And in this particular blog she showed a dress that I absolutely fell in love with.
Adventures in Weight Loss
Saturday, January 7, 2012
I Need Your Help
And in this particular blog she showed a dress that I absolutely fell in love with.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Colonoscopy…a Diet Aid?
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Respectable or Just…
Monday, October 31, 2011
Long Time No Blog…
Ok, I realize that saying “long time no blog” is the understatement of the year, since it’s been well over a year since I’ve taken pen to paper or more literally, finger to keyboard in an attempt to post something. And I’m not quite sure what finally motivated me to come back to this. Ok, I do know. My husband and I recently went to a Halloween Party with my friend Jesse. During which Jesse continued to make reference to being “Fat and Happy.” Jesse was referring to a blog I wrote about that subject. He LOVED that blog. Truth be told, I think Jesse is the biggest fan of my blog. He thinks I’m hysterical, and a “great writer.” Naturally I will forever adore him for those words alone.
But, it has been far too long since I’ve blogged, although I wish I could say it’s been far too long since I’ve obsessed on my weight. That seems to happen whether I write about it or not.
In the past year lots of things have happened. I got a job, a contract job that lasted 10 months. Since I was working for the state, there was no additional funding to keep me on, so I had anticipated joining the ranks of the unemployed yet again. But alas, the job fairies were good to me, and I landed yet another contract job, for another 8 months. While I’m still too new at this job to discern if I actually like it or not, I do have to admit I am LOVING the 15 minute commute!! Sure beats the 45-hour commute I had at my last job. But, I did leave behind some very good friends at the last job, in addition to a certain sense of comfort and security there. But mostly I miss my friends. Plus, as you can imagine, I hate being the “new chick,” which is where I am right now. But, in this rough economy, you gotta do what you gotta do. So, I will stick it out and hope for the best. I do think I need to start looking for a permanent job, though. Not wild about contracting. The money is GREAT, but I’m not really that good with change, so I very much don’t like looking for a job every year.
But, let’s not get off topic here. This blog is about food, self-image, and all things diet. So I know what you REALLY want to know is, where am I diet-wise? Well, ironically, I’m probably almost exactly where I was when I wrote my last blog. But true to form, I also lost about 20 pounds, and then gained it right back.
I do want to confess that I did a diet I am not proud of myself for following. It’s called the HCG diet. You take this stuff, and limit yourself to 500 calories a day for anywhere from 3-6 weeks. I did one six week round and lost 25 pounds. I gained most of it back, then did another round and lost some again. I can’t even remember the numbers. The last 3 week round I lost 17 pounds. After that I started gaining again, and true to form, I gained back ALMOST all of it, yet again. So, I broke down and went back to my tried and true way to lose weight…Weight Watchers. It’s kinda like an old boyfriend the way I always go back to it. It works, it’s there for me after I have dallied with other diets, it takes me back, no questions asked, and it does its best to keep me on track. Wait a minute; I do not recall any old boyfriend being like that!! Perhaps that’s the way I would like to remember my old boyfriends.
So far I am doing ok. Not fantastic, but good, acceptable. I convinced a friend to join with me, which is always a good thing for me. Plus, it’s nice to see her once a week. Now, SHE’S doing phenomenally well!! So when she whined about her .8 loss last week after her stellar first week loss of 7,
Anyway, I imagine this blog is not one of my best efforts, but I did want to at least make an attempt to get something out there to get me back into the routine. Hopefully I will have lots of new fun things to report, including some really good recipes I am coming across.
If any of my readers (and I so hope you’re still out there!!) has any comments, feel free to comment away. I love feedback, but only if it’s glowing
Monday, August 2, 2010
Trigger Foods and the Women Who Love Them
Here’s an example: I recently watched the movie “Couples Retreat” with my husband. There was a scene where the couples were instructed to take off their clothing leaving them in their underwear. All four of the women had perfect bodies as they stood in their bikini looking underwear. The men, however, ranged from not too bad, to downright fat. Not one of them looked hot, like ALL the women did. I pointed this out to my husband, who didn’t find this observation nearly as interesting as I did.
