Oh bring us some figgy pudding...

December has been a discouraging month on the one hand. There have been parties and goodies and neighbors bringing treats. I baked cookies, the frosted kind, and there's still plenty on the plate for another week. And a friend sent me a batch of wonderful spritz cookies last week, her specialty. A neighbor brought a batch of homemade peanut brittle today, the kind that almost melts in your mouth. You don't even need a full set of teeth to eat it. And a package came in the mail for Mom from her sister... fruitcake. Its hard to resist a good fruitcake.

 

On the other hand, there's also been a revelation. I've found my maintenance level of calories. To know I could continue eating in a way that is moderate but not unreasonable is a bright thought. To be ten pounds lighter this December than I was last December is something to rejoice about, and I do praise the Lord for making this possible.

I've been trying for two weeks to restructure my diet plan, but at each day's end I haven't been able to go any lower in calories.

 

I'm still hoping that once I'm through all of these roadblocks I'll be able to cut back again. All the goodies will be a memory (except for the ones that decided to "stick around" for awhile - on my body).

 

One morning this month I stepped on the scale and it was finally going down again. From experience I knew I couldn't really claim the lower weight until it had stayed down a few weigh-ins. And it has done the typical yo-yo stuff, bouncing up and down like a ping pong ball.

 

For the New Year, if I can, I'll keep trying to lower my daily calories to something I can still live with, but something that will get the ball rolling to see some good weight loss. If I can't, then I'll keep on keepin' on with the same plan and see if another pound drips off by the end of January.

By the way, I Googled figgy pudding. Apparently its a cake-like pudding with figs in it that can be baked, oven steamed, boiled or fried. Every year thousands of people become curious about the desert mention in the Christmas carol, We Wish You A Merry Christmas. I'd probably like it, since I like Fig Newtons.

Cheer Me Up, Somebody!

I'm a little bit discouraged about my lack of weight loss since I last posted. It's been nearly two weeks and I haven't lost any more. In fact, the scale has been bouncing up and down above my lowest weigh-in. I've only seen my lowest number twice, which means it's not real stable yet. If, at the end of December I still haven't had an additional loss, I will consider re-evaluating my calorie/point goal. Although it doesn't excite me to eat even less than I'm eating now. I've finally got this whole thing worked out to a plan I can deal with, even though I often feel a little hungry at bedtime. And I don't feel quite as sorry for myself when I cut my normal portions in half. It used to be unthinkable to eat only one piece of chicken, not two. Or only one piece of pizza. Or to cut in half and not eat a whole delicious sweet roll or donut. Or even to say "No, not today" to some wonderful treat.

Weight Watchers has introduced a new point system. From what I've read about it online, it seems much more complicated than I want to mess with. So I'll stick with the old one.

It's been good for me to look at my graph. It helps keep a positive perspective. There's a song that came out a few years ago, with these lines:

I'm not what I used to be, 

I'm not what I'm gonna be, 

but thank God I'm not what I was"

There ought to be a way of tacking that on to my graph.

Yahoo! Ten Pounds Down!

Well, I wasn't sure if I'd do it before the end of November. I've had yo-yo weigh-ins all month, bouncing up and down on the scale. But this morning's weigh-in was such a delight. I can now say I've lost ten pounds from my starting weight last Christmas. 

What a slow march this has been, a snail's crawl. If I'd been more disciplined all these months I might be claiming a twenty pound loss for the year. But ten is nothing to sniff at. I'll take it. And my goal for next year? Another ten, of course.


It's heartening to see that I'm eating less at meal times and being satisfied with less. I'm able to take smaller servings and most of the time resist second helpings. I'm getting more used to asking a waiter for a carton to take home what I don't eat, instead of cleaning my plate. And I'm getting past that "I want it all" stage when it comes to sweet treats. It's easier now to cut something in half and share it with someone else.


The Weight Watcher point system has been great for me. It's a little trickier counting points instead of calories, but I've put a little booklet together to use as a quick reference. Google has been a great resource to look up point values. And the other day I discovered there's only 50 calories in 25 mini marshmallows (and about 1 WW point). I've enjoyed a cup of diet hot cocoa with mini marshmallows. And one day I sat patiently in front of a candle and roasted mini marshmallows on a toothpick.That takes a lot of time!


