Lifestyle Changes

This is a key phrase around our house these days. Yes, we've embarked on more than one life change and with impressive results. I have managed for over a month to consistently pick up my clothes and belongings and put them in their proper place. I am aware that this is probably something I should have accomplished by the time I headed off to college. What can I say? I’m kind of messy. It was the theme of our wedding showers and rehearsal dinner. Leslie= messy, Jason= obsessively neat. I think I can safely say that after a year and a half of marriage this has shifted to: Leslie= neater, Jason= has chilled out quite a bit in order to show grace to his wife.

The other lifestyle change has come in the form of what is popularly known as “a diet.” Only we’re not calling it that. See, I’ll be frank here and say that I’ve been on lots of diets. Some of them have been healthy and successful attempts. I’m still a big advocate of Weight Watchers and its program. It’s doable, lots of support and the program teaches you to eat in the real world. It has worked for me more than once (with my favorite stint being the E-Ranch communal effort for Debo’s wedding) and the general principles of WW are firmly planted in my brain.

Some of my diets have been…wacko. Like the one I read about in US Weekly that involved detoxing via a juice diet, almonds, and lots of V8. This included a concoction I drank each morning made of three whole oranges, a lemon, parsley, and olive oil. Yeah. I think we can all agree that it’s never wise to follow a diet that you get from the pages of US Weekly. After all, this is the same publication that tells us Britney Spears is crazy. Well, maybe they tell the truth about some things.

So I’ve done the diet thing. And it’s worked. Thirty pounds was my greatest (and most needed) weight loss; ever since it’s been ten pounds here, ten pounds there. Here’s the thing: the weight never stays off. Because in my mind, a diet has turned into something I do to achieve the goal, but I’ve never been successful at thinking past that and figuring out how to stay at the goal. So, no more use of the word “diet.” I’m working on a lifetime of living healthy; not merely achieving a goal, blowing it, and then working to achieve it again.

So far, so good. I’m cooking a lot more (love me some Cooking Light recipes!) and that has been very cathartic at the end of a workday. Tomorrow, I take on the next step: exercise. Allison and I are embarking on a month of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6 a.m., Boot Camp classes. Don’t be impressed just yet. Give me a couple of weeks and then ask me if I’m still doing it. If the answer is yes, then you can be impressed.