...what I´m going to take until after pentecost. Regular posting will resume in about two weeks.
Of course, when you´re preparing to be away from work, that´s when the phone starts ringing and oodles of Very Urgent Work get dropped on your desk. As usual. Which means that I´ll be stuck at the office late today, drinking too much coffee and feeding on Twix (I know, not a good idea). I just hope that one day like that won´t derail my weight loss too badly. The family visit that is ahead means being away from the scales for a week, too, so I´ll try to be extra careful with what I´m eating. Perhaps I´ll be able to at least maintain my losses.
I´ll be back to tell you how it went...
Julia
2012/05/16
2012/05/15
Yen for carbs
Not a good thing to have for me, at all.
But this weekend it was bad enough for me to go and eat a plateful of potato salad on Saturday, and on Sunday and Monday I partook of the pasta that I had cooked for DH. Result: up a pound by today. It´s rather difficult for me to say no to those carby things right now- maybe my body wants to catch up on what I didn´t eat during the last months. So, I did give in, but in controlled amounts. I actually left half of my portion of spätzle (a German pasta) on my plate on Sunday, so, this was nothing like the out-of-control pasta binges I used to have (like, cooking a one-pound package of pasta, drown it in half a bottle of olive oil and lots of garlic, and eat it all at once, to the point of physical inability to stuff anything more into my stomach ). And the single pound that cost me is perhaps worth it if I can go back to low-carb afterwards without feeling constantly hungry, especially considering that this kind of escapade used to kick me up by four to five pounds, so, the one-pound-gain is relatively tolerable and well within the normal range of weight fluctuation.
Thus, I still count the weekend as a success. Most importantly, I do not count it as a reason to jump off the wagon, or give up on losing those less than thirty pounds separating me from being in the "normal-weighted" BMI range.
Pick myself off the floor.
Assess the damages.
Learn the lesson.
Move on.
Julia
But this weekend it was bad enough for me to go and eat a plateful of potato salad on Saturday, and on Sunday and Monday I partook of the pasta that I had cooked for DH. Result: up a pound by today. It´s rather difficult for me to say no to those carby things right now- maybe my body wants to catch up on what I didn´t eat during the last months. So, I did give in, but in controlled amounts. I actually left half of my portion of spätzle (a German pasta) on my plate on Sunday, so, this was nothing like the out-of-control pasta binges I used to have (like, cooking a one-pound package of pasta, drown it in half a bottle of olive oil and lots of garlic, and eat it all at once, to the point of physical inability to stuff anything more into my stomach ). And the single pound that cost me is perhaps worth it if I can go back to low-carb afterwards without feeling constantly hungry, especially considering that this kind of escapade used to kick me up by four to five pounds, so, the one-pound-gain is relatively tolerable and well within the normal range of weight fluctuation.
Thus, I still count the weekend as a success. Most importantly, I do not count it as a reason to jump off the wagon, or give up on losing those less than thirty pounds separating me from being in the "normal-weighted" BMI range.
Pick myself off the floor.
Assess the damages.
Learn the lesson.
Move on.
Julia
2012/05/09
Spring brakes
They call it spring fatigue around here. That near-unstoppable desire to yawn, lie down and fall asleep where you are standing that comes when temperatures are on the rise and the weather begins to look fine. This year, I am having a particularly vicious case of it, it seems. And my weight is, once more, plateauing. Add to that the fact that I did, for two days in a row, almost climb the wall craving carbohydrates, and what you get doesn´t bode too well for continued recondensation.
And then there´s that medical study I read about recently (I disremember where) that claimed that going low or no carb was harmful to one´s attentiveness, concentration and memory skills. Duh. I live off those. But I am also afraid that reintroducing carbs into my diet will make the weight loss stop for good, if by now it has almost come to a standstill anyway.
Then again, I slept way too little for several days in a row (don´t ask), so that might as well account for the fatigue.
Which means that I should try to go to bed a lot earlier today. Perhaps I´ll be feeling better then. And perhaps I´ll manage not to dig into the bread bin tonight.
Sometimes life just sucks.
Julia
And then there´s that medical study I read about recently (I disremember where) that claimed that going low or no carb was harmful to one´s attentiveness, concentration and memory skills. Duh. I live off those. But I am also afraid that reintroducing carbs into my diet will make the weight loss stop for good, if by now it has almost come to a standstill anyway.
Then again, I slept way too little for several days in a row (don´t ask), so that might as well account for the fatigue.
