It snowed today. The last day of February - which is, admittedly, still the middle of winter - began wet and ended white.
I experienced the early morning snowfall up close and personal, out running at 6:30 a.m., my face pelted with icy rain/sleet, my glasses smeared with water and my vision severely impaired. I was pretty confident that this semi-snow would come to nothing. And in fact, by the time I went to work at 9 a.m., the "snow" had shifted to a light rain. Word drifted in of snowfall to the south, but accumulation seemed unlikely.
But then, at around 3:00, I looked outside and was startled to see big, heavy snowflakes falling. Soon the snow started to stick and the ground began to whiten. I quickly shifted my plans to accommodate possible snow accumulation (as unlikely as it seemed). A trip to Starbucks for an afternoon latte, and some grocerty shopping, seemed important. I was pretty sure I could still make my Pilates class, but began to consider the possibility of skipping it.
By the time I drove the short but excrutiatingly slow trip to Starbucks, and began inching my way back to the office through rapidly accumulating slushy snow, I came to the happy conclusion that Pilates was not a good plan, and in fact I should get home as soon as possible. (Later I also realized that the Pilates class would probably be canceled anyway due to the weather.)
So for once I ended up at home by 6:30 p.m., with time on my hands. Hard to know what to do with an evening not spent working out! Of course I rejected any sensible plan such as paying bills or cleaning house. Instead I washed the dishes, made tomorrow's lunch, and warmed up some spicy salmon soup for dinner.
Perhaps tonight I'll make a start on that goal I have to get more sleep at night.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Drinking to my health
Yesterday, as I complained over apparent weight gain (real or illusory), I admitted several outings involving the consumption of cocktails. I don't think I even mentioned that the prior week I also went out with friends several times and had a couple (literally, two) drinks each time then as well. Despite these indulgences, I am confident that with care over the next few days, I can maintain a stable weight.
But ultimately, I firmly believe that alcohol and weight loss do not mix. Even alcohol and weight maintenance is a volatile and dangerous experiment.
There are so many reasons why drinking and dieting do not go hand in hand. First, there is the simple matter of the number of calories in alcoholic beverages. There are about the same number of calories, approximately 100, in a 5 ounce glass of red or white wine, a 12 ounce light beer, or a 1.5 ounce shot of liquor. Each drink you have multiplies the number of calories. And that's just for simple, unmixed drinks. When you're talking fun cocktails - margaritas, cosmopolitans, appletinis, etc. - the calories multiply exponentially.
Despite the calories, alcohol doesn't really have food value and it doesn't satiate you the way food does. A small 5 ounce glass of wine has about the same number of calories as a large apple, without the fiber and nutrition. After you eat a large apple, you're probably not going to be tempted to have another, but with a glass of wine, you very likely might. Of course, wine does have antioxidants and some health benefits, so some people might want to figure out a sensible way to include a small amount of wine in their diets.
But there is another diet risk inherent in alcohol consumption, and I invariably experience this when I go out drinking with friends. Alcohol seems to lower inhibitions, and that includes the inhibitions against eating fattening food, and too much of it. You start out with a yummy cocktail, and then it seems like a good idea to order the onion rings (and maybe another drink), and before you know it you're finishing the french fries off of someone's plate. And let's just hope that's someone at your own table!
Another thing to be aware of, and guard against, is the addictive nature of alcohol. Many people with food and weight issues have obsessive tendencies, including (obviously) over-consumption issues. Beware of the risk of turning your obsessive consumption from food to alcohol.
The March 2007 issue of More magazine has a great section on women and weight loss. I highly recommend you find that magazine to read it. Here is a link to some health and nutrition articles from More, which may in fact be from this issue. I especially enjoyed the article by Laura Fraser (author of An Italian Affair) about her experience with gradual weight gain despite a healthy diet and exercise. After a consultation with professionals, she realized (and was told) that it was probably her wine consumption that was responsible for her gaining weight. After cutting back on wine by half, and making a few other minor adjustments to her diet and lifestyle, she began to lose the excess pounds.
