On track!

I am looking at today as if it were day 1 all over again. What's that Yogi Berra saying?: "It's like Deja Vu all over again!" That's me
I am remotivated and recharged to keep going on with this. Many of the program rules are already habit : I eat every 2-3 hrs; I have 3 fatloss plates daily; I upped my water to 12 glasses a day. All good.
Now that the rules are habits, I need to get the MIND into the habit as well. Blogging helps considerably, so let's talk about something near and dear to me today: Obesity. Namely, childhood obesity.
Luckily, I was never classified as an obese child, but I was certainly more than chubby and pleasingly plump. Probably by today's insurance standards I would have been considered obese.
Our first Lady, Michelle Obama, has made fighting childhood obesity one of her causes and I am standing up applauding her. It's about time. Working at the clinic I see way too many fat kids, and I don't view that word as discriminary. They are FAT!. If you did a body mass index, many of the kids I see walking around this clinic and in town, in schools and at the Mall are probably anywhere from 45-50 percent fat. The younger a kid is when they are fat, the greater their risk to a whole slew of chronic diseases down the road. We know all this. How many times do we as a society need to hear how we are killing our kids with food? When a ten year old has a fatty liver and a fasting blood glucose of 200, there's something wrong there, and it's not with the kid. It's with the parent. Parents are the ones who feed their kids. If the parent gives the kid lots of junk food and crap to eat, the kids' body is going to go to fat. How hard is this to understand?? It's not rocket science and yet I know people in my very town who eat McDonald's 3-4 times a week and I always see the kids with something in their hands heading to their mouths.
As I've mentioned before, my Clinic has this goal called 20/20 where we hope to be the healthiest community in America by 2020. We've instituted family Wellness seminars that teach parents and children how to eat healthier, and with an eye towards the economic crisis. We understand that not all people can afford organic food. We have exercise programs free of charge for them to learn how to move their bodies and take care of them.
And still, people resist. The reasons are varied, but my feeling is just this: these people do not want to change because they see nothing wrong. They don't care that they have to take insulin, or are losing their eyesight from diabetes; they don't care that they should eat 5 servings of fruits and veges minumum per day. Cake and candy just taste better and if they have to give themselves a little more insulin, well, then they will.
We need to protect and save our kids, that's the bottom line. I'm proud of my clinic that they have adopted this goal. I just wish more people who really need it would take advantage of it and listen.
Spread the word and save a kids' future life. Eradicate obesity and especially childhood obesity now. It's never been more imperative that we try. We are talking about the actual future of this country.

Reality

I need to get real.
Real MOTIVATED, that is.
I can feel that I haven't lost any weight this week and it's starting to bum me out royally and big time, so here's my MOTIVATION PLEDGE.
I WILL NOT:
... obsess
...give up
... "cheat"
...revert back to old bad behaviors
... give up.
I WILL:
...progress
...write everything down that I eat
...exercise 5-6 times weekly, or at least 4-5
...stop drinking soda again ( this will definitely be the hardest thing!)
...choose sensibly amongst snacks and food choices
...drink 12 glasses of h20 daily, in addition to my tea, which I AM NOT giving up!
...go back to blogging daily : it really does help to use this as a public diary!
...NOT eat out of boredom, sadness, grumpiness, after having a bad day at work, or a good one! and not in front of the tv
...read this list everyday and recomit to it.

I need to get back on track. May 19 is just around the corner.

