Some of you know that I’m one of the many boring people that is trying to get in shape and lose weight. (I won the partner contest in December for the Biggest Loser at work by losing 14.8 pounds!) But I gained 7 back and we’re doing it again. Since it worked before, against everything I used to believe in, I’m dieting. The hardest part of dieting is not the giving up of all the things you like to eat or the dragging your ass to the gym, but instead it’s the becoming high maintenance that kills me.

Here’s the thing. I’m doing Weight Watchers and I love it (I never thought I would say that). It appeals to the database girl inside of me that likes to fill my spreadsheet with what I’ve eaten and calculate the points (see “google-whore“). It’s ilke a puzzle I get to do every night. But I also like that I really can eat what I want if I realize that eating that piece of chocolate means less steak and no wine. Or drinking that glass of wine means veggies for a snack instead of popcorn. You know what I mean? It’s all about realizing moderation and how you just can’t eat on impulse and fill your gut with everything your heart desires without having to live with the consequences.

And then there’s the exercise. Even though it is really hard to get into the habit, I am generally happier after the gym and I try to tap into that emotion every time I go. Having books on my mp3 player to listen to or NPR or watching the food network while I do the machines (I know, crazy?) helps get through it.

So what is this high maintenance crap I’m talking about? Well, I always prided myself in being someone who likes most food, will try anything, and even though I may have some favorite restaurants I’ll lobby for, I’ll go almost anywhere and will order everything if people will let me. But now I have to carefully choose the restaurant and when people want an appetizer I have to decline and if my sisters want to share something and they pick a dish that will kill my points I have to bow out. It’s really hard for me to be the picky one. I hate it. But I’m learning how to work with most places now that I am memorizing how many points everything is. It’s not just food though either. I need to start to be high maintenance about my time as well. “No, I can’t meet you for dinner after work because I need to go to the gym.” That kind of shit. Realizing that I really won’t go if I don’t go right away. Maybe I need to go in the morning, but that’s like rewiring my entire personality.

How boring is this post? Well let me leave you with two things I have come to love. Because I rarely eat pasta or cheese while trying to lose weight, because those eat my points up so fast I wanna cry, I have to find alternatives. You can imagine how happy I was to discover Carba-Nada noodles which are hardly any points and actually taste like fresh pasta (and cook in four minutes, I love that).

And then there are the cute little Light Laughing Cow cheese bites. They taste really good and I can have 5 of them for only 1 point! Inside the wrapper they also have fun factoids like today’s was “New Zealand was the first place women got the vote.”

I’ll keep sharing if anyone’s interested and I apologize in advance if some of my posts begin to get too focused on this. But there it is.