In Europe, the night between April 30 and May 1st, Walpurgis Night, traditionally is believed to be the night of the great witches' dance on Mount Brocken. In contrast, the First of May, apart being a legal holiday, is usually filled with less pagan merrymaking, dancing, and wecoming the arrival of spring.
Which makes it a good starting place for implementing the changes in my eating plan I wrote about, too.
I'm planning to do a quick grocery run after work, as we are out of eggs and coffee, and I'll pick up some fresh meat, too, and veggies and almonds or cashews.
For some time, I have thought about getting myself a foreman grill. What kept me from buying was that all the models I found had teflon-coated plates. In last weekend's flyer, the supermarket where I shop had a foreman grill with ceramic non-stick coating as a limited offer. If they still have them tonight, I'll give that a try. Any fat-free way of preparing meat or veggies is worth looking into.
I used to use teflon-coated cooking utensils quite a lot, actually, but after I found out what chemicals I was exposing myself to, I have switched to stainless steel or cast iron, both of which need to be greased to keep food from sticking to them. While that might be manageable calorie-wise, there are dishes that are difficult to prepare in pots or pans that heat up quickly and hold the heat for a long time, as both cast-iron and stainless vessels do. If the ceramic coating of the grill works as well as a teflon one, I'll be looking for a pan coated with that stuff, too.
And get rid of my teflon pans for good, while still be able to fry things without added grease.
Every bit helps.
Julia
2013/04/30
2013/04/29
Disposing of the enemy
This weekend, we were staying at our own place. I was attacking what Flylady calls Mount Washmore, namely, two weeks' worth of laundry that had backed up, DH had some paperwork to catch up on, and eating was good. Still, I'm up a pound. I don't know if it's due to TOM or the fact that I had a bit more rest than usual, but I'll take a variation of one pound up over one of four pounds up any day. At least I'm starting the week from a far better place than the last one.
As I have decided to go peanut-free for the next month, I did not restock these before the weekend. And DH, whom I have not informed about my decision, took a good share of the ones left, so they definitely will be out of the house by Wednesday. I'll get me some almonds and cashew nuts instead.
And I tried something new to me. Namely, I bought a big pack of raw spinach, which I used in a lasagna with salmon, onions, and a crumble of feta cheese on Friday, and on Saturday, I put part of the rest into a big bowl of salad.
Making that lasagna gave me another of those d'uh moments. What I used to do when preparing lasagna was, first of all, using four to five layers of noodles. The filling between them used to be the full contents of a pack of ground beef (500 g, that's over a pound). And on top went, regularly, a full 200 g bag of grated cheese. The whole thing, mind you, for two people. And there usually were no leftovers. While I did that recipe rarely, it was a caloric desaster every time.
Today, when I take home ground beef, I immediately divide the pack into two portions, one of which goes straight into the freezer. More than half of what goes into the new version of lasagna is vegetables. Onions, bell peppers, ratatouille mix. Two layers, at most. And I have found out that you can use pureed tomatoes to moisten up the whole thing enough that there is no need for a half-inch cheese crust, either. Which more than halves the calories. Those bags of grated cheese now last through one lasagna plus at least two salads or frittata.
While lasagna will never be something that makes regular appearances in our kitchen because it's rather time- and cleanup-demanding, just stopping throwing the whole package of an ingredient into it makes it a lot less damaging when I do make it.
The aha effect being that I had, at a time when I didn't own a freezer and had to do with a rickety mini refrigerator, gotten into the habit of using the whole content of a package of an ingredient if it was something that would not keep if stored at room temperature once opened.
Rather than throwing it away, I would use it up. What I literally never did was think about just how many servings there were in that pack.
Again and again, what it comes to is portion size. And daring to dispose of food that is too much for myself.
Which is actually a problem for me. There are still two dinner's worth of potatoes in the pantry, and I acually caught myself on a train(wreck) of thought that went like: I have to use these up before Wednesday, darn, if I eat that many potatoes I'll regain lots of weight and be thrown back in my weightloss effort- that was how far I got before stopping myself and realizing that there was absolutely no reason for me to eat those potatoes. If I want them out of the house, I can serve them to DH in small portions. I may even just throw them away.
What made my reluctance to dispose of the potatoes in any other way than by eating them myself even more stupid is that I actually don't even like to eat potatoes. If things were up to me, we would not even buy them at all. DH now, he likes some potatoes with his meat sometimes, so I buy them for him. Then why did I believe it was my responsibility to eat them, too?
And if anybody wants to chide me for having had lasagna at all, I had had nothing but two eggs and two strips of bacon all day because my workday was so darn busy that I didn't even get around to having a protein shake. So, in the toned-down version, it was well within my calorie allowance for the day.
And tonight, it will once more be big salad day.
Julia
As I have decided to go peanut-free for the next month, I did not restock these before the weekend. And DH, whom I have not informed about my decision, took a good share of the ones left, so they definitely will be out of the house by Wednesday. I'll get me some almonds and cashew nuts instead.
And I tried something new to me. Namely, I bought a big pack of raw spinach, which I used in a lasagna with salmon, onions, and a crumble of feta cheese on Friday, and on Saturday, I put part of the rest into a big bowl of salad.
Making that lasagna gave me another of those d'uh moments. What I used to do when preparing lasagna was, first of all, using four to five layers of noodles. The filling between them used to be the full contents of a pack of ground beef (500 g, that's over a pound). And on top went, regularly, a full 200 g bag of grated cheese. The whole thing, mind you, for two people. And there usually were no leftovers. While I did that recipe rarely, it was a caloric desaster every time.
Today, when I take home ground beef, I immediately divide the pack into two portions, one of which goes straight into the freezer. More than half of what goes into the new version of lasagna is vegetables. Onions, bell peppers, ratatouille mix. Two layers, at most. And I have found out that you can use pureed tomatoes to moisten up the whole thing enough that there is no need for a half-inch cheese crust, either. Which more than halves the calories. Those bags of grated cheese now last through one lasagna plus at least two salads or frittata.
While lasagna will never be something that makes regular appearances in our kitchen because it's rather time- and cleanup-demanding, just stopping throwing the whole package of an ingredient into it makes it a lot less damaging when I do make it.
