How depressing. Here I am, 52 years old, with more than half a lifetime of yo yo dieting and what to show for it? Sod all in the way of muscles, loose skin and a poor attitude towards food (ie I’m either eating too much, too little or thinking about food all the time).
Currently, I’m about 8kg above what I should be. I’m not thrilled about that but it’s way better than being 40+ kg above my ideal weight. Still, the feast-or-famine approach isn’t good for my health or my mental well being. And those days of eating everything in sight are making the ever present hot flushes even worse.
As much as I’d like to lose the spare 8kg I’m carrying, I’d be prepared to be this weight for the rest of my life if only I could get the eating ‘normal’.
Well, I was not terribly good last week – I never did get around to journaling (writing down my food intake via Weight Watchers points). I find that not journaling allows me to justify overeating – it seems like, since I’m not writing it down, it doesn’t count… I know, excuses, excuses. Anyway, we ordered pizza one day – plain cheese, so if I had been journaling, and shown some restraint, it wouldn’t have been an impossible choice. But I ended up eating 3 slices. Plus they (Papa John’s) sent one of those dessert pizzas they are hawking now (the berry one, in an in-store promotion). My daughter didn’t like it, but I did and I ate the whole damned thing! It’s small, but still!
Good news was I actually did get on the treadmill 4 times. And, because I was fairly good (other than the pizza) I ended up losing a pound. Not a real loss, I’m sure (I was packing some water weight when I weighed myself last week), but encouraging enough that I’m feeling stoked about being a good girl this week. I exercised this morning (my new Pilates tape with an exercise ball and a stretchy cord thingie), and planned out (and wrote down) my food choices for the day. I’m on my way out on errands today and I have a client meeting this afternoon, but I packed a healthy lunch to take with me so I won’t be tempted into a fast food place.
I broke out the Hamilton Beach indoor grill thingee (my late mother bought it, never even took it out of the box!), and dinner tonight was grilled chicken breast and zuchinni.
And it was good!
Any tips on using the indoor grill for lean meat and veggie meals?
I’ve also been trying to get a lot more fruit into me with some blender smoothies (no sugar or sweetened yoghurt added, just the fruit and some water). I can’t stand the word “smoothie”, so I call them “fruitshakes”. Filling, they are: I can only have a small glass at a time.
Eating whole fresh fruit would probably be a better choice, but compared to french fries and a chocolate shake… This is better for me.
I had the best salad for dinner last night: lettuce, grilled chicken, cucumber, a little avocado (less than a quarter of one), a tablespoon or so of crumbled gorgonzola, and Italian dressing. Yummy! and flavorful! And the avocado was on sale!
We’re entering our 3rd week of our rotational duties of doing the shopping and cooking dinner for the week. This alone we consider an accomplishment considering our individual eating habits prior to moving in together in November, or our combined habits when we weren’t taking the time and energy to plan our meals or have healthy food on-hand. We ate out a lot, and we ate badly.
Now we’re both more aware of what we’re eating, what our on-hand snack options are, and when my mind wanders to food, it is wandering to what is contained in our fridge and not to the nearest McDonalds. Our last two “freebie” days, we elected to go out to eat. Both excursions ended up being late lunches/early dinners. Once to a local pub for fish and chips, and then to another pub for chicken wings. While it was fried food, we both found ourselves quickly full, leaving food on our plates, and only nibbling here and there on our fries, most of which we left untouched.
On the excersize front, last weekend we took a walk up our street to a nearby public park where we often take the dogs. The next day we took short easy hike (about an hour) at our default GA State Park that is about 20 minutes from our house. I have been enduring one of those long-lived chest colds, so we took it easy. This past Sunday we took the dogs down to FDR State Park and did 2 and a half hours of more moderate hiking. Not sure how many miles we covered, as the map that cost us $4 really sucked. It was a beautiful day, but a bit on the cold side. Once we got home my coughing came back with a vengence, but calmed down again by the time I woke up yesterday morning.
I think our next challenge will be making more time, individually, for walking/excersising regularly during the work week.
1-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oat bran or wheat bran
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup vanilla or lemon nonfat yogurt
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Combine the flour, bran, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder and stir to mix well. Add the yogurt, egg whites, and vanilla extract and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in the blueberries.
Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray, and fill 3/4 full with the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes, or just until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Remove the muffin tin from the oven, and allow it to sit for 5 minutes before removing the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Note! The batter is really stiff. It’s okay, really. I was worried they’d be dense as doorstops but they’re really not at all. If you prefer a little bit sweeter muffin, try adding a leeettle bit of honey.
Oooh, thanks GingerOfTheNorth (also elenfair for the recipe and scout1222 for figuring the points). I have everything to make them, too, except blueberries. I have blackberries though… I think I’ll make them with those. Muffins for breakfast tomorrow!
Right now I’ve plateued. In the last 8 months I’ve lost 25 pounds, but i’ve been stuck for awhile. I wanted more variety in my diet so I started to add some cheese and unfortunately more beer. Still I’m running 6km almost every day. Right now I’m at 195 pounds. I’d like to be 175.
