Maude comes out of the snow and wraps up Month One. Feeling . . . encouraged. The 2020 Twenty: Entry Four.
February 24, 2021
February 24 ends Month One, or thirty days since I hit the Big Twenty.
And the results of thirty days are: two pounds down, twenty to go! Or so I thought. When I checked on my scale at home, that was the news I got on Sunday, wearing nothing but SPANX leggings and a cami. But at a doctor’s office check Monday morning with my boots and everything, I got a much, much less friendly reading that I may feel like talking about when it’s farther in the past. Directly following my scale ride–maybe because of my scale ride–I also got a high blood pressure reading, which my nurse, of course, had to address with me, because for me, that would be what the medical community likes to call a comorbidity. Because it is (sigh).
At least the storm is over! The snow is gone (mostly). It’s at least freed Esme. And the weather is warm.
I have a whole new idea of what warm and cold are. Hot I’m quite comfortable with, and we are not there yet. But now that I’ve sampled the air farther below freezing than I’d ever been before, maybe I won’t wuss out so fast on a thirty-minute bike ride in forty-two-degree weather? No matter what, I’m itching to get out there, as I’ve been watching my snowbound new bike longingly for a week. I can’t wait to see what Esme and I get up to in the next few.
A New Trick
Something new just occurred to me this week that I’m kind of surprised I hadn’t thought of. And something old just re-occurred from last year.
Calorie-counting has been discouraging, especially without exercise helping me out, because after I think I’ve done okay (enough) throughout the day, I eat dinner. And dinner in my mom’s kitchen is something I haven’t gotten the hang of yet. I’ve never thought of myself as a great cook. My mom probably doesn’t fancy herself one either, but I find her cooking is delicious–certainly easier to over-eat than my own. So that’s a challenge.
What I decided to do yesterday was to “quick add” a few hundred calories for dinner at the beginning of my FitnessPal diary, therefore scheduling it and theoretically cutting down on what I eat during the day. It could work on a normal day. Yesterday I was stuck in town running errands all day and grabbed a delicious, high-calorie panini out, so at the end of the day it didn’t work out in my favor. I also ate a little bag of Cheez-Its at the vaccine clinic (finally got that second shot!), and then I over-ate more delicious food at dinner. I do love to eat. So really, it’s exercise that’s gonna get this train moving for me, but I’ll keep using this trick with it.
I also turned back to clementine oranges for snacks. I ate them like (nature’s) candy when I lost the weight originally. They’re delicious, they’re conveniently packaged and easy to carry, they provide just as many carbs as a diabetic should snack on, and they’re very low on calories. And extraordinarily high in vitamin C, of course. When the pandemic began and I re-located, I had trouble finding them available for curbside grocery orders, but now I know where to find them. And I won’t feel as nervous about just regular shopping when my parents get their vaccinations started, which is supposed to happen in a few days!
I see 2020 slowly fading into the past, more every day. Now, if I can just get the Twenty to fade away too, I’ll be (almost) right back where I started.
What do you think? I would like to hear from you, but you won’t find the typical Comments section here. If you have given the issue some thought or have an experience to share, please enter it here, or send your response to Maude@mauvereport.com. I would love to hear how the rest of America is doing with this in 2021.