SockTart

Have been eating clean for the past few days.  Weight has fluctuated down 5 pounds.  Happy camper?  Oh yeah.  Hoping that I hit my 10 pounds down for the month fairly soon.  We’ll see if it goes down farther by End of Month.  There’s still half a month to go!

Cast on the Secret of the Stole shawl last night.  Yay for knowing how to knit two things at once on the same set of needles with one skein/ball of yarn!  I rock :)   I will attempt not to pat my own back for far too long, as I know that the last laceweight project I attempted wound up taking flight across the living room.  I hate charts.  I sincerely thank whoever is responsible that they are providing written instructions on this KAL.

Dinner tonight?  Chicken Caesar Salad.

I spent a good part of my morning sniffing toner.  All very innocently, of course.  Had to file away 7 months worth of paperwork.  Feeling a little woozy and headachey.  Time for a bath, methinks.   Otherwise, have been feeling really good lately!  Headachiness is only from toner, and not from migraine triggers hidden in bready/sugary products.  Yay!

Would like to get the Elfines done this weekend.  I have some Koigu and some Lime & Violet  and some C*eye*ber Fiber that are calling my name (I’m a-gonna haveta make some very very hard decisions as to which I want to work with next, lemmetellyou.  Really).

After looking over the GI Diet meal plan….good lord, that’s a LOT of cooking! I started making a shopping list & had half a page written before I realized…we can’t afford all these special foods!

We’re going to incorporate *some* of the lower GI elements into our dinners for my Other Half, though. He only has about 40 lbs to lose, and I’d rather he not rocket down the way he did 3 years ago when we last “dieted” together. He’ll be getting some grains and extra dairy in order to slow his progress just slightly. Otherwise…I’m staying on Atkins & trying to keep it tasty. We’ll see how the next couple of weeks go.

So.  Fatass week has ended.  And partially as a result of the sugary mayhem, Robin and I have decided to get back to eating healthier.  Part of our problem is that weekends can be a hectic time for us, and we have a tendency to eat out.  Grab a burger at the mall, or go to dinner with friends, etc.  That’s going to get cut out.

Robin’s Mum tried to get us to start the G.I. Diet last year when she and Robin’s Dad started it.  It was recommended by his Cardiologist, I think.  At any rate, I heard a lot of clucking about the amount of Fat in Atkins, and how GI was so much better, and how MiL lost an insane amount of weight (apparently dropped back to her high-school weight naturally).  It’s taken a year, but I bought the book and I’m willing to give it a try.  I’m just scared shitless of the damn diet, that’s all.  Shitless.

Why?  Well…after finding that by eating fat I was losing some weight and my knees weren’t hurting…it seems very contradictory to give that up for FAT FREE EVERYTHING.  Fat Free yogurt.  Low Fat Milk.  Low fat cheeses (very sparingly, too, and only for taste…cry!).  Sure, you add in some grains and nuts and actually eat the damned yogurt…but…but….*whine*.

Oh, and apparently even though research is now showing that coconut oil is good for you, tropical oils are supposed to be VERY BAD SATURATED FATS, and should be AVOIDED at all costs!

How the hell am I supposed to keep my head screwed on?

I’ve decided that I’ll try the GI thing for a couple of weeks.  If I’m not feeling any better or dropping any more weight, I’ll be going back to Atkins & dumping those grains for my fats.  You notice it’s not just a matter of just losing the weight…it’s the “feeling any better” thing that comes first.

Welcome to what I have dubbed “Fatass week”.

The Workplace is celebrating “Customer Service Week”, and as a result, have invested in a lot of sugary treats.  They came around yesterday with Tim Horton’s Coffee & Hot Chocolate and a bunch of doughnuts.  Later in the afternoon?  More coffee (for those who can drink the stuff) and cake.

CAKE!

I haven’t been fully following my eating plan for the past few months.  I’m struggling a bit, because summer had me on a real ice cream kick, and there have been about 3x as many sugary treats around the office over the summer.  I have this weird feeling it’s going to get WORSE.

I joked to our Regional Manager that the 20-some-odd grams of sugar in the Timmy Ho’s Hot Chocolate was making my arse fat.  He laughed and said “But it’s OK to indulge sometimes!”

The trick here is sometimes!  SOMETIMES!!!

You see, I’d maintained the bulk of my weight loss since May or June.  I fluctuate about 5 pounds, normally.  The past two days?  I’m up by 10.  I’m not happy.  Really not happy.  And my moods have been fluctuating like there’s no tomorrow.  It’s the freakin’ blood sugar going wonky.  If there was ever any proof that I am sugar-sensitive, that’s it.  It makes the difference between me being relaxed or pissed off over the fact that I couldn’t get a hair appointment last night.  I think Robin was ready to call in the men with the clean white coats over the fact I was so morose that I looked like I was going to commit suicide over not being able to get an appointment.

