This could get interesting…
Posted by: Kathy on: May 2, 2009
- In: diet
- Leave a Comment
Well, I haven’t posted anything since I started on the Atkins Diet, which actually didn’t last very long. I gave it “the old college try,” and lost quite a bit initially, only to have the weight creep back up — even though I was following the diet, and going even lower carb (more meat and dairy). And I wasn’t feeling well. So, I basically gave it up, and went back to my old way of eating. But I haven’t been enjoying that very much, either — it’s been better because I just fix what I want to eat, but I haven’t been losing anything — but I’ve felt better on it than I ended up feeling on the Atkins Diet.
In the meantime, my mom has been on the Blood Type Diet, and she has lost over 20 pounds (over the course of 3-4 months), and she says she just feels better. I’d read a bit about it, and rejected it because the guy bases it on the theory of evolution, which I reject. Then last weekend, our church hosted a series of lectures on creation, and the lecturer and his family (I’ve known his wife for years) stayed with us. This lecturer, a doctor who goes around speaking on the scientific basis of creation and the problems of evolution, swears by the Blood Type Diet. He and his wife tell me stories about how they were before they went on it, and the process by which they became believers. [He also said he could give me the scientific reasoning apart from evolution why it works.] So, I got kits to type my family’s blood, and also ordered The Genotype Diet, which should be coming in soon.
After typing their blood, I got online to see what each blood type should eat, and what we should avoid. Fortunately, I only have to keep up with two types — my friends have three or even all four types in their family! And a lot of foods are both on the “beneficial” and “avoid” lists for both types (although a lot of foods are “beneficial” for me and “avoid” for my husband). I think I can do it without a problem. I won’t be able to eat tomatoes (which I don’t like anyway, except in things like ketchup, spaghetti sauce, pizza, etc.) or wheat, but in a lot of ways, once you cut out one of the “avoid” foods, that lessens the temptation for the other “avoid” foods. For example, cutting out wheat means no bread, no pizza, no pasta, etc. (except for specialized foods like “rice pasta”) — so no pizza crust means no pizza sauce and no sausage and no pepperoni and no cheese. In a way, it would be harder for me to eat pizza without meat and just vegetables than to just say “no pizza at all.”
But this is going to be tough for my husband. He has already bemoaned several things on the “no” list that he can’t have, or should have only occasionally and in moderation (particularly things like pizza, sausage-biscuits, Italian beef sandwiches, salsa, etc.). The funny thing is, he even looked longlingly at the corn I ate at lunch today, and he’s not even a big corn fanatic! I guess now that it’s on his “avoid” list, he wants it. But I don’t think he noticed that coffee is on his avoid list, and this is the point that is going to be most interesting to me. I’ve long wanted him to give up coffee, because I didn’t think it was good for him (oddly enough, I can have it, although I can’t stand the stuff!), and he has even said stuff in the past about going off of it, but just has never managed to do so. I don’t know whether I should tell him now that he can’t have coffee (for fear he will just say he won’t do the diet at all), or if I should just let him figure it out in the morning when I don’t have coffee ready for him. Or cereal bars. I’m not really sure what to fix for breakfast in the morning — he can’t have oats, wheat, dairy, or pork, so there goes oatmeal, biscuits, sausage, bacon, waffles, muffins, etc. Like I said — this could get interesting!
I’m amazed
Posted by: Kathy on: January 8, 2009
- In: diet| low-carb| weight loss
- 2 Comments
I’m sort of doing the Atkins Diet, from a book written in 1997, so if what I say is out-of-date, that’s why. My husband and I have been wanting to lose weight — since starting this blog a year ago, I’ve increased rather than decreased my weight 
— so he’s been reading all sorts of books, and picked up this one at a friend’s house. I never thought I’d go low-carb, but I’m in the middle of reading it, and more important, in the middle of the 14-day Induction Diet, and I see the results. I don’t want to continue eating this way all of my life — far too much meat and not near enough vegetables — but I am amazed that the weight is dropping off, pretty much effortlessly, and I’m not thinking about calories, while eating things like cream and butter, nor am I hungry. The only times I’m hungry is (about an hour or two after I used to be hungry), it’s lunch-time and I haven’t prepared my food yet. Silly me.
We started this the Monday before New Year’s Day, so I’m nearing the end of my 2nd week. I’ve lost about 10 pounds. I’ve exercised a little. Sometimes a very little, or even nothing above my normal (in)activity — climbing the stairs to get on the computer, going downstairs to check on the kids, doing laundry and cleaning house, etc. Yet I’ve still been losing weight. And I’m not hungry.
