Week Sixteen: Repeating Myself

I hate to have to report it, but this past week was fraught with dieting pitfalls, and Yours Truly fell off the wagon big time—two nights of eating out (and I’m not talking about stopping off for a Jared sandwich) plus a birthday party with cake and ice cream. Gah! With temptations like this, it’s no wonder I lost less than a pound. But, despite my shameful lack of willpower, I still managed to not gain—which is a good thing! Maybe I should just consider it more research toward weight maintenance.

I’ve said these words before, but I think they bear repeating. Portion Control!

Now, more than ever, I’m convinced it’s not so much what you eat as how much. For example: On one of the nights we went out I ate salad, BBQ pork ribs, and baked sweet potato. This meal can play out two completely different ways, depending on how you order: Salad—Diet friendly in its own right, except for the dressing. Instead of letting the kitchen pile on a couple hundred extra calories for you, ask for low-fat dressing on the side. Pork Ribs—By smoking the meat, you’re not adding any extra fat or calories. Great start! Now you can take it one step further by ordering dry ribs so you can also cut the calories and sugars found in barbecue sauce. Baked sweet potato—While this isn’t exactly a carb friendly food, if you’ve just gotta have it, try skipping the brown sugar and order the butter on the side so you can control how many calories and fat are added.

In the end, my meal consisted of about 1-1/2 cups of the salad, 3 rib bones, and a quarter of (being honest here) what was a pretty good-sized sweet potato. Much better than the old days, when I would have eaten the whole salad, at least 6 bones of ribs, and probably half (or more) of the sweet potato. I think it helps to know that I won’t need to give up foods I love once I reach my goal weight, just as long as I don’t eat myself stupid.

As for the birthday cake and ice cream, I ate about a one inch square piece of cake with about half a scoop of ice cream. Bad, I know, but the damage could have been much worse had I let it!

Since my weigh in on Wednesday, I’ve been extra-diligent about exercise and not straying into forbidden foods territory. Hopefully, I’ll have some good progress to report next week!



The Dieter’s Psalm

Strict is my diet. I must not want.
It maketh me to lie down at night hungry.
It leadeth me past the confectioners.
It trieth my willpower.
It leadeth me in the paths of alteration
      for my figure's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the aisles
      of the pastry department, I will
      buy no sweetrolls for they are
      fattening.
The cakes and the pies, they tempt me.
Before me is a table set with green beans
      and lettuce.
I filleth my stomach with liquids,
My day's quota runneth over.
      Surely calorie and weight charts will
follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the fear of scales forever.

Week Fifteen: A Visit with Mssrs. Merriam and Webster

intestinal fortitude noun: courage, stamina

focus verb: to concentrate attention or effort

These days it seems I’m having a really hard time drumming up enough of the former to be able to do the latter. I came off the weight loss blocks at a dead run, eating nothing I wasn’t supposed to, exercising at least five times a week, and dropping pounds like a dog sheds hair in the spring.

Now, almost four months later, I find my willpower quotient is hibernating deep in the basement somewhere, while my loathing for my elliptical—once my best good friend—has launched straight through the roof. Am I just being lazy, or have I maybe burned myself out? Perhaps I started out at sprinter speed, when I really should have been pacing myself for a marathon. The big question is: How do I get back on track so I can finish the race?

It’s not that my progress has ground to a complete halt. In the past four weeks I’ve lost about four pounds and a total of 3 ¼ inches from my bust, waist, hips, and thighs. Better than gaining pounds or inches, right? Way better! I knew before I even started this so-called diet that weight loss is more rapid in the beginning weeks and slows down as you lose. I just didn’t think it would be this sucky when it happened, ya know?

Knowing my plight is not a solitary one, I let my fingers walk me back to Google, where I found a short, concise article that nicely summed up exactly what I’m going through right now. Written by Carol Sorgen for WebMD Weight Loss Clinic, it give tips on how to stay psyched for the long term; it talks about motivation and the “dreaded plateau”; it tells you how to get creative so you can avoid burnout. I bookmarked this one, so I can refer back to it whenever I need a little pick-me-up. Click here to read the article.

If this big ol’ funk ball of a cloud that is hanging over my head right now has a silver lining, it would be that my diet doldrums have given me a possible glimpse at what maintenance may be like once I reach my goal. And that is the really important/scary part of any diet, isn’t it—being able to maintain your new lower weight once you’ve shed all the excess. Because keeping the weight off isn’t a short-term plan, it’s a lifestyle alteration. And like an old pair of jeans that don’t fit, it’ll hang in the back of the closet and never see daylight again.



Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Mirror, mirror on the wall
Do you have to tell it all?
Where do you get the glaring right
To make my clothes look just too tight?
I think I'm fine but I can see
you won't cooperate with me;
The way you let the shadows play
You'd think my hair was getting gray
What's that, you say? A double chin?
No, that's the way the light comes in;
If you persist in peering so
You'll confiscate my facial glow,
And then if you're not hanging straight
You'll tell me next I'm gaining weight;
I'm really quite upset with you
For giving this distorted view;
I hate you being smug and wise -
O, look what's happened to my thighs!
I warn you now, O mirrored wall,
Since we're not on speaking terms at all,
If I look like this in my new jeans
You'll find yourself in smithereens!

