The A2K (virtual) Weight Loss Club !!

oops, I forgot, I had a couple handfuls of almonds today too.

tea. drink lotsa tea. always helps me forget i'm actually hungry.

Littlek--

You're starting.



Phoenix--

You and I were raised to wrap our troubles in dreams and eat our troubles away.

I speak as another woman with a stressful day who has been stressfully nibbling.

When will we ever learn?

Has anyone thought that stress-nibbling might be a useful thing instead of a thing to banish?

This is funny - I just opened a sciam email and found an article about food cravings. Part of the article is quoted below:



source: Scientific American

...and a heap of maduros, the sweet fried plantanes. BUT, I did burn well over 1,000 calories in the gym today, so I'm stil in the minus, i figger.

Good morning!!! Good job to everyone for hanging in and making changes.

LittleK, the first step is to figure out what you're eating and when, and then tweaking it to burn calories more efficiently and stave off food fests. Sometimes just paying attention to what you eat and making the decision to eat for nourishment is all it takes. If you find yourself battling cravings you could try combining protein and carbs every time you eat. Glad to see you posting your food diary.

WTG Dag! You're an exercise machine.

170.5 again today. Wednesday is gym day with Mr B. I'll put in a good workout and hopefully see a change tomorrow.


TIP OF THE DAY: Emotional eating has many sources, but at any given time we usually have one primary one. Many of us were encouraged to feel better by having a cookie, or getting an ice cream cone when we were kids. It's second nature to comfort ourselves with food when we are out of sorts. For some of us the primary source of emotional eating might be stress, or it might be a feeling of emptiness, loneliness, anger, boredom, guilt, unworthiness, depression or any number of other sources. The bottom line is that we sometimes need comforting and we fall into the trap of nurturing ourselves with food. There are other excessive traps that people fall into such as alcohol or drugs, shopping, overworking, people pleasing, building walls, etc., but this is a food thread so I'll keep the discussion to food. One suggestion for alternative self nurturing comes from J. Cruise. He suggests identifying the primary emotion and then it's opposite. For instance:

emptiness - love
stress - peacefulness
boredom - excitement
loneliness - connection
anger - happiness
unworthiness - acceptance

Once you've identified the primary source and it's opposite emotion, make a list of non-food alternatives that might be used to bring the comfort you need. Focus on the positive emotion by asking yourself, "How can I feel __________?", and then make a written list of ideas. Sometimes the act of writing it out can make the choices real. For peacefulness the list might include, listening to music, meditation, going for a slow walk, yoga, going to a movie, taking a warm bath. Use your list when you find yourself staring at the snack cupboard or ripping the lid off a carton of ice cream.

I highly recommend the book, "The Pathway", by Laurel Mellon for those who have a long history of emotional eating to excess. It covers multiple excesses, not just eating, but it's an excellent insight into identifying the source of our needs and learning to turn to healthier alternatives.


Week 1 check-in is tomorrow. Have a fabulous day!!

I figured out today that my route in the morning is only 1.6 miles, have to add on to it. However, I did bear the mid-50s late may cold (what is up with that, it is usually 70-80 here this time of year) and take the dog running. he got me up this morning at 5:56 am-bad doggie.

Surprisingly I have been able to sick to my diet. I eat low fat cottage cheese in the morning (love that stuff), generally have either tuna salad or chicken salad for lunch (low fat mayo of course), and some type of meat and veggies for dinner. Last night was steak and garlic green beans-yum!

Phoenix- I am impressed you have stuck to it and best of luck with your mother, keep us updated.

Dag-1,000 calories at the gym! wow! very impressed!!

LittleK-keep it up, you will start to get the hang of it and i love the pic of your boxer.

JB-good luck at the gym today!

Dragon - did you know you can use low-fat yogurt in place of mayo in things like chicken salad? A little lemon yogurt in tuna is great. Most mayo is made with partially-hydrogenated oils, so the yogurt is the better choice.

As I get older the weight loss thing just gets harder. It's like my body can put on wieght just thinking about food.

Another alternative to low-fat mayo (which is usually pretty high in sugar) is Canola oil mayo. Canola oil is 13% saturated fat, slightly higher than olive oil (10%) or flax oil (9%), but less than peanut (19%), soy (14%), walnut (16%) or an avocado (20%).

I like to use low-fat, no sugar salad dressing (such as Briannas Santa Fe Blend - 25 cals/2T 0gms fat, Up Country Organics, Tahini Goddess - 50 cals/2T 4.5 gms fat 0.5 gms sat. fat, or Trader Joes lowfat Creamy Cilantro - I don't have a bottle at the moment, but its low cal/low fat and delicious) in tuna salad. Its a slightly different consistancy than mayo but tasty.

