Working on a change

As I was thinking about writing this I'd vaguely remembered that it takes some number of days to change a habit. Google informs me the commonly accepted myth is 21 days but in reality its probably more like 90. That seems reasonable to me since I realize that real change is difficult and I should expect that if I really want to change something about myself it will take significant time.

Last year I wanted to lose weight, I had a high school reunion coming up and my goal was to hit 200 pounds for that. I missed the goal by 5 pounds but never the less that left me at the same weight I'd been when I graduated high school and I figured that was pretty good. I'd done some running and a little yoga and watched my eating and was pretty pleased with myself.

Of course pride goeth before the fall and it wasn't long before I'd packed some pounds back on. It started with the holidays as is so common, then we went on a cruise and I had a week in Las Vegas for work and I found myself up 10 pounds. Now 10 pounds may not sound like a lot but I also noticed my clothes getting tight and I huff and puff a little more than I had been doing. I'm also having trouble with my back. I don't remember if I've mentioned it here before but I have a herniated disc in my back which presses on a nerve in my left leg if I stand too long. When things are good "too long" is like an hour or more. When things are bad its when I'm walking and I need to take frequent breaks. As you might guess this is super annoying.

So I'd set a New Year's Resolution to lose weight but thats easier said than done. Now with the coming of spring I'm actually getting down to the nitty-gritty and getting to work. Fortunately I'm aided in this by a work trip to Burbank. Often times work trips are an excuse to get on a fat bus, its far to easy to let myself go and eat everything in sight, especially sweets. Our office here makes that especially tempting with an array of treats on hand. I'm in luck there too though since there are also healthy snacks like fruit and almonds. So step one is to shift my snacking, avoiding sweets and drinking more water. To that end I brought a reusable water bottle here with me. I'll leave it here when I go so I have it when I return.

Step two is dinner, I've already got breakfast under control, Panera has "Power Almond Quinoa Oatmeal" which they list at 290 calories. Honestly I'm not totally in love with it but its not terrible and it does fill me up and keep me going pretty well. I'm thinking my idea calorie count is in the 1500 range but thats probably unrealistically low. Tonight for dinner I hit Tender Greens, I did the "Salt and Pepper Chicken Big Plate" which was surprisingly filling. I've done their fried chicken before and while it was enough there really wasn't any extra. They claim my meal tonight was 690 calories plus it had a piece of bread and a lemonade which probably brings me close to 850. See, I said 1500 is unrealistic. Still and all Burbank is a walking town, or at least the area I'm in is quite walk-able so I'm sure I'm walking more than I normally do.

Step three is not having desert. When I was a kid we never ate desert and I think I can blame my night-time sweet tooth on Angie. Actually thats not fair, I have an afternoon sweet tooth too. To my great surprise today I actually managed to remove my hand from the candy dish without taking a chocolate.

Anyway this was a lot more than I'd intended to write when I sat down but I'm hoping that the writing will maybe help me with the doing, my goal for 2015 is the same as 2014, I'd like to get under 200 pounds, we'll see...