Practical Magic—The First Week—Slow and Steady and Recuperating—Or, if I ingest a whole cow with the bell still around its neck, will the bell continue to ring?

 

Week One

Well, first weeks are always hard, even if you have been doing something for a long time. And although I have been on this journey for over a year, since the holidays I have been stymied by circumstances. These include:

1. Dental surgery
2. Asthmatic Bronchitis
3. Steroids—a common asthmatic bronchitis treatment with sometimes horrible side effects like the desire to take a whole cow and ingest it with the bell still around its neck.
4. Downtime from gym and classes because of illness and eating differently from not feeling well. More comfort foods, less ability and desire to cook, etc.

Every one of us has their thing. In my case it’s bronchitis. The challenge is not letting that “thing” that holds us back beat us. With any dieting and fitness program there is that vulnerable place—the thing you have happen to you time and time again that makes you stop.  As a life-long dieter I have had lots of failures. But now I see these failures as opportunities for information.

Just like I can recite the calorie content of any food on earth by memory (if there was a game show for this I would be the winner) I am also a weight loss expert. I have tried every commercial diet program known to (wo)man or God and one thing is true: It’s all about me. There is no person, no outside force, no company or product that can change me. It’s that elusive tipping of the emotional and mental scales when it becomes better to do it and more fun to do it and more rewarding to do it and more emotionally satisfying to do it than not to.

And I have to admit to myself that eating can be and often is happy and interesting and emotionally and physically satisfying. Eating party food (we all have that list of celebratory foods in our heads) is fun. Maybe one way to picture that elusive GO point is like an actual set of scales—a plate on one side that holds all the stuff that makes being fat fun, and on the other side of the scale a plate where all the things that make being fit fun have to go. You have to tip the scales in your favor.

Getting Through the First Day

So getting through the first week—or even the first day—of this program takes some things.  A regular reader asked me to comment on what it takes to get through the first day of any program and here is a list of things that helped me:

1. Having a real plan with an end date and a goal—and writing it down.
2. Making yourself accountable to something—or someone—and deciding how to do that. Like daily food logging, weekly weigh ins, etc. Some people find a support group useful, others find a fitness friend. You have to decide what works for you.
3. Getting what you need ahead of time. Go shopping and get the right foods to have in the house. (This also includes giving your kid’s friends all the Girl Scout cookies or anything else you can’t easily control your ability to resist.) Think about what and when you will eat. In my case I have been eating as many plant-based foods as possible so when I think about my plan it starts with fruits and veggies.
4. Give yourself a carrot. And I don’t mean just a real one—but a motivational one. I have a visit to my brother in Florida looming at the end of these 12 weeks that is definitely a motivator (He hasn’t seen me in over a year!). Think about what makes it fun for you. Clothes shopping? A promise of something that gives you pleasure—a CD, a spa treatment, an hour at Starbucks with a good book and some well-deserved solitude.
5. Give yourself a break. This all doesn’t happen in a day. Getting through a day isn’t black and white. Maybe the first day you add more veggies, maybe day five you start exercising. Maybe you pick something you commit to and do that first and then add from there.
6. Give yourself permission to recover after you fall. I have messed up more things in my life because I am so unbelievably unforgiving to myself. Messing up is just a moment, not a lifetime. If you give yourself permission to take a little problem and use it to search for the information you need about yourself—you can readjust.

FIRST WEEK STATS

1. Charting my food intake via an online journal. (I am using sparkpeople.com, which is an excellent totally free diet community resource.)  

Results: As I mentioned I have been using this free online diet and fitness community. This is a very useful tool but you have to be sort of obsessive or dedicated about it. I did pretty well—and for the most part kept my calories between 1250-1600 a day. This tool also can log your exercise and gives you information about calories burned for specific exercises.

2. Doing 30-minutes or more of exercise daily.  

Result: This was a toughy this week. As I have been recovering from asthmatic bronchitis my energy levels have been way down. I did manage to do a 30-minute cardio session at the gym one day and take three 20 minutes swims at my pool on consecutive days. This is not nearly as much exercise as I like to get and I feel that this is definitely impacting how I am doing and feeling. As I feel better I really want to amp this up.

3. Eight glasses of water daily  

This one seemed like an easy thing I could remember to do and so I did it. Sparkpeople.com logs this as well on the nutrition tracker.

4. Increasing dramatically the amount of fruits, vegetables and whole foods I eat.  

Result: This I excelled at. I definitely added far more fruits and vegetables to my family’s diet. We often had three different vegetables at dinner and I definitely served more salad and ate more fruit. I feel great about this.

5. 7 hours of sleep a night (say seven, hope for 8!)  

Results: I did okay in this area and supplemented with a few well-timed naps. (Naps are always good!)

6. Inspiration  

Results: My daughter (who decided to join me for the 12 weeks) and I got journals to begin this process. This week we made some lists. My favorites were “ten self-esteem boosters” and “ten low cal snacks.” It’s been fun to discuss these and it’s provided an opportunity for us to support each other and spend some positive time together.

7. Motivation and rewards  

The motivation for this week is a facial and a “stone massage” at Massage Envy where to the dismay of certain family members balancing our books I have paid for many massages and not used them. This starts the process of actually using these accumulated massages and will be a sort of a mini spa day for me too.

8. Weekly weigh in results (measurement results monthly)  

Results: 2.8 pounds lost. I’ll take it.

9. Before and after pictures  

Results: I took two pictures but as yet I am not drunk enough or brave enough to post these. I will work on my bravery in this process and I believe it will be easier when I see some progress to post them.

10. Weekly Practical Magic Post  

Results: Check and double check. So far so good.

So on to Week Two of our Go Red Challenge. I hope people will continue to message me about how their lives are changing for the better. I am inspired by the impact this is making on the lives of people I touch. Keep sharing! And have a great Week Two! Go Seniors in Spaceä! Our slogan: “We aren’t dying to go!”