Overate on My Vacation...

I just took this picture ten minutes ago! I think I look great for almost 50, if I do say so myself. And, I am ten pounds overweight. Sorry I have been away so long without warning, but it is a bad idea to announce to the world when you are going to be away from home! I'm back, and over the next few weeks I'll tell you all about the yummy food I ate on my vacation without getting even more overweight than I already am, and hopefully I will also shed these extra ten pounds that have plagued me since Christmas. This coming Christmas I am giving myself something other than ten extra pounds!

Yesterday was my first day back, and I weighed in at 160.4. Today I'm at 158.8, so I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday. For exercise, I hand clipped weeds in the garden vigorously for about twenty minutes. The darn Johnson Grass gets out of hand whenever I'm away.


Here is what I ate yesterday and lost 1.6 pounds:

Special K and organic vanilla soy milk

1 can of Healthy Choice chicken noodle soup, solids only (I gave the salty broth to the dogs.)

Small hamburger patty with two tablespoons barbeque sauce and two cups of steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots (I buy these frozen at Costco.)

1 brown sugar Pop Tart!

So you know what's coming, for our vacation we went to see how much Twilight has changed Forks, WA from when we lived there for the 96/97 school year. We got video of walking in the rain forest and on First Beach in the Quileyute Reservation. We ate at Bella Italia, and we even found authentic Mexican food in Port Angeles, WA.

142.8 Thin again, and strangers treat me differently.

Strangers treat me differently, now that I am thin again. I don't know if it is because my confidence is back or genuinely the return of my attractiveness, In stores and out on the street, people -- men, women and children alike -- meet my eyes and smile. More often than when I was overweight, strangers comment about the weather and make chit chat in lines and waiting rooms.

I have not noticed family, friends or coworkers treating skinny me any differently. Well, you do compliment and congratulate me on my thin appearance. I do like that. But for the most part, I am still me and you know that and act accordingly. It is fun to see the shock register on the faces of those who have not seen me in a long time.

Yesterday, I lost 1.6 pounds. I was not at all trying to lose weight. I was just keeping the weight off. This is by far not the first time I have lost weight on keep trim eating. It's nice! It means I can indulge a little today. I will save most of this indulgence room for tomorrow as it is Sunday and they always have treats out after church service during the coffee fellowship hour. 

I daresay this picture could be an ad for Levi's 505 jeans! Heh! I look so honored to be able to wear them. I love this gymnast-style white top, too.

I didn't go on a formal walk yesterday, but I shopped at TJ Maxx and Winco Foods. Here is what I ate and lost 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk

2 pieces of toasted Kirkland whole wheat bread

2 tablespoons Skippy superchunk peanut butter and 2 teaspoons Smucker's strawberry preserves

1 Beef and bean burrito, 2 tablespoons salsa

1 small apple, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 tablespoon semi sweet chocolate chips

Small bowl of kettle corn

Small bowl of strawberries drizzled with a tablespoon of Hershey's Special Dark chocolate syrup

145.4 Break Your Fast

When I was fat, I often skipped breakfast. I couldn't be bothered to buy strawberries ahead of time or to keep milk in the house. As a result, I gorged myself on donuts whenever someone brought them in, or on whatever pastry snacks were available in the vending machines at work.

For me, it's a fact: eating breakfast protects me from binge eating until lunch time. It's part of my lifestyle change from fat person to fit person. Yesterday, I passed right by the donut holes some well-meaning teacher left in the teacher's lounge. Sadly, another substitute only had a credit card and the cafeteria only takes cash. Those donut holes were all he had to eat. I shared some of my carrot sticks with him.

This photo was my breakfast today. I had a little Special K with my strawberries, hehe! I meant to go to the indoor farmer's market on Thursday, but I got called in to work -- which is fine! I got these at Costco yesterday, where strawberries are once again cheaper than blueberries. I got 4 pounds of strawberries for $6.49!

Yes, by myself I will eat 4 pounds of strawberries before they spoil. I cut them up into tightly sealing plastic containers right away and discard any moldy bits. I soak the cut up parts in water with a few tablespoons of vinegar for a few minutes to kill any remaining mold, and then drain the water. I learned that trick from Pastor Garry Oliver of Lincoln Heights Community Church. Thanks Garry!

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday that I had gained Wednesday and Thursday. I did this by walking as fast as I could for 90 minutes and eating only the minimum:

Small bowl of Special K and organic soy milk
Raw carrot sticks and 2 tablespoons Parmesan Spinach Dip
Leftover baked chicken, cauliflower, onion and carrots
Two strawberries

Regarding the saying, "Break Your Fast:"

I was taught the etymology of our noun, 'breakfast,' in college English literature classes and in workshops to prepare us to work at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Originally, people would tell each other, "Break your fast." They meant that over night, you had been fasting, not eating. Whatever you ate in the morning would break the fast you had started the night before. Gradually, this saying morphed into the noun we use today to describe our morning meal, 'breakfast.'

