Another day, another dollar

I'm still alive! Work is kicking my butt again. Even though I promised myself only eight-hour days from here on out, sometimes it's just not possible. Considering the hours I've been working the last few months I'm probably working for minimum wage. Sad but true.

Although my manager did give me the "Parking Spot" award last week along with a $100 gift certificate for a dinner out. A nice gesture but I'm still working for minimum wage. The parking spot means I get to park in the spot of my choice for a month (next to the front door) with my name on the parking spot. I think this is the fourth time I've been given the parking spot in the last three years. It basically just tells you that I work too many hours.

I still haven't made it to a Weight Watcher meeting. This Saturday I've promised myself to go back to my favorite meeting and favorite leader. I'll have my official weighin, sit through the meeting, and once again start tracking my food. I'm just not ready at the moment to crack open the online food tracker and start tracking.

Lately I've been struggling with hunger. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the weather change, maybe it's just a problem I'll always have, but I've been feeling ravenous hunger the last few days. I'm cutting back a little. For example four ounces of chicken - weighed on the food scale - instead of eyeballing it and knowing it's really eight ounces. I've been really good at convincing myself that was okay because, you know, I work out so hard. The joke is on me.

I'm still going to the gym on a consistent basis, although not every day. Five or six times a week, last week was seven days, but I'm taking today off from the gym because of a very late night last night. I decided sleep was more important this morning.

Speaking of the gym, I was reading the Health magazine and it said if you're over fifty, you have do do a minimum of sixty minutes a day of moderate exercise...and that's just to maintain your weight! All because our metabolism is slowing down drastically now. I always do an hour, but not EVERY day. Sucks to get old.

Time to get going to work. I just thought I'd drop by and let you all know I'm still here, still struggling, but I'll never, ever give up!

~Diana
174.8

same old shit - different day

Still here, still chugging - even though I have had a few semi bad days eating wise - but have at least managed to not get anywhere near my "maintainance" calorie limit.

My weightloss calorie limit is 2017 cals per day

My Maintainance cal limit is 3017.

So, I dont want to be getting anywhere near that swine!

I have had a few days in the mid 2000's which is... okayyyyyy..... but I want to lose more, so I have to kick my butt, and not slack here.

Talk about not slacking - I walked 5 miles on Sunday. It felt like 10 though! It was the roughest walk ever. The pathway was all dibbeted with horse hooves and rabbit holes and great clumps of grass. You couldn't enjoy the scenery as you were too busy looking down at the ground so as not to break your ankles! Thankfully after 4 miles (!) the track levelled out and it was pretty flat and dry. Trouble was I was so buggered from the 4 miles walking over the devil's scaly back I didnt enjoy those last 1600 paces.

Rough.

I am still absolutely stuffed. My ass aches and so does the back of my knees and shoulders. I just have to put it down to the rough terrain and all those funny muscles moving in a tense wierd way. I never get so achey or buggered after such a walk. I am going to stick to roads for the next few walks for sure.

News: Common OTC Medications are Making Women Fat!

Research found that some Common OTC drugs can increase Weight Gain

Just like many prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs can increase weight by influencing factors such as appetite and fluid retention, cautions Jana Klauer, M.D.,weightloss and nutrition expert at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital's Obesity Research Center in New York City.

Here are some common OTC drugs that can increase your Weight

Cough syrup = hidden carbs. A single dose of liquid cold formula can contain 19 carb grams. Spoonable cough and cold products can pack a surprising high-carb punch: In one analysis, a leading liquid multisymptom cold remedy was found to contain 19 grams of carbs per dose- just shy of the 20 grams many diets allot for the entire day!

Using such a product even once can shut off your body's ability to burn fat for 24 hours, says Mary Vernon, M.D., a member of the Atkins Physicians Council. Since syrups are top offenders, ask your pharmacist about alternatives that don't contain sugar.

Painkillers = water weight. Pain relievers like ibuprofen and naproxen can blunt the kidney's ability to process fluids, triggering bloat that can rapidly pack on pounds, explains Dr. Klauer. To dodge the risk, consider aspirin. A study of the effects of common OTC painkillers concluded that aspirin didn't hinder kidney function.

Allergy meds = trapped fat. Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine, found in allergy and sleep aids, can mean double trouble. They can fuel overeating by blocking appetite-controlling histamine, warns Dr. Klauer.

Also, they can boost levels of cortisol, which signals the body to produce the fat-storing hormone insulin, says Dr. Klauer. Next time your appetite soars while you're on antihistamines, discuss the options with your doctor. If you're suffering from stuffiness, for example, a decongestant may provide relief without sabotaging weight.

Is your Rx the problem? A research review in Obstetrics & Gynecology has dispelled the fear that the Pill causes major weight gain, but not all meds are off the hook. If you're mysteriously packing on pounds and taking one of the drugs below, which were identified in a Consumer Reports analysis, ask your doctor about a switch.

Medication                                                                 chance of weight gain
Tricyclic antidepressants (Elavil, Norpramin, Norfranil)     > 10%
Diabetes drugs (Diabinese, Glucotrol, Micronase)            > 10%
Corticosteroids (Cortone, Cortef, Deltasone)                   > 10%
SSRI antidepressants (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft)                    4-10%
Osteoporosis drugs (Evista)

Alert: Plastic Containers can Sabotage Weight Loss!

Plastic Containers can Make you Fat!

Once heated, chemicals in plastic called phathalates and bisphenol A can leach into food. These estrogen-mimicking chemicals can throw hormones off kilter, triggering the storage of fat in the belly and thighs.

