Another lesson

Today I helped my boyfriend move to a new apartment. It was all day lifting, climbing stairs, etc. I decided this called for a big meal that I wouldn't normally order.

I got a burger with bacon and onion rings.

And now there is a rock in my stomach and a fire around my heart.

So yeah. I would have been better off saving the points and getting something healthy.

Then again, this reminder of the costs of unhealthy meat bombs is maybe not really so bad...

Curses, fooled again

This morning I decided I was hungry before class started. Since the food cart didn't have much for fruit, I decided on some Raisin Bran Crunch. Bran! It contains bran! Healthy choice, surely.

I later looked up the points, counting on maybe five. Nope. Eight. And I was hungry very shortly thereafter.

Lesson learned. Don't be fooled by the health halo. You think I'd know by now.

It threw off my whole day, eating wise, but because I exercise regularly with Molly and a healthy stir fry dinner, I'm only a smidge over where I should be for the day.

As my former leader Doty said, if you're over the first third or half of the day, just stay on track the rest and you'll be fine. She always knew.

Happy Thinneversary to me

I started WW four years ago, almost exactly. It was right before Halloween, and therefore right before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Madness? Yes. But I still managed to consistently lose weight throughout the entire season. This makes me think of three things:

1. If I could lose weight for the first time in my life under those kind of barriers, what could possibly stop me now--when I know what to do and only have 15 pounds to lose instead of 55? I think back to that person and smile. I was so excited every week to see the first weight loss success of my life. It was the start of many transformations of physical and emotional identity very much for the better.
2. I have been a little hard on myself for gaining some of the weight back. I try to be kind to myself, understanding the obstacles this year has provided, but it's still easy to be frustrated with going off the rails. But the reality is, I'm basically still a healthy weight four years later! What I started four years ago (FOUR YEARS AGO) I have basically maintained. I hit my goal eight months after starting, and I have done amazingly well ever since, apart from this year's blip. That's something to celebrate. 
3. Lastly, this whole anniversary reminds me that even if I slipped, I'm here correcting myself before I go back to where I started. I have the power and control to determine my own success at this. Food doesn't force its way into my mouth. I determine when food goes into my mouth--and which food goes into my mouth.

Sometimes chocolate and cookies go in my mouth. And they always will. :)

Moving Down

I had a great weigh-in today. Better than I had hoped for sure. I have stopped weighing myself at home to avoid falling prey to the number obsession. That makes weekly weigh-in that much more of a surprise--hopefully a happy surprise.

A couple of things that made this week different from being up last week:

1. I tracked all but one day. It really matters--I tried to argue I could just do it in my head, but here I am, back to losing because I stopped tracking.
2. I wasn't an angel ALL week. It's more about just being good MOST of the time. I was pretty far off on Saturday (the non-tracking day), but it was a special day with special meals and social things. I tried to make dinner light and healthy so that lunch and dessert wouldn't be such a huge thing. It worked!
3. For my drive to/from Madison I got sunflower seeds. I get sleepy sometimes when I drive, so having something to snack on and drink is crucial. Sunflower seeds take effort, so I eat fewer of them and they keep me from mindless eating. Plus they are so dang small that I can eat for a long time and not eat a ton of calories. And they are pretty healthy, too, in moderation. 
4. I keep myself stocked up on Boom Chicka Pop light popcorn. Ohhhhhh. So so good. Four PointsPlus for a nice-sized serving. I linked to the lightly sweet kind, but I imagine the straight-up salt kind is good, too. I love this stuff.

So here's hoping for another week of being good, and going down at my next meeting. I still have five points tonight...what will I treat myself to??

Coming Right Back

Yeah....so it's been two years since I posted. I'm 15 pounds heavier, but I'm not blaming myself. I mean. I am. I chose to eat poorly. But it's been a hell of a year. Mom died, my beautiful mom. I took a little too much comfort in wine and junk food. I admit that. I just don't *blame* myself.

