Keeping Kosher Group

devash1762

Hi Esther:

Wow, your weight loss is amazing! Yasher Koach to you...keep it going.

This week I lost 3 pounds, making it a total of 10. My next goal is another 12 to reach my comfort level of weight loss. I find, that everytime I want to go overboard with food, just the thought the effort it takes and how long it takes to lose just 10 pounds, keeps me on the straight and narrow.

Yesterday, I had more calories than allotted. We had two birthday celebrations for 2 of my program participants, so we made peach crisp from peaches they picked themselves on a trip a week earlier. It was served with vanilla ice cream. So I decided, to have a 1/4 cup of the crisp, with 1 tbs of vanilla ice cream. For me, it isn't the quantity I crave is the actual having. Psychologically, if I deprive myself, then I want it even more.

Glad the weight training exercises work for you. I have dumbells in the house, and I can certainly do it, it is the motivation to. I am still walking, a bit less with the high humidity we are having. We are going to Lakewood for Shabbos as I had mentioned previously, so that will be awesome. My daughter in law is cooking up a feast. She is such a doll all around, BH she is in my life.

Overall, B'H all is well. Doing some reading on the Three Weeks, trying to keep improving myself as a Jew, truly praying Mosiach comes and we get the Temple again. I would love to be able to actually see it one day.

On that note, have a great Shabbos, stay cool and let's keep losing!

estherdragonbat

Devorah,

Kudos on your 3 lbs!

I've been keeping to the plan and reminding myself that weightloss isn't linear. In other words, the scale is telling me things I don't want it to. The only weigh-in that 'counts' is Sunday morning, but I do check daily. And I know that

1) I haven't been off-plan
2) There are a million reasons the scale could be up, not limited to water weight, sodium, hormones, using some database entries that are lower than the actual foods, etc.
3) By Sunday, it may have resolved itself.

Meanwhile, I'm annoyed. Not panicked. Not stressed. Just irritated.

I've slowly built up a (discount!) home gym with dumbbells, ankle weights, a mat, a cardio step, a stability ball, resistance tubes and bands, and a couple of balls. (My warmups include using a ball and one of the interval workouts I do when I feel like I'm in a rut and want to mix up my exercises a bit does, to. I think it helps with core and balance.) And I do notice changes. Like when I'm in the fitness store, I'll try picking up a 15-lb dumbbell and realize that I can actually do a few reps with it, when a few months ago, I could barely lift it and set it down again gently without slamming. Or when I started doing lunges, doing 2 sets of 10 with no weights was hard to complete. And when I started 'leveling up' doing one set of 10 and one set of 12 with 3 lb weights, I was positive that I wouldn't be ready to increase the difficulty for about a month. And yet, a week later, it was 2 sets of 12 with 3 lb weights. And this week, it was a set of 15 with the 3s and a set of 12 with 5 lbs! (Next week, IY"H, it'll be 2 sets of 12 with 5-lb weights). And it's an effort and a bit of a strain, but it's something I can actually do. Me, the uncoordinated gym-class dunce! And the strain doesn't last long. A soak in a hot bath and I'm fine the next day.

We're going to be a full house for Shabbat lunch. We're friendly with two related couples. Twin brothers who married two sisters. They're sort of a package deal; I don't think we've ever had one couple without the other. And last night, a couple of our semi-regulars messaged me asking if they could join us. So, we're going to be eight. B"H I don't know how not to cook for an army when Shabbat comes along.

I've been reading the Nesivos Shalom on the Three Weeks and the Shoah. And I just picked up R. Chaim Kanievsky's book on the Three Weeks as well. I also got a novel by Toby Orlander, Who by Fire Who by Sword. Four journals of fictional Jewish women living during terrible times. (Going by the back of the book, that would be the Crusades, the Inquisition, Gzeiros tach v'tat, and the Shoah.)

Oh, and I got my answer about using the stability ball on Tisha b'Av. According to my rabbi, it's fine. Not that I'm really looking to exercise, but I find it really hard to sit on the floor and the low chairs I have aren't much better. The ball is much more comfortable. Which... probably defeats part of the purpose, but at least I won't be constantly moving around, trying to find a decent position.

Anyway. Shabbat is supposed to be happy. Have a great one! Enjoy Lakewood!

Esther

devash1762

Hi Esther:
my apologies, it has been a killer busy week since we last corresponded. I hope you won't hold that against me.

