The Diet Naked Blog

Need a Goal?

Check out this blog by several women who are planning to walk in the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk-a-thon.  The participants will walk 60 miles over the course of three days, a feat I find amazing and admirable, as they walk to raise funds for breast cancer research. 

Interested in participating?  Check out Colleen's blog and the official Breast Cancer 3-Day website, too. 

Glycemic Index Diet Summary

Here is a quick summary of the Glycemic Index Diet.  (The website is a British one, so some of the terms might sound unfamiliar, but the gist is the same.)  I have lost my weight (54 pounds, so far!) by following a low-glycemic index diet.  This diet has not only allowed me to consistently lose weight without pre-planning my menu or writing down my intake, but it has really transformed the way I eat food and has helped me make a true lifestyle change.

If you haven't settled on a diet yet, consider following the glycemic index diet.  And if you say, "I just can't live without potatoes," then allow yourself to have potatoes.  Choose a diet you can follow the rest of your life--and if you need potatoes, then make allowances and have potatoes.  If you're honest with yourself, you'll find that potatoes (or, in my case, fat-free popcorn and soft tacos) are not the reason you're fat. 

I was fat because of vast quantities of cookies, candy, crackers and potato chips.  I was thinking today of how I used to buy double-chocolate Milano cookies and eat the whole package while driving home (fifteen cookies!!!).  I mistakenly convinced myself that if no one knew I ate them, they somehow wouldn't make me fat.  Ha.

Appearing at a grocery store near you!

The Saturday before Halloween, I went up to Seattle for a photo shoot.  At long last, the issue of the magazine I've been awaiting has appeared on newsstands. 

And if you look on page 46, you'll find me (on the same page as Mariah Carey, which I guarantee you will never happen again!).  I'm featured as a former stress-eater who gained 75 pounds in the process of using food to deal with stess. 

I can't promise that the quotes contain words that I actually uttered, but the essence of the article is true.  (I also never said my mother "shoved" cookies in my hands--she lovingly placed them in my hands right before putting me to bed.)

Also, the name of my blog isn't "Diet Naked," but that would be a cool name, wouldn't it?  However, I am grateful for the surreal opportunity to appear in a national magazine (on the same page as Mariah Carey--did I mention that already?) and for the kindness of all the people involved in the experience from the editor to the writer to the stylist to the photographer.   (Click for a better view.)

Deciding

This is the time of year when people consider their tight waistbands and their double-chins and decide to make a change.  They vow to diet, to exercise, to lose weight once and for all.  It's especially easy to make such declarations now while you're still on this side of New Year's Day and you don't actually have to stop eating donuts for a few more days.

I made that decision--the decision to lose weight--last year at this time.  The only problem is that it took me until April to actually find success.  I welcomed the New Year with a secret promise to stop eating french fries.  Then I promptly forgot that promise the first time we wheeled into a fast-food restaurant.  No one but me knew of my decision, so it was easy to abandon.

When I finally grew sick enough of being fat (in April!), I announced my intention to change my life to not only my husband, but to the whole world through this blog.  I still remember how I trembled with fear when I typed my actual weight here.  As it turns out, that unveiling of my true, fat self was to be the beginning of the unveiling of my true, fit self.

I am so gratetul that my experiment in Dieting Naked worked.  Fifty-four pounds gone, twenty-two to go.  And 2007 will be the year I reach my goal weight.

Will it be the year you reach yours?  If I can, you can.   

FYI: My Other Blog

This note is for those who are regular readers of my other blog, Actual Unretouched Photo.  My blog host is installing a new server and consequently, I have been unable to access my blog for two days . . . it's completely inaccessible to everyone.  Hopefully, we'll be back in business tomorrow and all the ideas floating around in my head will sort themselves into coherent and amusing blog-fodder.  Stay tuned!

Party Animal

So, last night, my husband and I went on a sort of double-date with another couple.  They picked us up at 3:30 p.m., and we headed to Seattle for a night of fun and frivolity involving an IMAX movie, the Dead Sea Scrolls and dinner with a view of the ferries gliding across the Puget Sound. 

I weighed myself yesterday, a day early, because I knew that after such an event, my weigh-in this morning would be inaccurate.  (Dinner started at 8:30 p.m., maybe a touch later.)  I was right because this morning, the scale said 173.  However, I'm sticking with yesterday's weight of 171.8 as an official weight for the week.  Because I can.

