Thursday's Quick Hits

Short Attention Span Headlines

~Best News EVER!  today's weigh in (and previous good behavior) has netted me a loss of the 1.8 lbs I piled on when stopping the HCG program.  I was OK with stable but now I am pumped again!

~Procrastinator Award goes to ...ME!  I still have to do our investment club's taxes and help oldest son with his...ugh!

-Got my first video job from my new website-so excited!  Although it's pretty simple and still a work in progress, go check it out and let me know what you think.
http://www.allofasuttoncreativeservices.com/

~Grocery shopping is usually pretty boring unless you take another Goddess with you.  The Goddess Hippie and I compared labels, gave each other advice, had strength to avoid the candy aisle and found gross food to take pictures of!  She won the check-out race, darn it!

NOT food porn

~Blue Bell ice cream just showed up in our area and we found a no sugar added ice cream and decided to try it.  The Country Vanilla is pretty good.  Turns out the 1/2 cup serving size with a few strawberries is plenty (rather than the 3 scoops in my previous life).  Really wanted Butterscotch topping but read the label-dang! not worth it.  Same for the Heath Bar topping.  Really?  for only 2 T. ??  It's the end of an era when you read the labels and know you can't go back there.



Random Thoughts

Randomness as it occurs to me

I had some requests for more "Food Porn"  so I'm adding it as a new feature.  I'll post pictures of anything I happen to be obsessing about.  Feel free to make requests or send me your FP ideas and pics so I can feature them as well.  I'm still thinking about the ice cream Sundaes my family made last night, so here is

TODAY"S FOOD PORN

Gail said I looked svelte...wow, not usually an adjective to describe me, thanks!

A male Starling was hopping around on our deck rail with some sticks and grass in his mouth this morning.  How cute -it's nest building season!  My husband was watching him with the sticks , he went behind the BBQ and came back without the sticks...uh, oh...where did the sticks go?  Bert opens the grill top and it is FULL of sticks and grass!  This guy has been busy and no, you can't build a nest in our grill-this is a bad idea on so many levels. 

How sad is it that a male co-worker has to apologize in advance before they pay you a compliment?    Here is what happened:  a group of us were hanging out and chatting, when said co-worker "disclaimered" his weight loss compliment with "how can I say this nicely...um, you look thinner?"  Wow, why would you apologize for saying something nice like that?  Several men then piped in and said in unison, "We've had girls say  'I suppose you thought I was fat before!' so we are always real careful"  Ah jeez,  silly young girls!  Got a little tip for you-knock it off and stop ruining it for the rest of us!  When a man pays you a compliment, just say "thank you" and move on. Anything else is just annoying and will guarantee he won't make that mistake again!  Chances are pretty good there is no hidden agenda. (he's not female, no matter how much you want him to be)  For the record, I will never, EVER give anyone a bad time for saying something nice to me...EVER!





http://xmidi.com/free_compliment/

As far as my weight loss program goes, still maintaining my current loss, so all is well with the world.  Went for a nice brisk walk with my friend Cynthia this morning-felt great!

Waffles!

Food Porn

(thanks Brenda!)

No, not this kind of waffle.   My scale is waffling this morning...really, really wanting (I'm sure of it) to go down 3 lbs, but not ready to commit just yet.  OK, I can be patient.  Off to the gym to burn some fat...after a protein filled breakfast of course.

11AM  was getting ready to go work out, tried on something turned out to be too big and decided to try on all my clothes...this is the first time that has been fun!  Got rid of my fat shirts (you know the ones that you think hide everything but really only emphasise how you are trying to hide everything?) all my size 14 dress pants are too baggy to wear, all the shorts I bought last year fit very comfy now.  Ditched anything that was unflattering, worn, old, baggy, out of style... one pile for ARC and one pile for garage sale.  How liberating and what a nice surprise!  I wouldn't have thought 17 lbs would have made such a difference already.  I'm not gonna go running out to buy a new wardrobe just yet-still a long way to go.

12 Noon  Dang, my Ipod isn't charged and I'm not going to treadmill for an hour without music so, keeping busy cleaning house, doing laundry and dishes and making some sugar free jello-lime is my favorite.  It has 10 calories but has nothing but 1 gram of protein in it??

5pm  ran out of energy cleaning the house, so I skipped working out.  Watched Hot Tub Time Machine instead-funny! 

7pm baked chicken, asparagus and baked potatoes for dinner.  I did not have a potato-substituted radishes instead.  Everyone had ice cream, but I did not-ate my Jello.


yeah, no..mine wasn't this pretty!



What goes around comes around...like a freakin' boomerang!

