Round

Well, I did my weekly wrap-up assessment that usually precedes a weigh-in, and all I can say is YIKES! Last week was hard, and not only did I miss a lot of my goals, most of the solid forward steps I’ve made in recent weeks went AWOL on me.  On the goals check in :    

I had a good and focused week, really profiting from a heavy workload and traveling husband. Here’s how I did with my goals for the week :

1. Create daily intentions and keep it in mind all day - progress! I finally wrote a good intention statement and have been writing it out daily “My life expands as I take good care of my body”
2. Consistently make good food choices - yes yes yes!!! This is getting easier!
3. Keep daily track of the number of fruit & veggie servings - tracking this helps keep it in focus, my average for the week was 9 per day
4. Investigate your resistance to exercise. Make yourself a deadline to try the public pool and a date by which you will either be in a new plan or re-join the gym. - haven’t done it, it remains a goal for the next week
5. A four-day challenge : use my daily diet planning sheets TWICE a day to see what that double-dose adds - did well at this all week except the weekend — will keep it a goal

I’m going to stick to these same goals for next week, and try to make progress on the exercise one.

I lost one pound this week, bringing me to -9 pounds from my re-start. It feels like a drop in the bucket, but at the same time 9 pounds and several weeks is starting to feel like I’m on my way. I am looking forward to crossing the 10 pound mark and even more looking forward to kicking the 200’s to the curb. I’d like to do that before summer vacation, although I am really not a fan of time-based weight goals.

This coming week will not be an easy one. My team has a huge presentation on Friday which will keep me hopping until then (lots of meetings in hotels, lunches and dinner meetings too). Despite the conditions, I’m confident I can make good food choices during the week.

Friday night the pressure ends, but the weight-loss challenges begin. Dinner with a dear friend from out of town on Friday, and then we’re going away to the Champagne region for our 1st wedding anniversary - with quite a focus on fine dining and wine. We’re going to be staying at a chateau that has a top-rated restaurant, and we have a tasting scheduled at a fabulous small champagne producer. This will not be a weight-loss weekend (nor will it be a free-for-all).

My plan is to have a focused week on diet, try to walk some over the weekend, and to make decent choices this weekend. I have decided to skip next week’s weigh-in and weigh-in instead on the following Monday (June 16), when I will have had a week back on track.

I try to think of my weight loss efforts a week at a time.

And I try to focus on changing my behavior in ways that will make me healthier and ways that should eventually pay off at the scale. Unfortunately, our bodies don’t always cooperate by losing in a straight line, and sometimes a few bad days won’t register any change on the scale… My approach is about putting the scale in perspective — as only a piece of the information I use to assess how I’m doing.

So each week before I weigh in (and usually the night before), I review my week. What I ate, how I exercised, did I keep up my motivation, etc. The progress made on goals if I had any. I congratulate myself with ies when I did well, and I look for how I could have done something different when I made poor choices - especially in situations that could repeat themselves.

That assessment of how I did becomes the REAL valuable information for the week. I then know, with certainty, how well I’ve done and what I need to work on. The scale becomes only a small, secondary piece of info. If I lose and I know my week was full of errors, I don’t get too excited, and if my week was great but the scale doesn’t move I know the scale will catch up w my good behavior down the road and I don’t take it too seriously. I cannot overstate the importance this has had for me, as I’m usually a slow loser with many plateaus, and if I were to just go by the scale I might just give up in frustration. Focusing on what I am doing - not what the scale is saying - keeps ME in control, and the motivation high.

At the same time I also think through the week ahead - what days or meals will be challenging, how will I deal with them, etc. What things can I work on to stay motivated, eating well or exercising regularly? What days and when can I plan to exercise? I try to keep my goals for improvement to no more than 5, and I generally keep the goals in place until I’m pretty sure they’ve become habit and I can keep that going easily and add something else in.

I used to do this in a spiral notebook back in the day when I lost from 250 to 167 — I did it for about 2 years almost never missing a week. I’ve come back to it at some point on almost every serious weight loss attempt I’ve made since then, and seeing it come back these past couple of weeks has been really encouraging, as for me it’s a sign that I’m serious about this and that I’ve accepted to be in this routine for the long haul.

I reviewed last week and it was really good.

