Starting Over — Again and Again

 

Well, here I go again with this blog.  Really meant for just my eyes I won’t be advertising it.  I need to lose weight.  I used to count calories with much success but it got very boring and not very conducive to my lifestyle — meaning I don’t carry measuring cups or a scale around with me.  I have tried going vegetarian but that doesn’t work so well, either, cooking for a person who thinks a balanced meal is a steak.  It is a lot of extra work for this empty nested, rapidly aging person so I have decided to revisit the concept in the previous post and just go on my half diet.  It should work well in restaurants who supply take home boxes and, if making the proper choices to begin with it should work.  Right?   Now, the question is, should I use this blog as a way to post my choices for the day?  I have tried all the online calorie counting recording  sites and I did that for long with pen and paper that I just can’t make myself do it anymore.  Sort of like once you throw up something you never want to eat it again.  Maybe a small moleskine in my purse to just list what  I eat without the math.  I don’t know but I know I need to do something and quickly.  I feel bad, I look bad and I am miserable.  

So, on with the half diet I go.  Maybe at the end of the day i will post what I have eaten for the day and if I got any exercise — ah, another area of contention.  Ok, back later.

 

 

 

Fourteen Day Check – in

On January 1, 2001 I posted a blog about my new eating plan.  I have been keeping to the plan more or less.  I have had a couple of sodas — a couple in two weeks, not a couple a day.  Sweets are pretty much a thing of the past except for the Blue Bell Fudge Bars that I ate when I had my allergy attack.  I am pretty  much cutting what I eat in half, using portion control and eating more veggies than starch.

So, how has it worked?  I am down 8.5 pounds! Not too shabby for two weeks, I would say.  So, the motivation is there, I don’t feel deprived, I have eaten out and eaten junk — just not as much of it.

With that, I will continue with the plan.  Next check in — the end of the month! Hopefully by then I will be have lost a full ten pounds.  Staying positive!

New Year — New Eating Plan

Ok, 2011, I am ready for ya!  After ALL THESE YEARS I have figured out the eating plan that looks like it might work for me.  I no longer believe in diets and that includes journaling.  I know that every diet guru out there says to journal.  Well, been there, done that, can’t do it anymore.  Sort of like eating tuna.  Can’t do it anymore.  So, after having a conversation with DD about how a friend of hers lost a good amount of weight, I decided that it made sense.  The young woman simply cut her portions in half.  Have I heard of this before?  Of course.  Have I thought about it?  Of course.  Did I think it would work?  Of course.  But, again, the demon discipline stepped in the way.  After looking at this persons photo I decided that I would try it.  I am not denying myself anything — just taking would I would usually eat of anything and only enjoying half of what I would usually eat.  So…..how is it going?

I have lost 7 pounds in a couple of weeks! Not bad, I don’t think.  And…..I have had sweets and soda, pizza and fast food — just half of it.  For instance, we got Firehouse Subs the other night.  Instead of eating the whole sandwich, I ate half which, believe me, is plenty.  Last night I made omelets with biscuits.  I made one big omelet using three eggs instead of four and reducing the amount of cheese I put into it by about half.  When I divided it between the two of us, I gave A 2/3 of it I had had the rest.  Instead of 2 biscuits, I ate 1 1/2. I am being really careful at breakfast, though, because it seems that I am the sort of person that once I start eating, I can’t stop and so I go slow at breakfast and I seem to be ok during the day.  I have never been a big night time eater so that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Green Tea.  Yep.  Because I have felt poorly for the last couple of weeks,  I have been drinking lots of hot tea.  I switched over to Bigelow Green Tea with nothing added — soothes the throat.  Has that impacted the weight loss?  I have no clue but I know I am feeling pretty good about what is going on.

So, on that note — on with today!

 

 

No SSS — new diet concept?

I recently heard about a young woman who lost a sizeable amount of weight by a few simple techniques.

The first technique was to reduce whatever she was eating to half of what she would normally eat.  For instance, a cup of mashed potatoes would be reduced to half a cup.  That sounds doable, reasonable and actually, pretty smart.  Using this technique means that you don’t really have to eliminate anything from your diet — just reduce it.  This would be particularly good for people who lop off everything they like and then spend lots of time craving and moaning and finally succumb to the desire, ending up eating much more than they would have in the first place!  This technique is definitely going into my new plan.  In fact, I have already used it today.

The second tip this young lady used was drinking nothing but water.  I don’t mean drinking copious amounts of water, possibly threatening death by self inflicted water poisoning.  I mean water instead of soda, juice, or milk.  Of course, you need to get the nutrients you need from other sources than juice and milk.  I don’t know where to get Vitamin Soda, though, except from…soda.

