Hungry again

September 29, 2010 at 9:26 am (weight loss)
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I really hate having to count calories in any way, shape, or form. (I think I may need to change my attitude about this.)

Once again, I stared at my weight and realized that the five pounds I had lost were now regained. So once again, I had to return to focusing on what I was eating, how much I was eating, and when I was eating it.

The first time I significantly lost weight was when I used Weigh Down Workshop, which was lovely. I didn’t have to count calories, I just had to pay attention to what my body was telling me about being hungry and being full. Being hungry was never the problem, but stopping when full — a little more challenging. I probably would have stayed with this program when I needed to return, if some peculiarities hadn’t occurred with the woman who founded it, which led to me just not feeling much trust in either her or the program overall.

In the meantime, I had begun to revise my eating habits in connection with my own interest in natural food, locally produced, and made at home. While I am not obsessive about this — I do eat out, I don’t fret too much when I eat at someone else’s house, etc. — nonetheless I do have a primary focus of avoiding processed foods and eating healthy stuff, not limited by the fear-mongering of the media that constantly touts one type of food as being the magic food that will help you lose weight.

Unfortunately, this makes it a little more difficult to work with diets that tell you to eat this food so many times per day, when it is out of season and I am not going to the grocery store to buy it. This approach to cooking and eating actually adds to the difficulty of doing something like Jenny Craig or LA Fitness. Weight Watchers? maybe, maybe not. I may choose to look into it, eventually.

One book that has been interesting and helpful is The Beck Diet by Judith Beck, as well as a blog I very much enjoy that helps me see that the focus doesn’t need to be so much on the calories as it needs to be on the habits. But in the meantime, I am using the food diary/calories to help me be aware of what and how much I am putting in my body.

Overall, let me be clear, I am healthy. I am not carrying so much weight that I look bad or anything, plus I exercise regularly enough to know that I am in fairly good shape, but I am well aware of the fact that I could look and feel better if I carried a bit less weight.

(actual amount to lose? somewhere between 20 and 40 pounds. I’m not quite sure what is my “ideal” weight, so I am uncertain of the actual goal. But let’s start small — five pounds only.)

So this morning I stick with the simple stuff; the calorie count says I have eaten over 400 calories, it’s still two hours until snack time, and what is my problem? I am hungry.

Eating lunch early! But then what do I do when I am hungry tonight? Figuring out the balance is frustrating and confusing to me, so once again I start to wrestle with this problem. Let’s hope I can keep it up.

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Out of the rut

September 26, 2006 at 5:24 pm (exercise, personal goals, weight loss)

Well, I seem to be pushing myself out of a rut a little bit now. I just signed up for a chiropractic visit to see if they can help me figure out what’s happening with some persistent back pain I’ve been having. Fortunately, I know a chiropractor through church, which makes me feel a bit more comfortable about the whole idea. And it’s interesting, but as much as I believe in the possibilities of alternative medicine, I’ve never actually tried any myself. And chiropracty (sp?) is not all that cutting-edge, but hey! baby steps count. Maybe next I’ll actually try some homeopathic remedies for my allergies and avoid allergy shots.

I’m still brooding over the team approach for exercise with the goal of weight loss at my club; it cost more than I realized. Maybe I could do it in January?

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Unpleasant realization

September 25, 2006 at 1:27 pm (exercise, personal goals, weight loss)

Well, this morning I had the unpleasant task of facing the reality that I had gained weight; I thought I had, but this morning the scale confirmed it. It just happened this month, and I was really noticing the way my clothes were fitting.

This is actually a part of a slow, sad trend upward ever since I moved into this area. I’m not sure how to tackle the problem.

Yes, I know the simple answer: eat less, exercise more. What I mean is: how do I tackle it so that it works for me?

Premise: I try to eat in a certain way that emphasizes local, organic, minimally processed food. Not to be obsessed, because I do eat out, but that is my focus.

Premise: I need some kind of outside encouragement to keep me going, whether it be focused on the food side or exercise side. I function better that way.

So how do I do this?
I’m reluctant to use a weight loss program that forces me to focus overmuch on my food, such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. I don’t know that I necessarily trust what they teach. I used WDW in the past, and it worked for me, but with the somewhat weird things that the leader of this program is now doing, I find it difficult to gain the encouragement I need from it. (I’m reluctant even to link to it because I find myself unwilling to recommend it, even though the essential truth of the weight loss information is still true.) Nonetheless, that may be my first focus attempt. I believe that I can use it. However, I’m going to talk to a friend who is also struggling with weight loss to see if we might want to find some way to be accountable just to eat other.

Exercise possibilities are more varied. Personal trainer would be good, as would the team program that my health club offers (considerably cheaper than the PT, too). Also, simply pushing myself more in that area has potential, as well as trying other options such as yoga classes, etc. I have to confess that this year I’ve been lazy about exercise, not in the sense of not doing it — I’ve been quite consistent in that — but in not pushing myself. I’ve been content with being in a rut. That’s not good.

Ok, two decisions: 1) I will look into local WDW classes and see if anything is happening close by that I could join. 2) I will pursue the possibility of the team approach at the health club and see if it might work for me.

I’ll try to go by there today (if I can fit it in!).

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