New beginnings - cliche, but true

I never thought I would be a blogger until today. Today, I read an email from a very smart man whom I admire greatly. It was an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal—a story about how to keep New Year's resolutions. One of the suggestions from a successful resolution-keeper was to blog about your journey. It will keep you motivated and accountable. I liked this idea, so here I am.

You might be wondering why I called the blog "My Wagon Ride." Well, for most of my adult life, I have been dissatisfied with my body. I always felt like I was a little overweight, and that I could stand to lose 10 pounds. I have been on and off of various diets and eating plans since I was in my 20s. The first was called something like "Dr. Abravanel's Body Type Diet." This classified you as different gland types (I think I was a gonadal), and then provided you with diets that supported your body type. I got on the wagon and lost a few pounds. Then I fell off the wagon, and gained a few. Next up was Weight Watchers. Got on the wagon again, lost a few, fell off again. I tried Weight Watchers again a few years later with the same results. In between all of that, I tried a personal trainer who advised me on my diet, I saw a nutritionist once, tried the South Beach Diet, a Kathy Smith diet plan "Feed Muscle, Shrink Fat", vegetarianism, and again went back to Weight Watchers in the summer of 2008. I lost 15 pounds! But yet again, I fell off that wagon once more, and gained about 8 of it back.

But this is a new year and I'm back on that wagon. And this is the adventure of my wagon ride.

My weight loss goal is to lose those 8 pounds, and then a few more, to get down to around 125 pounds. At the end of summer 2008, I was finally happy with the way my body looked, the way I felt, the way my face looked, the way my clothes fit me. It was surreal, as I couldn't remember the last time I felt that way about myself. It was invigorating. I want to feel that way again.

To start off, my goals are simple.

1. Stop nibbling. I nibble a lot. While packing lunches, I eat some chips, or the crust off of a sandwich. While making dinner, I eat a handful of this or a handful of that. I read something recently that said don't eat it if you don't plate it. I like this concept.

2. Limit sweets as much as possible. I like sugar. I really, really do. And I love to bake, moreso for others, but I get enjoyment out of it, too. A nibble of cookie dough here and there... you all do it, you know you do! And by the time the cookies are done, I've already had 5 raw cookies, yet I go in for more. And I can't stop at one cookie. I need more. I eat one, and then want another, and then another. But if I don't eat the sweets to begin with, I don't need to keep feeding the sugar craving. So I'm going to try to not eat sweets.

3. Eat smaller portions. My breakfast and lunches are pretty reasonable in size, but I think I overdo it at dinner. I need to let my stomach digest before I go in for seconds, because most times, I bet I don't "need" it, but moreso just "want" it. I have to learn to say no to the part of me that wants it and listen to the part that needs it.

So those are my diet goals for now. I'm hoping that I can lose weight by following these guidelines. I'm also keeping a food diary and hope that I can keep up with that. I read over and over that successful weight loss happens more often when you track everything you eat.

In my next entry, I'll tell you about my exercise habits these days, and what they've been throughout my life, and I'll tell you about the new gizmo I bought that I'm anxiously waiting to arrive in the mail.