As readers of my blog may know (all five of you), I have struggled with my weight since quitting smoking in August. Before that I was losing weight steadily since the beginning of the year. In fact, I’d lost 48 pounds. Now, as of last Monday’s official record, I am at a net loss of 33 because I gained 15 back.
What changed?
I took up running in the form of the C25K training program. I have kept up with it past the 5k fun run I did in October and exercise at least 3 days a week. Well, I know I didn’t gain those 15 pounds from running! Next?
I stopped smoking. It is said that people gain an average of 10 pounds when they quit smoking. I like to think I am an overachiever but I don’t think I can blame it all on the smoking. Besides, restarting isn’t an option so nothing I can change here… Next?
I stopped recording my food intake. Therein lies the root of the problem! If I am not obsessively counting my calories I begin to lie to myself. “Oh, I know I ate a candy bar at 10am but these cookies won’t really put my calories for the day that far over.” Not having the actual calories taken in for the day staring at me from my phone made it easy to fool myself.
So I again began scanning packages and recording bites. When? Thanksgiving Day, of course. Why not restart a diet on the most gluttonous day of the year?
Then yesterday, I bought a Fitbit. I was planning on buying the Zip when I went into the store, but it was $10 more than I thought it was going to be so I ended up talking myself into the One which was even more expensive (don’t try to follow that logic… it’s impossible.) I would have loved the Flex that you wear on your wrist but using sign language all day would mean that the more I talked, the more steps it would count.
So far I am really liking the Fitbit. It syncs into My Fitness Pal (which I just switched to from Lose It) so I can track steps and exercise in the same program as my calories. It also syncs to SparkPeople for my points there and then I have it linking to Earndit, Everymove, AchieveMint, and Walgreens because you can win things and earn discounts and such through them.
So I have seriously restarted my quest towards 150 pounds with renewed vigor (and new electronics.)