Anyway, on to the topic at hand. I have been dieting for the past five weeks. It’s a very restrictive very low calorie diet. I’ve lost weight, which is good, but naturally I am still obsessing on how much I still have to go. But, that’s not the topic of today’s blog. Today’s topic is about trigger foods. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, then you must not be a three time veteran of Weight Watchers like myself. Let me explain via a website called Fitshack:
Trigger foods are any foods that trigger you to overeat and/or binge. They are foods that you just can’t get enough of; one bite is never enough and one helping isn’t enough. Trigger foods can also lead you to overeat on other foods that initially you weren’t even thinking about eating if you feel guilty for eating your trigger foods in the first place! Some people could have just one trigger food category like ice cream, and others could be triggered by anything sweet, salty, or fatty.
So I am asking my readers to come out of the woodwork and tell me what their trigger foods are. I have several, mostly in the “carb” family, while I have friends who are totally addicted to sugar (you KNOW who you are, Susan!) But I will start off the confession:
Hi, my name is Donna, and I am addicted to carbs. Some of the particular items that torment me on a regular basis are as follows, and not necessarily in any specific order:
- French fries
- Chips (preferably the baked variety, but Jalapeno chips are my ultimate favorite, and they don’t come baked)
- Pasta
- Rice
- Mashed Potatoes
- Pizza
- Ice Cream
Truthfully, there are probably 20 others that are just not coming to mind at the moment, but these are the most predominant, for me.
French fries: OMG I could live on nothing BUT! I adore them. I guess I have a love affair with potatoes in general, cause I love potato salad, baked potatoes, twice stuffed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, potato chips. Yeah, perhaps I never met a potato I didn’t like. There’s a burger place that I like to go to JUST for their sweet potato fries. They overcook their burgers (I like my meat still mooing) so I order their chicken sandwich, with melted cheese and then I eat ALL of the sweet potato fries. YUM. My mouth is salivating, just thinking of it.
Chips: I originally listed this as potato chips, but beneath that I included tortilla chips. And you know, let’s not forget those veggie chips I always sample at the “healthier” food stores. I could sit down with a bag of family sized chips and EASILY eat the whole thing. If I manage to save half the bag for the following day, then I am doing well!
Pasta: Oh baby…come to mama!! I love it!! I don’t care if it’s a veggie pasta, white pasta, wheat pasta, any kind will do!! And almost any sauce over it will also do. I don’t discriminate when it comes to food! I will tell you this, when I was successfully following Weight Watchers, there was recipe I tried with elbow macaroni and lean hamburger, and tomatoes. I can’t remember exactly, I guess it was sort of a diet beefaroni (a non-diet version my Mom used to make from scratch!), but I recall eating the entire 6 portion casserole in less than two days. After that, I realized that I could no longer have pasta in my house. If I chose to eat it, I would have to order it at a restaurant, and not bring home ANY leftovers.
Rice: Well, it’s pretty much the same thing with rice that it is with pasta. I thought going from white rice to brown rice would make it less…palatable, but not so. See, I am not a fan of plain rice, white or brown. But I love, love, love any kind of flavored rice. My mom used to make two varieties of fried rice, which were not really “fried rice” but they sure were good, and come to find out VERY fattening as well. She also made Spanish rice, which I also adore. Now I make a garlic brown rice which is pretty tasty, but whenever I make it, I want to eat the entire pot of it. So, needless to say, I don’t make it much anymore.
Mashed Potatoes: I don’t know, doesn’t this sort of fall under the French fries category? While they come from my same beloved potato, I still see them as totally different dishes. There’s something amazing comforting in mashed potatoes. And much to my husband’s surprise, I am more than happy to eat mashed potatoes with absolutely nothing else. He, on the other hand, will ONLY eat mashed potatoes if accompanied by gravy. In fact, I kinda think he pretty much uses the mashed potatoes as a vessel in which to contain his gravy. Personally, I can’t stand gravy. I find it nauseating. I think gravy may be, perhaps, the only fattening food I find distasteful.
Pizza: Seriously, what more is there to say besides…pizza. The warm, crust, the melted cheese, the sauce, and the toppings of your choice. My ideal pizza is pepperoni and onion. But my husband doesn’t care for that, so we never have it. I pretty much like a pizza with a lot of toppings, and I am perfectly happy for those toppings to be all veggie. Despite my adoration for all carby things, I still do like my veggies.