The aha effect being that I had, at a time when I didn't own a freezer and had to do with a rickety mini refrigerator, gotten into the habit of using the whole content of a package of an ingredient if it was something that would not keep if stored at room temperature once opened.
Rather than throwing it away, I would use it up. What I literally never did was think about just how many servings there were in that pack.
Again and again, what it comes to is portion size. And daring to dispose of food that is too much for myself.
Which is actually a problem for me. There are still two dinner's worth of potatoes in the pantry, and I acually caught myself on a train(wreck) of thought that went like: I have to use these up before Wednesday, darn, if I eat that many potatoes I'll regain lots of weight and be thrown back in my weightloss effort- that was how far I got before stopping myself and realizing that there was absolutely no reason for me to eat those potatoes. If I want them out of the house, I can serve them to DH in small portions. I may even just throw them away.
What made my reluctance to dispose of the potatoes in any other way than by eating them myself even more stupid is that I actually don't even like to eat potatoes. If things were up to me, we would not even buy them at all. DH now, he likes some potatoes with his meat sometimes, so I buy them for him. Then why did I believe it was my responsibility to eat them, too?
And if anybody wants to chide me for having had lasagna at all, I had had nothing but two eggs and two strips of bacon all day because my workday was so darn busy that I didn't even get around to having a protein shake. So, in the toned-down version, it was well within my calorie allowance for the day.
And tonight, it will once more be big salad day.
Julia
2013/04/26
Peanuts
When the banking crisis in Europe first hit the fan, one prominent spokesman of a large bank conjured up a shitstorm by calling a seven-digit sum " peanuts". The expression even went into common usage here in Germany. Peanuts=a trifle.
So this is what I am going to pull through in May. No legumes, including said peanuts. And no bread or pastry and such like. And no potatoes. And no sugar.
Rice in small amounts and durum wheat pasta, also in small amounts, will stay a part of my diet, so will dairy products and my usual protein shakes.
The mainstay of what I eat will be vegetables, fruit and lean meats, fish, and poultry. I'll also skip the canola oil for olive, walnut, and lard and cocos fat for frying.
If what the Whole30 guys say is true, there ought to be some improvement from that already.
What made me decide on this was an observation I made this week concerning my digestion. (attention, TMI).
After eating bread and donuts at MIL's last weekend, I had diarrhea for four days straight. My innards were bubbling like some cauldron, and what came out was completely liquid. I had no more bread or such after Monday, and today is the first day things are back to normal. As I had not eaten bread for some time before that, either, what I put my indigestion down to is bread, or probably gluten, though I suspect it might be something other not found in durum wheat, because durum wheat pasta doesn't have that effect on me bread does.
The four pounds I gained over the weekend are gone again, too. Now I must remember not to deviate from my eating plan on this weekend. Having wasted another week on losing the same four pounds over again is annoying. But then, I ought to have known, and employed better eating discipline.
Oh the 20-20 vision of hindsight...
Julia
So this is what I am going to pull through in May. No legumes, including said peanuts. And no bread or pastry and such like. And no potatoes. And no sugar.
Rice in small amounts and durum wheat pasta, also in small amounts, will stay a part of my diet, so will dairy products and my usual protein shakes.
The mainstay of what I eat will be vegetables, fruit and lean meats, fish, and poultry. I'll also skip the canola oil for olive, walnut, and lard and cocos fat for frying.
If what the Whole30 guys say is true, there ought to be some improvement from that already.
What made me decide on this was an observation I made this week concerning my digestion. (attention, TMI).
After eating bread and donuts at MIL's last weekend, I had diarrhea for four days straight. My innards were bubbling like some cauldron, and what came out was completely liquid. I had no more bread or such after Monday, and today is the first day things are back to normal. As I had not eaten bread for some time before that, either, what I put my indigestion down to is bread, or probably gluten, though I suspect it might be something other not found in durum wheat, because durum wheat pasta doesn't have that effect on me bread does.
The four pounds I gained over the weekend are gone again, too. Now I must remember not to deviate from my eating plan on this weekend. Having wasted another week on losing the same four pounds over again is annoying. But then, I ought to have known, and employed better eating discipline.
Oh the 20-20 vision of hindsight...
Julia
2013/04/25
Keeping on deliberating
We still have plenty of those things in the pantry that would be off limits with a Whole 30. Milk, mainly, pasta and rice. Those, I could bag up for the duration. Those last potatoes in the pantry closet, not so. As the peanut stash is down to the last two packs anyway, I could buy cashew nuts or almonds instead. The sugar part would mean to Just Say No, which I mostly do anyway.
I'd still have to find a sugar-free replacement for the milk in my coffee. Almond milk, which someone mentioned on the forum, is sold only in expensive health food stores hereabouts.
Exchanging my happy hour glass of beer with a cup of tea or a glass of water might feel strange, but it's doable, especially as it is actually mostly about DH and myself sitting together to unwind and less about what beverage we have.
The real biggie is the smokes.
I first started smoking at age sixteen (the age that it becomes legal hereabouts) and went on right up to age forty. Then, I quit. And proceeded to have insomnia, panic attacks, you name it. The prescription meds I got made me gain 40 pounds in a mere six weeks, so I went off them. What finally helped me conquer those symptoms was the realization that I was probably serotonine-deficient, so I started taking vitamins and protein shakes to up my serotonine level. The insomnia and panic attacks ceased. The extra fat stayed.
Fast forward seven years.
Seven smoke-free years, mind you. I was so certain I'd never restart again.
And then my weight went below what it had been when I quit smoking. All of a sudden, the craving for a cigarette was back in full force. I have no idea whether that was from any stored residues in the fat I was losing, that were going into my bloodstream, but it's highly possible if fat stores really work like "last gained, first lost". In that case, those last forty pounds I gained wouldn't have had any residue from smoking stored. But those acquired before that did.
I relapsed. Not as badly as before quitting (I used to chain-smoke up to four packs a day), but still at a rate of about one pack a day.
Mega monumentally fucking dumb. I know.
Almost as dumb was getting back into the habit of having a smoke after eating, to stop myself from continuing to eat.
