A few days ago, Mark came home from work super-giddy and told me what he weighed when he got on the scale when he got to the gym that morning. I really wish I could remember how much he weighed when we got married ... I think he's close! So far (in just a month) he has lost 20 pounds. That's even more than our cats!! (Our cats are fat.) I want to take a picture of Mark holding Tiber, with the caption of, "This is how much Mark weighed a month ago!"
I, on the other hand, lost 7 pounds in a week (how is it possible? I don't know. Going off carbs is crazy!) and then realized I shouldn't be losing weight that fast because I'm nursing. I was supposed to be eating fruit, too. And if you've got sugar in your body, it has energy it can access before your body starts shedding fat so even eating fruit will slow your weight loss. At least that's what I suspect. So now I'm down just over 10 pounds. So between the two of us, we've almost lost a Carmen. In a month.
I've been pretty bad the past few days, though. I've been craving chocolate so I had several pieces of chocolate cake at a friend's house last night, and today I've been sneaking a bunch of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. I promise I'll get back on track tomorrow!
One thing that was really fun about that first week was stepping on the scale in the evening and weighing less than I weighed in the morning, even though I had been eating all day long and never felt hungry. Gee, funny, you eat foods that keep you full and you don't get hungry as often. Hm!!
It makes me think that maybe that, instead of simply writing up how many calories are in a food item, if they wrote it in something like calories per hour. You digest carbs faster than whole grains/proteins/fats, so although fat has more calories per weight, I bet if you ate more fat during the day you'd eat fewer calories overall. Carbs last, like, three hours, then you're hungry again. They also spike your blood sugar and make you even hungrier. I noticed I could be not-very-hungry, then I'll have something with sugar in it, and suddenly my body will start craving more sugar.
Yup, here's a little something describing cravings vs. hunger. This is why you have to do Phase I of the South Beach Diet. It's what kicks the carb cravings. The first 3 days are the hardest.
http://www.southbeachdiet.com/diet/hunger-versus-cravings
I've decided I also need to come up with some sort of official "goal" for my weight loss, instead of, "The doctor told Mark he needs to lose weight, so what the heck I'll do it with him because I'm fat."
Here goes, once it's public and people know they've got something to hold you to ... right?
Starting weight: 179
Current weight: 169
Pre-Mace weight: 165
Pre-Carmen weight: 160
In my wildest, wildest dreams I'd like to be down to 140 lbs (how much I weighed when I was 16) and have a 30-inch waist or smaller. Actually, I'd just like to have a 30-inch waist, period. (I'm already one inch down!) Realistically, I'd like to get down to 150 lbs, which is what I weighed when I graduated from high school. I have clothes I've been holding onto since I got married, hoping I'll be able to fit into them comfortably again. (Problem is, many of them aren't nursing-friendly so I've hardly worn them since 2008. BUT I LOVE THOSE SHIRTS SO MUCH I CAN NOT GET RID OF THEM BECAUSE I SWEAR I WILL WEAR THEM AGAIN SOME DAY! **stubborn**)
It's kind of embarrassing thinking those are my weight goals, because I have friends who are like 140 or 145 and want to get down to 120 and I'm thinking, "How is that even POSSIBLE?! I haven't weighed that I was 13! And I was not fat then!" (Back then, I'm pretty sure was pure muscle, and I could probably beat the crap out of you, and I rode my bike everywhere.)
And there's your way too much personal information about Kamis for the day. Now I will be super-embarrassed if Christmas comes around and I'm still 160something. "You did so great in August, then you gave up?!"
Showing posts with label why I'm fat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label why I'm fat. Show all posts
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Food entry #4: Looking at more ingredients
Back to the original topic.
It's not just peanut butter that's weird. I can only find one brand of ketchup that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup. Maybe I should call these Frankeningredients, if I've got Frankenfoods. Did you know they didn't introduce HFCS into foods until the 90's? And when did the obesity epidemic start? Could that correlation possibly mean anything ...? I don't know, but I have a really hard time believing most of the population of the United States suddenly became gluttons and lost control of their appetites. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the foods we're eating aren't the same foods we were eating as recently as the 80's. Now we've got wussy tomatoes and laboratory-produced sugar and oils. Oh joy, I know this can only end well!
A friend recommended the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I bet this book will talk about a lot of the issues I'm kind of skimming over. This is part of how she described it: This new one is about nutritional science and how it has driven our food choices for decades and brought us to the point where the grocery stores are full of "food like substances" instead of real food, and when we use vitamin and mineral supplements to get what we need instead of food. Remember when the nutritionalists told us to eat oat bran, then not so much oat bran, then no carbs, then more carbs, then no meat, then more meat, then wheat, then no wheat, blah, blah blah. The whole history of that is in this book, told in a fascinating way. I've got it on hold at the library, and I. Can't. Wait.
By the way, the ketchup brand is Hunt's. The grocery store still hasn't figured out how to make non-HFCS ketchup.
Edit: I had to buy more ketchup earlier this week, and it looks like the grocery store has started carrying plain ol' ketchup, too!! Woohoo, way to respond to consumer demand!!
