Eat Less, Do More: It Works, Bitches

So I meant earlier in the week to post about my Not-A-Diet, and then I got distracted and forgot, but then I talked to my mom and then there was a great Metaquote and now I want to write about it again.

Here's the thing - I hate diets. I think they are stupid, unhealthy, unsuccessful, pointless, and just generally awful all around. And for a long time certain members of my family (ie my grandma and my aunt) have been very aggressively pressuring me to lose weight -while I was going through my books last week, I found several diet books they gave me as a not so subtle nudge. And of course that sort of thing just makes me dig in my heels even more.

In my mind, the word diet has a lot of negative connotations. It makes me think of something like what my roommate is doing - she decided she needs to lose weight to look better in her bikini, so she's got a whole list of foods taped to her computer screen that she isn't allowed to eat anymore. I hear diet and I think crash diet, I think fad diet, I think counting calories and restricting random foods and obsessing over the scale. I don't think it's healthy, and I know it doesn't work - how many people spend half their lives gaining back and re-losing the same 20 pounds over and over? I just hate the idea of cosmetic dieting - if only I can lose 15, 20, 30 pounds, I'll be prettier, I'll be more popular, I'll be more sexually attractive, I'll be worth more. I am a worthwhile person no matter how much I weigh.

But on the other hand, my weight right now isn't healthy, either. I'm not in good shape. It bothers me that it keeps me from doing things as easily as other people, and that I have to worry about health issues down the road. So I do want to lose some weight. Nothing wrong with that. So right now I'm on a Not-A-Diet. And basically what that means is that I'm making small, incremental changes in the way I live my life with the long-term goal of being healthier and weighing less. I set one goal in a quarter, one thing I know I can change about myself for the better. Last quarter it was eating fruits and vegetables every day, even if it just meant having an apple with lunch every well, and that went pretty well - I make a point of getting fruit whenever I go to the store, and I almost always have green beans or broccoli or something with dinner. This quarter's goal is improving my diet by restricting how often I get fries in the dining hall - rule is none allowed at dinner, only lunch.

And you know, this isn't the fastest way to lose weight. I could probably lose a lot more if I decided to go to the gym every day and eat nothing but salads 5 days out of 7. But I'd be miserable. I'd feel deprived, all I would be able to think about would be the stuff I couldn't have and couldn't do and I'd resent myself for it. And I wouldn't be able to keep it up, I know that. Six months from now, I might have lost weight, but a year from now I'd get sick of going to the gym and I'd gain it all back. What I'm doing now, I think I can stick with it. I'm slowly forming new attitudes and new habits, and that will stay with me. My ultimate goal is to be a size 12 by the time I graduate from college, 2 years from now (hopefully 2 years!), which is really really slow, but I don't care. I don't need to be skinny to be pretty or feel good about myself, so I can do this on my own terms.

There's something to be said for that.

Anything Can Happen, Anything Can Be

I know I'm not alone here, but I love Shel Silverstein. When I was in high school, I once checked out all of his books the library had, and spent a week and a half copying out every poem I liked in ink and cutting them out to tape to my bedroom walls. I still have a bunch of them, off in a box somewhere. So today's poem is two Shel Silverstein poems, because friday should be a happy day and I couldn't pick just one.


Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Listen To The Mustn'ts

Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES.
Then listen close to me -
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.