05/19/2011 23:14
Still Cold, Still Wet
We got sent home early today. I was just as glad to not have to stay the last 90 minutes. I had had to wade in about 2" of water to get a couple of plants for a customer, and that soaked my feet. The rest of me was already damp. We had hail for the second day in a row, but luckily it wasn't large enough to do any serious damage to the green wares.
But OMG! I was chilled to the bone by the time I got home. I'm only now starting to warm up!
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/19/2011 02:06
On Paying Pipers
Once the excitement of initial losses starts to wear off, the challenges to our focus start to happen. Social occasions, cooking for the family, stress, BED urges—all offer opportunities to get off track.
We may be approaching out program with plenty of determination and confidence, which is good. There is a backside to it, though: We may experience a little bit of over-confidence. I'm talking about the kind that happens, not when we are sailing along smoothly with great portion control, good choices, and regular exercise, but when we allow ourselves a little "extra" at one time or another.
An extra 200-500 calories one day. It's easy to freak out at that point, because past history may give us cause to believe we're at a point where our whole plan might fall apart. If we're still very determined, we'll get right back to our plan the next day, but still the guilt and doubt fill our heads. We go to a weigh-in, fully believing illogically that our one little indiscretion will cause us to not lose, or worse, to gain.
We get on the scale.
WHAT!? I lost the most I've lost since I started this? WOOHOO! I'm Queen of Dietworld, Master of All That Enters My Body. I'm invincible! I have greater confidence than ever!
And then, no sooner have we left the weigh-in, than starts the completely irrational thought processes. Let me see. If I lost more weight than I expected, even though I didn't eat entirely the way I had planned, it's true—I've found Diet Magic! So if that one hamburger with fries during the week led to the best ever weight loss, resulted in more weight loss, I can do it every week! YAY! I can have my burger and eat it, too!
So we do it the next week, too, and we still have a nice loss. Eureka! I've found it! True diet magic! It must be—I repeated it this week, too!
This is where it starts to get dangerous. Filled with false confidence, the one burger a week becomes a burger one day, and an ice cream on another day. Still we're losing weight, so aren't we the smart one?!
You can probably see where this is headed. Our healthy diet plan that counts on a 500-calorie-a-day deficit to produce one pound of weight lost per week, is suffering death by a thousand cuts. We continue having a bigger meal here, a bit of this there, and a bite of something else. Those calories add up fast, and they hardly seem like anything when we eat them.
So what's going on here? Why did that one burger and fries produce such a big loss that week? Well, it has a lot to do with how metabolism works. One larger meal per week will tend to stimulate metabolism slightly for that day, and part of the next. If we cut calories again the following day, there is no noticeable effect for the week. In fact, since the guilt the following day usually results in our possibly eating a hundred or so calories less than we would have, and we might have thrown in a little extra exercise as well, it's a wash. It's the same effect people see when they use calorie cycling to break a plateau or stall.
The danger is when we assume too much. One day that's a wash doesn't mean that we can get away with it several days per week. If we continue down that path, eventually it catches up with us, as our good habits deteriorate before they had a chance to become established. That splurge makes way for other splurges. That bite of the kids' leftover cereal makes way for our hand in the box for a straight fix. That one Hershey's Kiss leads to two. The BLTs catch up with us. They always do. Guaranteed.
One good way to prevent this is to log every bite and drop that passes our lips. Before we eat it, so we are forced to think about it before it goes in our mouths. If we must taste food as we prepare it, do what those skinny chefs you see on TV do: Taste it and then spit it out instead of swallowing.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/19/2011 01:59
Breaking a Binge Cycle
As I have mentioned before, I have had Binge Eating Disorder (BED) most of my life. I could tell about two weeks ago that I was falling into the old familiar pattern of bingeing that I occasionally experience. I decided to do what I have done in the past to break those cycles, and it works. I'm not sure why.
Several years ago, I read an article that said a repetitive diet can be effective in breaking such cycles. I tried it, and it worked at that time.
So I tried it again starting last week, and it worked again.
For the last week, I have been eating the same menu, morning, Noon, and night.
