The Quest

I wonder what it's like to live life in the Skinny Lane?

My quest is to find out. And that's what this Blog will be all about.

Thing is, I kind of like the fat lane, in a way. I can eat more ice cream and drink more Pepsi, and not exercise as much. But, I only like those things so much because it's what I'm used to. It's just habit, plain and simple. Most habits can be changed, it's the getting there part that's the hardest. Old habits die hard.

It has been an interesting journey so far. I even joined Overeaters Anonymous at one point years ago thinking, "Yah, that's it! I'm addicted to food! This will be my ticket to Skinny City." At the first meeting when they said the first step was to "abstain" and everyone nodded slowly and sullenly in agreement, as if they knew some big secret I wasn't privy to, my mouth hung half open and I thought, "What? Abstain from all food? As in... fast?" Then the meeting was over I asked my sponsor what, exactly, "abstaining" meant and she explained that it meant to abstain from all sweets, and certain other foods. For the rest of my life. As in, never again was I to put a piece of chocolate or spoonful of ice cream to my lips. Ever.

I was both relieved and going into "no chocolate or ice cream ever again" shock at the same time. Yet, I was so desperate to lose weight that I simply said, "Moo." Then I promptly followed the "herd" out the door and to my car.

I did lose about 40 lbs., but only because I followed the strict food plan that my sponsor put me on. To the tee. I was not allowed to have any in-between meal snacks. But once, I cheated. I was so hungry between lunch and dinner one day (stomach was rumbling and everything) that I called my sponsor to see if I could have an apple. Just an apple. She said, No. No in-between snacks. Ever. It was against the "law." After hanging up, I picked up the apple, washed it, and ate it. The final straw was when I got very sick with the flu and called my sponsor to ask if it was okay to go off the food plan and eat some chicken noodle soup. I fully expected her to give the green light. Instead, she told me that not only could I not have soup, but that I should eat scrambled eggs instead. I almost barfed into the phone.

The fear was that eating soup would cause me to want to overeat. Hmmm. Sick as a dog + eating soup = wanting to overeat? I politely ended the conversation, hung up the phone, and went to heat up some soup. Not long after, I quit the group and went back to feeling human again.

I gained the 40 lbs. back and then some, but I was okay with that. I knew that eventually, I would figure something out.

Since that time, I've lost some, gained some, and now I'm somewhere in the middle. Currently I'm about 26ish pounds away from my goal weight. Up to this point in my journey I have had the tendency to expect too much, too soon out of myself. I like seeing results. I don't care much for the in-between stuff, I want to see the end result NOW. Yesterday, in fact. Wanting results can be a good thing, but being in too much of a hurry can be detrimental to getting there.

So. New strategy this time.
1) Expect that this is not going to be easy. It will in fact be very hard at times.
2) Be more realistic about how long it will take.
3) Expect obstacles, and that I won't necessarily know how to overcome them right away.
4) Love myself where I'm at right now, and enjoy the journey.

I'll be easing my way back into exercise again this time, instead of burning myself out. Instead of doing the workout I was doing before 5-6 days per week, I'm cutting it back to 3 days per week, with just walking in-between, and eventually, running again.

As for diet, I discovered a food plan that I suspect might work really well for me. I'm on Day 3 and it has gone great so far. It's from a book, called, "The Shred Revolutionary Diet," by Ian K. Smith, M.D. The first week it gets your feet wet, so to speak, and progresses from there. It has a lot of flexibility and the foods are affordable and simple. No fancy schmancy stuff that only the rich and famous can afford, LOL. It tells me what to eat each day, so no calorie-counting required. Yet I still get some choices of my own, but not so many that I feel lost. Completely doable for me. And, it's designed to get my metabolism going again. Teenager-metabolism, here I come! *Clears throat* Ahem. Okay. Reality.

I welcome your feedback on this Blog (positive only, please), anytime you feel the urge. I'll be journaling how I'm doing on the new food plan, sharing yummy recipes, my progress as I train to run a 5K again, how I'm doing with the TurboFire workouts, and lots of inspiring quotes and great tips along the way (we could all use those for sure). I would love to hear about your journey, too, so feel free to share if you want.