Having a bit of success, so...

How many different things have I tried and documented in this space? How many times have I cleared out that sidebar with week-by-week weight progress, and started anew?

I'm experiencing moderate, measurable weight loss, so I guess it's time to clock in again. What am I doing?

(1) One of my very good friends, who is following a paleo diet, challenged me to cut out sugar. Like, all sugar. Unbelievably, I did it; it took a few days or a week to reprogram myself, but the sugar cravings finally went away. However, even 15 or 18 days into my no-sugar streak I was still making the decision individually, every time sugar was in front of me. Am I going to eat this? Or not? I knew that plain old no sugar was not an answer for me. I purposely chose to eat and savor a Krispy Kreme doughnut over spring break with my children (and honestly, though it was very good, it wasn't as good as my brain told me it would be, and that tought me a lesson). And then I went right back to sugar-free without problems. So I've decided on a long-term plan, I think. Once a week I will either make or purchase the sugary treat I'm wanting most, and I will eat a single serving of it and I will feel it dissolve in my mouth and I will enjoy the heck out of it. And this will give me the strength to avoid other sugary things just because they're in front of me, I hope. This decision has relieved me of the decision making process, at least; I no longer have to decide with each and ever treat whether I'm still sugar-free or not, because I know my treat is coming on Saturday and it's going to be fabulous. However, I can't argue with the results. Not eating sugar has helped me.

(2) I've gone back to food combining for most of the day. For all meals and snacks before dinnertime, I eat only foods that digest well together. This means fruits absolutely alone, grains alone or with veggies, proteins alone or with veggies. I've tried to cut down my carbs during this period, and increase my proteins. I think this has helped a lot, too.

(3) Most importantly, I still eat the dinner I prepare, exactly as I prepare it, with my children. I think it is important, essential even, for me to set an example for my kids. Why would I make them something so unhealthy that I can't eat it? Why would I teach them that our diet is not a diet I can healthily loose weight on? So this is my stickiest point, and I'm very dedicated to it: I eat dinner with my family, and I eat what they're eating. (So during this meal, I often do combine proteins and grains, veggies and fruits, etc.)

(4) I am also fasting twice per week, breakfast and lunch only.

My goal is to lose about 5 pounds per month. I have 30 pounds to lose, and this will let me be goal weight by the end of the summer. Start of the summer would be better for swimsuit wearing, obviously, but I don't think it's realistic.

Happily, I exceeded my goal for March. I lost about 8.2 pounds. And I feel like I'm on a roll, like things will only improve from here. Wish me luck!

Hungry today

Not unmanageably so, but my stomach is making its empty presence known. Still, I feel great about how the week has gone—not eating sugar, not craving sugar, subsisting on controlled portions, lots of great exercise. It's a good beginning.

Hope like crazy it's sustainable. Going camping tomorrow—can I resist the smores and keep my portions low? I'd love to see a loss at the end of week one, and not gain back whatever I've managed to lose thus far.

How Sugar Ages Your Skin - Prevention.com

...Experts now believe that a lifetime of overeating sugar can make skin dull and wrinkled
How Sugar Ages Your Skin - Prevention.com

Dag nab it. I sugar is still pretty much my favorite food group. Guess now I have to kick my cravings for the greater good.

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This is everything it's cracked up to be!

Weighed myself for the first time in months and months this morning. Was within one pound of where I suspected I was.

I'm giving two thumbs way, way up for food combining so far. I'm staying full between meals, I'm eating less, and I have no cravings. I have cookies and chocolate in the cupboard, and they are so not an issue, which is nigh unto miraculous considering how I binged on sugar last weekend and the beginning of this week. I should still be having to muscle through withdrawals. Nope.

Onward!

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Now playing: A Fine Frenzy - You Picked Me

Even on day one, it worked.

Quite a bit more energy today. Even after completing entire arms workout this a.m., I was able to go out and walk/jog just before lunch. Felt full all day. No cravings to speak of until now; now I want a little sugar, but it's so slight I can resist. Drank lots of water.

Successful first day; of course, the success could all be in my head. But the head is half the battle, right? Hope I can spin it into successful longer period. :)

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Now playing: Muse - Hyper Chondriac Music

Honey, oh sugar sugar

So I ate more than a bite of dessert at the headmaster's dinner Saturday night. I ate, let's see, three or four cookies at the family tea party we dropped by for a few minutes on our way to the dinner. And then I ate half a [huge] piece of the richest chocolate cake at the dinner.

Woke up Sunday with a sugar hangover, a horrid headache.

