WEEK 1 WEIGH-IN

A Humiliating Weigh-In, A Confession, and A Resolution

You can’t begin unless you know where you’re starting.

I weighed myself today.

More on that later.

But in a nutshell? Yikes.

I want to get to a confession first: While I “officially” started this year-long, 30-pound weight loss challenge three weeks ago (on Tuesday, September 12), the truth is… I haven’t been, like, super-duper committed and disciplined and all that.

I’ve been more like, “Oh, well, a year’s a long time and I can ease myself into this and it’s okay if I slack off a little in these first few weeks while I wrap my head around the idea of eating well and exercising regularly for a a whole friggin’ year.”

I did weigh myself three weeks ago. And I weighed more or less what I thought I was going to weigh, and in the past few weeks of eating normally (for me) and exercising some but not a lot, I figured I would weigh more or less the same today.

Um, yeah. No.

Like I said… yikes.

In Which The Scale Furnishes Me With A (Very) Rude Awakening

Guess what?

Apparently “eating ‘normally’ (for me) and exercising some but not a lot” is not going to cut it. As in, not only am I not going to lose weight by doing that (I already knew that), but I’m going to gain.

Yep. I’ve gained three pounds in three weeks.

Good heavens.

That’s a rate of a pound a week. And no, it’s not muscle.

Can you imagine if I — or anyone — steadily gained a pound a week for a few months, or a year, or the rest of their lives?

I can imagine, and it’s not good. But apparently, this is what my body does when I “eat ‘normally’ (for me) and exercise some but not a lot.”

It’s a humiliating but essential lesson.

Guess what? I can no longer ignore that which I was trying to ignore, namely that my age is working against me, and that what worked in the past for younger me — basically burning a buttload of calories and then eating more or less what I wanted, within reason — isn’t going to work anymore.

Losing that 30 pounds (well, 33 now) is going to take serious effort.

And that number on the scale this morning, while humiliating and a little horrifying, is the exact kick in the ass I needed.

So What Happens Now? A Q4-Day One Resolution

It just so happens that today, October 3, is the first official day of “Q4.”

Don’t know what that is? I didn’t either until about a week ago, when I started to see the term pop up in various and assorted articles.

“Q4” is Quarter 4 — the last 90 days of the year.

Many people like to take on new challenges and do 90-day “sprints” for this final quarter, with an eye to hitting the ground running on January 1st.

Cool idea. I like it.

I’m going for it. Starting today.

So, without getting super prescriptive about it, this is what the next 90 days are going to look like for me:

• Eat less and cut down on sugar
• Exercise more (with a focus on strength training)
• Aim to lose 10 pounds by December 31, 2023 (and yes, I know this timeframe encompasses Thanksgiving and Halloween and Christmas, and my birthday, and the entire month of November, which historically I have spent in my pajamas drinking hot chocolate, eating chicken pot pie, and watching romantic comedies).
• Allow for the occasional treat — key word being “occasional”
• Don’t allow setbacks to derail me
• Stay accountable with twice-weekly weigh-ins (Tuesdays and Fridays), and weekly updates here.

And, as always, thanks so much for following along. Means the whole big bad world to me.

Oh! And if you have any Q4 resolutions of your own, let me know in the comments below.

We got this. I know we do.