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Week #2 Summary

Written on October 25, 2009 by hollie in Goals Update

Beth walking like an Egyptian while we make pancakes last Saturday. Who says we don't get exercise in the kitchen?

I’m really enjoying this. I love that I’ve gotten started, I love that I have a path I’ve stayed on for an entire 14 days (miracle!), and I love that you’re all along for the ride with me! The benefit to a blog, besides accountability, is the community. It takes a village to raise a child, and I’m pretty sure it takes a village to get in shape and lose weight, too.

Goals Progress

I posted the simple summary of the week on the Progress page.

1.) Eat three veggies this week.
Done! This was pretty easy. I had 3-4 large salads*. I eat a ton of fruit, so it isn’t like I get no produce, but getting those veggies in is really hard for me. Considering my Plan involves eventually eating three servings of veggies a day, I really need to keep working on this. Green smoothies, here I come!

2.) Exercise at least three days this week.
Done! I exercised 5 days this week. It wasn’t intentional, Beth just kept wanting to swim and swim and swim with her new pink goggles, so we just kept going to the pool. In Week 3, I’m going to try taking an exercise class.

3.) Write about my progress.
Done! I’ve written several posts this week.

Weight Loss…..er….gain

I actually gained .65 pounds this week. And you know what? I don’t care. I’m guessing the weight gain came from either one or a combination of three things:

I went to the Melting Pot on Friday and ate my weight in cheese and chocolate.
I exercised almost every day, and may have built some muscle (which weighs more than fat).
I’m not tracking calories. My agenda for the first couple weeks was to build some good habits, not break any bad ones, and it’s very likely I’m eating too many calories a day to lose weight.

If it’s the Melting Pot, well that was just worth it. I’ll gain a half pound to get to eat there a couple times a year. If it’s the exercise, well that’s great! I might have a skosh more muscle, which is fantastic. If it’s eating too many calories, well that’s okay too, because it’s more important to me that I build up my good habits of exercise and eating veggies first, before I tackle eating significantly less.

* I was writing all this down on a Google calendar, and I had it embedded on a WordPress page, but the code kept disappearing (honest!), and so it keeps loading as an empty page. I’m working on it over at the forums.

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I went swimming every day this week (I am the cleanest person in Seattle)

Written on October 23, 2009 by hollie in Exercise and Fitness

Beth got NEW PINK GOGGLES! And she has to wear the NEW PINK GOGGLES all the time! This right here is why I went to the pool every day this week.

I wasn’t trying to overdue it (honest!), but I think I did. My second week of The Plan started out great, with salads and swimming happening right off the bat. And then, as you look at the calendar, you can see it just didn’t let up. Beth got new goggles, and she had to use them ALL THE TIME. I am not kidding. Have you every seen a kid try to eat Cheerios with basically no peripheral vision? Awesome.

I swam with her every day, and I was busy busy busy with errands, trips, out-of-town visitors, and housework. I haven’t been sleeping great, as I often respond to overwhelm by stealing solo time late at night, when the house is asleep. This usually means a movie, and that usually means I don’t go to bed until 2am.

I’m so zombified I can’t even socialize without wearying. Right now, as I type this, the guys and a bunch of our friends are sitting out in the living room, watching a movie after playing games. The kids are crashed out in their beds – Beth and I swam for an hour today with Auntie Sonja, and Miles did a 3-mile bike ride with his school, and then all three of us went to a park for an hour with friends. I’m in my room, wiped out, alternating between reading and dozing off. After I write this, I’m going to make some tea and whine about being old.

I can feel my body getting tighter, as if it’s trying to rally itself for the next week of grueling activity. Batten down the hatches! She’s going to drive us into the ground again! What’s funny is that this week’s tally, while impressive for me, isn’t actually that much activity. I mean geez, maybe a half hour a day, average, of my heart rate being up? Yet it’s a lot more physical exercise than I usually get, which is pretty sad. And here I wonder why I’m fat. It isn’t fair, man! Why can’t you burn more calories through typing?

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The Moderately Great Weight Loss Plan (heh)

Written on October 12, 2009 by hollie in Weight Loss

After my Kale Realization of 2009, it was time to face reality: I want to lose weight, and I’ve wanted to lose weight for the last year, and I haven’t gotten very far. In fact, I’m getting larger (ironically all thanks to my love of a vegetable). So what’s a girl to do? I sent email to a fried who has lost a lot of weight, and asked for her advice.

Ivana had some advice, which I share here with her permission:

My biggest question for you is: what specifically *has* helped? Although we have similar struggles, we are quite different, so I’m not sure I’m the right one to give advice that may help you.

That said, I am a woman of strong opinions, and you asked, so I’ll remark on the one thing that I’ve seen is most apparent with your particular struggle: enthusiasm subsequent and lack of moderation. The two go hand in hand, sadly. One of the best aspects of your personality, infectious enthusiasm, tends to lead toward momentary extremism and rapid burnout. We all need enthusiasm and a willingness to try new things in order to get started on making a difference, but ultimately it is the long term that really matters. Mike said to me a while ago: “you overestimate what you can do in a day, and underestimate what you can do in a year.” Maybe you can start by looking for and focusing on moderation? Can you eat halfway good food?

Ultimately, you need to find the right equilibrium between eating and moving. This may take years, and in the end will look far more moderate than anything you can imagine now. While the craving is there right now to buckle down and do something different, you might be better served by quieting your mind and reflecting on your urges to go extreme.

If you’ve been reading this blog for the last year, or if, like Greg, you’ve been living with me for the last fifteen years, you’ll be smiling right now. Because Ivana, while admitting right at the start that she’s not sure she is the right person to give me advice, just happened to say exactly what was true, and exactly what I needed to hear.

People who lose weight and keep it off find something that works, and they keep doing that. Ivana asked, “What specifically has helped?” The answer to that is counting calories, and exercising almost every day. I lost 25 pounds that way – and then gained them back when I stopped paying attention to food and got “too busy” to exercise. I do know what works. I just need to keep doing it, moderately, over the long term.

This is the hardest part to write! RIGHT HERE! This is HURTING MY HANDS! Okay, ready? Here we go. I promise my readers that:

1.) For the next six months I will try to be moderate in all things food and exercise related.

2.) I will not start any extreme diet or exercise programs. I will not convert to raw foodism overnight (again). I will not convert to veganism overnight (for the tenth time). I will not cut out any major food groups (for the millionth time) or start exercising and then swear that I will keep exercising every day (again).

3.) I will write about what happens.

One could point out that my trying to go moderate OVERNIGHT is, itself, an extreme sort of plan. And then one might get slugged moderately between the eyes.

“Okay!” I hear you saying. “GREAT MODERATOR! What are your first moderate goals?”

I’m so glad you asked! They are:

1.) Exercise three times this week, for at least 15 minutes.

2.) Eat three veggies this week. You know, the kind NOT covered in tahini.

3.) Write three posts about how this is all going (not including this one).

That’s it for this week. Three exercise sessions, three vegetables, and three posts. The posts are there to keep me accountable. I’m actually making a calendar for this, in case you’re curious. It’s the best way for me to keep track of my progress. I’ll update it every week, as well as update the blog.

ALREADY THIS IS HARD. I am just itching to go all-raw again, or make my goal to exercise every day for 45 minutes, or something else that will just be a LINE drawn in the SAND. With CAPITAL LETTERS. Know what I mean? It’s so hard to just take it easy!

This will be interesting.

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