For myself, I prefer to avoid alcohol entirely, except for special occasions. Prior to my weight loss, drinking with friends was a regular occurrence, at least once a week if not more. That meant two or three margaritas every week, plus a glass or two or three of wine on other frequent occasions. While I never drank enough to get intoxicated (just that happy buzz, you know what it's like), and didn't get real hangovers, I would often wake up the following morning feeling less than perky, often dehydrated and kind of fuzzy. When I started losing weight, I cut out the margaritas entirely, drinking diet coke when I went out with friends. I drank wine less and less often. While I missed the tasty beverages, I never felt deprived, and the benefits (faster weight loss, no unpleasant after effects) certainly paid for themselves.
The plethora of social events over the last couple of weeks has been an aberration. While I wouldn't want to give up the opportunities to hang out with friends (a social life has its own positive health benefits), I need to guard against the temptation to succumb to the siren song of a cosmopolitan or other sugary drink. The diet coke is still a good option. Or iced tea (especially as spring and summer approach), or even a virgin bloody mary (a glass full of vegetables, albeit perhaps a little high in sodium).
Will I say I'll never again have a cosmopolitan or champagne cocktail or glass of wine? No, of course not. But I'll keep it in the same category as a piece of cake (another favorite temptation, worthy of its own post) - a special treat that I indulge in rarely, rather than as a matter of habit. A large apple? That is something I'll indulge in freely, and frequently!
But ultimately, I firmly believe that alcohol and weight loss do not mix. Even alcohol and weight maintenance is a volatile and dangerous experiment.
There are so many reasons why drinking and dieting do not go hand in hand. First, there is the simple matter of the number of calories in alcoholic beverages. There are about the same number of calories, approximately 100, in a 5 ounce glass of red or white wine, a 12 ounce light beer, or a 1.5 ounce shot of liquor. Each drink you have multiplies the number of calories. And that's just for simple, unmixed drinks. When you're talking fun cocktails - margaritas, cosmopolitans, appletinis, etc. - the calories multiply exponentially.
Despite the calories, alcohol doesn't really have food value and it doesn't satiate you the way food does. A small 5 ounce glass of wine has about the same number of calories as a large apple, without the fiber and nutrition. After you eat a large apple, you're probably not going to be tempted to have another, but with a glass of wine, you very likely might. Of course, wine does have antioxidants and some health benefits, so some people might want to figure out a sensible way to include a small amount of wine in their diets.
But there is another diet risk inherent in alcohol consumption, and I invariably experience this when I go out drinking with friends. Alcohol seems to lower inhibitions, and that includes the inhibitions against eating fattening food, and too much of it. You start out with a yummy cocktail, and then it seems like a good idea to order the onion rings (and maybe another drink), and before you know it you're finishing the french fries off of someone's plate. And let's just hope that's someone at your own table!
Another thing to be aware of, and guard against, is the addictive nature of alcohol. Many people with food and weight issues have obsessive tendencies, including (obviously) over-consumption issues. Beware of the risk of turning your obsessive consumption from food to alcohol.
The March 2007 issue of More magazine has a great section on women and weight loss. I highly recommend you find that magazine to read it. Here is a link to some health and nutrition articles from More, which may in fact be from this issue. I especially enjoyed the article by Laura Fraser (author of An Italian Affair) about her experience with gradual weight gain despite a healthy diet and exercise. After a consultation with professionals, she realized (and was told) that it was probably her wine consumption that was responsible for her gaining weight. After cutting back on wine by half, and making a few other minor adjustments to her diet and lifestyle, she began to lose the excess pounds.
For myself, I prefer to avoid alcohol entirely, except for special occasions. Prior to my weight loss, drinking with friends was a regular occurrence, at least once a week if not more. That meant two or three margaritas every week, plus a glass or two or three of wine on other frequent occasions. While I never drank enough to get intoxicated (just that happy buzz, you know what it's like), and didn't get real hangovers, I would often wake up the following morning feeling less than perky, often dehydrated and kind of fuzzy. When I started losing weight, I cut out the margaritas entirely, drinking diet coke when I went out with friends. I drank wine less and less often. While I missed the tasty beverages, I never felt deprived, and the benefits (faster weight loss, no unpleasant after effects) certainly paid for themselves.
The plethora of social events over the last couple of weeks has been an aberration. While I wouldn't want to give up the opportunities to hang out with friends (a social life has its own positive health benefits), I need to guard against the temptation to succumb to the siren song of a cosmopolitan or other sugary drink. The diet coke is still a good option. Or iced tea (especially as spring and summer approach), or even a virgin bloody mary (a glass full of vegetables, albeit perhaps a little high in sodium).
