A hare met a tortoise one day and made fun of him for the slow and clumsy way in which he walked.
The tortoise laughed and said, "I will run a race with you any time that you choose."
"Very well," replied the hare, "we will start at once."
The tortoise immediately set off in his slow and steady way without waiting a moment or looking back. The hare, on the other hand, treated the matter as a joke and decided to take a little nap before starting, for she thought that it would be an easy matter to overtake her rival.
The tortoise plodded on, and meanwhile the hare overslept herself, with the result that she arrived at the winning-post only to see that the tortoise had got in before her.
Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.
This comes from a book handed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. The book is so old it doesn't have a copyright date or an author/editor's credit.
That fable has been the motivation for us turtles for about two years. Someone on the ancient WW forum mentioned the fable and I discovered it was very motivational for me. I talked about it in posts and other people said that the tortoise philosophy worked for them, too. So, I started a thread for us turtle types.
We work toward accepting that our bodies have a natural speed of weight loss when we choose to live a healthy life, instead of "going on a diet". Many of us have experienced "the diets" as go on/lose weight-- go off/ gain the weight plus more back.
We choose to perservere with each choice we make throughout the day. We believe that choosing to be slow, steady turtles helps us to learn the skills we need to learn in order to not only lose the weight, but keep it off and become the healthiest people we can be.
So, welcome to all who realize that losing and maintaining a weight loss is a lifestyle change. And who want support as we all learn the skills we need to successfully make the changes that will allow us to reach our goals.
The posts at the end of the last thread are worth checking out, if you haven't seen them.
Erin, I'm sure that since you got through organic chemistry, you'll get through physics, too. But I don't envy you!!
Judy, we all plan to join you!!
What's interesting is that we all seem to post similar issues at about the same time. Emotional eating during one period. Then self-sabotage, as we are posting right now. Then we all get the issues worked out and get back OP, with predictably great results. The last is what I predict for this week. Here's how I plan to make that prediciton come true in my life:
First, I'm going to plan my meals in advance. That is hard for me for several reasons. I'm a spontaneous person and I have a hard time sticking with a plan. I change my mind when the time comes to eat what I planned. What I plan to do when that happens is to make a list of what I wanted to eat. Eat my planned meal. And use the list as a guide for future meal planning.
Another reason it's difficult is that life often gets in the way of following my plan. Then I feel as if the time I spent planning was wasted. My plan to deal with that is to organize my time a little more carefully to make it easier to stick with the plan. But to keep plan B available in case of a dire emergency.
The last part of my plan is to do exercise videos more frequently. They give me a better workout. I also plan to get some new ones, every month or two. I get bored once I learn the routines, but if I can vary them, then it's OK. When they start heating the pool again, I plan to start swimming again, too. I wish I had a place where I could swim all year long, but the water gets too cold here to swim when the pool isn't heated. (They don't care if you use it, but they won't turn on the heater during the winter.)
Good news! First, my son has been accepted to the college he wants to attend, conditional upon his final transcritpt after graduation.
Second--My dh's company is finally hiring him as a regular employee. Bad news--even though his job is different, with a ton more responsibility, from the other people with his same title, they won't give him a promotion or a raise. The essence of their reasoning is that "This is what he is." So, he's going to ask his boss what he has to do to become what he's doing instead of what he's done in the past.
If it looks like he's going to be doing this job without the appropriate title and salary, he's planning to start sending out resumes. He doesn't want to change jobs or companies, but he's tired of being told that he can't get more money because he's already at the top salary for his job title and, even though he's no longer doing that job, he can't get promoted because he's not already a (whatever the new job title would be).
I'm feeling really good about how my writing is going. I've been sticking to my plan to write at least a little bit every weekday. It's interesting that I've been struggling with keeping up my WW habits while I build the habit of writing more regularly. It's like my brain can't handle both at once. I think if I can organize WW so it's more of a routine I can do both more easily.
