A hare met a tortoise one day and made fun of him for the slow and clumsy way in which he walked.
The tortoise laughed and said, "I will run a race with you any time that you choose."
"Very well," replied the hare, "we will start at once."
The tortoise immediately set off in his slow and steady way without waiting a moment or looking back. The hare, on the other hand, treated the matter as a joke and decided to take a little nap before starting, for she thought that it would be an easy matter to overtake her rival.
The tortoise plodded on, and meanwhile the hare overslept herself, with the res
ult that she arrived at the winning-post only to see that the tortoise had got in before her.
Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.
This comes from a book handed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. The book is so old it doesn't have a copyright date or an author/editor's credit.
That fable has been the motivation for us turtles for about two years. Someone on the ancient WW forum mentioned the fable and I discovered it was very motivational for me. I talked about it in posts and other people said that the tortoise philosophy worked for them, too. So, I started a thread for us turtle types.
We work toward accepting that our bodies have a natural speed of weight loss when we choose to live a healthy life, instead of "going on a diet". Many of us have experienced "the diets" as go on/lose weight-- go off/ gain the weight plus more back.
We choose to perservere with each choice we make throughout the day. We believe that choosing to be slow, steady turtles helps us to learn the skills we need to learn in order to not only lose the weight, but keep it off and become the healthiest people we can be.
So, welcome to all who realize that losing and maintaining a weight loss is a lifestyle change. And who want support as we all learn the skills we need to successfully make the changes that will allow us to reach our goals.
Happy turtlin', everyone!
Lin
PS--I wrote a short post today. If you missed it and are interested it's the last one on #29.
Things are going OK today. Still OP. My dh and I are going for a walk in a few minutes, but I wanted to check in and see how everyone's doing.
One bit of good news. My dh got a call from an agency that has a temp to perm job opportunity. They wanted his resume in a different format and they wanted references. So, we sent the information and we're really hoping this one works out. It's a much shorter commute and should be a significant pay raise. So, say a few more prayers and I'll keep you posted.
I'm trying to decide if I'm going to get weighed at my meeting tonight or not. I'm going*, I just can't decide if I want to be weighed. I know my weight is up (Chinese food last night, and Mexican food very very late the night before are not good things!) and frankly I don't know if I need the discouragement. But then maybe it'll get my back on track? But then, I'm not off track, at the Mexican place I had some chips and some sweet corn mash-stuff, spoonbread I think, and at the Chinese place last night I had vegetables and tofu. But considering how tight my rings are, there was a lot of salt in those two nights too! Anyway, just wandering around in mental circles.
Mousie, what a dilemma! I suggest some extra water to help get rid of that excess salt. But you'll have to figure out the scale dilemma yourself. No one else knows your mind as well as you do.
One thought I had, though, is that because you know you may have had some water retention, you probably don't need to make any changes in how you follow the program as a result of whatever the scale says.
My body regularly gains and loses several pounds because of water retention. So, I don't worry about small ups and downs with the scale. I use the scale to keep track of the general trend. Over the course of two or three months, I expect the line on my graph to go down, if I've been OP.
I'm OP today. I've exercised for several days in a row. It's getting to be a record and a habit. I do miss it when I don't do it.
Lin,
I'm sending good vibes for the job opportunity for your dh. Let's hope this works out for him. I think it's great the way you are staying with your program with all you're going through. Good for you. Tomorrow I work half a day and then I've got a nice vacation. I think I've been waiting for this time to get back OP.
Mousie--I love your choices in the ethnic restaurants. They can sometimes be tricky, but you did great. Salt retention is yuckky and I know about the scale business.
My WW leader asked me if I knew I'd be up and I said yes, but that things were improving and I'd be back on track soon.
Am getting to see my son and daughter-in-law this weekend. Hope everyone stays OP and does the right things for themselves. i am going to do this!
Love,
Judy
Judy--love your weight/UGH/thinner. It made me smile lots.
At my meeting tonight I said I didn't want to weigh, thank you, and the woman gave me SUCH a nasty look! I jumped in and said "I'll pay, that's fine, I just don't care to weigh tonight," and she said "well, as long as you still have stamps (the prepays)". Well, fine then!
So, I don't know how I did this week. But, considering that today was full of studying, rehearsing a speech, fussing with my DH (we were both grumpy, not a good combination), and an unfortunate run-in with doughnuts, I think I did the right thing. I'll weigh next week, and it'll be brilliant!
