The Diet Naked Blog

Official Thursday Weigh-In

Well, no change here.  Still at 175.6. 

How about you?

The XL Sweatshirt

The weather here in the Pacific Northwest has been delightful or frightful, depending on how old you are.  The children have rosy-cheeks and damp shoes from playing outside so long, but the grown-ups are not thrilled with the icy roads and cold temperatures.

This morning when I got dressed, I reached for a sweatshirt, a hoodie I bought last January for the Superbowl.  (The Seattle Seahawks played--and were robbed, but that's another story.)  Anyway, when I went shopping for sweatshirts for the whole family, I circled the racks, searching for one I would be comfortable wearing to church since our whole congregation wore outfits to support our team.

I finally settled on a size XL . . . a man's size XL.  And I felt like a parade float, huge and ungainly in my gigantic sweatshirt and my extremely tight size-18 Eddie Bauer jeans.  At least the sweatshirt hid the painfully tight waistband.   

So today I reached for that sweatshirt because it's cold here, even inside. 

And--glory be--this sweatshirt hangs loosely . . . over my size-14 jeans.  The sweatshirt is way too big, as a matter of fact. 

Sometimes I forget that I lost fifty pounds . . . but this XL sweatshirt reminds me of that fact.  What a difference a year makes!

Contemplating What's Left

The more weight I lose, the more I realize that I will never again see my twenty-two year old body reflected in the mirror.  I might see that weight again, but time and fat has had its way with me and I have the stretch marks and squishy belly to prove it. 

I wish that losing weight were as simple as whittling off the extra pounds as a wood-worker carves wood into a statue.  Unfortunately, my body looks less like a deliberate carving and more like a balloon which has been blown up to its limit and then set free to flutter around the room before coming to a stretched-out rest on the ground.

I am a giant stretched out deflated balloon.  I am elastic pulled too tight, too long, suddenly released.  I sag and I droop.  And I don't care.  Much.

I care when I examine myself closely in the mirror, when I finger the jagged edges of fat and pregnancy-induced stretch marks which criss-cross my belly.  But I don't care much when I zip up smaller pants and when I feel the structure of my bones when I turn over in bed. 

I'd rather be a normal-sized woman with the sagging skin that reminds me I was once fat than a fat woman who worries what she might look like when the fat melts away and leaves the unmistakable looseness of skin in its wake.  I'd rather have wrinkles on a thin face than two double-chins on a fat face.  I'd rather grab leftover skin than a mound of fat on my body. 

I will never again be twenty-two.  I will never again have a twenty-two year old body, unmarred by the years and by my folly. 

But I will rejoice at goals met and at reminders of my past and at the wisdom the years have left behind.  (And I rejoice at a smaller behind, too, for that matter.)

Weighing Daily

I admit that I weigh myself more often than once a week.  Sometimes, I just want to reassure myself that I didn't magically gain back fifty pounds overnight.  I keep my scale in the kitchen, though, because I have wall-to-wall carpet in my bathroom and bedroom, so it's always kind of funny to stand by the kitchen counter as I weigh.

Anyway, here is an interesting article about the merits of weighing yourself every day.  Weighing myself more frequently than once a week does seem to work for me.  I like the immediate feedback the scale gives me, even if it does fluctuate due to water retention and other factors.

What about you?  Do you just weigh once a week or more often?  Does the number on the scale make you want to eat in celebration or despair?  Or is it just information to you?

A Post-Thanksgiving Report

Thanksgiving:  the day of the year when you spend three hours cooking, twenty minutes eating and an hour cleaning up.  At least you do if you are me and you have four kids under the age of thirteen! 

I started my day with oatmeal, as usual.  I made stuffing with 100% whole-wheat bread, making it a low-glycemic index food.  We had corn souffle', (a decadent dish involving butter, eggs, sugar, corn and cinnamon), green bean casserole, sweet potatoes (which contained an indecent amount of butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows), rolls, and, of course, turkey.  I put four things on my plate:  turkey, whole-wheat stuffing, and small servings of sweet potatoes and corn souffle'.  Oh, and olives. 

I had a small second helping of sweet potatoes and another bite of corn souffle'.  Then I put it all away.  I served pumpkin pie to my kids and pecan pie to my husband.  I had a bite of the pecan pie to see how it turned out since it was a new recipe. 

I considered walking a few miles to my mother's house with my 4-year old, but then the rain started up again and I decided we'd drive.  My daughter and I left the menfolk at home and visited with my grandmother and mother and my brother and his wife.  I said no to pumpkin pie, but ate a few nuts.

Last night, I had a generous serving of Crustless Pumpkin Pie topped with sugar-free Cool Whip.  I didn't finish it--who knew that I'd actually hear my stomach say, "Enough," if I listened hard enough. 

I exercise last night, as usual. 

And thus concludes this year's edition of Thanksgiving. 

Today, I left my house at 8 a.m. to shop.  I was in a huge hurry (trying to avoid seeing my 4-year old) and didn't have breakfast.  I didn't bring anything to eat, either, which was unfortunate.  I spend the morning shopping (even standing in line for half an hour at Toys R Us to purchase a single toy!), and then saw a movie at 11:00 a.m.  I ate popcorn, as usual, at the theater and boy, was it good!  (The movie, "Stranger than Fiction," was pretty good, too.)