I did great at my 2 day meeting, which was NOT an easy task. I went on to have a good week, preparing lots of healthy stuff, and not letting a stomach bug be an excuse to overeat when I felt better. I managed to stay on track this weekend, which I think is the first time I’ve done well on a weekend since I started back.

These are the goals I set for myself for the week, along with how I did :

1. Create daily intentions and keep it in mind all day : took me a few days to get to this, but I did it on Thursday and have used it since
2. Consistently make good food choices : yes!
3. Keep daily track of the number of fruit & veggie servings : I did - my average was 10 servings a day!
4. Be careful with cheese : I was. Had cheese 2x, but both times is was AS the protein at dinner, not in addition to…
5. A four-day challenge : use my daily diet planning sheets TWICE a day to see what that double-dose adds : this has been hard, I did better than the previous week, but still have a ways to go.

Still to be addressed is exercise - I’m going to start thinking about my resistance to it, because it is multi-factorial and I need to understand the whys to get to the solutions. I had every opportunity to go walk on both Sat or Sunday yet I didn’t.

The scale rewarded me with a nice 3-pound loss (which includes the PMS bloat that drove me +1 the previous week). All in all, I’m down 8 pounds in 5 weeks, and while I still have a long ways to go, the number of pounds lost is starting to feel meaningful. I’m still in the Fat Clothes and will be until I’m at least 10 pounds lighter than right now, but at least I’m not busting out of the Fat Clothes anymore.

My goals for this week will be :

So, what are my goals for this week? Mainly I’m staying the same, switching out one, since my challenge w cheese is mainly when my DH is around (and he’s gone this week!)

1. Create daily intentions and keep it in mind all day
2. Consistently make good food choices
3. Keep daily track of the number of fruit & veggie servings
4. Investigate your resistance to exercise. Make yourself a deadline to try the public pool and a date by which you will either be in a new plan or re-join the gym.
5. A four-day challenge : use my daily diet planning sheets TWICE a day to see what that double-dose adds

I am going back to using a formula that worked for me for a long time several years ago : writing up a plan for the week with a limited number of goals for the week.  Next week I’ll check in on how I did on these and setting new goals.  The idea is that something stays a goal until it becomes easy, then it can be replaced w something else.  Baby steps meets accomplishments!

So, what are my goals for this week?

1. Create daily intentions and keep it in mind all day
2. Consistently make good food choices
3. Keep daily track of the number of fruit & veggie servings
4. Be careful with cheese
5. A four-day challenge : use my daily diet planning sheets TWICE a day to see what that double-dose adds

I have some ideas for future goals, including starting in on exercise w a 15-min a day goal for 3 days a week, and setting a standard wake-up time of 6:30am so I can find time to do it.  Currently my wake up time changes each day depending on my schedule, but I’m wondering if I’d be helped having more consistency in wake-ups where some days of the week I’d have a few extra minutes, other days I won’t.   For now, it’s just an idea brewing…

This week has one two-day meeting in Brussels, so less control of food for those 2 days, and 3 normal but busy work days.  Our weekend for the moment looks blissfully free of major committments, so I’m hoping to be able to really focus.  The fridge is stocked, the celery and radishes already cut up, a few healthy leftovers are available for a quick dinner, and enough other veggies to challenge my creativity in the kitchen. 

My weigh-in this morning showed the scale +1, which wasn’t a huge surprise nor disappointment, as last week’s -4 seemed surprising.  I’ve also got some major bloating going on (in part due to the carb-fest at yesterday’s brunch) so it was no surprise to be up one pound, and it was in fact a good signal to me.  If I want to lose without exercising I need to be really careful with my diet, not just ‘pretty careful’ as I have been this past week. 

We’ve been away for 9 days in the past two weeks, including both Sundays when I normally stock up on fruits and veggies, and milk and yogurt. The fridge is bare - at least of healthy things.

So in the morning I took advantage of a later-than-usual first meeting to zip to the market and get some fruits and veggies to get me through the week. Cauliflower, romaine, tomatoes, zucchini, bananas, kiwi and celery. No fennel this week!

In the evening when I should have been working I walked to the grocery store and picked up yogurt and milk (and a pineapple).  Got a few minutes of walking in too.

I felt really proud of myself for managing to fit in the shopping despite a hard schedule, because it removes the biggest challenge of the week - how to eat healthy in a house without the right materials. So the materials are in place, now for me to play my part in the game…

I was so jazzed about my 4 pound drop on the scale (when I’d hoped for 2) that eating healthy at lunch was really easy.

