Summer Book Club Smackdown

It took me ALL DAMN DAY to put the code together for this poll, so you people had better get to voting. Poll closes on Wednesday, July 2 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.

What five books should we read this summer? When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris The Writing Class, by Jincy Willett I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith Heyday: A Novel, by Kurt Andersen How Perfect Is That?, by Sarah Bird The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, by Robert Leleux What It Is, by Lynda Barry Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver Shining City: A Novel, by Seth Greenfield or View results Created with Vanguard Vista™

Summer Book Club Smackdown

It took me ALL DAMN DAY to put the code together for this poll, so you people had better get to voting. Poll closes on Wednesday, July 2 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.

What five books should we read this summer? When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris The Writing Class, by Jincy Willett I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith Heyday: A Novel, by Kurt Andersen How Perfect Is That?, by Sarah Bird The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, by Robert Leleux What It Is, by Lynda Barry Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver Shining City: A Novel, by Seth Greenfield or View results Created with Vanguard Vista™

Not Spending

I've read several bloggers lately who went on one-month spending diets. They allowed themselves to buy groceries, gas, and other essentials, but absolutely nothing else. I think I'm going to try that, for at least the next two weeks. We'll see how it goes.

I had another spend-nothing day today, but I think I need to pick up my pace to reach my goal of 101.

Update

Man, it's hard to work on an eating plan when you're outside your normal routine. I didn't do so well this weekend (starting on Friday). I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I can start back to my regular ways. I think I lost maybe 6 ounces since the beginning of the year, and that's encouraging.

The real triumph this weekend was in not spending money. I didn't spend anything on Friday, Saturday or Monday, and only $40 (gas and snacks) on Sunday. That's pretty exciting.

Today I was especially proud of myself: the kids had the day off from school, and a group of our friends made plans to go out. Now honestly, I probably would have gone with them had I received their message in time, but I'm glad I didn't. They went to an indoor jungle gym-type place that charges about $12 for the two kids; then they went to see a really stupid movie, which would have cost about $15 for all of us (PLUS snacks); then they went to a fast food place, which would have cost us at least $15 more.

That's the point when we joined them. While they were going out, I decided to take advantage of the YMCA membership we're paying for and let the kids get some indoor exercise. We fooled around on the basketball court for about 45 minutes, which is longer than I thought they would last. Cost: totally free. We went over to a friend's house, and then we had friends over for dinner, but all of that was free as well. I think it was a day well spent, and money well saved.

Update

Updates from me aren't as frequent as they once were, but I am making progress. Right now I am feeling pretty good about what I've been doing.

I've been keeping track of everything I eat. I resisted doing it for years, thinking it would be too hard, but it isn't really all that hard. It has definitely had some positive effects, too. Mainly it makes me think about what I'm eating and drinking, which causes me to consider my choices carefully. Many times I would have wanted to drink a Coke, for example, I chose Coke Zero or tea instead. I guess the point of keeping the diary is to remind myself that I have goals that I am working toward TODAY. There is no more "starting a diet tomorrow," a scenario in which tomorrow never comes.

Keeping track of my food intake has put me on a diet of sorts, although I don't have anything formally worked out. I've eaten fast food a couple of times, including once yesterday when I was really craving it. What surprises me is that I don't regret eating what I did. I mean, I marked it in my food diary and just moved on. I haven't tallied up the calories from yesterday, and I probably did end up going over, but I am still so happy that I ate that egg mcmuffin. It really made me feel better. I have all this anxiety about not wanting to "eat" my emotions -- all that Dr. Phil bullshit. You know what -- sometimes a situation just calls for carbs. It's so liberating to know that I can do that and still move forward.

I still have all these weird food issues (as you would expect in someone who has been obese since early childhood). But I'm just trying to contemplate them in a nonjudgmental way. They aren't even, necessarily, problems to be solved. I'm just acknowledging their presence.

