Journaling

I got a fabulous incredible Moleskine Journal in red leather today. Perfect perfect for weight/food/fitness only. I hope by writing things down I can learn a little. I don't mean just weight but feelings, weather, health, and the like. I hope I'll be able to teach myself what works with some consistency and what doesn't. I also hope by just investing some time in thinking about it daily I might increase my probability for success.

That all sounds so negative but I'm not feeling negative. I'm feeling like "I can do this." and I'm really trying to maximize the time and energy investment. And overcome the inertia as much as possible.

Talisman

Hope springs eternal. I spent some time today flipping through the growing pile of Health and Self magazines that seem to arrive at my house. Don't you think that thinking about getting in shape should burn calories? I certainly do. Mostly they are pure advertising but I tripped over one of those articles that take 4 minutes to read on tips the contestants use in The Biggest Loser and two called to me.

The first is a simplifying device for calorie counting. I knew there must be a rule. To lose weight multiple your current weight by 7 for your daily calorie intake. (If you weight less than 150, use 150 as the weight number.) So for me that is 1680 a day. Now that I have the formula, though, I can adjust while losing weight. And for maintenance multiply your weight by 12. So when I weight what I want to, my calorie intake should be 1500. I'm quite struck by how little difference there is between the two, actually. Wheee, now I have a formula. What a geekette I am.

The second is a talisman, although they don't call it that. They suggest buying a bracelet or ring that symbolizes "I can do it!" Now that doesn't work for me, but I like the idea. When I quit smoking wearing a silly rubber band on my wrist helped. On reflection jewelry that reminds me of my goal, that I can fiddle with instead of nibbling, and points me in the direction of looking terrific works seemed like a fine idea. I've never worn bracelets so I just ordered a black gold chain bracelet so that I can wear it all the time, including while I work out.

Just What I Need Today

diet blog offers me exactly what I need to help get back on track. They think they're telling me about New Year's resolutions but really it is about how to persist. I need a summary here to remind me.

1. PERSIST. Don’t quit. “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.” Sir Winston Churchill
2. MAKE THE EFFORT. Work hard. Great comebackers use all the hours in the day. You can find your comeback right in the effort you make.
3. UNDERSTAND TRANSIENCE. Don’t extrapolate temporary setbacks into permanent defeat. “This, too, shall pass.”
   
4. CHANGE DIRECTION. Quincy Jones was a talented trumpeter, but after a stroke, he had to quit, and then became a legendary music producer.
5. EMPLOY SUPPORT. Stay away from the nay-sayers. Pack your corner with friends who won’t let you quit.
   
6. REPEAT. It took Sir Edmund Hillary two attempts to climb Everest, Peary eight times to reach the North Pole, and various authors scores and sometimes hundreds of tries to get their works published. Go again, and again, and ………
7. DREAM BIG. Your effort and ideas are worth many times what you may imagine. J.K. Rowling wrote her ideas about one “Harry Potter” during a train ride. It sold 100 million copies, and $4 billion movie box office, and counting. You can do much more than you imagine. Dream big.
8. STAY HUMBLE. Attitude -- is everything. When tennis master Andre Agassi fell from No. 1 to No. 141 (1997), he started over, went back to the minor leagues, upped his training, including weightlifting. It set the stage for greater things than ever before. Attitude – not image – is everything.
9. SELF-PROGRAM. Get a mantra. A psychiatrist-hypnotist provided Rachmaninoff the composer, who had a writing block, with a positive self-talk mantra: “You will begin your concerto. You will work with great facility. The concerto will be excellent.” It worked. He wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2.
10. PERSIST. It’s not over until you say so. Don’t say so.

Why?

I'm in a new place with a new name. I want to hide and be very public at the same time. That may seem inconsistent but it really isn't. I want the freedom to say what I like, reveal personal information if I like, without concern that folks in my Real Life will mention or even know about what I say.

But I'd still like to talk to folks, to you. And I think I'd like you to talk to me too.

Amended: Everything before this post was on another blog I started when I had a week off in October. I moved it here. I am rather amazed that as soon as I got back to work I totally fell off of everything I was trying to do. That is a good lesson. Maybe I'll be able to learn from it.