So it turns out that one of my aching knees stopped aching after a couple of days and the other was a little out of its socket. The only reason I noticed it was out of its socket is that I started using it to work out on the Gazelle and it didn't stop hurting. My trusty chiropractor popped it back into the socket this morning and will check it again for me in a week.
I was pretty good over the weekend. Not perfect, but pretty good. Then came today. After my visit to the good chiropractor, I was driving home and I just could not keep from visiting my current favorite lunch hangout. I know I have to stop going out for lunch (a habit that has single-handedly added 9 pounds to my waistline since the end of summer) BUT... note that "but" is one of the most dangerous words in the world... I really like eating out for lunch because it is such a social outlet for me.
Now I could go into the full story of why I NEED to eat lunch out at my favorite lunch place, but I am not going to. Let's just admit that this is one of my personal vices and it needs to be overcome. I have recognized a few items that may be obstacles in my quest to lose inches so I have come up with some strategies to work through / get around them. That is the key: a workable strategy, something I am confident I can stick to, something that will help me change my habits without being too painful.
Obstacle Number One: Working out is boring. It is the one way I know to make time seem to slow down and drag on and on.
Solution: Whereas I left my rower in my office for my 50 strokes a day, I moved my Gazelle into my living room in front of my television. I can do that because I don't have anyone else in the house to be considerate of. It is one of the two benefits of being single. The other is an almost non-existent number of dishes to wash.
Obstacle Number Two: I don't wear a watch. I used to wear one but I also used to be highly stressed and my watch seemed to run my life. Not wearing a watch is something I decided to try to reduce my stress levels, and it did help to reduce them a little... I think. But not wearing a watch also makes it somewhat difficult to time my Gazelle exercise sessions -- which I noticed as an obstacle during my first "workout." I kind of need to time my exercise sessions to make sure I go long enough.
Solution: The first solution I tried was to use the timer on my microwave, but my Gazelle is not in my kitchen so that was not a good solution. No worries. There was an easy fix. I went to Wal-Mart yesterday and bought the cheapest stopwatch I could find. I used it for this morning's session and it worked perfectly for my purposes. It now rests on the end table next to my favorite chair so I can put it on before my 10-15 minute "mini-workouts."
Obstacle Number Three: Snacking. I am good in the morning. I drink my cup of flavored coffee and eat either a muffin or a granola bar for breakfast. Then I am fine till lunch. But after lunch I am BAD. I get hungry and just cannot stop snacking! What's worse is what I snack on: Chocolate candy is my favorite starter. It is not good.
Solution: I am going to allow myself to snack but change what I snack on. I now have a whole bag of carrots, 2 cucumbers and a red bell pepper. I will prepare them and keep them in water in my fridge so that I can easily pull out a healthy snack whenever I want one instead of candy or chips. To make my strategy more palatable, I mixed up a batch of beer-cheese dip for the vegetables. Not a good thing as too much dip would totally defeat the purpose of snacking on raw vegetables. So what I am going to do is LIMIT the amount of dip I eat per day. I will measure it into a dish at the beginning of my daily munchies and not take more until the next day. For dessert, which I count as an after-dinner snack, I bought some 100-calorie ice cream bars. I allow myself no more than one per day.
Obstacle Number Four: This is one of my two biggest problems with losing weight. I don't drink enough water. I got out of the habit of drinking water when I lived with my parents when they had some pretty nasty well-water. Even filter pitchers (except for the Zero Water filter they eventually purchased, but by then it was too late because my habit of not drinking enough was already well-established) did not resolve the issue of their water. Now they have a nice reverse osmosis water filter installed in their kitchen, like I had when I lived in Texas, but I don't live with them now and like I said I am in a bad habit of not drinking enough water. Not drinking enough water is a MAJOR OBSTACLE to losing weight.
Solution: This is going to be a matter of will-power. I have a water bottle with a straw in it and with ounce measures marked on its side to make it easier for me. Yesterday, I drank 5 cups of water. My goal is to work up to 10.
Obstacle Number Five: This is, of course, going out for lunch. As mentioned above, I am addicted to a cute local place near my chiropractor's office. It has a cheap weekday lunch deal, I have been there enough to have formed casual friendships with some of the staff and I show up on an almost daily basis (weekdays only) to chat. This is a bad habit I truly enjoy, which makes it a beast to eliminate.
Solution: I am going to try (really hard) to reduce my visits to just Mondays (after my chiropractic visit) and Thursdays (the only day one of my friends works lunch). If I can successfully do that then, after a while, I will work to reduce to just one of those days. Then I may even cut down to every other week or once a month. We will have to see what I can handle.
