Sunday, April 5, 2009

Oh, The Insanity of it All

So of course the very first day my weight goes up from the day before. And that was with only having a bowl of cereal and some raspberries for supper. But I had chicken wings and drummies for lunch. I guess those go off the menu, too.

Bought a bag of lentils. Those were hard to find. Had to ask three people at the grocery store until we found someone who knew anything about them. They in with Mexican food. Go figure.

So, now I have a bag of lentils. Have to start looking and find recipes which use them.

Got a pedometer yesterday, but not until late. Managed about 400-steps before shutting down for the night. Today I'll wear it all day and see what I get. (I've a feeling I'm not going to be exactly close to 10,000-steps.) Woke with a horrible, painful cough in my chest. Lovely spring cold. Well, if I'm hurting so bad I probably won't eat much. Then I'll lose weight!

Except I remember seeing a dietician back in the '90s. I would see her once a week. I still remember showing up the week after my first visit all proud because I had lost nine pounds. She got angry and chided me about being stupid. You never want to lose more then three or four pounds in a week. If you do, you're starving yourself and not developing a life-long habit. The idea is to create a way of living you can live with.

I lost a lot of weight going to see her, but I also went broke. All of those fresh fruits and vegetables cost a bit of money. Back then what I was confronted with was the reality that for $3.00 I could buy three or four apples, or one box of macaroni. The three or four apples satisified three or four snack requirements. The box of macaroni would supply six to eight meals for my spouse and myself. But it worked while we had the money.

A few years ago I purchased the treadmill. I was heavier then than I am now. When I began I wasnt able to go faster then 2.5-m.p.h. or longer than five minutes. That was right when Spouse and I were starting up the gift business, so I was home a lot. I would walk six times a day. At the start of each week I increased my time by one minute. Eventually, I was walking six miles every day, and I was losing about four pounds each week. I actually got down to 340 pounds, well on my way to the goal. And then I got carried away. I started playing with increasing the treadmill's angle and, worst of all, began speeding up my walks. What I did was create a scenario in which I had to walk abnormally in order to keep up. The result was I woke one morning unable to get out of bed. Had to crawl around the house for three days before I could walk. It was a week before I was walking normal again.

And I've never been able to return to the treadmill and keep a routine since. That psychological block which has nothing to do with the treadmill and everything to do with my silliness. I gained back sixty of the eighty pounds I lost and have been sitting there for years now.

When I was young I was thin. Skinny even. I could eat like a horse and hardly gain a pound. But I was so into sports and being physically active. Then, in my late-twenties that changed. That was about the time Stephen and I separated, too. By the time I was in my mid-thirties I was quite the blimp. When Stephen found me again I was fat.

I started losing weight again, but then people started to die all around me. Including Stephen. I kind of didn't care anymore. Then I got to thinking about Son being embarrassed to be seen with me and I got the treadmill. Well. I'm going to give it another go, okay?

You know, I thought I did really well yesterday. True, I didn't use the treadmill, but I was out and walking. And I didn't snack! D*mned hot wings. Why do they have to taste so good! With bar-b-que sauce? Umm. Ah, sorry. Fully expected to have dropped almost a pound. Instead, I'm up. Well, at least I was still below the trend weight. The trend weight is the real key. As long as my daily weights are below my trend weight I'm technically losing weight.

Maybe I should have just put all of this onto its own blog. Then I could moderate seven blogs! I must be out of my mind.

13 comments:

fairyhedgehog said...

Are you supposed to weigh yourself every day? Weight can fluctuate a lot and I think that the recommendation is usually to weigh yourself once a week, at the same time of day and in the same clothes (or none). That way, you can see what is going on much better.

If you lose too much at once, your body registers starvation and shuts down a bit so it becomes much harder to lose weight. It's a nuisance but slowly and surely works best.

Not while you're ill though. Eat sensibly but don't get out of breath exercising till you're well again.

Just my view - don't trust me, I'm not a doctor!

Bevie said...

Hi Fairy!

You're right on all accounts. Thank you for caring. Those are good, gentle reminders for me to hold close, especially since I've chosen to use "Trends" so track my weight. (There is also a provision to track eating and exercise, but I have other means of doing that.)

I like the "Trend Weight" system because it's my reminder to be on the scale. (I'll never remember otherwise.) In effect, it is very much like a weekly weigh-in, for while it requires daily weights to calculate, daily weights are NOT what is tracked.

The way I remember it being explained was "Trend Weight" uses ALL of the daily weight figures from the previous thirty days, with more recent figures taking on greater importance than those more than 20 days ago.

This is why you see my "Daily Weight" went up by more than a pound, but the "Trend Weight" remained unchanged.

