A couple weeks ago I said I wanted to start blogging about my weight loss progress. Here is an update. Last Sunday, my sister and I went hiking. We’re both trying to lose weight so we decided bet $50 bucks. Whoever loses most wins! To encourage both to ensure we have sufficient incentive to stay on track we decided to add a clause that says we both have to lose at least 10 lbs. or we both lose and donate $50 to a charity. (Got a charity idea? Send me some! treadmillmaster@gmail.com)
About one week in and I’m down to about 250 lbs. This is how I’m managing to make it happen.
Boredom: After pondering over the reasons why I grew to 260 lbs. I realized that it was all mental. I ate because I was bored. I often found myself sitting at my computer listening to the radio or playing games wishing I had something else to do. More often than not, I would take a trip to Wal-Mart and buy everything I needed to make homemade pizza. Sometimes I just needed to take a drive and I would end up at Del Taco. Before I realized it, making a midnight run for a couple tacos and burritos at midnight to listen to the radio and think was a familiar routine.
How I Overcame It This Week: You would be surprised how much less you think of food when you’re doing stuff. I tried to engage myself more in my hobbies, namely video games, reading, school, sports, and blogging. Being involved in my hobbies took my mind off food and gave me less time to think about what I was going to get. Having a full day of activities also left me too tired to have the desire to make a half-hour round-trip to Del Taco or even make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
When it came time to make my Del Taco midnight trip I switched out Dell Taco for half a bagel and cream cheese and a Starbucks Hot Passion Tea for a total of 150 calories rather than the usual 2 Classic Tacos, 1 Big Fat Chicken or Steak Taco, and a Half Pound Bean and Cheese Burrito with a medium Cherry Coke to wash it down and a large order of Cheesecake Bites for dessert for a grand total of more than 2,500 calories! Granted, this was not what I purchased every time I visited Del Taco. But, I could easily put the average calorie intake of my midnight Del Taco visits between 800 and 1000 calories per trip.
Getting Active: this week I ran into a little bit of difficulty with health. I work at a school and I catch stuff from kids all the time! I only had time for about three hours of cardiovascular activity this week but next week I should be able to jump on my treadmill a lot more! It was a lot more important to me that I save my energy to fight my flu than run and lose weight and probably stay sick for the next four days.
The Bet: One thing that seems to be doing is adding another reason for me not to eat that second fistful of Doritos. If I have rationalized and justified eating some food I really know I shouldn’t eat I still have the bet in the back of my mind. I like winning. I like money. Now I find myself rationalizing my way out of eating food. I’ll tell myself “do you really want to let your sister win? Is she better than you? Do you really want to be out 50 bucks on your next paycheck?” At least for this week my desire to win is overpowering my desire to eat.
I suppose that’s it for this update. I’ll check in again sometime next Saturday.
