Thursday, November 30, 2006

Cool, cool water

That sweet, soothing old country song seems like the perfect way to announce that:
Our well is fixed!
No longer does the H20 look carbonated coming from the tap. No more explosions of air from the shower head just as you're getting ready to rinse and repeat. Woo hoo!

And it only cost a leg, not an arm and a leg. But Mr. Shrinking Knitter and I agreed that if it had cost an arm and a leg we would have gladly paid it, for the peace of mind of not having to hold our breath every time we turned on the tap.
•••
I kind of wanted to smack Adrian on The Biggest Loser last night, but I also know just how she feels. She worked so hard and did so well and only lost two pounds. Her biggest worry – as is mine – is that we're stuck. This – 20 or 25 or 30 pounds more than that ideal number – is what we're going to weigh for the rest of our lives. I'm sure if I worked as hard as the contestants work, I'd be bummed, too.

And I really wanted to smack that perky little Kim, who just said, "Keep working out and eating right and you'll get there!" Raise your hand if you've been doing that for the last two or five or 10 years.

As I was thinking about my contradictory emotions, it occurred to me that all those months and years I tried and failed to lose weight, I really was smacking myself, instead of acknowledging that I was, at least, aware of the problem and working toward a solution. M@rla has devised – and trademarked! heh – a reward plan to help keep things interesting and reward her compliance. I love that idea, but I end up spending more time smacking myself for things I do wrong. I'm sure there's a deeply rooted psychological reason for this. Too bad my husband won't treat family members.

SparkPeople has an article about rewarding oneself with some good ideas. One suggestion is to take yourself on a trip when you reach your weight-loss goal. While that still focuses on the final number, instead of doing the right thing day in and day out, it's one that I've considered. I've never been on a cruise. A knitting cruise to Alaska would be a great prize for me.

Some of the reward ideas are things I do without even thinking. Do I want to subscribe to a magazine? Okay, then, send a check. If I feel like reading a book or watching a television program or spending time on a hobby, I stop mopping the floor and switch gears. So those aren't really rewards to me.

The electronic food scale was, though. And I ordered Calorie King as a reward and a tool.
•••
My angst about The Biggest Loser is out of my hands next week. I watch the major networks through a satellite service. Because the company provided distant network programming to customers who had local programming available, they've now been ordered to remove the distant channels from their line-up. Thereby denying those of us who don't have local programming the opportunity to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

Dish Network will be installing an antenna so that we can get local signals [which will mean figuring out which input button to push ... sometimes even this geek-loving girl wishes for the good old days] on Dec. 12. So I'll miss next week's TBL, but should be able to see the finale.

1 comment:

M@rla said...

Hooray for the well! So glad you are waterful once again. We're having our water line replaced Monday. $$$$, but could be worse. Hey, I didn't want to have Christmas anyway.

The thing about rewards is, when I first started this I had a giant list of rewards set out for every ten pounds or so. That is so unnecessary--losing weight is reward enough!! Getting a little treat is not even a millionth of the motivation that losing ten pounds is, by itself. Where the reward system may work, though, is when you get to that point where continuing effort yields lessened results. It's important to keep going, but you're not getting the reward of pounds lost. So this way I can motivate myself to do the right things, which is something I CAN control, instead of holding off on a "someday" reward for something I cannot directly control, i.e., my weight.

I'm sure there's some sort of psychology-whatsit-thing involved; run it by Mr. Shrinking Knitter...