Well, the post that was going to be written on Christmas Eve is being written today. What with cooking, and running around madly, and game playing, and movie watching, all with our guests in the house, my beloved sister-in-law and her husband (my brother-in-law-in-law), not a whole lot of blog posting has taken place. I have some time this morning, though, and want to get some more material down before the start of the new year.
I may be re-plowing old ground here, but I’m not going to go back through all 500+ articles on this site to find out. My point here is to encourage you to do what I’m doing today: go back and look at your weight history. Let me emphasize again: this blog has not transitioned into some rivulet of Weight Watchers. But your weight is an indicator of how you’re eating, and I am obsessed with the subject of eating well and healthfully. The more we can see our weight as an end result of behavior that can be changed, the better off we’ll be.
Okay. Are ya ready for a fascinating story about one woman’s weight history? So, as I’ve said before, I don’t have anything dramatic to report. Skinny in high school, a little heavier in college (due mainly to violations of the 20-minute rule, of which more in a later post). Not paying much attention to weight or exercise for my late twenties and thirties, settling in at a higher-than-needed 135. Getting married and eating out constantly during our first summer of marriage, since the moving company had lost our stuff and hey! how could I possibly cook? Gaining 10-15 pounds in that one summer. Not being able to fit into my clothes. Being totally clueless as to how this could possibly have happened. Starting to get a handle on things, losing a few pounds. Getting pregnant and gaining 40 pounds. Being entirely clueless as to how to get in shape after having the baby. Moaning and groaning, whining and complaining for the next 15 years or so, constantly saying that I needed to lose at least 10 pounds of my post-pregnancy weight but making no consistent efforts to do anything about it. Finally getting my switch flipped by reading The Skinny and losing around 13 pounds. Managing to stay at that weight pretty well, with some upticks, for the past 12 years or so, around 118 pounds, two pounds less than I weighed when I left grad school at age 25.
The secret is that there is no secret. That everything counts. That nothing stays in Vegas. Kind of depressing, but there it is. In a world where we’re constantly being urged to eat, either by well-meaning friends and family or by advertising, we have to just keep alert to how much we’ve eaten and what the scale says. That may sound a little grim and depressing, but in reality it’s not. I think I can honestly say that I enjoy food more, not less, since I’ve attained some measure of control. It’s like spending money: you can’t just spend on impulse and expect to have any kind of financial security and independence. Eating on impulse does the same kind of damage. Yes, it can sometimes feel as if you’re saying “no” a lot, but you’re doing all that refusing so that you can say “yes” to that delicious, well-prepared meal that you really want and need.
Yesterday my sister-in-law and I were out bopping around in downtown Littleton’s Main Street with its array of small shops. One item I was vaguely looking for was a pair of copper earrings. I wear a lot of rust, orange and peach, and I like to wear copper with those colors. I wore out one beloved pair and lost another, so I’m on the lookout for a replacement. But the earrings have to be perfect—a sort of Platonic ideal of copper earrings. There was a pair at one of our favorite shops that I liked very much and which weren’t too expensive, but it turned out that they were made of brass, not copper. They weren’t quite right. So I didn’t buy them. I can now keep looking, which is a big part of the fun. I don’t want something that I bought just to buy because I was out shopping.
So it is with food. I’m not, not, NOT saying that you should become one of those tiresome picky people who has cottoned onto some needlessly restrictive diet. But I’m all for what I’ll call “choosiness.” Never, ever feel that you have to apologize for not eating something that you don’t think is good for you, or good for you at the time. Never feel that you have to indulge just because everyone else is doing so. Try not to be a wet blanket if the whole group is getting hot fudge sundaes, but don’t get one yourself. (Unless you really want one and will plan to make up for the excess calories later.) Take a bite or two of your husband’s sundae (my strategy) or get a cup of herbal tea (I know—pretty prissy).
To end, I want to post a link to yesterday’s “Happier in Hollywood” podcast. Hope everyone knows about podcasts! Liz Craft, Gretchen Rubin’s sister, and her writing partner Sarah Fain, do their own show on Thursdays. I’ll be putting out a list of recommended podcasts sometime around the 1st, but I’d really urge you to listen to this individual episode in which Liz announces her weight goal for 2019. I think her way of phrasing things is so good, because she’s using a number: six. She wants her A1C to be at 6.0 (she’s a type 1 diabetic) and her clothes size to be a 6. Isn’t that clever? She also announces her current weight and her weight-loss goal for the year. Sarah also announces her sugar-abstention goals.
Listen from 5:22 to 13:30 to hear a good discussion of how indulging in sugar isn’t really a treat and how Liz is framing her weight goal. It’s very honest and funny. You can listen to the whole thing, of course, but this is the segment that deals with our Subject of the Day. (Sometimes their language gets vulgar, but there isn’t anything objectionable in this part.) Have fun listening, and see if any bells ring or switches flip:
“Episode 85: New Year’s Resolutions!”
Note: the link is to the actual podcast website, and you’ll therefore be listening on your browser. If you like the show, then I’d recommend you subscribe on the podcast platform of your choice so you can listen on your phone: Stitcher is the big one for Android and iPhone, iTunes for iPhone.
Link to The Skinny is an Amazon affiliate link; if you click on the link and purchase the book, or anything else during that session, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
I like this except for the “eat a bite or two from your husband’s sundae.” The more welcome alternative is to eat a bite or two and give your husband the rest of your sundae (assuming he’s not overweight).
@Jim – also assuming the husband doesn’t have a sundae already. Or assuming he does have his own sundae, thus getting extra.