Will I say I'll never again have a cosmopolitan or champagne cocktail or glass of wine? No, of course not. But I'll keep it in the same category as a piece of cake (another favorite temptation, worthy of its own post) - a special treat that I indulge in rarely, rather than as a matter of habit. A large apple? That is something I'll indulge in freely, and frequently!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Watching the scale
I got on the scale this morning and my weight was four to five pounds more than it has been in the last few days. (That means perilously close to 160 when I have been successfully clinging to 155-156 for quite some time.) My reaction? Panic (just a teeny bit), rationalization, realism. I know I haven't eaten enough in the past few days to gain four pounds, if any. On the other hand, I don't want to write it off as "just water weight" (though it probably is, mostly) without acknowledging that I have had a few indulgences that would eventually make me gain weight if I indulged too often. Specifically....
Thursday night - drinks and appetizer and a chocolate dessert split three ways with friends. Granted, I missed lunch that day (very rare for me), and this was my dinner; and in fact the scale Friday morning was fine. So that led me to....
Friday night - book club meeting and dinner with friends. A combination of a healthy chicken and vegetable stew made by me, gussied up with light Bisquick dumplings, and a piece of cornbread, apple torte and chocolate peanut butter torte for dessert (small pieces, though). Oh yeah, and a couple glasses of limoncello iced tea (with unsweetened iced tea, at least). All very yummy, and still, not a lot of movement to the scale on Saturday morning. Of course, Saturday was the the day....
I ran a 10K! And ran hard. So that entitled me to an omelet and toast in a cafe afterward. And a giant frosted sugar cookie (and I loved every single bite). The rest of my day was pretty much on track. So why did that lead to....
159.6 on the scale this morning! Combination of a few high carb foods, possibly high sodium foods, and the alcohol? I am confident that in the next few days, by eating clean, I will be back where I should be. (I am a little bit paranoid that the olives I ate with my dinner tonight were packed with sodium, though.) Of course I'll be on the scale every single day just to make sure. Weighing myself too often is not necessarily a great thing, but it's better than the alternative, which is burying my head in the sand, avoiding the scale, and letting the weight creep on.
I think the occasional modest indulgence is fine, great, and perhaps even necessary in the balance of things. But I guess the little jab of fear when the scale veers upward is good too, because it helps keep me honest. And away from the frosted cookies.
Thursday night - drinks and appetizer and a chocolate dessert split three ways with friends. Granted, I missed lunch that day (very rare for me), and this was my dinner; and in fact the scale Friday morning was fine. So that led me to....
Friday night - book club meeting and dinner with friends. A combination of a healthy chicken and vegetable stew made by me, gussied up with light Bisquick dumplings, and a piece of cornbread, apple torte and chocolate peanut butter torte for dessert (small pieces, though). Oh yeah, and a couple glasses of limoncello iced tea (with unsweetened iced tea, at least). All very yummy, and still, not a lot of movement to the scale on Saturday morning. Of course, Saturday was the the day....
I ran a 10K! And ran hard. So that entitled me to an omelet and toast in a cafe afterward. And a giant frosted sugar cookie (and I loved every single bite). The rest of my day was pretty much on track. So why did that lead to....
159.6 on the scale this morning! Combination of a few high carb foods, possibly high sodium foods, and the alcohol? I am confident that in the next few days, by eating clean, I will be back where I should be. (I am a little bit paranoid that the olives I ate with my dinner tonight were packed with sodium, though.) Of course I'll be on the scale every single day just to make sure. Weighing myself too often is not necessarily a great thing, but it's better than the alternative, which is burying my head in the sand, avoiding the scale, and letting the weight creep on.
I think the occasional modest indulgence is fine, great, and perhaps even necessary in the balance of things. But I guess the little jab of fear when the scale veers upward is good too, because it helps keep me honest. And away from the frosted cookies.
What's the magic number?
Oh, there are so many numbers in weight loss and maintenance - goal weight, pounds lost, calories to consume, etc. But the number I am thinking about right now is 5. Five what? you may well ask. The answer is 5 miles. Five miles is, I believe, the key to weight loss through exercise. Five miles a day walking, or running, or even on the elliptical trainer (but not bicycling; it is too easy to rack up miles quickly on a bike).
