Week two

This is my second week of this blog. I have been careful all week (except one post-Christmas party where I was semi-good). I figured if I told a lot of people that I was dieting, it would help me keep my resolution to drop this poundage. And for me that seems to work!

Pros and cons

I finally put all my pros and cons losing weight on a piece of paper. I think the PROs win.

PROs: Lose Weight

• Can get my nice clothes out of the cellar 
  
• Can go to the doctor’s office w/o dreading the scales 
  
• Can stop trying to hide behind everyone when group pictures are taken
• Can look at photographs w/o being shocked
  
• Can believe my 92-year mother-in-law, who weighs less than 100 pounds, when she says I look good
  
• Can be healthier  
• Can stop wearing black all the time
• Can stop wearing elastic waist slacks
• Can wear a smaller bra

CONS:   Stay where I am

• Can eat and drink what I want
• Can fill full

Dieting styles

My friend, Sally, rebels when she has to follow a certain diet. She doesn’t like deprivation. We are continuous diet buddies – we talk about dieting constantly or not dieting. She really loves great food – good chocolate – she is a great cook. Me, I go for the quantity.

What does food mean to me?

About four years ago, my brother and sister and I were reading old family letters. We read a letter written in 1952 from a friend of my mother’s who was taking care of me and my siblings while my mother was in the Virgin Islands. The friend went to great lengths to describe humorously how much I loved food and was always stuffing my mouth with sweets. Everyone thought the letter was funny. But it actually bothered me a lot. It was discouraging to think that I was this way when I was six years old. It makes me wonder is there some inner need that goes unfulfilled or have I always just loved food?

Progress

The pantry is devoid of peanut butter cups. My husband couldn’t believe that I was eating his stuff or that it even tempted me. Men are really different from women. I would have known in an instance if my snacks were gone or dwindling.  (This is a picture of the deer in our yard.)

Exercise – my gym

I never exercised until I was in my 40s. I started exercising when I was 43 and actually ran for three - four years - Hood to Coast in Oregon and little competitive runs all over

the place.

I have tried Yoga and Pilates. I am left-handed, and it is very hard for me to interpret the moves of the instructor. I am always doing everything opposite from the rest of the class. (I did not do well in synchronized swimming in college – usually I was going the wrong way in the pool.)

For over a year, I have walked with a group four days a week. Here is a picture of the walking route – it takes about 40 minutes. Up to six women walk, and just recently my husband joined us. We meet at 7 am if the temperature is above 10 degrees or the weather is dry. Usually there are only three or four of us, and we walk up a long hill trying to talk. We mainly talk politics and current news. We are pretty opinionated. During the election, we could hardly stop talking. My winter walking coat is tight. I refuse to buy another one – because I am always planning to get thin.

The gym downstairs keeps growing. We bought the stairmaster used from a gym and the weights were bought with my husband’s bonus ten years ago. Two years ago, I bought the treadmill, which I really use most often. The other machine, I do not know the name, my husband found at the dump, and the Love Handler is supposed to get rid of your love handles. It is a silly machine, (see me twirling) but my granddaughter loves it. I also do some weights, not enough really. Now that I am dieting I usually exercise 30 minutes a day on the machines in addition to the walking, five days a week.