So Long, Big Apple

Nope, this isn't a post about New York City (though I love visiting NYC). Nor is this a review of some wonderful kitchen gadget that spirals the peel off the apple in one perfect piece. It's not even about how much I like to chop up apples, sprinkle them with cinnamon and cook them with my oatmeal when I'm in the mood for a yummy, hot breakfast. No.  This is about my shape.


You know. Some people are pear shaped (extra weight distributed at the waist and hips), some are banana shaped (my little E's measurements are 20", 20", 20"--definitely banana), some have shapely hourglass figures, and then there are the apples. I'm an apple shaped person.  Any extra "avoirdupois" shows up right at my middle. This is the worst shape to be. Not only is is neigh impossible to find clothes that fit nicely on an apple, but this shape is a known predictor of disease--coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and gall bladder disease. The rule-of-thumb danger sign for apple is the waist measurement.  The critical measurement is 35 inches.  That's the dividing line between just overweight and obese.

I take my body measurements about twice a month.  It's not an exact science.  I really like exact science. It's too easy to pull the tape measure a little tighter, or to go the other way and be overly scrupulous and not pull it tight enough.  Most definitely I never take the measurement exactly the same way twice.  But, and this is a big but, (stop laughing!) over time, the measurements definitely show what's happening. I started measuring again at the beginning of May, when I got serious about this whole thing again.  My waist measurement is 3 1/2 inches less now than it was on May 2.  Yes, there's a "fudge factor," but 3 1/2 inches can't be fudged (when I'm honestly trying to measure myself correctly each time).  Three and one half inches lost is progress.  I also have corresponding progress with the hips, bust, upper arm and thigh measurements.


So Long, Big Apple??  Well, I'm still an apple shaped person, but, as of yesterday morning, I'm not a BIG apple, or at least not an obese apple, anymore.  My waist measurement is officially under 35, just.   I'm going for more, but I'm loving the trend.


One last piece of business.  Do you remember Charlie, of the Laws of Physical Diet?  Well, he posted a challenge the other day to encourage his readers to get on board with him in his push to finally get down to business and get this weight, these inches, this bloated lifestyle done with and over.   I commented that I was "in," but that wasn't good enough for him.  No, I have to post a picture of myself saying I'm on Board.  So, without any further ado . . .

Do you take your measurements?  (If you haven't yet, I highly recommend it!)

Do you believe in Magic?

With a nod to the wonderful Lovin' Spoonful for their great oldies hit,  I'm hoping for a little bit of magic. My WI is tomorrow and my scale is doing its best to prepare me for the probability that I'm not going to lose or even maintain.  In fact, it's not only my scale auguring bad news; my food journal, too, is doing its best to show me, in black and white, just why I probably won't lose tomorrow.  I'm in Trouble.  Trouble with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "C" and it stand for CHOCOLATE!   Yes, I've gotten into some Trouble with my old nemesis, chocolate.

It started with a picture.  It seems to me that several of you (yes, you--all you slim, successful, sensible, talented, bloggers that I follow) have built in a dark chocolate snack often luringly featured in a photo in your posts.   Well, I'm trying to learn to eat the way I plan to eat for the rest of my life.  I like dark chocolate as well as (or, truthfully, much better than) the next person.  Dark chocolate is actually good for you. Why don't I add in some dark chocolate to my daily menu too.  So a week or so ago,  I bought a small, 3.5 oz bar of dark chocolate with orange peel added in.   I portioned it into 4 pieces (less than an oz is a good portion size, no?). The first bite was heaven.  Absolutely amazing.   I had one each day for four days.  I lost at my WI last week; my clothes are fitting better.  This is great! I thought, all this and chocolate, too!  


So, when the chocolate was gone, back I went to Whole Foods.  They have at least 12 linear feet of aisle space devoted to chocolate.  I couldn't find my wonderful dark chocolate with orange.  So I got another kind--well, I got two other kinds, trying to find the one closest to my beloved orange bar.  And when I got home, I tried kind #1, but it wasn't nearly as tasty as, "orangie," so I opened up kind #2 and tried it, too.  No good.  But not so "no good" that I didn't have 1 oz of each kind for the next 3 days.  And then I went back, still in search of my long lost "orangie."  


This time I ended up buying 3 bars.   Well, there's an inevitable sad ending to this story.  I woke up this morning and weighed myself.  I compared it to my weight on the day before WI last week and, instead of a nice drop in weight, this week's weight was UP!   Then I really WOKE UP and realized how foolish I've been.    Sigh.


I'm destined to fall victim to the First and Second Laws of the  Law of Physical Diets as knowledgeably enumerated by Charlie in Back to the Fridge this morning:

Law I. Weight returns at five times the velocity at which it was lost.
Unfortunately, most of us are all too familiar with this law. In some ways, this seems impossible. “How can it take five days to lose two pounds and only one day to get it back!? That’s not fair!” Well, unfortunately, life isn’t fair and this is just the way it works. Why? Because you can’t eat fewer than zero calories per day but you can eat five thousand or more if you really put your mind to it. What to do: If your diet is going well, here’s a helpful tip: don’t blow it. How? Well if I knew that, I’d be king of the world.

Law II. Any dietary straying, no matter how seemingly insignificant, causes instantaneous Diet Reversal.
Oh, we’ve all experienced this. You do well all week long then on Friday night you figure you deserve a little treat. So you have pizza. Oops. Does your body forgive you? Are you allowed to take a mulligan? Of course not. What to do: Giving yourself a food treat for losing weight is a lot like winning a Million Dollar Bake-Off and then shredding the check to celebrate your win. What’s wrong with you?

Go to Charlie's post to read all FOUR laws.  He's a gifted writer and quite insightful about this whole weight loss scene.

I've learned my lesson--yes, a little (<1 oz) chocolate is okay occasionally, and NO, don't go tasting every chocolate bar on earth trying to re-create that first, great bite of "orangie." I'm the 'sadder but wiser girl' today.     but I do believe in magic . . . .  




tune in tomorrow.