I start the day with an egg on a sandwich thin, with a latté. At morning snack time, I have two clementines. For lunch, I have a tuna salad kit and a mix of raw veggies. Afternoon snack in a mix of raw veggies with a Coke Zero. Dinner is three ounces of meat with Panda Express Orange sauce, asparagus, and rice pilaf. Evening snack is Fage Greek yogurt with mixed frozen berries.
From the first day it was mentally soothing to know exactly what I was going to have that day and the next. Miraculously, the urge to stuff myself went away the very first day.
I'm not sure why it works. Maybe it's because knowing exactly what I was going to have each day made me look elsewhere for soothing activities. Whatever it is, it works for me.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/19/2011 01:49
My Exhausting Day
It feels so good to be home and relaxing where it is warm and dry.
My day started OK—for the first 20 minutes. I had just settled in to have breakfast when the power went out. The only good thing about it was that I had not yet taken a shower, so my hair wasn't wet. By the time I had to leave for work, I still had no electricity, so it's a good thing I hadn't planned to use the hairdryer.
Gathered my wild hair into a ponytail, put on a floppy hat, and called it ready for work. As I headed out the door, the electricity came back on. Nice, but too late.
Things were going pretty well. We even had a little sun now and then. And then the rain came in, and it got chillier. It rained for a while, and then it started to hail, thankfully for just a few minutes, while we all held our breaths, wondering if the perennials were going to be devastated. Luckily, the hail stayed small. By the time it ended, though, I was very damp and very cold.
I was able to hang in there until it was time to go home.
However, I didn't get much walking or activity in, because I spent most of the day standing in one place, cleaning plants. I would have liked to move a lot more.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/18/2011 03:00
Boundaries, Not Extremism
All-or-nothing diet extremism can derail us far too easily. Extremism is the approach that causes us to throw a whole day away after we eat one item that is an extra that we consider a cheat. We give up all hope with the tiniest mistake or slip, convincing ourselves that we were crazy to even attempt to do this thing at which we are convinced we will fail. The day can lead to a week, and before we know it, yet another attempt to manage our weight has slipped away.
Diet extremism leads to more negative self-talk, and more negative lies to ourselves about our abilities. We get so wrapped up in this that we find it nearly impossible to get back on track, and we make the same erroneous assumptions that got us in trouble in previous attempts.
Let's use the road analogy in how we approach our plan, keeping ourselves between the sides of the road instead of binding ourselves up with a narrow tunnel to squeeze through. Like traveling on a highway, the road will narrow or widen as we go, and we simply need to be a little flexible and aware of where we are on the road.
If we veer off a little close to the edges of the road, we need to be aware and alert to where the edges are. Bumping into the curb does not amount to a stuck-in-the-ditch crash landing. Even if we do end up in the ditch, we don't just leave the car there and abandon it—instead we just haul it out of the ditch, make repairs, and head down the same road. And just because we always crawled out of the ditch and turned around, donned a hair shirt and walked back the way we came in the past, it doesn't mean we have to do it this time.
We can look upon things like maintenance and or a celebratory meal as going through a little bit wider stretch of the road before the road narrows after the passing lane ends.
When having a special dinner, plan the day in regards to food and exercise, and create a realistic triptych. The three panels of the triptych represent the three major meals of the day. The road is narrow at breakfast and dinner, and wider at lunch, when the meal with friends will be eaten. Exercise is a nice long walk after lunch, already planned. The triptych is complete.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/18/2011 02:12
One More Down
Another very successful day today. On track with food all day long, and have a 1000-calorie deficit going right now. That's good enough to go out and have a glass of wine after the staff meeting tonight, if I'm not too tired. All of a sudden, this seems almost too easy, but I'll take it!
Moved a lot of stuff today. Now I'm resting.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/17/2011 17:08
Cultivating a Self-Fulfilling Prophesy
I'm a big believer in positive self-talk. If we can have a bad self image through negative self-talk, we can have a good one with positive self talk. Though we always seem to be more willing to believe the negative, the positive can get through. too. And what a difference it makes!
