Let’s Diet!

I feel like it’s just been a little bit since I last dieted and blogged about it, but it turns out (going over my entries (yay for tags!)) that it was October 2013. So over 2 years? I guess that’s not as recent as I thought. And in the intervening time, I’ve certainly made some significant changes to my life, between regular exercise and drastically cutting down on the sugary foods I eat.

The good news is that exercise and sugar reduction helped me to stop gaining weight.

The bad news is that I’d already gained plenty by the time I made those changes, and those gains have hung around with me since. And between the funeral, the conference, and the holidays, I’d added a couple of pounds to them. So when I stood on the scale Tuesday and looked at the number, I decided enough was enough.

Back to Dietville. Population: me.

However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see it’s been a bit of an easier start this time, mainly because I already eat so much healthier. I didn’t have to cut out any really bad, calorie rich foods. I just had to work on portion control. And I was surprised to see how much my portion sizes had increased since I was dieting and measuring everything out.

On my diet, I’d been eating 60 grams of oatmeal for breakfast. I was still eating oatmeal, but I’d stopped measuring it, figuring that I could eyeball it just as well. But when I measured what I was eating now? I’d more than doubled the portion. In other words, in the intervening 2 years and change, my eyeballs had slowly increased that oatmeal allotment until it was twice as big.

So it’s been changes like that.

Some immediate success (as there always is), but I’m probably in for a long haul again. The worst thing dieting does to me is makes me irritable more easily. I’m a stress eater, so when I don’t have that outlet to destress, I tend to get grouchier. My apologies in advance to anyone I snap at.

And because this blog only really helps me if I’m public about numbers, here’s the stats for now:

Starting weight: 217.8

Weight today: 215.2

Sorry to clog all your feeds with diet updates over the next while. Wish me luck.