Just 4 Today, I’ll drink my fiber twice (done once), drink 2 liters of water (about 1/3), walk 5 miles (3415 — Yesterday: 5.5), NOT eat between meals & NOT take seconds.
Today: it’s The Dentist. Can you tell that I’m nervous?
What are you going to do today?
12 Comments
Yesterday we had a family emergency (turned out ok) so I didn’t walk home as planned, rather called Mr. to come get me so we could pick up the grandling from school.
It was interesting last night, I was feeling like I was somewhat out of control with the stress of the situation, and I ate “a lot”– one and a half medium to small ears of corn, maybe a half cup of potato salad, a couple of leftover beef ribs, and a tiny brownie.
If that’s what passes for a binge, I guess I’m ok.
Hi catdog, I know it sounds like a lot compared to what you’ve been doing. But, it also sounds very controlled. Out of control would have been a bowl of potato salad, not a half cup (at least for me — I could inhale it if I was really out of control)
As you said, not bad for a binge!
I’m glad your emergency turned out OK. And I hope things are calmer today.
Hi KB.
I just got back from a couple of days in the hospital for treatment of migraines. They gave me a bunch of medicines by I.V. and to say the hospital stay was something else would be an understatement.
I hope you and everyone has been good.
Looks like we’re all doing badly. I injured my knee and it is just now healed, plus, I binged last night. Out of control for me means I don’t even remember what I ate, because when I binge, my mind is completely shut down. My eyes literally do not blink the whole entire time and I sort of enter into a removed trance where I can’t even taste anything. Creepy, I know. I know I ate tons of slices of bread and multiple servings of cereal, I just have no idea how many. Unlike most Bomshells, I don’t have the “guts” to purge… so I just have to wait until the future when I burn off the binge little by little each day. Sucks to be me! Meh.
I sat down with all my stats and realized that if I exercise every day I could get BACK to my goal weight in TWENTY days. How lame is it that I’ve been plateauing for three weeks?! So I’m going to try again – today is day 20. I’m going to try to commit very hard to 19 more days of exercising every day. Once this is done I will attempt AGAIN to maintain @ 125.
PS KB – 120 sounds really light (although I don’t know how tall you were). When I got down to 125 I got to this scary place where I still FELT fat and thought I needed to lose more – then I looked at weight charts for my height and bone structure – the charts said that 115 would be considered anorexic. That sort of scared me and shook me up and made me think ok 125 is good enough – I will not go any lower.
PS Another insight into maintenance – the Hacker’s diet recommends that you only begin dieting if you shoot a few pounds above your goal. When I get back to my ideal weight, I am going to try a more aggressive form of maintenance: if I even weigh ONE pound above my goal, I will do one diet day. I wish I had done this before. Before, I told myself that one or two extra pounds didn’t matter, because they are part of a moving average – but they DO matter, especially if the weights are always ABOVE the moving average (Doh!) And then I had suddenly gained back five pounds without blinking… which could turn into ten… which could turn into twenty… etc… which is why I am going to be more aggressive about maintenance this time.
PS If you don’t want to gain weight during maintenance, you have to COUNT CALORIES EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE [gets angry]!! You get more calories, but there is NO getting around the counting. I got complacent and look what happened to me! I’ve gone up about a whole clothing size with this extra 5 lbs!
{{Bombshell}}
“I don’t even remember what I ate, because when I binge, my mind is completely shut down.”
I’ve never had this happen to me when I’m alone. But, sometimes at family parties when we’re sitting around the table with a good dinner a 4-5 loaves of REALLY good bread, this happens to me. I can eat a whole loaf of bread while talking to my sisters. With butter or cheese too. Like it doesn’t count because — no reason — because I don’t care, I guess. Until the next day.
And it’s that “shutting down” that scares me about my future. Because I don’t know how to predict when/where/if it will happen again. Except that having this site has helped me. I know that if it wasn’t for posting regularly here, I would have totally let-go and would have drifted right back up to my original weight.
That’s not a real answer, not enough to counter what you said (which is true and I agree):
“If you don’t want to gain weight during maintenance, you have to COUNT CALORIES EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE [gets angry]!! You get more calories, but there is NO getting around the counting.”
I’m just hoping to figure out how to keep it fun and interesting.
Have you seen the section on Causes for Confidence at The Hacker’s Diet? Or the How can it Fail section?
I use these pages to give me hope. And I’ve emailed him a time or too also. He’s very kind and encouraging in his reponses.
“I could get BACK to my goal weight in TWENTY days. How lame is it that I’ve been plateauing for three weeks?”
Bombshell, when I started logging everything in NutriBase, I’d been on a plateau for months or more — it felt like forever. That wasn’t all bad since for months and months and months my weight had been slowly creeping up. But it WAS frustrating because I felt like I was trying and focused. And I just wasn’t losing.
So, when I REALLY focused and logged EVERYTHING and walked 6 miles just about every day and DRANK more than 2 liters of water steadily through the day — it was like a dam burst and the weight has been pouring off.
Now I know there is a big difference between us — the 30-40 pounds i want to lose means it’s easier for individual pounds to come off my body than yours. But I am still (even after 3 weeks) surprised at how dramatically the momentum has shifted.
