True confessions of a diet slacker: Part 4

 

There are many habits I learned from my mother, like keeping a clean house and a sweet treat is best followed by something salty. Yes, add insult to injury as it were.

I have cut down on my trips to the vending machine. My wallet is grateful and my new waistline is evidence that I have kicked the junk food habit. So are my cholesterol numbers. My LDL (or junk food number as I call it) has gone from 245 to 75 since I have started my healthier lifestyle. Giving hard proof that you can change your health by eating right.

But again the pressure of the last few weeks has made me forget the progress that I have made and once again I was playing the vending machine like some people play slot machines in Vegas.

The problem is that since I have been on the Today Show my co-workers have been watching me like a hawk. Last week they heard the sound of a chip bag at my desk and when I looked up one of them had their cell phone camera pointed at me. For the love of God, it was one bag and I was having a bad day. It was the healthy chips, if there really is such a thing.

Memo to myself: Follow around skinny people and see how they handle stress. Maybe, I will be vindicated and they eat chips as well.

True confessions of a diet slacker: Part 3

There should be a prescription for chocolate. As I stated in yesterday’s blog, I love the stuff and find it a soothing solution for whatever is ailing me. The real problem is that I have yet to find a diet that allows it as often as I crave it.

Fact: The only daily dose I allow myself is the chocolate Viactiv. Not really the same thing but it only has 20 calories per piece and it is an extra dose of calcium. Yes, it is good for you.

Fact: Several weeks ago I stopped at my favorite chocolate shop to buy a few Christmas presents and I also bought myself a treat. Man, were they good.  Don’t tell me coach, although she reads my blog on a regular basis and now knows why the scale was stuck in the mud.

Sometimes writing this blog is like going to confession. Please forgive me coach for I have sinned. At least I won’t go to hell for having an occasional piece of heaven.

True confessions of a diet slacker: Part 2

Watching the death of newspapers is hard. I am a journalist. I have been one for 30 years. It’s not what I do but who I am. Thousands of sarcastic, funny and liberal curmudgeons are leaving the business and are having to find new ways of making a living. Their parting letters are filling my email box. They are all grateful for the time they spent in the business but it is dying and they are left wondering what their next moves will be.

I wish them all the best and I will miss them. I will miss their humor, their witty way of looking at the world and most of all I will miss the people that I have come to love. I am grateful that for the time I have spent in the business but it is hard to watch this all unfold in these uncertain economic times.

It’s just sad. The kind of sadness that makes you want to cry. In my case, I usually want to eat to mask the empty pit in my stomach.  That is what  happened for the last few weeks while I was left wondering if I would be the next one asked to leave the paper. I was spared during the recent layoffs but the uncertainty wasn’t good for my diet. Stress is never good and after all this time of living a healthier life I still haven’t learned to deal with the pressure like a thin person.

Fact: Chocolate is my Xanax.

But I am grateful that so many people have found my new website and are making it a daily destination, over 96,000 hits in November. Thanks for making it a bright spot in my life. I have been working on a new look with fresh content for the website for the new year.  Stay tuned. If you have any ideas please let me know.

True confessions of a diet slacker: Part 1

Fact: I have been on a diet for 5 years. Watching what I eat everyday can be tedious.

Fact: I am tired of going to bed hungry.

Fact: I am tired of going to the bathroom a million times a day because of all the water I drink.

Fact: I miss tasting chocolate everyday.

Fact: I have been letting the stress of the economy and my diminishing workplace get to me. Worst yet, I have been falling into old habits of consoling myself with food.

Fact: I took up Joy’s challenge to lose my last 24 pounds using her new LIFE diet. For the first time in my weight loss journey I was going to have to be accountable for my actions. Frankly, it was what I needed to get over the last hurdle.

Thank goodness for my coach, Johanna. She has watched me struggle the last few weeks like a marathon runner who gets weak in the knees at mile 25. She stuck with me and I can hear her cheering me on and it is what I need right now. I can see the finish line and I want to cross it for me and for her. Only 8 more pounds and I will be at the goal I set for myself 5 years ago. Losing 200 pounds has been the hardest thing I have ever done but it has taught me that I can do anything that I set me mind to. Thanks Joy and Johanna for being there for me and believing that I can cross the finish line.

