For several days now, I have been going to bed an hour earlier. The result -somewhat confusingly- is that I am feeling, not less, but more tired in the mornings, which may be due to a typical sleep cycle lasting two hours, so it may just be that I am right now trying to get up in the middle of one where I was used to getting up at the end of one. The experimental way to verify that would be to go to sleep two hours earlier, something which would make a real impact on the way I spend my evenings.
Still, I did go out for my morning power walk every day, stumbling down the stairs from our flat half asleep still, and then slowly waking up fully while already striding through the lush greenery of the neighboring park.
I take it for a good sign of a habit becoming entrenched that I could walk half of my customary round of the park on autopilot, so to speak, and I can attest to the fact that pumping your body full of oxygene works as well as a cup of coffee to wake you up (not that I didn´t add the latter for good measure).
And I found out that the park has some new tenants. There´s a woodpecker with moss-green wings and a red head, and a pair of little black-and-white birds with bright red beaks whose antics make me smile every morning.
There has been a time in my life when I would not have appreciated something like that. I am glad I can appreciate it now.
Oh, maybe we will attack the long-planned rearranging and painting project in our flat this weekend. If I can get DH to help me...
Perhaps we should do some serious decluttering first, to further reduce the amount of stuff to deal with.
The worst part of the rearranging will be DH´s big bookcase and desk, both family heirlooms, that can´t be taken apart and will be a b**** to move around. Especially since they, of all the things to be moved, are supposed to go into a room on the opposite side of the flat, around a corner in a narrow corridor. If that doesn´t work, we´d have to rearrange the whole living room to fit those things into. You can tell easily I don´t like either item, but DH is totally attached to them, so there´s no chance of getting rid of them anytime soon.
This is going to be interesting...
Julia
2011/07/29
2011/07/28
Lasagna woes
There´s a very popular comic strip kitty with a penchant for lasagna, and then there´s DH who likes to have home-made lasagna, too.
Yesterday, he did ask for it, and I did prepare some. Actually, I have been tweaking the recipe for somewhat less calories by replacing the better part of the ground meat in the bolognese sauce with cut-up vegetables.Still, I found out that there was one big impediment to keeping portions at the correct size, namely, that I do not yet have oven-proof lasagna dishes that hold single portions. I have oven-proof single-size platters that are great for putting toast on or anything else with cheese on top to melt, but they are too low at the sides so the bolognese sauce would just run out and the lasagna leaves would stay hard and dry. Nothing to say of the mess that would make in the oven.
So I took the next size rectangular oven-proof dish, which we used to take for preparing lasagna before I started to curtail our portion sizes. And, of course, I had to fill it up so that the lasagna leaves would be well immersed in sauce.
Guess what- I divided the contents by half, as I had been wont to do, and- we both didn´t finish our plates because we were feeling full much sooner than we used to. The remains, we tossed (not enough for another meal).
While that is a sort of NSV (not stuffing myself beyond capacity with a food I genuinely like because I don´t want to waste anything), the "waste" part of that is still bothering me.
Now, I prefer not to have any unitaskers in my kitchen if I can avoid it. And two portion-sized lasagna dishes would certainly fall under that heading.
Then again, I remember seeing, at the local mall, exactly these, sized just like the lasagna leaves you can buy ready-to-cook. As the bottom surface of the other dish is about three times that size, I know that using the smaller dishes would help me to prepare exactly the amount of lasagna we would really eat and not waste anything.
I think there´s a shopping expedition in my future...
Julia
Yesterday, he did ask for it, and I did prepare some. Actually, I have been tweaking the recipe for somewhat less calories by replacing the better part of the ground meat in the bolognese sauce with cut-up vegetables.Still, I found out that there was one big impediment to keeping portions at the correct size, namely, that I do not yet have oven-proof lasagna dishes that hold single portions. I have oven-proof single-size platters that are great for putting toast on or anything else with cheese on top to melt, but they are too low at the sides so the bolognese sauce would just run out and the lasagna leaves would stay hard and dry. Nothing to say of the mess that would make in the oven.
So I took the next size rectangular oven-proof dish, which we used to take for preparing lasagna before I started to curtail our portion sizes. And, of course, I had to fill it up so that the lasagna leaves would be well immersed in sauce.
Guess what- I divided the contents by half, as I had been wont to do, and- we both didn´t finish our plates because we were feeling full much sooner than we used to. The remains, we tossed (not enough for another meal).
While that is a sort of NSV (not stuffing myself beyond capacity with a food I genuinely like because I don´t want to waste anything), the "waste" part of that is still bothering me.
Now, I prefer not to have any unitaskers in my kitchen if I can avoid it. And two portion-sized lasagna dishes would certainly fall under that heading.
Then again, I remember seeing, at the local mall, exactly these, sized just like the lasagna leaves you can buy ready-to-cook. As the bottom surface of the other dish is about three times that size, I know that using the smaller dishes would help me to prepare exactly the amount of lasagna we would really eat and not waste anything.
I think there´s a shopping expedition in my future...
Julia
2011/07/27
Sleeping it off...
...no, not a hangover. My condensable weight.
I had noticed that my weight was, in spite of my efforts, practically stuck. What I hadn´t really noticed was how little sleep I had been getting during the last weeks.
The culprit? TV programmers who schedule the most interesting programs after the late night show, a comfortable lounge chair, and the fact that I like to sit together with DH, having those wonderful deep conversations that have a tendency to become even deeper with advancing hours at night.
Add to that a full-time occupation that requires me to get up for work rather early, and you get a sleep schedule that rarely even reaches the minimum seven hours.
And I am, actually, a long sleeper. I did an experiment when in the last stages of learning for my exams ( I could make free use of my time then). And I found out that, if I removed external stimuli like an alarm clock, or a schedule I had to meet, I was prone to sleep for about nine to ten hours before waking up naturally.
If I did that now there´d be no way I could meet all of my obligations.
But there´s one thing I can do. Not goof off mindlessly in front of the TV.
I´ll have to change that if I want to take good care of myself.
Perhaps I should set an alarm clock, not for getting up in the morning, but for going to bed at night. And resign myself to not watching those late late shows.
After all, most of the time I´m half asleep anyway by the time that I ought to go to bed.
And most of the programs will be re-aired anyway, too.
It´s the old story about wanting to have it all.
Wanting to know it all or to see it all have a similar effect. Because nobody can, in today´s world, watch all of the programs, or acquire all the knowledge.
The idea of an encyclopedia that contained all the knowledge there was could only have arisen at a time when mankind knew, all in all, very little.
And watching all of the programs became impossible on the day the second TV station went on air, because that´s when people had to decide if they wanted to watch program one or program two.
Deciding is what it is about. I have decided to live a healthier life, and that means I have to decide which things in my life are contributing to that and which ones aren´t.
It is always astounding to find out that there are still new things that I must factor in when trying to recondense myself.
Now I must try not to allow that insight to end up as another part of the pavement on a road to a very warm place...:).
Julia
I had noticed that my weight was, in spite of my efforts, practically stuck. What I hadn´t really noticed was how little sleep I had been getting during the last weeks.
The culprit? TV programmers who schedule the most interesting programs after the late night show, a comfortable lounge chair, and the fact that I like to sit together with DH, having those wonderful deep conversations that have a tendency to become even deeper with advancing hours at night.
Add to that a full-time occupation that requires me to get up for work rather early, and you get a sleep schedule that rarely even reaches the minimum seven hours.
And I am, actually, a long sleeper. I did an experiment when in the last stages of learning for my exams ( I could make free use of my time then). And I found out that, if I removed external stimuli like an alarm clock, or a schedule I had to meet, I was prone to sleep for about nine to ten hours before waking up naturally.
If I did that now there´d be no way I could meet all of my obligations.
But there´s one thing I can do. Not goof off mindlessly in front of the TV.
I´ll have to change that if I want to take good care of myself.
Perhaps I should set an alarm clock, not for getting up in the morning, but for going to bed at night. And resign myself to not watching those late late shows.
After all, most of the time I´m half asleep anyway by the time that I ought to go to bed.
And most of the programs will be re-aired anyway, too.
It´s the old story about wanting to have it all.
Wanting to know it all or to see it all have a similar effect. Because nobody can, in today´s world, watch all of the programs, or acquire all the knowledge.
The idea of an encyclopedia that contained all the knowledge there was could only have arisen at a time when mankind knew, all in all, very little.
And watching all of the programs became impossible on the day the second TV station went on air, because that´s when people had to decide if they wanted to watch program one or program two.
Deciding is what it is about. I have decided to live a healthier life, and that means I have to decide which things in my life are contributing to that and which ones aren´t.
It is always astounding to find out that there are still new things that I must factor in when trying to recondense myself.
Now I must try not to allow that insight to end up as another part of the pavement on a road to a very warm place...:).
Julia
2011/07/26
Hang on...
...and don´t give up. Easier said than done when I look at the way my weight has been practically stuck this year. I´m fluctuating around between 17 and 21 kilos lost, sometimes jumping from one extreme of that spectrum to the other within mere days, and I haven´t found a way yet to break through that barrier, even though I am convinced that I will be starting to lose regularly again if I do.
Of course, this plateau was also where my weight stayed for a while when going up, too. Still, I´d be glad if my body would decide to go on condensing itself instead of dithering in place.
Why that is so frustrating to me? Projections, that´s what. I have that habit of trying to make projections- or should I say predictions- about my future weight loss. As in "if I go on like this I´ll be down another...pounds by....". Or in "I´ll be down to.... in a matter of.....months".
Man thought, Fate laughed.
This is especially painful after things did start out so well last year. I´ve been losing more than I had been hoping for last year, in fact, I had, when starting out, little to no hope that this would finally work after being stuck in that fat suit for years.
But it did work, up to a point.
And that´s the point I´m stuck at. Relatively more comfortable to be, after all, I´m down 19 kilos on average and my pants size has come down to a 22 from a 27 (that´s German sizing, dunno what it would be in the US). But not where I wanted to be now. Not where I projected I could be now.
