So far...

I encountered a term I hadn't heard of before: Caloric Shifting. Someone or another was touting the "Fat Loss 4 Idiots" plan, and I thought "Huh. Interesting..."
The basic idea is that your body gets used to the same caloric intake every day, and "adjusts" itself accordingly to burn approximately that number of calories. So, if you try to stick to a 1500-Calorie-per-day diet, your body will fairly rapidly adjust to burning only 1500 Calories per day. Metabolisms are like that. Snotty little things.
So, the premise is, since your metabolism adjusts, fake it out. YOU adjust too, so it can't get "in a rut". Eat high Calorie one day, and really low Calorie the next.
So I asked WildStrawberry about it, and she said, "huh. Sounds like the Wendie Plan for Weight Watchers." I checked it out, and yes, yes it does indeed sound like the Wendie Plan! I read the description of the Wendie Plan, and thought, "Huh, that makes a LOT of sense. I'm gonna try it!"

Fortunately, the "WWCalc" program for Palm PDAs is easy enough to adapt for it, as long as I remember a couple things, like "I'm doing this week by week, NOT just day by day".

And I've discovered it makes it easier for me to think, "eh, even though my very most favoritest food (pizza) is available - FOR FREE (even better), I'm saving my Points for my "High Day" this Friday," and not go scarf some free pizza. Did I mention it was free?

So...so far, I'm happy with it. Yay!
We'll see if it's still this easy and useful in a month or two, when I'm getting VERY tired of journaling, VERY tired of tracking points, VERY tired of "oh, mustn't have, saving for..."

Although I think as long as the scale keeps going in a direction indicating loss of mass on my part (or an alarming gravitational problem on the Earth's part), then it'll continue to motivate me to keep going.

Taking Up, or Giving Up?

Yesterday was Transfiguration Sunday. That means that in 2 days, we celebrate Ash Wednesday. Consequently, I've been contemplating "giving up for Lent". In the past, I've generally not chosen to give up something for Lent, just because I really couldn't come up with something meaningful for me, that didn't feel like "giving up for Lent because everyone else is and it's the Thing To Do." So I didn't.
In the past, I've heard mention also of TAKING Up For Lent - the taking up of a GOOD habit or something beneficial, just for 6 weeks, to help IMPROVE oneself. I thought that was an interesting idea - but, again, nothing really came of it.
However, this year, I'm giving up AND taking up.
I'll be taking up "Weight Watchers Points Program" again - to the extent of logging, tracking and keeping within my "points range". I don't do the meetings, or the online stuff, or whatever. I have a "WW buddy" already, and once she reads this I'm sure she'll keep me on track. :D
So at first you'd think my answer to "fine, that's your taking up, what's your GIVING up?" would be "duh, poundage." Which, really, it is, but in addition I'm giving up Self Indulgent Eating. I've been indulging myself with food for the last while, and not only is it showing up in my waistline, it's also contributing to my lousy attitude, depression and generally making me feel like crap.
So.
I'm giving up Self Indulgent Eating.
It's only for six weeks.
And, really, even though it is for 6 weeks, and it won't be easy, I'm gonna go through that 6 weeks whether I watch what I eat or not. It's MY choice if I want to arrive at Easter even fatter, more bloated, and generally feeling crummy, or if I arrive at Easter at least knowing that I can, in fact, limit my eating. And I'll probably feel a lot better, and weigh less.
And who knows, I might figure out how to divide by zero by then.

New Commitment?

Well, not really. I just weighed myself is all.

I've gotta do something. I can't keep doing what I have been, which is pretty much "eat whatever I want, whenever I want, in the quantities I want." So...I'm going to keep with a "modified" WeightWatchers' program.
I'll still keep Points in mind, and I'll probably start logging all my eating again, just so I can track what I eat. I'm not going to do so with the mindset of "ooohhh, I can't eat anything except celery for lunch if I want to have for dinner", though. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do, or how I'm going to use those numbers yet. But right now, I need to start paying attention again.

And I'm not gonna eat unless I am hungry. See how long that works out.

Being Good Is hard To Do

I was talking yesterday with a friend about how difficult it is to lose weight. The formula's easy enough: Calories In < Calories Out. It's the implementation that's difficult.

I want something that's going to work for life, instead of being just a weight-loss "system". I want something that's going to be healthy. I want it to work, instead of "doing all the right things" for weeks on end only to find that...hey, wow, I lost a pound. Whoopdeedoo.

I want it to work without surgery. I want it to work now. I need results, doggone it. And I want to do it without having to dang near obsess about Calories, Carbohydrates, the Glycemic Index, Grams of Fiber, or Weight Watchers Points.

I want to do it with normal real food, that I can make myself, not some prepackaged expensive stuff that comes in miniscule portions with some big-name weightloss company's name stamped on it. And most of all, I want to still be able to enjoy food.

I guess that's my biggest problem, really. I enjoy food. I don't want to give up food, and I'm extremely tired of "well, if I eat this NOW, I won't have any 'extra' Points / Calories left over for that thing I wanted later." I'm tired of having to do calculations and keep records of what I eat and enter numbers into my PDA for five minutes just so I know if I can have that one snack I was eyeballing.
I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being fat, but more than that, I'm sick of trying to not be fat. Calculating and adding up numbers and worrying about if I have "enough" Points left to actually have a bag of pretzels is not normal. I don't know how I'm going to lose weight, but dangit, I'm NOT going to continue trying to do it the way I have been.
We'll come up with something, I suppose. And if we don't, well, I've been fat this long. I'm kinda used to it. It's not good for me, I know - I'd be FAR better off exercising more, eating less, and generally getting thinner and healthier. But for now, I'm just going to try to come up with something that works for me. Once I find it...I'll let you know.