August 18, 2010

Nice'n'slow

These couple of months, I'm trying to lose some weight, not really so successfully. Maybe I set my target too far away, to achieve too slowly (lose 8 kg = 17.6 lb until next spring, means, one kilogram per month). Maybe I'm taking the way too ineffective (No meal replacements, No fasting, No non-anything like non-carb/non-oil diet).


Or, maybe it's my life.


I have a six-year old, healthy and active girl to whom I want to show that "Life is good." It's very important to eat right, and, eat with joy. It's OK to have ice cream. It's perfectly OK to have doughnuts. Unless you're having too much of them (sigh.)

So far, my daughter is picking up good eating habit (fresh fruits after the bath) and good shopper's literacy ("Mom, I'll have this yogurt 'cause it says 4.2g of protein, which is the most in this shelf."). Doing oh-so good. As of today, she's about 21 kg and 113 cm (46.3 lb and 44.5 in). Right in the middle of the growth chart.


As her parents, my husband and I want her to keep on growing, keep on putting healthy weight. I heard some of her classmates at kindergarten talking of "getting too heavy on thighs" and it's so unhealthy of a six-year old. We want to and need to set a good model for her.

Problem is, we are both overweight.


My husband is doing pretty good. He walks to a farther train station, about 3 kilometers, most of weekdays. On weekends, he goes to driving range and once a month, goes out to golf. Or takes that active six-year-old to a nearby playground. He eats less carbs than his feeling wants. He has lost more than 6 kg since January. It's about halfway to his target weight.


Me? Uh. Lost mere 1kg in 2.5 month. It's still a long, long way to my target weight.

I bought a new pair of walking/running shoes. I never say "No" to my daughter when she wants to go to playground as long as we don't have any weather/air-pollution condition to stop us. I am keeping this policy for about a year already, but the major change recently is, I don't take my knitting to the playground any more. I do stretch, light exercise and jog instead. This seriously affects my productivity (.. or not really..), but I feel my metabolism is getting improved. Just feeling. It doesn't show, oh boy, it's so frustrating.

I eat smaller than before. Just I don't cut anything. I eat three times a day, and when I feel too hot, I even eat popsicles. Every time we eat, I talk with my daughter about what food does for us. Some food, like chicken breast and lean beef, make us muscle-er. Some, like doughnut, make us happy and energized. But they could make us chubby if we eat them too much.


I would try walking and jogging more if I don't need to take her with me everywhere I go (Summer break!). I would try harder diet regimen if I don't need to eat with her. And I would lose weight more effectively.

But, without her, I wouldn't have tried to live healthier, to live longer.


I feel OK not so successful about weight problem right now. It's not the number shown on the scales today. It's about my health twenty years later.

Because if my daughter becomes a mother at the same age as me, I'll be seventy years old when I hold my first grandchild. I'll have to be a very healthy old-ish lady to have lots of fun.


About the productivity, I would be able to knit more if I live longer.