Help With Resolutions

The first full work week of 2009 comes to a close tomorrow. How are your resolutions going?

Fortunately for me, I don’t so much set resolutions as make plans. That way I’m less likely to screw up. Even with that, though, I’ve already blown a few of my plans. I’m pretty sure, for example, that it was not on my 2009 plan to become the human tick over the holidays and eat everything in sight and start the year with a net-gain of five pounds. Yet somehow I managed to do that.

So here’s something else I’m adding to my 2009 plan: Lose weight. I know I’m not the only one going through this because I read a statistic somewhere that Americans gain, on average, 7 pounds in the last month of the year. And I read Oprah’s saga in O, too. If she can bare her weight-gain soul to the world — well then — so can I.

I believe in using the right tool for the job. So I have lined up a few tools I plan to use on this job.

I am already participating in a promotion on the Sensa diet aid. (Though I use the word “participating” pretty loosely.) A PR group I know, sent me a three month supply of the stuff and I’m supposed to use it dutifully, lost weight, and blog about my results. (If you want to try it, go to TrySensa.com and enter the code ROCKETXL to get a 15% discount plus free ground shipping.)

This stuff is strange. It’s a nearly invisible powder you sprinkle on your food before you eat. I can’t see or taste it once it’s on my food. But something about it sends a signal directly to the part of my brain that controls satiety – essentially the “I’m full” valve. This tricks my brain into believing that I am full long before I have finished pigging out on that plate of pasta. I still get plenty to eat. I just get full sooner. It was designed by a brain doctor. I’ll let him explain how it works:

 

 

The stuff does seem to work like he says. I think it even kills some cravings that beckon to me long after dinner (popcorn, chocolate). The problem is, I forget to use it. I sit down to dinner, chat with my husband, and eat. The Sensa stuff hasn’t left my purse in weeks.

So to address that problem, I challenged my husband at Stickk.com. I signed up, set up a goal and committed to report on that goal every week. He did the same thing. If I don’t succeed in hitting my weekly deadline, he gets $10. If he doesn’t make his, I get $10. Obviously, this is more about who wins than it is about the money since we share a bank account.  I could add more people to that challenge but that’s a good start for now. Stickk.com will collect the money from me and give it to him (and vice versa) so there is no way out of this now. I have to forge ahead. (The site will help you set up goals for other things as well. Check it out. It’s a cool concept.)

I’m a little concerned that I will get too busy, though, and just wolf whatever food is handy, blow it, and end up fat and owing Dan $10 a week. If this first week is any indication, 2009 will be a race to the finish. So I have one more idea. I’m going to check out TheScramble.com. This is an online meal planning service that Oprah and Real Simple both like. It helps you stick to your diet even if you don’t have much time to think about it by doing all the meal planning and grocery list-making for you. All the recipes take 30 minutes or less to prepare. I’ll report back on that after I’ve given it a go.