"BLTs" and "The Stuff Dreams Are Made of"

I fell into the BLT trap yesterday...the land of "Bites, Licks, and Tastes".

I was preparing some staples for the house. I made Chicken stock, some bread made from Spelt, Kamut, and Oats called "Rock Awesome Bread" (but it isn't hard like a rock), and homemade Peanut Butter.

Of course I was fine with the chicken stock, but as I was making the bread I found myself tasting the dough (the texture was more like thick cookie batter than dough so it isn't as gross as it sounds) and then testing the peanut butter...repeatedly.

Naturally, after it was all made I had to also have toast with peanut butter on it.

No regrets but the amount these BLTs added up to was not exactly what would be considered in the realm of "weight loss territory".

It seems no matter how much I hear about those dangerous BLTs I seem to forget all about them when it matters. Ahhh well...onward and upward.

I am not sure if the Peanut Butter was a trigger but I went straight from that into candy cravings. We watched an episode of "The Good Wife" that we had recorded, and in it a character is consoling himself by eating a bowl of left over Halloween Candy. The candy itself wasn't appealing (you know that stuff that is shaped a little like a curved Hot Tamale but it Orange and White and nothing but sugar) but as I was watching the show all I could think was...."I want that candy!". This kind of surprised me as I really haven't been craving any sugary foods for a while.

I didn't have any candy in the house (thank goodness) but the cravings clearly stayed with me as I woke up from a dream this morning where we had gone on vacation to some place we had stayed at before, and in the room I found unopened Christmas Gifts we had bought for people but had never delivered to them. In the dream, Jamie was sleeping and I realized all the gifts were candies. When I awoke I was opening the gifts, stuffing the candies down my throat while simultaneously hiding the excess in my underwear drawer so I could eat them all weekend without Jamie knowing.

What a dream!

I am not sure if all this means I should give myself a taste of sugar to satisfy the craving. Doing that, however, could lead me down the never ending path of destruction.

I will resist and be strong.

Be healthy!

Alan

IT'S NOT EASY IS IT?

Have you ever watched Fat Fighter's on Little Britain?

It's a series of skits that are a clear take off on Weight Watchers with the world's worst leader Margery Dawes.

I am going to post a link to it here so you know what I am speaking of. I find it quite funny but it is also a little insulting so some might find it offensive. If you do, my apologies. My favourite clip in the link is the third one with Rosie O'Donnell. The second one I'm not a huge fan of. I think the last line goes a bit TOO far. See...even I have my limits :-)

CLICK HERE FOR FAT FIGHTERS CLIPS

Anyway, one of Margery's favourite lines is "It's not easy is it?". It's funny because it is true.

It's not easy.

The thing is, we can take something and look at it from two different perspectives. It can be funny, or it can be damn irritating and possibly even offensive. It can take a paradigm shift to see the humour in things.

Sometimes I think that as I travel along this road my frequent perkiness can probably be irritating to others if they don't happen to be feeling particularly perky or if they have been struggling without success for a while.

My hope is that by sharing my ups and downs we can laugh a little along the way and get ourselves out of those slumps. Perhaps, though, I might piss some people off along the way with my "bubbliness" (is that a word?). I worry about that the most at the WW meetings when I am particularly talkative and don't shut up. If you watch closely though you will notice I am very quiet when I am GAINING weight. :-)

If you are feeling down and struggling, I hope my blog is helping and not hindering. I hope that if you struggle when another succeeds you can find a way to look at it as an inspiration to find your own success.

If you do you will succeed. If you read my blogs often enough you will know I can also drastically fail...but only temporarily.

We are on the same journey. We may take different roads to get to our destination, but if we check in with each other along the way we WILL all get there.

I know we can ALL do this.

Be healthy,

Alan

Cheated And Won!

I weighed in last night and I was down three pounds. Yeah!!!

To be honest though...I cheated.

I normally work out in the morning but I couldn't yesterday so I worked out in the afternoon. Right before weighing in I built-up a sweat on the treadmill and then sat in the Sauna.

I would do this on a normal day...but I don't usually finish twenty minutes before I step on the scale.

I am sure a lot of the weight was just water loss.

I don't care...I will take it!

The good thing is that it motivates me to be extra good next week. I want to BEAT that three pound loss.

I am now 187.4 pounds. I vowed in my blog of November 8, 2010 that I would not stress about weight as long as I remained under 190 pounds....then I went above 190 pounds. It is nice to be back in the realm of my own personal acceptability.

Although perfectly happy where I am I would ideally like to go down to 176.4. That happens to be my "50 pound" weight loss number. It is an arbitrary number but I feel in peak form when I am at that weight.

I have a doctor's note saying 185 pounds is an acceptable weight for me (which allows me to attend Weight Watchers as long as I stay below 187 pounds).

According to Canada Health Guide the maximum healthy weight for my height is 179 pounds, but I like 176.4 so I am going back there.

I used to think that I could never go back to this weight because I had gained muscle and that weighs more. It doesn't really work that way though...I'm not sure why.

When I went to 176.4 pounds without muscle people kept telling me I looked too thin...when I went to 176.4 with muscle the last time I seem to retain some weight in my face so it just looks....well...better.

So 176.4 pounds here I come!

A special congrats has to go out to our friend Pamela who comments on the blog regularly (often via Facebook). As of last night she s now down 70.2 pounds.

Way to go Pamela! We are all so proud of you!

Be healthy!

