After week two, my pediatrician recommended that I make a few dietary changes. OK, maybe not my pediatrician, but 4.0’s. I was supposed to add more fruit and dairy, and while you’re at it, vegetables, too.
You know, more of those pesky “filling foods.”
So add I did.
And I was really hoping that by adding a fruit & yogurt smoothie to my early morning, I would be able subtract the number of feedings I require in the late morning. This was not the case.
Unlike most “normal” human eaters, adding what amounts to another meal doesn’t stick with me. No matter what or when I eat in the morning, I’m hungry about every two hours (e.g., 6 a.m. breakfast, begets an 8 a.m. snack, which leads to a 10 a.m. nosh, etc.). So usually I power through on a glass of OJ until I get into the office and have my breakfast at 8am. Why add the extra calories from an extra meal, right?
Imagine my surprise when the scale went down at weigh-in.
So by adding I did subtract? Hmmm.
This is where I have to confess: I really have no idea what I’m eating day in and day out. I’m so not on track with tracking. I haven’t so much as counted a point thus far. I’m far too paranoid to find out what I’m consuming, because I’m far too scared of the reaction I will have to finding out what I’m consuming.
Denial sure ain’t just a river in Egypt!
So perhaps by adding the smoothie to the front of the day, I dropped something I was eating on the flip side. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps!
After all of this, I decided to actually look at program materials on these magical, mystical filling foods: “People tend to eat the same volume of food each day—by filling their stomachs with food, they avoid feelings of hunger. If you eat foods that are high in volume, but low in calories, you’ll feel satisfied even as you do what you need to do to lose weight. […] They’ll fill you up on fewer calories.” Book 1: Food Plan Basics: Start Eating Smarter, page 17. (Emphasis added).
There’s no disputing that filling foods are…er, filling. I mean, it’s right there in the description. And sure they may quell hunger, but do they really satisfy? Maybe that’s the carb- and chocoholic in me talking. But I’m still left wondering, why when I add filling foods am I not fuller?
Maybe it’s just the way my metabolism works. Maybe it’s a mental or emotional thing. Maybe it’s a great mystery that I’ll just never fully understand. But I guess if it means I get to subtract at the scale each week, I’ll keep adding until I’m full.
Week 3 stats: -1.4
Total to date: -1.6
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Blog Challenge!
What's an Easter memory from your childhood? How is/will your child's Easter celebration be different or the same?
As I was preparing for 4.0’s first Easter, I couldn’t help but reflect upon my Ghosts of Easters Past.
Spring break never seemed to coincide with the holiday. My first year in law school, I remember thinking I was going to make myself a nice Easter dinner since I was spending it alone (I splurged on lamb!) Unfortunately, I got a little over zealous with the garlic. To boot, I suddenly came down with the flu and started feeling like death not long after I tried to stomach the over-garlicked spread. It was awful and all I wanted was my mommy to make it all better. So when I hosted a potluck Easter the following year, I made ham.
One year in college, a bunch of my sorority sisters who hadn’t made the treks home to celebrate decided to have a potluck at the house. I think I ended up bring dinner rolls. I don’t remember much more about it than that, except that I was glad to have friends to share the day with.
As I was shopping for the final touches for 4.0’d Easter basket (read: candy for me and Fella) I recalled the goodies my brother and I got from the Easter Bunny each year. There were definitely some constants: these little cartons of chocolate eggs, foil wrapped chocolate bunnies and eggs, jellybeans (Jelly Bird Eggs, actually), and maybe a Regal Chocolate Rabbit. Somehow I remember getting spice drops, too, but I could be confusing that with the candy we were traditionally given on Valentine’s Day.
Regardless, I found myself wishing I could pick up the same candies for my guy (who can’t even eat it this year). Now that I think about it, I’m sure I could order most of the above, but that would take a little foresight on my part (got to work on that). And now that I’ve had time to contemplate, I wonder: do I really want the focus of 4.0’s memories to be on candy like his food-troubled mother?! Things that make you go hmmm.
