Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,398
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
I got a bit of a drop this morning, probably from all the water I've been drinking, but I like to weigh in on Sunday, so I will wait and hope that I get another drop, and not a gain by then.
My husband brings a lot of food into the house that I should not be eating. He does not feel that he should give up the foods he like just because I'm dieting. I feel that when I go out into the world, there is food everywhere, tempting me. I have to learn to be able to stay to my eating plan no matter what's around. I do not want to live my life in hiding, afraid of being tempted. I want to conquer this!
As far as tempting food goes, I think I'm getting pretty good at warding off the temptation my DH throws my way in terms of yummy foods. I'm used to him having a ton of candy around the house, or huge bowls of buttery popcorn. I did have to ask him to find somewhere out of sight to keep his bags of halloween candy, though. There's only so many times you can tell yourself you don't need it when it's right there in front of you.
The hard thing for me is when there's food at work. The poor kid in me has a really hard time saying no to free food, and usually my work doesn't provide the healthiest stuff. Lots of pizza and pasta and muffins. They also have a convenience store in the lunch room, stocked with all the chips, soda, and candy that you could want. It's a trap!
I would love to join November and December are indeed the trickiest months of the year. I have set a feasible, but not east goal of seven pounds. Thanks for setting up the challenge.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I plan to get to the park early, before it gets too hot. We are still having unseasonably warm weather. I've managed to step up my exercise for most of the week, and I'm down one pound. It's good to see the scale heading downward again. Now, just need to keep heading in that direction.
I'm still struggling with eating after dinner. I vow to not have any Popchips or Golden Graham cereal after dinner. My options can be, an apple and a few almonds or yogurt.
RIE:
Great Fall photo! I hope you are feeling better soon and that you had a good Skype visit with your friend.
BLICCA:
I know how tough it can be in the workplace. I had an employer who used to coach the employees towards healthy eating (part of safety meeting or posters and info. sent directly to employees). Unfortunately, they didn't "walk the talk". Anything that came from the Company cafeteria, that the Company supplied for meetings, lunchens or celebrations were always high calorie foods that weren't necessarily healthy.
If you have a place to stash your personal healthy foods/snacks,that is the way to go. It's tough to resist the goodies when you are hungry.
REBELLE:
Congrats on having a wt. loss this week. I do better with not weighing every day. I do generally find it rewarding to weigh-in during the early morning when I've made a lot of trips to the bathroom to pee, lol
SLIMMER ME:
Welcome to the challenge. Best wishes for reaching your goal. I'm in California, as well.
STRONGGAL:
Good job resisting the pasta and desserts. Unfortunately workplace feasts don't generally offer low cal food. I used to volunteer to bring the green salad, or something healthy. There is generally some of that left over. The protein tends to go fast, maybe in the future, you can have a teammate save a serving of protein for you.
WANNABEHEALTHY:
I agree that we can't always eliminate the tempting goodies that others in the household love to eat, but it can make it more challenging. I've been thankful many times of extreme stress that I didn't have tempting goodies to reach out to.
My weight is 169.8 lbs this morning! Yesterday I didn't have a sandwich for lunch and I think this is how the scale thanks me - huzzah! It was genuinely fantastic seeing the 160's again. Even though I've hated them for 4 years, getting into the 170's definitely pushed me past tipping point so seeing that 169 was amazing. Makes me feel like I'm definitely doing the right thing for my body. Now to just breeze through the 160's and head straight to the 150's beyond
My cold is in full swing now. Yesterday was definitely the day where it was reaching boiling point and my face felt all stuffy and fuzzy, from here on out it's just about dealing with a snotty nose! I did everything I wanted yesterday except finish the project that's due tomorrow. So this afternoon I'll be finishing that up so I can have a day off tomorrow. Even though I have taken half days/days off this week it still doesn't feel like one because I always think "I should do some work". Tomorrow will be a guilt free day off then back to it on Monday!
I made shrimp last night, gawd it takes forever to peel and de-vein! I think I spent 40 minutes doing it by myself, definitely need a helper next time.
Today I met up with a friend and we went for brunch, I underestimated how chilly it is today and was freezing waiting outside! Definitely hoodie weather at this point. Had a great time and now I'm ready to work hard
About the Skittles incident! I didn't provide enough context and have painted my boyfriend in a negative light! I was actually bugging him about Skittles, saying that he should buy me a giant bag for Christmas because I love them so much. He repeatedly said "no way am I buying you a 2 lb bag of Skittles", but I jokingly said "why not?!" Him buying me the small box of Skittles was honestly a simple, sweet gesture. He doesn't buy me candy often, if at all. I'm not strictly on a diet, I'm changing my habits to lose the weight and for the most part it's working well. He was actually glad that I had a bad reaction to the box of Skittles, because now I can shut up about them! So he's not out to sabotage my weight loss or anything like that, he's super encouraging.