Who lets their Hair Stylists go home at 6pm???  People don’t get off work until about 5 in this town…is it not possible that it might take an hour to get one’s crap together and head to the mall for 5:30/6pm, and want to get a haircut?  Seriously!

Anyhow.  I walked through a mall last night feeling like someone had run over my puppy.  Not Good At All.  I’m blaming the sugar for this.  I’m not diabetic, but g’damn…it certainly has an effect.

Hopefully I can stick on-plan today without The Office conspiring against me and my health.  Geesh.  I know they want us to sit in our seats and take calls, but making us so fat that we can’t move is underhanded, devious, and totally negates the health care benefits plan….

Two words, sweetie:

Atkins Bento

Yep.  I’m trying to figure it out.  I need to start packing lunches and I need HELP!!!

Anyone else who does the Bento Thing and reads this is more than welcome to comment.  I have to keep up my studied aura of pretention, don’tchaknow

We’ve gotten addicted to Katamari Damacy in the past couple of weeks.  It’s one heck of a video game….weird language pattern for the main character(s), and the fact you have to “roll up the world” in a ball is really funny.

Yes, I’m a nerd.  Sorta.  I found a crochet pattern that I’m going to have to buy.  It’s the little Prince from Katamari Damacy.   Of course, to actually MAKE it, I’m going to have to learn how to crochet, but that’s not the point.  The point is that I could make little Prince dolls.

It’s amazing the things we see on the net.

Got a few rounds done on the Monkey sock yesterday, and a few rows on the Persephone scarf.  Thinking of  writing out the Persephone pattern so that I can take it to work, but I’m not going to stress on it.  Still waiting for my order from Lime & Violet to get here.  I had picked up two skeins of yarn when Miss V updated the store.  I’m hoping that there’s just a little delay from customs, and that it’s  not a matter of the postman misdirecting our mail, or a neighbour deciding that they suddenly need wool.  I find the misdirection by the postman a more likely event, mainly because the guy’s a lazy arse.  We get mail for other folks all the time.  Yeesh.

In other news, have been eating mostly properly for the past few days, and it’s making a difference.  I’d been gaining and losing the same 5 pounds for the past two months, and it’s been driving me nuts.  I guess it could be worse… I could have ballooned back up to my highest weight.  At any rate, I’m on the way back down, and I hope to break the barrier that’s sorta sprung up at that 10 pound mark.  That is…I seem to hit a glass wall at every 10 pound mark.  It keeps me within a certain 10 pound range for a while, then allows me down to the next 10 pound range.  Maybe it’s just the way my body adjusts; I don’t rightly know.  I just know that the past 2 months have been pretty frustrating.

Of course, eating all that ice-cream to counteract the insane heat wave earlier this month didn’t help (grin).

We’re trying to strike a balance in our eating habits.  Cutting a lot of the junk carbs has really helped.  I have to admit that the goal of getting rid of the next 30 pounds is exciting.  That will put me at the weight I was when I first got to Calgary.  Another 10 pounds beyond that, and I’ll be the weight I maintained in college (of course, by “maintained” I mean “kept off by eating Smarties, fried rice, and orange-pineapple juice & walking everywhere because the trolleys moved slower than my own 2 feet!”).

Very exciting stuff.  Now time to get ready to go to work (pout)…don’t wanna!!!

I tell you…the nice part of waking up at 5am for a 7am shift?  You get to come home at 3:30pm.  The drawback?  You have to wake up at 5am.  ***THUD*** (sigh)

Actually, Monkey is coming very well.  I’ve turned the heel on Sock #1 and am close to the point where I have to decrease for the toes.  Robin’s socks are presently upstairs in the too-hot living room, and I may go hunting for them soon enough.
I came down to the oh-so-cool basement and turned on the tube (Robin is still snoozing.  I can’t seem to wake him up) to find that “X-Weighted” was on.  I’d link to it, but since they rebranded the TV station, the blurb(s) about the show on the website really suck.  Basically, it’s a show that follows overweight folks for 6 months.  They concentrate on one person per week, instead of an ensemble.  Calgary is one of the cities that they film in (in fact, one of the girls from work apparently will be on the show).  This week’s subject was a 20-something girl who started at 178 lbs, and wanted to lose enough to audition for the Raptor’s dance team.

Okay.  I know that everyone has body issues, self-esteem issues, and all sorts of other brain traps…but I’d LOVE to weight 178 lbs!  This chick…who wants to lose about 35 to 40 lbs, WILL NOT EAT VEGGIES!!!  Then talks about cheating…and gets upset when she doesn’t lose weight.

