100 Pound Loss

This brilliant post over at Cheap Healthy Good is all about how the Simpsons TV show teaches good health and weight management habits.

My favorite?

This is the end of a first week of Weight Watchers Core Program. So far I haven’t killed anyone because of my lack of carbs, and I have actually eaten more fruits and vegetables than I ate all summer. I have lost 6 pounds, eaten out twice, and am still drinking lattes; I have discovered that Safeway’s store brand of cottage cheese is not very good–watery and has lousy flavor (they have great produce though), but Knudson’ taste pretty good. I have also discovered why not too many people eat fat free anything; nevertheless, I like the direction of the numbers on the scale. This is one time I like being a loser. The second week of any diet is coming. Usually, the second week is when I don’t lose and I cheat. So this will be the big challenge. I’ve been using Julia Cameron’s book The Writing Diet: Write Yourself the Right Size , which I hope to read some more. One thing she has helped me rediscover is my love of sewing.

Well I don’t want to make this a blah, blah, blah blog, so tune in for next weeks update.

Jane of the Santa Clara County Jungle

bp: 105 over 65, 61 bpm.
Wow. Just. Wow. 16% of what I need to lose. I’m also 6 pounds away from my “10% of your total weight” goal. On Weight Watchers, the 10% goal is your first goal. I’ve achieved it in the past, where I lost over 20 lbs. over the course of a year.
That 10% is an important goal for me this time around, too. I haven’t really been exercising very much. When you’re obese, exercise is pain– there’s no two ways about it. If you doubt that, go ahead and grab a 100 pounds of weight and carry them around the gym during your 40-minute workout. You’ll see what I mean. I found that, after I lost that 10%-of-total last time, I felt better, stronger, and had more energy, enough to start exercising regularly and, eventually, training for a marathon.
But this time, I won’t make the mistake of overdoing it on the marathon. The 6 months I took recovering from my sports injuries are the main reason I’m back up to this ungodly weight.

Yesterday, I decided that breakfast should be eggs, instead of my normal bowl of cereal. Just eggs– no toast, no bread, no grits, no bacon. Eggs.

By noon, I was ready for some carbs, but lo and behold! I had none ready to go. I completely forgot about the potatoes sitting in the fridge waiting to be eaten, so lunch was a cup of yogurt and some fruit.

I was so draggled by the lack of carbohydrates, in fact, that I took a 45 minute nap in the middle of the afternoon. I was beat, worn out– my day job requires me to use my brain, and I just couldn’t muster the energy!

Dinner was chili, with milk and sweet popcorn (sweetened with cinnamon) for dessert. By the end of the night, I was feeling “up” enough to solve puzzles and make jokes.

Carbs are brain food. They’re necessary for brain functioning and problem solving, and they’re crucial fuel for the long haul. By shortchanging my carbs in the morning and at lunch, I hindered my own ability to work my job and be a productive individual.

In the Weight Watchers Core plan, carbs are severely limited, and with good reason. Carbs are very high in fast, easy calories, and they’re often combined with other fattening things (like butter on popcorn). This combination makes it hard to keep your body from getting as much fuel (calories) from the carbs and, because they’re an easy food to metabolize, storing it in fat.

Carbohydrates are probably the best example of my need for moderation. I’m what I like to call a “carb eater.” If I don’t eat some carbohydrates, I am miserable. My diet regimen is never so pitiful as it is when I’m not allowed any bread or pasta. What’s more, if I don’t have some carbs in my diet, I will find them outside my plan– either by sneaking or cheating!

I think yesterday’s example shows, to me at least, that skipping a carb in the morning is a bad idea if I don’t have a plan to include them in lunch.

I can’t really catalog all the bad food choices I made yesterday. It started with breakfast and ended with dinner. I made some good choices, too, but yesterday… there was stress. There was family drama and a half a bag of cheese popcorn disappeared before I knew it. I woke up feeling sick, and discovered by the end of the night that I’m coming down with something. Ugh! I suppose in retrospect I made better choices than I really expected, but coming on the heels of a rather point-licious night out with my stepmom and second cousin…. it was bad. Real bad.

What I want to talk about today is that whole “coming down with something” problem. If you’re a 100-pound-loser, you have probably had this happen to you in one form or another:

You start a weight loss program. Things go really well in the first week– phenomenally so! You optimistically plan to attend your 15th college reunion.