That's why I need to pick out my videos and set them up at night. Get out my workout clothes so I don't have to think about it. Plan my meals in advance. Then when my brain is lost in the world my characters live in, I don't have to think too much to stay OP. I can just do what I've prepared in advance.
Erin, I thought of you yesterday. The place where I'm working has an exercise room. Yesterday afternoon I got dopey, so I decided to walk on the treadmill for a bit. I walked for a while (and realized that what Leslie Sansone calls a "3-mile walk" in 40 minutes is nowhere near that level -- I could barely do a 4 mph walk!). Then I decided to try one of the treadmill's pre-set programs. The title wasn't descriptive ("Self evaluation"), but it was only 20 minutes, so I thought that would work. HA! It started innocently enough, a 20-minute mile, gradually working up to a 15-minute mile, which was brisk and about right for me to get a good workout. Then suddenly it angled itself so that I was walking briskly UPHILL, and before I knew it -- I was JOGGING uphill! Gaaaahh! I realized pretty quickly that I was either going to fall off the treadmill or have a heart attack, so I figured out how to get off the thing. It was pretty funny in retrospect. I figured you could've handled it, Erin, but not me! I did end up getting a very good workout during those 20 minutes, but ay carumba!
Judy, you know what I'm figuring out? That more than anything, we have to want to lose the weight. The rest will come if that one thing is in place. We have to really, really want it. We have to want it badly enough to live with emotional and sometimes even physical discomfort at times. We have to want it badly enough to keep making the tough little decisions. We have to want it badly enough to stay conscious when we'd really rather go numb. But if we don't want it badly enough, then the rest just becomes too much, and we slide back into what we know, what's comfortable. It's when I remember what this is all for that I get back on track. You can do this; you have to want it.
Lin, I really appreciated your words about the courage it takes to make this journey. You're right; it does. Courage and tenacity and the willingness to change. I like your steps right now for getting back on track. I find I too have to make a commitment to doing the exercise videos (which also give me a better workout than walking). For me, it has become like getting dressed in the morning -- it's just something I do on weekdays. I don't necessarily know which workout I'll do in advance, but I know I'll be down there in my workout clothes as soon as I fall out of bed. It takes a while for that to become habit, and I'm very aware of how easily I could fall back out of that habit. But I am so happy with what exercise has done for my body and my gracefulness and strength that that helps keep me going. I also have a little game I now play with myself. If I stand in front of the TV trying to make up my mind about which video to do for too long, I make myself do the toughest one!
Yesterday my MIL put me to shame. She's in her mid-70s. Yesterday she did THREE of my exercise workouts -- the 2-mile walk, then the 3-mile walk, then the really tough one by Charlene Pritchett! She said she only did part of that last one because it was too fast for her. What a slacker, huh? Oh, and THEN she cleaned our house from top to bottom! So just think of that, folks, when you decide you don't feel like exercising today. If my 76-year-old MIL can do it, you BET we can. (Besides, wouldn't we all love to be in that kind of shape when we reach her age?)
Well, I've been doing very well on program the past few days, since I took stock. I'm not banking my exercise points, and I'm aiming (successfully) to eat lower in my point range. Whenever I feel tempted to eat something that is at odds with my goals, I remind myself of what those goals are and how badly I want them. That has really been helping. It takes these decisions out of the negative ("Oh, I can't eat that right now; oh, I can't bank my exercise ponts; oh, I can't eat as much of that as I want") and into the positive ("I want to be thinner, so I will refrain;" "I want to reach my weight-loss goals, so I will wait and eat that later or not at all").
I've also decided to move my weekly home weigh-ins to Saturdays, except for weekends that I'm out of town. I just like Saturdays and figure I can handle anything I see on the scales best on that day. Today I lost the pound I gained, so I'm right back at the weight I've been for-seemingly-ever. But I have confidence that with my new approach, I'll be saying goodbye to that weight forever soon.
