I always say "yes" to sweet treats, but donuts don't make the cut. To use drug metaphors, when I eat a donut it brings all the "compulsive redose" and none of the "euphoria" that other, better sweet treats provide.
You look great! I'm envious, you're way leaner than I am and we weigh the same ish :P
Jen - you look great! Woo! You do look tiny. Avoid the donut - not worth it.
Ward - I love that the younger friend felt beaten down by your workout. Just LOVE it.
Birchie - what Allison said about baby showers is spot on. Historically they have been just for the women folk, as have been bridal showers, usually 10-15 people I believe. An expectant mother would have several showers often - one from family, maybe two if both sides, one from friends, sometimes one from coworkers. In recent years it has become a trend to throw father's showers - friends or coworkers often do those. It is also more and more common to do couple's showers, both for weddings and for baby showers. This event Photochik and I put on was a couple's baby shower, the only one thrown by friends. The mother to be changed jobs the week she found out she was pregnant, so her new coworkers didn't have her a shower (small library, not much staff.) The father to be's mother threw a family shower a few weeks ago, but father and stepmother didn't attend that one. As a result of all of those things we ended up with 65 people invited, 35 RSVPd saying they were coming. A number of the invites were from out of state, so I didn't expect them. 7 said they were coming and didn't show. This is an unusually large baby shower, though the trend for couple's showers is often resulting in larger and larger events. More food provided by the person hosting, though not more gifts for the parents as a couple brings one extra person but the same present. I honestly feel like they have become overdone and insane - I attended one a few weeks ago with 40ish people that looked like she had professionally catered it that cost her over $1000. Mine was not so fancy - plastic tableclothes, made all the food - and between DH, myself and PC we still spent close to $700 once it was all said and done. I read an article just yesterday about the archaic tradition of a wedding shower and how as people get married older and have established households it is no longer necessary to give them loads of presents to set up a household. Not sure if that is true with baby showers, as most people are totally unprepared over here for first baby. For second baby I think a big shower isn't appropriate, but small gathering with friends is okay. Just no cribs on the registry the second time around.
Long answer about baby showers. LOL
I'm going down to my hometown for my grandfather's surgery tomorrow, I'm trying not to be anxious but the way the month is going I'm nervous. One piece of good news - my brother's little daschund had some masses removed yesterday that we were sure were cancer but they are all just hard, fatty tissue. It was a good day for pups yesterday.
You guys are way to nice to me - I posted that picture to show what a complete DORK I am!!
At any rate, I am glad to report that NO DONUTS WERE CONSUMED by this chick today!
Bargoo - I did read your story. It's very interesting to me - when I was fat, sweets weren't my thing at all. I almost NEVER ate candy bars, I'm not into milk chocolate, and most of the time I could take it or leave it if donuts or other sweets were around. My weakness was always things like breads - I could stuff an entire loaf of fresh baked italian bread slathered with butter down my throat.
Now I find myself really craving sweets a lot. I miss white bread but I don't CRAVE it like I do sweet stuff....
Jen re craving sweets - When I stopped drinking alcohol (and in later years diet soda) I found myself craving sweets. There is a whole physiological/psychological thing about replacing things people's bodies are used or are addicted to - I'm sure you know more about this than I do, given what you do for a living. Withdrawing from most substances causes stress to the body.
In my totally unscientific opinion body weight maintenance is stressful. Our bodies tend to want carbs for quick energy when we're stressed. Sweets tend to deliver "instant" energy so when we're stressed we may crave them.
I guess I always knew this intellectually, but since I've embarked on this journey of losing weight, I have been amazed and fascinated about how much the process of losing a great amount of weight has with getting clean and sober!
I've probably mentioned this before and if so I apologize, but I've even had "drug dreams" about food. My clients have always talked about their drunk or drug dreams, where they were using in a dream and it felt SO REAL.
A couple of month ago I had a dream that I was at a party and was alone in the room with a sheet cake. I started picking at the cake and the next thing you know I was just STUFFING cake in my face - using my hands - no utensils. I remember in the dream thinking that I hoped that no one came in the room, because I had cake SMEARED across my face. I would be humiliated, but I could not stop.
I woke up with a start and had to pee. I went to the bathroom and sat down still half asleep and started looking at my hands. I then realized I expected to see cake under my nails! I then felt a surge of relief realizing it was just a dream....
Jen, it was only a dream but it also reinforced my donut story and it could be anything in my case it happened to be donuts. It was the sneakiness, the false front I put on to coworkers, I can't eat a donut because I am on a diet and then eating it when it was old and stale and when nobody could see me.
I'm honestly not sure if carbs call me because of their nature or because I've labeled them "forbidden" and my mind would be drawn to anything so labeled.