I was talking to a friend of mine, who is also doing WW. She and I went together when we were roommates in Chicago, two years ago, and the program worked. I lost almost 30 pounds in about 4 months, no problem. This time, I'm struggling to stay focused. So we were talking about what had changed, and she pointed out that THIS time, I'm married and I have DH to think about/interact with. DH, bless him, doesn't want me to get skinny. Likes me right where I am, actually. I keep telling him I don't want to be skinny, either, size 12 (as I was when we met) is NOT skinny. He sabotages me intentionally, and if I'm alert and paying attention, I catch it and make good choices. But if I'm tired, or if he's cooking, or if I just don't feel like dealing with it AGAIN, he takes advantage of my lapse in vigilance and "helps" me go off program. I know, I know, I'm in charge of what goes in my mouth. But with him not working right now (and thus the stress of that), and me trying to go to class and work and keep other bits of my life running, in addition to keeping the marriage going (I never thought marriage was this much work! Happy work, to be sure, but still work!), I feel like I don't have the energy to fight when he sabotages me. Any thoughts? Ideas? Hints? For the record, I've tried sitting down with him and explaining that this is important to me, that I would appreciate his help, that his lack of support hurts me, that the sabotaging is undermining my efforts, etc. Any other ideas?
I love your attitude, Judy! Those positive vibes do spruce up our days. Thanks!
Mousie, you have a difficult dilemma. Dealing with food and weight is difficult in marriages. If their weight changes, most people gain after getting married. I admire your resolve not to let that happen to you.
A lot depends on why he's being unsupportive. If he truly wants you to stay at this weight, you might try reminding him that he doesn't have the right to decide what size your body will be. He can have an opinion, but he can't make the decision. That decision is reserved for the person who must inhabit the body--you. Once you've made this decision, he needs to support you, just as you need to support what he wishes to do with his body.
My dh pushed this issue because he refused to express an opinion on what he thought I should wear, etc. He insisted that I had to live with whatever I wore, my hairstyle, etc., so it was my decision. I agreed with that. I only asked his opinion because, like all of us, I wanted him to like my choices. What I realized was that if my choices made me happy, he would like them, too, because he wouldn't be living with a grump!
If he doesn't know how to cook lowfat, healthy food or thinks (as many people do) that lowfat and healthy equals food that tastes yucky, recreate his favorite recipes with the points shaved a bit. If you need help doing that, let me know. I've gotten very good at turning recipes into lowfat, healthy food that tastes really good.
If he won't cooperate at all, you may have to resort to eating a different meal from his. By keeping some quick to prepare, low point foods on hand that you can eat when he makes higher point foods than you want to eat, you will show him that you are very serious about what you want for YOUR body. (My mom does this because she likes to try new recipes, but her boyfriend is a super picky eater. So they worked out a system that they each cook on different nights and they go out once a week. If they don't like what the other person makes, they fix themselves something else.)
Some men seem to think that eating healthy or lowfat is somehow feminine or wimpy. And they sabotage their spouses because they are afraid their spouse will try to change the way they eat. By eating something else when he eats high point foods, you show him that you respect his desire to eat differently. But you also show him that you are serious about asking him to respect your food choices.
If it bothers him that you won't eat his food, save up points so that you can eat what he likes/cooks sometimes. As he sees that you can stay with your program, but still join him sometimes, maybe he'll be more willing to compromise and support you more.
I hope some of this helps.
This has been a difficult day for me, foodwise. Everything esle has been fine. Looking back over my journals, I realized that I've been eating one meal that's higher in fat and the rest of my meals have been nonfat, rather than lowfat, more frequently than I usually do. I think I need to use that as a special occasion eating pattern and stick to my normal routine of adding about 1/2 point of fat to my mini meals throughout the day. So, regardless of how my weigh in goes this week, I've learned something that will help me in the long run.
Hi all! Lin I am saying a prayer and sending best wishes your way for your husband! I hope it works out and soon.
I do admire your attitude Judy and you know, my one WW leader has said this and it's so true. The weigh-in weight is just a snapshot at that moment in time about how you are doing. You definitely understand that and keep going! That's great. I hope you have a good weekend with son and daughter-in-law.
