When I was younger, I had a huge sweet tooth. I could eat candy all day, huge slices of cake (the chocolaty-er the better!), frosting right out of the bowl, etc. These days, not so much. Yes, I still like it, but it's usually way too rich and it upsets my stomach before I have more than a few bites. Give me cheese instead! That said, I made Welsh Rarebit for lunch the other day and that was too rich! (Maybe because I used cream rather than milk?)
Holding my own as the holiday season progresses. Still not sold on the scale DD gave me for Christmas. It regularly weighs me at least 1 pound higher than my old scale (which is up about a pound from where I'd prefer it to be). Lunch and dinner today and tomorrow will be lean, so I'm sure it'll go back down.
Looking forward to three days of golf this weekend!
Michele, I don't know what brings on my own sweet tooth, either. It disappears and reappears like PMS symptoms, so I wonder if it's somehow cyclical, too. And there isn't a clear cause and effect.
It's not always because I see & smell something that's offbounds, and I start clawing at it through the fence I've erected around such things.
It's not always because I eat something sweet and my desire for further sweet stimulus is reawakened.
It's not always stress-related, because lately when I get jittery, it's protein or fat that I'm grabbing at, rather than an evanescent sweetness.
Often I can't identify what has brought it on, but when it's on me, it feels like a temporary fit of insanity.
Knowing you, though, from your previous posts, my advice is: Stay away from grapes and dried fruit. (You'll thank me later. ;-)
I'm remembering all the "scared straight" movies from my youth where people sweat and shivered and writhed in knotted-up sheets on beds to get through heroin withdrawal, and others either sat by the bedside or peered at them anxiously from a small, high window cut through the hospital room door. Sometimes I think that's what we do for each other here.
I'm remembering all the "scared straight" movies from my youth where people sweat and shivered and writhed in knotted-up sheets on beds to get through heroin withdrawal, and others either sat by the bedside or peered at them anxiously from a small, high window cut through the hospital room door. Sometimes I think that's what we do for each other here.
Often I can't identify what has brought it on, but when it's on me, it feels like a temporary fit of insanity.
That's exactly how it feels for me. Then after the insanity abates comes the guilt, the recriminations, the self-loathing and the tight pants. *Sigh* I sometimes think it would be best if I just gave up sweets altogether, but the thought of that just kind of panics me. Is that addiction?
Saef-- I guess my true confession would be the grapes I bought and ate before the sweet tooth commenced-- coincidence? probably not.
The bad thing is that even when I know about challenges ahead, more keep rearing their ugly heads!
Dh got good news yesterday at work and wanted to go to our fave Italian restaurant for dinner. I can never do well there-- I think everything is highly salted, not to mention fat laden. I was happy that the scale stayed the same from yesterday (thanks to hot yoga probably) but yesterday I was dismayed at the same reading (127). I REALLY REALLY want to get the scale down before I go to Houston for the holidays-- plus I really think my clothes don't look well on me at this weight (not to mention without clothes).
Then, I come to work and it is "December Birthday" celebration with the whole staff room full of junk. Luckily I took a quick peek and there was NOTHING healthy-- not a fruit or veggie to be seen-- so I won't be partaking.
Now to find my hidden willpower.
Since I don't have monthly cycles (no uterus), I never know if my cravings are cyclical, though I suspect they may be partly.
Like Bargoo, I was brought up with "clean your plate and you can have dessert" so I still want/need/expect/crave something sweet each day. Sigh.
Me too. Group therapy with "my peeps." Folks who understand that it's way harder to stay at a (to your body) unnatural weight than to get there. Who completely understand that a missed workout is a Really Big Deal and not just a minor annoyance (or worse, a partially-intentional event).
Allison, I've never had Welsh rarebit. What is it exactly?
Sheila: THIS: "Then after the insanity abates comes the guilt, the recriminations, the self-loathing and the tight pants. *Sigh* I sometimes think it would be best if I just gave up sweets altogether, but the thought of that just kind of panics me. Is that addiction?" That is SO ME. And I'm not sure if that's addiction, but is sure feels like it. And, like Michele and Bargoo (and, I suspect, most of us with weight problems on this board), the entanglement of reward/deserve/entitled for sweets combines with the physical rush brought on by the fat and sugar to create JOY when I get dessert, and SORROW/SELF PITY when I don't (sorry for the caps; I mean to connote the intensity of the emotional sway that desserts have for me).
Having said that, I have managed to satiate my need for dessert recently with either a WW chocolate-dipped raspberry ice cream bar (80 cal), or a Chobani vanilla-chocolate greek yogurt (120 cal). And then succeeded in walking away from the kitchen for the rest of the night. Here's hoping the scale moves soon.
Yep, I also consider 3FC my group therapy. My marriage would be strained by a constant self congratulations every time I don't dip into DW's trail mix. But I repeatedly say that around here knowing that it will be accepted as "a Really Big Deal."