After the movie, a little more shopping.  At about 3 p.m., I thought a soft taco would be good, but I only ate half and realized that I wasn't really very hungry.  So, I stopped eating it and threw it away.  I THREW AWAY A PERFECTLY GOOD SOFT TACO!  And I lived to tell about it!

Tonight, I had leftover whole-wheat stuffing and a slice of cold turkey. 

And I exercised. 

I am confident that I--and you--can get through the next month without gaining weight and quite likely, losing another three or four pounds.  Maybe more.  You never know. 

This will be the first Christmas in many years that I don't use the season as an excuse to eat too many cookies, to gorge on too much chocolate and to eat as if the New Year will never arrive.  I think I'm going to like it.

Official Thursday Weigh-In: Thanksgiving Edition

Today I weighed 175.6, which is a total loss of 51 pounds.  Hooray.

Weigh in when you have a chance. 

Meanwhile, I truly hope you have a wonderful day of giving thanks and savoring every bite you choose to eat!   Happy Thanksgiving!

Mindful Eating

The Today Show featured a segment today about mindful eating called called, "Why we don't realize we overeat."  I thought this was a timely reminder of how we can triumph over food.  The article from the website says, "We all do some mindless eating on occasion. But if you’re having a hard time losing weight, then it’s time to develop a plan to break the habit of mindless eating. This involves recognizing external and internal influences over your eating.'"  Check it out if you need just a little more reinforcement before coming face to face with a pecan pie.

In other news, I finished 100 days of consecutive exercise!  Hooray me! 

Also, I stepped on the scale today (a day early) to find that I've lost 50.6 pounds now.  I weighed 175.8 this morning.  I only have 25.8 pounds to lose before I reach my goal.  Last weekend, I tried on size 12 pants and jeans--I bought the pants.  The jeans fit (THE JEANS FIT!), but I didn't love how they looked, so I didn't buy them.  BUT THEY FIT! 

Unless you have ever worn a pair of (at least) size 20 jeans, you don't know exactly how amazing that is!

Tomorrow, I'll be cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner at my home for my family of six.  (No company this year--my sister is hosting dinner at her house for her in-laws and my 100-year old grandmother insisted on going to my mother's house.  My brother and his wife will be there, too.)  I intend to pay close attention to what goes into my mouth tomorrow while I spend the day in the kitchen.  I'll have my normal oatmeal breakfast, then leave a big bowl of baby carrots on the counter just in case I feel the need to pop something into my mouth! 

Happy pre-Thanksgiving Day to all of you!  May you have a lovely day and may your pants still zip up when the day's done. 

Just Say No

Hey, don't forget!  You can always say, "No, thank you."  You know what I'm talking about.  When your great-aunt offers you a slab of pie with a thick layer of whipped cream, you can simply say, "No, thanks."  And if anyone has a problem with that, you can remind yourself that that is not your problem. 

(For more on this topic, check out this blog entry.)

Let's practice. 

"No, thanks."

"Oh, I've had enough."

"Thanks, but I'm done."

"No."

"Thanks, but no."

See how easy that is?

Brown Rice Pudding, Exercise and A Book

I'm baking brown rice pudding at this very moment.  I substituted Splenda for the little bit of sugar in the original recipe in Jane Brody's Good Food Book.  I have always loved the recipes in this book.  Jane Brody emphasizes whole grains and minimizes sugar and fat but the recipes are normal food, not "diet food."  A couple of weeks ago, I made some oat bran muffins that even the kids liked!  (They are not muffin fans, which bewilders me.)

At any rate, I'll let you know how the pudding turns out.  If it's good, I'll share the recipe.

I finally remembered this afternoon to move my 18-pound turkey from the freezer to the fridge.  I bought two turkeys, so far, and may buy another one.  You just can't beat the price of turkey at this time of year.  And even though people associate turkey with Thanksgiving and Christmas, I like to make turkey at other times, too.

Today marks my 99th consecutive day of exercise!  (And when I say "exercise", I mean aerobic exercise mainly.)  Even on my most rushed day, I fit in thirty minutes on the exercise bike.  On a normal day, I ride for 45-minutes.  I alternate the "fat-burning" setting with the "intervals."  To exercise my mind, I'm also reading Henry James' Portrait of a Lady, which at this point, annoys me, even as it stretches my brain muscles.  (Isabel Archer seems to have no sense, if you ask me.)

With that, I think I'll head upstairs and sweat and read and finish my 99th day.  Later, pudding!

Feeling Sad

While driving home last night after spending a glorious day alone (shopping, seeing a movie, not talking to another soul), I realized with a start that when sad feelings bubble to the surface, I no longer push those feelings down with food.

And so I have felt sad more than usual lately.  I had attributed my funk to hormones and the rainy weather and a particularly busy stretch here at home, but I think the truth is that I'm just processing emotions without the assistance of my old "friend," food.  And without food as a shield, feelings dig a little more sharply into my soul.

So, I'm sad.  That doesn't mean I need cookies.  It just means I feel sad.  To feel sad is to be human.  It's all right, even if I cry a little for no discernible reason.

To feel sad without shoveling chocolate cake into my mouth is a triumph.  And that makes me happy, even while I'm sad.  (Frankly, it also makes me feel a bit crazy to be happy and sad simultaneously, but that's all right, too.)