Well I guess a loss of 1.5lbs is better than a kick up the arse, especially considering last week’s (and the week before!) abysmal result. Since my long post the other day I’ve been quite pensive and have been taking positive steps towards paving the way for a smoother journey from here on in.
One thing I’ve discovered is the wondrous concept of putting blogs into a reader – yeah I’m sure most folks are sniggering that I’ve only just discovered that now but hey, I’m a late starter – I only ever had a Livejournal blog before, but never really did much with it. Anyway the reader is great because it’s helping to keep me motivated by reading lots of fantastic diet blogs, which I’ll get to in a minute.
A major stumbling block for me has always been my inability to get to sleep at night, especially if I’m worried or if I have either positive or negative stuff on my mind. For example, I’ve given myself tomorrow (Monday) as my deadline to be completely on the straight and narrow – getting up on time, sticking to the plan I set out for the day etc. Under normal circumstances, I’d completely botch the whole operation because I’d end up awake half the night worrying that I might not be able to wake up the next morning. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anyway, I decided to get off my bum and try to do something about it. So I bought Paul McKenna’s “I Can Help You Sleep”. I’m not one for gimmicks but I have to say, the man speaks a lot of logic. In my mind it’s not 100 miles off Allen Carr’s stop smoking book in that it doesn’t try to bullshit you and for the most part you can see the reasoning behind the stuff you’re supposed to do or stop doing. So we’ll see what happens, but I feel optimistic that I might at least improve my sleeping patterns, which bodes well for my energy levels.
Another thing that has been on my mind is the subject of choices and what we do with those choices. “Escape from Obesity” and “The Anti-Jared” both wrote excellent posts about this subject and, no pun intended, talk about food for thought. I am very good at making excuses to myself -ah it’ll be alright this once – well, I had a good weight loss last time, so I’ll get away with it – oh but I’m so tired, I can’t work out, I’ll be fucked for the rest of the day….and so on and so on. But the excuses have to stop – as Moloko would say, the time is NOW – no more excuses. The excuses have me where I am today – unhealthy, unfit and unhappy because of it. Either I want this or I don’t, so I have to get real.
Finally, last week I had further motivation from an unusual source. One of our dogs got knocked down because he’s as thick as bricks and runs after cars. He damaged the ligaments and tendons in his elbow and can’t put any weight on it. Here’s the thing – the dog is overweight and it’s my fault. It’s my fault because I let him away with murder when it comes to food and it’s my fault because I don’t walk him enough. On so many levels I felt so ashamed at the vets not least because not only was the poor bugger in pain because of his injuries, but to make it worse, he had extra trouble keeping himself up on the remaining three legs because of his weight. So, he’s on a diet. Sometimes I wish we could trade places and that I could have someone come along and remove the choices from me and whip me into shape until I lose all the weight! Anyway, the dog is now joining the fat fighters club and is on a controlled diet. And, when he’s back on his feet and fully recovered from his injuries we will walk together every day until we are both fighting fit.