Before we went for our date, I walked an hour through town, feeling quite virtuous, and ending up with mildly sore muscles. 

And adding to my virtue, I ordered salad at dinner . . . and what a delight it was!  It was a seafood salad with crab, shrimp, scallops and who knows what else on a huge bed of mixed greens.  Quite delicious and filling.  Perhaps a more virtuous person wouldn't have opted for the Salmon Chowder, but I have no regrets. 

This morning, I am utterly exhausted, mostly because my 4-year old has a mild cold and felt the need to wake me up twice in the nighttime--at 4:00 a.m., she finally crawled into bed between my husband and me and after a lengthy wiggling interval, slept.

Now's your chance to weigh-in . . . feel free to do so, even though I haven't updated all the stats yet.  I am still working on it, really!  It's your turn to speak.

Early Weigh-In

I pulled out the scale this morning, just to check.  I worried about the consequences of a few cookies, that Kringle and the popcorn last night at the movie ("Dreamgirls" . . . Jennifer Hudson was the true star and prompted the audience to burst into spontaneous applause following one song).

However, to my utter shock, the scale said 171.8, which is a loss from last week. 

I offer this anecdote as encouragement not to avoid the scale.  The scale just reports the truth and the truth shall set you free, whether you've gained or lost.  Avoiding the truth is how I managed to eat my way up to 226.4 pounds . . . I never wanted to admit just how fat I was or see those numbers on the scale.  But when I did, I was able to make a plan, take action and see results. 

You can, too!  If I, a 41 year old housewife with four kids at home, including two teenagers and a four year old, can take ahold of her life and lose weight, anyone can. 

Diet Wars on PBS.org

As it turns out, I'm not the only one "dieting naked."  I caught a bit of a show on PBS tonight called "Diet Wars."  Here is a link to a column written by the reporter who, in essence, lost weight by "dieting naked."  I thought the whole article reinforces what I'm trying to do with my own life and what I'm hoping to inspire you to do with yours.  Check it out. 

Also, check out "America on the Move."  I'm going to be exploring this website more in the next few days.  Soon, a new year will start, the perfect time to renew our commitment to exercise and healthy eating. 

The Day After

And so Christmas ends.  Did you have fun?  Did you eat cookies?  I ate cookies and even a piece of fudge.  I ate potato casserole and ham and washed it all down with Diet Coke (with a squeeze of real lime).  Not only that, but I ate Kringle, a Danish pastry shipped to our house from Racine, Wisconsin.

It was good.  Very good, as a matter of fact.

Then, I put on my walking shoes and headed out for an hour-long walk up and down hills in my town.  Today, I feel muscles I haven't used in a long time--those muscles have been neglected on my exercise bike, apparently!  The weather was perfect for a long walk yesterday--chilly, but not rainy, bright, even though cloudy. 

Today?  Rain.  But today I started my day with oatmeal and look forward to avoiding sugar and its evil cousin, white flour.  I'm back on track.

For while feasting is a delight and indulging is great fun, it's more delightful and exponentially more fun to be fifty-three pounds smaller this year than last.  I walked on the route I used to take, fifty-some pounds ago . . . and back then, I'd have to stop midway up the hill and gasp for breath.  I reminded myself yesterday while trudging up a very steep hill that it was so much harder when I carried FIFTY EXTRA pounds.  I tried to imagine carrying five 10-pound bags of potatoes while climbing. 

And so, back to hummus and Triscuits and raw almonds and Clementines.  Onward toward smaller pants and a life more satisfying than dozens of even the most perfect Christmas cookies. 

How my streak almost ended!

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I almost broke my Exercise Streak!  On Christmas Eve, we went to church in the morning.  I didn't want to exercise during the day and get sweaty because we had church again in the evening. 

So, after the Christmas Eve candlelight service, we came home.  We had nachos (I ate fat-free chips) and then I hurried the kids to bed at 9:00 p.m.  Then, I dragged out gifts and tagged them and put on bows here and there.  By the time I finished all the magic-making, it was 11:20 p.m. 

And I still hadn't exercised. 

I climbed on the exercise bike at 11:25 p.m. and finished at 11:45 p.m.  Not my most rigorous workout, but enough to maintain the streak! 

Whew!  That was close!