Kate:

Last night I was craving mashed potatoes.  Well, I was craving almost anything that came into my mind, but mashed potatoes were one thing I could do something about.

I’d heard about substituting mashed cauliflower for half a portion of mashed potatoes (probably on The Biggest Loser), and it’s really tasty.  Okay, I’ve never combined the potatoes and cauliflower, I just stick to the vegetables, but man is it yummy.  Some margarine, salt, pepper mashed into some boiled cauliflower, and I was set.

I ate the entire head of cauliflower.  I didn’t mean to.  I intended to save half for dinner tonight or tomorrow, but it just didn’t happen.  You can’t really feel guilty for over-eating your vegetables.

And admit it, you kinda want to try it with the purple cauliflower.

Kate:

Okay, we’ve been slacking on this blog.  Apologies to anyone who reads this regularly!  The reason I haven’t been posting is because I didn’t want to take up the blog with continual postings on falling off the wagon.  Who needs all those “Woe is me” posts?  I don’t like writing them and I’m sure no one wants to read them.  I promise to write more often!

So, I’ve started to get things back on track, and I feel great.  What prompted this post was the fantastic weather a few days ago.  It was close to 80 degrees here in Chicago, and it’s been awhile since we’ve had such a beautiful day where I felt like getting out for a walk.  If you’ve ever been to Chicago, or seen a weather map for that matter, you know that it’s pretty miserable here in the winter.  When it snows, the sidewalks shrink to icy one-lane paths.  Wind chill is so bad that you don’t want to travel more than absolutely necessary.  So, my walks took a back seat to hibernation.

I left my apartment (okay, dragged myself out of the apartment since I made the mistake of checking my email when I came home from work, and that lead to other internet surfing) and headed south.  I walked for a mile and a quarter then turned around and came back.  It took me about an hour to complete the round-trip.  I walk with purpose, but I’m not trying to win a race.  I usually go for length of walk rather than speed.

I read this MSN article yesterday that lets me know my way is okay:

Endurance training (about an hour at a moderate intensity) has been shown to keep your calorie burn revved for up to 7½ hours post-exercise. Long walks will help maximize results because there is a dose response to exercise; that is, the more you do, the greater the benefits you’ll receive. These will likely be the slowest walks you do in the program.

Yesterday I walked again, this time setting out from work and walking towards home.  I walked about 2.6 miles before taking the bus.  I wasn’t wearing the best shoes and didn’t want to get nasty blisters that would prevent me from walking more often.  My goal is to eventually walk all the way home from work.  That’s 7.28 miles, and should take me about 2 and a half hours.  I’ll work up to that!

Want to track the miles of your walk?  I love Google’s pedometer.

I read this article in the New York Times today.  It talks about the prejudice that obese and overweight people face in today’s society. Ridiculing fat people has become accepted discrimination.

The article reminded me of an experience I had in 5th grade.  The school nurse called a total of about five students from the 5th grade to take part in a discussion about nutrition in her office.  So, all of the fat students were called out of their classrooms, me included, to talk about portion control and healthy eating.  The parents were unaware of any of this activity.  Now, I have no problem learning about nutrition, but don’t you think those lessons could benefit every student?

Okay, so I was watching Oprah again.  (Sometimes it’s hard to admit that because she can be a bit ridiculous.)  However, I was interested in hearing what Michael Pollan had to say.  Oprah had seen Food, Inc. and was talking about how we need to think about what happens to our food before it gets to our tables.

I’ve had The Omnivore’s Dilemma for a few months and have known about it for a few years, though I still haven’t gotten around to reading it.  Now I’ve put it at the top of my to-read pile.  I have, for the last six years or so, eaten more consciously.  It started when I moved to Chicago and a friend made some soup from scratch.  Stupidly, I didn’t realize that it was so easy to make soup.  In my family, we had always eaten canned soup.  These days I eat more homemade foods than ever before in my life.  All of my baked goods are from scratch, and when I eat boxed cake or cookies from a roll at a friend’s house, it just doesn’t taste as good.  Making cookies from scratch is not that hard, and the flavor wins out every time.  And don’t get me started on my love for farmers’ markets!

Now I’m thinking of taking my meat consumption a little more seriously.  I don’t eat a lot of meat at home since it requires a lot of forethought in meal planning.  Thawing takes time!  However, I’m going to start eating antibiotic free meats and milk.  Because of the minimal role meat plays in my diet, I don’t think the increase in expense is going to cripple me.

Another part of Oprah’s program was spent talking to Alicia Silverstone about her new book, The Kind Diet, in which she writes about her vegan lifestyle.  A friend of mine is vegan, and I cannot fathom living like that, but I don’t think being primarily vegetarian is out of the realm of possibility.  I’ll have to get her book from the library and peruse it.  It apparently doesn’t exclusively advocate veganism, just eating better.

As I’ve said before, I’m not on a diet.  This is a permanent change.  I think it would be irresponsible of me not to explore how the way my food is raised affects my body when I consume it.

So, I guess 5% might not seem like a whole lot, but it is making quite on impact on my life. My clothes are considerable looser, I am feeling more and more energetic and I am losing inches!

Here are my measurements

Waist: Jan 10- 43 inches
March 7-39 inches

Hips: Jan 10- 54 inches
March 7-50 inches

Thigh: Jan 10- 34.5
March 7-31

Don’t forget to take measurements if you are losing weight, because even if the scale is not moving quickly down… your measurements will!

Sorry for the missed entry last week, I was up .4 pounds for a total of 281.4. However I was ON plan all week, so I figured it was just a fluke change in water weight or something . This week’s weigh-in confirmed my suspicions and I am down a whopping 5 lbs!!! Happy dance! I have been sick with a nasty cold for about 2 weeks, so I haven’t been very active. I think the loss is due to my diligence with sticking to the plan. The most important thing is that I have been binge-free for over a month, and I am feeling much more in control of my food choices.
Now that I feel I have a handle on the plan, I really want to start improving my food choices. Currently I tend to reach for easy meals and processed foods, and I have not been getting the fruits and veggies that I know my body needs. I created a schedule for March that has my exercise plan, and gives me the ability to track if I am on plan, or perfectly on plan (meaning I am getting my Healthy 8’s). If I can be Perfectly on plan for 20 days in March, I get new spring nail polish!! Woo:)

My philosophy about complaining is that you can’t complain about something if it’s something you can try to change but you’re not doing anything.  I’m not sure if I’m being a hypocrite here, because I do have my moments of trying.

About 10 days before my period starts, I go nuts!  I binge like crazy.  I don’t/can’t control it.  In the past 24-hours, here’s what I’ve eaten (because I didn’t stop myself from going to the grocery store to stock up on junk food):
11 oatmeal creme pies
3 chocolate eclairs
1 small block of cheddar cheese
8 wedges of light Laughing Cow cheese
2 sleeves Club crackers
1 pint chocolate hazelnut gelato
2 pieces strawberry shortcake

I’m pretty sure I’m insane.  I need to get control of myself.  I’m going to the gym after I finish this post, and after that I’m going to try to get my healthy eating back on line.  The thing is, this bingeing is just a phase that I get over once my hormones are on track.  However, this throws off my weight loss for the entire month!  Perhaps I need to go back to therapy.  I’ll try anything at this point.

Weigh In:
281 (-3lbs/total 8.4 lost)

Weekly Goals:
On-Plan Every Day
Workout 4 days

Weight: 284 (-5.6)
Workouts: 2/3

I feel like I’m finally back on track.  I think my PMS was not helping my willpower at all.  The perfect storm of the holidays, spending time at home, being on this new medication, and struggling against a plateau is over.  Well, I’ve decided that it’s over, anyway.

I’ve gone back to diligently keeping a food journal, and that’s been extremely helpful.  Also, I’ve started using the exercise DVDs I bought along with some of the programs I’ve recorded off FitTV.  It took me a while after getting everything together (DVDs, dumbbells, exercise mat) to really get going because I kept coming up with reasons I couldn’t start.  I didn’t think there was enough room in my living room without moving furniture and that seemed insurmountable when I was dealing with a lack of motivation.

So, now I’ve gotten my weight down to 312, and it feels good to be losing weight again.  I’ve made an appointment with Kirsten at CLM for next week, and I’m hoping she’ll be able to give me a little self-esteem boost along with some tips on how to keep going.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that losing weight is going to work this time, especially for those of us who have tried and failed every other time.   We just have to keep with it; I know it will work.