Thick and Thin Thursday
T H I C K A N D T H I N T H U R S D A Y
I’ve decided to eliminate Therapeutic Thursday as it was starting to feel too heavy. Instead I’m going to see how I feel each Thursday and go from there, which actually ends up being sort of therapeutic anyway.
One of the focuses of my life has always been weight, diet and exercise. I always feel like I’m just on the other side of that place where I would feel comfortable in my own skin. My weight usually fluctuates within 25 pounds. That probably sounds like a lot but when you’re almost 6 feet tall it gets evenly distributed, and so it’s less noticeable. (At least that’s what I tell myself.) For example, when tall women get pregnant you hardly notice the baby bump. It’s one of the perks of being tall.
These are the things that stand in the way of achieving my goals.
LATE NIGHT EATING
I can be “good” all day and eat healthy food but as soon as the sun sets I become fixated on sweets. My favorite items are cereal, cookies and occasionally, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of ice-cold skim milk. The milk is crucial. It makes me feel like such a baby but it seriously puts me to sleep. All I need are some footy pajamas and I’d be good to go. (Please someone tell me that I’m not alone in this ritual!) I think eating at night is an attempt to reduce my stress from the day. Food is definitely my drug of choice. (So that would make Oreos my Crack Cocaine)
Yummy!
I know if I could eliminate my bed time snack I would wake up feeling much better.
MOTIVATION
During the winter all of my healthy habits become so tiresome. I just want to hibernate. The dark and the cold wreak havoc on my motivation. I usually push myself to exercise but it’s definitely more hit and miss in the winter months. The last thing I want to eat is another salad. SO BORING! Tell me I’m not alone in this…
Maybe if my salad looked like this I would eat it?
What do you do that motivates you to stay healthy and on track? I’d like to know.
GETTING OLD
I don’t want to depress or scare any of my youthful bloggers but getting old sucks. I don’t even recognize myself anymore. Everything has shifted. My once elastic skin is now tired and droopy. Areas that were never a problem are all of a sudden drawing my attention, and not in a good way. I avoid the mirror at all costs. Everything feels creaky and stiff.
By the way, it’s not lost on me that this post is equally as heavy as any of my old thursday posts! haha!
If I don’t snap out of my current eating and exercise rut I’m going to be shopping for a lot of cover-ups, sarongs and bathing dresses (you know the kind of bathing suit that has the skirt attached?) Each year my skirt gets longer and this year I fear it will be a tea length! ha!
I think she has the right idea…
lol the picture of the woman at the end is so frightening! But yeah, getting motivated is not just half the battle for me, its the entire battle. I know I can do everything, it’s just getting there and doing it that I have a problem with!
Paul drinks a glass of milk at night too. Like a little child. Dairy products frighten me.
Haha! Yeah, the motivation is the biggest thing. I know I do better when it’s sunny and warm outside. I also do better when you’re with me!
I love my milk. So many people think it’s an unhealthy choice but I don’t know? It’s skim so isn’t that mostly protein?
Yeah, snacking on stuff is outrageously tempting sometimes. I have got round it by diligent use of sugar-free chewing gum. I go through it fairly quickly some days.
I have also drastically cut back the amount of work I do down the gym. I just can’t be arsed doing so much these days.
Just out of interest is there anyone in your family who isn’t six feet tall? Your doorways must be MASSIVE.
Along with your shoe racks…
Thanks, the chewing gum is a good tip. I once did that and I remember it helps cut the craving. I’ll reinstate that practice.
My son is around 8 inches taller than Lily and my husband is six feet two inches. I’m the short one at 5 feet 11 inches.
A lot of people have alarm systems in case someone breaks into their house, I just put my son’s shoes outside the front door as a deterrent. Works like a charm.
I alway get hungry at the wrong moments. When we have dinner, I’m not hungry at all. Ten minutes after we finished, I start to starve. The same at 3 o’clock. Another thing is that I can’t watch tv without eating. That’s how I eat fruit everyday: the urge to chew. But believe me: if I wouldn’t have stress, I’d be giantly fat. I’m not a very healthy eater…
I can relate to that. My timing is off with my appetite, too. 3:00 is deadly because I start feeling sleepy, naturally that makes me want to munch on something.
TV has a Pavlov’s dog effect with me – turn it on, sit down, and I want food. I might as well ring a bell! Haha!
Alas, choccie-chomping at night is one of my sins. As if I need the energy boost to get a good sleep …
Haha! that makes me laugh. I’ve thought the same thing. Then when I wake in the morning and see the damage I feel miserable. It’s like at night I’m Jekyl and Hyde and the other takes over. So out of control!
