First let me say that several people have complained they were unable to leave their comments on this blog. That’s okay. Folks have been reaching me through Facebook and by e-mail, and I want your comments, experiences, and feedback. I’m ecstatic that we have become a community of weight-conscious people supporting each other. Together, we will rock!
Let’s all weigh in on Mondays. Let me know how you’re doing, up, down, or the same. You don’t have to give your actual weight, even though I do, to spur myself on. By putting that original ugly number (245 pounds) out in front of the public, I finally had to face the ugly truth myself. Facing the truth and going public with it has motivated me to stay on track. I also feel extra pride as the weight disappears. You can choose to reveal your weight or not. Either way, I'll support you and your goal.
Okay, so today is Monday, weigh-in day, and I stepped timidly on the scale. Yesterday I had gone to my favorite restaurant and eaten my favorite dish there, eggplant parmesan. I can only guess at the caloric enormity of that dish. Three large eggplant slices arrive breaded, fried, and covered in cheese and sauce, and if that’s not bad enough, the plate includes a “side dish” of pasta that’s enough by itself to make another entire meal. In addition, it includes a choice of a Caesar salad or house salad. I can’t make a good Caesar salad at home, so I always go for the Caesar.
Restaurants want to make customers happy, and they know that large portions please customers and high-fat foods please the palate. My sister and her hubby and I ordered the same dish, but as a couple, the two of them wisely split and shared one order. I didn’t have a partner, so I chomped down my entire Caesar salad, but skipped the croutons (every corner cut is a calorie unconsumed!). I then ate one of the eggplant slices and about three or four small forkfuls of spaghetti. I pushed the plate away and asked for a takeaway box. I now have two more meals in my fridge, once I add salads. As a result I pleased my palate, my stomach, my wallet, and my mind. I consumed plenty of food and felt thoroughly satisfied, plus I felt proud to have resisted the urge to eat more, simply because it tasted good.
Still, that breading, frying, and pasta weighed heavily on my mind this morning, and I felt a little trepidation when I stepped on the scale. Voila! My weight is down three pounds from last week. It proves that conscious eating—not dieting, but eating consciously—and a little exercise combine to give me the results I want.
Why do I harp on the “Don’t Call It a Diet” theme? Because diets dictate what you can and can’t eat, and for me, if I’m told I can’t eat something, I’ll soon crave it. If I cave and eat what I craved, I lose confidence and stop following the diet. In addition, if I am told I have to eat something, after a while, I don’t want to eat it. I know, because I’m a veteran of diets.
I tried the Scarsdale Diet years ago. It required that I eat some sort of bread that I had never tasted, and I was not pleased with it. Still, the diet plan called for a slice of that bread toasted and eaten every morning, and within the course of eating a loaf of that junk, I was done. No more Scarsdale for me, and very little weight lost. Another diet called for cooking and eating large quantities of cabbage, onion, and tomato soup. I actually liked the taste of it at first, but it gave me tremendous amounts of gas, which set me up for quite a few embarrassing moments at work. Having to eat that concoction every day, though, I soon lost my taste for it and quit. A few times I’ve told myself I won’t eat popcorn or desserts, and depriving myself of those things would be my diet plan. Oh, heavens, the next thing I knew, I was wolfing down ice cream, followed by large bowls of popcorn.
My food plan, though, is not a diet. The only restriction, if you can call it that, is to be fully conscious of what I eat. I know I don’t need the full amount of food I used to eat. The quantities I used to eat resulted in an overweight body. I now want a more height-weight-proportionate body, which means I have to reduce the volume of food I eat. To do so, I must be conscious of every mouthful of food I consume. It’s the easiest thing in the world! I don’t have to buy special foods, order special prepared foods, pay a consultant, attend meetings, buy and read any more diet books, or undergo surgery. All I have to do is put less food into my body than my body needs for that day. One day at a time. One meal at a time.
Exercise builds my strength and uses up some of that food I like to eat. In addition to my dog strolls, my preferred exercise is swimming and water aerobics, a series of calisthenics performed in the water. Water resistance adds to the workout, plus the water adds buoyancy that reduces the impact on my body. It’s all good.
