How making the bed led to a weight loss epiphany

There's an old adage that goes, "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten."

I've always knew this to be true but never really thought about it, until now. This weekend, I would have a total of 6 days off from school and work. I had planned to maybe do a little organizing of our house and read two or three books. Basically, I wanted to be lazy for the sum total of those days. That didn't happen. The first day, I had breakfast with a dear friend and for some reason, it inspired me to not be dormant. I came home, changed the sheets, and made the bed.

That may not seem all that miraculous to you. But for me it's HUGE. Never in my life have I consistently had a made bed. I always brushed off the comments of people saying that making the bed just starts their day off right. Honestly, I'd tell myself, how could that make a difference at all? Wasn't it just hogwash? Now I know it's not.

Because I'd made the bed, it made me feel a little better about not being in our actual master bedroom, STILL after six months. I truly had gotten to the point that I was so dejected about our living situation that I really didn't care if it even looked halfway presentable. I'd gotten in the mindset of, because the house isn't done, my husband won't allow anyone to come over so what did it matter if the bed was made for just us? Let me tell you, it does. I really and truly feel better about the state of our home by completing that one little task.

It also made me think about what other barriers I might have created for myself that I didn't even realize. When I was single and doing so well on Weight Watchers, I only had meals in restaurants maybe once a week. So now that I can't fit any of the clothes in my closet and am getting frighteningly close to my start weight, one of the big things for me is; "I've gained so much weight because my husband wants to eat out all the time." Ok, let's examine this. First of all, I'm not blaming my husband, who I love, for my weight gain. Yes, ever since we started dating I have gained weight. And Yes, my husband wants to eat out almost every night, never mind that it isn't good for our pocket book OR our waist lines. But it's MY FAULT that I let it go to my waist. Eating in restaurants makes him happy. I don't really understand why, but it does. His happiness means so much to me and he gets so upset when I try to dissuade him, that I give in.Then I feel guilty about ever trying to change his mind. He works so hard and all he's asking is that I let someone else cook for and serve us, who am I to complain? So I give in, and what do I do when we go out? I eat what I WANT to eat, not what would help me stay on plan. Why? Because I don't want to go out to eat and not be satisfied. It really is a fear thing with me. I'm afraid that if I don't order the pasta or chicken strips or the potato soup and pretzels, that I'll be hungry later or I won't like the meal I ordered and it would have been a waste of money for me to have eaten something else in the first place.

Basically, I feel out of control in this area. After spending over two years of my life on plan, I know that if I were to have gone to a WW meeting and asked for help, I would have heard these suggestions:

1. Find something on plan at the restaurant to eat and/or choose a WW friendly restaurant.

2. If you've already eaten out X number of times, don't go with him.

3. Realize that the odds of you going to a restaurant when he gets home are good, and plan accordingly.

Option #1 When we go out, it's typically always my husband's choice in restaurant. That's not to say that he forces me to go to places I don't like, I DO like these places. But many times, these places are not at all WW friendly. For instance, there's a burger place that we LOVE to go to where literally everything is fried. So for our outings option #1 is almost always out.

Option #2 is not an option because my husband works often 7 days per week, 10-12 hours per day. I WANT to spend time with him. The argument could be made that if I stopped going, it would stop being pleasurable for him to go and we'd start eating at home more. But that brand of passive-aggressiveness is not for me.

Option #3: EPIPHANY ALERT: Failing to plan is planning to fail. One of my favorite leaders ALWAYS said that. I think what has been happening is that I've been just going with the flow and not taking responsibility for my eating in areas that I could control. The great thing about WW is its flexibility. If I were to start getting Activity Points during the day AND wisely use my Points for breakfast and lunch, eating out for dinner would become a non-issue. 

Effective immediately, this is my new strategy. I'll check in next Sunday and let you know how it works for me. 

Personal Training

I've been anxiously anticipating my meeting with Eric S., the trainer at my 24 hour fitness location. I tried to make a list of fitness related goals to accomplish. I came up with exactly one during the whole week I was wracking my brain.

I want to be able to kip up without looking like an idiot or hurting myself.

So with that in mind, I went into my fitness assessment/session today. I was mostly anxious because I knew I'd be having my fatness tested. It felt a lot like that moment in Jemima J by Jane Green 

when Jemima lugged herself out of bed, early to have dreaded the fatness testing. The trainer took lots of measurements and pinched her fat roll with some pincers.  

It started out pretty typical. Eric asked me questions about my prior fitness history, how I hurt my ankle, and what I wanted to accomplish. I gave him my one goal and tried to quickly add some others. "But," I told him, "It has to be fun or I won't do it." (I seriously think I'd already said fun like 789 times during our initial conversation, so I'm pretty sure he got it.)

We left the interview room and went into the "back room" where all the torturous fatness testing goes on. I stepped on the scale and did my best not to look. (Remember, I'm NOT focusing on THAT number anymore.) Then I braced myself for the pincer/caliper test that... NEVER CAME! Instead we used a tape measure and  THIS THING 

I really wish I'd have had my body fat tested when I very first started WW, it probably would have really depressed me but might be interesting to know. For the record, right now my body fat is at 43%. ALMOST HALF OF MY BODY WEIGHT IS FAT! Isn't that like the saddest thing, ever???

This is a copy of the chart they use:

According to Eric, the Average category is actually misleading because it's the one you want to be in. He said my goal for body fat percentage should be 25%. And that he could get me there in about 8 months. 

