You can see I’m futzing around with the thread title. “Dieting” has that dreaded connotation, but hey, it sounds cute when paired with Dopers.
So I made it through the weekend, and did pretty well with my eating (well, except maybe for a few excess tortilla chips in Old Town with Encinitas and Eonwe, but oh well).
I went to the grocery store yesterday to stock up for the week. I went to a different store than I normally shop at, and they had a BONANZA of cool produce. I bought some yellow and orange tomatoes, which was a first. I also bought some artichokes for tomorrow’s dinner. Yum.
I definitely have the exercise part down pat. I’m just struggling to continue to make healthy and smart choices. I fight the battle of thinking before I eat. I’ll pop something in my mouth and then realize that I probably could have done without it. So I’m attempting to be more mindful of my eating. And also mindful of the consequences of eating something. If I want to drop some pounds, I need to accept that I control what I put into my mouth. And I control whether I eventually get to my goal or not.
Ah, this weight business. It’s a continual struggle.
This week should be pretty uneventful, at least in terms of dining out. I don’t have any big meals coming up that I need to prepare for, which is nice.
So what about you? Pop in and tell us about your weekend, or the challenges in the week ahead. Or whatever you feel like venting about.
Well, when I went to a party on Friday, two people asked me if I had lost weight. That was a pretty cool feeling. However, my jeans are still tight.
I haven’t been good lately. My stress level has skyrocketed, and I’ve been looking to chocolate and food to help. I’ve only been having those little Nestle bars, but I’m sure it’s adding up. And I have yet to get on the exercise bike this week, and the snow outside is stopping my from riding my real bike.
Well, tomorrow is my last exam, so my plan should go into full force then!
I’m currently in week three of the Body For Life program. I was being very mindful of what I ate for a month prior to that, as well – just wasnt going gung ho on the exercising until three weeks ago.
I weighed myself yesterday, and I have dropped 19 pounds since last weigh-in (about 6 weeks ago).
Well, Kids, last week was very, very, bad for me. Drank way too much and ate way too much. And I ate bad things, like cookies and pie. So yesterday in my mind numbed, and gorged state, I feel asleep on the couch and left the irrigation running on my citrus trees all freaking night. It won’t hurt the trees, but the wells around them overflowed into the, soon to be sodded, yard, and the two mini dachshunds took great delight in wallowing in the newly created mud bog, and then running back into the house.
I gained back two pounds, so I am back where I was a couple of weeks ago.
I’m in diet concideration mode. I’d like to, and I think I need to, but I just haven’t committed yet. I wish you all well, and hopefully will be on the bandwagon
Well, I blew it this weekend. A fried called yesterday and invited me on an outing to Twede’s Diner (better known as the Double R from Twin Peaks) which I had driven past but never visited. So I went there. And discovered that in addition to the pie we went for they serve old fashioned malted milk-shakes. Oops.
But I’ve been good today. I’m snacking on carrot sticks at work and I’m gonna’ go for a long walk in the sun when I get home.
I’ve had a rough time the past six weeks. I’d been doing really well from Christmas to mid-March, then the weekend of the 16th, we had a warm, sunny morning and I ran 2.5 miles, then I did a whole bunch of chores around the yard over the next day and a half. Basically wiped myself out, and wasn’t sleeping well either; it was about a week and a half before I was feeling halfway alive again.
So the weekend of the 30th, I helped a friend move, then stayed up late rooting U-Md onto victory. Same thing, one more time; it was another 2 weeks before I was feeling ready to even think about exercise.
With one thing and another, I finally ran again this past weekend, for the first time in six weeks, and a mere 0.8 miles at that. And was stiff and had the chills for the next 2 days. Sheesh.
OTOH, I’ve been keeping up with the push-ups, chin-ups, etc. that I’d been doing. My softball team played its first game of the season last week, and I seem to have a noticeably stronger throwing arm than I did last year. (Hit the ball pretty well, too. :)) And I’ve held steady at minus-5 pounds during the hiatus from running.
Still doing okay. I had a bit of a wobble today when I had a loss of willpower and had a bit of a binge, but I went to the gym and put it right. I get weighed on Wednesday.
I thought I would share with you a recipe that I make often. It’s very low in fat, really easy to make, uses only one pot, is very filling, only 3 UK Points per serving and really, really tasty.
SMOKED HADDOCK CHOWDER
Serves 4 generously
Ingredients
600ml (1 pint) skimmed milk
250g (9oz) smoked haddock fillet (I ask the man at the fish counter to skin and bone it for me)
1 vegetable stock cube dissolved in 450lm (16 fl oz) hot water
1 onion, chopped
175g (6oz) potato, diced
75g (2 3/4oz) frozen peas
75g (2 3/4oz) canned or frozen sweetcorn
2 tablespoons cornfloour, blended with a little water
100g (3 1/2oz) prawns, defrosted if frozen
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)
salt & pepper
Instructions
Put the milk and fish fillet into a large saucepan. Bring up to simmering point, then cook gently for 6 - 8 mintes or until the fish flakes easily. Strain the milk and reserve. Flake the fish (and skin it if you need to), discarding any bones, then set aside.
Put the vegetable stock, onion and potato into the saucepan. Bring up to the boil, then reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes, or until the potato is tender. Be careful not to overcook the potato otherwise it can dissolve a bit into the soup.
Add the strained milk, peas, sweetcorn and blended cornflour. Bring up to the boil, stirring, until thickened.
Add the prawns, the flaked smoked fish and parsley to the saucepan. Cook gently for 2 - 3 minutes until thoroughly heated. Season to taste, then serve.
And that’s it. You can use cod if you prefer, add mussels, whatever. I sometimes grill some streaky bacon and add that. Yum.
Ooh. A recipe. I’m not keen on seafood, so I wouldn’t make this, but…if anyone else has some neat healthy recipes, I’m sure the rest of us would love to hear about them!
I’m always cruising for something new and yummy. Perhaps I could change the above into a chicken chowder. Hmm.
Well, I’ve survived Day 2 of going to the Y before dawn. I tried to have the fitness evaluation done, only to learn that I need to make an appointment. I hope they can get me in tomorrow, otherwise, it’ll be next week. Then they’ll help me set up a routine and teach me to use all those instruments of torture masquerading as exercise equipment. In the meantime, I’ll do bike and treadmill - you can’t go wrong with aerobics, right??
Great job everyone. My normal weigh in day is Thursday, so I don’t know how I’m doing yet this week. Last week, I didn’t loose any, but didn’t gain any either, so that’s good. I’ve probably lost all the “easy” weight now, and from this point, it’ll be a slower decent to slimness. But I’ve gone down a whole size in slacks and shirts, so I’m feeling a lot better about myself. I can feel that noticable difference, and see it in the mirror. I’m still trying to up my running distance, but so far, 3.25 miles seems to be my upper limit. I’m bringing my time down fairly well, I’m able to do one mile in 8 minutes 10 seconds, and 2 miles at 9 mintues 20 seconds each. No place close to the shape I was in as a teenager, but then I was only 146lbs when I joined the Navy at 18. A good place for some tips and inspiration is John Bingham’s web site The Penguine It’s a good place to get inspiration for all of us that are older and starting to run. He’s a former smoker that was overweight, that now runs marathons. I like his approach, and his mental outlook on life and running. I’ll see if I can post some of the recipies that we use for dinner later. Keep up the good work everyone, and good luck.
I’m on week 11 of the Weight Watchers Winning Points plan. I do about 4 to 5 hours of heavy exercise (full sweat) a week. I weighed in Saturday morning and have lost 46+ pounds so far. I have come to love vegetables I normally tolerated.