I only hope that this isn´t where the weight loss stops for good, because there´s still too much condensable matter on me, so to speak.
As I said, hang on.
Julia
Of course, this plateau was also where my weight stayed for a while when going up, too. Still, I´d be glad if my body would decide to go on condensing itself instead of dithering in place.
Why that is so frustrating to me? Projections, that´s what. I have that habit of trying to make projections- or should I say predictions- about my future weight loss. As in "if I go on like this I´ll be down another...pounds by....". Or in "I´ll be down to.... in a matter of.....months".
Man thought, Fate laughed.
This is especially painful after things did start out so well last year. I´ve been losing more than I had been hoping for last year, in fact, I had, when starting out, little to no hope that this would finally work after being stuck in that fat suit for years.
But it did work, up to a point.
And that´s the point I´m stuck at. Relatively more comfortable to be, after all, I´m down 19 kilos on average and my pants size has come down to a 22 from a 27 (that´s German sizing, dunno what it would be in the US). But not where I wanted to be now. Not where I projected I could be now.
I only hope that this isn´t where the weight loss stops for good, because there´s still too much condensable matter on me, so to speak.
As I said, hang on.
Julia
2011/07/25
The curse of the weekend fairy
My PhysicsDiet weight curve last week was a satisfying shade of green, meaning I had been losing steadily. That wasn´t so difficult because DH was gone out of town for the greater part of the week (sometimes DH stands for Diet Hazard ).
And then the weekend (un-)fairy struck again. The one who puts the hex on any weight loss effort during the week by putting a weekend between the other weekdays.
So- up again.
But this time only by 0.4 kilos. And part of it has to be water retention because I had a bowl of salted popcorn in an effort to stop myself from downing the remaining contents of my nut cache all at once.(I know nuts are big diet busters, but less so than cookies, chocolate or vanilla pudding, so I don´t remove them from my diet altogether).
I´ll see how long I take this time to get those 0.4 kgs off again.At least, the general trend has been downwards last week. But it still seems that my body starts to hang on to the remaining extra fat a lot tighter than it did to what I already got rid of last year, and things are that much more difficult. And I have been tempted to binge several times last week. I count it as a relative success that I did only overeat on popcorn(the microwave-popped variety, so, low in fat), and apart that, I was mostly on plan.
On with life and on to the next week. Perhaps I´ll seesaw down like I went up. The only thing I must not expect is instant big results.
So, again, what it amounts to is patience.
Just what I like...
Julia
And then the weekend (un-)fairy struck again. The one who puts the hex on any weight loss effort during the week by putting a weekend between the other weekdays.
So- up again.
But this time only by 0.4 kilos. And part of it has to be water retention because I had a bowl of salted popcorn in an effort to stop myself from downing the remaining contents of my nut cache all at once.(I know nuts are big diet busters, but less so than cookies, chocolate or vanilla pudding, so I don´t remove them from my diet altogether).
I´ll see how long I take this time to get those 0.4 kgs off again.At least, the general trend has been downwards last week. But it still seems that my body starts to hang on to the remaining extra fat a lot tighter than it did to what I already got rid of last year, and things are that much more difficult. And I have been tempted to binge several times last week. I count it as a relative success that I did only overeat on popcorn(the microwave-popped variety, so, low in fat), and apart that, I was mostly on plan.
On with life and on to the next week. Perhaps I´ll seesaw down like I went up. The only thing I must not expect is instant big results.
So, again, what it amounts to is patience.
Just what I like...
Julia
2011/07/21
Slowly creeping downwards
The relatively strict no-carbs approach of the last days seems to start to pay off.
I´m down over a pound from Monday, which is a lot for my messed-up metabolism.
But then again, I have been doing my power walk every morning before breakfast, and I have been avoiding carbs with the exception of that croissant on Tuesday.
It´s good to see that pay off at least a bit.
I hope that I have managed to switch my body back into losing mode.
Per today: 19.4 kgs lost off my top weight, 20.6 to go to goal weight.
So, not yet halfway there.
I have to remind myself that it did take time to gain that much weight, too, and that even steps of just one pound off, if repeated often, will move me to goal.
It´s akin to the compound interest thing where you take some small-seeming amount of money and let it gather interest for a longer period of time.
When you see that calculated for the first time, it´s surprising because for most of us ordinary humans, the mind isn´t very good at estimating the sum total of something that comes in many seemingly small increments.
Let´s just imagine a few scenarios (I´ll use kilos, for the metrically challenged: multiply by 2.2 for an approximate value in pounds).
Losing 0.2 kilos a week for a year? 0.2 kgs times 52 makes 10.4 kilos.
Losing 25 grams of fat a day? (That equals a deficit of just 225 calories)? 9.125 kilos in a year.
Of course, the shoe fits on the other foot, too. You can gain those same nine kilos (or twenty pounds) in a year by overeating by just 225 calories a day on average.
Do that for ten years and you get to morbid obesity stage three, all the while claiming that you "barely ate anything".
It´s pure mathematics, and it´s in my opinion putting an end to the claims of morbid obesity always being the result of grossly overeating. Of course, it´s another thing if someone gains very quickly, say, two hundred pounds in a single year. As fat doesn´t grow from thin air, that makes it quite possible that the person overate big time. Perhaps not even noticing the too-big portions. Been there, done that. I was just lucky to stop at just an 88 pound gain.
But for those who find the extra pounds creeping up in small increments, there may even be some solace in those calculations, namely, that it is but a small deviation from the equilibrium between input and output that must be corrected to stop gaining further, and an additional correction by the same amount will make the pounds melt off as fast (literally) as they had come.
Actually, there´s even some helpful science behind that. The human body being very adaptable to changes in the environment, it is possible to reduce intake by about two hundred calories a day and not at all notice it. Add to that another two hundred used exercising, and you may just be starting to lose weight, without having to castigate yourself unduly. Slowly but certainly.
Even if your metabolism fights back at first, as does mine.
Julia
I´m down over a pound from Monday, which is a lot for my messed-up metabolism.
But then again, I have been doing my power walk every morning before breakfast, and I have been avoiding carbs with the exception of that croissant on Tuesday.
It´s good to see that pay off at least a bit.
I hope that I have managed to switch my body back into losing mode.
Per today: 19.4 kgs lost off my top weight, 20.6 to go to goal weight.
So, not yet halfway there.
I have to remind myself that it did take time to gain that much weight, too, and that even steps of just one pound off, if repeated often, will move me to goal.
It´s akin to the compound interest thing where you take some small-seeming amount of money and let it gather interest for a longer period of time.
When you see that calculated for the first time, it´s surprising because for most of us ordinary humans, the mind isn´t very good at estimating the sum total of something that comes in many seemingly small increments.
Let´s just imagine a few scenarios (I´ll use kilos, for the metrically challenged: multiply by 2.2 for an approximate value in pounds).
Losing 0.2 kilos a week for a year? 0.2 kgs times 52 makes 10.4 kilos.
Losing 25 grams of fat a day? (That equals a deficit of just 225 calories)? 9.125 kilos in a year.
Of course, the shoe fits on the other foot, too. You can gain those same nine kilos (or twenty pounds) in a year by overeating by just 225 calories a day on average.
Do that for ten years and you get to morbid obesity stage three, all the while claiming that you "barely ate anything".
It´s pure mathematics, and it´s in my opinion putting an end to the claims of morbid obesity always being the result of grossly overeating. Of course, it´s another thing if someone gains very quickly, say, two hundred pounds in a single year. As fat doesn´t grow from thin air, that makes it quite possible that the person overate big time. Perhaps not even noticing the too-big portions. Been there, done that. I was just lucky to stop at just an 88 pound gain.
But for those who find the extra pounds creeping up in small increments, there may even be some solace in those calculations, namely, that it is but a small deviation from the equilibrium between input and output that must be corrected to stop gaining further, and an additional correction by the same amount will make the pounds melt off as fast (literally) as they had come.
Actually, there´s even some helpful science behind that. The human body being very adaptable to changes in the environment, it is possible to reduce intake by about two hundred calories a day and not at all notice it. Add to that another two hundred used exercising, and you may just be starting to lose weight, without having to castigate yourself unduly. Slowly but certainly.
Even if your metabolism fights back at first, as does mine.
Julia
2011/07/20
Treading water
Full disclosure: No, I didn´t stick to my good intentions re: carbs yesterday, at least not completely. Late in the evening, I succumbed to the siren song of a croissant that was sitting in our bread box. Just a small one, and I left the second one in the box. Which shows again that permitting everything in moderation is necessary for me to keep a yen for something forbidden from turning into a full-blown binge.
The scales, this morning, said no change.
I had to be at the office very early this morning, but I did take my morning walk before going to work. For a confirmed night-owl like myself, that means something.
And I have the big teacup on my desk as I type this. It helps to stay hydrated.
I found out, actually, that drinking lots of water or tea is beneficial in more than one way.
You see, I used to be one of those people who had half a cup of coffee in the morning and then didn´t drink anything until night. When a medicine student friend at the university noticed that, she talked me into drinking a full liter of water over the course of one evening. The result was that my poor kidneys must´ve thought there was a deluge coming on. I spent the better part of that evening with heavy pain in that area, until I was able to go to the bathroom and remove some of the liquid, so to say. The experience scared me badly enough to realize that I was probably heading for a case of kidney stones unless I were to hydrate more regularly.
So, I started drinking water or tea on a regular schedule. The pain in my kidneys hasn´t returned, but I noticed something else.
Namely, that I had, for some time already, confused the signs of hunger with those of thirst. My body had been trying to tell me it needed liquids quite often, and I - had fed it some dry cookies or something of that kind. So, I had been consuming calories, without necessity, while refusing my body the thing it really needed, namely, hydration.
Drinking water (with or without a teabag in it) was therefore reducing the number of times when I felt I had to eat something, too. And not consuming those extraneous calories helped, too.
Of course, I have to stay vigilant when it comes to my tendency to forget to drink.
