Monday, August 23, 2010

I'm a Superstar!

...well, at gaining weight, anyway.  ;)

This morning I weighed in at a whopping 240.6  That's a 3-pound gain from last week.  There's no sugar-coating it.  It's just disgusting.

And it's all my fault, by the way.  Pizza for dinner three nights during the week plus two trips out for ice cream PLUS a huge, fried Italian meal with dessert in there...that'll do it.  Oh, and no exercise - the piece de resistance.

So what now?  Well, I have to do better...this falls into the "No Shit" category.  I'll be honest though, I am sick to death of counting calories.  REALLY, really sick to death.  I just can't flipping stand the thought of adding up the components to one more meal.  But hey, I'm doing it anyway, because sometimes we just gotta do shit we don't wanna do.  To combat my complaining, however, is a real action.  I've taken a page out of the book (forgive the pun...you'll see) of a gorgeous friend of mine who has lost nearly 100 pounds, and I've started reading Fit for Life.  I began reading it yesterday morning and am only 40 pages from the end, so I hope to finish it tonight.  I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the science behind the book because I'm not sure it's truly sound, but what I do know is that people have gotten huge results from using the plan.  It's nothing extreme or crazy like Atkins or any of those other nutty plans.  And again, I really don't know if what he proposes makes sense, but it certainly doesn't seem dangerous or unhealthy.  He's not advocating a crash diet or a weird, motor-oil-and-eye-of-newt detox, but rather a diet made up of 70% fruits and vegetables.  He's against dairy entirely...I'm not really one for cutting whole food groups out of my diet, but I'm willing to be no-dairy for a bit to see if I feel better.  Truth be told, the only dairy I really eat is yogurt and cheese, so that stuff is just gonna have to go for a while.  Hubs and I use almond milk for regular purposes and So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer for our coffee, so we're kind of halfway there as it is.  Plus, Hubs is lactose-intolerant and I'm actually finding that dairy upsets my stomach as well.  I didn't realize this until we started using the coconut milk in our coffee.  (There's not one bit of difference in the taste or the texture, by the way.)

But for now, until I familiarize myself with the plan, I'm counting calories.  I did adopt one important part of his plan already, which is to not eat anything but fruit before 12 PM.  Is it weird?  Yeah, kinda, and I don't know if there's any good reason to do it other than the one he gives (which has to do with elimination - a euphimism for shitting).  Is it unhealthy or dangerous?  Hell no, so why not?  This morning I had a banana, a nectarine, and a V8 Fusion.  Two things with this - he says to stay away from bananas unless you're very hungry and to stick with water-based fruits.  Well, bananas were what we had, so a banana it is.  We'll fix it the next time we go to the store.  LOL  Also, the V8 Fusion is not entirely fruit, as there's some veggie juice in there, but there are no other bizarre ingredients in it.  Still and all, he prefers you drink fresh-squeezed juice if you're going to have it, but for now it's a V8 Fusion.  I was going to make a blueberry-strawberry smoothie this morning but didn't have the time.

So that's the deal.  I'll get on the horrible treadmill today because I have to do it...I'm feeling a little out of shape lately.  Not abnormal considering I haven't been on the treadmill since May.  ;)

Happy Monday!

3 comments:

Randy said...

Hi Nicole,

I've never read "Fit for Life" and don't know exactly what they're touting there. I definitely love my dairy products and would be upset to lose them! But since you're almost done with the book, I'd HIGHLY recommend you read "Mindless Eating" by Brian Wansink, Ph.D. if you haven't already. It's a wonderfully easy and informative read. He did a hilarious study where he had people eat soup at a table where, unbeknownst to the subjects, tubes were attached to the bottom of the bowls through the table, refilling their soup as they ate. Compared with normal bowls, some ate three times as much soup without suspecting a thing! It's insane how much we can eat when there's no record of our progress.

Eating nothing but fruit up until noon is great if you're okay with lots of powder room visits for the purposes of um, "elimination." I think the general rule of thumb here is that by incorporating produce into 70% of your meals, you will add lots of fiber, vitamins, and minerals (all good), and not much room will be left over for all the high-cal foods like deep fried tiramisu wrapped in bacon. In doing so, you'll eat fewer calories, and hence, lose weight.

It's really all about energy intake (eating food) vs. expenditure (basal metabolism plus exercise). The diet that works BEST for YOU is the one that will dip the intake below the expenditure in such a way that will leave you feeling satisfied, energetic, and optimistic enough to continue. That's YOUR holy grail!

And hey, at least you know what you did wrong to gain the weight. This week I gained a pound as my reward for eating less food and healthier food, and nothing is more frustrating than that!!

We're rooting for ya!
Randy

Best Kept Secrets said...

One book I read recently, "Mindless Eating" was really interesting. It's about how we don't think about how much we eat. If we just eat smaller portions can still eat whatever.

Barbara said...

Oh, Nicole ... I'm so sorry! I was going to give your the standard cheering up speech but they don't really work, do they? Believe me -- I know what you're going through and I truly sympathize.

But you're right in that you just have to keep going. I tried the Fit for Life diet for a while but it just wasn't for me. Gosh, come to think of it, I've tried MOST of the diets out there!

All I can do is tell you that I really think you CAN do it, and we're all here to support you any way we can...