Monthly Archives: July 2011

Yes folks, it happened. I had a feeling it would happen sooner or later, and I’m glad it happened sooner so I can learn from it and move on. I went on a super binge yesterday evening, and now I am faced with the after effects – bloating, sluggishness, and bloating. This time around, instead of beating myself up about it, I’m trying to learn from it and as I analyze what happened and how to get over it, you all get to come along for the ride. Lucky you!!

What To Do After A Binge:

Step 1) Get over it. Seriously, forgive yourself and move on. It’s going to happen eventually – even the most rigid dieters have an incident where they just flip their lids and lose it over some fast food or some ice cream. Get back on track as soon as you can and…

Step 2) …Try to figure out WHY you binged. You didn’t just binge for no reason at all – there’s always a reason. Have you been eating too little? Did something upset you earlier in the day? Are you getting enough sleep?  These are just some of the things that can cause a person to face plant into a pan of  (insert favorite baked item here). Simply identifying the reason for your binge can take away a lot of the shame.

Step 3) Drink a lot of water the next day. You’ve got alot “stuff” in your system and you need to flush it out.

Step 4) Go for a walk. Or a run. Or go to the gym. For heaven’s sake just do something that will get you moving again.

Step 5) Get back to your healthy eating habits again, and even though you will be tempted to eat only apples the next day, don’t do that. Eat your healthy food and eat it in reasonable amounts because  restricting too much is how you got into this boat in the first place (Self, I’m looking at you!).

Step 6) Learn from this experience, because at some point, it will happen again. Do you hear me? IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. Maybe not soon, but eventually. Hopefully next time you can stop it before it gets out of hand and that’s the point of learnin’, folks, so we don’t let history repeat itself. Look for the warning signs (see Step 2) and then take action – call your accountability partner, get outside and move, just do something so that the binge won’t kill the spirit of success you have inside you.

Step 7) Protect your Spirit of Success like a mother bear. You know that good feeling you get when you’ve followed your plan well (notice, I didn’t say perfectly)? Hold onto the feeling. Keep it in the front of your mind and remember how awful it feels to NOT feel good.

Okay, to be honest, I wrote these steps for myself as well as for anyone else who needs them because last night’s binge was a doozy. And since I’m in full confession mode here, my binge was the result of  too little sleep, too little calories during the day, and stress at work – all things that separately I can handle, but piled on top of each other can bring a hurricane of doom onto my head. Lesson learned. I will strive to do better because taking care of myself is a lot easier to deal with than the resulting coma after a super binge, ya know what I mean?

Have any other steps to add to my Post Binge List? What’s your personal downfall into binge hell? What causes you to flip your lid?

Posted by Jill in fitness

Today I weighed in for my Super Secret Weight Loss Group and I’m down 2 pounds!! According to my bathroom scale, I’m down to 188, but when I hopped on the Wii Fit this morning, it recorded my weight at 185.5. So I’m really not certain of how much I actually weigh, but I’m certain that I lost 2 pounds this week, so it’s all good. I’m more concerned with the progress than the actual number anyway, which is why I busted out the Mary Lou and weighed on her, too. I’m going to start using her once a week because she is brutally honest and will tell me exactly how much I have lost/gained but not the number.

At some point last week, as I was falling asleep in bed I was thinking about what I really needed to do to lose weight. Should I join Weight Watchers? Should I join TOPS? Should I check out South Beach Diet again? Oh I was asking myself all sorts of questions and playing out all kinds of complicated scenarios in my head. I finally got real with myself and thought “okay, knowing myself as I do, what’s it really going to take to lose weight?” The answer was as loud as a thunderbolt and clear as a bell: “EAT LESS FOOD, STUPID!!!”

Genius, no?

So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 7 days. Not only eating less, but eating better too. I have a huge salad every day for lunch, fruit and cheese for my snacks, plus I’m trying to eat 4 meals a day and stop all the snacking in between. I’ve been tracking my calories in Calorie Count and trying to stay within a range of 1400-1600 calories, although some days I’ve been as low as 1100 (I know, I know, I need to stay with at least 1200 – that day was an anomaly). I’ve been a little bit hungry before meals, but not ravenous, so that’s good.

I’ve walked/jogged on the treadmill 5 of the last 7 days, too. I started C25K again this week (I actually started with Week 2), so I’ll be using that as a workout guide for now. I would love to be able to RUN an entire 3 miles, heck at this point I’d love to run one mile, so that’s my goal.

I also don’t mind telling you I’ve got a new motivation for losing weight. Two of my husband’s best friends have gone through/are going through a divorce right now. One of my good friends went through a divorce a few months ago. Another couple I know is separated. All of these couples have been together for 20+ years, and it has made me realize that you can’t take for granted that your spouse is always going to love you. You can’t just assume that they will love you because they “have to”.  Weight was not an issue in any of those marriages, and it’s not really an issue in mine, but I don’t ever want my weight to be on the list of Reasons My Husband Might Want a Divorce (I’m pretty sure my lack of cooking skills is on that list, but he knew that was a flaw of mine going in). If it is an issue, it’s MY issue and not his (at least he has the decency to pretend it’s not an issue for him if it is).