Oh, hey, everyone. If you have old clothes that no longer fit you, and if you need a tax break, donate them. We were able to have a sizable tax write-off this past year, in part because of all the clothes I got rid of, and it really helped us.
Ugh, Turtles, I woke up this morning and was so bloated I could not FASTEN MY WATCH. UGH, this is just ridiculous. I will be so happy when my body settles down again. Needless to say, I did not go to my meeting.
I am, however, swearing to myself to have a good wweek this week, and no matter WHAT happens, going to a meeting next week. Lauren, your post really hit me, the part about "you have to really want this." I'm telling myself I Really want this but I'm not acting like I really want this. It's time to make the actions fit the words. I really, really want this. I want to wear my old clothes. I want to move and exercise more comfortably. I want to not be sad, wistful, or ashamed when I look at old pictures. I want to be proud of myself again for facing and dealing with my weight. I WANT THIS. Now act like it.
It's been hot and dry the last couple of days (the Santa Ana winds are blowing--hot, dry winds in off the desert) and hot weather is earthquake weather. I was sitting with friends in a coffee shop at school yesterday morning when I realized my chair was rolling across the floor. I looked up and the windows--floor to ceiling glass--were vibrating back and forth. I thought, "oh, hey, earthquake," And went on with my conversation. Come to find out later there WAS an earthquake out in the desert at that time, and it WAS reported in the city. Cool. I was right!
I'm having friends over for dinner tonight, making tortellini with veggie sauce and garlic bread and salad. Cynda and Leah are bringing dessert--"something fruity"--and Nicholas is in charge of wine. We don't have a large table--it's only the two of us, we have a bar table and two wrought-iron tall chairs. So I'm planning to just turn the big coffee table into a nice communal table and have everyone sit on the floor. I've cleaned and the house is lovely, if I do say so myself. One of my mom's basic tenets of life: if it's basically clean underneath, it takes little time to set things right. So START OFF clean and orderly, everything in its place, and it won't get too out of hand. Worked so far.
Have had a bowl of cereal and a sandwich today. Place on salad and a bit of tortellini for dinner. Tomorrow is DH's and my 1st anniversary and we have absolutely nothing planned. Since it's the "paper" anniversary (DH suggested "lint" before he looked it up ) he bought me a book last night, and he's trying to decide which of his he wants me to buy for him. Fair enough. One year...we were talking last night, and it's like...everyone we know is so amazed and so impressed. (Did you know 1/3 of all marriages end in divorce before the 3rd anniversary? Another fact DH found out.) *WE* aren't really that impressed, per se. I mean...we know we're a pair. We know we're "meant to be together". We know we're better with the other half to compliment and complete us. There was never a doubt between us that we would stay/be together, even through all the problems of last year. Nice, yes. Amazing, not really. But still, well wishes from others are meant in the nicest way, so we're pleasant about it.
Wow! Lauren, you are so right! I'm saving your post. I was thinking about what you said and I realized that maybe rounding up the usual suspects when I overeat is taking the easy way out. You know who all of them are: boredom, stress, emotional issues, PMS, etc. Behind all of those things lurks the truth. I vascillate between caring if I lose the weight and not caring if I lose it. I don't give in to all of those usual suspects when I care about losing the weight. If I'm in a situation where my best choices are not completely OP, I get right back on. But when I don't care as much, I give in more easily and take longer to get back OP. That's the difficult part to face.
But, the good part is that the times between not caring and caring are getting shorter. I'm learning that I do have motivation to lose this weight beyond the shallow one of appearance. I'm also learning that behind the lack of caring are a whole bunch of old myths surrounding what losing weight means in my life. The old myths were not my reasons. They belonged to people around me. I needed to find my own reasons.
I realize that I have to keep reminding myself what does matter to me and what I want now from the weight loss. What I'm hoping for is to do what I'm capable of doing to prevent myself from getting high blood pressure or diabetes, both of which are in my family history. I know there are no guarantees, but I don't have to sit back and do nothing, either.
