WARMSPRINGDAY - Finding Joy in the Journey

SparkPoints: (47,057)
Fitness Minutes: (34,575)
Posts: 4,611
6/21/12 9:29 P

Thank you.

Still not losing weight. Cutting back calories to 1600 per day with a non-tracking day on the weekend.

Based on what my fitness trainer has told me, I'm re-vamping my eating to include more carbs and more calories in the morning; more protein and less calories in the evening.

Walking! Walking! Walking

Pounds lost: 51.0

0 34.25 68.5 102.75

137

Posts: 50,977
6/21/12 8:36 P

Happy SUMMER TIME.

current weight: 166.2

214 194 174 154

134

SparkPoints: (47,057)
Fitness Minutes: (34,575)
Posts: 4,611
6/3/12 7:28 P

The tame your sweet tooth challenge honestly did not do a great deal for me beyond the initial move of having my husband take over the sweets. That helped me more than anything else I did in the challenge.

I often find it like that.

I've changed the name of this challenge because I may use it now and then for tracking purposes or for other things I want to record here and find readily.

Training for a walking 10K

Yesterday - 5 miles outside - 90 minutes - wish it were better, but I'll take it. Better than my 22 minutes per mile on last week's 4 mile walk.

Cutting back my calories to 1750 per day. For my current calorie burn, SP says I can have 1840 - 2100. I've been at 1800 or less, but the scale is not budging.

When I was at this weight in 2009, I was eating more and exercising less and still losing weight. Searching for the whys.

I'll try 100 less calories per day and ramp up the exercise. Something's gotta budge.

My virtual race wall:
www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/virtual-race.a
sp?r=131

Edited by: WARMSPRINGDAY at: 6/3/2012 (19:52)

Pounds lost: 51.0

0 34.25 68.5 102.75

137

Posts: 2,791
4/23/12 1:52 P

i'm glad u r working on these issues... and sharing your experience... i plan to do this challenge later this year...

Edited by: LIFEWALK at: 5/3/2012 (19:17)

SparkPoints: (47,057)
Fitness Minutes: (34,575)
Posts: 4,611
4/14/12 10:25 A

Some of this week's wins:

I came home each evening and waited until dinner was on my plate to eat anything.

Haven't touched the Tastycakes and Little Debbies all week

Ate my oatmeal without any sugar. Added peanut butter for protein and didn't miss the sugar.

Pounds lost: 51.0

0 34.25 68.5 102.75

137

Posts: 1,760
4/12/12 5:44 A

I'm just glad easter is passed....lol

Posts: 896
4/11/12 9:39 P

My sweet tooth got the better of me today. I will just stick to fruits tomorrow.

SparkPoints: (47,057)
Fitness Minutes: (34,575)
Posts: 4,611
4/7/12 4:04 P

I was just looking over some posts on the Tame Your Sweet Tooth Challenge team and saw a post that opened my eyes a bit.

When I took the sugar habit assessment, it said I was a situational sugar eater. I wasn't quite sure that I agreed with that, but when I read the post of another Sparker, she said she won't bake a whole batch of cookies or go to the store just to satisfy her sweet cravings, and she doesn't stress too much about if the sweets aren't there, just eats them when they are - I guess that is me. Good eye opener.

Pounds lost: 51.0

0 34.25 68.5 102.75

137

SparkPoints: (47,057)
Fitness Minutes: (34,575)
Posts: 4,611
4/7/12 2:17 P

Week One challenges
1. Assess current sugar habits. I took the online assessment. It says I am a situational sugar user. Hmm - sure, whatever. I just know there seems to be no end to the cravings.

2. List the reasons you want to cut back. I listed several, but most of all, I want to be free from this slavery to all things sweet. It is like a chain around my foot that holds me back.

3. Record my sugar habits all week long. I had done this a few weeks ago before the sugar detox challenge. I did it for several days this time, but didn't keep it up. It seemed there were so many other things to occupy my time. But I did attempt to be very conscious of my sugar habits. And although I was not to change how I ate this week, I did find myself making better choices as I tried to be more conscious of when and why I craved the sugar. Evenings are worst for me. This I know for sure!!!!!!