One water aerobics exercise, though, has been my nemesis for years. In it I’m supposed to make a fist, bend my elbows, lift my left knee, touch it to my right elbow, and then alternate, again and again. It’s a good body crunch, provided a person can actually get her knees high enough to touch her elbows. My fat legs have long limited my flexibility, plus my fat stomach gets in the way. I haven’t touched elbow to knee in years. I always made the attempt, but all that happened was that I got winded and frustrated. Guess what, friends. Today my knees and elbows touched. I did it! It was a huge milestone for me. Oh, this losing-weight thing is so much fun, I wonder why I resisted it so long.
Now for today’s weigh-in information.
Starting weight: 245
Goal weight for this week: 223
Actual weight this week: 220
Goal weight for next week: 219
Total weight lost: 25
Overall goal weight: 150
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tip: The first bite of dessert is always the best. Make it your last bite, as well.
After I cut out sweets for a while, I no longer crave sweets. I have my favorite things still in the house, bite-size candy bars and Little Debbie peanut butter bars, but everything is growing stale while I am of the mindset that I want to get healthy and stay healthy. I strongly believe we should not forbid ourselves anything, lest we then crave it, but conscious eating means that if I ate a bite-size candy bar, I’d have to eat considerably less lunch or dinner than I’d like, and I’d rather eat foods that add to my health, than those that merely add to my pleasure and, unfortunately, my waistline.
One friend of mine, though, says she can’t give up sweets entirely. She simply can’t. Well, I haven’t given up sweets, either; I simply choose to make fruit my sweets, now. What I told her, though, is my philosophy (and I swear it’s true; challenge me!) that the first bite of any dessert is always the best, so there’s no need to eat more than one bite to fulfill a serious craving. She decided to buy the slice of chocolate cake that she loves, take it home, dice it up into bite-size pieces, freeze them individually, and eat one maybe every few days or so, if she gets a craving for a sweet snack. Her idea is an excellent one for folks who find giving up dessert impossible.
Instead of eating high-calorie desserts, though, I weaned myself to fruit when I want a treat. I eat a few slices of fresh pineapple or a pear, peach, plum, or pluot as a snack around 3:00, if I feel a little hungry. I needed to break myself of the habit of eating dessert at all. I used to eat a full meal (usually more than I needed to eat) and then dessert, and sometimes several desserts. After that I might still have a bowl of popcorn, but all that is history. I want health more than I want to stuff my mouth, now.
Every time I get on the scale, look in the mirror, or put on a blouse I haven’t worn in a while and see the improvement in my weight or the fit of my clothes, I’m reassured and reminded that I am doing the right thing for my health. Statistically, overweight people die at younger ages than people who are height-weight proportionate, and I’m of the age that I’ve already lost many friends, some of whom were younger than me. I don’t want diabetes, a heart attack, or painful joints if I can do something to avoid all that.
As I write this, I’ve been on a food plan for only five weeks, and it has become second nature to me already. No longer do I fret over what to eat. I no longer have great hunger between meals, only hunger at appropriate meal times.
What inspired me to start a food plan was a visit to the doctor. I’d been hobbling on painful knees for a couple of years, feeling like an old lady, and finally the pain in my back and knees reached a peak that sent me for help. The nursing assistant casually mentioned weight as being a factor for most orthopedic surgery, and when my doctor also suggested weight loss and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon, I didn’t feel thrilled. A week later, when I finally got into the orthopedic surgeon’s office, I had lost a couple of pounds, but the orthopedic surgeon wanted to put me on heavy painkillers and antacids to avoid internal bleeding, and he, too, suggested that I lose weight. I hated the thought of being so full of painkillers that I also had to take a strong antacid to avoid bleeding internally. How many times did I have to be hit over the head with the facts, before I finally listened?
Now, only five weeks later, and with no surgery, I no longer have pain in my back, and my knees are much better, more flexible, and with only an occasional tweak of pain that passes quickly. I can again walk up and down stairs comfortably. I can carry my groceries from the car and up the stairs into the kitchen without having to set the bags on each step to rest. I can walk down my steep driveway without fearing that my knee will go out and I’ll fall. I walk the dog farther and more often and enjoy every step of the way. I feel normal again, and I no longer feel like an aging cripple. I feel young, spry, and ready to go out dancing, something I thought was over for me, forever, just six weeks ago.
I thank all my fellow food watchers who report I have inspired them to choose to eat healthier and lose weight, and I thank all of you for supporting me. I’m still shooting for that goal of being 200 pounds or under by New Year’s Eve, and it looks quite feasible. I have eighteen weeks and about 21 pounds to reach my goal. After that, I’ll set another goal, until I finally reach my healthy weight, which for me is 150 pounds. I still won’t be a lightweight by most standards, but 150 pounds would be only ten pounds more than my weight in high school.
