Well, I hit two new milestones, and I pray to never return in that direction! It's been almost 31 weeks since I started the pre-op diet, and I have now lost 75% of my excess weight and (drum roll, please) tadadadadadadadadadadada - bing! I AM NO LONGER "OBESE"!!! I am now officially in the category of "overweight." I only have just over 30 more pounds till I am at the high end of the "normal" range.
I have been exhausted lately, but I do need to go get my bloodwork done. I also need to work out more, mainly for me to de-stress. I've been having some stomach problems now and then. Again, I am wondering if it is the stress more than anything.
We had a great time yesterday driving up to Clarkston, to have the famous macaroni and cheese at the Clarkston Union. It is truly fantastic. And while I had only about 10 penne noodles and some ham, it was exactly what I wanted and it was PERFECT. We had some expiring Blizzard coupons, so we all got one closer to home, I ate some later and there's still at least half left. PLUS, we had some real air-popped popcorn with REAL butter. Again, I didn't eat a lot of it, but what I had was so perfect. I love that foods do not have to be FORBIDDEN (except a couple things that give me problems, but I do not miss them). We watched some movies together and I got some tests checked. So it was a fun AND productive day.
Church today, and we are finally putting away the last of our Christmas stuff.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Chicken Nuggets
Restaurant and grocery store chicken nuggets (not real tenders) are made from mechanically separated chicken. They take ALL parts of the chicken, including beak and bones, grind them up, and add ammonia to kill the bacteria, and artificial chicken flavor because it smells so bad, and it's a tube of pink goo that looks like ice cream. That's the "chicken." I saw the picture on facebook. Never again.
Mindless Eating
I am reading a new book my new principal loaned to me. Actually, she was lending it to another teacher, I overheard, said I'd like to borrow it after, but since the principal gave her two books to read, the teacher let me have this one first. It's called "Mindless Eating," and I don't have the name of the author on hand as I write right now, and as it's 6:30 a.m., I don't feel like getting up.
I am about one-third through the book. It is primarily about a lot of scientific studies showing that we humans have many more reasons than hunger to eat. I want to share tidbits of what I read that either surprised me, or confirmed a fact that I already knew. Anything in quotes is a quote from the book, otherwise, just a paraphrase:
p.29 "No one goes to bed skinny and wakes up fat. Most people gain (or lose) weight so gradually they can't really figure out how it happened." Amen.
p.32 If you cut out a regular daily item from your diet, divide the calories in that item by ten, and that's how much you'd potentially lose in a year (one 270 calorie candy bar divided by ten = 27 lb. loss in one year)
p.34 When plating your food, give yourself 20% less than you think you want, but with fruit/vege, give yourself 20% more.
p.45 "Volume trumps calories. We eat the volume we want, not the calories we want." True dat.
p.53 Obese people tend to underestimate how much they eat by 30-40%.
p.54 As items get larger, we underestimate them by a greater margin, doesn't matter skinny or fat. Obese people just tend to eat larger meals more often.
p.56 Here's something I can see both sides to, but I tend to disagree. They suggest pre-plating what you want, not a smaller portion then going back for 2nds and 3rds. I think people tend to get 2nds out of habit, so plating a larger amount from the start spells doom. I tell my girls to take a smaller portion, then decide if they really want more. I never force them to "clean their plate" but I also think that wasting food is, well... a waste. I'd rather they learn to take a smaller portion, and then decide if they really want more, or perhaps have some dessert or a treat a little later, rather than both. Where I think pre-plating is the best for ME is with something like chips. I eat WAY too many, even now, if I eat them from the bag, with the "just one more" syndrome. If I pre-plate chips and dip, then when I'm done, I'm done.
p.59 We consume more when taking food from bigger packages. Also, we eat more if there's a bigger variety. People ate MORE M&M's when there were 10 colors in the bowl instead of 7, or if they received a bigger bag.
p.63 Use a tall skinny glass and small plates/bowls/spoons.
p.70 Serve food in smaller serving bowls and people will take less.
