Saturday, March 3, 2012

A Meditation On Losing 15 Pounds

Right after Christmas I went on a diet. Nothing complicated or trendy. I just dug out all my old Weight Watchers material and started keeping track of what I ate. All of my information is older so I'm using the "old" points system but it's as effective as any of the different ways of keeping track of your diet that WW has used. I haven't been going to meetings, which I've enjoyed and I think are helpful, but have managed to stay on track. That's right, 15 pounds and counting.

I had no plans of doing this either. No grand New Years resolution or idea of what I was trying to attain by when. I just kind of started doing it and kept it up.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I had no plans of doing anything when a friend posted on Facebook how she was sick of reading the same people posting the same sort of "This will be my year" that they'd posted last year. I agreed with her that it was annoying but if a date on a calender inspired people to get on it, that seemed ok. Made me wonder what date I was looking for or what it would take to get me on it. Turns out, that's what I needed. Thanks, Flo!

Now, mistakes were made. By that I don't mean the Wendy's Baconator (which I totally planned for so it didn't have a negative impact) but rather the dozen or so oatmeal cookies that I ate one Saturday without an ounce of planning or even managing the rest of the meals that day to make it count less. Instead, I believe I drank a lot of rum.

The biggest thing is how my wardrobe has opened up to me. It took me years to put this weight on and so many of my clothes just kind of wound up in the back of the closet. Today I tried on shirts and pants that I haven't worn in forever and they just slipped on. I didn't struggle zipping up flies or have trouble buttoning a blouse. I hope to get to a point where everything is too loose.

There are moments when I get this serenity where I think that this is how I'll live my life and it's completely satisfying. I try to make those last as long as possible.