Planning & Chat for Nov. 19 - 25
 

Christmas is coming! The most dreaded season for dieters :eek:.

Fruitcake, eggnog, gingerbread, plum pudding :hungry:. Bring on the lbs.!

Are you planning any coping strategies yet?

Have a great week everyone! :D

Maintaining and didn't even know it
 

Good morning all!

I didn't lose or gain anything last week. I have figured out how to maintain my current weight just by what I'm eating :). No writing, measuring, etc. I just know when I've gone over a bit one day and compensate the next.

But that's not the goal - YET!

So back to the notebook and scale. It's getting harder to stay under 1400 calories as the weather's much colder and I'm crashing hard in the afternoon.

And this week I have an evening walk to do three days a week and I have a short sleep-over, which just adds to the stress :devil: of the coming holiday season.

There's gonna be lotsa whining and excuses from me this week. I'm trying to figure out how to motivate myself for these last three lbs while keeping all the rest of the balls in the air.

Dagmar :cry::tantrum::tired: (lotsa "frownies" this week)

Have been very good at staying on track this last week, and am trying very hard not to let the numbers on the scale dictate how i feel about me. It is a number, not who i am.

Plan to continue as before but give myself some extra wiggle room for Thanksgiving, and then start back again the next day.

I had a great weekend when my weight finally got back to ticker weight, but it's back up again due to a couple of desserts this weekend. I'm sure the burrito for lunch Saturday didn't help either.

I'll buckle down and keep an eye on my caloric intake this week and I'll stay away from the desserts. I also have to watch the wine....

Just dropped in to say hello :wave:

I'm still lurking around and seem to be maintaining my weight but I have decided to do something different instead of calorie counting. I guess I'm getting burned out on logging everything that goes in my mouth so I'm just doing portion control for now. I need to stop stepping on the scale everyday too. It all seems like it becomes too obsessive and then I rebel and tend to overeat :dizzy:. Right now I only eat when I'm truly hungry and stop when I start to feel satisfied. It seems to be working out. I've only been doing it a week and although I haven't lost any weight, I haven't gained any either ;).

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and I'll keep you up to date on how my new "plan" is working.

:turkey:

Evening folks! I'm home from work and winding down from the first decent food day I've had in ages.

Pathetic I tells ya! That's what the last few days have been.

Not really much positive stuff to report... I fell way off-plan yesterday. Was traveling on business and ended up having a good-sized breakfast (nothing really bad, but considering the way I ate for the rest of the day it should have been a lot smaller). A big slice of mushroom pizza for lunch, and it wasn't even very good. And then for dinner... oh, dinner. Fried calamari, fried mushroom with a potato frite, salad (no cheese at least, as if that's any consolation), and then pork/shrimp cassoulet as my main course. All of this tempered with lots and lots of wine, which I had chosen so I got myself sucked into trying each of the bottles as they came out (which then led to me loving what I had picked and having a full glass from each one). And for dessert? More wine (but one of the best dessert wines I've ever had), and then apple-raisin bread pudding with french vanilla ice cream on top. After dinner I then went to a bar and had a cranberry-vodka (which is at least one of the lowest-cal drinks you can get, since I don't drink diet soda, but it's still not great). The worst part is, I would do it all again in a second - the food was delicious. I have no willpower.

Actually, I guess I have one positive. I abstained from the bread basket at dinner. Whoo hoo :)

I'm flying back to NYC right now, but I obviously couldn't pack lunch today, so that means I'll have to go out for lunch. I'm going to try to slip out without my manager noticing so that I can go to Subway. If he realizes that I didn't bring lunch before I buy anything, he'll try to get me to go somewhere with him that will take me even further off-plan. My weigh-in is going to be tomorrow morning, and I'm nervous.

So much for me eating a bit lighter to gear up for Thanksgiving, huh?

Rough start to the week
 

I too am not doing so well this week (and it's only Tues. - pathetic).

Just replaced the belgian chocolate cookies tin which I got into last night :o. Didn't eat them all (thank goodness - it's about 2 lbs. of cookies) and the compost bin got the ones I didn't gobble. Expensive compost.

And the really boneheaded :devil: thing about it was that I ate the cookies 'cause I was mad at my DH. He wouldn't let me eat any of his chocolate ice cream :dizzy:

Well I showed him, didn't I? I think I've gained more lbs. from sulking than from any other one factor. Lots of salad for dinner tonite. SIGH

We need a smilie with a dunce cap :D

Dagmar

Dagmar - sorry to hear about your run-in with the cookies.
What is it about DH's and food?

