Jewish Musings, Monday, August 21, 2023

[peachymom1]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[peachymom1]

Good morning everyone! I had a strange eating week last week. I had a colonoscopy on Monday, which means I had liquids only on Sunday, then I particularly enjoyed eating pancakes when I got home from the procedure. In anticipation of basically starving on Sunday, I had gone with DH to our favorite Italian restaurant on Saturday night and had a personal pizza and salad. I asked the doctor ahead of time if it would be OK to have pizza the day before the liquids-only day, and got his blessing to do so, as long as I didn’t overdo it. I had the points, so I went ahead.

So I was doing all right with my eating week until Tuesday came along. I went to a happy hour with my coworkers that was supposed to be from 4:30-6 p.m. It was at a wonderful Mexican restaurant, but I deliberately did not eat anything there, just had iced tea, because I thought I’d be eating salmon with DH and DS32 when I got home. I carpooled with one of my coworkers who lives near me, and she assured me we could leave by 6 p.m., because she had to pick up her son. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, it turned out that my coworker’s DH picked up their son, so we didn’t have a time constriction, and we ended up staying until 6:30 or so. By the time I got home, I was starving, and DH and DS32 hadn’t made the salmon and didn’t want to cook by that time. (Fair enough – it was over 100 degrees, so who wants the oven on?) I suggested something quick and easy, like turkey sandwiches or tuna melts, but they wanted pizza. Did I tell them to order from a pizza place I don’t like, and get a kind of pizza I don’t like, so I could eat a turkey sandwich or tuna melt myself and watch my points? I did not. Did I object to pizza because we’d just had it a few nights before? I did not. Nope, we ordered pizza to be delivered, which is NOT a good idea for me, because pizza is a trigger food for me, and I always eat too much of it when it’s delivered. And that’s exactly what happened. Sigh.

So I started the day on Wednesday, determined to do better. I went to the gym at 5 a.m. as I normally do on Wednesdays, and I ate decently until DH decided he wanted hamburgers for dinner. Did I say no and have a turkey sandwich instead? I did not. I went with him and had a hamburger AND French fries. Ugh!

Thursday is the last day of my eating week, since I weigh in on Friday mornings. I ate a point-friendly breakfast and lunch. But then, dagnabbit, we hadn’t planned for dinner, and DS32 was at work. So we went to a local Mexican place and shared a plate of nachos. And that’s not all! We stopped at Baskin Robbins and each got ice cream to take home too. What was I thinking?

I fully expected to have a gain on my scale Friday morning. But no, I actually lost a pound! What the heck?! Do I care why? No! Am I back on track and eating well this week? Yes! I want to keep the scale moving in the right direction!

How are you all doing with your eating these days? Does the weather affect your eating / cooking choices, like it does ours? How are you coping?

[hollygail]

I stopped counting points about a year after I started WW back in 2009. By June or July of 2010 I was following WW's Simply Filling Technique (which changed its name to Simply Filling and was the "no count" version of the original "Core" plan). There were foods that you didn't have to count (including boneless skinless white meat poultry, certain very lean cuts of beef, most vegetables and most fruits, whole gains, and regular sliced bread that contained up to 50 calories per slice). I reached goal and Lifetime at Goal after starting SFT and have followed its later versions ever since. You still had to count foods not on the "no count" list (which I sort of still do) even though when Weight Watchers changed its name to "WW" and completely stopped supporting the SF technique. My weight has gone up and down all summer. The highest I've been this summer is 4.8 pounds over goal (maintaining Lifetime at Goal means no more than 2 pounds over Goal) although most days I'm more like 2.something to 3 pounds over. I haven't been within that two pounds for several months. However, my clothes still fit (some more snugly than others...) but I'm still wearing size small... so I'm just keepin' on keepin' on these days, trying my best to return to "up to 2 pounds over" land...

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE!

Re today's topic: I had to smile at the stories of weight going up and down, because that is exactly what has been happening with me since I started the Ozempic. I officially weigh myself once a week, but find it really difficult to stay off the scale on other days. I have said this before, but for me, the "Z" in "Ozempic" should stand for "zigzag" as that is what my weight does! Up a few pounds, down a few more, over and over. I'm glad that the trend is downwards, but it drives me batty when the scale goes up.

I am doing well on what I eat. I do my best to stay away from junk food. Instead, I am eating fruit, especially fresh figs (SO delicious). That makes me happy as well as being good for me. My eye doctor wants me to eat lots of green and orange vegetables, plus fruit, so I am working on that.

I did have some ice cream about a week or maybe it was two weeks ago. However, I stopped afterwards and didn't have any more, at all. Partly because I didn't want the scale to bounce back up, but also because it just didn't taste as good as it used to.

DH made garlic bread this weekend, and I limited myself on the amount I ate. It actually wasn't difficult. I ate a few small pieces very slowly, and filled up on my main dish (chicken and broccoli).

I feel good about how I'm doing. AND I definitely want to thank all of you for the compliments!!

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

Good morning, and I’m glad to see our west coast folks are doing fine in terms of the tropical storm.
My eating lately has been , on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst, a solid 3. I’ve been doing ok during the day, then “enjoying” myself a bit too much at night. I’ve allowed my exercise to dwindle, citing laughably weak excuses. Today is Monday. Back on track.

[louise]

I'm running about like yoou are, Lynne. Have had a terrible 2 weeks foodwise. Today I'm trying for reasonable and also to get back on IF - when I don't that I actually don't eat at night!
Did do my strength training this morning so there's that too. Also threw out t e rest of the large jay of honey wheat pretzels I had bought. That's like "All I had was a muffin!". No scale for me just now.