One shivering step at a time

One of the great things about getting back into the semester routine is that my exercise and eating habits level out a bit. I'm making my first concerted effort to lose weight in many, many years, and I've been looking forward to the day when I could start counting on that two-mile walk every morning: taking CG to school, swinging back by the house to pick up my stuff, then heading to the office. It's a lot easier to get to my 10,000-step goal when I start every weekday that way.

So I watch the weather like a hawk, because storms or dangerous conditions can derail that exercise I count on. And dangerous conditions might be present tomorrow morning, with overnight temperatures forecast to go as low as 11 degrees. I'm going to have to make up those 6500 steps somewhere else tomorrow.

When I say that I'm making a concerted effort to lose weight, this is what I mean. For many years -- including here on this blog -- I've been following the No-S Diet. It certainly kept me from getting out of control. But it's a rule of thumb, a way to give yourself structure so you don't overdo it. It's not -- at least in the way I handled it -- a goal-based system that holds you accountable for results.

It's not like I haven't known I'm overweight. The Wii Fit Balance Board made sure of that, along with every BMI chart that got handed to me at an employee wellness meeting. I won't even mention the way the mirror disapproved. But the thing that made the consequences of that real to me were the cholesterol numbers that came back from a blood screening. Researching how to lower them, the first thing on every list was "lose weight." Time to get serious, then.

For me, having a plan and a program is fun. I love systems and collect them obsessively. Systems for time management, workflow, organization -- they energize me. Finding the best system is fun. Implementing it turns on my reflective and assessing capacities, keeping me alert and aware of my own reactions. Living within a system is soothing. At its best, an elegant, well-designed system delights me on a daily basis.

So of course I made my New Year's resolution into a system -- an ecosystem, really, with quantified-self tools old and new feeding into the plan. I was already using a Fitbit to set step and climbing goals for each day, Runkeeper to track walks and jogs, and Gym Hero to record strength training (uh oh, looks like that last one might be about to hit the skids -- hasn't been updated in 18 months). Years of reading about various diet schemes made it clear to me that the only thing that mattered was calories -- more out than in, the weight comes off. MyFitnessPal integrated with the tools I was already using, calculated a daily calorie allowance for me, and provided a food diary so I could keep myself within it. Noel, really rolling the dice but coming up a big winner, got me an Aria scale for Christmas. I couldn't even wait to start until after the holidays, so enticing was this system.

In some ways, the system provides a kind of satisfaction that makes it hard for me to feel deprived. Gamification really works on me. A badge, a smiley-face, a cheer from an online friend, keeping my graphs in the green -- those stupid rewards matter, for whatever reason. I dreaded getting serious about losing weight for years, and hoped futilely that by exercising more or cutting out dessert, it would be enough. I was afraid of feeling constantly deprived, constantly aware of what I wasn't getting to have or do -- a depressing prospect. But my dread was misplaced. It's not like that at all. And the realization that all I really have to do is keep going like I have been these last three weeks, and slowly but surely my goal will come into sight, a goal that once seemed unattainable without drastic measures -- well, that produces a kind of euphoria that even my most-loved foods would be hard-pressed to match.

Everybody's working for it

For years there was not an appreciable difference in mood between my weeks and my weekends.  Other than my daily destinations -- office versus leisure centers -- I lived a very similar lifestyle no matter what day came up on the calendar.  People who looked forward with rabid longing to the weekend, I regarded with bemusement.

Then I started the No-S Diet.  Now I'm one of those woo-hoo weekend!!!1!! people I never understood before.

On the weekends I drink the diet soda that I love (and deny myself the rest of the week).  On weekends I have dessert.  It's not that I'm miserable during the week, when I drink unsweetened tea and refuse sweets.  I don't feel an appreciable sense of deprivation or sacrifice.  But oh, how I look forward to that first sip of Diet Coke and that first bite of chocolate.

The weekend now represents the opportunity to indulge myself.  And I think that the difference between weekdays and weekends provides a pleasing contrast.  Life should include tension and release, work and play, ordinary and special, workaday and indulgence.  I find the movement between the two, mapped onto time in the distinction between weekday and weekend, exhilarating in a small, regular way.  Those sips, those tastes, now are more precious and consequently more savored.  The same is true of the time in which they are permissible.

Lifestyle change update

It's been four months now since I started my no-soda version of the No-S diet. Since the semester ended, I've started making a concerted effort to work out (now that my schedule accommodates an afternoon trip to the gym more easily), and I'm going to the gym three or four days a week now.

So what's the result? You'll remember that I saw immediate results in the shrinkage of my round "are you pregnant?" gut. But all my fat hasn't melted away with the removal of diet soda from my daily routine. In fact, after our Vegas vacation, I put on 5-10 pounds. My vigorous workouts have been chipping away at them, but I'm still above my normal weight.

What has happened is that my weight has been redistributed. Instead of being concentrated in my upper belly, right under my chest, it's moved down around my waist -- and much more than ever in my life, it's in my backside and thighs. All my clothes fit strangely now. I feel humpy and bulgy in them (to quote my favorite Max and Ruby locution).

Not to get too intimate with the issue of my body shape, but the result has been interesting for my chestal region. It's not as close to the fat anymore, and that makes it look ... different. Um, more uplifted. I'm finding it hard to get used to, frankly.

