Way to go Alinnell!! That's fantastic. I would be quite happy if I could say the same.
Yoyoma, you and I are height/weight twins right now. I was 139 this morning. And I am a huge fan of making a big entree and having leftovers, so "choice of leftovers" seems like another good strategy to employ for dinner-for-two.
I too will check out the carb cycling business, if for no other reason than to remind myself that some kind of dietary structure is a good thing for me.
ETA: Saef, best wishes for today's doctor visit. Flex your muscles for him/her!
WTG Allison!! Progress isn't always fast, but it is progress. I like to keep my weights in a journal to look back-- last week, last month, last year, etc.
My weight was up 1.5 pounds today over yesterday's low, but yesterday was "Sunday Funday". My dd tells me her weight always spikes Mondays and then starts dropping again.
I'm still nursing my sore back. I'm taking anti-inflammatories which are helping slightly, but I'm hesitant to weight train today. My fallback is always Bikram Yoga so that's probably where I'll be this afternoon-- easier to modify the poses if my back acts up and I feel the heat helps....
Michele, the book says to weigh only once a week because water retention bounces your weight around so much on this plan (water tracks with carbs, and he says that 2 pounds change each day is not uncommon).
I finished my first low-carb day, and it was fine though I needed an extra protein "unit" at dinner to feel full. For me, the harder part of the plan is going to be the injunction against any foods with added sugar, even on "high" carb days (my staple breakfast food has been a slice of my husband's low-fat banana bread, topped with cottage cheese), and the notion that all 5 "meals" each day are the same size. Psychologically, I want more food at dinner time than at lunch, and I am annoyed by having to stop my work and eat more than a carrot or apple at 10 am and 4 pm.
Andrea.... I officially weigh in once a week but I monitor during the week. I altered my breakfast slightly when I started. I still have oatmeal with berries, but I've eliminated the nuts on top and seeds. The smaller dinner has taken some getting used to, but I drnk hot tea after dinne to compensate. It's funny but my body is already accustomed to eating every three hours and I ge hungry!
My dumb back is really out now. I bent over in yoga and couldn't straighten up. I'm praying it's greatly improved tomorrow. Otherwise I'm going to have to address it further.
Michele, the book says to weigh only once a week because water retention bounces your weight around so much on this plan (water tracks with carbs, and he says that 2 pounds change each day is not uncommon).
I finished my first low-carb day, and it was fine though I needed an extra protein "unit" at dinner to feel full. For me, the harder part of the plan is going to be the injunction against any foods with added sugar, even on "high" carb days (my staple breakfast food has been a slice of my husband's low-fat banana bread, topped with cottage cheese), and the notion that all 5 "meals" each day are the same size. Psychologically, I want more food at dinner time than at lunch, and I am annoyed by having to stop my work and eat more than a carrot or apple at 10 am and 4 pm.
We're all different and have to modify any new diet plan to work for our life, rather than trying to bend ourselves to something set out in a book. It's great to have a blueprint but there are always modifications that need to be done.
I have been doing a totally thought up by me for me "plan" that involves higher calorie and lower calorie days. I'm not counting calories (I've been dieting/maintaining long enough that I pretty well have all the cal counts for most of what I eat memorized). I usually aim for around 2000 cals two days, then 2500 the next, and so on.
For me animal protein is key. I have a bit with every meal and for both my snacks. That presents a problem when DH cooks as he's all about the veggie proteins and starch - beans, chickpeas, bread, pasta, etc. We just had two vegetarian dinners in a row and I was starving last night. As soon as he took the dog out for a walk I grabbed and consumed a can of salmon. Finally the hunger abated about 30 minutes later. I have to do this so he doesn't see or he gets all huffy and refuses to cook. My "secret eating" used to be all about cookies and candy, now it's meat or fish.
I'm considering that carb cycling, too. I'll have to do a little more research and planning however.
I had an interesting thing happen today. As many of you know, last year at my physical, my doctor thought my blood pressure was too high. He wanted me to come in monthly to have it checked, but that is too far out of the way for me to do, so I bought a cuff and have been taking my BP every morning and recording it so I can give him the results. This morning I woke a tad bit late and was in a hurry to get on the treadmill and realized once I was on the treadmill that I'd forgotten to take my BP. So I took it post exercise and voila! 117/86. The lowest reading yet. So now I wonder, should I take it before AND after exercise or just before as I've been doing or go to post exercise?
I had great anxiety about my physical, but I wasn't scolded about my weight. But the doctor is ordering an echocardiogram to check up on my heart murmur. My blood pressure reading was 135/70. This is high for me, but I have not been doing cardio *every* *single* *day* as I'd been doing for years, as I've been strength training three days a week instead. I could feel my heart beating faster while I was there, partly from caffeine and partly from worry over the physical, anticipating some kind of scolding. I expect that will come later, after the blood test results.
