A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Food Tracker

I have to admit, the last couple of days have been a struggle for me. My body and I have taken on a tremendous amount of change over the past few weeks, and we’re both trying to adjust.

Tuesday (January 18), I started to write a post. Here it is, in its entirety:

Okay, so yesterday I went on this long rant about being addicted to sugar. Nothing has changed since then. Last time I checked, I still wanted a Founder’s Favorite from ColdStone. “Love it” size. In a waffle bowl.

I’ve also got an additional problem: I AM ALWAYS HUNGRY.

Well, maybe not ALWAYS. For example, I’m not hungry immediately following a meal. But it seems like just an hour or so later (sometimes less), my stomach starts to make noise.

WTF? Why is this happening? I eat good lean proteins for lunch (baked chicken sandwiches, salads with walnuts, etc.), yet for some reason I still get hungry shortly thereafter. I’m so frustrated! Why does eating healthy have to be so complicated?

Holy crap, I’m such a whiner! (Okay, well, I have a lot to whine about. Thirty eight years of eating whatever I wanted and now all the sudden I’m restricting caloric intake . . . AND alcohol! Geesh. No wonder I’m so grouchy.)

So anyway, here’s the deal.

Yesterday, after a day off of counting calories and just eating what I would normally eat lately, I discovered something quite astonishing:

I wasn’t as hungry as I had been over the past two weeks!

The only thing I did differently (besides giving myself a break from counting calories) was that I brought a sandwich in from home to eat. It wasn’t anything to write home about: Smoked turkey on Orowheat Buttermilk White, with Olive Oil mayo (instead of it’s fattier big brother “regular” mayo) and reduced fat provolone cheese. I ate the sandwich at 11:50am. Usually I get hungry again right round 1:30pm.

Here’s the thing, though – My hunger level stayed at bay until 3:00pm! I gained a whole 90 minutes of fullness! Was it the provolone? The turkey? The combination of both? Who knows.

So today (at least at the time I wrote this post, which was at 5:30am), I’ve decided to track the exact times that I ate, along with a hunger rating from 1-10 (1 being “not hungry at all”; 10 being “I’m dying over here!”). I think that tracking these elements will help me discover my hungriest times, allowing for me to make some adjustments on what I eat shortly beforehand. Does that make sense?

Anyone out there have different ideas?

My Kind of Crack

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been cheating.

Not on the water thing. Nope - I'm totally solid in that department.

But when it comes to sticking to a meal or weight loss plan, I totally fail.

This is what's cool about the journey, though. I see where my problem areas are, and find a way to make adjustments.

The culprit is sugar. That's easy to pinpoint.

The problem is I can't stay away from it. It's like crack to me.

Like, say, after I pick up my son from school, and stop for snacks on the way to the library, I make an abysmal attempt to get the "least impactful" chocolate bar (Is that a word? Impactful? Can someone tell me if Sarah Palin has used that yet?). Which for me, is the Nestle 100 Grand bar at 180 calories.

But then I tell myself, "Okay, does it HAVE to be the one with the least amount of calories? I'll just make sure I don't eat something to awful for dinner..." and then reach for an Almond Joy (220 calories). Then I decide I want two.

And I can't even blame it on "emotional" eating. I love going to the library with my son. It gives me time to help him with his homework and get some work done myself.

Then there are the times where I "keep some in my car" for emergencies. What the hell is a CANDY EMERGENCY, anyway? Oh, and let's not talk about the "emergency drawer" at home. It's the one place my husband and I can go to when we've so totally HAD IT with fake sweets (i.e., "100 Calorie" packs of just about anything). Last I checked, it was filled with Little Debbie Peanut Butter Crisps. Again, if someone could help me define what a "candy emergency" is, I'd totally be indebted.

