THIS CRAZY BODY OF MINE
25 November 2003
I don't understand the body.
When I went to Weight Watchers last Tuesday, I was a little nervous. I
hadn't had a perfect week. It hadn't been horrible, but it wasn't
perfect. I thought maybe I'd gain a bit, or at the most stay the
same.
Instead, I lost 1.8 lbs. Go figure.
I came away from the meeting with relief, with renewed enthusiasm, and
with a plan for the coming week--and for getting through
Thanksgiving.
I also came home and leaped into this cleaning frenzy. It's been a
very busy week, with a lot of activity--all that climbing up and down
stairs, getting up and down off the floor, scrubbing, dusting, etc. I
also went biking twice. So it's been a more active than recent week
and the funny thing is that the more I cleaned, the less important food
was for me.
There were days when I would skip my mid-day snack(s)--morning and
afternoon. As I came to the end of the day, I'd look at my points and
discover that I was quite a bit under the target point. One day it was
13 points under, another day it was 9. I know they say you should eat
all, or at least most, of your allotted food for the day, but given the
week I'd had the previous week, I didn't rush to catch up.
When I got up this morning, I stepped on my home scale and noted, with
pleasure, that it showed a 2 point drop.
Then I went to Weight Watchers.
Same scale. Same clothes. I expected to see at least the 2 lb loss,
but no. I gained 0.6 lbs!
How can that be???
In another wonderful twist of serendipity, during the course of the
discussion, Chris happened to say "what if you've done everything right
during the week and still gain?"
(And she wasn't even the one who weighed me!)
It was a comment she made in passing, but it obviously hit home. The
context was that the most successful way to work the program is to be
doing it for your health, not for weight loss.
And of course that's why I started this. Of course I wanted to lose
weight, but I mainly wanted to get healthier.
So am I healthier this week?
Hell, yes!
I've eaten a balanced low-fat diet, with tons of vegetables, didn't eat
anything "bad." I scrubbed and cleaned and vacuumed and feel good
about how the house looks. I got out on my bike a couple of times. I
followed the program 100%.
So it doesn't matter that I gained weight. The gain was negliglble. I
stuck with the program. That's the important thing.
I've also stuck with the decluttering program. My sink is still shiny,
my countertops still decluttered, and today I tackled the living room,
finally finding the dining room table, and getting some dusting and furniture polishing done.
For those who checked on the story of The Bennett Family, the sad news is that young Tommy Bennett lost his battle at 3 a.m. this morning.