Overcoming Boredom

Today marks the beginning of my 8th week on the program. On the other programs I've done ( Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers to name just 2,) now is usually the time I start to get bored with the whole recording everything you eat, timing the food, the exercise, and the junk food deprivation.
Strangely, not this time and not on this program.
I think the reason is because for the first time in my adult life I am actually eating real food - not diet meals, or prepackaged portions - but REAL honest- to- goodness everyday food.
With the simple changes of HOW to eat that I've made on this program, I am noticing changes in my skin, body, energy level, and how my clothing fits. I have not been on the scale since my plateau last week, and I think I am going to avoid it for another week, just stick to the program and do everything I am supposed to do. March 1 is next monday. I think that will be a good day to weigh and then possibly weigh myself every 2 weeks or even monthly if I am sticking to the program religiously like I want to.
I will continue to blog since having eyes watching my progress is good for my soul, and my motivation, but I will forgoe the drama and stomach-pains of weighing myself weekly.
At the beginning of the program I was not allowed to weigh myself for the first three week. That turned out to be horribly hard, but worthwhile, because the first time I setpped on the scale after that, I had a loss.
And I hope to have one again next week.
Until them: the goals remain the same - 3 FOODLOVERSFATLOSSPLATES daily, with snack every 2-3 hrs; 12 glasses of water every day, sleep 7- 8 hrs, and get some exercise.
I hope you all keep coming back for progress reports.

Keeping hydrated

Conventional dieting wisdom has always been to imbibe 8 glasses of water daily, for a total of 64oz, or 1 solid gallon. On fOODLOVERSFATLOSS, wisdom is tossed aside and we're told that 12 glasses of water is the norm.

For a normal person, that's a lot of liquid to fill up on daily.

At the beginning of this program I drank nothing but water for the first week. Forgone was soda and tea. At the end of the first week I didn't feel bloated, but getting that 12 glasses in every day ( or 6 16 oz bottle) was a little difficult, esp when I had to work. I was going to the bathroom every 20 -30 minutes! Inconvenient to say the least.

After the first week, I got a little bored with just the plain taste of water, so I started back on my tea with breakfast and started having soda in addition to the water. Now I still had about 5 bottles of water a day, but my tea is a 16 oz cup and most soda bottles now are between 20 and 24 ozs. The second week I estimated I was taking in about 96 oz a day and for some reason I didn't go to the bathroom as much.

I learned that once you adequately hydrate your body, the water won't be used as a flush to your system as much as an adjunct to keeping you hydrated. The water is "used" to help with digestion and in keeping your organs and skin hydrated, esp during the cold dry months. I still didn't feel bloated, but I did notice a subtle change in my skin - it started feeling a little smoother and softer.

I love that: secondary benefits from fluid intake!!

Couch Potato Pledge

I realized something important when I got home today from a particularly busy and stressful day at work. All I wanted to do when I walked thru the door was sit down and veg out, while watching some TV for a while. Since it was time for my afternoon, every 2-3 hr snack, I grabbed my 100 calorie yogurt pretzels and turned on the tv. Before I found something to watch, the pretzels were gone. I looked on the table for the package and couldn't find it. Then I glanced down at my lap and saw the empty package.

I don't even remember eating them.

This is not the first time I've unconsciously eaten something. When your mind is sooooo tuned out that you can't remember to breath, you KNOW that is not the time to eat something. And the truth is, before starting the FOODLOVERSFATLOSS program, I would have gone back to the pantry and gotten something else to eat that I could remember doing. Sitting in front of the tv is one of the worst things you can do if you really want to lose weight, because your mind isn't focused on the food; it's focused on the screen.

This is why movie theaters do such big money on concessions stands. They know that you're so wrapped up in the screen that your hand is just moving up and down from the food to your mouth without any conscious thought, and that when you're done with the snack, you'll feel like you never tasted it, you'll feel gypped and you'll want more. If you don't believe me, the next time you go to the movies watch the couple near you who has the giant tub of popcorn. Before the movie starts, as the preview trailors are rolling , that tub is half gone and guaranteed the soda and candy that went with it are too. This is the guy who will leave the movie about a half hour thru the show and go get a refill.

And he can probably be catagorized in the obese column.

TV watching is a killer when it comes do keeping strict with a diet. If you need to have something going into your mouth as you watch Oprah, or the Office, Project Runway or the Closer, make it something chewy and noisy like an apple or a pear. That way you'll really know you're eating something and just not moving your hand to your mouth without any thoughts whatsoever!