Your entire post resonated. I hate getting old, not being motivated (I’ve started dropping to the floor as soon as I get up and do five plank push ups to at least feel I’ve done something) and the old stuff. ::weeping::
I finally said, “Self, we can’t afford a face life and my idea of duct tape carefully placed to pull things up isn’t working.” “I told you it wouldn’t.” “Well, from now on, from where I am in my body, I look AMazing! And, if I don’t pass any reflective surfaces, I can keep that illusion!” “Let me know how that works.” Self is not my best supporter at times.
You look AMazing from this side of your face, plus, you are 6′ tall. *sigh*ing.
I feel like a fish swimming upstream – except that at this point, I probably couldn’t even swim down stream without getting winded. It’s all so futile. Such a struggle.
I also feel that my body is betraying me with calorie requirements. Has my metabolism completely shut down? Forget cutting back to 1,200 calories– that no longer works. Pretty soon I’m gonna be reduced to inhaling my calories in order to lose weight. Ha!
“You are not alone!” Seriously! Oh…and where can I get a bathing dress like you posted in that last picture? It looks incredibly slimming! 🙂
It’s lovely, isn’t it? I’ll be all the rage at the beach this year. I like that it has a matching head band, too. That’s a real plus! Hopefully it comes in other colors, gray can make me look a bit washed out! haha!
Black is incredibly slimming! MIght add to the overall effect. ::snort::
Geeze, I have all these problems! Thanks for the “cheery” wake up! “Honey, cancel my bacon and eggs this morning, I’m going to the gym–and then getting a face lift! HF
Yeah, better make it half a grape-fruit and an egg white omelette, instead. Don’t worry about the face lift, HF, that 1/4 inch avatar makes you look pretty darn good. Ha!
Now I’m happy! Oh what power you women possess! “Honey, put the eggs back on and add some bacon! I actually look pretty good!”
more motivation: Sumo wrestlers eat late night as part of there training. I give you gift of imagery. Fridge after 9= never the same again. Insert toothy grin.
You win! You have officially motivated me to quit my late night munching. Thanks, Pigeon! I’m gonna put a picture of a sumo wrestler on my fridge and pantry, lest the image leaves my mind.
Ha! Crouching before you.
Yes! I can see it now- all crouched down…
Haha! Very helpful, indeed.
I think late night craving is everyone’s downfall. My way around it? I save my biggest meal for dinner. It’s probably night ideal, but it does help.
I avoid buying bad foods all together for the most part. It’s probably easier when you’re my age and feel guilty every time you buy something that doesn’t have at least 50% of your daily recommended amount of some sort of a vitamin.
Find some sort of new routine or “healthy” food to satisfy you. That always gets me back on track. And avoid watching movies with attractive people. We need to remember actors and actresses are not human. None of us have to look like them.
Okay, these are some very good tips and tricks. I’ve been doing the opposite and eating a bigger breakfast (a healthy one, though) and then decreasing the size of each meal following until I get to dinner and eat a yogurt! No wonder I want a snack!
To avoid buying “bad” foods I have to shop on a full stomach. That’s the only thing that works. Otherwise I come home with unexpected crappy junk food.
I agree about the actresses but it’s so hard not to fall for all those perfect images on the cover of the magazines. It really plays on your insecurities.
It especially doesn’t help that celebrities in their 50s are getting photographed in swimsuits on the beach looking better than us average schlubs. I don’t need to see some guy twice my age in better shape than I am dating a chick younger than me. That makes me not want to see your movie.
Yeah, I hate those people. I was just telling Lily, they’re surrounded by plastic surgeons and trainers and private chefs, etc. I’d be thin and in shape if all I had to do all day was take care of myself. That would be a pretty easy life, no stress…. hard to believe people live like that.
I don’t tend to eat regularly which is no good because then my metabolism doesn’t work properly and the fat doesnt burn off which is why I’m big. Like today for instance I did a 12 and a half hour shift with no breaks and all I wanna do is sleep. When I’m tired, I’m not hungry, it’s gotten to the point where I force myself to eat something but today, well I haven’t had anything to eat for 28 hours =/
I’m thinking your metabolism is in “starvation mode.” It’s probably saying, “Hey Pete, what the hell you doing? We’re starving to death. Now we’ve got to hold onto every little calorie or molecule of nourishment!” haha! I know a lot of people that do this, actually. I would fall over dead if I did that. I can’t even go for a few hours without getting cranky! haha
Oh I’m definitely cranky haha, just to busy!
cold cereal, cold cereal, cold cereal.
I’m the cereal queen. I’ve never met a cereal I didn’t love. I tell myself it’s low in calories but if you could see the size bowl I put it in… Oy! It’s like a mixing bowl!