Day Six

Okay, I have come to realize that if I am going to do the Wii, it has to be in the morning.  Otherwise, the day gets away from me and I end up taking my pug Daisy Mae for a walk.  Not that she minds; in fact she is usually eager to go.  But she is more interested in sniffing mailboxes and doing her business than in exercise.  She does like to run just for the pure fun of it; I remember when I used to as well.  Anyway, it's been a long day.

MOVE MORE

Twenty minutes with Daisy.

EAT LESS

I did manage to skip my 3 pm snack altogether, and didn't eat any cookies today.  None.  Not one.  That's pretty significant for me.

Tomorrow is poker night at Bonnie's (since nobody wanted to play poker on Good Friday.)  That should make for an interesting first weigh-in on Friday.

We'll see.

Day Five

Crappy day today; dishwasher was leaking, called a plumber.  He says it's not the pipes it's the dishwasher.  Called an appliance repairman, he says it'll cost more to fix the dishwasher than it's worth.  So went out and bought a new dishwasher and had dinner at Red Lobster while I was out.

MOVE MORE

Spent the day with repairmen, and then out shopping.  Finally got in a 20 minute walk with Daisy Mae this evening.  Better than not moving, I guess.

EAT LESS

Um, didn't have dessert.  Best I can say about that.  Hope I haven't ruined what I've done so far.  Guess I'll just consider this a day off...

Day Four

If you feel that time is flying by too quickly and you'd like to slow it down, just start a daily exercise program.  I guarantee you'll feel time slow to a crawl.  I swear it feels like I've been doing this for weeks, and it is only day four.

MOVE MORE

I am still feeling a little stiff, so today I did 30 min of yoga and stretching.  I know why the Wii recommends five days a week instead of seven; the body needs some time to rest and recover.  I may have to rethink my philosophy...

EAT LESS

Having trouble on this front as well.  Next Sunday is Easter and, as I have mentioned, I own a gift-basket business.  Let's just say that it is very difficult for a self-professed chocoholic to not sample the wares while making Easter baskets full of goodies.

I confess to eating a sleeve of marshmallow Peeps and a few chocolate Easter eggs.  There!  I said it!  But I stop myself when I think, "Okay, just one more."  Instead I eat just one less.  Small steps.  We'll see on Friday if that works.

Sunday - Day 3

I don't like the way my thighs rub together.  Sometimes it keeps me awake at night.  Since this is a relatively new phenomenon in my life, I am hoping it is one of the first to disappear as the weight starts coming off.

I mentioned earlier that I weighed "pretty much" 108 lbs for twenty years or so.  Actually, I should have said "within 10 lbs of 108."  I did fluctuate, but usually caught any gain right away because I weighed myself every day.

I am resisting the urge to weigh every day this time around; before I took up running, I used to gauge my weight by weighing every day and assigning a value to it.  If I weighed 110 or 111, that was a thin day and I could eat what I wanted; if I weighed 112 or 113, that was a fat day and I dieted  (usually by skipping meals altogether.)  Once I started running regularly, I dropped back down to 108.  I found I could pretty much eat what I wanted and got out of the "daily weigh" routine.

Twinges in my hip and knee keep me from running, so I'll keep looking for a suitable substitute.

I'm holding out for Friday to weigh, because the daily fluctuations are demoralizing, and I'm hoping to see progress each time.

Move More

I've found that two days in a row of Wii has left me sore, so today I took a 30 min walk with my 2 yr old pug puppy, Daisy Mae.  She loved it, and it helped me walk off the soreness.

Eat Less

I'm still struggling at 3 pm; think I'll get some of those 100 calorie snacks and see if that works.  I stop eating before I'm full, but I feel hungry all the time.  I'm hoping that will go away.  We'll see.

New Philosophy

Okay, my Wii says 30 min 5 days a week; it also says my body fat is "normal" and I'm 39 years old, so I'm taking what the Wii says with a grain of salt.

My new philosophy is this:  "You don't have to exercise on any day you don't eat."  That's it.  Plain and simple, which goes along with my whole plan:  Move More, Eat Less.

Of course, I'm only on the second day; I'll let you know how that's working for me in about six weeks.

2nd Day - Move More

Did the 30 minute "core body" workout on the Wii Personal Coach.  I like this particular disk because it changes up the exercises and makes them harder or easier depending on your responses to the questions about how you feel you are progressing.  There are seemingly endless combinations of exercises so it doesn't get boring.

2nd Day - Eat Less

It's still early so we'll see how this goes.  I'm usually fine with a simple breakfast and lunch and then the cravings start kicking in about 3pm.

Yesterday at 3 I ate a banana instead of a sleeve of Girl Scout cookies, so by the time I got to my poker game last night my stomach thought my throat had been cut.  Bonnie (my friend, the host) had worked late so dinner was pizza, breadsticks and cheesecake.  Not the best choices, but I ate two slices of pizza instead of the three I wanted, two breadsticks, and only one tiny piece of cheesecake.  And only one glass of red wine, instead of half the bottle.  Small steps, I know; but every little change helps.  Or so I hope.

We'll see.

First Day

First Day weigh in:  131 lbs.

Move More:

I have a Wii; I am using the Personal Coach disk.  I did 30 minutes of aerobic exercise with the Personal Coach.

Eat Less:

I have four boxes of Girl Scout cookies in the pantry.  In the past, I could eat half a box in one sitting.  Today, I will limit myself to two cookies.  I'll let you know how that goes. 

I also play poker on Friday night; the host of this week's game is my friend Bonnie.  She is an excellent cook, so I will definitely be sampling the wares; I'll just attempt to limit my portion to one.  I'll let you know how that goes.

The Challenge--Move More, Eat Less

The challenge I've set for myself is to lose 16 lbs in four months; that's just one pound a week.  It took me a long time to put on the weight, so I want to take it back off slowly.

I am not going to diet; I don't even like the word!  I mean, the first three letters are D I E!  I want something I can live with, not die from!  No pills for me either.  So I've decided my plan of action will be this:  Move More, Eat Less.

I'll weigh myself each Friday and post daily what I am doing to move more and eat less.  Join me, if you like.  It'll be fun!

I'm Not Fat But...

I'm not fat but I used to be skinny.  I did notice the pounds creeping up over the last few years, but chose to ignore them.  I have finally decided to do something about it.

A little history is in order here; as a child I was skinny.  My family was always trying to fatten me up, but it didn't work.  In the 5th grade (age 10) I was 4'6" and weighed 64 lbs.  That's skinny.

By high school, I reached 5'2" and weighed 95 lbs.  Still skinny.

After high school I discovered beer; at age 19 when I reached my full height of 5'3" and my top weight of 125 lbs, I decided I was fat.  I went on my first crash diet--I ate only cheese crackers and drank diet cola.  I dropped down to 108 lbs and pretty much stayed there for the next 20+ years.  Skinny.

Not that I didn't work at it; I did.  I joined the U. S. Navy at 22; that pretty much forced me to stay in shape, but I really enjoyed running, swimming, biking, hiking, and any other activity the others were persuing.

I retired in 1994, sold real estate for awhile, then opened up a gift basket business when I turned 50.  I blamed the weight gain on menopause, but it was really sampling all the goodies that I was putting in the gift baskets.

I went out to the Navy base the other day and happened to look at the back of my retired I.D. card--it lists my weight as 108 lbs.  "Wow!" I thought, "I bet I've put on 20 lbs since then."

I came home and weighed myself.  It was worse than I thought:  131 lbs!  That's more than a pound a year!
So I decided to do something about it...