*Written on March 4, 2011*
In the past nine weeks of this year, SIX of my weigh-ins have shown me a GAIN on the scale. Not cool, people. Granted, I’m only up one pound from where I was on January 5th, but I’ve been jumping all around in this five-pound range since LAST SUMMER. (Oh, and in my last post? I said, “I’m kind of hoping I can manage not to gain all the way back up to 155 again.” And as of yesterday I’m 156.)
I haven’t been beating myself up over it when I have a “gain” week, because I’m still fitting into my smallest jeans EVER (size 4! ridiculous!) and I’m still fairly active, running at least once a week and hitting the gym a time or two for classes. Last week, I ran FIVE MILES. Which, for me, is insanity. I never thought I’d be able to run TWO miles, much less five. But I tell ya, training for a 10K (6.2 miles) is pretty awesome motivation to push myself during a run.
But I digress. So I’m not beating myself up over making basically ZERO progress on the scale in the past seven months. But maybe I SHOULD be beating myself up a little? What I mean is, I haven’t been so careful about what (or how much) I eat. Last night I ate like six homemade ginger cookies at our small group meeting. I’ve consumed an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers in one sitting, more than once in the past few weeks. I mean, come on: running makes me hungry!
And yet, back when I started seriously trying to lose weight and be healthier (almost a year ago), I was working out even harder than I am now, and I still managed to keep my eating in check. And I know exactly how I did it: I counted calories. It’s just that — gah — I am so sick of counting calories!
The thing is, it felt so GOOD to see the numbers dropping little by little, week after week, when I was on track with everything. I know I’ve come to a place where I don’t necessarily “need” to worry about losing weight. I’m in the right BMI range, I feel good (most of the time) in my clothes, and people are still commenting on how great I look. But this whole thing I started last April isn’t just about losing 15 pounds and patting myself on the back for a job well done. It’s a lifestyle change. And if I’m seeing those old patterns of poor eating choices creeping up again and I just ignore it? It’s only a matter of time before I’m back to 170 pounds or more, feeling miserable and digging out my “chubby” clothes.
So I guess I need to hop back on the stupid calorie-counting wagon, huh?
(She says after eating a sugar-covered jelly donut….)
****
*Update: July 6, 2011*
So it’s been a few months since I wrote the original post above, and the good news is, I’m back on track. The bad news is, it didn’t really START happening until two weeks ago. But you can read the latest update on my blog here!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I loathe counting calories, but it really does work. :\
What works well for me is to take the weekends off from counting.
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Tabitha Reply:
July 8th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
@Hope,
Same here! I usually take the weekends off from strict counting, but still try not to go crazy (watch my portions, etc). Although I must say, I’m actually not hating it as much as I was back in March, thanks to MyFitnessPal!
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Hope Reply:
July 9th, 2011 at 9:02 am
@Tabitha, Another thing that I’ll do is to plan out what I’m going to eat during the day and then input the calories in the morning.
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THROW AWAY YOUR “CHUBBY” CLOTHES!!!!
Seriously, if you have them to get back into, you’re so much more likely to have to get back into them.
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Tabitha Reply:
July 18th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
@Katherine,
I did! I actually have gotten rid of clothes I bought less than a year ago, since I’ve been slowly losing weight since last April. If I did go back to my April 2010 weight, I would have to buy a whole new wardrobe. Talk about motivation!
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