I was reading (albeit briefly) the latest WW magazine and one of the success stories was about a woman who lost and regained weight regularly. She said that her family always wondered if she was going to regain it when she was thin and vice versa when she was fat. She said that she never knew what her body was supposed to be. But more importantly, when she was thin, her family also thought she was too thin. My mom is like that; not that I have been really close to goal weight but at my lowest, my mother would "warn" me not to be lose "too much" weight. It made me laugh but it bothered me too.
I'm going to go out on a limb and ask Mousie if her husband would feel insecure if she lost a lot of weight. Maybe, Mousie, that's the problem? I'm thinking that he himself has been through a lot of changes this year with moving to the States, getting married, etc.
You might want to keep a journal of how and when the sabotages occur. I'm thinking that this might be useful for two reasons. 1) You can figure out your weak points and come up with a strategy for coping with those weak moments (like say for me, it's the first 30 minutes of walking into the house) and 2) you can show this to your husband and discuss this a little more.
I think it sounds to me like he is insecure. It's not right and Lin very articulately outlines why this isn't right.
Dennis used to be a little like that but mostly because I would look SO SAD at my one cup of pasta for example and he would feel sorry for me. I will say that most of the time he reins me in whenever I want to be "bad" but when he doesn't, he is in a bad mood and uses food as a mood elevator.
BTW, Mousie, good job in dealing with that nasty WW person. Jeez.
I have good news to report. I have been eating out all week b/c of home repairs (any excuse is a good one) and it's my TOM. I dreaded going in b/c I just "knew" the scale would be bad. I lost 0.4#. It's a small small loss but nonetheless I'm happy about it. And, the workmen are finished with the house and so as soon as I put things back, I will have my kitchen back to so-called normal.
Hello...can I come race the good race??? nice, slow and evenly???My name is Kathy and I just started ww today...weight in at (oh my gosh I am embarrassed...) 202.2...Wow...I didn't know it was going to be so high.
I have been reading all your turtles goings on and I like what you are all saying...I am a horrible eater, but I plan on changing that. Right now today and not tomorrow...It is 1:13 California time and I am still op and 1 glass of water almost complete...I will drink lots more at work...I will try to drink 2 big big big big glasses of water which should add up to a fair amount.
I am planning to join a different gym on Monday. my little place has no pool and after a trip to Hawaii last 2 weeks ago. I found out how much I like water, so I will rejoing the new place (to me anyway) and get some lap swimming in, and maybe even water arobicics. The have some really nice machines there, and I think It will be fun to go there.
Thank you for letting me play..I will report how my first day went...I prob won't do any exercise till tomorrow...
Welcome to our merry jaunt, Kathy! Where IS your city? I'm in San Diego, never heard of Ukiah. You must be very small. What part of Hawaii did you go to? I spent years 6-8 in Honolulu (my dad was in the Navy). I STILL miss the water there! So blue, so clear, so warm...oh, ouch. Anyway!
WW is a wonderful program. You just need to figure out how to make it work for you (the way I am, figuring out how to work it around my husband!) and then you're off--and the weight is too!
DH, speak of the devil, has food poisoning. So I've been strictly on my own to worry about meals and snacks (not really a snacker, but anyway). And I realize it's only been one day, but I feel so much stronger when I can make my own decisions! So far today I've had 6 vegetable servings and 20 points (I try to have the majority of my points in the morning, when I'm hungriest) and I'm planning a 3-veg, 6-point dinner. My range is 26-31 (the next higher, per my leader's suggestion) so that'll plunk me down beautifully. Amazing how easy it is when you don't have to work around anyone else!
But, no, I actually adore the man, and my life is better with him.
Thanks for the thoughts, Lin and Lori. I'm at the moment contemplating both the concept that it's just unfair of him, and HE isn't the one who has to live in my body though he seems not to understand that, and the idea that he's been through so many changes this year that he may not want me to change on him, too. I've not reached any conclusions, yet, but it's given me things to consider. Thanks, guys.
Just wanted to say hi..had a great night at work..Ate lots of vegies and a WW dinner and lots of water...I even passed up on a cake someone brought in..Yeah Kathy!!!. I never pass up cake, in fact I am usually the one who has two pieces before everyone has had one piece!!! I usta be so evil!!! But not any more...I am going to do this, no matter what...
I like in Northern Calif 2 hours north of SF on Hwy 101. Very nice little town that my kids totally hate and that is why they went and grew up and moved away..Oh one daughter does live here with her new husband but they are homesick for Kiev Ukraine, there real home...And they tell me when ever they see how much they miss home...It makes me sad that they are homesick..My othter daughter lives in Shreveport La, and is in the airforece...I don't know why I ever told them they should grew up and see the world...
