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Showing posts with the label Confession

On Falling and Then Standing Back Up

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Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. --Winston Churchill Today on Facebook, Weight Watchers posted the following: “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” Over 200 people commented, some agreeing with the comment and others having difficulties getting back to the program. It doesn't matter what diet program one is on--it isn't easy staying the course every single day, day after day. Some days are just plain crazy busy, and yet others are filled with food traps, sometimes ones we set ourselves. Yesterday, I was hungry all day; eating healthy snacks didn't seem to help. I wanted something with carbs and fat, so, at Ruby Tuesday's, I ordered the cheddar mashed potatoes as a side. It wasn't a wrong choice, per se, but it wasn't a wise choice because I know that mashed potatoes, my Achilles Heel, kicks up the old nasty hunger meter. I ended up using 11 extra points--again, not wrong, but possibly unwise, given the upc

Diet Programs and Weight Maintenance

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I am the one who got myself fat, who did all the eating. So I had to take full responsibility for it. --Kirstie Alley Let me say this right up front: I have failed at EVERY diet program I have tried. Yes, in almost every case, I have taken off the weight successfully. That has never been the problem for me. I'm the Queen of the weight-loss program circuit; I have spent most of my adult life in search of the Holy Grail, the definitive answer to my weight problem. But I have never been able to keep the lost pounds off. I want this time to be different; I want to be part of the 5%-7% who keeps the weight off for two years or more. Who doesn't? None of us join a program expecting failure in our future. However, NONE of the existing weight loss programs really address weight maintenance. I believe that Weight Watchers comes the closest but is not quite there yet. Perhaps it's because there is little profit in maintenance programs. Diet programs make their

Thought for the Day--May 1, 2011: Obsession with Numbers

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I can prove anything by statistics except the truth. --George Canning Yesterday , I wrote about worry and hurry; today's subject is closely related: obsession with numbers and stats, particularly when it comes to weight and weighing. I must confess: I am number obsessed; the number on the scale can make or break my day. I'm working on this fault, but I'm not there yet, so this post is for me as much as it is for others. As I have said in an earlier post, we don't gain weight overnight. In fact, it often takes years to pack on 20 pounds, slowly sneaking up on us, until one day, we look in the mirror or at a photograph and exclaim, EGAD! When we're slowly gaining weight, we don't jump on the scale six times a day and fret over every 1/2 ounce we gain in the course of a day, and we don't allow the scale to define our day. If anything, we're in a complete state of denial regarding our reality. But when we're trying to lose, we get this idea that we shoul

Thought for the Day--April 28, 2011: Weight Watchers, Diets in General, and Writing Every Day

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There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a [keyboard] and open a vein. --Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith I started this site on January 10, one week after I restarted Weight Watchers (almost four months after I started my healthy life style). I had heard about the new PointsPlus and 0 points fruit and thought it was worth another try. After three months, I'm still here and going strong! Yes, as the above image reveals, I'm a Lifetime Member; my first stint with Weight Watchers started in 1973, which obviously dates me (LOL). I lost 43 pounds and made it to Lifetime status within six months, but I hadn't really changed my relationship with food. I still viewed "diet" as a temporary state, that once "the diet" was over, I could eat whatever I wanted. The old WW diet didn't help much; it was a draconian regimen, requiring at least 10 ounces of hard-core protein a day, very little bread, no potatoes or pasta, and a required servi

Thought for the Day--April 10, 2011: Don't Give Up!

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Today is the last day of my "No extra PointsPlus" week, with good success so far. I had had two bad food weeks* in a row, something I obviously need to work on. Why do I cave when a piece of Key Lime pie or a plate of Chicken Pad Thai is placed in front of me? Why do such foods tend to kick in urges to overeat and then kick in mini-binges? I don't know. Of course, the thin people all around me also accepted and ate the Key Lime pie, but with one major difference: THEY ate only part of it. They drew a line in the pie and stopped eating it. I ate the whole thing, right down to the blob of whipped cream (and it wasn't a small slice, either). Like 99.9% of the human population, I'm a work in progress, and my Achilles Heel happens to be food, in particular, bad carbs, sugar, anything crunchy and fatty, etc. By the way, I have never met the perfect .1%; I'm sure they exist, but they must live in another realm, not accessible to you and me (LOL). Okay, so why I am I

Thought for the Day--April 7, 2011: Just for a Week...