Fact: I love my new active life and I will never go back to weighing 340 pounds.

Fact: I can’t wait to start the New Year being the person I always dreamed I could be.

Energizer bunny at rest

 

Yes, this is my sister-in-law, Coco, chilling. The woman never rests and I was glad that I caught her taking a minute to relax. I called her my Energizer bunny. What she doesn’t know is that when I started my diet I wanted to fit into her size 8 jeans some day.

Coco has yo-yoed a bit but never more than a few pounds. Yes, she is the one that you love but secretly hate her metabolism. She runs and in the winter she skis. You would have thought that I would have made the connection that working out is a key factor in maintaining your weight but it took me years to figure that out. Again I am a slow learner but now I get the message. Everything in moderation and don’t forget the exercise. Message received. 

Sugarless eye candy

For the record the guys at my gym don’t look like this and if they did maybe I would go more often. After all, sugarless eye candy has no calories.

I am trying to shake up my work out routines this week to burn off more calories. I am doing the entire Biggest Loser DVD at one time. I am so glad that I am not on the Loser Ranch because I have been know to take a potty break during the workout and I am not sure that Jillian and Bob allow that.

When I finish the hour-long tape, I hit my bike for another 30 minutes. Every other day I get out the weights and do a strength training tape. Not only am I trying to lose weight, but I am also trying to tone my body that has more sagging skin than I want to think about most days.

Thanks God for clothes.

P.S. Pilates is a great way to tone as well. I try to do that after work because it is so relaxing.

Holiday goodies are everywhere

People keep saying that the gift giving has gotten out of control over the years but honestly when did stuffing yourself with every sweet become part of the holiday ritual.

It starts with the endless flow of candy at Halloween and really doesn’t end until January 1 when people step on their scale and realize that a diet has to be the first thing on their new year agenda.

My mother knows a woman that bakes cookies, delicious treats with real butter and wonderful frosting. Linda has every cookie cutter that was ever been made and she decorates them so beautifully that you forget that each one has many calories in them.

Every holiday mom places an order for the treats, and they are so hard to resist but this year I have to forget about them and focus on the finish line. Knowing Linda, she has a cookie cutter for just that occasion as well.

Keeping legal

I keep a calendar right by my scale along with my tape measure. Once a month I record my measurements and daily I write down by weight. Some days, I am thrilled with my progress and then there are days when I want to take the scale and pitch it out the window.

For the last two weeks the scale hasn’t been to kind to me. The inanimate object has no idea that I think it was devised by Satan. It isn’t the scales fault that I overate or didn’t workout the previous day, the blame lies solely on me.

I could fill several books with all the excuses I have come up with over the years as to why the scale was being mean to me but in reality it is me, being mean to myself. I know what it takes to lose weight and it is hard to stay on track but if I don’t the scale tells me that I made bad food choices.

I know that they have scales that talk back at you but frankly I do a good enough job of it on my own. I want to see 140 so bad and I have to remember that nothing will taste better than that.

This is a plateau

This is a real plateau and not the one that I see on my scale when it is stuck in the mud.

Webster’s definition of Plateau:

1. A usually extensive land area having a relatively level surface raised sharply above adjacent land on at least one side.

2. A relatively stable level, period, or condition

3. Level of attainment or achievement

Lisa’s definition of Plateau:

1. What was I thinking eating that chocolate chip cookie last night?

2. When will I learn not to buy chocolate, not like I can feed it to the dog.

3. Stop making excuses for all the stress in my life and remember to put down my fork and move my butt.

I have been at 150 pounds for two weeks now and I am tired of seeing that number on my scale. I have been letting stress get to me and that is not a good thing. It usually means that I overeat to compensate for what is really eating at me.

Time to get back on the diet horse and cross the finish line. I want to be at 140 pounds by Janurary 1.

Yep, I am going to take off the hardest pounds around the holidays. Nothing like, mission impossible.

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