What I’d really like for 4.0 is to have are memories like the one I have of my Easter in Memphis. We shared the holiday with relatives we didn’t get usually get to share any holidays with, including my second cousin five months my junior. I remember we each got Barbie umbrellas and I was SO in love with mine. I kept treating it like a parasol. I mean, we were in the south after all. Oh how I longed to be a southern belle!
Looking back, what resonates with me most now was how special it was to spend the holiday in a different place with different relatives than we were used to spending the holidays with. I want 4.0 to relish the time he spends with his family, especially since so many of my relatives are far-flung . I certainly want him to have a greater appreciation of his extended family than I did when I was younger. Hopefully he’ll take after his father that way.
It does strike me as odd that being a religious holiday, I don’t have much memory of the church part of Easter. I am sure we attended Easter Mass (or at least ¾ of us did), it just left no impression on me. But can a child really get his head around the religious meaning of Easter anyway? I mean, Christmas is easy—we all have birthdays like the little baby Jesus. Getting that. But death and resurrection? Not exactly hitting close to home.
So how will my child’s Easters Yet to Come differ from mine past? Really, I hope not much at all.
As I was preparing for 4.0’s first Easter, I couldn’t help but reflect upon my Ghosts of Easters Past.
Spring break never seemed to coincide with the holiday. My first year in law school, I remember thinking I was going to make myself a nice Easter dinner since I was spending it alone (I splurged on lamb!) Unfortunately, I got a little over zealous with the garlic. To boot, I suddenly came down with the flu and started feeling like death not long after I tried to stomach the over-garlicked spread. It was awful and all I wanted was my mommy to make it all better. So when I hosted a potluck Easter the following year, I made ham.
One year in college, a bunch of my sorority sisters who hadn’t made the treks home to celebrate decided to have a potluck at the house. I think I ended up bring dinner rolls. I don’t remember much more about it than that, except that I was glad to have friends to share the day with.
As I was shopping for the final touches for 4.0’d Easter basket (read: candy for me and Fella) I recalled the goodies my brother and I got from the Easter Bunny each year. There were definitely some constants: these little cartons of chocolate eggs, foil wrapped chocolate bunnies and eggs, jellybeans (Jelly Bird Eggs, actually), and maybe a Regal Chocolate Rabbit. Somehow I remember getting spice drops, too, but I could be confusing that with the candy we were traditionally given on Valentine’s Day.
Regardless, I found myself wishing I could pick up the same candies for my guy (who can’t even eat it this year). Now that I think about it, I’m sure I could order most of the above, but that would take a little foresight on my part (got to work on that). And now that I’ve had time to contemplate, I wonder: do I really want the focus of 4.0’s memories to be on candy like his food-troubled mother?! Things that make you go hmmm.
What I’d really like for 4.0 is to have are memories like the one I have of my Easter in Memphis. We shared the holiday with relatives we didn’t get usually get to share any holidays with, including my second cousin five months my junior. I remember we each got Barbie umbrellas and I was SO in love with mine. I kept treating it like a parasol. I mean, we were in the south after all. Oh how I longed to be a southern belle!
Looking back, what resonates with me most now was how special it was to spend the holiday in a different place with different relatives than we were used to spending the holidays with. I want 4.0 to relish the time he spends with his family, especially since so many of my relatives are far-flung . I certainly want him to have a greater appreciation of his extended family than I did when I was younger. Hopefully he’ll take after his father that way.
It does strike me as odd that being a religious holiday, I don’t have much memory of the church part of Easter. I am sure we attended Easter Mass (or at least ¾ of us did), it just left no impression on me. But can a child really get his head around the religious meaning of Easter anyway? I mean, Christmas is easy—we all have birthdays like the little baby Jesus. Getting that. But death and resurrection? Not exactly hitting close to home.
So how will my child’s Easters Yet to Come differ from mine past? Really, I hope not much at all.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Blogging Challenge #8
Quite awhile back, I accepted a blog challenge, but leading up to, and in the aftermath of 4.0’s arrival, I missed a whole lot of posts. Then the challenge took a little hiatus, too. But just in time for Easter, it has been resurrected and we’re both back in action! So here’s what we’re tackling this week:
What’s a movie you can’t NOT watch if you come across it on TV?
