Seeing Less Of Me
When we moved to California I stopped walking two miles a day. In New York, just to get through a normal day, pick up kids at school, go to the gym, etc., I walked a minimum of two miles a day. And while that wasn't power walking, I walk fast (my usual pace is about 4 mph). When we moved to San Francisco and got a car, I stopped walking so much. People will tell you that SF is a great town for walking--but then they'll tell you about a great walk, only ten minutes by car. I like what I call purposeful walking--not strolling or walking for the exercise, but walking to get somewhere, and then walking back. And unless you have a whole lot of time to kill, SF is not a great place for that kind of walking. I also love walking in dense urban areas, and SF is somewhat light on the dense urban scene.
The result, among other things, is that I packed on a lot of weight. By Christmas of last year I had gained about 25 pounds from my NY weight, and I was feeling pretty dreary about it. I managed, between Christmas and the middle of February, to lose five pounds just by not stuffing myself with holiday food (well, the holidays were over. That helps). But then I decided to take drastic measures, give or take, and went to Weight Watchers.
My mother would have hated Weight Watchers: the cheeriness, the encouragement, the slogans. But since I like my meeting leader, I found it very helpful this time. I go, I talk, I clap for other people, I get weighed in. And in 12 weeks I have lost 21.6 pounds, and am at my goal weight. The challenge, now, will be to keep the weight off.
The girls' first thought, when I told them I'd reached my goal, was "Cool! Let's go get hot fudge sundaes!" But they meant it in a good way.
The result, among other things, is that I packed on a lot of weight. By Christmas of last year I had gained about 25 pounds from my NY weight, and I was feeling pretty dreary about it. I managed, between Christmas and the middle of February, to lose five pounds just by not stuffing myself with holiday food (well, the holidays were over. That helps). But then I decided to take drastic measures, give or take, and went to Weight Watchers.
My mother would have hated Weight Watchers: the cheeriness, the encouragement, the slogans. But since I like my meeting leader, I found it very helpful this time. I go, I talk, I clap for other people, I get weighed in. And in 12 weeks I have lost 21.6 pounds, and am at my goal weight. The challenge, now, will be to keep the weight off.
The girls' first thought, when I told them I'd reached my goal, was "Cool! Let's go get hot fudge sundaes!" But they meant it in a good way.
posted by Madeleine Robins at 11:02 AM
3 Comments:
Congratulations! That's marvelous.
I had the same thing happen when I moved from Bellingham to Snohomish (tiny town) with my new husband, as he had a car and suddenly there was no place to walk to, anyway.
Dave Smeds said:
Just don't get caught up in the weight yo-yo cycle. I used to have not an extra ounce on me. Then my metabolism shifted quite suddenly in my mid-twenties and I put on fifteen pounds. So I dieted. Lost the weight. Bounced back up to a new plateau weight. And this went on for twenty years, until I weighed 75 lbs. more than my college weight.
Turns out I probably was making my body worry it wasn't going to get enough calories. Once I said the hell with it and ate what I wanted, when I wanted, and as much as I wanted, my weight finally stabilized. I've not gained in five years, and have even gradually winnowed away five pounds.
The fly in the ointment, of course, is that I feel 70 lbs. overweight. But it beats being 100 lbs. overweight.
The weight I'm at now is approximately the weight I've been for the last twenty years--give or take a baby or two. I tend to do better when I don't think too much about my weight, but the weight I'd put on out here was really getting to me, so taking Steps to reverse the gain was in order.
At bare minimum, I'm determined to keep at this weight until after Worldcon...
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