Eat. More. Slowly.

I am plump. A bit too plump for my tastes. I am one of those people who used to be thin and now am not. I can't speak for those who have been plump all their lives but for those of us who were one size and now are another, it sucks. I have started one "diet" or exercise program after another. I can say with some authority, they all work. If you stick to them. Well there was one that didn't work for me because I became rather profoundly anemic but, other than that one, they all work. The problem is I don't like change and I find it really difficult to make any change that I don't like thus I never stick to any diet or exercise program for very long.

I know that sounded like I just spoke in a circle but the bottom line is I don't acquire new habits easily. And, let's face it, the way we eat day to day is as much a habit as anything. Whether or not someone exercises on a regular basis is also a habit. I have no difficulty performing all the physical tasks required to keep my home clean and running smoothly but I can't be bothered to take time out of every day to do 30-60 minutes of exercise. At least not on anything approaching a regular basis. So I've made a few really small adjustments to my daily activities that has, thus far, yielded small but consistent losses.

First, I am trying very hard to not keep any food in the house that can be eaten without any effort to prepare it. If you don't have to exert any effort to get the food from it's storage place to your mouth then you are more likely to just shovel it in. Heaven knows I've been guilty of this more than I care to think about. Even when I'm just having left overs, I try to reheat it, plate it and sit down at a table to eat it.

Second, I'm eating more slowly. Or at least I'm trying to. I am currently battling a cold that has decided my head is it's home and is resisting all efforts to evict it. So, tonight after the Grandson had been returned to his parents, I fixed myself a tray with hot tea, toasted homemade bread with fruit spread, a sliced apple and two mandarin oranges. I put everything on little plates and carried it into my bedroom where I got into my comfy bed to watch the first DVD of PBS's Manor House. Because my attention was focused on the television and what I was watching, I was NOT paying attention to how I was consuming my food. About a third of the way into my meal I realized I was again pretty much shoveling it in and forced my self to slow down. I know about the 20 minute rule. I taught it to my children. After you've finished your portion of something, wait 20 minutes for your body to register what you've eaten. If after that time you still feel the need for more food, have some, but more often than not, you will find that your hunger has been satisfied. Had I continued to mow through my meal without thinking I probably would have thought my little repast had been insufficient and gone back to the kitchen for something else. Instead I found that I had judge my hunger just about perfectly and I was well sated.

The third thing is the exercise thing. I hate it. Really, truly hate it. I'd rather do just about anything than any sort of cardio workout. I'll do yoga daily (and usually do) but cardio? Yuck!! I do, however, like to walk. Disneyland, the zoo, the museum, I'll stroll about all day long. So I'm trying to toss the Grandson in the stroller everyday and walk the two mile course I mapped out ages ago. Today that has bitten me on the backside a bit because I'm fairly certain that my walk yesterday is why I feel so much worse, cold-wise, than I did the day before. My poor body had barely enough energy to keep up the fight against the cold germs and I stole a lot of that away walking around the neighbourhood. Of course, God knows our needs and meets them perfectly and between Bree taking tomorrow off work and Monday being a holiday for the Enigma, I don't have the Grandson for four days. I will be behaving myself and laying low to allow my immune system to finally win this battle once and for all.

Last but not least, I have one more hurdle that I absolutely must master. I have to do strength training. I'm closing in on 50 years old far faster than I care to think about and I'm going to lose bone density and muscle mass at an alarming rate if I don't do something. I'll let you know when I've got that worked out.

The weight loss thus far has been slow but it has been consistent. Every week the scale tells me I've lost between a half and a full pound. It's slow and certainly not stunning but if I keep this up a year from now I'll be down to what I weighed prior to conceiving Sweetpea. In the past I've always said to myself "A year??? I can't wait a year!!" But the reality is, that year passed anyway. And at the end of it I was the same size as I was at the beginning. So the weight loss might not be stunning or dramatic but if it keeps up, and I have every reason to believe that it will since there is no new habit required, at the end of this year I will not be the same size as I was at the beginning. I will be smaller!