Thanksgiving Day Weigh-In Results: 2.5lbs this week, 5lb total

I've had another good week!  I haven't added any more rules.  Just eating only when hungry.  I did eat a little more today than I should have.  But, I will wait for the tummy growl before I eat again, which will be tomorrow, I'm sure.  We had home made pizza for dinner and I should not have finished the slice.

I am tempted to try Coke Zero.  I haven't had a Diet Coke for 8 months.  I went cold turkey from a 6 can a day habit.  I'm looking for more drink options.  I have a bad habit of going for a cup of "cappuccino" mix, which is 70 calories a cup.  Not horrible, but I can't drink black coffee.  I really, really don't enjoy it.  I haven't done a lot of research on Splenda, so I will do that before I try Coke Zero.

Saturday we go for our family Thanksgiving, one state away.  The good news is that there isn't much I will want to eat there.  I'm choosing to be choosier these days and make choices to eat only food that tastes good and that I crave rather than just eating to satisfy a mood.  I am also not making the food behave.  I am behaving by portion control.  I have had two small McFrappe's this week and a bag of M&M's.  I also enjoyed half of a rosemary olive oil Bruegger's Bagel slathered with cream cheese.  The key was eating only half.  Half was enough for me.  The one year old enjoyed the rest of it. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wonder Woman Cured My Fashion Blindness!

Last spring I spoke at our state homeschool conference.  At the end of my speech, a very "well-put-together" friend came up to me at the end of one of my talks to tell me I looked great!  That was high praise indeed, for this woman is always dressed to a tee.  She's one of those ladies I've always admired because everything she wears looks great on her!

Then, this summer, I saw her at our church's family camp.  She came up to me and said, "I wanted to talk to you about the conference."  Wanting to return the favor of her compliment, I thought perhaps she would be asking me for guidance about some topic on which I spoke.  To my surprise, she helped me.  She helped me in a way no one ever has before.

You see, I'm fashion blind.  Being a tactile person, not a visual person, I choose clothes that are comfortable.  If I find something I like, I will often buy two or more of those items in various colors because of how they feel.  I usually didn't give much thought to "which color".  For example, you've probably read here about my obsession with "Therashoes".  I have three pair.  None of them are fashionable AT.ALL.  But, I have no more back pain and I've toned up considerably as a result of wearing them.

Along comes this lovely lady, Wonder Woman**, I'll call her.  That morning at camp, she handed me a little notebook sheet of paper showing me my "season".  She made a list of colors to wear and colors to avoid.  Then, she handed me a book she had borrowed from the library to read at camp, but was finding she didn't have the time called How Not To Look Fat..  My littlest was still taking two naps a day, so I snatched the book and went to read during nap time. 

Come to find out, I was wearing all the wrong colors and dressing to look both old and fat!!!!  So, Wonder Woman straightened me out.  I've purged all my "wrong colors" from my wardrobe.  Having lost 18" has helped in that matter because I had to go get some new clothing that actually fit me.  I am a thrift store shopper.  I completely redid my wardrobe, including shoes, for about $300.  That included Ann Taylor, Nine West, and a few other brand names were accessible to me, buying used.  ALL of the things I bought were in my color palette.  All the clothes fit the requirements, except many of them are now to big :-)!!!

So Wonder Woman, I thank you!  You saved me from Fashion Blindness.

** Wonder Woman hosted a couples' party for our homeschool group.  We played a "newly wed game" though most of us have been married more than a decade, some two.  One of the questions for the women was, "Which would you rather be? A) Nancy Drew B) Wonder Woman C) Barbie?"  The hostess said, "I can't believe this!  After having my fifth baby, I bought a Wonder Woman costume on clearance after Halloween that year."  She ran upstairs and donned the costume UNDER her real clothes.  The room went wild when she not only revealed her answer, but her Wonder Woman costume under her clothes (complete with the red zip up boots.)  And, she is nothing SHORT of Wonder Woman in so many ways.  She's one of my heroes.

Week 1 results: 2.5 lbs down!

I stuck with my plan this whole week of only eating if I was truly hungry (tummy growling or hunger pangs).  That meant no between meal eating AT ALL unless I was truly hungry.  I know not everyone can rely on hunger signs.  Thankfully, I don't have a problem with knowing when I need to eat and not eat.  That doesn't work for everyone.  My sister and I did the same "weighdown workshop" ten years ago and it did not work for her but it did for me.  I am a rather distract-able person, so calorie counting and food journaling don't work for me.  I firmly believe you have to go with what works for YOU.  This method works for me.  There are some rules, but not a lot.

Here's the first rule. You don't eat unless you are hungry.  Second rule is that you cut sandwiches, pizza slices, etc., in half to make sure you really are hungry for all of it.  Portioning at restaurants is absurd.  In order to justify charging you $7 for a burger, they make it HUGE because it cost them about $.50 more to make it huge, but reality is they need to pay for lights, electricity, staff and rent which bumps up the cost of the burger much more than the supplies to make the burger.  When you are at home, you use smaller servings.  The other rules are: you eat whatever you want (you behave, don't make the food behave by eating only low fat or low cal foods) and drink when you are thirsty (and make sure you are truly hungry not thirsty before you eat).

I will update weekly.  To reach my goal weight, I need to drop my body fat by 8% and/or lose about another 25-30 pounds.  I'm already down 40 pounds from last year.

So, first week - 2.5lbs off...I'm sorry.  I'm not willing to reveal my actual weight.  You'll have to just use your imagination!

The Diet Experiment

I'm about to embark on a diet experiment.  I'll call it the stomach growl diet.  I did it about 10 years ago and lost ten pounds a month.  It's been on my mind for a while and I finally decided to give it a go again after reading this.


The trick is whether I have the self control to wait for my stomach to growl.  I learned this when I was doing the "Weigh Down Work Shop" by Gwen Shamblin.  I hate missing meals with my family, so I need to occasionally have a drink of milk if the tummy growls before dinner is done.  I will also need to get more sleep.

Wish me luck!

More with the GF/EF/DF HBI5MAD dough

Quick, tiny, little update for you...

The three year old is thrilled.  He has had, so far, cinnamon rolls (twice), donuts and french toast sticks.  Tomorrow I will finish up the dough for him. 

He usually gets the little sad puppy dog eyes when the other kids get stuff he loved before his diet change.  Now, he's excited because he knows he gets something (albeit not exactly the same).