Mine brought home 3 frozen pies - I wasn't too worried as I don't really like pie.
...But after that lovely pie came out of the oven and was sitting on the counter all hot and smelling delish - I caved:(
Not much mind you - but every bit adds up.

How will I ever see the 140's again at this rate??
-S

Saboteurs are everywhere!
 

I think this has been mentioned many times. Our DH's, partners, parents, friends, etc. may feel threatened by what we are doing with our bodies. There are not many people out there who like change, particularly if they think they themselves are also expected to change.

My own DH is in the high risk group now for a heart attack. He has a stomach hernia, where his belly fat has literally pushed out his intestines and ripped his stomach wall. And do I want to make love with a guy with a beach ball sized mound of fat on his belly? Not really.

And I'm not nagging him. I'm trying to set an example that I hope he'll follow but I'm not ordering him to do anything. I have expressed concern about his health and offered various solutions.

He keeps bringing home the ice cream and cookies. I've asked him not to do it and his answer?

"I've got stress"

I've told him time and time again (even though we can't really afford it) to quit his present job and find a better place to work.

Nothing changes. I'm beginning to think the only way to change this situation is for me to leave. And this is not a decision I've made lightly. This has been going on for three years. I really can't keep listening to all of his negativity and watching him destroy his health with food.

Sorry to go on so long.

Dagmar

Hi everyone. Hope you have a great upcoming holiday! I am having an early Thanksgiving dinner later today, another one tomorrow and yet another big dinner Friday! Makes it really hard to SOP! So far WW is working out better than anything else has, although the ticker crept up to 145 again. I am SLOWLY losing weight now. I have upped my work-outs to try to help it along. At this rate, I won't reach goal until about May! I do have to get into a swimsuit in about 4 wks...always a good motivator!

.......one day at a time!

:thanks1:

Morning!

My butt is kinda draggin' this morning. I had the weirdest shift last evening. I ate my chicken with my fingers while I did my charting. When I got home (with most of lunch still in my bag) I had soup and a sandwich. Odd midnight snack.

Just as soon as I gather my wits, I'm going for a walk ... honest. And I'd better pack more finger food for work tonight.

Doing a little happy dance , out of the 30's and into the 20's. Wouldn't it be bizarre if I reach goal on Thanksgiving day ?

Dagmar, sorry to hear about all your troubles. I'm not married so I can't quite relate to getting thrown off, but I dated a guy for a year who smoked. I can't stand that, and he quit when we first started dating, but picked it back up about 6 months into the relationship. What's odd is, he was always trying to get in shape: biking, running, swimming, lifting weights, etc. For a while he was even toying with the idea of doing a triathlon or a marathon. His answer was always that he was stressed, or he was at a party and just wanted to smoke socially. We stayed very close friends after we broke up, but actually hit a snag about a week ago because I keep trying to get him to be more responsible. I don't want his life to get derailed because of silly choices (smoking being just one example, though I gave up on trying to get him to quit a while ago). It's REALLY hard to express concern and help someone without coming off as nagging. My friends keep telling me to leave it alone, and that I can't make it my problem, but that kind of thing is hard when you really care about someone and want the best for them. It sounds like you are in a similar situation. Unfortunately, I think I screwed it up, so I'm probably not the best person to ask for advice.

I weighed in this morning (two days late, because of my travels - I refuse to weigh in on a different scale just because you never know what the scale-to-scale differences may be). I'm up 1/2 pound. Not a huge deal, but disappointing nonetheless, especially since I'm not expecting to fare very well with my diet on Thanksgiving.

I've been working on a spreadsheet, now that I've been tracking calories/weight consistently for a bit, to figure out exactly what my maintenance/loss calories are and should be. Haven't spent a ton of time with it yet, but right now, based on my net calories for last week and how that affected the scale, it seems like my maintenance amount calories per day is 1500, which would mean to lose 1 pound/week, I'd have to net only 1000 calories a day. Which I know is dangerous, and I'm not going to attempt that. Alternately, if I ignore the "net calories" and only look at what I actually ate, I can have 2000 calories a day as maintenance, as long as I also work out for an hour a day. That just doesn't seem right. So... how is this possible? Ridiculously slow metabolism? I know I'm not overweight but I definitely have a few extra pounds so it seems like it SHOULD be possible to lose them.

Hopefully I'm reading and interpreting Laura's question correctly ...

It's OK to NET 1000 calories. Since that includes calories you did eat but worked off, you did get nutrition ... is that clear?