ANYway...I don't know why refined sugars (candy/oreos/brownies, etc) have such a hold on me. I really don't. All I know is that, after I've eaten something fairly hearty or salty, I want sugar to "balance out the taste." Or I want it when I'm not even hungry. My hand just wanders off, patting down the backseat of my car or glove box until it finds a bag of something and grabs it. It's frustrating. Because my inner slave always gives my hand something to find.

I know I'm a lifelong slave to sugar. I never met a brownie, cookie, ice cream treat, or candy bar that I didn't immediately fall in love with.

So, how do I adjust? Does anyone have an idea? I'm totally in new territory here. I know for sure that cutting out the soda and sugary sweet alcoholic drinks has done my body a TREMENDOUS favor, but why can't I shake the desire for sugar in all the wrong places?

It's like I need the Dr. Phil for sweets to do an intervention. Is there such a person? Dr. Oz, perhaps? Can anyone get him on the line?

*Sigh*

In the mean time, I am vowing to keep a food journal. Beginning today, I started keeping track of EVERYTHING (and I mean EVERYTHING) that went into my mouth. I once read where a girl said, "If you bite it, write it." I wish I can remember who said it, because I'm going to live it. It's got to have some sort of impact on me - seeing how many calories I consume in a day JUST FROM STUPID CRAP LIKE REFINED SUGARY SNACKS. I have to stop hiding from the truth. Because in the end, the numbers don't lie.

It's probably the only way I can kick sugar in its white, refined, grainy ass.

Still Here . . .

Hey all!

Wow. I let some time slip away there, didn't I?!

Had some technical difficulties with scales; first, my "so totally scientific scale" (A.K.A. the Wii Fit Board) stopped working, so I couldn't do an official weigh in.

Then, the scale I ordered from Amazon arrived. Broken.

So, I have absolutely no idea how much weight I've lost.

But I can tell you that I've not had a sip of soda, coffee, juice, or alcohol since my last post, and I'm still on a weight loss plan.

Speaking of "plan," I've been considering abandoning Weight Watchers. While counting points is easy, calculating them and keeping track of them is not. I'm not saying that the math is hard, I'm just saying that I don't have that kind of time. Converting recipes to the WW system, then substituting ingredients, then trying to figure out how many people the recipe serves, then figuring out fat/carb/protein/fiber content and converting it to a set of points is a bit much for me.

Instead, I am considering the old-fashioned route of counting calories.

I've discovered this amazing podcast called "Fat to Fit Radio." The experts at the site have devised a system that allows you to input some personal fitness data, and it spits out a baseline number of calories you should consume in a day for your fitness level and goal weight. It's an awesome tool. (Called the "BMR.") According to the information I entered, my personal BMR is 1,790 calories. This is based on the fact that I am currently sedentary (meaning little or no exercise, with a desk job). When I begin routine workouts and strength training, the BMR goes up to over 2,000 calories.

Which means that, with using the BMR and counting calories, all I'd have to do is take a notebook, enter "1,790" at the top of the page, and start a running total for the day. I like that much better than having to pull out a calculator and figure out the points value of food items.

Getting to your goal weight is all about finding what works for YOU. I'm still experimenting, but once I find something I like, it'll be easier for me to stick with. And I'll get the results I want! I'm sure it will be the same for you. What have YOU been doing to get fit lately? :)

One more thing before I go:

If you live in the Northern California area, and are with signal range of this television station, please tune in this Saturday (January 15) in the 9:00am hour. I will be on with one of their awesome reporters discussing my "Water Only for an Entire Year" challenge and what I am doing to get my family healthy in 2011. Can you stand it?!! I'm so stoked!! (PS: Don't pay attention to how messy my house is. We're already prepping items and boxes for our impending move. Even though we haven't found a house yet!)

If you don't get the station signal but are still interested in watching, their website carries a live streaming feed. I'll also be posting the video from the segment and photos of the event once it's over. How exciting!!!

Until next time . . .

Look fabulous. Feel fabulous. BE fabulous.

Kathleen