Change One

In early July I did my usual weigh-in with the Wii Fit followed by the balance tests and an amazing thing happened. The "Wii Age" that the thing gives you was LESS than my real age. All along the damn thing had been issuing snide comments about how my "Wii Age" was x number of years more than my real age and wasn't I feeling weaker. Well, when the number it spewed forth was 22, I wanted to scream, "In your face, Wii!" I didn't but mostly because Frank was sitting on the couch watching. I have to vent my frustration in that there were no positive comments from the cartoon balance board on the screen - nothing along the lines of "Way to go!" or "Don't you feel amazing!" All the stinking remarks about how out of shape I am, and when I do something incredible, it's just another day.

I digress. The point I am making is that shortly after that milestone, I fell off the proverbial wagon. I stopped doing my daily weigh-ins and weekly training sessions. I no longer wrote down what I ate or how much water I consumed. I naively coasted by on the afterglow of success.

Then 4 days ago, I stepped on the Wii balance board for a random weigh-in. Not bad but not great. Nothing to fear. The next day I did the same... hmmm, it's gone up. Alright, no biggie; nothing to panic about. On the third day, it rose again. My weight, my BMI, my Wii age. I was now almost 40 in Wii years. Time to take action.

So, I broke out my book called Change One and started reading. This is the book that helped me lose the 50 pounds before. The idea is that making one small change a week for 12 weeks will help you lead a healthier lifestyle. It recommends 1300 calories for everyone, but if you are heavy or active (30 mins of movement most days), it suggests 1600 calories. However, it isn't about counting calories; you use guidelines for portion control and meal planning. It's about lifestyle changes, not "dieting." My fellow behavior analysts will agree that changing in steps will lead to great results, so here I go [again].

The first week is Breakfast, which everyone should be eating! Research shows a healthy breakfast makes you feel full and tends to result in healthy eating throughout the day. Anyway, on this plan, they suggest eating 1 starch, 1 dairy and 1 fruit. So yesterday and today I enjoyed hot oatmeal with soy milk and a banana. I'm on the 1600 calorie plan so I double my starch and have all the oatmeal in the packet, not just half.

I feel good about this. Yesterday we took a 40 minute walk to the Acme; today I ran 25 minutes; later, we walked to the Bryn Mawr Farmer's Market. When I got home I ate a peach. The mindset is helping already; I made cupcakes for IFHN which they ended up not needing so I decided not to ice them and have been enjoying just one at a time.

Now, I just need to keep at it. Stay tuned for updates.