Sunday, March 22, 2009

Fifteen pounds off, and my body and mind seem different.

I have now whittled fifteen pounds of fat from my body. The changes in my body are now obvious to me. My waistline is quite concave. My upper belly is mostly flat. The Girls are perkier. I can see that I've improved my waist-to-hip ratio, which is a key marker for health. (I'm glad that I've been doing lots of abs exercises this whole time, because now that enough fat is gone to reveal a waistline, my posture is great, my abs and back are strong.)

It's nice to see and feel tangible results from my efforts. The key skill/mindset I've learned over these fifteen pounds is Stick-To-It-Ness (STIN). STIN requires a patient determination, a constant returning to the present. The ability to return to the present over and over, to let go of that last mistake and proceed forward, requires a lot of mindfulness, a heaping whallop of letting go of the harshly critical inner voices, and categorical banishment of little voice that says, "Hey, you blew lunch. Let's have cake for dinner." I've also learned that some weeks are too chaotic to focus on losing weight, and it's best for me to maintain weight and then resume losing when I have more time and space. The slow boat is best. This is not a sprint to the finish; this is a long stroll to a new place where I plan to live.

Kickin' ass and bitchslapping my inner demons, I lose weight.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Correlation




In the comments a few posts down, Ann and I are having an interesting (if I do say so myself) discussion about correlation v. causation when it comes to health and obesity. Official NIH info about health, obesity, and determining whether losing weight would decrease your risk of disease here.

Be sure to check out the mouseover in that comic. :)

UPDATE: crap, seems you can't see the mouseover. Here's what it says:
Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Side benefit

Oh, hey, I'm more flexible all of a sudden! I haven't been stretching more--maybe even a little less. All I can figure is that having less, say, belly in the way makes me able to stretch farther forward. Also, I can hug my husband tighter.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Mnph...Food...Hangover

Yesterday, my husband defended his PhD. (Hurray!) It was a strange, unstructured day, a day with lots of food around, a day when I ate ALL that food because I was nervous/celebratory. In a word: Regression.

(A pause to emphasize that this was a fantastic, momentous day! Happy!)

Despite my efforts in packing a favorite salad for lunch, here is what I ate yesterday:
  • pie (yes, at breakfast)
  • cereal and soy milk
  • coffee
  • 3 cookies
  • some of that salad
  • a giant falafel wrap
  • iced coffee (at 4:30 PM! Then I wondered why I couldn't sleep...)
  • fried Indian appetizers: half a samosa and 2 pakoras
  • masala chai (tasted traditional, i.e., made with half-and-half in place of milk)
  • naan
  • coconut rice
  • channa saagwala (mmmm, spinach, chickpeas, spices, and loads of ghee)
  • kulfi
Immediately after dinner, I felt sluggish, bloated, heavy, gross. My mind was dull. I recognized this sensation and instantly realized that I hadn't felt it since I began WW. I used to feel this hyperglycemic stupor fairly often after a restaurant meal. Also? I'm mildly lactose intolerant, but yesterday I did a marvelous job of pretending I was not.

I didn't feel well as I tried to sleep last night. My gut felt heavy, my mind was both dull and racing, muscles achy. I dreamed all night that it was Christmas and I could not get away from holiday cookies and eggnog. At one time, these would have been heavenly dreams, but last night, they were nightmares.

This morning is the strangest, though. I feel what I can only describe as a food hangover. Its symptoms are different from a regular hangover (so I'm told, I was never a big fan of alcohol). I STILL feel full and slightly queasy. My mouth is dry and has a bad taste. Brain racing and slightly foggy still.

This experience is an excellent affirmation for me of the effects food has on my body and mind, and also of the improvements to my own well-being thanks to WW.

I think a little tea with a little honey and a slice of toast will suffice for breakfast. I think I will stick to monastic food today.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Let's tawk about fat acceptance.

The fat acceptance movement has been on my mind lately. See, I agree with most of it: Beautiful bodies come in all shapes and sizes, popular images distort our notions of an "acceptable" figure, it's important to maintain health--doctor visits, good nutrition, exercise--no matter what your weight, and doctors should not bully patients about weight. A person's weight is not a moral issue, nor is it anyone else's business. Women are browbeaten about fitting a thin, perky, fit perfect embodiment of femininity, which is just wrong. I'm sure men must feel pressure to conform to a certain Clark Kent physique, too. Let's all love our bodies!

However, it seems to me that this movement, for all its wonderful and timely points, too often denies the health risks of overweight and obesity. Ignoring the research linking overweight/obesity with heart disease and cancer is like ignoring the research linking smoking with heart disease and cancer. Is excess fat the only cause of disease? No, of course not. It is, nonetheless, a tremendous risk factor, on a par with smoking. Like smoking, fat is difficult but not impossible to change.