I've also started exercising. Some days I take a walk, some days I go over to the gym. The weather has been absolutely beautiful lately for walking. I'm listening to a Grace Livingston Hill book called The Best Man on my mp3 player as I walk.

I eat more vegetables now, concentrating on high fiber choices. But actually, most all vegetables have fiber, and the more fiber in a food, the fewer Weight Watcher points it has. That translates to being able to eat mashed potatoes and corn in moderation and not feeling guilty about it.


I discovered a simple way to make acorn squash in the microwave. I cut one in half, scoop out the seeds, smear about a teaspoon of butter on the inside, and sprinkle cinnimon and a teaspoon of turbonado sugar into it. Covered in the microwave it takes only 7 minutes on high to cook, and two minutes of resting time. It scoops out very easily from the skin. Yummy!


I think I won't get on the scale again for a few days. Experience tells me the scale will bounce back up tomorrow and I'll yo-yo awhile before it settles back down to today's weight. But how exciting to see that number! I should have taken a picture of it.

Cinnamon buns and bagels

Oh the temptations that face us at our weakest moments! I love a cinnamon bun or pecan roll for breakfast with a cup of coffee, or a cheese & jalapeno bagel slathered with cream cheese. More on this later.

My weight has been down to that lowest dot on my chart only once, and since then I've teetered up and down; a pound up, a pound down, a half pound down, two pounds up. But I'm not discouraged because I can see a downward trend, even though the scale bounces around every day. I know that certain foods can shoot it upwards, like a salty piece of pizza for supper, or a taco. Salt is not my friend. Since I'm counting every point (or calorie) I put in my mouth, and I'm staying at or below the daily goals, I know those spikes are merely false readings. And that is proven when I step on the scale and it's dropped back down.

Now to the title of today's post. My hubby and I have often gone to Safeway to buy cinnamon or pecan rolls for breakfast. Bagels are another favorite. Looking at various websites, it appears that cinnamon rolls rank between 5 and 11 points, depending on their size. One web site gave them a whopping score of 18. It was for some particular restaurant, which didn't mention size but it must be an enormous roll. I'm going to estimate that the Safeway pecan rolls we like must be around 12 WW points. We usually split them, so that means I could get away with a "mere" 6 points if that's how I choose to use up my breakfast points.

Something else we like from Safeway are their cheese and jalapeno bagels. I love to split those things in half and smear them with veggie cream cheese. Bagels come in at about 6 points for the big ones, or 8 for those with cheese in the recipe. I cringed to look up cream cheese and find that it has one point per tablespoon. One little tablespoon a bagel does not satisfy. I probably put four or more tablespoons of cream cheese on my bagels if I want to do it up right.

Now, if I use the whipped cream cheese I can have two tablespoons for one point, and non fat cream cheese is even better at four tablespoons for a point. Unfortunately, I don't care for the flavor of the whipped or diet. What I might try doing is buying one of those containers of baked potato toppings and mixing it into the cream cheese.

I'd have to resign myself to eating only half the bagel, which would be 4 points. With my own dietized version of veggie cream cheese, using two tablespoons, I could probably squeak by with a total of 6 points. That's the same as half of a pecan roll.

Typing all this into a blog isn't for anyone in particular to read... it's more like thinking out loud. I doubt I have any readers, unless its by accident, and that's okay. This is just such a convenient way to keep a record of my journey, in case I ever want to look back.

I've been following the Weight Watcher point system for 10 days. It seems very promising. I wish I could splurge and attend about four months of meetings, but no-can-do. For now, I'm just happy to see that I'm able to do it on my own. If I remain faithful to it but hit a plateau and can't lose any more, I might have to scrounge around for the cash and see if I could at least attend a couple months of meetings.

A Fresh Start

Well, a trip out of town and a visit from relatives in the past weeks and my weight shot up. I managed to gain five pounds in just a few weeks. How discouraging. Then I couldn't get back on track. At one point I was ready to give up and even delete my blog. Then, a turning point. 

I have several friends going to Weight Watchers these days. Advertisements pop up often on TV with people giving their Weight Watchers testimonies. Learning about the Weight Watchers point system as opposed to counting calories has never appealed to me. It sounded to complicated.

