The Diet Naked Blog

Official Thursday Weigh-In

On this bright and shiny morning, I weigh 169.  Uh, yeah, that's the same as last week.  (Despite those FOUR OATMEAL COOKIES WITH RAISINS.  I ate them last Friday, one half at a time, with absolutely no self-control whatever.  My husband brought home a giant plate of big cookies that day and, well, that was a bad thing for me.  I have no idea what happened, but I crumbled in the face of those unexpected treats.  What can I say?  I'm a flawed human being.)

But where was I?  Oh.  I still weigh 169. 

It's weird, though, because I feel really fat this week, bloated and huge and really, as fat as last summer, though I am smaller.  It drives me crazy that my perception of myself as I move through the world can be so off.  My perception was inaccurate--at best--when I weighed 60 more pounds than I do now and though my body has changed, my perception is still wacky sometimes.

Anyway.  It's a beautiful morning . . . and I walked from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. even though my daughter woke me up at 4:00 a.m. with a wet bed . . . I changed it, she changed pajamas, then half an hour later, she crawled into bed with me where she proceeded to knee me in the back until 6:00 a.m.  I slept for ten minutes and nearly talked myself into standing up my friend.  If I didn't have that obligation to her, I would not have exercised this morning, that is a guarantee! 

But I did.  A walking buddy is a good thing.  And I'm glad even though I'm contemplating a nap of some sort.

Please check in and let us know how you're doing!

Buh-bye!

I ran into someone at 7-11 yesterday while I was buying a gallon of milk and getting my Big Gulp refilled.  I hadn't really looked around during my urgent mission, so I hadn't noticed the woman who said, "Melodee?" 

"Oh, hi!" I said.  "How are you?"

And she said, "Wow, you lost a lot of weight . . . " and paused in that way people do who want to know the details.  I said, "Yes, almost 60 pounds."  When she asked how, I said, "I gave up sugar." 

I really do forget that I look different to people now.  It's as if that fat decade of my life was a bad dream that I shook from my head when I woke.  Other people, though, see me more than I see myself and they can't help but be struck by the difference in my size and by the thinness of my face--just as I was always struck by my size and by the fatness of my face when I saw myself in photographs during that long decade.

Saying "I gave up sugar" really simplifies the changes that I've made in my life these past months.  I've made exercise a daily part of my life.  I eat vegetables every day.  Do you know how many weeks used to pass by vegetable-free?  I eat to nourish myself more than I eat to entertain myself. 

I'm a different woman now than I was last year.  Before, I was on a sinking ship, clinging to splintered wood, desperate for salvation.  Today, I stand on firm ground, sure of my footing.  And it all started back in April 2006 when I said good-bye to sugar.  That was the best farewell of my life.

Product Review: Metamucil and Fibersure

Fiber is good.  Fiber, in fact, is your friend, especially while you are changing your eating habits and losing weight.  As Dr. Arthur Agatston says in The South Beach Diet:

Fiber is the major factor that slows the absorption of sugar. . . This was proven not long ago in a scientific study in which half the subjects were given the fiber known as psyllium (you probably know it better as Metamucil) 15 minutes before lunch.  The other half had lunch without the psyllium first.  In the hours after the meal, the fiber group reported less hunger than the others.  As the day wore on, they ate less, too.  The reason is simple:  In their stomachs, the psyllium mixed in with what they ate and drank and slowed down the digestion.  Slower digestion of carbs, less insulin.  Less insulin, less dramatic drop in blood sugar.  Less of a rise and fall now, less hunger later.

He recommends having a spoonful of Metamucil in a glass of water fifteen minutes before eating to lower the glycemic index of any meal. 

Now, when I read that tip, I had no intentions of actually buying Metamucil and trying it.  Doesn't the very word "Metamucil" make you think of your grandparents and gritty additives in a glass?  (Maybe that's just me.)  But recently, the good people at Metamucil sent me a sample of Fibersure, a clear-mixing fiber supplement, and the Berry Burst flavor of Metamucil. 