Three weeks later, just about when your weight loss starts to slow down and stabilize into a healthy 2 lbs/week, you wake up in the morning with a sore throat. You can’t believe it– what rotten luck! You’re supposed to be getting healthier! You ask why you should have the rotten luck to get sick right now, when you want to feel your best!

Here’s the secret: it’s not luck.

Your body is a cruel thing. It likes you to be at the weight you’re at. It’s perfectly comfortable where you are right now, eating too much of too many foods that are not good for you. When you lose weight, your body rebels in many curious ways and tries to sabotage your success. These are particularly common in the first 2-4 weeks of a new weight loss program, but they also often happen when you’re heading into a plateau:

• You get sick. This is one of the most common saboteurs, and it’s the worst, because it’s entirely biological. Your body’s immune system can simply stop fighting quite so hard. Sure, maybe that’s because it’s adjusting to new fuel sources or amounts. Or maybe, there’s a little army of your immune system that’s sitting around saying “hey! Where’s the cheese popcorn!”
• Cravings. You crave something specific, like chocolate-covered pretzels. For me the cravings are usually from two cravings/flavors groups, like sweet+salty, or spicy+fatty.
• Injury. A companion to getting sick, when you start an exercise program, it’s common to feel sore in the first couple of weeks, or even injure yourself. Remember to take everything slow. Weight Watchers doesn’t even recommend starting a new exercise program until a few weeks into the program to give your body and mind time to adjust.
• Forgetfulness. Ever have this happen early in a diet? You’re going about your business and at the end of the day, you sit down to journal your food and you literally cannot remember what you ate? That’s because your mind sabotaged even your journalling! Or you’re already holding the bag of McDonald’s before you remember that you did, in fact, start your new program yesterday. How’s this happen? Again, internal sabotage!
• Inconvenience. Suddenly, your week looks busier than last week. Did you really commit to carpool every day this week? Are you seriously planning to tackle three new projects by Monday? Part of this has to do with your mindset: when you start a new program, your mind is ready to start something new, and it can be easy to overcommit when you’re in that mode of thinking. But again, part of this is because you’re glaring down the barrel of a celery stick, and your subconscious mind knows that if you have a busy schedule, you’ll give yourself some slack on the whole diet thing.

What can you do about it? Well, if you’re a parent, you’ll recognize the signs of rebellion and malingering pretty well. Feeling sick? Got injured? Get your ass into a doctor! You should be starting a weight loss program with your doctor’s advice anyway, so make an appointment to see one! Oh, really? You say you’re maybe not that sick after all? Aha! Malingering!
For cravings, you have to keep a really solid food journal for this one, because there are times when you have to feed the salty-snack demon. But you can feed the demon with salted, low fat popcorn rather than pretzels, if you’re paying attention to the flavors you crave, not specifically the food items.
Warning: There are some cravings that are not simple flavor cravings. These are chemical dependencies, from caffeine to alcohol to sugar to MSG. If you are a coffee drinker, do not give up caffeine in the first week of your weight loss program– if you’re a smoker, now is not the time to stop smoking. You can only work on one addiction at a time, so pick the most damaging one to your health, work on it for 6 months to a year (depending on severity), and then move onto the next one. For food additive addictions, like MSG and sugar, you can get the monkey off your back through your new weight loss program.
For forgetfulness and inconvenience, you’re going to have to take a look around you, streamline your process, and tie a string around your finger. I am not kidding about the string. You must have some way to remind yourself, as you are out and about, that you’re doing this amazing thing to improve your self and your health. If that means a string around the finger, so be it!
For the convenience factor, take every possible shortcut to having healthy foods ready-to-go, and learn how to say “no.” But also, remember that “it’s inconvenient” is an excuse for eating poorly; you know you can make better choices, so make them! Remember: there will always be something that can be put in your way to a healthy lifestyle. Your job is to leap over or kick down those obstacles.

Last night, we decided it was time to return to Mexican night at Casa de 100-pound-loss. Mexican food is fraught with peril for weight losers. You have beans, usually high in points values. Meat. Cheese, sour cream, guacamole, tortillas, chips, margaritas…

But it doesn’t have to be that way. A traditional lunch in the Hispanic world does not have any of the really fatty ingredients (cheese, sour cream, guacamole) at all! In fact, when you go to a Mexican taqueria for lunch, you’ll often find that the default burrito is beans, rice, meat, and some produce, all wrapped in a flour tortilla– the high fat items are added at American restaurants.