So, on the one side I know that I have been getting along without cigarettes for seven years. Before that, I would not have thought I could do that even for a day, so, this is one thing less to fear about quitting.
On the other side is the memory of those panic attacks (which went on much longer than actual nicotine withdrawal). While I now know the probable cause, I still don't want to have any of them, ever again. To prevent them, I would have to use protein shakes and vitamins again, preventively this time.
Did I mention protein shakes would be off limits with a Whole 30?
So how to raise my serotonine instead if I must not smoke, either?
BAM!
That was the sound of me kicking myself for restarting to smoke at all.
Once a wrong pathway is laid in the brain, it's all too easy to slide back into the old rut, even if you didn't activate that pathway for some time.
That goes for cigarettes as well as for cupcakes.
I'm interested in the concept of doing a Whole 30. But I don't think I'd make it. Perhaps try out the concept for a week, but right now, I have plenty of stressors in my life without adding to them. When the boat is loaded to the point that the sides are just an inch above the waterline, you don't start rocking it, quite simply. So, until some of that load has gone, I'll stick to applying those parts that fit in with my situation. Any change for the better is good, isn't it?
Julia
I'd still have to find a sugar-free replacement for the milk in my coffee. Almond milk, which someone mentioned on the forum, is sold only in expensive health food stores hereabouts.
Exchanging my happy hour glass of beer with a cup of tea or a glass of water might feel strange, but it's doable, especially as it is actually mostly about DH and myself sitting together to unwind and less about what beverage we have.
The real biggie is the smokes.
I first started smoking at age sixteen (the age that it becomes legal hereabouts) and went on right up to age forty. Then, I quit. And proceeded to have insomnia, panic attacks, you name it. The prescription meds I got made me gain 40 pounds in a mere six weeks, so I went off them. What finally helped me conquer those symptoms was the realization that I was probably serotonine-deficient, so I started taking vitamins and protein shakes to up my serotonine level. The insomnia and panic attacks ceased. The extra fat stayed.
Fast forward seven years.
Seven smoke-free years, mind you. I was so certain I'd never restart again.
And then my weight went below what it had been when I quit smoking. All of a sudden, the craving for a cigarette was back in full force. I have no idea whether that was from any stored residues in the fat I was losing, that were going into my bloodstream, but it's highly possible if fat stores really work like "last gained, first lost". In that case, those last forty pounds I gained wouldn't have had any residue from smoking stored. But those acquired before that did.
I relapsed. Not as badly as before quitting (I used to chain-smoke up to four packs a day), but still at a rate of about one pack a day.
Mega monumentally fucking dumb. I know.
Almost as dumb was getting back into the habit of having a smoke after eating, to stop myself from continuing to eat.
So, on the one side I know that I have been getting along without cigarettes for seven years. Before that, I would not have thought I could do that even for a day, so, this is one thing less to fear about quitting.
On the other side is the memory of those panic attacks (which went on much longer than actual nicotine withdrawal). While I now know the probable cause, I still don't want to have any of them, ever again. To prevent them, I would have to use protein shakes and vitamins again, preventively this time.
Did I mention protein shakes would be off limits with a Whole 30?
So how to raise my serotonine instead if I must not smoke, either?
BAM!
That was the sound of me kicking myself for restarting to smoke at all.
Once a wrong pathway is laid in the brain, it's all too easy to slide back into the old rut, even if you didn't activate that pathway for some time.
That goes for cigarettes as well as for cupcakes.
I'm interested in the concept of doing a Whole 30. But I don't think I'd make it. Perhaps try out the concept for a week, but right now, I have plenty of stressors in my life without adding to them. When the boat is loaded to the point that the sides are just an inch above the waterline, you don't start rocking it, quite simply. So, until some of that load has gone, I'll stick to applying those parts that fit in with my situation. Any change for the better is good, isn't it?
Julia
2013/04/24
Whole 30 challenge
Over at the forum, people are all gung ho about doing a whole 30 challenge in May.
Looking at the rules, to me, that would make a big challenge for several reasons, while other parts might even be easy.
I've copied the rules (www.notnormajean.freeforums.net/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=79&page=2) and interspersed them with my personal thoughts on them.Paragraphs with bullet points are from the forum.
•Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels (and your Success Guide FAQ), because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.
That should be relatively easy, as I barely ever use sugar anyway.
•Do not consume alcohol, in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)
The two red flags... if the thought of giving up my single after-work glass of beer makes me balk like that perhaps I'd better get out of the habit.... And tobacco? I still smoke about a pack a day, and the last time I quit for a longer period of time I gained those thirty kilos I just got rid of. So, going smokeless is scary stuff to me. More so if I should cut down on other things at the same time, too.
•Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. Yes, we said corn… for the purposes of this program, corn is a grain! This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.
Going without rice and pasta? Not what I am used to but doable. The other stuff has mostly gone from my shopping list anyway.
•Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).
No peanuts? Oy vey! If there is any one food that I never allow myself to run out of it's peanuts. But perhaps almonds would serve as well?
•Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)
That one would be hard. I use milk in my coffee, eat greek yoghurt and use cheese when cooking or as a snack food. And the protein powder I use has milk protein, too, so it would probably come under this as well as under the soybean interdiction above.
•Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.
Doable if one watches out for ingredients.
•Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold and fingerling potatoes off your plate. (Refer to your Success Guide FAQ for details).
I rarely ever buy potatoes anyway, so this one is easy.
So, the things I'd find hard to give up completely are peanuts, milk, alcohol and cigarettes.
Among the forum crowd, the latter two problems would probably earn me a good dressing-down.
Actually, the milk and peanuts part is as scary.
Then again, what I mostly use them for is snacking. Eating them, not as part of a meal, but as something to grab on the go and snarf down, all too often while doing something else.
Giving up all of those at once? What would I do/ eat instead?
Especially, what would I do if nicotine withdrawal were driving me up the walls? I could not even take peppermint drops or chewing gum to fight those cravings. Chewing on a stalk of celery instead?
Just thinking about all of this makes me realize how many things I have allowed to become habits which probably aren't good for me. Giving them up for thirty days might thus be a good idea.
There I go again, sitting on the fence.
Maybe I should rather jump.