Let me know what you’d like to weigh by December 31, and we’ll all move toward our goals together!
One friend of mine, though, says she can’t give up sweets entirely. She simply can’t. Well, I haven’t given up sweets, either; I simply choose to make fruit my sweets, now. What I told her, though, is my philosophy (and I swear it’s true; challenge me!) that the first bite of any dessert is always the best, so there’s no need to eat more than one bite to fulfill a serious craving. She decided to buy the slice of chocolate cake that she loves, take it home, dice it up into bite-size pieces, freeze them individually, and eat one maybe every few days or so, if she gets a craving for a sweet snack. Her idea is an excellent one for folks who find giving up dessert impossible.
Instead of eating high-calorie desserts, though, I weaned myself to fruit when I want a treat. I eat a few slices of fresh pineapple or a pear, peach, plum, or pluot as a snack around 3:00, if I feel a little hungry. I needed to break myself of the habit of eating dessert at all. I used to eat a full meal (usually more than I needed to eat) and then dessert, and sometimes several desserts. After that I might still have a bowl of popcorn, but all that is history. I want health more than I want to stuff my mouth, now.
Every time I get on the scale, look in the mirror, or put on a blouse I haven’t worn in a while and see the improvement in my weight or the fit of my clothes, I’m reassured and reminded that I am doing the right thing for my health. Statistically, overweight people die at younger ages than people who are height-weight proportionate, and I’m of the age that I’ve already lost many friends, some of whom were younger than me. I don’t want diabetes, a heart attack, or painful joints if I can do something to avoid all that.
As I write this, I’ve been on a food plan for only five weeks, and it has become second nature to me already. No longer do I fret over what to eat. I no longer have great hunger between meals, only hunger at appropriate meal times.
What inspired me to start a food plan was a visit to the doctor. I’d been hobbling on painful knees for a couple of years, feeling like an old lady, and finally the pain in my back and knees reached a peak that sent me for help. The nursing assistant casually mentioned weight as being a factor for most orthopedic surgery, and when my doctor also suggested weight loss and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon, I didn’t feel thrilled. A week later, when I finally got into the orthopedic surgeon’s office, I had lost a couple of pounds, but the orthopedic surgeon wanted to put me on heavy painkillers and antacids to avoid internal bleeding, and he, too, suggested that I lose weight. I hated the thought of being so full of painkillers that I also had to take a strong antacid to avoid bleeding internally. How many times did I have to be hit over the head with the facts, before I finally listened?
Now, only five weeks later, and with no surgery, I no longer have pain in my back, and my knees are much better, more flexible, and with only an occasional tweak of pain that passes quickly. I can again walk up and down stairs comfortably. I can carry my groceries from the car and up the stairs into the kitchen without having to set the bags on each step to rest. I can walk down my steep driveway without fearing that my knee will go out and I’ll fall. I walk the dog farther and more often and enjoy every step of the way. I feel normal again, and I no longer feel like an aging cripple. I feel young, spry, and ready to go out dancing, something I thought was over for me, forever, just six weeks ago.
I thank all my fellow food watchers who report I have inspired them to choose to eat healthier and lose weight, and I thank all of you for supporting me. I’m still shooting for that goal of being 200 pounds or under by New Year’s Eve, and it looks quite feasible. I have eighteen weeks and about 21 pounds to reach my goal. After that, I’ll set another goal, until I finally reach my healthy weight, which for me is 150 pounds. I still won’t be a lightweight by most standards, but 150 pounds would be only ten pounds more than my weight in high school.
Let me know what you’d like to weigh by December 31, and we’ll all move toward our goals together!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tip: A Salad a Day Keeps the Weight Away
Glory be, I love this food plan! I weigh myself once a week (or more; let’s face it, even I cheat!), and yesterday was my weigh-in day, and I lost two more pounds. I’m like an alcoholic who’s finally gotten sober and becomes addicted to sobriety, talking about it all the time. Seems all my friends and family members want to join me in my food plan, and they’re losing weight, too. As a result, healthy eating and losing weight top the list of our conversation topics.
I don’t mind. It’s a good thing to see folks around me climbing on my bandwagon toward success. It helps me, and I help them.