If, however, you are staring down the barrel of that burrito and counting up the points, you quickly reach “more than I can possibly use” and get discouraged.

So, here’s how to make a healthier Mexican meal for Weight Watchers Core plan members:

Celery and salsa. High-point tortilla chips are best used as a carrier for salsa. Substitute 0-point celery for the chip. It’s almost flavorless, gives you some much-needed water and fiber, and you get the salsa kick! If you don’t slice your celery stalks lengthwise, they’re a natural scoop!

The Taco Salad. You have a choice with your entree. If you don’t want to spend any Flex points at all, you’ll need to hold off on the cheese and sour cream. If you have it, substitute 1/4 of a raw avocado instead. You can blend the rest of the avocado with salsa for homemade Flex-free guacamole.

You’ll need a bunch of lettuce, some chopped tomatoes, salsa, a red bell pepper, an onion, low fat ground chicken or turkey, a cup of brown rice, and a can of fat free refried beans. Brown the ground meat with the onion and some Mexican spices. Heat the refried beans in the microwave. In a bowl, lay town the lettuce, 1/4 cup of beans, 1/2 cup of rice, 1/2 cup of meat, the tomatoes and peppers, and the salsa. There are a thousand variations on this, ranging from the vegetables you use to the meat seasonings, but the basic idea is to mix an abundance of produce with limited quantities of protein and carbs.

Now, if you have a couple of points to spend, top with 2 tbsp sour cream (2 points), or 2 tbsp shredded cheese (1 point).

The sour cream and salsa will naturally mix together and serve as a kind of dressing for your salad.

The ground meat will give it kick and flavor, and the rice and beans give you both carbs and a complete protein. Since the meat, beans, and rice are all heated, it feels more like an entree and less like an overgrown side salad.

Why I don’t recommend fat-free sour cream or cheese. There are very few fat free sour creams that aren’t made with chemicals that, frankly, you don’t need in your body. I have yet to find a fat free cheese that wasn’t chock full of chemicals or utterly revolting, or both. I know there are organic fat free cheeses out there, but I haven’t found them to be edible. I know there are fat free cheeses out there that don’t suck, but they’re full of sugar (or worse, high fructose corn syrup), or other things that are just bad for you. Budget your Flex points to use them on these full-fat dairy products; it’s worth the points.

Dining Out: When dining out, this meal is easy to recreate. Order a taco salad with chicken meat, and no beans.

If they only have it in a flaky shell, that’s fine, but you have to not eat the shell. If there’s no taco salad, or it’s loaded with things you can’t reasonably eat, look for the tostada (not tostada shell). That’s a corn tortilla with an overgrown salad on top– by the time you reach the tostada, you’re too full to eat it anyway!

Ask for the cheese and sour cream on the side, and extra salsa. Use your spoon to dollop out one spoonful of sour cream or one spoonful of cheese– not both.

It’s ok to have black olives on the taco salad, but not more than 6, so ask the server to “go easy on the olives.”

Ask for avocados instead of guacamole, if they’re available. Avocados are a Core food, while guacamole is not.

Drink water or unsweetened iced tea, or spend your points on a mojito– it’s a refreshing, minty alcoholic drink that only costs 2 points per serving.

Tip: If you find your Mexican meal ended up being too spicy, wash it down with some fat free milk or with sugar (real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup and not artificial sweeteners). Sugars in the milk or just plain sugar help neutralize the spiciness.

My best friend Jane and I struggle over our weight together. Jane is older than me by a couple of years, and she’s therefore battled her weight longer than I have, and her lifestyle and work schedule are the perfect combination for sabotaging any diet plan. When push comes to shove, though we both have similar problems with weight and eating, and we have just about the same amount to lose.

Yesterday, I told Jane about my almost-5-lb. loss last week, and told her that Weight Watchers Core had been the plateau buster. She listened to me explaining how tough it had been and what I’d had to do, but she also listened to how effective it was and how, when it got down to it, I was able to stay on the diet if I was smart and careful.

A few hours later, she called me back.

“So, I’m trying to figure out this Core thing. What about a latte?”

