Hi Michele. I understand about not wanting to bring food home and then eat it the next day. But lately, the places I go to eat serve enough food per person to feed a family of four. :eek: I choose to bring it home and at least space it out that way.

The alternative, which is just as freaky for some people, is to only eat half the food and then have the server take the rest away......... I have done this on occasion. Even with desserts.

Sheila, yeah, it's addict stuff with the sugar. I felt the same way when I gave up drinking. Really, it was "why live?" Seems silly unless you've been there. Giving up smoking was even harder.

The same thing seems to happen to me with sugar, namely, I don't want to stop--so I consciously limit it. Does that mean I never eat it? No. Does that mean I eat candy every day, several times a day? No. But I know when I've gone over the limit when I want more....

Sheila, I feel the same - losing my sweets feels like loss. I'm curious that you said you stayed away from sugar for 2 months before the holidays. Did that help you feel more certain that you can live without it in your life? Or did it reinforce the feelings of panic and loss about eliminating it permanently?

I crave sugar whenever I give up alcohol - for about 6-8 weeks. It's been almost 8 weeks since I last had an alcoholic beverage and my cravings for jelly beans are much less intense than in January. I read about this years ago when I first gave up drinking alcohol and was so relieved to find out that a lot of people crave candy - specifically candy - when they give up the booze. I was not alone and not "broken". :lol:

I'm looking forward to a bit warmer weather and eating fruit and salad again. Right now I want fat, sugar, and bread, in that order. We are having chicken and bread for dinner - DH is "cooking". He has a terrible cold so I'm glad he's up to preparing something hot.

And just to put my day in the freezing cold in perspective I just had a brief chat with my mail carrier. I'm out there in the cold but I get brief respites in my car and two breaks. He has one 15 minute interlude driving from one route to another but he's out there for the rest of his 8 hour shift. Tomorrow night I will give him a portable cup of hot chocolate.

Dagmar :brr: :brr:

You can do it. I haven't eaten birthday cake in maybe seven years, and I haven't had a cookie in about five years. I don't eat sugary treats at holidays anymore.

I do it by telling myself, "That is for other people whose bodies handle it well. Yours doesn't. You were pre-diabetic. You don't get to eat what they all eat."

Unfortunately, my abstaining from this stuff has not meant effortless maintenance. Calories in healthier foods find me instead.

"I know when I've gone over the limit when I want more...."
JayEll, I too have this "trigger" - the problem is, I don't know when I have reached that limit until a little later, when I find myself desperately wanting more more more. It doesn't make it any easier that I have more self-control some days than others, so the same amount of fat/sugar will have different effects.

Also, like Saef, I've moved away from a lot of truly junky sweet treats (donuts, cake, cookies) and toward healthier treats (peanut butter, granola, dried cherries) BUT IT DOESN"T MATTER ONE IOTA. Calories in-calories out has to be zero or negative for me to maintain, and there's just as much sugar and fat in "healthy" treats as there are in "unhealthy" ones.

I did weigh in today, after all:
After breakfast: 145.3

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Egg bake with ham, spinach and mushrooms; pumpkin steel-cut oats; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Lunch: Baby arugula, roasted vegetables, pecans, goat cheese, Craisins
Dinner: Pork roast stuffed with prunes and apricots, steamed broccoli, steamed asparagus, sweet potato
Dessert: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips

Today's exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Lateral w/ toes up 3x20, Lateral opposite 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20 (both these just left leg)
Physical therapy: 13 minutes on recumbent bike, with the resistance further upped; hamstring curls and weighted leg raises; abductor/adductor machine, 13 minutes on arm bike for just a fraction over 2 miles.

Yesterday morning, I had a really painful case of DOMS in my arms and across my chest, and I thought of not going to the gym last night. But I went anyway, and while I was working out, it disappeared. This morning, just barely a twinge. And I was fine doing the arm bike. I don't know if my body will re-adapt that easily, since I have never taken a very long layoff from exercising before.

HALT = Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired

This acronym is helpful in addictions programs. The idea is that someone is more apt to reach for their "substance of choice" under these conditions. Any two of them are risky. Three, dangerous. All of them... Call for help.

Many people concerned with their weight under-eat as a way of life. As a result, they are hungry a lot of the time. Point is, if you're chronically hungry, you start off one down. Doesn't take much to send you over the edge. Having a will of steel only lasts so far.

Jay, thank you, thank you. I want to print out that post ^^^ and keep it near me always.

And I wonder if I should add "stressed" to HALT or whether stress is just a word for some combination of those four bodily and mental states. Or maybe "frightened" or "anxious" is synonymous for stress, at least for me.

I woke in the night feeling hungry and took some time getting to sleep -- I was worried about my mother driving home in the dark from the local casino in windy, 6F temperatures -- but I wasn't hungry hours later in the morning when my bedside alarm went off. I have to watch myself to see that I am not over- or underfueling myself as my physical activity picks up. So far, I've been meeting it with slightly enlarged portions rather than adding snacks.

saef, you could always make it Stressed Hungry Irritated Tired... :lol: And add an extra T for Tense.

