The Inexactness of Exactness
I am a perfectionist. I know I don’t always seem like one, but, if I’m going to do something, I like to be as perfect as possible at it. You know where I’m going with this. It’s impossible to be perfect when it comes to developing new habits. After all, what are the new habits supposed to be? How can I be good at it if I’m making it up myself?
So here’s the thing, I like weighing and counting and measuring my food, but it gets to be a chore after a while. Not that I’m really complaining, but then comes “going out to eat” and maybe going to a friend’s house, or something, and I’m supposed to estimate. Oh no! I just don’t know how to estimate. Then, it puts me into procrastination mode. It’s like a freezing up, so that I can’t deal with deciding how much of something I ate.
And then there are things like mashed potatoes. Now, I can look in the Weight Watcher’s book and see that a half cup is 3 points, which is easy. The other option is to weigh all the potatoes each time we make them at home, then be sure that whoever is making them (not usually me) measures exactly how much milk goes in, etc. THEN figure out how many half cup servings that is so I can figure out the points. Whew! I’ll bet you even got tired out just reading about it! We don’t use a recipe for such things. It will be different each time, so I would have to go through that exercise each time.
Then there are the “half points” or lack thereof. My favorite breakfast, which I’ll share soon, is actually 3.5 points, if I take the points value of each item and then add them together manually. Now, with e-tools, it’s 4 points. Not that it’s so bad, but there’s a certain satisfaction in having a half point left a the end of the day.
So, I have to get used the fact that there’s a certain amount of “figuring” that goes into it, and there’s no way for it to be perfect, by any means. I’m going to accept that, even if I don’t like it. I’ll get used to it some day!
Weigh Day #2
On weigh day this week I only showed a loss of .2 pounds! I was so surprised because I thought I had a gerat week and the scales at home showed I should have had a loss of a couple pounds, or so I thought, I even had the really super nice lady weigh me a second time.
Hmmm…. I’ll bet you think I’m lying to myself, at this point. I’m not sure. I do know that sodium intake, time of day , and lots of other factors some into play. One of the things that I believe caused problems in the past was my usual notion that I should try to make all changes at once. I think it was too much and I faltered quickly. This time, I’m going to try to make changes slowly, at my pace, not relying on anyone else’s idea of what that should be.
Some of the changes I made in the first week:
- I was careful to track my food.
- I paid more attention to taking a daily vitamin. I have always “tried” to take one everyday, but I got relaxed about it, like most.
- I continued to walk the dog around the block, which is a half mile, twice everyday.
Some folks might think that that wasn’t enough. For me, it’s hard to think about what I will eat and what I AM eating – it’s as if I have to concentrate on it every minute, really!
This week, I will add the following:
- I plan to add three additional walks around that half mile circle, sans dog (but probably with my sister – my wonderful supporter!).
- I have added Weight Watchers e-tools. What I noticed is that they have improved them quite a bit since a few years ago when I tried to use them.
I have also posted a new addition of “The Pants” (see below).
I would love to talk on Facebook, if you have the time. My page is http://facebook.com/obesityproject. I really want to work together to help make this a success for everyone!
Here’s the video: