Weekly Recap

I should probably do my recap on Sundays - but I think tomorrow is going to be a bit busy.

I'm thrilled - it's the first time in 2 years I've actually met my intentional movement goal.  I walked 5x this week.

And I ate my planned food.  And best of all -I'm feeling really good.

Here's next week's goal for intentional movement:

Goal for 6/4 - 6/10 - General goal - intentionally move in the mornings for at least 30 minutes 4-5x


Plan
Monday - Jari Love Strength Training
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Walk
Thursday - Jari Love Strength Training
Friday - walk
Saturday - walk


And for food - I'll be planning and prepping my food for the week - concentrating on different types of salads for my lunches.  I'm thinking quinoa and barley as additions.

A Salad A Day - June Eating Challenge

I have an addiction - it's called Pinterest.  I'm not ready to give it up as I think I'm getting so many great ideas and being introduced to blogs (or reintroduced in some cases)  that inspire me in my journey to live an inspired and healthy life.

In this morning's perusal, I saw this image of a fantastic salad and I followed the links straight to the Oh She glows blog which had this big hook!  A good hook  - a challenge to eat a salad a day for the month of June.

I joined the challenge and I can't wait to see all the great ideas for salads.  I know that as much as I like a good salad made with crisp lettuces, I get tired of them very quickly.  My goal for the challenge is to learn to think outside the box when it comes to salad.

Craving vegetables

We're back from vacation and I'm so craving vegetables!  And I'm so over fried food.  I'm working on next week's food plan - and i think it will be something like this:

Tuesday - mason jar salad with leftover rotisserie chicken, edamame, leftover roasted veggies, salad greens

Wednesday - tuna salad (I'm craving it) with iceberg lettuce wraps

Thursday - out for lunch with hubby

Friday - mason jar salad with leftover tuna salad, english peas, corn, carrots and salad greens

I indulged this past week and downloaded a cooking reference (I'm hesitant to call it a cook book, but it does have some good recipes).  Ratio by Michael Ruhlman.   I'm really wanting to cook now.

And he finally explained bread baking in such a way I think I can do it.  It's always been a bit of a disappointment that I've never been able to bake bread very well.  There are three things I've felt I must conquer in the kitchen as a southern woman:  homemade bread, pie crusts and biscuits.  I just about have biscuits down.  Bread is next.  And then pie crusts.  Mmmm - really wanting some quiche.

D and I took one day trip while we were on vacation.  We drove over to Highlands and down to Whitewater Falls.  I haven't been there since my college days.

There was a very short hike put to the falls. It wasn't even that steep of a hike.  But it winded me.  And that's when I decided it was time to reclaim my health.  And I figured out a way to do it - just in time for June's habit - intentionally move 4-5x per week.

I've been kicking and screaming and making every excuse in the book when it comes to my health.  I wish it could just happen with out a little bit of work.  And as Hemingway says "isn't it pretty to think so?"   But it hit me - I don't have to be at work by 8 AM every morning - just Tuesday mornings.  So, I can get up at my usual time, have a cup of coffee with D and get myself woken up.  And then go for a walk or do a short (30 minutes) strength training program (I like Jari Love for this).  This is doable - 4 days a week and on the weekends.  And I'm looking forward to it.   This is good.

Time to rest

I've been busy!  As mentioned, May's habit is to plan and prepare my food.  And I've done it for this week:

Breakfast - hominy with spinach and hard boiled eggs
Lunch - Asian Salad with mandarin oranges, edamame, asparagus, snow peas, spinach and red leaf lettuce.
Dinners - whatever D prepares, with reasonable portions.

I made up my salad dressing - using the juice from the mandarin oranges, minced (microplaned) ginger and carrot, soy sauce and canola oil.  It's pretty tasty if I say so myself.

Yesterday, D and I discovered a Latino restaurant and grocery that was the real deal.  Oh my - I want to go back for the guacamole and fried plantains.  The couple sitting next to us were enjoying it and I so wanted it - but then, I wanted everything on the menu.  In the grocery, I found something I'd been hoping to see - dried hominy.

