In the past 12 months, my weight has ranged from 118.2 to 123.6 (last week), so overall I’ve been pretty good. All my clothes still fit.
Maintenance is not as gratifying as losing weight. I miss the excitement of watching my body shrink, my pants grown bigger, and the compliments.
But on the positive side, eating is more enjoyable, as I am less rigid about what goes in my mouth.
So in thinking about the past year, and because I’m a big list-maker, I thought about the many ways my eating and other related habits have changed. Here’s what I came up with.
Scale
At least every two or three days I get on it. Prior to starting Weight Watchers, I didn’t own one. Having one keeps me in check. If I see I’m heading up, I cut back on what I eat, or I track for a week or two.
Tracking: I do it less.
I am still paying for my etools. It makes me feel safe knowing I have access, but mostly I don’t use it.
Eating out: I do this less too.
Before WW, I regularly ate out. While losing weight, I stopped eating out as much, but agonized over menus when I did. Today, I still eat out infrequently, but when I do, I order what I want. I don’t worry about ordering something whose points are too complicated to compute. I am generally not foolish about what I do order. If the steak is huge, I cut it in half and take half home. (Or not). I stay away from Caesar salads and pastas, still. Too many points that aren’t worth it.
Weighing and measuring: hardly ever.
I only do this during my rare weeks of tracking. I have a pretty good idea of how much of something I’m eating, having been doing this now for a year and a half.
Clothes
I got rid of all my “fat” clothes, so everything in my closet pretty much requires my staying thin. If something feels tight, I cut back and begin tracking.
The corner diner
I used to get a turkey burger and fries there about once a week. I’ve maybe been there once in the past year, and even then, I didn’t get the fries.
Sweets and dessert
I pretty much stay with the safe ones. Funny how I’m still not sick of angel food cake. Occasionally I will splurge and have a piece of carrot cake or a morning muffin or something else that is just too good to resist. Gone are the chocolate mousses, and rich chocolate opera cakes from Agata.
Coffee
I don’t pick up coffee anymore every morning at Starbucks. My Keurig Coffee Maker is convenient and makes decent coffee. I do find, though, that I drink a lot of it when I’m home as a way to curb my appetite.
Burger and fries
This is one of my favorite meals, and since November, I have only had it three times (with my parents when I was home for Thanksgiving, with Alexander when we visited Georgetown in December, and earlier this month when Hazel was in town).
Starches
Unless I’m out, I generally will have two vegetables (or a salad and vegetable) with dinner. Rice and potatoes are no longer part of my weekly diet.
Avocados
It’s a rare treat now when I add an avocado to a salad or sandwich. Before, I probably ate avocado almost every day.
Chinese food
No more egg rolls and orange or sesame chicken, both of which are fried. Instead, on the rare occasion where I do order in, it’s usually shrimp with vegetables.
Pasta
While I used to eat pasta once a week or so, now it’s probably once a month, if that.
Chips and popcorn
I don’t even miss the gourmet chips from Agata that I used to buy. I have grown accustomed to Pringles-light. Even Alexander has. Same with the bland taste of fat-free popcorn. I can’t remember the last time I had the much-better, but fat-laden, movie popcorn.
Bagels
The 100-point replacements from Thomas are good enough. And it would be easy to have the real thing. There's a great bagel place only one block away.
Sorbet will trump ice cream 9 out of 10 times
No more regular trips to Sedutto’s for their chocolate chip. I’ve become a big fan of sorbets, especially the homemade ones from Agata (my two favorites are pear and chocolate, although green apple and mango are a close second).
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