But I´m getting better at it.
Julia
The scales, this morning, said no change.
I had to be at the office very early this morning, but I did take my morning walk before going to work. For a confirmed night-owl like myself, that means something.
And I have the big teacup on my desk as I type this. It helps to stay hydrated.
I found out, actually, that drinking lots of water or tea is beneficial in more than one way.
You see, I used to be one of those people who had half a cup of coffee in the morning and then didn´t drink anything until night. When a medicine student friend at the university noticed that, she talked me into drinking a full liter of water over the course of one evening. The result was that my poor kidneys must´ve thought there was a deluge coming on. I spent the better part of that evening with heavy pain in that area, until I was able to go to the bathroom and remove some of the liquid, so to say. The experience scared me badly enough to realize that I was probably heading for a case of kidney stones unless I were to hydrate more regularly.
So, I started drinking water or tea on a regular schedule. The pain in my kidneys hasn´t returned, but I noticed something else.
Namely, that I had, for some time already, confused the signs of hunger with those of thirst. My body had been trying to tell me it needed liquids quite often, and I - had fed it some dry cookies or something of that kind. So, I had been consuming calories, without necessity, while refusing my body the thing it really needed, namely, hydration.
Drinking water (with or without a teabag in it) was therefore reducing the number of times when I felt I had to eat something, too. And not consuming those extraneous calories helped, too.
Of course, I have to stay vigilant when it comes to my tendency to forget to drink.
But I´m getting better at it.
Julia
2011/07/19
Jump start day two
I ´ve stayed away from carbohydrates for two days now, going for protein shakes instead. The only carby thing that I´ve permitted myself was a handful of berries in my protein shake yesterday.
I know that´s not a sustainable way of eating, but I hope it won´t do too much harm over three days, until DH returns. And hopefully it will get my metabolism back in fat-burning mode.
Besides, at least during the day, these powdered protein shakes are rather practical. I shake them up with water (so, no milk to refrigerate that could go bad), and the best part is that the stuff I have at the office makes for a wonderfully chocolate-tasting concoction that tastes more like a milkshake than like a diet food. Which isn´t a small feat if I think back to the first such products that were commercially available. The bitter aftertaste they had was enough to keep me away from that kind of thing for ages.
I have found it easier to just stick to protein shakes than to control portions of other foodstuffs. Maybe I´m just lazy, but this works for me. I do, of course, supplement with a complete multivitamin/mineral to avoid deficiencies, and I do also, intermittently, eat meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and healthy fats (olive oil or linseed oil, anyone?). But not today, nor yesterday, nor tomorrow.
Actually, my stomach has been grumbling all night. But I know from earlier experiences that this stops soon if I don´t slip up. Besides, there´s still hot tea to drink to calm my tummy down at zero calories.
And I was down 0.4 kilos in one day. So, that seems to be by now the absolute limit of what I can do. Meaning I shouldn´t sweat it if I don´t condense myself faster than about half a pound a week, considering the fact that usually on the first day of a new regime there´s a water rush and a disproportionately big loss.
As it is, I´m just two kilos away from a territory I haven´t been in since 2002. Getting rid of this "core" fat won´t be as easy as getting rid of what I had on me for a shorter period of time. But, with patience, it is possible. And with perseverance.
Julia
I know that´s not a sustainable way of eating, but I hope it won´t do too much harm over three days, until DH returns. And hopefully it will get my metabolism back in fat-burning mode.
Besides, at least during the day, these powdered protein shakes are rather practical. I shake them up with water (so, no milk to refrigerate that could go bad), and the best part is that the stuff I have at the office makes for a wonderfully chocolate-tasting concoction that tastes more like a milkshake than like a diet food. Which isn´t a small feat if I think back to the first such products that were commercially available. The bitter aftertaste they had was enough to keep me away from that kind of thing for ages.
I have found it easier to just stick to protein shakes than to control portions of other foodstuffs. Maybe I´m just lazy, but this works for me. I do, of course, supplement with a complete multivitamin/mineral to avoid deficiencies, and I do also, intermittently, eat meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and healthy fats (olive oil or linseed oil, anyone?). But not today, nor yesterday, nor tomorrow.
Actually, my stomach has been grumbling all night. But I know from earlier experiences that this stops soon if I don´t slip up. Besides, there´s still hot tea to drink to calm my tummy down at zero calories.
And I was down 0.4 kilos in one day. So, that seems to be by now the absolute limit of what I can do. Meaning I shouldn´t sweat it if I don´t condense myself faster than about half a pound a week, considering the fact that usually on the first day of a new regime there´s a water rush and a disproportionately big loss.
As it is, I´m just two kilos away from a territory I haven´t been in since 2002. Getting rid of this "core" fat won´t be as easy as getting rid of what I had on me for a shorter period of time. But, with patience, it is possible. And with perseverance.
Julia
Tea party
..not the political one. Just what is going on on my desk right now.
After my smoking relapse the day before yesterday, I want the bad stuff back out of my system asap. So, I´ve been drinking even more tea than usual and taking a megadose of vitamin C because that´s supposed to speed up the excretion of nicotine.
So, I filled up my cup twice already today, and have, of course, been running a bit more than usual ;). The up side of it is that my weight, too, has been shifting downwards again since yesterday, and I am curiuos to see what it will be tomorrow morning.
I think I was lucky in that the cigarillo did taste so definitely awful. Had I smoked one of my old poison -mentholated cigarettes- instead I might have gotten re-hooked. This way, just the smell that had stuck to the mucous membranes in my nose made me gag several times yesterday, which went a long way towards not wanting to repeat the experience.
And the fresh air on this morning´s walk felt even more precious after not being able to smell it yesterday.
Lesson learned.
Julia
After my smoking relapse the day before yesterday, I want the bad stuff back out of my system asap. So, I´ve been drinking even more tea than usual and taking a megadose of vitamin C because that´s supposed to speed up the excretion of nicotine.
So, I filled up my cup twice already today, and have, of course, been running a bit more than usual ;). The up side of it is that my weight, too, has been shifting downwards again since yesterday, and I am curiuos to see what it will be tomorrow morning.
I think I was lucky in that the cigarillo did taste so definitely awful. Had I smoked one of my old poison -mentholated cigarettes- instead I might have gotten re-hooked. This way, just the smell that had stuck to the mucous membranes in my nose made me gag several times yesterday, which went a long way towards not wanting to repeat the experience.
And the fresh air on this morning´s walk felt even more precious after not being able to smell it yesterday.
Lesson learned.
Julia
2011/07/18
I got thru the weekend...
with just a 0.2 kg-gain this time, in spite of having to partake in family meals.
So, I hope I´ll have a chance to get back down this week to where I started to regain. DH is out of town on business and won´t return before Wednesday, so, I can do a jump start today and tomorrow.
That means walking twice a day (in the morning and in the evening, too) and eating only protein shakes (with fruit when I prepare them at home, without at the office) after breakfast (no, I won´t go without my bacon-and-eggs breakfast for any reason). And it means drinking lots of tea and water.
I´ll see how far that takes me...
I also did something very dumb yesterday.
I used to be a heavy smoker until seven years ago, when I finally managed to quit. I had reached a point where I thought I´d never again even want to smoke. After all, I paid for quitting with at least part of my latest weight gain.
DH, who also smoked heavily back then, had also mostly quit, but he kept having the occasional cigarette now and then, which he tried to hide from me successfully until I found a pack of cigarettes in his pockets some weeks ago. Due to some stressful things going on in his life right now, he has started to smoke more often, sometimes in the presence of me. And I, when exposed to his secondhand smoke, had suddenly started to have cravings for a cigarette again. I did resist them until yesterday, when I bought a pack of cigarillos and did, on coming home late, sit down on the balcony and smoke one of them.
Now, all that did was make me feel lousy. I have a headache, the acrid smell of burnt tobacco and the bitter taste of the smoke seem to stick to my nose and gums in spite of repeated toothbrushing and nose-blowing, and I am mad at myself for relapsing after being clean for seven years.
The leftover pack is still in my vest pocket at home. I´ll toss it when I come home, because in spite of the lousy feeling I do not know if I´d be able to abstain again if I knew it was there.
And I must never again sit with DH while he smokes. If I explain to him why, perhaps he, too, will be able to quit again.
I only hope I´ll not have to go through full withdrawal again...for just one cigarillo that didn´t even make me feel what I thought it would. But then again, knowing this might make permanent abstinence easier, even if I catch a whiff of DH´s cigarettes now and then.
After all, I did, after quitting, get rid of a persistent cough that had been plaguing me, and I had re-discovered the joys of sitting through a concert or a movie without having to take at least one cigarette break and, when not smoking, fidgeting on my seat with withdrawal symptoms.
It was just effingly stupid of me to risk all that.
What will help me not to let this become a full-fledged relapse is, apart the fact that cigarettes have become prohibitively expensive since I quit, the rising number of places where you are not allowed to smoke any more. On the street, apart some specially marked places, in bars and restaurants, at my workplace, on trains. The only place where I could still smoke is at home, actually, or in front of our office building where I´d be exposing myself to the I-told-you-sos of my still smoking colleagues.
Still, I am mad at myself. How could I be so stupid.
Kicking myself,
Julia
So, I hope I´ll have a chance to get back down this week to where I started to regain. DH is out of town on business and won´t return before Wednesday, so, I can do a jump start today and tomorrow.
That means walking twice a day (in the morning and in the evening, too) and eating only protein shakes (with fruit when I prepare them at home, without at the office) after breakfast (no, I won´t go without my bacon-and-eggs breakfast for any reason). And it means drinking lots of tea and water.
I´ll see how far that takes me...
I also did something very dumb yesterday.
I used to be a heavy smoker until seven years ago, when I finally managed to quit. I had reached a point where I thought I´d never again even want to smoke. After all, I paid for quitting with at least part of my latest weight gain.
