Saturday, August 31, 2013

Bitter and Sweet Successes

Post Number: 7
Days of Tracking: 0 (first full day today, on track for everything eaten so far)

So today has been a bittersweet experience. I had a great discussion with my good friend SM. He lives near ITT so we see each other when I am on break on Saturdays. Today is the last day we can do so. Adding to the bitterness, it was the last class of the group that launched me into this blog. It was nice to be able to wish them well and receive their well-wishes also.

From my conversation with SM, I have been thinking about visions, goals, directions, actions, and destinations. I want to borrow a quote here:

     Vision without action is merely a dream.
     Action without vision merely passes the time.
     Visions with action can change the world.
          - Joel Barker

I want to change my world for the better. It will take:
  • Vision - seeing things as how I want them to be in the future
  • Goals - a description of the end towards which my efforts are directed
  • Directions - my mapping of the pathway that leads forward
  • Plans - ideas, techniques, and methods for overcoming hurdles and barriers including forgiving myself when I make a mistake (as distinguished from Directions)
  • Actions - the efforts necessary to move forward, and
  • Destinations - the description that is used to measure success.
Unfortunately, there is no convenient acronym that will work for those words. I have already described the goals in detail that I am using to stay focused. I need to work them all into a single vision. Right now, it looks like this: Me playing with my my older kids' kids at the last kid's wedding. The others will need attention, too, but I wanted to described some other events.

I have been tracking everything I've eaten in my paper tracker. I hope to be able to transfer it to the online system, but that is not a priority. It has been a learning experience. There were some surprises. A single graham cracker is 2 points. That was more than I expected. A grilled onion cheeseburger from McDonald's is 8 points. That was less than I expected. I am still trying to get a handle on writing everything down, but I've been able to stay up with it today. That is a success.

But I wonder at the point system. I know that Weight Watchers intends to the safest weight loss with there point system. Supposedly, I can lose up to 2 lbs a week this way. But I have over 250 pounds to loose. That's 125 weeks. That's 2 years and 21 weeks. That is a very long time. Now I know, that the faster you lose, the faster you regain. And I understand that this is a retraining process. Retrain the brain to eat properly. But I still wonder. I have 71 points to work with. Fruits and veggies are zero if they are fresh, frozen, or canned so long as they are unadulterated, such as canned in syrup. So with 71 points, I can go to McDonald's for lunch. I can eat the aforementioned cheeseburger and a small fry for five meals. If I add in fresh veggies in the form of a salad, I can consume quite a bit of food. I'm not sure that's how I want it to work.

I will do the work, because of the retraining aspect. Hopefully, it will lead me in a direction that will require only small changes. After all, some goals can become a moving target. And with my income changing, Weight Watchers may be more than I can afford all too soon. So I throw myself into the effort and learn to ways of the weight loser. I will have to make this process mine to be able to really succeed.

And there is already some success to describe. I went to Fred Meyers to pick up some bread. I have had a pear in quite some time, so I went and bought one. Between the bread and the fruits is the ice cream. And since it was in the 90's, ice cream sounded good. So I picked up one of those ultra-small Ben and Jerry's ice creams. They are only 3 ounces or so. A glance at the nutrition label and a quick tap at the Points Calculator. It was 6 points. It went back. The pear was zero.

Yours in the future of successful success that succeeds successfully,

Eliot

P.S.: How is it I can eat 4 ounces of cake and gain 2 pounds?

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