Someone asked me how long it took for the positive self-talk to start having an effect. For me, it was literally just days before I started feeling a lot better. I think it depends upon how often you turn those thoughts around, and how many of them you have in a day!
The first few days felt awkward, as I tried to think in the direct opposite direction I had done for so many years. Like Martha Beck says in her book, The Four-Day Win, after the fourth day of concentrated effort, it started to become easier, and I began to really believe what I was telling myself. I even had to force the direct opposite of those thoughts that tried to call my new voice a liar!
To help me along, I had postit notes all over the place (especially on mirrors!), reminding myself to cultivate those positives. Most of them were affirmations. On mirrors I had those that said, "I'm so happy I can see the beautiful person that is me." On the fridge, "I'm so proud of myself for making healthy choices today." In the car, "I go past drive-thrus because the healthy food waiting at home is one of the wonderful things I do for myself."
From time to time I do slip back into some of those old destructive thoughts—old habits die hard. I've learned to pay attention to the warning signals: The speeded up, self-centric negative thoughts,withdrawing from contact with others, being hyper-sensitive to remarks by wondering if I should take offense, and the biggest red flag of all, responding to the urge to eat when I'm not hungry.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/17/2011 17:04
Here I Go
Off to work this morning. Thankfully, the warming trend is starting a little early, and the forecast for the week is sunny a couple days early, too. Hopefully, the sunny will start even earlier.
I left my plants outdoors last night (except for a few very tender ones) to harden them off, and everyone looks good this morning. This cloudy weather will be good for the ones I transplanted yesterday.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/17/2011 06:22
A Very Good Day
I'm so happy that at long last, this seems to be getting easier.
I'm really glad I stopped taking the allergy meds. I'm finally starting to feel more like myself. The shortness of breath is easing up—whodathunk that taking Allegra would cause that? Within the three days after I stopped taking it, I lost a heckuva lot of water, too. My energy is returning, and it's easier sticking with my eating plan. I'm thinking that they upset my stomach and caused me to feel hungry when I wasn't. I still have to deal with the allergies, but dealing with the symptoms is a lot better than dealing with the side effects of those pills!
Today my jeans started feeling looser. When I was taking those pills, I was gaining a half pound per week. Within three days, all of those pounds were gone.
Tonight I had a few ounces of roast beast, rice pilaf, and asparagus. My snack was a little Greek yogurt with frozen berries. My deficit was big enough that I can have another little something if I feel like it. I'm drinking green tea to try not to feel like it.
I didn't get the lawn mowed. I did get the trough cleared out, and planted the pansies that were in it in four different places in the shade garden. I also got all of the geraniums planted, and a couple of the hot lips sage (soup's on, hummingbirds!). Also fished a dead squirrel out of the pool. (YECH!!)
Had a nice long talk with DSIL today. He offered his truck to me to make a trip to Home Depot for fencing materials if I want to do it on Friday. If it isn't raining, I'm going to get the things to make a new gate so I can tear out the old one that's trying to fall down. It will make more of the backyard accessible. I'm thinking of putting a pond in that area, but maybe not. I'd like to have a larger one, but I'm not sure I want to go to all that construction work.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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05/16/2011 22:59
It's 99% In Your Head
I have long believed that 99% of success at weight management is all in our heads. How we think about ourselves and what we believe. Tom Venuto's blog posed an interesting question today, one that he believes will change our prospects of success. Here is an excerpt:
"What have you believed in the past… up until now… that you thought was stopping you from having the body you always wanted? Be honest. Brutally honest. Get it out.
"Then, once you’ve done that, take a cold, hard look at what you’ve just written, and ask yourself: “was that REALLY holding me back? "Was it REALLY stopping me or was it just perhaps, slowing me down a bit? Was it just a temporary setback. Was it just self limiting belief? Was it a mere idea in my own head – and that’s all that’s been preventing me from achieving my dreams?”
"And finally, write down, right here, right now, WHY that will never stop you again."
Venuto also has a summer challenge contest going on, if you care to publicly post your answers to the questions. You can read about it here.
Posted By: Helen Wheels
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