Yow! alinnell! Well, you know that simply not stepping on the scale didn't cause the weight gain--so, what did happen? (I can't remember whether you track calories...)
asparagus4sale, we do seem to be on a similar track at the moment. I am feeling less "rebellious" lately since I have nothing to rebel against.
bonnnie, nice to see your post. I did go to the gym yesterday and had a reasonable exercise session. I'm glad I did, because today was the day I needed to wash the west side of our house with my mini power washer. Took 2 to 3 hours--I had let it go too long. (Vinyl siding--and in Florida it grows algae. ) So, I am stiffening up even now... I should be like an old board by tomorrow.
bonnnie, had you eaten earlier, before your partner came home? If not, maybe you were hungrier than you thought? Of course I don't know, but sometimes I think I'm not hungry and then ten minutes later, I'm really hungry.
Positives! Yes! There are many for regainers. One is that we were successful, and IMO that success is still an accomplishment, regardless of what happens later. I am in so much better physical health now than I had been, and I have the lab results to prove it.
Heather, being down 70 pounds is definitely a win!
About the question of positive attitude that bonnnie asked--I find that Buddhist practices and ideas help me. Much emphasis is given to relative versus absolute, and in absolute terms, there is no "right" or "wrong" weight. It is just not a question. So that helps me with keeping perspective. I am more than my weight, more than my loss or regain, more than my basal metabolic rate, more than my body fat percentage, and so on.
As for self-medicating, alcohol was my drug of choice. That's why when that poor cat was put down last week, I did not turn to food. I don't have the habit of using food as a drug, because "normally" I would have turned to alcohol. But, I stopped drinking alcohol many years ago now, so that is not an option.
Mostly I am trying to "feel the feelings" and stay with them, instead of stuffing them or avoiding them or medicating them. And observe what the feelings are.
Jay- I had technically "ate enough" for the day. I'm sure I was somewhere around 1200 calories - I mean, but I literally was working, sitting on my butt all day! No exercise whatsoever, and keep in mind, I have an extremely efficient metabolism from yo-yo dieting most of my life! It runs at turtle speed.
Then, at the last minute, around 10pm (so late for eating!), we decided to have dinner..... yeah, just for pleasure for me. I never had the hungry feeling. I don't know why I couldn't of just left it or only ate a few bites instead of 500 calories worth?
I think you are really onto something with being hungry ten minutes later ...
I used to have a real problem with night-time snacking - the urge to eat would wake me up in the middle of the night (3am) and NO one has willpower then! My Mother has done this as well, for as long as I can remember.
Maybe I was afraid that if I didn't eat dinner, I would wake up in the middle of the night and carelessly eat?
I do also think I am much much more afraid of becoming hungry at night than I am during the day. If I don't eat dinner, it feels like my world will spin off of its axis, what is that about? I might lose a few lbs, but I'm not going to die.
I used to smoke sometimes and certain things set off the addiction - certain songs, alcohol drinks, stressful feelings, celebratory feelings..... well, night-time seems to 'set off' an intense love of wonderful dinners and an intense fear of being hungry. Breaking my night-time snacking habit was ****! But, maybe I need to try and 'modify' my love of dinner and show myself that nothing bad will happen if I only have a snack for dinner. I rationally know this, but my body doesn't.
If I don't keep anything immediately edible in the fridge (I could freeze it for the night), then I would be forced to simply go back to sleep. I think it would be the same feeling I had when I was quitting smoking.
And I think I need to 'feel the feelings' of experiencing night-time without food and learning that nothing bad will happen to me. Somehow. I need a plan.... I've associated food with sleeping since I was born, so it will not be an easy endeavor, but I feel like I need to re-program.
I was pleasantly surprised! I didn't turn into a stiff old board after the house washing. I guess I used the right combination of ice, aspirin, and arnica.
bonnnie, interesting what's involved in nighttime eating for you. I can't say that has ever been an issue for me.