Now I'm so glad I didn't eat sugar yesterday. It's so stupid how much self-control it took, but I'm so glad I didn't use this week's sugar day yesterday. I weighed 147.0 on Saturday morning and (despite my efforts, because of the cookies and cake probably) I weighed 147.8 this morning for the official weigh-in. But despite the little jump (which I know is carb-related water retention or something, onward and downward) I feel like I accomplished something. First, I lost 2+ pounds from the previous Monday. Second, I didn't eat sugar yesterday. I was stronger than I thought was. Which is self-reinforcing, now I feel strong because I was strong.

Mixed feelings

Made chocolatey cookies and coconut pudding for the fam for dessert.

OMgosh, it was so hard not to lick spoons or take nibbles. Because today isn't a sugar day. But I did it.

Just tracked my calories for today.

And now I'm so glad that I didn't do a sugar day and don't have to record those calories.

So *WAH* about not eating tasty dessert, but *YAY* about today's calories consumed and not eating sugar today! :)

Brand New

I don't know what that magical switch is that gets flipped, the one that gives me the strength mentally to say, "No REALLY, I'm going to do this." I've tried to flip the switch manually before; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But last week I noticed my clothes were getting a little tight. I weighed myself and found I was 150 again. And the switch flipped.

This is my new beginning. I know, both from experience and from research that I have twelve weeks to see what changes I can bring about. Twelve weeks, maybe a few more, before the fire dies out and I slide into maintenance mode.

I've had a great week! Tracking calories was a big success for me. I started the week at 150.something (didn't pay attention to the .something, I was having sticker shock over the 150) and this morning I was 147.0. I haven't done a fast all week. I've been so weak, so indulgent, for so many weeks now that I figured portion reduction and cutting out sugar were enough to work on for one week.

Also that thing they say? About not changing too many behaviors at once? Yes, I've borne it out: I was able to cut out sugar and track my calories and revamp my eating, but I was not able to also work in faithful workouts. Baby steps, right?

At sparkpeople.com I've set up a "streak" regarding sugar. If I can not eat sugary treats six days out of seven, I'll call that a wild success. If I can do that week after week, I'll call it an addiction broken! I've made it through week one. I've been sugar-free for six days. Tonight is a dinner in SLC for my daughter's head of school, and I suspect I'll have a bite of dessert. And I won't have to feel guilty about it, because I've already met my goal. :)

I've also realized that having my official weigh-in on Saturday morning, and knowing I have another entire week before the next Saturday morning, gives me a mental excuse to splurge all weekend with bigger portions and treats here and there. And I don't want to splurge all weekend; I want to maximize my efforts since 12 weeks is a pretty tight window. So I've moved my official weigh-in, the weight that gets recorded here, to Monday mornings. I just decided two days ago to do this, and it strikes me as a mighty fine idea. Looking forward to Monday!

“It's a fallacy that all it takes is willpower to reshape your body. If you can't learn to speak French in a month, it doesn't mean you're weak-willed; it means you've set an impossible goal. Weight loss does take effort, but as with any project, it also takes a plan. You can set yourself up for success.”

That's what I'm trying to do. Tally ho!

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Had to cut back portions...

...in order to tone down my appetite. I was just starving all the time, but a few days of tracking calories/intake at sparkpeople.com (and trying to cut back) has brought it back within manageable levels. It's 12:30. I'm not intentionally fasting today, I just thought I'd go without eating until I got hungry. I'm still not hungry.

Also: 4.5 days without sugar, and surviving. :)

True confessions.

1. I ate sugar again. Drat. One little bit gave way to one bigger bit, until I was eating sugar every day. Not in the quantities I had been before, so that's good. Sugar wasn't the only thing that was important to me. But I had to start over again cutting it out. I'm on day three. It isn't as difficult this time.
   
   
2. I'm finding it almost impossible right now to fast. I don't know why; lack of willpower? I just get horrifically starving, and then I think, "But food isn't bad!" and I eat and then I make up all the calories I'd so far skipped that day, breakfast or breakfast plus lunch. Oh yeah, I can totally eat an entire day's calories in one sitting. :(
   
   
3. So I'm actively back at sparkpeople.com for the moment, tracking my caloric intake. It is easier for me, right now, to limit my portions than to fast. And I figured since I was just eating like crazy, I had to do something.
   
   
4. I'm also trying to be more faithful with exercise, especially strength training. Spring weather is here and is supposed to stay all week long (SQUEE) and what I really want to do is get out and jog and walk. Though I'm definitely not in the cardiovascular shape I was in last spring when I had been doing cardio faithfully. My shift of focus to strength training, and then my total laziness in not doing it, has made me a little bit winded in places where I used to not be. Sigh. I really enjoy cardio so much more than strength training. Really. But I need the strength training more.