I’ve said off and on ever since I started this blog that Obesity is incurable. John Walker is kinder, he says our eat watch is broken. And he really believes that with the right tools we can fake it. But, I don’t know if his brain has ever shut off and just let him eat whole loaves of bread in one day. . .
This is as close as he comes to mentioning it:
Bombshell we’ve both got a long, maybe hard challenge ahead of us. And I know there will be bad days and GREAT days. I’m planning to keep this site going forever and being here nearly everyday, if that’s any help at all.
xxoo
katiebird
Battle update:
2 AM, EST
After having eaten 1200 for the day and executing an effortless four mile run, I find myself awake with hideous insomnia. Got out of bed and binged on canned peas.
Why was this a binge? Because I HATE canned peas. I hate everything about them. I hate the way the taste. I hate their color. I hate the fact that the entire can has over 1000 mg of sodium. Also, they are supposed to be my husbands – and it was his last can.
After having downed 2/3 of the can, I wrangled the peas down and subdued them with a hefty dosage of Lsyol. The smell that emitted (canned pea water and lemon Lysol) left me feeling exsanguinated. Now I sit here blogging, with an insatiable thirst for diet coke, which I refuse to drink because it will keep me awake.
Your post has been most inspirational, KB, and may even prevent me from further binging. I am contemplating counting the peas as part of my calorie count for tomorrow, since its almost tomorrow.
Incidentally, I think my binging is different than yours. I ONLY do it alone, never with company. And I always eat things I don’t even like. Its like I’m in self-destruct mode. I have a stressful career and its a rather effective stress management tool. It eradicates any stress that I feel whatsoever. Right now, since I am NOT binging, I am FEELING the stress instead and therefore unable to sleep.
But your posts have stopped me for now and that is very cool.
Here is something for fun and possible informational purposes. EVERYTHING I ate today, including calories:
7:15 AM Diet coke 0
12:30 PM granny smith apple, large 100
1:40 PM Starbucks iced grande caramel soy latte 250
2:30 PM lowfat chocolate ice cream, eight ounces, in cone 168
4:00 PM peach, large 68
5:00 PM pecan, date and almond bar 200
5:30 PM grilled artichoke hearts, three ounces 42
6:00 PM Enviga peach green tea 5
6:30 PM four slices of Wrigley’s Doublemint gum 40
6:45 PM one slice vegan soy cheese 35
7:00 PM ten almonds, roasted, unsalted 77
9:30 PM one can Organic Valley tomato soup 172
9:30 PM granny smith apple, large, half 50
12:00 PM granny smith apple, large, quarter, with mustard 25
TOTAL: 1232 calories
CONCLUSION: NOT SURE IF I WILL DO REALLY WELL ON THREE SQUARE MEALS A DAY
Heh heh… and before you readers judge my lack of breakfast, lack of protein, and evil sugary latte drinkin’, remember that I only ate when I was hungry, and I STAYED FULL on 1232 calories, which counts for something.
Eating and work pattern. You can see the above pattern in my schedule…
7:15 AM to 4:00 PM – working furiously and interacting with others; cannot get away and is happy to have an excuse not to have to eat much
4:30 PM to 8:30 PM – still working after everyone else has left, sitting at desk eating one snack on the hour, every hour
9:00 PM – has finished working and eats something that vaguely resembles a small cooked meal
Its not pretty – but it works… this was the method I used… although admittedly i am often hungry… but not every day.
Bombshell, This is interesting — Now I REALLY understand your shock at the difference in our diets!!
I couldn’t survive on what you ate yesterday. I’m starving just reading the list. And having read it, I HAVE to ask — are you sure your binges aren’t related to an unacknowleged craving for something solid in your diet?
I don’t mean this in a judgemental way at all. You should absolutely be eating what you want to eat. I’m just thinking about those times you’re eating things you don’t want to eat. And how to sidetrack those events before they happen.
KB – Yesterday’s list was particularly bad. I usually eat much more solid food – like the list I gave you last time with more fruits and vegetables and toast. I was just REALLY sick of healthy food yesterday. I swear I am not like one of those people who only eats liquid. For lunch today i am eating rice, tofu, lentils and an apple. If I eat three meals a day, the hours between each meal make me really hungry. Whereas, if I eat once every two hours, a small snack, it feels better. The pea related binge I think was psychological. I could’ve had something solid that I LIKED if I was thinking normally.
PS I also ran out of fresh groceries – except the apples and peaches. Will give you a list from a day when I have groceries.
I’ve tried the three meal a day thing before but it never works. No matter how many calories I eat in each meal, my body is hungry two hours later. I could eat an apple, some chicken, or a 600 calorie piece of pizza and be hungry two hours later. That is what I call a broken eat watch – except that its been that way since I was a baby. I was always fed small healthy snacks when I asked for them as a kid. I was a healthy skinny kid. I was never fat until I was about 16 and my family moved and I was traumatized by moving and leaving my best friends and I hated my new school so I ate all the time from stress. From then it was a long battle to lose the weight (lost it by the time i was about 18). It stayed gone but had recently started creeping back, which is why I was on this site.
So… if my eat watch demands food about six times a day the only way to deal with it is to feed it low calorie things – hence the problem of feeding it either a fruit or a carb by itself or a protein by itself, versus a carb and a protein at the same time, which I know creates longer fullness. I am thinking about how to do this. The only things I can think of are boring – like a half a turkey sandwich… but that is ok.