Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Well, of the two categories of action items, I'm doing extremely well with the eating better part, and not quite as well with the exercise part. If you'll check the spreadsheet, you'll notice that I've hardly done any 'official' exercise in the last two weeks. ('Official' exercise means on my exercise bike or with some other method of reporting calories burned.) Despite that, I have managed to do a little better as far as unofficial stuff, being generally a little more active. Things like always taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away from things and walking, etc. Nothing terribly impressive, but at least they are steps in the right direction.

It won't be 'official', but I've also joined my church's co-ed softball team. It's something I've had my eye on for a while, but it's by no means something that I would normally do. In fact, when I told my old friend Mike about it, his first reaction was an alarmed and vaguely amused "Oh, dear," followed by much backpedaling. "No, that'll be good," he said. "Because with softball, you don't have the constant running that you have in some other things."

The first practice is tomorrow evening. So we'll see how it goes.

The eating is continuing to go well, and in fact, I'm surprised and pleased with how easy it has been. In particular, adding the sweets tracking column to my spreadsheet has already helped me to resist temptation more than once. For example, I'm be walking by the office breakroom and I notice the donuts in there. It's only the knowledge that I'd have to rat myself out that keeps me from grabbing one.

And interestingly enough, eliminating the fast food has been pretty easy as well, to the point where I'm wondering how much of it is actually chemical. Before this recent effort, I would frequently find myself stopping at the McDonald's drive-through on the way home, or getting Wendy's for lunch, because I really just craved one thing or the other. Now, not only am I no longer craving them, but they don't even sound good anymore!

When I went to the movies the other night, I had to grab something to eat very quickly, because I was running late. There weren't that many choices, and I was beginning to think that someplace like McDonalds might be my only alternative to starving for the next four hours. Now in the past, when I've felt deprived, I frequently relished the times when "Oh well, nothing to be done about it," occurred and allowed me to cheat. This time, I was actually disappointed and a little upset that I might have to resort to junk food. Thankfully, a Jersey Mike's sub shop appeared, providing a much healthier alternative.

The point is that, at least with the dietary elements of this plan, not only am I not feeling deprived, but rather, I'm actively enjoying myself. If I can maintain this mood over the next 140 days of my plan, hopefully, I will be building some nice deep habits that will allow me to continue eating healthy when I no longer have a weight-loss goal layed out.

That said, I do feel that I need to lose more than the 20 pounds set as my current goal. I see this current effort as Stage 1, so to speak. An attainable, reasonable goal that does not require an unhealthy rate of weight loss. Once I have achieved it, it will be time to set a new goal. Stage 2. I don't know what that goal will be yet. Better to focus on my current goal first.

On that score, you can see by the spreadsheet that I'm actually ahead of my target weight for day 30, despite not exercising as much as I should. Definitely good news and further evidence that my healthier diet is making a difference. Still, I hope that I can start working on the exercise as well, and maybe the softball will be both fun and active, killing two birds with one stone.