h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Some folks in the salon are talking about New Year’s resolutions. I actually have one this year so was going to post it. Then I decided that it required more explanation than I wanted to impose on my friends there. My resolution is not to weigh myself a single time in 2009. I may never weigh myself at home again, period.

Here’s the deal. We all know I need to lose weight. I have struggled with it for decades. I lose. I gain. I lose. I gain. Right now I am having trouble fitting into my clothes again. So not weighing myself at all seems like the exact opposite of what I should do, right?

During my lifetime I have had the occasional epiphany. Well I had another one a few days ago. When it comes to weight, my goals have always been number oriented. A number on a scale and a date on a calendar. I will lose X number of pounds in X number of weeks. So when that doesn’t happen, it means I’m a failure. Never mind that I’ve actually done a good job of staying on my program. If the numbers don’t work out, I’ve failed.

What I finally realized - my epiphany – is that yes, I need specific goals, but that the numbers on the scale are irrelevant. What is really important is to lead a healthy life style, regardless of what the scale says. It’s important to exercise regularly, to make healthy food choices, to stay properly hydrated and to get enough rest. If I do that, then I will have succeeded in becoming healthier. I may still be overweight according to some arbitrary numbers on a chart someplace, but it’s better to be fat and healthy instead of fat and unhealthy.

I need a lifestyle change, not another diet. As long as I keep weighing myself, I will think of my eating in terms of a diet. I have found a method of eating that reduces the inflammation in my joints, thus relieving pain. But it is touted as a weight-loss diet. If I eat this way for the anti-inflammatory benefits, without weighing myself, then it becomes a life-style choice.

It’s the same with exercise. Sure, exercise helps us lose weight. But if I don’t weigh myself, if I don’t have that number to go by to gauge success or failure, then gaining strength and feeling better becomes the motivations for the exercise. I enjoy walking. I feel better when I walk daily. But doing it to see a result on a scale makes it part of something stressful and unpleasant. I need to walk because I enjoy it, not because I feel like I “have” to in order to meet a goal of some kind.

Food choices are still going to be important to me. But I refuse to make them according to some diet list of allowed and forbidden foods. Instead of a goal of X number of calories or X number of grams of carbohydrate a day, I want to make sure that what I do eat is actually nourishing. I can give up a Snickers bar easier if I tell myself that it has no nutritional value than if I say it has too many calories. If I want a snack, then it needs to be a piece of fruit or a carton of yogurt or something else that I “like” and that has something in it my body needs in order to stay healthy. Never again will I force myself to eat things I don’t really like because they are part of some diet plan.

Food per se is not the enemy. My enemies are empty calories (junk food), not getting enough exercise and eating very little during the day then loading up after work. If I address those three things, then if won’t matter what the scale says. I will have accomplished my goals. So I am taking away the power the scale has over my life. I refuse to let a number determine how I feel about myself.

So my goals are to walk every day, to do some other kind of exercise three times a week, to eat small meals more often rather than having a large meal at the end of the day, and to make healthier food choices. I fully expect this to work better for me than any “diet” I’ve ever tried. Getting back into the clothes I’ve recently outgrown and feeling better again is how I will measure success. A number on the scale is unimportant. The lifestyle changes are what matter.

Anybody want a good scale?

.. .. You will be doing all the right things ..
.. When I see a piece of rich desert I devour it with my eyes and say to it "You look better on the plate than on my hips." ... . . .. ... and .. Happy New Year .. ...

Very dear Hypatia.

Join the Club!

All my life I have gained,lost,gained, lost, probably about two tons in all. , and then the whole dreary cycle starts again. !1

Now not only have I lost, but I have also shrunk. !!Horrors But when I meet my friends on this marvellous website I feel young, alive and rearing to go. In actual fact I feel like that most of the time. !!

I also no longer have a mirror at any height in which I can possibly see myself. !
And truly I am really happy and I do not mind.!!

fortunately one of my husbands had my portrait painted and so I can see what I used to look like. !!