Allison, how did you cook the spiralized sweet potatoes? Baked? How did the bowl turn out? It sounded really good!

Jay, I too love the HALT acronym. Tired is the biggest one of those for me.

Andrea, sometimes the "healthy" treats tempt me more than the donuts and cookies. Don't let me get started on nuts when I'm hungry. I usually make myself put them in a bowl on the kitchen scale before I eat them but every now and then I just dive in.

Saef, it's so great that you are back to the gym and doing something other than leg lifts :)

I consider myself fortunate that I have no desire for alcohol. My DH is an active member of AA, in fact I think today is his 3rd "birthday". Even though I don't expect any guarantees, I finally think he's in a stable place after many years of trying to remain sober. I don't consider my enjoyment of sugar to be an addiction.

JayEll-- the portion sizes here in California are WAY smaller than they were when we lived in Texas-- everything really is bigger in Texas! I suspect Florida is similar to Texas.

Dagmar-- great job on abstaining! Do you plan on staying alcohol free forever?

Right now I'm trying to abstain from the teacher's break room-- currently housing amazing homemade brownies and a full taco bar for lunch. Oy vey...

They were sauteed in a little olive oil. And yes, it was really good! Here's the recipe:

Sweet Potato Burrito Bowl

1 large sweet potato
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
salt and pepper
2 eggs
1 cup egg whites, (8 egg whites)
1/2 cup salsa, plus additional for topping, if desired
1 avocado, diced
fresh cilantro, for garnish

1. Spiralize the potatoes using the 3mm blade of the spiralizer.

2. Heat 2 teaspoon of the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add in the potato noodles and cook until they just begin to soften, about 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper

3. While the potatoes cook, fill a large pot with a few inches of water and place over medium/high heat until it just starts to simmer.

4. Once simmering, crack the eggs into the pot, keeping the eggs and close to surface of the water as you can, and leaving distance between the eggs. Cover the pot, turn off the heat and let sit for 4-5minutes, until the eggs are cooked, but the center still feels soft.

5. While the eggs poach, heat the remaining teaspoon of oil in a medium pan over med/high heat. Scramble the egg white until the outside is lightly golden brown.

6. Transfer the cooked potato noodles into a large bowl and toss with ½ cup of the salsa until well mixed. Add in the scrambled egg whites and mix until they are well dispersed.

7. Divide the noodles between two bowls of top with diced avocado, as much cilantro as your heart desires, and additional salsa, if wanted.

In retrospect, the salt and pepper were not necessary. I didn't use salsa, instead I used spicy diced canned tomatoes (like Rotel). And I think a whole cup of egg whites would be too much. I used much less and it was still good. I did add a pinch of Mexican cheese blend. Also, I don't think it was necessary to cook the egg whites in a separate pan. You could easily move the cooked sweet potatoes to the edge of a large pan, cook the egg whites in the middle and then combine it all.

Allison, the recipe sounds yummy. But in what way is it related to a burrito? Salsa plus avocado?

Saturday, which you'd think would be more relaxed. But I'm wondering if I can get my mother to take me to the gym before the snow starts around 1 PM, particularly when she prefers a long, leisurely morning sitting at the kitchen table with the Times. And that causes some anxiety. I am missing my former Saturday routine, which was back-to-back classes at the gym, saying "hello" to all the people I know there, then coming home and relaxing a bit, then cooking for the week to come.

Edited to add: She took me after she did laundry, and the snow started to fall around 2 PM. When she picked me up again at 2:30 PM, the roads were already getting messy and I had to be very, very careful with the walker on the sidewalk. Glad to be safely indoors now.

No weigh-in. Weigh-ins lately have been discouraging.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Egg bake with ham, spinach and mushrooms; pumpkin steel-cut oats; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Lunch: Baby arugula, roasted vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese and pecans
Dinner: Pesto chicken breast with mozzarella, steamed broccoli and green beans
Dessert: Bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips

Today's exercise:

Front leg raise 3x20, Lateral leg raise 3x20, Lateral w/ toes up 3x20, Lateral opposite 3x20, Bicycle 3x20, Kickback 3x20 and High knee 3x20 (both these just left leg)
At the gym: 15 minutes recumbent bike, resistance at five; weight routine, upping to 15-lb dumbbells, except for lateral raises at 8 lbs, and 62.5 lbs for lat pulldown; then 20 minutes back on recumbent bike

I'm hunkering mostly in the house today, except for a Costco proteins and drugs run :lol:, and hoping the coming cold snap is fugacious. :p

DH went grocery shopping yesterday. The idea of his going was an excellent one but the execution less so. We are now prepared for an extended stay indoors should a blizzard trap us.

We will be living on G2 and cookies. :rofl:

Dagmar :shrug: