<p>Last night I was at a benefit dinner which, amazingly, had very good chicken breasts & veggies. But dessert was a plate of pastries & grapes which they LEFT ON THE TABLE. All around me women whom I know are “dieting” were diving into the sweets like they had not just eaten a nice dinner and were starving. And had never seen cute little iced & filled pastries before. </p>
<p>The thing is, we all KNEW they were not filled with real butter, cream or cream cheese because they were parve. I was able to think about the chemicals, hydrogenated oil, & sugar they were made from and pass them by. The grapes were very good. The small triangle of baklava I ate had real nuts. :)</p>
<p>Hi Everyone,
I don’t post here often, but I have been struggling with losing a couple of pounds that have crept up over the years. I blame it on the gym I go to. Or global warming – not sure which.</p>
<p>But I have finally lost 4 pounds (even according to an evil modern scale – not the friendly old fashioned one). Not sure exactly how though…I feel like I’m doing the same thing (trying to exercise 3-4 days/week; not eating dessert). </p>
<p>EPTR, thanks for resurrecting this thread just as I need it. I’m on my second day of a new plan, exercising more, minimizing sugars and white carbs, and tracking on MyPlate. I lost 11 lbs when the thread first started, and have maintained that loss for about 18 months (this is on old thread!). But I need to lose much more.</p>
<p>Life gets crazy and it is hard to focus on an eating plan that it right for me, and to find time to go to the gym. It’s especially hard with two teenage boys in the house, who of course have very different needs than I do. But on Monday I had a normal lunch, and realized how uncomfortably full I felt after eating it. At this point in my life, I feel much better if I eat light.</p>
<p>Well, I needed this thread to reappear. This has been one of the most stressful periods of my life (dad dying, mom’s dementia getting worse, other senior needing lots of support) and in the last few months my exercising has gone off the rails. For YEARS I have always walked vigorously in the morning and in the last few years it has been with a partner. It started when she decided she wanted to begin racewalking. All good. The problem is, her neighborhood is much better suited than mine because there are rolling hills - not steep ones. So every morning, I have driven four miles to her house to walk. </p>
<p>I suppose I have gradually started to resent the fact that I am the one who is always inconvenienced. That would be okay, but one day she was miffed because I had a potential conflict and was snippy about not being able to count on me. I was really angry and wrote an email spelling out just how many miles I do each year for us to walk. </p>
<p>No apology from her. Not one little - oh hey, never thought about how lucky she is to just walk out the door and have a walking buddy on the doorstep. </p>
<p>So, needless to say, my enthusiasm for walking with her has waned. She has been a very good friend over the years and things will get better, but right now I find myself holding back. Unfortunately, I have not resumed walking on my own. I need to get back to what I did before we were joined at the hip in our walking program. </p>
<p>I am grateful for this online support team!!!</p>
<p>mommusic, I was at a similar event on Monday - I hadn’t thought about the fact that those cute little desserts were all parve. There were macaroons, a mystery tart, chocolate covered strawberries, and biscotti. I had a strawberry and a macaroon. Must have done something right since I’ve lost weight this week.</p>
<p>Worknprogress, that’s awful! You were exercising WITH her FOR you! Not for her!!! </p>
<p>I hope you can find small pockets of time to exercise on your own. I think exercise becomes even more important and is a reliever during stressful times. </p>
<p>It’s spring everybody! Remember that even gardening, lawn mowing, etc. can count as exercise!!!</p>
<p>Hello all … checking in from halfway around the world. I have been eating many new and healthy things for several days, but since yesterday morning my tummy decided that I had overdone it, so for the last two days I am surviving on rice and water until I revive. Not my planned way to lose a few pounds, but it’s all I got right now.</p>
<p>Snowflake - that’s the kickstart I need! I am thinking of asking my orthodontist to put my braces back on for two months!!</p>
<p>Enjoy your trip!</p>
<p>Abasket - I know, that is exactly what was so irritating (Not to mention that in the dead of winter I was the one out scraping ice off my car to get there). I was not sarcastic in any way with her (I didn’t want to do serious damage to the friendship), but what I was thinking was this is not tennis for crying out loud, just go walk on your own like a big girl.</p>
<p>I’m back! Where are you snowflake? I just got back from a big trip to Taiwan. Before I went I thought I might lose weight. Then I sat next to a guy on the plane that said he gains 10 pounds in a week when he goes to Taipei. Yikes! The food was very good there, I have to say. I weighed in though, yesterday at WW, ready to take my lumps, and . . . drumroll . . . I lost a bit over a pound on my 2 week trip. It’s not much, but I’ll take it!</p>