Julia
Looking at the rules, to me, that would make a big challenge for several reasons, while other parts might even be easy.
I've copied the rules (www.notnormajean.freeforums.net/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=79&page=2) and interspersed them with my personal thoughts on them.Paragraphs with bullet points are from the forum.
•Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels (and your Success Guide FAQ), because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.
That should be relatively easy, as I barely ever use sugar anyway.
•Do not consume alcohol, in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)
The two red flags... if the thought of giving up my single after-work glass of beer makes me balk like that perhaps I'd better get out of the habit.... And tobacco? I still smoke about a pack a day, and the last time I quit for a longer period of time I gained those thirty kilos I just got rid of. So, going smokeless is scary stuff to me. More so if I should cut down on other things at the same time, too.
•Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. Yes, we said corn… for the purposes of this program, corn is a grain! This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.
Going without rice and pasta? Not what I am used to but doable. The other stuff has mostly gone from my shopping list anyway.
•Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).
No peanuts? Oy vey! If there is any one food that I never allow myself to run out of it's peanuts. But perhaps almonds would serve as well?
•Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)
That one would be hard. I use milk in my coffee, eat greek yoghurt and use cheese when cooking or as a snack food. And the protein powder I use has milk protein, too, so it would probably come under this as well as under the soybean interdiction above.
•Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.
Doable if one watches out for ingredients.
•Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold and fingerling potatoes off your plate. (Refer to your Success Guide FAQ for details).
I rarely ever buy potatoes anyway, so this one is easy.
So, the things I'd find hard to give up completely are peanuts, milk, alcohol and cigarettes.
Among the forum crowd, the latter two problems would probably earn me a good dressing-down.
Actually, the milk and peanuts part is as scary.
Then again, what I mostly use them for is snacking. Eating them, not as part of a meal, but as something to grab on the go and snarf down, all too often while doing something else.
Giving up all of those at once? What would I do/ eat instead?
Especially, what would I do if nicotine withdrawal were driving me up the walls? I could not even take peppermint drops or chewing gum to fight those cravings. Chewing on a stalk of celery instead?
Just thinking about all of this makes me realize how many things I have allowed to become habits which probably aren't good for me. Giving them up for thirty days might thus be a good idea.
There I go again, sitting on the fence.
Maybe I should rather jump.
Julia
2013/04/23
The return of the weekend fairy
There I was, glad to see the scale moving down again. And then came another weekend at MIL's. The old lady wants three meals a day, and, as she would eat much too little if left to her own devices, we are regularly trying to encourage her to eat more when we are there.
Unfortunately, the easiest way to do so is eating along with her.
So, it's three meals instead of my habitual two, it's rolls for breakfast, coffee and cake in the afternoon, and sandwiches with deli sausage and cheese in the evening, all of which on top of my regular regimen of "two eggs and two strips of bacon for breakfast, no bread, and a vegetable- and- protein dinner ", as she wants to eat the meal that in our household is served as dinner for lunch instead.The problem being that she needs the refeeding and I most certainly don't.
Once more, thus, I have returned from that weekend with a four-pound gain and a severely upset stomach on top. Now if I knew how to make the old lady eat without sharing in those meals... but I don't. However appetizingly I prepare her food, if we ( DH and myself) don't dig in along with her, she'll either refuse to eat at all or drop her fork after too few bites, claiming she is full. If I then put the same thing out for us and she sees us eat, she might well end up clearing her plate completely.
What is weighing me down ( pun intended) is that we go down there twice a month by now because she has been growing frailer, and all I manage in between those visits is repairing the damages from the last one, weight-wise.
Effectively, I end up stuck.
On the one hand, I want to keep the old lady sufficiently fed, on the other hand what I have to do to achieve that keeps me from my much greater wish of finally getting to recondense that extra weight.
I'll have to find another way of getting around this.
Julia
Unfortunately, the easiest way to do so is eating along with her.
So, it's three meals instead of my habitual two, it's rolls for breakfast, coffee and cake in the afternoon, and sandwiches with deli sausage and cheese in the evening, all of which on top of my regular regimen of "two eggs and two strips of bacon for breakfast, no bread, and a vegetable- and- protein dinner ", as she wants to eat the meal that in our household is served as dinner for lunch instead.The problem being that she needs the refeeding and I most certainly don't.
Once more, thus, I have returned from that weekend with a four-pound gain and a severely upset stomach on top. Now if I knew how to make the old lady eat without sharing in those meals... but I don't. However appetizingly I prepare her food, if we ( DH and myself) don't dig in along with her, she'll either refuse to eat at all or drop her fork after too few bites, claiming she is full. If I then put the same thing out for us and she sees us eat, she might well end up clearing her plate completely.
What is weighing me down ( pun intended) is that we go down there twice a month by now because she has been growing frailer, and all I manage in between those visits is repairing the damages from the last one, weight-wise.
Effectively, I end up stuck.
On the one hand, I want to keep the old lady sufficiently fed, on the other hand what I have to do to achieve that keeps me from my much greater wish of finally getting to recondense that extra weight.
I'll have to find another way of getting around this.
Julia
2013/04/19
When will I learn...?
...that eating two slices of rye bread will wipe out most of the progress made in the preceding days?
And most of all, not be dumb enough to assume that the effect will be less pronounced because it is rye and not wheat?
The daily weigh-ins I do are making me quite aware of such things, unfortunately, after the fact.
The caloric reduction that comes with eating those salads for dinner (a bowlful of diced veggies, no carbs except those in the veggies, one tablespoon of oil in the dressing for a whole bowl, and one can of tuna preserved in water was yesterday's mix, plus a few non-caloric spices) has, by now, resulted in my being rather more hungry than usual, which leads to poor choices when coming home from work too famished to wait for DH to come home and dinner.
I am, actually, planning to pick up some ready-to-crunch veggies to be reserved for me and those crucial sixty minutes after coming home on our next grocery run. Perhaps I'll find a good recipe for a dip online, perhaps some kind of hummus (which I have not eaten yet, but I'm curious) or a guacamole if I find avocado on sale (they are, right now, prohibitively expensive).
I'll see what is available...
While I have been re-starting to lose these last weeks, the losses are painfully slow, at about half the going rate I'd need for getting to goal before next March. So, I still have to cut down on my calories.