Another thing I'm expecting is to be able to choose my clothing based on what i want to wear, not what's available to me in "women's" or "plus" sizes. I've got my fingers crossed that losing over 100 pounds will slim down my feet just enough to wear medium width shoes again. I'd also like to wear choker-style necklaces again.
I want to dance, swim, and skate, again, too. I want to be strong, flexible, and fit again. When I was in high school, I was on the drill team for a year. I thought I was out of shape (mostly because of my genetic body shape and because my stomach has never been flat), but I was wrong. I'd love to be able to do now what I did then. One day I was making up a PE class in swimming. Most people stood in the water, gossiping. I got bored and decided to see how many laps I could swim. I swam 50 laps across an Olympic-sized pool. If I recall correctly, that's 25 meters per lap. I know I'll never look like I did then, but it's possible to be in that kind of shape when you're older. Just look at what your MIL can do!!
CBS Sunday Morning had a piece on centegenerians this morning. Some of those folks made me feel OLD!! They were doing treadmill walking, water exercises, taking care of themselves at more than 100 years old. About the only thing they couldn't do was drive a car. One guy still held his job as a research scientist at a university and he was still publishing!! That's the kind of old age, no matter how much time is given to me, that I want.
I was thinking about all of this when I was writing this morning. Your post, Lauren, kind of cemented it in my brain.
Erin, your food always sounds so good to me.
Earthquake, huh? I can remember several I've been in during my lifetime. I'm a California native, born in San Francisco. Mostly they're no big deal. The problem is that you don't know until they're over.
Happy Anniversary!! I'm having a hard time believing it's been a whole year since your wedding. Hope you're planning something really special. And don't let the pessimists get to you. The statistics are meaningless because of the way they calculate them. They take the number of marriages in a specific year and compare them with the number of divorces filed that year. That doesn't take into account all of the marriages that didn't begin or end in a particular year. If they did, the divorce rate would be statistically lower.
Well, I'm back OP. Gained a few pounds during the time I went back and forth between eating in my range and writing it down, but not counting points. I realized something weird this morning when I was weighing myself. I have had an absolute in my head that no matter what I did, I was NOT going to ever weigh more than 250 lbs. again. And I haven't. I'm lowering that absolute every ten pounds. I'm hoping that whatever that attitude did to keep me at this weight will help me to keep going down. And stay at goal, once I get there.
Lin, I hadn't thought about it before, but I do the same thing you do -- pick a number and say I'll never weigh more than that again. For me, 200 has been that number for some time. Now that I'm below 200, I've been somewhat stalled out. I'll bet it's in part because I need to rethink that number.
Erin, happy anniversary! Hard to believe it's been a year already. Congratulations! I've been through a couple of minor earthquakes (overseas); one was pretty scary, the other was sort of fun. It sure is a weird feeling, isn't it?
I finished the week over my points now that I'm not banking exercise points. (Had I banked the exercise points, I would've been within range.) I still managed to lose a bit and am almost down to my weight after my UTI. TOM also ended, which no doubt contributed. Best of all, I snuck a peak at my measurements, and they've gone down, too. I feel more motivated again to do this and take the weight off, in spite of the discomfort involved. Trying on lots of clothes has also been helping.
Yesterday I actually JOGGED. Not a lot, just a few minutes here and there during the walk. But wow, was that ever a workout! I used the treadmill at work, and I alternated between 3.8 mph and 4.0 mph. At 4.0 mph, I found I could alternate between walking and jogging in order to keep up. And I learned something -- Leslie Sansone is seriously deluded! Her videos have you "walking" 15-minute miles, supposedly, but I'm here to tell you that they do not begin to compare with the real thing. Ay carumba! I was pretty sore this morning, too. But I plan to do it again tomorrow.
It also struck me that WW calls doing a 4 mph walk "moderate" exercise. To do "advanced" exercise, you've got to be doing more like 6.8 or 7 mph, jogging. Whew! It'll be a while before I get there, that's for sure.
