New Beginnings

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving--full of kids and grandkids and family.  It really made me feel thankful for my many blessings.  Here are a couple pictures we took before everybody went home.

with our grandchildren

all our kids and grands!

All that thankfulness involved lots of food too and, as wonderful as it was, I'm most thankful that all the tempting calorific not-on-my-plan things are finally out of the house.  My weight has been drifting slowing upwards over the last two months so that I now have 7.4 pounds to lose get down to where I was at the beginning of October.  No more.  Did you notice the title of this post?  New Beginnings. That's because today is the day, now is the time that I rededicate myself to reaching my goal.

All this coincides nicely with WW's new program which was introduced yesterday.   The WW website must have been overwhelmed because it took all day before I could finally get to the site.  This is the first major change to their plan in a dozen years.  It is different because they have reconfigured the points system.  I like what they've done.  Most fruits and veggies are no points.  The new points calculator now looks at the carbs, fiber, protein, and fats.  The old one looked at just calories, fiber, & fat.  Things make more sense to me in the new plan.  And, wonder of wonders, they still allow me to follow my "CORE" plan.  They don't call it "Core" anymore, it's Simply Filling, but it's there and that's what I'm going to go back to.  For now, though, I'm doing to regular program.  I get 29 points per day plus the 49 weekly points.  I imagine I'll eat the same things that I'd eat with the Core/Simply Filling, but for now I want the reassurance that I'm eating correct portions.  After I get used to the new way, I'll switch over to the Core/Simply Filling plan, because I don't want to be tied to counting points for every single bite.

They now allow me 49 points per week over and above the 0 point Power foods (skim milk, lean protein, eggs, veggies, fruit, etc).  And they encourage you to use all 49.  My beloved Latte Bars which say 1 point on the box, are now worth 2 points.  So are the Strawberry Smoothie bars.  They will still be on my plan, but I'll save my points to include them.  I haven't been to my WW meeting yet to hear the official explanation, but this is what I'm thinking now.  I'll let you know more about it tomorrow when I understand more.

To go along with the new food plan, I'm revving up my exercise, too.  Back to my good 6 out of 7 days per week with solid exercise each day--half cardio, half strength.  Today I ran 3.5 miles (in the drizzle).  Tomorrow I think it will be the exercise bike.  

My sweet Dad fell yesterday and has a compound fracture of the hip (the top of his femur).  They were able to do the portable x-ray at his nursing home so that he doesn't have to go to the hospital which is always very upsetting to him.  It's hard to see that he's in such fragile health. I'm thankful for the good days we enjoyed with him a couple of weeks ago.

 J&E are napping right now and I need to go take advantage of this time to finish up my Bible study for tomorrow.

I'm feeling strong and confident about reaching my goals.  I'm excited about the new plan and motivated to use it to advantage.  The hardest hurdles (celebration-wise) are behind me.

How about you?  Are the T-giving temptations out of your life and your fridge now??

Spring Focus Update

Sarah started this timely challenge at the beginning of May.  Her timing was perfect.  I challenged myself to lose 12 pounds in two months and have set myself several behavioral challenges as well.

Weight Challenge:  I have lost 15.8 pounds (at my Weight Watcher weigh-ins on Wednesdays) since May 4th.  This is an astonishing rate of weight loss for me.  I attribute it to, surprise, surprise, diet and exercise.  Things are looking good to lose a bit more before the end of the challenge.

Eating:  Believe me, I AM eating.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I'm using the WW CORE (Simply Filling) plan which I understand is quite similar to the South Beach plan.  This is the way I plan to eat--forever.  It makes a lot of sense and DH likes it too.  We have eaten this way for two years.  It's very "doable." Each meal, for almost two months has been basically on plan.  I have vacationed away from home and celebrated family occasions and eaten out occasionally during that time.  It took planning, but I feel like I ate like I wanted to eat.  A very "clean" diet.  There have been a few 'off-plan' things during that time--like a shared dessert on our anniversary and a handful of almonds on a cross country plane ride, but by and large, I have stayed OP (on plan).   I have deliberately eaten more fish than I used to (cutting down to 1 or fewer red-meat meals/week).  I also stopped having dinner left-overs for lunch the next day.  Instead, I plan a lighter lunch, without a starchy food.   I normally eat 6-7 fruits & vegetables/day and I eat plenty of fiber (from the fruits & vegetables, whole grain cereal in the morning, and whole grain pasta or brown rice with dinner).