I'm not giving up. Not after getting two thirds of the way there.
Now if my body would be a bit more cooperative...
Julia
And most of all, not be dumb enough to assume that the effect will be less pronounced because it is rye and not wheat?
The daily weigh-ins I do are making me quite aware of such things, unfortunately, after the fact.
The caloric reduction that comes with eating those salads for dinner (a bowlful of diced veggies, no carbs except those in the veggies, one tablespoon of oil in the dressing for a whole bowl, and one can of tuna preserved in water was yesterday's mix, plus a few non-caloric spices) has, by now, resulted in my being rather more hungry than usual, which leads to poor choices when coming home from work too famished to wait for DH to come home and dinner.
I am, actually, planning to pick up some ready-to-crunch veggies to be reserved for me and those crucial sixty minutes after coming home on our next grocery run. Perhaps I'll find a good recipe for a dip online, perhaps some kind of hummus (which I have not eaten yet, but I'm curious) or a guacamole if I find avocado on sale (they are, right now, prohibitively expensive).
I'll see what is available...
While I have been re-starting to lose these last weeks, the losses are painfully slow, at about half the going rate I'd need for getting to goal before next March. So, I still have to cut down on my calories.
I'm not giving up. Not after getting two thirds of the way there.
Now if my body would be a bit more cooperative...
Julia
2013/04/18
Raw-rrrr!
Due to the limited storage capacities in my kitchen and the fact that we grocery shop, at most, biweekly, for the longest time, produce, in our household, meant almost exclusively pre-cut and frozen vegetables which were then heated up for eating. While that is still better than no veggies at all, it's probably less than optimal as to nutritients.
About three weeks ago, I acquired a brand-new refrigerator. It was a present from my parents, and at their suggestion, I picked a big model with all the bells and whistles.The most important difference to my old fridge is that it has two drawers in the cooling compartment. One of them can be regulated down to almost the point of freezing, and that is where produce goes. My parents have a fridge like that and kept rhapsodizing about how fresh it keeps everything, so, I was pretty curious how that thing would work out.
In short- my parents were right. For the first time in ages, I have been buying radicchio, iceberg salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and lamb's lettuce, all in amounts that were too big to be eaten at one meal. All in all, about two weeks' worth of greens. Had I done that under the old conditions, I would have ended up throwing away at least half of what I bought because it would have spoiled faster than we could eat it. This time, I had ample time to use up everything. That crisper drawer really keeps the produce fresh much longer than just dumping them into an ordinary fridge. Highly recommendable for everybody who enjoy their salad and greens.
What with being able to store fresh raw produce now, in the state it grew in instead of all mushy when thawed, I am actually going to try out some new things, namely, raw veggies which I have only known cooked or at least steamed. Spinach is one thing that comes to mind, and broccoli. Kale, which is supposed to be very nutritious, too, is, unfortunately, only available fresh here in late autumn. But I'll keep looking for it.
What with having a big ass salad of mixed fresh greens seasoned with olive oil and a can of sardines, or tuna, or some browned bacon bits on top almost every day for two weeks, it has been easier for me to stay below my calories and within my carb allotment.
Which has led to a slight case of the so-called carb flu, I think. But that is a passing thing. The better nutrition makes more than up for it.
And my weight is finally going downwards again, slowly but noticeably.
Julia
About three weeks ago, I acquired a brand-new refrigerator. It was a present from my parents, and at their suggestion, I picked a big model with all the bells and whistles.The most important difference to my old fridge is that it has two drawers in the cooling compartment. One of them can be regulated down to almost the point of freezing, and that is where produce goes. My parents have a fridge like that and kept rhapsodizing about how fresh it keeps everything, so, I was pretty curious how that thing would work out.
In short- my parents were right. For the first time in ages, I have been buying radicchio, iceberg salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and lamb's lettuce, all in amounts that were too big to be eaten at one meal. All in all, about two weeks' worth of greens. Had I done that under the old conditions, I would have ended up throwing away at least half of what I bought because it would have spoiled faster than we could eat it. This time, I had ample time to use up everything. That crisper drawer really keeps the produce fresh much longer than just dumping them into an ordinary fridge. Highly recommendable for everybody who enjoy their salad and greens.
What with being able to store fresh raw produce now, in the state it grew in instead of all mushy when thawed, I am actually going to try out some new things, namely, raw veggies which I have only known cooked or at least steamed. Spinach is one thing that comes to mind, and broccoli. Kale, which is supposed to be very nutritious, too, is, unfortunately, only available fresh here in late autumn. But I'll keep looking for it.
What with having a big ass salad of mixed fresh greens seasoned with olive oil and a can of sardines, or tuna, or some browned bacon bits on top almost every day for two weeks, it has been easier for me to stay below my calories and within my carb allotment.
Which has led to a slight case of the so-called carb flu, I think. But that is a passing thing. The better nutrition makes more than up for it.
And my weight is finally going downwards again, slowly but noticeably.
Julia
2013/04/17
Limitations of the possible
After more than one year of, for all practical purposes, dithering around the same old weight, plus or minus a bit, I should suppose that by now, my body has fully adapted to being at said weight, namely, just around the limit of obesity.
Coming from a BMI of over 40, getting to around 30 has been making quite a difference in how I live. I feel better, I can move better, I look better.
But this is just two thirds of the way to the place I really want to be, namely, being normal-weighted again. I still have fifteen kilograms to go until there.
Losing the first thirty kilos took me about two years.
During that time, my basal metabolic rate went down about by 300 cal./day, just from losing the weight.
Which means that now I may eat 300 cal. less to achieve the same results. Or I need to expend 300 cal. more.
Even then, what I may consume runs around 1300 calories a day, giving me an average loss of about 350 grams (0.7 pounds) a week if I want to get to goal by the time I'm turning fifty.
While I know that that kind of mathematics is far from precise, it keeps me from getting my hopes up too high as to what is possible for me to achieve,
Those 1300 calories have, in my experience, been a level I feel rather comfortable with when it comes to eating. I can have three meals of real food a day on that, plus a healthy snack ( as in yoghurt or an apple), and I'm not ravenously hungry all the time.
