WeightLossthoughts.com - A Weight Loss Blog

I feel so virtuous, so pure, so…so much like a damn rabbit.

I had a salad for dinner. My body, which is used to something more substantial like steak and potatoes, hasn’t quite forgiven me for the change yet, but I think I could get into this salad thing. First, lettuce, celery, carrots, and their cousins are all low cal, a good thing if you’re trying to get the weight off.

Second, they take a little while to eat. Think about it. I can scarf a steak down in under five minutes, but chewing all those individual little lettuce leaves took work…and time. By the time I finished the last bite, my body was sending me signals that it had had enough to eat, thank you.

Third, even a kitchen moron like me can make a salad. Throw a handful of lettuce into a bowl. Add a few refinements like like carrots, peas, celery, walnuts, raisins, or peppers. Perhaps an itsy, bitsy handful of grated cheese or sliced meat. A dash of your favorite salad dressing–but only a dash, you don’t want to give the thing more calories than a Big Mac–and serve.

There. I’ve done it once. Now I just need to keep doing it. My goal for the week is to eat a salad in place of one of my usual meals every day this week. My nose is twitching in anticipation already.

I’m not a numbers person, but today, floored by a migraine headache and bored silly because I couldn’t read, I decided to do some playing around with my calculator. My goal is to lose 150 pounds in two years. That comes out to 6.25 pounds per month, or about 1.6 pounds per week, give or take. In order to do that, I’ll have to find some way to cut 800 calories per day from my diet. Ouch.

Well, not that much of an “ouch” really, since I’m already eating far too many calories than are good for me.

I usually skip breakfast and eat fast food (MacDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s) for lunch and semi-fast (KFC, Boston Market) for dinner. Does anybody see a few places here where I could probably cut calories

Obviously, my first step is going to have to be starting to home cook more meals to get control over the calories. Problem: I’m not a good cook. You hear people joke about how they can’t boil an egg? The last time I tried to boil an egg, the water evaporated and the egg ended up hard as cement. Also, on my current salary I don’t see gourmet baking lessons in my future, so perhaps I’ll compromise and buy microwave dinners from Weight Watchers, Healthy Choice, etc. As for lunch, I can take a salad or a nutritional bar to work. Maybe a salad and a nutritional bar since the experts say it’s good to eat small meals throughout the day.

Breakfast…I suppose I shouldn’t skip it. At least, all the diet books say you shouldn’t. Maybe a can of Glucerna weight loss shake or a bowl of cereal.

Well, my migraine isn’t any better, but I’m feeling less panicked about this whole idea of dieting. I’ll have to make some definite changes, but the numbers aren’t too terrifying. I can do this. I can.

I had my first migraine headache today. Actually, I had it on Friday and it lasted through the weekend until a nice emergency room doctor gave me a large shot of morphine this morning. I can feel it creeping back now.

My reactions are mixed. On the one hand, it was nice to finally have a health problem that wasn’t the fault of my weight. (At least, I don’t think obesity can cause migraines.) On the other hand, once the pain started getting under control, I wanted comfort food. And for me, comfort food does not entail salad.

I’m supposed to see my personal doctor tomorrow morning (got my appointment bumped up from the 15th–yea!), so I’m going to ask her for weight loss advice at the same time we’re going over migraine prevention tips. I’ll let you all know if she has any words of wisdom.

Speaking of words of wisdom, I’m asking you, my readers, for a few as well. When you are watching what you eat, how do you nurture yourself? In other words, how do you nurture yourself and comfort yourself when snarfing a huge piece of chocolate cake or a thick slab of country fried steak smothered in sausage gravy is out of the question? I can usually self-soothe fairly well with reading, but of course that doesn’t feel terrific when you have a migraine, either. Any other ideas? Anyone?