Portion Control:  I spent a couple weeks checking on my portions by weighing and measuring.  I found that I was (surprise, surprise) over-estimating.  I think this was a good exercise, but I'm back to estimating--I hope more realistically.   I'll repeat the portion checks occasionally in the future to keep myself on track.

Drinking Water:  I started this at the beginning of the challenge.  I regularly drink 8+ cups of water a day now and will continue this.   I benefit from feeling full.  I especially need this in the summer as I need to rehydrate after exercise.

Exercise:  For the past two weeks I've challenged myself to exercise every day.   DONE!  I run four or more miles 3-4 times a week (if it's very hot, like today, there are some walking  bits interspersed).  I bike 13+ miles two or three times a week.  If I've run very early (like today) I may bike after dinner.  I also lift weights (resistance) at my gym two or three times a week.  If I haven't done any of these things (it's happened once in the past two weeks), I will exercise with my Wii (tennis or yoga). 

     This Week:

     Mon--Run--4 mi

     Tues--Gym--20K lbs

     Wed--Run--4 mi

     Thu--Gym--21K lbs

     Fri--Run--6.2 mi

     Sat--Bike--14 mi

     Sun--Gym-22K lbs,  Walk--2 mi

     Mon--Run--5 mi

Eating Slowly: A little over a week ago, I decided to try to eat more slowly.  I'd heard the suggestion before and was quite aware that I was a speed-eater, but I'd never really tried.  I limited my challenge to eating dinner.   This has been a real eye-opener.  It was hard, at first, but I have been able to increase my average eating time (10 minutes is a generous guess of how long I took to eat dinner).  For more than a week, I've taken 15 or more minutes to eat dinner.  The benefits are 1) I feel more "normal" eating more slowly, 2) I enjoy the food more--savoring flavor, texture, mouth-feel, and taste,  and 3) I have more of a chance to hear my own signals that I am "full."

Slow Loser Status

I ran early this morning and am happy to report that I ran 30 minutes without stopping! C25K called for 28 minutes, but when I reached the 28 minute mark I felt good, so I ran on for a couple more minutes. I'm so lucky that my knees don't bother me at my age (knocking on wood!). All my bumps and bruises from my accident two weeks ago are mostly gone and the bruised rib feeling is much less bothersome now. I have to say that on my bike ride Monday night (the first since the accident) I was a little apprehensive about falling or another accident, but things went well.

Today is Wednesday and Wednesday is my WI day. I was feeling good about staying OP with eating and exercise and my morning visits to the scale indicated I might lose two pounds. I've told you before that I'm a slow loser. Always have been and I've got that hateful slow metabolism that comes with the fifth decade. When I stepped on the scale, I was amazed and delighted when the scale showed 3.2 pounds lost. 3.2 plus 3.6 from last week plus 2.8 from the week before =9.6 in the past three weeks. That doesn't sound slow at all. I'm definitely NOT complaining. I'll happily exchange my slow loser status for something more like DH's seeming ability to think about losing 5 pounds one day and achieving it the next.

It seems almost too obvious, but maybe my good losses have something to do with my newly revised exercise and eating habits. One major food change over the last several weeks is that I've really scaled back how much I eat at lunch time. I used to regularly have a leftover portion of my previous night's dinner. The dinners were pretty thoughtfully planned, but usually included some sort of whole grain pasta, brown rice or potato. When I re-read the CORE (WW) guidelines, they allowed you to eat all those things, but suggested you limit it to once per day. I did lose before while not limiting whole grains, but I lost more slowly. I've also tried to be more intentional about not "super-sizing" my portions, even of nutritious, low point foods.

Are you a slow loser?

194.8

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Yesterday I was happily making a double batch of my Dilled Carrots when it occurred to me that I was intending to have a binge-fest on them later in the day. It's a WW recipe. It's carrots, for goodness sake and there's no sugar, just a pinch of salt, and none of the bread-type things that are such red-light foods for me. Is it okay to binge on good-for-you food? Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing?

