Deception as Motivation

Personal Bits

For the last couple months I’ve been putting off my promise to myself for losing 20lbs. I had been weighing myself religiously with every visit to the gym and had not noticed any great flux in my weight – it was hovering nicely around 225lbs, but 20lbs sounded so easy to do: no chips, no eating after 8pm, more salads, less sugar, bla bla bla, which made me complacent to actually doing something about it. I was making promises to myself that I’d lose it before Disney and what the hey, I had a few months to go so what’s the rush?

Last week I was standing nude waiting in line for the scale in the change room (I love walking around nude in there, no towel wrap. Freaks out the repressed Islamic/Catholics), when the guy on the scale steps off and blurts: “Finally! They fixed it!”

Huh?

I step on.

It’s one of those doctor office ones with the sliding weights. I snap the weights to 225. Nope. Too light.

227? Nope.

235? No, the weights stayed put, not enough.

242? Finally the weights balance. Oh fucking shit on a toasted English muffin with a side of fucking home fries. With ass hollandaise sauce.

I felt cheated. I felt angry. I felt like some Fat Ass Fairy came and blessed me in the night with a gift of fat. I wanted to stride naked out of the change room to the administration office of the gym and wave my blubber at them while shouting: “YOU DID THIS TO ME!!” To say this was a wake up call was a bit of an understatement. I was nearing 1/8th of a ton.

I have friends who went on various Jenny Craig/Weight Watchers programs and while I honestly commended them for their choice of healthy eating (they all looked amazing after their run), when they talked about their food intake for the day like their relationship with food resembled a troubled loved one going through rehab, I would silently thank my lucky stars I wasn’t a “food Nazi”.

These things are cyclic: I have become a Food Nazi. So I’m eating more salads, less sugars, nothing after 8pm and getting back to the gym to do an hour of cardio for each visit. This is the last I’ll speak of it, though.

9 thoughts on “Deception as Motivation

  1. cowtown queen

    Yeah, I’ve seen some people do the Wild Rose Cleanse and it definitely helps with changing your approach to food choices. That’s a big part of the whole program, cuz even after the workout regime scales back (notice I didn’t say “gone”!), the food choices can keep you at the range you’re happy with.
    Good luck with that!

  2. Michael yer Bro

    Very boring to offer advice, I know. But. Do the Wild Rose Cleanse. It’s 12 days, there’s lots you can eat on it (it’s not a fast) and it sort of changed my eating habits while I was doing it. So at the end, you’ve lost a bit of weight, which is a great start, and your fridge is now full of all this shit you actually want to eat.

  3. postbear

    the scale at the y is terrible, so don’t trust it. one day last year i weighed myself on it, then at my doctor’s and then at home. the variance was about fifteen pounds, with the scale at the gym being the distant outlier.

    my late meal is a salad, but i eat like a hog the rest of the day. make sure you eat breakfast, too, you need to get your metabolism up and running in the morning. toss the doritos and learn to love seaweed. no, i’m serious. latenight snacks for me include seaweed, celery and cucumbers.

    oh, and grab one of the official huff-and-puffs at the gym and tell them you want a program redesign. i’m in the midst of one (partly because of my knee) and the guy is developing a routine to address specifically what i want to happen in the next while. adding more cardio is great, but as your body gets used to the routine you won’t burn the fat at the same rate as you did when you added the extra cardio. do your abwork. read labels. flip through popular magazines and cry into your tub of ice cream….

  4. photog2/RodTO

    there aint no nutritionist alive who can talk me out of a bag of Dorito Collisions.

    You need to pick up smoking… or more oral sex! 😛
    On the positive side, you could have jiggly fat like I do! 🙂

  5. Evil Panda

    Thor and I are also on the wieght loss bandwagon. we’re going to new Orleans for Southern Decadence in Sept, and the goal is to be able to dance shirtless and not have people looking at us and puking.

  6. Dead Robot

    Sean :

    Anyway, I’ve got your back. If you ever need to get out and do something different (skating, perhaps? :) )…keep us in mind. Always up for it.

    Good luck! :D

    Thanks Sean! I never learned how to skate. After my Da pushing two of his 4 sons through hockey, he gave up on me fast.

    I’m looking at my Wii Fit and I swear I can hear it say “I FUCKING TOLD YOU TO KEEP ON ME DAILY!”

    Anyhoo, when it gets warmer we’re busting out the bikes for sure. We’ll take you up on an outing to the island?

    photog2/RodTO :

    You should keep a scale at home too, I never trust public ones because you never know when they’ve been adjusted.
    About Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers food: my mom was on Jenny Craig and, after months on it and no results, she decided to go to a nutritionist.

    The most successful I’ve been in losing weight and keeping it off has been after seeing a nutritionist. I 100% agree. However, at 9pm on a Friday night with a good movie and warm couch, there aint no nutritionist alive who can talk me out of a bag of Dorito Collisions.

  7. photog2/RodTO

    You should keep a scale at home too, I never trust public ones because you never know when they’ve been adjusted.
    About Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers food: my mom was on Jenny Craig and, after months on it and no results, she decided to go to a nutritionist t. She took a few of the meals so the nutritionist could see what’s in them and, really, it’s just your standard TV dinner, but in a tiny portion. You are really better off cooking for yourself, at least you know what goes in it!

  8. Sean

    I know how you feel. I’ve been fighting to motivate myself back into the gym daily (I prefer 30 minutes of very intense work almost 5 days a week). I also play volleyball (will be playing twice this week) and try to get out and do something physical at least once a weekend.

    And I have become more of a food nazi, taking into account GI ratings and sugar and carbs and all that crap…but it is working.

    I’ve been able to maintain my 36″ waist that I acquired pre-summer 2008 although the jeans are sliiiiiightly tighter now. It’s at a manageable level for me now. Just need to stay on top of it.

    My fave thing is yoga – that was the most enjoyable and seemed to be the most effective…weird.

    Anyway, I’ve got your back. If you ever need to get out and do something different (skating, perhaps? 🙂 )…keep us in mind. Always up for it.

    Good luck! 😀

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