Fella is a bit of movie buff. A moldy-oldie sort of buff. So we getstuck to watching some pretty interesting Old Hollywood quite often.
The one hetortures me with …imposes upon me … has goaded me with lately is Mildred Pierce. All because it came on PBS one Saturday night and I said “I just can’t take watching this one,” explaining that I was too tired to watch such a dull sedate B&W movie (that we’ve seen before) that night. Oh how he thinks he’s a laugh riot with his interpretation of that reaction!
It’s a good movie, but in the right context. Totally has to be the right time and the right place. Same with Now, Voyager. We’ve seen that one a lot, too. And Dark Victory. All movies I don’t necessarily choose to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter.
So what movie do I need to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter, were I to stumble across it on the tele? Why, that's easy! There are two options, one “moldy,” one modern.
North By Northwest. Need I say more? OK, but I’ll keep it short. Classic Hitchcock. Archibald at his finest (and I do mean fiiiiiine). And there’s a hot blonde, to boot. Did I mention we stayed at the Ambassador East Hotel the last time we were in Chicago? That’s how much we like that movie.
Sixteen Candles. We physically cannot resist changing the channel to this if it’s on. It’s like our remote is programmed to seek it out from the bowels of our cable lineup. And we are compelled by some force greater than we to watch it. No matter how far into the movie it is we watch. Although I am always a little sad if it’s already beyond my favorite lines: (1) “Fred, she’s gotten her boobies…oh and they are so perky!” or (2) “Voila! Breakfast is ready!”
Lucky for us, it plays on the Encore channels A LOT.
Oddly enough, both of these movies involve a little bit of my hometown. While NxNW is only in Chicago for a blip, Sixteen Candles is my childhood and would have become my adolesnce, had my family not become California transplants when we did.
It’s filmed in my actual hometown (Evanston). In fact, one of my elementary school classmates was supposed to have the movie filmed in her house. Her parents turned it down due to some issues they had with the script. My guess it’s the same reason my best friend and I were promptly dragged out of the theater when her mom had taken us to see it: the shower scene.
Nostalgia aside, these are two great movies, never (ever!) to be missed in our house.
What’s a movie you can’t NOT watch if you come across it on TV?
Fella is a bit of movie buff. A moldy-oldie sort of buff. So we get
The one he
It’s a good movie, but in the right context. Totally has to be the right time and the right place. Same with Now, Voyager. We’ve seen that one a lot, too. And Dark Victory. All movies I don’t necessarily choose to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter.
So what movie do I need to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter, were I to stumble across it on the tele? Why, that's easy! There are two options, one “moldy,” one modern.
North By Northwest. Need I say more? OK, but I’ll keep it short. Classic Hitchcock. Archibald at his finest (and I do mean fiiiiiine). And there’s a hot blonde, to boot. Did I mention we stayed at the Ambassador East Hotel the last time we were in Chicago? That’s how much we like that movie.
Sixteen Candles. We physically cannot resist changing the channel to this if it’s on. It’s like our remote is programmed to seek it out from the bowels of our cable lineup. And we are compelled by some force greater than we to watch it. No matter how far into the movie it is we watch. Although I am always a little sad if it’s already beyond my favorite lines: (1) “Fred, she’s gotten her boobies…oh and they are so perky!” or (2) “Voila! Breakfast is ready!”
Lucky for us, it plays on the Encore channels A LOT.
Oddly enough, both of these movies involve a little bit of my hometown. While NxNW is only in Chicago for a blip, Sixteen Candles is my childhood and would have become my adolesnce, had my family not become California transplants when we did.
It’s filmed in my actual hometown (Evanston). In fact, one of my elementary school classmates was supposed to have the movie filmed in her house. Her parents turned it down due to some issues they had with the script. My guess it’s the same reason my best friend and I were promptly dragged out of the theater when her mom had taken us to see it: the shower scene.
Nostalgia aside, these are two great movies, never (ever!) to be missed in our house.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
WW Week Wrap Up
This post will wrap up the first two week since I'm just getting around to posting. So here goes!