Then we went for the fun part, exercise. I was going to post a picture of the machine I used, but I can't find it  online. I did a set of squat/rows, then this crab walk squat row thingie (it seemed complicated at the time but was actually pretty fun), then a belly down exercise ball 5 pound weight thingie, some planks, and then squats against the exercise ball against the wall with a medicine ball in my hands. Crazy stuff, but you know, I was laughing and he did a really good job at motivating me. He kept the number of reps in the realm of something I thought was difficult but still do-able. 

Now the only trick is coming up with the money to do it on a regular basis. 

Actively A Successful Week

It's been a week since I committed to 30 minutes of activity per day. I'm happy to say except for one day, I exceeded that goal! Below is what led to this successful week.


1.Knowing that so many people knew about this goal made me much more likely to get it done. It goes to show that publicly stating a goal will make you more likely to accomplish said goal.

2. Setting my alarm so I'd run before work. It took a little finagling but I found the time to run, shower, and do my hair before I had to leave.

3. Having my exercise clothes ready and waiting for me in the morning to run and in the evening for my bicycle ride.

4. Making myself do it. There were many time when I thought, I really don't want to do this today. If I don't, no one will know. But I did it anyway.



I love my neighborhood in the early morning hours. When I run, it's 5 am and there is next to no one on the roads. So I don't have to feel self conscious about my running style. (Or the fact that I still feel like a fat chick trying to run.) That probably helped me stick with it. I didn't run this morning. I was lazy. But I'm going to tomorrow morning; it'll be interesting to see if the traffic on my route will change since school is back in session. And speaking of school, there must be some kind of back to school pizza special because it seemed like every other driveway had a pizza delivery person in it. (I'm also happy to report that I was not one of the people who ordered it tonight and that I only had it on one night this past week. In my book, that's an improvement.)


I haven't figured out how to work my routine into the late days this week. On Wednesday and Thursday, I work from 11-7 and I don't really want to be up at 5 am to run if I don't have to actually be at work until 1030. Any suggestions?

It's like scraping my brains off the pavement

Yesterday's post begs the question, If I know what to do, how come I haven't been doing it?

That's a real stumper isn't it? Kind of like those people who ride a motorcycle at 100 miles an hour on the freeway with no helmet, they know they SHOULDN'T be doing what they're doing but they still don't change it. Often by the time something MAKES them change their ways, that something is another vehicle and then it's too late. An EMT is scraping their brains off some guy's bumper. I bet those motorcycle riders have excuses for why they don't wear helmets (it's too hot, helmet hair, etc). Let's examine some of my excuses for not doing what I should.


"I have no self control." My first time on Weight Watchers (WW) was 2003 and I lasted a week and 1 day, lack of self control was my excuse for quitting then. After having been on plan for two years, I know THAT isn't the reason.

"I don't have time to count points." Um, yeah, but I do have time to check Facebook on my iPhone 50 times a day. That excuse isn't gonna fly.

"Being on plan isn't as much fun as eating whatever I want!" It is true, counting points and planning for dates or meals in restaurants isn't as much fun as having Crusted Chicken Romano and getting a slice of 30th Anniversary Cheesecake just because I went to First Colony and they have a Cheesecake Factory. But, being able to shop for clothes in ALL the stores at First Colony is WAY more fun than Cheesecake Factory ever is. So I guess I need to choose my fun...

"I've worked all day, I'm too tired to work out." By the time I get off work, I AM exhausted. So it's true that after work, I'm too tired to work out. Maybe I should work out before work....

"I've worked all day, I'm too tired to cook." This has lead to way too many calls to Domino's lately. I think my delivery guy realizes that I have pizza addiction problem. It might be a good idea for me to pre-make my dinners. Cook a bunch the weekend before and warm 'em up during the week...

"I don't have anything to cook." Yeah, Maghan. That's cuz you haven't been to the grocery store in forever.

"I don't like my meeting" Try another.

Crap! I think I've run out of excuses and I couldn't get away with a single one of those.

In the beginning, I was so motivated. Really, extra driven. NOTHIN' and NOBODY was getting between me and my goal. I'm not sure what happened but I think I'm suffering from "misplaced motivation". I think that's where number 6 on yesterday's list will come in handy. I need to set some new goals and check in with myself periodically.

I probably also need to do less "real big picture" and more "rear-view big picture" thinking. I'll explain what I mean next time.






 

I'll just say it, in four months, I've gained back 20 of the 100 pounds that I'd destroyed.
20 pounds.
Four months.
5 pounds per month.
Dang.
Often in our weight loss efforts, when times like this arise, we are told to ask ourselves, "What's not working?"
That's a loaded question and I for one think that sentence isn't working. At the risk of sounding completely spacey, that sentence is awfully negative.  And don't we have enough negativity out there? For me asking What's not working could take me all day to answer because that has always been a big  list of things.
Me Vs. Pizza= not working
TX heat Vs. my running habit= not working
Cooking Dinner Vs. 10+ hour workdays = not working
Trust me, this list could go on and on. I think the better question is "What is/was Working"

1. Tracking- In my 2+ years as a Weight watcher, I know this is the key to success.
2. 30 minutes of REAL activity per day (Sadly, sex and walking Sophie (my chihuahua) down the stairs and 10 feet to potty and check the mail, does NOT count.)
3. Having actual groceries in the house. (You know, to make MEALS out of??? Left over take-out and odd bits of stuff that with other stuff could maybe make a meal doesn't make a person very successful.)
4. Going out once a week. Eating out every meal coupled with dessert and alcohol during the week eats through the points BIG time. (pun intended)
5. Attending a Good Meeting. Never underestimate the power of a good leader and friendly supportive members.
6. Regular Goal Checkups/ Goal Setting. I keep forgetting to ask myself, "Maghan, how's it going?"

So now that I know what works, Why aren't I doing what works?
I'll answer that next time.