But, the weight comes off slowly.
Faster losses would mean eating even less, or using up a lot more by exercise, without eating more afterwards.
My impatience is telling me to go for it anyway. Reason tells me I must not risk taking in too little fuel to properly nourish those pounds I want to keep. I did that once, living off prepackaged 800 calories a day for several months, until the day I fell on my face fainting in the University library. What with my present (much higher) workload I cannot risk anything of the kind happening again. So, it's not a matter of making excuses, really. I have to stay in working order even if it means taking longer to get that weight off.
And once again, getting my body back into recondensing mode takes quite a while. During the last weeks, I mostly stayed under my calories for the day, which is good, and I got plenty of fresh, nutritious real food.
There ought to be some results coming for that, no?
Julia
Coming from a BMI of over 40, getting to around 30 has been making quite a difference in how I live. I feel better, I can move better, I look better.
But this is just two thirds of the way to the place I really want to be, namely, being normal-weighted again. I still have fifteen kilograms to go until there.
Losing the first thirty kilos took me about two years.
During that time, my basal metabolic rate went down about by 300 cal./day, just from losing the weight.
Which means that now I may eat 300 cal. less to achieve the same results. Or I need to expend 300 cal. more.
Even then, what I may consume runs around 1300 calories a day, giving me an average loss of about 350 grams (0.7 pounds) a week if I want to get to goal by the time I'm turning fifty.
While I know that that kind of mathematics is far from precise, it keeps me from getting my hopes up too high as to what is possible for me to achieve,
Those 1300 calories have, in my experience, been a level I feel rather comfortable with when it comes to eating. I can have three meals of real food a day on that, plus a healthy snack ( as in yoghurt or an apple), and I'm not ravenously hungry all the time.
But, the weight comes off slowly.
Faster losses would mean eating even less, or using up a lot more by exercise, without eating more afterwards.
My impatience is telling me to go for it anyway. Reason tells me I must not risk taking in too little fuel to properly nourish those pounds I want to keep. I did that once, living off prepackaged 800 calories a day for several months, until the day I fell on my face fainting in the University library. What with my present (much higher) workload I cannot risk anything of the kind happening again. So, it's not a matter of making excuses, really. I have to stay in working order even if it means taking longer to get that weight off.
And once again, getting my body back into recondensing mode takes quite a while. During the last weeks, I mostly stayed under my calories for the day, which is good, and I got plenty of fresh, nutritious real food.
There ought to be some results coming for that, no?
Julia
2013/04/15
Out of shape
Finally, warmer weather has arrived. This morning I woke up to bright sunlight, blue sky dotted with small white clouds, and temperatures that seem warm in comparison to what we used to have. So, I decided to walk to work instead of using the tram.
It isn't that far, about twenty minutes' distance. Still, I found myself slightly out of breath on arriving. Last autumn, I would walk that distance without feeling any exertion. The enforced rest over several months seems to have a worse impact on my shape than I thought. High time, thus, to get moving again.
The new refrigerator having arrived two weeks ago, I am taking advantage of the extra space and the vegetable crisper it has. We've been having fresh vegetable salads almost daily, and it's almost as if my body were sighing in contentment at finally getting the fresh stuff again instead of frozen and cooked vegetables.
Weight-wise, the curve is slowly turning back downwards again. I'll keep walking to and from work this week, to get started again, and then go on to resuming my morning walks in the park. Being so out of shape was not what I expected to happen. but then again, while I was busy most of the time it wasn't the physical kind of busy. Nor was the fatigue I have been feeling due to physical exertion. Getting back to moving regularly might even lessen it. And the sunshine will also help. Nothing like a walk in the sunshine to kick up those endorphins.
So, I should not let my fatigue get the better of me.
Julia
It isn't that far, about twenty minutes' distance. Still, I found myself slightly out of breath on arriving. Last autumn, I would walk that distance without feeling any exertion. The enforced rest over several months seems to have a worse impact on my shape than I thought. High time, thus, to get moving again.
The new refrigerator having arrived two weeks ago, I am taking advantage of the extra space and the vegetable crisper it has. We've been having fresh vegetable salads almost daily, and it's almost as if my body were sighing in contentment at finally getting the fresh stuff again instead of frozen and cooked vegetables.
Weight-wise, the curve is slowly turning back downwards again. I'll keep walking to and from work this week, to get started again, and then go on to resuming my morning walks in the park. Being so out of shape was not what I expected to happen. but then again, while I was busy most of the time it wasn't the physical kind of busy. Nor was the fatigue I have been feeling due to physical exertion. Getting back to moving regularly might even lessen it. And the sunshine will also help. Nothing like a walk in the sunshine to kick up those endorphins.
So, I should not let my fatigue get the better of me.
Julia
2013/04/11
Harbingers of spring
Sometimes, my job requires me to travel outside of the city I live in. Today was such a day, with an " outside" appointment that will be keeping me out of town well into the afternoon.
The vegetation in the forests and on the fields is still a drab, dried-out brownish color, with nary a sign that anything might be blooming or growing leaves anytime soon. But in the garden of a villa I passed by en route to my appointment, I was delighted to see a flowering carpet of snowbells and purple croci.
In my corner of the world, those usually come out in early March, so, with the freaky cold weather we've been having these last weeks, Nature's a good month behind schedule.
Which means one more month where walking for exercise was out of the question unless I were keen on catching pneumonia, as the only time I could regularly carve out the time for exercise is the early morning, and we've been having sub-zero temperatures every morning for several months in a row.
As I had to cut out my lunchtime walks, too, due to the high workload that kept me at my desk over lunch break, I'm actually having a bit of a case of being eager to get moving again. So, I'll take my walking equipment out of storage and lay it out ready for use as soon as the warmer weather that has been forecast really arrives.
For those wondering- I do my nordic walking in a public park. For one, the route is not safe when it is dark, there have been several attacks there on women in that area. So, I stick to exercizing there only when it's daylight, thank you very much. And they don't shovel away the snow and ice there, either, so in winter the pathways(no tarmac) are either slippery as hell or ankle-deep in slush. Which is why I prefer not to use them in winter. Usually, that results in a hiatus of no more than two or three months where conditions don't permit my morning walking. Being, in spite of my good intentions, kept from walking till well into April is a first.
