LET’S COMMIT TO GET FIT TOGETHER

By Edwina L. Kaikai

The week before Thanksgiving is a crazy time to commit to a diet overhaul.

Not that diet overhauls are ever easy. They aren’t, even for those of us who have lost weight and kept it off for more than a year. Even five years.

That’s how long my stomach had stayed out of my lap with relative ease. Seasons had changed but my wardrobe didn’t have to unless I wanted something new, not something bigger.

Then came the change; not menopause but the change in my work life.

What a difference an hour and a half can make. When the work day starts at 8 a.m. instead of 9:30, that morning exercise session needs to begin at 5 a.m. instead of 6, requiring a 4:30 wake up. Replace a one-mile walk from the car to the office with an on-site parking lot and that daily goal of 10,000 steps gets more challenging to achieve. Add the fact that eating places are now a short drive away, instead of a short walk down the street and creeping weight gain should not have been a surprise.

But it was. For four months. By blaming the dryer for the suddenly snug fit of skirts and jackets, I was being a bit loose with the truth. The return of the wiggle dance to button a favorite pair of jeans snapped me back to reality.

It forced me to recognize that the lifestyle adjustments, coupled with the expected new job jitters were causing me to abandon the once successful coping methods for stress that had kept my lap empty for so long. Instead, I had been reaching back for my trusty, decades-old calming tool – food.

Portion control became a concept instead of a way of life. Meal planning gave way to catch-as-catch can mindless eating. And a light beer was a poor substitute for kahlua and cream at the end of the day.

By Halloween, I knew I had to change. It couldn’t wait until January. I don’t want to buy bigger clothes for the holiday season; I’d given away those larger sizes long ago.

That’s why my diet’s being overhauled right before Thanksgiving.

How? By going back to the basics and reconnecting with the lessons learned while getting my stomach out of my lap the first time. Starting with a return to these three lessons:

1. Putting myself and my good health needs first by no longer inhaling a breakfast sandwich while driving to work. I must make time to sit down and eat at the kitchen table.
2. Fighting the snack attack by always keeping fruit and/or veggies handy for morning and afternoon snacks. They’ll be eaten in lieu of Peppermint Patties or handfuls of soft mints.
3. Creating satisfaction guarantees by preparing a real meal for dinner. The only acceptable liquid substitute will be a Weight Watchers smoothie. Not beer (not even a light one), or a Kahlua and cream.

Those are my back-to-basics “lessons” for the everyday. Holiday party invitations have already begun rolling in making a return to these additional “lessons” necessary to keep the good times from overwhelming the overhaul:

1. Enjoy those special occasion foods rather than menu staples when there is a choice.
2. Leave space between the foods on my plate like my kids used to do to keep portion sizes under control.
3. Savor the flavor of a single-serving dish. Think of second helpings as a second meal.

Yes, it’s the week before Thanksgiving, but I’m committed to beginning my diet overhaul with these steps now. Though I don’t expect to be perfect, I do expect to see progress. It’ll be gradual; getting – and staying -- fit is a journey. It’s a lifelong journey with peaks, valleys and plateaus.

If you’re in a valley, won’t you climb out of it with me? I’ll be sharing my trials and triumphs, tips and slips monthly in this space, and it sure would be nice to know I’m not on this road alone. Write me about yours at http://www.blogger.com/emptylap450@msn.com. Together we can make it through the holidays and into the New Year feeling more fit and looking more fabulous than we do today.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association should have made me and legions of overweight folks feel better about creeping weight gain. According to some television and newspaper reports, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07311/831671-114.stm, the study basically said that being 25 pounds overweight wasn’t as big a deal as a lot of people were making it out to be. An analysis of federal research findings over the years didn’t show being slighting overweight, not obese, as increasing a person’s chances of dying from certain cancers or heart disease.

Good news for those of us in the weight war trenches, right?

Wrong. Losing weight isn’t just about preventing an early death. It’s about enjoying a better quality of life while living, too. No matter what that report says, I know shedding 25 pounds made a world of difference in how I felt, reducing my joint pain and blood pressure while increasing my ability to exercise and move through the day without being winded and gasping for breath.

Those changes alone were worth every pound I lost. They motivated me to keep losing more. And it’s why I’m determined not to reach that 25-pound weight gain mark.

MOTIVATING MORSEL

"Your body is the baggage you must carry through life. The more excess baggage, the shorter the trip," Arnold H. Glasow, from Reader' Digest's "Pocket Treasury of Great Quotations."

Edwina L. Kaikai is author of “Stomach In My Lap: 25 Lesson Learned Confronting the Doubts, Fears and Excuses That Piled On The Pounds” and a contributor to “Chicken Soup for the Dieter’s Soul.” She strives to live a life of good health as an example to others. Contact her about the books or to share your tips, slips and triumphs at emptylap450@msn.com.