I’ve been kind of stuck diet/exercise-wise for most of this month: I haven’t really gained any weight, but I haven’t lost any either, which is a shame because I had a particular weight goal in mind I wanted to reach by the time we left for our trip out west, a goal I’ll end up missing by 5 or so pounds. Oh well….
In any event, the end of spring teaching is near, and after our various end of June/beginning of July travels, I should be able to kind of ease into a more regular diet and exercise program. Here’s a run-down on some plans and goals:
- Eat right, of course. I know (basically) what this means, though to be perfectly honest, I feel like I do pretty much “eat right” right now. Lotsa veggies, whole grains, lean meats, things like yogurt and high fiber cereal, olive oil instead of “bad fats” when I can, nuts, etc. I think I am pretty close to the sort of recommendations that are associated with the food pyramid or the Harvard eating plan or phase 2 of the South Beach diet, all of which are pretty much the same thing.
Or let me put it this way: I eat as healthy of a diet as I am willing to eat and still enjoy my life, which includes the joy of good food. There’s always got to be some balance in these things. Julia Childs swore by butter and lived to be 95 or something like that.
- Eat less. For me, I think not doing this has been my problem. I mean, if you eat boneless/skinless chicken breast that’s been grilled with some brocolli and a brown rice pilaf kind of thing but you eat enough of it to count as two adult servings, you’re not going to lose weight, period.
- ASAP, I’m going to cancel my membership at the One-on-One gym in Ann Arbor and sign up for the Washtenaw County Recreation Center. This might not seem like a move in the right direction, but the main goal here is to save cash. The main reason why Annette and I signed up for One-on-One shortly after we moved here was because Annette wanted a place with a schedule for aerobics that worked for her. That’s all fine and good, but everything I do at the gym is things involving machines: weight machines, cardio machines, etc. I am unlikely to start taking exercise classes anytime soon.
Anyway, after years of not thinking much about it, I realized that really, I don’t need to go to a place as expensive as One-on-One to do what I do. The Washtenaw County Rec Center is $170 a year for me, which is about a third of what it costs for a year for me at One-on-One. So I’m outta there, and given that the rec center has a pool and exercise classes, Annette might be out of One-on-One too.
- You know, exercise more and stuff. While Will’s out of school, Annette and I will have some “day care issues” that will mean a not completely regular schedule for a workout, so the best that I think I will be able to do is get to the gym when I can and find exercise in other ways. But that’s something relatively easy to do in July and August around here: early walks, gardening, etc.
And then, when Will is back in school, I can kick into mucho workout mode. But more on that later.
What I’d like to accomplish by the end of the summer is to get back to the weight I was at when we went to Hawaii last year, about 10 pounds south of right now. I think it’s possible, but I think I’m going to have to do more than be on the “non-diet” diet I have been on.