It's the little things
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Was cleaning up a pile of papers in my kitchen and found a printout of a blog post by The Healthy Hausfrau that I really, really needed to re-read last night. It's titled A Bite Here and There: What's the Big Deal? Here's a snippet:
Though seemingly insignificant alone, when added together, these random bites can total up to an unwanted energy surplus. So if your weight continues its mysterious upward creep, it’s worth it to employ your detective skills.
It then goes on to tally up the spoonfuls, bites and random nibbles that we ingest throughout the day. It can be a lot. (You've really got to read her post.)
While my weight has not been creeping upward, it does stay frustratingly stable, give or take 5 pounds.
If I was at a healthy weight, we'd call that maintenance, but I'm not ready for that yet.
And this, my friends, is my Achilles heel -- all the things that don't get journaled because they're "too small to count."
And having slammed the front door on my Achilles tendon last year (I blame the dog), I know how hard it can be to "heal the heel." (I also had a stroller slam into my Achilles a few years back at a theme park, which took months to heal.) So I know this habit may not resolve itself overnight but one day at a time, right?
While I have made huge strides over the years in:
- Making exercise a regular part of my weekday
- Reducing processed foods
- Eliminating artificial sweeteners
- Drinking more water
- Eating reasonable portions at meals
- Curbing nighttime grazing
The dribs and drabs are blocking me from making sustained weight-loss progress.
So that's my next project: To stay out of the kitchen when it's not meal or snack time, because getting rid of all the spoons in my house would be highly impractical.
I'm still on track with 52-52-52 (52 pounds, 52 weeks, 52 years on Earth) but that headstart cushion is getting thin.
Side note: As I was writing this post, I orginally wrote that "huge strides" section as a paragraph but when I changed it to a bulleted list, I liked that I was able to see how far I HAVE come in a veritable lifetime of trying to get to some sort of goal. So in honor of that (and because it's now stuck in my head), please enjoy The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done":