I've had a mental breakthrough!

I’ve been thinking a lot and hard about why I’m struggling so much with the eating part of my weight loss. I’ve been going crazy in the evenings, coming home from work and grabbing something (or a lot of somethings) on the way, which we all know is not good for you.

I’ve been slowly doing better with my exercise. On Sunday, I mowed the lawn for a little over an hour. It’s been my turn for about a month (luckily our lawn grows slow), but last week, all the weeds in our yard, that came from the field shot up. Seriously, they grew about 2 feet in a week, I kid you not. So I decided I should probably actually take my turn and get the stupid (huge) lawn mowed. Luckily it was somewhat cool outside, but for every strip I went over, I had to go over some parts of it again, because the stems of the freaking weeds were so thick, the mower couldn’t take ‘em all down on one swipe. So I got extra exercise. I did finish it, and our lawn now looks lovely. And that’s probably the last time we’ll have to mow it until the middle of September. We just let the lawn mostly die over the summer, so we don’t waste water. Saves on the chore too!

On Monday, I finally (after about a month and a half being gone) went back to my water aerobics. I forgot what a workout it was, but it was really fantastic! I just love being in the water; it’s so relaxing, and comfortable. For the first 20 or so minutes, I kept looking at the clock, wishing I could leave early. But I did manage to convince my evil less-healthy half that I was going to work-out because I’m tired of seeing myself in the mirror and averting my eyes. Boy was that ever a struggle, but I won.

Anyways, back to my starting paragraph, I do great for breakfast and lunch, but it’s always dinner that’s my downfall. The reason I think I’ve been doing poorly is that I start to get hungry on my way home from work. To get home, it’s only a half hour drive, but when you’re hungry, it seems longer. I try to take the way home that has very few fast food places for me to drive by, which helps in the temptation. But worse than that, I always plan to go home and cook something healthy, something likely time-consuming and energy-sapping. And that’s where I don’t wanna. I just want to eat, and then exercise and get it all out of the way so I can relax. I don’t want to go home and spend another 30-45 minutes preparing something for dinner, just because it’s healthier. I always feel like my evening is wasted when I spend so much time doing that.

Totally awkward transition, I know, but it does tie in, I promise. When I first started losing weight, I was eating those Michelina’s meals for lunch or dinner, whichever I didn’t feel like preparing. I know it’s high in sodium, etc., but I tracked the best ever, and remained below my calorie limit, and I lost a lot of weight doing that. So what I am going to do for the rest of the week is have a microwavable meal for dinner each day, to get the eating under control. Then this weekend, I will do some cooking, to kind of prepare some foods that are ready made. Then all we have to do is heat it up throughout the week. It’s so much easier, and I think that will really help me get back on track. See, I promised it would tie in!

I actually have that excited feeling again, the same one I had when I started on this journey to lose over half of me. I am stoked to finally know why I haven’t been succeeding, and to actually have something I can do different that will help me to get straight. How exciting!!!

I’ve also reserved several books through the library that address the mindless eating I’ve been doing. I figure I’ll read them for fun, and if I find any helpful insights, well, you really can’t go wrong with helpful insights. The book ideas come from Lyn at Escape from Obesity, where she gives a nice overview of each book. I’ve been following Lyn’s weight loss journey for a little over a year now. She’s actually the person who inspired my weight loss, and she writes really well. I love to read her blog!

Have a great day!