Taking the Bull by the Horns

Enough is enough. I lost NO weight this week. Are you kidding me? If I am not going to lose, doesn't it seem like I should be wrapped around a pint of ice cream like a python with a toddler?

I weighed in today, my weigh ins are now on Friday. I did the weigh in with my trainer, before working out because I wanted to drink water during my workout and let's face it (trying to be candid here) I am not going to fill myself with 16 ounces of water, then hope to be down a pound.

So before workout, I weighed in. Home scale said I was down about 1.5 but guess what? Home scale doesn't matter. 20/20 scale matters, and it said nothing. Goose egg. All I got was a participation ribbon for this week's efforts, no prize.

I was sad. And mad. At myself, at food, at myself again. I started some internal dialogue that sounded like a verbal abuse "how to" script as I marched on the stair stepper, with She (trainer) right there.

"Good grief", I thought. "I am on a stair climber at 6:30 am and not losing weight. Poor me. No, DUMB me. I didn't journal. Great, now I am going to fail. You have to be kidding- what will I tell people"

when suddenly an image flashed before my eyes. Nope, it wasn't my life. Nor was it the 28.6 lbs I have lost so far. It was....

LUNCHMEAT!

I love lunchmeat. Or I *did* love it, I haven't had much of it at all lately. My dietitian and I decided a month or 6 weeks ago that maybe it had too much sodium, and I needed to try to cook my own meat. Here's the problem- I don't.

So I have spent about 5 or 6 weeks eating chicken. Lots and lots of chicken. And I miss having prepared meat- like turkey pastrami, or oven roasted lunchmeat slices.

I continued to step, and began talking outloud. She is a brilliant listener and troubleshooter. I described how since I stopped eating lunchmeat, I have sort of lost my will when it comes to eating.

Now most problems in life (call them challenges, if you will) are composed of multiple facets. I haven't been eating things that aren't part of the 20/20 plan, nor have I stopped doing my shakes and other advised eating practices, but I have begun some bad habits, and here they are:

• erratic tracking (this one I tie to my dietitian flip flopping and vacation)
• extra fruit servings (I like fruit)
• not enough meat/protein (this ties to the lunchmeat, because I get tired of chicken so I eat some small serving of it and then move on to more fruit).

Now those bad habits are exactly what grow into a garden of chub- slowly but surely, slippery slope and all that.

As we chatted (and I plodded) we determined that maybe without lunchmeat/prepared meat/protein I was getting bored. So She suggested I talk to my new dietitan this morning about it.

And I did, and we resolved it. Now the answer to diet boredom is not a package of bologna, but it *is* taking the time to determine if something you are doing is working or not. And to seek the cause of a 'bad' week. And I may have done that.

My new dietitian is Kathryn, and she is delightful- I shall surely have a nickname for her soon. We dove right in, she assessed what I was doing, gave me tips and ideas and some clear goals. And we agreed that allowing myself one serving of prepared protein (ie lunchmeat or trader joes turkey meatballs) was okay each day.

I left and immediately updated my facebook status to "ready to take the bull by the horns" because I am. Especially since he's made of roast beef.