I will continue to believe, and to encourage others to believe (when it comes up) that bodies are beautiful in their infinite variety. I would never tell another person that he/she needs to drop a few pounds, and I respect each individual's choices in regards to his/her own body. However, I cannot deny the very serious health risks of overweight and obesity, nor the health benefits of reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. I think that the fat acceptance movement's apparent denial of these health risks is, well, unhealthy. It's one thing to evaluate the risks and say, that's OK, I'd rather not lose weight and take my chances; it's a different thing to say, there are no risks.

And, also, too: Be sure to check out this episode of On Point, a discussion with Susie Orbach, author of Bodies. She has some terrific ideas.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Yay, me!

I am pleased to report that I have downgraded from "obese" to merely "overweight." I'm sure this must cut health risks of X by Y percent, but I don't know the details.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

<3 <3 <3 FRUSHI!!!!! <3 <3 <3

I enjoyed Frushi at a party last night--sushi rice molded into little flower shapes with a thin slice of strawberry or kiwi on top. It was a revelation! I probably ate 5 pieces. So sweet, delicious, toothsome, and light. I found the recipe online.

Tip from the hostess: Press the sushi rice into a cookie sheet and then chill in the fridge overnight. Cut with cookie cutters for pretty shapes. Much easier than hand-forming while the rice is hot.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

I think I'm in love with Ellie Krieger.

Ellie Krieger is a Food Network host (watch out--video with sound at that link), cookbook author, and registered dietitian. She is a registered dietitian who actually likes food. She understands that we have taste buds and texture buds, that we crave sweet and creamy and should therefore eat sweet and creamy. Best of all, she chooses real food over processed crap. Like me, she would rather eat real mayonnaise and real whipped cream, but watch the portions, than to resort to corn-syrup-additive-fake reduced-fat mayo and light whipped topping.

Her cookbook just arrived in the mail. I tried her pancakes with strawberry syrup this morning, and they are wonderful: everything a pancake should be, but without needing a nap afterwards.

I want to try her hot cocoa recipes RIGHT NOW, but I'm full.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Things I learned during the first 5%

I learned a whole lot about weight loss, maintenance, and food as I dropped the first 5% of my original body weight. Here are some of the gems.

1. Healthy food is not necessarily low-calorie food. This is a key error I was making all along.
2. Hershey's is just not worth it. Ghiradelli dark chocolate is. Scharffen Berger? Really worth it.
3. The hot dog/cheese/peanut butter/pizza seems like it will be filling, but it really won't. High-fiber, high-water-content foods are filling.
4. Support is necessary to lose weight. I would not be able to do it by myself.
4a. Do not discuss weight issues with my parents, who try but fail to be supportive. They programmed my food issue buttons; of course they know how to push them!
4b. There are friends with whom I should not eat out. They will try to push the fried appetizers and dessert on me. They may comment excessively about the healthfulness of my food selections.
4b1. DUDE. I don't comment about your food--except maybe flavors and textures! Do not comment on mine!
5. Rolls have more Points than I think. They can destroy a day's or a week's hard work. Ditto for the restaurant bread basket.
5a. It's advisable to have a small snack before dining out, so that I will not face the bread basket when faint from hunger. I could never win that battle unprepared. The bread basket is an admirable foe.
6. It's not really about willpower. It's about preparation and analysis.
7. My favorite mantra from the WW leader: What you did last matters less than what you do next.

Two highly practical points:
1. It's good to keep some Applegate Farms Chicken & Sage sausage in the freezer, so I can microwave one or two when I get that NEED MEAT NOW! feeling. (Just 1 Point per sausage! So satisfying!)
2. If possible, urinate just before weekly weigh-in. Just a little water retention can cause a 1-2 pound weight increase on the scale.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Goodbye, Plateau Town. Hello, Processed Food Cycle.

Good news! I've lost another 2.4 lbs., which means that I have 1. shaken free of my plateau, and 2. lost 5% of my original body weight in total!

But today was Not a Great Eating Day. Because I had to do the week's grocery shopping AND get to my WW meeting after a long, sleep-deprived school day, I ate a McDonald's cheeseburger for dinner. Ironically, I ate the junk food short-term in order to support my longer-term goals for the week.

If it had stopped at a cheeseburger, that would be no big deal. It seems, however, that I can get into a Processed Food Cycle. Something about the taste of the McSpaceFood makes me crave more processed nonsense. Which means that, since the WW meeting, I have eaten two pieces of string cheese, a granola bar, and the better part of a bag of baked cheese puffs. Cheese puffs! I mean, what the hell?

However: What you do next is more important than what you did last. Tomorrow I will start over, with the fridge and cupboards stocked with real food.