Last week I lost 4 pounds, which surprised me since I ate a lot of carbs at the beginning of the week. This week I lost 8 pounds! Awesome, but also a little scary because it again invokes me fears of losing weight too fast and resembling Diet Jabba the Hutt when this is all over. On further reflection, it occurred to me that my period was last week, so maybe I was retaining water which caused my weight to appear higher than it was. (That, children, is the sound of all the men reading this blog simultaneously clicking on other web sites.)
I really ramped up my walking program this week, which I believe explains the bigger loss. I’m going 1.75 miles a day in 42 minutes, 6 times a week. There’s something about my personality that makes me go completely hardcore or nothing at all on projects. The hardcore part is fun, but I hate myself when I can’t get up the motivation to do anything.
I’ve also basically still been on Phase I of the South Beach Diet. I occasionally have an apple or make a loaf of whole wheat bread in the bread maker. I’ll also have a salad with some olives and carrots, but otherwise I’m sticking to my cheese sticks, pistachios and yogurt.
I’m in ur archives, readin’ ur wisdom…sorry, couldn’t resist. It’s fascinating, watching your progress.
Anyway, I nodded my head with almost painful vehemence at the “completely hardcore or nothing at all” bit. I think that’s a big part of the psychological makeup of a lot of us who become overweight, and it’s also something that can hinder successful weight loss. After all, if you screw up and binge, or if the scale doesn’t show a loss this week, or if you miss your workout…well, you may as well just give up, lie around and eat all you want, right? You’re a failure, so BE a failure. Rawr!
It’s taken me a long, long time to get past that mindset, and even now, sometimes I find myself with an all-or-nothing attitude. So yeah, I “get” that.