Um….NO DUH.  I’m not going to sugar-coat it.  If you want to lose the weight, you have to put in the effort.

I admit it…I’ve gotten lazy in the past few weeks.  Partly due to the heat, partly due to ennui.  I know what I have to do to combat it, too.  I need to find some new recipes for the summer weather, and I need to stop saying “Yes yes yes!” to cola and ice-cream.

I have found, through adjusting my daily diet, that sugar does NOT like me.  If Atkins has done one thing for me, it has shown me that I have a HUGE sugar intolerance.  The moment I reduce the amount of sugar in my daily diet, I feel great.  I sleep better.  I don’t get headaches.  My skin is soft and pliable, and my eyes and hair are shiny and pretty.

When I go on a sugar-bender?  Headaches.  Sore knees.  Greasy skin.  Short-temper.  Impatience. Nausea. Crampy-ness. Depression.

Yeah.  THAT is how badly I react to sugar.  And I’m not just talking about the obvious sugar like regular colas, ice-cream, chocolate, etc.  I have to cut out refined flours too, as well as overly-sweet fruits. When I do this…I shine.  I’m a happy girl.  I need to knock off the “bad behaviour”.

I’m writing this mainly as an affirmation to myself, to remind myself part of the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing.  35 to 40 more pounds and I’ll be back around the weight I was when I moved out here from Toronto (albeit more healthfully).  I’m looking forward to that day.

In the meantime, I need to look over the recipe boards on the low carb websites, and get this house clean so I can start dancing again.  Time to get serious

(oh…and if anyone HAS been watching X-Weighted, you may actually notice that they recommend a mainly controlled-carbohydrate approach to diet.  This comforts me.  Really.)

Just another update. 12 pounds have departed my hefty frame. I’m getting curves back. Well…the right curves, at least. We dug out one of my old corsets this weekend, and it fit OK. It may be too small for me fairly soon. We’ll see what happens once I get rid of another 13 pounds.

My knees don’t hurt as much. I don’t gasp for breath as much when I climb stairs. I have a higher activity level.

I actually eat breakfast. And when I go without food for a long time (ie: miss supper), I pay for it in droves…I don’t just get tummy rumbles, I start to feel nauseous (eggs with cream cheese! Bland! Stat!)

All-in-all, I’m doing well. Clothing is draping better, and soon I should be able to start pulling some of my old jeans and such out of drawers and storage boxes and into use. Once that happens, the bigger stuff goes out of my house. Not going back to that size.

Whee!

A little folk humour there, but so true. And I’m not talking from a standpoint of pure vanity.

I cut my sugar intake again. I’m back on track with Atkins induction, and it’s working. My energy level has skyrocketed, my body is using its natural furnace-like abilities to burn fat off, and I’m dropping pounds. I can actually feel it.

I’m down 8 pounds at the moment. I’m a very happy young lady. Some of that is water weight, yes…usually the first whoosh of weight loss (which was a very quick 5 pounds). The last 3 pounds took a tiny bit longer. That’s fat, and I have a feeling I know where it came from.

So…progress. I’m drinking 2 litres or more of water each day, and getting more active. I’m also steering clear of the sugarbombs in our office…we have “Healthy Snack” day (Yoghurt, apples, oranges, bananas, granola bars) twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday, and “Snack Day” on Mondays (Baked goods ie: muffins, croissants, danishes, scones, etc). Unfortunately, the fruit is too high on the Glycemic Index for me, and the baked goods are all made with refined sugar and flour. No goodies for me. I go to my lunch bag and get a piece of cheese.

It hasn’t been easy, but I’m doing it. 8 pounds and about 5 inches down. w00t!

Okay. So I have rediscovered a love for pork chops. Particularly now that I know how to cook them properly. This is what I have discovered is the Uber-Yum:

Get a good simmering pan (usually a deep frying pan). Spray with PAM, or use a SMALL amount of olive oil. Brown both sides of two chops for a couple of minutes each side (the ones we get are usually loin cut, I think…very little fat).

Add enough chicken broth to just cover the chops…the broth will start to “boil”. Let it.
Add about 2 or 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced. None of that stuff you get already in a jar, mince it yourself (brings out the flavour).

Dash of Cumin and a dash of oregano. A few dashes of black pepper to taste.

Toss in some mixed veggies - the easiest way is to get some frozen “California Mix” - Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrot. If you’re not watching your natural sugars, enjoy the carrots…even using frozen veggies, this particular recipe brings out the natural sweetness and tenderness.

Reduce, reduce, reduce! I had the pan simmering for about a half an hour until I was certain that I had boiled the chops to a cooked state. Again, if you’re not watching carbs or calories, add a bit of white wine for a little extra zip.

Strain (or use some of the leftover reduction as a “sauce”) and enjoy. TASTY!