Anticipation. There, I said it. Now I can get that off my chest. Well, not really.
Why am I talking about anticipation? It's in our lives every day, because we're all waiting for something. Some are standing in the freezing cold waiting for their dogs to finish pooping. I don't have that problem, because I have a cat and he pretty much handles his own business. I'm proud of him for that.
When I was a little kid, it was ketchup. Yup. The commercial with Carly Simon singing her awesome song made me want to wait for ketchup (specifically the one in the commercial, which I know I can't mention without giving credit here). You know which one I mean.
Some people are waiting for the bus. Seriously, still waiting. I had to laugh the other day when a woman from my neighborhood told me she was waiting over 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. Funny thing is, the walk to the train is infinitely less time than that, so why the heck was she waiting? It made no sense to me. One girl waiting with her resorted to calling the MTA; as if they'll answer on a Saturday. Funnier still is that the weather had taken a break from being cold and I'd just walked 3.06 miles and burned nearly 450 calories on this gorgeous day. Maybe none of this is funny to you, but I found it laugh-out-loud hilarious. Of course, I didn't laugh in front of them; that would have been rude.
My point here is that waiting is something we have to do whether we like it or not. Currently, my waiting has to do with my weight loss. I've been on WW for nearly 7 weeks and I'm only 7.2 lbs. down. I've spoken about this before. Seems it's on my mind a lot. I'm becoming impatient. Sadly, I'm that way for a lot of things in my life. It probably has to do with my own personal procrastination, which in a way is anticipation for the people in my life. As a child, I am sure I made people wait. I was slow as molasses. I am not that way anymore. I can get ready to go out in under 1/2 an hour. Makes it much easier in the mornings when I'm getting ready to leave for work. Since I procrastinated getting back on WW after my illness a couple of years ago, I end up anticipating bigger losses each week and when they don't happen, I'm sad. Not in a weepy way, just sad. Part of it has to do with the fact that the last time I took this journey, the weight practically fell off. 52 lbs in under 8 months. I was stoked!
Now, I'm feeling like it is taking ages to take off the weight I did before. I suppose I should be happy that there are losses week-to-week. I generally am. What is a problem for me, as stated above, is that I have no patience. When someone is heading somewhere with me and it takes them almost three times the amount of time it took me to get ready... to get ready, I can't handle it. So this all seeps into the weight loss part of my life. It seems to me, that even with the increased amount of exercise (who am I kidding? I barely exercised the last time), I'm not making better progress.
Perhaps it has to do with planning, which was a theme in this week's WW meeting. How are we planning our days and weeks? Do we track everything, including exercise, right away in the morning? I would do that because I generally eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch (at least during the week), but I prefer not to, just in case something changes. Like today. Normally, I would have grabbed the great chicken soup from the cafe downstairs, however, today I had a hankering for their healthy tuna. It's really delicious and satisfying, even at the 1/2 cup serving. So, when I woke up, I thought I'd have soup, but I made that dramatic (in my mind) left turn to the tuna. To be honest, I've never been good with planning. It's probably why I overheard my parents say myriad times, "She's so smart; she just doesn't apply herself." The school anthem of the 70s. In my 6th grade class, our teacher had a system where we had to fill out a calendar weekly with what we thought we wanted to learn. Way to let the students handle their education. Believe me, it was groundbreaking then, but in the years since, and because I have taught several grades myself, I can testify to the fact that this was never a good idea. For 11 year old kids, who would rather be quoting funny lines from Bugs Bunny and tipping over their friend's crayon boxes. For people on WW, it's a fabulous plan.
So, how am I going to handle my own anticipation of losing more weight? I honestly have no idea. I do know that I am going to try a couple of the things the WW leader suggested. Who knows, it could put me on a path to being more organized in my quest to complete the journey. What's your anticipatory hang-up? Hit the comments and let me know. I love to hear what everyone else is doing to help themselves, and again, it doesn't have to be weight loss. That's my plan, and I'm sticking to it.
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