Small Slice

I hate journaling. It never works for me because I hate it so much that I try to avoid it, try to outsmart it, and get bitter about it.

I quit Fitday (again) for now because it makes me want to cheat. I don't understand that, but it does. I'd rather work my way through this without journaling. So far, so good.

You will figure this out this whole diet thing sooner or later. I'm sure of that.

Jenny, I hear ya. I went back to Weight Watchers Online this morning, and started putting in my meals for the day. By the time I finished calculating the Points for my seven-ingredient soup I had for lunch, I was already sick of thinking about food! I don't know what the answer is. Less food? More exercise? If only it felt that simple. We'll hear that click one day, I just know it.

Jenny, I wish there was something I could say that would magically give you the answer but, as you clearly already know, you just have to find the best way for you. For what it is worth, I found using weightlossresources.com helpful. I do not faithfully log all my food intake but it did help me to analyse where the calories were coming from in my diet - the calories in that carefree "slosh" of white wine into risotto stopped me in my tracks! I then adjusted the recipes I was using anyway to lower their calorie count and then carried on as normal. Oh, and the fact that you enter your exercise in each day so you can "earn" extra calories to eat - fantastic motivation! It works for me. I am sure you will find what works for you too. Keep at it!

Jenny, I wish there was something I could say that would magically give you the answer but, as you clearly already know, you just have to find the best way for you. For what it is worth, I found using weightlossresources.com helpful. I do not faithfully log all my food intake but it did help me to analyse where the calories were coming from in my diet - the calories in that carefree "slosh" of white wine into risotto stopped me in my tracks! I then adjusted the recipes I was using anyway to lower their calorie count and then carried on as normal. Oh, and the fact that you enter your exercise in each day so you can "earn" extra calories to eat - fantastic motivation! It works for me. I am sure you will find what works for you too. Keep at it!

I despise all the calorie logging things too and avoid them like the plague. I did the WW point counting thing last year at this time and, while it worked, I had the breastfeeding points to work with. I could have NEVER done the recommended point range otherwise (which leads me to my biggest problem with WW - it encourages you to fill up on crap like diet soda and FF Cool Whip because of the low point total). HOWEVER, it did help me reorder my thinking a big about healthy portions etc and, after that, I was able to journal, without calculating points, to help continue my loss (though I haven't done it in months and have been trying to psych myself up again).

Have you tried just journaling with a pen and paper just to see in B&W what you are eating? I find that it gives me accountability just for that, without the mind scrambling misery of calorie calculation. Just the fact that I don't want to write down "Two handfuls of fish crackers" simply because I grabbed them to open for the kids helps make me more accountable.

Also, how often are you weighing yourself? Have you found a pattern that HELPS and not discourages you? I thought I was a weekly/biweekly girl until I started weighing myself every morning (and sometimes at night too). I actually prefer that because I can see that I normally bounce up to 4 pounds in a day - so a high reading isn't necessarily a high, but a product of bloating etc. Neither is a low counted as a low though, unless I maintain it for a few days. But the actually point to the scale rambling is that I no longer dread stepping on the scale and seeing nothing or a gain, because I have a much better sense of where the scale really is. Now daily might drive others mental - I think it's finding your own "happy place" with the scale that's important (insomuch that there ever is a happy place with a scale).

Also, I meant to comment on your previous post about body image and daughters but never found the time. I think it was very poignant and powerful. I struggle with it myself, since I have three daughters, and a mother-in-law who looks awesome but has such low self esteem that her body issues are constantly expressed in language around the girls. I try not to talk about my own struggles at all around them since they are so young that I don't think they'd take a healthy message away from a discussion of it.

Also, to complicate matters, all three are looking to have VVVEEEEERRRRY different body types. Puck is tall and skinny; she'll be just like her father. Tink is shooting up and thinning out, but she is just an Amazon; even at a very low weight for her body type, I think she'll aways be an impressively bodied girl. Sprite is much more petite; she's a little over average in height for her age, but a bit underweight for her height. I can't tell where that will go.

Well, that was certainly tangental :)

Jenny - don't be too hard on yourself. You are still excercising - give yourself credit for that! Maybe you could concentrate on something 'easy' like drinking water to help you get back in the groove.

If you're serious at all about doing the Potatoes not Prozac thing (which I'm doing, by the way), I highly recommend going to www.radiantrecovery.com - there's so much PnP info there. Lots of information and inspiration.

I'm just now starting step 2, which is journaling, as of today. Coming from a Weight Watchers background, I purely hated journals. But this journal is different. Think of it as a lab book, where you can make note of how what you've eaten makes you feel. That's what it's all about. It's a totally different vibe, one of love and discovery, not of punishment or shame.

I actually find it very motivating to see that you're NOT perfect, yet human and able to get back up on that wagon eventually. You should be proud of yourself for the daily exercising. That alone is fabulous!
Hang in there honey. I'm rooting for you!

You know, one of the best pieces of advice I got was "the best diet for you is the one you will stay on." I read the Fat Fallacy and Potatoes not Prozac, and I went on a revised version of South Beach and I found that quitting sugar altogether -- I mean, completely, not even fruit or white bread -- was the best thing for me. If I have even a bit of sugar I crave and crave for 2 days until my body gives up again. I am now down 8 pounds and holding.

I cannot do calorie counting. I end up eating more because I have this mentality -- oh, I have another point, what can I eat to fill it? (WW) or I realize I've only eaten 1100 calories and what can I do to up the count to 1200. It's just my mentality and I've accepted it.

I have been doing things like this: 75% of my meals must be veggies. I don't worry about drizzling a little fat in or cooking a stir-fry with bacon. But mainly, I eat vegetables. Not too much meat, not too much dairy, and very light on the bread. I don't really like pasta so I ignore it but I do like rice so I occasionally have some. Brown.

I do occasionally screw up or break down, but I am so much happier this way. Journaling takes a ton of time and it just forces me to think about food constantly, which makes me WANT the food. It is better for me to put it out of my mind and just focus on veggies, veggies, veggies. Now an orange seems like a treat rather than a sacrifice, and the siren song of chocolate and ice cream is muted if not banished.

Listen to yourself and your own body and find the diet that works for you. That's what someone once told me and it's the best advice I can give.