But now, I'm just ready to go back. I want these 15 pounds gone. I want to remember the wonderful tastes of healthy food, and to remember that treats are best left--as treats. I want to be the person who started this blog all flush with optimism, confidence, and easy acceptance of my new way of eating and living.

So I'm using this blog to hold myself accountable and to remind myself of the joy I felt two years ago.

Roasted Zucchini

I would never have believed I'd ever ever ever like zucchini. It's amazing how my tastebuds have changed since I stopped giving it a steady diet of salt, sugar, and preservatives. Of course, I still eat all of those things, but nowhere near as much as before. Now I try to incorporate good foods...like zucchini.

As part of my CSA (community-supported agriculture) program, I get a bag of fresh vegetables every other week. This last week contained two zucchinis, so on Saturday morning, I decided to make something of them. I didn't feel like an elaborate recipe, so I just threw together a marinade for them. It was amazing, if I do say so myself.

I used 2 tsp olive oil (one per zucchini), a generous splash of balsalmic vinegar, some crushed garlic, a few tablespoons of crushed onion, and some Trader Joe's seasoning salt. I coated it all and threw it in my toaster oven on the broil setting for about 30 minutes. When they came out, I added a little bit of regular salt, too. Dang, it was so good. I made myself stop after eating half of the two of them, just because I wanted to have two chances to eat it!

I took the rest to work with me on Monday. Because we don't have a microwave right now, I just ate them cold, and they were amazing that way, too!

Sometimes I think we make things so complicate, or we assume we can't do anything without a recipe or professional advice. Blah! I've learned that cooking and stuff is more fun when you put a little guts into it. A little creativity and imagination. A little carefree tossing together!

Also, I've been nutritionally angelic so far this week. Here's hoping it continues. Eep!

Grandma's No-Frills Labels

One of my favorite food-related authors is Michael Pollan. He wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. Both books have opened my eyes to the nature of the food that we eat...well, the "food" that we eat. Both books, but in particular In Defense of Food, provide a straightforward look at the increasing artificiality of the things we buy in the grocery store. The chemicals and artificial flavors and jam-packed ingredient lists.

Pollan's advice is that we eat food that our grandmas would actually recognize as food. That means whole foods like fruits and vegetables, basic yogurts, whole grains, etc. He also cautions against an overconfidence in the foods that seem real but aren't. Bread, for example, looks like food your grandma would recognize, but take a look at the ingredients list in most modern breads. There's a mile-long list of preservatives and chemicals there that would boggle the mind of dear old granny. Or yogurt. Grandma might recognize the food, but today's ingredients are artificial fruit flavorings, preservatives, and sugar (real or fake). Not simple whole yogurt.

I'm reminded of this because a friend just mentioned how a local convenience store has a section of moderately healthy snack options, which I LOVE. One of the items is a local dairy place's cottage cheese with pineapple. Like my friend, I was stoked to see this option. Real food in convenient form! Yay! But then I turned the container around and saw the ingredients list. It's full of high-fructose corn syrup and other junk. WHY?? Why can't you just add some damn pineapple to simple cottage cheese? Why mess with natural stuff that's delicious in its natural form?!? WHY?

The thing is, enjoying the occasional treat like that is perfectly reasonable and better than a candy bar by quite a fair distance. But the problem is that our everyday foods are just as loaded with hidden garbage that's unnecessary and potentially harmful. If nothing else, these products put a healthy halo around foods that aren't as healthful as they seem. And what happens, then, is that people get frustrated when they don't lose weight even by making what seems like healthy choices. It's not that they can't lose weight--it's that the "healthy" foods in our stores are often anything but. It's that we're tricked into eating things that won't help shed those pounds or keep those pounds off.

So, what's a healthy eater to do? Read the labels, look for grandma's favorites, enjoy artificial favorites in a moderate way, while keeping staples the staples of your diet. Keep convenience foods for the times when convenience is necessary and not a simple convenience. It seems hard, but it gets lots easier once you're used to it. (I'm still working on making myself used to it...)