Things that are Awesome

I've made many changes over the past year or so. Some are hard, some are easy, some are easy to stick with, and others.... well.... others I have flaked out on. Here's what's awesome:

• maple syrup. 'nuff said. I realized that my brother (Gato Negro) has the real deal at his house. I asked him when he started buying it. He told me "when I started buying my own syrup". Take that gradgreen!
• sugar. Why was I using Splenda? I was obviously brainwashed by Weight Watchers.
• weight loss without lots of artificial foods
• giving stuff to Goodwill -- I now have a permanent Goodwill box in the closet.
• crayons (As you know, I have 3 little kids. Crayons are my favorite art supply. Why do markers even exist? Oh... to destroy my house... right...)
• homemade pizza -- I got a bread machine and it has been worth it for the pizza dough alone
• line drying clothes (this is C's department. Thank you!)
• Murphy's oil soap for cleaning wood furniture -- bye bye Pledge.
  
• cloth napkins
• hankies
• Craig's List
  
• cloth diapers (I've been a total failure with nighttime cloth diapers, but I am convinced that cloth diapers made my little one potty train at two years old ... a whole year earlier than my other two children)
• less/no TV -- we still use the TV to watch movies, but now we don't have any cable, which keeps us nice and commercial free :)
• ceiling fans -- since we have moved to a place with fans in every room, we are able to keep the AC set at a higher temperature and be very comfy.
• Wrap-n-mat to wrap sandwiches in for sack lunch. Very cute, creates its own placemat, and quite a conversation starter.
  

What hasn't worked out so well?

• CSA -- It just didn't seem worth it and the food was rotting.
• worm composting -- they freaked me out a little, and we killed them. Sorry wormies!
• going car free/ car light -- very very hard with three little kids. The basic problem here is that I can't spend long periods of time on public transportation because I have to get home and pick up/ take care of my children.
  

Lean & Green

I promised to report on any weight gain after switching from Splenda to sugar. I'm sorry to report that I have been chubbing out, but I don't really blame it on the 1 teaspoon of sugar per morning in my coffee. Instead, I blame my recent habit of inhaling pastries and drinking beer. So sad....

In the past, I was a very successful member of Weight Watchers (I guess I could have a picture with "results not typical" written underneath). I think that WW has a really good program, and if you follow it, I don't see how you couldn't lose weight. If you follow it....

One thing that makes WW really work (I believe) is the meetings. Every week you have to go weigh in and attend a meeting that lasts an hour or less. It's not that bad, and it IS motivating. You don't want to go and find out that you've gained weight, and it's not very fun to have not lost weight. When you do lose weight, everybody claps and sometimes you get a little prize.

The problem with WW is that you have to go to the meetings. Ideally, you would walk/bus/ride bike. But I like to go first thing in the morning, before I've eaten anything, and there are no meetings close by at that time. Instead, I have decided to get on the scale every Monday morning and record my progress on the calendar.

How is weight loss green?

• You consume fewer resources. Less food. Don't have to buy new clothes. Are in better shape to walk/ride instead of drive.
  
• If you can motivate yourself to lose weight at home, you can save money from driving to meetings/buying funny diet foods.
• You save money (especially if you can do it at home) which you can use for other green activities (perhaps to buy all the organic veggies that you now crave)
• You will eat fewer packaged foods, thus reducing the amount of trash that you produce. (Of course, this is only true if you don't rely on packaged diet foods.)
  

Ah.... motivation. That's the tough part. My motivation has been the desire to look cute in shorts (I know... so shallow). I've also told all my friends and my husband that I'm trying to lose weight, so that I'll be embarrassed to inhale pastries in front of them. So far, so good. I've lost 4 pounds :)

Funny diet foods
WW can be kind of tough because all foods have points, and you only are allowed to eat a certain number of points per day. A way to reduce the points in sweet things is to eat things that are artificially sweetened (for example, you can eat 1/2 cup of ice cream for 4 points or a gigantic Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich for 2 points.... the problem is that the sandwich doesn't really taste like ice cream). I have always thought that it's better to just eat real food, so I'm trying to do that. After a few days of hard core pastry cravings, I've been able to feel (pretty) satisfied with toast with jam on it. Homemade bread with organic strawberry jam.... :) Yum.

Portion control
Portion control is a big deal in WW. Before I did WW, I thought that 3 chocolate chip cookies was a normal, controlled, portion. Hah! I would drink 16 oz. of orange juice at breakfast. No more. So, I could go out and buy portion-controlled food, such as the 100 calorie packages of crackers, tiny tubs of yogurt, etc. But that's not green, and besides, I'm an adult. I have an advanced degree. I can count. If the portion is 12 pretzels, I count to 12 and put the bag away. If I don't want to count, I eat carrots, which don't have points. I don't want to use a lot of extra packaging because I'm too lazy to count or measure. So, I dip a 1/2 cup measure into the yogurt or rice or beans, or whatever.

Those controlled portions are also very expensive.
Wasteful and expensive.... why, God, why?