I'm prone to fixations or obsessions with certain foods. Some foods seem to imprint themselves on me, when I eat them & the experience is so good, it trips some wires in my brain and I become greedy and consumed with desire to repeat the experience. Because if a taste of something is good, being totally satiated with an unlimited quantity has to be better, right? Because more is always better, right? Somehow this triggers scarcity thinking: What if I don't get enough? What if I'm cut off by running out or finishing the thing?
Sometimes fixations end. You know I can practically chart my life by what I liked to eat. There was the breakup with the first college boyfriend, where I could easily finish a 1-lb bag of peanut M&Ms. There was the fall when my Grandmother died, and I loved those Brach's caramels with the various flavored centers. There was the summer of the premade Rice Krispies treats. And the summer when I couldn't get enough of those cheap tricolor wafer cookies in vanilla, faux strawberry and chocolate. There was the passing obsession with sweetened condensed milk, which I could eat by the spoonful from the can. There was the bran muffin fixation but they had to come from a bakery called On the Rise in downtown Syracuse. The fixation with Medjhul dates. The insatiable hunger for pecan pralines.
Each obsession ended, but I still fear having them triggered again, because I have gone back to foods in the past, trying to re-experience whatever oblivion or comfort I once derived from them at some other period in my past.
As I go through this list, it's reminding me of peoples' lists of ex-boyfriends & crushes. Sad to think food has been this important in my life.
When my partner was undergoing radiation therapy, all bets were off about food. I had to take care of her needs, mine, and the cat's. I am not someone who cooks a lot, and I faced a big challenge with how to keep us fed.
Some of you may remember that I've had a "thing" for Doritos. Well, in this time of unbelievable stress, I bought Doritos. And I ate them, sometimes twice a day, sometimes double servings. Anytime I wanted them, I ate them.
One of the foods my partner could eat, for awhile at least, was ice cream. Full fat ice cream. So I was always buying small containers of Haagen Daaz.
Two things have happened since then. One is that I no longer care about Doritos. I don't buy them--I don't want them particularly. The other is that ice cream can now sit in my freezer for weeks without me having to eat it.
Hello maintainers!! I haven't posted in ages but I see lots of familiar "faces" and I hope everyone is doing well
I just finished my first year of med school which was INTENSE. I'm sure I should have expected that, but I don't think anything really could have prepared me. I ended up losing a few more lbs in the process, but probably not in the most healthy way possible. I tell people I've spent the past year on the "coffee and crap" diet and it's largely been the case. I'm off for a little over a month, and I definitely want to take some time to prep some healthy freezer meals for myself! I'm sad to admit that a decent span of time went by where the only veggies I consumed were the (mostly iceburg) salads from the cafeteria.
Jen, I have had a fair number of what I call "binge dreams" where I'm just eating and eating. I wake up feeling guilty and disgusting - but then realize it didn't really happen. I don't know your past, but I've had problems with binge eating and while I've largely overcome that in waking life, the dreams still follow me.
Speaking of showers, I have a bridal shower to go to next weekend for a family friend. It seems like a bit of overkill - they also had an engagement party and of course there will be the wedding - so basically I'll end up getting her three gifts and she and her fiancee have already been living together, so I know they have tons of housewares... I don't mean to be a scrooge, but jeez!
Iris. Congrats on getting through the first year of med school!
If I'm not being too nosy how long is your program and what's involved ie internship etc.? My cousin went through med school about a million years ago and I'm wondering how much things have changed.
The "coffee and crap" diet is the same as when he went through
One of the other dogwalkers has 2 Rottweilers - unneutered and unspayed. Her female was impregnated accidentally by her male and now there are 5 puppies. I went to see them last night. She has 3 other dogs in the household and was boarding a 4th. I can't imagine doing that.
I am looking forward to having ONE dog again. But that comes with sadness as the cats will have ended their long lives. I may get another tortie as well as the dog, now that I'm going to have a house.
Speaking of the house DH and I are doing a lot of arguing about the the renos. On the one hand DH keeps talking about cheaper alternatives, like sanding down the parquet floors instead of replacing them with hardwood. Then he turns around and says I should also replace all the baseboards, casings, and doors.
He's also being a stickler for safety features and now is insisting that the whole deck has to have railings. The insurance company asked for ONE railing on the steps. And on it goes.
I have been eating in the evening just to stay awake up to 9 p.m. I'm finding I wake up @ 2 a.m. in a panic and then can't get back to sleep.
I decided to go back to the doctor's about the lump in my armpit. It still hurts a bit and it's not the first time I've had this happen. I'm pretty sure it's a cyst that's being aggravated by all the stress.
This will all end when the renos end, I hope. Although I know DH will fight me about anything I buy for the house. SIGH.
Here I thought owning a house would be fun. Kinda like camping I guess.
Avoid the donut - not worth it.
Iris. Congrats on getting through the first year of med school!
about the the renos. On the one hand DH keeps talking about cheaper alternatives, like sanding down the parquet floors instead of replacing them with hardwood. Then he turns around and says I should also replace all the baseboards, casings, and doors. 
