To Market, To Market

but not to buy a fat pig! ;)

I went to the local farmers' market with the children bright and early this morning. Here's what we brought home: Peaches and Tomatoes. My favorites. The peaches are out of this world. They told me that they'll have them through into early November. Last week I bought 9 peaches and they only lasted until Thursday. Let's see how we do with a dozen this week. The basil is from my garden. I wanted to use some in tonight's dinner.  I pick it in the morning and stick it in a glass of water and my kitchen smells wonderful all day. The tall white flowers in the background, just behind the rosemary are chive blossoms.

At the market this morning E was lobbying for a cookie. I set a bad precedent by getting her cookies each of the past two times we went. I tried to talk her out of it by asking her what else she might like instead. Her answer? Mandarin orange sections!  Score! This little cutie is miles ahead of her grandmother in learning to make smart, healthy choices.

Here's the latest Hurricane Earl track. It's worse than yesterday's, having it closer to our destination on Friday. We'll see what happens. We lived in Rhode Island in 1991 when Hurricane Bob came.  It was 19 years ago today. The eye of the storm went right over our house. We were without power for 5 days. The public library where I worked, however was open every single day. Cold showers are not a way of life I would choose, but because we had several hours advance notice, there was no loss of life and it was heartening to see how the community came together. The most memorable sight was looking out our window and seeing a bright blue 8 foot children's plastic pool flying through the air, about 15 feet off the ground, looking for all the world like a well-tossed frisbee.

I wasn't sore at all today from last night's workout.  Yay!  Tonight we'll go to the gym to work out after dinner.  We always go Tuesday and Thursday nights and sometimes add a third strength training session on the weekend.

Today, just to check things out, I counted my calories (using fitday.com). They came to 1300 which is just about right for me.  I also counted my WW points, 24, also good--my allotted 21 plus a few of the 35 weekly extra points I'm supposed to have.  I don't usually count anything, but it's nice to know that my eating is on track. Oh and I bought a neat set of stainless steel measuring spoons at WW the other day.  They measure 1 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1/4 cups. They double as serving spoons and make portion control uber easy. WW sells them at all its locations (you don't have to be a member to buy).  I see that amazon also has them.

What do you do to check on your portion sizes?

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.

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."

Wednesday Round Up

I've got quite a few irons in the fire, goal-wise, on the diet and exercise front. I'd thought I'd bring you up to date on how things are going.

Exercise: Two weeks ago I set myself a goal to exercise seven day a week. I've been able to do this. Sometimes I had to work around the weather--can't bike in a thunderstorm, but I have some options and use them when I need to. Most of my exercise takes 45-60 minutes. Here's my exercise for this past week:

Wed--Ran 3.7 miles, C25K Week 8 Day 3

Thu--Gym, Lifted 18,000 lbs. 11 resistance machines, 2 sets of 15 reps.

Fri --Ran 4.1 miles, C25K Week 9 Day 1

Sat --Ran 2.6 miles, C25K Week 9 Day 2

Sun--Wii Tennis, Singles, Grand Slam, 90 minutes (rained out of bike ride)

Mon--Ran 4.2 miles, C25K Week 9 Day 3 -- Last Day!

Tues--Gym, Lifted 20,000 lbs. 11 resistance machines, 2 sets of 15 reps.

Wed--Ran 4.1 miles

Water: One of my first non-scale goals with the Spring Focus was to drink 8 or more cups of water each and every day. I have pretty much aced this one too, except for a few days when I was traveling, at a concert, or otherwise knew I would be unable to get to facilities. I love this one. I think it has helped tremendously. Not only to keep me well hydrated, but also to keep me feeling fairly full. I think many times I probably ate because I mistook a thirst signal for a hunger signal. This one is definitely a keeper.

Portions: Another recent goal was to really check out my portions. I did, by measuring and weighing, and found that I was overestimating serving portions. I cut down my portions, especially of whole grain carbs (ww pasta, brown rice, ww orzo, ww couscous, corn) and think I've reached a happy place in my portion size. I've stopped measuring and weighing, but think this is a good thing for me to check up on every once in a while.

Weight: I was hesitant to set a goal weight loss for the Spring Focus, but finally allowed as how I'd love to try to lose 12 pounds in the two month challenge time, between May 4th and July 4th. I'm pleased and amazed to report, that, as of my weigh in today, I've lost 15.8 pounds. If you haven't read Charlie's

(Back to the Fridge)

post about the Stupid Switch, go there as soon as you finish this post. I firmly believe he's right. My switch is definitely in the "on" position right now, and I'm going to tippy toe around so as not to accidentally toggle it to "off!." So today, I was down another 2.6 pounds. YIPEE!!!

Is your switch "on" or "off?"

192.2

3 Things Thursday

I thought that instead of trying to share my life story (as usual), I'd try to limit myself to just three things today.