I weighted 199 lbs in 9th grade, lost 35 pounds in the month before 10th grade started so I could make the basketball team. I made it, and stayed at 165 the whole way through high school. Went off to college. Gained almost every pound back, back up to 195. Came back to California, lost 10 for the military, joined up, lost another ten in boot camp, left that, came back to California and put a lot of it back, back up to 188. Now I’m at 185 and my goal weight is 165. I’m working out and trying to cut out chocolate and snacks. I just caved in and had a big fat Double-Double meal though.
It’s pretty tough, especially since I quit smoking to start the new year. I’ll keep everyone posted on my progress, though. OK, so this stat thing people are talking about, is it something like:
I have to admit that I like to have fun with my bathroom scale. In some ways it reminds me not to get too caught up in the number. The scale is probably the least accurate measurement of fat loss.
So, in the morning I get up, pee, take my jammies off and weigh. Then I get dressed and go for my morning walk. On the walk we stop for coffee. When I get home I finish my coffee and read e-mails and stuff then I get ready for work. As I take off my clothes right before hitting the shower I weigh myself again. This number is always lower than the first number (which was about 1 hour before). Usually by a half pound or a pound. It is this, lower number then that I decide is my weight for the day.
Last night I ate kind of a lot of dinner which I’ve been trying not to do. I went to bed still feeling a bit full. I decided to weigh myself. I was up 3 pounds from that morning. This morning I’m back down to the same as yesterday so I lost three pounds just sleeping (and digesting). Weird, huh?
The good news is that I’m hovering around the 179 mark which means that I’m back in the 70s which is fine with me. I’d still love for my clothes to fit a little better but I’m afraid that’s about 10 lbs from where I am now.
In other news: I’m getting to like the walks but this is Florida and mostly it’s nice weather. Tonight the low is supposed to be 37f :eek that’s mighty cold for this part of the country so we’ll see if I can layer it up and brave the cold weather in the morning.
I walk at about 6:30 so I expect it to still be quite cold as the sun won’t be up yet. Any of you northerners have any suggestions on dressing for a 45 minute walk in 35-40 degree weather?
Ohioan checking in here. Since mornings tend to be damp as well as cool, I would wear long pants, and layers on your torso. A t-shirt, then a long sleeve shirt, then maybe a sweatshirt then jacket. Also, wear a hat and some gloves if you have them. You should be sufficiently warm and then as your body heats up you can remove layers as needed. If you want to get fancy and you have some money to burn I would recommend a body armor type shirt. They are sold at sporting goods, hunting, and some military surplus stores They keep you warm and at the same time they wick moisture away from your body. These are also to wear alone when it’s hot.
Wear a hat. It’s astonishing how much of a difference it makes. Other than that, wear layers – as you warm up, you can unzip your jacket a little or make other adjustments to keep from getting uncomfortable.
BDU (camouflage) shirts, which were mentioned earlier, are not that comfortable when it’s hot and muggy. Trust me. I paraded around in them for three months in the San Antonio summer. With the Florida humidity, you’re not going to want those things on you when it gets hot. You won’t be burning alive, but why not just wear a T-shirt or a light casual shirt when it’s warm like you probably normally do?
Ugh, I’m still at 185. Granted, I haven’t been exercising much but I’ve been puttering alot around the house, cleaning, organizing and what not. I’m trying to walk my errands instead of drive them. I stopped drinking beer so that should knock out about 700 calories per day. I don’t understand why I haven’t lost anything from that alone. It’s been 7 weeks!
Another baffling thing, I do not eat junk food; no cookies, chips, soda pop, candy. None of it. I never had a sweet tooth and greasy junk food makes me sick so I don’t eat it. Why, then, am I 40 pounds overweight? Every person I know with a horrendous sweet tooth is able to maintain a reasonable weight. Maybe I should say “hypoglycemia be damned” and start eating candy all day. :mad:
Ok, not really. But I don’t get it.
I’m starting to wonder if it’s harder to lose weight because of my Effexor. I had a weight gain issue with Zoloft, none with Paxil, but Paxil didn’t do much for my anxiety. Anyone have this problem with Effexor before? I may have a chat with the doc about that when I see him next month.
Tomorrow morning, since I’m working from my home tomorrow, I’m going to go on a 60-90 minute walk before I tackle my paperwork. Something has go to give.
Thanks for the weather advice. It worked out fine. My ears were a little cold (I don’t own a hat) but everything else was toasty and warm. Sweat pants, sports bra, wife-beater, turtle neck and hooded sweatshirt and gloves. My hands actually got really warm and I took the gloves off. I didn’t tie my hair back like usual thinking it would help insulate my ears. I guess I could have put the hood up on my sweatshirt but when I do my husband laughs so hard that he can no longer walk so I had to leave it down.
I’m really having fun with my scale experiments. My morning low is stuck at 179.5 this week but that’s OK. I’ve been eating a little too much at dinner time and drinking a bit more wine than I should so I figure if I wasn’t walking the number would be going up.
I am going to endeavor to not eat too much but it is proving to be difficult.
