mysizetendiet.com

I don't blog here anymore. I am at http://www.mysizetendiet.com/. Please come visit me here.

Thanks,

Selma

Five months since my last post...I'm not up, but I'm definitely not down. My weight is 210 which is 14 pounds less than when I started this journey. It's time to get down to business! I'm motivated to tackle what I feel is my addiction to food. I feel kind of stupid saying I'm addicted to food. However, I realize that I feel like I get a chemical high from the food I'm eating. In simplest terms, I get stressed, I eat and I am soothed, till I get depressed again about what I just ate. All that being said, I am following Dr. Phil's 7 keys, and I ready to continue on the journey, and this time to the finish line which is fifty pounds away.

It's All Part of the Journey

Somewhere in three weeks I lost a little bit of drive which has left me up one pound from three weeks ago. However, I don't honestly fear that it is a real pound since I haven't had more than three glasses of water in three weeks.  (eek)  There is something good in this three weeks that has happened.  In the midst of three really bad weeks, I never forgot that these bad weeks were just days within a much longer journey.  This kept me occasionally working out and sometimes making good food choices.  Now, I am back on track. 

However, I think the track is a little different.  I told myself in the past that core was a great program, and that I could eat like this forever because it's all about eating healthy meals until satisfied.  What could possibly be wrong with the previous statement?  It is, the one word, meals.  I think I came to a stand still on this journey because I finally got sick of cooking.

Occasionally, I need to be able to open a can of soup or a microwave meal and call it a meal.  I still plan on cooking healthy meals as much as possible, but I am not going to restrict myself from some what healthy choices like soup and low calories microwave meals which are convenient and make it easier to stay on track when my life is so busy. 

Patience

I have ONLY lost 21 pounds since January. (1.5 pounds this week) OK, I say that in two ways. The first way I say it is with pride and excitement. The second way echoes some of the frustration I have felt along this journey that began in January of this year. I have averaged one pound a week. There has not been many two pound weeks no matter how hard I worked. The way that I live with the one pound a week syndrome is to realize that this is a journey that is meant to be long. I have an inner sense of acceptance about the fact that it will likely take me to 2009 before I am anywhere near my goal. I am learning the fine art of patience. I have found that patience is something that can be learned, but it is something that constantly needs to be worked on. Joan Borysenko, PhD , is a scientist, psychologist, inspirational speaker, and author of Inner Peace for Busy Women and Inner Peace for Busy People says in a Prevention article,

"The prefrontal cortex of your brain inhibits impulsive actions and helps you make choices that ensure later success. If it's functioning well, you'll be able to walk right past that bowl of potato chips and wait until dinner to eat. But even if you'd normally grab the chips, you can retrain your brain. The nervous system has plasticity--it can create fresh neural pathways in response to new behaviors. So as you practice patience, you'll gradually develop the internal hardware to make it second nature. These suggestions can help you nudge your nervous system into a more patient mode."

My brain can create new pathways for more patience! Yes! This is vital information for this journey to better health. Perhaps someday, I will have the neurons that will keep me from stealing a bite of everything my children eat. Joan Borysenko, also points out that patience can be learned and fine tuned while we wait. Whether we are waiting in line at a bank or if we are on a journey of weight loss that may take a very long time, these are great times to develop inner calmness which can lead to living a more patient life. In a bank line, one might use deep breathing exercises as for inner calmness and outward patience. In the context of this very long journey I am on, I am using the wait time to feel more peaceful and more loving toward myself and others.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I spent mine at my parents. For the first time ever I stayed at a motel rather than at their house. I would highly recommend this experience. It made the visit a 100 percent less stressful than normal. Yet even with less stress, I still managed to break some major diet rules. Here's the exhaustive list: one snack bag of Doritos, a dark chocolate bar (the entire bar), one small bowl of ice cream and many fast food salads. Honestly, I did my best with a few treats included. I am only worried because of the fact that last week I lost (drum roll...) 2.5 pounds. Tomorrow is weigh in day and I fear the scale might show the chips and chocolate. On a good note, I did managed to get my walk in every day that I was there. Apparently I am punishing myself because as I type this I am eating a Taboule Salad which is quite low in calories and quite yucky.

Less Salt Zone

When I used to drink margaritas, they were not complete unless the glass was rimmed with a ton of salt; and then I added a pinch to go right in the margarita. Also, I love to add salt to V-8 juice which is already loaded with salt. I feel myself pucker up as I imagine these tasty, salty drinks. Another favorite salty snack is to shake salt right on a apple. Fortunately, I have always had perfect blood pressure. This is how I excused this behavior. Lately, I've had some days with joint pain. I know that my joints only ache on the days when I retain water from the salt that I consumed on the day before. This led me consider some facts about salt.

According to a pamphlet from the Consensus Action on Salt and Health in the UK, salt strongly contributes to heart attacks and strokes. "Reducing your salt intake by around 2.5g a day reduces your risk of a stroke or heart attack by a quarter."

However, since I don't have high blood pressure, I do not have to worry about the health consequences of a high salt diet.

