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DONTNODIP's Recent Blog Entries
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Saturday, February 09, 2013
Yep, it happened yesterday about 11:45 a.m. I was going through my usual paces at work when I was stopped by a co-worker who announced "You're losing weight." Since I never share my weight loss journey with anyone but Sparkers this unsolicited observation by someone I see every day was like music to my ears. Did I dive enthusiastically into the particulars about my regimen with this woman? Hell no! I acted like she accused me of having an affair with my boss and I denied, denied, denied. She was a persisted little bugger, though, and I had to come clean and admit that well, yes, I have taken off a few pounds. Then we had a good laugh about it when I told her she was my new best friend for noticing. Having been through the ups and downs of weight loss more times than I care to remember, I'm going to reminisce a bit about some of my favorite off the cuff compliments.
"Every time I see you, I see less of you." (from a neighbor)
"Your shadow is shrinking." (from a nephew)
"I'm here with my new girlfriend" (my husband to a friend on the phone)
"*Bob* will never tell you this because he doesn't want to embarrass you but he thinks you look amazing." (a friend reporting on her husband)
"I never saw you eat when you were heavy. I've seen you do nothing but eat for the last 3 months and every day you're skinnier. What's THAT about?" (from my old boss. Also proof that eating is a good thing!)
Have a Sparktacular Weekend!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
We all know how presentation can turn something boring or mediocre into something wonderful or worthwhile. Sometimes I'll buy a bag of the grilled chicken dinner from our supermarket's deli. On at least one occasion I handed over the bag at home to my husband and dashed out the door to do something else. Later that night he complained that I didn't give him dinner. I was a little confused because it was all there: pieces of grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, cole slaw, and sweet rolls. Whaddaya mean I didn't give you dinner? What I determined is that when I arrange food on a plate and set it down in front of my man at the table I am serving a meal, but when I hand him a bag of the exact same food and run off he will not register this food as his dinner because the presentation was all wrong.
So it is with delight that I share the following differences in presentation.
To me the word DIET is the ultimate four letter word. "Diet" conjures up thoughts of deprivation, hunger, crankiness, and a desire to eat things that I might not ever want to eat, but I want now because I am on a diet. Instead I am EATING HEALTHIER. Eating healthier is a fun game I play with myself. Ohhh, let's see how many healthy foods I can eat today! I eat healthy with optimism, knowing that I can have whatever I want as long as I really want it. Taking the position that I am eating healthier automatically prompts me to make better food choices. You've got to love that presentation!
CALORIE COUNTING is a drag and so is following a DIET PLAN. Oh my goodness, you mean I have to figure out and count every bite that I eat? You mean I can only eat the foods from page 3 in this diet book today? I am way too busy to account for every bite and I hate pickled beets. Why, God? WHY?! I am sooooo much better off just tracking my food in the SparkPeople Nutrition Tracker. It is SO much easier to track food than it is to count calories. You just type in the food you ate and bingo, there it is in your tracker. Plus, if you know what you are going to be eating the rest of the day (more or less) you can go right ahead and track that before you eat it. It just makes sense to track food ahead of time when you can because then you know you are really making those healthier choices.
And finally, I don't EXERCISE. I go to the gym and I work out or I go for a speed walk or I go for a bike ride. I think exercise is what Jack LaLane did with bored housewives back in the 60's. I mean it was fine for the times but now, eh. Plus when you go to the gym you get to wear really cool gym clothes and athletic shoes. Seriously, isn't a speed walk with an Ipod or a 10 mile bike ride around the Art Museum loop just so much more fun than exercise?
Thanks for reading, I hope you agree with me about presentation. Now I'm off to prepare that snack that I put in my tracker earlier today. I'm having a parfait! You can make one too because it is so easy. Layer some light&fit yogurt in a cup with fresh fruit and low fat granola. PARFAIT! Yum! 
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Never say you are on a diet unless you are looking for trouble with The Diet Police. If you are foolish enough to actually hire TDP I'll be right here to dry your tears when you come crying to me with your handful of citations. But I'm your Spark friend who believes in tough love so I'll be the first one to wag my finger with an "I told you so" remark. TDP can be a brutal bunch and I ought to know, having grown up with several of them. But today I just want to talk about the three most annoying members that I've dealt with over the years. You probably won't be surprised to hear that these are close family members.
