Friday Confessional (on Monday): Exercise avoidance

What keeps me from starting and sticking to an exercise routine?  I need to exercise, I want to exercise but when it comes to actually doing it, I fail.   I was so excited to join the Canada Games Complex, but last week I did not go once.  It’s not fear.  I’m not ashamed to walk my big body into a gym full of fit folks.   Ack.  What is this?  Is it laziness?  I hate to think of myself as lazy.  But am I?  Has my sedentary lifestyle become so ingrained that laziness feels normal to me?  I know that once I start I will feel energized and addicted and I’ll look forward to regular exercise.  I know this.  So then I should just.....start. 

Goals for the weeks of January 24 and 31, 2011

We did it!  We joined the gym.  I’m going to ease myself back into exercising for the next few weeks and, soon, regular workouts will become a natural part of my life.  Eddy and I are both excited about this.  He’s jumping in with both feet and heading to the gym a few times per week right from the get go.  He’s in much better shape than I, though, so my goals for the next couple of weeks look more like this:

Goal for the week of January 24, 2011:  Go to the gym 1x

That’s all.  Just get in there and start.

Goal for the week of January 31, 2011: Go to the gym 2x

Easing in.  That’s the way I’m going to make this my newest good habit.

Friday Confessional: The shameful fast food one

Friday confessionals are tough to write.  They’re embarrassing and sometimes agonizing and I’ve been avoiding them for a few weeks.  If you’re wondering why I do it at all, here’s a link to my first Friday confessional. 

Today I will recall my painful fast food past.  I visited drive thru windows way, way too often.  No, really.  Way too often.  This is the confessional I’ve been avoiding most of all.  Even my husband doesn’t know how often I would do it.  During the work week I would eat some sort of fast food nearly every day.  On particularly busy days I’d drive thru for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Sometimes (no, let’s be brutally honest, it was more than sometimes, it was many times) I would order more than one meal.   And even though I wouldn’t want two drinks, I’d order two drinks (usually white milk and diet coke...I know, right?  Diet coke) so the drive thru people wouldn’t know the whole order was just for me.   Am I really telling you this stuff?  Crap.  I am.  This is one hell of a shameful admission.

 I know there are other obese people out there who are doing the same thing.  The drive through is so easy.  So anonymous.  You drive up; speak to the friendly, faceless voice; order your meal (or meals); drive to the window; smile as if you’re not up to something; take the food; find and hiding place and secretly pig-out.   The garbage would go into a public trash can wherever I was eating.  Hide the evidence.  Nobody...NObody...knows (until now) that I did this. 

When I think about it now I feel sick.   It was so much food.  So much bad, greasy, fattening, mega-calorie food.  I can never, ever, ever go back to that.  Never!!

Fast food has changed a great deal since McDonalds first opened in my town in the 70s.  Portion sizes are way out of control.  What they now serve as medium fries and medium soda is the same (or larger?) than large fries and sodas of my childhood.  And the large sodas?  Have you seen the size of them? Who needs that much sugary soda in one sitting?  It’s crazy.  (For the record, I don’t enjoy regular soda.  It’s too syrupy-tasting for me.) 

But, on the other hand, and to their benefit, fast food chains have also recognized the wants and needs of waistline watchers and added healthier choices to their menus.  

For example, at McDonalds:  

One chicken fajita (which I order now and love) is only 200 calories and 5g of fat.  One grilled (not crispy) spicy buffalo chicken snack wrap (also a personal favourite) is 220 calories and 7g of fat.  Not bad, right?  Especially when you compare it to the big mac with 540 calories and 29g of fat or the angus burger with cheese and bacon which has a whopping 770 calories and 45g of fat!

At Wendys:

The two items I ordered most often at Wendy’s were the spicy chicken sandwich (450 calories, 16g of fat)  or the double baconator (hang on for this one) with 990 calories and 63g of fat!   Far better choices include the ultimate chicken grill sandwich (which is delicious!) with 360 calories and 7g of fat, a sour cream and chives baked potato with 350 calories and 6g of fat or a small chilli with 220 calories and 7g of fat. 

So fast food can be done.  The restaurants’ websites have nutritional information so you can plan your meal before you go.  

Do I still go to fast food restaurants?  I have a nine year old son, so yes.  However I know what I’m ordering before we walk in (or drive thru) and I order without even looking at or being tempted by the mouth-watering photos on the menu.  Actually, it’s interesting how, now, the photos are so much less appealing now that I understand what I’m eating. 

Goal update: The Complex membership

We went to register for our gym membership at Canada Games Complex on Saturday.  Unfortunately, we got there at 3:30 and the registration desk closed at 3.  (We didn't know!!) We still went in, though.  Ed worked out on the bike and treadmill while Coby and I went to play in the pool.  We'll head back this week to officially sign up for our memberships.  So my goal for this week remains the same, sign up for a gym membership and start going.

Wednesday Weigh-In: Lost the Christmas Five

Remember that five pounds I gained over the holidays?  It’s one week later and they’re gonzo.   

This week I learned a great lesson.  In the past if I was on a “diet” I would tell myself to enjoy the holidays then get back on track in the New Year, but afterwards the weight gain (even though I expected it) would dishearten me and I’d give up.  This year I told myself, very strictly, that I would not give in to discouragement.  I enjoyed the holidays in every way (see aforementioned 5 pound gain), but then dropped the extra weight in just one week.  I did it!  Surprisingly, it wasn’t even too hard.  I went back to eating leaner food in regular portions.   I also had a couple of glasses of wine and two chocolate chip cookies during the week, but the weight still came off.   Real life.  I needn’t sacrifice.  Eat a cookie one day, don’t eat a cookie the next, just like my regular sized friends would do. 

And that’s a great tip if you, fellow blogger, are trying to lose weight, too.  Study your regular sized friends and do what they do. 

Overweight women feel humiliated every day?

Working in radio, Eddy gets his hands on all sorts of stories from around the world, including lifestyle stories like one he told me about yesterday.  He said a recent survey showed that overweight women feel humiliated at least five times per day.  Humiliated.   Five times each day.  This makes me so sad.  They feel humiliated several times per day because of weight.  Is this how most overweight people feel?  I’ve had low moments (see any Friday confessional), but most days I feel happy and confident in spite of my weight.  I'm fat.  I'm aware it's true.  But, it doesn’t make me a bad person.  It makes me overweight.  That’s all.  I’d feel a great deal worse if someone said, “She’s stupid.”  Overweight seems much easier to fix than stupidity.

Here’s a link to the story.

I’m curious to know what others think.  If you struggle with weight, would you use a word as strong as humiliated to describe how you feel?  And do you feel humiliated as many as five times each day?