減肥計劃 The Eat-Less Plan

The kids have been off school for over 2 weeks now and they have been getting up later and later. But no matter what time they get up, they still ask for a breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus 2 snacks in between the main meals. When they are in school, I would combine breakfast and lunch and simply eat a light dinner. It's not hard to eat light at night because I rarely feel like eating anything after cooking a full meal for my family. Now that the kids are home all day long, I eat with them and this has not been good for me. My kids are growing. My daughter grew 1 cm. in 2 weeks. I have already gained 5 pounds in 2 week's time. Warning bells are going off in my head!

I have always been slightly on the "chubby" side. I use the word chubby cautiously because it's how I feel, and not necessarily what others perceived of me. At 5'4" (165 cm) tall, I fluctuate between 128 lbs. and 132 lbs. I would like to be 120 lbs., but many friends have advised me that I shouldn't loose too much weight because women over 40 have a tendency to have skinny face. It's true, my face is the first place to loose the fat when I loose weight. I look gaunt if I go under 125 lbs. So I have been happily controlling my weight to hover around 128 lbs.

I know about dieting. I have been doing (or thinking about diets) as far back as 13. These diet thoughts don't stay too far back in my mind. With age, I realized that no matter how much I weigh, I have a certain body image of myself. I will never be satisfied with how heavy my body weighed. If I am not happy with myself, even if I weigh 110 lbs., I am not going to be happy. I also realized that the only great thing about being skinny is that clothes look great on the body. With time, I dealt with my weight issues and I resolved it by making one important decision--I won't date anyone who doesn't weigh at least 40 lbs heavier than me. I ended up marrying someone who weighed 50 lbs. more than me at the wedding. Consequently, even when I was pregnant, my husband still weighed more than me! That being said, I am still a bit envious of my own daughter, who at age 9, looks tall and slender. She looks great in every single piece of clothing I buy for her. I am hoping she doesn't inherit my body-type genes, so that she'll stay tall and slender all her life.

Getting back to my diet plan for this month. Since I don't like to exercise, the only way I can loose a bit of weight is to eat less. Less carbohydrate to be precise. No more cheesecakes, bread, and ice cream. Stick with the principles of "eat only when I am hungry" and "don't eat kids' leftovers".

小孩已經放假兩個禮拜了。不管他們睡到幾點,都會要求照常吃三餐,外加兩次點心。我也跟著兩個正在發育的小孩吃。這下好了,我不但不會發育,我發胖了。 兩個禮拜胖了五磅(二公斤)! 應該是開始減肥的時候了。 其實我對減肥這東西並不陌生。 從我十三歲開始,我腦子裏時常想著要如何減肥。其實我不算胖,只是有點肥肥、肉肉的感覺。我大概是 165 公分高, 五十八至六十公斤左右。 我一直是希望瘦到五十公斤左右,但是我成人後,最瘦時也只達到五十四公斤而已,所以我的目標都訂在五十四公斤左右。可是四十歲過後,很多朋友都叫我不能太瘦,因為都只瘦到臉,看起來蒼老。我真是太為難了,不知道要選看起來老,還是要選看起來胖。 最後也因為無法瘦到五十四公斤而放棄。看起來年輕還是比較重要!

我三十歲左右時,一直無法克服這體重的問題。後來我想通了。對於擇偶的條件我又多加了一項:那就是我的男朋友或未來的老公一定要比我高和至少比我胖二十公斤以上。 在我結婚那天,我的老公比我胖二十五公斤! 後來我懷孕變胖了,我的老公還是比我胖! 我再也不用煩惱這體重的問題了。 話又說回來。我看到我又高又瘦的九歲女兒,我還是有點羨慕。她不管穿什麼衣服都好看。我幫她買衣服也很簡單。只要價錢可以、尺寸對、款式好看,女兒就能穿得漂亮。這是我從小都沒有的經驗。 我最討厭買衣服, 因為每次都要試穿一堆衣服, 而且都還不一定穿起來好看! 不過女兒現在還沒有發育完畢。我希望她沒有遺傳到我胖胖的身材。現在我想控制體重完全是為了自己的健康著想。家族有糖尿病及心臟病的病史,所以我不能過胖。我的小孩子還小,我的健康就是他們的幸福。

我的減肥計劃很簡單,有兩個部份。因為我不喜歡運動,唯一的辦法就是少吃。我不能跟著小孩吃三餐外加兩頓點心,更不能吃含有高澱粉質及碳水化合物的食物。像我愛吃的奶酪蛋糕、冰淇淋及日式土司都不能再吃了。因為我沒有胖很多,大概禁口個兩星期就可以瘦下來了。 減肥計劃的另一部份就是不吃小孩吃剩的食物!