I went to the doctor today and had the requisite “weigh-in”, and I’m about 15 pounds over my normal weight.  That’s what I get for not owning a scale, I guess.  And so I started mulling over this whole increased-cellulite/Holy-crap-I-haven’t-been-this-heavy-since-right-nefore-my-divorce/hate-to-workout issue…

Point #1: There’s nothing really wrong with my diet.  How do I know?  I won a diet assessment from Diet For You from Kate Says Stuff, and I kept a food diary for three days.  The report came back, and said I’m actually eating pretty well.  My issue is not my diet.

Point #2: While I’m OK with my body, and I’m not technically overweight, I don’t like feeling overweight.  My knees hurt more, my pants fit less.  It’s so hard to find pants that fit that I’d really like to avoid having to go out and buy all new pants in a size or two bigger.

Point #3: I have tried different ways to motivate myself.  I have tried buying myself cute workout clothes, so that I would want to put them on and use them.  I have tried to “put it on my calendar”, as if, magically I will obey my calendar when it comes to doing something I hate doing, because if I don’t do it, nothing will happen.  I have even tried that crazy site (stickK.com) where you can designate to have some of your own money “donated” to a cause you hate if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do…  I have never lied so much in my life.

I don’t think an incentive should be a punishment if you don’t do what you hoped to do.  Research says we humans do much better with rewards.  But then it also doesn’t jive to reward myself with stuff I would either buy myself anyway, or wouldn’t ever buy (even after earning it) because it would seem like a waste of money (and I don’t need more stuff anyway).

What to do?

Here’s my new plan:  Kill two birds with one stone. I am too sedentary because I enjoy being on the computer, ergo, LIMIT my time on the computer, and only EARN more computer time by working out.  No workout? No more computer time.  I’ll either get too bored and just end up working out to do something, OR, I will get more physical activity by default.  And I won’t try to limit my computer time by myself – I’m going to check out a few time-limiting or break-encouraging apps out there to keep myself honest.

What do you think of my plan?

I’ll keep you posted!