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Last week, I was at a 4-day conference in St. Petersburg. Except for Thursday (torrential rain and tornadoes), the weather was lovely: perfect postcard blue skies, low humidity, and just-right temperatures. I had a good time, probably too much fun with the Key Lime Pie and an extra-large plate of Chicken Pad Thai, which I polished off. And then there were the accidental French Fries, which arrived instead of the salad I ordered. My mistake: not sending the fries back right away. I ate about half of them. That episode triggered a mini-binge later that night. It seems that whenever I eat too many simple carbohydrates, it kicks up that ugly hunger beast... And, of course, then I feel physically lousy and guilty. So this week, I have decided to NOT use my extra PointsPlus, not to punish myself, but to reset my hunger index, somewhat out of whack, back to where it was a week ago. I am NOT starving myself--that never works for me. Instead, I am concentrating on eating whole foods (Power Foo

Thought for the Day--March 18, 2011: Avoiding "Pressure Feeders"

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Totally avoiding pressure feeders can be difficult, if not impossible, but you can lessen the damage they can cause to your efforts. A "pressure feeder," a friend, family member, or co-worker who knows you are trying to make health and dietary changes, insists on sabotaging your efforts by pushing treats and junk food at you. They will insist that you must try what they offer and will try to guilt you into giving in: "Oh, you're so thin now; surely a little bite won't hurt..." "I made this just for you..." "You're much too thin already; you need to fatten up a bit..." If you don't want to eat the treat, simply politely decline. All too often, however, pressure feeders will make a big deal of your diet and may even poke fun at your efforts and blow it all out of proportion. The best tactic: change the subject ("How about those Orioles...?"). If this person insists on hammering on this subject, politely ignore him or he

Thought for the Day--March 7, 2011: Back on Track

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No matter what has happened in the past, getting on track today is what's important. Confession: I did not track my food during my trip abroad. I could have (although it would have been difficult), but I made the choice not to. So what to do now? Press forward.

Thought for the Day--March 6, 2011: Home! And a Confession...

We returned home today from Macedonia. All told, it was a 23-hour trip, if you count waiting in various airports for connecting flights and driving home from Dulles (in pouring, torrential rain, no less). We left Skopje at 3:00 a.m. (9:00 p.m. EST) and arrived at our doorstep at 7:00 p.m. EST. On our United flight, we were fortunate enough to be assigned seats behind the crew seats, so we had TONS of leg room. About every hour, I exercised my legs (also, we wear compression socks during long flights--uncomfortable, but supposedly good for preventing embolisms). A confession: I ate two pieces of airline peach-cherry cake. I swiped my husband's piece when he was asleep (he doesn't like fruit, so I wasn't really "stealing" it from him). I don't know why I ate two pieces (one would have been enough), except out of boredom during the interminable flight. It wasn't that good. Tomorrow, back to tracking...

Thought for the Day--February 25, 2011: Shopping and Eating Out in Skopje

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Pir-V in Skopje, Macedonia __________________________________ Don't forget to take outside walks. The treadmill may be convenient, but it can be boring as well. In Skopje, walking is such a pleasure--lots of places to see. Today, we went to the center of Skopje and visited some of my favorite shops in center city. One of my absolute faves is Pir-V (now renamed, but I can't remember the new name): A superb collection of antiques, bric-a-brac, Yugolav relics, books, medals and more. Find it hidden slightly away in the big empty courtyard to the northwestern corner of [City Gallery in the square] InYourPocket.com They also have a small shop, recently opened, in the Turkish Market. I bought a stone necklace and bracelet and a lovely textile that has gold threading woven throughout. We also ate at a lovely mall restaurant called Anatoljias, where they serve outstanding "skara" (grilled meat), both tasty and nutritious. I ordered marinated chicken on a skewer. One of the s

Thought for the Day--February 18, 2011: Breaking Out of the Perfection Trap and a Confession

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Teach yourself how NOT to be perfect. In other words, it's better to accomplish some of your goals than to fail horribly at all of them just because you cannot accomplish them perfectly. If you wait until something is perfect, you will likely wait a very long time. Confession: This is one of my shortcomings; I'm still working on this. Which reminds me: I need to get cracking at publishing my memoir : it will never be perfect, but it can be published. ;=)

Confession: Not Eating Enough

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Yesterday's lunch: Tuna steak, onions, and snow peas. I also added a Magic Pop. Total PointsPlus = 4 See recipe below _________________________________________ I wish I were perfect. Since that is an unattainable goal, I might as well fess up when I screw up. These posts can be found under the label (in my Thought Cloud) "Confessions." I believe that we can all learn from each others' errors, so here goes. Yesterday, I ate a lot of vegetables and fruits--which, on the surface, sounds like a good thing. However, I ended up with 6 leftover PointsPlus for the day and no appetite for them, so I didn't bother to eat them. I thought, "What's the harm?" Today, I found out: when I woke up, I noticed that I felt incredibly tired and achy. It could be that I'm coming down with a bug, but I suspect that I missed some important nutrition by not eating those PointsPlus foods. And because the PointsPlus Program is formulated for optimal health and nutrition w

Memoir Madness: Driven to Involuntary Commitment