Stuck

Though I haven't been blogging here for months, I have been trying to keep moving. I've made a little progress in weight loss over the past few months, but it's been frustratingly slow and undramatic. I've managed to lose a few pounds, but I seem to hover around the new weight and can't keep the downward trend going. I have a couple of theories as to why that is (it's not rocket science):

1) I'm doing better about exercising more consistently and I'm challenging myself more, but more often than not, I spend the rest of the day sitting in front of the computer.

2) I'm not doing so well at making consistently good eating decisions. All too often, I buy that ice cream or cheese or bread or whatever it is that's tempting me at the moment.

Re point 1) Over the past few months, I've been walking/running a local mountain (4 miles round trip) on a regular basis. I even worked up to running the whole thing and one point, but then I slacked off again. Right now, I can run about 1 of the 2 miles up, and then run the 2 miles down. I've also been doing gym workouts, incorporating strength training back into my workout. On Sunday, I went on my first long bike ride in about 9 months (~25 miles). This morning, I did a workout from Fitness Magazine at home. Kicked my ass! I'm going to follow the plan, which is to do the workout every other day, with cardio days in between, and see if the shift in routines helps. I've also ordered some exercise bands to take with us when we go to Chica's country-of-birth for five weeks this summer--I want a way for us to keep working out even when we're traveling. Also, Chica has started taking tai chi classes and her mother is an instructor; I'm hoping that we'll do some tai chi while traveling as well (this is a particularly rigorous style of tai chi--workouts are 2 hours and incorporate yoga as warm up and cool down).

I'm trying to incorporate more NEAT activities into my daily routine. NEAT=Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis. The argument of the researchers at the Mayo Clinic is that we can burn a lot of calories by incorporating more non-exercise activities into our lives. (BTW, I don't understand most of what that link I sent you to says; I heard an interviewer with the researcher on NPR. His book is Move a Little, Lose a Lot. I haven't bought it--am trying to apply the principle without laying down the cash for the book.)

NEAT activities are things like dancing around while you wash the dishes, standing up while you fold laundry, gardening, using the stairs instead of the elevator, getting up a lot to get water, being inefficient (e.g., taking two trips to bring in the groceries instead of one), etc. Common sense, right? But thinking about NEAT is what made me realize how much time I spend on the couch compared to the time I spend in the gym. If I can incorporate more NEAT activities in addition to the workouts, maybe I can make some headway on the scale.

With all of that, why am I still stuck hovering around the same point on the scale? That's where the second factor comes in.

Re point 2), well, that's the same old story. I've been stressed and sort of down/sad for the past few weeks--stressed with the normal end of the quarter stuff and kind of blue in the aftermath of the year. I'm so over being alone out here while Chica's back on the east coast. Luckily, we've got about a week more of that, then I go back east for a week or so, we drive her car here, and then we take off on our big trip. When we get back, she'll be here permanently. When she was here last (for the first part of June), we did much, much better at preparing healthy dinners and packing good lunches for me. I was still tempted to eat the bad stuff a lot, but at least I was eating decent meals in between. (By the way, I am *not* good at portion control when it comes to things like ice cream, etc. I do horribly at eating just one cookie a night, and not 10. Usually, I have to completely abstain if I'm going to cut back on sweets). As always, I'm hoping that progress on the exercise front will inspire me to maintain a little more discipline on the eating front.

I'd really wanted to lose more weight before the big trip. Chica's family are a tiny people, and I already look like the Michelin Man in photos with them, even when I'm slimmer. I know it's not good to use vain goals like looking good in vacation photos to drive diet/exercise choices--a cookie in the hand now will usually win out over the future photo op--so I suppose the other thing I need to do is find a reliably convincing and persuasive rationale for not eating the cookie. Heart health is one factor: one of my brothers, 10 years my senior, recently failed a stress test and had to have stint implanted to open up a clogged artery. Apparently, heart issues run in our family. Exercise helps, but I think diet is much more important.

Anyway, I'm glad to have made the little progress that I have, though I hope to get past this hurdle sometime in the near future.