So...I was right to be concerned about my venture back into Carb Land yesterday. 
Weight in:  up 1.8 whoa!  Here is exactly what it says on the Phase 3 notes:

"It takes about 3 weeks before your weight becomes stable. It is during these 3 weeks that you must not eat sugars, rice, bread, potatoes, pastries, etc.  IF STARCHES ARE CONSUMED, THINGS ARE LIABLE TO GET OUT OF HAND.  This rule has to be observed carefully during the first 3 weeks after treatment has ended otherwise disappointments are almost sure to occur"

Wow, understatement of the year and they aren't kidding!  Although I stayed under the "2 lbs up leads to an Apple or Steak Day" (something they suggest you do in Phase 3 to get back on track), I can guarantee you I will not be consuming sugars and starches today!

Late night update:  no run ins with any bad food today.  Drank gobs of water and ate pretty close to the diet recommended with fruit and protein snacks in between. Ate an egg for breakfast, and a bit bigger portions for both lunch and dinner.  Hopefully scale with reflect my "goodness" as quickly as it reflects my "indiscretions."  Anyone willing to bet on that? 

3 +3 = 6

What's more boring than math?  Talking about weight and scales. Turn away if you are sleepy at all.

6 lbs is now the difference between my 2 scales...it was 10 lbs when I started...Can you really trust a scale?  I may have "scale issues."  My regular scale is just a garden variety scale-not fancy, not digital, no computer brain, etc and it was good at weighing me less than any other (we were both in denial). 

My fancy scale runs on a 9 volt battery, counts at .2 increments and knows how old I am, that I'm a girl and an athlete (as opposed to sedentary).  It weighed me more than I liked but, I figured it was more true and accurate based on its technology and it was the type of scale recommended by the program I'm on. (and it was the same as the Dr.'s scale and at the work out center)   

I'm beginning to wonder about its accuracy because the last few days it doesn't come on right away and acts a little funny at first and then just settles right on the same weight.  Today at weigh in it waffled for the first time down 1.8 but still stuck to previous.  I know there is a reason for my plateau, but now I'm not sure if I'm getting good readings or not.  Going to go work out again today, so I will use their scale to compare.

In the mean time, (if you aren't already snoozing from the sleepy scale talk) what's your favorite type of scale?  Which is most accurate?  I'd like to find a truthful scale I can count on, whether it says what I want or not!  Helpful hints accepted.  Here is what I found in a brief search:  http://www.consumersearch.com/bathroom-scales

7:30-8:30 Am Princess Work Out.  I tried both scales at WOW (work out west)and got 2 different answers there, so I asked my fave trainer Morgan if she would weigh me on the scale I used months ago when I got my BMI and everything else checked.  She not only checked my weight (which was closest to my scale) but redid my BMI as well to see how much actual fat I lost.  drum roll please...
Good News:  I've lost 7 lbs of fat, yay!
Bad news: the other 8lbs is lost muscle - damn!  (or 10lbs if you use my scale at home)

OK, that's what I was afraid of...I stopped losing because my body thinks it's starving. My drops are almost gone anyway so I will add in a few more calories today with drops and then go on maintenance tomorrow.  Morgan's plan ups my calories to 1500 a day with regular work outs to burn 500.  1500 calories?!  I'm gonna be STUFFED!

There are still more pros than cons for me:

• Although I'm bummed I lost more muscle than fat, I love to work out so getting the muscle back will be easy
• I'm happy I did the program-got me jump started on a better food life style and ditched my sugar addiction (or at least got it managed down)
• I still feel better physically than I have in years-no aches, pains, headaches 
• I've gained confidence that I can lose weight and stick with it
• straying off the food reservation isn't the end of the world nor an excuse to give it all up 
• I get to eat a "new normal" now!
• I successfully faced down "bad food" at home, in the grocery store, at restaurants.

Now on to maintenance for 3 weeks.  The plan says no sugars or starches but more variety of everything else, yay! Not sure I will blog every day of this phase, but I will continue to post interesting things as they come up.

Hind Sight observations:

• I should have stopped at Day 25, that is when I plateaued for good
• I should have monitored the fat and muscle loss more closely-this is probably the advantage of having a weight loss company/Doctor/fitness coach monitoring you and helping you adjust calories and such
• If I do this phase again, I will be wiser and more careful
• Although the weight loss is great I'm more happy about the mental aspects of this lesson.

Late night confession:  I went just a little crazy today and ate a couple bites of a Silvermine sub that was delivered to the station mid morning (wheat bread, meat and lettuce) and had Sushi (California Rolls) for a late lunch and had a small slice of cherry pie after dinner.  My tummy feels gross and I know I will pay for this tomorrow.  I looked up calories to see the damage (sushi not so much, pie out of control!)  I know I can get back on track so altho I still struggle with guilt for having done it, I will overcome!

There are 32 teeth in the adult human mouth

and I'm not allowed to use them for anything good anymore (sticks out lower lip to pout)Oops, forgot to put big girl pants on.

