I'm liking this plan---it strikes me as about the right level of difficulty. Today I ate 2,329 cal with 21.3% fat. You'd think that would be easy--it is, after all, quite a bit of food. It is NOT EASY for me, but it IS something I'm willing to work with and experiment with and learn from---I feel as though it's possible--a very different feeling from any other diet plan.
Breakfast was fine and dinner was fine and lunch ought to have been fine---it was picture perfect beautiful! Today is president's day so I had time to really make it good. I had one of those cup of soups, a roast beef sandwich on a sourdough muffin loaded with veggies, 1/2 cup of the spinach dip with brocolli spears and 13 wheat thin chips, and grapes. I wasn't all that hungry when I started eating, but I was much hungrier when I finished. It took more than an hour for lunch to "hit" and fill me up. This is a problem with snacks too---left to myself I eat loads of snacks--from boredom mostly but also because I simply love food and the act of eating. It doesn't matter if I'm hungry or not, or if they fill me up or not, because there is always more. Every diet I've ever seen, including this one, tells me that I should snack (though not the way I like to snack)--the idea being that frequent small meals keep one's metabolism stoked. I don't know how my metabolism responds, but if I'm hungry between meals it generally takes a whole lot more than a snack to fill me up. If I'm not hungry a snack serves as an appetizer and leaves me hungrier. Often, like today, I wind up eating my snack along with my meal. We'll see how tomorrow goes--I planned quite a high calorie day (2838 but only 21.5% fat. If I don't eat all I planned all the better). According to the book this level of calories should be just fine--it just seems strange to put that much food into a "diet." I'm thinking it really should be fine because left to my own devices the breakfast and dinner would be about the same, but lunch would be bigger and there would be some seriously high cal snacks plus several raids into my work chocolate stash.
The thing I really loved about today's plan was the CHERRY PIE. This was great. I planned it (481 cal 125 of those from fat). I made it (real reciepe from Betty Crocker. And I ate it--I budgeted for a full 1/6 of that pie. I love that I could fit this into my plan. This wasn't some weird receipe and the portion was what I wanted it to be. I truly hate "lite" desserts that have you divide a 8 x 8 pan into 32 servings (or even 16!). Give me a break.
Losing weight in spite of myself.
I began this blog in February 2011 as a way to help me not quit trying to lose weight, and to learn a few things. It's been an interesting and powerful experience. It certainly confirms what I've long suspected--that although I am a genuinely happy cheery person in the main, I am NOT a happy cheery dieter. I DETEST losing weight. I resent being overweight in the first place and I am a virtuoso in the art of self-sabotage. And YET--I'm doing it! I'm fighting and kicking and EATING all the way down, but the weight is finally going down. The plan I was following in February was a half-baked one largely based on wishful thinking. I gained a little weight and decided to get real. I knew I couldn't just join weightwatchers or count calories or do any one plan and expect to be successful. I decided if I was going to bother to make the effort to lose weight I was going to throw everything I could think of at the problem. And so I do. My real "Day One" for this blog is April 1, 2011. I joined weight watchers, I joined caloriecount.com (awesome website), I read the blog losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com religiously, I keep this blog faithfully, I joined the health programs sponsored by my insurance, I use the principles from overeater's anonymous, I use my church's 12 step program as well, I subscribe--and use--Healthy Cooking Magazine.
The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.
The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.
There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.
Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!
The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.
The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.
There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.
Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!
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