DH, who also smoked heavily back then, had also mostly quit, but he kept having the occasional cigarette now and then, which he tried to hide from me successfully until I found a pack of cigarettes in his pockets some weeks ago. Due to some stressful things going on in his life right now, he has started to smoke more often, sometimes in the presence of me. And I, when exposed to his secondhand smoke, had suddenly started to have cravings for a cigarette again. I did resist them until yesterday, when I bought a pack of cigarillos and did, on coming home late, sit down on the balcony and smoke one of them.
Now, all that did was make me feel lousy. I have a headache, the acrid smell of burnt tobacco and the bitter taste of the smoke seem to stick to my nose and gums in spite of repeated toothbrushing and nose-blowing, and I am mad at myself for relapsing after being clean for seven years.
The leftover pack is still in my vest pocket at home. I´ll toss it when I come home, because in spite of the lousy feeling I do not know if I´d be able to abstain again if I knew it was there.
And I must never again sit with DH while he smokes. If I explain to him why, perhaps he, too, will be able to quit again.
I only hope I´ll not have to go through full withdrawal again...for just one cigarillo that didn´t even make me feel what I thought it would. But then again, knowing this might make permanent abstinence easier, even if I catch a whiff of DH´s cigarettes now and then.
After all, I did, after quitting, get rid of a persistent cough that had been plaguing me, and I had re-discovered the joys of sitting through a concert or a movie without having to take at least one cigarette break and, when not smoking, fidgeting on my seat with withdrawal symptoms.
It was just effingly stupid of me to risk all that.
What will help me not to let this become a full-fledged relapse is, apart the fact that cigarettes have become prohibitively expensive since I quit, the rising number of places where you are not allowed to smoke any more. On the street, apart some specially marked places, in bars and restaurants, at my workplace, on trains. The only place where I could still smoke is at home, actually, or in front of our office building where I´d be exposing myself to the I-told-you-sos of my still smoking colleagues.
Still, I am mad at myself. How could I be so stupid.
Kicking myself,
Julia
2011/07/15
Travelling light
Someone said once that it is a rare traveller whose luggage gets bigger the more often he travels.
It`s something I can relate to, absolutely. Especially since we have been taking care of DMIL, which involves frequent visits and, for me, frequent journeys there and back by train because we have only one car.
By now, the takealong luggage for a weekend visit has, for me, shrunk to a single backpack, plus maybe a rather smallish netbook bag if I need to take a change of shoes, too.
So what´s in the backpack?
Assuming I´ll return the day after the next day and it´s summer, two changes of underwear and stockings, a t-shirt doing double duty as a nightie, two blouses or two shirts, my running pants, a running top, my running shoes unless I just wear them, my netbook, my camera, my toiletries (toothbrush, small packages of toothpaste, shower gel, deodorant and shampoo, plus any , er, female necessities), my mp3-player, my mobile HD plus the cables for the electronics.
Everything else I carry on my body, after all, I do not start my journey unclothed. I take one pair of shoes (flats or sneakers), one pair of pants, and a coat, plus my beloved leather vest that holds things like phone, keys, wallet and tickets in its roomy interior pockets.
The interesting part is how liberating this is. I used to be one of those snail travellers - you know, who´d travel with their complete household on their backs if they could but take it along. I usually carried, there and back, as the Hobbit would put it, several complete outfits, with pants, shoes, and jackets, plus half the contents of my cosmetics box, and at least several fat pocket books to read on the way. Most of it, I´d carry back two days later unused. And I´d pay for it by being hampered when having to change trains, ending up, more often than not, with a hurting back.
Nowadays, I throw my minimal equipment into my backpack, get dressed in my "travel" wardrobe, and off I am, without having to look for things like elevators to the trains (the more packed you are, the more likely they are out of order) or luggage carts.
The interesting part is that I have never, ever, missed a single thing I did not take along, meaning that I did get along with the few things I did take along.
It actually does make me think.
How many things do I own, and take along in my life, that do not add any value to my life, but extract a price in space, time, money or energy?
I am not ready yet to downsize to some extremely low number of things, like a hundred or so, but this should really be encouraging me to, at least, get rid of some of that extra stuff.
Maybe I´ll be feeling lighter then.
Julia
It`s something I can relate to, absolutely. Especially since we have been taking care of DMIL, which involves frequent visits and, for me, frequent journeys there and back by train because we have only one car.
By now, the takealong luggage for a weekend visit has, for me, shrunk to a single backpack, plus maybe a rather smallish netbook bag if I need to take a change of shoes, too.
So what´s in the backpack?
Assuming I´ll return the day after the next day and it´s summer, two changes of underwear and stockings, a t-shirt doing double duty as a nightie, two blouses or two shirts, my running pants, a running top, my running shoes unless I just wear them, my netbook, my camera, my toiletries (toothbrush, small packages of toothpaste, shower gel, deodorant and shampoo, plus any , er, female necessities), my mp3-player, my mobile HD plus the cables for the electronics.
Everything else I carry on my body, after all, I do not start my journey unclothed. I take one pair of shoes (flats or sneakers), one pair of pants, and a coat, plus my beloved leather vest that holds things like phone, keys, wallet and tickets in its roomy interior pockets.
The interesting part is how liberating this is. I used to be one of those snail travellers - you know, who´d travel with their complete household on their backs if they could but take it along. I usually carried, there and back, as the Hobbit would put it, several complete outfits, with pants, shoes, and jackets, plus half the contents of my cosmetics box, and at least several fat pocket books to read on the way. Most of it, I´d carry back two days later unused. And I´d pay for it by being hampered when having to change trains, ending up, more often than not, with a hurting back.
Nowadays, I throw my minimal equipment into my backpack, get dressed in my "travel" wardrobe, and off I am, without having to look for things like elevators to the trains (the more packed you are, the more likely they are out of order) or luggage carts.
The interesting part is that I have never, ever, missed a single thing I did not take along, meaning that I did get along with the few things I did take along.
It actually does make me think.
How many things do I own, and take along in my life, that do not add any value to my life, but extract a price in space, time, money or energy?
I am not ready yet to downsize to some extremely low number of things, like a hundred or so, but this should really be encouraging me to, at least, get rid of some of that extra stuff.
Maybe I´ll be feeling lighter then.
Julia
2011/07/14
Eat for the heat
I don´t know about you, but I just don´t feel like having a heavy meal when it´s scorchingly hot outside. Which is fine with me because there are plenty of non-fattening things to eat, too.
Think, for example...
-Italian: as in caprese salad with mozarella and tomatoes, with some olive oil, balsamico and black pepper on top, and of course lots of fresh basil from our balcony garden,
-Mexican: as in tuna salad with fresh corn (frozen off the cob) and frozen mexican veggie mix that just has to be thawed halfway before mixing (keeps the salad cold and fresh, too), seasoned with chili powder and a few pickled capers for taste, and some olive oil, too, then left to thaw fully (takes about ten to fifteen minutes ).
-Indian: as in fried chicken breast seasoned with curry or tandoori spice, mixed with vegetables and fruit (I prefer ananas) , some roasted almonds sliced thinly and rice.
Now I know the natives of these countries doubtlessly have much better and much more original recipes to offer, but for me, these are things I can prepare fast (an important consideration because I work full time), and they are one heck of a lot tastier than most convenience dishes I could buy to just microwave.
What is also important for me is that I have much more control of which additives I consume if I cook our food myself. Which also means not having to contend with any weird side effects from them.
I love to experiment with different ways of preparing food, and luckily, my DH likes most of it :).
So, tonight, by his special request, will be Italian night again, with Caprese salad and -for him only-some ciabatta.
It will be one of those Tuscany evenings on our balcony again, surrounded by the aromes of fresh herbs and enjoying the cool evening air. Almost like a holiday. I´m looking forward to it.
Julia
Think, for example...
-Italian: as in caprese salad with mozarella and tomatoes, with some olive oil, balsamico and black pepper on top, and of course lots of fresh basil from our balcony garden,
-Mexican: as in tuna salad with fresh corn (frozen off the cob) and frozen mexican veggie mix that just has to be thawed halfway before mixing (keeps the salad cold and fresh, too), seasoned with chili powder and a few pickled capers for taste, and some olive oil, too, then left to thaw fully (takes about ten to fifteen minutes ).
-Indian: as in fried chicken breast seasoned with curry or tandoori spice, mixed with vegetables and fruit (I prefer ananas) , some roasted almonds sliced thinly and rice.
Now I know the natives of these countries doubtlessly have much better and much more original recipes to offer, but for me, these are things I can prepare fast (an important consideration because I work full time), and they are one heck of a lot tastier than most convenience dishes I could buy to just microwave.
What is also important for me is that I have much more control of which additives I consume if I cook our food myself. Which also means not having to contend with any weird side effects from them.
I love to experiment with different ways of preparing food, and luckily, my DH likes most of it :).
So, tonight, by his special request, will be Italian night again, with Caprese salad and -for him only-some ciabatta.
It will be one of those Tuscany evenings on our balcony again, surrounded by the aromes of fresh herbs and enjoying the cool evening air. Almost like a holiday. I´m looking forward to it.
Julia
The balcony still does it
..make me smile, that is.
The warm weather during the last days, plus sky-high humidity, wasn´t exactly my kind of climate, so, we stayed mostly at home waiting for things to cool down in the evenings.
Now,we are lucky to have our balcony pointing to the east, which means getting the most of the morning sunshine as a special breakfast treat, and getting into the shade by noon before it gets really hot. The only thing we can´t do from there is watch the sun set. But that´s something I can live with. DMIL´s flat has a balcony that points to the southwest, and she almost never gets to use it during the day because it´s just too darn hot there.
The ideal flat, then, probably would have two balconies:).
But ours is just what we can use best just as it is.
