July 9, Day 10 !!!

catladyksa

Hey we made it to the end of another little mini-challenge! So get ready for another 10 mini-challenge!!! I think we are all starting to realize that we need to set realistic goals.....mini-goals! Because once we accomplish those mini-ones...we move on to another mini-goal. Little bites at a time!!!

We all may have a large amount of weight to lose (God knows I do!!), but if we set a goal to lose just 2 pounds in one week and accomplish that....then we can move forward to the next 2 or 5 or whatever....mini-goals! Move forward!! We all will stumble and fall flat on our 'patooties ' as we struggle with our weight loss programs....but the next day, try and move onwards!! Karen you are doing it!!

I am reading this little book and here is a quote that I thought I would share for all of us who have a day or moment that we may fall back on old habits "The best way to move forward, is to move forward. Just get up and look ahead of you, not backward. Don't think about how many slices of cake you ate. Don't dwell on all the exercise you didn't do. Don't count yesterday's calories. It's over and done. Forgive yourself and move on."

So let's move forward to our next 10 day mini-challenge and think about what you would like to accomplish in the next 10 days!! We can start it on Monday July 13 if you would like a weekend break!!

I will check back later today...I am at home, sorting thru stuff for my 'garage' sale and give-aways as I continue to 'move forward' in my new journey going back home!!

xoxo nancy

KarenZen

I'm in for the next 10 day.
I need to jumpstart though and will do a 2-day detox challenge this weekend with 2 goals: exercise and under 20 g. carbs. I really want to take the weekend "off" but fear a downhill spiral so here I go!

Xxoo
K.

KarenZen

Nancy, I'm sitting still for a minute, waiting for morning coffee to kick in, icing my back and legs to prep for our wildlife outing, and I have just one more important morning task---to give you a huge THANK YOU. Your enthusiasm and cheer during these 10 day minis has been inspirational!

I have to confess that last night I was ready to say "F THIS!!!" and just have a huge, blow-out eating frenzy over the weekend, eat everything "bad" that I've been craving, Just set my sights on Monday.

But... I log on here, see you fired up, I get all fired up, and then I get to thinking.... what do you want MORE, K? Do you want to feel better, stronger, healthier for the long term, or do you want that unhealthy, fattening sweet that will taste good for a minute and then make you feel lethargic and stoned? Hmmmm.... no choice here! I just need to remember that I don't need to ACT on a CRAVING. It is just a craving.

Actually, "just" is a misnomer. When I slide down into Carb-ville, there is no "just." If I've eaten a lot of bread or pasta, the beast inside me starts to wake up. As soon as I eat the sugary/fat combo though, the beast ROARS to life, and fighting cravings feels like I'm a heroin junky dying for a fix. That's why I have to go through what I call a "detox"---once I flush out the sugar, the cravings are more manageable because they're more psychological than physical.

I would definitely classify myself as a "food addict" but only for that sugar/fat combo. It really does flip a switch in my body and brain. Does anyone else feel this way???

One interesting thing about my bariatric surgery--since getting the sleeve, my stomach and intestines do NOT like the sugar/fat combo, and they will rapidly eject it if given the chance (called "dumping syndrome"--basically sweats, shakes, and volcanic lava poop--sorry to be so graphic, hahaha!!!). I'm learning, though, that there are ways to "cheat" my sleeve--to eat something that will slow down or stop the dumping, or to stretch out eating over several hours so I can eat more.

Those "sleeve cheats" will be the focus of the next mini for me. I really, really, really, really!!!! really!!!, need to be following a meal plan--the one my bariatric center gave me--which is high protein, low carb, around 1000 calories/day. With exercise, I should be losing 5-6 pounds per week. I know that sounds like a lot, but my surgeon has told me, and I've heard from other sleevers, that I need to make the most of the first year while I'm at the highest level of restriction (stomach still very small) and lowest production of hunger stimulating hormones. So basically, make hay while the sun shines. I don't want to be looking back in December saying "I wish I had..." or "I should have...."

Wow, this turned into a marathon post! All for now... Hope everyone is Well and Happy and making GREAT Day 10 choices! I know I will be!

Xxoo
K.

catladyksa

OK Karen, we shall start the next challenge on Monday, July 13...that gives you time to detox. Gives me a bit of a break...but I will continue to move forward...plow thru it so to speak!! I will think about a couple mini goals...at least I can take the 'don't eat after 6 pm off my list...as I am doing it now routinely!!' I feel better going to bed without a full stomach!

Will check back in later!!

I am totally a food addict Karen....I can mindlessly eat food non-stop!! At some point in time I will need to deal with this!! I know you are suppose to chew, chew and chew some more...but I am the fastest eater around! My mom will tell you that!! So will my friends. I hate eating or drinking 'cold' food that is suppose to be hot!!

