SDMB Weight Loss Club, November

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
161

November may be a good month to practice maintenance…December too.

We’re cooking dinner tonight for my step daughters so they can be with their mother tomorrow. Tomorrow we’re dragging all of our leftovers from tonight to my sister’s place on the golf coast where we’ll have Thanksgiving the Sequal.

I’m not worrying too much about what I eat but going to try hard not to gorge myself as that’s not particularly pleasant anyway.

Besides, I’ve already prepared an Orange Pumpkin Trifle which looks beautiful and I hope it’s delicious (I kind of invented the recipe based on something vaguely similar)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

162

No Official Weigh-In information today, as we have no meeting, but I weighed myself on the bathroom scale and the Unofficial Weight for today is 200.2. It will, of course, go up after today and tomorrow, but hopefully not too much.

163

Well, I surpassed my Thanksgiving goal, which was to not gain weight. On Wednesday morning, I weighed in at 191 even. This morning, I’m at 190.4. So I’ve actually lost 6/10 of a pound!

My strategy was easy: focus on protein, and eat everything else I want, but only in small quantities. Of course, the fact that my stomach at this point can hold maybe 8oz of food over the course of an hour, then has to sit and empty for a couple hours before I can eat more, was very helpful! Here’s how it went for me (for those who are utterly bored by blow-by-blow descriptions, feel free to skip this part! :slight_smile: )

Before I left my house, I ate a banana with about 4TBSP of peanut butter
On the way down to Baltimore, we stopped at a Sheetz for coffee drinks; I got a large latte made with whole milk and sugar-free caramel and vanilla syrups; 14g of protein, 16g of sugars. Not too bad.
Once at my sister’s, dinner wasn’t quite ready yet, so I did nosh on a tiny (like almost bite-size) sweet roll off the bread platter. But when the real food was ready, I ate about 4oz of dark meat turkey, 2TBSP of stuffing, 2TBSP of mashed potatoes, plenty of gravy. I’m pretty sure I didn’t finish all the potatoes on that round!
About two hours later, I ate about 3oz of ham and another 2TBSP of stuffing, with gravy on the stuffing.
An hour after that, I enjoyed some of the jello-cranberry salad my other sister always makes. We don’t know the proper name for it, so in our family, the adults refer to it as “jello shit”. :wink: It’s cherry jello with whole cranberries, diced apples, diced celery, chopped walnuts. Topped with a combo of cream cheese, marshmallow cream and cool whip. I ate about 1/3C of that.
About an hour after that, it was time for pie!! I had a sliver of the deep dish pumpkin, and another sliver of the caramel apple.

By the time we made it home, my body was screaming for more protein, so I fried myself two eggs, and ate them with a slice of buttered whole wheat toast.

One of the nice things about going to someone else’s house is that I don’t have to resist the temptations of the leftovers! Because no one can convince me that cold bread stuffing, right out of the fridge, is not proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy! :cool:

Hope y’all had a great Thanksgiving, with no weight gain, or if you did gain a little, I hope it was worth it!

164

We weighed in yesterday morning. I gained four pounds. Between bar night, feast preparations and the feast itself, I really overdid it. But then again I do think about what I would have really gained if I had truly let myself go, like I used to. The four pounds will come back off eventually.

Time to get back on track and get back on the track here…

165

I never seem to manage to stuff myself on Thanksgiving. As of today, I actually weigh 2 pounds less than I did on Wednesday, without exercise. Go figure.
:smiley:

166

We had enough pie. It was a close thing, with one sister deciding not to bring pie, since other siblings had said they were bringing “enough” pie. She said if she made pie, we would have “too much pie.” I am not sure what language those words a from. Anyway, one sister and two cousins didn’t show, and that left enough pie for the rest. I helped make pies.

Of course, there was turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry and apple/blueberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn pudding, fresh bread, butter, and there may have been a salad, but I didn’t check. Pies included apple (one double crust, one crispy top) two cherry, one chocolate, one chocolate chip pecan, one pumpkin. There was whipped topping for the pies. I didn’t have any whipped topping.

One sister stayed in California, and one niece, with associated grand niece stayed in New Orleans. California sister’s ex came with associated nephews. A bunch of us rented a van from the place near the most sisters, and we made the three hour drive in that, into the mountains of West Virginia. Pretty. We came back, and then I drove home from there, got back at about midnight. Had a bowl of Kimchee/fish soup a bit later.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. The SDMB is one of the things for which I am grateful.

Tris
167

Hey, Tris, this isn’t like a closed club or anything, but did you by chance mean to post your message to a different thread? :wink:

168

Yeah, I posted wrong! Sorry. And really ironic on the choice of thread to post wrong too. Sheesh.

Tris
169

Wrong and ironic, but not that irrelevant. :wink:

I’ve been approaching Thanksgiving in a healthy way. And then there’s pie.

I’ve got a buttload of leftovers. I try to eat them in healthy portions. And then I have pie.

Turkey is a lean source of protein. Then I smother it in gravy. And then I have pie.

Hey, at least the pie has fruit in it.

And I’ve been exercising my ass off to compensate.

Thursday was kind of funny. I have this neat little device with which I can measure the temperature of something in my oven remotely from my living room. The temp of the turkey didn’t budge for hours. It was pretty much 37 degrees for the whole time. Then it started creeping up, little by little, then faster and faster. I figured I had a good hour to get in some strength training.

As I was working out, I’d occasionally glance over at the monitor. The temp was getting right up there. Should I stop working out and prevent the turkey from burning? Should I keep on working out and ruin my dinner?

As it turned out, the beeper went off about a minute after I finished working out.