Author Unknown

Week Fourteen: Checking In

I hated to go three weeks without posting, so I’m posting this short update tonight. But there’s not really much to report, unless you want to count a severe case of the dieting doldrums. I haven’t made much progress the last couple weeks…less than a pound.

The cause of this plateau is undetermined. I’m sure there’s some scientific term for it if I Google hard enough. My goal for the next few days is to poke around online and see what I can find on the subject and what others have done to kick start the weight loss again. If any readers have encountered similar issues, I would love to know what you did to get past it!

Anyhow, I know my plight is not an uncommon one. I also know I need to recalculate my daily caloric requirements, since they no doubt have changed after losing 25 pounds.

So, it looks like I have some serious work cut out for me in the coming weeks. But hopefully I’ll have some good news to report the next time I check in!



That's me on the right...

Week Twelve: Masked Villains and Pesky Reptiles

Well, this is the end of Week 12 and I’m still at it! It’s been a long time since I’ve had this much determination and sticktoitness about something. I lost 2 more pounds last week, for a total of 24.8 pounds since I started. What the hell—let’s just round up and make it an even 25! ; ) Sounds a little more motivational, don’t you think?

I have a confession to make. During the past couple of weeks I have been sneaking little bites of foods I previously considered to be strictly taboo on a weight loss program: a few chips, a couple of crackers, a spoonful of rice or a few noodles with some stir fry…. I haven’t gone hog wild and done anything as drastic as eating a whole candy bar or a fried chicken dinner (although those are both lovely thoughts!). Just a nibble here and there to satisfy my craving for something besides my standard fare of grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. There’s something about the “you can’t have that” mentality that just cranks up the cravings, know what I mean? Especially when you see those types of foods just lounging around in your cupboards, begging you to snatch them up and devour them. So instead flopping down in front of the TV with a bag of chips or a pint of Häagen-Dazs and not coming up for air until it’s all gone, I’ll pick just 2-3 chips from the bag or grab a Weight Watcher’s ice cream bar from the freezer, and leave the rest in the kitchen. Just my totally inexpert opinion, but I believe it’s not so much what you eat, as how much you eat. By itself, one of my Weight Watchers ice cream bars is fairly innocuous at 100 calories. But if I eat the whole box, I’ve wolfed down 1200 calories. I could eat a whole pint of Häagen-Dazs for that. See what I mean?

And while I’m on my portion control soapbox, let me also reiterate the importance of exercise. While you may notice a difference simply by adjusting your eating habits, I’ll bet you see even greater results if you add some regular exercise to the equation. But of course, please make sure you consult with your health care professional before starting any diet or exercise program.

The biggest reason I stress talking to your doctor before making any significant lifestyle changes like me is because you never know what medical conditions may be lurking under the surface, masking themselves as weight and/or age issues. Take me, for instance. Contrary to the advice I’m peddling now, I did not talk to my doctor before beginning my program. Guilty. I just figured the lethargy and weight gain were the result of my increasing age and decreasing activity. As we discussed in last week’s post, it turns out I have a bum thyroid and needed medication.

In addition to my lethargy and weight gain, I also noticed the more I became exerted, the harder it was to breathe. At work, walking from the parking lot to my desk on the second floor left me panting. Ten minutes on the elliptical felt like I was trying to exercise with a boa constrictor wrapped around my chest. Old and fat and out of shape, right? Wrong again. Imagine my surprise when my doctor told me I have asthma. Asthma! That one came from waaaaay out in left field. *shakes head* I now puff on a maintenance inhaler twice a day, plus use a rescue inhaler before I exercise, and it has made all the difference in the world. My lungs actually work again, and that dratted snake has taken off for parts unknown!

So for all of you who laugh and think I’m being a drama queen for freaking out over turning 50, I’m thumbing my nose at you. It appears the closer I get, the more I’m falling apart! I’m only joking, of course. I can see (with help from my two other eyes), I can hear, I can get out of bed in the morning and motor around under my own power…and with the help of a few pills—and a couple of puffers—I’m managing my little ol’ medical conditions just fine.

I’m blessed and I know it. I thank God for it every day, and I pray for His help for those who aren’t.

Taken from Reader’s Digest:

No More Meat!
The teacher in our Bible class asked a woman to read from the Book of Numbers about the Israelites wandering in the desert. "The Lord heard you when you wailed, 'If only we had meat to eat!' " she began. "Now the Lord will give you meat. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, or ten or twenty days, but for a month -- until you loathe it." When the woman finished, she paused, looked up and said, "Hey, isn't that the Atkins diet?"

-- David Martino