But I Don't Want to Exercise!

It is far more difficult to eat healthily once it stops being nice and warm outside, I find. All year, I’ve been working to try to lose weight and minimize how much ‘bad food’ I eat. I’ve done well so far this year. When you have a mission to lose a certain amount of weight, that mission must be completed- at least in my case.

By the time summer came around, I’d hit my ‘goal’ weight and decided to keep going. It was easy during the summer because it’s hot outside and fresh veggies are plentiful. It’s easy to want a salad when the sun is shining and the ingredients are fresh.

However, now it’s autumn and the fresh vegetables are less fresh. The stores and markets are full of root vegetables and hearty ingredients. When it’s cold and rainy outside, it’s hard to want something light and healthy. It’s much more comforting to settle down with a bowl of beef stew or a nice warming soup.

The problem with this is that beef stew and nice warming soups while not unhealthy are not as light in calories or fat as summer foods. Also, I find that I’m hungrier when it’s cold. This is probably not really the case. It’s probably more that there’s more sitting around and less activity going on than there is in the summer months when I’m constantly outside doing something.

I suppose the answer is that I should start actually exercising rather than using normal every day activities to exercise. This way I wouldn’t have to worry so much about what I’m eating. It’s an easy solution in theory and one many of my friends have incorporated. It’s just that…well, honestly, I don’t like exercising. There, I said it. Once I start doing it and get into a routine, it’s not so bad. I even convince myself that I like it. It feels good. I know it gets the endorphins going. Yet, it’s so easy to…stop. I know the saying goes that it takes 21 days to form a habit and 3 days to break one. I think this is absolutely true. Which is why whenever I start exercising, it’s easy to stop.

For me, it’s a question of time. As I’ve grown older, I’ve become far less patient with wasting my time. It’s in short supply. When you work 9 hours a day, every moment is precious. I am not a Monkeypants who doesn’t need sleep. I need my sleep badly. I have two dogs. They don’t understand why their mother is leaping around in front of the TV breathing heavily and is all red in the face. I’ve tried doing an exercise video in front of them and it results in them trying to join in which, while cute, is not terribly helpful.

I could gate them in the kitchen but, well, I’m softhearted and I feel bad doing that unless necessary.

I could go to the gym but between trying to get back into writing, having an uncertain workday (I never know what time I’m going to get to leave) and liking to cook something decent for dinner….there’s the time factor. I could do it before work but…I’ll have to talk myself into that.

It would probably be easier if I had a buddy to exercise with rather than alone. I might be inclined to do it but, as I’ve pathetically mentioned, I don’t have many friends here because all my friends are elsewhere. It’s hard to meet female friends.

So, for now, until I come up with an exercise resolution, I’ll keep trying to eat less. It’s really just an issue of self-control. I figure that if I stay at my goal weight, I’m ok…anything above and an exercise routine WILL be enforced.

I’m actually quite good at enforcing rules upon myself. It sounds a little odd but I do have rather good self-control. It’s why I can sit in my office with a bucket of candy and just watch as everyone else in the office eats it or I can go out to lunch for a working lunch and make sure I don’t order the pizza that looks so tempting and I order a nice light bowl of soup and a salad instead. I am the consumer who reads the nutrition label. I might splurge once in a while but, well, I try not to on a regular basis.

It’s just a little harder in the cooler months of the year when comfort food is calling and I would rather eat a nice bowl of hot stew than a salad. However, the good thing is that I still like salad and even though I’d rather have the stew, I know when to eat the salad instead and, even if I don’t, I’ll just contemplate finding time to exercise and that salad is more appealing.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t exercise. I walk the pups a lot. I do a lot of work outside and I do on occasion use my ab roller. According to my calorie count software program, I actually burn as many calories on an average weekend doing my normal activities as I would if I did cardio. My last doctor’s visit rule me very healthy with a low BP and everything so, for now, I’m good.

And, yes, this is really my way of justifying the guilt I feel by not having a regular exercise program. But I will think about it.

After all, thinking is exercise for the brain, isn’t it?

Happy Friday- have a great weekend!

The Nuisance of "Chubby Days"

There are days in life when you just feel blah about things. They are days when you go to your closet and look at all your clothes and wonder what on earth you should wear. Sure, you have a bursting-at-the-seams selection in front of you but nothing jumps out. You feel as though everything you put on will make you feel like an enormous blob because you’re having a ‘chubby day.’

If you’ve never had a ‘chubby’ day, you’re very lucky. I’m not sure if men have ‘chubby’ days or not but I know that I, as a female, have them far too often.

In my case, a chubby day means that you realize you no longer have the fabulous metabolism that you had when you were 18 and could fit into size 2 jeans. It means that you have to wake up and realize that as much as you enjoy the taste of French fries, butter-sauced food and lots and lots of cheese, you can’t always give in to the urges. Instead, you find yourself looking up ways to make a healthy dinner that’s tasty.

Chubby days also mean that you look in the mirror and feel unattractive. You know you’re not and that you don’t look like a drag queen or Arnold Schwarzenegger when he dons that woman’s disguise in “Total Recall” and, yet....you can't help but feel like you do.

Often, when I'm feeling like this, my strategy is to make sure I wear something that makes me feel good or attractive. I try to spend a little extra time on my makeup, make sure my hair looks right.

Sometimes this helps. However, there are occasion chubby days where nothing makes you feel that great and even when you try to look nice, you feel like you don't.

I know it's all in how you feel about yourself that counts. I'm pretty sure people don't look at me and say, "wow, she's quite chubby!" There might be people who remember my 18-year-old metabolism who would say, "wow, she's gained some weight" but, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that bad.

It's all in my head. I know it. The fact that I think I have nothing to wear when I have a closet full of clothes is definitely a psychological block rather than a physical one. It's just that my sweaters make me feel bulky. If I wear something that isn't a sweater, I'll freeze. It becomes an issue of common sense vs. vanity. Vanity often wins. Then common sense laughs at it and says, 'told you so,' when I'm sitting in my office, hugging my tea mug for warmth.

I usually try to fight chubby days by trying to eat a little lighter or healthier and make sure I'm doing at least a little exercise. That way I feel like I'm doing something about that which is bringing me down. I might dwell on a problem for a while but eventually, I always find a way to deal with it. In the case of chubby days, I can attempt to fight them. Or, more realistically, wait for them to pass and try again tomorrow.

Perhaps I should pick out my outfit for tomorrow now. That seems logical.

Except that by the time I get up tomorrow morning, I probably will have changed my mind.

Hopefully I'll feel less 'chubby' tomorrow.

Happy Thursday!