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munchey - It's interesting reading your woes on the short days, I have equal love for day and night! I'm definitely naturally a night owl, I feel the most productive when the sun goes down. Though I'm not a huge fan of it getting darker so early, I'll admit. Hope your lights are helping you stay up!
My boyfriend is from Boulder, CO which if you're unfamiliar is a place where everyone and their Grandma is in shape. So me being the complete opposite of someone from that culture took us both some getting used to. He used to ask me when was I working out next, because that's just a harmless question in his culture, but for me I took it as an insult that he wanted me to lose weight and get off my fat arse! He loves me the way I am, we started the relationship when I was 200 lbs so he's not shallow, but he loves the way I act and how happy I am when I'm losing weight.
Yeah, I don't believe in hand holding and creating safe zones in a higher education environment. I think one university, it might have been Chicago but I could be wrong, sent a letter out to its students saying essentially "grow up, this is a place of academia where you have to be challenged, there are no safe zones here".
rebelle - I know, right! But in a strange way I always get a cold around Christmas time so I feel like this is almost a festive sickness haha! Huzzah for light jackets!! Glad to hear your seeing some results for this challenge, keep it up! I sometimes find that under eating can mean a stall in weight. It's good you're figuring out what habits are working for you though, this process is all about learning about ourselves and essentially the best ways to trick ourselves into staying on track!
stronggal - Good for you for resisting temptation! Especially when it sounds like it was your only option too!
As for working out with him - I can't really because he does Muay Thai which is a $140 a month membership! He's also in the intermediate/advanced classes and I'm not about to step into the ring with him! He's very much in shape, so when he goes to workout it inspires me to go on a run, so it works in our own weird way. Having a partner who is thin is a double edged sword, on the one hand I can't help but feel like I'm frumpy compared to him but on the other seeing how hard he works for his body makes me want to do the same for myself.
wannabe - Very true, it'd be easier for you if your husband wanted to eat healthier too but you can't change the world and remove temptation altogether. You can most definitely do it, look how close you are to the 190's!! Keep it up!!
Blicca - I'm the same way about free food! Definitely hard to say no.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,398
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
My weight is up from my starting weight, but has already started coming down. I hope it continues.
Blicca, when I lived alone and was struggling financially, I tended to live off the free food at work, but I was thin back then and it did not create a problem. I might have starved to death without it. LOL
Munchy, when I lived alone there wasn't much food in my apartment so once I was home from work there wasn't much to snack on. Now I think we could live for a month just on what's here.
Rie, good for you on getting back into the 160s. I remember when you lived in CO and I remember hearing that for some reason, people who live at a high altitude tend to be thin, and I also remember you saying that everyone there was thin. In the same article, it said that there are two European countries that eat the same type of diet, but one is high altitude and the other is not. The people in the low altitude country had weight problems, and the people in the high altitude country did not. I can't remember which countries they were, but I think they were Scandinavian. I am retired an have entirely too much time on my hands, to be researching and reading these things. LOL
HEY EVERYONE!
Thought I'd post a photo collage from my trip to the park on Satuday. I usually go to a different section of the park, but the section I went to on Satuday was the one where they supply water to a lake. I happened to find a lot of different birds visiting. Some white pelicans flew in (hadn't seen them since last year). Then there was a family of Egyptian Geese, along with some Canadian Geese, a Blue Heron and a few other birds.
There was a little comedy, with a loud honking rawdy white goose. A group of very large white geese have been in the park for a few weeks. The loud mouth one started to chase me a few weeks ago, when I put down some bird feed. I couple of teenage boys were feeding the rawdy geese on Saturday. I should have taken some video of it, It was very funny to see the interactions between the two boys and the geese, as the boys were giving them some food.
I was a bit stressed out, when I first got to the park. I had to stop at a post office first to chase down an important return-receipt mailing I had mailed back on 10-26-16 to my crazy sister's lawyer (regard our deceased parent's trust). As of tomorrow, this letter will have been within the postal system for 19 days to be delivered 4 miles from the post office where it was postmarked and identified for return-receipt handling. Part of the problem is the post office and the other part is the lawyer who is making it difficult to get anyone to sign for it. With all the travel for this poor letter, the delivery verification card had become detached and mailed to me. I had to go visit the supervisor for the delivering post office to get it reattached to the letter. OMG, who knows what this next weeks delivery attempts will hold. I vow to not eat over it. Talk about a Murphy's Law situation. . .
RIE:
I hope you enjoyed your Sunday off and that you continue to feel better fast. Glad to see you are back in the 160's. It's great to hear that your boyfriend's Skittle purchase came from the best of intentions and affection for you. It is great when people in a relationship can accept each other the way they are.