The simple act of writing down what I've been eating seems to be helping me, and so I'm going to keep doing it. But that's not all. I've had a slowdown at work. In fact, I am going to take off Friday. I shifted an assignment onto a direct report. I am looking at 24 days of unused vacation, of which I can carry over only 10 days into the next year, so I'll be taking some time around Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.
My back is officially out. It felt "okay" in yoga and I think I pushed it. I bent over and couldn't get back up. I was in horrible pain the rest of class and skipped some of the postures. I'm in a moderate amount of pain and I have a high threshold for pain. I've taken anti-inflammatories, put heat on it, and I've got one of those smelly patches on it. I'm calling the chiropractor after they open and hope I can get in after work. I will not be exercising today and hopefully will use it as a catch up evening-- starting to pack, etc.
Moving very slowly at work. Should be a cruddy day.
I got back from a 5 day vacation last night and weighed in this morning. I successfully maintained while away! I definitely ate some more junk than usual but since I was in Chicago I also walked more than usual so I evened out I guess.
From here on out I'm packing up my scale for the month and we'll just see where I am December 1.
Saef, I'm glad you didn't get a scolding at your doctor's office, and honestly, if he is aware of your 100 pound weight loss, he should be praising you every year for your great maintenance skills (as you know, 85% of losers have regained it all and then some by the 2 year mark).
It's good to have this group as a "reality check" on my doctoring skills; In the past, I definitely "scolded" patients who needed to lose weight, or exercise, or quit smoking. I try to take a more positive approach now, stressing that it's never too late to start changing lifestyle choices, that weight is less important than getting exercise, that some part of things like high blood pressure and high cholesterol are hereditary, and that even if you have to quit smoking 10 time over, "it's better to have quit and restarted than never to have quit." I realize that ANY mention of weight control to an overweight person is grounds for anxiety, but I still have to do my job.
Michele, ouch. I have had my neck go out a few times (oddly, never my lower back) and it is the WORST. Ice is actually better than heat for the first 24-48 hours (to keep the swelling down), but I agree wholeheartedly with the anti-inflammatories.
Day 2 of the Carb-cycle program (normal carb/low fat day). It really is impossible for me to eat at 10, 1 and 4 when I'm in clinic seeing patients. I ended up crunching on a carrot/cauliflower between patients at 10:45 am but never made it as far as the tabouli I had brought for that purpose. Ate lunch at 12:30 because I had another patient at 1 pm, and then didn't succeed in having the tabouli along with some beef jerky until 4:30. DH had dinner ready to go by 6:30 and it would have been rude to wait until everyone else had eaten, so I finished dinner right when I should have started. Tomorrow will be more in my control, but I will need to figure out a better way to do this "small frequent meals" business.
Great job on October, Allison! Losing a few pounds in a month is fantastic!
Twinsies, JZJ! You bet I'm counting that extra half inch. I know as people age they start to get less tall, so I will just avoid measuring my height any longer.
Michele, hope your back feels better soon! It affects my whole outlook when my back hurts. Like you, I am amazed at how our bodies learn our eating schedule and our hunger signals adapt to whatever we do regularly (within reason, I guess).
Saef, I have to think that adding lifting to your routine is a good thing for your health, even if the scale isn't as low as it was. Maintaining (or building) strength is important and I'm really falling down on that job. Logging food even without restriction is a great idea.
Congratulations UA! I'm glad you were able to enjoy yourself in Chi-town and still maintain.
Andrea, it must be tough to try to figure out what each patients needs in terms of information, prodding, encouragement, or scolding. I think those who are already struggling or who have struggled repeatedly generally need a softer touch. I had a doctor was very low key when I was at my heaviest, and I think that really helped motivate me. He said something along the lines of how hard it is to lose weight but that even small changes are beneficial. Then he didn't seem to notice when I lost 50 lbs! Maybe he was really savvy, knowing that if he made a big deal out of it, I would feel worse if I regained and most people do regain at least some (I regained some).
The scale backed off today to 137.8. I think weight management would be so much simpler if we had a tool that truly gave us a reliable measure of our stored energy (ideally separating out fat and lean) without all the fluctuation from water and waste. A few times recently I've trended down and thought I was losing weight for real but then trended back up. It's frustrating because I don't want to do a hard-core diet that would show more quickly on the scale. I also want to live a lifestyle that includes celebrations, so maybe there is some true fluctuation in the mix.
The scale is back to 135 and I feel like I ate so much yesterday.I baked a spaghetti squash and had half for lunch and the other half for supper.Two cups with 1 tablespoon sauce and 3 oz cheese was only 350 calories.Filling and satisfying.For supper I added 6 oz ground beef patty 360 cal.to the squash meal.Yummy
