How about a Greek Diet?

It’s way too early to talk about progress with my diet. I don’t think it’s too early to talk about some of the mental battles that go on when dieting.

I make a point of weighing myself every morning, no matter what. There are definitely mornings I know the number isn’t going to be better than the day before. Like after our dinner party at Eleftheria’s the other day.

A Greek Feast! (click the picture for a larger image)

Check out the bottom shelf on the right. Those would be cheese stuffed dates, wrapped in bacon. Something I never would have thought up. Let me tell you they are awesome. Salty, sweet, smoky and creamy. You eat another one because you are wondering if you missed a flavor. You eat the third one... well because when are you going to have these again?!?

Where was I? Right, dieting and getting myself on the scale. This is a habit I want to create long term, just like my improved eating habits because you should see some direct cause and effect, which should improve accountability.

For many, seeing these numbers everyday can be difficult. I understand that, after a couple of really perfect days of dieting, combined with some longer efforts for my workouts, it suddenly looks like I’m 3 pounds ahead of schedule. Then the next day you are higher and the next day higher again. You think “I ate perfectly! This isn’t working.” Or in my case, I just get upset over the fact that it’s not happening quickly enough and backwards can never be a good thing right?

I’ve got a couple of things going that help keep my sanity about this. The first is a graph within the fitday.com site, where I track my food. It has a graph showing my start weight and my goal weight. A long line sloping down moving left to right. Everyday when I enter my weight, it adds a point somewhere on that graph. My goal is to keep that point under that long sloping line the entire time. It’s very unlikely that I will make a big break away from that long line. Maybe if I get the flu or something like that…. Anyhow, this works for me because if I go over that line, I know I’ve not been eating properly and I’ve got to focus or my goal isn’t going to happen. (I suppose that’s a key too, you have to want the goal).

The other thing I’ve done is this. I’ve marked my calendar with the weight I need to be at/under each week. I put it on my calendar because I look at that often each day and it’s a good reminder.

A pound a week sounds very doable but obviously it requires more effort than many might think. To put it into perspective for people who don’t have any trouble with maintaining a healthy weight Do you consume a lot of sugar or caffeine? Do you smoke? All these things are habitual and have both a physical and mental aspect to them to which make them difficult to cut back on. If you’ve ever tried to cut back on those things you know the feeling of the void you are creating by doing so. It’s the same with a diet, only it’s ALL foods, even healthy food. It’s not easy.

Well as I said, I’m very early in the whole plan. Once I wrote the weight goal down on the calendar, I realized that it might take until May to get there. Whatever, as long as I get there.