Determined To Succeed

Day one-hundred-one.

Finally! After days and weeks of moving up and down and back up on the scale I am finally heading back down. How did I accomplish this? Simple. I stopped being such a bonehead with my portions, ate the amount a normal human would and exercised. I feel so much lighter, literally and figuratively, and it’s a relief to be headed back down expecially with birthday number 40 just 26 or so days away. To do this I have had to sort of meditate while awake, instead of folding my legs together, sitting on the floor and chanting “ooooohmmmmm.” In other words I’ve had to think about what I was doing WHEN I was doing it so I didn’t do dumb and stupid things trying to be good.  Case in point…

…I’ve known for weeks now that I have been drinking too much Coke Zero. It is awesome and way better calorically than a regular ice-cold Coca-Cola. But it meant I wasn’t drinking enough water. Also, I was having a little more than I should at dinnertime, putting just a few more potatoes, another scoop or two of rice or more bread on my plate. Bad Bill, Bad Bill. Even though I was exercising it still, at most, was keeping my weight where it was and, at worst, allowing it to inch up ever so gradually. But with 26 days to go (my goal for getting at least close to my goal weight of 225) I sort of slip into a self-imposed walking trance. Not the kind where I’d look weird or anything walking down the street, like a zombie in the recent rash of movies like THE WALKING DEAD. No, silently, I say to myself…

…Bill. Bill. You don’t – Hey BILL! Snap out of it! You don’t need to eat that much!

…Bill, you don’t need to eat that (and insert the name of a food treat here ala doughnut, candy bar, cake, ice-cream or soda variety).

…Bill, you need to get your fat ass up and exercise until you sweat!

…Bill, you want to get to your goal way more than you want this, that and the other.

See, and it worked. That, and watching THE BIGGEST LOSER last night. I know I have my criticisms of that show (chief among them that I believe people should lose weight if they go to a camp where their ONLY JOB is to lose weight, and I maintain how interesting it would be to follow normal people who don’t have Jillian or Bob yelling at them while they ride the swankiest equipment, but instead have to go about their daily lives – including running the fast food gauntlet every day) but it really did help get the taste for strawberry ice-cream out of my mouth.

Today is going to be more of the same. I’m going to keep focusing on what things I need to accomplish instead of how good something would taste (like chocolate). Also, I’m going to keep in mind the 241.6 I saw on my scale instead of the 242.8 from the other day and know I want to keep that going. Oh yes, I so want to keep that going. I just have to remember that a little bit of meditation is good for the soul and the waistline.

Besides, my Calvin Klein suit waits for me in my closet, staring back at me wondering if it’s ever going to be worn.

“Yes, my lovely suit. Yes, you will and one day soon.” I have to keep meditating on that, as well.