The Diet Naked Blog

Monday Morning Determination

Yesterday, I felt as fat as a cow.  A pregnant cow.  Interestingly enough, my emotional response was to want to eat my way through that feeling, and while I did purchase a bag of chocolate almonds (promising myself to eat only a single portion of the three in the bag), I eventually ate all of them while driving my car around enjoying my "time off."  (I shopped and ran errands and then went for a walk on a lovely walking trail I discovered yesterday.)  I was so annoyed with my behavior.

I decided that perhaps I need to read You on a Diet for inspiration and a kick-start.  I think that will be my strategy for this week.  It's been a long time since I read Gallop's The Low GI (Glycemic Index) Diet, and maybe I need a little tune-up. 

I got on the scale this morning, telling myself I felt so fat I probably weighed 175 (!) which is fairly amusing if you think about last year at this time when I weighed more than 200 pounds.  Funny how our perspective changes.  (While trying on clothing yesterday, I was really disgusted by my body as reflected back in the mirror . . . I think I've forgotten how my 226.4 pound body looked and I've grown used to my smaller, though flabby body, and have begun to fixate on my "problem areas" like the roll of fat that persists around my middle even though my legs are quite slim.) 

Anyway, the scale said 171, which is not my lowest weight of all time, but still a 55.4 pound loss.  I had really thought I'd gained five pounds from how I felt walking around in my body yesterday.

I'm still fat, not as fat as I once was, but still.  Fat.  And I'm going to lose twenty more pounds, no matter how long it takes. 

Monday morning resolution.  Do you have one?

Official Thursday Weigh-In

Well, two days ago, I weighed 170.  Woo!

Yesterday, I weighed 171.8.  Boo!

Today, I weighed 170.8. 

How about you?

The raw truth

If you have an extra $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to consider this thirty-day program to lose weight.  Or not.

(This nifty bit of helpful information brought to you courtesy of Google, my preferred search engine.  I was trying to find some inspirational "before" and "after" pictures . . . which you will find on that particular website, if you poke around a little.  I was simply amazed, though, at the cost of that particular thirty-day program.  Do people really have that much extra cash floating around?  Are folks really that desperate?)

Also, although eating a completely raw food diet might be a healthy approach to living longer, who really wants to live that long in a world without toast?  And who cares what size your pants are if you can't eat popcorn when you go to the movies?

Eating when tired.

When I'm tired, I want to eat. 

Today, I am tired.  I had to wake up much earlier than normal . . . my fatigue reminded me of the days when my children were younger and woke me every two hours around the clock.  In those days, I could fall asleep rocking a child.  And while I was awake, I'd eat continuously.  Some women gain weight during pregnancy . . . I gained less than thirty-five pounds when pregnant and then put on more weight after the birth of the baby.  In fact, I gained weight with my twins . . . and they are adopted! 

But when you are tired and you can't nap, food seems like a solution, somehow.  The only problem is that food doesn't solve exhaustion.  Too much food will only make you fat and being fat will make you that much more tired.

When you are tired, you should sleep.  When that's tough to do because of circumstances, you just have to remind yourself that food will not give you the energy you crave.  It's not easy, but no one said life would be all sunshine and roses.  Sometimes, we just have to do what we have to do to get through the day.

I'm tired now and will turn in early tonight.  The boys have to be at school early all this week for state-mandated testing, so our whole schedule is topsy-turvy. 

When you are tired but you can't nap, what do you do?  Do you want to eat?

Secrets!

Ever wonder how some people stay slim without fretting and obsessing over every bite they eat?  Here's are "8 Secrets of the Naturally Slim" courtesy of "Prevention" magazine, via MSN's "Health & Fitness" website. 

Check it out and let me know which tip you like the best.  Personally, I like tip number five:  "They're creatures of habit . . . their diets are fairly predictable." 

Official Thursday Weigh In

So, yeah.  Um, hate to rain on the celebratory parade around here, but I gained weight.  I'm up to 171.8 pounds, which sucks, totally and completely, but that's what happens when you single-handedly eat a Costco-sized bag of pistachios over the course of a week while coping with the stress of being sick and premenstrual and adjusting back to normal life as the mother of four children, including two boys who turned 14 on Sunday (hello, Costco-sized chocolate cake) who happen to be DRIVING ME CRAZY at this very moment while they are supposed to be taking an algebra test.  (Lucky for all of us that this computer is not equipped with a microphone.) 

Sometimes, it's disappointing to be me.

On the other hand (thank God for two hands), I'm repentant and remorseful and the pistachios are gone and I will never again buy that giant-sized bag because clearly I've proven that I cannot be trusted around vast quantities of pistachios or chocolate-covered almonds.  What was I thinking?

