Taking my cue from DietGirl’s post yesterday, I’m going to focus initially on drinking enough water. I feel like I eat so many times when I am actually thirsty, and if I just filled my tummy with water and other liquid (non-caloric) goodies, there wouldn’t be as much room for high-cal stuff.
How to do it, though? Fill up my giant mug every morning at work, and shoot for finishing it by the end of the day. Then, maybe fill another when I get home. The boy is obsessed with also drinking from my mug, so it’s a battle to keep it available. Worth a try, for sure.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about that new diet drug, alli, which is going to be released mid-month for over-the-counter use here in the U.S. But even thinking about it gets me convinced I am grasping at straws. The medicine is supposed to keep you from absorbing as much fat, but if you eat high-fat foods, it can cause those unpleasant symptoms that that fat substitute Olestra caused. (I believe the oft-repeated phrase was “anal leakage.”)
Anyway, perhaps that would be additional motivation to keep meals low fat — or suffer the consequences 
We’ll see. At this point, I honestly feel like I’ve tried everything at least twice and failed every time. Well, not EVERY time, but I’ve now re-tried the things that helped me succeed in the past, and I’ve failed. So I have this terrible self-image of myself as a serial failure.
I’ve spent lots of time looking back at previous successful weight loss attempts and the main thing that is different — stress. The first time I lost weight, I was in my last year of college, taking just 3 classes and working at a coffee shop. I had plenty of time for shopping, and cooking, etc. and I didn’t have lots of things weighing on my mind. I was also a vegetarian, so that might have been a factor.
The second time, I was working in a job I’d had for a while, so it wasn’t super challenging. I got my food delivered to me every day, so I didn’t have to make any decisions about what to eat. I found the time to exercise either before or after work (or both). I lived close to work — within walking distance — and also closer to friends, so I had more of a social life. I set a goal — a couple of triathlons — after losing some weight, and that helped me structure my workouts.
And now… I am in a new job, I have an hour (each way) commute, I have a challenging 2-year-old, my husband is across the country much of the time. Hmm.. no wonder I’m not doing so well.
But, the question is… could I ever be successful at losing weight in circumstances like I’m facing now? Do I really need to just reduce the stress in my life (somehow) before I can lose weight? Or do I need to (and can I?) learn how to deal with the stress better? Am I fighting an impossible battle by even trying to do this (not that I’m trying right now) when I’m in such a bad place, generally. I certainly don’t have an answer, but I’m likely to keep trying… even if I have to resort to the last straw medication.