“A fat-free latte is free. It’s a Core food.”

“What?”

“It’s free– you don’t have to use your weekly Flex points for it.”

“I’m SOLD!”

You see, her sugar-free vanilla skinny grande latte on the Flex plan was costing her about 5 points a day. On Core, she could have that indulgence every day and never have to pay the points. All the other foods were manageable for her. She doesn’t drink, smoke, do drugs, gamble, or have irresponsible sex. She sacrifices every day of her life for the people around her, but every day, she likes to go to a coffee shop with a notebook and pen and spend a few minutes writing and thinking and centering on herself. After raising 3 boys on her own and juggling two full-time careers, who can really blame her? The only vice in her life was finally being given to her for free.

“But it has to be fat free milk, you know.”

“Oh, Stephanie,” she replied. “I haven’t tasted regular milk in 20 years.”

Blood pressure: 110/71, 64 bpm pulse.

And now, a little rant…..

When I weighed in this morning and entered my weight, this is what I got from Weight Watchers Online:

While we’re proud of your achievements and pleased you’re making changes in your life, we need you to concentrate on one more thing: You should slow the pace of your weight loss to no more than 2 pounds per week.

We’re at the end of July, here. In 7 months, I’ve lost less than 2 lbs. per month, overall. Screw you, Weight Watchers. Try running a fucking average. At least an average over 3 or 4 weeks, please. The little automated “achievements” message should take an average before spouting this nonsense. Why? Because at the start of your diet (and let’s face it, a 6-month plateau means you’re essentially “starting” again), you lose more weight more rapidly. Everyone knows this. Weight Watchers Online even knows it– they have a special message in the first 3 weeks that congratulates you and warns you not to get too cocky.

Anyway, here I am, having busted through that 6 month plateau, and I can’t help feeling as though Weight Watchers Online has sucked a little bit of my thunder out of my victory.

The same thing happens with another web app I use to log my weight. You enter your goal or guesstimate for what you’ll weigh in 30 days, and every time you weigh in, it sends you an email to tell you where you’re supposed to be if you want to make it to that target weight. It seems a little messed up, since it estimates me losing 5 lbs. in the first week for a 10-lb. total loss. Plus, nothing makes you feel like taking a gun to your head quite like having a 4 1/2 lb. loss and getting an email telling you you should have lost more!

Anyway, the other, less-critical part of my brain is doing this:

GO ME! I ROCK! YEAH!!!!

With 9.5 points left for the week, I went to dinner at a friend’s house last night. This is a friend who I’ve known for about 14 years, went to college together, and saw him through his divorce. Now, he’s remarried to a wonderful woman and has 2 children.

Anyway, between his wife’s diet restrictions (no garlic) and my new diet/lifestyle, choosing a dinner was difficult. We had a bottle of wine we’d brought with us, so I already knew 2 points were going to wine.

There was a nice, healthy, grilled chicken salad option, which would have been point-free.

There was a veggie pasta option, which would cost points.

I caved. I ordered the pasta.

My victory for the night was only eating 1/4 of the enormous garlic bread roll (it was the size of a subway sandwich), and only eating about a cup of the pasta.

I’m out of points– they reset tomorrow, so I have to be on track today.

I’m also down another.8 lbs today from yesterday. I don’t need to weigh daily or anything, but I’m doing so right now just to see if any particular foods trigger inflammation/water gain more than others.

Here in Weight Watchers Core plan land, I’ve had a bit of a snag this week. We’ve utterly failed to get ourselves out to the grocery store, so we’ve been doing our usual dining out/to-go, and accommodating both my new diet, my dad’s sugar-centered preferences, and my stepmother’s low-wheat diet… we’ve had more than a little challenge here and there.

We’ve found that Thai restaurants are better than Chinese for finding plain vegetables and brown rice options. Boston Market was a good option last night– it’s possible to get green beans, steamed veggies, and brown rice in your side dish options. You just have to be willing to skip over the creamy sweet potatoes to get there.

We got a bag of grapes and I tossed them into the freezer as a potato chip substitute. This week, we’ve been doing a lot of work in the attic, and it’s hot, hot, hot! We’ve been drinking plenty of water, but it’s been like a daily 3-hour sauna for the past couple of days. Today’s rainy, which helps cool everything off.