Daily Nibbles

SunshineFlGirl

I'm a 4'10 pescatarian and weigh 161 pounds. January 2021, I weighed 175 pounds. At the beginning of November 2021, I weighed 155 pounds, so I've gained weight (here's looking at you Thanksgiving). I know 5 pounds isn't a "big deal." But, honestly, those five pounds happened because I almost threw in the towel. I stopped tracking, stopped working out... my disappointing progress just didn't seem worth the effort.

Despite exercising and food tracking, I have a difficult time with losing/maintaining weight. I can live off lettuce and kettlebells and still gain. So staying on track is extra important to me. This whole year, I maintained focus. I worked with a fitness trainer. Even on vacations, I managed to eat healthy foods and stay within my goals. Despite all that, I still only managed to lose 20 pounds. With the weight I gained back - it's a net of 15 pounds. That's barely a pound a month. And I have almost 50 more to go - so if this trend continues, it's going to take a couple of years to achieve this.

Some days, I don't even know why I try. But I have a strong family history of diabetes and other diet-related diseases. I'm 51 years old and not getting any younger. I guess a pound a month is better than the scales moving in the opposite direction.

I pick back up with my trainer in January. As an agoraphobic, going to the gym and working with a trainer is a odious task. But, I don't want to gain five more pounds in December, so I'm implementing some moderation now. I plan to track all my food again. I have cleaned my home "gym" up so it's useable again. I bought some cute exercise suits - and I've done my meal planning and grocery shopping for the week. Today, I joined the 2023 Winter 5% challenge. Just waiting for my group assignment.

Hoping to make daily updates here. Wish me luck.

HerbsandMore

Do you know it is far better to stay within 50- 100 calories from your goal everyday than eating less food. Eating too little can actually cause your body to hold on to the fat. I know it sounds strange but consistency in all areas is really what works best in the long run and then you can do it for the rest of your life. Hope this helps, cause you just can't give up, you did not gain in in 1 month and you won't lose it in a month.

SunshineFlGirl

HerbsandMore wrote: »

Do you know it is far better to stay within 50- 100 calories from your goal everyday than eating less food. Eating too little can actually cause your body to hold on to the fat. I know it sounds strange but consistency in all areas is really what works best in the long run and then you can do it for the rest of your life. Hope this helps, cause you just can't give up, you did not gain in in 1 month and you won't lose it in a month.

@HerbsandMore Thank you Yep. I have been adjusting to eating more at my trainer's instruction. It's been difficult to change that mindset.

SunshineFlGirl

I "GET" to - Not I "HAVE" to

Well, day 3 of being back on track. Yesterday was a difficult day for me. My Fitbit says I haven't been dealing with stress well. Honestly, I'm not sure why I've been so stressed out, though. Yesterday, I skipped my workout, but ate reasonably until the end of the day. Then, my husband made me fried green tomatoes. It would have been fine, except instead of saving half for the next day, I ate them all in one sitting. Then, ate a half a pint of Ben and Jerry's.

Today, I did exercise. I'm trying to change my mindset from "I have to exercise" to "I get to exercise." I'm trying to frame it in a more positive light hoping it won't feel like such a drudgery. I chose a Latin dance routine. It was challenging to get the moves right, but that's the fun of doing it. I enjoy dancing, even if I'm not good at it. My heart rate got up and I burned the calories - but I did enjoy it.

I didn't make good food choices, though. It started off ok. It's my mother-in-law's birthday and we were supposed to take her out for early lunch around 10:30. I ate a little smoked salmon jerky for breakfast since I knew we'd be eating soon. But she decided to go grocery shopping first and then had company over. She didn't call and tell us - and it was 12:30 when my husband got a hold of her. By the time we got to Panera, it was 2:30 and I hadn't eaten yet. I ate light - just some of their autumn squash soup and a part of a baguette. When I got home, I was starving and ate 1000 calories worth of pizza. My blood sugar was so low I was shaking. I will have to avoid that in the future. Despite the less-than-healthy dinner, I was still within my calorie goals.

Christmas is coming up and I'm hoping to have started some better habits before it gets here so it won't feel so daunting on that day - though I will be enjoying at least one treat.

SunshineFlGirl

Delete?

HerbsandMore

@SunshineFIGirl - Isn't it strange how we allow someone else dictate when we should eat? And that once we do eat what we had not planned we sort of throw in the towel for that day? Both these mindsets are so bad for us. We are in charge of what and when we eat, I understand when we have plans to go out, well we have plans but then when a curve ball is thrown our way we are not prepared. That is so helpful to always be prepared and never allow anyone to draw us into eating what we had not planned to eat. It is our health and we are responsible for it, no one else. I love dancing for exercise, it has extra benefits besides getting our minds involved to try to learn the steps, it always puts me in such a great mood. You can do this just stay consistent, follow your plan and have fun celebrating how your body can do so many wonderful things that we want to hold onto as long as we can.

