There's a girl I once knew in Arizona who seems to take really good care of herself. When she had her firswt kid, she was really motivated to get back into shape. I read her blog, and she quoted, "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels" (thanks, Kate Moss.) My first thought was, "Oh, I can name a few things ... brownies, Oreos, cookies, ice cream ..." And this is why she's skinny and I'm not. I like my food. A lot!!
I have a hard time with this concept of dieting. Another one of my friends got some kind of calorie counting iPhone app and lost a few dress sizes over the summer. I keep telling myself I'm going to do something but never get around to it ... or I lose a few pounds, then go on vacation and gain it all back. Sigh!! I admit it - I have no self-control! I want to eat what I want to eat, y'know? And if I were to go on a diet, it's easiest to keep weight off if it's a whole lifestyle change sort of thing, so what kind of eating lifestyle do I want to change to?
Several years ago, I bought a head of lettuce, thinking I could get myself to eat salad again. I don't like salad - it's boring. One of my roommates moved my lettuce to the back of the fridge and it FROZE. Since I was hardly enthusiastic about lettuce before, you can probably guess how many times I've purchased lettuce since.
When I was in Sammamish, I started eating some salad again. My mom makes this really good salad dressing with strawberries in it. She also adds turkey to the salad, and a little bit of cheese ... and I bought Craisins and added those. SO GOOD. Mom said it might not be super-healthy to have the cheese and dressing, but if the cheese and dressing make the salad palatable to me, HEY IT GETS ME TO EAT SALAD SO IT'S ALL GOOD.
After I came home, I decided to start this fake "apples and salad" diet. Mark's allergic to apples, so I have to eat them all. I decided that every day (or as often as I can stand) I have to eat an apple before lunch. I cheat a little and share some with Carmen. Then for lunch, I have to eat a bowl of salad before I can eat anything else. Then I can eat whatever I want! Since I fail so miserably at eating just lettuce, I went to Costco and bought a bag of Cafe Parisian salad mix. It comes with almonds, a little packet of dressing, and a packet of dried cranberries. Mark just takes some of the salad mix and adds it to his turkey sandwiches, since he doesn't like the dressing or the cranberries and is allergic to the almonds. (Poor guy.)
I had a hard time getting myself to do this, because I think bagged salad is "so expensive" ... but you know what? If it helps me eat better and helps me lose weight, it's worth it. Plus, a $3 bag of lettuce is practically a week's worth of lunches, so in the long run, could it be cheaper than other things?
Anyway. I've lost 4 pounds in the past 2 weeks (but we'll ignore the fact I gained 3 pounds in November, and I'm still 3 pounds heavier than I was before Carmen was born. LALALA. You heard nothing.) I've also been going to the gym a few times in the afternoons after Carmen wakes up from her nap. It's nice to have some time to work out and read a book. Last week, Carmen actually cried when I came to pick her up because she was having so much fun playing with the other kids! SCORE! The ladies at the Gold's Gym Daycare used to have to come get me because Carmen would cry the whole time I was gone. Now I might be able to stay for the whole 90 minutes, if I could figure out what to do the whole time. :)
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