My efforts have paid off with this week's weigh-in. Emotionally/mentally, I feel better in this range of numbers. Physically, though, I'm wondering if some of my fatigue this week was due to reduced calories, which happens to me sometimes. But I didn't get real crabby, which is what often happens with reduced calories, so I don't know. All the way around, I do like and will continue to establish my drinking-water-during-dinner habit until it becomes much stronger and engrained. I recognize that right now, it's a fragile habit -- I'm not even sure it's a habit yet, because I do have to put effort and thought into practicing the behavior deliberately.
I've gone back to previous entries and see that my weight has vascillated between 128.0 and 133.5, which is a range of 5.5 pounds. This is maintenance. I'm glad I realize this just now because this tells me that my weigh-in isn't really weight-loss but just part of the maintenance journey - a helpful and healthy perspective.
I have errands to run that need to get done by noon -- post office & bank -- but I'm waiting for the home health nurse to stop by. My husband is starting a new medication for his auto-immune disease, and part of the program has a nurse coming over to help him with his first shot. It's not a regular shot, but one of those epi-pen contraptions, which my husband used with the last biologic drug he used. What a waste of money, but I still want to be here. We're hoping this one will help him...
Hubby is taking the kids to the movies this afternoon -- movies are not my thing so I get alone time, which I'm really looking forward to!
EVENING EDIT: I had a very nice "alone time" and the hubsband and kids had a good time at the movies.
I didn't run all of my errands today, so that I have something to get me up and out tomorrow, but my daughter surprised me today and said she wanted to walk with me tomorrow, if the weather permits. I mentioned I wanted to try some gelato at a local shop that I've been wanting to try for quite some time. So we'll see how much of that actually comes to fruition. If neither works out, that's OK too. (I no longer set expectations but rather "go with the flow" when it comes to holidays.)
Expanding on what Maria7 said in her entry today -- and I thought about this on Thursday during my lunchtime walk too -- now that I am at maintenance, it's time that I enjoy the fruits of my labor. Just be happy with where I'm at, number-wise and start focusing on other types of goals for myself.
I know that I can relax a little bit more with the eating, or lessen up on the exercise, but both of these things I actually enjoy doing as established habits. My body doesn't feel right if I eat badly or don't start with exercise in the morning.
Right now, I'm focusing on my drinking-water-during-dinner habit. I find this to be a satisfying process and goal to work towards; I know it will take me some time to get this habit down SOLID - which is fine because I do not know what I would try next.
I've tried establishing weight training as a habit. I suppose I could try to run a 5k, but with my history of back/knee/foot problems, I'm not sure that's in my best interest. So I don't know.
Progress as of today: 57 lbs lost so far, only -7 lbs to go!
Thank goodness this work week is over! Yes, it's been very busy because real estate is busy, but for me personally, I think the one thing that made this week especially hard was that I was wiped out from last weekend. I REALLY need my weekends to decompress.
This weekend is calm, but next weekend is going to be VERY BUSY... now I'm wondering if I should take Monday off -- May 21st -- to have that day to decompress. I'll have to check to see how much time off I have left.
There was another lunch party that I wasn't aware was being planned for today. So I just told my co-workers that I was sorry, I didn't know this had been planned, and I had stuff I had to get done. Not really, so I came home for lunch. This means I missed my lunch walk but I think I was going to miss it anyway - either by attending the party or because the weather was not great (cold and rainy). I'm proud of myself for thinking of this on the fly (completely unplanned because this was so unexpected) and that I made myself a priority.
Food at the party was Carb City: deep fried taquitos stuffed with mashed potatoes (it's a Mexican thing, apparently), white rice, anglefood cake. No protein whatsoever. Not a green vegetable in sight. So glad I passed! And with weigh-in tomorrow? No thanks!
