In December my family and I will be visiting New York for two weeks and I’ve decided to use the upcoming visit as just the motivation I need to lose a pound or twenty. I’ve always been a big, curvy, girl and actually cannot remember ever wearing anything below a size 16. I do however take care to eat and exercise enough to make sure the fat and jiggles all land in the right places. Fortunately, I come from a culture that celebrates ‘a little meat on the bones’. If you’re very slim, people start to wonder if you’re sick. That said, I do still want to lose weight because I have this tremendous love affair with clothes and right now I’m at a size where I find myself beyond the reach of the nice ‘skinny-girl’ clothes and still not quite large enough to wear the really fashionable plus size ones. Furthermore I have that quintessential curvy girl problem of an XL top on a 3XL bottom.
<h2>XL top on a 3XL bottom</h2>
I know the chances are very, very slim that I’ll find any new clothes during winter that are suitable for my Caribbean climate, but hey, a girl’s still gotta try. Definitely, definitely, shoes will be the order of the day which means that I’ll have to find a way of lugging them home without paying too much for overweight baggage. Still the chance to sightsee during the festive period and experience snow for the first time (hopefully) will be great.
As a result I decided to look into losing a few pounds since it was either that or gain a few. The thing is though that my day job is with doctors and a nutritionist, so gaining weight does not appear to be a viable option because I will be castigated if I do. One of the docs is a friend who keeps hoping to stage a nutritional intervention with my family because she thinks we’re all grazers. She also only eats one meal a day and snacks on yogurt for breakfast and has a cup of tea for dinner. Like how cruel to your tastebuds and stomach is that!
So it’s almost the end of October and I’ve got about 8 weeks to lose 20 pounds. Exercise wise – Thoroughly cleaning the house (with much bending and furniture lifting/pulling) will do nicely. Plus tennis a couple days a week where instead of just watching the ball whiz by, I’ll actually try to run to get it. And I’ll take my stretch bands to work and do a couple resistance exercises during breaks.
The hardest part will be what to eat given that I also have a love affair with food. Fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, you name it, I like it. I like it all. Different tastes, flavours, trying new things? Well that’s me. I figure I’ll have to switch up whatever eating plan or plans I use along the way.
If you’ve been on the internet lately or done a drive by to a book store for books on weight loss you’d have noticed they are hundreds if not thousands of plans, supplements and gurus. Whatever I choose must be healthy, effortless and interesting. Sticking to it, I know, will be challenging (See above food affair). But I promise to give it a go and record my journey whether good, bad, ugly or to heck with it.
My plan of choice for the time being is slim fast 3-2-1. But to be on the safe/frugal side I think I’ll just buy 2 of the shakes to try out for b’fast and lunch tomorrow. If I don’t feel like passing out or hitting somebody during the day because I’m too hungry then I’ll buy two more for the day after.