Feast or Famine

In the past two weeks (which were Weeks 2 and 3 of our 12 week program), we have had a party at our house with around 15 guests, and celebrated a major holiday (Happy Independence Day). Feast or Famine? In addition, we had three power outages (really two, the second “only” lasted for an hour).
The second and longest of these shorted out the control panel of our new (as in May) stove!!!! We were unable to cook anything for about five days and subsisted on salads and ordering take out. We planned the party accordingly and had cheeses and crackers, and some homemade dips and spreads. This was actually quite handy as we were then in control of what was being eaten, and how much of it we actually ate. But there was no counting or thinking going on under the stress of hostessing… In addition, what we didn’t have control of was the fact that a wonderful friend brought five bags of Pepperidge Farm Cookies to our house, and that there would still be half a cake left when the party was over. The cake was an obvious issue and we through a big chunk of it away just to get it out of the house. I have learned that cookies are also a problem food. While I have portioned them off throughout the week and counted every devoured one in my records, I have also noted that I have consumed a good number of calories in cookies – and cookies are not a category on the food pyramid. This leads me to acknowledge that cookies are a forbidden fruit, and should be handled carefully.
There are other foods in my life that I have successfully eliminated. This past Lent I took it upon myself to give up Diet Coke. I actually gave up all soda, as I know myself well enough to know that I would replace Diet Coke with the sugary stuff without blinking and that would go nowhere good. I think I actually had withdrawal for about two weeks – where I was emotional and sleeping badly and cranky – oh so cranky. But I succeeded in breaking the habit and have not replaced my soda consumption with any additional caffeine – so it was a doubly good decision! I also go to sleep at 6 pm every night – NO – not REALLY. I do go to sleep easily (half a page into my nighttime read….) and usually pretty solidly – except for the new kitties who like to party between 4 and 5 a.m. And because of the success of the Diet Coke Extraction, I decided at the end of Lent to eliminate something new –– gummy candy.
Gummy Candy? Really? I know I know – how old AM I? But I love gummy candy – chewy, sugary, corn syrupy balls of fruity deliciousness – even when you can’t tell what specific fruit the candy is trying to taste like. And more than anything - sour gummy candies. If you have never tried them – Sour Skittles are so very yummy! But I don’t eat them anymore. I haven’t had a Skittle or Jelly Bean or Starburst or Gummy Livesavers with sour middle in months. And I’m okay with that. It’s actually really cut back on my spending money – I used to stop on my way home and get a DC and little bag of candy for myself for the drive. That can really add up. I should total what all I’ve saved since Lent and get myself a present.
Okay, back to the real stuff. Right after the party at least the top portion of our stove was made operable, and in honor of the 4th of July, and in honor of the fact that I was able to pick two jalapenos and several chili peppers out of our vegetable garden, we had an all American Feast for the holiday – tacos. We had them with homemade salsa and fresh lettuce. And they were delicious – which is good – because we made a huge batch of the taco meat and – well – must research whether we can freeze that. But again, we were able to figure out how much of what we were eating, and while I don’t think either of us tracked yesterday, we were both back on the wagon today. Then again, neither of us weighed ourselves today, so tomorrow could prove a reality check, but I think not. I have good feelings about tomorrow and I’m going to cling to them.

Update - (the next morning)
Total Weight Loss
D. Diva - -11
D. Doctor - -9

Thinking about "dieting"

Dieting is one of those words you aren't supposed to use anymore. "Lifestyle change" is the preferred moniker. And "lifestyle change" it is. It takes a long time to get this way - and its important to make peace with the fact that change won't happen overnight.

I've been reading a lot lately about food - stuff by Michael Pollan especially. I think he has great things to say, and I'm going to order "Food Rules". The Diva and I probably won't follow all of them, but we both realize that we fill our body with a lot of junk.

Tonight's junk, a cupcake offered as a gift. We split it. But, if I think about it, I'm not sure I really enjoyed it. It kind of left an odd aftertaste in my mouth, the cake was dried, and there was too much frosting. Its one thing to eat junk, but at least I should enjoy it.

Thats the hardest thing to think about is pleasure - I think I eat a lot of things for "pleasure" - but I think there are other emotions involved - so the pleasure is in the consumption or feeling, but not necessarily the taste.

I have a lot of misgivings about "dieting" which might be considered by some to be "resistance" or "rationalization" - but its more like replacing one kind of crazy food behavior (overeating too much junk) with another (counting everything). Still, it IS working for now. And I do need to make a change - I'm not happy with the way things are.

Who knows where this will lead, but at least its a start.

And the Journey Begins

Dieting Doctor and I are lesbians who celebrated our 17^th anniversary yesterday. We’ve known each other twenty years. Since we’ve been together, we’ve lived in 4 states, 5 towns, 9 houses or apartments. We’ve had 5 cars, four sofas, and surprisingly only 3 TVs. We’ve gotten three graduate degrees. We had three cats for most of our journey together, losing them one by one in the last three years. But we have two new little ones who bring us much joy.

In the midst of all of this, we have become very lumpy. Both of us have always been heavy. I, in particular, am a big girl, but in the past five years, I have gained some extra weight, and with more years on me (I’m in my late 40s), this has taken its toll on my ability to move around the world as I want to.

So we concocted this plan – a trip – a big wonderful trip to celebrate our 20^th anniversary in 2013. And to take the opportunity of this trip, we both need to lose weight, and regain the flexibility and endurance that such a trip will take by going into training for it. We are giving ourselves a significant amount of time to achieve this goal, because we both understand that we have to change many things about our lives, and that takes time.

To start with, we are following a program that was suggested to us by a doctor in one of our towns, in one of those states, in one of those other years we’ve been together – called the LEARN Program. The company that set up the LEARN Program is now defunct, but we’ve got the book, and have done it before. It’s a 12 week program that is organized around behavior modification. It involves tracking food and increasing activity and understanding how you eat and why you eat, and what foods you eat. We understand that this is just a jumping off point to the process, of course. Dieting Doctor would like to try Weight Watchers; I will do that if I don’t have to go to meetings. Nothing makes me feel queerer than going to WW meetings….

So here we go. We’re actually in week 3 of LEARN. We will be setting up appointments with our MD this week to talk this all out with him. And we will track our progress and experience on this blog.

T minus - 156 weeks

June 20, 2010

PROGRESS

Dieting Doctor - 6 lbs

Dieting Diva - 6 lbs