I have to buy a new scale, the one I have is really not calibrated and it shows ridiculous weight gains and losses but I am still trudging along.

Happy to hear of your loss and that you have a really well organized gym system. Maybe your doing this will inspire me to use my dumb bells.

Anyhow, how are you otherwise? I can't keep thinking of how food totals keep adding up. You think I don't eat much, but you turn around and there is your total for the day!

For example: Today, for lunch it was a modge podge of stuff just picked to not have to make anything. 1 small home made challah roll, 1/2 a slice of gefilte fish, 1/4 cup of home made vegetarian chili, 1 tbs of light sour cream and it added up to 300 plus calories!! I would have normally eaten a whole slice of gefilte fish, a whole cup of vegetarian chili and 2 tbs of light sour cream...jeepers.

Today, it is just me and my younger son. It is nice every now and again to not have guests or go anywhere. I made for tonight baked bottoms with sweet and sour sauce. I don't eat the skin. Gefilte fish, tossed romaine with mango and slivered almonds with lite nish nosh dressing. challah of course, home made broccoli kugel and store bought yerushalmi kugel.

Shabbos day, small meat cholent, potato kugel, kishka, gefilte fish, cole slaw home made with light mayo, and perhaps some deli. I have 1 cup of cholent 1 2x2 of potato kugel 1 slice of fish, 1 cup coleslaw, which I make with light mayo and stevia and perhaps 2 slices of meal mart pastrami. I for sure could eat less fattening, but it isn't Shabbos without the traditional foods...I know it is just an excuse.

Otherwise, bh all is well. We are having a heat spell here but can't complain otherwise it has been actually cooler. Erev Tish B'Av, I am making baked flounder, rice pilaf, salad, either string beans roasted or tzimmes *home made

Break the fast is normally, tuna salad, vegetable soup, cut up vegetables and something sweet.

Have a great Shabbos.

Kintsugi_Haikyo

I would like to join the group. I am shomer shabbos and I find it hard to log food after shabbos; especially if I have shabbos dinner at someone else's house.

estherdragonbat

@briansolomon7863 Welcome! We haven't actually set up a group; we just keep posting in this thread.

When I'm having Shabbat dinner at home, I pre-log. (Guesstimate 4 oz of challah; don't track the fraction of a shot glass of grape juice; pretty much eyeball salads and dips. I do set aside a weighed portion of rice in a ramekin, but as for main dishes, I'm vegetarian married to a meat eater, so I'm usually the only one eating my entree. If I make something that serves 4 and on Friday night, I eat 26% of it and on Sunday 23%... it evens out.) At someone's house, I admit it's trickier. Best I can do is eat light during the day, and hope for the best.

@devash1762

Hi, Devorah!

No worries! Life happens.

I got a new scale after Pesach, but that was because I was using an analog and once I dipped down below 75lbs to lose, my target was a maximum of 1.5lb per week and suddenly fractions mattered...

I had my usual breakfast today: seedless grapes, Greek yogurt, and a granola bar. I usually have a light lunch on Fridays: 1 veggie sushi roll. I'll make up for that tonight, lol! (Budgeting for 4 oz of challah; probably be slightly under, but it's not something I can pre-weigh. Hummus, pickled beets, mock chopped liver, Spanish eggplant, fennel-apple-raisin salad, and then yellow split pea dal with steamed rice.)

Shabbos Day, I will indulge at kiddush in 2 pieces of potato kugel—a food that is not safe for me to have in my fridge, but I can take at kiddush and leave before I'm tempted to take more. Hopefully, they'll have the frosted shortbread cookies I love; if not, I'll find some other mezonos for similar calories. I've had sugar cookies the last couple times. And melon. Lunch will be the same salads, one piece of vegetarian kishke, and what amounts to a chunk of potato and whatever else hops into the ladle out of the cholent. Upside-down peach cake for dessert. It's more like a shallow-dish peach crisp.

And then a bagel with Munster cheese and red onion for Seudat Shlishit.

I'll also be meeting up with one or two walking buddies and mean to get in at least 2 hours (including the 2 10-minute walks to and from shul).

I think for Tisha b'Av, I'll be having leftovers from Shabbat. Possibly not; the dal has a serrano chili pepper in it. However, yellow split peas are so bland normally, that it might just give the dish a little flavor without making it overly spicy. Plus, I have a green tea granita in the freezer. If I end with that, I don't think a little heat in the main dish will be a problem.

