2019 Weight Loss Group

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, SpiritDragon said:

Is a walking group an option? You could socialize about whatever while getting some physical activity, but not enough to break a sweat.

It might not fly at your workplace, but at my office, I've even done walking meetings where we take off and stroll the city to discuss various agenda items.

It is for about 1 month in the spring and 1 month in the fall.

We generally dress for the office rather than outside the office.  So, we don't have jackets warm enough for winter for more than a minute.  In the summer, it is too hot.  We'd sweat and stink when we get back to work.

It was never about avoiding the workout.  It was about what happens when we get back to work?  We're all sweaty and smelly.  Not good if we happen to have a client meeting after lunch.

[SpiritDragon]

40 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

It is for about 1 month in the spring and 1 month in the fall.

 You live there...

40 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

We generally dress for the office rather than outside the office.  So, we don't have jackets warm enough for winter for more than a minute.  In the summer, it is too hot.  We'd sweat and stink when we get back to work.

It was never about avoiding the workout.  It was about what happens when we get back to work?  We're all sweaty and smelly.  Not good if we happen to have a client meeting after lunch.

I figured the limit to physical activity was for that reason - now that I know outdoors is out of bounds I'll come up with some other potentially useless idea to pitch your way until something actually seems viable, I forget to keep pitching ideas, or you ask me to stop.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:

 You live there...

I figured the limit to physical activity was for that reason - now that I know outdoors is out of bounds I'll come up with some other potentially useless idea to pitch your way until something actually seems viable, I forget to keep pitching ideas, or you ask me to stop.

Keep pitching.  I've got a catcher's mit.

Yes, I live here.  And it is ok to work outside and stuff when I'm not in professional attire.  But...

Edited January 27, 2019 by Guest

[unixknight]

19 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:

All good points about how our environment influences our food choices and how industry can exploit our environment to our detriment. The good news is we do have some power over our surroundings and how we interact with them as well.

Agreed.  The problem is means breaking out of the conditioning... and I do mean conditioning.  We're conditioned by all forms of media.  These fast food companies don't just do market  research, they hire psychologists to help them manipulate  our perception of things.  Ever notice how almost every fast food place uses a logo that's predominantly red and yellow?  That's because those colors affect the human brain and make it think about food.

19 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:

That's pretty good - I don't suppose you wrote for Wierd Al?

Haha thanks, but no, he's just my inspiration.

19 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:

I'm saddened by this bolded part. What are your favourite lunch items? Perhaps we can help you to recreate healthier versions that you can love not only for the falvour experience, but because you know you are looking after your body and seeing healthy changes.

Maybe.  The issue I have is that dinner isn't always something I like very much, but I eat it anyway to set an example for my kids and to put myself more into a mindset of "eat to live, not live to eat."  It's easy to do in the evening when I'm home form work and I'm with my family.  My better mood makes me more resilient.  The problem is a day or two later when I"m having leftovers of something I dind't like that much but have to eat it again anyway.  Only now I'm at work where I don't really want to be and I'm not with my family.

Edited January 27, 2019 by unixknight

[NeuroTypical]

Here's me since this thread started:

You can see the 4 cheat days.  Confession time - those last two check ins - you see a cheat day, and then the second day is another gain.  I didn't re-impose my routine, and basically had a cheat day, then a stupid day full of donuts and pizza.

I'm bouncing back.  Today I've had some grapefruit, an apple, and a 70-cal tuna snack.  Dinner will be modest.

I didn't do well yesterday, because I'm nearing a psychological up point.  My 220's is a happy place.  Hadn't had a '2' as my middle digit since college, then I reached it.  My psychological up point is when I'm still a '2' even after a cheat day.  Should be there in February.

My longterm goal here is reliably living in the 210's.  

[SpiritDragon]

43 minutes ago, unixknight said:

Maybe.  The issue I have is that dinner isn't always something I like very much, but I eat it anyway to set an example for my kids and to put myself more into a mindset of "eat to live, not live to eat."  It's easy to do in the evening when I'm home form work and I'm with my family.  My better mood makes me more resilient.  The problem is a day or two later when I"m having leftovers of something I dind't like that much but have to eat it again anyway.  Only now I'm at work where I don't really want to be and I'm not with my family.

Perhaps we can help with that. What are your favourite meals? I have access to lots of recipes, and I'm sure others here have some winners too. There really might just be a way for you to find some meals that you really enjoy which are helpful.

[beefche]

On 1/26/2019 at 1:45 AM, SpiritDragon said:

@beefche Keep up the good work with the water. Can you explain what eating 5 and 1 means?