I don't like the concept of net calories. Exercise expenditures are veeerrry difficult to estimate with any accuracy. The only thing you can track with much precision is your intake.
2000 calories for a young healthy acitve woman? Could be. There's got to be some basis for the labelling of nutrients as a percentage of a 2000 calorie diet.

Last night I dreamed of pizza. :cloud9: Not even good pizza--Little Caesar's. But it sure tasted good in my dream.

This week I am increasing my calories to 1500. My trainer really thinks I should be eating more and has been pestering me about it and, frankly, for the last few weeks I've been :censored: hungry all the time so I'm willing to give it a try. Yesterday I had a real egg (so much tastier than egg substitute). The day before that I stirred one tbsp of peanut butter into my oatmeal. OMG did it ever taste good! :drool:

Mudpie: I so feel for you. :hug: I read your posts about your DH and think that you could be me. I am in a 12-year co-habitating relationship as well (I think I remember you saying once that you aren't actually married and are at the 12-year mark) and I'm also at the point where I'm wondering if I need to get out of it. It's agonizing to think about ending a 12-year relationship but I'm also so unhappy in the relationship; every time I think about it, my stomach ties itself up in knots. I've decided to postpone making a decision about it until after the holidays, then I'm planning on seeing a therapist to talk through some of my issues and get an independent third party opinion on my situation. My friends have heard me complain about him so much that I just don't think they are able to give me unbiased advice. I definitely feel for what you are going through and I hope you figure things out. Maybe we should both have joint New-Years resolutions to figure out what we want to do with our relationships. Of course, that was my resolution last year and I didn't make much progress on it. :dunno:

Scenestealer: This probably isn't what you want to hear but 2,000 calories a day with an hour of exercise sounds like a lot of calories to me. If you can maintain on that, that sounds like a fast metabolism. I'm am on 1500 a day with 45 min to an hour of high intensity exercise a day (and that's only been for a couple of days--for the past six months or so, I was on 1300 a day and barely losing on that, actually maintaining for the past month). Oh to be able to eat 2000 calories. I'm with Susan on not netting out exercise--it's far too hard to really know how many calories you burned.

Drowning with the doggies
 

It poured rain all day today. I periodically gave thanks to the folks who invented Gortex, polar fleece, and the halti :).

Normally at the end of such a day I would run, not walk, for the cookies. But I am having veggie stew and a WW roll for dinner, with a banana yogurt for later :angel:

My reward will come tomorrow night when I get to lay out in the biggest hot tub at my sleep over :yay:. I can float, with hands and legs outstretched, and not touch the sides of this tub. And it has various jet settings and "disco" lights. COOL!!!

DH will not be joining me "til Sat. So I have 2 nights of solitary bliss - tubbing and reading. The dog is the most sedentary beast I know so he's easy to look after. Just take his pulse now and again to make sure he's still with me :p

Dagmar :cool:

Hmm, didn't realize a net of 1000 cals was okay. I always thought when they said "don't go under 1200" they meant net, not overall. I'll prob stick with net 1500 for the rest of the week (since this is a difficult week for me to eat healthy anyway), and then next week I'll try netting 1300ish and see where that gets me. I always thought the 2000 cal recommendation was assuming you didn't exercise much (like most Americans), but it does make more sense that it's the ideal of what everyone SHOULD do. However, why does Daily Plate tell me to net 1500 for my height/weight/goals?

I netted 1256 today, which I'm thrilled about. Gives me a tad bit more leeway for tomorrow, and I'm running a 10k race in the morning, which will also help. Wish me luck! And have a happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

I've been trying dailyplate just for the newness of it. I very much like the variety of foods it has HOWEVER ... I do not like the net thing. To me, it seems to make simple calorie deficit sooo hard to figure ... I just don't get it.

Barbara ... you are freaking me out with your added calories. Just as soon as I figure out how to explain the lightbulb moment I'm having ... I'll come back.

Warning rambling involved! Worse yet ... it's a cross-post.

Where to begin ... you see I'm having a lightbulb moment but it's one of those fluorescent bulbs that comes to life sloowwly ...

I can't eat 1200 calories any more. I'm either starving and eat waaay too much the next day or I'm so tired and listless, I nap every day. I certainly cannot work and exercise too!

In the last maybe three days I've come across references to Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle about a gajillion times.

I've done two days of a three day split and loved every minute of it.

On several occassions yesterday and today, I've been honestly grumbling tummy hungry.

A phrase something like ... if you want to gain muscle and become lean, you're going to have to eat ... has popped up in each magazine and about 80% of the websites I've been to lately.

