Thursday, December 14, 2006

One day down

Well, I can't say I was supremely satisfied with the day yesterday, but I did pretty well.

A friend and I decided Tuesday that once and for all we simply had to be sugar-free. I'm not talking about natural sugar found in fruit, but about refined white poison sugar. I'll keep the details of our conversation to myself, but suffice it to say that sugar sets me up for more and more and more, and more has always been my drug of choice.

I've been sugar-free before for a period of five years, at the suggestion of a therapist, a chiropractor and an M.D., all of whom agreed that I was hypoglycemic, back when hypoglycemia was the disease du jour. I don't know what the current thinking about hypoglycemia is, but at that time a sugar-free, white flour-free diet was recommended as the only way to manage the mood swings. Well, lithium was offered, but I didn'twant to take pills every day for the rest of my life.

Reading back over the last couple months of blog posts, one might conclude that I'm a candidate for nutritional therapy, eh?

I try to avoid sugar, but once in a while – and lately, more often than not – I fall into some kind of trance where I have to have it. It's inexplicable, unexplainable, depressing and demoralizing.

So yesterday was sugar-free, 100 percent. That's a start. My total calories were just slightly more than ideal at 1367, but I also walked a mile and a half outside and did three sets of 15 reps of four dumbbell exercises.

Ahem. I lifted weights yesterday!

According to CalorieKing, if I did that every day – that is, ate what I ate and exercised the same amount – I would lose 6.2 pounds in a month. But we all know I'm a slow loser.

Speaking of losers, New York Erik won the competition on The Biggest Loser last night. Unfortunately I am still not able to receive any of the big-four networks' programming [ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX], so I didn't get to watch. I was sooo bummed. This is the first season I've watched every episode, and then had to miss the finale. That's his before-and-after, and he just doesn't look like the same guy at all. Go to the NBC website for full-body shots.

We had an over-air antenna installed Monday, but it only picks up CBS and FOX on one of our televisions. Now when I say I live in the Middle of Nowhere, do you believe me?

Oh, well. If that's my biggest problem, I'm in pretty good shape.

I finished wrapping the rest of the gifts yesterday, so today I will whip the guest room, which has been Present Central, back into shape. Among other things. The weather is supposed to be unseasonably warm for the next few days, so an outdoor walk also is on the agenda.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations on the sugar-free day! GREAT START!

Jack Sprat said...

If you're going "cold turkey" make sure its the 98% fat free variety (wink!). Have fun with your sugar-free experiment, but beware of withdrawal symptoms. It really IS a drug, you know.

Ok, you didn't ask me, but here are my thoughts on the biggest loser ... Since, as you know, I do not have TV, I went to the website.

What they seem to be promoting is the idea that the MOST DRAMATIC changes are the ones worth applauding. In other words, its laudable to lose 100+ pounds. (And the more pounds per week/day the better).

Anyone losing just 10% of their bodyweight might not "show" any such dramatic changes in their external experience. But if they did that in a healthy (i.e. slow and manageable way) without an audience of millions, it would probably be harder, and therefore a greater accomplishment.

Also, why is there such a prejudice against people who want to lose just 15, or 7, or 5 pounds? For a very small person, losing 5 pounds can be nearly impossible. And for someone who is near their healthy weight goal, shouldn't we encourage them not to get HUGE before they diet themselves back into submission?

I dunno why I'm lecturing ... sorry!

-J (getting down off soap box)