Drinking-water-during-dinner habit: not so good tonight. I had turned off the heat a couple of weeks ago because the weather was so warm. Well, right now it's in the 40s, and the house was at a chilly 63 degrees. I could not drink any cold water beyond my first glass. I still felt, though, that I ate sufficientlyl slow. I doubled up my green salad and cut my pork chop in half. That was just right.
Here's where it gets a little wah-wah: had 2 cups of decaf with creamer after dinner, to warm me up. I have these 2 big frosted cookies from the title company that I really would love to eat, but instead compromised with 10 dark chocolate chips which is 50 calories. It would have been better if I had only 1 cup of decaf, or better yet, no chips, but I dunno, I just needed a little "celebration" for the end of a hard week.
We'll see what the scale has to say about that tomorrow.
Progress as of today: 55 lbs lost so far, only -5 lbs to go!
Attended the last band concert... my daughter graduates this year and she's my younger (of 2), so no more concerts. At least not as a mom.
So I rushed home from work, because we're had to leave on time, and for some reason, my husband did not have dinner ready. It seems with him, the higher the expectation, the lower he performs.
Dinner was tense, or rather testy, and I struggled to get in even 2 glasses of water while eating. Ideally, I should have excused myself, gone into another room, and calmed myself down. But we were on a time crunch. I hate that.
Stayed up too late. Very hard to get out of bed this morning. At least it's Friday...
Progress as of today: 55 lbs lost so far, only -5 lbs to go!
Well, I could have stayed at work and gotten more of it finished!
you are doing good...remember that at the end of the day, all your rushing and testy dinner was for good reason: you got to attend your daughter's last concert. you had to do more in order to go...but at least you got to attend :) trying to shed a positive light on it.
seems the more we want in life, the more we have to give! like in order to receive good things, we must get to do more to receive :) as i see.
Drinking-water-during-dinner habit: Did well tonight. 2 glasses of water, took an appropriate amount of meat loaf and dinner salad. OK, I snuck a couple of extra leaves of lettuce at the end. I have found that with drinking more water at dinner, I wake up in the morning feeling almost hungry. Early on in establishing this habit, I did wake up hungry in the morning - that went away as soon as I had my coffee and started exercising (while drinking the coffee). The other days, I probably could have eaten but again, after I started exercising, that feeling went away.
With mixed feelings, I've started wearing colors to work again. This is because of the warmer weather - my spring and summer clothes are more comfortable. All my navy/grey/black is pretty much for winter. I had been wearing dark colors up until part of last week, and now fully this week I am into color again. *sigh*
Wearing dark colors has its advantages:
Dark clothes disadvantage:
Anyway, I'm not going to buy dark summer clothes as I have enough clothes now, but I had been wanting to write about the effect the darker colors were having on me emotionallly.
Progress as of today: 55 lbs lost so far, only -5 lbs to go!
I didn't have time to post much yesterday, just to vent about lunch (lol), so no more about that.
Drinking-water-during-dinner Status: Yesterday I did pretty well. I think I got in the 3 glasses of water. Took too much meat for my chicken Caesar salad, so I gave my husband some of it. Tonight I only got in 2 glasses but I did much better with my portions. I finished dinner before I could get that third glass in. That happens.
Tonight, though, I found myself at the table really trying hard to just slow it down. All I wanted to do was eat food. I didn't want to stop and sip water. I didn't want to stop and pause and talk. All I really wanted to do was shove food into my mouth. Maybe that's why I only got in the 2 glasses -- because I ate faster even though I tried to slow it down. Not sure.
During the day, it's go, go, go! Gotta get the emails answered, gotta send out the docs, gotta crunch the numbers, etc. Especially during the 4pm hour when I'm rushing to get as much as possible done before I leave for the day. I have a 15 minute drive home, which is somewhat relaxing, but when I get home, I'm still in "go, go, go!" mode, and it's hard to turn that off, especially if it's late, if I'm hungry, if I'm both. This only happens during the working week. On weekends, it's completely different.