We have two chairs and a round table out there, and we´ve been having dinner out there every day unless it happened to be raining at dinnertime. I got us a big, gastronomy-style tray, with a non-slip-coating, and it´s big enough to put our place settings on, plus the smaller plates for bread or such, or the cheese platter for breakfast, and the glasses for drinks. I know that´s probably making us appear uncultivated, but we do set the table on that tray, carry it out and set the tray down on the table with the already-set place settings on it. Which saves us the old juggling act with a small tray threatening to topple over while I try to take the stacked plates off it and put them directly on the table. That was actually one of the reasons why we hadn´t used the balcony much for eating there, that it was such a hassle to get everything out there. The investment in the big tray has paid off already (it wasn´t that expensive, but we hadn´t found one that was that big sooner), and best of all, it did find a home at once in a corner besides the refrigerator when not in use.
That tray does actually show several things that I have found to help me when deciding whether I should buy something or not.
-it does allow me to do something I like to do easily that used to be a hassle
-it has, apart the cost of the initial purchase, no follow-up costs
-it is something I can use for a very long time,
-it has a home of its own in my flat and may be put away when not in use,
-and, most importantly, I did not have another almost like it already, so, it does not add clutter
Now, I don´t claim to be a perfect minimalist, but these criteria are what I apply to my purchases nowadays.
They may, of course, be applied to the existing stuff, too.
There´s a saying in German that translates roughly to "out with everything that doesn´t pay for its rent". While that may sound a bit extreme, it´s a good reminder of the fact that there really is a follow-up cost to owning stuff. You have to store it, clean it, insure it. You need apartment space to store it in, or a bigger house. Both of which must be paid for and heated.
I think it was Peter Walsh (Disclaimer: I´m not affiliated in any way with him or his company) who suggested calculating how many percent of our housing cost were spent on giving a home to things that are simply clutter. Things we do not need, use, or love. Things that perhaps even give us bad feelings every time we chance upon them.
If you haven´t tried that exercise yet, sit down before you do it, because very likely that´s what you´ll want to do afterwards anyway.
And that should be the perfect motivation to reduce. At least that´s what it was for me. Not that I want to move anytime soon, but having DH (and all of his stuff) move into an apartment that I had originally intended to be a roomy place for just myself, my books and my kitchen stuff :) pretty much filled up all of the available space in a jiffy. Which is not what I want, really.
Besides, there´s still the plan to look for nicer furniture for our living-room. Apart my somewhat eclectic tastes, whatever I put there must hold everything I store in the living-room. So, this, too, is a great chance to think about what I want to have to pay for storage room for. Now, I´m not in a hurry because I haven´t found the right bookcases or shelves or whatever yet anyway. But I have, during the last two years, gotten rid of plenty of stuff that clogged up my old cupboards and shelves.
One side effect of that is suddenly being able to find a home for a lot of things that used to be left outside on the kitchen counter or in the open shelves, which in turn does make it easier to keep some semblance of order in our flat.
And that is the other thing that makes me smile about my flat today.
Julia
The warm weather during the last days, plus sky-high humidity, wasn´t exactly my kind of climate, so, we stayed mostly at home waiting for things to cool down in the evenings.
Now,we are lucky to have our balcony pointing to the east, which means getting the most of the morning sunshine as a special breakfast treat, and getting into the shade by noon before it gets really hot. The only thing we can´t do from there is watch the sun set. But that´s something I can live with. DMIL´s flat has a balcony that points to the southwest, and she almost never gets to use it during the day because it´s just too darn hot there.
The ideal flat, then, probably would have two balconies:).
But ours is just what we can use best just as it is.
We have two chairs and a round table out there, and we´ve been having dinner out there every day unless it happened to be raining at dinnertime. I got us a big, gastronomy-style tray, with a non-slip-coating, and it´s big enough to put our place settings on, plus the smaller plates for bread or such, or the cheese platter for breakfast, and the glasses for drinks. I know that´s probably making us appear uncultivated, but we do set the table on that tray, carry it out and set the tray down on the table with the already-set place settings on it. Which saves us the old juggling act with a small tray threatening to topple over while I try to take the stacked plates off it and put them directly on the table. That was actually one of the reasons why we hadn´t used the balcony much for eating there, that it was such a hassle to get everything out there. The investment in the big tray has paid off already (it wasn´t that expensive, but we hadn´t found one that was that big sooner), and best of all, it did find a home at once in a corner besides the refrigerator when not in use.
That tray does actually show several things that I have found to help me when deciding whether I should buy something or not.
-it does allow me to do something I like to do easily that used to be a hassle
-it has, apart the cost of the initial purchase, no follow-up costs
-it is something I can use for a very long time,
-it has a home of its own in my flat and may be put away when not in use,
-and, most importantly, I did not have another almost like it already, so, it does not add clutter
Now, I don´t claim to be a perfect minimalist, but these criteria are what I apply to my purchases nowadays.
They may, of course, be applied to the existing stuff, too.
There´s a saying in German that translates roughly to "out with everything that doesn´t pay for its rent". While that may sound a bit extreme, it´s a good reminder of the fact that there really is a follow-up cost to owning stuff. You have to store it, clean it, insure it. You need apartment space to store it in, or a bigger house. Both of which must be paid for and heated.
I think it was Peter Walsh (Disclaimer: I´m not affiliated in any way with him or his company) who suggested calculating how many percent of our housing cost were spent on giving a home to things that are simply clutter. Things we do not need, use, or love. Things that perhaps even give us bad feelings every time we chance upon them.
If you haven´t tried that exercise yet, sit down before you do it, because very likely that´s what you´ll want to do afterwards anyway.
And that should be the perfect motivation to reduce. At least that´s what it was for me. Not that I want to move anytime soon, but having DH (and all of his stuff) move into an apartment that I had originally intended to be a roomy place for just myself, my books and my kitchen stuff :) pretty much filled up all of the available space in a jiffy. Which is not what I want, really.
Besides, there´s still the plan to look for nicer furniture for our living-room. Apart my somewhat eclectic tastes, whatever I put there must hold everything I store in the living-room. So, this, too, is a great chance to think about what I want to have to pay for storage room for. Now, I´m not in a hurry because I haven´t found the right bookcases or shelves or whatever yet anyway. But I have, during the last two years, gotten rid of plenty of stuff that clogged up my old cupboards and shelves.
One side effect of that is suddenly being able to find a home for a lot of things that used to be left outside on the kitchen counter or in the open shelves, which in turn does make it easier to keep some semblance of order in our flat.
And that is the other thing that makes me smile about my flat today.
Julia
2011/07/13
Analyzing what I see and saw
The weather has continued doing cartwheels- now we have a forecast of exceptionally heavy rain and thunderstorms coming in.
This morning, there was a short break from rain, so, I did my morning walk alright. Part of the water retention has come off, too (I can see that because my rings are looser), and I am, by the middle of the week, back to where I was last week on Friday.
This see-sawing up and down is getting really frustrating by now. Had I not, every weekend, regained what I had lost during the week, I´d be back in onederland (non-metrically) already. The problem being that the deviations from my weekly routine, food-wise, aren´t really accounting for the dramatic gain every weekend, at least when I just add up the extra calories.
So it must be, not how much, but what I eat on weekends that I would not eat during the week.
Actually, there´s one single thing that comes to mind.
Bread, or baguettes, or croissants- white flour in every guise. I have, these last weeks, had one or two servings of them for breakfast every Saturday and Sunday. On top of my usual bacon-and-eggs.
As I said, perhaps a thousand calories all told, including the toppings. No caloric explanation for a gain of over four pounds between Friday and Monday.
It is something I do only when DH is home for the weekend. When he´s abroad, that kind of thing doesn´t even enter my kitchen. Really.
Perhaps I should try what happens if I don´t eat bread on the weekend, either.
Well, I have done that particular experiment, to tell the truth. Last year when DH was mostly out of town and I had to feed just myself. And lost over fifteen kilos (33 pounds) within half a year.
So, it is quite probable that I really owe my see-saw to what I see and what I saw on my breakfast plate.
Lousy pun, I know. And an even lousier situation.
The only way out of it is to just say no to bread whenever it is offered to me.
Once again, it boils down to being disciplined.
But it´s maybe my only chance to get off this plateau. Because losing four pounds every week only to regain them over the weekend will never get me off there.
Julia
This morning, there was a short break from rain, so, I did my morning walk alright. Part of the water retention has come off, too (I can see that because my rings are looser), and I am, by the middle of the week, back to where I was last week on Friday.
This see-sawing up and down is getting really frustrating by now. Had I not, every weekend, regained what I had lost during the week, I´d be back in onederland (non-metrically) already. The problem being that the deviations from my weekly routine, food-wise, aren´t really accounting for the dramatic gain every weekend, at least when I just add up the extra calories.
So it must be, not how much, but what I eat on weekends that I would not eat during the week.
Actually, there´s one single thing that comes to mind.
Bread, or baguettes, or croissants- white flour in every guise. I have, these last weeks, had one or two servings of them for breakfast every Saturday and Sunday. On top of my usual bacon-and-eggs.
As I said, perhaps a thousand calories all told, including the toppings. No caloric explanation for a gain of over four pounds between Friday and Monday.
It is something I do only when DH is home for the weekend. When he´s abroad, that kind of thing doesn´t even enter my kitchen. Really.
Perhaps I should try what happens if I don´t eat bread on the weekend, either.
Well, I have done that particular experiment, to tell the truth. Last year when DH was mostly out of town and I had to feed just myself. And lost over fifteen kilos (33 pounds) within half a year.
So, it is quite probable that I really owe my see-saw to what I see and what I saw on my breakfast plate.
Lousy pun, I know. And an even lousier situation.
The only way out of it is to just say no to bread whenever it is offered to me.
Once again, it boils down to being disciplined.
But it´s maybe my only chance to get off this plateau. Because losing four pounds every week only to regain them over the weekend will never get me off there.
Julia
2011/07/12
Bottom(s) up
I should have known it. After all, it is summer. And that does mean it gets hot sometimes.
The problem, this year, is that temperatures are fluctuating wildly between "too-cold-to-go-out-without -a-jacket-on" and "too-hot-to-go-outside". I actually prefer the former, but, if given a chance to adapt, my body will also tolerate higher temperatures. Only, this year there seems to be no real chance of that yet. So, once again, I am sitting in my office with a big circular fan directed at my legs to keep me cold without sending all kinds of paperwork flying every which way. As this is a government-owned building, and the government must save, there´s no air condition in here other than these fans.