Lin, I'll bet your feet will get narrower. Not only will you lose fat on your feet but you'll be putting so much less pressure on them, too, which will make them narrower. My feet go down a whole width size when I lose weight; they've already gone down quite a bit, especially on the tops. (For a while there I was gushing out of the tops of some of my shoes. Real attractive. NOT.)
Lauren, congratulations on being able to jog a bit. I tried jogging when I was much thinner and my knees were not happy campers. I don't know why dance never made them hurt that way, since it's equally hard on them. Especially tap, which is all done with bent knees and has a jogging-type feel to it.
Also, congratulations on losing a bit more weight. It's so cool to see your success. You've worked hard and you've earned every tiny tenth of a pound you've dispensed with. Those tenths add up to major pounds, don't they?
I suppose the reason I'm dubious about the feet thing is that my feet and hands never have gotten that pudgy look that a lot of overweight people have. So, I don't know if there's enough extra adipose tissue on my feet to go a whole width or two narrower with weight loss. OTOH, before I gained the weight, I was the only person in my childhood family with medium width feet.
I've been OP for a few days now. It was like another click. Thank you, Lauren. Your earlier post got me thinking about some things I hadn't considered before that got me back on track.
It's PMS and I've banked a few points every day. I'm also back on track with the supplements and I learned that I've got to be fanatical about taking them. They're the only thing, so far, that has made any real difference in PMS.
I also have been sticking with my resolution to plan those higher point foods back into my life a little more frequently. I had slipped back into eating "diet" and that's what caused my last detour.
I'm sending a recipe to you all. My family all loved it and since it's vegetarian, that surprised me. It's a very simple pasta dish. It's pasta and vegetables. The sauce is a roasted red pepper cream sauce. I topped it with a little Parmesan cheese, to add some protein. I love cream sauces and I've been trying to figure out a way to keep the creaminess, but ditch most of the fat. I think I've done it, at least for this recipe. Hope you all like it.
Good news to report, the water I was holding FINALLY broke, and I can get my watch on again. I can even get my rings off. This is a very good thing, I was mildly concerned that I was going to pop. I don't know what my weight is, and I'm going to my meeting on Saturday anyway. I've decided that knowing and having my scale out at home are really derailing me, so I'm only going to weigh at WW. I need the weekly meetings to keep me focused. Not to teach me things--mostly my meeting is absorbed with handing out ribbons and stickers and we never even get to the topic--but to give me something to work for and focus on every week. So I may post a gain this week (PMS munchies were horrible this month) but I'm going anyway. And I'm going to keep going. And I put my scale away!
I've discovered that one of my new friends is a survivor of a major accident herself. When she was 17 she was on the back of a motorcycle (helmeted of course) that was blindsided by an old lady in a big car. Lia was thrown off the bike, and had/has a broken pelvis, broken knee, and broken shoulder, dislocated clavicle and various cuts and bruises. We're talking about starting an informal "accident survivors" group at school. She and I agree that something like this changes your perspective, and it's comforting to have other people out there who COMPLETELY understand why you stop and smell roses on your walk to school (as Lia does), and who absolutely understand your struggles just to get through a school day. I've got to contact both the Psych department and Disabled Student Services and see what is offered already on campus. I don't think it should be campus affiliated/organized, just an informal group to gather every week and drink coffee and exchange stories. So that's my big project of the moment.
I'm heavily emphasizing protein today, I've made the connection (again ) that when I find myself maniacally stuffing in carbs I'm generally protein deprived. So I'm being a very very good customer of Morningstar Farms. Thank goodness they're yummy!
Off to Spinning, goodbye my dear Turtles! I'll see you later.
I neglected to put an important bit of information on my recipe. At least it's important if you want to make it simple!! You can buy roasted red peppers in a jar. They can be found where the garlic-stuffed olives and pickled pearl onions are found. They're exactly the same as if you roast them yourself. And they're 0 points because they're not packe in oil. They feel a little oily, but that's just the way the pepper juice feels. Enjoy!