In the book, Dr. Atkins has a diagram of a right triangle and says that is the typical American diet, which is unbalanced by having too many carbs (in addition to a lot of unhealthy food like refined sugar, flour, rice, etc.). And if you go immediately to a “balanced” diet (represented by a rectangle on top of the triangle, still sloping), you still have the unbalanced base underlying the rectangle, so you’re still unbalanced. He says that what needs to happen is that you, basically, go unbalanced on the other way (extreme low carbs), so that the two unbalanced sides balance out, and then after that, you can start on a balanced diet — a diet which will truly be balanced without the underlying imbalance, but a perfect rectangle made of the two unbalanced triangles.
It seems to work.
I’m ten pounds down, without being hungry, without counting calories, without restricting myself from anything but breads and the like and fruit — basically anything with sugars (even natural sugars), or high carb content. But I don’t feel deprived, and I don’t really miss the sweet. Yeah, I’ve fudged a little bit — I’ve had a little bit of some things with sugar, like a ketchup-based sauce (there’s sugar or high fructose corn syrup in the ketchup, but nothing else in the sauce had it); and I’ve had some extra carbs (because I didn’t keep close count, I’m not sure how many days I went “over”; but I know that the two days I ate at my mom’s house for supper, I went over, but not by much). But I’ve still lost. Amazing.
Did a walking video today
Posted by: Kathy on: December 29, 2008
Two and a half miles Walk & Jog with Leslie Sansone. Woo-hoo.
P90X update
Posted by: Kathy on: June 12, 2008
We got the P90X set in last week, and my husband and I did the first video in the “lean” program on Friday. We were going to start the program full-bore then, but since the program is basically set up for “day 1″ to be Monday, with the “rest” day on Sunday, we decided to officially start on Monday. I was tired and sore, but decided to see if I could do the second video on Saturday. Because of what the program calls “muscle confusion,” I figured that the second video would work out different muscles from what the first video did; but that I would get some good stretches of those same muscles anyway (since it was the cardio video — I figured it would be full-body work, with jumping jacks, running in place, etc.). I felt better after that video, because of the great stretches.
So, on Monday, we did start the program. My husband has complained about soreness, but I haven’t really had that much. I wonder if I should be pushing myself harder, but when I’m doing it, I push until I can’t push any more.
One thing that makes a big difference is that I haven’t been working with weights or bands. They weren’t an integral part of the program until yesterday. (By that, I mean, that yesterday’s workout — the shoulders and arms — required weights on almost every exercise, as opposed to the core and cardio workouts which only had a few with weights.) I’ve done a few different workout videos that had weights as options, with the instructors saying that form is more important than weights, and you can do your own resistance by concentrating and going up and/or down slowly.
Yesterday, I watched the video through once, and then my husband and I did it. Because I’m not that much into working out with weights, nor working my arms, I was afraid that I couldn’t even get through the workout (it’s an hour, after all!), if I used any weights. I was especially afraid of the “chair dips”, and really was worried that my arms would be too sore to do those if I had used weights. My goal for that video was just to make it through. Which I did, with ease. Oh, I could feel it in my arms, but I didn’t struggle. So next video, I’m definitely going to be adding some weights.
My husband got himself some bands and me some weights (1.5 & 5 lb) at Walmart yesterday, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m a little afraid of adding the weights, but it’s just ridiculous not to. I want to make it through the workout, and don’t know how much weight will be too much on the workouts. If it were up to me, I’d just use soup cans or something for the weights, but my husband rolls his eyes at that. 
So we’ll see how it goes!
Yoga video is today! I’ve never done yoga, and don’t like the Eastern mysticism that is its roots, but I’m looking at it as some good stretches, and I know the positions are difficult to hold and get into, which will be good for me. I’m pretty limber anyway, but my husband hates to stretch; so this will be extra-good for him. When we did the P90X pre-test, I was able to reach 5 inches past my foot, while he could only reach 6 inches short of his foot. Let’s just say, he’s looking forward to the results, but not to the process.
I didn’t know *that* could hurt!
Posted by: Kathy on: June 7, 2008
So, yesterday I did my first P90X workout — the Core Synergistics one. Of course I didn’t do it right along with them — not only were the moves for the most part completely unfamiliar, but I’m out of shape, and couldn’t physically keep up with them. And that’s okay. I did what I could do. I felt pretty good after the workout, but as the evening wore on, I felt a little more and more sore. This morning when I woke up, I was *really* sore. I didn’t even know I had muscles there! It’s the glutes, but this is a deep soreness — like I’ve never worked these muscles before in my life. Oh, yeah, this program is good!
