Sandwiched
My husband woke up one morning a few weeks ago to hear me saying, “You have GOT to be kidding me. Nuh-uh, no way, this CAN’T be happening.” He meandered into our kitchen to see me rifling through our junk drawer for batteries.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Changing the batteries in the scale. It’s wonky.” I grumpily replied.
Turns out I was wrong. The scale didn’t need new batteries. My weight was creeping up once again.
As I’ve mentioned before in this column, many female members of the Sandwich Generation are entering perimenopause or menopause itself. And one “fun” reality of either stage is often weight gain.
I thought I had conquered that last year through following a Mediterranean diet, greatly reducing my sugar, and doing intermittent fasting, which for me means only eating within an eight-hour window every day. But over the past month, the scale and its stupid fresh batteries have told me otherwise.
At first, I thought I needed to change what I ate once again. But I’ve been genuinely happy with my routine and diet. The thought of making changes once again just bummed me out.
I examined my daily routine and the light bulb went on. We’re in the coldest, nastiest part of winter. I’m not even walking my dogs at lunchtime currently. While I’m still hoop dancing and doing strength training each week, the hoop dancing has gone from an hour each time to 30 minutes. I’m just not as motivated to keep going when I’m in my front parlor. It’s easier for me to go for a longer time when I’m outside or in my garage, which isn’t happening currently.
Then there’s what I eat during the winter. Like many of us, I find that this is the time for warm, often heavy comfort food, which you can still sneak into the Mediterranean diet. We’ve been enjoying these dishes often since Christmas.
Finally, I thought about my portions. I’ve gotten into the habit of reading while eating my breakfast and lunch, which is great, but not so good for eating mindfully. I’ve just loaded up my plate with things and eaten it all without really paying attention to how full I am.
While I can’t exercise like I normally do in the warmer months (but spring starts next month, so there’s hope!) I can control the food part. I cut back on the heavy comfort dishes, although we’re still enjoying a couple each week.
I reduced my portions for all three meals each day, began to slow down when I ate, and took the time to truly pay attention to how full I felt. I also paid strict attention to my midday snack routine and asked myself, “Am I eating because it’s 3:00 or because I truly feel hungry?” Sure enough, the weight slowly crept back DOWN vs. up.
I think we can all be guilty of winter weight gain no matter what stage of life we’re in. But if we carefully examine our habits and make some small changes, Old Man Winter won’t defeat us!