Brown Rice
Potatoes
Ryvita
Oats
Dried Fruit
I can eat (and have eaten all of these this week) without any negative effect on my weight loss or my digestive system.
Bread
This seems to be a problem.
I haven’t tried pasta or white rice yet but the list above seems to indicate that carbs aren’t a problem for me. I can obviously eat gluten – so what’s the problem with bread?
I’ll have to experiment with some pasta this week and see what happens. Interesting.
Start with the numbers: in 2 weeks, I’ve lost 5.5 pounds. Just fine with me. I’ve had some lovely social, food-oriented times and have not been craving sugar or alcohol at all. Again – just fine with me.
In fact – I’ve been feeling so well that I turned down a third glass of wine because I didn’t want that foggy head the next morning. (I know; I’m a cheap date.) But that’s such a victory that I’m going to cling to it for a while. Will let you know if it happens again!
This is heavy hormone week and I struggled with the super low calorie days. Luckily, I’m a grown-up so I ate enough to make it bearable and still kept them “pretty low calorie” days at 800 and 950 calories.
I’m trying to think of exercise, NOT as something that earns me more food, but as a new rhythm of life. To that end, I’ve noted whether my moving is:
Last week I had 1 walk, 3 run/walks and 5 sessions just out and about, burning off over 2,ooo calories in the process. I reckon I put in somewhere around 10 o&a miles of walking just going to the train and walking across town for errands.
What was hard?
I will never like the fact that I have to be so focused on food and weight in order to lose but there’s no other option. The only time weight has just fallen off in the past 10 years, I was either ill or very very stressed (or both) and it was incredibly scary. What gives me hope is that in a few weeks I’ll be able to scrap the two VLC days and start eating to maintain my weight. I’ll be in Canada for five weeks so it will give me a chance to establish new eating and exercise habits in that home too.
But that’s looking way forward – a proven toxic behaviour when it comes to weight loss for me. I need to picture the me I want to be – but concentrate on immediate behaviours. So I guess I’d better eat breakfast and get on with the day.
Daily Weigh is still going on if you are that thrilled with numbers.
So – likes and dislikes so far about this intermittent low calorie diet.
Strictly, this means two days of very low calories (VLC) and 5 days of *regular healthy eating*. For my own sanity, I’m journalling my food and exercise every day while I’m losing to make sure that I’m on track. My week looks like this:
Monday & Tuesday: 650-700 calories
Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 1550 – 1600 calories
Saturday & Sunday: 1800 calories – or use this time to balance what’s been eaten the rest of the week – such as a nice dinner out on Friday night.
As long as I average 1400 calories per day eaten and 200 calories per day burned by exercise then I should look forward to losing up to 1.5 pounds per week. And that is stupendous if it is consistent.
The low calorie days feel, not exactly unhealthy, but so dietish that I wonder what I’m doing to myself. However, the Likes are so significant that I can ignore that little problem.
Even on the VLCDays, I can meet someone for a coffee. That is key to my happiness when I’m trying to lose weight. The thought that “I can’t” really draws out the rebel in me and failure ends up right around the corner.
The other 5 days per week are wonderful rehearsals for real life with real food. I feel like, by journaling and tracking now, I’m really preparing myself for a life where I don’t keep gaining weight.
The usual 1400 calories per day gets so so boring and every social event becomes a choice between being on and off the wagon. This method means that I can eat with friends when the occasion demands – in a relaxed way.
There is so much wiggle room in the remaining 5 days that I never play diet games. In fact, I’m eating what I’ll be eating to maintain my weight. The only difference will be stopping the VLCDays which makes me look forward to “normal”.
I’ve already learned that, if there’s a high calorie event planned, it doesn’t really hurt to eat less the day before or after. It’s just reality if I want to stay slim. Naturally slim people take eating a lot one day as a cue to eat less the following day. Naturally fat people take eating a lot one day as a cue to keep on eating!
My beloved is also happy with the plan. He knows that he’s on his own for dinner for one day per week and he’s happy to have a VLC meal on the other day. The rest of the week is just like usual – that’s usual when we’re choosing to be healthy.
