Week #6: The Joy Of Cooking

[westernind]

>because the human body is a strange and fickle organism, and next week it'll be back to just half a pound again
That was an accurate prediction! But that few ounces has sneaked me back a fraction under 12 stone again and I'm not worried about it. Onwards and ...er... downwards.

'Known threats' for next week

Down to 20 points a day

... having gone below another weight break-point, so will have to cut out something, probably the snacky bar thing I usually take to work. It's essential not to feel hungry, so I'll have to put more effort into finding and making interesting free-food recipes. This week I have mushroom curry and roasted butternut squash soup. (I've just remembered we have some sugar-free jelly. Not very interesting, but it's a sweet hit.)
The hardest bit will be finding points to save when there's an eating-out occasion. But nothing coming up for a fortnight, the next time being 'Seconds Widows' on the 26th.
Anyway... what's the alternative? Staying this size - considered and rejected.

Tired and busy - three rehearsals this week

Well... if I waited to diet until I wasn't busy, I'd be waiting forever! Still need to look after Simon in the evenings, and prioritise making int'restin' food - so will cut down on other stuff. Bugger housework, for instance.

What happened last week

Home for a week after Wednesday, and I get to do all the cooking

Rather enjoyed it, regaining some of the cooking-fu that's leached away in the last couple of years. Did almost blip after baking what were supposed to be chocolate walnut brownies (but were more like chocolate walnut cake) in that I spent a good part of the rest of the day thinking about eating another one.
One answer is to just not bake stuff at home; but I'd rather face it down and eventually achieve a better relationship with food. And home-baked stuff tastes good. Another answer is to eat one, then put the rest in the freezer. And the mixing bowl goes straight under the hot tap. Yes.
Made banana muffins today. :-)

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Target: 10st 4lb Current: 12st 0lb To lose: 24 lbs
Previous weeks

Comments

[dragonzgrace.livejournal.com]

Now, if I remember correctly, and that's not very likely right now, you asked something about ideal weights and staying there? Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. Umm, trying to think back now to what was going through my mind. I can remember that I hit my top of the mountain, and was seriously tempted to keep going. Then I went on hols with twin sis and older sis. Older sis made a remark that I would have to buy a whole new wardrobe all over again if I reduced any further. Now, this is after I'd had to buy clothes that vaguely fitted about 3 times within 18 months, and was seriously running out of money and fashion sense. Then soon after I saw a picture of me at my littlest. Similar to the experience of looking at a picture of yourself at your largest, it is a deeply emotional experience. I realised that I was beginning to look odd - honestly! I was not looking right anymore. I can't describe it, I appeared to have reached the top of the mountain and was somehow slipping down the other side... basically, it didn't look right anymore. So I stopped.

Being from a DNA pool that is able to put on weight by simply imagining deep-fried brie, let alone inhaling it, I have a natural propensity to gain weight. I went through about 3 years-ish of barely bothering about my weight because it just seemed to stay where it was. But a mixture of stress, having a chef for a boyfriend and being too busy (therefore less physically active) over the last year and a half has taken its toll. Today I'm a stone heavier than I want to be. It's something I kind of thought might happen, based on nearly 3 decades of struggling with blobbiness. However, now I'm not so worried about it, and that's for a variety of reasons:
1. I know that I'm a routine person. If I can fix a routine of eating and exercising, I will lose the weight consistently.
2. If it takes me longer than I hope, that doesn't matter because I am a gorgeous woman.
3. Even if my weight swings up and down over a period of time, I will never - repeat - never - return to the state I was in back in 1995. My tattoo reminds me of that. It was done as a stake in the ground during the journey up that mountain. This far I have come. I will never return to that place again. If I return thus far, I know that it is time to stop, turn around and glimpse that peak, knowing that I will reach it. Why? Because I've done it before. And one step today is two steps tomorrow. No matter how many times I slip, it is at this point that I will always stop.

That point for me was 11 stone. Never any further back down the mountain. To climb a mountain we place down a stake to prevent ourselves from falling back down.

Where's your stake?

[westernind.livejournal.com]

This is so helpful!

Over the last year, my stake has been twelve and a half stone; that's the point at which I've realised I'm losing again and started to panic. That's not the final position, but I won't know where it is until I've got to the end goal. Base camp is being moved upwards.

One thing I'm doing is when clothes get too big, they get given away or thrown away. The effective stake position is "when my clothes get too small". I'm getting rid of the bigger ones because... I will never need them again.

(One exception is costume. Virtually none of my LRP costume fits anymore! But I'm not going to re-make it until I get to a size where the summit is at least in view.)

Dieting

[scary-lady.livejournal.com]

Hiya Roz

I have only come in LJ part way through your diet, but the mention of zero point foods suggests that you are doing Weightwatchers. Yeah? I suggest you talk to Auntie Em about what foods she is eating - she cooks and therefore may have extra recipes to keep things interesting for you. She is doing something right, cos she has dropped from a Size 18 to a Size 12.

Well spotted!

[westernind.livejournal.com]

Coo ta. Will definitely mail her to swap recipes!

I like the WW Cult (as opposed to any other Diet Cult) because it works for us - it's got me down from 17 stone, and it got Himself to lose six stone. There's something about diets that brings out the evangelical aspect in people though, and I try to stop this in myself.

Re: Diets

[scary-lady.livejournal.com]

Atkins is my diet of choice, despite the ongoing kerfuffle surrounding it. I am immensely chuffed at the moment, as I was weighed on Monday and I am still the same weight I was when I came off the diet in September. One of the major whinges about Atkins is that you regain the weight very quickly, but I suspect that the majority of this is due to people who do Atkins for only a couple of weeks and therefore do not change their eating habits longterm. I put 3 pounds on over Xmas period, but appear to have dropped it again without actually trying.

We are planning 2-3 months diet during the summer in order to drop another stone or so. The reason Atkins pleases me is that the prospect of this holds no doom or gloom, and I also know that it is almost certain to work.

WW seems very good provided you are intensely lawful. It provides too much choice and too many get out of jail free clauses for Jem - he would miscount all the time - but unsurprisingly it works wonderfully for Em.

[globaljen.livejournal.com]

MMM, licking the mixing bowl, that's a hard one to skip. As I am not allowed to at the moment (raw egg etc etc blah blah) it's a bit easier, but when my US friends send me posh chocolate fudge brownie mix via UPS i feel it impolite not to cook and eat them immediately - yeah, the stomach is willing and the will is weak ;) and i can feel virtuous in that despite being 4 months gone, i've actually LOST weight so far... perhaps not, now!
good luck with avoiding the naughty snacks, look where staying at home being virtuous nurse gets you - a compulsion to bake!!

[westernind.livejournal.com]

Hello!