And lastly….ice cream, how do love thee, let me count the ways. I have had a lifelong romance with ice cream. While it’s not a relative of my bready, potato-y, carby other loves, it still ranks right up there with them. I like desserts. Truthfully, I like to bake them more than I like to eat them, but I do like them. Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t kick a chocolate mousse layer cake out of bed, but I would always opt for ice cream over cake or cookies. I’m pretty sure it’s a family addiction. I remember Sunday drives with my family. These drives were ALWAYS a quest for the best ice cream places in the greater suburban Boston area. This was led by my Dad. If he had his way, he would have eaten ice cream every day of his life. Hell, he would have probably been happy to eat it at every meal too! But I remember the hour long drives in the country to try out his latest homemade ice cream stand find. We had lots of local chain ice cream as well, but I know he was happiest when he found one of those perfect homemade ice cream stands.
And thus, my life long love affair with ice cream began. Both my sisters are the same way. I even recall one of my sisters telling me about vivid dreams she had about the ice cream going down her throat. You know, I have a vivid memory as well. I was in the fourth grade, and we had an assignment to write a paragraph describing ourselves as an inanimate object. I wrote about being an ice cream cone, and I was melting. That was the very moment I knew I wanted to be a writer. Somehow, it just doesn’t surprise me that my ultimate career goal in life is intertwined with food, and a trigger food no less!
Ok, now it’s your turn, tell me what your trigger food is. And any other information about said food that you wish to share!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Meanwhile…it’s been kinda tough to try to be funny and entertaining as I usually am in these blogs. Ok, as I am in general. But I am hoping just the act of writing, and putting it out there for everyone to read, may help to motivate me to post more blogs.
I do have to admit that four separate people have asked what happened to my blogs, and I was very flattered to know that some people are actually reading them, and more than that, enjoying them.
Here’s a secret…I am embarking on a new diet adventure. But, I want to make a little headway before I reveal the details. So, hopefully I will be able to regale you with some interesting info on the weight loss front soon.
In the meantime, I just wanted to fill you in on what’s going on. Let you know that I am still alive and blogging, although perhaps not quite at my best just yet.
Here’s another secret, I am sort of at low point right now, weight-wise. My weight is higher than it has EVER been! I am beginning to think that unemployment does NOT agree with me. And the other part of this secret is that I am not wild about being unemployed. While my last job may have been less than ideal, there were certain benefits I derived because of it. I made some great friends there, I gained some valuable experience, and earned enough money to pay at least some of the bills.
Now, however, I am ready to move on. Ready to take on new challenges and adventures. I am not adverse to finding a job both in my field or perhaps in another direction. So, remember, if you know anyone who wants to hire a slightly chubby but VERY talented writer, please send them my way. Ok, but did I happen to mention VERY talented writer?? Ok, just trying to drive the point home.
So, have you been wondering what I’ve been doing since I’ve been unemployed? Well, it’s not the list of things I had planned to do, that’s for sure. I have not cleaned out one drawer of my bureau, or any closets. I do have to admit that I went through a brief period of cooking and baking (which may have more to do with my additional pounds than I care to admit), but I have STILL not pulled out my sewing machine and made all the nine million Christmas gifts I planned to create and give to all my family and friends. Oh well, perhaps they will just have to settle for my usual tin of cookies. Although…I don’t recall any complaints last year, except for a few groans about weight gain. Still, some of those homemade ornaments would be nice too.
I have been looking for a job, scouring all the job boards and sending out resumes. I have also been networking my brains out! I joined a professional organization, and was talked into becoming a board member. That has actually turned out to be a very good thing for me. I am the Director of Public Relations, and I am having some fun with it. So far I like the creativity of it, and I look forward to the social aspect of it as well, something that was severely lacking in my last job. And who knows, perhaps this may turn out to be a good career path for me. One never knows, does one?
But let’s get back to the issue of dieting and weight loss. Food has always been a huge source of comfort for me. Well, except for that brief period when I actually enjoyed exercising, cause then working out did calm me down somewhat. But, since I’ve been home, I think my hobby has been food. Need to cut that out before I can’t fit into a door, thus the reason I am embarking on a VERY strict diet. Ok enough for now. I want to post this, and I promise more details to come about my latest diet adventure!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Let's Get Physical
I remember the dreaded mandatory gym class. And one of those experiences still haunts me. I don't recall the name of the game, but we as students followed the commands of the gym teacher kinda like a musical chairs sort of thing. The last one to follow the command was "out." I remember one particularly humiliating experience, where the sadistic gym teacher had me paired with a small thin boy, and she ordered us to do the "piggy back" command. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to support my bulk, so being that he was one of those smart geeky kids, he jumped on MY back. That was perhaps the beginning of the humiliation concerning my weight. So, with an experience like that under my belt, you are probably beginning to understand why I was not naturally inclined to do anything physical.