OK...catch you later on the Day 10 thread!

KnitOrMiss

Whoo-hoo...this will apparently be my Birthday Challenge, since we're starting it on my birthday. LOL

And yeah, I'm utterly a food addict, particularly with anything resembling a carb. I always tell people that I'm a carboholic of the worst degree in recovery. Even now, a few berries whirled up with some cream cheese leads to a creep of wanting more of that, then more of other stuff.

My body treats fruit exactly the same as a candy bar. So for me, there is no such thing as a good "sugar." Good carbs, however, are a different animal. For example, I can eat double my carb "limit" if I spend it on a plate of broccoli, slathered in butter, cheese, and preferably super hot beef stock.... Same with high fiber greens: asparagus, broccoli, green beans, cabbage are all good. Pretty much anything you'd toss in a stir fry (except sweeties like carrots) is find in moderation. But even half of a 1.5" potato is enough to push me back into carb frenzy. It's more manageable if loaded down with fats, as that tells my brain to process it differently, but I'm not going to start negotiating and bargaining with myself, as that's a slippery slope. If I want it, I will eat it and accept the consequences.

The sleeve-dumping process sounds a whole lot like my no-gallbladder-dumping process. I wonder if it's all stomach acid related! Mine can be triggered by too much coconut oil, coconut oil and vinegar close together, too much vinegar, too long of fasting (I hit that 8 hours, and about 1 hour after I eat, I'm in the RR with the volcanic stuff off and on for about 4 hours), and things like this... There are other triggers, but mostly I don't have those much anymore...

So, now, when I get a craving, I find the thing I can only tolerate to fill it. Like chocolate - I eat 86% ghiradelli. I like 72% better, but I can have twice as much if I eat the 86%, and it still fills that chocolate urge. For gum, I had to find a flavor I could barely tolerate, not one I liked. Ones I liked triggered crazy binges. Also, if I have a crazy carb craving, I try to offer it fatty something first (bacon, cheese, or other normal foods for me), and most of the time, it works. My body is USED to fueling with carbs, so that's the knee-jerk reaction. My body may just be asking for fuel, but it's shuttled to the NEEDCARBSNOW door for so long it has to re-route and be reminded. Often.

And so, while some will argue that an actual addict will do anything to get a fix, put safety and health and all at risk, I agree that I have done that in the past. I've gone and spent money that should have gone to something else on candy and junk. I've rearranged my budget to get stuff I didn't need but wanted. I've put less gas in the car so I could by the king-sized whatever... I think I've literally spent the money I needed to pay an electric bill on junk food. And the thoughts of detoxing off sugar or giving it up, I felt like I'd rather stop breathing. I had the arguments of, that's impossible - when I want something, the thought will jump up and scream in the front of my head until I give it what it wants. Period.

I'd tried dieting and failed. Too many times to count. I'd panicked at doctor's reports and medication threats and hospitalization offers and telling me that surgery was my only option. I'd rationalized it all. It WAS impossible. I couldn't do this alone. I felt weak and tired and weary and exhausted and positively hopeless. I was a complete and utter failure and I didn't have the willpower, gumption, BALLS, or whatever. I simply COULDN'T do this. It was no possible. I was the one exception in all the universe.

Then I gave up. I can't tell you what changed. I binged. I cried. I ate what I wanted. The something triggered the smallest molecule of hope. It had been long enough since my abject failures that I had that fantasy of maybe there really was possibility of success. Maybe there was something I hadn't tried yet. And on and on and on. So I did a challenge, and made that my focus, which failed. I built everything around a short term goal.

Then I gave up again. And a friend was so inspiring despite her own failings that she just sparked something in me. It wasn't faith. It wasn't hope. It was just me. The me I'd buried in a bad relationship. The me who used to be a fighter. And just in talking and conversations and reading her struggles and her successes and her life, it allowed me to start putting down roots again, and such. After 6-7 months of struggling, reading, studying, and just hanging on, I finally found something I hadn't tried, that had always seemed impossible, and I just KNEW I would fail at, but it made so much sense, I couldn't not try.

So, I did it. I leaped in, dropped my carbs like a brick (right after a three day chocolate bender), added fats like they were gold buillion, and just gave it a chance. I can't tell you what happened. That day was 1/15/15. My body literally felt like it breathed a sigh of relief. And one day, I can't tell you which one, I just woke up and realized that my screaming demon was still there, but it was like he was muted. Like that spark of me had bundled him up at some point while I was sleeping and locked him in a cage at the very back of my brain. He's still there and screaming, but I don't hear him the same. He doesn't have lockdown on the front part of my brain anymore. And he can be ignored.