On Saturday, Mark and I decided we wanted to buy some applesauce to get more fruit in our diets. Mark is allergic to a TON of fruits (we think it's like all pitted fruits with arsenic in the seeds ... apples, peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries, plums, apricots, etc. but not strawberries, other berries, citrus, bananas, etc.) but not when they're cooked or canned (? why are canned peaches, dried cherries, and apple pies okay?) so I figured applesauce is a good fruity thing we can all eat. We were trying to decide between brands of applesauce when we thought, hey, we should look at the ingredient labels! And guess what? HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. EVERYWHERE. Except in the "no sugar added" applesauce, which is .5 cents more per ounce, but only contains apples, water, and ascorbic acid. Luckily the grocery store HAS figured out how to make applesauce out of apples, so we don't have to pay a brand-name premium for it.
Another thing you wouldn't expect to contain HFCS? Soy Sauce. I think Kikkoman's is the only brand we know of that doesn't contain it. Costco carries Kikkoman soy sauce. You can make stir-fry every day! And teriyaki sauce is just made of soy sauce and other ingredients. Save money and make your own teriyaki sauce.
Did you know that just about every brand of ranch dressing contains MSG? Even the ranch spice packets have MSG in them. I think Newman's Own ranch dressing doesn't contain MSG, but I have a hard time finding it at the grocery store and I think it's kind of gross. So I haven't had ranch dressing in a long time (good for dipping carrots and celery ... it's been a while since I've had those plain, too.) I've switched to vinaigrette dressings, because salad dressing (or dip) is the ONLY way I will eat lettuce. And celery. And carrots. I used to get depressed reading stuff online about how lots of salad dressing ruins the low-calorie thing about vegetables. Then I realized, you know what? Who cares about how may calories are in the salad dressing? IT'S GOT YOU EATING VEGETABLES. Because, you know, if I'm not eating a salad, I'm going to be eating Oreos. True story.
It's not just peanut butter that's weird. I can only find one brand of ketchup that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup. Maybe I should call these Frankeningredients, if I've got Frankenfoods. Did you know they didn't introduce HFCS into foods until the 90's? And when did the obesity epidemic start? Could that correlation possibly mean anything ...? I don't know, but I have a really hard time believing most of the population of the United States suddenly became gluttons and lost control of their appetites. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the foods we're eating aren't the same foods we were eating as recently as the 80's. Now we've got wussy tomatoes and laboratory-produced sugar and oils. Oh joy, I know this can only end well!
A friend recommended the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I bet this book will talk about a lot of the issues I'm kind of skimming over. This is part of how she described it: This new one is about nutritional science and how it has driven our food choices for decades and brought us to the point where the grocery stores are full of "food like substances" instead of real food, and when we use vitamin and mineral supplements to get what we need instead of food. Remember when the nutritionalists told us to eat oat bran, then not so much oat bran, then no carbs, then more carbs, then no meat, then more meat, then wheat, then no wheat, blah, blah blah. The whole history of that is in this book, told in a fascinating way. I've got it on hold at the library, and I. Can't. Wait.
By the way, the ketchup brand is Hunt's. The grocery store still hasn't figured out how to make non-HFCS ketchup.
Edit: I had to buy more ketchup earlier this week, and it looks like the grocery store has started carrying plain ol' ketchup, too!! Woohoo, way to respond to consumer demand!!
On Saturday, Mark and I decided we wanted to buy some applesauce to get more fruit in our diets. Mark is allergic to a TON of fruits (we think it's like all pitted fruits with arsenic in the seeds ... apples, peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries, plums, apricots, etc. but not strawberries, other berries, citrus, bananas, etc.) but not when they're cooked or canned (? why are canned peaches, dried cherries, and apple pies okay?) so I figured applesauce is a good fruity thing we can all eat. We were trying to decide between brands of applesauce when we thought, hey, we should look at the ingredient labels! And guess what? HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. EVERYWHERE. Except in the "no sugar added" applesauce, which is .5 cents more per ounce, but only contains apples, water, and ascorbic acid. Luckily the grocery store HAS figured out how to make applesauce out of apples, so we don't have to pay a brand-name premium for it.
Another thing you wouldn't expect to contain HFCS? Soy Sauce. I think Kikkoman's is the only brand we know of that doesn't contain it. Costco carries Kikkoman soy sauce. You can make stir-fry every day! And teriyaki sauce is just made of soy sauce and other ingredients. Save money and make your own teriyaki sauce.
Did you know that just about every brand of ranch dressing contains MSG? Even the ranch spice packets have MSG in them. I think Newman's Own ranch dressing doesn't contain MSG, but I have a hard time finding it at the grocery store and I think it's kind of gross. So I haven't had ranch dressing in a long time (good for dipping carrots and celery ... it's been a while since I've had those plain, too.) I've switched to vinaigrette dressings, because salad dressing (or dip) is the ONLY way I will eat lettuce. And celery. And carrots. I used to get depressed reading stuff online about how lots of salad dressing ruins the low-calorie thing about vegetables. Then I realized, you know what? Who cares about how may calories are in the salad dressing? IT'S GOT YOU EATING VEGETABLES. Because, you know, if I'm not eating a salad, I'm going to be eating Oreos. True story.
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