I keep saying I’m not on a diet; I’m on a food plan, and I can eat whatever I want, as long as I keep portion size in mind. Last week at the supermarket I saw samples of cake. I took one of the small slices, unwrapped it, and took a nibble. M-m-m good, one of those moist pudding cakes. I moved my cart to my now-favorite section of the supermarket, the produce section, and I took a second nibble of the cake.
Isn’t it funny that the first bite of dessert is always the best? I swear, it’s downhill from there. The second bite was good, yes, but the first one was better. I saw a trash bin near the corn and tossed the remainder of the cake in the trash. It’s fun being completely conscious of what I consume. I fulfilled my sweet tooth without mindlessly inhaling the entire slice of cake.
Let’s get back to the produce section. One of my biggest food-plan tips would be to make at least one meal a day a salad. I never get bored with my salads, because I get all sorts of add-ins. Oh, sure, I use the usual lettuce (I prefer Romaine), spinach, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and other items from the produce department, but I love to add things that surprise my taste buds, too, such as fresh basil, tasty croutons (in moderation), chopped pecans (in moderation, and chop them yourself; they’re much tastier than the pre-chopped, expensive ones), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, beets (either plain or pickled), olives (in moderation), granola, dried cranberries, raisins, dried blueberries, corn kernels (in moderation), cilantro, and you name it. Don’t forget the protein, though. Yes, add enough protein to make the salad stick around, so you’re not hungry in a couple of hours. Here’s my favorite protein to add: an egg; chopped leftover pork, beef, fish, or chicken; a chopped slice of chicken bologna, chopped turkey bratwurst…you get the picture. Simply remember the portion size. Limit the protein to the size of your palm of your hand, and you’ll be within portion limits. The leafy greens, however, do not have to be measured or weighed or anything. They’re good for you, and the more greens you have in your bowl, the fewer fatty things you’ll put in it.
Do be aware that some of the items I listed as add-ins are high in fat—avocado, seeds and nuts, olives, croutons, and the like, so include them in moderation, just enough to taste.
When it comes to the salad dressing, forget all those “diet” or low-fat dressings! You’re usually paying for added water, that’s all. All you have to do is know how much dressing to use. Use no more than two tablespoons, and I assure you, when you toss your salad, two tablespoons of dressing will coat every leaf and other item in the bowl. Trust me. If you want more dressing, you can add in a little plain yogurt to your creamy dressings or a little more vinegar to your vinaigrette dressings to expand them almost harmlessly.
So today’s tip: A salad a day keeps the weight away.
Knowing that you will have a salad for lunch or dinner makes meal planning simple and cuts down on your shopping decisions, both in a supermarket and in a restaurant. I like things simple, don’t you?
Before I give this week’s statistics, I need to add something that several people have written to warn me about. I have a goal of losing one pound a week, but people tell me that goal is unrealistic; some weeks I won’t lose that much, and as I stay on a food plan, my body will adjust, and the weight won’t come off as quickly as it does at the beginning of a food plan. These folks are completely right, so I should have clarified two things.
My goal of one pound a week is an average loss. In this way I won’t be disappointed when I lose less than a pound, because some weeks I have lost as many as three pounds, and the average is still good. Secondly, I set my goals high, maybe even unreachable, but I’d rather aim high and do well, if not perfectly, than aim low and perform less well.
If you’re reading my blog and thinking of losing weight, please sign up to follow my journey. You’ll get tips along the way, and we’ll all support each other in our goals. The more the merrier.
Now for today’s statistics:
Original weight: 245
Weight last week: 226
Goal weight for this week: 225
Actual weight this week: 224
Goal weight for next week: 223
Total pounds lost: 21
Final goal weight: 150
I don’t mind. It’s a good thing to see folks around me climbing on my bandwagon toward success. It helps me, and I help them.
I keep saying I’m not on a diet; I’m on a food plan, and I can eat whatever I want, as long as I keep portion size in mind. Last week at the supermarket I saw samples of cake. I took one of the small slices, unwrapped it, and took a nibble. M-m-m good, one of those moist pudding cakes. I moved my cart to my now-favorite section of the supermarket, the produce section, and I took a second nibble of the cake.
Isn’t it funny that the first bite of dessert is always the best? I swear, it’s downhill from there. The second bite was good, yes, but the first one was better. I saw a trash bin near the corn and tossed the remainder of the cake in the trash. It’s fun being completely conscious of what I consume. I fulfilled my sweet tooth without mindlessly inhaling the entire slice of cake.