Breaking the fast is usually a light meal of whatever's there. I bought some butterscotch pudding as a treat. Normally, we break with cake; I bought an apple cake at the bakery. But I'd rather have the pudding. Yes, it'll be after a fast and I can have cake. But I tend to worry if I don't know the calories, even if I have room for them.

I've got an appointment with a registered dietician on August 14th. I'm curious as to what they'll say.

Shabbat shalom!

Esther

devash1762

Welcome Brian. Just a caveat. We are both married women, therefore, only discussions about diet, kosher, and within that arena.

Welcome aboard.

devash1762

Hi Esther and Brian:

Hope that you both had an easy fast. B'H mine was fine, just the usual bit of dizziness and dehydration. Since I fasted, I decided to indulge in some regular dairy ice cream..why not?

Anyhow, today back on track. I still need to buy a new scale so I don't know if I lost anything from the last entry. Esther, let me know how it goes with the nutritionist. Under my health insurance at work, I would get about a dozen free visits with a good nutritionist. My only thing is, that they starve you. My secretary was on this no fruit, no carb, not this no that food plan. Things were added over time, but I know myself, those tight restrictions won't work on me.

In any event. Let me know how things are.

Brian, feel free to share.

Best,

Debvorah

estherdragonbat

Hi, Devorah!

I was fine with the fast. I stayed indoors where it was air conditioned. I ended up breaking it with a 4-egg omelet (usually, I'd only have 3, but I wanted a little more protein) and some oven-baked french fries and carrot sticks. As well as the pudding.

One thing about hanging out in these forums; you start to learn the difference between the healthcare professionals. Apparently, to be a nutritionist, you just need to pass an online course that can be taken over a weekend. Registered dieticians study for years. (Of course, I'm not saying that there are no good nutritionists and a university degree doesn't make anyone infallible. But in general, one would assume an RD to be more knowledgeable. That's who my appointment is with.) At any rate, I'm going to be bringing in a few pages of my MFP food log, along with the reports. I'm not opposed to good advice. If it turns out I need to include more potassium, fiber, etc., and s/he has tips on how to do that, wonderful. But I would like him/her to realize that I've been losing weight steadily without cutting out any foods.

Well. Okay. I've cut back on a lot. Here in Ontario, the law is that if a chain has more than 20 locations, they need to provide calorie numbers for every item on the menu. Since I don't think there's a kosher restaurant in the province with more than three locations, that's generally not relevant. BUT we have a couple of coffee shops that get in hermetically wrapped pastries from a kosher bakery and that bakery now has to include calories on the food they send to those shops. As a result, I now know that their muffins are 380-450 calories, depending on flavor, their turnovers are 600, and their jam rogelach are 1210! I don't eat those anymore. I mean, I might have a muffin for breakfast if I was on the run, but the rest of it? Not worth it. But it's not that I can't have it. It's that I've decided that I'd rather not use up my calories on it, so I'll choose something else.

Had a dentist appointment today and tried walking to it, but I should have allowed more time. I thought it would take two hours. At the 1-hour-40-minute mark, I realized that I was about a half hour away from an appointment set for 20 minutes from then. So I hopped on the subway and made it with a couple of minutes to spare. Then afterwards, I went to St. Lawrence Market. They've got a bunch of fruit stores, as well as a bulk shop where I can get high-gluten flour. Between walking there and walking to the next subway station and home, I got 2 hours and 10 minutes, so no need for the fitness glider today. I will be strength training a little later.

Planning on chocolate truffles for Shabbat and I want to make them today. They're not hard to do, but they have to chill in the fridge for a couple of hours and I'd rather handle it when I'm not cooking anything else.

Hope you're having a great day!

Esther

devash1762

Hi Esther:

I am impressed on the amount of walking you did.

I haven't been good about going on my evening walks. I have to motivate myself once the weather becomes less humid.

I made for Shabbos Ancho Garlic Baked Chicken, Scallion Rice, Salad, Fish, Cholent etc. I must weigh myself tomorrow and make sure where I am weight wise. I think I stayed the same.

I think that getting moving is the key. I eat 1200 calories per day so output needs to increase.

Have a great Shabbos!!

estherdragonbat

Hi, Devorah.