I never plan menus, but I’d like to try. I like the idea of having a general idea of what we’re going to eat to help avoid the call to the pizza or sushi delivery guy. I also like the idea of double-checking that I’ve got the key ingredients for something I want to make, as often when that’s not the case I give up on making dinner that evening. My DH is good at improvising. I am not. But I don’t want rigidity. I don’t want to know on Sunday what I’m going to be eating at 12:41 on Friday. My life is scheduled enough, thank you very much, I want room to be spontaneous and flexible. But thinking though what I can make for a week - i.e. menu planning - doesn’t necessarily mean assigning everything a firm date, so I’m going to give it a try.

I figured this week is a good one to take a first step, as my DH leaves for a work trip on Wednesday, so for most of the time I’ll be single, therefore able to plan meals to 100% my tastes. Since I don’t feel the need for meat at every meal, and I don’t mind eating leftovers, that makes things much easier than in our life together.

I was so happy to get to the market today - having been away for the weekend we were pretty low on all things fresh, but now I’m stocked up. I have celery root, cabbage, carrots, jerusalem artichokes, onions, beets, spaghetti squash, zucchini, apples, pears, grapes, oranges and clementines. And eggs, yogurt, cheese and a roast beef that will be dinner on Monday (and some leftovers too).

Here are some of what I can make :

• Jerusalem artichoke soup (I’ve never actually cooked them, but I have a few recipes. Maybe I’ll do something other than soup…)
• Cabbage (probably plain steamed, I love it that way, and no one to complain about the smell)
• French onion soup
• Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce
• Leftover lentil soup (in fridge - must eat this in first half of the week)
• Celery root puree (this is a typical French dish - I’ve never made it, but I’ve eaten it several times & liked it. One of my coworkers explained how to make it.)
• Maybe a good stir-fry. Been ages since I’ve had one… I could use carrots, onion, some of the cabbage, zucchini… Mmmm
• I think I’ll make some applesauce - we have a lot of old wrinkly apples.
• Oatmeal. I’ve been eating muesli for weeks, I’d like to add oatmeal back into the rotation…

What a good exercise. I see now that I can’t possibly eat all that in a few days, especially as I’m only home for breakfast and dinner. I guess I’ll put off the onion soup and the spaghetti squash, as both will keep for a while.

Desserts will be fruit or yogurt.

I’m new to this menu thing, am I missing anything?

I managed to have the New Year’s Eve I’d wanted, just me and my DH home alone, romantic and cool, cooking, snuggling, enjoying each other and our house. Naked.

We ate a LOT of very good and very fattening foods. Caviar (him). Giant Alaskan King Crab legs with lemon butter (me) and homemade mayonnaise (him). A fabulous duck breast that I cooked myself. Roasted winter veggies (kholrabi, beet, parsnip). 2 bottles of wine (neither one finished, don’t worry!) . Fabulous and wild desserts by Pierre Herme, including a slice of the black truffle buche, a truffle macaron, several other macarons, and a few other of his wonderful desserts .

A very nice way to spend the evening. The food fest is over now, time to get serious again.

I spent a lot of time these past few days working on my Best Year Yet 2008 plan. I did the exercises more thoroughly than in the past few years and gleaned plenty of new insights.

Here are my top 10 goals for 2008 :

1. Have a healthy baby
2. Nurture my marriage (build the couple at least 2x/wk)
3. Slowly but continuously lose weight
4. Keep up my weight loss blog
5. Get my French driver’s license
6. Master AdminisTrivia – personal & professional {I am an administrative mess, both personally and professionally, and I need to beat this}
7. Cook regularly
8. Catch up on nagging old projects (wedding photos, scrapbook, etc)
9. Be moving into next job by early 2009 at latest
10. Keep a personal activities accomplishment list for 2008 (do at least 2 items per month) {this includes books read, movies seen, museums visited, etc}

This year was a very interesting project. My number 1 goal, to have a healthy baby, was as I expected, but I changed the wording several times on some of the others, and was surprised to see things that I’d had on the list for a long time drop off, and things I’d never listed make it to the top 10 (administrative tasks, cooking). The other good thing is several things I’d been putting off due to the hassle factor have now gotten “offical top goal” status which should help them get completed - including the horrible process of the French drivers license and a bunch of old “should do them” projects around the house. All of those things put a negative drain on my energy by not being done, and I want to live with a clearer conscience. I was also surprised to see the determined side to change jobs in about a year’s time…

There are 3 goals that are direct links to my weight loss effort. First is to lose weight slowly but consistently. I *think* I will be doing that via Low Stress Weight Loss & my work with Dr Hope, but if that approach doesn’t work for me, I’ll try something else. At first I wrote that following Low Stress Weight Loss was the goal and then I thought about it and realized it’s the method but not the goal.

