Wow, it's been over three weeks since I've posted. I guess it's because I've been so busy cooking and eating Real Food and exercising so much that I've hardly had time to sit down and type. NOT!
Of course the truth is that I haven't been posting because I've been eating crap and sitting on my ass doing everything but posting here. Because I don't really like posting about how I'm not doing the right things. Just like I don't like going to meetings to find out that I'm not losing weight. Which is all pretty dumb because those are exactly the times that I need to be talking about what I'm doing and not doing, and when I need to be recording what's happening, and why I think it's happening.
So basically, I haven't been sticking to my eating and activity plans. The ones that have been working just fine for the last 8 months or so. I haven't been going for walks on anything close to a regular basis. I haven't been recording anything. I haven't been going outside and getting at least a half hour of sunshine every day. I haven't been eating as much Real Food as possible.
On the other hand, I have been sitting in front of the computer for hours and hours every day. I'm finding lots of interesting recipes. I'm reading blogs about how other people are eating Real Food and doing the other things that I should be doing. I'm checking out old TV shows to find good ones (so far, I like Eureka and Dexter, next to check out are Treme, Boardwalk Empire, and Lone Star) to download and watch this summer. I'm eating junk food. Ice cream. Cookies (homemade, but not exactly health food). Chocolate bars (snack size, but still). And just a lot of snacking in general, during the day and probably even more late at night.
So all that tells me that what I was doing before isn't particularly sustainable. I don't mean sustainable for the planet; I mean personally sustainable for me. I don't want to go to Weight Watcher meetings every week for the rest of my life. I don't want to count calories or points or grams or anything else for the rest of my life. I want to enjoy eating healthy, nutritious foods, maintain a healthy weight and enjoy a reasonable degree of good health and fitness. Simple. :)
I continue to suspect that one of the problems with Weight Watchers is that it encourages more carbs and less fat than is generally sustainable long-term. Also, it's easy to take the path of least resistance and rely too much on their branded "food-like" products. I've been buying the hell out of WW snacks. Ice cream, fruit bars, and if I go to meeting tomorrow, I'll probably walk out of there with some of their peanut snack bars if they're available. And the thing is, it's all junk. But I buy it and eat it because it's low-points junk.
I know sticking with Weight Watchers will work in the short term. The thing is, I'm not at all convinced it'll work long-term. The problem is, I let that doubt become an excuse not to do it at all. And while I'm looking at other options, I can't say that I've found anything more appealing or promising.
My sister-in-law Debbie was here for the weekend, and she's doing a low-carb thing (Tony Furguson) and "eating" shakes and instant soups twice a day. It's working for her, in terms of weight-loss, but it's definitely not sustainable over the long term (which isn't really an issue for her, since she only needs to lose a small amount of weight). Not interested.
I've also been learning about paleo/primal diets, and while I think they're probably right about eating higher amounts of meat, animal fat, and vegetables and lower amounts of carbohydrates, I'm not convinced that eliminating dairy and grains is a good idea.
So at this point, I'm sort of treading water with the Weight Watchers thing, and trying to get back on track with my goal of eating Real Food. Doing that mainly comes down to being organized, and making a plan and sticking to it. So I worked out a good meal plan for this week, ordered the groceries (they arrived this morning), and hopefully nothing will go wrong and I'll actually cook and eat the meals I've planned.
Since I'm also trying to keep grocery expenses down a bit, a lot of meals this week are based around ground beef. The plan for dinners this week:
Friday - Sloppy Joes (the boys have never had them and they're unnaturally excited)
Saturday - Pork chops and Apple, Leek and Butternut Squash Gratin
Sunday - Tuna Noodle Casserole
Monday - BBQ Meatballs, potato salad, and green beans
Tuesday - Butter chickpeas, white rice, and papadums
Wednesday - Spaghetti w/tomato & meat sauce
It's not much in terms of a comprehensive dietary strategy, but hey, at least it's a plan. It's all home-cooked, and it's not a lot of processed crap. It's short on veggies, but it limits the cost of meat to something reasonable (even if I were buying local, pasture-fed, organic, biodynamic, etc. which at the moment I'm not). So there are the ground beef meals, but there are also not-ground-beef meals using pork, fish (I'm trying to work in at least one meal with fish every week), and no meat at all (the plan is one vegetarian (maybe even vegan so that Karen can eat it, too) meal a week.
In terms of activity, I'm sitting here looking at the window and it's pouring rain. I think my activity today will be limited to low-intensity 12 oz. curls. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment