My almonds are plain. Raw and unsalted. And better than I would have imagined. DD, at Thanksgiving, brought a package of pumpkin flavored almonds. It sounded rather disgusting, but the ONE that I ate was quite good! I didn't get a look at the label to see just what was on the almond so I didn't bother eating more.

The almonds live at my boyfriend's house and I will not be partaking in them again for a day or two. I could definitely house the entire can (11 servings, what a joke).

Probably not unrelated to the almonds, I'm not really hungry, and it's almost 3. After two hard-boiled eggs I feel like I could wait until 4 or 5 to eat my plain Greek yogurt. Maybe I won't even need that Subway sandwich.

Hi all!

I've having a very down day. I made it through the holidays relatively unscathed. Then on New Year's Eve I allowed myself kind of a farewell to 2012 HUGE piece of Pecan Pie. On New Year's Day, I cooked a chuck roast in the slow cooker and put in some dry onion soup mix which was really salty.

Yesterday the scale was WAY up. So I get home last night and my sister in law had brought us PLATES and PLATES of cookies, brownies, etc. I had only 1 chocolate chip cookie but wanted more and those stupid things taunted me all night! Scale still 5 pounds up today, and I get to work and get a late Xmas gift from a Judge I work with - a tall glass with the courthouse etched in it - FILLED with Hershey's kisses - then I go back to fill up my water and, YOU GUESSED IT - tons of homemade cookies.

I don't know why but I want some SO SO SO bad - they are just calling to me.

Give me some strength, please!!!!

Jen

Jen, human brains are hard-wired to crave salty, fatty foods. And I think there are studies that show that having some makes us want more. (At the very least, I have done a personal study that demonstrates this.) I bought a ham at Easter one year and ate quite a bit over a few days, and my experience sounds similar to yours with the roast. Never again - the crazed sweet/fatty cravings I had are just like those you describe. Which is sad bc I love ham, and in and of itself I don't think its nutritional stats aren't terrible. But a big ham to eat by myself is just too much salt for me.

I would suggest not eating the chuck roast if you have any left, or at least rinsing off the salty sauce before you eat the rest of it. And ignore those cookies! *willpower* Is there any way to get rid of the stuff in your house (will your DH be upset if you chuck it or bring some to a neighbor, etc?) I know it's a bummer to see the scale up, but it will go down. Drink lots of lemon water and tea with lemon and stay away from the salty stuff for a few days.

Be strong!

Stay strong Jen!
I know it's hard-- believe me. Think about the scale going down when you make good choices.

My scale was down 2 pounds today. I wish it could go down 2 pounds a day for about a week-- then I'd be back where I want to be!

I had some deep thought during yoga today. I think one of my issues is that I try to get to a certain weight before X (usually a vacation). BUT, if I don't get there, I still give myself permission to have a lot of off-plan treats or meals on vacation. For example, I was 2 pounds over my red-line when I left for Houston. I should have not had treats there-- but I did. Then I came back 3 pounds up-- no surprise. I'm trying to talk dh into a beach trip in late March. I need to have a goal-- I'm very goal oriented. I'm hoping if we plan the trip, I'll have the impetus to stay strong until the trip.

Not helpful that tomorrow is dd's birthday and I know we are going to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. I am weighing Saturday morning so it won't be pretty I'm sure. There will also be birthday cake. I'm not sure if I'll be "allowed" to refuse entirely.

In the meantime, I'm drinking lots of tea and water to flush things out and I've already been to bikram yoga.....

Thanks! Ironically, I HATE ham and so didn't have any for Xmas. There is no chuck roast left, fortunately. But I agree about the brain craving it. It's crazy with me not even being hungry but wanting it SO BAD.

As far as the cookies, that is a HUGE, HUGE issue for both DH and I. We were both raised to NEVER EVER waste food. So the thought of throwing it out is absolutely unforgivable. BUT, I did get a little smart - I texted DH and told him to put all the sweets in the freezer. Now I still know they are there, but there is no pressure to eat them - because they won't spoil in the freezer AND there is no anxiety about giving food away or throwing it away. I am now not even tempted by them.

Once I get down to ideal weight, if I want a treat, I can have it.

I have been drinking lots and lots of water. Had a big salad for lunch today and we are having fish with veggies and brown rice for dinner. Dessert will be nonfat yogurt. I hope the scale has better news for me tomorrow.

Thanks for understanding and providing strength!

Jen

I was also raised to never waste food or throw it away. Kinda good idea during the depression but sorta useless now. It does provide a good excuse to eat all sorts of things not so good for me so I've learned to throw stuff away. Or if it's unopened I put it in the food bank donation box.

Dagmar :dizzy:

I find it very difficult to throw food away, also. I have to give myself permission to do so. It was a red letter day when I threw out half a perfectly good peach pie.

Yeah. My first time :p I threw out some "after binge" chocolate chip cookies.

And lightning did not strike me. I felt curiously free. :dance:

Dagmar :D

Morning all,

I had a mini hangry/emo meltdown last night and ate a protein bar, a glass of milk, 4 Hershey's miniatures, and a piece of toast in quick succession immediately after my allotted dinner of 4 oz of pork loin and saurkraut leftover from New Years. Speaking of salty things... I was still hungry after dinner and rather than wait 15 minutes, I got in that "darn trying to restrict calories, I'm hungry!" mode. I might have been hungry but I was also in a bad mood, too. Put me at 2100 cals for the day. I will move forward today and try to do better.