How you can avoid this:
To avoid problems, make sure food is cool before placing it in a plastic container (since leaching can start at temperatures as low as 45 degrees farenheight). And take items out of plastic containers before reheating them. Instead, transfer food to a ceramic or glass plate - these don't emit toxins when heated.

Gin and fags

I was out all morning yesterday until 2pm, and had walked - i dunno - but loads! I then invited my two girlfriends over for an impromptu lunch, and it was great. I made them my classic tomato sauce (tomatoes, fried in a little oil for ages, add basil and garlic, dump on pasta - easy!) and we had a nice time together.

They left at about 3:30 and then I cleaned the WHOLE house top to bottom and started cooking again because it was a welcome meal last night - Al's dad has come to visit him for the weekend. He brought with him some lovely wine and port, and beer and we did our best at getting rid of it.

As I knew it was going to be a bit of a soaked fest, I decided on making it a light-ish meal and went for wraps. I won't embarrass myself and say I made fajitas or Mexican because I just throw it together in my 'version' of a spicy chicken mixture and serve it up with sour cream, home made type of guacamole that's lighter on the hips, and some salsa.

It was the messiest dinner ever as the tortilla's we bought were absolutely shockingly bad - they were dry and snapped open as you rolled them! Total rubbish, so we ended up just eating them with knives and forks haha! I usually get the Old el Paso or the Mission ones, but this time I bought Discovery as they looked fine. I wont get them again thats for sure, they were just so brittle and really thin too.

Nevermind, it still tasted darn good!!

I had my daim bar treats too and came in at only 137cals over my limit for the day 

The endless journey

"The Endless Journey" might have been a better choice for my blog name. There are so many twists and turns in trying to figure out the right way to lose weight or even if there is a right way, that this journey is never going to end. It's a lifelong process trying to figure out what works. 

Some people figure out what works for them very quickly in the game, some people give up and never figure it out. Then there are people like me, learning something new every single day, that have some of the answers, but certainly not all of them.

Geneen Roth's book Women, Food and God provides a lot of the answers on what's wrong with me. It works if you follow her guidelines. If you don't, it doesn't work. It's just like every other plan, you can't just read the book, attend a workshop and then forget about it. You have to continue to work at it.

What I'm finding is that it's not easy to feel the pain instead of eating. In fact, it kind of hurts like hell. It's like ripping a band aid off of a wound and the scab sticks to the band aid and now you're in excruciating pain. I'm not sure how I feel about this type of introspection into my psyche. It's not pleasant and some days I'm just not up to it.

On the other hand, I suspect it's the only way I'll ever feel okay about food. I know this is a very slow process, undoing forty plus years of using food for comfort, not facing my reality, and it isn't going to change overnight.

I haven't posted since last Sunday, four days of silence. It was an odd week where I was extremely tired every day. Each night I came home and could barely move. I skipped the gym three days in a row due to pure exhaustion. Wednesday night I went to bed at 7:30pm and woke up at 7:30am Thursday morning, twelve hours of sleep. I guess I was tired.

I have today off from work, for no particular reason. I just felt like I needed a day off. I weighed this morning and I'm 174.6 which is oddly almost exactly the weight in my blog profile. I think that was posted a couple of months ago. Although I'm not gaining weight and I'm eating well (probably a little too well), I'm not losing weight.

I'll be honest, I don't like following Geneen Roth's eating guidelines. It's  a lot harder than it sounds. My least favorite guideline is #3. I find it almost impossible to just sit quietly and eat, without doing anything else. On Geneen's CD that I purchased at her workshop, she said you should try to do this once a day in the beginning, more often if possible, and at the very least a few times a week. It's not easy.

Geneen Roth's Eating Guidelines

1. Eat when you are hungry. (Truly hungry, body hungry not mind hungry)

2. Eat sitting down in a calm environment. This does not include the car.

3.Eat without distractions. Distractions include radio, television, newspaper, books, intense or anxiety producing conversation and music.

4. Eat only what your body wants. (Big difference from what your MIND wants!)

5. Eat until you are satisfied. (This is different than full).

6. Eat (with the intention of being) in full view of others.

7. Eat with enjoyment, gusto and pleasure.
I've decided on a different route to get to my goal weight. It's a hybrid of the above eating guidelines AND Weight Watchers. I realize this doesn't sound possible, but it really is possible. I can still do the above eating guidelines but also attend Weight Watcher meetings and follow their eating plan.
 
My goal is by December 31, 2010, lose ten pounds. That's not a crazy amount of weight in ten weeks, but it is the holidays which makes it a tiny bit harder than normal. I feel more at peace with this idea than just doing it on my own. I also know at my current weight that my weight loss is pretty slow, unless I starve myself. I have no intention of starving myself. Been there, done that and it doesn't work in the long run.
 
The endless journey continues...

Tips on How to Eat Well on the Road

Tips on How to Eat Healthy when you're on a trip or dining out.

1. Always ask for breakfast potatoes to be steamed, not fried.

2. Pack a bag of healthy snacks- fresh fruit, vegetables and brown rice- to curb the desire to stop for a big lunch in the middle of the day.

3. When dining at a breakfast buffet, fill up on fresh fruit and whole-grain cereals rather than pancakes and breakfast meats.

4. Order scrambled egg whites rather than whole eggs.

5. Stay away from fast-food meals.

6. Look for healthy restaurant outside your hotel, especially when the closest and most convenient choices are high-fat oriented.

7. Schedule one cheat meal every two days- not ever day- if you are traveling for one week or more.

8. Eat a grilled chicken breast via room service if you are hungry late at night. Protein trumps carbs as a low-fat, late-night snack.

9. Travel with a jar of organic peanut butter for emergency snacking.