WEEK ONE: Chips Are Not On The Plan
Last week I started to write about all the reasons why I had a "bad" first week back at Weight Watchers. But before I could finish I realized that all the rationalization in the world wasn't get me to the root of the problem. My problem has to do with a chip.
Not a potato chip or chocolate chip, but worse: a little chip residing on my shoulder.
There are some folks in my @Work meeting who have never been on WW before. They’re come to the table each week withnaïveté fresh eyes. They sit there holding their pairs of new discoveries and lost pounds. And I think I’ve got them beat with my Full House of cynicism and years of failure experience. But really, it’s me holding the losing hand.
So my personal challenge after the first week (and no loss) is to not just ante up, but to get my chips all in.
Week 1 Stats: +0.2 lb
WEEK TWO: Little. Yellow. Different. Better.
One out of those four statements are true. This week was better.
OK, so maybe two of the statements because I was also different.
After realizing that I was acting as my own personal sabatouer, I was hoping that I would turn a corner in week two. While I didn't quite make it that far, I did manage to peek around to the other side of said corner. That's progress I'll take!
I contributed to the meeting. And constructively, I might add. SWEAR!
It may not have been all-or-nothing, but it was a step in the right direction.
Week 2 Stats: -0.4 lb
WEEK ONE: Chips Are Not On The Plan
Last week I started to write about all the reasons why I had a "bad" first week back at Weight Watchers. But before I could finish I realized that all the rationalization in the world wasn't get me to the root of the problem. My problem has to do with a chip.
Not a potato chip or chocolate chip, but worse: a little chip residing on my shoulder.
There are some folks in my @Work meeting who have never been on WW before. They’re come to the table each week with
So my personal challenge after the first week (and no loss) is to not just ante up, but to get my chips all in.
Week 1 Stats: +0.2 lb
WEEK TWO: Little. Yellow. Different. Better.
One out of those four statements are true. This week was better.
OK, so maybe two of the statements because I was also different.
After realizing that I was acting as my own personal sabatouer, I was hoping that I would turn a corner in week two. While I didn't quite make it that far, I did manage to peek around to the other side of said corner. That's progress I'll take!
I contributed to the meeting. And constructively, I might add. SWEAR!
It may not have been all-or-nothing, but it was a step in the right direction.
Week 2 Stats: -0.4 lb
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Up To My Old Shennanigans
I'm not just a Weight Watcher, I'm something more. More like a weight stalker, I've been doing the WW program so long.
I'm the girl who, after she found out she was pregnant last year, wouldn't cancel her Mothly Pass for fear that when she had to register again post-bambino, she somehow wouldn't get the same deal. Totally rational.
I'm the girl who should get honorary Lifetime Membership, I've been a member so many times. I think the first time I joined was in 8th grade (although I have documentation of wanting to lose weight going as far back as the 4th grade). And then there was high school...and college...and law school...and well, still today. So I think I'm entitled to something, even just eTools for life.
While I was pregnant, I really thought long and hard about my struggle with my weight and weight loss. And what I came down to was that I didn't want to struggle with it anymore. I don't want to be a mom who struggles to keep up with her kid because she's carrying around extra pounds. And I want to be a good example for my son. But I wasn't sure what that meant and I certainly didn't know what it meant to the status of my WW Monthly Pass.
I guess I figured I would give WW one more chance once I finally decided to get back on the wagon. One last cycle to get my head straight and then plan to branch out on my own. But that wouldn't be for awhile. At least not until I was done breastfeeding 4.0.
When I got back to work, I found out my company was going foster a WW @ Work meeting. This was MUCH sooner than I had ever contemplated drying out again. But this was a no-brainer, right? Stars are aligned, it's there fallen in my lap, I've seen all the signs. WRONG! I wavered right up until the meeting started.
But I pulled the pin. I went to the meeting. I wrote my check. And I stepped up on that scale. Now all I need to do is call to cancel that Monthly Pass that's been collecting dust for 14 months.
And to keep me honest (and I hope you entertained) I'm going to blog about it. The ups, the downs; the triumphs and tribulations. All the gory details.