I don't like to peel and de-vein shrimp. I try to buy the jumbo ones, as it takes less work. I few times, I've found shrimp identfied as "easy peel", and they were a bit easier to handle.
WANNABEHEALTHY:
I hope the scale continues downward for you. It can be good to have a supply of various food items. Good in case of a disaster or a Zombie Apocalypse, lol
I definitely spoke too soon about my cold having reached it's peak, I got a second wave on Saturday. I felt quite feverish, not too bad, but I definitely needed a nap and taken care of. Luckily this time the boyfriend was around, it's our own personal joke that whenever I get sick he's always out of town! Luckily it passed pretty quickly. Yesterday our friends treated us to a meal because we looked after their dog for a week. We went to an amazing BBQ place. I stopped when I felt full, but it definitely was a cheat meal! My weight was up to 171 lbs this morning, but I'm gonna pin that to water weight.
I'm gonna brave a run today, it's definitely getting colder here so I need to wrap up warm, but I need to train for that race. I mean, I THINK we're doing the race, not heard about if Mum has entered us yet! Either way, I need to stay active.
I downloaded an app for Android called Habits, I'm using that to keep on top of my goals. Today I read, ate at the table and ate oatmeal because I'm running which is allowed . The idea is for me to check the app each morning and remember what my goals are. I hope it works! I definitely discovered I needed a visual reminder.
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wannabe - That's interesting! It would definitely explain the active lifestyle of places at higher altitudes. Maybe it's something in the air .
munchey - Great pictures! Sorry to hear your troubles with the post office. Any chance you could deliver it in person? Fingers crossed it gets there soon. We've been lazy with shrimp recently, we've bought it already de-veined but we were wasting a lot of money we discovered. Now we do it ourselves. Hate doing it, but shrimp sure is tasty!
Last edited by Riestrella; 11-14-2016 at 11:04 AM.
On Monday I had what can only be described as a kick up the butt in terms of the way I'm leading my life. Not to do with weight loss, but the fact that I'm not as productive as I could be. I work from home and I wasn't being strict on myself. The more work I get, the more I need to buckle down and treat Monday - Friday like an actual job, instead of just picking at work when I feel like it. I set myself a daily plan and yesterday I actually implemented it completely successfully. It was quite the surprise to me! Usually I make these grand plans and set routines and fail, but I think the thought of people depending on me to do a job and do it well made me realise I can no longer mess around. I set my alarm for 7am (I'd been waking up naturally at around 8:30am-9:30am before) and just got going. I went on a run, I worked for a full 5 hours, I went grocery shopping, I prepared dinner, I did some scrapbooking and THEN I relaxed! It felt so good to be so productive in my day! Before I would have gone on a run, procrastinated for 3 hours, work for 2 hours then immediately go into slob mode.
Today I'm up early again and actually kinda loving the idea of getting to work at specific times. Tonight I'm gonna make tortilla soup which I'm actually pretty excited about! I made it once before and boyfriend and I both loved it. Then I'm going to a friends house to play a board game.
As for my weight: I'm 170 lbs on the dot so I imagine another day or two of eating on track will put me back down to 169 lbs like last week!
Hi everyone - I would like to join for this challenge too as it helps to keep me accountable especially at this time of year. Thanks Rie for doing these challenges. Good luck everyone.
HEY EVERYONE!
Congrats to everyone for their accomplishments for last week. Wow, there were some significant losses! Good job!
I'm hanging in there this week. I'm revamping some old "good habits". I took a large bag of Popchips, and divided it out amoung several smaller baggies. I counted the number of chips, so I have a close idea of the calorie contant of the smaller bags. So now, instead of opening up a large bad, and mindlessing eating too many chips, I will grab a small bag and be mindful of the calories.
Flower1:
Good to see you are joining the challenge. Best wishes!
RIE:
Sounds like you are feeling better, that's great!
Good job on getting thing accomplished and out of the way early in the day. Recently, I had to revisit some of my priorities as well. It feels good to start the day with some exercise and then get the things you have to do out of the way early. I find that when I do that, I appreciate feeling more relaxed when I do the lower priority things or things that I just want to do.
Tortilla soup, yum yum. I love soup anytime, but appreciate it more this time of year.
I'll have to check out the Android app "Habits". I in the process of switching from a Windows phone to Android. I got caught up in the Note 7 drama, as I had ordered on from the Samsung website one week before the first recall. I finally received my Galaxy S7 Edge last week and I'm getting familiar with it. I started loading some apps via Wifi. I'll likely activate it with a sim card and a new carrier sometime next week.
HEY EVERYONE!
Hope everyone had a great week and have good final results for the week.