The final tip was exercise.  Walking.  Sounds like a solid plan to me.

I also heard about the No SSS technique, from another source.  No soda, no sweets, no snacks.  I agree with the no soda idea.  Nobody needs soda.  Ok, we need it but we don’t NEED it.  Cutting all sweets out is not a grand idea, I don’t think.  At least not for me.  Every time I try to do that I end up craving it and it submarines my efforts in the worst way.  I am not completely sure I agree with the no snack option.  If the snacks are junk food then I agree but if you want to enjoy your lunchtime apple mid-afternoon,  I don’t think that is bad.  It will ward off hunger so that you don’t become an uncontrollable ravenous food monster before dinner.

So, all in all, I think these ideas are good and really logically sound.  I will be trying some of these.  In the meantime I am adding a few things to my water — green tea and apple cider vinegar.  I will also be making a point to make sure my vitamins and supplements are consumed each day.

I think I can do this.

On the Third Day of Christmas –

Melissa. Starts. Over.

‘Nuf said.

 

 

You Are What You Eat–or Don’t

Well, the time has come.  I must deal with the elephant in the room — no joke intended.  My ankles hurt, my knees hurt, my self esteem hurts so something must be done.

I have tried any number of diet attempts — half heartedly, I admit.  The only thing that works for me is calorie counting.  Plain ol’ weighing, measuring, and keeping a journal.  I tried WW on line but it was a hassle as was FitDay.  Again – pencil and paper works best for me.

The last attempt at dieting that really brought results, albeit not lasting, was a diet prescribed in a book titled “Is Your Thyroid Making You Fat?”  It is a plan of eating no more than 1000 calories a day — whatever you want — shoot 1000 calories worth of Ding Dongs at 6 a.m. if that is what you want — but when you consume your calories, you are done for the day.  According to the plan, you do this for 28 days and, at the end of that time if you aren’t dead or too weak to pick up a pencil,  you do a number of calculations and it is supposed to determine whether or not your thyroid is working as it should.

At the end of my 28 grueling days my calculations told me that I had lost about 19 pounds (apparently a good amount — really good amount) and that my thryoid was functioning at 150% — probably not such a great thing.  Of course, in my usual Melissa fashion, I just dismissed the calculations and concentrated on the fact that if I lost that much weight in 28 days, I could certainly do some major damage to this excessiveness that I carry around every day.  I did.  I stayed on the diet for 9 months and lost 65-70 pounds.  Yay, Melissa!

Nobody told me, however, that I could not sustain myself forever on 1000 calories.  After doing extensive reading I learned that it takes about 1600 calories a day just to function! Wow — who knew?  Was I doing myself harm?  Probably.  Did I care?  Not a whit.  I was getting skinny like I used to be! I was wearing much smaller clothes! I was enjoying shopping!

Then, one fateful day it happened.  I was hungry.  Not in that “gee, that donut looks really good” kind of way — more like “if I don’t eat something I will probably die” sort of way.  I felt sick.  Thin but sick.  So, that was the end of the gigantic weight loss.  It didn’t stay off, a good part of it is now a part of my daily life again and I know that I cannot go back to the 1000 calorie a day thing.  Seriously.

I have lost weight one other time in my life and I did it by journaling my food intake and exercising.  I am not a public person.  I don’t have close friends outside of my family, I am somewhat of a loner and I don’t share every thought that drifts through my head.  Therefor, chances are pretty good that I would never, EVER, attend a Weight Watchers meeting.

So……I am using this blog as a sounding board.  I am going to post, daily, my calorie intake and my exercise output.  I will never disclose my weight whether it is high or low — just like my age — keeping it to myself is a rite of passage of females.  I will post my weight loss numbers, if there is any.  I am not using my regular page to do this because, well, it is mostly for me. My regular page is for my really exciting stuff — LOL!  If my readers want to read it, great.  If not, just pass it by. I am sure there will be some ranting and raving and self-loathing so if you don’t want to hear that, just move on along to the good stuff.  I think, however, that this might be my answer to Weight Watchers — Melissa Watcher.  Yep — and a whole lot cheaper too.

Ok, so this evening, before bed, I will be posting.  This is just the first thing in the queue of things to improve myself.  I was told, the other day, by a friend that we are of a certain age now and it just doesn’t matter anymore.  Well, to me it does.  I have just been living like it doesn’t and that stops here and now.  I am on a schedule of getting things done for myself personally and for my home.  There are a lot of ways to quit living aside from actually dying.  Am I getting older and wiser?  Maybe.  But I don’t want to get older and fatter so here goes!