P90X
Posted by: Kathy on: June 6, 2008
- In: exercise
- 2 Comments
Ok, so I’ve taken a break from losing weight. Yeah, right — totally and completely fell off the wagon — stopped watching what I ate, stopped exercising, stopped everything, and gained my weight back. But that’s gonna change.
My husband and I ordered the P90X system (got it off of eBay). We did the preliminary stuff yesterday (weighed, measured, did the “pre-fit” test which we both barely passed, etc.). The “pre-fit test” didn’t seem to be that difficult, on paper anyway, but I gotta tell you, I was sore from that! And I was afraid that today was gonna be even worse.
There are 3 different ways you can do the P90X program — original, doubles, and lean. I’m doing the third, because I want to lose the chub, and don’t really care about bulking up and getting my muscles big. I bet that a lot of women go this way! My husband is probably going to do the original series, which has a lot of workouts of the different major muscle groups.
The first workout was “core synergistics” and it was pretty cool. I wasn’t able to do everything (a couple of the moves were rather tricky, and I’m just not able to do push-ups that well, but I bet that I did about half of what the people on the video did, which is better than what I had expected. I’m a little worried that my form wasn’t what it should have been, but I did my best. Right now, I’m tired, but I still feel more sore from what I did yesterday than from what I did about an hour ago.
The pre-fit test I did yesterday included 2 minutes of jumping jacks; and a move where it looks like you’re sitting in a chair against the wall, except there isn’t a chair — you just have to sit there as long as you can; and also an attempt [pathetic, feeble attempt] on my part to do a chin-up or a pull-up. I could feel my muscles trying to work, but my husband said I didn’t move at all. But my muscles are *sore* from trying.
Anyway, it’s a cool workout, and I worked up a sweat and could feel the burn; but it wasn’t so difficult that I felt like I just had to give up and do nothing. Seeing the video people’s perfect form gives me something to shoot for… not to mention their ability to hold certain yoga positions when I can barely get into them.
Let the garbage can eat it
Posted by: Kathy on: April 15, 2008
- In: weight loss
- 1 Comment
One of the struggles in my mind as regards eating is my frugality, my waistline, and my appetite.
Most of the foods that I enjoy eating are neither frugal nor low-fat and/or low-calorie. Pizza, for instance. The way I prepare it (which is the best that I’ve ever eaten, in or out of a restaurant), is fairly expensive. It’s cheaper than going out to eat, but not by much. One pizza which feeds our family costs about $10 in ingredients. It also uses one pound of mozzarella by itself, plus pepperoni and Italian sausage. We use mushrooms and spinach as well, but those are healthy so don’t count in this discussion (plus the amount we use is probably negligible for the calorie count, and they are the cheapest of the ingredients by weight of volume as well). All sweets fall into this category as well. Even if they’re very cheap, they’re unhealthy and unnecessary.
But I try to be frugal (as much as my husband allows), so when it comes to left-overs, I hate to throw things out. So I eat them. But they add up too! I’m trying to get it in my mind that it’s just as wasteful to throw something into my mouth unnecessarily as it is to throw something into the garbage can. If I don’t need it, then it’s wasteful and “waist-full”!!
So, the few bites of peanut butter and jelly sandwich that my kids didn’t eat can either be saved for later (and they probably wouldn’t eat it because it would be mushy), I can eat it, or I can toss it. Usually I eat it so it’s not “wasteful” (my dad was full-blooded Dutch, so I’m frugal by nature as well as “nurture” — we didn’t have enough money growing up to be wasteful)… but it’s still wasteful to eat that which I don’t need. And it’s probably worse, because it’s unhealthy for me. Even if the actual food isn’t just loaded down with fat and calories and artificial ingredients, it still contributes to me carrying around at least 30 extra pounds that I ought not have.
So my new motto needs to be “Let the garbage can eat it!!”
Reasons vs. Excuses
Posted by: Kathy on: April 14, 2008
There are so many avenues to take with a title like this. Think about it. So many people say they do something or don’t do something because of [fill in the blank], when the reality is that it’s because of something else.
For example, I want to do the Dave Ramsey thing — get out of debt and stay that way. I’ve probably said “Dave Ramsey” too much and have turned my husband off of him. So, I’m not saying anything right now. It’s in my long-term goals, but I want to win the war even if I lose a few battles. I’ve asked him to do the whole Dave thing, and he “doesn’t like Dave Ramsey.” I’ve asked him why and his answer is that Dave doesn’t like any debt, and sometimes debt is necessary — for instance, med school costs a lot of money, and most people couldn’t go without a student loan of some sort (unless they came from a wealthy family).
