Doing Semi Hard Things

OK, down about 17 or 18 lbs.  Two or 3 more to go before we leave for Spain Sept. 25th.  I’m happy to be back in the groove living fairly well on about 1200 to 1500 calories per day.  My goal in Spain is to maintain or lose a little more, and then when I get back home to focus really hard for a couple of months on the next twenty lbs.  The hard thing isn’t so much being hungry and feeling that low blood sugar feeling.  The hard thing is to get over my obsessive compulsive over-eating habit, especially at night or when I haven’t eaten for too long.  The thing to do is to take some of the legal snack foods with me for such emergencies.  And, I have some radishes in the fridge as well as Shasta Diet Cream Soda.  Love it!

So, success at last and I’m going down, way down.  I’m looking forward to mom getting worried that I’m looking gaunt and too thin, and Beau worrying that my head looks too big for my small body.  I’d also like to go into Weight Watchers and have them tell me I don’t qualify to go on the program.  Too thin.

You can do hard things.

I believe there are a lot of diet theories that can easily lead you astray.  For example, you can eat virtually as much food as you want on the Atkins diet and easily lose weight.  Or, very low fat diets may allow you the same thing:  you can eat a lot of food as long as it contains very little fat.  I was momentarily convinced that eating foods with higher alkalinity could be a good way to lose weight.  Bottom line, however, is that to lose weight, you have to eat significantly less calories and food than your overweight body naturally desires and when you do this, you will experience some hunger pains and sometimes suffer a little bit!!  Dang, I hate to suffer!!  Haven’t I spent a lifetime of making my life more comfortable?

When we moved into our new house, there was a little quote hanging on one of the bulletin boards that made me think:  ”You can do hard things.”  Hmmm, I thought, but why?  And, what are we talking about, read hard books?  Solve hard math questions?  Certainly not hike big mountains or run far and sweat a lot, or have less to eat than you want or sleep somewhere with no air conditioning!!  Perhaps I can do hard things, but I don’t really want to do hard things.  

And yet the phrase has stuck with me and I’ve realized more and more how profound it really is.  Rick learned how to do hard things.  Mary is doing some hard things.  My buddy Steve Roberts is doing very hard things and Dougie has always done a multitude of hard things.  Mom did many many hard things, so why can’t I and why don’t I?  So, note to myself, Doug, you too can do hard things, especially if the hard things will improve your overall well being, health and happiness.  And it turns out that doing hard things can be done in bite-sized chunks, in the case of dieting, 6 or 7 bite-sized chunks a day instead of the normal feeding frenzy with many multiple bite sized chunks three to four times per day, which of course, leads you into a world of high blood sugar, tight trousers, sweating while doing little easy tasks, and many other ugly things that I won’t mention here.

You can do hard things.  You CAN do hard things!  You can DO hard things!  You can do HARD THINGS!  Doug, you can do hard things, and really, they’re not that hard compared to the hard things my friends and family are able to do.

OK, people, laugh if you want, but I’m down 13 LBS

Unfortunately, I have not learned to eat properly, and, because we’re heading on vacation to Spain at the end of the month and I didn’t want to come back looking like a whale with my 42 trousers feeling tight, I decided to go back on the fairly gruesome Advanced Weight Loss Program that I was on two years ago.  It is medically designed to give you all of the protein and nutrients you need to avoid losing muscle mass, but to give you maximum healthy weight loss.  You get weighed in, measured, blood pressure taken, blood taken, counseled (hate that part) every week.  I have been very happy to be back in the saddle again, and this time, I’ve eaten a few more snacks and exercised moderately (golf and walking) and I feel fine.  I’ve watched my morning blood sugar count drop from a high of 135 to 88 over two weeks.  My PB has also returned to normal.  My 42 trousers are loose already!!  Love it.

They have increased the amount of food products available and I like them a lot.  They range from protein shakes to chili, soups, jello, tasty drinks, hot chocolate, tasty bars, etc.  You buy them once a week when you’re doing the weight in.  My goal is to be down 20 lbs by the time I leave and then, the tough part, to gain no more than a couple of lbs while I’m gone.  

For those of you who have bad habits and can’t seem to get in the WW groove easily, this is a very do-able and good program.  I believe I can be down by the end of Jan., and then I’m going to really work to stay on it partially, perhaps forever.  The lady running the program for Dr. Muse is amazing.  She was 70 lbs over-weight, kind of sluggish, wore muu muu looking outfits to work, etc.  She’s now this cute little babe with a whole new attitude and happiness about her.

If the real estate market stays bad, I might decide to go out and set up clinics in Southern California.  I’d love to be the Jack Lalaine/Richard Simmons type, inspiring people to get with it.