back2core

I haven’t been on here in AGES. After giving up on ever being able to get myself on the WW band wagon, I went and put on ever MORE weight. I really tried hard to work on my emotional overeating (and still am), but I need to get myself healthy again. I just discovered the No S Diet plan and am going to give this a try. I really think this plan might work for me. I can eat normal meals for breakfast, lunch & dinner. No counting & no diet foods. The plan works like this: No Seconds, no snacks & no sweets except on ‘S’ days (Saturday, Sunday & Special occasions). Why do I think this is finally the answer for me? Because I KNOW that I did not put all this weight on eating my breakfast, lunch & dinner. I gained this weight from my between meal junk-food feasts. The candy, cookies, icecream & chips.  With this plan I can still have some of these foods in moderation on the weekends, holidays & special occasions. Just not every day ( which is pretty much what I’ve been doing). I’ll keep you posted on how this works for me.

Well I didn’t lose any weight this week, but I finally feel that I am back on track. My mind is where it needs to be. I was focusing on too many aspects and that was causing me to binge eat again. I am now trying to see things as ‘one step at a time’. Actually one ‘meal’ at a time. I have reread some of my self-help books on emotional overeating. My favorites are Overcoming Overeating, Breaking Free from Emotional Overeating, and The Seven Secrets of Slim People. My focus now is not so much on what I eat, but why I eat. When I reach for food, I stop myself and ask: “Am I really physiologically hungry? If not, why am I wanting food? Am I bored? Tired? Upset? If so, what can I do in place of eating? If I am really hungry, what does my body want to eat?” I am also focusing on not eating past satisfaction. That is really hard. So here I go. One meal at a time…

Thanks everyone for your prayers last week. My uncle did finally pass away this Sunday on his 60th birthday. My grandmother has been very strong, thanks to the many prayers and support.

Well, I blew it again! I do the same thing week after week. I’ll stick to my diet and exercise all work week, and then go hog wild over the weekend!

I guess it doesn’t help that I’ve been a bit depressed. I found out that my uncle’s cancer has spread throughout his entire body. They just put him in Hospice care and say that he may only have a few days to a few weeks left to live. I may be traveling down to Florida this week to go see him. So, if you don’t hear from me, that’s where I’ll be. I’m worried most for my grandmother. She is 87 years old, and this has just about crushed her. I’m not sure that she will be able to handle it when he passes on. Please keep her in your prayers (thank you).

Back to my diet and exercise: I just can’t seem to stay motivated. During the week I noticed a small weight loss, but now (after all that junk) I’m back up again. Not sure what to do. I guess I’ll just keep trying and posting here for support. Hopefully persistance will pay off in the end.

Here I am home sick with the flu. And, yes, I did get the flu shot! My head hurts, I’ve got a sore throat and cough, and my stomach isn’t feeling so great either. But enough complaining…

What I’m worried most about right now is this new medication that I’m on for my chronic tension headaches. I went to the neurologist on Wednesday. I always thought that I had a combination of tension headaches and migraines. He seems to think that they are all tension headaches, and that some are just more severe. So he is having me try this antidepressant called Pamelor. It has been shown to help with chronic headache sufferers. One of the major side effects is weight gain, and craving sweets. Oh great! As if I don’t already crave sweets as it is!! I’m hoping that knowing this ahead of time, will help me be more aware. Hopefully I’ll be able to still make good decisions regarding my eating.

On another note, even though I’m following the Core plan, I’ve decided to try a combination of Core plus other current plans. I’m adding (in moderation) nuts, dark chocolate, and low fat cheeses. I’m hoping that these items will help satisfy me more so that I don’t binge on complete junk food (as I have been doing). Just an experiment. I’ll let you know how it affects my weight loss efforts.

What is it about chocolate that makes it so irresistible? I’ve managed to do pretty well all day with my eating and exercise, but now I keep hearing my name being called.”GINA… Gina… gina…” Who’s calling me? Oh, it’s that old (annoying)  friend, Chocolate, again! Maybe just a tiny sliver. Oh, I’ll being regretting this in the morning.

Well there’s always something about Mondays. They seem to be great days to start back on diets. It’s like being given a clean slate. Only my slate isn’t really all that clean. I’m back up one more pound. What scares me most is that this extra weight came on so quickly. Isn’t that always the way?  We can put it on so fast, but it seems to take forever to lose it!

 The thing is, I know how to lose it. I’ve already been there. I have all the tools. I just need to implement them. Why am I so afraid to let go of all the sweats and simple carbs? Are they really that addicting? For this week, I’m especially going to focus on getting in my 8 Good Health Guidelines before eating anything else. I found a great bit of inspiration over on the Health Discovery.net message boards:

 From WW Carol:

“(You want to have) met your 8 Good Health Guidelines at the end of every day.
You want to get them met, before getting “too full”. And here’s how I do it:
The best time to think about this is at the beginning of your day. Plan your day’s foods with meeting the 8 Good Health Guidelines in mind FIRST, and non-Core foods or servings beyond the guidelines SECOND.So. I’d plan out 2 servings of dairy (or 3, if over 50), 2 tsp. oil, 5 servings fruits/vegetables, 6 cups of water, protein and whole grains FIRST.

Then fill-in your medium rocks (Core foods that don’t meet Guidelines, i.e. soymilk, soy cheese, FF sour cream, too little FF cottage cheese to meet a serving requirement, etc.).And then the pebbles (Core and non-Corefoods that season and spice, and add flavor and fun)! For instance, turn your 1 C. FF milk serving into hot chocolate or a latte or a pudding, if you want.

Just wanted to share the lesson I learned today in church. Besides applying it to life in general, I think this lesson can also help with emotional eating and binging. After reading Psalm 23 (The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…), our pastor gave a sermon about want versus need titled: When the Sizzle Fizzles. When we live our life focused on wants, we often don’t focus on what we already do have (counting our blessings). Also, and this is the important part: Often, when we do get what we want, we find out that it wasn’t as great as we thought it would be. I find this to be true with my eating too. If I’m truly hungry for food, it tastes really great and is enjoyable. But when I eat just because I want that cookie or candy (I mean, doesn’t it look and smell soooo gooood?), it often doesn’t really live up to my expectations.

So this week I’m going to try to incorporate this lesson into my eating, and not eat unless I ‘need’ to. This doesn’t mean that I can’t ever have a cookie or some candy, but that I will wait until my body needs it (not just wants it). Also, I will learn to count my blessings (losing those 35 pounds, and having the resources to get back on track again).

Okay, so this was supposed to be my first day back to healthy eating. Had a pretty healthy breakfast: coffee (1pt-creamer), puffed wheat cereal w/ skim milk, and a banana. For lunch: veggie burger, Core coleslaw, diet Dr. Pepper Cherry/Chocolate (wow, that stuff ROCKS!). For snacks: 2pt. cookie, and an apple. I even did a 30 minute Gilad cardio/toning workout. THEN things just went downhill…For dinner I had nachos, lite beer, and candy, candy, candy!!! What’s the matter with me? Well, I can’t take it back now. I’ll just have to do as Dr. Oz says and “make a legal u-turn at the next possible moment” (or something like that, I’ve never been good with quotes). Hopefully tomorrow will be a much better day. Stay tuned…