Leveraging Public Accountability

I'm sure I'm not along in looking down at my waist line and seeing a wider girth than before the holidays.  Being at Mom and Dad's place meant a never ending supply of cookies, caramel covered popcorn, butter tarts and many other decadent delights.  I purposely threw my caution out the window into the freezing cold backyard and indulged.  The number on the scale this morning reflected my choices.

For the record, I did not step on the scale the last time I went on the Ideal Protein program.  I have no idea how heavy I was when I began or what I weighed when I was finished.  I think that doing the program with no daily accountability didn't work as well; I was not as diligent as I have been in the past.  Therefore, I'm going back to my old method of starting each day by checking my weight and writing it in my little black book.

The other thing I'm going to focus on is striving toward making longer term changes to my relationship with food.  I know I have made good progress over the years, but the reality is that at my age, a slight variance to my healthy routine has an immediate effect.  Somehow, I need to reprogram my brain, not just when I'm being super diligent, but beyond, when I'm back to eating regular food and living a normal life.

Throughout this journey, I have been as heavy at 211 pounds and as light as 172.  This morning, I was in the middle at 187.5.  My goal - stating it here, very publicly - is to swing down to 170, and strive to stay below the 175 threshold.  To do that there are a number of things I know I'm going to have to do:

1) Reduce my intake of my nut mixture - nuts (like Beer before) is my achilles heel

2) Drink more water - this one is super easy

3)  Deal with my addiction to bread - this one if the worst and the hardest to overcome

4)  Rediscover my infatuation with salads and veggies

5) Park the alochol - I haven't had much, but the small amounts I've had have made an impact

I could silently say all this to myself and hope that I will stick to the plan, but I know in my heart that is not enough.  Taking the step into the land of public accountability is much more effective for me.  So, there it is.....my marching orders, and my commitment even before the New Year.