<p>Back to yoga today . . . it is predicted to snow here today. Pffft.</p>
<p>You can do it, worknprogress. What about listening to audiobooks while walking? I download them from our library and listen to them on my cell phone. You can also borrow many books on CDs, and use a walkman. If you find a really gripping book, you might find yourself walking longer to be able to hear more.</p>
<p>There is a woman in our neighborhood who walks every morning, in any weather. I believe that she walks for an hour or more, because I almost always see her if I am out (in the car), and I might be out at 7 or at 9. I don’t know her but have heard that she has back problems and walking helps. She is usually alone, but sometimes with someone else. A lot of people walk in this neighborhood, so it is easy to hook up with someone for a while.</p>
<p>I walk alone most of the time. Well, I also walk with my dog and sometimes my family, but if I’m out for a walk purely for EXERCISE (meaning a fast walk) I almost prefer it alone. I enjoy that time.</p>
<p>Thanks for bumping the thread! I was thinking about it but had nothing much to say. I’m up a couple of pounds that just don’t seem to want to go away; residue of cruise and Passover. Oh, who am I kidding, residue of too much butter and tortilla chips (not together). I understand about not liking to walk alone; that’s the only way I’ve done it and it can be boring! I have no excuses with the Wii fit just staring at me in the loft every morning.</p>
<p>I probably couldn’t walk in my favorite parks today anyone - massive flooding around the Chicago area; highways were closed this morning. We don’t have a basement so at least don’t have to worry about that!</p>
<p>I’m hoping to start walking around the lake here soon. Waiting for the warmer weather. I’m a big chicken about walking if it’s cold, or might be icy. It’s snowing like crazy right now. I walked a lot on vacation, and it was hard. Not because I wasn’t in shape. I was. I’ve been doing elliptical at the gym, yoga, weight classes, etc., and have lost 18 lbs. since Thanksgiving. But I haven’t walked outside since last fall – I got mild shin splints from all the walking on the trip.</p>
<p>My goal is 20 lbs. So far I’ve lost 6, and it’s taken me a month. I’ve read that’s actually a pretty good clip, but I used to have a very fast metabolism, and I could lose 5 lbs in a couple of days. The multi-day plateaus are discouraging.</p>
<p>I read that Jackie O rigidly kept to 125 her entire adult life. I guess she weighed in every single day, and if she saw 126, she dieted that one pound off. Makes sense, but I never thought about it that way, and that’s what I’m going to do if I ever get to my goal. Dieting for a couple of days sounds a lot better than dieting for 2 or 3 months.</p>
<p>I would love company. I need to point out though, that I now live in Minnesota! I did walk along a lake in the Bay Area last week, though, and it was great!</p>
<p>6 lbs. in a month is good work. And yeah, when I was younger, I could lose that amount in about a week and a half . . . things are different now. I have to keep reminding myself that if I lose even 1/2 pound a week steadily, it will add up to a nice loss over a year’s time. I still have a long ways to go, about 45 lbs. I can’t think of it that way, though, going for 5 lbs. at a time . . .</p>
<p>I’ve been at it for two years. Started out with a pound a week, but with plateaus, it’s no longer at that pace. There is no magic elixir. Just don’t give up at the plateaus! When I read about folks who lost 70 lbs in 4-5 months, I just think to myself that it will all be back within a year. That kind of loss is not sustainable (not to mention it’s terribly bad on your body).</p>
<p>Have kicked up the exercise and am writing down what goes into my mouth again. Have been trying on MOG dresses and while I can fit into all of them, some of them really point out my flaws. </p>
<p>%$#@ sodium keeps nailing me, though. I have been enjoying salads at Chipotle lately (no carbs, no guac, no cheese) and thinking I was doing well by sticking to mostly veggies in it. Today I saw the nutrition info card. The pico de gallo and the corn are heavily salt-laden. ACK! The fresh pico I get at the local grocery store has almost none; ditto the corn. Said healthy salad has 1400 gm of sodium – fine for most people, but not with my issues. That’s my entire day’s allotment. Back to the drawing board.</p>
<p>Work, I am in South India for two weeks. It is hot here and very sunny, but I am working inside all day. I will see a live cricket game in a stadium this weekend. Tummy is still misbehaving, so am going to eat American for breakfast to see if that calms little snowflake down.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure with loss of appetite that weight is not a problem for this tip. Unfortunately, my plan to exercise has not gone well, either, so the weight loss is not necessarily making me firmer!</p>