By Wendy Nugent, Newton Now
Throughout much of my life, I’ve been able to eat the amount of food I’ve wanted and not gain an ounce, whether I exercised of not.
Now that I’m a “woman of a certain age,” I have issues with gaining weight and I know what others go through. I can look at food and gain weight now. It doesn’t take much. I tell my boyfriend I have to exercise way more now and eat way less to weigh 10 pounds more than I used to.
Today, as I write this, it is my official dieting start date, again. I downloaded the Fitness Pal app again on my cell, and I’ve been exercising for months and months, but now I’m going to watch even closer what I eat. I know. This is not the best time of year to watch what I eat, but I’m in the mood to start, so I’m doing it. Once I set my mind to something, there’s really no stopping me. My goal is to lose five pounds. That might not seem like a lot, but I’ve been trying to lose since May, and I’ve only gained, but I didn’t keep track of my eating and exercising on an app. That seems to be the only time I lose weight is when I do that.
Once, I lost 20 pounds in six months. That was a lot for me. They say, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny.”
Unfortunately, I made a pumpkin pie for me, last night. I didn’t eat any and I will eat some, just slower than usual. Portion control and it’s sugar-free. I made it with Stevia I bought at Prairie Harvest. It’s really good. I just have to resist pouring a ton of whipping cream on it. That’s the danger zone. I love whipping cream on pumpkin pie. Now, I’m making myself hungry.
Usually people go on this type of lifestyle change at the first of the year, but I want to do it now. A few years ago when I lost all that weight, I was on the verge of pre-diabetes. I don’t want to become diabetic, so I plan on losing a few pounds.
During Thanksgiving, I crossed into a weight zone I don’t want to be in. So that was the turning point for me. However, I didn’t think I ate that much and I got in at least 4,000 steps every day. From past experience, I know I need to eat 1,200 calories a day while exercising most days to lose weight. That number of calories isn’t much, but hey, it’s all I’ve got.
If you know me and notice I’m getting crabby, just dangle some cheese in front of my face in case I’m hungry. I’ll eat it. I also have hypoglycemia and sugar drops can hit me hard and fast. Sometimes I don’t notice I’m crabby until I say something unkind to another person and wonder where that came from.
For my exercise, I usually run in place at home and even though I have a membership to the Y, I don’t take advantage of it much these days. I need to go back, at least put in an appearance.
My favorite machine there is the bicycle-pedaling one. I can sit and exercise. Fun. I get to see the lap-goers pass by me every once in a while. They go places. I don’t, except maybe down the weight-loss path we’re both on.
My favorite time of night to go there is after 9 p.m. when the place slows down. I really don’t enjoy working out with a bunch of other sweaty folks near me. My oldest son likes to go late at night, too. We’re both night owls. He’s there to build muscle and I’m there to felt fat and maybe build some muscle. Who am I kidding? I’m there to slenderize.
Since I’m a “woman of the certain age,” I also have belly fat like I’ve never had before in my life. I keep thinking about getting liposuction, but I don’t think I can afford that. Belly fat is not my friend. It’s an uninvited guest to my world.
I thought if I did enough sit-ups, it would go away. No such luck. I think it’s here to stay. It’s a great place to rest things, I’m realizing, like my cup of coffee. Handy belly fat. I still don’t like it, even though it’s trying to make me believe it’s useful and handy. It might be, but I don’t want it around.
I’m guessing some of you guys out there can relate. Maybe I’ll see you at the Y or walking down by Sand Creek on a nice evening. Let’s all stay away from diabetes.
Wendy Nugent is the features editor and lead photographer at Newton Now. She can be reached at wendy@harveycountynow.com.