Happily, the result was succulent and juicy breast meat. Take that any way you’d like. :slight_smile:

170

I’ve dropped to 167, which is my lowest weight ever. I will cross my fingers that it’s not a fluke dip, since that’s how I usually go. Dip down and get excited, and then pop back up for a week or two. It’s pretty old and I’m pretty frustrated, but there’s nothing further I can do, short of surgery.

Which will be a very real issue for me. My belly looks pretty awful, and I have the saddle bags as well.

171

You and I have very similar issues in this regard, apparently. I, too, will dip to something almost ridiculously low (for me, I mean), then bounce up a couple of pounds. However, I will say that every time I’ve dipped to a weight that seemed impossibly low to me, I’ve always eventually really and truly gotten down to that weight. Eventually is the key word there.

Ditto on the surgery issues. By the time they’re done with me, I’ll be head-to-toe replacement parts!

172

Rambling post ahead, mostly to stay in the thread and be accountable:

I have finally lost 3.5 pounds with Weight Watchers. 12.5 to go.

Thanksgiving wasn’t a big temptation for me this year. We went to my mother’s house and I was the one cooking the vegetable side dishes, so I managed to make things that didn’t include half a stick of butter per serving :rolleyes: . (Roasted veggies are the bomb in my book—sweet and delicious). I had also gone to a special 75-minute Spin class on Thanksgiving morning.

Then again, there was no pie, so that made it easier.

Right on. Even my mom, who is not a great cook (and who doesn’t make pies for Thanksgiving) managed to send us home with some very tempting stuffing.

Anyhow, my wedding anniversary was also last night and we got a babysitter for the first time since August, so we went to a fancy restaurant. THAT was more of a temptation than the holiday. I gave up calculating Weight Watchers points within 20 seconds of looking at the menu, and I don’t regret it. I also fit into a dress that had previously been a Very Bad Choice, so I figured I deserved it.

173

lorene, congratulations on everything!

174

I know how you feel Ginger about the coming down and bouncing back up. That’s why I started averaging. It gives me a better idea of the trend and doesn’t freak me out as much.

Speaking of averages, my average weight is up to 170.4 today but I’m determined to make 10 lbs by New year’s Eve. That means 160.4 by Dec. 31.

I’d so like to lose rather than gain over the holidays.

175

This has really set my mood for the day. Who in the world works out while cooking Thanksgiving dinner…tdn that’s who! It’s inspirational it is.

176

Well my Turkey day wasn’t so bad. I did indulge some, but not as bad as I could. My birthday is this Saturday so Mom made her usual birthday cookies (I don’t like cake) and sent home two big bags with me. Usually they would be gone by now. But I still have most of the second bag left.

Better than that though, I often give up this time of year and even stop working out. However, I have continued to work on both cardio and strength.

177

Khadaji, these are important steps you’re taking! Congratulations!

For my part, this morning I’m down to 189.4!! Down more than a pound and a half since the day before Thanksgiving. Go figure!

178

So, lately I have been having health problems. I have recurring infections, insomnia, difficulty with heat, and a variety of other problems. My primary care doc tells me that the meds I take (dexamethasone, a corticosteroid) make me more susceptible to infection because it suppresses the immune system. Hmm, I think. My endocrinologist didn’t tell me that when he prescribed them. What else does it do? I know it gives people puffy faces (edema).

Well, it turns out that steriods increase appetite and slow the metabolism, causing serious weight gain, especially in women.

I spoke to my husband’s cousin, a doctor, at Thanksgiving for over an hour, and she was (1) surprised I was on such a high dose, (2) astonished that the doctor didn’t tell me all the side effects (did I mention irritability, depression, bone loss?), and (3) strong in confirming that my weight problems (60 lbs gained in about 8 months, no weight loss despite regular exercise) are completely the med’s fault. If I hadn’t been exercising so regularly the past 2 months, I might be even heavier!

So, I am very angry, and my husband is even angrier (he’s very good at being angry on my behalf ;)). On the one hand, this is good news–I’m going to find a new doc who specializes in my particular weird adrenal disorder and get better treatment. On the other hand, I now have to lose 60 pounds in addition to the 40 I was overweight to start with. My husband’s cousin said it would be a lot easier off the meds, and I already had made exercise a habit so it will be even easier. But this is really upsetting.

The rest of Thanksgiving was wonderful, even though I over-ate spectacularly. I still didn’t miss any days exercising, and walked today in the cold rain and my eating’s back on track. And the doctor hunt began today, and will kick into high gear tomorrow, since Dr. Cousin recommended waiting the extra day after the long weekend for better responses. I can’t wait to at least reduce the dosage, even if I can’t get off the meds altogether.

179

Ceejaytee, it sucks that your doctor didn’t warn you about the side-effects! Yes, I’ve known a number of people on steroids, and they always, without fail, gain weight! Yes, it will get a lot easier if you can get off the steroids!

Best of luck!

180

249, down 4 from last week and 39 from nine weeks ago. [Vizzini]Inconceivable![/Vizzini]

Tonight I had three generous slices of roast pork, lots of Brussels sprouts, a very small scoop of mashed potato plus some swede and carrot, with gravy - all (bar the sprouts) left over from yesterday’s roast pork dinner. Yesterday I shorted myself on the roast pork to make up for picking at the crackling while I was carving (and it was delicious).

So I’ve made my November goal with pounds to spare, and I now want to crack 238 pounds (17 English stone) by the end of the year, which will be a trifling matter of 50 pounds from where I started in the last week in September. Why yes, I am boasting! Also :smack: at not doing this sooner, but I only seem to manage a major diet about every ten years.