Eating thoughtfully

One of my personal rules when deciding what to eat these days is simply this.  If I'm going to spend the calories on it, it had better be absolutely delicious.

Fortunately, I love to cook.  Last night my kids spend the night with their nephews, and I had Chicken Supreme (from Saving Dinner) and a large green salad.  I put the tablecloth on the table, set myself a place, and had a lovely dinner.

What a change from the days when I'd scarf down whatever is in sight.  Ok, I'm still doing that sometimes - but not as often, and I'm more aware of it.  And I'm still working on not eating "just to be eating" and the late night munchies.  I have to often ask myself if I'm hungry, or just want to eat.  If I just want to eat, maybe I can take that walk around the block.  If I'm hungry, am I really thirsty?  Get some water and see if that helps.  (Note to self - Water, not soda.)  What is it I want to eat?  Is that double cheeseburger really worth the calories?  Or can I find something else that will satisfy me and nourish me better?

Being thoughtful about what you eat can help you release the weight you're looking to get rid of.  It's the mindless munching that will get you!

A Little Preparation....

I've realized that part of the reason I'm backsliding like mad is that I'm not preparing my food for the day in advance.  I'm not taking lunch to the office, so then I munch on....foods I'm not supposed to eat.....instead of apple slices with cinnamon or cucumber with Tabasco sauce.  Little Debbie Snack Cakes and Hostess Donuts just don't do much for weight loss.

So I'm going to start planning in advance.  We have a fridge at work, and I keep it well stocked with Diet Coke and bottled water.  I have Crystal Light packets.  Now I need to bring lunch and/or a snack. Bringing apples and my apple slicer will do wonders.

I'm also using the low-carb Menu Mailer from Saving Dinner.  (I really should become an affiliate for this site - I absolutely cannot say enough good things about it.  But I don't earn any money from Leanne, so you know this really comes from my heart!)  I love love love not having to think about dinner - except for once a week, when I get my shopping list and look over the menus.  After that - no thinking required!  I love it!

When you plan things ahead, you are really making a commitment to yourself that you'll improve your diet.  It's easier to avoid the drive-thru when you've already got the makings for dinner at home, your lunch with you, and fruit for a snack.

Low Carb Diets - Are They Too Hard?

I've seen a few Tweets about this very idea lately - and I've been thinking a lot about it.  Following the HCG protocol is very low carb.  And here's what I've found.

Going low carb isn't hard at all. 

I really thought it would be.  I love bread, and rice, and pasta, and all that yummy stuff.  I also love sugar in all its glory.  But when it came time to low-carb it - I was able to easily drop all that.  And now carbs tend to make me ill. 

It's really not that hard to push away the bread basket at the table.  Even at a restaurant.  It's not a challenge to tell the waiter that you just want the meats and veggies, thanks.  They understand that.

It can be a challenge to wean yourself from french fries and sandwiches - but it's about learning new eating patterns anyway, isn't it?

One way to do it is to use Saving Dinner's Menu Mailer.  I love this concept.  You get your menus for the week in a PDF download, which includes Low Carb, Heart Healthy, and Regular.  (Regular is still freaking healthy, and they are all delicious.)  Just following the menus can help you re-learn how to eat. 

So far, I've lost released over 30 pounds.

And if I can do it, you can do it. 

On Stabilization

I am finished with my round.  There are some things I need to really work on before I begin a new round - and I am only one round away from my ideal weight.

I am going to begin using EFT to conquer emotional eating patterns.  Until I handle that, I will continue to justify breaking the protocol.  There are other ways for me to handle my emotions.  When Krista was a baby and I was in an abusive marriage, I would load her in her stroller and walk until I calmed down.  That could be miles. 

I'm also going to add more protein to my diet, starting now.  On my first round (when I lost 30 pounds), the hunger was killing me, until I added a protein shake.  It only took one for me to recover from the hunger.  The protocol is very protein deficient.  Perhaps the added shake will make a difference.

Even though I'm not on HCG at the moment, I lost 2 pounds yesterday.  I had raisin bran for breakfast, and chicken and a large salad for dinner.  I forgot lunch.

If you are interested in following the Pounds and Inches protocol for weight loss, I'm offering the HHCG drops for only $40 per 2oz bottle plus shipping.  Email donna@busybeevas.com for more information!

Homeopathic vs RX HCG

I have to get into this.  I'm angry and frustrated a lot of the time because of brilliant comments on the web - things like "Homeopathic can't work, it doesn't have HCG in it."

Well, it DOES work.  It works very well.  At a fraction of the price, and without needles.

Look. If you're one that gets off on the needles, or you want to pay more, or you're just convinced that you need Rx HCG, and it works well for you, fine.  Go for it. 

Personally, I didn't have an extra $300 or so just laying around that I was frantic to spend.  I did, however, have a friend in Dr. Tom, who gave me a couple of bottles of his HHCG product to try. 

No, there's no HCG in it.  It's a magnetic imprint.  The label says "water".  And I don't pretend to understand the science behind homeopathic medicine.  I'm a bookkeeper, not a doctor.  The truth is, even the scientists don't understand why it works, but they do understand that it does.  This is not a placebo effect.  You can read this article by an MD for more information.

But after starving myself for years - after working out like mad for years - after days and months and weeks of living on nothing but salad, with no results - after GIVING UP -

I released 35 pounds.

I'm struggling this round, but that has to do with ME and not the product.  I'd struggle if I was injecting.

There is no need to bash homeopathic.  Rx HCG works.  So does HHCG.  And the effectiveness is very similar.  Yes, your mileage may vary - some may do better on one than the other.  But they both work. 

Self Discipline

Self Discipline is remembering your goals and setting them higher than the immediate wants. 

Right now, I want a big, juicy cheeseburger with french fries.  And chocolate cake.   But I think I'd rather be skinny.  Still - it's hard to remember what my goals are when the cravings hit. 

Tomorrow I'm hiking to the summit of Mt Timpanogos with some friends.  And when I get back down, I'm ending a relationship.  (The guy is very condescending - and he's not Tim.  Men who think I'm slightly less bright than the village idiot annoy the crap out of me.)  That in itself ought to do wonders for the scales. 

It's been fun to put on pants that were snug at the end of the first round, impossible to fit into before beginning, and that are so loose now I need a belt. 

Time to take a break

I think it's time for me to take a break from HCG again.  I've been on for 6 weeks, and because I'm getting hungry, I think I'm going to immunity. 

Dinner tonight will be low carb, and I will continue with apple and steak days to keep my weight at 155.  In September I will be ready to start again. 

I'll be continuing the low carbs for quite some time - I may have to eat that way for a while.

Another apple day tomorrow

My sister brought Starnes pit BBQ back from Kentucky.  This is heaven.  Of course, I have to eat it on a sandwich, toasted on my griddle (no butter though) and drenched with their BBQ sauce. 

I'm not sharing.  No.  I haven't gotten Starnes in a couple of years.  This is worth breaking the diet over. 

I'll do an apple day tomorrow to recover. 

Stalling due to emotions

So I was talking with my friend Daniel the other day about the struggles I've had with this diet.  Now, I absolutely know it works - it works when nothing else would.  In November I lost 30 pounds.

However, in January - in the same week in January - my friend Ken passed away, and my boyfriend, Tim, broke up with me.  Tim was by far the best support I've ever had on this.  He would ask me what I could eat on the diet and then he'd help me make decisions in restaurants based on what he knew I could have.  I loved being on the protocol with his support - he travels a lot, and when he was out of town, I'd be extra careful so I could report a solid loss every day.  I can't tell you how well he cheered me on.

I've been stalled ever since losing these two important men.

The guy I'm currently dating tries to get me to eat junk.  My weight is not that important to him. (Yes, that means I'm not that important to him either.) I'm still not settled emotionally, so the junk is a lot more appealing than it was in November.

Louise Hay teaches that overweight is usually a sign of insecurity. Anger is often an underlying cause. The extra padding is a form of protection. Now, I'm an oldest child of a large family, and I'm an Aquarius, so between the two, I'm pretty passive-aggressive.  I tend to give and give and give - then resent the fact that no one seems to care how much I've given, and go straight to martyr mode. 

And you know what?  I'm mad as hell at Ken for dying.  How dare he die? He was supposed to give me a ride on his Road King and teach me to ride a motorcycle and take me to the Melting Pot and take me shoe shopping for fun.  How could he die and leave me to deal with that? 

And how could Tim abandon me when I needed him?

Working through the anger issues is bound to help me as I release this weight.

Today's weight : 156.6 goal 125.0

Speeding along the journey!

I am always surprised when I manage to do well on weight loss even though I'm not following the protocol.  Yesterday I ate ice cream (but that was about it), and spent the day working, in meetings, and tooling around on the scooter.  No veggies, no fruit, no meat (but I do count ice cream as a protein, LOL).  Not nearly enough water. 

And I lost a pound. 

I went to the store looking for something to fix for dinner (my little ones are with their big sister, running through the sprinklers, going to the lake, and generally enjoying the last little bit of summer), but nothing really sounded good.  I was a bit stressed out and didn't feel like eating.

Kind of a nice change, there.

So I had a couple of ice cream sandwiches and called it good.

I'm now down to 154.4.  My goal is 125.0.  29.4 pounds to go!

Getting back into the swing of things

I think I'm finally mastering my desire to stuff myself.  Finally.  The past couple of days have been much better.  Perhaps posting about emotional eating has helped!  I've become more aware of what I was doing, and that helped drop the craving.

I've also been using EFT to help with cravings. 

I don't usually eat during the day, and I have a good meal for dinner (usually a low carb Menu Mailer offering from Saving Dinner - Leanne has saved me more times than I can count).  I've taken to stashing apples in my office fridge, along with plenty of Crystal Light, water bottles, and Diet Coke. 

I'm riding a scooter around while the weather is good, which means I can't eat and ride at the same time.  For some reason, riding takes a lot out of me and wears me out, so I'm less likely to eat after a long day.

I'm still bouncing around on my weight, but I'm determined to conquer the cravings and master myself.

Only 27 pounds to go!

What does emotional eating feel like?

I was thinking about this the other day.  When I am eating out of emotion, rather than to fuel my body or to enjoy the taste of my food, I eat fast, and I eat a lot.  It is literally like stuffing the empty spaces of my heart with food, so I don't have to feel the hurt any more. 

I wash down anger with chocolate.  (Incidentally, that sets you up for allergies... but that's another post.)  I wash down heartache with ice cream.  And I see a lot of us, especially women, doing the same thing. 

Or boredom.  Sometimes eating is just something to do.  Read a book, and eat eat eat. 

There are other ways to deal with low emotion.  No, I'm not going to recommend carrots as a comfort food.  Go out and take a walk around the block.  Go for a drive.  Talk to yourself in the mirror.  Go to sleep!  Anything but shovel the food in. 

Avoid the TV.  TV is an eating trigger for a lot of people. 

Make a commitment to yourself that the food you eat is going to be fantastic.  If you're going to spend the calories, oughtn't it be the best?  Learn to cook, and cook well.  My diet runs to grilled meats and salads, but the right rub makes all the difference in the meat. 

Apple Day

I made the mistake of going to a Mexican restaurant for dinner yesterday (I had a date - that's what he wanted).  I usually find something I can eat - nearly every restaurant has a grilled meat of some kind - but blew it last night.  So today, I'm doing an apple day to recover.  I gained back 1.6 pounds! 

What is an apple day?  Well, all ya get to eat is 6 apples.  And water.  Why it works, I don't know - but it does.  It breaks stalls and helps you recover from a cheat.

And I'm going to have to re-think dating this guy.  The first thing I want is someone who understands that my weight is important to me - and doesn't sabotage me.  I miss Tim like crazy, he was probably the only man I've dated who would ask me what I could eat on my diet and then choose the restaurant based on that.