My own signature used to say eat clean.

Even those French Women books ... eat nice bits of awesome foods.

Barbara (one of my favourites) is talking about adding in healthy calories.

Do you see this coming together?

I'm too light to lose weight by eating 1200 cals and walking to the post office!

I don't need to get lighter, I need to get slimmer.

Muscle is slimmer.

If I'm going to build muscle, I need to eat!

If I'm going to eat ... it'd better be good food!

I've got past the point where it's all about 'eat less and move more'. I need to learn how to build the body I want (outta these raw materials HA!)

Boing! I think the bulb is fully lit now. Overshadowed only by the fact that I knew all this before sigh. But today it's all just fallen into place in my head.

Yes, I'm excited. Yes, I'm rambling.

It makes sense Barbara & SusanB
 

I read a version of this thinking somewhere too - sorry to be so vague but I tend to read articles in non-weight specific (how's that for a descriptive phrase) magazines. And I also have a plan involving more food/muscle mass.

Your body "gets used to" maintaining a certain weight at a certain caloric level. It adjusts your metabolism to conserve what it can (why are we naturally set to "fear of starving" I wonder).

If you want to lose weight or change the body after a long time on the same plan you have to give it a "jolt".

I'm thinking of buying one of those home gym weight machines (another stellar descriptive phrase) next spring to put some weight back on in the form of muscle, like you SusanB.

Funny how we tend to arrive at some "group" decisions. :dizzy:

:hug: Thank you Barbara. It's been 12 years for me too and the last 3 have been very long ones.

I think your plan of consulting a therapist is a good one. I should do that too before I make the final decision. Although my DH has surprised me in the past by changing. Hope he gets it together this time. He is my DH and my best friend and I would be very sad without him.

What was the quote - "when the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change we change"?

Let's hope you and I both can come to some sort of resolution in the new year. :hug:

Dagmar

Oh I'm sure it's a matter of great minds thinking alike ;)

Morning everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving has come and gone. Ate enough stuffing to choke a horse. Right back on plan today without problem.

Good morning!

A headache drove me from my bed this morning but that's OK because I've been quietly sitting at the computer doing stuff. Paid some bills, renewed my registration, filled out a nursing survey ... feels fairly accomplished for still sitting around in my jammies.

It's clear and bright here this morning. Probably cold as cold can be! I'll take a little walk and see ...

I ate an actually fairly normal amount of food last night. Probably not an on-plan amount, but left the meal without feeling stuffed at all. I also passed on the wine and managed to have water with everything, which I'm sure was a big help. However, this morning I'm probably negating all of it by literally... having Thanksgiving again for breakfast (a full plate of leftovers). We had a lot of family problems last night that made the meal highly unenjoyable, and I'm actually liking this morning's food a lot better than last night's. I know I shouldn't, but just this once I am going to be an emotional eater and enjoy my Thanksgiving food today since I couldn't last night.

Hi all -

You may have forgotten me, but I was a fairly regular featherweight until about one month ago when I headed to San Francisco for a family wedding. I had decided that I would enjoy myself and not watch my eating while there. That was all good and well (and we had an awesome time), but I have been TOTALLY off track since then - exercise-wise AND food-wise. I have always been a regular exerciser (at least doing one hour very brisk walks a day), but I have been a virtual slug the last 2 months or so.

I come back today (4 pounds heavier!!) to humbly recommit myself to a healthy lifestyle and get back on track. I really hate when I regress like this! But, better that I'm catching it now then letting it go further.

So, I will be back to fitday today, AND I'm going for a walk. Starting small, but I'm starting nonetheless. I plan to see some changes in my fitness level (strength and stamina) by Christmas.

Susan - reading your post serves as a great reminder for me not to totally restrict calories, but to be conscious of calories (I lose on 1300-1400) AND to keep those calories good whole clean foods. Gosh, I know I feel better when I do that, so I just need to do it!

Barbara and Dagmar - I, too, relate to your predicament. Not now, as I'm very happily married, but in my previous relationship. We lived together for 8 years and then had the world's longest breakup - about 3 years in fact of me knowing this just wasn't right - but I was just somehow paralyzed to leave. Relationships take work, but I knew in my heart it shouldn't take so much work on my part and so little on his. I knew in my heart too (although I really pushed these feelings down) that I was staying because it was the easier choice. Ending things is incredibly difficult - when we did finally decide to move on, it was a horrible blow emotionally - I was sooo depressed - unexpectedly so - although I was the one who wanted it. I came through it a stronger and more confident - and happier person - but it was tough. In hindsight, I believe it was fear (of the unknown, of being alone) that kept me there so long. Anyway, my thoughts are with you, as I do understand how frustrating this position is.

