Weight Loss 2016 Week 11 Lessons Learned

I weigh 2 lbs less than when I wrote last week.  The problem is its two pounds that keep going and coming.  That needs to stop.  My calendar says I have a DietBet weigh out March 16^th.  It’s not looking good.  A DietBet weigh out lasts 48 hours, which gives me through St. Patrick’s Day.  I am not so far from that weigh out I couldn’t stop eating and know I would make it.  But I’m not doing that.  I hate that behavior.  I did that the first time around.  It’s not a lasting win.  It’s an OCD win.  It doesn’t help me in the long run.  I’m too old to play stupid. 

If I lose that weigh out that means I didn’t lose 4% of my weight in the past 28 days.  I said if I did that three contests in a row I would quit contests.  I don’t wanna quit contests.  I don’t wanna starve.  I am absolutely positively going to figure out how to manage my eating within the context of my incredibly fun life to get the rockin’ hot body of my dreams.

I’m going to review things I learned about my eating in 2016, so you will know, in case it helps.

1.            Eating small portions throughout the day is better than three meals.  Three meals can lead to over eating dinner if the time between lunch and dinner is too great.

2.           Sugar is so bad.  I do not keep sugary items in the house.  If my daughter has sugar I know its hers, and I do not touch it.  Desserts are delicious.  I like them.  I tend to eat them if I am at a party.  I attend a lot of parties.  I can feel that sugar run through my blood stream after one swallow.  I know it’s not good.  Why do I partake?  Delicious.

3.           The eating of starchy carbs begets more eating of carbs.  Eating carbs makes me hungry pretty quickly.  I almost always just say no to bread, potatoes, pasta and rice.  There was one exception this week, it was all they were serving, I was too hungry to say no. 

4.           Diet foods.  Protein powders, puddings and bars.  I wish I could live on them.  I like that lazy eating.  I even like the taste, kinda like dessert.  Unfortunately they tend to give me indigestion and bloating.  I keep comparing ingredients to figure out why.   My latest theory is sucralose.

I look at people who can eat anything they want and not gain weight.   They are so fortunate.  Do they know how lucky they are?  They are right on a par with white men born in the United States. 

 I noticed a couple categories of these lucky people who can hit the Golden Corral with enthusiasm.  People like my daughter with a high metabolism.  May she have it her entire life, and may she live forever, happily ever after.  Her boyfriend took her to an expensive, Italian restaurant last night.  She came home and told me how much she ate and drank.  It was unbelievable.  I don’t think my daughter would eat at Golden Corral.  She is pretty fussy.

Then there are the muscular people.  I see the ripped, body builders from my gym on that patio of the Wilton Manors bakery near my house downing pastry.  I am so jealous.  I see the guys who work construction eating and drinking anything they want with impunity, shake my head.   I should start lifting.

Yesterday I went to Home Depot and bought 10 bags of dirt, a big plant and a couple pieces to fix my sprinkler.  Some guy, who does not work at Home Depot, specifically stopped to help me load the dirt into my car.  He said he wanted my cart.  I told him there were lots of carts like that inside the store and I could load the car myself.  He said he WANTED to load the bags into the car, something about it being the right thing to do.  Guys are so nice like that.  How could say, “No, I want to load my own bags of dirt in the car.”  I got to unload them at home.  I spread the dirt in places that needed it.  I dug a hole and planted the big plant.  I did my weekly pruning.  I thought I fixed the sprinklers, until I tested them when I saw one of my pipes is completely severed.  I thought it was a leak, but NO.  I watched a YouTube video that showed three ways to fix a severed pipe.  They involve using a “coupling”.  I like that word.

I go through phases of landscaping.  My handyman recently asked if I noticed the large bushes obscuring some of my flowers and pond.  I did.  He asked what I was going to do about it.  Nothing, they are two different indigenous, drought-tolerant, flowering bushes.  So long as they are not in areas people traverse, they stay.  Why fight flowers?  So long as I can see the pond from inside my house, I don’t care who else sees it. 

I looked around the yard and I’m thinking of rocks and stepping stones on the side yards that don’t get much light.  In the front and back yard I see places that need more soil.  I’m thinking about an herb garden in the back.  The flower beds need mulch.  We are in Daylight Savings Time.  I can build muscles in my yard and make both houses I live in prettier.