One thing I have to figure out, though, is what I want to be eating. Assuming that I can't eat junk food all the time, unfortunately. I have so many things on the "No" list that it's been challenging to figure out what I can eat. I mean, what I can eat that I want to eat. Cauliflower is always an option, but rarely an appealing one. So for the past few days I have been hungry almost ALL the time. That's not a good situation -- this momentum is going to wash out if I don't back it up with something else. So I'm working on that.

On the money front, there have been ups and downs. I'm still trying to figure out how much I really need to spend to be happy (unfortunately, more than I had hoped); I'm also trying to figure out how much I can reasonably expect to save (less than I had hoped). I've had a couple of stumbles already with bill paying, but nothing too serious yet. Just a learning curve.

One good thing I did was to actually write down my goals -- the ones I set out on the sidebar there -- and figure out how much I would have to save to achieve them. Guess what -- I'm not going to be able to achieve them all. Just a mathematical impossibility. But once again, it's the knowledge that is liberating. Now I don't have to feel bad about falling short -- it's not like I'm in charge of MATH. But there are some goals I can reach, and that's incredibly exciting to me.

Long time, no see

Been a while. Mostly backsliding. But I was thinking about it, and there are a few habits I have really kept up with:

1. Since July: the landing strip at our door, that catches keys, bags, wallets, sunglasses, etc., and the basket below for shoes.
2. Since August: the car is still kept clean (as in uncluttered). I always bring everything inside with me as I leave.
3. Since ?: saving the change from every transaction and putting it in the change jar, which is eventually turned into savings.

So what I’ve been thinking lately is that it’s all about setting limits. For example, if you never eat away from the table, you’ll never have dishes in other parts of the house. If you limit yourself to a 1000 sq. ft. house, you will only have so much clutter. Sometimes those work better in theory than in practice, but there are a few I’d like to establish. It seems like I can pick up about one permanent habit per month. Any more than that is too much. So I’m thinking about these for the next few months:

• Don’t turn on the computer before noon. (this is what I’m working on this month)
• Don’t bring another thing into the house without taking something else out.
• Never go two days without working out.
• Throw out one bag full of clutter/trash in the morning (after the gym) before doing anything else.
• Never have more than one food treat in a day.
• Take out a certain amount of cash every week, and spend only that.
• Keep a diary of food cheats.
• No carbs after 4 p.m.

I will have more in the future, but this looks like a good list for now.

I Totally Caved

Okay, on to Plan B. Whatever that is.

Erin -- I like your idea of whole grain carbs and only in the mornings. That has some merit. How did you wean yourself off of other junk food, esp. sugar?

OH MY GOD THIS IS HARD

I'm just working on no sugar or flour for three days. That's it. And it is so fucking hard. I keep telling myself that it's only three days -- then, maybe a day off. But DAMMIT IT'S HARD. Everywhere I turn I see food. You thought the Internet was for porn? Not so -- it's nothing but FOOD. That's all that's on television, too. And magazines, and books. In three days I might go stark raving mad.

My husband doesn't think this will work for me. He thinks I need carbohydrates too badly. In fact, I once lasted about 4 hours on the South Beach Diet before he begged me to eat something so I would be in a better mood. He might be right -- I will give him that much. But I don't like his suggestion to "just count calories." That sounds like a crummy way to live. But I may have to give it some thought after tomorrow.

My husband, by the way, has lost 70 pounds since March 1. He looks great. I now outweigh him.

The whole idea behind giving up sugar and flour was to "cure the craving" by going cold turkey. I was reading this book when I got the idea.

I managed to get through one day so far. Breathing deeply...

A Decision

I have decided to do three things to improve my health:

1. Give up sugar
2. Give up flour
3. Take up yoga

I will do these things to the best of my ability, but I'm only human. My goal right now is to do the first two things for at least three days. I'm hoping that a three-day commitment will get me through the first withdrawal pains. After the three days, I might take one day off and then go back on -- we'll have to see. But I'm going to give it a shot.