Starting Again

Long time readers know I've been trying to loose weight with little to no result over the last few years.

My mother and I went on a diet together back in May. I've lost maybe twelve pounds, she's lost about forty. It's hard not to get discouraged every time I see her these days. She's as thin as she was in high school again, and she even managed to keep her curves. My scale's gone down a touch, and my pants are a little looser, but I still look exactly the same as I did this time last year with hair that's slightly less frizzy when I've had time to mess with it.

At least I learned something, right?

I did get badly discouraged a few weeks back and gave up for a while. I realized this over the weekend, and I'm starting over again today. "Clean Slate Monday," as Deb Ng calls it.

My goals are first, no sweets until New Year's Day. (I'll likely push it back once January 1 gets here, but I know if I say, no sweets for a year, I'll freak and eat my way into a sugar coma.) And secondly to keep my carbs as complex as possible. Eating ultra refined white bread or pasta isn't much different to your body than eating a big bowl of ice cream, so it's really just the one goal, I suppose.

And I've memorized my workout DVDs, so now I can do the same workouts, but watch say Dr. Who or Stargate or something while I do so. Workout DVDs get boring and, honestly, they're seriously annoying after a couple times. I mean, who wants to listen to someone that blasted perky first thing in the morning? As I see it, if I don't allow myself to be still while watching whatever series I'm into at the time, I'm more likely to do my workouts instead of using the old, "I'll just do all my cleaning super fast and then do jumping jacks," excuse. Which we all know only ends with the house not cleaned very well and no jumping jacks getting done.

Oh, and I figured out an e-reader works really well as a calisthenic workout buddy for lovers of the written word. Can you hold a plank position or deep squat long enough to finish a chapter? Want to finish that sentence? Do another crunch to be able to see the page again. That kind of thing.

Geek fitness anyone?