I had a few errands to run. Grocery store twice. (I bought skinless, boneless chicken breast for my husband and they smelled 'off' when I was dicing them. My fault. It had a best before of August 3rd and I had my signals crossed and thought today was only the second.) The store has a miniscule kosher meat section and they didn't have what I needed. So I bought a whole chicken and roasted it with vegetables. That was trip one. When I was done with the stove and wanted a break, I went to the library to pick up a hold. Came back, made the hummus, realized I was out of salsa. I like to put that in my cholent instead of tomato sauce. A second trip to the grocery store.

So, the chicken for my husband, a 3-lentil dahl, the potato-beet salad I've mentioned before, hummus, mock liver, pareve kishke, the truffles. Beans are soaking for cholent. Still need to slice the cucumbers for salad.

My base calories are 1380 to lose a pound a week. With exercise (and eating back half my exercise calories), I usually come in around 1700 or so.

I have a new fitness challenge involving my stability ball. For abdominal muscles. Doing a deep jackknife with my shins on the ball, hands on the floor. So far, I can only do the 'modified' version with my knees on the ball. Barely. My book says it's 10 reps to a set. I can manage five before the ball does what balls do best and rolls out from under me. At least I don't quite fall off, so much as slide down. I will master this. Eventually. There was a time I could barely manage 10 lunges with no extra weight. Now I do 27 (one set of 12; one of fifteen. Next week, I increase to two sets of 15) holding a 5lb dumbbell in each hand. I'll keep at the jackknifes.

Shabbat Shalom!

healthymichael

Hi,
Pleased to meet everyone.
I just started my diet. I keep shabbos, kosher etc. I just calculated my carbs and gee I went so overboard! I'm here to hear how people deal with Shabbos eating.
Michael

estherdragonbat

Hi, Michael!

Shabbos has always been a challenge for me, too. I think what's been working for me this time has been,

1. Admitting, up-front, that I'm going to have a few indulgences. My 'challenge' isn't to avoid having them. Because if I do that, odds are I'll just overdo the healthier stuff to 'reward' myself for being strong. My Friday on MFP I sort of sat down with myself and asked 'How much do I think I 'need' to eat at kiddush before I can walk away? No, seriously. There's a difference between having a couple things I really want and stuffing my face.' And then I checked the calories on one frosted shortbread cookie and two pieces of potato kugel and came up with about 380. And decided that, considering that was going to be 'breakfast', it was totally worth it.
2. Pre-log everything I intend to eat over Shabbat as much as possible. Obviously, if we're going to a friend's, I can't control what they'll serve. But the meals I have at home? The shul Kiddush that usually has the same foods? Yeah, I have a pretty good idea. I limit myself to two slices of challah at dinner and lunch. Seudat shlishit is Munster cheese on a bagel that I pick up on Friday mornings. Sometimes it's gouda, but usually Munster.
3. I walk for more than two hours on Saturday. Once we turn the clocks back, it'll be 65 minutes on the fitness glider, motzi Shabbos, but until then, long walks.
4. Sunday is my weekly weigh-in day.

Hatzlacha!

yfbrklyn

Shalom aleichem yidden!

estherdragonbat

Aleichem shalom!

healthymichael

Hi Esther and yfbrklyn

rshira91

This is a great idea! I find especially shabbos lunch is difficult. And now that it's getting colder, it's more difficult to go for a walk/distract yourself.

estherdragonbat

Hi, Michael and Shira! I know. I think it'll have to be the glider in the basement Saturday nights once the clocks go back.

Buddie66

Hi, I just joined. A kosher group was the first thing I looked for. I'm a mother of two grown girls and married for 40+ years. My husband is much closer to a healthy weight than I. What do you do about keeping track of eating on Shabbos and Yomtovim?

estherdragonbat

Hi! I usually eat in, so I pre-log what I can in advance. I guesstimate that two slices of challah will be 4 ounces (probably less, but my local bakery isn't in the database anyway, so I figure everything's an estimate and this is close enough.)

I'll usually weigh out my main and sides and warm them separately.

Salads are an estimate. If I make them myself, I know the calories. If they're takeout, I avoid the mayonnaise-y ones. Most matbuchas and Spanish eggplants are around the same. Ditto pickled beets.

I keep my homemade desserts to 200 calories or fewer per portion. This past week that was meringues. This week it's oranges in marmalade and brandy.

My cholent is oil-free. I usually just have a piece of potato and whatever else falls into the ladle.

If we're going out to eat, I just do my best.

Also, I try to get in at least two hours of walking on long days.