Okay, just kidding. You and I both know there are no secrets to weight loss. It’s simply a matter of burning more than you take in, which means you can either burn more, take in less, or both (with both being the most efficient option). A few years back, I beat my weight down from 200 lbs down to 170 lbs and kept it there for a while. I dipped down as low as 166 lbs, but only momentarily. 170 lbs isn’t a perfectly svelte weight for me, but it’s a good deal better than the 184.8 I clocked in this morning. So I’m taking yet another crack at it, and you are my witnesses. The kiddo is scheduled for early January, which provides a convenient and realistic goal date. I’ve been hovering around 180 for a while now; it’s time for a change.
The hardest part for me is exercise. I’ve just never developed any healthy habits there. I have not often maintained a workout program long enough to get past the adjustment difficulties and start enjoying the benefits. But I got my ass out of bed this morning and hit the elliptical for 30 minutes (after not having done it in months), and that convinces me that my problems with exercise are far more related to lack of will than lack of conditioning. With the elliptical–the least vile of all forms of cardio I’ve tried–I find that, after a solid week, I miss it if I skip out on it. Having some exercise in the AM improves my mood and gives me a bit of extra energy. That emotional and physical kickback makes it fairly easy for me to get some momentum going. But, history tells me that it’s also easy to chuck all of it and sleep in.
Some people object to the very term, “diet,” and insist on “way of eating” (i.e. or “WOE,” how appropriate), as it implies, to them, something short term. But I prefer it as it, for me, means a series of pitched battles in an ongoing campaign. I find that losing weight, or, if you prefer, getting to a healthy one and keeping it, is like any other real-world project: it tends to advance and retreat by fits and starts at times and by gradual, logical progression and regression at other times. So, though today I have the fervor of a new convert, I know that losing weight is a war of attrition, and managing weight is a daily process. I’ll surely fall off the wagon and climb back on it more than once between now and the new year, but I don’t have to average very much per week to make my goal. Keeping my daily calories between 1200 and 1500, along with regular cardio, will be more than enough to get there. Staying there will be the issue, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I’ll keep you posted on my progress as a way of keeping myself honest.