Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Moving along...

So, I have kinda, sorta, in a way, partially pulled it together. A bit. :)

That sounds super wimpy, but it's all I've got right now so I'm hanging on with both hands to the little accomplishments. My biggest struggle these days seems to be portion control, and I'm still having a hard time with that. Last night I made chicken enchiladas for dinner, which sounds diet-bad but I make them relatively low-cal. I had a nice salad on the side and a reasonable portion of mexican rice. All in all, not too shabby...until I caved and had a second enchilada. And then half of a third. And a ton of chips and salsa.

SIGH.

But, I didn't eat anything after dinner, so there's a small victory. One thing I've decided is to give up jelly beans for the entire month of May. (Side note: I have become seriously addicted to Jelly Belly beans. Like, going to Anderson's to get a big bag of bulk Jelly Belly's at least once a week for the past few weeks, and then eating them all within 24 hours. It's a sad but delicious addiction that is NOT helping.)

So my husband thinks he's temporarily fixed the treadmill...at least good enough for me to use it without using the incline feature that I've been loving lately...so later today I'm going to do a nice run/walk. Just the thought of working out again gives me hope that I'll be able to jump back where I need to be soon. My goal for May is the same as it was for April, getting back under the magic number of 125 again...and then hopefully this summer I'll be able to finally reach my ultimate goal of 120, but we'll see. One thing at a time, Missy. One thing at a time. :)

Side note number two: getting back in the groove is so much harder than just living in the groove. Why can't I just stop being so stubborn and insisting on eating junk like a spoiled child? And why oh why must bad food taste sooooo good? WHY CAN'T BROCCOLI TASTE LIKE ICE CREAM?!?! We can put a man on the moon, but we can't make veggies chocolate flavored? ;-)

8 comments:

  1. arrrrgh!!! I keep losing my comments!

    Long story short, look into gluten and carbs in general -- I'm becoming more persuaded that the lower-carb folks are right. Not eliminating carbs, but reducing them instead of them being the biggest thing on the food pyramid. I don't miss or crave the extra as much as I thought I would. And I feel more satisfied, more full, eating more protein and good fats.

    Roasting and stir-frying help broccoli taste more delicious... same with other veggies -- and a nice bit of good butter not only helps the body absorb the veggies' vitamins, but sure makes them taste good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You know what Marcy? I've actually been thinking about going low-carb lately. The problem is, I'm a huge carb eater and I know I couldn't keep it up for long, so I'm kinda like, why bother?

    Giving it more thought, though. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not to worry -- I'm really the same way -- honest! I started small -- more protein at breakfast. Eggs some days, or yogurt with nuts and fruit, or just add some good nitrate-free bacon to the pancakes.

    Then I gave up white and brown sugar for Lent, allowing myself to still use honey and maple syrup (the real thing). I don't use artificial sweeteners, and haven't tried other natural sweeteners like stevia or date sugar or anything.

    There was no cereal in the house that didn't have sugar in it, so I had to go all of Lent without cereal. That was a challenge. But it really helped me to vary breakfasts a lot.

    What I liked about the Lent thing was that it was a fairly long time, but a definite time that had an end -- so it wasn't like looking at a forever and ever commitment.

    Maybe you could try the low-carb thing for a month or two and see how it goes, with a definite idea of returning to normal afterwards unless it goes really well -- which is a very different mindset than having a definite idea of continuing unless it goes badly.

    One thing I think matters a lot is to get as much of your food whole as possible -- I confess we make boxed Jiffy corn muffins and store brand mac-n-cheese, but just about everything else these days we make from scratch -- pancakes, biscuits, bread, salad dressing, main dishes... we didn't arrive at all of that in a day, of course -- one thing at a time.

    The reason I brought it up, though, is that low-carb processed / refined food is still processed / refined food, and I think the processed / refined stuff is a bigger issue than the carb thing.

    Maybe instead of severely or drastically reducing your carbs, you could choose one to give up for a time, like I did with sugar. Or white flour. Or just reduce them a little bit -- one less bowl of cereal each week.

    I've also been getting more into older ways of preparing grains -- soaking my oatmeal with warm water and a bit of buttermilk, making bread with soaked flour, sprouting some grains, that sort of thing. I used to have a sourdough starter which was fantastic for english muffins and which I never had much success with for anything else. I might try again someday.

    Let me know what you do, if anything; but do take courage from one carb-lover to another, that I honestly don't miss the extra as much as I thought I would. I actually sort of dread spaghetti nights! I pile on the cheese, and make a meat sauce, and if I have time I make the pasta, because homemade is made with eggs. (Got a pasta machine last Christmas -- woo-hoo!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. And by the way? I am terrible with portion control, too. I keep reminding myself that it IS definite progress that I am becoming more aware of how unnecessary the second helping (or extra large helping) is, and how it usually doesn't taste as good, and makes me feel yucky, and so on.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOL. Missy, I could have written that same post! We can do it!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amen to all Marcy said!
    B/c of the kiddo's blood sugar problem, we started eating way less processed foods and carbs. It has made a HUGE difference. Less hungry, less often. It really helps your blood sugar to stay more stable, so you won't get as hungry (or get hungry as often). So much easier to make good decisions when you don't feel like you're starving!

    I can not stress enough the power of taking it one step at a time. Take one sustainable babystep in the right direction. A key decision for me was that if I could not keep it up long-term (aka. "forever"), it was not a step I was willing to take. That's helped me to not make rash decisions--"No junk food ever again!" (Yeah right.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Missy,
    Girl, I get it! This week I bought Lysa TerKeurst's book, Made To Crave...Satisfying Your Deepest Desire With God, Not Food. It is very convicting. I've decided to look at this losing weight/changing eating habits/exercising more as a way to draw closer in my walk with the Lord.
    Please don't think I have it all together. I don't. And that really stinks. Sigh.
    I'm drinking more water, I've used Stevia--which works well for me in iced tea. I'm not a snacker....the only real weakness is ice cream. As the weather gets warmer, I long for it more. UGH.
    I need to get off my duff and exercise again. I've gotten in a rut. DOUBLE UGH.

    ReplyDelete
  8. In warm weather, often the ONLY thing that sounds good to me is ice cream! (I know people often recommend fruit as a substitute, but it's just not the same... )

    ReplyDelete