Jewish Musings, Wednesday, July 3, 2024

[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:

Frieda (hopefully)?
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! Tuesday was a strange eating day for me.

I’ve been doing well with my eating, but for some reason I had a strong craving for pizza for lunch. I could have gone to a local restaurant and had an individual-sized pizza, which would have been an indulgence but still manageable. But no, it was 98 degrees outside, and I also had already planned to do my Jane Fonda dance DVD during my lunchtime, so I decided to order pizza instead for delivery instead. DH and DS33 joined me, and we all enjoyed the heck out of it, even though it put me negative with my points.

But I did do the dance DVD, which minimized the damage a bit, and I was thinking, well, I’ll eat a smaller dinner or maybe have something more point-friendly than what we’d planned, but nope, I didn’t do either of those things. I had a normal dinner and somehow didn’t feel stuffed from all the pizza from lunch, but I also wasn’t tempted to have any of my favorite ice cream that is currently in the freezer. As of now (Tuesday night), I’m minus six points, which isn’t that bad, because I’ll earn that in activity points when I go to the gym Wednesday morning.

I’ve been trying to figure out why I feel so strange about all this. I ate too much and went over my points, on the one hand, so I’m kind of annoyed with myself for not doing better. OTOH, I satisfied my craving and totally enjoyed the indulgence, and I did what I could to help fix the damage, so I’m kind of happy with myself for not doing worse, like saying to heck with it, I blew it anyway, so I might as well have a nice big bowl of ice cream. Am I learning anything or not? Am I spinning my wheels or taking baby steps? I can’t tell. But I do plan to get back on track Wednesday morning.

Where are all of you with your WLJ this week?

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Re today's topic: peachymom1, don't kick yourself. You're doing fine! There's nothing wrong with indulging cravings, as long as you are reasonable about it, and it sounds like you are.

As for me, I am doing well with my WLJ. I have been eating a lot of fish, chicken and vegetables. We are going to have ribs tomorrow (an Independence Day tradition for us), but I will follow peachymom1, 's example: "satisfying my craving and totally enjoying the indulgence" without going overboard. I will pay attention to my feelings of hunger and fullness, and respect my needs/wants.

It's not that long ago that when faced with a platter of ribs that I would eat as much as I could possibly stuff down, just because it tasted so good. I've realized that if I don't do that, there will be some left for another meal. Also, if DS and DH eat them all up, well, there are plenty of other good foods I can have, and I will have ribs again in the future. It's not like this is going to be the last or only time I can have food that I enjoy.

This may sound simple, but it took YEARS for this idea to sink in. The Wegovy has made a difference, as has therapy, as has talking about cravings with people who understand. I appreciate being able to discuss food with you!

I'm holding steady at just over 67 pounds gone, woo hoo! DH is being helpful about making more vegetables, after listening to the gastro doctor at my colonoscopy. I think I mentioned that he made a gigantic container of homemade red cabbage coleslaw. We've been eating it every day. I think he used plain yogurt as well as a little mayo, so it is very light. It has been going particularly well with the chicken.

I hope all of you have a peaceful day today, a wonderful Independence Day tomorrow, and success and happiness in whatever you want to do, Lee

[gazelle18]

I think that not eating ice cream after having eaten a more than expected number of pizza slices at lunch is quite an accomplishment. It is a shift from the “all or nothing” thinking to a more mature thought process. Be back later with more …

[hollygail]

I'm doing fine. After my slight gain (within 2 lbs over goal, so still within the WW "limits"), I'm now back to within 2 lbs below goal (ditto). I didn't do anything out of the ordinary; I went back to eating the way I did before the trip to Oregon where I ate my DDIL's "lots of oil" cooking...

I went to a webinar today (and there are three more in the series) of "pop" music with Jewish themes. Today we listened to four songs about the flood (although not all of them paralleled the Noah's flood story). I loved it. He played for us "Rock Steady" by Sting, "Here Comes the Flood" by a British group called Divine Comedy, "Lost in the Flood" by Bruce Springsteen, and Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood." He analyzed each one. ("He" is Rabbi Raphael Zarum from the London School of Jewish Studies; he's probably in his late 50s to approximately middle-late 60s. He was a teenager when he was listening to them.) I'm impressed; I copied the URLs for everything he offered and plan to attend each of the next three sessions too. (If anyone is interested, it was offered by a group called Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program (CSP for short). They've apparently been around a long time (20+ years); I'd never heard of them before (and Orange County is between San Diego County and Los Angeles County, so I've been through Orange County lots of times). I have no idea how I got on their distribution list, but glad of it!

[louise]

Peachy I think you did great. There are many times I have eaten way over and NOT enjoyed it so the fact that yours had a beginning and an end and that it comletely satisfied you is golden!

Today we had a party at the ofice - pizza and cake (which I baked of course). I had way too much of both and atuallyy feel sick. My first response was to try and make it up tomorrow but I've learned that te very best thing I can do is just be normal and moderate tomorrow. So that's my plan. Disappointed that I kept going back for more - I always think those days are over but no, the food seems always to be lying in wait (well, that's how it feels).

[peachymom1]

"Normal and moderate" -- that's my new mantra! Thanks, Louise!