I was thinking to myself at dinner that my husband and I should have a cocktail hour before dinner. Just to sit together, chill out, get away from the "go, go, go" and calm down. Great idea in theory but in the real world it wouldn't work. For one, I don't drink any more. For another, then we'd be eating dinner at like 7:30p which is just too late considering I go to sleep at 9:30p. It's bad enough already that I usually don't get home until 6p, and sometimes it's more like 6:30p.
Progress as of today: 55 lbs lost so far, only -5 lbs to go!
I ABSOLUTELY HATE EATING LUNCH WITH MY COWORKERS.
Progress as of today: 55 lbs lost so far, only -5 lbs to go!
if they say anything, say you like to walk outside. yes?
But this was the first cookout of the year, and they said they would get veggie burgers especially for me if I joined them. So how could I say no to that?
I just finished as soon as I could and went back upstairs to work. Thankfully, I went for my walk while the boss and Queen Bee were grocery shopping...
Yesterday was exhausting. Woke up this morning feeling almost "hung over" even though I had nothing to drink. I was so tired I could feel it in my muscles and eyeballs. I finally felt rested after watching TV for an hour at 4pm. Until then, I was pretty much on the go all day.
Took my mother-in-law to lunch for her birthday today. Unfortunately, the service was very poor, and the food was only OK. She cannot see and does not hear very well, so it was quite an odd experience, but I'm so proud of my son -- he did so well with her and kept the conversation going, because I didn't have much to say.
I ate dinner alone tonight, but continued with my drinking-water-during-dinner routine, and got in 3 glasses. I wanted second helpings on the baked eggplant, but I decided that I was already full, so I wasn't going to eat more, even though I know the eggplant wouldn't have done much damage calorie-wise.
Progress as of today: 55 lbs lost so far, only -5 lbs to go!
i do think that earlier start times can lead to weight gain for some people. ... anyways, the later start time is happily welcomed into my life :)
Oh YES, look at that weigh-in today - BOOM! Lol, actually, I'm just glad to see new numbers, in the right direction...
Today is definitely out of my routine. Daughter has a band concert down at the University of Illinois, so we're driving down to watch the performance this evening. So 3 hours in the car down, dinner, sitting at the concer, then 3 hour drive back home. Way past Donkey's bedtime, but this is something I *really* want to see/hear. Her band this year is really, really good, and this is the last year we get to do school stuff, because she's graduating this month... *sigh*
So this will be a forced relaxation day, with all the sitting I have to do, which is fine by me. I will be active up until we leave.
One thing I realized yesterday was that this week, with the warmer weather, I've been wearing capri pants to work, which are smaller than my usual baggy pants (but pretty much the same size of the new pants I bought recently - does this make sense?), and the capris still fit pretty much the same that they did last summer. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? LOL, I guess it's a good thing, because I don't have to buy a new summer wardrobe for work. BUT it does mean that there hasn't been many changes physically in a year. Is that a good thing or a bad thing, too? And I'm thinking this is also a good thing, because it means that I've mastered maintenance for a year, albeit not quite at the numbers at which I would like to be, but so be it.
Progress as of today: 55 lbs lost so far, only -5 lbs to go!
also, enjoy the concert...you could walk around the campus for a little before you drive back, unless it's late...and i think it will be...at least you are active until the concert. i miss watching band concerts!
I'm so glad that I finally have time and enough energy to post here! Yowza, yesterday and today were so busy - yikes! And I woke up with no energy. I'm supposed to start at 9am, and I'd be ready to leave at 7:45a, so I thought, Oh I should post in DD -- but then I wouldn't because it's better to just get to work early to get more done.
I'm getting the hang of this drink-water-during-dinner thing, and I don't know if it's going to affect the number on the scale this week, but this is something that I want to keep doing anyway. Like Gains and his 4-week plans, this is a habit that I'd like to do for 4 weeks and see if it affects the scale, so that I have an average from 4 weigh-ins, not just a single weigh-in.
