The Last-20-Pounds Campaign Continues

Okay, it's two weeks later and things are getting better. I'm no longer indulging in all the foods I crave. Following the "brownie incident" there was a withdrawal period, of course, as there always is with addictive substances.  But I'm pretty much back on track again, although I'm still sitting at a balance point with my weight.

What to do? It seems that every time I try to reduce caloric intake, I get hungry.  Is that a bad thing? Maybe not. I guess I could try to just live with it for a short amount of time.  Or I could try eating a small amount of something.  That strategy doesn't usually work for too long, though.  Maybe I need to eat more protein.  I should try eating a more highly protein snack at mid-morning and mid-afternoon.  I'll look into that.  I've noticed that eating three slices of lunch meat instead of two helps me get through the afternoon better, so maybe eating cottage cheese instead of peanut butter would work better at mid-morning.

For me, being hungry is frightening because when my blood sugar drops, I get cranky and light headed and even weak.  Maybe I don't have to react quite so quickly, though.  It's possible that I'm just panicking because I'm afraid I'll have a blood sugar attack, not because I'm having one at that moment.

I have noticed that if I'm busy at work, I forget to eat my snack sometimes, which means that my blood sugar is probably okay. 

Another sticking point I have is eating too fast.  I'm still doing that, but I do try to slow down.  It's not easy, though, as most people will tell you.  I'm afraid my food's going to get cold and won't be palatable.  That's a silly reason, really, when you think about it.  If I'm eating it fast I'm not tasting it anyway, so how can its getting cold matter that much?  I can always warm the food up if it gets cold, anyway, and I frequently do. So, no excuses for eating fast.  How to slow down?

Years ago I tried an experiment of eating two cookies in 20 minutes.  That was an interesting and surprisingly difficult exercise assigned by Shirley Simon to train people on the "Thin Gourmet" technique she espouses.  I haven't done that this time, but I really should try it again and work at it so that I can get used to eating that way.  Maybe I'll do it today.

Today I'm going to a party and I'm hoping I'll be able to resist eating all the wonderful food there will be available there.  I don't think I will, but maybe I'll be able to eat it slowly and concentrate on conversing instead of eating.  Have you ever noticed how slim people don't pay much attention to the food on their plate when they're at a party?  Not fat people.  They are constantly shoveling food into their mouths at a party, talking about the food to everyone who will listen. "Have some of these brownies," they say, "They're great!" Or "Who made this lasagna? It's wonderful!"  Not thin people.  They might comment on the food when asked, but usually they're pretty much ignoring the food.  They're conversing about other matters more important or entertaining than food.

I always go back to alcohol comparisons.  At parties, alcohol addicts are always seen with a drink in their hand, always looking for another one, and trying to get everyone else to indulge.  Same as food addicts.

There's a good exercise for me today.  Instead of focusing on the food I'm eating (or not eating), I can pay attention to what the fatties and the skinnies are doing, conduct an informal study, write up the results.  Hmmmmm.  I like this idea.  It will give me something to do at the party in addition to socializing.  We'll see.  Maybe a miracle will happen and I'll actually forget about the food because I'm having such a good time talking!

Stay tuned for the results . . .

No More Hanging Out With the Fatty Food Gang!

Well, another three weeks have gone by and things are about the same.  I didn't pare down my eating.  In fact, my husband's birthday gave me a reason to drive the diet bus into the ditch and cruise around there for a while.  So that ends another experiment. The results are in: I can't handle complete freedom of eating!

There's something to be said for the Overeaters Anonymous viewpoint. Compulsive eating is an addiction.  I knew that, I just needed another round of convincing.  I'm not sure the 12-step approach is the best, but that doesn't mean that I can't be careful of what I eat, staying away from those foods that generate whole-scale swerving, such as a half dozen frosted walnut-filled fudge brownies and a few pints of ice cream!

So I'm going to have to refrain from eating all those goodies once again and get back on track.  Then I can continue to whittle away at the extra calories and pounds through less eating and more exercising.  The exercising part is the more challenging, since I'm time constrained.  But the calorie-whittling is also challenging, since it seems every time I try to eat less I end up being hungry and eating more!  So I'm still deciding how I'm going to work this out.  Maybe just doing the exercise part will work.  I'm going to have to get creative about including more exercise in my day, though. We'll see what happens.

I'll record my progress here, as ever.