I also made keeping this blog into a full-fledged goal. It’s pointing myself in the right direction. Making a long-term commitment to keeping a focus on my weight. I know when I get busy or stressed it’s easy to skip it, but I find the thinking needed to have regular blog posts is really helpful to ME. I also love the community of support and the interaction w comments, which is what pushes it to be more helpful & interesting than just keeping a diary. Plus more accountable.
Finally, cooking. I choose to make cooking “regularly” a goal because I think it will be a good thing for various aspects of my life. I think it will be appreciated by my DH (who does most of the cooking now). It is also one of the best ways to control my diet (my DH cooks with lots of fat). It’s also creative and can be fun, and is helpful in the context of the Dr Hope exercises of thinking about what I really want and satisfaction and all of that. I gave myself plenty of leeway with the word “regularly” because I didn’t want to be too rigid with a certain number of times per week, but the idea is to cook frequently.

Well, that sums up my outlook for 2008.

Hope you all have a great year!

Several years ago I lost a significant amount of weight, qualifying me to join the National Weight Control Registry. I am proud of the fact that I have kept of *most* of the weight I lost, and I am proud to be a member of this group of people who have lost weight and kept it off.

So in today’s mail what do I receive, the 3-year on questionnaire. How are you doing? Where is your weight now? What are you eating? Uhhh, where is the nearest rock for me to climb under? Until 3 months ago I was EXTREMELY PROUD of having kept my weight around 185 for years. I am at my HEAVIEST right now (or heaviest in over 5 years anyway), and I pushed into a range I thought I would never see again - out of Onederland and into the 200’s. 202 to be exact (although that was 3 weeks ago, and I think the slap of reality has probably shaved a digit or two off of that).

But for research sake I completed the questionnaire, warts and all. It’s no use to the researchers to have lies, and I’m sure I’m not the only member to have had a relapse. All that info is important to them figuring out how people are (or are not) successful. And the glass can also be seen as half-full : I am still PERMANENTLY down 50 pounds.

There was one question which really made me think. My answer today was the honest truth of the past few years, but a change in the answer could be a real help for me.

“How much would a weight fluctuation of 5 lbs affect the way you live your life”

___Not at all

___Slightly

___Moderately

___Very much

Today I checked “Not at All” because reality is, I knew I was gaining and I didn’t do much about it. Because it’s only a small fluctuation.

But what if I think of my weight in 5 pound increments, and each number being a firm line to not cross over again? As soon as my weight gets into the 190-194 range, that would mean ACTION if the needle moves above 195. Not a bad way to think of it, and it should help me to maintain.

I have not been making my goal of maintaining my weight — instead, it is slowing drifting up. Part of it probably is a return to ‘normal’ eating now that I’m feeling better, part of it is the limited activity I am allowed to do, and a LOT of it is from eating too much.

I am really getting ready to get serious about losing in September, but I really also want to maintain my weight around 183 before then — and not add another 10 or more pounds to my starting number in a “last feast” mentality. (Am I the only one who does that?)

I am also hell-bent on finding a way to approach managing my weight without adding more stress to my life, and for that reason I’ve been trying to ease back into healthy habits, instead of trying to attack everything at once.

I’ve actually been really good for the past 2 weeks on the following :

• Eating more fruit & vegetable (minimum 5 per day)
• Increasing water to minimum 8 large glasses a day
• Finding support online
• Daily walking (first week was hard, but it’s gotten better)

I need to acknowledge this progress & accomplishment before just jumping into the next steps I need to take.

But the next step for me is obvious, and one that I’ve been resisting, and that is keeping a food journal.

Starting tomorrow (I weigh in on Mondays) I am writing down everything I eat. I will do this in a paper notebook, and will only list foods, not calories or nutrients, nor portions, for now. No judgment, just information. Keeping a daily food diary (often more detailed than this beginning) has always been one of my successful weight-loss cornerstones.