*And that would be my only warning.* If you don’t know how to eat healthily, then this may not be for you. I don’t crave junk food and we don’t have unhealthy snacks – cookies, chips, etc - in the house at all. We worked through that years ago and this is really about losing a few pounds that have crept on over the past year.
Look here for information about the Intermittent Diet.
Here’s the Good Housekeeping article that got me curious in the first place.
How often should you weigh yourself?
If I were starting out on this weight loss thing for the first time, I’d say never more than once a week.
However, I have a history with scale insanity – brought about by the combination of my natural fear of failure and the stressful weekly ritual of the Weight Watchers weigh-in.
What do I mean by scale insanity?
I mean wearing the lightest clothes I own – but only after the initial weigh-in – then progressing to taking off my watch then my wedding ring.
I mean not eating breakfast and taking my coffee in a travel mug so that I can drink it after stepping on the scale.
I mean seeing that weekly event as something that could make or break my day.
I mean allowing myself to be defined by a number.
That’s not sane.
So the only way I could think of breaking that was to weigh myself every day till it held no power over me.
It works but there are strict parameters:
Weigh only first thing in the morning without clothes. (wedding ring can stay!)
Weigh only once. If your scale doesn’t give the same reading when you weigh yourself 3 times in 3 minutes, get a new scale.
Practice and practice some more the skill of seeing that the scale is just measuring changes in the weight of the composition of your body. It will fluctuate all over the place and does not in any way reflect who you are as a person.
Only another sufferer of scale insanity would think that the above sentence is not crazy.
Please please please only embark on daily weighing if it makes you more sane about your body rather than less. And never ever ever step on the scale in the evening. Really. Just don’t.
If you’d like to be bored to tears by the slow progress of my own weight loss, you can keep tabs on my Daily Weigh page.
I have made it through my two Very Low Calorie Days (VLCD) and it was a bit of a challenge. Yesterday I ended up replacing some of the milk with some poached chicken because I just needed the protein. But I still stuck to the calories give or take a handful and, Googling around, I see that the dairy is nothing special; it’s the low calories/low carbs on those days that seem to make the difference – so I’ll be experimenting with what makes me feel best on those days.
It just dawned on me that the best thing about those two days was learning that hunger won’t kill me. Therefore, when I’m back to maintaining a healthy weight and have a heavy social eating day, I can eat little the next day and not perish. I honestly don’t know why that never dawned on me before. I see now that it’s better to turn the carb switch right to “off” immediately for a day than to struggle on as usual with my “self control in the face of bread” issues. Just chuck the bread in the freezer, poach some chicken, make a salad or roast some vegetables and eat well for the day.
But now it’s onto the slightly harder “moderation” days. I’m not sure why I wrote “slightly harder”. I guess it will be more like I’ve always done before so it’s more routine so it’s more boring so it’s harder.
I’m also oddly worried that, because I can eat more for the rest of the week, my body will somehow refuse to lose weight because it doesn’t feel like it’s being deprived of anything. Yes – I hesitated to write that because it sounds a bit unbalanced but I think everyone knows by now that any kind of weight loss programme leads to a certain level of food/body insanity. The trick is to find the least crazy approach and stay as grounded as possible.
I am jet-lagged so coherant thought may be just a little lacking but I’ve got some things swimming around in my brain that need expressing.
I am all for healthy eating over dieting. But what if you eat healthily and still put on weight? Then, the only solution is to pay attention to your balance of calories consumed versus calories expended and that, without any waffling, is dieting.
In our house we eat a very balanced and healthy diet. In fact, we were once chosen to do one of those “what the average British family eats” studies and were told that they’d never encountered a family that ate so much healthy and fresh food.
But we can eat a lot of it – especially now that there are two of us at home rather than four.
So – to lose weight, I need to temporarily put myself into a calorie deficit situation. In other words, I need to diet to lose weight – but the diet is just a pared down version of our normal healthy way of eating.
At this point my problem is boredom. Most things that I claim to hate, like ironing, running and doing my taxes, I just hate the thought of. Once I’m into the thick of the activity I always find that I enjoy it despite my initial feelings. Dieting is the opposite. I love the idea of being in control and seeing results on the scale. Once I start however, I hate the whole boring thing.
