get in shape

OK, this goal has fallen apart entirely. I think I need to re-title it, and then come up with steps I can do to reach it. This is one of those vague goals, so you never know that it’s finished. It’s not specific enough. And it’s easy to ignore. Here are some things that I could make goals instead:eat 5-8 veggies a day; make one meal a day a salad; walk 30 minutes a day; lift hand weights x-number of repetitions a day; ....Any ideas anyone has to bring this goal into focus, I’d appreciate.

I’m falling down on the job here. I’m eating better and less: lots more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, but I’m not exercising enough and I’m starting to feel it. I haven’t walked seriously in more than a week. I need to jumpstart this. I’m frustrated because, despite my improved eating habits, I don’t think I’ve lost a pound. But I feel better, digestion wise. I have horrible horrible reflux, and that has been better since I got on this fruit and vegetable kick. It hasn’t disappeared completely, but it’s more a once-a-week problem instead of an every day, couple times a day problem. It’s unpredictable when it will flair up. And I wonder if I did finally lose some weight if the reflux would go away. That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway. I’m sick of paying for the medicine, but I don’t dare go without it.

I’ve been avoiding the scale. I’ve cut back on my eating, and I’m eating healthier, and I figured I’d know when I lost weight by the fit of my clothes. But after, I do’n’t know, a couple weeks, i couldn’t stand it any more and got on the scale. It said I lost 25 pounds. I wish I could believe it. But I know it’s not true. My clothes haven’t gotten that loose! If I lost 25 pounds, people would notice, and no one has noticed a thing. I think I better go back to just waiting for my pants to get baggy.

It occurs to me that this goal could really be combined with “lose weight” and “search for extinct monkey.” So I’m not going to write about lose weight. The whole reason behind this is that I need to get in condition to actually go look for the extinct monkey.

So, as to this goal, I’ve been reading through The Hacker’s Diet http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html.
So far, I like the way he presents weight loss. I’ve read a few diet books before, and the worst thing about them - the actually laughable thing about them - is how they are enormously padded out with the author’s blather and encouragement and exclamation points. I think most diet books would lose half their weight if the author just dropped exclamation points. Anyway, Mr. Hacker (aka John Walker) has minimal literary padding. His occasional off-focus exursions are treks into unnecessary engineer-think, but I found those at the very least diverting, and not at all empty-headed. In fact, some of them were just overly long ways of making a point.

And thank god, the guy doesn’t have an exclamation point fetish.

While I finish reading that, I have cut back on my eating, trying to recognize that hunger is not the end of the world, and that bananas and vegetables make good snacks. Part of the reason this is working for me (so far) is - ready for this - antidepressants. I know some people gain weight on them, but they seem to help me stop craving the way I normally do. They haven’t eliminated my love of ice cream, but, hey, that would be cruel. The libido issue is bad enough. Anyone have any advice on that?

I’m walking about an hour a day. It’s a start. Next, I want to start situps and hand weights. Just some arm exercises. Nothing too intense.