Living Life Well Takes Practice: Part 2

My last post in this series was May 13, 2020. Since then, working on myself has not gone well. (sigh)

I decided that I needed to work on habits first, and not focus on weight loss. I figured that the weight loss would follow if I took care of some things first. So, last Sunday (July 26,2020) I decided to start.
1. SUGAR: One habit that my impedes weight loss journey is sugar consumption. Like I said in my last post, I tend to eat my stress. But, it goes beyond that. Here is what a typical day of sugar consumption looks like for me:

MORNING: coffee. The delicious bitterness of coffee calls for something sweet to compliment it. It would be normal for me to have a cheese Danish, a blueberry muffin, a doughnut, or banana bread. (On Saturday it would be several bowls of a sugary cereal. On Sundays it would be homemade pancakes or waffles with real maple syrup.)

MID-MORNING: Have a little more coffee with an egg and an English muffin with jam.

NOON-ISH: lunch (whatever I was having for lunch that day) always followed by some cookies or some chocolate.

MID-AFTERNOON: coffee and a pastry or cookies. Sometimes that meant a whole sleeve of Oreos, or half-a box of chocolate chip cookies.

DINNER: Dinner was always followed by some sort of dessert: fruit tart, ice cream, cake, apple galette, etc. You get the idea.

LATER: It was not unusual for me to shame eat a whole pint of ice cream while standing in the kitchen.

That was pretty typical. I had to stop. My relationship with sugar was/is unhealthy and that has to change.

2. ALCOHOL: Another habit that stands between me and person I want to be is alcohol. Here is what a typical day of drinking looks like for me:

LUNCH: I would almost always have a glass of wine with lunch. (Yes, one.)

BEFORE DINNER: The end of the work day (even as we are working from home) would be marked by a pre-prandial, often sipped as we made dinner.
DINNER: Dinner wouldn’t be dinner without an accompanying wine.
AFTER DINNER: There is nothing so relaxing as sitting in the living room with a post-prandial (with perhaps a follow up second.)

Those were a lot of calories coming from alcohol. It was well paced and civilized, but the excess of calories cannot be overlooked.

Just those two things, alone, were enough to keep me from being whole. Don’t get me wrong – I never regretted consuming those things at the time. It was always later that thought about it with any kind of regret.

So, last Sunday I decided to work on those two habits for the week.
I am very happy to report that for this past week I had no sugary products at all. It was really hard, but I did it! It was less hard giving up alcohol. Part of the reason for that is I allowed myself one glass of wine with dinner – and I stuck to that. I am really very proud of myself for both of these things.

In addition to this I started going for walks almost daily. My attitude is, “anything more than I was doing before is a win.” I am not pushing myself. My experience with pushing myself is that I get frustrated and then give up. So, I took the focus off weight and just focused on the thing in front of me: going for a walk, avoiding sugar, and limiting alcohol. I also added in weight training. Over the past week I weight trained (at home with a set of dumbbells and a bench) 3 days – every other day.

All in all I am very happy at what I accomplished.

When I weighed myself this morning, I was hoping for the scale to reward me. But it didn’t. I have absolutely no weight loss. And, I felt kind of down about that. But then I realized that I am changing some pretty big habits. So, I did great! Weight loss and body recomposition will follow in time. And, I am becoming a better me.

I am looking forward to this coming week. I will add some things. I think once one week is successful, then adding a thing or two is prudent. Again, my focus will be on the habit, not the weight, and we will see how I do.