I hate the amount of mental energy it takes to lose weight.
I hate the fussing over social engagements.
I hate saying, or even thinking, “I can’t eat that”.
But I know there is no magic solution. The goal of fitting back into my spring wardrobe can only be acheived with a certain amount of sacrifice. My next step then is to find a way to do this hard work with the minimum of resentment and the maximum of joy.
Now on with Day 2.
For the first time in a long time I am overweight with a BMI of 26.1. I’m furious with myself but also determined. I know what it’s like to be fat and I’m not going to be one of the 95% who gain it all back.
The reason I’ve got to this weight (yeah, yeah, besides the fact that I’ve been eating too much and moving too little) is that I’ve been struggling to engage in calorie restriction. Just the thought of day after day after day of paying close attention makes me die a little inside. However, I may have found a short term solution…..
Flying home from Canada yesterday, I finally took out my January UK Good Housekeeping. I usually look at whatever “New Year, New You” diet they have on offer and immediately flip the page because, trust me, I have seen it all before. But this one was different. It connected with the low attention span me. It took something that I’ve already thought about, gave it structure and backed it up with research.
So – I’m embarking today on the Intermittent Diet. It’s a seriously boring name but I’ve decided to find that endearing.
The intermittent plan (referred to as the 2 Day Diet – which it’s not) involves very low calories on 2 days per week which then makes the other 5 days of healthy eating feel less restrictive.
I find it almost impossible these days to be restrictive seven days per week, so I love the fact that I only really need to get my head into that deprivation zone for 2 days. I can do that. I do it when I fast and this is far from fasting – instead offering around 650 calories on each of those 2 days.
I also like that most of the calories on those low days come from milk and milk products. I am a milky person. Milk Milk Milk. You can see why I thought it might be a good fit. However, I’ve been reading that any protein would do instead of milk. Will have to research that a bit more.
The calories on the “high” days come from a basically Mediterranean diet – or what I now call “normal eating”. Yes, it’s still a bit restrictive but not like trying to stick to 1400 calories a day every day. This allows fexibility for eating out and travelling which would normally throw me right off the losing track.
I think I’ll choose Monday and Tuesday as the “milk days” but I wanted to get started so this week only it’s Wednesday/Thursday.
Today I’m having
So that’s my plan. I’m going to stick to it. I’m going to pay attention. I may also go back to public weigh-ins which do help to keep me accountable.
If you’re interested in trying it out, all the information is at the site of Genesis UK, a cancer research organisation.
NB For my North American readers, 2 pints is 5 cups/40 liquid ounces and not 32!
Last week’s “freedom” experiment morphed into a diet journalling exercise that has been most illuminating.
Before I eat, I have been asking myself (in writing):
And then I’ve been recording the results. Here’s an assortment of entries from the last 9 days:
Sunday
2:30 No lunch yet and feeling hungry. What do I want from food? ~not to feel hungry. ~ to just get by until supper.
Rushed to ferry. Ate pistachios and San Pellegrino lemonade sitting at the dock. Don’t feel hungry anymore but also don’t feel satisfied. Will cook a big pot of chili when I get home. Feel like I need protein and vegetables.
Monday
I want to eat to alleviate the fact that I have to face the Christmas party at Mom’s care home. I ate a bowl of chicken chili and felt full but not uncomfortable. Guess what? Food doesn’t take away responsibility so off to the party.
Party – not the least bit hungry but glad I went. Shared an orange with Mom and had a cup of coffee and a cookie just to be sociable.
Later
In the evening I remembered that I had all sorts of candies ready to decorate a gingerbread house. This is normally permission to to be stupid with food- just because it’s there.
Ate 2 toffees then made a cup of tea. Ate 2 more. Do I want more? Not really. They don’t add anything positive to how I feel. They don’t make me feel less hungry or nourished. They don’t leave a good taste. So will I eat more? Not if I want to get where I want to be.
So I didn’t. I have had that large bag of candy in my possession for a week and have eaten only 4. This is a result which may just deserve the adjective, “miraculous”.