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Going, going, gone

It took almost two excruciating weeks, but I've really knocked out my sugar cravings. Sugar cravings are my one and only pre-menstrual symptom; so I was craving sugar all the time, but the week before my period those cravings are much more powerful, almost irresistible. And the week before my period was, not through good planning but because the stars just freakily aligned that way, the first week I went sugar-free. Which made it a very difficult week indeed.

But though I still craved sugar every single day all day long, each day the craving was a bit more manageable. And finally I came through it unscathed, and now sugar is resistible. This is a major, major victory for me. Three examples:

• We spent Friday night and Saturday morning with my sister and her family. I purchased Krispy Kremes for them as a gift, plenty for two Kremes per person, and didn't eat any.
  
  
• Went to a party with friends on Saturday night. The dessert table was full, and there were two of my favorites—homemade oreos (huge, almost as big as my hand) and almond sheet cake. These are things my friends regularly bring and I crave them all the time. But I stuck with food and left the desserts alone, though I wanted that almond cake something fierce.
  
  
• This might sound like falling off the wagon, but I also count it a victory. We went to a cub scout dinner last night with our 9YO son. I drank a root beer with my vegetarian sloppy joe, and ate a piece of apple pie afterward. OH NOES! SUGAR!! But we have to eat like real people, right? The occasional piece of birthday cake or whatever? I could feel I was sufficiently past my cravings that it wouldn't be dangerous, and I was right. It hasn't triggered a sugar binge in me at all. I had an egg with toast for breakfast, am going to have vegetable soup, carrots, and hummus for lunch, and I have zero sugar cravings now. I just frosted a cake to give away, and I didn't even lick the frosting spreader when I was done.

So I am feeling great about that. A little sugar every now and then I don't see as a problem. No sweets makes Jack a very dull boy. Variety is the spice of life, and nothing should ever be forbidden or off-limits, because that just creates an artificial (irrational) mental need. At least, for me it does.

But my sugar cravings went to the next level, very akin to addiction. That needed to be broken. I've taken the first steps. Now I will eat sugar consciously and not mindlessly, choose it and limit it but not freak out about it.

So happy with myself.

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Kicking it to the curb

For all my big talk before, I'm actually detoxing from sugar now. Haven't had anything purposefully sugary since Thursday. There are times when it is still really hard. Every time I eat anything, I want a sugary dessert chaser. When I get hungry, sugary is the first thing I think of.

Which is all the more reason I must conquer the sugar addiction, no? Day three and counting.

Sugar + Alyson = OTP*

Last Saturday the 21st I decided not to even weigh myself. It's been an insane few weeks since my father-in-law died—very busy schedule for me, lots of running around and doing; and worst of all, my husband is gone very, very long hours trying to settle the estate. I've missed him, I've stressed out, I've consoled myself with all manner of Valentine's treats. And I decided, rather than let a weigh-in make me feel bad, I'd skip it for one week.

I haven't exercised in several weeks—much of it is the same schedule problems, lots of late nights and early mornings. But I finally decided last week that my current method isn't working. I need to get up a bit earlier, a half hour or so, and exercise before the kids get up. Yes, theoretically, I can carve a half hour out of my daytime schedule. And for a few months I was great at that. But now mostly I don't. And what's more, I use, "Haven't exercised yet!" as an excuse to hang around indecently long in my pajamas or workout clothes with my hair all over the place, embarrassed to open the door if someone knocks.

So today was the day. I hopped out of bed at 5:15 and was done working out by 6:00, in time to make lunches and breakfasts and all the things I usually do in the morning. While the kids ate breakfast I showered, and by school time I was already all dressed with hair done, ready for the day. Much, much better. I'm crossing my fingers for a better week this week.

I really need to kick my sugar addiction to the curb. I love sugar, and I eat way too much of it. And then, because I've already eaten some, I eat more. And I crave it. And I don't feel full from good, healthy food until I've had something sugary as a chaser. And I can easily eat as many calories of sugar as I do of food, ack. So I'm trying to cut out refined sugars this week. I'm not cutting out fruits or breads or any of the healthy things that contain sugar-like molecules, that would be unmanageable; but I 'm trying to get the treat consumption under control so I'm not always thinking about and looking for sugary treats.

It'll be tough, I'm not going to lie. This week I'm pre-menstrual (TMI!) and my one and only symptom of PMS is that I crave sugar. Like, exclusively. Hell if I want to even eat anything else. I'm dying for a cookie right now, thank heavens I don't have any. (Ate 'em all yesterday. :-/ )

*OTP in internet lingo means one true pairing, like when you think that actually Jo March should have married Laurie instead of Professor Bhaer in Little Women then you think Jo + Laurie = OTP. Like me 'n' sugar.

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