Erin, your accident survivor group idea sound really cool.
So glad to hear that water went away.
It sounds like you really need to be aware of the protein/carb balance. It's good to see that you've gotten that back in perspective.
I lost 4 pounds. It's PMS and I am definitely retaining water. So, I don't know why it's showing up on the scale right now. But I'm not complaining. Just observing.
OTOH, I ate my snack and went for a walk. I still got hungry and ended up eating at the mall. Ate too much, too salty. I'm going to bring raw veggies or a piece of fruit with me when I do errands, just in case. I didn't even really like what I ate. I was just hungry and that's what was available.
I'm back OP and doing fine.
Have a great day! Happy turtlin'! The sunglasses face is so perfect for this warm, springlike day.
Got myself to WW. Really important mtg. Idea is this:
What do you want most to achieve? State it in a positive way.
Now list the obstacles that block your achieving that objective.
*Now* list the options you have in moving the obstacle, overcoming the obstacle, or simply ignoring the obstace.
At that point you can list your goal (mine would be to lose 3 pounds in the next month). List the steps you mean to use to meet that goal. Have written down options when you encounter obstacles that have stopped you in the past.
You guys are the greatest.
Lin,
Glad you lost so well. And thanks for the roasted pepper tip.
Mousie,
I think it's smart of you to put away your scale and to find your way to a WW mtg. The weekly WI keeps a lot of us honest!
Lauren,
Glad to hear your insights about weight. Saying I'll never weigh 200 again is great. I hear you. I need to say I'll never weigh
210 again. There. I just said it and wrote it. Now I'm going to do it.
Judy, your leader sounds great. Very thought-provoking meeting. I think I may take those suggestions and write down my thoughts tonight.
Erin, your post jarred something in me. I think I too crave carbs when I'm low on protein. I'd never quite put that consciously together before, although I knew that during Orthodox Lent I had a lot of problems craving carbs. (We eat no animal products during that time, including dairy, fish, and eggs.) And every year my weight loss plateaus during Lent. This year I'm going to try something different and eat fish and eggs. I won't be completely Lenten, but I feel it's what I need to do. Our Lent starts in a few weeks; it'll be interesting to try this experiment and see what happens. Thanks!
Lin, thanks so much for the yummy-looking recipe. That was very thoughtful of you. It looks fantastic, and I can't believe it's only 5 points, including the pasta! Where can one buy creme fraiche? (I take it that if you use whipping cream, it should be the liquid, non-sweet kind rather than the stuff that comes out of a can? I told you I was a cooking idiot.) Good for you on losing those pounds! Woo-hoo!
I ended up losing about 4 pounds this past week, too. Maybe there's a cosmic gravitational shift or something. Anyway, I'm inching ever closer to my April 17 goal. I'm really looking forward to getting into the 180s. I was in that "decade" when I lived in Philadelphia, that and the 170s. I haven't seen that weight in 9 years.
At my WW meeting, three women made me feel fantastic. Before the meeting started, one of them asked me "So how much have you lost again?" Then they told me that just since this past summer (when I returned to meetings), my face and my shape had "completely changed." I
later talked with one of the women, who was near despair about her weight loss. She has been on the program for one year, and over the past few months she has gained back a bunch of what she'd lost. It's emotional eating, she said, because they're trying to sell their house and move. She's starting to appreciate people who take a long time to get their weight off rather than zipping through it quickly with no bumps (which is what she expected). I told her how I'd plateaued, then gained back 16 pounds, lost it plus more, plateaued again, gained back 9 pounds, lost it plus more. She said that's the kind of thing that helps her right now, knowing that it doesn't have to be a straight shot to be ultimately successful. If she were more of a computer person, I'd invite her to join our turtle club. We've got that philosophy down!
