Week 1, Day 7: Lessons Learned

Lesson the First: Calculating and tallying points isn't as bad as it seems. I am learning the point values of my regular foods pretty quickly, now, and can jauntily write down that my morning omelet is 8 points.

Lesson the Second: Eating to Your Comfort Zone. There's a sweet spot between being ravenous and being stuffed to the gills. Slowing down and savoring my food gives me a chance to reach that sweet spot before I've cleaned my plate. It has turned out to be easier than I thought, just like flipping a switch. (We'll see if this persists after Week One Euphoria dies off.)

Lesson the Third: Small Change = Big Results. The Week 1 booklet gave a list of small substitutions that add up to big savings with minimal sacrifice in satisfaction level. I've done one: in the evening, it had been my custom to eat some plain yogurt to encourage the propagation of beneficial intestinal flora. I had been liberally applying granola, sunflower seeds, and occasionally a tablespoon of apricot preserves. Now, I've found the yogurt tastes every bit as good with a couple tablespoons of raisins on it. [Edit: or a sprinking of nutmeg for that matter]

I've also moved everything edible out of my third floor kitchen, except for big slabs of meat or huge bags of frozen vegetables in the freezer. It was too easy to wander next door from my home office and grab some cheese. (I work at home.) Now if I want something to eat I have to go down two flights of stairs. It hardly seems worth it.

Lesson the Fourth: Fight Clutter. Phyllis made that a topic at Saturday's meeting, especially with reference to clutter in the kitchen. I think it may have been in the materials, too. My husband is an inveterate clutter-buster and so the kitchen is fine, but my office is woefully messy. I've been working on it all week, and I'm slowly beginning to feel more in control of my surroundings and thus of my workflow.

All this week I've been cheating a little to boost initial weight gain-- I set my point total a little lower than it should be, and I haven't been using all my points. I want some instant gratification in the early weeks, and especially I want my knees and ankles to feel better and my blood pressure and cholesterol levels to go down before I see my doctor next month. I'm hoping for a respectable weight loss, but realize that because of my cold my activity level hasn't been especially high and that, with my next birthday being my sixtieth, I am likely to lose more slowly. Still...

Tomorrow I'll know how well I've actually done and whether I deserve to be patting myself on the back so enthusiastically.