Let’s get back to the produce section. One of my biggest food-plan tips would be to make at least one meal a day a salad. I never get bored with my salads, because I get all sorts of add-ins. Oh, sure, I use the usual lettuce (I prefer Romaine), spinach, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and other items from the produce department, but I love to add things that surprise my taste buds, too, such as fresh basil, tasty croutons (in moderation), chopped pecans (in moderation, and chop them yourself; they’re much tastier than the pre-chopped, expensive ones), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, beets (either plain or pickled), olives (in moderation), granola, dried cranberries, raisins, dried blueberries, corn kernels (in moderation), cilantro, and you name it. Don’t forget the protein, though. Yes, add enough protein to make the salad stick around, so you’re not hungry in a couple of hours. Here’s my favorite protein to add: an egg; chopped leftover pork, beef, fish, or chicken; a chopped slice of chicken bologna, chopped turkey bratwurst…you get the picture. Simply remember the portion size. Limit the protein to the size of your palm of your hand, and you’ll be within portion limits. The leafy greens, however, do not have to be measured or weighed or anything. They’re good for you, and the more greens you have in your bowl, the fewer fatty things you’ll put in it.
Do be aware that some of the items I listed as add-ins are high in fat—avocado, seeds and nuts, olives, croutons, and the like, so include them in moderation, just enough to taste.
When it comes to the salad dressing, forget all those “diet” or low-fat dressings! You’re usually paying for added water, that’s all. All you have to do is know how much dressing to use. Use no more than two tablespoons, and I assure you, when you toss your salad, two tablespoons of dressing will coat every leaf and other item in the bowl. Trust me. If you want more dressing, you can add in a little plain yogurt to your creamy dressings or a little more vinegar to your vinaigrette dressings to expand them almost harmlessly.
So today’s tip: A salad a day keeps the weight away.
Knowing that you will have a salad for lunch or dinner makes meal planning simple and cuts down on your shopping decisions, both in a supermarket and in a restaurant. I like things simple, don’t you?
Before I give this week’s statistics, I need to add something that several people have written to warn me about. I have a goal of losing one pound a week, but people tell me that goal is unrealistic; some weeks I won’t lose that much, and as I stay on a food plan, my body will adjust, and the weight won’t come off as quickly as it does at the beginning of a food plan. These folks are completely right, so I should have clarified two things.
My goal of one pound a week is an average loss. In this way I won’t be disappointed when I lose less than a pound, because some weeks I have lost as many as three pounds, and the average is still good. Secondly, I set my goals high, maybe even unreachable, but I’d rather aim high and do well, if not perfectly, than aim low and perform less well.
If you’re reading my blog and thinking of losing weight, please sign up to follow my journey. You’ll get tips along the way, and we’ll all support each other in our goals. The more the merrier.
Now for today’s statistics:
Original weight: 245
Weight last week: 226
Goal weight for this week: 225
Actual weight this week: 224
Goal weight for next week: 223
Total pounds lost: 21
Final goal weight: 150
Monday, August 16, 2010
The "I Hate to Work Out" Workout
I feel better every single day. I worked out three times last week in addition to going bowling twice last week. Today I worked out, and I may go again tomorrow.
I don’t like to work out; I really don’t. I hate sweating, and I get bored with repetition, but I like working out in a swimming pool. There I don’t know if I sweat, and I intersperse water aerobics exercises with swimming. I took water aerobics classes for years, so I know all the moves. I do the ones I want to do, the number of repetitions I want, and then I swim two or more laps, stop, and do more exercises. Before I know it, an hour has passed, and I can reward myself by slipping into the bubbling hot tub for ten minutes.
Something’s working, and I’m sure it’s the combination of working out and eating right, because this week I lost three pounds. I’ve set a goal of a pound a week, so I’m delighted with dropping three pounds in one week. I like goals; they help me focus and give me something to celebrate when I reach them. Golly, if I had only one big goal of reaching my goal weight of 150 pounds, I’d get frustrated, because it will take me a year and a half or more to reach that goal. As a result, I break my huge goal into smaller ones. Not only do I have a weekly goal of losing one pound, I also figured out that I could potentially weigh under 200 pounds by New Year’s Eve. I haven’t weighed under 200 pounds in ten years, so that’s my next big goal: two hundred by December 31.