Excuses to eat, Part 2

Yesterday was Mardi Gras, or for the Catholics among us, Fat Tuesday. This has religio-historically been a day celebrating all you can eat to fatten up for the next 40 days of Lenten fasting and sacrifice. Great idea, isn't it? Eat and drink like a pig for ONE day inorder to fast for 40 DAYS!! Kind of feels a little off balance if you ask me.
Anyway.
I got to think about all the other days that we eat, aside from the holidays mentioned in a previous blog.
First, there's your birthday, typically commemorated by a huge fattening and delicious cake to celebrate another year thrusting you into old age. Special birthdays get tagged here too, specifially your "Sweet"16, and 21st, not to mention 30th, 4oth and then 50th, all celebrated using food and spirits (booze!) in some way to excess.
Then there's high school and college graduation, again, typically passed with a party, cake and alcohol.
Weddings, the arrivals of babies, and anniversaries bring their own compliments of over-indulgence in the food category, but all typically do have a celebratory cake to go along with the passing of the day. Here you really graduate to Champagne, tho, forgoing the cheaper spirits.
And let's not forgot the somber events that cause us to eat.
I remember a time a close friend of mine injured her arm and the first thing I thought to do was make a tray of baked Ziti to take to her house so she wouldn' t have to worry about cooking for her family for a few days with a bum arm.
WHen someone passes away, almost the first thing neighbors and fellow mourners do is bring food to the house just in case the bereaved didn't have time to shop, or cook a cow. And it' s not just any food. MOurning food is an entity unto itself. People who wouldn' t dare make a pimento loaf, or macaroni casserole during normal times, seem compelled to put forth their efforts into unusual and sometimes disgusting dishes during times of personal sorrow.
Mourning food can fall into several categories as well. There's the "just died food", where neighbors descend enmass the minute they hear about the passing, with overflowing, srange smelling Corell dishes covered with aluminum wrap. Then there's the "wake food," usually cookies, or something sweet and hot to drink to help the mourners get through the hours of funeral home sitting.
At last we have the "burial food." This one has always been a mystery to me. After crying, wailing and mourning for days, the family and friends of the lost soul gather at the survivors' home to mourn and eat some more as a toast and testament to the dearly departed. This is casserole karma. There is a certain generation of folks among us who have come to feel about wakes they used to feel about weddings. It's almost a celebration for them, and I guess I can understand it in one way : they are celebrating the fact that they are still alive.
But does it have to be celebrated with a green jello mold, stuffed with marshmallows?

Plateau!

So I didn't lose any weight this week. Major bum! But I'm not discourged.
In the past, when I went to Weight Watchers, if I didn't lose weight when I PAID to weigh in and be bummed out I would immeidately put on the failure face and go out after the meeting and eat something ridiculously high in fat and calories, figuring, well, I didn't lose anything anyway, so why not.
I'll tell you why not : because that is the most self defeating thing you can do when trying to lose weight. And that's one of the reasons I was never able to keep anything off for very long. Like I've said before, failure becomes a familiar friend after a while and the shame factor associated with it seems to dissipate.
But not anymore. Failure now is just that: failure.
Now, I have the tools and knowledge to counterattact this plateau. I know if I bump up the exercise, the fiber, the good food and the water, I will definitely show a negative number next weigh in. So that's my plan. Last week I exercised 4 days. Most of it was arm work and treadmill. This week I plan on working out a minimum of 5 days, with more attention to cardio and fat burning - so not just the treadmill. I also slacked off a little in the water imbibing department and have been drinking a lot of diet soda - my addiction!. This week I am scaling that back and drinking more good old fashioned H20. Less salt in ech glass and no bloating effect.
I'm going to conintue with my FATLOSSPLATEs for the three meals a day and snacks, so I know I'll be okay in the hunger department.
The biggest motivator so far though, has been this blog. With eyes watching me closely I am determined to acheive my goal. It's no longer okay to fail myself. I also don't want to fail any of my "followers."
Pray for me!