Sunday, March 16, 2008

The time has come

Okay, it is time for me to get serious about losing this weight again. Vacation and Spring Break are over. Here are my goals for the next few weeks. I plan to do an exercise tape Mondays and Fridays. I really like yoga, but it is a pain to get to the Y those days. If I go to a class, the rest of my day is limited. If I exercise at home, I can be done and showered by 9 and still have those days to run errands or whatever else I want. I am going to do water aerobics Tuesday and Thursday. If I don't go to aerobics on Tuesday, I will do some strength work at home. Wednesdays, I have a stretching class that I teach. If I didn't do strength on Tuesday, I will do it on Wednesday. Saturdays, I will do strength at home.

I am trying to be very reasonable on the food end. It is so tempting to diet but I know that will send me into a bingeing spiral. Instead, I am going to have increase my vegetable intake. I figure if I load up on veggies and watch portion sizes on everything else, I will lose. My goal is to have the protein and carbs be more of a side dish. I am going to allow myself dessert once a week. I am going to try this for a few weeks and see what I need to tweak after that.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Vacation Blues

We are back from our Disney trip. It is always such a let down to come home from vacation. We had the meal plan at Disney so we ate a lot, but we walked it off all day. I didn't gain any weight so that is good. I actually think I lost a pound or two. It has been hard to get my eating back to where it was before vacation when I was eating a ton of vegetables and drinking all my water. On the plus side, my eating habits are pretty good now when I am not focused on weight loss. It used to be that if I wasn't dieting, I was bingeing. I am not doing that any more. I am trying to focus on what an amazing change this is. I don't desire junk food that much and I am making good choices most of the time. I know that the desire to lose weight will come back soon and then I will tweak my eating habits, but not go on an insane diet again.

The other success with my vacation is that I confirmed that it really is diet and exercise together. I was able to eat what I wanted on vacation because I was so active. Before vacation I was trying to do water aerobics 3 times a week and yoga twice a week. I haven't gotten back to that yet. The last week or so, I was subbing a few arthritis classes so that helped. I taught 6 classes last week so I didn't bother with taking extra classes. We are also putting in an above ground pool so we have been doing hard labor in the back yard. Again, I know the time will come that I want to tweak my exercise as well. Until then, I am content with where I am which I think is a major breakthrough. I am not content with my weight, but I am content with my eating and exercise habits for now. I know that weight loss will come when I slightly modify my habits. I am done with the all or nothing approach. All is did for me was make the off times much worse.