Self-Destruction

When I started losing weight I wanted to make sure that I did it healthfully. I wanted to do it right so I could lose it right and keep it off. 

About 2 weeks ago I fainted at the gym (so fucking embarrassing, now I'll always be the girl who fainted). I was out cold! I think it was a combination of dehydration from a 12 mile hike the previous day and forgetting to eat breakfast that morning. So it got me thinking about the other unhealthy things I may be doing.

I didn't eat before my workout about once a week. I've read conflicting things about whether or not one should eat before working out. It didn't seem to make a difference if I ate or not. I could still do the same intensity if I didn't eat and it doesn't seem to effect my weight loss if I do. I am going to continue with the glass of milk and a piece of fruit. It seems to make the most sense and I've been losing - so no arguing with success. 

Something else I've done is worked out more than once a day. I know that this can actually be detrimental to my quest, but sometimes it hard to channel all of the excess energy I have. I try to take a long walk or clean house (I think my sisters prefer it when I clean).

This last item is the worst and I've been debating if I actually wanted to blog about it, but what the hell. A few years ago I lost about 30 pounds with Weight Watchers. Once, the night before a weigh-in I was particularly dreading, I took a laxative. Luckily, it didn't make a difference on the scale. Sometimes I wonder if I had seen results if I would have done it again. I hope not, I felt pretty stupid afterwards.

On the whole I really think I am doing this right - but sometimes the desire to see a change in scale can really fuck with your head.

Now I just need to go purge that entire chocolate cake I just ate :-)

 

No S Diet

I was sent a link to a diet called the No S Diet. It was thought up by a guy named Reinhard Engels. Here is a snippet from his website:

The No S Diet, also known as the "Grandma Diet," the "Why Didn't I Think of that Diet," and the "No $ Diet" is a program of systematic moderation I invented for myself that I imagine might work for similarly minded people.

No funny science or calorie accounting involved, just a few simple and mnemonic tricks for giving your willpower the upper hand.

There are just three rules and one exception:

• No Snacks
• No Sweets
• No Seconds

Except (sometimes) on days that start with "S"

That's it.

How could something this simple possibly work? Precisely because it's simple -- or rather, following the Einsteinian dictum, "as simple as possible, but not simpler." For all its folksy charm, there's a lot of serious, practical wisdom packed into those 14 words. 

On its face it is very simple and the advice is pretty good. However his website (which is atrocious, dude needs a web designer) goes on and on about other exceptions and caveats. When I was finished reading the whole website it seemed unduly complicated.

I was also annoyed when he weighed in (no pun intended) on sugar substitutes. He says, "you *know* that in 10 years scientists are going to discover that they're even worse for you than real sugar."

Oh really? You *know* that? I understand that with fake sugar (as with everything) moderation is the name of the game. But surely you can recognize that without claiming to know what will happen 10 years in the future?

So I give the No S Diet 2 stars.

Better Late Then Never

It took six extra days, but I finally got to 215. 

It's about time.

Mini-Goal

Today I was supposed to hit my mini-goal of 215 and missed it by a pound and half. I am glad I am making progress but I really tried to hit that goal. It's all so discouraging. 

That is quite enough of feeling sorry for myself, I guess I need to set a new goal. My new goal is to get to 208 by the end of July. 

I am happy to report that the phenomenon I've been experiencing since February seems to have subsided.  Just to recap I was finding myself discouraged after I lost about 50 pounds. I was frustrated to have lost so much weight and still be obese. Granted I wasn't morbidly obese anymore, but I was (and still am) obese. Since I hit the half way point that has gotten better. I was a very odd feeling. I have never read or heard of anyone else going through it. But then again, most of the books out there seem to be directed at the overweight - not the obese. I still have 35 more pounds until am considered overweight. If I lost exactly 100 more pounds I would barely be considered underweight - but that's not going to happen.

208... here I come!

Our Lady of Weight Loss

I just finished reading Our Lady of Weight Loss by Janice Taylor. It sucked big time. Actually, it sucked huge-time. Ms. Taylor, who apparently considers herself an artist, was able to lose 50 pounds after she "heard a voice" telling her to turn weight loss into an art project. She called the voice Our Lady of Weight Loss. I kid you not.

The general advice of the book is pretty routine, stuff I've read before. However, I had never read about plate feng shui before. (Can I tell you how happy I am that the spell check doesn't recognize feng shui. Chalk one up for critical thinking). She says I should balance my meals, not what I'm eating, but the color of what I'm eating. Also don't forget to use the right color plate and have the right color tablecloth at the right time of day. What bullshit! (The spell check recognizes that)

She also has something called Our Lady of Weight Loss's Kick in the Tush Club. Which is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I hate the word tush. Could it be more puerile? If you don't want to use the word ass, fine, but don't use a phrase that should have ass in it. What are you 12? I realize I've stopped critiquing the book and have started ranting. 

She also suggests several art projects throughout the book, like decorating macaroni and cheese boxes or decorating sneakers. Her illustrations throughout the book also suck huge-time. He art projects all seem to be taking prints of saints and putting eye-glasses on them. I don't think she is as original or talented as she thinks she is. I REALLY hated the illustrations.  I don't get the link between weight loss and juvenile art projects.

In good news, after being within a pound of it for five days, I finally hit 219, which means I've lost 80 pounds. And have spend the afternoon singing 2:19 by Tom Waits. All without plate feng shui.

The Portion Teller

I recently read The Portion Teller by Lisa Young.  She posits that it is easier to manage portion sizes when you can handily compare them to common items. I suppose that is true, but sometimes her examples are convoluted, especially when she combines them and uses fractions. Like a deck of cards and half a walnut or the palm of your hand and three jacks. It made it needlessly complicated. It also seemed like many of her terms should have a TM in super script. Like SmartBets, that is a bit too programmy for my taste. 

However I did like some of the things she said. Like, 'no one ever got fat from eating too many carrots" and she espoused that nothing is off-limits, just how much. 

So it was basically OK, but it didn't blow my mind. 

The loss is going slowly but surely (more slowly than I'd like, truth be told), but I'm just keeping my eye on the goal.

Irony

Why is it that members of my gym will spend so much time trying to get a parking space right next to building, instead of parking in the huge parking lot across the street? Can the exercise only start when you enter the building? You can't walk 50 damn feet?

I don't get it.