Which means that I should try to go to bed a lot earlier today. Perhaps I´ll be feeling better then. And perhaps I´ll manage not to dig into the bread bin tonight.
Sometimes life just sucks.
Julia
2012/05/07
Flowering hot spot
Wekends, in our household, are regularly used for catching up with what Flylady likes to call Mount Washmore- the week´s laundry, and sometimes that of the week before that, too. I don´t like wasting detergent, water and energy on running half-empty loads, so I allow enough laundry to accumulate for doing full loads. While the washing machine is running, I tidy up the living room and clean the floors.
The worst clutter offender in our living room is paper, namely, DH´s papers- I have, by now, gotten into the habit of regularly filing my incoming paperwork.
That wasn´t always the case- tax day, for me, used to mean having to plough my way through a landscape of paper mounds in search of the items I needed. Finally, I gave in and purchased a filing cabinet with vertical folders which are now holding the paperwork. One side effect of this was that I did finally start to consider whether a certain piece of paper was really worth keeping- it´s a rather smallish cabinet with just one drawer, and putting everything in there without culling would fill it up pretty fast.
And that filing habit has paid off nicely several times already- when they stole our license plates, or when we had to take the bill from the radiator repair on our car to claim the guarantee, I had the pertinent documents within a matter of minutes, instead of after an hours-long search.
DH, on the other hand, is a definite keeper when it comes to paperwork. He likes to pick up catalogues, and keeps each and every piece of information that enters our place. Thus, any horizontal surface in the living room is fair game for putting papers on. In regular intervals, I try to get him to declutter those, but success, up to now, has been limited. As I don´t think he´s likely to change, I am trying to find a decorating scheme that would prevent the accumulation of paper on those flat surfaces.
And I think I found something. We have a round table that used to be the primary paper hotspot, being situated right behind the living room door and therefore the first flat surface encountered when coming home. This weekend, I took all of the papers that had accumulated on it and dumped them on DH´s desk. And then I took a pristine white tablecloth, spread it on that table, and put a vase with a single yellow silk rose in the middle.
As per today, it´s been working: no paperwork dropped there any more.
Now I am thinking about what I could do with the other flat surfaces that looks as good and keeps the papers contained.
Julia
The worst clutter offender in our living room is paper, namely, DH´s papers- I have, by now, gotten into the habit of regularly filing my incoming paperwork.
That wasn´t always the case- tax day, for me, used to mean having to plough my way through a landscape of paper mounds in search of the items I needed. Finally, I gave in and purchased a filing cabinet with vertical folders which are now holding the paperwork. One side effect of this was that I did finally start to consider whether a certain piece of paper was really worth keeping- it´s a rather smallish cabinet with just one drawer, and putting everything in there without culling would fill it up pretty fast.
And that filing habit has paid off nicely several times already- when they stole our license plates, or when we had to take the bill from the radiator repair on our car to claim the guarantee, I had the pertinent documents within a matter of minutes, instead of after an hours-long search.
DH, on the other hand, is a definite keeper when it comes to paperwork. He likes to pick up catalogues, and keeps each and every piece of information that enters our place. Thus, any horizontal surface in the living room is fair game for putting papers on. In regular intervals, I try to get him to declutter those, but success, up to now, has been limited. As I don´t think he´s likely to change, I am trying to find a decorating scheme that would prevent the accumulation of paper on those flat surfaces.
And I think I found something. We have a round table that used to be the primary paper hotspot, being situated right behind the living room door and therefore the first flat surface encountered when coming home. This weekend, I took all of the papers that had accumulated on it and dumped them on DH´s desk. And then I took a pristine white tablecloth, spread it on that table, and put a vase with a single yellow silk rose in the middle.
As per today, it´s been working: no paperwork dropped there any more.
Now I am thinking about what I could do with the other flat surfaces that looks as good and keeps the papers contained.
Julia
They don´t shrink-but I do
That is, in a nutshell, the result of this weekend´s laundry experiment. There used to be a time- and I guess I am dating myself there- when you would, if you happened to get a cotton blouse or a pair of jeans mixed up with items that required laundering at a higher temperature, end up with a rather minuscule version of said garments when pulling them out of the washing machine. Today´s fabrics are treated so that doesn´t happen any more, it seems.