The other thing I disagreed with, but I'm not sure what page, is that they gave the usually suggestions for a restaurant: send the bread basket away, split a meal, but then they gave two suggestions I disagree with. One is "Or order two appetizers instead." Really? Most appetizers are HIGHLY fattening and quite big for one person. The other is, they said "Use the 'Pick Two' rule: Pick two of these - drink, appetizer, dessert." I think that the meal should be included in there, in other words, pick two out of drink, appetizer, meal, dessert. Having two of the others PLUS a meal seems like WAY too much if you are trying to eat in a balanced way.
p.99. "Weight can be inherited, but it can also be contagious." Double amen to that one! I get so aggravated when people say "Cancer runs high in my family, so I'll probably get it, so why should I quit smoking/eating bad/etc.?" Same is true for weight. I could say that I inherited it genetically from my mom and her mom, and while that's partially true, didn't we also see our predecessor shop, cook, their attitude about food/diets/holidays/celebrations/comfort/exercise, etc.? Maybe if I still die of congestive heart failure, it can be at an older age than my mom, or not be plagued with the wide variety of other things that she had that made the last years of her life so miserable. Maybe I won't have to be on so many medications that cause complex side effects and diseases themselves. I am trying to DO something about it, so that even if it might be too late to change some of my health problems that they also had, maybe I can change things for my girls. But I'm hoping it'll change things for me too. :-)
I am about one-third through the book. It is primarily about a lot of scientific studies showing that we humans have many more reasons than hunger to eat. I want to share tidbits of what I read that either surprised me, or confirmed a fact that I already knew. Anything in quotes is a quote from the book, otherwise, just a paraphrase:
p.29 "No one goes to bed skinny and wakes up fat. Most people gain (or lose) weight so gradually they can't really figure out how it happened." Amen.
p.32 If you cut out a regular daily item from your diet, divide the calories in that item by ten, and that's how much you'd potentially lose in a year (one 270 calorie candy bar divided by ten = 27 lb. loss in one year)
p.34 When plating your food, give yourself 20% less than you think you want, but with fruit/vege, give yourself 20% more.
p.45 "Volume trumps calories. We eat the volume we want, not the calories we want." True dat.
p.53 Obese people tend to underestimate how much they eat by 30-40%.
p.54 As items get larger, we underestimate them by a greater margin, doesn't matter skinny or fat. Obese people just tend to eat larger meals more often.
p.56 Here's something I can see both sides to, but I tend to disagree. They suggest pre-plating what you want, not a smaller portion then going back for 2nds and 3rds. I think people tend to get 2nds out of habit, so plating a larger amount from the start spells doom. I tell my girls to take a smaller portion, then decide if they really want more. I never force them to "clean their plate" but I also think that wasting food is, well... a waste. I'd rather they learn to take a smaller portion, and then decide if they really want more, or perhaps have some dessert or a treat a little later, rather than both. Where I think pre-plating is the best for ME is with something like chips. I eat WAY too many, even now, if I eat them from the bag, with the "just one more" syndrome. If I pre-plate chips and dip, then when I'm done, I'm done.
p.59 We consume more when taking food from bigger packages. Also, we eat more if there's a bigger variety. People ate MORE M&M's when there were 10 colors in the bowl instead of 7, or if they received a bigger bag.
p.63 Use a tall skinny glass and small plates/bowls/spoons.
p.70 Serve food in smaller serving bowls and people will take less.
The other thing I disagreed with, but I'm not sure what page, is that they gave the usually suggestions for a restaurant: send the bread basket away, split a meal, but then they gave two suggestions I disagree with. One is "Or order two appetizers instead." Really? Most appetizers are HIGHLY fattening and quite big for one person. The other is, they said "Use the 'Pick Two' rule: Pick two of these - drink, appetizer, dessert." I think that the meal should be included in there, in other words, pick two out of drink, appetizer, meal, dessert. Having two of the others PLUS a meal seems like WAY too much if you are trying to eat in a balanced way.
p.99. "Weight can be inherited, but it can also be contagious." Double amen to that one! I get so aggravated when people say "Cancer runs high in my family, so I'll probably get it, so why should I quit smoking/eating bad/etc.?" Same is true for weight. I could say that I inherited it genetically from my mom and her mom, and while that's partially true, didn't we also see our predecessor shop, cook, their attitude about food/diets/holidays/celebrations/comfort/exercise, etc.? Maybe if I still die of congestive heart failure, it can be at an older age than my mom, or not be plagued with the wide variety of other things that she had that made the last years of her life so miserable. Maybe I won't have to be on so many medications that cause complex side effects and diseases themselves. I am trying to DO something about it, so that even if it might be too late to change some of my health problems that they also had, maybe I can change things for my girls. But I'm hoping it'll change things for me too. :-)
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Snow day!
