I'm normally a fairly optimistic and happy person. High Energy. I work hard. I am used to feeling good. I turned 50 in August. Somewhere in the last couple of years an extra few pounds snuck up on me and plastered themselves on my body. The bastards.
Now, I have a pretty good self esteem. It's not that. And my husband thinks I look great just like this. But somehow, I'm not really enjoying it. Don't know what else to say about that. Dieting is very hard for me. I think about food all the time every day. What I'm having for lunch, what I'm cooking for dinner. What I'll cook for the weekend. All day long. When I don't eat, fair optimistic turns into miserable. In the past, I've handled this situation by increasing my exercise a bit. I've always had good metabolism. As I mentioned, I just turned 50 and what used to be easy, no longer is.I like yogurt. Not the stuff that comes with fruit in it in a single serving, real yogurt. Organic yogurt. Tart and creamy and fully of all that bacteria that makes your insides work. So being the person I am, I did a lot of research on how to make yogurt myself. It can be done. Not really that hard. A bit of a committment, but isn't everything worth while in life?
For breakfast, today. Mountain High Yogurt, organic and wholesome. It's good and less committment. From my freezer, blueberries that I picked last summer at Josh and Amanda's place. I'm remembering what summer feels like and remembering that another one is coming, well sometime. It has to, doesn't it? And blueberries are coming back. Walking barefoot in the grass is coming back. Josh's barbecue is coming back. Kids and dogs chasing each other in the yard is coming back. Really it is, in a few months. Remember to be optimistic.
I hear you on the extra weight. For me it came when I took my first desk job and left my outdoor horticulture work behind. I didn't want my husband to touch my stomach; he might notice the roll forming. That's when I realized I needed to address my weight. I used Weight Watchers for three months and got down to the lowest weight I can ever remember being as an adult. It was a ton of work and I was food obsessed and absolutely no fun to eat with. I actually did things like order salads with no fat dressing as a side to my hamburger which I would only eat half of. I looked awesome. You should have seen my arms - they were so tone and skinny.
ReplyDeleteFlash forward eight years and some of that weight as crept back. This time around I decided I didn't want to be food obsessed. I know the Weight Watchers system (it involves food journaling and a way to measure food intake based on daily exercise). So I decided I would start recording my food again and working to keep my "points" - Weight Watchers term - under the number to maintain my weight.
I'm not perfect. There have definitely been nights were I have eaten more than I should have, but over all I am losing weight. And while I consider what's in my food I'm not crazy.
Sorry this is getting kind of long winded. My point is, you can eat healthy and work on getting your body into its optimal condition without obsessing over food. Just find the method that works best for you. It may take some time and effort, but the best way to go.
You can do it!