I’m off for the weekend.

Well, I’m getting ready to leave for the weekend. I’ll post again on Sunday. Thanks for all the encouraging comments that everyone has left! I will do my best this weekend. I want to leave you with this article that backs up what I always say about calories. And, by the way, Roni answers a question in the way I think is right-on in this video in here answer to A Calorie is A Calorie.

Here’s the article cut-and-pasted and a link to it. It’s from SparkPeople:

New Study Spills the Secret to Weight Loss

A major study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals the real secret to weight loss.

For two years, 811 overweight participants followed one of four reduced-calorie diets-low carb, high carb, low protein or high protein-so researchers could determine the best formula for weight loss. They exercised for 90 minutes a week and tracked their calories online, too. A funny thing happened: All of the participants lost weight! What they ate didn’t seem to matter, but healthy habits like portion control and tracking calories helped them drop an average of nine pounds and two inches off their waists.

What does this mean for you? No more food combining, no low-carbing, no giving up your favorite foods, no special “diet” foods or food restrictions–eat whatever you want (within your calorie range) and you can still lose weight. This study supports what SparkPeople has encouraged for years: track your food, eat all foods in moderation and develop healthy lifestyle habits, like portion control, that you can live with forever. We know it works and so do the millions of people who have lost weight at SparkPeople.com.

Each month, more than 2 million people use SparkPeople’s free tools, Community, and resources to lose weight and get healthier. And every day, our members track more than one million foods on their free Nutrition Trackers, making SparkPeople.com’s food tracker the most popular in the world! You set the rules; we just provide the tools to help support you along the way.

Help us Spread the Spark by forwarding this email to your friends and family members. Let them know that SparkPeople’s tools and sensible approach can help them reach their goals, too!

Click here to learn more about this study, and read about the secrets of successful SparkPeople members.

To Your Health!

Still hanging on

Sorry, I don’t have much time tonight to post, because I got up at 4:30 this morning to take someone to the airport for any early flight. So I need to get to bed! Basically, I’m still hanging on – but just barely. My eating is getting more sloppy and to be 100 percent honest, I think this weekend trip is looming over me eating wise and is wearing down my resolve. I know, I know how stupid that is. I know how important it is for me to overcome that type of attitude and thinking. I know how much that thinking has contributed to my past failures and how the reversal will contribute to my success this time. I know. But I’m finding it more difficult than I imagined to truly reverse that thinking. But I’m trying. And I’m going to keep trying. Tomorrow, even though it may be my only really good eating day for the week, I’m going to stay on track. Going to start the morning with an omelet or turkey burger. Going to eat a Lunchable for lunch. Going to have some veggies for dinner. And I’m going to by some healthy snacks to munch on while in the car – sugar free jello, sugar free pudding, apple slices, fresh grapes, etc. It may just be one day – but more than the calorie savings, it will help me know that I can change my attitude.

Feeling a little more upbeat

Well, I don’t feel like I’m ready to conquer the world or anything, but I am feeling a little bit more upbeat than I have been. Today’s all-day work meeting where they provided the food was not as bad food-wise as it could have been. I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, they didn’t have any snacks (just lunch). That saved me a lot of temptation. Lunch was fairly heavily breaded, but baked fish, some pasta stuff, breadstick, and fresh fruit. Could be a lot worse. I also accidentally skipped breakfast, which saved a few calories. (And I didn’t eat any extra at lunch, so that’s good.) My two disappointments for the day are that I didn’t workout (no wonderful excuse – this is the first time in over three weeks that I’ve skipped a workout without a very good reason) and that I stupidly baked a cake. I used the excuse that I was going to take it to my friends house this weekend. What am I thinking? I have, of course, already “sampled” a very large piece. Will I ever learn!!!?? I’m feeling exactly how I described in this post.

Weigh-in Results

Well, yesterday was my official “weigh-in” day and I must admit, the results were dissapointing. Up 1.2 pounds. No good rhyme or reason. I’m trying not to get frustrated because I do know that my body loses weight slowly and that I didn’t truly gain fat – there’s just some natural fluctuations.  I have done okay eating wise yesterday and today, but not great. I just haven’t felt really in control and things haven’t gone as planned. I did workout for an hour on the elliptical today – that went pretty well. My fitness is improving and I’m toying with the idea of torturing msyelf with some jogging soon. Tomorrow promises to be a major challenge as I’m having a special all-day, off-site work meeting where they feed us snacks and lunch! And we’re probably sitting there with the food right in front of us the whole time. My plan is just to do the best I can and try to compromise where I can. I’m sure the food won’t be at all diet-friendly, but I will still try to make the best choices that are available to me. This weekend also promises to be a big challenge as the food will be out of my control (at a friend’s house), but again, I will do the best I can. And I guess I will be satisfied if I simply maintain this week. Although I must admit that I’m getting so anxious to see some results. I want a significant loss. I’m sicked and tired of hanging around the 15-19 pounds lost range. I want to at least move to the 20-25 pounds lost range.

