As discussed last week, the scale was on order giving me 72 hours to get my head and heart around actually stepping on it for the first time in over 20 years. One afternoon while I was preoccupied with something pleasant, Paul entered the room and asked “Where do you want this bad boy?” The dreaded new scale had arrived and my mood shifted immediately. I had him park it in the back room with the exercise machines as I slipped into a deep fog of dread that lasted the rest of the day. As the evening progressed, I realized that at this peaceful time in my life there is not much that brings on the emotion of dread but getting on the scale did the job in spades.
I didn’t sleep well that night knowing weigh in was slated for the morning. I unexpectedly woke up at 6:30 which is the crack of dawn for me. In an early morning fugue I quickly and silently slipped into the back room and stepped on the scale. The number that brightly blinked up at me was horrendous and way, way, way beyond anything I imagined. If you look up the word horrendous you will find all the descriptives I was met with; awful, dreadful, terrible, unbearable, atrocious, unspeakable, horrific, ghastly, hideous, terrible, appalling, dire, upsetting, shocking, staggering, outrageous and repulsive. Anyway you get the picture!
I dizzily made my way back into the bedroom, sank back into bed moaning and called Paul for moral support. He laid on the bed with me and empathized as best he could. After trying to blame him as the food and wine pusher that he is, we did some strategizing and the silver lining that emerged is that he too wants to lose weight and is willing to start shopping and cooking in a way that better supports that end. How lucky am I, right?
I am back to logging my food intake every day and, for those interested, am sharing some food changes I made this week:
-Continued drinking V8 & carrot juice with lime seltzer adding green juice to the mix.
-Dusted off the blender and restarted the protein shake regime.
-Added homemade hummus with raw vegetables/low gluten crackers.
-Have hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese and tuna on hand.
-Made Mexican Cabbage Soup (lots of veggies & legumes)
I’ve been on the scale every morning since and so far so good. I know its early days with the toughest challenges yet to come remembering it is a marathon and not a sprint. For better worse, the scale lives on next to the exercise machines which, by the way, I continue to use. I hope this article encourages a few of you to carry on with your own nutritional health.