Metabolically, the changes are an improvement. Bottom-heavy fat has better implications for one's chances of getting adult-onset diabetes than belly fat. And I think that my regular low-half-focused cardio and abdominal exercises have helped redistribute where the muscle is under that fat, changing my shape some more.

The altered fit of my clothes frequently makes me feel bloated and uncomfortable. But I persist in thinking that if I continue these healthier eating patterns and more regular exercise, I'll whittle away at the fat and inches, no matter where they are accumulating these days. I'll check in with you at the end of the summer and let you know how I do.

Cool drink of water

Today's post is over at Toxophily, where a pair of cozy mittens arrive a few days too late for winter.

For my faithful UTC readers, here's an update on my new no-soda plan. Yes, I've been sticking to it. Diet Coke has been replaced with juice, flavored water, and the occasional unsweetened iced tea (the more lemon you can squeeze into it, the better).

The first couple of days were pretty much one continuous headache. But three days after taking the plunge, I got my first reward. I put on a fitted t-shirt on Saturday and was astounded to find that my gut was noticeably smaller. Such immediate shrinkage was unanticipated -- I didn't take any before-and-after measurements -- but the evidence of my clothes was a huge boost for my willpower.

My craving for that artificially sweetened brown necter diminished after just a few days. Naturally, I've had to replace one addiction with another slightly less dangerous one. Junkies have their methadone; I have vitamin water. I've tried various kinds, so here's a rundown of the selection.

• Aquafina Alive: This is my favorite. The peach-mango flavor is not overwhelming, but I prefer it to the orange-lime flavor which tastes like a watered-down, flat Sunkist soda. 10 calories, sweetened with Splenda.
• Propel: Second favorite. More flavor, so I feel less like I'm drinking water (not really a good thing). More Splenda.
• Glaceau: I got some "Rescue Green Tea" out of a drink machine on Saturday. Kinda weird, but very refreshing. Not really low calorie (I think it was 50 calories per serving.

I can really chug these things down. There's still artificial sweetener in there ... which is the reason I got away from diet soda. But surely there's not nearly as much. I'm not drinking them in the huge quantities I drank Diet Coke and Pepsi and Coke Zero, either -- about two twenty-ounce bottles a day of water, versus three or four 20 oz. to 44 oz. servings of diet soda a day.

I feel good about it, too. I know it's not the ultimate in healthy living yet. Baby steps.

Radical change

About a year ago, I decided to live according to the No-S Diet. Since my image-conscious teenage years, I've never been one to follow any kind of diet; low-carb completely passed me by, for example. But I got intrigued by the No-S Diet when Mark Pittilo linked to it in his 2007 Archies list.

I've always had a sweet tooth, and thanks to my dad's similar cravings, no meal at our house was ever complete without cookies, cake, or ice cream, alone or in combination. When I read about the diet, I thought it might be worth a try to rid myself of the habit of eating big desserts after every meal.

With few exceptions, I've stuck to the rules. No sweets except on the weekend. (Although I start the weekend after dinner on Friday, like Orthodox Jews.) Seconds and snacks have never been my besetting sins, so I didn't have much trouble adhering to those strictures. Now I look forward to my dark chocolate indulgences on Saturday and Sunday, and miss the sugary stuff much less the other four and a half days of the week.

I haven't lost any weight, but that was never my goal with the diet. To lose weight, I tend to exercise rather than restricting my food intake. And keeping up with a regular exercise plan has been difficult this year. I have a class scheduled at my usual gym time this semester, and it's taken all I've got just to get there once a week the past two weeks. I just haven't been able to figure out how to make it fit without sacrificing what I need to be doing at home, not to mention the tendency of crises at work to cut into my best intentions. But I haven't gained any weight either, and given my exercise inconsistency, I suppose that's a victory.

But now comes more news about the role of diet soda in weight management. Now those of you who know me are aware that I've gradually increased the role of diet soda in my life, dating from the introduction of Diet Coke when I was sixteen and continuing to the present day, when I drink very little else. But I was startled by the phrase "abdominal obesity" (also known as central obesity) in news reports about the latest study. I've been accumulating belly fat since my pregnancies, and it's not just love handles, folks -- it's a gut. My center of gravity has changed.

My main goal in starting to exercise again after Archer was born was to get rid of it, but although I powered through plateau after plateau in my workout, the belly fat stayed. And then after Cady Gray was born, it was that much more. What I used to be able to dismiss as postpartum flabbiness is now a full-fledged distended abdomen. It's not loose and floppy. You could thump it like a ripe watermelon. It's stuffed with fat.

Can I add another S to my No-S Diet -- no soda? I've been wanting to cut back on my intake (to limit damage to my teeth, help my calcium absorption, and reduce my caffeine consumption). And here's another reason -- if this research is correct, it could keep me from getting fatter. Maybe what I need is not a general resolve to cut back, but a system to define what "cutting back" means -- like "only on the weekend." That's the genius of the No-S Diet.

I'm getting thirsty just thinking about it, actually. But I'm going to mull over a switch to water, fruit juice, and chai. Surely if I can stay away from chocolate 9/14 of the time, I can work up the willpower to avoid aspertame, too.