SunshineFlGirl

Curtains Anyone?

I cleaned out a hall closet today. Anyone need some curtains? I don't even know where they all came from?

It's a dull, dreary, December day here in Florida. You know, one of those that looks like the sky wants to cry. All the trees are simply skeletons pressed against it. Even the grass is brown.

I should probably plant some ever greens so when my wild southern magnolias and gardenias fail me, we still have some color. It's just blah, out there.

Gee. And I was in such a good mood when I woke up.

My grandmother spent the weekend with us. Saturday night, we had game night with several friends and my grandmother brought a bunch of junk food. I was proud of myself for being able to limit myself to a single serving of chips and cheese dip! Yay! and the scale moved a little this weekend, too - in the right direction. That was also a highlight.

On the bright side, my Fitbit says I tracked 4 active fitness minutes by cleaning out the closet. Probably because I am so short, I need a stool to reach the shelves. Lots of ups and downs: Step-aerobics like I did in the 90's! LOL. Of course, I'll work in a proper workout session in a little bit. I just needed to destress.

I wish I could drive. I would find somewhere to go for a while. In the meanwhile, I'm just going to hole up here in our bedroom and work on some genealogy stuff.

Forgive my venting in a moment of frustration. Life really is good for me. I did wake up in a great mood and I want to reclaim that feeling.

My positive takeaways from this post.

• I had a great time with my grandmother this weekend.
• I'm happy to live back home.
• I lost a little of what I gained back.
• I've accomplished some of my to-do list

Thank you for reading

PS. After multiple attempts, it's clear that we cannot use all the BBCode that is on the link that says "You can use BBCode in your post" below the edit box. Anyone really good at this? How do I change color/size of fonts? This is copy pasted right from that link and it just shows up as plain text:
[style size="30px"]Large Text[/style]

SunshineFlGirl

@HerbsandMore Yes - I'm learning. I used to keep a pack of nuts in my purse. I should start doing that again.

NovemberGail

@SunshineFiGirl: Your description of a morning in Florida had me thinking I was there. Stress eating is one of my most compulsive acts. For at least three days I have been working with different techs to fix a computer problem. Thankfully, it is not my personal computer. Each time I am put on hold, I want to eat all the wrong things and grabbing an apple didn't satisfy. Stress is so hard to tame and stress eating is like an addiction. Be gentle with yourself and just keep starting over whenever you think you've eaten the wrong things. (Enough preaching). Love your blog and your spirit. Have a great day!

SunshineFlGirl

@NovemberGail thank you. I actually edited the post 20 times probably. My husband and I do a lot of tech for the family. I don't think I've ever seen David get frustrated with tech. I think the most frustrating part of it for me is dealing with the people that want me to fix their computers. Lol. Thankfully, if it's something I can't fix, David usually can.

My weakness is salty foods. And it is so hard to find healthy foods that are salty. Sweet things to eat are easy. Grapes, apples. But I don't think I've ever heard of salty fruit. Lol.

HerbsandMore

@SunshineFIGirl Sorry, would love to help, but I don't even know what a BBCode is so no help here. I also love reading your blogs.

SunshineFlGirl

@HerbsandMore Thank you. @DNjoys said she figured it out and will post it on her blog. Looking for it now.

HerbsandMore

@SunshineFIGirl That's great she is very good at finding things out, sue hope you get it all working properly. Your right about salty fruit but my GD eat pears and adds salt to them, I have never tried them though. I try to stay away from most salty foods, I tend to hold water if I eat even a bit too much.

SunshineFlGirl

@HerbsandMore Yep - I add salt to apples, pears, melons.... and I add cheese to apple pie.

COGypsy

SunshineFlGirl wrote: »

@NovemberGail thank you. I actually edited the post 20 times probably. My husband and I do a lot of tech for the family. I don't think I've ever seen David get frustrated with tech. I think the most frustrating part of it for me is dealing with the people that want me to fix their computers. Lol. Thankfully, if it's something I can't fix, David usually can.

My weakness is salty foods. And it is so hard to find healthy foods that are salty. Sweet things to eat are easy. Grapes, apples. But I don't think I've ever heard of salty fruit. Lol.

I literally can’t eat fruit if it doesn’t have salt on it. It’s just gross without a little ‘flavor’ added!