But that’s his excuse, not his reason (imho). His reason is that the Dave Ramsey program is too hard. He doesn’t want to cut expenses that much, and “live on beans and rice, rice and beans.” He wants to out-earn our wants, but I know that can’t happen. You can always find something to spend your money on.
On another blog, someone wrote that the father of her child has told her that if he didn’t have to pay child support, if it wasn’t something forced on him, then he’d be more involved in their child’s life. Bull. That’s his excuse, not his reason. She’s toying with the idea of letting him out of his obligation, so that he won’t have that excuse any more. But that’s the funny thing about excuses — if you don’t have one, you can always come up with another.
If you don’t work-out, it’s almost never because you literally don’t have enough time. It’s because you choose not to make the time to work out. (The only exception I can think of is if you literally are working or sleeping 24/7.) But if I have time to get on the computer for half an hour, or even for 5 minute segments, I have time to do a work-out video, or at least some crunches or leg lifts or something. Something. Anything.
A broken leg is a reason not to go for a walk. “It’s cold” is merely an excuse.
But my clothes still fit….
Posted by: Kathy on: April 13, 2008
- In: weight loss
- 1 Comment
I can’t be fat, right?
Weight has a tendency to creep up on you. You wear your clothes, and then they feel a little snug. So you get more comfortable clothes from your drawer or the back of the closet. Ah, sweat pants! Then you go shopping for more clothes (or in my case, get clothes that my sister was purging from her overstuffed closet), and get clothes that fit. Gradually, ever so gradually, you stop wearing your clothes that previously fit, and get bigger clothes. Your clothes still fit! But they’re different clothes.
Then one day you pull out your jeans (that all used to fit), and find that you can’t button them. The fact that you can fit into your new jeans doesn’t matter. You can’t fit into clothes you used to be able to wear.
So now you have a choice — ignore the fact that your old clothes are in fact too small, which means that you are now in fact too big; or make the choice to get back into your old clothes.
This happened to me. I knew I was eating too much and not exercising enough. I felt like I was gaining weight. But my clothes still fit. The fact that most of them were stretchy and knit didn’t change the fact that they still fit. But it also didn’t hide the fact that I was gaining weight. But then come out the jeans. My new jeans fit. (But what size are they? I don’t look.) And my old jeans? I can get into them, but they’re tight. Not too tight to wear at all, but they’re not exactly comfortable.
But this has been an effective tool. Wearing clothes that are too comfortable makes it too easy to eat too much. Not only does something tight across your tummy make you not as hungry, but it is also a physical reminder that you are too fat, so ought to not eat as much.
This is one of my problems — when I get to a certain point of weight loss, or to where my clothes fit, I start feeling good about myself, and feel like I’ve got this weight thing licked. Then I slack off. And eat more and exercise less. Fooling myself into thinking that I’m still doing what I had been doing. Knowing I’m lying to myself. Gotta stop it!
Back to the Drawing Board
Posted by: Kathy on: April 12, 2008
- In: weight loss
- 1 Comment
Blogging about losing weight was good at the first. Then I started blogging too much and not losing enough weight. Too much computer, not enough exercise. And I stopped counting my calories, and basically went back to the way I was eating before, therefore I’m heading back to the weight I was before. Not good!
I wore my yellow dress to church this past Sunday, which was the first time I’ve put it on in months. Since I was breastfeeding the last time I wore it (and am rather buxom to start with), it wouldn’t zip, but it was easy to say that it was due to the extra boobage rather than just the extra fat. Well, my son has weaned, and while I can wear the dress, it was tight. It’s never been tight. (But then, the last time I actually wore it somewhere was before I got pregnant four years ago. Since then, I’ve been pregnant and/or breastfeeding.) That wasn’t a good sign. Other clothes are tight. So I stepped on the scale today, and that was an even worse sign!
Reading Jennifer’s blog about not putting goals too far out was good. People are different — some people get overwhelmed by a goal too big or too far away, while others rise to the challenge. I’m not sure where I am. I liked her idea about “just one pound.” Fifty pounds does seem like an awful lot, especially since I’ve frittered away three months (twelve weeks, twelve pounds), and should have only 38 pounds left, when in reality, I have 47 pounds to go. And probably 35 weeks to do it in, if I’m going to stick to my one-year goal.
I must keep this blog up. To let it go is to admit failure. To keep it quiet is to ignore the problem. To keep writing on it is to face the problem and address the issue. It’s about accountability. And getting it down in black and white. Seeing it as it really is, and not as I pretend it to be. Enough is enough.