When I googled the number 32 the key words to this web site said "a deep collection of meanings for the number 32"   Does anyone else find that funny? I think it's interesting but "deep"?  or did they mean "deep"?  http://www.virtuescience.com/32.html

4:30AM up early to work at Macy's.  Weigh In:  same  ugh! an entire week with no loss.  Trying to be happy about no gain and push through.

6AM  off to move and fluff, stack,  store, and move some more!

9:10AM break at Macy's ate my lunch apple because I was starving...what's that all about? Yesterday I ate something Mid morning and now it's a precedent again? BS

10AM  on the radio.  Upon arrival at work, promptly tried to blame Jeff for giving me his plateau...didn't work.

1:30PM lunch-foil pouch talapia with asparagus, bread stick and 1/2 grapefruit (prolly wasn't supposed to have another fruit-but it beats anything else I wanted to eat)

3:30PM driving with teen boy-we take the long way to King Soopers and arrive without incident.  Stocked up on protein-meat, cheese, eggs.  Kyle found donuts and a cherry pie in the day olds...sigh...what doesn't kill me makes me stronger (lather rinse repeat)  and why are there little old ladies with samples everywhere? 

5PM the boys went outside to play air soft, leaving me along with the donuts.  I'm either brave or stupid-opened the box to see them up close and decide how worth it one might be...maybe just a half...hmmm, which one might do the least damage?  None of them volunteer not to go right to my hips, so I close the box and walk away. 

7pm dinner of sliders, radishes Melba toast and strawberries.  I'm allowed 3 and 1/2 sliders (no bun of course), so I feel like I'm getting a lot.  I look silly because I broke my Melba toast in half and used it as a bun!  I had my allotted square of chocolate too.

10:30PM went through kitchen to make sure everything was put away and faced down the donuts again.  Caved to 1/2 of one-cake donut with carmel icing.  It was just OK,  and didn't make me want to snarf up the rest of them.  Oddly the song, "As she's walking away goes through my head"  and a mental note to not walk through kitchen late at night anymore.

Shall we breakfast in Ireland?

When I looked up the number 31 today, I found this at the top of the list:
http://www.number31.ie/
Claims the best breakfast in Ireland...ROAD TRIP!

I am majorly annoyed today...it's been 6 days and no weight loss.  I'm starting to get discouraged, so I started reading up on stalls and now feel even worse! It's all about "starvation mode" and VLCD is a bad idea for a long time (but what is a long time? nobody says) because you gain it all back when you start eating normal again, slows your metabolism so you will get even fatter, etc.  Yikes! I certainly don't want any of this going on! I'm not experiencing any of the symptoms of starvation mode other than stall (no muscle loss, weakness, headaches. etc) Sometimes over-reading on the Internet can be a bad thing-take a breath!

I can't imagine anything more depressing than doing this whole routine and then gaining it all back.  It would mean I didn't learn anything from the experience nor change any of my habits.   I've tried to be real honest with myself on this blog while going through this.  I am using this as a jump start to a whole new way of dealing with food, break my sugar and carb addiction or at least get it back in check and get some confidence/success in the weight loss arena.   I certainly wouldn't try to eat like this for any longer than the 40 days.  If you remember, I just wanted to make it to 25!    It's not easy-the food can get real boring, the temptation is all around you, drinking alot of water and peeing all the time is annoying, and like with quitting smoking, something is always trying to get you to give in.  BUT, like when I quit smoking, I had to get to the point where no matter how hard it was to stay quit, I had to because going back was going to be more painful and depressing than sticking it out.  I think I am there with this-can't go back now...yay! I've been trying to get right with food most of my life.  It doesn't hurt that people are watching and reading to keep me honest either, so thank you again for your support-it means soooo much!

7:30AM we did the "Princess Work Out" aka we showed up, what more do you want? ha ha, Tami and I walked, Elipticalled (new verb) and pumped some iron.

8:45AM  teen boy forgot lunch and I ran out of coffee and other stuff, so off to King Soopers before work. 

10AM  ate 1/4 cup raw almonds. I think I was hungrier than usual because of work out.  I haven't done any super strenuous work outs since starting this program, so it's time to get back on it. Research and those who have successfully lost have informed me to be patient and mix things up a bit to get past the plateau...worth a try! 

12:30PM was warned too late that exercising today might have been a bad idea due to low calorie intake and it using my muscle to burn ...oh cripes! live and learn continues...

1:30PM lunch was a 1 yolk, 4 whites omelet with sauteed onions and salsa, Melba toast and 1/2 grapefruit.

3:30PM  wasted the afternoon watching bad movies on Netflix.

7pm baked pork chop, salad, bread stick and strawberries.  Didn't eat my chocolate square, but I'm worried that the exercise and almond snack are gonna back fire on me. Well, tomorrow is another day.