My mother was a lovely woman but she was probably the worst kind of officer on TDP squad because she was self appointed, pious in her belief that she was helpful and consequently counterproductive to any eating plan that I might have established. It was no secret that I struggled with my weight from childhood and I did a pretty good job of keeping my gains and losses within a 5 pound range through my teens and young adulthood but It didn't matter what I weighed at any given moment to dear old mom. She always had something to say about every single thing I put in my mouth. If I had a quarter for every time I heard "Are you eating that?" "Why are you eating that?" "You don't need that!" "You're eating again?!" I'd be sitting on my own private beach being fanned by some hot cabana boy. I was well into my 30's when I finally got up the gump to tell her "I'm a grown woman with a husband, 2 children, a mortgage and a job and I am qualified to decide what I am going to eat." I'm not going to lie, she looked at me like I had hit her but finally standing up for myself about that heckling was very freeing. Oh, she still slipped back into it occasionally but more often than not I saw her biting her tongue whenever I gave her that "Don't you DARE say it" look. Amen!
The next annoying officer is my older sister whom I'll call "Sis". Several years older than me and quite the male magnet, Sis was always eating weird stuff and exercising. She was also always trying to recruit me to do these things with her in my pudgy preteen years. I gratefully drank the kool-aid served up by an older, wiser sister and maybe it was some of her direction that got me on track and helped me turn myself into teenaged girl that teenaged boys wanted to date. But time marched on and Sis got married and moved away and while I always had to be mindful of my eating habits it didn't consume me 24 hours a day. Every time I talked to Sis on the phone she always lead with "How is your diet?" or "Are you staying on your diet?" For the next 20 years every time I saw Sis she would gush with "You look so pretty, your diet is really working!" Of course everyone likes to hear that they are pretty and that they look like they've lost weigh and if I did look good and I had lost weight, I'd thank her. But there we some times when I clearly did not look my best and I was obviously carry more poundage than the last time I had seen her. Finally I understood that Sis was just still encouraging that pudgy 11 year old and not really seeing a grown woman who had more on her mind than losing some weight. So I started answering her diet inquiries with a very firm "I am not on a diet." and then it progressed to "I told you before, I am not on a diet." and then finally she stopped talking to me about diets. Now I just talk to Sis about other things. Phew!
Finally there is my husband (I'll call him Beau). I stupidly gave Beau TDP badge one time and lived to regret it. This man made it clear to me years ago that he loves ME. He loved me when I married him at 118 pounds and he loved me during that awful period when I weighed 230 pounds and he has always loved me at all those weights in between. Well, one time I told Beau to keep snack foods away from me because I was trying to shake off a few pounds and BOOM I had created a monster. It was mom all over again. Actually Beau's method was using a warning noise. It was a high pitched and a bit scary sounding "AH,AH,AH!" every time something that he deemed objectionable was raised to my lips. Oh...My...Gawd! I wisely stripped him of his badge and moved him back into the job of just loving me for me.
The one thing The Diet Police all seem to have in common is that they don't have any problems with their weight which makes them the worst people to have on the squad. I find that it is better to ask for support from people who understand your problem and support your motives. A person who understands won't ever hold a piece of cake against you, they'll forgive you and help you step away from the NEXT piece of cake. I love The Spark because it's manned by The Cops of Kindness and not those nasty Diet Police.
Monday, March 07, 2011
What is wrong with me!? I have these awesome workouts. I am as good as gold all day long. But once 10pm rolls around I am a maniac.
I carefully planned my Saturday to bank for a restaurant meal. When I logged my calories I was giddy to see that I was still a good 500 calories under my day allowance. To celebrate this wonderful achievement I pulled a bag of cherry vanilla granola out of the cabinet and ate at least 4 ounces of it neatly blowing the cal count for the day. Same thing last night but with almonds. I feel like if I could just remove 10pm-midnight from my life I'd be rail thin.
No more time to whine about it now because I'm off to work. But seriously........
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