My body is already cooperating. Yesterday I easily ate lightly. For breakfast, I had watermelon. For lunch I had a Yoplait yogurt, to which I added a handful of fresh, delicious blueberries. For dinner I felt I’d earned a big salad, so I went all out. I made a big salad, complete with spinach, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, eggs, carrots, beets, celery, sunflower seeds, and radishes and even added a cut-up plum and croutons. I measured my salad dressing, two tablespoons, and mixed my salad until the dressing coated everything. I chomped down and was enjoying every mouthful, but I ate slowly, consciously, and when I was only two-thirds of the way through, I realized I’d had enough. My stomach was telling me to quit eating, and I did. I’ve already said how hard it is for me to leave food on my plate, but last night it was as easy as bouncing a ball. I threw the remainder of the salad in my compost pile and smiled at myself. I’m really into this healthy thing, and I love that my body is willing and eager to go along with the plan.
Now for the official Monday weigh-in results:
Original weight: 245
Weight last week: 229
Goal weight for this week: 228
Actual weight this week: 226
Goal weight for next week: 225
Total pounds lost: 19
Final goal weight: 150
I don’t like to work out; I really don’t. I hate sweating, and I get bored with repetition, but I like working out in a swimming pool. There I don’t know if I sweat, and I intersperse water aerobics exercises with swimming. I took water aerobics classes for years, so I know all the moves. I do the ones I want to do, the number of repetitions I want, and then I swim two or more laps, stop, and do more exercises. Before I know it, an hour has passed, and I can reward myself by slipping into the bubbling hot tub for ten minutes.
Something’s working, and I’m sure it’s the combination of working out and eating right, because this week I lost three pounds. I’ve set a goal of a pound a week, so I’m delighted with dropping three pounds in one week. I like goals; they help me focus and give me something to celebrate when I reach them. Golly, if I had only one big goal of reaching my goal weight of 150 pounds, I’d get frustrated, because it will take me a year and a half or more to reach that goal. As a result, I break my huge goal into smaller ones. Not only do I have a weekly goal of losing one pound, I also figured out that I could potentially weigh under 200 pounds by New Year’s Eve. I haven’t weighed under 200 pounds in ten years, so that’s my next big goal: two hundred by December 31.
My body is already cooperating. Yesterday I easily ate lightly. For breakfast, I had watermelon. For lunch I had a Yoplait yogurt, to which I added a handful of fresh, delicious blueberries. For dinner I felt I’d earned a big salad, so I went all out. I made a big salad, complete with spinach, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, eggs, carrots, beets, celery, sunflower seeds, and radishes and even added a cut-up plum and croutons. I measured my salad dressing, two tablespoons, and mixed my salad until the dressing coated everything. I chomped down and was enjoying every mouthful, but I ate slowly, consciously, and when I was only two-thirds of the way through, I realized I’d had enough. My stomach was telling me to quit eating, and I did. I’ve already said how hard it is for me to leave food on my plate, but last night it was as easy as bouncing a ball. I threw the remainder of the salad in my compost pile and smiled at myself. I’m really into this healthy thing, and I love that my body is willing and eager to go along with the plan.
Now for the official Monday weigh-in results:
Original weight: 245
Weight last week: 229
Goal weight for this week: 228
Actual weight this week: 226
Goal weight for next week: 225
Total pounds lost: 19
Final goal weight: 150
Monday, August 9, 2010
Tip: Weigh Yourself Only Once a Week
It’s Monday, so it’s weigh-in day, and the news is okay; not great, but okay. I lost a pound, which meets my goal of losing at least one pound a week, so I’m certainly not complaining, but I know why I lost only a pound. I had the best week, filled with social activities, which means going to restaurants with family members and friends. I ate out not once or twice but at least four times in seven days. Restaurant food tends to be loaded with calories and portions that are larger than they should be, and buffets are even worse. They beg me to overeat, or so it feels. I did well with most of my choices and quantities, but still, I know I ate more than necessary and ate things I wouldn’t have eaten at home.
A girl’s gotta have fun, even when she’s on a food plan, and I did have fun and lost a pound, too, as my weigh-in this morning can attest. I find it tough to weigh myself only once a week. I often sneak peeks midweek or after eating a big meal, but I know I shouldn’t. Do as I say, not as I do! I had an interesting conversation recently with a girlfriend, who disagreed with me about weighing in once a week. “Weight fluctuates from day to day,” she said, “and sometimes you can be two pounds up and the next day it’s gone. What if you’re two pounds up on the day you weigh in for the week? It could be discouraging.”