146.6 Where's Your Green?

When I was a kid in the 1960s we lived in fear of being pinched on St Patrick's Day. Everyone was in on it: from our parents to our classmates to the workers at our day care. We wore green or we got pinched. That was just how it was!

A trick of the game was if you pinched someone who was wearing green then they could pinch you back harder. My dad would always pretend he had forgotten to wear green, but secretly he would always wear green socks. We would pinch him and yell out, "St Patrick's Day!" Then he would get this delighted leprechaun's look on his face, slowly show us his green socks, and chase us around the room to pinch us back.

We kids got more cautious as we got older. We learned to ask, "Where's your green?" before we pinched. The game changed at that point. It became less about chasing each other for a pinch and more about creative ways to wear green. My eyes are hazel, so if I really did forget to wear green I would say, "My green is in my eyes!" The person would look closely at my eyes and say, "Well I'll be! I thought your eyes were brown!"

(Picture and Story about My Rainbow Eyes)

I substituted yesterday. I walked round the halls for the half hour I have to stay after school before I am allowed to leave. I had rehearsal later at Lincoln Heights Community Church for the worship music for tomorrow. We have gotten a little band together with a cool box drum, a harmonica player, a pianist and Pastor David Hammond on cello or guitar.

My target weight is 145. Here is what I ate yesterday and lost 1.6 pounds (mostly water weight from eating too much salt):

Small bowl of Special K and vanilla soy milk
Raw carrot sticks and 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip
Small hamburger patty, 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce, steamed broccoli

164.8 Diet Day 5 of 13

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday and now weigh 164.8! We walked the dogs a mile around the park. It was almost 50 degrees out and I got too hot in my parka!

I successfully resisted cupcakes last night, at a dinner party. I brought hamburger and fixings over and made burgers for everyone. The host made some French fries in a deep fryer they had. I resisted those as well. He also showed up with a carton of fresh blueberries. Those were a cheat, but they didn't hurt much.

A fellow tourist took this picture of me and Scott in August 2011 at Mt Rushmore in South Dakota. At the time I had already lost 40 pounds off my original 240 and was thinking I felt great. Well, as of now I feel even better!

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost 1.6 pounds, along with walking a mile:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk

Baked chicken, onions and carrots

Hamburger patty, 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots

1/2 cup fresh blueberries (cheat)

Edited later to add these links to other days I lost a lot of weight on my diet:

• lost a pound (12)
• lost 1.2 pounds (2)
• lost 1.3 pounds (1)
• lost 1.4 pounds (9)
• Lost 1.6 pounds (8)
• lost 1.8 pounds (2)
• lost 2 pounds (2)
• lost 2.2 pounds (1)

 

168.0 Diet Day 2 of 13

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday and now weigh 168.0! That is a new low! Only 23 pounds to go to reach my goal of 145! Thanks to Mom, I actually am wearing some jeans that I will miss once they are too big. Also thanks to Mom, these size 10 clothes pictured at left await me once I fit in them!

Scott and I walked the dogs one and a third miles yesterday. We got to church right on time so I wouldn't have to watch everyone eating donuts for too long. I felt a little rude making my excuses to rush home to eat lunch afterward, but I really could not wait any longer than the 20 minutes we had already lingered to chat with everyone who had been at the New Year's Eve party. Perhaps I had better pack a lunch to bring to that church, too.

Here is what I ate yesterday and still managed to lose 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk

Leftover baked chicken, onions and carrots

Hamburger Patty, 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots

If I drink anything with calories in it I will list that. Just assume I am drinking water, diet soda, black unsweetened coffee or some other non-caloric drink otherwise.

168.6 Lost 1.6 Pounds in One Day

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating! It turns out the Mexican food at The Green Onion (a subsidiary of Carl's Junior) is not nearly so full of sodium as Qdoba's food (a subsidiary of Jack in the Box). I had two tasty chicken enchiladas yesterday, but no sodium bloat!

Yesterday I was working at a top secret job and saw "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." It would have been a decent murder mystery if they just stuck with Daniel Craig's parts and left out the dragon girl. As it was, she got raped and took revenge. I could have done without those parts. They made the movie unnecessarily long, too -- two and a half hours.