Starting to Get a Little Discouraged

Well, today was okay, but not great. I didn’t do anything really stupid (like eat a whole pan of brownies) or anything, but I didn’t do anything great either. I wasn’t feeling too motivated – mostly because the scale just isn’t budging. It was actually up 0.8 from last Monday’s weigh-in and I’m feeling pretty sure that tomorrows weigh-in will show an official gain. (Even though it can’t be a true gain, because I have been on track this week – the brownie incident definitely did not set back far enough to have a gain or anything – it couldn’t have been more that 1500-2000 calories and that’s a high estimate. I had a far greater deficit than that for the week.) Also, I tried on a shirt that I really thought would fit, but it basically didn’t. It was a size 16 button up, relatively fitted, not stretchy at all dress shirt from Gap. I put it on and looked in the mirror and it was perfectly fine. So I wore it to church. Come to find out (as I’m sitting in church) it is horrific when I sit down, because, of course, my middle gets bigger when I sit down. I mean the buttons are just stretched and one of them even popped open at one point. It was bad. That was discouraging. Then I went to a friend’s house for dinner, and of course the pork, sweet corn, oh-so-delicious dinner rolls, and brownies were not all that diet-friendly. I didn’t pass up the roll or the brownie (I did only have one, though, when I really wanted at least two of each) – if I had been super motivated and completely on my game I would have skipped the roll and the brownie. Oh well. I am going to try so hard to really, really do well tomorrow and I’m going to try to work up some more motivation. I get so frustrated at how slowly I lose. I am also starting to worry about this weekend when I’m going out of town to a friend’s house whether the food is 100 percent out of my control, and I’m sure it won’t be diet-friendly. The good part is, though, that it will really only be Saturday that I have to eat what they serve. I’m getting there so late on Friday and leaving so early on Sunday that it won’t be a mealtime. However, the bad news is that I’ll be in the car for six or seven hours each way and I always get horrible cases of the munchies while riding in the car.

Saturday

Happy to report that today went well.
I worked out for an hour this morning.
There’s really not much noteworthy to say. Here’s the food journal with no calorie counts, because I really don’t know. I ate chili and cornbread at someone’s house, so I’m not that sure of calorie counts.

• Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast (220)
• 4 Lindt choc truffles (300)
• A bowl of chili w/ cheese and crackers
• a couple pieces of cheese bread
• half of a sugar cookie

Friday

I did fine today. There wasn’t time for exercise, but that was planned, and I will still meet my goal of 4 times this week by exercising tomorrow.

I also had a hot fudge sundae at Steak ‘n Shake but that was planned.

As far as those brownies that I talked about yesterday. I actually found an excellent. I gave them all away to a friend that was here yesterday. I even waited to cut them up and put them in the container until he was here so I wouldn’t nibble on them. I mean, it’d be pretty embarrasing to stand there and eat half the pan if someone is there! So, do feel a lot better now that they are gone, and I didn’t even have to throw them in the trash.

Thanks everyone for all the encouraging comments.

Will I ever learn!!!??

Report for Thursday:

Oh my goodness – seriously, will i EVER learn!!?? Sometimes I wonder how I can be so ridiculous to do the same thing over and over again and get the same disastrous results. So those brownies I made yesterday – not good. I did very well yesterday with eating only one very small brownie. This morning I again ate one pretty small brownie – not terrible, but I really shouldn’t have. Did fine with eating all day at work. Got home, and just sunk back into to old habits. I told myself I just wanted one little sliver of brownie. So I grabbed the pan and shaved off a little sliver standing at the stove – the another, and another, and just one more really can’t hurt. This is by far my biggest struggle – eating sweets and just nibbling away in little bitty bits rationalizing to myself. I ended up eating a decent amount (maybe the equivalent of two very large brownies). The worst part is they weren’t even all that wonderful and I certainly didn’t enjoy eating them b/c I was just standing there nibbling. I should know better! By the way, these weren’t your average 200 calorie a serving brownies. They have an additional stick of butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1.5 cups of choc chips, 1.5 cups of graham crackers, and a whole package of caramels! Super high calorie. To be completely honest, here’s a picture of what I have eaten since last night:

The brownies

Okay, needless to say, I’m really mad at myself, but I’m doing my very best to move on. Immediately following the brownie incident, I drug myself to the Y, and let me tell you, it was so COLD, that there was not a bone in my body that wanted to leave my warm house to head for the Y. But I went, and I had the best, most intense, calorie blasting workout I’ve had all year. I’m serious, I was dead by the time I was done, and it felt great. I used Cardio Coach Volume 5 on my ipod and it was wonderful. I used to use them all the time, but it’s been over a year, and I had forgotten how good and motivating they are.

Here’s the journal:

• Cheese Omelet (240)
• 3 Lindor Chocolate Truffles (230)
• Sam’s Choice Thai Coconut Chicken (350)
• Sugar Free Pudding (60)
• Way too much super-high calorie brownies (1200?)
• Total cals eaten: 2080
• Cals burned through exercise: 600
• Net cals: 1480

Wednesday – Red Flags

Today has gone fine, but I’m definitely seeing some serious caution lights. First of all, I did something I have not done in a long time. When I was at Wal-Mart I bought Lindt Chocolate truffles. Just felt the need for some chocolate. I have eaten three, which is one official serving (230 cals), so I haven’t gone crazy. However, one should have been sufficient, and there’s that potential.

Next, I made Caramel Graham Fudge brownies. I haven’t really baked in so long and I was just really craving that, so I bought the ingredients at Wal-Mart today (by the way, not baking and having sweets really does save money), and just made them. I only had a few bites of batter, and the plan is to simply have one brownie and give the rest away. I feel like I really am in control right now but I don’t want to be foolish and add unecessary temptation.

I did get in a decent workout today. About 25 mins on the elliptical and 25 mins on the treadmill. I’m estimating 400 cals burned, but that’s probably conservative.

And by the way, a few people commented about the low calories yestesrday. My philosophy is not to worry about it if I have a low day. My average calories eaten for the week have NEVER been below 1200, so I figure it all evens out. If I’m not that hungry one day and only eat 800, thats fine. Conversely, if I’m really hungry or am having an extra treat, and I eat 1500, or even 2000, that’s okay too.

The journal:

• 1 egg with some mozzarella cheese (120)
• 1.5 servings of Triscuits (180)
• 3 servings of Melba Toast (150)
• Southwest Turkey Burger plan (150)
• 3 truffles (230)
• Sam’s Choice Thai Chicken (350)
• Bites, licks, and tastes while cooking (150)
• Brownie (400)
• Total cals eaten: 1730
• Cals burned through exercise: 400
• Net cals: 1330

Tuesday – Another Good Day

Happy to report good news again today. The only snack I had today was about 1 cup or two of light popcorn. That’s the only snack I had all day. I don’t anticipate eating anything else because I’m going to church in a few minutes and I will pretty much go straight to bed after that. Tuesday is my work-at-home day, and I moved my “office” (which is really a desk with my work phone and my work laptop) to a different location. I had been working from my desk in the living room, which is right next to the kitchen – not good. Today I was upstairs in a bedroom – much better. I was able to focus more on work and had less temptation to snack. Plus I had pretty much nothing that could be eaten with preparation – I take that back, I had absolutely NOTHING that could be eaten without prepartion. That really helps curtail the munching. Another thing that helped was a good nights sleep last night – for some reason, being well rested helps give me the energy to fight the food cravings.

I also had a great workout. Sixty-five minutes on the elliptical, but I was working pretty hard. Increased the resistance more than usual and went faster. I did 6.04 miles. My heart rate monitor is broken, but I burned over 700 cals according to the machine (which I set for 50 pounds less than what I actually weigh, so it would be more accurate.) I’m going to claim 650.

Here’s the food journal for today:

• Breakfast: A two-egg omelet with some cheddar and mozzarella cheese (250)
• Snack: A cup or two of light popcorn (150)
• Lunch: A Southwest Turkey Burger with a little bit of cheddar cheese – I used the last of my cheese – gotta get to the store soon (200)
• Dinner: Sam’s Choice Bacon-Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast (270) and a can of green beans (70) (340)
• Total Cals Eaten: 940
• Cals burned through exercise: 650
• Net cals: 290 (and believe or not, I’m not hungry – although if I were, I would allow myself to eat some more vegetables)