I had, over the weekend, tried to get a blouse and some pants to shrink on purpose, because both were becoming a bit too wide for my taste, but even the hottest setting on my washing machine didn´t make them shrink, so all that got me was two very, very clean garments that are still too wide :(. Well, for the time being I´ll continue to wear them as they are almost new and it would be a waste of money to replace them now while I am still recondensing myself.
The calculation as to when to replace my wardrobe is as follows: From experience, I know that I have been going down a clothes size with about every five kilograms lost. Losing those, at the present rate, would take me about five months, so, by the end of this season I will be down another clothes size, and the next warm season coming around will probably find me two sizes down from what would be my exact size today. Two sizes is also what those too-big blouses and pants are too big by. So, what I have is a choice of postponing the purchase of fitting garments for a year- and then hopefully having my target size, or at least one that will fit me down to goal weight, or buying at once and risking to find myself in too-big garments again next year.
When I look at the prices they demand for clothes and at the poor selection they have this year in classic styles, the decision is actually an easy one. So, I´ll wear the existing blouses and pants for another summer and save the money I would spend on new ones for next summer and, hopefully, my target size. In the meantime, what I already have may be oversized, but then again, when I compare that feeling to what it felt like to be dressed in clothes that kept growing too tight, it ain´t half bad. Besides, just knowing that by now, I don´t forcibly have to buy new trousers every two to three months because the old ones have worn through from my thighs rubbing against each other is priceless. At that time, the too-big pants conundrum would have been impossible because pants, on me, simply didn´t last long enough for me to noticeably change in size while wearing the same garment. And when I had to replace them, it was easy to blame the rising size on manufacturers having changed the cut.
The extra fabric in the too-wide clothes, on the other hand, is a reminder of just how far I have come already this time, and a great motivator to keep up what I am doing.
Julia
I had, over the weekend, tried to get a blouse and some pants to shrink on purpose, because both were becoming a bit too wide for my taste, but even the hottest setting on my washing machine didn´t make them shrink, so all that got me was two very, very clean garments that are still too wide :(. Well, for the time being I´ll continue to wear them as they are almost new and it would be a waste of money to replace them now while I am still recondensing myself.
The calculation as to when to replace my wardrobe is as follows: From experience, I know that I have been going down a clothes size with about every five kilograms lost. Losing those, at the present rate, would take me about five months, so, by the end of this season I will be down another clothes size, and the next warm season coming around will probably find me two sizes down from what would be my exact size today. Two sizes is also what those too-big blouses and pants are too big by. So, what I have is a choice of postponing the purchase of fitting garments for a year- and then hopefully having my target size, or at least one that will fit me down to goal weight, or buying at once and risking to find myself in too-big garments again next year.
When I look at the prices they demand for clothes and at the poor selection they have this year in classic styles, the decision is actually an easy one. So, I´ll wear the existing blouses and pants for another summer and save the money I would spend on new ones for next summer and, hopefully, my target size. In the meantime, what I already have may be oversized, but then again, when I compare that feeling to what it felt like to be dressed in clothes that kept growing too tight, it ain´t half bad. Besides, just knowing that by now, I don´t forcibly have to buy new trousers every two to three months because the old ones have worn through from my thighs rubbing against each other is priceless. At that time, the too-big pants conundrum would have been impossible because pants, on me, simply didn´t last long enough for me to noticeably change in size while wearing the same garment. And when I had to replace them, it was easy to blame the rising size on manufacturers having changed the cut.
The extra fabric in the too-wide clothes, on the other hand, is a reminder of just how far I have come already this time, and a great motivator to keep up what I am doing.
Julia
2012/05/03
Stretchy things and too much cleavage
Did that get you to open this post?
Actually, it´s not as funny as you might think. You see, when I put on that cotton blouse yesterday, I found out that my chest circumference has gone down quite a bit since last summer. And that means that all of my summer blouses I bought at my former weight are getting quite loose up front. That´s not so bad if they button up to my neck, but I have several favorites that have the buttons end about two hands´width benath my throat. When worn by a person of the size they were made for, that´s not too bad in terms of modesty, but now, I can either put a vest on top (and button it) or I might wear a scarf (not so great when it´s hot). Otherwise, the act of bending forward, or even standing opposite someone who is taller than me, will provide any person opposite me with some unwanted insights in the workings of my wardrobe. Having my bra peek out is where I draw the limit of cleavage.
When I was at my top weight, I bought myself, in a last-ditch effort to contain my condensable matter, a whole drawer full of spandex tops in different colors. These are, as they look like ordinary tank tops, modest enough to be peeking out, but...these are getting wide, too!