Alan

Must Force Myself To Eat Today

Today is one of those days where I am going to have to force myself to eat. It is weigh-in day and I still have that dieters mentality that says I need to avoid food to get the right number on the scale.

The problem is this: I weighed in on my own scale this morning and I am down three pounds. Sounds good right? Unfortunately it is not as good as it sounds.

I weighed-in in the buff. They won't let me do that at WW. I am sure clothes and a days worth of food will result in a tight race....so my mind automatically races to the conclusion that I shouldn't eat until after I step on the scale tonight.

There are reasons why WW tells you not to weigh yourself between meetings. I will probably never listen, but I am sure this is one of the reasons.

I will eat today. I do try to eat similar things each Wednesday to maintain some sense of consistency on the scale.

I owe it to myself to think health first, weight second...but I don't want to.

When did I get so fixated on numbers? I need to smarten up and I will smarten up.

I will eat like a normal person today and let the scale fall where it may. I do still have a gym workout and will not be able to get to the gym until this afternoon. That may result in my being "down" but I know that it would really just be temporary water loss from working out.

Either way it doesn't matter. I just need to keep doing what I am doing and look at the lifetime plan.

Be healthy!

Alan

Support and Commitment.

I was at a meeting a while ago where a lady was quite frustrated with herself.

She was not frustrated because she wasn't losing weight...she had actually lost a lot and was a "lifetime" Weight Watchers member. She was frustrated with herself because she needed weekly support to get there and stay there.

She had been going to meetings for years and really felt that by now she should "get it". She should be able to do it on her own and that her inability to do so was a failure.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the leader she spoke to (it was not my leader) gave what I feel was a very wrong response.

She suggested that the lady try coming once a month instead of weekly. Perhaps that was all the support she needed, and she would feel better about it.

I never saw that lady again.

I used to be a bit like her. I valued my friendships but ultimately I wanted to do everything on my own. If I did it on my own my successes were mine and my failures were seen by no-one.

I don't know when it happened but at some point I became the opposite person. As this blog will attest to, I thrive on support.

I suppose I have to be totally honest and also say I thrive on attention. I wouldn't be doing this blog if I didn't now would I?

The correct answer, in my opinion, would be that there is absolutely nothing wrong with needing support, and going out and getting the support you need to succeed is a sign of strength and not weakness. I believe this with all my heart.

So today I want to say a big thank you to all of you for all of the support I have received from you.

I also want to encourage those who are going it alone to find a better way. It is just too hard.

I am not saying you won't succeed. A good friend of mine has lost a tremendous amount of weight on her own and kept it off for years. I think it is a rare exception though. Most of us need support to do it, and we need support even more to maintain it.

So if you are doing this alone find a friend, a colleague, a group....anything. It makes life easier.

This blog can indeed be your group...as long as you keep coming back, participating, and communicating your successes and set backs. Commitment is critical.

If you have been contemplating starting your own journey, I say...it's time to start. Don't wait until a decline in health forces the journey.

Be healthy!

Alan

To Stick To Plan Or Not To?

My stomach is almost back to healthy. It's still slightly quirky but I am 95% of the way there.

It created an interesting scenerio from a WW perspective.

Yesterday I didn't eat all that much but what I did eat was mostly dry bread type stuff. I just felt like the stomach acid needed to be absorbed.

If I had been on the normal WW plan I really wouldn't have an issue. I would be pretty much within my daily points allowance.

With the "simply filling" technique, however, you don't get daily points you only get a certain amount of weekly points. Over the weekend I used them all.

So...the question becomes...do I put myself on a strict "Power Foods Only" diet as the plan would dictate, or do I just return to life as normal and not worry too much about it.

My initial instinct was to simply return to life as normal. The deprivation/indulge cycle is what ultimately gets me into trouble.

Having re-looked at the their new Power Foods list, however, there is no reason why I can't eat Power Foods only without feeling deprived.

So I will try to stick to plan....but I won't be silly about it. Health first...weight loss second.

Be healthy!

Alan

Too Much Wine or Bad Wine? Likely Both

I didn't blog yesterday.

I was in bed...until about 4:30pm.

That is not totally true as I had to show a property at 10:30am so I was up from about 9:30AM to 11:30AM. Then back in bed.

I think I drank bad wine Friday night. I deserved to be a little unwell the next day because I drank too much (It was my first drink of 2011 and, stupidly, I over did it).

The thing is though...my stomach still isn't right and it is two days later. That is not normal.

I had bought some Organic Wine. I had never tried this particular wine before so I made sure I served myself the Organic Wine and the guests a wine I could trust the taste of.

I took one sip of my wine and new right away it was awful.

I think the mistake I made was that I assumed the wine was awful because it was organic. I have rarely had organic wine before and thought to myself "maybe organic wine is one of those organic things that just don't taste as good". So I drank the entire bottle anyway (and about two glasses of the regular wine).  I was...drunk.

I know you are probably going to say this is "too much information" but lets just say the toilet bowl and myself became friends later in the night.

I never really got a hangover but the stomach is just jumping all over the place. The only good thing is that the scale is reading great numbers because nothing stayed in me.

I am pretty sure the wine was bad. I will now know not to assume organic wine is ok but is just "organic" if it doesn't taste right. Bad is bad.

So...I am sitting typing this and the stomach is still playing tricks but I am on the mend.

Just have to put it behind me and move forward. The good news is I have zero desire for alcohol. I think I will try to keep it that way for a while...and try to practice a little moderation next time.

Hmmm...moderation...always my biggest challenge.

Be healthy,

Alan