Alright, so that is my strategy for slowly reducing my vices and replacing them with better habits so that I can effectively begin to lose inches through the vehicle of my newly increased mini- work-outs.
I was pretty good over the weekend. Not perfect, but pretty good. Then came today. After my visit to the good chiropractor, I was driving home and I just could not keep from visiting my current favorite lunch hangout. I know I have to stop going out for lunch (a habit that has single-handedly added 9 pounds to my waistline since the end of summer) BUT... note that "but" is one of the most dangerous words in the world... I really like eating out for lunch because it is such a social outlet for me.
Now I could go into the full story of why I NEED to eat lunch out at my favorite lunch place, but I am not going to. Let's just admit that this is one of my personal vices and it needs to be overcome. I have recognized a few items that may be obstacles in my quest to lose inches so I have come up with some strategies to work through / get around them. That is the key: a workable strategy, something I am confident I can stick to, something that will help me change my habits without being too painful.
Obstacle Number One: Working out is boring. It is the one way I know to make time seem to slow down and drag on and on.
Solution: Whereas I left my rower in my office for my 50 strokes a day, I moved my Gazelle into my living room in front of my television. I can do that because I don't have anyone else in the house to be considerate of. It is one of the two benefits of being single. The other is an almost non-existent number of dishes to wash.
Obstacle Number Two: I don't wear a watch. I used to wear one but I also used to be highly stressed and my watch seemed to run my life. Not wearing a watch is something I decided to try to reduce my stress levels, and it did help to reduce them a little... I think. But not wearing a watch also makes it somewhat difficult to time my Gazelle exercise sessions -- which I noticed as an obstacle during my first "workout." I kind of need to time my exercise sessions to make sure I go long enough.
Solution: The first solution I tried was to use the timer on my microwave, but my Gazelle is not in my kitchen so that was not a good solution. No worries. There was an easy fix. I went to Wal-Mart yesterday and bought the cheapest stopwatch I could find. I used it for this morning's session and it worked perfectly for my purposes. It now rests on the end table next to my favorite chair so I can put it on before my 10-15 minute "mini-workouts."
Obstacle Number Three: Snacking. I am good in the morning. I drink my cup of flavored coffee and eat either a muffin or a granola bar for breakfast. Then I am fine till lunch. But after lunch I am BAD. I get hungry and just cannot stop snacking! What's worse is what I snack on: Chocolate candy is my favorite starter. It is not good.
Solution: I am going to allow myself to snack but change what I snack on. I now have a whole bag of carrots, 2 cucumbers and a red bell pepper. I will prepare them and keep them in water in my fridge so that I can easily pull out a healthy snack whenever I want one instead of candy or chips. To make my strategy more palatable, I mixed up a batch of beer-cheese dip for the vegetables. Not a good thing as too much dip would totally defeat the purpose of snacking on raw vegetables. So what I am going to do is LIMIT the amount of dip I eat per day. I will measure it into a dish at the beginning of my daily munchies and not take more until the next day. For dessert, which I count as an after-dinner snack, I bought some 100-calorie ice cream bars. I allow myself no more than one per day.
Obstacle Number Four: This is one of my two biggest problems with losing weight. I don't drink enough water. I got out of the habit of drinking water when I lived with my parents when they had some pretty nasty well-water. Even filter pitchers (except for the Zero Water filter they eventually purchased, but by then it was too late because my habit of not drinking enough was already well-established) did not resolve the issue of their water. Now they have a nice reverse osmosis water filter installed in their kitchen, like I had when I lived in Texas, but I don't live with them now and like I said I am in a bad habit of not drinking enough water. Not drinking enough water is a MAJOR OBSTACLE to losing weight.
Solution: This is going to be a matter of will-power. I have a water bottle with a straw in it and with ounce measures marked on its side to make it easier for me. Yesterday, I drank 5 cups of water. My goal is to work up to 10.
Obstacle Number Five: This is, of course, going out for lunch. As mentioned above, I am addicted to a cute local place near my chiropractor's office. It has a cheap weekday lunch deal, I have been there enough to have formed casual friendships with some of the staff and I show up on an almost daily basis (weekdays only) to chat. This is a bad habit I truly enjoy, which makes it a beast to eliminate.Solution: I am going to try (really hard) to reduce my visits to just Mondays (after my chiropractic visit) and Thursdays (the only day one of my friends works lunch). If I can successfully do that then, after a while, I will work to reduce to just one of those days. Then I may even cut down to every other week or once a month. We will have to see what I can handle.
Alright, so that is my strategy for slowly reducing my vices and replacing them with better habits so that I can effectively begin to lose inches through the vehicle of my newly increased mini- work-outs.
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