A few days ago I decided to give Weight Watchers another look. It's not easy to find out the particulars of how it all works without joining a meeting, but I worked my way through Google's lists and finally found enough places that explained the Weight Watchers program. The formula they use to figure out points does make sense. Instead of calories alone, they've developed a system that figures in calories, fat and fiber. If you join at a meeting they even give you a little cardboard calculator. But that is still way to much work to appeal to me. I don't want to spend all my time reading nutrition labels or figuring out how many points foods are worth. I finally managed to find a page where someone has made a points list of nearly every food under the sun. I pasted it into a Word document and it's pages and pages long, too long to print. But it gave me a starting point. I was able to download the list to my iPod so it's handier to use.

I've been working with the Weight Watchers point system for 4 days. This is day five. I was thinking I wasn't doing that well with it. There's a formula of sorts to figure out how many points you can have each day, depending on your weight, your age, your activity level, and your height. My number works out to be 21. I've been shooting way past that each day. They also give you an extra 35 points to "spend" each week. I used up my extra 35 points in the first three days. Yesterday I did better. I think I've got it down now.

The amazing thing is that my weight dropped down to my lowest ever. I dropped the four pounds I'd gained in past weeks, making it 8 that I've lost since December. It could just be a fluke and I might be up on the scale tomorrow. But it was so nice to see that number on the scale. It encourages me to stick with this.

Who knows if I'll make my goal of 12 pounds by Christmas. I only have a couple of months. I don't think it'll happen but it'll be a nice present to myself if I can do it.

Will I join Weight Watchers? Part of me wants to and part of me can't see spending the money if I can do it on my own. There are so many other ways I'd rather spend my dollars.

I'm looking into joining a fitness club where I work. They've put together a room full of machines very similar to Curves. If I can convince my sweet hubby to join with me I'll be more motivated to get myself over there a few times each week. I joined Curves for awhile in the spring and I do like their program, but for a number of reasons I dropped out. Having a partner might make all the difference. He doesn't need to lose weight but the exercise would do him good. He sits most of the day in his job and eat ice cream at night, yet he isn't overweight. Baffling.

Progress is a bit Sketchy these days, but...

My weight is up, but so is my enthusiasm. I have had a rough summer, admittedly. I was hoping to be out of the red by the end of August, but actually I climbed the numbers scale. I'm back to my March weight. I've lost a few battles but the war is still on.

Hating to count calories, I quit doing it AGAIN, and that truly was my downfall, AGAIN. So I'm back to counting, starting yesterday.

Stress has played a big role in my struggle. Also fatigue. When I'm tired, my enthusiasm and will-power go out the window. I usually do very well in the mornings with limiting my calories and staying with my basic plan. I usually can keep myself from cheating. Sometimes I'm okay until noon. If I've planned ahead there's more chance that I'll stay with it, but to not plan, for me, is to plan to fail. I'm trying to eat more low-cal vegetables, ghastly as they are for me. But they do fill me up, and I know they are good for me. 

I came across a "NO-NO" list the other day, and potato chips were of course listed. Chips are a great temptation to me. I've tried making substitutions but no matter what, I can't convince myself a slice of celery or carrot stick or cucumber is as satisfying as a potato chip. I've got to find some other way to resist them when they call out to me.

Second helpings are on my own personal NO-NO list, but that's pretty hard, especially when faced with items like pizza. We brought home pizza last night, just an ordinary pepperoni. I stir-fried some goodies that I like and decorated my slice. Pizza is just heavenly with a mix of onions, mushrooms and bell peppers. Oh, and sliced cherry tomatoes. Knowing that I'm not that fond of plain pepperoni pizza, I thought if I only made enough goodies topping for one slice, that would keep me away from having seconds. I did fine for a whole hour. But when I walked past the pizza box and there laid a slice that no one else had claimed, I cut it into four pieces. At least eating just a quarter of it wouldn't be so bad. But no one else continued to show any interest and I kept going back to the box until I'd nibbled away the whole second slice. By the end of the day, reviewing my calories, I was a little dismayed that I was over my limit. But not terribly so, since I'd done pretty well the rest of the day. A real killer is to face both pizza and potato chips in the same day.