I soaked it over night and then it cooked (low simmer) for almost 3 hours this morning.  The end result:

After it had cooled, I took about a third of it and sauteed it with some butter and olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I tossed in three small handfuls of spinach and cooked unti it was wilted.  Then a touch of nutmeg.
This with 2 hard boiled eggs will be breakfast three days this week:

Then I got busy in the salads - tearing a huge bunch of red leaf lettuce, quickly making a soy glazed asparagus, wilted snow peas, edamame seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder, & shredded carrots (I shredded them myself with a handy dandy fancy peeler).  Then the dressing, which I described above.

And I stuffed three mason jars with it.  I can't wait to enjoy lunch tomorrow!

Being Realistic When It Comes To Food

As I type this, I just started a batch of yogurt incubating so some of you may think I'm being hypocritical. I know I've been struggling with it for a while myself.

As many of you know, I strive to avoid processed foods whenever possible. My definition of processed is fairly lax or I'd never be able to eat cheese or chocolate and well, life isn't worth living if I can't have cheese and chocolate sometimes. Mainly I avoid prepared foods like any of those "_____ Helper" boxes, frozen dinners, canned vegetables, mass produced yogurt, cereal, chips, etc. It's actually fairly easy to avoid these foods when I shop for the foods I like to eat on a regular basis. For the most part, I follow the mantra of sticking to the perimeter of the store. (Thankfully, my grocery store's wine department is on the perimeter!)

Anyway, lately, I've been wondering if a compromise might be in order as the time I have available to planning and preparing healthy foods and snacks for myself is diminishing. My snacks actually take planning - I don't eat just an apple. I combine fruit with peanut butter or some form of fat/protein for balance. My appetite is dimishing (thanks metformin) and I want to take advantage of that - but it's hard to stay balanced when working with just a few calories. I've been thinking about substituting Kashi Go-Lean Roll bars sometimes. But that's caused me much inner turmoil - is that compromise worth it? Can I just eat 1/4 of an apple with a smear of peanut butter instead of 1/2 with 1 TBSP? How do I keep the rest of the apple? The Kashi Bar can be cut in half and easily preserved. But the apple? Ack.

Anway - the above paragraph shows how good I am at making myself crazy. Then along comes Mark Bittman who also advocates real food. He also advocates eating realistically. His latest blog entry suggests we strive for good wholesome food, rather than organic or local or whatever the trendiest marketing catch-phrase is. And you know - I do put Kashi and the Kashi Go-Lean Roll bars in the category of good and wholesome. A bit processed - but it's not a fried Snicker's bar either.

My Threshold Habit

Next month, I will be celebrating 3 years of successful  - for the most part - weight management after losing almost 70 lbs on OPTIFAST.  I'll post more about the ups and downs of the past year later.  Today's post is about my threshold habit: No McDonald's.  

First of all, what do I mean by threshold habit?  For me, it's a habit I identify with my life when I was fat.  It exemplifies that part of my life.  And it's a habit I refuse to practice - not even once. For me, if I make an exception, I'll be opening the door and inviting my former habits back into my life.   It's a threshold I will not cross.  

Why McDonald's?  Before I lost weight, several meals per week came from McDonald's. Almost daily, I'd stop and get a biscuit breakfast on the way to work.  And then a co-worker and I would go and get a 'value' meal for lunch.  The food was cheap and usually filled me up.  But if left me wanting more and I'd end up hitting the vending machine mid-morning and again mid-afternoon.  By giving myself the MickeyD's 'out', I allowed myself to not plan my food, prepare my food or take any type of responsibility for making sure I was eating healthy.  

So what did I do with all that time I wasn't preparing my food?  I was vegging out in front of the television or indulging my internet addiction.  I certainly wasn't spending the time exercising or even taking a walk to get fresh air.  I wasn't reading to enrich my mind.  I wasn't knitting to indulge my creative self. 

My life was flat dull and very blob-like.  

When I started OPTIFASt, I made a committment to myself that I would not gain the weight back. As I was going through the OPITFAST programl I had the opportunity to look at my life and make decisions about what worked and what didn't.  I realized that I would have to spend time preparing my food and exercising.  To make sure I stuck to that, I took McDonald's (or any fast-food, for the most part) off of my list of options.

And now, almost three and a half years later since I started OPTIFAST, I have not had McDonald's.  I go there to use the restroom when my partner and I are out and about, but that's it.  Eating at McDonald's for me symbolizes crossing the threshold back into a pattern of unhealthy habits.  And I won't go there.

What's your threshold habit?

MFD visitors  - please visit my old blog on MFD: Mindfully Being Healthy.  RealPeach has posted valuable information there regarding different forms of exercise: cardio, strength training, yoga and pilates.  

Remembering to be kind to myself

I dole out tons of advice on the forums @ MyFoodDiary.com and often sound like a broken record with this one particular bit: Be Kind To Yourself.

I thought I had developed an exercise schedule that would be challenging enough yet allow me to be kind to myself.   I'm beginning to have doubts.   Last night, I felt ill and achy after my workout. And today, rather sullen and moody.  I decided I didn't want to workout tonight.  At least I didn't want to spend 42 minutes huffing and puffing on the NordicTerrorist, oops, I mean NordicTrack.  I decided to give myself a break and instead did the yoga practice I should have gotten up to do this morning, but didn't.  Normally I'd feel guilty about this.  I need my cardio.  I also need the breathing and stretching and mental focus of yoga.  And I also need strength training.  Most importantly, I must find the right balance so that I am being kind to myself.

There'll be more on this topic.  

Getting Lost in the Numbers

I spent the morning logging my dinner from last night: 1/2 of a filet mignon browned in a little bit of butter and then finished off in the oven, lyonnaise potatoes (sliced potatoes, dotted with a little bit of butter, thin strips of sweet onion and unsalted beef stock, baked to crispy yumminess), salad with homemade dressing, wine, bread, butter.  My first estimate came up to be well over 1000 calories.  WHAT?  No way.  My partner agreed.  We started looking at my estimates.  "No, I didn't put but about 1 TBSP of butter in the potatoes"  "No, you steak was only about 4oz"  "No, you did not eat 1 1/2 TBSP of butter."   With some adjustments to my overestimating, I did get my meal down to under 1000 calories, barely.    

Then I made the comment to my partner "I'm not THAT worried about it, I did exercise and burned off about 300 calories."  He remarked "you're not taking into account your BMR, nor all the activity you had yesterday.  Bring up the firewood probably burned 300 calories."   I'm not sure about that.  I was figuring maybe 150 tops.

What I am sure about though, is that I'm basing all my numbers on estimates.  I estimate my calories burned.  It's an informed estimate  - I use a heart rate monitor.  I estimate the calories I consume.  Again  - informed estimates.  I weigh  most of my foods and I use MyFoodDiary or NutritionData to get the caloric contents.  I estimate the amount of calories I need to net out each day to lose weight.  Again - informed through  MyFoodDiary.com.    But all the numbers are estimates.

I could go to my doctor and spend lots of money getting tests done to more scientifically determine my basal metabolic rate.  It would still be an estimate.   I could spend tons of money sending off samples of my yogurt to a food lab to get accurate nutritional information on my recipe.  But I don't need to.  Nor do I want to.  I don't want to go through life obsessed with numbers.  It's much easier to aim for the guidelines.  They work well enough.

Please don't misunderstand.  I think it's incredibly important to know what 3 oz of chicken looks like on your plate.  To do that, you need to weigh your portions of chicken (or beef or pork, etc) for quite some time.  Then you can start eyeballing it.  But sometimes,  just to stay honest, you need to weigh it.   Same thing with a half  a cup or rice or a TBSP of butter.  

It's also important to know how much (using highly informed estimates) you eat each day.  I don't mean to get lost in how much fat, carb or protein.  I mean, did I eat 2000 calories or a reasonable 1500 calories?   And did I eat healthfully or did I gorge on sugar, carbs and fat?  

Exercise - I don't worry so much about how much I burn any more.  When I did that, I played mind games to justify poor eating choices.  Now, I just exercise and track that I did it.  I do wear a HRM so I can keep an eye on my heart rate to make sure I'm exercising at the right intensity.  But I don't add calories to my daily allowance when I exercise.  

So, yes - I know my numbers (estimates) but I don't get lost in them.  Makes life a bit more simple.

No Time is Not an Excuse

I've been seeing a lot of questions about how to eat healthfully when you 'don't have time' to plan, shop and prepare your food.  I am not a mother and I don't have 3 active teen-agers and a husband to feed.  I, did, however, grow-up in that environment.  My mother and father worked full time.  My brothers and I held part-time jobs and were very active in school.  And we sat down together and ate dinner together as a family.   The dinner table figures heavily in my childhood memories and I believe that one family activity helped shape me more than almost anything else we did.   For we're southerners and if there's food and people in the same place, there's going to be talk.  And talk we did.   I learned to shape my thoughts and debate ideas with my parents.  I'm not classically educated, but today, I hold my own with many people who are.  I know how to think and I thank my parents for that.

But I digress.  Back to the time thing.  I think that in many areas of this country we're busier than we were 30 years ago.  I don't think that's a good thing, but it is our reality.  The "food" industry as capitalized on that and as they've increased their profits by shrinking the quality of what they sell as "food" our waistlines have expanded.  When I was growing up, we ate vegetables that had been harvested from our garden and canned for winter consumption.   We didn't eat this way because we were food snobs, but out of necessity.   There was a recession going on and food was expensive.   My parents, while working full time, planned and planted and nurtured a garden big enough to feed five people during the growing months as well as provide enough produce for preservation for the winter months.  My father did the gardening - prepping the soil, planting, etc.  We ALL did the harvesting.  And my mother, with my "assistance" preserved the food - either canning or freezing hundreds of quarts of tomatoes, green beens, english peas, corn, squash, beets, pickles, peaches, fig preserves, pear honey, blackberry jam.  And more.  When did she do this?  At night, after dinner, she'd fire up the pressure-cooker and go to town.   Did she complain "I don't have time?"  No.  She did what she needed to do to provide real food to her family.   

I'm not suggesting we plow up our yards and grow our own veggies - but if you can, do.  I am suggesting, however, that we need to rethink our priorities and put healthy food back at the top of the list.  And we know we can't trust Con-Agra to sell us real, healthy food.  We need to buy base ingredients as locally as possible and then prepare it ourselves.   Since most of us are busy, we need to plan how we're going to accomplish this.

Here's my plan for the week:   This weekend, I made yogurt for myself and baked sweet potatoes to enjoy this week.  Last night, I took leftovers from a meal last week and added some steamed broccoli from last night's dinner and portioned out two lunches.  Tonight, after dinner, I'll cut celery and carrots and prepare a yogurt dip for snack variety.   Yes, I'll be tired after working all day, then working out and then cleaning the kitchen after dinner.  But - I'm worth the effort of making sure I have a healthy snack of real food instead of risking what the food industry wants me to buy from the vending machine.

And that's the point - I'm worth the time and effort it takes to eat real, healthy food.  So are you and so are your children.  Re-think things.  What can you do in 15 minutes today to have a healthy snack tomorrow?  

When I was single and super busy, I did take some shortcuts:  Amy's or other high quality frozen dinners if I didn't have anything else for dinner.  That's preferable to McDonald's.  In fact, a peanut butter sandwich is preferable to McDonald's - if you're not allergic to peanuts.  Stonyfield plain yogurt with granola or Kashi is preferable to Pop-Tarts and takes about 2 seconds longer.  Not everything we eat has to take a long time to prepare.  Think about what you can eat that requires minimal effort.  

Try, if you can to block some time on the weekends to cook for the weekend.  It doesn't have to be gourmet:  plain baked chicken or turkey, sweet potatoes and broccoli.   All told these dishes will take about 1 hour to prepare and you've got lunch for a week.  

