Fun Monday - Excuses?

Another week has come and gone, and Grace at Mama Rehema volunteered to host this week with this challenge:

Many people make resolutions during the month of January and they usually include diets/eating healthy/losing weight and all that good stuff. I myself decided to try the Weight Watchers this time round. My assignment is to tell us about a diet or two (Atkins, Sonoma, Weight Watchers, South Beach, the You on a Diet, Best Life, The Abs Diet, The Zone, Cabbage Soup, E-Diets, Dr Phil, Jenny Craig, The Meditteranean Diet, Nutrisystem, Slim-Fast, Suzzane Sommers or No Name diet etc etc) that you have tried and what you liked or did not like about it. You can tell us about one diet that you had so much success with, or another that was a torture to follow or both.
AND/OR
Photo assignment: post a photo of something/someone that makes you feel good about yourself. It could be your loved one, your pet, your part of the world, anything goes.

Let's see... Weight Watchers. Check. South Beach. Check. You on a Diet. Check. Slim Fast. Check. I am proof positive that DIETS DON'T WORK. Wait - isn't that someone's slogan right now? Weight Watchers, I think. Granted, it's been over 20 years since I tried Weight Watchers. I lost about 7 pounds on it.

My doctor wants me to do Atkins. VERY HARD. South Beach isn't quite as hard, but it's still difficult. My main problem seems to be that I don't like actually thinking about food much. When I'm hungry, I want to eat until I'm not hungry. But I don't like thinking about it. Consequently, no diet seems to work for me. I'm not good at following rules.

In fact, the only diet that ever has seemed to work for me is the one I had to adopt when I was diagnosed with diabetes. I lost 30 lbs almost immediately. Sugar and carbs - big no no for me. But after 30 lbs, I was still overweight by about 70 lbs. Still am. And try as I might, working a diet doesn't seem to work for me. It's hard to do when you have a kid and a husband.

I know, excuses, excuses. I have been thinking though.

I have spent probably 35 of my nearly 47 years on this planet worrying about my weight and dieting in one way or another. And I am NO BETTER OFF today than I was the first day I started worrying about it. In fact, I'm a lot worse off. So I'm not going to diet anymore.

I am going to pay attention to what I eat. I will restrict the sugar and carbs because I have to. I will drink more water, eat more fruits and vegetables. Leaner meat. And I will eat smaller portions more often.

But the main thing I will do is start thinking about my fitness goals and stop thinking about my weight loss goals. If I pursue my fitness goals, weightloss will be a natural side effect. Right now, I'm learning how to run without hurting myself. I take a dog and we go walk/jog around the neighborhood. So far, I can jog for a grand total of one and a half minutes. Impressive, no? But next week, I want to be able to jog for three minutes. I'm upping it a few seconds at a time. It probably WILL take two years to get ready for this marathon in Vermont, but by the time it arrives, I will definitely be ready and able to do it! This is my goal for now. And this may be the only way I can actually lose the weight I've been putting on for so long.

I don't like having pictures taken of me. I am always shocked at how I look - much bigger than I feel. I hope that by this time next year, I will feel much more comfortable when a camera gets aimed at me - less embarrassed, more confident. I have all the tools I need and the support to accomplish this.

Now all I have to do is JUST DO IT.