Tricks and treats

Today I stepped on the scale, the day after Halloween, and my results scared me worse than any haunted house or horror flick.

Numbers and form-fitting jeans don’t lie. That’s why I’ve never been a fan of sweatpants — it’s too easy to expand in them along with the drawstring waistband. It’s also why I am recommitting myself to Weight Watchers online fully and totally beginning this very moment.

I joined back up with Weight Watchers online several weeks ago with good intentions but my efforts stalled when I lapsed in logging my daily points.

Then I really fell off the band wagon this week when I bought bags of Snickers and Milky Ways to give out on Halloween night.

Sure, I was a good mom and kept my children, Tarzan and Jane, away from them by “sacrificing” myself one miniature bar at a time.

But let’s be honest, who only eats one? As I satisfied my daily cravings I might as well have eaten an entire candy bar each day. Before I knew it a whole bag was gone in the course of a week.

I always tell myself beforehand that I should just buy the stuff I don’t like — something like candy corn, which I despise, so I’m less tempted to eat it.

But what fun is giving out mediocre candy on Halloween?

By the time the big day arrived my children had been remarkable patient and I OD’d on sugar and felt sick to my stomach.

Now there are two huge bowls in the house filled with every kind of goodie imaginable. I know if I am to lose those extra pounds, plus a few more (What runner doesn’t aspire to be leaner?) it is going to take some serious bookkeeping skills on my part.

Despite the miles I run as I’ve aged I’ve learned that I must watch everything to shed a single pound. That means no candy, no dessert, no alcohol, no anything fried — basically no extra anything.  It is unfair and it sucks because I can remember the days when I was younger and it didn’t take this kind of work to lose weight.

Those days are gone and this is just what I have to do now.

It also makes me appreciate just how hard other people who have even more weight to lose than me, those on The Biggest Loser, for instance, have to work because their efforts are heroic compared to me.

The next few weeks will be a strict game of caloric Monopoly. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and do not touch anything chocolate, lest you get sent to fitness jail, or worse, land on Board Walk with a hotel and dig yourself deeper in nutritional debt with more pounds to lose.

It’s going to take running, plus every trick in my book to avoid the treats, but I am determined to pull myself back from the scary edge of my scale.

Halloween is over. No more Snickers miniatures or haunted houses for me.

Aging is inevitable, but growing old is a choice. Lace up your shoes, and let’s go.

Mileage today: 6; Denver to Boston miles logged: 767; Miles left to go: 1,003.

One thought on “Tricks and treats

  1. If you restrict yourself, you will just want it more and you will waste precious time feeling crappy when you eat crappy. I think if you let yourself have what you want, but try to get in healthy foods too (while continuing to run) you will eventually moderate your intake of crap.

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