In my personal experience, and in observation of others who have successfully lost weight, it takes at least five miles a day (most days of the week, at least five days, I would say). That's consistent with a lot of the general wisdom and advice you hear from weight loss professionals. Five miles is roughly equivalent to the 10,000 steps a day that is the typical recommendation (although, unless you are very tall, it really takes more like 12,500 steps to make five miles). It takes about 45 to 90 minutes to run or walk five miles (depending on your speed), which is pretty close to the 60 to 90 minutes of exercise recommended by the sadists - er, experts - at the National Institutes for Health.
You probably don't have to cover the entire five miles in one stint, although it's fantastic if you can, and I really think that you should try to do at least three miles at one time, and then perhaps the remainder in chunks or later in the day. For example, three miles of walking (one hour) plus two miles on the elliptical trainer (30 minutes) is a great combination. On the 10,000 (12,500) step program, for the most benefit I think it is ideal if you can add the extra steps on top of what you would ordinarily walk. So if you record an ordinary day and you walk 3,000 steps, shoot for a total of 15,000 steps.
Persons who are really out of shape and not used to exercise at all probably can't start out with five miles right away. But I think that walking five miles in a day can be worked up to pretty quickly. If you have enough time in your day, you can walk as slowly as you want to, just cover the distance. Soon you will find yourself walking faster, finishing quicker, and who knows? Maybe you'll want to go six miles.
In my personal experience, and in observation of others who have successfully lost weight, it takes at least five miles a day (most days of the week, at least five days, I would say). That's consistent with a lot of the general wisdom and advice you hear from weight loss professionals. Five miles is roughly equivalent to the 10,000 steps a day that is the typical recommendation (although, unless you are very tall, it really takes more like 12,500 steps to make five miles). It takes about 45 to 90 minutes to run or walk five miles (depending on your speed), which is pretty close to the 60 to 90 minutes of exercise recommended by the sadists - er, experts - at the National Institutes for Health.
You probably don't have to cover the entire five miles in one stint, although it's fantastic if you can, and I really think that you should try to do at least three miles at one time, and then perhaps the remainder in chunks or later in the day. For example, three miles of walking (one hour) plus two miles on the elliptical trainer (30 minutes) is a great combination. On the 10,000 (12,500) step program, for the most benefit I think it is ideal if you can add the extra steps on top of what you would ordinarily walk. So if you record an ordinary day and you walk 3,000 steps, shoot for a total of 15,000 steps.
Persons who are really out of shape and not used to exercise at all probably can't start out with five miles right away. But I think that walking five miles in a day can be worked up to pretty quickly. If you have enough time in your day, you can walk as slowly as you want to, just cover the distance. Soon you will find yourself walking faster, finishing quicker, and who knows? Maybe you'll want to go six miles.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Running the race
This morning I ran in a 10K (6.2 miles) - as part of my training for running a half marathon in a couple of months, as well as, believe it or not, just for fun. Three years ago, even two years ago, I would never have even imagined running a half marathon, or a 10K, or even running at all. I used to run off and on in high school and college, but after college I stopped running and never anticipated taking it up again.
Now, I am a firm believer that nobody needs to run. There are many types of cardio/aerobic exercise which are just as effective as running and definitely easier on the body. Walking is surely the perfect exercise, and most people can effectively achieve fitness and weight loss by pursuing a walking program.
However, if you really want to run, and your body wants you to run (for example, people with knee problems probably should not be running), running is certainly an efficient method of cardio exercise. The body uses the same number of calories to walk a mile as it does to run a mile (about 100 calories per mile for a 150 pound person). But since running is faster than walking, you can burn more calories in the same period of time by running as by walking, or alternatively, you can cover a given distance in a much shorter time by running than you can by walking. In an hour of moderate walking you might walk about 3 miles; however, in an hour of moderate running you could run 6 miles, consuming twice as many calories as you did by walking the same hour.
As I said, after college I never planned to run again. I have always been a walker, and my sporadic exercise efforts usually involved walking (which I would do daily or frequently for a few months at a time, before lapsing again into inactivity). Walking, when I did it consistently, helped me get in better shape and lose some weight every time I took it up. (It was the stopping that was always my downfall.)
