Wasting Away

According to the multiple apps I enter my weight into daily, it's been 40 days since I declared I was going to lose some of this middle section of me.

40 days. 5 5/7 weeks. 4 lbs. 0.7lbs/week.

The goal was 0.5 lbs per week, so I'm ahead of schedule! The Superbowl jammed me back up, but that was gone a week later.

It's odd doing this slow-and-steady method. I'm not exercising any more, but I'm definitely eating way less crap. I look at a bag of chips and can only taste the grease. I feel like a pop and I can taste the sugar. If I want some candy, I have a little bit of chocolate or some flavoured hunk of sugar and move on.  My candy jar at work has been empty since the new year.  My trips to pick up snacks downstairs have become a rare occurrence, and even then I return with peanuts, almonds, or dried fruit.

I have a lot more salads, wraps, sandwiches, and soups.  The Greek, Thai, and burger places around around here have forgotten what I look like.

At home, I still cook - chili this weekend. Also applesauce to save some apples that were on their way to inedible. Oh, and I whipped up a batch of an attempt at Ben & Jerry's Cool Britannia for a friend (and also me), but switched the cream/milk proportions (and added more yolk) to cut the fat.  Portions of that will be still be small.  But of course, anything I make at home will be far healthier than whatever pre-made stuff I could pick up. After all, it's "real" food.

The only really successful attempt at weight loss in my past was comparatively rapid. 15 lbs in 3 months, daily exercise and extensive calorie counting. I kept that weight off for a year, and then very slowly gained it back over 4-5 years, then passed it, then kept going.  11 lbs more to lose before I'm back to that old high.  Then 10 more before I hit my current goal. Maybe I'll aim for another 5 after that.

This time I'm hoping the long-view attempt at weight loss will result in it staying off - because I'll have spent a year eating healthier, and getting my body off the crap I would think nothing about eating.

I know that at some point I'll plateau. My body will hit an equilibrium where just cutting the crap won't result in weight loss. That's when I'll try and start getting the daily exercise routine back into play to keep on track.