Thursday, January 7, 2016

Weight Loss....Again.

It's a new year and once again I've started to try and lose weight. It's not easy. 16 years ago I gave up smoking, cold turkey. Even though I tried many times, I finally succeeded. At least with cigarettes, or anything you smoke, when you want to quit, you can just elect to stay away from it. Not so with food.

You can't just get away from food, you need it to live. That's the bad part. You basically have to learn what foods are good and what foods are not. My problem is I work overnight so when I should be sleeping, I'm eating and when I'm sleeping I should be eating. My body is so screwed up!

Mind you, I love my job but it can get very boring. And what do I do when I'm bored? I eat! It doesn't help that where I work there is always chocolates, muffins, donuts, cupcakes and every other kind of bad food! Of course they taste absolutely divine!

When I quit smoking, I made a pact with myself each day when I got out of bed that for that day, and that day only, I would not smoke! I didn't care about tomorrow or next week or next month. That seemed to make it a little easier. I kind of tricked my mind into thinking I was giving up smoking for only one day! My brain said "Hey that's not too bad, I'll get that nicotine tomorrow." The next morning I did the same thing, one day at a time. Mind you it was still not easy by no means, but I think it helped.

So I am kind of trying the same thing with weight loss. Experts always say the most important element of losing weight is to track your food; everything you eat, write it down! So I've decided to use the program My Fitness Pal to track my food intake. And I have made a pact with myself that for one month I will "write down" everything I eat. They have a fabulous app for your iphone that enables you to track all that food, no matter where you are. And that is what I will do, no matter what it is, if it goes into my mouth, I will write it down!

I have tried Weight Watchers multiple times and have had some success with the program. But I find that program is more geared toward woman; although they would disagree with that. Most of the time I spent at Weight Watchers meetings, I was the only male in the room. I felt I was getting no support. Over time I have tried EVERYTHING; you name it I probably tried it to lose weight at one time or another. I use to have a membership at a gym, but after a while that became so monotonous, I gave it up. Although I will say that I did enjoy going to the gym some days. It's just that I got into a routine of doing the same thing everyday.

Luckily I have always been healthy. I have never had a major disease or a minor one for that matter. Only a cold probably once a year. I have never been on prescribed medicine, in my life!! Thankfully in the health department, I was always in good shape. But I turned 50 back on April of last year and I think I may be pushing it. I know of friends who are my age and they have had medical problems for years including diabetes. So I believe I have pushed the envelop about as far as I can push it. I think now is the time to do something about it.