Please don't misunderstand.  I recognize we're all super busy.  My time-constraints are far less than most people's and I appreciate that.  I also think that busy or not, with some planning and taking advantage of nature's own fast foods (fruits, nuts and veggies), we can eat healthfully.

.

Look for Ideas

I think many of us get stuck in the same old thinking rut and tell ourselves 

"I don't have time."

"It will take too long"

"It's too expensive"

I just ran across another NY Times article by Mark Bittman that give some great inexpensive ways to incorporate REAL FOOD into your daily lives without adding a great deal of time or expense.  Fresh Start for a New Year? Let’s Begin in the Kitchen

I'm sending this article to my partner - the savoy cabbage with sherry vinegar sounds great!

Seven Powerful Words

Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants

                                                          - Michael Pollan

In my last post, I waxed inelegantly about eating real food and how it is worth the effort and expense to eliminate, as much as possible, processed foods from your diet.   I have to admit it wasn't until I read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma that I began to understand just how perverted food has become in this country. Not only has food become perverted, so has our thinking about it.  And the more perverted our thinking becomes - the more money big agri-business stands to make.  But that's not really the point of this post.  If you want to know more about that - go get The Omnivore's Dilemma from your public library.  It's worth the read.  Plus, Michael Pollan is a great writer.  

I just stumbled across this NY Times blog entry: An Omnivore Defends Real Food  and started thinking a bit more about my rant about real food.  I also thought about a huge debate I tried to have with my partner's nephew's fiance.   We live in GA.  Tomatoes are not in season in January in GA.  My partner and I don't buy fresh tomatoes in January because 1) they taste horrible and 2) the carbon foot print it took to bring them here is quite huge.  We will buy tomatoes starting in June.  And hopefully, my garden will produce some this year.  Anyways, the debate was not possible - Jane (name changed to protect everyone's privacy) didn't get it.  My partner and I tried and tried to the point of being almost rude, but her stock answer was "I like tomatoes and what can one person do anyway?"

I think what saddened me is that Jane didn't seem to get it that her body deserves more than inferior tomatoes shipped in from Chile.   What saddens me more is that most of the population doesn't get it either.  And until we do, we're stuck with sorry tomatoes in January.

Wait.  Aren't tomatoes good for you?  Of course.  But fresh tomatoes in January (in GA) can not be locally grown.  They have to go travel half way across the country at best, but the more likely scenario is that they traveled half-way across the globe.  Picked well before they were ripe so they could survive the trip.  Why?  Because we've become greedy.  We like fresh tomatoes so we are entitled to have them in January.  Nope.  I don't buy it.   The costs - fiscal, environmental and social - are too great.

Yikes - I still haven't gotten to the Seven Powerful words.   If you can't tell, I get a bit passionate about this.  Let me try to get back on topic here.  Many people spend tons of time looking for the perfect diet.  Weight Watchers.  Jenny Craig.  South Beach, Atkins, etc. etc.  The perfect diet is summed up in seven powerful words: Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants.

Michael Pollan is not an diet expert.  But he's spent quite a bit of time researching the quality of our food and has seen correlations between eating food-like substances and obesity.  I know that I am far more satisfied with one piece of superb dark chocolate than I am an entire Snickers bar. Why?  Snickers has too many food like substances in its ingredient list.  But Pollan isn't advocating a chocoalte diet. Or  butter diet.  But a diet of real food where plants take center stage.  Not vegetarian, but more plants than animals.   And if you think about it - if you do that, your caloric intake should naturally reduce.  

It's not onerous.  Just takes a bit of discipline and planning.  And maybe a spirit of adventure to give fresh veggies a chance.

Real Food is ALWAYS the best option

**** Another Rant follows ****

I am lucky that my partner has been with me every step of the way in my weight management journey.   He's got some food issues - but most of them are good.  He prefers to eat real food instead of most of what is being hawked to the general public as 'food.'   As a result, we don't have margarine in the house.  We have butter.  And we use it.  Probably a bit too much.  We don't have 'light' anything in the house except my Laughing Cow cheese wedges.  We don't have any rice  mixes.  Or frozen dinners.  The only frozen vegetables we keep are english peas, butter beans and brussel sprouts.  We don't keep that much meat in the freezer either.  AND we eat a home-cooked meal every night.

