and now for something completely different...

...a post about how I'm going to lose the rest of this weight! Haven't seen one of these in a while. Reading the latest posts, you'd think this site was the "why can't I do this" diaries, instead of the workout diaries.

I suppose it's natural to get discouraged from time to time, but wallowing in that discouragement doesn't fix the problem any faster. However, in my case, neither does making a plan. So I have to come up with a way to dig myself out of the hole I'm in, but avoid derailing myself by calling it a "plan".

I thought long and hard (or at least long or hard) about what I was going to do. I'll spare you the thought process, which involved review of archives, flowcharts, small experiments, several drafts, and recalling a Bible verse out of context ("do what you did at first", part of Revelations 2:5). What I ended up with is that I lost the most weight most easily when I was exercising regularly and being borderline-obsessive about documenting everything I ate. I also did better with weekly weigh-ins and monthly goal reporting.

Duh.

So this is my Definitely-Not-A-Plan, in 3 parts:

1. Exercise every day. It can be a 20 minute walk, it can be an hour in the gym, it can be whatever. It CAN'T be sitting on the couch watching Cold Case Files until it's too late to do anything. It CAN'T be wasting time on the computer until I go blind and/or pass out.

Why not "5 times per week"? Because I'll never make it part of the routine if there are days when I don't have to do it. The procrastinator in me will always want to skip Mondays and Tuesdays because "there's still plenty of time to get 5 workouts in before Sunday". "Every day" eliminates wiggle room, and if I lay around like a slug all day Monday, I can't tell myself I'm still on plan.

2. Be honest with myself about what I eat. It's not so much that I have a problem with journalling food...I have a problem with honest and complete journalling. I hereby vow to document everything that goes into my mouth, painful as it is to admit some days. I'm not going to do it on this site, because I seriously doubt anyone cares what I eat or how much.

3. Create monthly goals and report on whether I meet them. I've abandoned the monthly reports, mostly because it was a little depressing to see how much I failed to meet the goal most months. However, I did better when I had short-term goals, even when I didn't meet them. I think it was mostly that the periodical review allowed me to assess where I was and have a fresh start every 4 weeks. I recognized the ruts before I got totally stuck in them.

That's basically it. I've already started well on the first two, and this month's goals will come in my next post.

So, how many new beginnings does this make? Three? Nine? Too many? I guess it doesn't matter, as long as I keep trying.