One caveat: I’m doing this during the sanest two weeks of my hormonal month. Therefore, I’m committed to keeping this going right through the nuttiness of Christmas and people and hormones just to see if I can still get results.
Whatever, I have rarely felt so in control of my eating and so satisfied by what I do eat. As I said earlier: illuminating.
Not giving up on finding a solution to this disordered eating is the best I can offer at the moment. I’d rather report a big loss and do a “happy dance” about how loose my jeans are (that’s the way it works in Weight Loss World) but, instead I’m just plugging along trying to work out why most of my eating has nothing to do with physical hunger.
Of course, I have insight; no one writes about a subject for three years without developing a little insight into the matter. But I find that I need to deep revisiting those insights in order to make progress. This is all about making progress – keeping weight off and heading towards food/body healing.
That’s why it was SO SO SO frustrating to have put weight back on over the summer. I was just cruising through my days – downhill, feet off the pedals, hands off the handlebars. It felt so good and was pretty upsetting to realize that I was actually just riding fast, without brakes, into a brick wall.
OK – so I stopped and tried to get back to my “normal” which is paying attention to what I’m doing and taking off those stupid 7 pounds. SEVEN. Not seventy. But still. It’s heading up and, unchecked, would certainly end up thirty again.
Right now I’d chose sane over thin – except when I look in the mirror. Can I please have both? Can I please live a life of moderation AND have a waist?
Anyway – back to the insight. I was reading a column by a woman who’s fighting anorexia and she was talking about how her eating disorder was really about keeping control in a messy world. It reminded me of the discovery I made some time ago that eating whatever and whenever, for me, is about freedom. I’m a terribly responsible person and would never engage in any kind of reckless behaviour that could possibly harm anyone else but I need FREEDOM – from routine, from responsibility, from expectations.
But I can’t be irresponsible.
I can’t just go out and drive fast or refuse to work or take drugs.
I’m not going to have an affair because I’m still completely in love with the man who’s been in my life for 30 years.
I was tempted to pitch a tent at St Paul’s but I don’t like protesting under anyone else’s banner.
I could certainly drink but I grew up in a family soaked in alcohol so I try to exercise some restraint there.
I did take on a profession which is unstable and unpredictable but leaves me pretty much in control of my time. That feels good.
I did let my hair go grey which happily horrified quite a few people, but they all seem to like it more than I do now so it hardly feels rebellious – though I am happily free from hair dye.
So that leaves eating. When I feel constrained by the responsibilities of my world, I eat. Of course, choosing the freedom to eat when and what I eat is also rejecting the freedom to wear the clothes I want or to like what I see in the mirror.
So – just for today – which FREEDOM do I choose?
Actually – that’s got to be asked more often than once daily. When I’m faced with a food decision today, I’ll ask myself what I’m doing: nourishing my body or satisfying my need for freedom.
Better get to it.
The “what would happen if I don’t eat this” question is proving to be one of the best motivational tools I’ve ever dreamed up! Chuffed is the local word.
Of course, as with any other weight loss tool, it only works if you work it and I’ve let life get in the way for a couple of days. And, of course again, you don’t have to tell me that life will always always always get in the the way of weight loss if that’s how I want to play it. Always.
If I want to take off these last 10 pounds (and I do) then hills, ditches and quagmires are for navigating over, around and through – not for providing excuses to lie down and quit.
So what if my hormones are now providing non-stop entertainment for a full two weeks per month.
So what that it’s 11:30 am and I’ve already been up for 7 hours.
So what that I’ve got to bake sweet things for company and for a funeral tea.
So what that this is akin to handing matches and some dry kindling to an arsonist.
Did I mention the hormones?
So what to all of it!
I need a plan:
I will probably not be in any “losing mode” as far as calories go today but, when faced with whether or not to put food in my mouth, I will keep asking, “What would happen if you didn’t eat this?”
I will be kind to myself but not by soothing my stress with food.
I will drink plenty of fluids and eat little and often.
I will think about what I want to be wearing and how I want to be feeling on Christmas day.
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