The Fibersure has five grams of fiber in each teaspoon.  I tried it in a glass of water, fully expecting it to be unpleasant, but what a shock!  Just as it's advertised, it was "flavor-free, grit-free and non-thickening."  (And if you go to that website, you can get a free sample yourself.)  I am really quite impressed with it and will be adding to various baked goods to up the fiber content.  (Great way to get more fiber into the foods of picky kids, if you ask me.) 

The Berry Burst Metamucil tasted inoffensive (like Kool-Aid, I thought).  It has only three grams of fiber per one teaspoon serving.  I'm not sure that I'd choose to drink flavored Metamucil, but I suppose you could easily get a child to drink it if you were trying to get more fiber into a child's diet. 

All in all, I give a thumbs-up to these Metamucil products.

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While not paid cash for this review, I did receive both products free . . . though I guarantee I would tell you if I didn't like them.  (Special K Protein water, anyone?)

Disoriented

Tonight, I shopped for a swimsuit.  I bought one, too, which is remarkable--not that I'm looking forward to appearing in public in it, but compared to the last time I tried on swimsuits (two years ago), my experience was not horrible. 

Ha. 

Anyway, after I picked a swimsuit, I wandered around to check the clearance racks for dresses, grew disoriented and mixed up and then realized why.  I was in the plus-sized section, the place I've shopped for the past eight years and suddenly, I was in the wrong place.  I could actually shop downstairs in the regular section.

I've moved from XXXL and XXL and 18s and 20s right into an L and I'm still not quite used to the idea.

I promised tips on how to eat well . . . and frankly, I might fail you.  Hopefully, I'll be back with something riveting and low-fat to tell you tomorrow.  Anybody have any fantastic ideas or recipes for Memorial Day?

Mindless Eating on 20/20 Tonight

Tonight, Brian Wansink will be featured on 20/20 (on ABC).  Check it out.  I am a fan of his work . . . even though I don't own the book quite yet! 

And, if you miss the show, you can always check out the "Mindless Eating" website. 

Official Thursday Weigh In

Today?  I weigh 169.  Last week, the scale said 168, so this is a gain of a pound.  However, after being stuck at 173 for so long, I feel mighty fine about being 169.  (Did you like that little rhyme?  No extra charge for that.  You're welcome.)

I have whipped out the measuring tape so I can see if my waist is shrinking . . . would you believe that I had been keeping track on the calendar (in 2006) and then I threw away that calendar without thinking when 2007 arrived?  So, I have no record of what my measurements were before.  But right now, my thick waist is 38 inches . . . and the last time I measured it was 39 inches, so progress.  Small progress, but progress.  (Oh, look!  My waist used to be 43 inches!)

Time for you to weigh in.  Are you ready for a swimsuit?  Memorial Day is coming!  (Tomorrow:  strategies for getting through the long weekend without waking up with a greasy sugar-hangover on Tuesday.)

Navel-gazing

I delight in the size of my jeans . . . even if they aren't as small as size 12s in days gone by, they are most certainly smaller than the size 20 I had to wear a few years back.  (Here is an interesting article about the "widening of America.") 

Yet, I hate my spongy stomach with its criss-crossing map of stretch marks which show exactly where I've been.  (Pregnant twice, but worst than that, fat for ten years.) 

However, to be fair, I also hate my square fingernails and my right pinkie-toe.  And I'm not really thrilled about my crepe-paper eyelids or my sparse eyelashes. 

What I must keep in mind is that losing weight for me is not (just) about vanity, but also about health.  I started this journey because I wanted to live the second half of my life in a healthy body, one capable of climbing hills and gardening with a vengeance and walking as far as I want.  Using that criteria, my weight loss efforts have been a rousing success even if my stomach still grosses me out.

