That Voodoo That I Do

One of my Facebook friends (and by “friend,”  I mean “person I've never met, talked to or know in any conceivable sense of the word”) has been rattling my cage about what “program” I'm using.

Calling what I do a “program” kind of diminishes the word, much the same way Facebook diminishes the word “friend”.



You see, I'm bad with rules, too unorganized for a lot of structure and too scatter-brained to keep track of everything I do.

When I finally got serious about this healthy living bushwah, I knew I'd have to implement big changes in my life. However, I knew it’d have to be changes that I could actually live with.

I knew I wasn’t a calorie-counter or a meeting go-to-er… well, maybe I could be a calorie counter or a meeting go-to-er, but I couldn’t do it for the long term. And isn’t the long term what it’s all about anyway?

So in the interest of edumacating you about what’s worked for me, here are the three principles of my “program”…

Eat a little less. And by eating a little less, I mean “don’t eat quite so much”. And by “don’t eat so much,” I mean “eat less food than you probably think you ought to eat”. I’m sorry to get all technical, but it’s an important part of losing weight.

Eat a little healthier. Maybe there was a time when you were like I was, just glanced at calories or whether something was labeled “low-fat” or not. I learned over time that what you put in your mouth was just as important as the quantity.

Exercise a little more. I suppose you can lose weight without exercise, though I honestly believe that it’ll be so slow going that you’ll lose your steam before you get too far. Exercise raises your metabolism and  helps you manage stress and some of the other factors that lead many of us to overeat. Most of all (for me anyway) exercise tends to create a connection between calories consumed and calories burned; when I see a donut on the break room table, I don’t see a delicious pastry; I see 45 minutes of running on the treadmill. And no donut is worth 45 minutes of running on the treadmill.

That’s it. Simple, huh? Every day isn’t perfectly on plan, but I have more good days than not. And the proof is in the sugar-free, fat-free pudding.

For me, it’s all about finding a lifestyle you feel like you can live with… and then start living with it.