Weight Check In

I did this glancingly last week, saying COVID had made me gain some weight back, but this week I wanted a real check in: 192.6, which means I’ve lost 1.2 pounds since last week. Honestly, I could have done much better. I keep coming up with reasons for why I shouldn’t have to diet (like, today is my birthday, so why should I diet?), and that shows me my heart really isn’t in it. Which my brain is not happy with at all.

Right now I feel perched on this sort of strange point where I’ve been taking time off from multiple different obligations, and I really feel like I need to dive back into them, but I keep getting scared of the height of the diving platform.

Case in point: writing. I haven’t written anything consistently in the past 3 months, give or take. While there have been some very, very good reasons for that, I also love writing, and I miss it. I am generally happier when I am writing each day. I feel more accomplished, and I like the feeling of building toward something. But writing is something that can be very momentum-based. There’s a lot of effort that goes into getting started up again, or at least it feels that way at the moment. I was happy that yesterday I managed to get my 1,000 words in, and it felt good. But I need a few weeks of that to feel like I’m back in the zone.

My sister (who’s a life coach) talks a lot about “buffering”: things you do when you know you should be doing something else, but you don’t want to do that something else. I’ve been doing a lot of buffering the past while, mainly to escape having to think about some things I’d rather just ignore. (Death of my father. Tomas actually leaving the house. Not insignificant things by any stretch.) And while I believe some allowance can and should be made for me, I also feel like I’ve about used my allowance up. There are always going to be excuses for not doing the things that need to be done, and I’ve always viewed myself as a person who doesn’t like excuses.

Anyway. This is just a long way of talking about some of why I’m futzing around instead of getting serious about getting my weight down some. Sure, I’m not overweight at the moment, but I’m one holiday season away from being there, and (would you look at that?) I’ve got one holiday season looming ever closer in the future . . .

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

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Requisite Diet Update

I forgot to post yesterday, thinking I’d last posted on Wednesday of last week. (It should generally be on Wednesdays going forward.) I’ve done a fair job with the diet this past while. It’s easy to tell by how hungry I am, generally speaking. (At least at the beginning, when I’m transitioning away from an unhealthy lifestyle.) I ate too many cookies on Saturday evening, but we had company over, and they brought cookies. What was I supposed to do? Be rude? Refuse their cookies? (And their ice cream, because they brought ice cream. Did I mention that?)

No. I am nothing if not polite, so I ate their ice cream and five (or six) of their cookies, just to show how nice I am. Eat your heart out, Emily Post.

So we had the cookie incident, and I broke down and had some peanut M&Ms that were hanging around the house, but other than that, I’ve done a pretty good job. It’s always hard to go back to eating healthy, just because (as I’ve said many times before) food is my main stress reliever. So when the start of the semester rolls around and things are pretty hectic, it’s bad timing to suddenly cut that out of my life. However, eating too much food also makes me feel less than good, so in the end it evens out.

The net result of all of this? I was down to 195.2 today, which puts me back into “normal weight” territory, if only by a hair. 4.8 pounds down in a week. That’s an awful lot for a week, but the beginning of a diet always goes fast. I expect it to slow down a fair bit this coming week. (But maybe if I actually avoid cookies . . .)

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

It’s Diet Time (again)

I’m back in Maine at last, and I’m hoping I get to stay here for the next long while. Since I left for Europe at the end of June, I have been in Maine a total of 10 days. A 3 week vacation sounds dandy, and it was. But when it’s followed by 3.5 weeks of tending to your dying parent and then dealing with the funeral, it all is much less than dandy. While I was on vacation, I didn’t really worry about my weight, because who in their right mind worries about weight when they’re on vacation in Italy. I had decided to go back on my normal diet when I got home, and I did.

For 10 days.

Then I went down to Pennsylvania, and I didn’t think about anything at all for the next 3 weeks. I didn’t have much to do other than eat, and I was stressed. This is a bad combination, and it all culminated in me getting on the scale when I got home and discovering I was 200 pounds, the first time I’ve been over that mark since March 2016. While on the one hand, I guess it’s great that I’ve been able to keep my weight down that long, on the other, 200 pounds?!? Between Italy and stress, I’d gained about 14 pounds.

