Works For Me Wednesday: Portion control for chips

I know it is cheaper to buy big bags of chips and put lunch-sized portions in little plastic bags for school lunches. But once when I bought a big bag of different types of individually packaged chips just for variety, I noticed something. When any of us at home wanted to snack on chips, we stopped after eating the individual package, whereas when we had a big bag of chips, someone would take them down to the family room and watch TV while munching through half the bag. Not only was that unhealthy and hard to limit, but then I'd come near to running out of chips for lunches. The individual serving sizes made our chip supply last longer plus limited our snackage.

See Rocks In My Dryer for more tips.

Back down

Well, there must have been something going on with water retention or something yesterday, because I am back down 3 pounds this morning. That's a relief!

Tuesday weigh-in -- Week 3

I am up by 4 lbs. :(

I knew I was blowing it over the weekend. We went out to a restaurant Friday evening that we only go to once or sometimes twice a year. I got what I usually get there -- half rack of baby-back ribs, baked potato, salad, and rolls (about 3 -- they were small. :) ). I did save a portion of it for lunch the next day, though, so I don't think that was that bad. But then Sat. night I got pizza -- more than I needed. Everyone else was gone and I was thinking I'd get extra so they would have some to snack on when they got back. But I didn't limit myself at all, and even got a little apple pizza dessert and had one slice then, two on Sunday, and 1 on Monday. (Blush!) Part of the problem Sat. night was kind of feeling sorry for myself over a frustrating afternoon; part of it was just wanting something good.

Yesterday wasn't too bad even with Memorial Day weekend except I had too many starches and an extra slice of pound cake (we'd had pound cake with strawberries and whipped topping -- kind of a shortcut strawberry short cake -- and I had an extra sloce of the pound cake.)

So -- in the spirit of learning from my mistakes:

1. I need to learn not to reward or soothe myself with food, or at least the wrong kinds of foods.
2. I need to be careful about having more than I need on hand for a meal because it makes it too tempting to eat more.
3. I need to be careful about little slices of "extras." The extra pound cake had started as just an extra couple of bites, then I sliced off another little bit when I was putting it away. Before I knew it I had consumed another whole serving.
4. I need to get over feeling depressed about not eating sweets and such and munching on carrot sticks. Maybe those feelings will change the more I change my diet habits and get used to them and the more weight I lose. I probably ought to look at those high-calorie sweets as the enemy and not mourn them as a lost friend and make excuses to have them.
5. I need to START EXERCISING!!

Even with all of that, 4 lbs. seems like a lot -- I used to eat indiscriminately all the time and had a steady weight gain over the years, but not 4 lbs. over one weekend. So I am wondering if there is something else going on--water retention or whatever.

But I need to get back on the bandwagon in any case.

Summary:

Total weight lost to date: 3 lbs.
Total weight gained: 4 lbs.
Difference in weight today from starting weight: +1lb.

Works For Me Wednesday: Resourceful Weight Loss Site

Some of you may know me from my regular blog, Stray Thoughts. :) I embarked on the May Day Weight Loss Challenge and decided to do so on a separate blog.

I wanted to tell you about a neat site my bloggy friend Kim told me about called SparkPeople. It has a ton of articles and resources. There is a daily food tracker where you can enter in what you have eaten and it automatically figures out the calories plus the fat, carbohydrate and protein grams. There is also a chart for recording exerice, though I haven't used that one yet. You can set up a profile page and join different communities based on your health needs and interests if you'd like. I have only been on it a few days and have only scratched the surface of what's offered.

And best of all -- it's free.

You can see more helpful hints and tips at Rocks In My Dryer.

What Does 200 Calories Look Like?

My son pointed me to this site a while back, but I just rediscovered it:

What Does 2oo Calories Look Like?

It gives a picture of different foods portioned out in 200 calorie servings. It's eye-opening!

Tuesday weigh-in

I just lost 1 lb. this week, but I was surprised at even that: I was hoping to just maintain and not gain. I dealt with "that time of month" and a few indiscretions, and weighing at other times this past week, I had actually gone up. So, to find out today that I had actually lost even just 1 lb. over the course of the week was encouraging.

I mentioned last week that the only real change I had made so far was not popping something into my mouth every time the urge came. By not giving in every time, I am beginning to learn what things trigger cravings and urges and temptations. For instance, I was really craving both sweets and munchies in general for a day or two when it dawned on me that my period was probably triggering them. I had heard other people say that they craved sweets during their period, but I had never made the connection since I just gave in most of the time anyway.

So -- even though I still have a long way to go in just learning how to have a healthier lifestyle, finding out what kinds of things trigger cravings is one step in the process.

Tuesday weigh-in

It's weigh-in day at Tales From the Scales.

I lost 2 lbs! I'm so excited!

The only real change I have made is just not popping something into my mouth every time I thought about it. It is amazing how much I just do that by habit, or just because it is there and it sounds good to eat.

And really, with the Lord's help, if I don't think too much about what it is I wanted to eat and just go on and do something else, it's not too bad.

I still haven't quite formulated a "plan" yet -- I just finished the section of Dr. Phil's book about ridding your house of the wrong kinds of foods, and the next one deals with actual diets. Plus I am taking advantage of the one-week-free offer at Weight Watchers Online to see if I want to continue on with that. But just becoming more aware of what I eat is a good start. I'm really going to have to work on portion control. Sometimes just after I've had something I realize I could have had less. Sometimes it's just habit to have another spoonful of dinner.

I have found that going to the grocery store takes on a whole new dimension now!! Talk about temptation city!! I'm avoiding the temptation of Little Debbie snack cakes by only buying the kind for my son's lunch that I don't like much.

I didn't do even one day of exercise though, besides hiking through Wal-Mart. I need to incorporate exercise into my week.

Though I still have a long way to go, both in my weight-loss journey and figuring out how to get there, I'm very glad for a good first week.