Suddenly, I realized that this had to be how "normal" people felt. This had to be why some people just could never understand it when overweight folks talk about not being able to put something down, ignore it, think of something else or just STOP. It was life-altering. I still struggle with emotional eating on occasion, but not as often. I try stuffing it with healthier, low-carb friendly items, so that if I do go a little crazy and eat more than I should or all out binge, the damage is reduced. My body is addicted to carbs. To sugars. Of all kinds.

I'm Carly, I'm in recovery, and I have no plans of every going back.

catladyksa

We should call this 10 day mini challenge"Carly's challenge'!!! Thanks for sharing your insight Carly. I know that carbs are my downfall too. I gave up most of them 10 days ago. It has gone OK so far. I could do better.

You have done a super job! And continue to do so!!! Hope you have a wonderful birthday celebration coming up!!

KnitOrMiss

Make sure you add fats to balance. Only carbs and fats are fuel. Carbs are like leaded gas in an unleaded engine, they require a lot of additives to work right. Fats are the body's natural fuel. That's why extra carbs store in the body AS FAT! LOL

And thanks... I write to help myself, to respond to others, and this is how it all ends up coming out... LOL!

ronercat

I am ready for this next 10 day challenge. I am a few pounds lighter (I assume I still am since we stopped weighing in) and I am ready to shed a few more. I have been really good about my eating this past little bit in part because I am being so good about my budget. My waist and my wallet are happy that the thickness is heading from one to the other. I just need to make sure that it doesn't shift back.

KarenZen

Carly, your "screaming demon" sounds a lot like my "beast." And I totally understand that feeling of relief when you finally get the beast in control, mute its voice. I agree... this is probably how "normal" people feel all the time. They get hungry; we get ravenous.

I'm all for the Carly Challenge and will put some bling into the ring for this one. Here's the rules: Participate in all 10 days to least 50% effort on your goals, and I'll put your name in the hat for a random drawing. Winner gets something from my vintage bling collection. I'll post a photo later.

Right now I'm drinking a skinny latte in my car and sitting in the middle of fast food alley (I had to get a quickie oil change). No chance of my stopping at any of these food hells--I've got lovely salad stuff at home.

Carly, if you eat a small bowl of blueberries or strawberries in 1/8 cup of heavy cream, you may not get triggered into cravings. The fat provides satiety and kind of "dampens" the sweet of the fruit in a very delicious way.

Xxooo
K.

maoribadger

Mine is a mind goblin. And hes a c*nt frankly. (Sorry). He doesnt just collude with the Fat Girl Brain though hes a bug bear in many many ways.

Im defo up for another one. I havent really hit my goals this time around but I have dropped some decent weight. Im back down to 1lb off my lowest weight so far and feelinf positive

KnitOrMiss

KarenZen wrote: »

Carly, your "screaming demon" sounds a lot like my "beast." And I totally understand that feeling of relief when you finally get the beast in control, mute its voice. I agree... this is probably how "normal" people feel all the time. They get hungry; we get ravenous.

I'm all for the Carly Challenge and will put some bling into the ring for this one. Here's the rules: Participate in all 10 days to least 50% effort on your goals, and I'll put your name in the hat for a random drawing. Winner gets something from my vintage bling collection. I'll post a photo later.

Right now I'm drinking a skinny latte in my car and sitting in the middle of fast food alley (I had to get a quickie oil change). No chance of my stopping at any of these food hells--I've got lovely salad stuff at home.

Carly, if you eat a small bowl of blueberries or strawberries in 1/8 cup of heavy cream, you may not get triggered into cravings. The fat provides satiety and kind of "dampens" the sweet of the fruit in a very delicious way.

Xxooo
K.

Nope, I ate some in heavy cream. I ate them in cream cheese. Ate them alone. Doesn't matter.... But thanks for the suggestion.

KarenZen

Well then... another ten days done! I'm giving myself a 70% on this one, not so bad considering the medical/pain issues. I'd like to do better on the next one because I really want results at the end of the month weigh in. VERY important, because basically this f#cked up back isn't going to heal itself as long as I'm carting an extra 200 pounds. I can moan and cry and make excuses, or I can pull up my big girl panties and do the work.

So, that little self lecture done, goodnight all! Enjoy the weekend. I'll be detoxing and nibbling on green stuff. Will check in with more rambling thoughts, no doubt.

Case in point--after posting this little note, I got up to head downstairs to root around in the fridge, and sciatic pain shot so hard down my leg and into my ankle that I actually saw stars. So... no trip downstairs, no fridge raid even for something healthy, just meds and bed.

Enough is enough. Time to re-claim my body.

Xxoo
K.

KnitOrMiss

(sending hugs) and as much positive/healing energy as I can muster! C