Unlike many Americans, I have put on a little weight over the past seven or eight years. In fact, I'm probably fifty pounds heavier now than when Jeanell and I married in 2001.
Well, the past few weeks I've tried to increase my exercise amount from zero to little in an attempt to maybe shed a few of those extra pounds. (According to the Wii Fit Jeanell gave me for Father's Day, my ideal weight is ~154 lbs. I'm thinking I probably won't get there.)
It's been three weeks and I've done fairly well with doing some jogging (started at two miles, worked up to three) at least five nights/week. Unfortunately, when I weighed in yesterday, I was two pounds heavier than when I started this increase of exercise.
I guess that's the problem with exercise as a weight-loss tool. It takes hours to burn off calories through exercise that it takes minutes (for me, seconds) to eat.
I've decided one of two things (or probably both things) need to happen for me to lose some weight. First, I need to build up my stamina so that I can exercise for longer periods of time and at a higher level. And second, I need to eat better.
Eating better is where I always seem to run into trouble for a few reasons. One is that I have a deeply ingrained psychological need to finish whatever is placed on my plate. I rarely bring food home from a restaurant despite the excessive size of the portions and I'll generally make myself sick rather than admitting I can't finish something and throwing it away. Another problem I seem to have is that most of the eating I do is because I enjoy the flavor of the food rather than simply to satisfy hunger.
2 comments:
I don't know that I can offer suggestions, but merely let you know that I find myself in the same situation and would welcome any ideas you find. I also suffer from an incessant need to finish whatever's on the plate, regardless of what my stomach is doing. About a month ago I sat for two hours on the verge of throwing up because I had eaten too much peach cobbler. I've also started running and trying to eat better, with little to show for it. Maybe we could set up a competition. I would win, of course, but at least it might motivate us. :)
I renewed my gym membership and am trying to play basketball Tuesday nights. I'm also just trying to be conscious of what I'm eating since so much of my eating consists of mindlessly cramming calories into my giant pie-hole. We'll see what happens.
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