I didn't always have a weight problem. Now, when I was in high school, I thought I was huge.
Looking back at pictures, I was completely and totally wrong.
When I was in college, I was too busy to have a weight problem. Eighteen hours of school plus 32 hours of work equals not a lot of time.
When I was a new graduate, I was in a bad situation: I worked nights at a newspaper. I had lots of great friends there. We ate fast food and not-so-fast-food. We went out for drinks after work at least once a week. It was so easy to eat my way through the eight hours I was at work and then sleep most of the next day. One night, the women on the desk decided to go to Marble Slab and get huge sundaes FOR SUPPER.
The fact that I didn't blow up to three million pounds during that time is owed to the fact that I was young and indestructible.
No, my weight problem showed up after the first baby, my sweet Kyle. I kept it at bay for a bit after Miss K was born in 2001, but I wasn't very successful.
Here's what I've tried:
- WW a few times before it stuck.
- Starvation (not really, but eating these ridiculous amounts of food like four lettuce leaves, a slice of tomato and a splash of salad dressing).
- Low/no-carb (Atkins, South Beach, whatever). It works...until you eat a carb and then it's all over with. With my current plan, I can have a small piece of chocolate or a cookie and still be OK. Now if I let that fall into an everyday thing, or 20 pieces of chocolate, I have a problem. :-) But one won't hurt me.
- P90x. That was last summer. I liked the workouts. But the time commitment was huge and the entire time I was doing the workout, I was thinking, "I'd really rather be outside running. REALLY."
I think my body just responds very well to running. I think that, underneath all this mom-ness and 38-year-old-ness, I have a runner's body, because when I start consistently running, it responds very well and quickly.
Back when I was running before, I used to run during my lunch hour. One day, I saw the Lamar women's track team stretching before a run, and I noticed that they had similar body frames as I did: slight build up top and a more muscular one on the bottom. My body goes to that very quickly and automatically, once it realizes that this is something I'm going to do.
I have, as I've blogged before, made adjustments to my eating. I tell myself they're not big adjustments, but then I remember how I ate before and I know that yes, they are huge adjustments. But they're very manageable.
I stepped on the scale this morning to 127.6. I am not actively trying to lose more weight. I'm not. I'm eating three meals a day and running. I'm eating in restaurants -- I eat out for lunch five days a week. I'm eating home-cooked meals. Heck, I had five or six FRENCH FRIES yesterday!! I had a third of this very luxurious dark chocolate cookie on Thursday!! I'm eating, I promise!
I think this is what works: Eating less, mostly plants. Moving more. Drinking lots of water.
The most important thing that I think makes a dieting/exercise plan work is being ready.
During 2008-Sept. 25, 2010, I tried to get back into shape. I tried to get back to running, eating better. But it never worked. I wasn't truly invested in that. I said I was, and I knew that I needed to because I was gaining weight, but I just wasn't fully ready to give up what I needed to give up to do it.
I'd get up one morning, decide that was the day that I was going to eat right and exercise. Then, I'd get home at 8:45 p.m. after working all day and going to grad school and think, "I'm too tired. I'm going to grab something from Taco Bell and call it a night."
And then the next night, when I didn't have school, I'd be tired again. And again. And again.
I was making excuses. I wasn't ready. I'm still tired, y'all. I'm still busy. But I reach through that exhaustion and busy-ness to make time for running. I plan ahead so that I have something I can eat that won't be horrible for me.
Nothing worth having is easy. If it were, it wouldn't be worth having.
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