So my tummy will never be fit for a bikini, but my body serves me well.  I must be grateful for its utility and see beauty in its flaws, for they are as much as part of me as my thick curly hair and my love of fiction. 

Sentence of doom

One sentence accompanied me on my journey to fatness:  "I don't care."  I'd say this to myself when fishing around in the freezer for a pint of ice cream . . . I shouldn't have this, I'd think, but I don't care.  I'd purchase a bag of Pepperidge Farms Double Chocolate Milanos at the store (on sale, of course!) and think, bad idea, but I don't care!  (I'd eat the whole bag on the way home and if on the rare occasion, I couldn't, I'd stash the remaining cookies in my purse or the glove-box.)  When everyone was in bed at night, I'd suddenly remember the opened bag of potato chips in the cupboard and before I knew it, I'd have my arm elbow-deep into the greasy bag.  I don't care, I'd think. 

Only, I would care.  I'd care deeply when an event would arrive and I'd have nothing to wear because I'd outgrown my only pair of decent jeans.  I'd care a whole lot when someone from the Internet would suggest meeting and I'd shudder at their reaction when they'd see how fat I was.  I'd care when I went shopping and the size 18 pants didn't zip.  I'd care when I'd look around and notice that I was the fattest person in the room.  I'd care when I'd see photographs of myself looking bloated and unrecognizable. 

Oh, believe me, I cared. 

"I don't care" is one of those lies we tell ourselves.  Why do we do that?  Why do we dismiss reality so easily?  Why do we deny that that our actions have consequences that will matter to us when we are done with our feeding frenzies? 

I don't tell myself that lie anymore.  I know that I do care about the consequences of unrestrained eating.  I care about my health, about my body, about my appearance and about the size of my jeans. 

The next time you excuse your behavior with an "I don't care" think carefully.  Do you care?  I bet you do.  I know I do. 

I will not let my brain be bossed around by my feelings because my feelings have proven to be irrational from time to time.  I treat my feelings like I would a child who just doesn't know any better.  "I don't want to exercise," my feelings say and I say, "I know, but you have to.  You'll feel better when you're done."

And what do you know?  I do.

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If you haven't joined the CafeMom Diet Naked group, why not do that now?  You can click on the logo on the right and sign up.  Then join our conversation.  If you're already a member, check out the new questions I've posted.  I'm trying to get you all to chat over there . . . so help out a girl and start talking! 

Lean Plate Club

I stumbled upon the Lean Plate Club this afternoon while trying to figure out if Trader Joe's has discontinued carrying my favorite chocolate (Droste Pastille in a cute purple tube).  Alas, no determination about the chocolate, but I think the Lean Plate Club looks like a great source of information and inspiration.

Product Review: Fruity Cheerios

The good people at Cheerios sent me a box of this new variety of Cheerios so I could review it.  I have to say that I loved them . . . as did my children, who eat cereal as if it's their job.  (I only ate a few in the name of Research.)

This cereal is similar in taste to Kellogg's Froot Loops.  However, Froot Loops contain 15 grams of sugar per serving and 1 gram of fiber, compared to these Fruity Cheerios which have 9 grams of sugar and 2 grams of fiber.  (For you Weight Watchers out there, 3/4 of a cup of Fruity Cheerios has 3 points.)

The first ingredient in Fruity Cheerios is "whole grain corn" which is better than the first ingredient in Froop Loops (SUGAR!). 

All this to say, I give thumbs up to this cereal . . . although I personally wouldn't eat it (too much sugar, too refined, too tempting to eat the whole box one handful at a time), I would prefer that my children eat this than other more sugary cereal.

Also, it's pretty.

Modern Mom has a Fruity Cheerios Family Fun contest (deadline tomorrow . . . sorry I didn't tell you sooner) that offers a $500 grand prize.  Check it out!

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I was not paid for this review, but I did get my very own free box of Cheerios delivered to my door by the Fed Ex guy.

And here we are, wearing our Cheerios necklaces.