Friday, November 14, 2008

anyone ever notice the word "Die" is 3/4's of the word "Diet"???

Back in high school I decided that I would never go on a "diet." It was somewhere between a comment about my sister not wanting to lend me a shirt 'cause "You'll stretch it out!!" and my mom saying how I looked so good "...You have a waist now!" after I had dropped a few pounds completely by accident. I am just a contrary person, and I refused to let those comments convince me that culinary torture was ever a good idea. (I do want to say, I would have stretched out my sister's shirt, had she let me wear it, and my mom truly thought she was complimenting me. I feel the need to defend them because I know my family has always loved me and never meant to judge- I hope).

I am thinking of these things lately, because I am 3 weeks into a YMCA membership that I have been faithfully using, and am determined to keep using. I am focusing on getting in shape, rather than being another woman who goes to the gym to lose weight and then begins stressing when her weight increases due to adding muscle. I haven't even weighed myself at all since I started going. More than anything, I want my heart not to freak out when I have to run up and down a set or three of stairs when someone forgot a piece of their costume during a quick change. I want to be able to know that I am heading off the overweight/unhappy, anti-exercise fate of some of the older women in my life.

The only catch is that I seem to be eating more junk than before, now that I am working out at least twice a week. I know, twice isn't much, but it's my minimum. If I make it three times, the hubby is required to literally pat me on the back. I am taking baby steps, not giant leaps and am seeing the results already. No, I'm not in a smaller size of pants, no, my waist isn't whittling at all that I can tell, but the treadmill practically had to walk me up a 90 degree cliff today to get my heart up to 80% of the maximum heart rate for my weight and age. I had to speed the thing up just to get it to let me walk on a steep-hill incline. I even considered hitting the "jog" speed button (4MPH) but I'm still a little afraid of that- plus I haven't bought any sports bras yet, and that is definitely a prerequisite before you'll get these 38 F's a-runnin'!

So back to the Junk food topic. I am normally pretty conscientious when it comes to choosing wisely and attempting to eat food that will work for me instead of against me. If I know I'm going into a stretch of work which will eat up my life, I make a point to stock up on food and snacks that will get me through the day with the minimum of junk food. But right now, for some reason (and I'm not saying it isn't PMS) I am eating horribly. I am spending my energy planning when I will get to the gym instead of what will I make for dinner, so dinner ends up being ordered/bought or scrounged. I will not deny that the girl and I ate my fabulous Parmesan-popcorn for dinner one night this month. :)

In my defense, I will say that I have noticed how AWFUL junk food tastes right after I have worked out- that's when I crave Sushi. Perhaps the answer is to work out three times a day so that the junk food always tastes bad when it comes time to eat, or maybe I should just drop by that sushi place that's so conveniently on the way home from the YMCA.

I am heading into a longer stretch of work beginning Monday, and I have stocked up on my Naked Juice, oranges and bananas, nuts and carrots, so now the only challenge is resisting the Dunkin' donuts and Starbucks (gingerbread latte) that are literally attached to the building in which I am working...

Wish me luck!

3 comments:

Gwen said...

Did I really say that to you in high school?? I'm sorry. You are right we never mean to judge you, we ALL Love you!! I also am working on some weight loss.

Amanda said...

yeah, you did, but i still love you momma!

Brandy said...

Hi Amanda,

I found you through the comments on Unclutterer. You are a hoot! I am totally smiling from reading your posts. We have some things in common - I USED to be a costume girl, I have a wee blog that I am not so good about updating, I too am working on getting the exercise/eating well habit going in my life, and I am working on the whole de-cluttering thing too.

I look forward to reading you more!