Take care girls... I'm glad to be back and look forward to the daily chats!

Hello all!

Man I love to lurk on this thread but I just never end up posting anymore.

Susan - I totally agree about it being important to eat whole food calories. Yes from a scientific stand point it's supposedly calories in vs calories out, and maybe I like to complicate things, but I just don't think it can be that simple... I mean our bodies are amazing adapters controlers and they like to be where they are (usually) even if it's not good for them... they'll still do whatever they can not to change.

I know I can lose on a fairly high calorie count when I'm being really active, and that's when I lose best. But I do have to work on portion control and my eating so that I don't have to be so dependent on being active.

scenestealer - it's too bad about your thanksgiving dinner. But I'm glad you're enjoying it as a breakfast.

Dagmar, Barbara (and walking2lose) - wow. Those are some tough situations. I think a lot of people do that. Stay in relationships even if it's not right. As humans we like to take the easier choice. I'm sort of on the other side of the fence. I've never really had a boyfriend or dated and I just find it so much easier to not put myself on the line. Recently though this "whimping out" of putting myself out there has been making me feel kind of gross and bad inside. It's so silly that taking the easy choice makes me feel guilty and stressed but it does.
I hope it works out for you both, and you find the right choice in the end. **Hugs for both of you**.

So my weight loss is most likely stalled right now. I haven't been watching what I eat very well. and I've been eating too much and too much junk. But I can feel the tides changing here. I want to lose a bit more before christmas so I can indulge without a lot of guilt. ;) That said it isn't going to be easy with exam season approaching and the stress of finals and all that jazz. Tonight I'm supposed to go out for dinner, a movie and to the bar (I haven't been out to the bar in ages!). Next weekend I'm going to the Spice Girls concert in Vancouver, for which I am stoked, but which will not help me lose weight but which will be so worth it... :D

I can't wait for the 21st when I will be done exams and school.

Morning! Nothing new to report. I had an unwise restaurant meal and then froze my --- off in an arena last night.

I'm off to work and I'm willing it to be a nice day ... not harried, oh please!

Good morning, maintainers!

Today is Day 4 of my exile from the gym, which closed over the break. (One of the downsides of working out at a university gym!) I'm itching to get back. Walking just doesn't cut it for me anymore, and running is too hard on my hip. Besides, I can feel my hard-earned muscles shriveling away as I type. Cue wicked witch of the west voice: "I'm melting! Aaaa hhh hhh..."

OK, not really.

Not much else to report. Getting a little sick of leftovers, but since I don't eat stuffing, mashed potatoes, or gravy and the dilled green beans are long gone, it's pretty much been turkey, turkey, and more turkey. I'd try making turkey chili or enchiladas out of the remaining bits, but FIL isn't an adventurous eater and The Boy rebels against anything too spicy. Sigh.

Have a great day, everyone!

Kim

kaw Just read your blog. "The death-sucking-on-a-cracker look" :rofl:

My dieting/maintaining on dog sit did not go well. Usual stuff. Something about being in another person's house with free rein to anything :devil: in their kitchen. Tomorrow is Monday and I begin again :angel:.

Dagmar (queen of the cranky dogs)

Happy after Thanksgiving all!

Well, I don't know how I really faired this long weekend :shrug:. I kind of stopped counting calories and was going on portion control but it was a weird long weekend.

Thursday (Thanksgiving) I cooked all the traditional foods all day but I wasn't really feeling real well so I didn't have much of an appetite so nothing really tasted good to me and I didn't eat much that day.

Friday, the appetite was back and everyting tasted good and I ate quite a bit :o. On the other hand, I also cleaned my living room carpet, so I felt like I got a little exercise.

Saturday, we put up the Christmas tree and decorations only because we have to take them down early because we will be going out of town for a few days over Christmas and can't leave our cat alone with a Christmas tree. She has tree issues :dz:. I ate OK this day.

Today is Sunday. I tried to eat pretty clean today. I also felt better today for doing so.

So anyway, back to work tomorrow. I'm still confused as to how to eat these days and I'm sure I will stay off the scale for a few days. I know this has to be a life time thing so I really want to find a plan that I can stay with forever. I'll keep working at it.

Dagmar and Barbara, I'm sorry to hear that you are going through a rough time in your relationships. I've been there and done that in my past and I know it's a hard decision to make. I'm sure you'll do what is right for you and I send you both a big :hug:

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Now onto next week!