Sunday, January 23, 2011

Good times

Hi.  Sarah here.  I remember back a few years ago when I was not quite officially middle-aged, and if I wanted to lose weight, all I had to do was try just a little and it would be reflected in the scale at the end of the week.  If I was very diligent, I could lose three or four pounds in a week.  IN A WEEK!  That was enough to make my pants fit a bit better and give me some motivation to go on to do another week of diligent dieting.

No more, apparently!  I have officially hit middle age (forty) and now my bulk is stubbornly staying with me.  I weighed myself this morning and I lost half a pound.  (yeah, sure, it's two sticks of butter, which is nothing to sneeze at, but still, come on give me at least an entire pound!)  I have been following the Weight Watchers plan to the letter (except for drinking gallons of water) and I'm not making much progress.  They changed the plan from when I was on it a few years ago.  Back then you got a certain number of points every day and that was it.  Now there are these flex points you can use to splurge on when you need to, and most fruit is zero points.  Before fruit counted as points, but now it's free they say because nobody gets fat on fruit.  I think I could get fat on fruit.  Lately, whenever I feel hungry between meals I have an apple or a couple of those little cutie oranges.  I eat a LOT of cuties and apples.  Maybe that's what's keeping me from losing more weight.

I'm not doing so great on the exercising lately.  I have been doing it but I'm doing a half-assed job.  I think I have a touch of arthritis in my hips and they've been hurting like crazy lately so I've been taking it easy.

Okay, so this week I'm going to count my fruit as points like the old WW system and see if that makes any difference. And I'm going to lose 6 pounds.  Okay, I'd be happy with 1.5 pounds.  But no less than that!

3 comments:

  1. when i really, really want to depress myself, i take out photos of myself in college, when i was "fat." i weighed like 130 and wouldn't wear a swimsuit in public. i wish i could tell that girl to enjoy herself more and wear pleather pants way more often, because now i would literally chew an arm off for my "fat" body. my point is this: getting older is totally sucky, but at least we're not settling!

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  2. My doctor told me that at our age, we need to get in 60 minutes of exercise each day to see a difference. AUGH. Like anyone our age has time for that!! You had a stressful week - go easy on yourself!

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  3. Oh, all of this hits close to home. I remember very clearly how much easier weight dropped off in my early 30's. I barley had to try. A couple of days of lighter eating and the pants fit again.

    Now, I eat one box of Good & Plenty and I'm up two sizes.

    I also agree that the Weight Watchers "free fruit points" is skewed. I think it probably would work for younger, 20 or 30-somethings who had normal metabolisms. I do NOT believe that it works for older women who are trying desperately to cut carbs and calories. Fruit is full of both! And yes, fruit has nutritional value, but anyone who has ever stuck to a calorie-counted diet knows that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Your body may digest an apple differently than it would, say, a slab of key lime pie, but at the end of the day, 1200 calories is what it is. A calorie is simply a unit of energy. Movement burns of those units. If I eat 1200 calories of other food, and then add another 800 of fruit... I'm not gonna lose a damn thing. (And I LOVE fruit... it's really easy to snarf 500-800 calories in bananas, apples, grapes, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, kiwis, blueberries, pears, nectarines, etc. etc. etc.)

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