Boy, it feels great to be getting this weight off. Here's what I'm noticing: I feel stronger, leaner. I can feel muscles in my legs and waist and butt. I can see (faintly) collarbones! My neck looks longer. I feel more graceful, more energetic, more flexible. I fit easily into spaces like restaurant booths. I can walk into most any store now and find something that fits, even if it's still not a huge selection. My resting heart rate is in the 50s. I can exercise harder, longer, and just feel good afterwards. My feet don't hurt, and I can wear something other than sneakers finally. I don't get dopey in the afternoons. I rarely need to take naps.
Superb posts. They're going in my file. My file of inspirational quotes from the weight loss threads, most of which are from us turtles, would be over 400 pages, if I printed it out. I should go through them and post some of the best tips and inspirational material, but I don't want to post stuff other people wrote without their permission.
Judy, I'm impressed with your leader's exercise. It seems very worthwhile. I'm going to do it when I write in my journal tomorrow morning. I also like your very reasonable goal of 3 pounds in the next month. I'm sure you can and will do it.
Lauren, some grocery stores, particularly the smaller ones with a reputation for catering to the "foodie" or "gourmet" crowd, sell creme fraiche. It's a no brainer to make, if you can't find it. Put 1 cup of heavy or whipping cream and 2 tablespoons of buttermilk in a jar. Stir it. Cover it and let it sit out at room temperature about 24 hours. Stir it occasionally. It should thicken to the consistency of wimpy sour cream. Then refrigerate it. I use it in small quantities to make low fat foods extra creamy. I put a quarter teaspoon in my scrambled eggs. That's only 1/4 point, and it makes a surprising difference.
I prefer to make my creme fraiche myself because it's so much cheaper and it's so simple. But what to do with the buttermilk that's left over is always an issue? Here's what I do with it. Make buttermilk biscuits. Or scones. Or pancakes. Or waffles.
If you use liquid cream in the recipe, use heavy or whipping cream. You don't want the sweetened stuff. One more quick tip--if you use cream instead of creme fraiche, do add stock, per the recipe as it evaporates to keep the quantity up to the amount you need to coat the pasta and veggies.
About the points--when I use MasterCook, I double check the nutrition info with the info on the packages for the brand I'm using. Then I adjust MasterCook's info to reflect the (hopefully) more accurate info. Then I use my WW electronic calculator to compute the points. That's about as accurate a point count as I've been able to come up with.
The reason I double check is because the nutrition information for pasta in the ingredient list that came with MasterCook had twice as many calories and fat as on every label of every pasta produt I own. I thought maybe they were calculating it based on dry pasta, but it said cooked. Weird. Most of the time their info is pretty close, but after I noticed that one was so far off, I started checking each one.
I love your stories about the women at your meeting. They all deserve a gold star for having the courage to step out and tell someone of their complimentary thoughts.
What I'm noticing is that every time I get sidetracked, I learn something that makes the journey smoother after I get back OP. I'm noticing that my pants are fitting much looser than they did the last time I was at this weight. That's due to the exercise. I'm noticing that I need to keep a very careful eye on the calendar so when PMS gets at its worst I don't overreact to the emotional upheaval. Recognizing it for what it is keeps me OP or, if I don't realize it until after the disastrous choice, it gets me back OP right away.
The other thing I'm noticing is that it is crucial for me to have something to do besides keeping house. I don't have the stimulus of children in my life anymore. That's a huge change. And I don't have a job, which is fine with me, since I've only had one in my life that I would call "stimulating". My solution is to create and stick with a daily writing schedule. I'm working on two projects so there's always one I'm making progress on.
I don't remember what it was like to be 272 pounds, so I feel as if my "noticings" are almost like they might be at the beginning of a weight loss program. So another "noticing" for me is that the current me is who I think of myself as being. The larger person I used to be doesn't exist in my mind. That's a benefit of extremely slow weight loss. I'm comfortable with the smaller me. And I hope to continue to feel that way as I get even smaller.
Quite the interesting day yesterday, Turtles. Or at least for me, anyway.