Anyone ever use loop resistance bands to exercise with? Amazon had a deal on some, so I bought a set. I have some of the other resistance products that are like rubber ropes. Nice to have a variety of exercise options, especially with ones that are easy to store and don't gather dust, lol.
Framing Your Splurge: The Pickle Jar Analogy
"The first step is to gain some perspective on holidays by considering the big picture. Imagine two large pickle jars, one that is empty and one that contains 365 pennies. Now imagine that you are told to remove a penny from the one pickle jar and put into the empty pickle jar for every time that you knew you’d blow your diet during the calendar year.
You might start with the obvious holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Plink, plink, plink, you put three pennies into the empty pickle jar. Then another penny for New Year’s day, your birthday, Valentine’s day, Mother’s day, Father’s Day, the 4th of July, and seven pennies for the week at the beach in August,. When you’ve come up with the obvious ones and you’re considering Arbor Day, stop and take a moment to take a look at your two jars.
In one jar you have 30 or so pennies and in the other, the remaining 335 pennies. The 30 or so pennies are the times each year that you KNOW that you’re going to splurge and “blow your diet”. The jar with 335 pennies, however, represents your healthy program, the one that has helped you lose weight, regain your health, look better, and feel great!
You can see that what you do on the 335 days of the year that you follow your program closely is much more important than what happens on those 30 splurge days. But as you know, it’s not that easy. The problem is that when we “fall off the wagon”, it may take us days and days to get back to our program. Our 30 splurge days turn in to 90 splurge day. Why does this happen? Use the following five strategies to help you enjoy your upcoming splurge and still keep your program intact.
Strategy #1: Give Yourself Permission
If ______ (fill in the blank) is a special time for you, plan to enjoy it. Make an agreement with yourself that it’s OK to not have a weight-loss day. You’ve worked hard thus far and your enjoying a special day is not going to ruin anything.
Strategy #2: Frame Your ______ (fill in the blank) Splurge
Keep your indulgences to just the day, not the entire weekend. A key to weight-loss success is learning how to keep your exercise program and eating structure healthy the day before and the day after your special day. This is called “framing” your splurge.
Strategy #3: Have a Plan
To make strategy #2 work, you’ll need to plan out the details so that you can stay on track. Where will you exercise? What will you be eating on the days before and after your______ (fill in the blank) splurge? Do you need to bring food or snacks to be able to stick with your diet? Do you need to explain to friends or family members that you’re on a healthy diet?
Strategy #4: The Splurge
Remember that ______ (fill in the blank) isn’t your last day of eating on planet Earth. How can you maximize your pleasure, fully enjoy the food that day, but still feel like you made good decisions? One strategy is to not come into the meal famished. Being too hungry will set you up for gorging yourself. The goal here is to have a great time and enjoy your company. Be selective with your choices. Focus on those foods that you love, eat slowly, and give yourself permission to savor them.
Strategy #5: Take Pride in Your Recovery
Now it’s time to get back on track. If you overate, don’t “beat yourself up” about it. If you did well with your choices, then congratulate yourself. Your overall success is in how quickly you recover. Tomorrow you’re back to the pickle jar that represents your healthy program."
Weight is 170 lbs this week. Just a 0.2 lb gain but feels like 20 when I tasted the 160's again! Still, glad it's only a tiny gain and I know I WILL see the 160's again shortly!
Exercise has been sadly abandoned this week it seems. I think when I focus too heavily on one aspect of my life I get lazy in others. Mum did in fact enter us into the 5 mile Christmas Eve race, she texted me a picture of our numbers the other day. So I need to get back on it so I don't die on race day! Can't wait for the prize at the finish line - minced pie, wine and chocolate!
Eating has been heading in the wrong direction, while I'm doing very well at not eating oatmeal every day I've mindlessly added a handful of chips to my lunch which I do NOT need. Need to work on that. I've also been slacking with water intake too, so going to focus heavily on that today onwards.
Life is good though! Haha, sorry for all the doom and gloom in the health department. Since I laid out a work schedule for myself I've had great success in getting work done. I did have to do some minor tweaking, down to me becoming an angry food monster as soon as 12pm hits, but I think I've gotten the hang of it! Work itself has been going very well, I've got lots of projects on the go so more projects means more experience
Boyfriend is now out of town for 4 days, then it'll be Thanksgiving. We'll be with our "Atlanta parents" i.e. boyfriends godparents this year. Atlanta mum is an amazing cook so I'm very excited. I invited our closest friends too since they weren't going to be doing anything so it'll be nice bringing people together. The day after we're going to do Friendsgiving as well, which I'm looking forward to as well!
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munchey - I'm all with you about getting exercise done early and spending the rest of the day relaxing/working on other things. Every time I say "oh, I'll workout at lunch" I NEVER do. It's morning or never with me it seems! The app is called "Loop - Habit Tracker".
