Since I committed last weekend to a number of pairs of size 36 pants, I immediately began to get paranoid about my weight. I’ve eased up on the strict Geek Diet, of recording all the calories I eat. I’ve snacked. I’ve nibbled.
So, for the first time in a couple of months, I weighed myself this morning. How high would I have ballooned? How hard were the Diet Gods laughing regarding my new pants?
208. Right about where I was back in July.
So, good news, I guess. At least, given that the CIO is coming to town today and I’m having a big steak dinner with him tonight.
Meanwhile, the Five Hundred Miles (Pro-Rated) to Nowhere continues apace. Indeed, beyond pace. I’m average about 4¼ miles per day, far beyond what I need, and have gone over 40 miles so far. I should have no problem reaching the prorated amount.
Indeed, if I just managed to push it up to 4-2/3 miles per day, I could actually reach 500 miles by the end of the year …
That almost sounds like a challenge.
As I mentioned to Margie, you are, dietically-speaking, a creature of habit — establish good habits (as you’ve now done), and the idea of ‘ballooning’ back up becomes moot — people baloon back up because they make changes to their life they can’t stick to. You didn’t 🙂
And congrats for that.
[Toes ground.] Garsh.
But, yes, I am a creature of habit, in more than just diet.
The other half of that is that the habits I worked on getting into were, in fact, not all that difficult. It’s not like I swore off all sugar, or all fat, or all carbs. The most radical change was shifting from regular to diet soda, which still occasionally rankles but was and is doable (and doesn’t stop me from drinking the occasional regular beer between my Amstel Lights).
If I were willing to make bigger sacrifices — working out at the gym, skipping lunch, eschewing desserts — I could probably drop below 200. I don’t know that I could maintain those “habits,” though, as they would be true sacrifices, and too prone to backsliding. I can maintain (it appears) what I’m doing now, so that will do … for now.
Watch out for winter weight. I find that as winter approaches, my body wants to “stock up” for the long cold season ahead, and I tend to gain weight whether I want to or not. I get hungrier more often as winter approaches, and my metabolism slows down a bit. I also get less exercise and spend more time working at my desk, making it too easy to go downstairs for a quick snack. Visiting my parents for Thanksgiving and Christmas also tends to lead to some overeating.
I typically gain 10-20 pounds during the winter. Ten pounds for me is pretty dramatic since my “natural” weight is 140 (that’s what I get down to fairly easily each summer and I almost never get below it). I typically burn the extra weight off by July and start putting it on again in September. Every winter I vow to be more careful about what I eat, but I have yet to manage to get to Spring at the same weight I went into Fall.
I’ll keep an eye out for it. Of course, after the yummy dinner I had last night, I feel like curling up and hibernating this morning.