This joke's on me

There is something comforting about old friends. We joke, we talk, we've watched our families blossom -- but most of all, we laugh.

Friday night we had book club at Bloodroot, the feminist vegetarian restaurant in Bridgeport that is perfect for a group of women to get together for hours to chat. After we discussed the book, Sarah's Key, the conversation naturally drifted toward diets, the subject that has occupied our lives since our kids were small. This night we talked about the worst diets we had all been on, which made us laugh so hard we had tears in our eyes.

If there is one thing we have all been, it's consistently on and off diets.

I told the story of signing up for Jennie Craig, and as I was leaving, bumping into one of the women at Bloodroot this night. We laughed and laughed, but when I was alone in the car, on the way home, this fact hit me hard: We have all spent too much of our waking days obsessing about our weight.

I wish I could turn back the hands of time, go back a few decades and appreciate the importance of reaching a goal weight and sticking to it. It's time for me to stop fooling around. Consistently eating lean protein, tons of fruits and veggies, avoiding sugar and exercising daily can add years to my life. And now, I need all the extra years I can get.

Enough laughing. It's time to get serious.

Wa-hoo!

I lost 6.4 pounds last week. A record for me. I know this is not something I will duplicate next week at Weight Watchers, but right now, I couldn't be happier.

I am also amazed. Not once last week did I think: "Poor me. I hate dieting."

Instead, I was trying new recipes every night, eating better than I have in a long time, and filling my plate with proteins and veggies -- light on the carbs. When I was hungry, I reached for a piece of fruit and I was satisfied.

And why did I reach for that piece of fruit: Because fruit counts for nothing on the new WW plan. Nadda. Zero.

And the best part of the fruit thing: I was making a choice that thin people make all the time. It was freeing.

I've been doing a lot of thinking this past week about my new-found sense of calm, trying to figure out why this is all happening now. I have many thoughts, but I can sum them all up in one word: normal.

I feel normal. I am comfortable eating this way and I am comfortable exercising the way I do. I like this feeling. And I pray morning and night that it will continue. I don't want to return to my old ways.

Forming a fitness habit

I love the title of this post, because that's how we should all view exercise, not as a chore, but as a fitness habit, something we do because we want to.

I wish I could say I came up with this headline, but the credit goes to Weight Watchers. It was this week's meeting theme, and it got me to really think about my love/hate relationship with exercise.

Weight Watchers makes this point: A long walk or a Zumba class is a good thing, but the real payoff comes with developing an active lifestyle. For years, I have been jealous of my two oldest kids, who make exercise a part of each day. For Caitlin, it's a long walk pushing a stroller with two kids and two Golden Retrievers for miles, up and down the hills of her town. She will also hit the gym at 5 a.m. for intense cardio and weights. For Tim, it's a daily run and time at the gym. Their days are not complete unless they spend a part of it engaged in exercise.

So here are some tips from Weight Watchers to make exercise part of your life. Most importantly: Take it one step at a time.
* Find a workout partner, who can add fun, encouragement and good advice. I did that on August 1, when I signed a contract -- yes, we wrote it out -- with my friend Ann to do at least 30 minutes of exercise five days each week. We meet four of those days and power walk on Fairfield's beach or the Trumbull mall, depending on time constraints and the weather.
* Listen to an MP3 player or watch television while you're exercising if you can.
* Keep your eye on the prize. Focus on how good you feel and how you are helping yourself, body and mind.

But how do you make exercise stick?

According to Weight Watchers, No. 1 is finding something you love to do. For me, that mission has finally been accomplished. Walking with Ann is not like exercise. We gab so much, before we know it, 45 minutes have passed and we've logged three miles. Certainly our pace does not set any records, but it gets our hearts pumping and our faces rosy with color.

I also discovered yoga, and the past few weeks have found the time to fit in five classes -- sometimes six -- each week. Yoga for me is not a chore. It is something I do to still my mind and stretch my body. I really cannot imagine living my life without it.

And the best thing of all: I feel terrific, sleep better, and am so much more focused than I have ever been in the past. I schedule my walks and yoga, and work the rest of my appointments around those times.

And I am no longer jealous of my kids. Thank God: I finally get it!

New me? I'm hoping...

I started a blog because, honestly, my friends and family do not want to listen to me talk about dieting. My kids tell me I look fine, my husband is brilliant, so of course he never says a word (which speaks volumes), and truth be told, I bore myself. This blog is my place to vent, and perhaps, I'll pick up a friend or two along the way.

I am too old to be constrained by weighing and measuring my food, eating specific foods at specific times, or spending hours in a gym. My age has also taught me that diets don't work. Sure, they work when I follow them, but two months after reaching my goal, I stop weighing myself daily, and before long am back wearing my fat clothes.

Today is Wednesday, a very odd day for me to finally decide enough is enough. Past diets always started on Monday, after a weekend of eating everything in sight. This Monday I was horrid. All I"ll admit to is a box of biscotti and two bags of licorice -- one black, one red. Yesterday I was excellent.

In the middle of the night, I got the idea to start a blog. Why not, I reasoned? I am an ex-journalist, and there are millions of ex-J school grads in the blogosphere. And then I thought that perhaps if I write my thoughts daily, I will eventually understand the very good me, and the very bad me. There has also been tons of articles online and in print this week about journaling, so for me, this is it.  

My goals are normal this time: I have a number of pounds in my mind that I want to shed. I also want to begin exercising again, but unlike past exercise plans, I am not going to go crazy and wind up injuring myself. 

And I am going to post daily. Lofty goals. But it's a start.