The part I hate most about this kind of weather is that my BP goes down immediately, making me tired and my legs and fingers swell up with water retention. Which, of course, messes up my weigh-ins, too. And the only time I can do my daily walking is very early in the morning before the sun starts heating up everything again.
Now, I´m not really an early riser. But if I want to see any progress towards my weight goals, that is exactly what I must become.
And I must be even more careful to watch my water intake, because the water retention is worse if I don´t drink enough. That means "bottoms up" regularly with my 15 oz. cup, and it also means lifting my bottom up from the chair somewhat more often;). Which isn´t bad, either.
I´ll see if that is what was missing for my weight to get moving again. Downwards, I mean.
And until then I´ll try not to have a complete meltdown (heat-wise only, of course).
Julia
The problem, this year, is that temperatures are fluctuating wildly between "too-cold-to-go-out-without -a-jacket-on" and "too-hot-to-go-outside". I actually prefer the former, but, if given a chance to adapt, my body will also tolerate higher temperatures. Only, this year there seems to be no real chance of that yet. So, once again, I am sitting in my office with a big circular fan directed at my legs to keep me cold without sending all kinds of paperwork flying every which way. As this is a government-owned building, and the government must save, there´s no air condition in here other than these fans.
The part I hate most about this kind of weather is that my BP goes down immediately, making me tired and my legs and fingers swell up with water retention. Which, of course, messes up my weigh-ins, too. And the only time I can do my daily walking is very early in the morning before the sun starts heating up everything again.
Now, I´m not really an early riser. But if I want to see any progress towards my weight goals, that is exactly what I must become.
And I must be even more careful to watch my water intake, because the water retention is worse if I don´t drink enough. That means "bottoms up" regularly with my 15 oz. cup, and it also means lifting my bottom up from the chair somewhat more often;). Which isn´t bad, either.
I´ll see if that is what was missing for my weight to get moving again. Downwards, I mean.
And until then I´ll try not to have a complete meltdown (heat-wise only, of course).
Julia
2011/07/11
Things to be grateful for
I have spent the better part of the morning at the car registration office, getting new license plates for my car. Luckily, I have the freedom to chose my working time, within reasonable limits, so I had no trouble at work doing so.
When I climbed back into the car afterwards, what I felt mainly was glad to know that I was mobile again.
Actually, the enforced rest over the weekend has given me time to think about how we do, with many things- or people- in our lives, cease to be grateful for them just because they are there all of the time. Only whe we lose them do we miss them. And then, when it´s about people, perhaps we´re sorry that we didn´t express our gratitude to them while we could.
So today I´m grateful for -my secretary who fielded off phone calls while I took care of the car, -the lady at the registration office who found a way to help me thru a bureaucratic mixup, -the guy who helped me put the new license plates on my car, -and of course and most importantly for my dear husband who made a run for the next ATM when we found out they didn´t accept debit cards at the place where the plates were made.
I´m grateful for -my car that´s running again,-my netbook I´m typing this on,-the file cabinet that allowed me to find the papers for my car quickly.
What are you grateful for today?
Julia
When I climbed back into the car afterwards, what I felt mainly was glad to know that I was mobile again.
Actually, the enforced rest over the weekend has given me time to think about how we do, with many things- or people- in our lives, cease to be grateful for them just because they are there all of the time. Only whe we lose them do we miss them. And then, when it´s about people, perhaps we´re sorry that we didn´t express our gratitude to them while we could.
So today I´m grateful for -my secretary who fielded off phone calls while I took care of the car, -the lady at the registration office who found a way to help me thru a bureaucratic mixup, -the guy who helped me put the new license plates on my car, -and of course and most importantly for my dear husband who made a run for the next ATM when we found out they didn´t accept debit cards at the place where the plates were made.
I´m grateful for -my car that´s running again,-my netbook I´m typing this on,-the file cabinet that allowed me to find the papers for my car quickly.
What are you grateful for today?
Julia
2011/07/08
Stranded...
I´m hopping mad right now, that´s what. Just in time before the weekend, someone stole the license plates off our car. Without them, we may not drive, and to get new ones, you have to go and re- register your car.Of course, the place where you have to go to do that isn´t open on weekends, and besides, you have oodles of paperwork to take along, not counting the registration fees. I found out online they even charge you a fee for filing the declaration of loss of your old plates:(. So, this is going to be rather expensive.
We did already file a report of theft at the police, too, which meant that we were home very late.
I admit to eating too much this evening out of sheer frustration.Not much, but still.
And we are effectively stuck here all weekend long. Well, perhaps we´ll be able to do some decluttering...
On the up side, having tidied up the dreaded file cabinet several months ago meant that I have all of the pertinent documents on hand save one that is probably in the glove box in the car. I´ll have to look for it tomorrow.
And the web is a great thing because I could find out what these documents were even though it´s some time past midnight here and the car registration office was closed.
Still, the trouble and loss of time alone makes me hope they´ll catch the thief and give him or her their just deserts.
Julia
We did already file a report of theft at the police, too, which meant that we were home very late.
I admit to eating too much this evening out of sheer frustration.Not much, but still.
And we are effectively stuck here all weekend long. Well, perhaps we´ll be able to do some decluttering...
On the up side, having tidied up the dreaded file cabinet several months ago meant that I have all of the pertinent documents on hand save one that is probably in the glove box in the car. I´ll have to look for it tomorrow.
And the web is a great thing because I could find out what these documents were even though it´s some time past midnight here and the car registration office was closed.
Still, the trouble and loss of time alone makes me hope they´ll catch the thief and give him or her their just deserts.
Julia
Another week gone...
and a net loss of zero compared to last Friday. I have, for half a year, been plateauing around this level, with a variance of two kilos up or down from it. I´d be roundabout ten kilos further down without that plateau, had I continued to lose the way I did last year.
It is mega frustrating. And every weekend has in it the danger of going back up with the weight, if it is only because I eat regular meals on weekends. Down during the week, up on weekends. One step forward, one step back. And this weekend is DH´s birthday, too, so sticking to protein shakes is not really an option.
How that frustration clicks with what I wrote yesterday? Well, I have been different weights at different times in my life, and I have some memories left of what it felt like to be in my body at these weights.
I remember how lousy I felt at top weight, I know I´m feeling better at what I weigh now, and I remember that there was a time when I was carrying less weight than today when I felt a lot better than today.
Athletes, too, have a weight where their bodies are functioning optimally for their sport. I think they call it competition weight.
I don´t want to compete against anyone. I just want to live in a body that is functioning at its best level, and for that, I still have to get off some more weight.
But the target weight I have in mind isn´t my all-time lowest weight-for-this-height any more. I will never again have the size I had as an eighteen-year old. My body proportions have changed, after all, I wasn´t fully grown back then. Reaching my full height just meant that my body was still having to grow horizontally to its full size.
Witness an old jacket I wore when eighteen, that had somehow survived in a closet at my parents´place. When I held that up to my body for size, I found that the shoulder part was cut narrower than the bones in my shoulders are today. The bones, mind you, not any fat on top of them. So, even if I were to hunger myself down to said bones, the thing would no longer fit.
Which means that the genetic shape of my grown-up body is such that I will never again weigh what I weighed at eighteen, simply because of the different proportions.
What I am aiming for now is the weight that my body had gone up to from there, before I started trying to force my body below that weight again,ending up with forty extra kilos on top of those ten that would, probably, have been where my body might have stayed had I not decided to mess with it.
I am, by now, about halfway back there, and I am determined to go the other half of the way, too, because that was the weight my body felt best at. Incidentally, it´s also where the "normal" BMI range would start for me.
My weight history, thus, is almost a textbook example of the old adage that you should never try to fix something that is not broken.
Today, I just wish I had not messed with my body so much, because getting the extra pounds off is a b**** with the kind of metabolism that more than a quarter-century of intermittingly dieting and bingeing left me with.
I wish someone had told me that when I started...
Julia
It is mega frustrating. And every weekend has in it the danger of going back up with the weight, if it is only because I eat regular meals on weekends. Down during the week, up on weekends. One step forward, one step back. And this weekend is DH´s birthday, too, so sticking to protein shakes is not really an option.
How that frustration clicks with what I wrote yesterday? Well, I have been different weights at different times in my life, and I have some memories left of what it felt like to be in my body at these weights.
I remember how lousy I felt at top weight, I know I´m feeling better at what I weigh now, and I remember that there was a time when I was carrying less weight than today when I felt a lot better than today.
Athletes, too, have a weight where their bodies are functioning optimally for their sport. I think they call it competition weight.
I don´t want to compete against anyone. I just want to live in a body that is functioning at its best level, and for that, I still have to get off some more weight.
But the target weight I have in mind isn´t my all-time lowest weight-for-this-height any more. I will never again have the size I had as an eighteen-year old. My body proportions have changed, after all, I wasn´t fully grown back then. Reaching my full height just meant that my body was still having to grow horizontally to its full size.
Witness an old jacket I wore when eighteen, that had somehow survived in a closet at my parents´place. When I held that up to my body for size, I found that the shoulder part was cut narrower than the bones in my shoulders are today. The bones, mind you, not any fat on top of them. So, even if I were to hunger myself down to said bones, the thing would no longer fit.
Which means that the genetic shape of my grown-up body is such that I will never again weigh what I weighed at eighteen, simply because of the different proportions.
What I am aiming for now is the weight that my body had gone up to from there, before I started trying to force my body below that weight again,ending up with forty extra kilos on top of those ten that would, probably, have been where my body might have stayed had I not decided to mess with it.
I am, by now, about halfway back there, and I am determined to go the other half of the way, too, because that was the weight my body felt best at. Incidentally, it´s also where the "normal" BMI range would start for me.