It was cold in the theater, and as you pointed out Mom, keeping warm probably helped me burn off some extra calories. I just hope I don't get sick. I did go out to my car and crank up the heater in between showtimes. I only watched the whole movie once. Other than that, I only had to stay for the first half hour.

I walked the dogs their mile in the park before I left for the theater. Here is what I ate yesterday and lost 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
December 23 chocolate from my Advent calendar and December 22 from Scott's
1 200 calorie Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bar
1 cup raw carrots, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke
1 cup raw carrots as a theater snack
2 chicken and cheese enchiladas at The Green Onion ($2.16, a third of a dinner plate)

172.8 Lost 1.6 Pounds in One Day

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday, and now I weigh 172.8. I walked my mile. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

The December 5 and 6 chocolates from my Advent calendar

1 cup raw carrots, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

1 salmon patty, 1 cup steamed broccoli, black cherry seltzer water

 Edited Later to Add:

I am now done with my diet and am maintaining my new weight of 145. In all, I lost 95 pounds!

Here are before and after photos. On the left you see me and my husband on the 4th of July in 2011. On the right here we are Easter 2012. On the left, I weighed 220 or so. On the right I weigh 148 or so.

In all, it took me 10 months to lose those 95 pounds. I dieted for two weeks and then took two weeks just keeping the weight off and giving my body a chance to get out of survival mode.

It took me 10 years to gain the weight, so getting the weight off in 10 months was not too bad at all. In addition to changing what I ate, I also had to change the amount of exercise I got every day. I previously did not move around much at all. I sat in front of the computer working all day and read or watched movies all evening. Since last May when I decided to lose those 95 pounds, I have at least walked a mile five days of every week. Some days I walk two or three miles.

I also have exercise equipment in my home -- a stair step exercise machine and a Total Gym. My strategy is to use these during the commercials whenever I watch TV.

I have found that eating prepared foods with too much sodium in them gains me more weight even than eating cookies, pie, and cake gains me. Those are my weaknesses. To avoid eating too much sodium (salt), I cook from scratch half the time now. The other half of my meals, I shop for prepared foods that are low in sodium. I have to read all the food labels, because their idea of low in sodium is not the same as mine. I have to keep my total sodium under 1,000 mg for the day.

177.8 Lost 1.6 Pounds Yesterday

Eating salt gains me more weight than eating sugar, it seems like sometimes. I took it easy on the sodium yesterday, but ate the sugar, flour and fat I craved. Look, I lost 1.6 pounds. It was all water weight, of course, but sheesh! I will definitely be getting some of those low-sodium canned soups and frozen dinners. Thank you for the tip!

Some people think eating salt is good for you during hot weather. I learned otherwise in a Human Biology class, way back at Santa Monica College in 1985. Eating salt makes the human body need more water. This is because sodium is an electrolyte. Together with potassium, sodium conducts electricity along your nerve axons. At the time I took this class, the mechanism which balances sodium and potassium in the nerve cells was not entirely understood. It was nicknamed, "The sodium potassium pump." Anyway, eating salt (sodium chloride) makes you need more water.

I walked two miles yesterday. Here is what I ate and still lost 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

Half a Hostess apple fruit pie (Can you tell I love these?)

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

1 slice American cheese

Leftover Chicken and Onion with baked carrots, caffeine-free diet soda

Weight Loss Means No Clothes

I weigh 189.4 today! I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday! I have to admit, I am very surprised, but pleasantly so! I did walk yesterday, but only 2/3 of a mile and then my throat started to ache. I was afraid my cold was coming back, so I went inside. My throat stopped aching once I warmed up, so I guess it was just the cold that was making my throat ache. It was about 40 degrees F outside.

So there you have it. One day I am on a weight-loss plateau and only lose .2, but the next day I crush it and lose 1.6!

Here is my diet for yesterday:

Small bowl of Special K, cut-up strawberries and organic soy milk

 Diet Ham Salad

7 Kirkland Italian-style meatballs microwaved in a small bowl and then squeezed with a paper towel to remove excess oil, 6 chunks of pineapple canned in juice, 1 cup steamed broccoli

My three pairs of black skinny jeans - men's design with waist 36 and inseam 30 - fit very comfortably now. There is a little slack in the waist and they bag up in the back under my hips. They don't feel binding at all when I sit in them. They are the only pants I have that don't look ridiculously baggy on me. I wore them to substitute teach all last week.

I can wear all my shirts and sweaters, of course. But all my skirted suits are way too big for me to wear now. Scott and I have discussed having my suit skirts altered, once I am at my target weight. In the meantime, I have these three pairs of black jeans for now. I can tell that in a month or so they will be too baggy. I will shop the thrift stores for some clothes in the interim sizes. I am not going to buy anything new until I am at my target weight.