60's, Meet WW

I don't know when I turned "old," but the 10PM showtime of Mad Men on Sunday nights is officially too late for me. Sure, the show ends at 11PM, but then I am sitting there with my mind racing, wondering about the plot from that night's episode and the cryptic previews for the next week's. By the time I am finally falling asleep close to 11:30 or midnight, yep, that 6AM workout just isn't gonna happen.

Instead, we have started watching Mad Men on Monday nights at an earlier hour. Yes, go ahead and do that mental or real eye roll. I don't care ;)  This way, I get to enjoy the show AND hit the gym early the next morning, too. And for me, this is one of those life sacrifices I am trying to do more often. Trying being the key word.

Hold me to this one - I AM going to spin class tomorrow, I AM! :)

While I love even the oddest episodes of Mad Men (and if you aren't a viewer, trust, there are some oddball ones), last night's episode really struck a cord. Betty Draper, housewife extraordinaire, is now a divorcee, remarried, bored with her new life ... and oh my, she is overweight and on WEIGHT WATCHERS.

I honestly forgot that WW has been around for that long! I cracked up as I realized that the show was focusing in on her weekly meetings. Those suburban women were sitting there lamenting the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday (the same things we women do today) and the very end of the show featured Betty eating a bite of stuffing, feasting on that single, solo bite she had allowed herself.

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I got back on WW last week. As you frequent blog readers know, I am on-off-on-off-on the program, going hard for a while (2010) and then light during other times (2011). I know it works, having seen serious Freshman-15-Removal followed by Pre-Brother-Graduation-Momentum. I have a high school reunion coming up this summer, and I am already feeling better about myself because of those WW sessions than I did when I graduated high school.

However, I have found that maintaining things is hard unless I ... 

A) Work out regularly. This should be a no brainer, but I can come up with excuses to skip a workout with the best of them.

B) Don't eat sweets. I have discovered there are days when I need a Highland Bakery cookie. It's a cookie the size of my head. And I NEED IT. And then I am good for a few weeks without it. Today was one of those days. And tomorrow I shall spin as a result.

Me, back in the day.

Me, post 2010 WW!

C) Cut out the booze. Ughgghghgh this is hard. But it is nearly mandatory for me to lose.  

D) Keep the momentum, even when life gets hard. Busy work days equal less time to work out, and also equal higher likelihood that I will binge on easy food like pizza.

But that's where the genius part of WW comes in. I can control things if I can keep track of things I eat. Or drink. Even though I had that cookie today, my week is not ruined -- I am just going to hit the gym extra hard tomorrow :)

It's all about the balance. And since I am trying to balance out my life enough right now and keep on blogging here with you, you all get to be the first to hear that I am balancing out the diet right now, too :)

Off to sip some water before bed. See you kiddos in the morning. And I will already have burned a few hundred calories by then. Sweet!