In most areas of my life, I am a highly motivated person. When I really, truly want something, I go after it, hard.
In grad school, when the rest of my classmates were building pit latrines in Africa, I wrote the Department of Health in Hawaii, told them I was coming and to please find a job for me, and showed up on their doorstep a few weeks later for a paid internship in paradise.
Sidenote: Most international development experts will not respect this as "field experience". This is because they are sad and bitter that they spent their youth building pit latrines instead of drinking Mai Tais all night and watching the sun rise over the Pacific with hot Australian surfers.
My single-mindedness about things has driven most of my proudest achievements.
Besides the internship in Honolulu, I've gotten jobs in Key Largo, Key West, NYC, London, the French Riviera, and Costa Rica, just through sheer persistence.
I saved up money and spent 2 years backpacking around Europe, traveling above the Arctic Circle in Norway all the way down to Morocco on my own. I've completed 3 marathons and, most recently, my husband and I trained for and completed an Ironman triathlon in Cozumel, Mexico (more on that here).
SO WHY IS STICKING TO A DIET THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD FOR ME? It is not for lack of desire, or effort. Like a lot of women my age, I've been off and on various diets for almost as long as I can remember.
I've even had some significant success with them. After breaking my ankle a couple of winters ago, I gained a bunch of weight. I was shocked, actually, when I saw some pictures of myself from New Year's of that year.
I spent the next year or so using Lose It, a FABULOUS app that you can get for free from ITunes, which allows you to track your calories taken in and spent.
I was really pretty dedicated, and the weight came off slowly but steadily. I wasn't following any particular diet like the ones I'm looking into in this experiment- I just ate (most of) the things I normally would, only less of them.
I also started running again. By the following fall, I lost about 40 lbs and ran the Marine Corps and Philly Marathons with a great group of friends. I was in great shape, and felt like my best self.
So knowing how terrible it feels to be overweight, how fabulous it feels to be in great shape, and exactly how to avoid the former and get to the latter, how is it possible that I allowed myself to regain any of what I'd worked so hard to lose?
But that's exactly what happened. Following our fall marathons, Ron and I started training for Ironman. We went to see a specialized nutritionist, and at first, I actually lost another 10 pounds. Those pounds were a struggle, though, and as training ramped up and my appetite ramped up along with it, I eventually regained them and another 10 for good measure.
By race day, I was 10 lbs heavier than when I'd started the training the previous year, although some of it certainly was muscle- I was quite lean. Since the race, I've gained another 5 or so. Today, I'm still down about 25 pounds from my heaviest, and trying to refocus and get back to my happiest, fittest self.
All of that is to say, I was intrigued by the concept of "Act As If...", which I read about on Mark Sisson's site, Mark's Daily Apple. Mark is one of the big proponents of the Paleo Diet (and from the looks of it, quite the hot surfer himself). I'll be reading his book during this process, so I'm not sure yet whether I will endorse all of his theories.
But I like "Act As If..." a lot. The basic idea is, you don't have to be a hardcore, fully dedicated practitioner of whatever new habit (diet or otherwise) you are trying to establish. You just have to act as if you are one. Just pick a time period (he suggests a month) and pretend you are one of those super-dedicated, always-focused, never-feeling-deprived-or-sorry-for-themselves-because-they-are-doing-exactly-what-they-want-to-be-doing people. Eventually, you won't be pretending anymore- you'll just be doing it.
I think it's a fascinating mind trick ("These are not the snacks you're looking for..."), and I'm going to try to put it into practice, not just for the Paleo Diet, but for all of the diets.
Actually, maybe I won't stop there- if it works, by this time next year I'll be a physically fit, professional writer who speaks fluent French, whose bathroom is always ready for houseguests, and who never forgets to send a thank you note- stay tuned!
In grad school, when the rest of my classmates were building pit latrines in Africa, I wrote the Department of Health in Hawaii, told them I was coming and to please find a job for me, and showed up on their doorstep a few weeks later for a paid internship in paradise.
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He's sorry you missed it too.Image by Chevron McIntyre |
My single-mindedness about things has driven most of my proudest achievements.
Besides the internship in Honolulu, I've gotten jobs in Key Largo, Key West, NYC, London, the French Riviera, and Costa Rica, just through sheer persistence.
I saved up money and spent 2 years backpacking around Europe, traveling above the Arctic Circle in Norway all the way down to Morocco on my own. I've completed 3 marathons and, most recently, my husband and I trained for and completed an Ironman triathlon in Cozumel, Mexico (more on that here).
SO WHY IS STICKING TO A DIET THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD FOR ME? It is not for lack of desire, or effort. Like a lot of women my age, I've been off and on various diets for almost as long as I can remember.
I've even had some significant success with them. After breaking my ankle a couple of winters ago, I gained a bunch of weight. I was shocked, actually, when I saw some pictures of myself from New Year's of that year.
 |
Before. Hint: I am the one without a penis. |
I was really pretty dedicated, and the weight came off slowly but steadily. I wasn't following any particular diet like the ones I'm looking into in this experiment- I just ate (most of) the things I normally would, only less of them.
I also started running again. By the following fall, I lost about 40 lbs and ran the Marine Corps and Philly Marathons with a great group of friends. I was in great shape, and felt like my best self.
 |
After.
|
But that's exactly what happened. Following our fall marathons, Ron and I started training for Ironman. We went to see a specialized nutritionist, and at first, I actually lost another 10 pounds. Those pounds were a struggle, though, and as training ramped up and my appetite ramped up along with it, I eventually regained them and another 10 for good measure.
By race day, I was 10 lbs heavier than when I'd started the training the previous year, although some of it certainly was muscle- I was quite lean. Since the race, I've gained another 5 or so. Today, I'm still down about 25 pounds from my heaviest, and trying to refocus and get back to my happiest, fittest self.
All of that is to say, I was intrigued by the concept of "Act As If...", which I read about on Mark Sisson's site, Mark's Daily Apple. Mark is one of the big proponents of the Paleo Diet (and from the looks of it, quite the hot surfer himself). I'll be reading his book during this process, so I'm not sure yet whether I will endorse all of his theories.
But I like "Act As If..." a lot. The basic idea is, you don't have to be a hardcore, fully dedicated practitioner of whatever new habit (diet or otherwise) you are trying to establish. You just have to act as if you are one. Just pick a time period (he suggests a month) and pretend you are one of those super-dedicated, always-focused, never-feeling-deprived-or-sorry-for-themselves-because-they-are-doing-exactly-what-they-want-to-be-doing people. Eventually, you won't be pretending anymore- you'll just be doing it.
I think it's a fascinating mind trick ("These are not the snacks you're looking for..."), and I'm going to try to put it into practice, not just for the Paleo Diet, but for all of the diets.
 |
How could he have known?From donhalbert.com |
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