Last night's meal:  leftover collard greens, black eyed peas (started from dried peas, not a can), ham steak and corn bread. The original meal took about 4 hours to prepare.  Last night's dinner took about 15 minutes.  And it was wonderful.  Maybe a bit too much sodium in the ham, but I was careful and made sure (by weighing) that I did not get more than 1 4oz portion.  

Tonight's meal:  some kind of chicken (either slow roasted whole chicken or stir-fried chicken breast) and steamed broccoli.  Maybe some rice.  Maybe some mashed potatoes.  Not sure what starch.  He has to have a starch.  But it's real.  This meal will take about 1 hour to prepare, but not all at one time.  I'll work out, he'll start dinner.  After I shower, we'll sit down for 'cocktail hour' and I'll enjoy a cup a tea while I try to beat him at a hand of gin.  If we have roast chicken, it will be in the oven making the house smell yummy.   If we have stir-fry - all the veggies and chicken will be ready to go in the wok.  

What's the common thread here?  We don't take shortcuts with our food.  We do our best to follow Michael Pollan's guidelines for determining what is real food:  Would our grandmothers recognize it?  Can we pronounce all the ingredients?  Are there more than 5 ingredients?  And for the most part I have no cravings when we eat this way.

This way of eating takes time and effort.  And when I think back to when I started having serious issues with my weight, it's when I moved away from this type of eating.  I grew up eating fresh veggies from our garden in the summer. Frozen or canned veggies from the same garden in the winter.  Meats were simple - or prepared with other vegetables in 1-dish suppers.  We always had vegetables.  But no bread on the table unless it was "Sandwich Saturday" or a winter meal and we made corn bread.   We didn't look at fat grams.  We didn't look at calories.  We ate normal portions and didn't gorge ourselves.  And except for my father, we were all healthy.

My father, though, was an exception.  He was on his way to developing Type II diabetes.  It runs in the family and we thought we were doing enough by substituting saccharine (shows my age) for half the sugar in our sweet tea.  We drank a lot of sweet tea.  It wasn't enough - but I'm happy to say he has his diabetes under control.  And for the most part - he eats real food.  Sweets, though, are prepared at home with Splenda.

When there are medical reasons to avoid a food that is basic to one's diet, (and sugar was very basic to my father's diet - that man has a sweet tooth that rivals mine) I can see limited use of artificial substitutes.  But when we start replacing fat with more sugar, salt and high fructose corn syrup, we are robbing our bodies of essential nutrition and filling it with chemicals we don't need.  Many of those chemicals create cravings to have more of that food - and we overeat.  

Yesterday for my afternoon snack, I ate 1/2 of a baby butternut squash, lightly sweetened with Splenda (I'm cutting my sugar consumption to avoid developing diabetes)  and seasoned with cinnamon.  It was like eating a yummy pudding and I was incredibly satisfied.   In my obese days, when I did eat processed foods and take all kinds of food shortcuts, I would have started with 1 sugar-free pudding.  And then had an other and another because it was 'diet' food and the chemicals making it 'diet' were not providing me with REAL nutrition and I craved more.

Read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma.   If you still want to eat at McDonald's or have one of those Fiber1 bars, I'll be surprised.

There Is No Magic Pill

**** Warning: Major Rant Follows ****

I think by now if you follow this blog, you know I use an Internet site to track my calories and get tons of support from some very wise people.  Every now and then someone will ask about using the latest diet gimmick being marketed and it almost invariably makes my blood boil.  I hate it that there are still "Snake Oil" frauds out there trying to bilk people out of their money.   Repeat after me:

THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL   THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL   THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL

What does work?  Consistency, planning, determination, a sound diet, exercise and most importantly - the right mindset.  If you go into a diet thinking it's a temporary thing, then the weight loss will also be temporary.  And that could be more harmful to the body than being a few pounds overweight.  