My current challenge is a container of homemade chocolate cookies that arrived via UPS - lovingly baked by a relative. I feel the pressure to eat them even though the distant relative can never know what happened to them. My mind keeps thinking of mico-triumphs that call for the reward of a cookie. E.g., for honestly posting about this, I should go snarf one down right now, LOL.
Yay for all of us surviving the end of the Mayan Calendar.
Well, I got through four days in which I never stopped moving, rushing from one event or appointment or workout or meeting to another, and I've reached Friday, my day off. Though it's not really, because I still have to get online today and shepherd a document to publication, and I also have to talk on the phone with the new hire about how to write a particular document type. (You know that resolution that I made to separate work time from off time, and not mix the two? Today: Fail. Though until now I was making some headway in my day-to-day routine, mostly by leaving the laptop in its bag after getting home from the gym.)
No surprise that while I thought I **might** get up before 5 AM this morning, I woke to steady rain, rolled over and put my face back into the pillow. Now it's past 7 AM & I still haven't headed to the gym, though I know that I will. Eventually.
My mother's coming a day early to avoid the predicted Upstate snow storm.
But my weight is 143, unaffected by the craziness, and when I look back at my calendar from the previous December, that's actually more than four pounds lower than I was at this time last year.
Success in weight loss meant adhering to routines: Eating what I was supposed to, working out when I was supposed to. Staying "on plan," to use the accepted terminology.
So I've come to equate being "on plan" with being safe and getting to remain at a normal healthy weight. "Off plan" leads to dangerous situations.
The problem is, I have extended "on plan" to encompass nearly all of my life.
What I mean is, I've created such a structured life that it nearly calcifies into the rigidity of a coral reef.
So I don't have what what we call in my workplace "agility," the ability to adapt to changing conditions, to be spontaneous, to go with the flow, and be rewarded with unexpected surprises and delights.
I guard that structure. And when that structure is threatened, I experience intense anxiety.
Also, I start to feel constricted by my own self-created structures, and closed-down and bored, since there is no prospect for change or surprises.
So the issue is how to maintain some of the routine & structure that I equate with successful maintenance, without lapsing into complete stasis and becoming an obsessive/compulsive head case, who freaks out and says "no" as a reflex or clings to my routine with white knuckles.
That is the challenge for 2013, but let me keep thinking about this before I post in that thread.
How do I create a maintenance plan that balances structure with the ability to improvise?
We are so used to hearing on these boards from people who have trouble with the structure part. Well, I am an anomaly. I've got no problem with adhering to routines, my problem is dealing with "jumping the tracks."
On Dec 12, 2007 I reached goal . On 12-21-07 I weighed in at 120.2 today 5 years later I weighed in at 117.2.
I feel pretty good about it , too, and am not ashamed to admit it.
I don't have last year's record, but on Jan 2 of this year I was at 157.0. This morning was 147.5. I'm thinking that my challenge to myself for next year is to not see anything in the 150's at all.
saef, I wish I had some insight for you. It seems to me that you share this dilemma with the other chicks who've conquered triple-digit losses - that your bodies are constantly fighting back and wanting to return to the obese state. Maybe it's some kind of lizard-brain memory thing and it will get easier with time as you adapt to your thinness, I don't know. It seems grossly unfair that the tradeoff is so much rigidity.
Bill, I have several coworkers who take treats of that nature to their local women's shelters, where they are hugely appreciated. You could save one for yourself, so that you could report truthfully back to the relative on how incredible they were.
Strength and peace to all. First day of winter, shortest day, end of the world, and a moment of silence at 9:30 EST for Newtown.
Andrea~Welsh rarebit is basically cheese on toast. But rather than just melted cheese, it is more of a cheese sauce. You make a roux, add cream or milk, some Worchestershire sauce, beer and cheese. I liken it to a fondue, but instead of dunking your bread into the cheese, you ladle it over the toast. It's very rich, and I'm sure loaded with fat and calories, but we needed something that would "stick to our ribs" otherwise we starve at about the 14th hole of golf! This time, we made it through the whole game without feeling hungry.
I'm not sure where I was this time last year, but I know it was higher than what I am now. When I started on Nutrisystem, I was 163 and today I was 152.6 (by the new scale).
Holy moly, allison - that sounds like an awesome special breakfast! I could probably run for hours on that too. Me being me, I think I'd hide a pile of sauteed mushrooms under all that cheese ... Thank you for the idea for Christmas breakfast!
Holy moly, allison - that sounds like an awesome special breakfast! I could probably run for hours on that too. Me being me, I think I'd hide a pile of sauteed mushrooms under all that cheese ... Thank you for the idea for Christmas breakfast!
It was actually our lunch. And some people put tomatoes under the sauce. If you look it up on Wikipedia, there are all sorts of variations.
Me being me, I think I'd hide a pile of sauteed mushrooms under all that cheese ... 
Thank you for the idea for Christmas breakfast!