1. Killing Time

I didn't intend to kill time when I went biking with DH last night. I meant to get some more exercise and spend a little quality time with my husband. In the end, though, I did kill time, or at least my watch. Here's what happened. We were at a 4-way stop in the neighborhood we ride through. I had entered the intersection with my left arm dutifully stretched out to signal my turn when I noticed a car with a pizza delivery sign on top fast approaching on the cross road. It didn't seem to be slowing for the stop sign at all. After an instantaneous calculation involving speed, relative bearing drift, and the known proclivities of pizza delivery guys to drive recklessly, I slammed on my brakes. A half a second later I was on the road, my bike having responded to my braking command so quickly, that I hadn't gone as much as a foot farther into the intersection. Long story short, the pizza car did stop (12 feet or so past the stop sign), DH came back and helped me (and my pride) up off the street, and we proceeded on our way. When we arrived home I took an inventory of my losses: 2 bruised and scuffed palms, 1 skinned knee, 1 skinned ankle, 1 skinned elbow, a nasty looking bruise in the 'under-the-bathing-suit area' at the top of my thigh, and an unblemished spot, inside, under my left breast that hurts a bit when I move/breathe/laugh. Oh, and yes, a cracked, scuffed crystal on my favorite red watch. My little granddaughter, E, thought I needed a band-aide and chose one of her Hello Kitty ones for me.

2. La Pasta Whole Wheat Roasted Vegetable Ravioli

We had this with dinner last night. I got it at Whole Foods because it was convenient, made with whole wheat pasta, and had just roasted veggies, no cheese. I didn't look up the nutritional information until this morning, but, having shared a package among the three of us, I was pleased with the results.

3. Portion Lesson

Baby J. is 10 months old and is just starting to eat "finger foods,"

beyond Cheerios. This morning I decided that for his fruit he could have some strawberries (his mom had suggested that he liked them). So I got out the box and choose a few to chop up. The first was a big one, but not humongous. I washed it, removed the top and started chopping it into cheerio-sized pieces. Incredibly, that one strawberry served up more than a quarter cup of pieces. I measured. One strawberry was plenty for him. Lesson learned: I need to clean the slate (in my head) and really look at my portions anew, forgetting old patterns of 'knowing' appropriate portions of things.

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.

Spring Focus Update

The Spring Focus is going well. I'm in the groove, which is great news.

First of all, since May 4th, the official beginning of SF, I've lost 3.6 pounds as recorded at my Weight Watcher's weigh in. I'm a slow loser, so this is fabulous. My goal is to lose 12 pounds by July 4. This is kind of a random number, I'll be content to keep up with OP eating and exercise and to keep losing. It doesn't have to be 12 (but that would be nice!).

One of my short term goals is to really solidify the habit of drinking 8+ cups of water a day. Except for one intentional lapse (when we had pricey theatre tickets and I didn't want to have to get up and go) I've really done well with this. Having my own pitcher full of water staring me in the face if I go to 'check on' how things in the fridge are doing really helps. I even find myself getting thirsty if I go for an hour or so without drinking.

A new short term goal, that I'm just beginning is to really pay attention to portions. Today I discovered that I was mis-estimating my standby ff cottage cheese--I thought I was serving myself about 3/4 of a cup, but it was actually less than 1/2 cup! I used a measuring cup to serve myself whole wheat pasta for my spaghetti tonight.

My exercise is an ongoing focus for me. I've just finished week 6 of my C25K and am feeling great about it. DH and I go for a 13 mile bike ride about two times/week. We also go to the gym to lift weights, weight machines, twice a week. Throw in a little Wii tennis for fun and occasional 2 mile walks in the evening.

Weekend Wrap-up

This was a good week. I stayed on plan for the most part and any extras fell easily in my 35 weekly (extra) points. I kept to my goal of water drinking except for Friday when I cut it short because we went to a performance. My C25K is going well. I did the 20 minute run with no problem. Yesterday I walked a bit during a 10 minute stretch, but think that doing my run much earlier in the day (when it's cooler) will take care of that.

I am going to add a new goal this week. I want to work on my portions, especially those at dinner time. Late afternoon is my most vulnerable time when it comes to snacking, and if I manage to get through that unscathed, I'm really ready, hungry for dinner,

I plan great meals, but when I serve them, I'm always tempted to put just a little more XXXX (pasta, rice, chicken, you name it) on the plate. I want to get control of this. My plan is to plan a late afternoon snack--tomorrow it's a baby watermelon. I will also use a measuring cup to serve rice and pasta. I will use the WW visual guidelines to serve the veggies and meat (one serving = : a potato is the size of a computer mouse, meat is the size of a deck of cards, etc.) I'm motivated by my having lost well in the last few weeks. I CAN do this.

Do you have any tricks for reining in your portion size??

Please share!