But I did have something interesting happen Saturday night. I felt hungry before I went to bed. This was the day of the 2-3 hour workout washing the house. Well, I decided to ignore it because it was late. But, I couldn't go to sleep because of it. Remember that I'm currently not tracking food, so I had no idea about how many calories I had eaten during the day. 1500? 1600? 1100?? Nope, not counting. So I didn't know whether I had "any left"... You get the picture. To make a long story short, after about an hour of tossing around feeling hungry, I got up and drank half a glass of 1% milk. Ahhhhh... And went to sleep.
I think the point of this is that for my current experiment, I need to remember it is OK to have something reasonable at any time if I'm hungry. If I'm not "really" hungry, I can still choose to have something--it just has to be within reasonable amounts and choices.
I do know that I personally could never make it on 1200 calories or less. Gosh, last time I tried, I was hard pressed to stay with 1400.
How did the weekend go for everyone? alinnell, I hope you'll drop back in and tell us more about what happened last week. And I hope others will check in with their thoughts and ideas!
Alinnell - Sorry to hear about the gain! I have been weighing every day (because I think it helps with accountability) but I have said that Weds is my official weigh in so if I am up or down it is irrelevant and it is not allowed to affect my mood. I do hope one day to be done with the scale but baby steps...
Jay - Glad you weren't sore and I think you are on a good track.
Bonnie - I know those moments well and I always feel guilty about them later.
I had a fabulous weekend - ate too much, drank way too much but I don't care. Haha. It was my friend's 30th birthday and it was at this Hawaiian Tiki Bar so we had fruity caloric drinks all night but it was so much fun! My mom came into town to watch my son while I went out so we ate at several restaurants and had higher calorie meals than I would normally have but I am really okay with it. I have realized that I really want a lifestyle that includes these things (occasionally - not every day or even every week). But I feel like if I can't do these things, I am doomed to fail. Besides even when I would try not to, I would end up doing it anyway and often far worse because of the stupid all or nothing mentality. Anyway, yesterday, I took my son for a bike ride - I bought this bike that connects to my bike so we can ride together. Well, that child did not pedal one single time (and weighs 52 pounds) so I got quite a work out.
I don't get online much during the weekends...too much living to do! Weekdays are different. I'm stuck at work with long periods of not much to do so I tend to surf the web (a lot!) and come here several times a day....,.
So, one week ago Saturday I was at 161. This Saturday I was 165. Sunday was 166. I can't say that I did much of anything different, although I have to say I didn't try to do anything different, either. This morning I was 164.5, so that much is GOOD! I WILL be doing something different this week, I have to! I was really, really disappointed with myself and I told my MIL about it, and she agreed that I have to really start working on it. So I will.
Our house guests leave today, so life will get back to normal. They arrived Thursday, and no, I didn't cook anything more lavish than normal while they were here, so that isn't the reason for the gain. Truthfully, I don't know what caused the gain.
Alinnell, it sounds like the number on the scale every morning is your main determining factor for how you eat during the day. Would you say that's true, after your experiment?
What I'm curious about is whether you ate more than you would have, had you known your weight every day. It would be easy to conclude that you did, but that might not be true. Do you keep a food log?
Some of that has to be water, since you dropped 1.5 pounds this morning.
asparagus4sale, sounds like you had a party weekend! We went to the symphony last night... not exactly a wild evening, although it was a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
A visit to my chiropractor this morning. He has lost 40 pounds in the last few months by eating "only when he is really hungry." The food-as-fuel approach. His definition of "really hungry" is, if he envisions brown rice and it sounds good, then he's hungry. If it doesn't, then he's not. And I think he's also making choices about what he eats and how much, but he's not doing any formal tracking.
Alinnell, it sounds like the number on the scale every morning is your main determining factor for how you eat during the day. Would you say that's true, after your experiment?
What I'm curious about is whether you ate more than you would have, had you known your weight every day. It would be easy to conclude that you did, but that might not be true. Do you keep a food log?