Vanity, thy name is

CME
AR80

Good for you Hyp There's no point in having a miserable time of it just because a certain diet says you can't have this or an exercise regime says you have to do that, and all because numbers have to be achieved. Your approach is far more , which will in itself be much better for you because that 'I hate it but it's good for me' hair shirt factor won't be causing stress, and I think that when you reach a certain age you should allow yourself to ease up on that sort of thing anyway.

I know I have

Well done Hypatia!! That's exactly the right attitude to have. I have no scales in my house either. I don't need them. I exercise 4-5 times a week, which I really enjoy (one of those sessions is with my personal trainer). I eat healthily for the most part, allowing treats occasionally. I enjoy the healthy food I choose, so I'm not craving junk.

(You do need to allow yourself that snickers every now and then. Giving them up for good is bad, as you could start craving them. If you know you're allowed to have one occasionally, you can just say 'not this time'.)

I do get weighed by my personal trainer occasionally as a part of my fitness review, but I'm not too fussed about the numbers. I'm fit and healthy. So I'm happy.

Hyp, you're right. Staying fit and healthy doesn't have to mean being hungry and denying yourself the good things in life. If you enjoy the food you eat, and the exercise, and you feel good, then that's all you need.

I'm very impressed with your attitude, Hyp. Happy New Year to you, and everyone else reading this thread.

Excellent idea! Good luck, we'll be cheering you on.

with your new philosophy. it makes a lot of sense.

I think the resolutions thing should be moved to April 1st, when we haven't just finished the Gauntlet of Consumption from Thanksgiving through New Years. At least then all our resolutions would tend to financial, not cosmetic.

Thanks everyone. Gosho makes a good point about the bit. Stress is incredibly damaging to our health. So when does a healthy program that causes enormous stress then become unhealthy due to that factor? Doctors will likely say that the stress of a diet/exercise program that you hate is less dangerous than the weight. If someone is morbidly obese, I might buy that. But most of us are not in that category.

Taralome, we could start a new organization...Librarians Without Scales.

Folks, I am serious about this. I will weigh no more forever. I am not a number on a scale.

Lil, Picking any one date as the best time to make resolutions to do things you know you should do seems silly. Every day starts fresh, after all. But for some reason we place special significance to the New Year. Which of course is an arbitrary date as well.

Let me join the chorus of saying "well thought!"

I know that I'm one of those lucky who do not put on weight - but Mrs SG V is and every since I got to know her has felt how she feels and looked in the mirror - I think we have a scale but a) it doesn't have batteries in it and b) it's tucked away in a dark corner of the attic...

"but Mrs SG V does" that should have said, I believe...

Good for you Hyp If it doesn't work for you, try something else Gosho's point is excellent: life's too short to be miserable and stressed anyway.


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Happy New Year to all, and please add my voice to Gosho's chorus.

I've struggled as well with weight, but my 'epiphany' of a couple years ago amounted to simply uncoupling myself from the traditional schedule. I needed to learn to recognize whether I was really hungry or had just convinced myself to feel hungry at that particular time of day. It followed that I could comfortably skip a meal at will. Since adaptation contributes to the general success of the species, the digestive system will adjust. In fact I have discovered that the body's kitchen would like some time off now and then.

It's not a fast per se; after a daily plan of four or five small portions I soon discovered that I could double my meal cycle without missing anything.

It never was a diet.

Ultimately, the trick is to keep the positive self-image going.

...And, I might add, enjoying a variety of teas instead of the fizzy stuff. Hydration is an issue always.

Blimey, I'm a guru I should put a presentation together and take it on the road, do the corporate circuit. I could make a mint

It is a good approach Hyp - I always suggest people measure their bodies as well as looking at the scales because often the scales don't move but shape changes and it isn't so disheartening to see that you're getting fitter rather than lighter. I also like to have a pair of aspirational jeans in the house - just too small so that I haveomething to aim at.

I am doing the numbers this year though. They are suficiently large that it should be easy to see the progress I am aiming for, especially as mt start point was weight just after getting home from hospital!