4. Rid my house of all sweet trigger foods.

Can't do that. I'm not the only one in my household and I can't make my husband's decisions for him. So I had a win in choosing to have a conversation with my husband about it. I've contemplated it before, and we've jokingly talked about him putting the sweets in the safe. But this time, in earnest, I did it before I had time to think about it much.

I told him I need his help to conquer this. He agreed to help me.

My big win for this week was to put my husband in charge of the sweets. He removed them from the kitchen. I don't want to see them, stock them. I said I didn't even care if he didn't tell me where he puts them. Unfortunately, I saw, but I would like to treat them as a SP friend said she treats her husband's snacks - they are his snacks. And just as if she were visiting in someone's home, she wouldn't go into their cupboard and eat their snacks. Wish me luck


Might be a start. It was a big step, one that I wanted to take, and yet did not want to take.

Eager to see what this next week holds in this challenge



Edited by: WARMSPRINGDAY at: 4/7/2012 (15:01)

Pounds lost: 51.0

0 34.25 68.5 102.75

137

SparkPoints: (47,057)
Fitness Minutes: (34,575)
Posts: 4,611
4/1/12 12:05 P

I've joined the SP Tame Your Sweet Tooth Challenge
www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/groups_individ
ual.asp?gid=55583

This is my accountability thread

What brings you to this challenge?
I have determined that I am not going to kick this sugar habit without some diligent and focused work. I've done several 3 days sugar free challenges on my own, and this seems to tame my cravings for a short time, but then it seems I'm back to this horrible craving that just haunts me and keeps me eating junk food. I'm exercising like a fiend, but not losing weight. My emotions say that I can't seem to help myself, but my mind says, I know that this is possible. I can do it. So here I am to prove my emotions wrong and my mind right.

How is your week going?
This is only day one. I have already put in motion a plan to put the sweet treats out of my control. The program recommends putting junk food out of the house. Unfortunately, my husband does not share my concerns for himself, and he eats the junk. Consequently, I cannot put it out of the house. However, I had a discussion with him this morning and told him that I need his help. I want him to choose a place to keep the cakes, cookies and candy, but it won't be in the kitchen. I don't care where, I don't even care if I don't know where it is. But I don't want to put it away when we come home from grocery shopping, I don't want to get it for him, I want it out of my workspace and normal realm of activity. He is willing to help me. I told him I'd like to put this in place by the end of the week.

What have you learned about your sugar cravings so far?
I had already kept a journal of several days about a month ago to determine what my poor eating habits were, what my weak areas were and where my temptations lay. My goal has been to collate these into a list that I can then focus on one at a time, which I have been doing. This journal encompassed more than just sweets, it was regarding my overall eating. So I will do this again this week, focusing on sweets and the traps that I am susceptible to. Thankfully, I have already conquered a few things that I was falling into bad habits with: eating from the vending machines at work, stopping for a $1.00 burger on my way home from work, sometimes adding a pie (especially over the holidays when McDonald's had their holiday pies - oh my!) I already know that with these under control, I can do well all day, but when I hit the door coming home from work, evenings, or on weekends, it all seems to fall apart. This will need to be my focus.

What do you hope to accomplish at the end of 4 weeks?
I would like to be able to manage my sugar cravings so that I am not a slave to them. So that I can say no to those daily cravings that feel like they enslave me to that daily treat which ends up in overindulgence. I would like to be able to bypass the cake, doughnuts, etc. that people bring in to work for the most part. There may be times that it really is a special treat that I would like to enjoy, but then I want to be able to use self-control. I would like to be able to have the self-control and allow myself dessert on special occasions. I would like to be able to have a plan so that I have an idea of when a special occasion warrants allowing myself dessert. Ultimately, I would like to be able to allow myself one small treat per day, but I may need to swing over center to no sweets for a bit in order to get to that point.

Edited by: WARMSPRINGDAY at: 6/3/2012 (19:26)

Pounds lost: 51.0

0 34.25 68.5 102.75

137