Today is the first snow day of the year. I got up at 3:50, poked around on the computer, and was just about to get in the shower at 4:30 when I got a phone call from my old principal. He just retired on Friday, so I was surprised to hear his voice. I will be honest that my first thought was "Is this a retirement prank?" I didn't REALLY think it was, but the thought of anybody doing that was just really funny to me. I hadn't taken a shower yet, but was about to, so I put my slippers back on and here I am! After this I need to tackle some paper correcting. I am truly thanking God for this gift because I have about 6 inches of papers to either grade or record, and I really needed a day like today with no kids. The only thing is that Cami has been coughing for a couple of weeks, so I may need to get her in to the doctor today to just get checked out.
Well... the past two days I ate a LOT of junk food. I cannot tell you what my calorie consumption was. I did not overeat, per se, but my choices weren't always the best. I was definitely giving into salty/sweet cravings. One thing is that I know I can eat a lot of "chippy" salty/toasted carbs, whether it be crackers, chips, tortilla chips, etc. So, I need to limit my consumption of these to whole wheat crackers, which have some salt on them, but I only tend to eat about 6 before I am full. The other thing is, if I eat some candy, an "on" switch goes on inside me, and I want to graze all day on candy. I had some at work, wanted and had two pieces there, but then proceeded to come home and after dinner had a Skinny Cow package of candy, then a couple more pieces of stuff later. So for me I may have to really thinking about the concept of "Moderation is key." Is it possible to teach myself to have these things in moderation, or do I just skip them completely?
Here's the funny thing... I still lost weight... almost THREE POUNDS this week, the biggest weekly loss in a long time! In a way, I almost feel like my body needs to have a bigger amount once in a great while, to mess with my metabolism, quite possibly in a good way. It's hard to tell. I really probably should track my calories, because maybe I just don't eat enough on a regular basis (I'm only supposed to eat 600-800 per day anyway) and maybe my body just tells me to put some extra in there once in a while. This is unchartered territory for me, but it's great to just think about these things and figure out the art of being purposeful, but yet not obsessive, with the food that I use for energy, and also enjoyment.
Well... the past two days I ate a LOT of junk food. I cannot tell you what my calorie consumption was. I did not overeat, per se, but my choices weren't always the best. I was definitely giving into salty/sweet cravings. One thing is that I know I can eat a lot of "chippy" salty/toasted carbs, whether it be crackers, chips, tortilla chips, etc. So, I need to limit my consumption of these to whole wheat crackers, which have some salt on them, but I only tend to eat about 6 before I am full. The other thing is, if I eat some candy, an "on" switch goes on inside me, and I want to graze all day on candy. I had some at work, wanted and had two pieces there, but then proceeded to come home and after dinner had a Skinny Cow package of candy, then a couple more pieces of stuff later. So for me I may have to really thinking about the concept of "Moderation is key." Is it possible to teach myself to have these things in moderation, or do I just skip them completely?
Here's the funny thing... I still lost weight... almost THREE POUNDS this week, the biggest weekly loss in a long time! In a way, I almost feel like my body needs to have a bigger amount once in a great while, to mess with my metabolism, quite possibly in a good way. It's hard to tell. I really probably should track my calories, because maybe I just don't eat enough on a regular basis (I'm only supposed to eat 600-800 per day anyway) and maybe my body just tells me to put some extra in there once in a while. This is unchartered territory for me, but it's great to just think about these things and figure out the art of being purposeful, but yet not obsessive, with the food that I use for energy, and also enjoyment.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Doctor visit
I saw Dr. Hawasli on Saturday. He was really happy with my progress. I have lost 2/3 of what I want to lose. They took my picture again and did measurements. My waist, I am shocked to say, used to be 56 inches around - yikes! Well, even more shocking is the fact that now it is only 33 inches! My hips used to be 68 inches (I was as big around as I was tall!!!) and now that measurement is 48 inches. I have to say that my mother would have been so happy for me, and I wish that she had lived in a time when this was available, because it would have been so great for her too.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Happy New Year!
I have not reached my 199 goal yet, but that's okay. I am at 200.2 right now so I am REALLY close.
My sister is scheduled to have the same surgery at the beginning of February, and I am so very excited for her!
My sister is scheduled to have the same surgery at the beginning of February, and I am so very excited for her!
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