Instead of thinking "I need to lose weight"  think "I need to manage my weight better.  I can do that by making some changes to help me shed a few pounds and then maintain that weight."    Weight management.  It includes loss and sustained effort to maintain.   I'm proof positive of that.  I stopped taking as much as effort as I needed to maintain my weight and now I'm off track a bit and need to right my course.  (see Keeping the Pounds Off for more on this great analogy)

And while I was off course, there was part of my mind looking for that magic pill.  I wanted to drop those extra pounds fast.  What happened?  I'd take a drastic almost hateful approach and lose two lbs.  I'd loosen the seatbelt too much and then gain 2 or 3 lbs.  Rinse and repeat.   It's so easy to fall into this.

But I got my head right (and rant on here to help keep it right) and am taking a healthier, gentler approach that will facilitate successful weight management to regain and maintain my healthy weight.  Wow - that takes longer to say that "I'm dieting and need to lose a few" but it sure does feel healthier to say that to myself.  

My head's no longer in the sand about my weight and how I gained a few lbs.  I'm no longer looking for the magic pill.  And I feel strong and healthy.  I know I'll get back to my happy weight.  And I'm confident I'll stay in the happy range because I won't have achieved the happy weight thru gimmicks.  

Calories Count on Saturdays and Sundays, too

Come Friday, I'm almost always ready to for some fun - a reward for surviving the work week.  And on Saturdays, my brain goes into 'weekend' mode - time for more fun.  While I've long given up what used to be my Friday night reward - out for untold numbers of beers and then giving into the munchies - I still struggle with weekend thinking.

My partner and I make Saturday nights "Date Night" and he always cooks a fantastic meal for me.  He uses real food - no imitation anything.  Butter, cream, sugar, oil, sour cream, etc.  If the recipe calls for it he uses it without thinking there may be a substitution that will work just as well.  He's a food purist this way.   Last night's dinner was steak (filet mignon), twice-baked potato, salad, bread, and wine.  And I enjoyed every bit of it.   Too much of it.  Especially the wine.  Why?  Because I caved and had a pre-dinner cocktail.  That led to another pre-dinner cocktail.  I was hungry and the booze hit  me and my brain got a bit fuzzy.  So when it came time to eat dinner, while I asked myself the "Don't Go Hungry" questions, I ignored the answers.  And I ignored my stomach telling me it was full.   I honestly think had I waited until after dinner to start drinking the booze, I would have heeded my body better. 

On MyFoodDiary.com, I'm the host of a support group for staying the weight management course on the weekends.  I quite often feel like a fraud.  This morning is one of those times. I didn't have a plan for making sure I didn't over-eat.  I had all sorts of goals for this weekend - and have met most of them.  But I didn't think about how to handle the booze.  Didn't make it a consideration, even though I know that if I get fuzzy, I tend to ignore my body's signals.

I'm not beating myself up.  I'm taking the lesson with me.  And next weekend - I'll stick to hot tea before dinner.  

Weekends count.  When I started the group, there was a response that really gave me pause: 

"Do you stop wearing your seatbelt on the weekends?"    

Our weight management plan is our seatbelt.  And while the plan may allow for some indulgences, totally ignoring it is like not wearing our seatbelt.   I feel safer with my seatbelt on - so next weekend, my plan will include a strategy for managing the booze.  

Making Distraction Work

One of the things I learned at Emory while doing the OPTIFAST program was not to try to stop a habit without replacing it.  For example, if I want to stop having an after dinner snack, instead of just trying to stop having the snack, replace the snack with the ritual of making a cup of tea.  Or perhaps something even healthier - making a cup of tea and spending some time journaling.   Starting the replacement habit provides a distraction from thinking about what you're not doing.  

I've forgotten that strategy lately but I'm pulling it back into my toolbox as I work to make hunger assessment, satiety assessment, food choice assessment automatic habits for me.  This means that as I assess my hunger levels at my usual eating times and find myself unhungry - I need to have some healthy distractions planned.

So - mid morning snack.  Not hungry?  A quick walk around the office followed by a cup of tea.