Lil, losing weight is not just about the cosmetic. That is part of it, but it is also about feeling healthy. I've been pregnant or breastfeeding for two and a half years now and am looking frward to my body being my own again and feeling like it is working for me. Shifting the excess me is a first step towards that.

Xantief, I remember you talking about changing your eating schedule once before. The thing is, you found what works for you. Individually, we all have to do that. We all have to take a basic eating plan/schedule and tweak it until it becomes our own.

What works for me is alternative fasting. But the progress is so slow that it is pretty discouraging. The scale dips after low intake days (under 500 calories) and goes back up after high intake days (whatever I want to eat). Over and over until it drives me crazy. But it causes the inflamation in my hands and knees to go away. This makes it worthwhile for me whether I lose any weight or not. The tweak I need to make here is to eat much healthier foods on my high intake days. No more junk food just because I can and it's easy. Also to eat smaller meals more often. My habit for years has been to consume probably 80% of my total calories after 6 PM. And of course to stop weighing myself.

Kelli, I sure wish you luck. You've proven that you can do it and have inspired the rest of us along the way.

Funny you should mention jeans. Do you remember me talking about those black jeans that I bought to wear on my last trip over there? The ones that stayed home in my closet because I never could fit into them? After I got home I plugged along, managed to get into them and then went down another size from there. Now I'm back to the size I was when I was in Blighty in 07. So an entire year's effort is down the drain. My hands and back hurt all the time again, I have constant indigestion again, and I just generally feel yucky again.

As to the scale, I figure when I see you again in a few months, I'll either be able to wear the jeans or I won't no matter what the scale says. I think that removing that constant source of tension will actually improve my chances of switching to a healthier lifestyle. Instead of getting on the scale in the morning, not seeing any progress and telling myself thatthe plan isn't working, I can check off whether I did my walking, whether I ate a healthy number of veggies and fruits, whether I had a healthy meal and a snack at work, and whether I stopped eating after a sensible supper. If I do those things, I'll consider myself a success. The way I feel and the way my clothes fit will be the signs that it's working.

I soberly consider this thread and reflect on the problem facing a huge percentage of the American pubic.

http://www.obesityinamerica.org/bmi_calculator.html

The Body Mass calculator above tells the story. I'm clearly overweight and verging on being defined as obese at age 65. At 40, being tall and thin was a piece of pancake.

The first few months of my retirement, I stopped drinking wine, ate rationally, did a bunch of pushups, setups, 100 jumping jacks and hiked every day. I dropped 20 pounds in a two months.

Now I'm 40 pounds heavier.

Your plan sounds rational. Possibly effective. I may try it. However, I think the female of the species may have more trouble regulating weight...another example of life's unfairness.

I just used the calculator, and came up at 34 BMI. So, obese here.

I think I'll do this pattern of healthy eating and exercise, and stop weighing myself -- for a while. Then I'll see where I stand. You make a lot of sense, Hyp; unfortunately, Phred makes a valid point, too.

I have much to gain by going for this, so I will. Thanks, Hyp.

I have no idea what I weigh so a BMI measurement is not something I can - or want to - do. I haven't stepped onto a bathroom scale for years, but I can tell just from looking and from the fact that I can't get into trousers I bought a couple of years ago that I'm expanding. I take it as a sign of getting older, but I have a pretty good head start on many people, having had a 32/33" waist until well into my late 40s. I had to work bloody hard for it though - I've almost always had very physical jobs. Hell, for almost 13 years I was a delivery and removals driver in London, and it don't get much more physical than that - there are a lot of stairs in that city.

So, although I've eased up now on that sort of thing and feel I can reap some of the rewards but allowing myself a little less exercise and indulging myself with good beer and food, I've paid a price too - I'm probably going to need one, possibly two, hip replacements in the foreseeable future. I can't ride a bike without discomfort, and the way the buses are around here it would be very useful to be able to do that.

So I'm thinking about an electric bike