Green Witch - The harder weight loss coming with age is exactly why I'm here. My past experience of losing weight by osmosis is gone forever. I used to be able to lose by sheer willpower and paying attention. I've learned this year that those days are gone. I'm still trying to lose the 10lbs I gained over the holidays. Would you like to join our challenge?

Ok, lunch was dijon chicken salad-chicken breast over greens with a dijon dressing. not sure about the dressing since i went out for lunch. Breakfast was again cottage cheese. dinner-grilled chicken with lemon pepper, salad, and zucchini/squash stir fry. No more exercise for me other than this morning's run, i am in intense study period! Have huge exam for my job next saturday! wish me luck!

So, I kind of blew the diet today. Generally, I eat well. I don't eat junk food (well, I do eat some corn chips, but ones w/o hydrog-fats) and drink beer, but generally I eat well. Every three weeks I go to the chiropractor, this was a chiro day. Chiro goes with food from Vegie Planet. I figure it's ok every three weeks, right? Vegie Planet serves vegitarian and vegan food that is not aimed to be low-fat. So....

~ 2 slices of toast with butter for b/f and coffee.
~ salad and slice gourmet pizza for lunch. Salad was romaine with tofu cubes (fried), olives, broccoli, tomatoes, and a vinegrette with asiago cheese. Pizza was black beans, tempeh, and a pepitas-cilantro chutney and cheddar cheese. Water.
~ snack of almonds and a hot chocolate of mostly water, a little low-fat milk and some marshmellow (the choco is the good stuff - no transfat and the mallow is fat free).
~ my one beer of the day (right now, yum).
~ Dinner will be low-fat butternut squash soup with a little feta crumbled in it.

I only drank about a liter of water (actually very mild decaf green tea). Need more agua.

Sure, I'm in.

Here's my Fat Bio: This is actually the time of year I don't need a gym. Running a plant nursery and doing landscaping keeps me active. I attached a pedometer to my hip for a few days and discovered I average 15 miles a day- and that does not include digging holes and throwing a pick axe. However, I no longer drop the winter weight like I used to - in fact I have offically reached the state of Zaftig (Yiddish for "juicy" or "over ripe").

When I was younger I found I could maintain a weight of 125-130 (I'm 5'6'') by keeping my calories under 2000 a day and walking around the city. When I moved to the country and got a car, on popped the pounds. Now that I am marching through my 40's it's like my metabolism has ground to a halt. I can eat very little in the course of a day, but the weight hangs on like gum to the bottom of a shoe. I am rather muscular (in my gym days I actually had muscle cuts in my arms), but I would love to lose some belly and boob weight.

To make it worse- I'm one of those women who has been obsessed with weight since childhood. My mother was a ballet dancer and I always wanted to be that lean, but I have my father's genes. I have kept a journal that goes back to the 5th grade. I know every inch and pound that came and went since I was about 10 years old. I weighted 140 with a 30" waist as a freshman in High School, but only 119 with a 27" waist when I entered college.

I also have a Tanita scale - this scales not only tells your weight, but it calculates your fat percentage. I get to be nuts about two kinds of numbers. You all may want to throw me out of this challenge for becoming too obsessive with the details.

I won't post my menus, but I do eat a healthy (mostly home grown organic) diet. My downfall is carbs (my husband thinks one of our kitchen cabinets holds a pasta shrine, and I admit it sort of looks like it) and I do like to bake bread (I'm even building an outdoor clay oven this summer).

I admit I would be happy with the loss of five pounds by the end of June, but 10 would make me giddy with joy.

Well, I'm off to brew some fruity ice tea to fill up the air space in my stomach...

Oh yeah, more tea!

k, you didn't blow it. if you worked in a bit of exercise, what you ate would be just fine. do the bellydancing video that you have. yeah. don't forget to stretch for half hour, that one's vicious.

i had salmon and salad for lunch, and low fat tomato soup with 1/2 pita bread for dinner. took myself to victoria's secret, got some new underwear, and now i'm heading out for dinks with that liberian of mine. damn, i am still the same weight though. feeling huge. just wait two or three weeks though, there will be a new me. hopefully i won't scare the liberian away...

You won't scare the liberian away - have fun, Dag! (going to the tv room tolook for that video)

Stretch after, not before.

I need to eat more. It's hard.

damn you, slappy. how can that be hard?

The hardest thing is I live with a man who can eat anything and still stay slim. He just walked by with a big bowl of Ben & Jerry's vanilla frozen yogurt drenched in homemade blueberry syrup and whipped cream. Ugggghhhh...!

Well, it is Thursday.
UP half a pound
such is life.

Sonte

But good job all the rest of you who seem to do be doing really well! Congratulations