Some of that has to be water, since you dropped 1.5 pounds this morning.
What I weigh each morning does somewhat determine how I'll eat during the day, but not entirely. I have almost the exact same thing each work day for breakfast and lunch and dinners are usually determined by what I think my son would like (but not always).
I don't think I ate more than I would have...I know I was particularly avoiding the office candy dish, so that much was good. My dinner portions were no larger than usual, but perhaps that's the best place to start paring down.
I don't log my food like I used to. I tried getting back into logging at the beginning of January and quit after a week.
Yeah, some of it could have been water, but IDK. All I know is that I need to weigh daily to keep myself more accountable. There certainly is no harm in doing so, so I'll continue. Perhaps by the end of the week the rest of the gain will be gone.
All I know is that I need to weigh daily to keep myself more accountable. There certainly is no harm in doing so, so I'll continue. Perhaps by the end of the week the rest of the gain will be gone.
You're right--no harm at all. It has a different effect on me, and that's why I'm doing my own experiment. Here's to that gain disappearing!
Sooooo.... here I am. I think my scale is flukey because according to it my weight is stable, but my pants size has gone up (could be body composition, I suppose). Regardless, I have to admit what's been going on: I have been eating and drinking pretty much whatever I want and not exercising regularly. This is not maintenance. I've been sick and then on a brief vacation, but no more excuses.
I signed up with "spark people" to start tracking calories and goals today. Anyone else use this? I like the format for the most part but I like the calorie tracker on the "daily plate" much better - I may decide to go back to that.
At the moment I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner - caveat being that it must include ground beef.
Anyway, hopefully I will have some time to read up on prior posts this evening; for now I should finish lunch and get back to work. =)
I signed up with "spark people" to start tracking calories and goals today. Anyone else use this? I like the format for the most part but I like the calorie tracker on the "daily plate" much better - I may decide to go back to that.
I did because it had a nice app for my android phone, but it was too time consuming. I like fitday better, but then again, I don't use it, either.
I am sitting here starving and trying to resist! I think it is due to working out - I shot some hoops, did ten minutes of intervals on the treadmill, and swam some laps and now I want to eat everything in sight. Am trying to resist but I have 2 more hours of work. Help!
Jay - I do have a snack I bring just in case and I had already eaten it. Then I found a handful of almonds in my drawer and ate that. I waited a bit and it seems to have passed. Phew! I also have some edamame in the freezer I could have eaten but I was starting to hit that "I want a Snickers" point - not really sure how I let that go but I just tried to distract myself. I am leaving in 20 minutes and going home to some wonderful homemade curry so yay for me. I will count this as a success!
Iriswhispers - Yeah I like Fitday - especially because it keeps track of your most common foods. I also used My-Fitness-Pal on the I-Phone. Of course, like Jay, I am no longer tracking so now I use nothing.
Allienell - How's the weight going? Did you get that 5 pounds off yet?
Last edited by asparagus4sale; 03-01-2011 at 04:25 PM.
So today is my weigh-in date and I am exactly where I was last week. All in all, I will take it because I know I went way overboard this weekend. I have to say I am feeling pretty good about everything - I haven't counted a calorie in weeks and weeks and I am not gaining and have lost 5 pounds. I know the loss would be faster if I were stricter but then I always get frustrated and annoyed and end up gaining it all back anyway. So even though I have no loss, I feel like this whole process is a success.
Sarah~I went from 161 to 165 in a week and then to 166 the next day. I dropped to 163.5 the next day and have hovered there since Sunday. Still there. Hoping to see 162.5 (or even 163) tomorrow. Would prefer 145.
Well, you know that simply not stepping on the scale didn't cause the weight gain--so, what did happen? (I can't remember whether you track calories...)
) So, I am stiffening up even now... I should be like an old board by tomorrow.
Nice to see you. I used FitDay when I was counting. I have the downloaded version and I can customize the database.