I was so hoping today would be the day I reached 151.8 marking the 10 Pound Weightloss Mark. Even if I didn't quite get there, yesterday's 152.6 had me feeling pretty good about this whole thing.
But last night I knew something was wrong. As I was turning down the sheets to go to bed, I started to realize that my wedding ring was feeling pretty snug around my finger...which is weird because it had been getting gradually looser since beginning this diet. I tried to tell myself that maybe it was the heat and my fingers were just swollen....
But this morning....it was undeniable. I'm retaining water. I have to be. It's the only way to explain the following sequence of events short of Diet Abandonment, and I have been very steadfast in my adherence.
Step 1: Wake up. Prepare for weigh-in. 10 pounds is just within reach.
Step 2: Step on scale.
Step 3: Plummet to Earth at an unexplainable 154.8. WTF, mate!?!?!
Alright, alright, alright. It's okay. It's okay. I am going to shake this off, eat less salt, pray this was a fluke (afterall, we almost had another 153.8 Half Hanukkah before getting down to 152.6 so I think that today is the fluke rather than the last 5 days combined), and move forward.
On to today's blog topic: Accessories to Flabicide!
Having done the weightloss-blog thing once already, I am always mentally comparing and contrasting this slim-down journey with the last one. One thing that has definitely changed and made life a million times easier this time around, is that I am not doing it alone. This time, I have two partners in crime: Double Agent and Lil' Libby.
I've referenced them before, but today I would like to dedicate an entire post to The Work Besties. To protect their identities, I asked them to come up with blog aliases. Double Agent chose her psuedonym because during the week she is a total lawyer-hotty who rocks the sky high heels and sexy pencil skirts and enjoys a boozy lunch as well as the entire cast of Mad Men, but during the weekend she is a self-described "frumpy" Army Wife who spends most of her time potty training Little Miss Double Agent.
Lil' Libby actually didn't choose that name; she asked me to refer to her as The Losin' It Liberal--which is pretty self-explanatory being that she's trying to lose weight and is a liberal.* While I love that name, it is cumbersome to type, and Lil' Libby sounds better in the running commentary in my brain. Plus when I imagine her reading this for the first time and realizing what her new bastardized alias will be, I know I'll be able to hear her laugh from across the office. And I like her laugh.
So anyway, I owe a great deal of any success I may have on this journey to both of them. It's, like, a scientific fact that close friends tend to gain and lose weight in circles. Even without having seen the research, I can attest that friends can make or break you. It's a lot easier to pick a lunch spot with healthy options when everyone is in search of healthy options. It's a lot harder to have the willpower to avoid fattening things when everyone around you is enjoying their third slice of cheesy pizza.
The Work Besties actually started their diets before I did. I can't remember which one started it all, but weeks and weeks (maybe even months) before I began this blog I started to grow envious of both of their ever-shrinking waistlines. At one point I realized that I was the problem child in this group of lunchtime pals. I was the asshole pizza-eater while both of them were being good. I was the one who kept suggesting we go to "greasy spoon" type restaurants. I will never know how they continued to successfully lose weight with me hanging around.
But aside from the obvious fact that being around fellow dieters makes it easier to stick to the program, I have also really enjoyed seeing how all three of us are losing weight all the while having very unique approaches to weight loss. It's truly a testament to the fact that there are as many different ways to successfully lose weight as there are people on this planet. It's all about finding what works for you.
My method is obvious by now: 1) do very little exercise; 2) strictly adhere to a set number of calories with near total disregard for where the calories come from--be it whole grains or grain alcohol; 3) weigh self daily at the exact same time wearing the exact same thing to ensure as much accuracy as possible; 4)blog about it so the fear of public humiliation keeps me accountable.
Double Agent's methods are far more fluid. She doesn't even own a scale--although I swear to you that I saw her steal the scale from the mail sorting room the other day so she could weigh herself in her office. She doesn't count calories. She just makes healthier choices than she would make if the sky were the limit. It works for her. She is visibly thinner after several weeks of ordering mostly shrimp in various forms when we go out to eat. She creates her own sandwich combinations cutting back on fattening things where she can. She also swears that she hardly eats when she's at home--attributing it to the fact that she's completely busy running after Little Miss. She gets her exercise from dancing and work out videos. And, man, I'll be damned, but whatever she is doing works.
Lil' Libby uses a method that a lot of Americans are familiar with: Weight Watchers. She loves the point system; prefering to keep track of points instead of counting calories like I do. She is really into working out. She has a gym membership and she runs marathons in her spare time. I consider that a form of personal torture, but she seems to like it. She also believes very strongly in a "carrot and stick" approach to weight loss:
Lil' Libby saw a Coach purse a few weeks ago that she simply loves. It's pretty pricey--nearly $400 She promised herself that if she sticks to her work out plan and Weight Watchers until Election Night, she will buy the purse for herself. That's her carrot.
Now the stick: if Lil' Libby fails to adhere to her diet and work out plan until Election night, she is going to take the same $400 that should have gone towards her fabulous new bag and donate it to Mitt Romney's Presidential Campain. And that really would chap her ass because as liberal as I believe that I tend to be, she makes me look like a Tea Partier. She mailed the check to her mother with instructions to send it if she gets caught cheating. I thought that was pretty hilarious.
Her method is working too. She is visibly thinner than she was even a couple weeks ago.
So that's what we've been doing. We're just a bunch of busy attorneys trying to lose weight and still live a fun and fantastic lifestyle. I gotta say, the journey is a lot more fun with company.
*I should note that she, too, is a total lawyer-hotty who rocks the sky high heels and sexy pencil skirts and enjoys a boozy lunch as well as the entire cast of Mad Men.
