Monday, May 09, 2005

Somewhere to start

My fight actually started last August. Finally disgusted with myself for letting my weight win, I knew I needed to make some changes. Now that I have lost some weight, I can start to look at the numbers on the page. It's not the first time I've tried to lose weight but hopefully this time if I lose it slowly and by changing habits, I can keep it off.

I wasn't happy with my pre-pregnancy weight (about 225lbs.) but once I found out I was pregnant there wasn't much I could do. "I'll lose it after the baby's born," I told myself, "everyone always says they lose weight chasing around a toddler." The problem is, there's a couple of years between baby and toddler and in those years I managed to pack on a lot of weight. At my peak I was over 250 lbs and that's when the alarms went off.

My Top 5 Bad Habits:
  1. convenience foods. I tend to snack on easy-to-find foods. If there's a bag of chips handy, I won't likely cut carrot sticks. Eating a meatball sub on-the-go is more appealing than a balanced sit-down meal.
  2. emotional eating. Boredom and depression are my biggest triggers.
  3. baked goods with coffee. Coffee is part of my daily life (and something I'm not giving up) but somehow I came to expect something baked -- giant cookie, oversized muffin, donut -- sometimes for two coffee breaks in a day.
  4. giant portions. At some point I got into the clear-your-plate camp though I don't recall being raised that way. The big problem with this is North America's obsession with enormous portions. I am getting better but I still hate to see food wasted and it is hard to leave food on the plate -- especially if I've paid for a restaurant meal.
  5. grazing. Similar to the convenience habit, I got into the habit of eating bits and pieces for my midday meal. I'd have a handful of peanuts followed by a toasted bagel. Half an hour later, I'd finish whatever my daughter hadn't eaten and then whip up a small omlet. Before I was done I might also have a cookie or two, some chocolate, and some corn chips with sour cream.
So now I am back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm still not happy but I am at least moving in the right direction.

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