I feel like every few months, I do the same exact post. The one where I complain about my weight. So brace yourself, here it is again. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
For the past few months (or really years, not including the time that I lost 10 lbs for my wedding before I gained it back), I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated about my increasingly larger clothes. Yes, I’m healthy. Yes, I might not even be technically overweight. But a lot of my clothes don’t fit and I don’t want to deal with it any longer. I’m sick of seeing pictures of myself where I don’t like how I look. I’m sick of dressing in workout clothes all day because the amount of real clothing that I own that fits is limited. And I most certainly don’t want to buy a bigger size. (Plus the whole no job thing isn’t very conducive to shopping anyway.)
Some people preach moderation. I wish that worked for me. But it doesn’t. I eat pretty well. I exercise. I am basically the definition of moderation. But it’s not working for me. I don’t know if, at age 33, I can blame it on my metabolism, but it’s definitely harder to maintain a certain weight now than it was when I was 27. And I drank a lot more back then too. Actually, I take that back. I’m maintaining my weight just fine. It’s just 20 lbs more than it was back then. 20 lbs (or even 15) more than I feel comfortable with.
I’ve come up with a plan though and hopefully it will work. I tried not to get too strict because I knew that I wouldn’t follow it if I did. Here’s what I’ll be doing:
1. Limit added sugars. I know from past-experience that the pounds almost fall off when I give up the white stuff. However, I have a pretty serious sweet tooth so it’s hard for me. This means giving up eating dessert every night, which I had been doing. Granted, the desserts were Skinny Cow (low calorie) ice creams and the like, but they were full of sugar.
2. Limit white flours. See above.
3. Add protein. Being pescatarian, a lot of my calories come from carbs.
4. Have a “cheat” meal if the occasion is deserving of one, but remember that not all occasions are. What I mean by this is that if I’m at a new restaurant and there is something that I really want to try, have it. If I want frozen yogurt once a month or so, that’s okay. But I don’t really need to be stuffing my face with Goldfish because someone has a bowl of them out.
There was another one, but I don’t remember what it was. So that’s my plan. What I won’t be doing is counting calories. I believe that’s an effective weight loss plan for some people, but not for me. And it’s not because I get obsessive about it. It’s because I’m too lazy. I’d rather follow an “eat this, not that” type of plan that do math. There’s a reason I don’t have a math degree. (Although, I’ll have you know that I did get an A in the one math class that I took in college.)
Dinner last night was “on plan”, if you will. I had turbot (pre-seasoned from Trader Joe’s) and creamed kale.
Let’s face it, there’s no real way to make creamed vegetables look pretty. It tasted good though. Although, if you were going to make this, I’d advise you not to use a blender. My food processor bowl broke and I’ve been too lazy to order another one so I figured I’d just blend it. Umm, no. Didn’t work. I have a mini-food processor attachment to my blender and ended up using that, in batches, which was a pain. The end result was good though.
The fish was pre-seasoned with Old Bay and although I like Old Bay (I’m a Maryland girl, after all), it kind of made it too fishy tasting. Point noted.
And now for something that has nothing to do with weight loss, but I thought was funny. I was reading Heather’s blog yesterday and she posted a picture of her dog Harper. (Picture here) Harper and Murphy are upside-down twins. Need proof? This is Murphy.
I promise they are two different dogs! They don’t even look that much alike when they’re right side up. But it’s so funny that they both lay on the couch like that.
