One Week

One week from today, I will once again allow myself to ingest sugar. It's been fairly interesting, being sugar free. I've learned a few things.

1. My moods are much more even sans sucre.
2. Every baked good on the planet contains sugar, and the ones that don't are kind of disgusting.
3. I am much better at resisting temptation than I expected I would be.

This was a good Lent for me. I enjoyed sticking to my guns and turning down anything with sugar. This is good, because the next thing I must embark upon (again) is a weight loss program. I have to lose a fairly significant amount of weight before my orthopedist will replace my hip, and I'm ready to say goodbye to the chronic pain of severe osteoarthritis, even if it won't be permanent.

I've done Weight Watchers before, with good success, but I think I'm going to try something a little different this time. The problem with me and Weight Watchers is that you really can eat everything you would ordinarily eat, just less of it. This is fine for most people, but I'm a compulsive overeater, so I can't really allow myself that kind of freedom.

So I am going to use a recommended daily guideline for people who would like to lose weight. This involves a daily consumption of 2000 calories, 50 grams of protein, less than 65 grams of fat, less than 20 grams of saturated fat, 300 grams of carbohydrates, 25-35 grams of fiber, 300 mg of cholesterol, 18 mg of iron, 2300 mg or less of sodium, and 1000 mg of calcium.

I'll also have to add exercise. I like weight lifting, and when summer's here, I'll be swimming pretty much every day. I may try some yoga, too, since it would be good to increase my limited flexibility. Unfortunately, the kinds of exercises that really burn calories are the same exercises that leave me in exquisite amounts of pain - running, extensive brisk walking, aerobics.

Before I start this, though, I'm going to take a day or two to enjoy the things I've sacrificed in the past 33 days - a really good cup of coffee, a piece of cake, some real ice cream. And I'll probably want to have a lot of cheese before I try to lose weight.