From the category archives:

Health

It Works If You Work It

by Claire on July 27, 2010

I always thought that was a really stupid saying: “It works if you work it”. Seems a bit like stating the obvious, to me. Honestly, I guess I never really thought much about it but if you dig into it deeper, it really is a helpful reminder saying.

What does working it mean? For me, it means working the Weight Watcher’s program as it was written by the experts – those who know more about successful weight loss than I do. Clearly I didn’t know how to do it, or I wouldn’t have been 100 pounds overweight when I joined in 2008.

Working it also means working it all the way – not dipping my toe in it. It means if I am going to see the results I want, I have to work the program the way they say to, not fudging it to suit my mood.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been only doing part of the program – sorta tracking, sorta not, and sorta not really watching what I eat and only sorta doing activity. As a result, I only sorta lost weight. Out of six weeks, I lost weight only one of those weeks. The others I gained.

So last week, I buckled down and quit playing around. I got back to tracking my food – all of it including the bites, licks, and tastes. I calculated points properly by weighing my food or calculating it off the nutrition panel of the package and measuring the correct servings.

And guess what? This week I lost weight. I lost 1.2 pounds. I can try to blame hormones, water retention, stress, muscle gain, or any number of things for my weight gain, but if I’m truly honest with myself (and I was last week) it really boils down to what I put in my mouth.

So, yep, it works if you work it. And I worked it. Because I’m worth it.

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National Hug Your Scale Month

by Claire on January 8, 2010

I’m declaring this National Hug Your Scale Month. Who’s in with me? If there isn’t already such a thing, then there should be. So many people are starting – or restarting – their weight loss program this month after a month or six weeks of food binging from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. And for many of us – me included – we have, or have had, a love/hate relationship with the scale.

There are the camps of “I won’t be a slave to the scale” and those that say, “There are other indicators of weight loss rather than the scale”. There are those that say all you need to do is lift weights, eat only vegetables, cut out all sugars, fats, and caffeine, or any number of variations on self-limitation and restrictions.

I say that many of these are valid when done in moderation but not exclusivity and will lead to positive results. However, the one main tool of my weight loss and ultimate maintenance of a healthy body and lifestyle – the one that never lies to me and the one that I can’t manipulate – is the scale.

I used to hate the scale. I doubt I’ve ever loved it in the past. In fact, I righteously refused to have a scale in my house citing many of the same reasons as above. Truth was, I really didn’t want to know what I weighed. And when my pants got tighter, it was obviously because my dryer was shrinking them. Didn’t matter that they never stretched out during the day. And I had a million lies I told myself as to why the size of my clothes kept increasing, why my health was getting worse.

One such example was when I saw pictures of my mother, who is now nearly 90, and me. I kept remarking how my mother kept looking smaller and smaller. She was shrinking! It never occurred to me that I was expanding and she was staying the same.

I still don’t have a scale in my house. Instead, I go once a week and weigh in. I may not literally hug my scale, but I embrace stepping on it. As for manipulating the scale – believe me, I try. I wear the lightest clothes possible, even in the dead of winter and freezing temperatures. I eat the same menu on weigh in day and  weigh in at the same time every week. I try to be as consistent in everything as possible so when I do step on the scale, the only variable is my weight. Why? Because then I can get honest feedback about how I did the prior week, up or down. And I can get honest with myself.

How my clothes fit, how I feel health-wise, my body measurements, and my esteem are all equally good indicators of my progress but they aren’t as objective as the scale. I can stretch that tape measure to have it say what I want it to say. I can buy clothes that are sized for vanity. I can lie to myself in a number of ways that hides the fact that ultimately what goes in my mouth counts. Cause and effect.

Today, I no longer have hate or animosity toward the scale, nor does it wield any power over my emotions. It’s feedback. Pure and honest.

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Words with power

November 16, 2009

Are there words you hear in conversation that trigger a strong reaction in you?
”Stop!” is one that drives me nuts. I usually hear it as an expression toward me  – an interruption in mid-sentence – to stop talking about whatever it is I’m talking about. I don’t often hear it directed at me as a [...]

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Thrifty Cooking: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

November 7, 2009

This is the third dish I made out of a single store-bought roasted chicken, which means I was able to have three meals for $5.99. My first meal used one of the chicken breasts with a salad, the other meal used the other breast chopped up to make chicken salad (on an Oroweat Double [...]

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Oops – Sugar free, not points free

November 5, 2009

The weather’s getting cooler in my neck of the woods and one of the things I love to have, especially while curled up on the couch, is a cozy cup of hot chocolate. In fact, I’ve been having lots of this drink lately, and not counting the points because, well, I just wasn’t. Usually I [...]

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Break away from boring breakfasts

October 23, 2009

I love my Quaker Oats old-fashioned oatmeal. I love it so much, I have had it every day, just about, for the last year or more. I usually vary it with different nuts or dried cranberries or raisins, but always a small banana and 1/2 cup of fat-free milk.
Can we say, “boring”? Not to mention, [...]

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Holy Moly. I’m tired!

October 3, 2009

I feel kind of like this picture, which looks just like my puppy Lily, but isn’t. She does this thing with her tongue – exactly like the picture – when she’s happy. I’m happy too, but boy am I exhausted. I tried sleeping in but my body wakes me up like clockwork at 6:00 every [...]

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A funny thing happened on the way to Nordstrom’s

September 13, 2009

Today I felt what the absence of self-consciousness feels like.
While my mom napped (she’s at a skilled nursing facility rehabilitating from back surgery), I took a walk in downtown Bellevue. I figured I’d try to get some exercise in any way I could. My first goal was just to walk to Subway to get some [...]

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Autumn is more than changing colors on leaves

September 8, 2009

My daughters are grown so I don’t have the back-to-school deal going on, but I still feel the change in the air that comes with September, back to school preparations, and the change in weather. It seems to me that I’m much more aware of the change in season this year than I have in [...]

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I should have paid more attention in school.

September 3, 2009

I was a good student – honors, straight As, teacher’s pet, whatever. But not in the subjects I didn’t like, particularly the sciences. I just didn’t see the point and it wasn’t creative or artsy enough for me, so I barely passed in those subjects, or I failed altogether. Now I wish I had paid [...]

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