I agreed that weigh fluctuates; however, my comeback was this: “If you’ve stuck to your food plan and exercised all week, chances are that at the end of the week, you won’t be up two pounds, even for a day.”
Her argument, that weigh fluctuates, is exactly why experts tell us not to weigh every day; a weight gain when you’re on a weigh-loss program can frustrate a person and make him or her go off a food plan. If you give your body a whole week between weigh-ins, though, and you stick to your food and exercise plan, you have a greater chance of seeing a weight loss after seven days.
That’s my tip, then; weigh in only once a week. Mondays are my weigh-in days, so today’s score is listed below. One more pound dropped. More importantly, I feel a difference, an improvement, in my body already. My midriff feels less bloated, my knees hurt less, and I’m able to walk up and down the stairs in my house much easier, faster, and without pain or fear that I’ll fall. As a result, I’ve been walking my dog farther, which adds to my exercise. Things are looking up, even if my weight is down only sixteen ounces this week.
Original weight: 245
Weight last week: 230
Goal weight for this week: 229
Actual weight this week: 229
Goal weight for next week: 228
Total pounds lost: 16
Final goal weight: 150
A girl’s gotta have fun, even when she’s on a food plan, and I did have fun and lost a pound, too, as my weigh-in this morning can attest. I find it tough to weigh myself only once a week. I often sneak peeks midweek or after eating a big meal, but I know I shouldn’t. Do as I say, not as I do! I had an interesting conversation recently with a girlfriend, who disagreed with me about weighing in once a week. “Weight fluctuates from day to day,” she said, “and sometimes you can be two pounds up and the next day it’s gone. What if you’re two pounds up on the day you weigh in for the week? It could be discouraging.”
I agreed that weigh fluctuates; however, my comeback was this: “If you’ve stuck to your food plan and exercised all week, chances are that at the end of the week, you won’t be up two pounds, even for a day.”
Her argument, that weigh fluctuates, is exactly why experts tell us not to weigh every day; a weight gain when you’re on a weigh-loss program can frustrate a person and make him or her go off a food plan. If you give your body a whole week between weigh-ins, though, and you stick to your food and exercise plan, you have a greater chance of seeing a weight loss after seven days.
That’s my tip, then; weigh in only once a week. Mondays are my weigh-in days, so today’s score is listed below. One more pound dropped. More importantly, I feel a difference, an improvement, in my body already. My midriff feels less bloated, my knees hurt less, and I’m able to walk up and down the stairs in my house much easier, faster, and without pain or fear that I’ll fall. As a result, I’ve been walking my dog farther, which adds to my exercise. Things are looking up, even if my weight is down only sixteen ounces this week.
Original weight: 245
Weight last week: 230
Goal weight for this week: 229
Actual weight this week: 229
Goal weight for next week: 228
Total pounds lost: 16
Final goal weight: 150
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Tip: Eat Starches in Moderation
I’m excited. The weight is dropping off, and my neck, knees, and are all feeling better every day. I know I am doing the right thing for my health. The photo at the left was taken in 2006 at Christmastime. Some of that fat chin is already going away.
Yesterday I ate a small container of yogurt for breakfast, a big salad for lunch, and a piece of pork steak, spinach sautéed with fresh basil, and a sautéed yellow squash for dinner. I didn’t have the urge to eat any midday snack, as I often do, and I felt satisfied in my tummy and mind, all day.
My food plan is something I created from information I gleaned in one meeting with a nutritionist and the booklet she gave me from the American Diabetes Association that explains exchange lists. Exchange lists, the booklet explains, are foods listed together because they are alike. Each serving of a food in the list has about he same amount of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and calories as the other foods on that particular list, so the foods can be exchanged with one another. It gives as an example that a slice of bread can be traded for one-half a cup of cooked cereal, because each of the foods equals one starch. The whole concept got too complicated for me, though, so I created my own plan, once I read about starches and that the body quickly turned them into sugar in the body. Too much sugar in the body not only creates havoc for diabetics, but it also doesn’t bode well for people who want to lose weight, because the body stores the extra sugar as fat.