When I seriously began losing weight in the fall of 2004, I knew I would want and need to exercise, and I assumed I would walk. But with oncoming winter, dark evenings and bad weather, I put it off. In January of 2005 I fortuitously bought a (very lightly) used treadmill, and also joined the YMCA. I discovered that walking on the treadmill was great. I could listen to my music on headphones at the Y, or watch TV at home, and weather was not a problem. I soon began upping my walking workout by raising the incline on the treadmill and increasing my speed to faster walking. I did try to walk outside when I could, on weekends and in warmer weather, because it is still more interesting and I think that walking outdoors has functional fitness benefits that the artificial environment of the treadmill does not offer.
But a strange thing started to happen. My body started wanting to spring into a run. When I took the garbage out to the back alley, I spontaneously jogged back to the house. I started interspersing minutes of running into my treadmill walks. Soon the periods of running were longer than the walking - and by the beginning of 2006, if not sooner, I was running on the treadmill for an hour or more, several days a week.
But I still limited the running to the treadmill. When I went outside, I walked, often for miles, and I enjoyed it. I still had no intention of being an outdoor runner. After all, when I saw people running in the streets they never looked very happy, and sometimes they looked downright miserable!
It was a trip to England that turned me into an outdoor runner. There were no treadmills in England (at least not where I was), and although I got plenty of exercise by walking many hours a day, I was a little bit afraid that if I gave up the running entirely, I might not want to take it up again when I got home. I tested the water in Bath. I took a walk up one of the many long hills surrounding the city, and began running on the way down, letting gravity do the work for me. The next day I added some level streets to the downhill jog. Later in London, I ran several miles in Regents Park every morning, and loved it. (How could I not? It was Regents Park - it was London!)
Back home I resumed my treadmill running, until one day I picked up a flyer for the Race for the Cure at Starbucks. Suddenly I had a compulsion to run in this race, and on a whim, signed myself up. Before taking on the 5K I thought I needed to officially run at least 3.1 miles outside, so one Saturday I did - and my running life really began.
Since then I have run 5 to 6 miles several days a week, mostly outside whenever possible. Most of the time it has been in my town, but I also took my running on the road for several out-of-town and out-of-state trips. Including the Race for the Cure in June 2006, I have run in four 5K races and as of today, three 10K's. On the future docket is a 15K in March and the half-marathon in April. After that? We'll see.
The strange thing is, twenty years after I gave up running, I enjoy it more, do it better, and run longer distances than I ever did as a younger person. I suspect that this is because in my past running days I never ran further than three miles at a time, and I've discovered that I don't really get "in the zone" until I've been running at least three miles. Once I'm in the zone, I feel like I could run forever.
And when I'm running? I never look miserable. Sometimes I even smile! :)
Now, I am a firm believer that nobody needs to run. There are many types of cardio/aerobic exercise which are just as effective as running and definitely easier on the body. Walking is surely the perfect exercise, and most people can effectively achieve fitness and weight loss by pursuing a walking program.
However, if you really want to run, and your body wants you to run (for example, people with knee problems probably should not be running), running is certainly an efficient method of cardio exercise. The body uses the same number of calories to walk a mile as it does to run a mile (about 100 calories per mile for a 150 pound person). But since running is faster than walking, you can burn more calories in the same period of time by running as by walking, or alternatively, you can cover a given distance in a much shorter time by running than you can by walking. In an hour of moderate walking you might walk about 3 miles; however, in an hour of moderate running you could run 6 miles, consuming twice as many calories as you did by walking the same hour.
As I said, after college I never planned to run again. I have always been a walker, and my sporadic exercise efforts usually involved walking (which I would do daily or frequently for a few months at a time, before lapsing again into inactivity). Walking, when I did it consistently, helped me get in better shape and lose some weight every time I took it up. (It was the stopping that was always my downfall.)
When I seriously began losing weight in the fall of 2004, I knew I would want and need to exercise, and I assumed I would walk. But with oncoming winter, dark evenings and bad weather, I put it off. In January of 2005 I fortuitously bought a (very lightly) used treadmill, and also joined the YMCA. I discovered that walking on the treadmill was great. I could listen to my music on headphones at the Y, or watch TV at home, and weather was not a problem. I soon began upping my walking workout by raising the incline on the treadmill and increasing my speed to faster walking. I did try to walk outside when I could, on weekends and in warmer weather, because it is still more interesting and I think that walking outdoors has functional fitness benefits that the artificial environment of the treadmill does not offer.