It's kind of like making a long-term investment. You aren't supposed to get shook when the stock value drops, even if it stays low for several weeks. The key is to watch it over time. That is what the trend method provides me.

I get a nice, smooth graph, instead of a jagged comb-like look. So I weighed more today than yesterday. I needn't feel bad because the trend is still going down. Come next Saturday we'll see if the trend is above or below 380 pounds.

I'll make jokes about the "Daily Weight", but it's the "Trend Weight" I'm really watching, and according to that, I weigh the same today as I did yesterday. (Makes sense.) In the meantime, I get to play with graphs.

Lisa said...

weighing yourself can be discouraging - especially if you don't weigh at the same time, wearing the same clothing.

Remember, just going for a walk outside, walk up and down the stairs in your home . . . it all adds up.

one doesn't need to buy expensive food, healthier choices can be made without breaking the bank. For hand weights, using milk jugs filled with water - hey, how much does son weight :-)

I've been doing the Biggest Loser DVD's I JUST LOVE THEM!! I've been meaning to blog about them.

I do think it is especially hard for someone whose been thin most of the life and had been able to eat what they wanted. I've always struggled and always had to watch what I've eaten. It's quite ingrained in me! Not many high calorie dishes get by me.

Don't be fooled by 'little bites'. Samples, while cooking/baking can easily rake in 50 or more calores PER BITE. It's really QUITE annoying how quickly the blasted calories add up.

Good luck on getting the weight down to a healthier range - your heart, spouse, son and Firestar will happy for it.

Lisa said...

and glad that you moved the daily kitten below the post - I do love the photos!

Bevie said...

Thanks, Lisa. Yes, you and Fairy are both right in the risk of daily weigh-ins. But if I don't do it daily I won't even think about it once a week. So I chose a method of tracking in which daily weights shouldn't bother me.

I like the kitty photos, but they were taking up so much space at the top. And now with my Whale Watch, I felt it was time to move them. They're too big to put along the side.

Bevie said...

Oh, and Lisa, you should blog about it.

Lisa said...

I will blog about the dvds at some point - I tend to have several days in between my blogs. some misguided notion that if I blog too frequently that someone will 'miss a blog'.
Of course, I realize, that really isn't the case, but still.
Or it could just be laziness.

My husband finally joined facebook so I've been tagging a bunch of photos with him in it.

What did we do with our time before we blogged, had facebook, linkedIn.
I sat on the couch - purring kitty on lap - about 2 hours ago to read and have not started reading yet!

Bevie said...

"What did we do with our time before we blogged, had facebook, linkedIn"

I was pretty much alone.

writtenwyrdd said...

I cook lentils with brown rice. Takes slightly less time to cook lentils than rice, but so they're mushy! It's easier together. You can also toss in some wild rice (which takes longer to cook). Then get some plain yogurt and stir fry some of your favorite veggies (carrots, onion, bell pepper, mushroom, broccoli, brussels sprouts, bean sprouts, whatever) and add either tofu or lean chicken/pork cubed. (tip: stir fry in a little bit of water, not oil, in a nonstick pan). Add the stir fry to some rice/lentil mix, dollop on some yogurt, and you can get away with eating quite a bit for little calories.

writtenwyrdd said...

I'm with you on the daily weigh ins. I go up and down 5-10 pounds inexplicably, always have. There is no rhyme nor reason to it. I just keep an eye on it so I don't 'accidentally' forget to pay attention.

Bevie said...

Thanks Writtenwyrdd.

Now I've got a couple of lentil recipes. I like wild rice. Used to make a nice wild rice chicken soup, but haven't done so in years.

jaz said...

Bevie, congrats on procuring the lentils. And on your commitment to this. I was thinking a separate blog might be good, but you do have a lot of blogs going on. But there must be other similar blogs which I would bet would give additional support.

Here is our "staple" lentil recipe which we make with either brown or yellow lentils:

1 cup lentils
3-4 cups water
7 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 tsp turmeric (yellow spice that gives curry its color, sold in regular groceries)
1/2 tsp red pepper (more or less depending on how hot you like it)
salt to taste

Bring all of this to a boil, then reduce heat and cook for about a half an hour. Then in a separate skilled, fry a few more cloves of chopped garlic with cumin seeds (if you have them) in a bit of olive oil until the garlic is brown, then add to the lentils.

It is thicker than a soup and we eat it with rice or bread.

Bevie said...

Hi Jennifer. Thanks for the recipe. Just got back from the store where I got some Turmeric, garlic, and a few other things to try.

Got some aspharagus, too. Haven't had that since I was a kid.

I created a page to track the weight and stuff. You can link to it from Whale Watch above.

Oh, and in case you didn't read the comment on your post, Blogger has removed my Avatar from all the blogs I follow. They still show up in my reading list, but it's all mucked up. I'm still following!