My weight history, thus, is almost a textbook example of the old adage that you should never try to fix something that is not broken.
Today, I just wish I had not messed with my body so much, because getting the extra pounds off is a b**** with the kind of metabolism that more than a quarter-century of intermittingly dieting and bingeing left me with.
I wish someone had told me that when I started...
Julia
2011/07/07
Real women´s bodies are...
diverse! It is something you can see easily when walking down any urban street. Short women, tall women, skinny women, fat women, long-legged women, short-legged women, blondes, brunettes, young women, old women- the variety is staggering, if you think about it.
So why do we hang on to an idea of what a beautiful body should look like that excludes most of these bodies? Why is it so difficult for us women to accept our own diversity?
The beauty ideal we are taught we should conform to does actually describe the body of an adolescent girl. Small breasts, legs that are long in proportion to total body height, narrow hips. No curves, if possible. The moment that the inevitable happens and curves begin to grow, you are not beautiful any more by that standard.
One of the most tell-tale garments in existence is the spanx (tm) body suit. What is tell-tale about it is that even women who are almost in compliance with the shape ideals still feel that they have to squeeze themselves into such a garment in order to have a body that does not jiggle.
Almost every experiment made to decide what kind of body shape is deemed attractive in Western society points to one sad fact: when asked what kind of body shape they´d prefer in a woman, women chose a silhouette at least two sizes smaller that what men would chose when given a choice of the same row of silhouettes.
So, it´s not the MCP´s doing. We can let the male sex off the hook here quite nicely. Men want some curves on their women´s bodies. Just look at any edition of the well-known girlie magazines. I bet you will not find any anorexic bodies in there. What you´ll find is plenty of girls who even have surgery to have their cup size brought up. That´s another story, but it proves that those of us who try to hunger off any trace of fat including in the chest area are actually a long way off what men want.
So, what this amounts to is that we, we women, have been putting the pressure on ourselves. We are making ourselves miserable by thinking we´ll never be good enough unless we look exactly like those so-called supermodels.
Did you know, by the way, that the original decision to employ super-skinny women as runway models was due to the consideration that these women would not distract from the clothes they wore because such slim bodies were considered ugly back then? The super-skinny models were in reality considered to be no more than walking clothes racks!
And that is now the beauty ideal we try to conform to, and, if we fail, because our body has different proportions, because our genes tell our bodies to grow curves, it´s what makes us feel ugly and miserable.
We treat our dogs better than ourselves, there. Nobody would expect a cocker spaniel to have the legs of a greyhound, or a dachshund to be as tall as a dobermann. And the diversity of shapes is something that we even enjoy in dogs.
It is something that we could enjoy in ourselves, too.
Our society places such a high premium on individuality. We are continuously reminded that we are, each of us, unique.
And so are our bodies. Down to the lines on our fingertips. Every cell in our body is unique (or almost, if you´re an identical twin).
Take that in for a moment. Each of us is unique.
Then why should we live in cookie-cutter identical bodies?
Imagine, just for a moment, a world where every body can be beautiful. A world where beauty isn´t defined by conforming to some ideal shape, but by making the best of the body you´ve been given, treating it with kindness and respect, and allowing it to be at peak functionality, regardless of size.
To me, that´s mind-boggling.
In that world, I could take care of my body as best I could without having to fight the feeling of failure because I´m not stick thin and will never be. I could rejoice in every physical ability that comes back with condensing myself and moving more. I could thank my legs for having carried me thus far instead of hating them for being fat.
And I would instantly be rid of a ton of feelings of low self-worth.
What a wonderful world.
The only thing that keeps me from living there...
is my old ideas about what my body should be.
And my fear of not conforming to standard.
It´s high time we set ourselves another standard. One we can all live with. One that does not force us into a futile fight against our genes for all our lives.
Of course, we have a lot of unlearning to do then.
But new standards, like muscles, are a matter of training.
Are you ready to change your standards to include yourself?
Julia
So why do we hang on to an idea of what a beautiful body should look like that excludes most of these bodies? Why is it so difficult for us women to accept our own diversity?
The beauty ideal we are taught we should conform to does actually describe the body of an adolescent girl. Small breasts, legs that are long in proportion to total body height, narrow hips. No curves, if possible. The moment that the inevitable happens and curves begin to grow, you are not beautiful any more by that standard.
One of the most tell-tale garments in existence is the spanx (tm) body suit. What is tell-tale about it is that even women who are almost in compliance with the shape ideals still feel that they have to squeeze themselves into such a garment in order to have a body that does not jiggle.
Almost every experiment made to decide what kind of body shape is deemed attractive in Western society points to one sad fact: when asked what kind of body shape they´d prefer in a woman, women chose a silhouette at least two sizes smaller that what men would chose when given a choice of the same row of silhouettes.
So, it´s not the MCP´s doing. We can let the male sex off the hook here quite nicely. Men want some curves on their women´s bodies. Just look at any edition of the well-known girlie magazines. I bet you will not find any anorexic bodies in there. What you´ll find is plenty of girls who even have surgery to have their cup size brought up. That´s another story, but it proves that those of us who try to hunger off any trace of fat including in the chest area are actually a long way off what men want.
So, what this amounts to is that we, we women, have been putting the pressure on ourselves. We are making ourselves miserable by thinking we´ll never be good enough unless we look exactly like those so-called supermodels.
Did you know, by the way, that the original decision to employ super-skinny women as runway models was due to the consideration that these women would not distract from the clothes they wore because such slim bodies were considered ugly back then? The super-skinny models were in reality considered to be no more than walking clothes racks!
And that is now the beauty ideal we try to conform to, and, if we fail, because our body has different proportions, because our genes tell our bodies to grow curves, it´s what makes us feel ugly and miserable.
We treat our dogs better than ourselves, there. Nobody would expect a cocker spaniel to have the legs of a greyhound, or a dachshund to be as tall as a dobermann. And the diversity of shapes is something that we even enjoy in dogs.
It is something that we could enjoy in ourselves, too.
Our society places such a high premium on individuality. We are continuously reminded that we are, each of us, unique.
And so are our bodies. Down to the lines on our fingertips. Every cell in our body is unique (or almost, if you´re an identical twin).
Take that in for a moment. Each of us is unique.
Then why should we live in cookie-cutter identical bodies?
Imagine, just for a moment, a world where every body can be beautiful. A world where beauty isn´t defined by conforming to some ideal shape, but by making the best of the body you´ve been given, treating it with kindness and respect, and allowing it to be at peak functionality, regardless of size.
To me, that´s mind-boggling.
In that world, I could take care of my body as best I could without having to fight the feeling of failure because I´m not stick thin and will never be. I could rejoice in every physical ability that comes back with condensing myself and moving more. I could thank my legs for having carried me thus far instead of hating them for being fat.
And I would instantly be rid of a ton of feelings of low self-worth.
What a wonderful world.
The only thing that keeps me from living there...
is my old ideas about what my body should be.
And my fear of not conforming to standard.
It´s high time we set ourselves another standard. One we can all live with. One that does not force us into a futile fight against our genes for all our lives.
Of course, we have a lot of unlearning to do then.
But new standards, like muscles, are a matter of training.
Are you ready to change your standards to include yourself?
Julia
2011/07/06
Limits of the possible
Of course, I am impatient to lose that excess weight. If there were a push-button that would magically make all of the fat go away at once, I´d probably be pushing it like crazy.
But there simply is no way past it.
One pound of fat equals roundabout 3500 calories.
My body, on an average day, uses up about 1800 calories.
Therefore, the theoretical maximum I could possibly lose, if I ate nothing at all, is about half a pound a day.
I have to keep reminding myself of that.
Of course, since I am working full-time, and have a household and a husband to take care of, a complete fast is out of the question. I have to be fully functioning, after all.
What I am aiming for right now is to stay about five hundred calories below my daily requirements.
And that, in turn, is going to amount to losing one pound a week, again, maximum.
Which means that I will take at least another month to repair the damages from the last weeks.
And three months to go below the limit of morbid obesity.
Then again, three months, as a time span, is not so terribly long, is it?
I could be no longer morbidly obese in three months.
It would be a place I haven´t been since before the end of the last millenium.
And that is something to look forward to.
Actually, for a long time, I did not believe in my own ability to lose that weight any more. I had resigned myself to being stuck in a body that was functioning way below optimum level.
What, then, is different this time around? First of all, I started moving again. Nordic walking, to be exact, which is a lot kinder to my creaking joints than jogging. So, it was easier for me to keep it up.
And the second part is having discovered just how much I had been overeating without being aware of it. And then doing the right moves to correct that. That did involve investing in smaller sized crockery and pots, and training myself to always put food I wanted to eat on a plate or into a bowl first, so as to never eat anything directly out of the package.
Move more, eat less.
It´s almost insulting in its simplicity. I, for one, know that I´d have bitten the head off (figuratively, of course) anyone who would have dared to suggest to me that it was that simple. I had to go through the experience myself.
Reading of others who went through a similar experience just did not replace seeing it for myself.
Yes, it is possible for me to lose that excess weight.
Even if it does take time.
Julia
But there simply is no way past it.
One pound of fat equals roundabout 3500 calories.
My body, on an average day, uses up about 1800 calories.
Therefore, the theoretical maximum I could possibly lose, if I ate nothing at all, is about half a pound a day.
I have to keep reminding myself of that.
Of course, since I am working full-time, and have a household and a husband to take care of, a complete fast is out of the question. I have to be fully functioning, after all.
What I am aiming for right now is to stay about five hundred calories below my daily requirements.
And that, in turn, is going to amount to losing one pound a week, again, maximum.
Which means that I will take at least another month to repair the damages from the last weeks.
And three months to go below the limit of morbid obesity.
Then again, three months, as a time span, is not so terribly long, is it?
I could be no longer morbidly obese in three months.
It would be a place I haven´t been since before the end of the last millenium.
And that is something to look forward to.
Actually, for a long time, I did not believe in my own ability to lose that weight any more. I had resigned myself to being stuck in a body that was functioning way below optimum level.