I became aware of the foods that turned too easily into sugar in my body, and I decided to moderate my intake of starchy vegetables, such as beans, corn, peas, plantains, and potatoes. Notice I did not say I would deprive myself of these tasty treats, because if I tell myself I can’t eat something, I start to crave the very item I have denied myself. Instead I learned how to portion out my meals and learned I can eat anything I want, but in moderation. I like to eat, so I learned to choose foods I could eat more of, and still be within the same exchange rate of other foods. For example, a slightly larger portion of sweet potatoes or yams (one-half a cup) equates to a smaller serving of white potatoes (three ounces), so if I feel like eating a potato, I choose sweet potatoes, rather than white potatoes. To make matters even better, a half a cup of sweet potatoes is a large serving, in my opinion, so I can eat even less and be satisfied.
Other starchy foods I limit include breads and crackers, chips, lentils, and even miso soup. Would you believe that sipping only three savory tablespoons of miso soup is equal to consuming half a cup of sweet potatoes? Knowing the difference in portion size, which would I rather eat? The sweet potatoes, of course.
Starches abound in popcorn, noodles, waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, rice, grits, croutons, and most granola, too, but I’ve learned tips such as the fact that I can eat three cups of popcorn, and it equates to eating only six croutons, so you bet I’m going for the popcorn, instead.
Starches provide B vitamins, and many starchy foods also contain fiber and protein, all of which is good for me, so I’m not saying people who want to lose weight should never eat starch. Instead of depriving myself, I keep portion size and moderation in mind, and together they make all the difference. Yesterday I consumed starches only at lunchtime. I ate one small cracker with my salad, plus the salad contained peas. I had also added almonds and sunflower seeds, which contain fats, but nuts in moderation also are good for me.
My food plan is something I created from information I gleaned in one meeting with a nutritionist and the booklet she gave me from the American Diabetes Association that explains exchange lists. Exchange lists, the booklet explains, are foods listed together because they are alike. Each serving of a food in the list has about he same amount of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and calories as the other foods on that particular list, so the foods can be exchanged with one another. It gives as an example that a slice of bread can be traded for one-half a cup of cooked cereal, because each of the foods equals one starch. The whole concept got too complicated for me, though, so I created my own plan, once I read about starches and that the body quickly turned them into sugar in the body. Too much sugar in the body not only creates havoc for diabetics, but it also doesn’t bode well for people who want to lose weight, because the body stores the extra sugar as fat.
I became aware of the foods that turned too easily into sugar in my body, and I decided to moderate my intake of starchy vegetables, such as beans, corn, peas, plantains, and potatoes. Notice I did not say I would deprive myself of these tasty treats, because if I tell myself I can’t eat something, I start to crave the very item I have denied myself. Instead I learned how to portion out my meals and learned I can eat anything I want, but in moderation. I like to eat, so I learned to choose foods I could eat more of, and still be within the same exchange rate of other foods. For example, a slightly larger portion of sweet potatoes or yams (one-half a cup) equates to a smaller serving of white potatoes (three ounces), so if I feel like eating a potato, I choose sweet potatoes, rather than white potatoes. To make matters even better, a half a cup of sweet potatoes is a large serving, in my opinion, so I can eat even less and be satisfied.
Other starchy foods I limit include breads and crackers, chips, lentils, and even miso soup. Would you believe that sipping only three savory tablespoons of miso soup is equal to consuming half a cup of sweet potatoes? Knowing the difference in portion size, which would I rather eat? The sweet potatoes, of course.
Starches abound in popcorn, noodles, waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, rice, grits, croutons, and most granola, too, but I’ve learned tips such as the fact that I can eat three cups of popcorn, and it equates to eating only six croutons, so you bet I’m going for the popcorn, instead.
Starches provide B vitamins, and many starchy foods also contain fiber and protein, all of which is good for me, so I’m not saying people who want to lose weight should never eat starch. Instead of depriving myself, I keep portion size and moderation in mind, and together they make all the difference. Yesterday I consumed starches only at lunchtime. I ate one small cracker with my salad, plus the salad contained peas. I had also added almonds and sunflower seeds, which contain fats, but nuts in moderation also are good for me.
If you’re interested in learning more about exchange lists, contact the American Diabetes Association or the American Dietetic Association or go to http://www.diabetes.org/ or http://www.eatright.org/.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Don't You Dare Call It a Diet!: Tip: Stick to the Fresh Food Section in the Superm...
Oh, no! A hungry day for me! Don't You Dare Call It a Diet!: Tip: Stick to the Fresh Food Section in the Superm...: "Today is a hungry day for me. Who knows why we have days when we are hungrier than other days? Still, those hungry days are difficult when ..."
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