But a strange thing started to happen. My body started wanting to spring into a run. When I took the garbage out to the back alley, I spontaneously jogged back to the house. I started interspersing minutes of running into my treadmill walks. Soon the periods of running were longer than the walking - and by the beginning of 2006, if not sooner, I was running on the treadmill for an hour or more, several days a week.
But I still limited the running to the treadmill. When I went outside, I walked, often for miles, and I enjoyed it. I still had no intention of being an outdoor runner. After all, when I saw people running in the streets they never looked very happy, and sometimes they looked downright miserable!
It was a trip to England that turned me into an outdoor runner. There were no treadmills in England (at least not where I was), and although I got plenty of exercise by walking many hours a day, I was a little bit afraid that if I gave up the running entirely, I might not want to take it up again when I got home. I tested the water in Bath. I took a walk up one of the many long hills surrounding the city, and began running on the way down, letting gravity do the work for me. The next day I added some level streets to the downhill jog. Later in London, I ran several miles in Regents Park every morning, and loved it. (How could I not? It was Regents Park - it was London!)
Back home I resumed my treadmill running, until one day I picked up a flyer for the Race for the Cure at Starbucks. Suddenly I had a compulsion to run in this race, and on a whim, signed myself up. Before taking on the 5K I thought I needed to officially run at least 3.1 miles outside, so one Saturday I did - and my running life really began.
Since then I have run 5 to 6 miles several days a week, mostly outside whenever possible. Most of the time it has been in my town, but I also took my running on the road for several out-of-town and out-of-state trips. Including the Race for the Cure in June 2006, I have run in four 5K races and as of today, three 10K's. On the future docket is a 15K in March and the half-marathon in April. After that? We'll see.
The strange thing is, twenty years after I gave up running, I enjoy it more, do it better, and run longer distances than I ever did as a younger person. I suspect that this is because in my past running days I never ran further than three miles at a time, and I've discovered that I don't really get "in the zone" until I've been running at least three miles. Once I'm in the zone, I feel like I could run forever.
And when I'm running? I never look miserable. Sometimes I even smile! :)
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Chocolate therapy
Earlier today I seem to have inadvertently deleted my i-tunes off the computer after several aborted attempts to update it. Of course I can download the new software, and I guess I can re-download any music I need too. It is a pain, but this is not a post about my computer inadequacies (which are many).
After I realized what I had apparently done, I announced that I need a piece of chocolate to get over my trauma. Then I went and had a piece of chocolate. (A 50-calorie square of Endangered Species chocolate, to be exact.) It certainly didn't make any difference in my computer problems, and I don't even know that it was particularly soothing, but boy, did it taste good, and I did enjoy it.
Turning to chocolate in times of stress is such a universal response (at least on the part of women). I suppose it is unwise if one turns to excessive amounts chocolate--whole candy bars, bags of chocolate chips, pounds of chocolate, etc. (been there). But small amounts of very good, delicious chocolate are not harmful, and so many sources now say that chocolate is a good source of anti-oxidants. It also makes you feel good (scientifically established to produce the same kind of endorphins that falling in love does).
I try not to eat chocolate so regularly that it becomes a habit. I don't want to get to a place where I need and expect to eat chocolate every day. Like an addiction, I think that might lead to greater and greater amounts. But I do frequently treat myself to small portions of very dark chocolate, from 25 to 100 calories worth, and count that into my day's eating as I would a comparable amount of fruit. I savor every tiny bite--and I think I savor it more because I am not devouring great quantities.
It may not be the cure to computer woes, and it may not be Prince Charming waltzing in to sweep me off my feet, but as therapy goes, it's a pretty good substitute.
After I realized what I had apparently done, I announced that I need a piece of chocolate to get over my trauma. Then I went and had a piece of chocolate. (A 50-calorie square of Endangered Species chocolate, to be exact.) It certainly didn't make any difference in my computer problems, and I don't even know that it was particularly soothing, but boy, did it taste good, and I did enjoy it.