Right after lunch sweet.  Not hungry (I shouldn't be) Another walk around the office, followed by a cup of tea or coffee.  Coffee cuts the sweet craving.

See the trend?  Perhaps I'll set up a bowl with filled with slips of paper with healthy distraction ideas written on them.  And every time I think about food - I pull a slip of paper and do the distraction.   I like that.

More Planning....

... and thinking about doing something I hate doing.  Buying yet another book on diet.  Actually two books.  Judith Beck's new one (I gave my initial copy away) and then one called Refuse to Regain by Barbara Berkeley who maintains the great blog, Refuse to Regain  I keep hearing great things about them over on MyFoodDiary.com.

Whenever I feel like I'm wanting to buy a book on dieting, or look into some diet program, little red flags go up.  It's like I think I don't have the answers within myself and I must seek the 'magic pill' from without.  That said, these two books are more about practicing weight management activities in a consistent manner.  Berkeley's book does prescribe a diet, but it's one I typically try to follow (with some exceptions) anyway.  Beck's just says to pick a plan and stick with it.

Do I need more re-enforcement in this area? Or do I need to work on not being so obsessed about it and tying my self-worth to my weight?  Can the two go hand in hand?

I don't know.  I'm rambling.

Getting Ready

Judith Beck (The Beck Diet Solution) advocates getting the mind ready for a weight loss program.  Her book offers a series of daily exercises to practice - and the first week is all about getting the mind ready.

I'm not willing to follow the structure of Beck's program (yet), but I am willing to take some ideas she has and put them to use in my own program - which is more aligned with Martha Beck's The Four Day Win.

I'm also willing to use Dr. Amanda Sainsbury-Salis's  approach to identifying hunger and satiety levels before and after eating.

One of Judith Beck's exercises is to identify all the reasons you want to lose weight and write those down and review them several times a day.  One of Sainsbury-Salis's approaches is to give yourself a pause before & eating to assess your hunger and satiety levels.  She also takes it further by suggesting you ask yourself questions about your food choices:  

1.   How will this feel as I eat it?

2.   How will this food feel as soon as I've finished eating it?

3.   How will this food feel in my stomach an hour after I've finished eating?

4.   How will this food feel in my stomach 2-3 hours after I've finished eating?

Martha  Beck's approach is to set a goal, simplify the goal until it is almost impossible to not do it and the do it for 4 days.  Reset, go.

What I'm finding is that I start my days with good intentions to assess my hunger levels and ask the 'how will this feel' questions.  But I forget to do it.  Here's where Judith Beck comes into play.  She's big on fixing the forgetting to do it part by keeping the reasons in front of you.  What I'm going to do is keep the questions in front of me.  Or at least in front of my food.  I pack my breakfast and lunch every day.  I'm going to include a card with those questions written on it each day. A card for each meal and I'm going to write the answers down on the card.  And the post my results on the weight management site I use - MyFoodDiary.com

And I'm going to set this as a 4-Day Win, a la Martha Beck.

I think I'm taking the best of the three top 'diet' advisors out there and combining some of their solutions to make my own plan to address my own shortcomings.   

I also believe in accountability.  I haven't been posting here on a regular basis for some time.  I'm looking at how I can improve that.  

Goals and Challenges

Sometimes it is difficult to stay motivated to keep losing weight to reach a goal or to maintain your weight. At least it is for me. Short Term Goals & Challenges are great ways to give your motivation the oft needed kick in the rear.

I've actually just set a short term goal & challenge for myself. To lose 4 lbs by the end of March.

OK, the 4lb goal isn't a smart goal. There are too many factors that could influence the scale reading. So I'll really be focusing on the actions needed to achieve that goal:

Calorie Restriction - average 1457 per day
Exercise - 6x per week: 3 days cardio of 30 minutes, 3 days 60 minutes weight training, 2 days cardio 48 minutes (HIIT), 1 day cardio 60 minutes. Average burn: 314 calories
Water: at least 64 o per day
Relaxation (Stress keeps the weight on for me): Every day - knit or read