What, then, is different this time around? First of all, I started moving again. Nordic walking, to be exact, which is a lot kinder to my creaking joints than jogging. So, it was easier for me to keep it up.
And the second part is having discovered just how much I had been overeating without being aware of it. And then doing the right moves to correct that. That did involve investing in smaller sized crockery and pots, and training myself to always put food I wanted to eat on a plate or into a bowl first, so as to never eat anything directly out of the package.
Move more, eat less.
It´s almost insulting in its simplicity. I, for one, know that I´d have bitten the head off (figuratively, of course) anyone who would have dared to suggest to me that it was that simple. I had to go through the experience myself.
Reading of others who went through a similar experience just did not replace seeing it for myself.
Yes, it is possible for me to lose that excess weight.
Even if it does take time.
Julia
2011/07/05
So it´s two steps forward, one step back...
and one forward again.
Still four pounds above my lowest weight I had reached this year, though.
But I keep going.
After all, while the human body does, unfailingly, hold you accountable for what you do to it sooner or later, the measurable results may take just a bit of time to materialize. As it is, I have been back on plan for just a few days, and it seems the trend is reversing already, so this is encouraging.
What I find particularly helpful these days is the smaller plates we use, because they do make the portions I eat appear so much more sufficient than if the food were floating on one of our old plates.
For quite a while, in German-speaking countries, the simple answer to what you have to do to lose weight was shortened to three letters namely, FdH, meaning "gobble down just one half" (the -somewhat rude- German phrase is "friss die Hälfte").
Somewhere around the Seventies, that concept suddenly got a bad rap from the diet industry. Eating just one half? We were told that this would send us into imminent danger of malnutrition. Instead, there were, suddenly, lengthy and convoluted plans, which told you to a "t" what you had to eat. That the portions there were, most of the time, even less than that proverbial half of what you had before, showed that the criticism was somehow unfounded. And on top of it, these plans brought the reappearance of the forbidden fruit, only that it wasn´t fruit most of the time, it was any food that tasted good and made you feel good.
There was, at that time, a person in my immediate family who did have a weight problem after quitting smoking. (and yes, it was the person who kept calling me fat even though I was of normal weight) The person in question started out trying to conquer that problem with those diet plans.
What I could, involuntarily, watch then was the effect that such diets have on a person´s mood. After two or three weeks into that diet, the person turned from just irritating to downright foul-mooded, irascible, and all in all a b**** to live with for everyone around. Only when going "off" the diet was some semblance of normalcy reached again. Unfortunately, the former weight was reached, too, so the cycle started over.
Leaving apart the shenanigans I was subjected to because that person feared that I,too, might get fat, just watching that person yo-yoing up and down on those plans and seeing that losing weight, at least on those plans, meant losing one´s composure in the process, too, convinced me there had to be something wrong there. With what I know today, and a lifetime of dieting experiences under my belt, I am certain of it.
The key word here is sustainability.
Any way of eating that you cannot keep up for the rest of your life without spinning off into a blue funk may rid you of some pounds. But, if you can´t wait to get off it again because you can´t wait to dig back into your favourite foods again, don´t toss the too-big clothes because you´ll need them. Soon. No matter how complicated the plan was, or how expensive the foods you had to buy for it (steak for lunch and dinner, anyone?).
Now, if I do not diet, there are certain foods I like, and return to regularly. Science has tried to find out why we like certain foods, but for me, I just take it as a given that I like some foods and dislike others.
And if I can work with my likes and dislikes, I will probably have a plan for myself that I can stick to.
Which brings us back to- you guessed it- the old advice to halve your portions if you want to lose weight.
If I watch my portion size, I can eat almost anything.
Of course, the correct portion size may be way less than what I used to gobble down.
But halving what I would pile on my plate is a good place to start. Eating just half is, most importantly, not sending me off into such a foul mood as I would have if I had to eat stuff I hate.
And my husband is grateful for that, too.
Julia
Still four pounds above my lowest weight I had reached this year, though.
But I keep going.
After all, while the human body does, unfailingly, hold you accountable for what you do to it sooner or later, the measurable results may take just a bit of time to materialize. As it is, I have been back on plan for just a few days, and it seems the trend is reversing already, so this is encouraging.
What I find particularly helpful these days is the smaller plates we use, because they do make the portions I eat appear so much more sufficient than if the food were floating on one of our old plates.
For quite a while, in German-speaking countries, the simple answer to what you have to do to lose weight was shortened to three letters namely, FdH, meaning "gobble down just one half" (the -somewhat rude- German phrase is "friss die Hälfte").
Somewhere around the Seventies, that concept suddenly got a bad rap from the diet industry. Eating just one half? We were told that this would send us into imminent danger of malnutrition. Instead, there were, suddenly, lengthy and convoluted plans, which told you to a "t" what you had to eat. That the portions there were, most of the time, even less than that proverbial half of what you had before, showed that the criticism was somehow unfounded. And on top of it, these plans brought the reappearance of the forbidden fruit, only that it wasn´t fruit most of the time, it was any food that tasted good and made you feel good.
There was, at that time, a person in my immediate family who did have a weight problem after quitting smoking. (and yes, it was the person who kept calling me fat even though I was of normal weight) The person in question started out trying to conquer that problem with those diet plans.
What I could, involuntarily, watch then was the effect that such diets have on a person´s mood. After two or three weeks into that diet, the person turned from just irritating to downright foul-mooded, irascible, and all in all a b**** to live with for everyone around. Only when going "off" the diet was some semblance of normalcy reached again. Unfortunately, the former weight was reached, too, so the cycle started over.
Leaving apart the shenanigans I was subjected to because that person feared that I,too, might get fat, just watching that person yo-yoing up and down on those plans and seeing that losing weight, at least on those plans, meant losing one´s composure in the process, too, convinced me there had to be something wrong there. With what I know today, and a lifetime of dieting experiences under my belt, I am certain of it.
The key word here is sustainability.
Any way of eating that you cannot keep up for the rest of your life without spinning off into a blue funk may rid you of some pounds. But, if you can´t wait to get off it again because you can´t wait to dig back into your favourite foods again, don´t toss the too-big clothes because you´ll need them. Soon. No matter how complicated the plan was, or how expensive the foods you had to buy for it (steak for lunch and dinner, anyone?).
Now, if I do not diet, there are certain foods I like, and return to regularly. Science has tried to find out why we like certain foods, but for me, I just take it as a given that I like some foods and dislike others.
And if I can work with my likes and dislikes, I will probably have a plan for myself that I can stick to.
Which brings us back to- you guessed it- the old advice to halve your portions if you want to lose weight.
If I watch my portion size, I can eat almost anything.
Of course, the correct portion size may be way less than what I used to gobble down.
But halving what I would pile on my plate is a good place to start. Eating just half is, most importantly, not sending me off into such a foul mood as I would have if I had to eat stuff I hate.
And my husband is grateful for that, too.
Julia
2011/07/04
The fat cells are fighting back
...for all it´s worth, or so it seems. There I thought I´d been good over the weekend, halving my portions and leaving the bread and potato part to DH, and still- up 0.8 kilos from Friday. So, another red triangle in my weight curve (I´m using this to track my weight, and a red triangle means I have been gaining), and I keep reminding myself that I have to look at the long- time results.
Except they are, for the time being, looking rather lousy, too.
It´s sometimes rather difficult not to throw in the towel and retire to the vicinity of the cookie jar.
Julia
Except they are, for the time being, looking rather lousy, too.
It´s sometimes rather difficult not to throw in the towel and retire to the vicinity of the cookie jar.
Julia
2011/07/01
Weekend approaching...
and the start of a new month and the second half of the year. Time for a little summary.
Weight-wise, I am, after managing to get rid of another eight pounds temporarily, and then regaining every single one of them, only two pounds below where I started the year.
That is not where I wanted to be. Not at all.
And I have to kick myself for it, because I have allowed the good habits that permitted my weight loss in the first place to slip, little by little returning to my old sedentary, bread-and-potato-eating habits.
What keeps me from kicking myself is that I did, this time, recognize what was happening before I gained everything back. This time it didn´t even require a burst zipper on my pants or any garment not fitting any more. Just the uncomfortable feeling of things getting just a bit tighter and my body becoming just a bit harder to move around. So, all in all, I am still fifteen kilos below what I weighed last year at the same time.
And the reboot, so to speak, is with an improved version of the hardware, compared to last year.
Were I to get off another fifteen kilos by December, I´d be less than six kilos away from normal weight.
And just seven kilos less would mean being just obese, not morbidly obese any more.
And that is something to look forward to.
Now I must be careful, after last week´s experience, to get off that ride where I lose during the week only to gain it all back on weekends. Luckily, there´s no more holidays ahead right now, so, no family visits and restaurant meals either.
I´ll see how far I´ll get this time.
Julia
Weight-wise, I am, after managing to get rid of another eight pounds temporarily, and then regaining every single one of them, only two pounds below where I started the year.
That is not where I wanted to be. Not at all.
And I have to kick myself for it, because I have allowed the good habits that permitted my weight loss in the first place to slip, little by little returning to my old sedentary, bread-and-potato-eating habits.
What keeps me from kicking myself is that I did, this time, recognize what was happening before I gained everything back. This time it didn´t even require a burst zipper on my pants or any garment not fitting any more. Just the uncomfortable feeling of things getting just a bit tighter and my body becoming just a bit harder to move around. So, all in all, I am still fifteen kilos below what I weighed last year at the same time.
And the reboot, so to speak, is with an improved version of the hardware, compared to last year.
Were I to get off another fifteen kilos by December, I´d be less than six kilos away from normal weight.
And just seven kilos less would mean being just obese, not morbidly obese any more.
And that is something to look forward to.
Now I must be careful, after last week´s experience, to get off that ride where I lose during the week only to gain it all back on weekends. Luckily, there´s no more holidays ahead right now, so, no family visits and restaurant meals either.
I´ll see how far I´ll get this time.
Julia
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