THE END OF THE YEAR - BUT NOT THE END

I read a quote by someone about the fact that we worry about what we are going to eat during the holidays when what we should really worry about is what we are eating the other 50 weeks of the year. So true. We do get very concerned about the opportunities to overindulge over the holidays and there is talk about being unwilling to give up the pleasures of the traditional meals, cookies and cocktails versus all the many ways we can avoid adding calories and pounds and still enjoy ourselves.


In truth, if we have been paying attention the rest of the year - is it really such a big deal to indulge during these special occasions? Beyond the question of forbidden foods and falling off the wagon and all the other ways we label our behavior around food, I think the fear is that we just plain will not stop eating once we start!

In a way this is true of me. There are so many foods I can ignore all around me much of the time. I can eat out in a restaurant and not reach for the bread basket or the chips and salsa. I can say no to dessert without a qualm, I can cheerfully choose the scrambled eggs over the french toast and navigate a buffet spread selecting the healthy items. However...if I have made monkey bread for my family for Christmas morning, I will pick at it all day until the tiny portion I served myself at breakfast has ballooned into hundreds of calories. I will not even consider eating a single cookie from the huge tin delivered to us a week before Christmas, but put a little box of See's peanut brittle in my stocking and I am fixated on it until I can eat it all in one sitting.

So, yes, I indulged. I did the dreaded holiday eating. I only ate 1 roll with dinner and skipped dessert, but came home and ate some of my own homemade cookies while I stuffed the stockings. But guess what? I didn't instantly return to my old ways. I got back on track and within a couple of days I was counting my calories and back to the gym (I admit I did not go to the gym on the Monday after Christmas - I have done that before and it is sooo crowded with guilty people working off their own splurges that it is not worth fighting over the equipment!)

And the bottom line on the No Gain Holiday Challenge so far - I am still in minus territory,  having lost weight since Thanksgiving.  I'll do my weigh in for my January post on the new site.

My new calendar is up in the kitchen, my new blog site is up and I am ready for a successful 2011.  Looking forward to spending it with my bloggy friends.  Happy New Year to us all.

GETTING THERE

I have been restoring my photos which had all disappeared from their folders on my computer.  My husband is very into backing everything up, thank goodness, so I have not lost anything. I came across this photo.

This is the only picture of me from last Christmas.  It serves well as a before picture.  Although I have not lost anywhere near as much weight as I would have wished  this year, even I can see that there is a big difference  from then to now.

So this isn't so much a before and after, but a before and getting there...

THANKS FOR NO GAIN THANKSGIVING!

I managed not to gobble gobble, as planned.  I have lost another 2 pounds this week.  I did get very silly on champagne and had a great time on Thanksgiving!  For dinner I ate only the broccoli rabe and the turkey with a little gravy, one small whole wheat roll and one bite of my sister's luscious lemon cake. 

I have still been avoiding the gym - which is strange.  I was there today and I was completely enjoying myself.  I was thinking about what has been holding me back from getting back into going daily and I honestly don't know what it is.  So I am just going to get up and go every morning - no excuses, no delays, no I'll go later with Ally - because then she doesn't want to go so I don't go...

That is my number one goal for this week.

MY HOLIDAY PLEDGE

Sarah over at Low Stress Weight Loss is hosting another "No Gain Holidays Pledge Group" for this holiday season and I have joined up!  She and I are both hoping to not only not gain - but to lose during the next 7 weeks of merry making. 

My Goals

1.)  I have already determined that I am going to minimize my usual Christmas cookie baking frenzy.  I am going to make some biscotti to give as gifts and make only a couple of single recipes for my family at home.  (When I am being honest - my daughter and I are the ones who eat most of the cookies and the ones who need them the least!  No gingerbread this year...)

2.)  I am going to forgo treats at events I attend.  So far that will be a work party and my family gatherings and they understand and support my efforts.  My allowed treat will be the cocktails I will drink with my family.  Usually champagne!

3.)  I will increase my gym attendance and start taking some classes.

The info is on Sarah's blog.  Basic rules :


No Gain Holidays is a commitment to yourself to hold the line on your weight from before Thanksgiving until after New Year’s Eve.


Runs 7 weeks (November 22nd – January 3rd)


You can join anytime


This is self-reported : you can post your weight or your weight loss or keep it totally to yourself. Your pants will know even if we don’t.


Join by linking up your blog (or leave a comment) on Sarah's blog!

Come on - join up we will feel so good in January when everyone else is trying to get the holiday weight off and we are ahead of the game!

SPRING FOCUS CHECK IN

Okay. I would say I am back on plan about 85%. I keep caving in to disruptions, like having my son come to visit and making broccoli salad which , even though I made a lower fat version and left out the cheese, was like an addictive substance! Wow. I couldn't let that stuff alone!

So I am now 1 pound down from my weight gain, a total of 8 pounds down since the challenge started May 4.

Goals for this week:

1.) Stay on plan 100%

2.) Exercise 5 times

3.) Call doctor about physical therapy for knee pain

4.) Get out on bike in addition to gym work outs

The only event I have this week is my nephew's graduation and my sister is a big supporter of my diet so she will have something for me to eat that won't throw me off plan. She already asked. Oh, and I told her - don't even tempt me with champagne!

CARROT ON A STICK

I am down four of the five pounds that I gained since mid-May. I am back to the gym on a regular basis, but with less enthusiasm, mostly because my knees are hurting. I am enjoying the summer fruits starting to come into the market and just generally I find it is easier to eat lighter meals when the weather is warmer.

So why do I feel so blah about things? Could it be because I need a little more motivation than just doing fine? Do I need the proverbial carrot dangling in front of my nose? I think so. I am going to make a list of upcoming events to aim some goals for:

* Late June - Family BBQ - Lose 1 remaining backslider pound plus 6 more.

* Late August - Back to School Time - Lose additional 25 pounds.

* October - Old Friend Visiting - Lose additional 25 pounds.

So those are my carrots - mostly to do with my appearance in front of people who I have not seen in a while. I suppose it would appear I am losing weight for other people...but really I am just looking forward to shopping for nice new clothes for when I see people!

MY THIN(NER) CLOTHES

Many years ago I gave up on saving my clothes from my much smaller days. They were hopelessly out of date and the likelihood that I would need silk blouses and little suits ever again was slim. So the clothes I have held onto are much more recent and larger - hardly "skinny" clothes.

However, being back in a blouse I wore 4 years ago is quite cheering! Plus, I can almost button myself into a blouse I wore 7 or 8 years ago - so that is very exciting.

I don't really have a goal in terms of weight or dress size. I don't even know with the "new" sizing what size I would be anymore. I do know that I want to be able to shop in the regular departments of the stores. That is my goal.

I have long had a belief that whatever weird, ugly fabric is leftover after all the other clothes are made is what they make the plus size clothes from. Really. Walk through the store and see all the pretty clothes and then walk into the plus size department and see what I mean....I want out of that department!