 

It's a program I'm doing. Essentially, I eat 6 times a day -- about every 2-3 hrs. And they are small meals but nutritionally healthy. When I stick to the program, I feel better and am losing weight. 

[SpiritDragon]

9 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Here's me since this thread started:

You can see the 4 cheat days.  Confession time - those last two check ins - you see a cheat day, and then the second day is another gain.  I didn't re-impose my routine, and basically had a cheat day, then a stupid day full of donuts and pizza.

I'm bouncing back.  Today I've had some grapefruit, an apple, and a 70-cal tuna snack.  Dinner will be modest.

I didn't do well yesterday, because I'm nearing a psychological up point.  My 220's is a happy place.  Hadn't had a '2' as my middle digit since college, then I reached it.  My psychological up point is when I'm still a '2' even after a cheat day.  Should be there in February.

My longterm goal here is reliably living in the 210's.  

Unfortunately I can't see the numbers to go along with your data points, but the trend does look positive overall.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, unixknight said:

Ever notice how almost every fast food place uses a logo that's predominantly red and yellow?  That's because those colors affect the human brain and make it think about food.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-fast-food-signs-red-2015-9

[Guest]

I've just about completely nullified all my progress.  And I can only guess as to why.

I got down to where I was 1lb below my bottom number since I started.  That was Saturday morning after... being empty.  

I hardly ate all day yesterday except for a Dagwood sandwich that my daughter mad for me.  I ate normally today (i.e. my diet amounts).  I just weighed myself.  I'm now 3 lbs below where I started.  In two days!!!

The only thing I can figure is that despite my efforts, my intestines have a tremendous capacity.  And they just aren't moving the conveyor belt along very fast.  So, it's all still inside me.  That means that about 7 or 8 lbs of food is still hanging around my midsection.

I'm seriously thinking about pharmaceutical intervention.  Not really.  But that was the technical, logical side of me coming up with a scientific solution to the problem.

Let me know there is light at the end of the tunnel.

[SpiritDragon]

47 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I've just about completely nullified all my progress.  And I can only guess as to why.

I got down to where I was 1lb below my bottom number since I started.  That was Saturday morning after... being empty.  

I hardly ate all day yesterday except for a Dagwood sandwich that my daughter mad for me.  I ate normally today (i.e. my diet amounts).  I just weighed myself.  I'm now 3 lbs below where I started.  In two days!!!

The only thing I can figure is that despite my efforts, my intestines have a tremendous capacity.  And they just aren't moving the conveyor belt along very fast.  So, it's all still inside me.  That means that about 7 or 8 lbs of food is still hanging around my midsection.

I'm seriously thinking about pharmaceutical intervention.  Not really.  But that was the technical, logical side of me coming up with a scientific solution to the problem.

Let me know there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I just want to make sure I'm understanding the numbers correctly - you're saying that Saturday you had made one pound more progress than the 7 pounds posted in the spreadsheet, but today weighed in five pounds heavier than yesterday for a total of three pounds lower than start?

This may help explain what might be going on either way:

https://www.verywellfit.com/why-does-weight-change-day-to-day-4100012

[NeuroTypical]

2 hours ago, unixknight said:

Ever notice how almost every fast food place uses a logo that's predominantly red and yellow?  That's because those colors affect the human brain and make it think about food.

I hadn't noticed, but there it is.  Applebees, of course, sells booze, and is where you go when your company is paying the bill, or you're a teenager on a date.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, SpiritDragon said:

I just want to make sure I'm understanding the numbers correctly - you're saying that Saturday you had made one pound more progress than the 7 pounds posted in the spreadsheet, but today weighed in five pounds heavier than yesterday for a total of three pounds lower than start?

This may help explain what might be going on either way:

https://www.verywellfit.com/why-does-weight-change-day-to-day-4100012

I realize that was pretty confusing.  Let me try again with actual weights.

I started this whole process at 185.  Yesterday morning I weighed in at 174.  After dinner today, I weighed in at 182.

[zil]

12 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

I hadn't noticed, but there it is.  Applebees, of course, sells booze, and is where you go when your company is paying the bill, or you're a teenager on a date.

I see your fast food and raise you one

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, SpiritDragon said:

This may help explain what might be going on either way:

https://www.verywellfit.com/why-does-weight-change-day-to-day-4100012

As for the link.  Let's go over these.

SODIUM:  I haven't had much sodium these past couple days.  I make most food from scratch.  So, nope. Not much.
CARBOHYDRATES: Nope, I'm on a somewhat diminished carb diet.
BOWEL MOVEMENTS: Well, that was what I was talking about, but in reverse.  I haven't had much exiting.  But 8 lbs?
EXERCISE: I'd hope so.  But I'm not losing.  I'm gaining.
MEDICATION: I'm not on any.
MENSTRUATION: Ok.  That must be it.
ALCOHOL:  Uhmmm...

