PUTTING THE TWENTIES TOGETHER (Part 2)

CALL ME STRAWBERRY

Strawberry is my name for this blog, anyway.  I'm using a fruit because is what I should be eating.  I'm using this fruit because it is my favorite.  I love strawberries.  If I ate them more frequently, I'd be a much fitter person.

I am sitting here in front of the computer in my home, eating an apple and starting over once again.  In January, I made a pledge to myself and to my blog that I would lose 20 lbs at a time and reach my goal by the summer.  It did not happen.  I also pledged to weigh myself once a week in a bathing suit.  I did it the first week, but after that, I did not.

I was at a party for my softball team this past Friday.  Plenty of food, drink and fun.  The highlight of the night is a photo collage that one of my teammates puts together every year for the team to watch.  Everyone gathers around the tv to watch a DVD of pictures of our team from year to year, including the season that has just finished.  I always hate watching it, because I never look good in the pictures.  Some of the pictures are those that I was not prepared to take (whether sweating on the field or whatever).  Usually at the end of the collage I feel as if I should go on a diet.  So here I am again.

Nobody said that losing weight is easy.  If it was easy, everyone would be at their goal weight.   Gaining weight is easy.  I'm good at that.  I love my beer and chips.  I'm not big on cakes and pies, but I do like them. I know that when I'm serious, I can cut all the bad foods out of my diet and 20 lbs would drop pretty easily, or that was what I thought.  This past year, I got as far as 10.  But even when I do get to the first 20, Its just hard to get past it.  I have lost 20 lbs numerous times, but not in a row.  That's my problem.

I know what I have to do to lose weight.  That is not the problem.  The problem is sticking to the program.  Eating the wrong food, or too much of the wrong food, is an addiction, just like smoking or drinking.  I often wonder about people who cannot quit smoking, and may shake my head at them because they are ruining their health.  But, those who are addicted to food are doing the same thing.  

I joined Weight Watchers and lost 20 last year doing the online thing.  I did not have the time or money for meetings, although I knew that it was extremely difficult to lose weight without the meetings.  After a year, my net weight gain was 5 lbs.  I had some good weeks and bad weeks.  I basically maintained the weight that I have been for the past 10 years.  For every week that I logged in my meals, there were 5 that I did not.  I spent 20 dollars a month to gain weight.   I don't blame them.  It's me.

Now I'm doing Spark People.  Once again, I will be blogging my progress good or bad to keep me on track.   I make no promises about how often I will blog, because I found that if I failed during the week, I did not blog.  Eventually, I avoided the blog like the plague.  This is the first time I've blogged since February 20.  Right after Valentine's day?  Could it be coincidence?

However, I will weigh myself once a week. Today was day one.