ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

They are having a “Biggest Loser” style competition at my work right now, and I decided to sign up.  I debated a little on whether to do so, since I don’t really have that much further to go, and I don’t want to screw anybody else out of a chance at winning.  But I also thought it might be a good way to force myself back on the wagon to take off the last few pounds.  So far it doesn’t appear to have been planned out in all kinds of detail, and I still haven’t been assigned a team, so I’m not as worried about that anymore.

We weighed in for the first time last Friday.  We had the option to weigh today instead, but since I felt kind of fat and bloaty I decided that Friday was a much better choice for my first weigh-in.  I waited until I had to pee very badly before going down to weigh in.  I mean, hey, a few ounces is a few ounces!  Usually at Weight Watchers I take my shoes off to weigh, but this time I stepped on the scale without doing that.  Then I thought, what if they make me weigh with them on every time?  So I asked if I ought to take them off.  The nurse told me that I should do it however I plan to weigh in after this.  So I thought it was only fair to take my shoes off.

I took them off and got back on.  It was a digital scale and it didn’t reset when I got back on.  The nurse either didn’t notice or didn’t care, so she wrote down my weight according to the scale.  This tells me two things:  1) They aren’t being all that finicky with this thing and 2) No wonder my $40 electronic scale constantly reads inaccurately, if the expensive one at a doctor’s office doesn’t.  I thought about saying something, but then decided that the unfair advantage my shoes gave me probably won’t compare to the advantage all the heavy people will have in losing more weight and faster.

I was one of the first few in to weigh, and when I came out of the exam room there was a line of people.  I considered it a decisive moral victory when a few of them gave me a look like they thought I didn’t have any business being in this contest.  Ha, ha!  I also spotted a one-armed man in the line and immediately thought, hey, how much does an arm weigh, anyhow? Then I felt bad for thinking that, although I kind of couldn’t help it.  Besides, it wouldn’t be cheating unless amputation occurred after the weigh-in.

This competition lasts 14 weeks, so I think this would be a good opportunity to tackle item #64 on my list, which is to eat vegetarian for one week to see what it is like.  I know I wouldn’t go meatless permanently, particularly since I have no moral or philosophical leanings that tell me it is wrong to eat animals, but I know it wouldn’t hurt my weight loss/maintenance efforts any to eat less meat.  The main trick will be figuring out how to balance this with my boyfriend’s profound love of animal flesh.  I don’t want to go to the trouble of making something at home, only to have him go grab some kind of takeout if it isn’t hearty or filling enough for him.  Since he’s a manual laborer and a man on top of that, he simply has higher caloric needs than a five foot three female who sits at a desk all day.

I tried Googling for phrases like “vegetarian recipes for men” or “vegetarian man recipes” “man friendly vegetarian” and “manly vegetarians”, but these were no help.  All I got were articles that the search engine hit on because they had phrases like “man is not meant to eat meat, which is why everyone should be vegetarian”.  Seriously, I can’t be the only person out there who has run into this issue.  There have got to be other people who are looking for vegetarian main dishes that carnivores would still enjoy.  I figure, if I can find 8 or 10 good vegetarian main dishes that he likes really well, assuming that’s even possible, I could afford to have one or two meatless nights a week.  I am not picky.  I will even give soy “meats” a shot.

This may be a pipe dream, but I’m going to do some research and see where it gets me.  Hey, I’ll try anything once.