Okay. So I've been keeping my mouth shut in this thread to not seem too smug about sitting on my ideal weight for the last two months for the first time in years, though I couldn't resist saying "even my small clothes are falling off me", which was true. Well, last night I found myself unbottoning that button on the medium/big shorts while lounging. I just weighed. Somehow that 8 pounds of fudge last week turned into 20 pounds this week. (Maybe those two dozen chocolate-chocolate donuts had something to do with it, too.) So if we start out at 100, my new goal (now that I understand the "new math") is 90. I may have to adjust that if those last four donuts show up tomorrow. And just when I realized how happy I am to be only four blocks from my favorite donut shop for the first time in 30 years and find all the same varieties on all the same shelves! (When I commented to the same old owner that I hadn't been in since high school, she said "My goodness that's been a long time". )

I've been near tears a couple of times this week. I'm hopelessly stuck at 95/94, even though I keep going to bed HUNGRY, and I haven't even touched anything bad since last Saturday evening, and last night I was absolutely ravenous after lifting weights in the morning, and I'm wondering if maybe I'm not getting enough protien or something. God, this is hard.

Jodi

Jodi,

Sometimes a teaspoon of olive oil (OK with garlic if you must) mopped up with a little bread. Or just straight medicinally), can do a LOT to reduce hunger pangs and help jump start weight losd when you hit a plateau (what you're describing).

Great for skin, hair, lipid health too.

Also (helpful hint in misc. category) Chromium Picolinate has been shown to reduce carb craving in many, for unknown reasons. About 500 mcg/day (found this in a medical journal!).

You're at a risky point getting actually *hungry*. If I can avoid feeling physically hungry (or, OK, ravenous) I can resist a whole lot. But when I get to that point, I am very binge-prone - and it all goes to hell from there as I'm sure you know. Cooking and shopping for for your family REALLY makes it hard.

As you know, I am using a lot of whey protein shake. The equivalent of one meal almost every day. Sold in big plastic jars in Walmart. "Body Fortress Premium Whey Protein Drink". No sugar or fat, scarcely any carbs. I researched the ingredients a lot, and it seems to have no drawbacks (except like anything, if you rely on it excessively). Comes in vanilla or chocolate. Somehow sweet, improved (to me) by a frozen ripe banana. You could find another thickening agent which is sweet - maybe very ripe berries and a pinch of Stevia. Adds a lot of calcium painlessly too.

This is a two meal, two day recipe:
I add 4 TBS toasted wheatgerm and make it with three cups non-fat milk and two of the powder scoops (they suggest one c. milk per scoop, but I find that too sweet). Careful not to accidentally get the kind loaded with sugar!

BTW bite sized shredded wheat, especially with bran, is very crunchy - a great additive to blend and (if you're weird like me) to munch. Absolutely not a "prepared food" . Very healthy and filling.

I say "meal" but I often sip this shake throughout the day instead of in a single glass. Keeps my blood sugar up, so I don't get to the point you're describing even with very low calorie intake (and much lower exercise expenditure than you).

Just a note on what works for me. As you know, I don't believe in three meals a day, but grazing and avoiding hi glycemic foods like the plague (forget what I said about saltines. An aberration ).

4:30 AM Why then???

Stick with it, Jodi. You might want to consider moderating you exercise level while you are cutting back your calories severely to prevent some of the hunger. That way you are not fighting the hunger so much while you are trying to readjust your appetite. When I first started this summer I just did walking and my horseback riding. I stayed active, but did not *work out* real hard so that I wouldn't be so hungry. Just a thought.

77#.

Ok, better today. Stuck for some reason all last week back and forth from 94 to 95 no matter what I did, then this morning all of the sudden 92. Go figure. Not sure if it will hold for tomorrow, but I'm hopefull. I had steak yesterday for dinner - man did it taste good. And, yesterday, I did a 40 minute walk/run, and this morning I got some good cardio on the horse I've been riding. Tomorrow, the gym.

jodi

Cool! You're cookin' now. No pun intended

quote:

Originally posted by jodi:
... and this morning I got some good cardio on the horse I've been riding...

So I could claim "health emergency" if I take off on the neighbor's horse? (They just added a gorgeous big light gray one with black mane and tail, making three.) I wouldn't have thought there was much cardio in riding (unless you get one with a mind of it's own like I did last time when it carried me 12 miles, all-out, before stopping where it wanted to go. That did get my heart going).

There is a lot of cardio if you are posting up down, up down, constantly reminding the horse to go FORWARD, and getting after him with your outside leg so that his shoulders keep following his nose around that turn, and not wandering off in the opposite direction. Sometimes, I sweat as much as the horse.