All of this is to say, I think I'm back on track. I simply cannot give up, even though at times it looks pretty hopeless that I'll be able to lose any significant amount of weight. I'll check in again next month. My goal is to stay between 1500 and 1700 calories. My fingers are crossed that I will be out of the red, and those little dots will be on a downward trend.

Seven Months of Progress

I started this particular journey back in January of 2010. I set two goals for myself. One was to lose 20 pounds by Christmas of this year. I see now that will never happen. Plan B was to lose 12 pounds by Christmas. That one didn't seem so challenging, yet still a worthy goal. If I could just buckle down I might be able to accomplish Plan B. Since January I saw a steady one pound a month decline in my weight. Then in June I slacked up on my efforts and my weight bounced up. I'm back to losing but I haven't caught up with my lowest number. I feel like I've got some momentum back now, so by the end of August I think I will be out of the red.

I hate counting and keeping track of calories, but I decided to give it a try in January. I think I started feeling a little too confident, and in June and July I tried to simply eat sensibly and forget counting calories. The chart shows where that got me. I'm back to counting now, and I've already seen some progress with the scale.

Fortunately I've discovered, through trial and error, that I'm the kind of person who does best with taking baby steps. With all the times past that I've tried and failed with diets, I'd restricted myself to a thousand calories each day, and sometimes 1200. It was just too hard and I'd "fall off the wagon" over and over.

The success I've seen this year is due to a much more manageable plan. I've tried to shave off a few calories here and a few there by eating smaller meals and being very careful with snacks. On days I give in to myself and take a second or third helping at the table, I'm much less likely to stay under my calorie limit. If I feel like sitting in front of the TV for an hour with a bag of potatoe chips or other crunchy, salty snack, and give in to that, I'm doomed. I don't know how to stop with a few bites.

My current plan, the one that has helped me come down slowly this year, has been to try and stay between 1500 and 1700 calories a day. I expect to reach a plateau with that, and I'll have to adjust my calorie limit at some point. But its something achievable, doable, and as long as I see a one pound loss each month, I'll stick to that.

The Original Allegory

I've been wading through the amazing book, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. The man called "Christian" sets out to find the Celestial City, leaving everything, even his wife and children behind. He runs into one obstacle after another. He gets discouraged, tempted, and distracted. He makes one or two decisions that later give him regrets. He nearly gives up the goal of ever getting to the Celestial City. He's captured by a giant and tortured. He almost drowns in a river. His friend and companion is killed. But he finally does reach his destination.

The book is an allegory about man's quest to reach Heaven, but there's so many examples that remind me of another quest; mine to lose weight and gain better health. Just like Christian, every day of my journey I'm met with roadblocks, temptations, discouragement, and doubts that maybe I never will reach my goal. But fortunately there seems to be some little spark inside that keeps me pressing on.

Like Pilgrim, I believe in my heart that the goal is attainable. As with Christian, there is an enemy that desires my failure and who will pull every trick he knows to stop my progress. And some days, maybe most days, I am my own worst enemy.

Pastor's sermon today was about our bodies being a temple. I jotted a few notes and Scripture references on my bulletin. I wrote,

"Ro 12:1-2, present our bodies as a holy and acceptable sacrifice; Ro 8:22-23, we suffer and groan in these bodies as we wait for our new ones; 1 Cor 9:27, I need to be a tough slave-master of my body, disciplining it into submission and not allowing it to rule the roost and have it's own selfish way; 1 Cor 6:12, don't be mastered by things that do not edify, things that are not profitable; 2 Cor 10:15 take every thought captive - learn to say no; Ro 6:12-13, don't allow sin to reign in my body."

Today's message seemed like an arrow aimed right at this issue of discipline with my diet. Not only do I want to lose weight for my health and self-worth, God wants me to be healthy, and keep His temple in good condition. The desire of my heart is constantly foiled by the desires of my body, and too often it wins the battle. I need to learn to be tough and say no to those lustful thoughts toward food I don't need, toward second helpings, toward high fat and high sugar foods that satisfy for a mere moment in time. Being overweight is not edifying nor is it profitable. Getting to a healthy weight would make my life so much easier and better. And I'm on my way down! Tomorrow I'll journal a bit about the progress I have made.