So that’s what’s going on with me. I’m going to stick with this exotic “eating less” idea and see where it takes me. Probably going to need some more salad ideas, so if you have a favorite add in for your salad, I’d love to hear it.

Peace Out!

Posted by Jill in fitness

So I started my own weight loss group. Yeah it’s exploding all over the place it’s already so popular. We have a president and a vice president and everything. Yeah it’s pretty awesome.

How many are in the group? Um…let’s see…including myself…that makes…two.

Woo – we are on fire.

My friend Lola* and I have decided to support each other in our weight loss efforts. We created our own super secret weight loss group on Facebook  and we plan on getting together regularly to discuss ideas, recipes, and just give each other support and tough love when it’s needed. I’d like to add a few more people to our group, but I’m not sure how to approach it. Debby says my “hey you’re fat, wanna join my group?” approach might not be the best way to go, so I gotta work on that.

My plan is to allow myself 1400-1600 cals per day, and so I don’t make myself nutso, I’m going to use this range as a guideline. I get in trouble when I try to be too obsessive about counting calories, so hopefully a more laid back approach will help keep me going. We recorded our first official weigh in this morning (mine was 190 dammit) so we are on our way. I already told her that I need her to use the tough love on me and NOT let me off the hook about working out and eating well. I don’t want this to turn into a “I’ve had a bad day, let’s commiserate over ice cream” kind of relationships. I need a partner who won’t be afraid to kick my tail. But in as gentle a manner as possible!

So that’s my plan for now. I hope Super Secret Sneaky Weight Loss works!

*not her real name, but I like it

Posted by Jill in fitness

I found and attended a TOPS meeting tonight in my town. It was…different than I expected. There were about 15 women there and I think most of them have been going there for quite awhile – I got the impression they hadn’t had anyone new lately. They were all very nice and welcoming – one of the ladies introduced me to everyone there and made sure I had a seat. One thing that sort of surprised me was that this is a CLUB. Like an organization, there was roll call, minutes taken, motions voted on and agendas discussed. I expected it to be more like Weight Watchers but it wasn’t. To make things easier, I’ll just bullet point the things I liked and disliked:

What I Liked Alot

• I felt very welcomed and had everything explained to me. There were all ages of women there – some were younger than me, some were around my age, and yes, there were some silver haired ladies there as well. I can tell there is a lot of support in this group
• The weigh ins are private – as in done in a separate room behind closed doors.
• There was a personal trainer (she’s a member) who showed us an exercise.
• If you show a loss of 2 pounds or more, you get to choose a small prize. Nice!
• The annual fee is less than $30 and then the monthly dues are less than $5. Bargain City, baby!!
• There is no specific diet plan to follow – you choose your own plan and just count on the group for support and accountability.

Posted by Jill in fitness

Hello Friends!

Not that you noticed, but I snuck out for a week and went on vacation with my little family. We played, we rode rollercoasters (kiddie roller coasters totally count), we walked a gazillion miles (slight exaggeration), we swam a gazillion miles (not an exaggeration at all), and we napped. Ah, sweet glorious naps. And because I was thinking ahead, I arranged it so that we would come back and have the entire weekend to readjust and get laundry done before returning to the weary work world Monday morning.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to read 168 blogs? It takes a long damn time, that’s how long. Sheesh! You all had a lot to say while I was gone. I’m glad though because I went a whole week being unplugged and I was happy to spend a few hours reading blogs and being connected to my cyber friends.  :)

This vacation came a good time because it gave me time to think about my last post. I am definitely ready to do something about my weight, but I’m not so depressed and despondent as I was last week. Feeling more hopeful and optimistic now.

And guess what?! I LOST 2 pounds while I was on vacay. How ’bout them apples?! My one goal for this vacation was to NOT mindlessly snack my way through the week, and actually I didn’t do a lot of snacking at all. When I did snack it was mostly yogurt, fruit, and animal crackers (which are surprisingly addictive, I found out), but other than that most of my eating was at mealtimes. Also, I was happy, relaxed, and busy – but busy in a good way (knitting and swimming can take a lot of time if you let it), and I think that helped as well. So yeah, I’ll take a 2 pound loss on vacation any time!! It’s a small personal victory for me.

I’ll be getting off the fence this week and either joining WW or TOPS. Anyone out there have any experience with TOPS? There are several chapters in my area and from what I’ve read, it sounds like it could be just the thing I’m looking for. My only reservation is that there might not be anyone my age there – I think a lot of Senior folk attend TOPS, not that that would stop me from going, but it would be nice if there were a younger crowd there as well (don’t you love how, at 40, I refer to myself as the younger crowd?).

So that’s what I’m considering for now. Whatever I decide, I’ll give 3 months to see if I really like it and then I can reevaluate and make changes if I need to.  Sounds like a plan to me.

Have a good week!

Posted by Jill in fitness