Monday, July 14, 2008

This is hard.

A lot of people (my mother included) warned me that the toughest thing about losing weight is keeping it off.

Boy, were they right. I'm really glad I have a good scale at home now, so I can weigh myself every day. And for the most part I have managed to keep things at or below 155 (with the occasional 156 at the end of the day, after a big dinner).

But I can really see how things could get away from me. It's so easy to say to myself, "Yay, I reached my goal weight! I'm done dieting! Where's the cheese?" and wake up back at 170 or something. And everybody knows that yo-yo dieting is bad for you, and that the older you get, the harder it is to lose the weight. All of which are great arguments for staying vigilant.

But let's face it: constant vigilance is exhausting. Forgive the comparison, but right after 9/11, we were all perfectly happy to have our bags searched every time we flew. Seven years later, we're sick to death of it. When you first start a diet, every skipped dessert and trip to the gym is a personal triumph; six months later, mama just wants to sit on the couch and eat a piece of cake without worrying what it will do to next week's numbers.

So, like I said: this is hard.

3 comments:

Machelle said...

Well maintaining is different than losing, but as you say, the trick is not to let it get away from you. Just have that cake during a week when you'll have that long run, or hike, or bike ride...

Anonymous said...

yeah - what venetian said.

5 miles = 1 cannoli

or at least that's my theory on life. :-)

Love,
Sis

Anonymous said...

and adding (because I'm never done...):

I always find I need to have SOME goal in mind - like a new race, a new pair of pants, something.

Time to find that next 1/2 marathon!

(and I need to get my own ass out of the office and into the gym too. Perhaps a family race where we ditch the boys and have a girls' weekend somewhere next summer?) ;-)

Love,
Sis