So, I am hoping for spring to finally arrive. Maybe it really takes exercise to get that condensable matter off me again.
Julia
The vegetation in the forests and on the fields is still a drab, dried-out brownish color, with nary a sign that anything might be blooming or growing leaves anytime soon. But in the garden of a villa I passed by en route to my appointment, I was delighted to see a flowering carpet of snowbells and purple croci.
In my corner of the world, those usually come out in early March, so, with the freaky cold weather we've been having these last weeks, Nature's a good month behind schedule.
Which means one more month where walking for exercise was out of the question unless I were keen on catching pneumonia, as the only time I could regularly carve out the time for exercise is the early morning, and we've been having sub-zero temperatures every morning for several months in a row.
As I had to cut out my lunchtime walks, too, due to the high workload that kept me at my desk over lunch break, I'm actually having a bit of a case of being eager to get moving again. So, I'll take my walking equipment out of storage and lay it out ready for use as soon as the warmer weather that has been forecast really arrives.
For those wondering- I do my nordic walking in a public park. For one, the route is not safe when it is dark, there have been several attacks there on women in that area. So, I stick to exercizing there only when it's daylight, thank you very much. And they don't shovel away the snow and ice there, either, so in winter the pathways(no tarmac) are either slippery as hell or ankle-deep in slush. Which is why I prefer not to use them in winter. Usually, that results in a hiatus of no more than two or three months where conditions don't permit my morning walking. Being, in spite of my good intentions, kept from walking till well into April is a first.
So, I am hoping for spring to finally arrive. Maybe it really takes exercise to get that condensable matter off me again.
Julia
2013/04/10
Explanations or excuses?
For the first time in several weeks, I am back below the limit of obesity. While that is in and of itself good news, it is the third time I've been crossing that invisible border, after two ugly-looking upward bumps in my weight curve.
Looking at that graph is, of course, something that makes me try to analyze the reasons why, for over a year now, I have stopped recondensing.
The usual suspects?
I had a shitload of work and plenty of stressors in my life. I had too little sleep. I stopped exercising. I kept having cravings for things that were no good for me.
I stopped journalling what I ate and measuring my portions.
And I kept slipping back every time I started to get back to doing it. Too fucking tired was my usual excuse.
Those abortive attempts at getting back on the wagon did, at least, keep me from gaining it all back. It would have been entirely possible for me to go off the rails completely and regain all seventy pounds in a year- after all I did manage to gain 44 pounds in three months once already.
Still, being stuck between 72 and 61 pounds lost (my lowest/ highest point during that year) is not something I am patting myself on the back for when I still had 26 pounds to go to goal even at that lowest point I had reached.
So what happened ?
I started on this journey extremely motivated and single-mindedly sticking to my plan.
One big motivation was wanting to get to normal weight before last January's family reunion because I wanted to be slim when having to meet my relatives.
That date has passed, and with it the motivation attached to it.
My physical limitations brought on by morbid obesity have been greatly reduced.
Quite simply, close to just overweight doesn't hurt as much as being morbidly obese.
And the next target date, being normal-weighted by the time I turned fifty, was too far in the future to keep me sticking tightly to the original plan. I am a terrible procrastinator, and I was also procrastinating about weight loss.
All of the above might be the reason I got stuck.
And all of the above are just excuses. Lousy ones at that.
I did not stick to my plan. I ate too much and moved too little. And I started looking for excuses why I did that.
That are the facts.
I can, of course, keep wallowing in excuses.
And remain stranded at Grand Central Station with the other trainwrecks.
Or I can pull myself back up on the rails by my bootstraps, and continue my journey where I interrupted myself.
It's a choice.
One that I make with every bite I eat.
I want to be back to normal weight by next March. It is still doable.
So I'd better ditch the excuses fast and get back to work. Immediately.
Julia
Looking at that graph is, of course, something that makes me try to analyze the reasons why, for over a year now, I have stopped recondensing.
The usual suspects?
I had a shitload of work and plenty of stressors in my life. I had too little sleep. I stopped exercising. I kept having cravings for things that were no good for me.
I stopped journalling what I ate and measuring my portions.
And I kept slipping back every time I started to get back to doing it. Too fucking tired was my usual excuse.
Those abortive attempts at getting back on the wagon did, at least, keep me from gaining it all back. It would have been entirely possible for me to go off the rails completely and regain all seventy pounds in a year- after all I did manage to gain 44 pounds in three months once already.
Still, being stuck between 72 and 61 pounds lost (my lowest/ highest point during that year) is not something I am patting myself on the back for when I still had 26 pounds to go to goal even at that lowest point I had reached.
So what happened ?
I started on this journey extremely motivated and single-mindedly sticking to my plan.
One big motivation was wanting to get to normal weight before last January's family reunion because I wanted to be slim when having to meet my relatives.
That date has passed, and with it the motivation attached to it.
My physical limitations brought on by morbid obesity have been greatly reduced.
Quite simply, close to just overweight doesn't hurt as much as being morbidly obese.
And the next target date, being normal-weighted by the time I turned fifty, was too far in the future to keep me sticking tightly to the original plan. I am a terrible procrastinator, and I was also procrastinating about weight loss.
All of the above might be the reason I got stuck.
And all of the above are just excuses. Lousy ones at that.
I did not stick to my plan. I ate too much and moved too little. And I started looking for excuses why I did that.
That are the facts.
I can, of course, keep wallowing in excuses.
And remain stranded at Grand Central Station with the other trainwrecks.
Or I can pull myself back up on the rails by my bootstraps, and continue my journey where I interrupted myself.
It's a choice.
One that I make with every bite I eat.
I want to be back to normal weight by next March. It is still doable.
So I'd better ditch the excuses fast and get back to work. Immediately.
Julia
2013/04/08
New tool and old insights
If I were to apply Norma's yardstick to my own situation, I'd have to call myself a resident of Grand Central station.