Denisa reminded me that I shouldn’t be hard on myself after all that’s happened, and I know that and try to keep it in mind, but at the same time, I am very not happy with this trend.

So I’m back on the sugar-free, calorie counting diet again, and I’m back to telling you all where I am with my weight. I’m going to check in once a week to keep you up to date, though really, it’s just keeping me accountable. It’s the formula that’s worked best for me over the years, and why mess with something that works well? I don’t know how long it’ll take me. I’m not trying to lose weight insanely fast. But the good news is that looking ahead, there aren’t too many trips in my future, and the ones that are there are only for a few days. I can weather those no problem, typically.

It’s the weeks and weeks of doing things differently that gets me in trouble.

Wish me luck!

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this DON’T GO TO SLEEP Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Weight Check In: Omicron Edition

It’s been a while since I checked in with my somewhat regular accountability post on my weight. The last time, actually, was the end of my last big push to lose weight. That was back in April of 2021. I’d been just going with a limited menu of foods for about six weeks, and I got down to 177.4. In the intervening months, however, life got very (very) hectic, and my diet completely went out the window. I even stopped weighing myself over Christmas break, which is usually the first step toward complete disaster.

So after all those months of no dieting, what was the damage?

I’m pleased to say I clocked in today at 186.6. Yes, that’s almost up 10 pounds, but when you consider the last check in was just after dieting (and my weight inevitably bounces back up some after I go off a diet), then it’s not that far off from where I’d like to be, which is in the 180-185 range. Honestly, I’m amazed I managed to go somehow keep things together enough to not completely lose it.

I’m switching back to my normal menu now, which means usually the same meals every day. I know I call it a “diet,” but honestly it’s almost more comfortable for me to eat that way than to eat any other way. I don’t have to think about what I’m eating. I just eat the same thing at the same time every day, and I’m good to go. When I’m hungry, I know that I won’t be hungry in an hour or so, and that’s enough to keep me from minding. Yes, I’ll eat something different now and then, but on the whole, I just don’t like wasting time worrying about things that don’t matter that much to me. I love food, but I’ve found as long as I save the special food for times I really care, then the in-between times don’t really matter that much.

Anyway. Nothing else to say here other than to share that small, bright spot today. I hope your Wednesday is going well.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking this PERFECT PLACE TO DIE Amazon link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Final Weigh In (for now)

Let’s cut to the chase. I was 177.4 this morning, meaning that I’m down 11.4 pounds since I began six and a half weeks ago. And I’ll be honest: my heart’s just not in this anymore. I know my goal was 175, but I’m low enough now that I don’t feel like continuing, and 6.5 weeks of oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches has proven to be as many weeks as I want to go.

The good news is that I was still going along at a good clip, even at the end here. I mean, I’m down 1.6 pounds for this last week, which is the most I’ve been down in a single week for well over a month. Clearly if I wanted to keep going, I could. And two or three weeks from now, I’d make it to 175. I might end up doing that after a bit of a break, but . . . I guess there’s a balance between how bad I want to lose weight and how much I want to eat pizza, and it’s Tomas’s birthday, so the “eating pizza” part of me just veto’ed the rest.

Still, I’m considering this “mission accomplished.” In a month and a half I got my weight back down to a spot I’m very comfortable with. I’ve added some weight lifting back into my regimen, and so I’m still going to be working at doing things to keep getting into (slightly) better shape. Where will I go from here? Well, for now I’ll be transitioning back to a maintain eating style, meaning that I’ll still generally be eating a small breakfast and lunch, but I’ll eat more for dinner than I have been, and occasionally have some dessert. I’m going to do that for 3-4 weeks and see where I am.

Thanks for putting up with these weekly posts from me. They honestly help a ton in making and keeping and reaching goals, even if I know they’re not the most interesting topic to all of you. It’s amazing what a little accountability will do for even the least attractive goals out there. If any of you have something that you’ve always wanted to do (whether it’s losing weight or writing a book or learning a language or whatever), I wholeheartedly recommend making a public goal. It doesn’t have to be on Facebook. It can be nothing more than telling your family about it, though the more people you tell, the better this life hack works. Also commit (publicly) to a regular check in, and ask them for help remembering. Once you’ve got that in place, it’s really just a matter of sticking to the plan. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but it definitely works for me.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.