I was in a bad mood bc I'd taken the dog on a long walk on the beach. No one was out so I let her off her leash. She's been doing pretty well about staying on the beach when I do this. Not yesterday. She ran up steps to an (occupied) house, sniffed around their house and out the driveway on the other side to the street. She was running through people's yards and through the street, blatantly ignoring me, finally ran on someone's porch and ate their cat food. I cornered her there but felt bad we startled the inhabitants of the house and was thanking my stars that there were not a lot of people driving on the street, especially since it was almost dark. She has been so much better in the last year and I rarely have these frustrating walks with her anymore, but last night was a doozy. I think I was also upset that my exercise that is supposed to cheer me up ended up putting me in such a bad mood.

I was raised not to waste food also. I think it was Meg who once said something to the effect of "there is no difference than an actual garbage can and your body when you treat it like one, except the calories will go to your waist". She said it much more eloquently, but hopefully you get the idea. I found it an excellent point.

Jen, are you hanging in there? I hope today is better. :hug:

Michele, that very problem has brought me to my weight today rather than my "maintenance weight" of 135-140. I would be over my red line and still allow treats at "special" events, and the weight crept up over a few years. If I could flip a switch to make myself stop I would do it in an instant. Clearly I haven't solved this one, but I can relate.

Tonight is guitar night and dinner at my friend's. Tomorrow I hope to go hiking with some friends and our dogs if the weather allows. Sunday I've got a baby shower to attend. What are everyone else's plans for the weekend? Have a good Friday all!

Good luck Jen and Megan and all of us!! I too am in heavy craving mode. It is indeed hard-wired for all of us. I slipped a bit last night but otherwise have had an OK time adjusting to a drastically reduced post-holiday sugar intake. At first it even leaves me in a kind of physiological depression, which is part of the difficulty of pulling out of it.

For me, chocolate chip cookies etc in my house are simply verboten. I can't handle them in my space. My wife Karen, who is a 30-year maintainer (I am jealous), is the same way. I'm lucky that my partner agrees with me and doesn't fill the house with temptation.

As for willpower, I think it's underrated. As I go through the shift back to healthy eating (after only 11 days of holiday excess; on December 21 I was still in my ideal weight range!!), I do have to just use willpower for a few days. It gets easier after 3-5 days but last night's little setback just increases the time I have to spend actively at war with my cravings. Oh well. No easy way back to good eating I'm afraid. I'm getting there tho, and am glad that we're all in this together!

Jen, sounds like you did a great job during the holidays! When DH and I receive a bunch of junk food like that we usually take it in to work to get rid of it. I bring the extra cookies/whatever to my office and put them in the break room that I don't generally go to, so I don't have to see them. If there's something super tempting in my usual break room, I go to a different one to fill up my water bottle.

Megan, sorry about the rough walk. :hug: Today is a new day!

I had a scary scale moment this morning. I know I'm supposed to be gaining weight, and I'm relatively on track for what my doctor wants, but seeing 150 on the scale this morning still freaked me out. I'm feeling kind of nervous about the idea that by the end of this pregnancy I'll be back near my high weight again and even though I know pregnancy weight is different, it still feels like I'm undoing all the hard work I did or like I'm going to have to do it all over again. Chicks who have been through pregnancy while maintaining, how did you handle it?

Relatedly, I'm seeing all the effects of being heavy too. Walking up the stairs at home leaves me out of breath. I get tired really easily. Even getting up and down is difficult, and that's only partially because my belly is in the way. I really need to get to the prenatal yoga class I've been thinking about this weekend because I ought to get more exercise than just 15-min dog walks (although admittedly a 15-min dog walk in 2 feet of unbroken snow is fairly difficult).

Is this confession time today ? OK I am guilty. Had to have lab work yesterday, no big deal but right next to the lab is an IHOP, I fell to its lure and went over and had a short stack, 470 calories not including butter and syrup. This was mid morning so I figured I could work the calories into my day and there would be no harm. There would have been no harm if I had stopped there, got home and felt an overpowering urge to have popcorn and I did, the day just snowballed from there. My scale showed the results this morning.Why do I sabotage myself ? Why ?( No answer required here).

Here's the secret to throwing away food: leave it in the fridge (or in the pantry) but don't eat it. Wait until it starts growing mold--then you have to throw it out because it's bad! I actually am able (with some foods) to allow it to go bad so I don't feel as wasteful when I throw it out. I wonder what my housekeeper thinks, though!

Hi all,

Thanks for asking, Megan! Feeling a little better today. I ran 6 miles on the treadmill last night and weighed in this morning at 120.1 - 120 is my "no-no" line - I want to be 115-119, so I'm getting there.

I know what you are saying about the body not being a garbage can, but I only get this intellectually - emotionally, the thought of throwing away food - absolutely not under any circumstances. And giving it away? No - those are MINE.

I ran across the frozen goodies last night while getting out tonights dinner. This sounds so crazy but it made me feel....safe?.... knowing they were there, but I didn't have to eat one.

Why is this such a mental game???

Jen

P.S. Sorry about the bad walk - my dogs are generally VERY good off-leash but then once and a while they get a bug up their butt and all their training seems to go out the window!!!