I went to Maui for my vacation. It was a wonderful vacation that went way too fast..i have been waiting to go for 35+ years and them wamo!!! it is over!!! I learned how to snorkle which I am very proud of...
Well you all have a nice night!!! I have the next two days off so I am one happy camper!!!
Kathy, you have the same problem my parents have--they encouraged us to see the world and explore new things, too. Now my brother lives in Texas, my sister lives in Pennsylvania, and I'm married to a Brit and we're talking about moving back to the UK when I finish college!
Must have been positive vibes out there, because I had a great day too. Ended up with 28 points for the day, 8-10 veggie servings (still not quite sure how to count veggies, but I KNOW I at least had 8), all my water, vitamins, etc. And I managed to drop the water I was holding, I've lost 3.5 pounds in water from yesterday to today! WOW!
DH still has food poisoning, and is curled up in bed. I've got classwork to do today, so I'm a bit restricted, but I'm still planning to go out and have a blade before the sun gets hot and the crowds get stupid. Here's to another OP day!
Welcome, Kathy. We admit all comers to our untraditional race. Just to put things in perspective--Kathy, your starting point is smaller than where most of us turtles began. Congrats for starting before you got to the 272 or so that was the highest weight I can remember for me!
I love water, too. I've been swimming a little lately in the great pool our apartment complex has.
Congrats on passing up the cake. Those spur of the moment high calorie foods can be a problem. Something to think about, though-- It's good to plan to have some of your favorite foods in once in a while. When you get the hang of banking points, you'll see that it's easy to fit them in, but usually in smaller portions and less frequently than you might have eaten them in the past. Most of us agree that deprivation is one way we end up sabotaging ourselves because we start to crave whatever we've decided "we're never going to eat again!" And cravings often lead to eating over points or, sometimes, binges.
Lori, mucho congrats on that loss! Every little bit that moves us in the right direction is to be celebrated.
Mousie. I'm glad you're feeling better about how your journey is going now. I'm sure that in time, you and your dh will work this out. And you will get to your goal. OTOH, I'm sorry your dh has food poisoning and I hope he feels better soon!
I'm doing better. My food choices have been better since my last post. I need to get some exercise in today. I've slipped the past couple of days. I'm not upset about that, though, because I know how long it takes to build new habits. So, I figure that it's just a matter of perserverance and I'll find myself exercising more regularly.
I envy you who have been to Hawaii. It's one of the places I want to visit someday. I'd like to take a cruise to and around the islands.
Hope all of you turtles are having a great weekend. Looking forward to hearing from all you lurkers soon. Mousie, you're using one of my very favorite motivational sayings as your signature line. I appreciate having it there every day. So, I decided to add one of my other favorite motivational quotes as my signature line.
DH still feels, in his words, "squiffy", so I'm still on my own for meals. 27 points and 7 veggies/all my water/vitamins/exercise/etc yesterday. It's SO much easier when I can just make my own choices!
Well, folks, I'm amazed that I managed to do this, but in the past six weeks, I've managed to gain a whopping NINE pounds. It blows my mind. I really wish I had been writing down what I ate, because it just didn't seem like all that much. I certainly didn't binge. But I didn't track, and I didn't exercise as much the past few weeks. I ate out a lot due to having almost constant company and being on vacation. And then there's the business travel.
I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude. Yesterday I was pretty depressed, as you can imagine. How could I have done this?? What was I thinking? I've gained back all the weight I've lost this year! But moping and kicking myself around the block and feeling despair isn't going to take care of the problem.
So yesterday I tracked, and I exercised. I stayed within my points. Today I'm tracking again. I'm determined to get these nine FREAKING pounds back off in short order. I'm not sure yet what that means, but I'm truly sick and tired of maintaining and gaining. No, I'm not going to jump onto a crash diet, but I'm going to make some changes. The one that leaps to mind most immediately is to cut back on sugar and flour again, maybe limit them to three days a week. Or possibly I'll try the Wendie plan, where you vary your points from one day to the next in an attempt to keep your body guessing.
Right now, though, I'm focusing on just tracking and exercising. Next week I'll move to the next level.
Kathy, welcome!
Lori, way to go on your weigh-in this week.
Mousie, I wish I had good advice re: your husband. I hope things improve there.
Turtle Club # 30
Anyway!