Several days ago Diane at Fit to the Finish wrote a about portion control in this post. Her great post, including a list of 7 Tips to help regulate portion control, and the insightful comments to that post got me thinking. I decided to make portion control one of my Spring Focus short term goals. When I decided that, I was thinking about things like whole wheat pasta or chicken. I certainly wasn't thinking about the portion size of my veggies or fruits.

When I started this weight loss and life style journey I chose what Weight Watcher's then called the CORE plan. I like it because it didn't call for food tracking. You simply ate from the list of allowed foods until you were satisfied. The allowed foods include whole grain pasta, whole grains, popcorn, whole grain cereal, brown rice, lean meat chicken and fish, all veggies, fruits, fat free dairy milk and cheese, healthy oils (olive, canola), and eggs. No bread, chips, bakery goods, candy . . . . This was a diet that I could live with. DH joined me and we eat this way all the time now. Anything extra costs WW points and we get 35 of those each week. This works for us and is healthy and do-able.

At first we both lost weight well and DH even reached his WW goal (he lost 30 pounds and has stayed at that weight for over a year and a half). I lost 52 pounds and got to within 3 pounds of my goal. Right at that time, my father had a devastating stroke and I became responsible for finding the right care and a new living situation for him. I ate too many meals from hospital vending machines and just sort of lost my focus on WW. Yes, we still had CORE meals at home, but I fell into eating for emotional reasons and non-CORE foods started creeping into my day. Bread, brownies, chips, toast, butter, candy bars . . . . My exercise also suffered. I've done the C25K before and a year ago I ran a 10 mile race, but as I gained weight, and spent many hours a week visiting my father or taking him to appointments, I found it easy to slack off on exercising. I started walking a lot more than running on my "runs." I regained 39 of those hard-fought pounds over the last 18 months. Obviously, I'm back to my losing ways, but I've learned some things about portion control along the way.

I have to say that I never really thought about portion control when I was losing with CORE. I stuck pretty strictly to the good foods on the list and was good about limiting any non-CORE foods to my 35 point/week limit. I'm a slow loser, but I probably would have lost a little more quickly had I watched my portions. It was only about a year ago that it occurred to me that I didn't need to always serve myself two pieces of chicken when we had chicken for dinner. And my portion sizes didn't have to be the same size as my 6'2" DH's portion. And the popcorn. Let me just say that one or two of the large size bags of 94% ff microwave popcorn were a normal daily allotment. I did try to limit myself to one bag on the day before my WI because of the salt.

When I started my current push to finally finish losing this weight, I went back to the WW materials about the CORE plan and re-read what it actually said. I've incorporated a new aspect of the plan to what I do. Portions matter. From my morning cereal and fruit through to dinner, portions matter. I'm using measuring cups to dole out my cereal, pasta and rice these days. I serve myself one piece of chicken (and not the largest piece!) at dinner. I make sure my portions are smaller than DH's.

Back to those carrots. They are great. I did eat some. But I didn't

eat them all and I didn't binge on carrots. I am going to watch portions on some of the high calorie fruits & veggies (avocados are a particular culprit), and I'm not sure I'm ready to start measuring out my portions of relatively low calorie vegetables and fruits, but I'm not going to plan to binge on anything and I'm going to keep an eye on things.

What do you think? Can you eat too much of a good thing?

Here's the recipe for those carrots. They are served chilled and make a wonderful appetizer.

Marinated Dilled Carrots

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon pickling spice, tied in cheesecloth

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 garlic clove

1 pound carrots, about 8 medium, pared and cut into 1/4-inch thick sticks

dash artificial sweetner

1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon pepper

In small saucepan combine vinegar, water, pickling spice, salt, and garlic; simmer 5 minutes. In another saucepan cook carrots in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and transfer to a shallow dish just large enough to hold carrots in one layer. (or to a gallon size ziplock bag) Remove and discard pickling spice and garlic clove from vinegar mixture. Add sweetner to brine and pour over hot carrots; toss. Sprinkle with dill, parsley, and pepper. Cover tightly and chill at least 3 hours, turning every 1/2 hour.