Well that doesn't quite seem to be explaining it except for what I was talking about with my intestines.  Am I really holding on to that much in my intestines?

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, zil said:

I see your fast food and raise you one

Now, that's not fair.

[zil]

12 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Now, that's not fair.

Snow crab legs - fewer calories than pretty much anything on the menu. Yum yum yum.  Probably better for you than fries.

[SpiritDragon]

2 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Am I really holding on to that much in my intestines?

I doubt it... but there was this guy

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19520351/28-pounds-poop-mans-bowels-hirschsprung/

If the story is reliable, he was quite literally full of it - almost 30 pounds, yikes!

[unixknight]

16 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:

Perhaps we can help with that. What are your favourite meals? I have access to lots of recipes, and I'm sure others here have some winners too. There really might just be a way for you to find some meals that you really enjoy which are helpful.

I think it's as simple as an issue where I'm not always going to love what's for dinner.  For example, my wife likes zucchini and uses it in a few recipes.  I've tried and I just can't get myself to like it, so dinners where zucchini is present just don't excite me.  I can eat it at dinner because I want to set an example for the kids and all, but when I'm having leftovers at work... Suddenly that hamburger place in the food court starts calling me like a siren and I all but have to have someone tie me to the mast like Odysseus.

[SpiritDragon]

18 minutes ago, unixknight said:

I think it's as simple as an issue where I'm not always going to love what's for dinner.  For example, my wife likes zucchini and uses it in a few recipes.  I've tried and I just can't get myself to like it, so dinners where zucchini is present just don't excite me.  I can eat it at dinner because I want to set an example for the kids and all, but when I'm having leftovers at work... Suddenly that hamburger place in the food court starts calling me like a siren and I all but have to have someone tie me to the mast like Odysseus.

I can appreciate that too.

[NeuroTypical]

Same.  Dinner is spotty or sometimes nonexistent for me at the LM house these days.  Suboptimal family dynamics.  I've had some success keeping things around the house for me, in case the tragedy of "husband not fully satisfied at dinnertime" happens. 

It gets me past the fast food, knowing that I have a bag of carrots, or some grapefruit, or an apple, or one of those 80 cal flavored tuna snacks to keep me from expiring due to lack of dinner.   It also helps me make it past the fast food, by patting myself on the belly and saying out loud "you ain't starvin'".

[unixknight]

Well...  This weekend was an abomination.

Had my son's birthday party on Saturday, so there was pizza and cake.  In my defense, I wound up skipping dinner because I just wasn't hungry.

The second whammy was that it was also my wife's actual birthday on Saturday, and we had a small ice cream cake that we split... Took us two days to polish that off.  Then there was the Olive Garden...  I did throttle back, having a shrimp scampi thing that had way to little shrimp and way to  much angel hair pasta, but it certainly could have been worse.  I also had a big salad with a small cup of dressing...

… and three of those evil bread sticks. 

She's going on a sugar fast for the next week, inspired by my soda example.  

Today, I had an egg/sausage scramble (small) and a cup of broth for breakfast.  There was a lunchmeat sandwich that I was going to have but instead I saved it for lunch.  I plan to brave the food court today because the Arby's has salads, to supplement the small sandwich.  Better than going there for a full lunch, but it's gonna be a struggle..

Be our guest, be our guest... 

Edited January 28, 2019 by unixknight

[NeuroTypical]

20 minutes ago, unixknight said:

She's going on a sugar fast for the next week, inspired by my soda example.  

Yay!  Make a little effort, and it helps other people want to make a little effort too!  That's a fringe benefit of all the grief we're putting ourselves through.

[unixknight]

Learned this morning that one of my uncles died.  My wife wants to make me a comforting dinner tonight and I'm requesting an Ecuadorian dish involving rice, lentils and sausage.  (My uncle lived there.)  I was tempted to choose something really unhealthy (because being unhealthy actually feels like one of the defining characteristics of comfort food) but to be honest, I really like it AND it's healthy-ish.  

[zil]

Today's word search has caused me to have an epiphany:

DESSERTS

STRESSED

I'm not sure whether this means the desserts themselves are stressed, or whether one should have desserts while stressed, or if desserts make one stressed, but clearly there's a link between being stressed and having multiple desserts.  For the purposes of this thread, I'm thinking alphabetically - desserts followed by stressed, so avoid the desserts!