THURSDAY REPORT: Had the 3 glasses of ice water. Had salad w/dressing, a side of baked peppers, and a burger (no bun) w/steak sauce. Could not finish the burger so -- and this is so bad ***see below***-- I asked my husband if he wanted it, and he did, so he finished it. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! But then I woke up hungry this morning. Still -- did not vary my routine, but had coffee and flavored water until I got to work and had breakfast (oatmeal) and 2nd breakfast (protein shake).
FRIDAY REPORT: so I woke up hungry but did pretty well throughout the day. The d*mn title company stopped by with pastries and fruit. I ended up having some of the fruit after lunch. At dinner: had only 2 glasses of water, but was very mindful of the portions I took, and this time, they were smaller than the last time I had the same meal. I wish I would have remembered Happy's recommendation to spice up my food, because then I might have gotten in a 3rd glass of water, but that's OK.
The weather has been much warmer here this week, and I've noticed that my water consumption has increased dramatically. Whereas I was only getting about 80 ounces a day, now I'm well into the 110-120 ounce range. (8 ounces is 1 cup)
I'm not sure thought that ANY of this will help me with the scale. My body is one of those where I do the right thing, and I gain weight. Eat ice cream, drop 2 pounds. But IDK I guess I look at it as a game, a challenge - and that's what I like.
***My husband has to lose a LOT more weight than I do --- 75 pounds at least --- so having him eat what I can't finish isn't helping him any. Had he said no, though, I would have definitely put the remainder of the burger in a container for today's lunch.
Progress as of today: 53 lbs lost so far, only -3 lbs to go!
Tonight's drinking-water-during-dinner challenge went well -- and no ice cream cake afterwards, as long as I go right upstairs after I'm done writing here. Tonight, I had only 2 glasses of water (2 cups) because I finished before I needed a third. This doesn't mean that I ate quickly, in my opinion, but just that I took less food.
BUT here is my problem: I got full and I still had food on my plate. What to do??? I feel that I cannot resign my lifelong membership at the Clean Plate Club (lol) -- especially with meat. With meat, I'm ever aware that an animal suffered and died so that I could have meat at my meal. So to throw out good meat is a sin. This is my strong belief.
Same thing happened at lunch, but I just put it back in the container I brought it in for tomorrow's lunch. I guess tonight's meat wasn't enough to really save. I suppose I could have put it in a small container to join with more meat for another meal... But at the time, I panicked. I didn't think this through, and I'm at the table with my husband and son, feeling very full and thinking, "Oh my gosh, what do I do with this meat???"
What I *SHOULD* have done is gotten up to have another glass of water.
It was literally a few more bites, so I just finished what was on my plate. Right now, about an hour later, I feel very comfortable - not stuffed or overfilled at all. BUT I think in the future, I will just put any leftover in a container for me to take to work the next day, even if I have to add to it, which is fine by me.
Progress as of today: 53 lbs lost so far, only -3 lbs to go!
i am also a member of the clean plate club which is not the weight loss club lol. the weightloss club would be the "mindful eaters" rather than "clean plate club..." i wouldn't worry about the animal suffering, etc....worry more about YOU :) if YOU are full, it's ok to stop... :)
it's so hard to break habits!
I foresee me using a lot of containers in the future, as I try to slip into this new habit. (smaller portions)
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Glad to see the number drop. It's always a huge boost to my motivation when I see it drop into a new set of 10's. The weight "129.5" just sounds so much lighter than "130".
Wow I didn't even realize I was in a new set of numbers (again; I've been here before). Cool!
bearcountrygg on 05/12/2018:
Congrats on the new numbers.....and happy to hear that you will get some alone time...we all need that from time to time. The water sure seems to be helping...it can't hurt!!!
I'll comment more about the water in my update tonight! And thank you!
Maria7 on 05/12/2018:
Congratulations! Hope you enjoy your free time this afternoon.
I did - it was quite nice :-)
Horn_of_plenty on 05/14/2018:
I love alone time also, not exactly sure why except that i enjoy a slower pace and time with my own thoughts.