Category: losing weight

Same-O Same-O

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 24 Comments

Here I am in January, talking the same &hit I’ve been talking for the past 30 years.

Gotta lose some weight. Gotta get some more energy. Gotta Gotta Gotta.

This has been the same sing song for most of my life. As age has crept up on me, so have the pounds, the ticks and twicks of being female and being human.

I get so tired of listening to myself.

But something feels different this time around. I’m not as flippant about losing weight. Not as smarmy I-can-do-it as I used to be.

This year feels more serious than those of the past.

I realize that deep down inside I want to go to my grandkids’ graduations and weddings. I want to visit Ireland and go back and have a birthday dinner on the top of the Eiffel Tower and walk in the Pacific Ocean. I want to be able to fit in cute summer dresses and not look like a Telletubbie in my swimsuit come Disneyworld in April.

And that I can’t do that comfortably if I don’t make an effort to get rid of the mental and physical burden of all these extra pounds.

I’m not talking miracle weight loss here. Ten pounds could make a difference in how I feel about the world — and myself.

I know many many friends who have gone the GLP1 route, finally having come across something that works for them. And I’m happy for them. I don’t have the money for weight loss shots, and I’m not sure I’d want to go that way if I could.

I want to do this the old fashioned way. Stop eating chips and platefuls of pasta and drinking sugared drinks like I’ve been wandering through the desert for days. I want to stop making excuses for bad choices.

I really need to do this for me.

Viruses and cancer and broken limbs and heart attacks always dance around people of my age. Life is finite. Yet somewhere in this finite future there has to be a way to prolong the inevitable. A way to work on that which can be worked on and leave the rest to chance.

And this time I think it’s going to work.

I know at least half of you reading this this morning has set similar goals this cold January morning (or warm if you’re on the other side). I know many of you have started, fallen, and failed.

But there’s something to be said about trying one more time. For YOU. No matter if it’s quitting smoking or losing 10 pounds or finding a way to deal with your OCD or ADHD, you always have the chance to start again today. One step at a time.

Wishing you all a successful New Year’s resolution, or, if you’re like me, a successful day.

One day at a time.

Bread and Butter Badlands

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 12 Comments

breadA funny thing happened this evening. I was all pumped up to write a blog about scheduling things in your life, when I read a fellow blogger’s (David Kanigan) blog called “Don’t Eye the Basket of Bread: Just Take It Off the Table” ( http://davidkanigan.com/2014/09/16/dont-eye-the-basket-of-bread-just-take-it-off-the-table/). It really is an article about how to exert self-control. Which, in that sense, makes sense. If it’s not in front of you you’re not tempted to eat the whole basket.

But I almost missed the point of the blog because I was thinking about fresh baked bread dripping with sweet, creamy butter.  Crispy crust, fluffy inside.  Which led me to daydream about my homemade spaghetti sauce, full of fresh tomatoes and veggies with a smattering of ground beef and/or Italian Sausage, dripping over vermicelli or linguine, fresh Parmesan cheese sprinkled delicately over the top, a small glass of merlot within reach, sitting quietly next to that basket of freshly-baked bread that I’m suppose to have taken off the table.

And suddenly I’m daydreaming about the wonderful world of food.

I’ve been on a diet — no — food behavior modification — for as long as I’ve been out of puberty. I have always had a love/hate relationship with anything that has more than 2 carbs and 35 calories per serving. It’s that homo sapiens thing…anything that is fattening is worth tasting. Of course, tasting, and indulging, are two different things.

They say one can survive on indulging in one tablespoon of anything. Buffet? No problem. One tablespoon macaroni salad, one tablespoon chocolate mousse, one tablespoon mashed potatoes along with one tablespoon gravy. Just think of what a decorative plate you would bring back to the table! One tablespoon from 50 different dishes!

But let’s face it. Living on one tablespoon of cheese souffle is like smiling at only one child at Christmas. Or having one cashew. Or hugging only one grandkid. Satisfying as a bath in ice cubes. We know we should be sticking to the one-tablespoon-rule for our health, for our diabetes and our cholesterol. And most times we do alright.

But sometimes our libido cries for liberation. It just cannot be satisfied with the one-teaspoon-rule. We try to tame it. We hide the food. We buy celery and apples and lean chicken and fish. We succeed where others fail. We lose weight, lower our cholesterol, add some years to our life.

But then something as innocent as a whiff of freshly baked bread or bacon frying and we’re whipped up into a frenzy of biblical proportions. Why is that?

I do believe in moderation. Fortunately for me, the older I get, the fewer things I can digest properly. A couple of cream cheese canapes is not worth the agony of hours in the bathroom later. Spinach Dip, Ice Cream Sundaes, Hot Cheese Spread, all no-nos with the digestive tract from Hell. Yet I have to admit, I cannot pass a chance to try a scoop or two. Just to check it out, you see.

I try to avoid get-togethers where rich foods are the center of attention. Most times I can say “no thanks.” But just as often I hear myself saying, “Just one bite.” Then my big-mouth libido takes over and bread and pasta and Ceasar’s Salads are the order of the day. And as I hang my head in shame, I still enjoy the crumbs at the corner of my mouth or the sweet slide of butter still on my tongue.

I guess I’ve lost the thread of this whole blog to the whims of the wonderful world of food. So let me ask you — what foods weaken your will power? Which sumptuous feasts make you moan with delight? Which part of the banquet table can you not pass by without sampling?

Think I will go bake a loaf of bread while I wait for your answer…