Numb3rs
I just got back from the doctor's office, bearing drugs which will (gods willing) get rid of my nasty swollen glands and horrid SARS-esque chest congestion. All well and good.
They weighed me.
Now, I do not own a scale, owing to my compulsion to stand on one and neurotically analyze the results every time I am in the room with one. This can be as frequently as every half hour. Not a good thing. Anyhow, the last time I got weighed was back in September or October, when I had to get an MRI, and they weighed me at the hospital as a matter of course. Back then I weighed a hair under 155 lbs.
173.
Really 172.8 on the fancy shmancy digital scale, but the upshot is much the same. I have gained nearly twenty pounds in about 9 months.
Twenty pounds. For those of you scoring at home (or for those of you who are alone), that averages out to a little over 2 pounds/month. It puts me at my heaviest weight since 1988. For whatever reason, the weight is being distributed differently now, so that I still comfortably wear a size 12, but it's definitely there. That little LED readout doesn't lie.
173, 5' 8".
As some of you know, I have a long-standing love-hate relationship with food. I love to grow it, cook it, eat it, savor it - I love the whole experience. What I hate is the next part. If I could eat calorie-free Star-Trek-replicated stuff that gave me all the exact same flavors and mouthfeel of the real thing, while I cooked actual food for other people, I'd be thrilled. Hell, if I could come up with a socially acceptable way to eat without the food getting to my stomach, I'd do it. I thought I had found a way to game the system for a while - I'd eat whatever I wanted, enjoy it while I had it, and then not eat anything for several days until I was really hungry again. Doctors and counselors assured me that this was horribly unhealthy, and not a good way to approach food, and I eventually stopped. Not because of the doctors and counselors, though - I stopped because it didn't work. In fact, it had the opposite of the desired effect, and was a contributing factor in my reaching that 1988 weight. So, I spent a summer eating damn near nothing but fruit salad and skim milk, took off the weight, and tried to develop healthy habits to keep me, if not at my ideal weight, at least somewhere in the neighborhood.
For the most part, it worked. At 5'8", and given my body type, my target weight range should be somewhere between 130.9 and 158, and in general I have hovered between 150 and 160. In general, I eat when I am hungry, don't eat when I'm not, and don't consider any foods particularly evil (which makes a nice change from considering all foods equally evil). Over the last year, I have not made any notable changes to my nutritional intake or (lack of) exercise, so in theory there should have been little change.
173, 5' 8", BMI 26.
So this means I am undertaking a diet - a real one this time. Weight Watchers has a nifty little online program, which is, in the words of my friend Michael, "just like a computer game." I will also be buying a scale (per Weight Watchers' instructions), and relying on Dear Husband to keep me away from it except for once a week.
173, 5' 8", BMI 26, 22 points per day.
This scares the ever-lovin' crap out of me. Just thinking about it makes me hungry, as though I might never enjoy food again.
garden progress: I planted two hills of cucumbers, a hill of pumpkins, and three artichoke plants.
house progress: Joe finished painting two walls of the upstairs hallway.
what's for dinner? Not sure. I only have 5 more points to work with.
posted by Alison @ 6:02 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
-
At 11:07 PM,
TeacherRefPoet held forth...
- Alison--
My BMI was up to 26 (or 22, depending on the site I look at). 6'3" and 215. I lost 30 pounds in about 4 months...I'm now 6'3" (still...duh) and 185.
I eat better now (thank you, Michelle!), but I lost all of that weight simply by officiating. It's the only thing I've ever done that works. Find something fun to do that requires a lot of activity.
Good luck! -
At 4:33 PM,
Alison held forth...
- I've been reminded that the best possible exercise is the one you will actually do. Still working on figuring out what that actually is.
-
At 3:31 PM,
lemming held forth...
- Walking miles and miles is my only salvation.
I did lose seven pounds by having a breakfast based on protein, making lunch my main meal and having little for supper. -
At 12:32 PM,
held forth...
- Alison--
I lost about 20 pounds on weight watchers. I like counting the points. I also like that exercise allows you to eat more points, and that there are "flex points" as well. It's an overall awesome system.
Too bad I lacked the discipline to be able to maintain it. Sigh.
pax
Matt G