During my final semester at college, I agreed to take a phys ed class with my friend Maureen. The deal was Maureen took an English class with me, and I took a phys ed class with her. Since I was an English major, I had to take a class for English majors, while she merely needed to fill a core requirement. So, being the good friend that she was, she took a Major American Author class with me, and I took a basic exercise/aerobic class with her.
To be honest…I didn't hate the class. I didn't love it, but I don't recall hating it either. Plus, I HAD to go! I wouldn't let something as simple as a phys ed class ruin my grade point average, so I never skipped the class since attendance was the only thing we were really graded on. You know what, in my four years in college, that was the ONLY phys ed class I ever took.
After college I took the occasional gym class with my sister who worked at the YMCA and therefore got me in for free. And I recall joining a gym once called "Woman's Word" in an attempt to keep my weight down. I remember pouring myself into a leotard and tights for those aerobics classes. Funny to think back on that. But it was the 80’s so I guess leotards were in!
Somewhere along the line, I gave up on all things physical, and settled into an incredibly sedentary lifestyle. This lasted for years, and many, many pounds!
During my last "real" WW attempt, I came across something that motivated me to exercise like nothing else ever could: Activity Points! I remember thinking the people at WW were truly ingenious! They motivated me to exercise with food, or the promise of MORE food!! Based on my weight and time spent exercising I was allowed to eat more food. I LOVED it! It really worked for me. I then started walking!
After getting into a semi-regular walking routine, only to allow myself to eat more, I finally realized I actually started to enjoy those walks. I especially liked the early morning walks, when it was kinda cool and quiet outside. Somewhere along the line I added music to these walks. That made the experience even better! I can't tell you how much I grew to enjoy my morning walks with John Mayer. He and I had a regular date, and I actually started to love it!
I had my Saturday morning routine, get up, have coffee, head out for an hour and a half walk. When I came home I would shower, go grocery shopping, then clean the apartment. When I think back on it, my husband had it pretty good, cause he would sleep through the bulk of that, until I got to the vacuuming part. But walking in the morning used to give me so much energy, I got all my chores done early, so he didn't have to any. Yeah, life IS pretty good for him. And, I would go through the same routine on Sunday morning, except for the cleaning of course.
I kept this up for several years. Somewhere along the line I stopped walking, though, and started going to the gym. After all, my husband made me join the gym after we got married, and he even dragged me there, kicking and screaming for the first year of our marriage. Eventually he got out of the gym routine and thankfully, so did I. But, in an effort to burn more calories in less time I moved from the outdoor walks to the treadmill at the gym.
At one point, I was lured into signing up with a personal trainer. I admit, the fact that he was young and cute probably had more to do with it than I want to admit. But I got it in my head that I needed a trainer to get me into a good workout routine, then I would stick with it. I didn’t stick with it. What I did get out of it was a certain liking for the elliptical machine that he forced me to try.
Don’t ask me why, but for some reason that machine was not quite as excruciatingly boring as the treadmill. And, the more I did it, the more I liked it. I went from BARELY being able to make it through 20 minutes to doing a solid hour doing intervals, and bumping up the resistance.
I don’t know how long I did that, but I went to the gym about six times a week for several years. I fluctuated with my weight within five pounds, ten at the most, during that time. I realize now that it was the constant, almost obsessive, exercising.
Somewhere along the line I tapered off. I think it was when we bought our house. It needed much work, and I didn’t have the time to spend at the gym. That’s when I really started to gain weight too.
I realize now, that there’s a certain association in my head, Maybe it’s just that if I am spending this time exercising, I better be eating healthy as well. Either way, they seem to go hand in hand for me.
I am gearing up to get back into a solid exercise mode. I guess that means I need to start eating healthy again. And then, hopefully I will have some real progress to report to you!!