I think I've discovered the secret to maintaining your weight over the long haul. The trick is to pretend that you're on a diet and tell yourself every day that you're trying to lose weight but not actually do the things you really need to do to lose weight, but then pretend to be confused about why you're not losing weight because, after all, you've been exercising and eating well!
That's what I've been doing. I've been pretty good, overall, with exercise--three days at the gym (and even gradually increasing my running speed--I'm up to about half of the run at 6 m.p.h.), but, well, not so good with the stuff at home. Only one day of pilates last week, none the week before, several walks with Davey, generally high level of activity on weekends (I singlehandedly took both kids on a hike at the state park on Saturday. What was I thinking? Connor wanted me to carry him on the steep uphill bits, and he thought that all that river water looked like a great place for skinny dipping), but really not the six days of hard exercise I need to actually lose weight. The best that can be said is I'm staying in shape.
Food is the same way--I do really well all day, and I've even managed to avoid the after work binge that I'm prone to do, but then I cook comfort food or convenience food for dinner, don't watch my portion size very well, and then follow up with cookies and milk at bedtime. Fine if you're not trying to lose weight, but I know perfectly well that this isn't going to work for me.
The result is that every single day but one for the past week I've weighed in at 142.4. The other day I was 144.6, but that morning I also couldn't get my rings on my finger so it was clearly a case of water retention. Two hours later my rings went on fine and I'm sure if I had reweighed myself I would have been 142.4.
4 comments:
I think you must have a steady routine. As Emily pointed out in an earlier comment about The Biggest Loser, some of those "Biggest Losers" gain a lot of weight back. (I didn't realize that). Good thing for you -- you're not starting from 375 pounds and trying to lose 200. I'm a firm believer in moderation and really think that a good diet and some consistent exercise is the trick, even if it's walking the dog. It's great because I think it leads to *wanting* to exercise more. Plus the more muscle you build the easier it is for your body to maintain a weight or fluctuate a few pounds here and there without worry that you're going to gain 20 or 30 pounds over a short period.
So I think you have more good habits than bad. So maybe you want to be 138 or 135 or 118 (right!!) -- but I just don't think cookies and milk taste as good when you're 118 pounds ... that's my theory at least. :-)
The last time I weighed 118 and ate cookies, I nearly got sick. Back when I was rowing and we had a lightweight boat, all of us were in this freaky competition to get our weight as low as we could. I started out at 122 and went down to 118 by the time I weighed in on race day (fully clothed). When we got back, we all binged on all of the food we hadn't eaten in the previous month. It was the first time I tried a chocolate covered Oreo and it almost make me puke.
118 wasn't a good weight for me. Not only did I have to starve myself and work out three hours a day to get there, but I also stopped getting my period for a couple of months.
Mom, are you reading this? I did a lot of stupid things in college, but that was one of the stupidest.
Yup, I read that. I think I knew about your periods stopping from over-dieting and over exercising. I'm sure we all did a lot of dumb things in college at one time or another!
Mom
When I was in college I was 155 pounds (on average) and I was hot! Of course I didn't realize it at the time and I DID dress like it was the late 80's - but it WAS the late 80's so I guess I can be forgiven. I didn't eat well particularly - college food, lots of instant pudding. I didn't snack a lot because we didn't have any money - but we could eat at the dining hall pretty much whenever we wanted. When we did snack it was on very sugary foods - like Pop Tarts. However, when I was in college I was sick after every meal. Not intentionally (like bulemia) but naturally. I used to joke about being naturally bulemic. I usually had just about enough time to get from the dining room to my dorm before I was sick. I realize now that it was probably my spastic colon not liking fat. I ate a lot of fatty foods - that was at the early fringes of the low fat craze. We had fried foods a lot. Not deep fried usually - but fried anyway. We also had fatty cuts of meat. But I LOST weight in college.
The LOWEST weight I was was 145 for Sarah's wedding. That was the year I didn't eat anything for a month or more(seriously I remember one blueberry muffin in about a month - but I am sure it had to be more food than that...) because Paul and I broke up. I lost 20 pounds in that month. Ironically - or maybe not so much now that I have read about our bodies response to famine - it was about a year later that I started gaining and haven't been able to stop since. It was 3 years after losing that weight that I went on my first diet (Jenny Craig). I wonder now what would have happened had I not gone through that starvation phase. I am sure I would have gained - but I wonder if it would have been at the more normal pace of aging - rather than the leaps and bounds that I have been doing for the past 13 years.
I would like to be able to recreate college. I walked everywhere... Not aerobically - just the normal pace to get where you are going. I would like to know now how much we ageraged a day. My senior year was better because I worked in town but that wasn't THAT far off campus. I also did weight training that year. (I just did Map My Run for my walk to the JM Museum - it was about 1/2 a mile.) Maybe I should start parking 1/2 a mile away from wherever I need to be.
Post a Comment