Not so, explains the pamphlet, people who have high sodium intakes have a higher risk of increased blood pressure as they age, and yet this is not the case in person's with low salt diets. Salt has also been linked to stomach cancer and osteoporosis.

As of today, I plan to reduce my sodium intake. A healthy measure of salt is about a teaspoon a day. I usually eat a teaspoon from the shaker in ever meal or two. Some high salt culprits that I may target include pudding, barbecue sauce, salad dressing, mustard, mayo and Ketchup. Also, I will shake a dash of salt at the table instead of cooking with it.

No Grazing Here!

This morning, I was so excited to jump on the scale. I couldn't wait to rip off my clothes and see my three pound loss. In my heart, I knew it was going to be a great loss. Apparently, my heart forgot to speak with my body fat because I only lost a half a pound. This morning I wanted to scream! How could this be? Actually, I didn't really consider the question, "How could this be?" until after my shower where I threw the loudest temper tantrum imaginable in the privacy of my imagination. When I finally got around to asking myself what happened. The answer wasn't pretty. I have been grazing on my kid's food all day and every day. If they have a handful of crackers, I allow myself three. If I pour them a bowl of cereal, I take a few of the sugar coated peanut butter balls and pop them in my mouth. Any way, this week's goal is to stop eating a nibble of everything my kids eat.

Please? Inspiration?

I am really struggling with inspiration this week. I simply do not know what to write about. I love writing. In fact, I used to write poetry on a regular basis, but I got a case of writer's block that has now lasted beyond months. I hope this doesn't happen with my diet. I guess that would just be another excuse to gorge myself on chips and salsa, and I know I don't need inspiration to realize that I never want to do that again.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was quitting drinking (for the time being). I don't know how long that has been, but it was a pretty easy thing to give up. The hardest is being honest about it with my husband. I think he would prefer for me to occasionally drink, and I have a hard time saying that I don't want to do it anymore. I just blame it on the diet. It's a good excuse with some truth to it. I figured out that those Margaritas were adding, at least, a pound and a half a week. Funny, but no matter how easy the weight went on, it's much harder to take it off. If I was drinking 1.5 pounds of calories a week, how is it that I only lost one pound this week? I don't get it, but math has never been my strong point.

So, I was working on this marathon walking plan that I announced last week. I decided that since I was training with a marathon walking plan, I might actually like to walk a marathon. On an impulse I asked my mom if she wanted to walk a marathon with me. She said yes! The truth is I really don't know if my body can do that. I want it to, but I don't know if it really can. In the mean time, while I wait to see if my body holds up, I am training to walk the Columbus Marathon on Oct 19th of this year.

Mother's day was great! I hope everyone had a wonderful mom's day. A few weeks ago, I got a new lap top that was supposed to be my Mother's day present. However, I managed to squeeze out of my husband a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a new golden retriever puppy. I got my gifts early because my husband was out of town. For today, I spent the day with my kids which was really fun. It was raining so instead of going to the zoo we ate dinner and played at Chuck E Cheese. Also, my daughter made me breakfast which was shredded wheat with soy milk. She must have put at least a cup of Splenda on it. (Yummy?) Also, she forced down a half of cup of real fat chocolate milk. She tied me to the chair, and poured it down my throat. It was rough!

Last year on mother's day, I was visiting my son in Guatemala. This year, we are fortunate to finally have him home. He's been home for almost 6 months. These last months have been a whirl wind of excitement and stress as he has adjusted to his new life. (and we have adjusted to having a toddler around) I think that all this diet/health stuff is wonderful because it gives me energy to handle him. However, in hind sight I wish I'd did this before he got home. He is both physically and emotionally draining. (In a good way--Good because I am glad that he is home)

In the next couple of days, I just want to focus my energy on staying positive, drinking water and fitting in all of my workouts. I missed a twenty minute one and I feel...I don't know what I feel about it since I am typing this in lieu of working out. So tonight I have learned that nothing is as inspiring as a missed workout.

Update: It's morning time, and I got up and did the workout I missed! Yea!

7 Weeks to fit the Dreaded Dress

In almost 8 weeks from today, I am going to have to wear a formal dress. I'm not buying the dress till about 6 weeks from now. In the mean time, it's time to lose just a few more pounds. (I lost one this week for a total loss of 15.5 so far--slow, and sometimes steady) I scoured the Internet high and low for a workout schedule that I could use either at home or at the gym. I settled on this one from prevention.com http://features.prevention.com/walking/calendar/ It's seven weeks to a half marathon which is deceptive because the most that is required is a 7 mile walk at the end. I'm going to follow the schedule on workout times, but when in the gym I might count some of the minutes on a bike or elliptical trainer toward the walking times because I want to be able to make the most out of the gym. So, it may be 7 weeks to a half marathon, but I'd say it's 7 weeks to the dreaded dress day. (Perhaps the more I workout, the more I'll be able to muster up a little positivity for this whole buy a formal dress thing)

Before Picture

Click Here for my Before Picture-I don't know why I can't get this to post here. I guess it's because I started this entry a month ago, and finished tonight.