Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Remember when I lost 50 lbs in 2010? Yeah, that was great. Well, it was sort of great because it turns out I lost some of that weight due to an underlying medical condition. Not so great. So 2011, I spent healing. I’m much better. But I’ve gained a little less than 20 lbs back.

I was doing pretty well into 2011 even though I wasn’t losing any further weight. I kept monitoring my food intake and walking/using the Wii up until April or May. Then I sort of lost my way. I stopped walking so much and that sent me downward. I still tried, but it was hard to get back on that horse. I did better in the summer when we were at the Citipools on a regular basis.  My Wii stretchy band broke. Actually, the cat gnawed it into two pieces and it was pretty difficult to find a replacement.

The thing that has kept me repeatedly trying is remember that I did it in the first place. And knowing that I used two basic tools – watching what I ate and moving around more aka exercising. No pills, no fads, no meetings. I walked places and I ate a lot of vegetables.

So, I am working on a new resolution. Nope, I’m not setting a new weight goal. I’m not committing to how many minutes a week I’ll get the heart rate up. I haven’t even dusted off the Wii and its January 2.

I’m just going to start using my best support … SparkPeople.Com

SparkPeople is a great site where I can track my food intake and it tells me all the data I need to know. It is filled with tons and tons of information on pre-packaged foods and restaurant foods and recipe ingredients and so forth. So it is pretty easy to use even if you go out to eat.  Even we dine at local restaurants and I don’t have access to the specific ingredients in a meal, I can usually find something pretty close.  And I’ve entered quite a bit of our own recipes to make sure I’m monitoring as well as I can.

So in the past two days, I’ve entered every bite that has gone into my mouth. Including the Whitman’s sampler candies. I try to get everything logged by mid-afternoon so I have a sense of how dinner should play out … heavy on the veggies, no the roll, etc.

This is also useful for the reverse situations – when I don’t eat enough during the day. Watching my patterns helps me get more into a routine and make sure I’m not cramming a day’s worth of calories/fat/protein into a two hour time span. It is a terrific way to avoid fast food … if I’m tempted, I remember  the nonjudgemental facts that come up with that Quarter Pounder and keep driving home to my whole grain bread and peanut butter (not exactly low-cal, but much much healthier.)

Best of all, I feel good that I’ve already experienced these side “benefits” of a simple resolution so I’m feeling confident that I’ll successfully get back on the horse and shed the weight so I can focus on continuing to get healthy.

Here are the simplest things that work for me:

• Eat a leafy green salad at least once a day. I don’t like dressing so I fancy it up with all sorts of textures and tastes, but a good two cups of greens are essential. I alternate between spinach and green leafy lettuces.
• Half a sandwich. I cut out a slice of bread and add on the veggies (I love cucumber on sandwiches and there are almost no calories.)  Then I can enjoy a side of low fat yogurt or even microwave popcorn for the same calorie count as the other slice of bread.
• No fast food. If desperate, get grilled chicken. I love the $ I save and its just not worth it. <once you slide back down this path it takes a real multiweek purge to get over it>
• Don’t eat after 7:30 PM. We usually eat dinner between 6 and 7 so this doesn’t leave me a lot of time to eat snacks. I get one small mouthful when I take some meds before bedtime, but that’s it. This is only tough when we go out to eat a bit late.  Since I go to bed at 10 PM, it isn’t too hard to stick with this.
• Drink fluids. Water and hot herbal tea. I drink Gatorade but that has calories so I gotta watch.
• Keep fruit in the house. It is accessible, I like it. I also feel guilty about wasting the food and money, so I’ll pick it up.
• When I hit a coffee shop, I get coffee (decaf after 1 PM.) Period. No fancy drinks, no flavorings, no nothing. A dash of half and half is my extravagance.