Addition and Subtraction

It had been a week and I eagerly stepped on the scales, expecting to see reflected there my hard work of eating right and exercising. The blank lines blinked once, twice, and then the digital display revealed the numbers. Down 0.2 of a pound. In one week.

I was disappointed for the rest of the day. What went wrong? Thinking it might have been a one-time fluke, I weighed the next day, but the scales were not much more gracious then. I didn't know what to do.

I'll admit it; I was tempted to throw in the towel, give up, and have a guilt-free calorie-laden day where I ate as much as I wanted at each meal and enjoyed a thick layer of vegenaise on my sandwiches for supper that evening. The only problem was, I had done this too many times before. I had worked really hard, for about a week or two, seen the numbers go down, gotten excited, and then slowly started to slack off. I would rationalize that I could have a "maintenance day" instead of a "weight loss" day, and then soon all my days were turning into maintenance days. I wouldn't exercise regularly because I was too tired or because it was raining.

So here I was, facing the very real possibility that I could fail to reach the as-always-too-high goal I had set for myself. I could not only fail to reach it, I could decide to give up and not pursue health like I knew I needed to.

I'm pleased to say, however, that instead of giving up, I'm going to figure out what works. Instead of exercising after I get off work in the evenings and eating supper at 7 or 8 pm, I'm going to try to get my exercise all done in the morning before work. Then I'll be able to eat sooner, around 6 pm instead, and will have my evenings free to do other things. I will try to set aside some time to prepare some healthy supper recipes this week as well.

So here's to a new week and to renewed vigor for the daunting task ahead!