Replacing all of them would, at the prices they demand for those things, cost half a fortune.
But there´s a chance I won´t have to yet. You see, back then I bought way too many of them, and went on to put them into a drawer for storage. And that means that only the top ones have seen substantial use, while there are actually ones that were pushed to the back of that drawer unworn and remain so to this day. They´re skintone, too, so won´t show through a white blouse. And I discovered, when pulling them out, that the ones I have been continually wearing must have become stretched out beyond the material´s ability to snap back, because the unworn ones are still sufficiently tight even on my new shape to be worn, even if they are not as tight as the manufacturer´s size recommendations would have it.
Which means sorting out the stretched ones and wearing the new ones as long as possible.
And another shopping trip avoided.
The sheer number of such items I have bought, as well as the fact that there are so many of them still unworn after about seven years, is actually a big red flag for me. Even if something works for me, I do not need more of them than I would need in a maximum of two laundry cycles. Everything above that will likely end up as wardrobe clutter.
Actually, of course, I had been so glad to have found them in my triple x L size at all that I thought I had to buy a stash of them to last me for the next ten or twenty years. What I hadn´t counted on was the possibility that I would lose that excess weight before they were worn out.
But that´s what has happened, and now I have reached a point where I know that even the as yet unworn ones will be too wide soon, if I continue condensing myself. Then again, if and when I´ll have to go shopping for a smaller size, I can tell now how many I really need. As many as there are stretched-out ones in that drawer. And not a single one above that.
It sometimes seems as if the topic of portion control were something that keeps coming back for me. The difference between enough and too much.
But I´m working on it.
Julia
Actually, it´s not as funny as you might think. You see, when I put on that cotton blouse yesterday, I found out that my chest circumference has gone down quite a bit since last summer. And that means that all of my summer blouses I bought at my former weight are getting quite loose up front. That´s not so bad if they button up to my neck, but I have several favorites that have the buttons end about two hands´width benath my throat. When worn by a person of the size they were made for, that´s not too bad in terms of modesty, but now, I can either put a vest on top (and button it) or I might wear a scarf (not so great when it´s hot). Otherwise, the act of bending forward, or even standing opposite someone who is taller than me, will provide any person opposite me with some unwanted insights in the workings of my wardrobe. Having my bra peek out is where I draw the limit of cleavage.
When I was at my top weight, I bought myself, in a last-ditch effort to contain my condensable matter, a whole drawer full of spandex tops in different colors. These are, as they look like ordinary tank tops, modest enough to be peeking out, but...these are getting wide, too!
Replacing all of them would, at the prices they demand for those things, cost half a fortune.
But there´s a chance I won´t have to yet. You see, back then I bought way too many of them, and went on to put them into a drawer for storage. And that means that only the top ones have seen substantial use, while there are actually ones that were pushed to the back of that drawer unworn and remain so to this day. They´re skintone, too, so won´t show through a white blouse. And I discovered, when pulling them out, that the ones I have been continually wearing must have become stretched out beyond the material´s ability to snap back, because the unworn ones are still sufficiently tight even on my new shape to be worn, even if they are not as tight as the manufacturer´s size recommendations would have it.
Which means sorting out the stretched ones and wearing the new ones as long as possible.
And another shopping trip avoided.
The sheer number of such items I have bought, as well as the fact that there are so many of them still unworn after about seven years, is actually a big red flag for me. Even if something works for me, I do not need more of them than I would need in a maximum of two laundry cycles. Everything above that will likely end up as wardrobe clutter.
Actually, of course, I had been so glad to have found them in my triple x L size at all that I thought I had to buy a stash of them to last me for the next ten or twenty years. What I hadn´t counted on was the possibility that I would lose that excess weight before they were worn out.
But that´s what has happened, and now I have reached a point where I know that even the as yet unworn ones will be too wide soon, if I continue condensing myself. Then again, if and when I´ll have to go shopping for a smaller size, I can tell now how many I really need. As many as there are stretched-out ones in that drawer. And not a single one above that.
It sometimes seems as if the topic of portion control were something that keeps coming back for me. The difference between enough and too much.
But I´m working on it.
Julia
2012/05/02
Worker´s Day
As I mentioned earlier, yesterday was a legal holiday in Germany, and the weather, for once, was quite celebratory, too.
DH being out of town, I took the chance to go at the housework that had been left undone over the weekend.
