If All Else Fails

If all else fails going to bed early can curb evening eating problems.  Ian and I had dinner about 5pm and by 6:30pm I was ready to eat again, even though I was not hungry.  Part of that stems from my early mornings and work schedule but I decided I would go to my room and get ready for bed rather than sit and be tempted by food for the next several hours.  I washed my face, brushed my teeth and then decided I would re-watch one of the Elementary episodes on the internet.  So I went and got my laptop, got my bills and listened to the show while sitting in bed and working on my budget for January.  By the time I finished it was a little bit after 8pm and I was ready for bed.  I let another episode play and fell asleep to it.  Woke up at 10:30pm to shut off the computer and went back to sleep.  Unfortunately, it was cold (how surprising) in the morning so even though I got nearly 8 hours of sleep I didn't want to get out of bed.

I am not into New Year's resolutions but I do like to track my eating and activity (writing down what you eat on a consistent basis is one of the strongest indicators of a successful weight loss effort and helps to ensure the weight loss is maintained once accomplished.)  I needed a fresh start visually and decided I would try the weight watchers website (I have used so many and like aspects of them all but wanted something where I had no history.)  Of course you pay to use it but I committed to three months and started using it about two weeks ago.  I think they have done a great job with their website.  Keeping track of points is different from keeping track of calories (I calculate that each point is about 50 calories worth of food consumed) but I can work with it and I really like their recipe builder and meal tracker tools.  So I have gotten myself back on track with my eating from both a health perspective and a portion perspective.

The other important element to weight loss is exercise, which I have even made a stab at these last couple of days.  It appears to be linked to New Year's also but is more in line with the fact that I started tracking my food and activity again and the fact that my boss has given me an hour off each afternoon this past week.  The weather has been glorious and the lake is full because of all the rain we've had in the last month.  And because it is winter the migratory birds are at the lake making the scenery even more interesting.  So I have been grabbing Reilly and driving over to the lake and we've been walking the last several afternoons.  I have to admit it is a completely different crowd of people from those that we normally see on Saturday mornings when we walk.  I really should make it a habit to walk in the afternoon even when I get off at the regular time--we'll have to see what happens in the next week or so.

So, my advice to me (and to anyone else that needs it) is regardless of the time of year if all else fails start fresh and get on track with eating healthy and exercising regularly.