Katrina Rasbold: Queen of It All

:: <10 ::

A bit of explanation: This is about my 87 hundredth weight loss journal over many years of trying and failing and not trying and failing and otherwise, just basically failing. Since I tend to overtalk these things, I decided to do a different kind of weight loss journal. I will post entries often, every day when possible. The trick is that I have to say what I want to say in 10 words or less each day. That way, I condense what I'm saying and feeling to a nice, tight little package instead of belaboring the trials and challenges of changing who you engage food and work exercise into a daily life. So here goes:

June 24, 2008

Down 2 more pounds, total 15. Slow going. Dedicated.

June 22, 2008

Wearing clothes I couldn't wear before. Happy.

June 20, 2008

Sorry for delay. Still on track. Plateau. Dedicated. Happy

June 4, 2008

Doing great. 13 down on diet alone. Feels good.

May 29, 2008

Still on task. No exercise yet. Time's not right.

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May 27, 2008 Addendum

I am going to break format (the less than or equal to 10 words plan) because I have had a number of people writing to ask what I'm doing. I will still lean toward brevity, but I am happy to share the approach I have been using.

I took a break from exercising to focus exclusively on diet and get that on track, after which, I will re-introduce the exercise, although I expect it to be a different kind of exercise. I had no idea how far gone my eating habits were until I really decided to take control of them. No more grazing. No more exceptions. No more emotional eating.

I did not ease into the change. I started on Monday, May 12, so I am only 2 weeks into the process. That Monday, I immediately started eating differently:

- Sweets reduced to almost none. If I am having a particularly strong sweet craving, I will have a stick of sugar free gum, a piece of hard candy or a sugar free popsicle.

- Diet soft drinks are limited to 2 a day. I used to drink 4-6 a day.

- Otherwise, I have very occasional glasses of juice, lots of water, iced tea with Splenda, a glass of milk and my new favorite buddy, Light Hawaiian Punch, which is made with Splenda. It only has 10 calories per serving.

- I have eliminated almost all white flour products from my diet.

- I eat a LOT of fruit and vegetables, mostly baby carrots, green salad, fresh pineapple, fresh strawberries, fresh watermelon, celery sticks and such.

- If I feel munchies coming on where I'd normally eat chips, I'll eat plain popcorn or a handful of pecans.

- I make sure to get fiber in my diet every day. Shredded Wheat with some Splenda, whole wheat bread, apples, plain popcorn and salad items are my typical fiber sources.

- Whenever I eat carbs, I try to eat protein at the same time. With the Shredded Wheat and 2% milk for breakfast, I also have an egg fried with butter flavored Pam, for instance.

- I do not bring foods into the house for my family that will tempt me. These kids hadn't had cookies for 2 weeks when I finally made some this weekend. If I bring them candy from town, they get 1 candy bar for themselves and have to take it away to eat it. No ice cream. If it something I enjoy and it doesn't fit into my weight loss goals, it doesn't come into the house. So far, they've been OK. They got cranky for cookies this weekend, so I made a half batch of oatmeal cookies and reduced the amount of sugar in them so I could have a few. Overall, there have been few complaints since they also enjoy the fresh fruit and veggies I keep readily available.

- If I am splurging, I make sure to offset the calories with the rest of the day's food, but I make sure I always eat every 2 hours to keep my metabolism moving. For instance, on Friday, Eric brought home Olive Garden, one of my favorite meals. The chicken alfredo that would normally be 1 meal for me was instead divided into 3 smaller meals spread over 2 days and I backed off calories for the rest of the day (not quantity of food, but just ate lots of lower calorie foods). Unfortunately, because I did not eat it at once, Eric figured I didn't want chicken alfredo serving #3 and stole it right out from under me. Grrr. I make sure to splurge no more than once a week. In this case, 1 splurge covered 2 days' lunches and the calories were offset in other areas.

- I eat a good sized breakfast (as described above), but through the rest of the day, I eat several meals that are about 1/4 of the size of the meals I used to eat. I do make sure to eat until I'm no longer hungry, but I stop as soon as I'm not hungry any more, no matter where in the meal it happens to be. I also remind myself that I can eat again 2 hours after the meal is over, which never feels particularly far away.

- I constantly mix up my diet content to keep my metabolism guessing. Overall, my calorie goal is 1800 a day or less, but most days, I get in 1400-1500. Some days, I eat mostly fruit and vegetables. Some days, it's lean protein. Other days, it's a complete combination.

- Turkey bacon and turkey sausage is your friend. It really is a good, viable substitute.

Notes:

Cravings stopped around day #3, stopped very abruptly, in fact. It's rare that I feel as though I'm really dying for a particular food. Food is just food and I enjoy it, but I no longer feel controlled by it.

I plan to continue logging what I eat for this week. I use the downloadable program for www.fitday.com. I don't expect I will continue routinely logging after this week since I seem to have found my niche with it. I will check in once or twice a month to make sure I am still on track.

I face a major obstacle in that I can't seem to get yogurt, baby spinach or cottage cheese into my mouth. I desperately hate it.

This week, I begin adding in exercise again. I plan to walk the hills with the kids and use the belly dancing work out DVDs I have ordered.

I have lost 11 pounds and 2 dress sizes so far, which feels wonderful. I still have a very, very long way to go, but I am excited for the progress. No one has really noticed yet, but I am OK with that since people are used to me yo-yoing up and down a 10 pound range. This week, I should break through my first "0" obstacle, which is when you go into the next 10's down on the scale. I am really excited for that.

Of course, crossing the first "00" obstacle is going to be the most major accomplishment and I have not done that since the 1990's, which means that Eric has never seen me that small and neither have my younger 3 children. That should happen in late summer if my success continues as it has.

So after this, back to Less Than or Equal To 10 Words to let you know how I'm doing.