I love Lia (my new accident-survivor friend). Lia is too cool. Lia is one of those people you automatically feel safe around--she's a little scrap of a thing, it's not that you feel she could protect you, but you know she would never, ever, intentionally hurt you. So, after the sewing workshop yesterday afternoon she was going to come to my place for dinner, and we ended up sitting around at the workshop coffeehouse and talking because we needed to finish our drinks when everyone else left. I suddenly...well, she asked me a question, and I just poured out my soul. Told her about all the stress of last year and how everything just piled up, how I self medicated with food and gained so much, how when I lost weight I had changed when my body changed and I liked who that made me, how I didn't feel like I could be that person in this body, how much I missed myself and sometimes despaired of ever feeling comfortable in my skin again...just, everything. I never tell *anyone* those things. She completely accepted it. When we got back here I pulled out some pictures and showed her, and after I asked her (She didn't spontaneously comment) she said yes, she could see the difference, and yes, she understood how it would be difficult. She said she would unswervingly support me in my efforts, would encourage me when I needed it and was looking for it, and liked me anyway.
It was vindicating to have someone say they saw a difference (DH loves me so dearly he refuses to see/admit a change) and to have them *accept my desire to change*. I want to be a different person than I am now. When I am thinner I present myself differently, I do different things, I'm much less fearful, much more outgoing. I'm the same curious, gentle, open soul, but I present differently. It was so so SO comforting to have someone say, in essence, "I understand that you want to change and I will support you in that."
I love Lia.
Pilates yesterday morning, owie lower abs! Have Spinning tonight. Tuesday night I talked to Erica about my form and why the handlebars seem so far away. We determined that it's because my abs aren't tight enough yet to support me when I lean forward, and not being able to transfer the weight to my arms means that until my abs are stronger, the handlebars ARE too far away. So I decided I need to get to Pilates classes, make the time for them at least twice a week. It'll be a squeak and I may end up going to class hungry, but I can carry some carbs with me so I won't pass out (Pilates is after Spinning in the mornings, leaves me an hour to get a shower, change, grab lunch, get 12 miles across town to campus, walk 1/2 mile in to lecture). I'll figure it out. Anything to make Spinning better!
Food is going reasonably well, once I pointedly added protein (ha! Bad pun, that was completely unintentional but I like it so I'll leave it ) it all fell together again. Having veggie burgers and baked fries tonight. My trousers feel oddly looser, and I've been dropping gallons of water. Ugh, I do NOT hold out hope for a loss saturday (must pay the piper) but maybe not such a horrific gain!
The thing was this: my physics is to be turned in on the computer, to a program that's run at the University of Texas. Why, I don't know, we don't ask these things. Anyway, the due date/time was 2am, Feb 28. So I was thinking it was TONIGHT, the night of the 28th, and I was working on it, making sure I understood it, going back to the book for reinforcement, being a good student. Then I tried to submit it, and it was refused as past due. Huh? So I went to Spinning, then came back...and realized that 2am Feb 28th was this MORNING, not tonight. DUH! Urgh, I hate it when I miss the simple things. I know, I know, I should have done it earlier, whatever. I also had 2 exams and an anniversary this week. At least I wasn't waiting til midnight!
So what did I do when I realized this? Well, my eyes fell on the box of cookies...and I came to write to you guys. Cookies will NOT take care of my physics issues. (I wish). So that's why I'm writing again.
Had a good Spinning class and really got some good work in on my form. I was even in position for a bit! I finally found it, finally could feel it. I couldn't hold it, I don't have the strength right now, but it'll come.
Okay. Now to fix dinner. And avoid the cookies! I'll promise myself that I have to come and tell the Turtles if I eat a cookie because of physics...
Turtle Club #55
) he bought me a book last night, and he's trying to decide which of his he wants me to buy for him. Fair enough. 
) that when I find myself maniacally stuffing in carbs I'm generally protein deprived. So I'm being a very very good customer of Morningstar Farms. 
The sunglasses face is so perfect for this warm, springlike day.