I see this as a minor fluctuation, a temporary setback, a reminder that I do not have all the answers, nor have I won the war quite yet. 

Also, I'd like to offer a set of slightly used 14-year old twin boys to the highest bidder.

Oh, and now it's your turn to weigh in.  Go!

Now, with pictures!

Check it out . . . I added a little photo album containing a ghastly assortment of "before" pictures and one "after" picture.  It occurred me to that I really do need to get some flattering full-length photos taken.  Perhaps soon I'll get around to that!  (The kids are due to have portraits taken at the photography studio soon, too.)

Anyway, for now, click on that picture to the right and you'll see the "after" picture.  (My husband took it last night at Safeco Field in Seattle.)  All the photos are "clickable" if you want to see them larger. 

Happy Anniversary To Me!

So, today is the one-year anniversary of the start of my diet, or as I like to think of it, as the first day that I quit being fat.  You'd think that being fat wasn't such a great way to spend more than a decade, but for some reason, I just couldn't stop.  I counted on the reliability of food, on the dependability of a family-sized bag of potato chips and the ever-ready family-sized bag of Nestle Treasures (peanut butter only, please).  What's great about food, especially processed food, is that it is always the same, always available to spend the evening with me after the kids have gone to bed. 

What's not so great about turning to food to celebrate, commiserate or console is that innocent fun turns into an emotional dependency and, sooner or later, bigger pants.  At least it did for me.  That first can of Pringles eaten alone because my husband had to work late turned into a bunch of cans of Pringles and too many nights spent with my boyfriends, Ben & Jerry.  (Wavy Gravy was my favorite flavor, but it was doomed to the Flavor Graveyard.  Alas.) 

When I came down the stairs last year to face the scale (I weigh in the kitchen because my bathroom is carpeted), I faced more than a decade of food-abuse.  I faced the truth, the sad fact that using food to feed a soul will overfeed a body.  (My soul was ravenous, a giant black hole that apple fritters, even, could never fill.)  I faced the facts.  I was fat, 226.4 pounds fat, so fat that I had to lie down on my bed to zip up my uncomfortably tight size-18 jeans. 

But that was the last day of being that fat.  I decided to feed my body with reasonable amounts of healthy foods.  I worried that it wouldn't work and that having tried everything (Weight Watchers, the McDougall Plan, The Weigh Down Workshop, the PRISM Weight Loss Program, to name a few), that I'd try this, too, and fail.  And if I failed this . . . I'd never succeed.  Then what? 

I began this diet with hope mingled with terror.  I also faced public humiliation (as discussed in this piece about "game theory" as it relates to dieting).  Would I fail while the whole Internet watched? 

No one knew how much I weighed when I first posted the actual numbers on this blog.  For some reason, I thought I could trick people into not realizing how fat I was if they didn't know the numbers.  (As if they could miss seeing me heave my size 20 self around.)  As it turned out, speaking the truth publicly set me free.  I was fat.  Everyone knew I was fat.  I admitted it.  I stopped it.

I stopped buying snacks because I deserved them.  I stopped eating in secret.  I stopped eating sugar and its evil cousin, white flour.  I stopped hiding, stopped binging, stopped hating myself.

Today, I weighed 171 pounds, 55.4 pounds less than a year ago.  Twenty more pounds and I'll be at my goal weight.  I only wish I hadn't waited until I was 41 to wash the potato chip grease off my hands and ditch the fat for good.

One Year Later

Today is the 365th day of my diet.  I have completed the first year of the rest of my life . . . the first year that I quit being fat, one day at a time. 

I'll have more tomorrow about this momentous occasion . . . which really isn't much more than a comma in the long paragraph that is my life.

Is Cardio-Free the Way to Be?

I caught a bit of 20/20's program tonight which featured a segment called, "Is Cardio-free the Way to Be?"  Some guy named Jim Karas wrote this book called The Cardio-Free Diet.  (Incidentally, I looked on Amazon and it appears he also wrote a book called The Raw Foods Diet:  The Vital Gift of Enzymes in 1981 and Flip the Switch:  Lose the Excuses, Lose the Weight and Get the Body You've Always Wanted in 2004 . . . and, of course, in 2001, The Business Plan for the Body.)   

Now, I haven't read any of his books and I've certainly never met the guy.  But I do have to wonder why he comes up with a new plan every few years . . . if he's found the secret to lasting weight-loss, why a new plan, why a new book, why a new secret? 

You tell me.  (Hint:  To sell books.)

And then tell me if avoiding cardiovascular exercise makes any sense to anyone? 

(Hey, look, Jim Karas has a blog . . . and he doesn't mention that book about raw foods on his website at all . . . I wonder if he actually wrote it or not?)