Jodi

Not a new idea but something which I think we should keep in mind as the eating season approaches!



Health, November 2005
Tame Your Cravings
by Frances Lefkowitz
The holidays are all about indulgence, right? Sure, but new tactics can keep you from going overboard.

Call it the undiet. You stop trying to arbitrarily restrict what you eat and instead learn to tame your cravings, whether you’re at a party, dining out, or at home cooking holiday treats.

The undiet isn’t exactly new. A similar idea was offered up in the 1978 bestseller Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach, a British psychotherapist who argued that you should stop dieting and simply eat when you’re hungry. But the concept has been refined.

Newer variations use a simple scale to help you monitor your appetite. The process takes about 4 weeks to master, says University of Colorado psychologist Linda Craighead, PhD, author of The Appetite Awareness Workbook: How to Listen to Your Body and Overcome Bingeing, Overeating, and Obsession with Food, due out in February. You start by filling out appetite-rating forms before each meal (like the one above). In Craighead’s version, the scale runs from 1 (ravenous) to 7 (stuffed). The goal is to eat when you’re moderately hungry (2.5) and stop when you’re moderately full (5.5).

Many people wait until they’re ravenous to start eating, but then eat quickly and miss cues that they’re full. Craighead says this problematic pattern can be avoided if you know when you’re moderately full—the point at which your body, though not necessarily your mind, has had enough food to fuel you for the next 2 to 4 hours. You know you’ve reached this threshold not when you feel totally satisfied, but at the first sign of stomach distension (when you feel your stomach press against your waistband).

Do appetite scales work? New research in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that chronic dieters in an appetite-monitoring program maintained their weights for 2 years and improved their outlooks on life. That’s not the same as dropping two dress sizes, of course. But contrasted with the 2 pounds women over 30 typically gain in that span, or the inability of most dieters to keep the weight off after losing it, maintaining sounds pretty good.

What’s more, the approach takes away the anxiety—and guilt—that conventional diets traditionally serve up. “When your meals satisfy your appetite, your life no longer revolves around food,” says Marsha Hudnall, RD, who teaches the technique at the women-only Green Mountain at Fox Run weight-loss spa in Vermont.

Weight Watchers suggests that dieters on its Core Plan (which recommends eating enough of specific foods to make you full) rely on an imaginary hunger scale and, through monitoring, stay in the middle—not too hungry, not too full. You could probably do that at a holiday party, assuming you go easy on the wine. But most experts believe the physical act of writing down how hungry or full you feel improves the learning curve. “It amplifies your attention,” Craighead says. The lightbulb moment comes when you discover that you feel better, physically and emotionally, when you don’t overeat.

People who monitor their appetites but persist in eating high-calorie foods loaded with fat and sugar may not shed pounds until they change their food choices. For Craighead, this means moving from appetite awareness to food awareness; you start experimenting with more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and fish to find out which lower-calorie foods make you feel good. The time for that, of course, may be after New Year's.

So, how are you guys doing? Mine's still coming off, but slowly. Stuck back at 93 for a couple of days, now down to 92.5. Still hoping for 90 by December 1st, we'll see. My clothes are fitting much better, and I've even been shopping. Spent forever yesterday finding a stylish pair of jeans to fit (I have problems getting them long enough, I've been buying mens Kirkland brand jeans at Costco ) Found a good pair at The Gap (my daughter informed me that they are NOT called bell bottoms any more) I also got a way cool low rise (!) pair with green rhinestones on the back pocket. (my daughter raised an eyebrow at me and said "you aren't going to wear those outside, are you?

I have decided my new favorite store is Old Navy.

Jodi (who is very proud of herself, a neighbor brought over brownies, and she didn't eat a single one.)

That is great news Jodi! I think this is a lot like the piano. If you stick to even when you think you aren't getting anywhere, eventually you start seeing the results.

Elena
http://www.duoscarbo.com

quote:

Originally posted by jodi:
... (my daughter informed me that they are NOT called bell bottoms any more) ...

So what are they called instead?

(He asks with a pang of guilt for even posting in this thread as he polishs off the third piece of fudge with "morning" coffee. )

I'm at 90 today, which is my goal weight at weight watchers. A great day!

Now, on to the holidays...

Rick, is there any of that fudge left?

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:
...Rick, is there any of that fudge left?

One (or is it two?) pieces less than when I wrote that post then. I'm thinking I shoud wrangle an invitation to dinner and take the rest as dessert. Or learn to live with 120.