OK, maybe not ALL of the details. Hell, my husband is lucky (?) that I let him learn how much I weighed during my pregnancy. All you need to know is that my weight is a three digit number. And there's nowhere to go from here but down.
I'm the girl who, after she found out she was pregnant last year, wouldn't cancel her Mothly Pass for fear that when she had to register again post-bambino, she somehow wouldn't get the same deal. Totally rational.
I'm the girl who should get honorary Lifetime Membership, I've been a member so many times. I think the first time I joined was in 8th grade (although I have documentation of wanting to lose weight going as far back as the 4th grade). And then there was high school...and college...and law school...and well, still today. So I think I'm entitled to something, even just eTools for life.
While I was pregnant, I really thought long and hard about my struggle with my weight and weight loss. And what I came down to was that I didn't want to struggle with it anymore. I don't want to be a mom who struggles to keep up with her kid because she's carrying around extra pounds. And I want to be a good example for my son. But I wasn't sure what that meant and I certainly didn't know what it meant to the status of my WW Monthly Pass.
I guess I figured I would give WW one more chance once I finally decided to get back on the wagon. One last cycle to get my head straight and then plan to branch out on my own. But that wouldn't be for awhile. At least not until I was done breastfeeding 4.0.
When I got back to work, I found out my company was going foster a WW @ Work meeting. This was MUCH sooner than I had ever contemplated drying out again. But this was a no-brainer, right? Stars are aligned, it's there fallen in my lap, I've seen all the signs. WRONG! I wavered right up until the meeting started.
But I pulled the pin. I went to the meeting. I wrote my check. And I stepped up on that scale. Now all I need to do is call to cancel that Monthly Pass that's been collecting dust for 14 months.
And to keep me honest (and I hope you entertained) I'm going to blog about it. The ups, the downs; the triumphs and tribulations. All the gory details.
OK, maybe not ALL of the details. Hell, my husband is lucky (?) that I let him learn how much I weighed during my pregnancy. All you need to know is that my weight is a three digit number. And there's nowhere to go from here but down.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Projections
I have no illusions about this year being a tough one to get "me things" done. My life is all about my family now. But let's face it, I'm also a member of that family and we all have to think about ourselves sometimes, right? Besides, if I keep finding excuses to put aside the things I want to accomplish for another [week, month, year...] they'll never see the light of day.
So I'm going to give it the old college try. And at least I'll be able to say I made some kind of an attempt. I consider this my list of New Year's Resolutions, albeit better late than never.
Writing
I love this writing thing. And I used to write a lot more. When I had a lot more time to write. And what's more, I used to have a lot more to write about. That's a whole lotta mores. So Project One: find more things to write about. Which leads to...
Project Two: Take Project One and Write 'Em
Get Real
If I'm being real here, I admit there's really only one project with sub-parts. Saying it that way just makes me feel more accomplished.
Project One (and Two) Status
So where do things stand on this/these project(s), you may wonder. If you've read the blog below lately, you ought to know that not much progress has been made this side on the New Year. Hell, this side of 4.0's birth!
But you also might wonder if I've already got any newfangled topics selected for the project. Well, yes. And no. It's, as they say, a work in progress. But that's really the crux of this blog anyway, right?
So I'm going to give it the old college try. And at least I'll be able to say I made some kind of an attempt. I consider this my list of New Year's Resolutions, albeit better late than never.
Writing
I love this writing thing. And I used to write a lot more. When I had a lot more time to write. And what's more, I used to have a lot more to write about. That's a whole lotta mores. So Project One: find more things to write about. Which leads to...
Project Two: Take Project One and Write 'Em
Get Real
If I'm being real here, I admit there's really only one project with sub-parts. Saying it that way just makes me feel more accomplished.
Project One (and Two) Status
So where do things stand on this/these project(s), you may wonder. If you've read the blog below lately, you ought to know that not much progress has been made this side on the New Year. Hell, this side of 4.0's birth!
But you also might wonder if I've already got any newfangled topics selected for the project. Well, yes. And no. It's, as they say, a work in progress. But that's really the crux of this blog anyway, right?
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