things About the Spanish Inquisition -- but maybe I'm remembering wrong and it was Eight Things. Okay, fine, so maybe it wasn't the Spanish Inquisition. It might have been the Industrial Revolution. Or the Ice Age. Hey, it was history, I wasn't paying attention.

I'm getting desperate here. The day is almost over and I still don't have One Good Th-- no wait, I think I've got it: it is entirely possible that one person, just one mind you, will read this blog post and it will make them laugh. Yeah, yeah, I realize it's a very slight possibility, and honestly I'd settle for a smile or even a smirk, because I think that still counts. And that would be One Very Good Thing.

There. My work is done.

You happy now, McB?