My Crazy Path to Weight Loss

Thanks to my friend Ann's wake-up post, I'm going to do a better job of saying exactly how I'm proposing to lose weight. Here they are:

1. I write down everything I eat. I joined Weight Watchers online because it's the easiest way to track how much I should eat and how much I am eating. I love it!

2. I exercise in some way daily -- whether it's a 20-minute walk or riding my horse or going to the gym, I do it.

3. I try to eat whole foods as close to their original source as possible so I'm reducing the amount of hormones, preservatives and other objects. That means shopping at farmer's markets, coops, through farmers and at the Paoli Local Foods. I also buy some foods at typical supermarkets such as grass-fed meats, dried beans, frozen vegetables, etc.

4. That means absolutely no stopping at fast food. I ate a hamburger in late January as a farewell to eating those foods and to really slowly chew it and see if I even really liked it. I didn't. No real taste other than salt and fat at all.

Now, due to my wake up post from Ann, and remembering the advice of other good friends, I'm adding a few more things to my list to jump start my weight loss.

1. I'm actually measuring and weighing my foods. My scale sits on the countertop as of this morning. I actually weighed 1 ounce of venison for this morning's breakfast, measured the parmesan cheese and even the honey butter. Here's my breakfast today:

2 free-range brown eggs scrambled with 1/4 cup of leftover broccoli (from our freezer garden stash).
1 piece of Natural Ovens wheat bread with 1/2 tsp. of honey butter (even that little bit of butter is yummy and filling).
1 ounce of venison leftover from a previous meal.
Black coffee

2. Calculating by brand name or nutrition information the actual points for food. Good lesson this morning. I usually count all bread as 2 points unless it's a bigger peice and then I count it as 3 or 4 depending on size (some French boule's come in really long pieces). But this morning I calculated the Natural Ovens bread on the points calculator online and found it was only 1 point. Yay! That's important because I am trying to get the exact number of points each day and not use my weekly bonus points for anything except emergencies. But if I'm calculating wrong, then I can get a little too hungry and might go wild like I did in the grocery store yesterday.

3. Hunger monitoring. I'm going to do a better job of waiting until my hunger gets to a 3 on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being ravenous). I often eat because it's time to eat. If I'm truly trying to get in touch with food and my body's use of food, I've got to really pay attention to how hungry I am and then eat a little bit right then.

4. Continue to really push to reverse my eating ladder. I want to eat like the French. A good breakfast, significant lunch and then just a bit for dinner with small snacks in between. And by small snacks, I mean a cup of veggies and dip or 1/2 cup of veggies and an ounce of cheese. No more than 2-3 points eaach, but enough to satisfy me so the graze doesn't continue. My nutritionist Tracie has always recommended a glass or orange juice with a bit of gelatin, and that works especially when the time between meals might be extended (evenings out, rides in cars, etc.)

Tomorrow I'll post a sample of my day based on what happens today. Now I've got to pry my husband away from the television to take our dog for a walk. Darn that Superbowl pregame coverage!