Turning to chocolate in times of stress is such a universal response (at least on the part of women). I suppose it is unwise if one turns to excessive amounts chocolate--whole candy bars, bags of chocolate chips, pounds of chocolate, etc. (been there). But small amounts of very good, delicious chocolate are not harmful, and so many sources now say that chocolate is a good source of anti-oxidants. It also makes you feel good (scientifically established to produce the same kind of endorphins that falling in love does).
I try not to eat chocolate so regularly that it becomes a habit. I don't want to get to a place where I need and expect to eat chocolate every day. Like an addiction, I think that might lead to greater and greater amounts. But I do frequently treat myself to small portions of very dark chocolate, from 25 to 100 calories worth, and count that into my day's eating as I would a comparable amount of fruit. I savor every tiny bite--and I think I savor it more because I am not devouring great quantities.
It may not be the cure to computer woes, and it may not be Prince Charming waltzing in to sweep me off my feet, but as therapy goes, it's a pretty good substitute.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Welcome to my blog
Well, here I am. Maybe I am two years too late to write a weight loss blog, because most of the ones I see are all about the weight loss journey. In my case, I'm sort of at the end of that journey, because I've pretty much lost the weight already (except for the last 10 pounds, of course). On the other hand, my journey is really just beginning, because now I'm in it for the long haul--keeping the weight off for the rest of my life. (And maybe losing those last 10 pounds, eventually.)
I've thought about this for a while, as I've read stacks of other people's books and pages of other people's blogs, thinking in the back of my head, "I have something to say, too." Really this is just for myself, a way to journal and express myself without the tedium of pen and paper. We'll see if I keep it up, or if it goes the way of most journals--procrastinated over and eventually set aside and forgotten.
Why did I start today? Well, honestly, it was a way to avoid the house cleaning and tidying that I had meant for today. After a long morning in bed watching all the morning shows that I miss because of going to work (all three hours of Today, followed by The View and forays into Regis and Kelly, The Tyra Banks Show, and Ellen), I went for a run, came home and took a long bath (to soak the muscles sore from yesterday's long run); by then it was time for lunch, General Hospital, and eventually Oprah--well, you see how time flies. I did manage to squeeze in a couple loads of laundry and some desultory housework before I needed to go check my email--and here I am.
The other reason today is a good day to start is because it is the beginning of the week after chocolate fest--that is, Valentine's Day. Not that I have people sending me chocolates, or anything like that (I am perfectly capable of buying them myself, believe me). But it was a week involving several festive lunches, three separate outings involving cocktails, and a birthday party with cake. Lots of cake. I'll admit, too much cake.
I didn't really go crazy--except maybe for the cake--and I think my weight is hovering within a couple pounds of where I expect it to be. But this week is the time to get back on the straight and narrow, and prove that a little bit of celebration need not lead to disaster!
I've thought about this for a while, as I've read stacks of other people's books and pages of other people's blogs, thinking in the back of my head, "I have something to say, too." Really this is just for myself, a way to journal and express myself without the tedium of pen and paper. We'll see if I keep it up, or if it goes the way of most journals--procrastinated over and eventually set aside and forgotten.
Why did I start today? Well, honestly, it was a way to avoid the house cleaning and tidying that I had meant for today. After a long morning in bed watching all the morning shows that I miss because of going to work (all three hours of Today, followed by The View and forays into Regis and Kelly, The Tyra Banks Show, and Ellen), I went for a run, came home and took a long bath (to soak the muscles sore from yesterday's long run); by then it was time for lunch, General Hospital, and eventually Oprah--well, you see how time flies. I did manage to squeeze in a couple loads of laundry and some desultory housework before I needed to go check my email--and here I am.
The other reason today is a good day to start is because it is the beginning of the week after chocolate fest--that is, Valentine's Day. Not that I have people sending me chocolates, or anything like that (I am perfectly capable of buying them myself, believe me). But it was a week involving several festive lunches, three separate outings involving cocktails, and a birthday party with cake. Lots of cake. I'll admit, too much cake.
I didn't really go crazy--except maybe for the cake--and I think my weight is hovering within a couple pounds of where I expect it to be. But this week is the time to get back on the straight and narrow, and prove that a little bit of celebration need not lead to disaster!
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