new resolution

a friend of mine started a blog about her struggles with weight loss, and i have decided to copy her. i think it will help me to have some sort of sense of accountability to SOMEONE about my own attempts to lose weight. i decided to separate this out from my regular blog, both to make it easier for me, and also so that those people who read my rantings and ravings will not die of boredom. this blog will probably be mind-numbing unless you, too, are a person who struggles with your weight. i figure, with most of america overweight at this point, at least a few of you should be able to identify.

i have tried to lose weight before, sometimes with success, and sometimes not. i am not a big fan of faddish diets, although i have had some success in the recent past with the south beach diet (SB). i read a bunch of nutrition books and did a lot of research, and found that SB is the ONLY prescribed diet i could find out there that was actually in support of nutrition research and not in utter violation of everything i learned about my body's basic needs. my only real criticism of SB is that it neglects to take salt into account. i have high blood pressure, so i have to be careful not to let my salt intake get out of hand.

over the past year, i have managed to make quite a few permanent changes to my diet that i reall am proud of. i have virtually stopped eating white potatoes--i have them maybe twice a month. maybe one of those times it's fries. i still can't resist fries with a burger if i am out, but i am working on that. i will say that i eat about half the fries when i have a burger now than i used to eat. i have also not had a single potato chip since last september, which for me, is saying A LOT. chips have been a weakness of mine since high school. i also eat less white rice now than i used to, and almost no white bread. i have changed to eating more whole grains and focussing more on lean meats and vegetables. i have thrown out anything that contains tropical oils (especially palm oil) and high fructose corn syrup. i cut the amount of sugar i eat WAY back. i changed from 2% to 1% milk. still can't quite take skim milk, but then, i don't drink that much milk to begin with.

in the food department, i really need to work on the following:

• eating at home. eating out is where i tend to lose control - i eat more food and food that is not as good for me. to this end, part of my new resolution is to try to cook breakfast at home unless it's a special occasion and to eat dinner at home at least 4 nights a week.
• portion control - i think we as americans have an inflated sense of how much food we should eat at a given meal. i am going to try to pay better attention to this, especially with regard to meat. 6 oz. of salmon should be plenty, so why am i buying 8 oz.?
• stop eating when i am full! this is probably my biggest food failing--i just love food, and i will often keep eating just for the flavor--i gotta stop that!

the other big problem for me is getting my ass into the gym. this is HUGE for me. in the ast, i have actually enjoyed the gym, but only if i had someone to go with. i guess i am just too social. motivating myself to go, when it's just me, is super-hard. it's worse, too, bcause the only time i really can make time to go is in the morning, and dude--i am NOT a morning person. NOT AT ALL. when that alarm goes off at 5:30am, i am more likely to throw it out the window or at one of the meowing cats than i am to get up and go to the gym. ugh! but well--i just have to get over it, don't i? i think if i can get into the habit of going, then it won't be so bad--but god, the first few months are going to be hell on wheels. heer's the workign out part of this new resolution:

• get inot the gym a minimum of 4 times a week.
• do something for my body at least 30 minutes a day, every day. 30 minutes is NOTHING--i should be able to manage this.
• stretch every night before bed. my flexibility is for shit--i am ambarassed to have a man with better flexibility than i have--it just ain't right.

and last but not least, here are my goals for me and for this blog:

• post a daily reckoning before i go to bed that contains both what i ate that day and whatever i did that day toward achieving my goals
• post a weekly reckoning every sunday morning that contains my number of gym visits for the week, my weight, my body fat percentage, and the number of pounds i have to go to get to my goal
• post a monthly reckoning every 4th sunday that contains my measurements
• goal weight: 160 lb.
• goal body fat: 25%

there you have it. stick with me if you feel like it--if you don't, i won't be offended. comments and encouragements are more than welcome, but please, don't berate me when i am bad--believe me, i will do that enough myself.