And I found out that sometimes, having the right tools equals the difference between impossible and possible.
Namely, about four years ago the entrance door to our flat had come off its hinges (I guess the workers who installed it didn´t properly fix it in the first place), and, when forcing it open so we could get in, we had left an ugly semi-circle of black markings on the laminate floor from the door scratching against the ground. These had, until now, proved resistant to every method of removal, and I had already assumed that they were damages to the top layer of the floor.
Now, some weeks ago I had discovered a new kind of microfibre cloth at our local drugstore, with a "scratchy" side that doesn´t abrade. These had already helped to get some glue marks off our window sills that the workers who built the place had left, and which also had withstood years of scrubbing at them with other instruments. With the sun shining into our corridor yesterday, those black marks on the floor stood out even more than usual, so I decided to try and remove them.
Ten minutes of elbow grease, fortified by plastic cleaner, later- the supposed scratches had proved to be rub-off from the door insulation, and entirely removable.
Which means that I have a clean entrance again and don´t have to be greeted by something that looks broken any more when coming home.
And I also removed the last of our winter coats from the corridor wardrobe to their respective places inside our freshly aired-out and wiped-down closets. This time, I put moth paper into each coat pocket, as I definitely don´t want another surprise of the holey kind in autumn.
I´m typing this with the windows wide open, and right now, a big fat bumblebee came in, made a beeline around the desk, and flew out again.
Smack in the middle of a city, no less.
As for weight loss, my weight is still going down slowly. But the changes to my body are becoming more evident. Witness the white blouse I´m wearing today. Last year, it was tight-fitting. This year, it´s so wide that I have to button up my leather vest to avoid getting indecent exposure- or wear a tank top beneath, which pretty much nixes the appeal of a white cotton blouse as far as coolness of material is concerned.
NSV of the day: When I sat up in bed this morning, I was looking down at my legs- which look about half as wide as they used to look, but then I flexed my feet a bit and- could actually see my calf muscles move!
For a long time, there was so much fat on my calves that those muscles had been completely hidden from view, so this is a major success.
And the scales say just 27 pounds to go until I am, by BMI, normal-weighted again. More than two thirds of the way, gone.
And I am going onwards.
Julia
DH being out of town, I took the chance to go at the housework that had been left undone over the weekend.
And I found out that sometimes, having the right tools equals the difference between impossible and possible.
Namely, about four years ago the entrance door to our flat had come off its hinges (I guess the workers who installed it didn´t properly fix it in the first place), and, when forcing it open so we could get in, we had left an ugly semi-circle of black markings on the laminate floor from the door scratching against the ground. These had, until now, proved resistant to every method of removal, and I had already assumed that they were damages to the top layer of the floor.
Now, some weeks ago I had discovered a new kind of microfibre cloth at our local drugstore, with a "scratchy" side that doesn´t abrade. These had already helped to get some glue marks off our window sills that the workers who built the place had left, and which also had withstood years of scrubbing at them with other instruments. With the sun shining into our corridor yesterday, those black marks on the floor stood out even more than usual, so I decided to try and remove them.
Ten minutes of elbow grease, fortified by plastic cleaner, later- the supposed scratches had proved to be rub-off from the door insulation, and entirely removable.
Which means that I have a clean entrance again and don´t have to be greeted by something that looks broken any more when coming home.
And I also removed the last of our winter coats from the corridor wardrobe to their respective places inside our freshly aired-out and wiped-down closets. This time, I put moth paper into each coat pocket, as I definitely don´t want another surprise of the holey kind in autumn.
I´m typing this with the windows wide open, and right now, a big fat bumblebee came in, made a beeline around the desk, and flew out again.
Smack in the middle of a city, no less.
As for weight loss, my weight is still going down slowly. But the changes to my body are becoming more evident. Witness the white blouse I´m wearing today. Last year, it was tight-fitting. This year, it´s so wide that I have to button up my leather vest to avoid getting indecent exposure- or wear a tank top beneath, which pretty much nixes the appeal of a white cotton blouse as far as coolness of material is concerned.
NSV of the day: When I sat up in bed this morning, I was looking down at my legs- which look about half as wide as they used to look, but then I flexed my feet a bit and- could actually see my calf muscles move!
For a long time, there was so much fat on my calves that those muscles had been completely hidden from view, so this is a major success.
And the scales say just 27 pounds to go until I am, by BMI, normal-weighted again. More than two thirds of the way, gone.
And I am going onwards.
Julia
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