daveho.com

As I had posted previously, I am currently on a “not a diet, not an exercise program” diet and exercise program. The jist is that I am not following any kind of prescribed technique for eating or exercising; instead I am just making habits of better food choices, better portions, limiting snacks, and getting regular exercise. The new lifestyle started in January, right around the time my son Ryan was born. While I have some surface reasons for this program (look better, more energy, better sleep, etc.), another was to be a better role model for my kids: I hope to be someone who they see as being responsible about their health. I’d made a pledge before my first son was born to do this, but I didn’t follow through like I should have. This time I am efforting more, and I think by not calling it a “program”, and not setting any metrics (i.e. lose 10 lbs. by X date), I am much happier with how it’s going.

Part of this report was prompted by deciding a couple of weeks ago that enough time had passed that maybe I could weigh myself, just to see if there was any significant change. I had been noticing that the clothes had been looser, and that I’d be regularly notching the last hole on the belt. In my initial start to this new lifestyle, I told myself that when I’d reached this point I would break my weigh-in ban and see how I did. I was surprised – here where I thought I’d lost maybe 5 pounds or so, I’d actually lost closer to 20-25 pounds! I think this is the beauty of this thinking: I’m not reaching for goals, and the rewards just fall into my lap. I will note though that I have not been on a scale since. I think the next time to check is a change in clothes size (like going down a couple of inches in the waist).