Change is hard!

My renewed determination to lose weight appears to be working! This past week, I lost 1.5 pounds, bringing my weekly average since the beginning of the year to .72 pounds. It won’t be long before I’ll be back to my 1 pound a week goal.

The reason for my improvement over previous weeks is that I really did try something different this week. As I mentioned in my last post, I had slipped into the “insane” habit of doing the same thing day after day and expecting the results to be different.

Even when we were little girls, getting together with a friend meant eating... only now, it's not pretend tea and crumpets

Over the last week, my partner and I changed the nightly routine we’d been following so long it qualified as a ritual. For years, after dinner most nights, we’d do our own thing until about 8:30, at which time we’d get together to do some outloud reading and watch a movie or some shows on DVD until about midnight.

The problem was that during almost the entire evening, we snacked. I don’t mean we had a piece of fruit or a couple of crackers. I mean we grazed… continuously.  It used to be things like pretzels and M&Ms, or a cheese crisp, or chips and dip, or one of my scrumptious desserts. It was totally habit-driven since neither of us was hungry, but we felt almost like we were going through withdrawals if we didn’t have that hand-to-mouth action going on.

When I started my diet, I switched to “better” snacks like low-fat crackers, fruit, high-fiber cereal, etc. That’s why I was able to lose the first 25 pounds. But while I changed WHAT I was nibbling, I didn’t change the fact that I WAS nibbling and eventually my weight loss plateaued. That went on for weeks, and while I didn’t gain, I didn’t lose.

So, this past week, we mixed things up a bit. We now get together for our reading and watching shortly after dinner; we’re still full and don’t have any interest in eating. I seem to be able to manage about 2-1/2 to 3 hours without snacking (although at this stage, it still feels as though something’s ‘missing’!). As soon as either of us starts feeling the desire to munch something, we call it a night and get out of the living room.

I usually go into the office or one of the few “non-eating” rooms in the house, places where I don’t normally snack. Or I occupy myself with a “no-eat” activity (weaving on my loom, cleaning the garage, playing computer games, taking a long hot bath, etc.).

It’s really weird. After following a set routine for so many years, it’s just plain disconcerting to change. Kind of like being on the “wrong” side of the couch or bed, or using your non-dominant hand to write! I never realized what a creature of habit I was or how challenging change can be. Yet,  if I want change in my weight, there has to be a change in something else to bring that about. And I do want to lose weight.

I’ve also altered another habit that I never even noticed before. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I realized that when I’m eating (meals OR snacks), I frequently put food into my mouth even though I haven’t finished the last bite. It’s as though I can’t let my mouth be empty for even a fraction of a second or I’ll starve! Now, I’m trying to remember (I don’t always) to finish what I have in my mouth before putting more in there. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I’m amazed at how it’s slowed down my eating, and slower usually means less in the long run.

The third change I’ve made is to NOT have an “official” weigh-in day. I weighed myself every day but had an “official” day of the week when I recorded my weekly progress. At first, it was Monday, but that made it difficult to enjoy treats over the weekend, so I switched it to Friday. But that meant I couldn’t enjoy eating on Thursday, even if I’d lost weight that week (you know how it is, you lose two pounds during the week, but gain it all back the night before you weigh in!).

So now, I weigh in daily as usual, and take the lowest weight recorded that week for my weekly weight. For example, this past Friday — on what used to be my official weigh in day — I logged in at 195, but on Tuesday I’d been down to 193.5. I took the latter (lower) number as my weekly figure, and my goal for next week is to reach 192.5 sometime during the week. As long as I keep going down a pound at some point in each 7-day period, I figure I”ll be moving in the right direction.

I only have about four weeks until my 61st birthday, which was supposed to be when I reached 178 pounds (one pound a week). Looks like I’ll be closer to 188, but I’m definitely not going to be sad about that. Even if I keep to the same slow progress I’ve made so far, I’ll be down to 150 by my NEXT birthday. That’ll be the best birthday present I could possibly give myself. Well, that and some brand new clothes!