Another one of those resolutions in progress. Last year I gradually realised that I eat a lot of rubbish for no real reason. I tend to eat “just because it’s there” or out of habit, rather than out of any hunger or particular craving. When sitting down to dinner I will finish what is there even if it makes me uncomfortably full (after all it’s only polite). None of this would concern me but I had people commenting that I’d been getting a belly and suchlike, which was rather alarming. To be fair I tend to wear clothes were any belly-dom rather obvious, but still. So last year I began to take an interest in these things called “calories” and other such arcane shenanigans, gradually becoming more aware of what foods are good and which bad. At around new year I got a new set of (working) bathroom scales and found that things were getting out of hand so I figured it was time to see if I could make a change.
As it turns out, I really can. I’m kinda surprised how easy it was. Basically I’ve lost 10% of my weight in 2 and a bit months. Going from 78kg back to 70ish, which is around where I feel comfortable being. Which is nice. Being narcissistic in the mirror and generally tight clothing have both made a welcome return. (Not that tight though. I’m skinny not a student.) So here’s how:
- No sugar in tea or coffee. I drink a lot of these beverages and used to put in several spoons of sugar into every one. No longer. Sweetener if needed, but getting used to going without altogether as often as not is pretty good too. Obviously skimmed or semi skimmed milk where possible.
- Fruit for breakfast I used to either kip breakfast altogether or east a pastry thing and a full-fat sugar coffee. Apparently that’s not so good! Who knew? So now I bring in a few pieces of fruit, plus maybe porridge or a sandwich if I feel like it.
- If you can’t be arsed cooking, don’t. I get a relatively big lunch on south bank every day, either something salady or a wrap. I’ve stopped with those cheesy grilled sandwiches. So most of the food I eat is now much earlier in the day and cooked by people who do it better than I do, and with all that goodness dinner is very light and/or optional. Massive pizzas and troughs of pasta at 9 at night are now rare exceptions rather than the rule.
- Don’t eat it just because it’s there. If you don’t actually want a sweet, don’t take a sweet. That goes for everything, eat only what you actually want to eat. If I want a packet of chocolate biscuits I’ll still go get one obviously, why shouldn’t I? It’s just that I’m far more aware that if I eat all of them I WILL feel sick, plus the sugar crash etc. in fact I can barely manage half the packet now, where before I’d absent-mindedly chomp through the lot of them. Oral fixation much?
- Exercise I’ve been bouncing around my room a lot in an aerobic stylee. Not sure what the next step will be really. A gym maybe? Ugh.
There’s nothing draconian or even virtuous in what I’ve been doing, and no diet par se; I’ve just been exercising more choice. Just choice. It’s funny; I read Existentialism And Humanism by Sartre at Christmas and I think I took a lot of it to heart ;-).