A link in a blog she mentioned led me to discover that there is indeed an app to go with the Hacker's diet aka Physics diet weight recording scheme I use. It's called Fat Watch, and it has even more ways to analyze the data than the other one. Most of all, it has retina display quality graphics, with colour contrasting backgrounds for the different BMI stages so the curve goes into the red as soon as one hits obesity, and you can set up a goal which also is displayed. As I am a very visually-oriented person, that kind of thing is highly motivating for me and well worth the five euros it cost.
So, I spent part of the weekend manually transferring the data back to August 2010 ( that's when my weight finally started going down) into the new app. Seeing the resulting curve for the last year was sobering, as was reading the evaluation that went with it. Namely, if my weight keeps developing in the direction it did last year, or even in the last months, I can kiss my dream goal good bye. I would actually regain.
Not that I did not have the data before, but seeing it spelled out for me to see and read like that is driving home just how deep I'd gone into denial about what was happening.
What I had convinced myself was maintaining did actually turn out to be a slow regain. Slow enough to be barely noticeable from day to day, but adding up to, per today, seven and a half pounds that have crept back from my lowest point last May. 3.4 kilograms. Gained.
Definitely not the thirteen kilos I had wanted to lose in that time.
The bummer is that I have, during that year, not been overeating like I used to do. I haven't binged on cookies, nor did I bury myself in bucketloads of vanilla pudding or nuts. Statistically, I ate just 32 calories a day more than I should have in order to really maintain.
I also ate, statistically, 233 calories more than I should have to reach my hoped-for loss of half a pound a week.
Which adds up to 265 calories a day, on average, which I should either not have consumed or have burnt with excercise.
265 calories I did, once more, not realize I was ingesting too much.
If I still want to get to goal by my next birthday, that means that, having squandered another three months regaining, I now need to reduce my intake by some three hundred calories a day, if possible, plus a safety margin.
I'm glad that this extremely long winter seems to be on the way out. Cheaper veggies than in winter and a chance to get back into my walking routine without immediate danger of catching pneumonia.
And the daily reminder of that app to keep me on my toes.
I must never believe I could ever play this by ear. If I stop watching my every step and bite, this is what happens. I will probably never become a fitness devotee like Norma (I stand in awe of how she finds the time and strength with a partner, two kids, two dogs, a business, a job and visits with family and friends). I am, apart the time constraints of a job with completely unpredictable hours, completely exhausted most days even without kids, pets or friends to deal with. So what I must tweak is my intake.
Three hundred- plus calories off what I already did perceive as a reduced intake. Bummer.
At the risk of Yoda telling me differently, all I can do at this point is try.
Julia
A link in a blog she mentioned led me to discover that there is indeed an app to go with the Hacker's diet aka Physics diet weight recording scheme I use. It's called Fat Watch, and it has even more ways to analyze the data than the other one. Most of all, it has retina display quality graphics, with colour contrasting backgrounds for the different BMI stages so the curve goes into the red as soon as one hits obesity, and you can set up a goal which also is displayed. As I am a very visually-oriented person, that kind of thing is highly motivating for me and well worth the five euros it cost.
So, I spent part of the weekend manually transferring the data back to August 2010 ( that's when my weight finally started going down) into the new app. Seeing the resulting curve for the last year was sobering, as was reading the evaluation that went with it. Namely, if my weight keeps developing in the direction it did last year, or even in the last months, I can kiss my dream goal good bye. I would actually regain.
Not that I did not have the data before, but seeing it spelled out for me to see and read like that is driving home just how deep I'd gone into denial about what was happening.
What I had convinced myself was maintaining did actually turn out to be a slow regain. Slow enough to be barely noticeable from day to day, but adding up to, per today, seven and a half pounds that have crept back from my lowest point last May. 3.4 kilograms. Gained.
Definitely not the thirteen kilos I had wanted to lose in that time.
The bummer is that I have, during that year, not been overeating like I used to do. I haven't binged on cookies, nor did I bury myself in bucketloads of vanilla pudding or nuts. Statistically, I ate just 32 calories a day more than I should have in order to really maintain.
I also ate, statistically, 233 calories more than I should have to reach my hoped-for loss of half a pound a week.
Which adds up to 265 calories a day, on average, which I should either not have consumed or have burnt with excercise.
265 calories I did, once more, not realize I was ingesting too much.
If I still want to get to goal by my next birthday, that means that, having squandered another three months regaining, I now need to reduce my intake by some three hundred calories a day, if possible, plus a safety margin.
I'm glad that this extremely long winter seems to be on the way out. Cheaper veggies than in winter and a chance to get back into my walking routine without immediate danger of catching pneumonia.
And the daily reminder of that app to keep me on my toes.
I must never believe I could ever play this by ear. If I stop watching my every step and bite, this is what happens. I will probably never become a fitness devotee like Norma (I stand in awe of how she finds the time and strength with a partner, two kids, two dogs, a business, a job and visits with family and friends). I am, apart the time constraints of a job with completely unpredictable hours, completely exhausted most days even without kids, pets or friends to deal with. So what I must tweak is my intake.
Three hundred- plus calories off what I already did perceive as a reduced intake. Bummer.
At the risk of Yoda telling me differently, all I can do at this point is try.
Julia
2013/04/02
April fool
What I felt like when I realized that one year ago I weighed three pounds less than today...
While that may be the momentary result of too many carbs over the Easter weekend, it is most annoying. Especially as the time I gave myself to get to goal is running out if I don't reverse that upwards trend soon.
As DH is out of town I am taking advantage of that and putting in two days of protein shakes to get back into weightloss mode.
And then I plan to make good use of my new refrigerator's vegetable drawer.
I refuse to accept that this might be where my weight stalls for good. Protein shakes, no carbs, and as soon as the weather gets warmer, back to my nordic walking regimen. It did work two years ago, it ought to work now.
Julia
While that may be the momentary result of too many carbs over the Easter weekend, it is most annoying. Especially as the time I gave myself to get to goal is running out if I don't reverse that upwards trend soon.
As DH is out of town I am taking advantage of that and putting in two days of protein shakes to get back into weightloss mode.
And then I plan to make good use of my new refrigerator's vegetable drawer.
I refuse to accept that this might be where my weight stalls for good. Protein shakes, no carbs, and as soon as the weather gets warmer, back to my nordic walking regimen. It did work two years ago, it ought to work now.
Julia
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