Accidental Diet

Well, it looks like I've failed miserably so far to keep on top of updating this blog. What can I say? I honestly haven't had the motivation. Which I know is a lame of excuse since the blog itself is supposed to be a source of motivation and support. I've been slammed by work, school, etc. and just haven't felt I had anything clever or helpful to say. I want this blog to be useful to those of you who take the time to read it. On the other hand, in order for it to be really useful for me I have to be more diligent about updating. I suppose I could try the diary style update a la Bridget Jones....it certainly wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as Ms. Jones' Diary, but it would help keep me on track and connected.

As far as progress goes, I have made a little. The fact that I'm trying to save money by brown bagging coupled with being too busy to eat has lead to what I'm calling the "Accidental Diet." Because I need to save both time and money I'm eating a lot of baked potatoes and peanut butter sandwiches. I'm supplementing with baby carrots, apples, bananas and raw almonds. Since my roommate moved out, there are few snack foods in the house, so basically my eating habits have improved with very little effort from me, mostly by "accident." This new diet has lead to some good initial results and I've decided to get serious about working out again to compliment the reduced calorie intake. The workout schedule has been full of false starts and a real lack of commitment, but I'm feeling much more motivated now. Especially because I've lost 10 lbs. without really trying or feeling that I've given up anything. Besides brown-bagging lunches and not bringing a lot of snack foods into the house, I've gone against conventional wisdom which says don't eat late at night. In the past, I'd eat dinner before class, but then be hungry again when I got home somewhere between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Then I'd end up snacking on junk. Now I don't really have junk in the house. I eat some almonds or an apple before class and have dinner when I get home. I'm up for a few hours anyway, so this works for me. As I said, it goes against conventional wisdom, but who likes conventional anyway?

My weight loss also seems like good example of how the Paradoxical Theory of Change http://www.gestalt.org/arnie.htm works. Once I stopped trying to change, change happened. I recently became aware of the critical thoughts I frequently had such as "I really need to lose weight" "I've got to lose weight, " etc. These thoughts drained away my energy and made me feel ashamed. They certainly didn't help me to lose weight. Once I became aware of them, I was able to stop them and stop the energy drain. I'm sure this has also contributed to the success so far of the Accidental Diet.

On the apartment front I've honestly just been maintaining the status quo for a while and not making a lot of progress in overall organization. That's about to change. I have the Thanksgiving holiday weekend coming up and I fully intend to dedicate it to deep cleaning and organizing the apartment. This is going to be a big push not only so that I can head into the New Year with things in shape, but also because I plan on doing more entertaining, starting next month so the place needs to be in shape.

With the end of 2008 looming, I feel I really want to make a big push to start 2009 on the right foot. I'll be updating over the long weekend to let you know how progress with the apartment goes. And I'll also begin weekly weigh-ins and report back the results--yikes!

p.s. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have much to be thankful for this year as I've had some amazing trips, great times with friends and family, fantastic meals and spectacular wines!