Saturday, September 29, 2007

Finally Someone Does What I Tell Them To!

My Mother who originally started emailing her food diary, along with my friend and I, 7 months ago has finally gotten on board for real this time and has seen a 3 pound loss this past week because of it! Heretofore she had been intermittently sending out her food diaries and had lost a few pounds and then regained them over the last couple of months but she wasn't really committed she was just going through the motions. She didn't really change how she ate or what she ate, just how much (some of the time), and she didn't change her activity level. Now finding herself back where she started and facing a big trip to Japan in a few weeks she wanted to get back on board and lose 10 lbs. So this time I asked her if she would just do what I told her to do and try it for a month. She agreed. We've gone through this more than once so I was SHOCKED when she actually followed through.. okay she didn't the first week but she did the second week and lost three pounds.
My mom is a classic emotional eater.. uses food to self medicate really... and she is a binge eater so some of the things that I do we had to cut out of her plan in order to keep her from sabotaging. Typically I'm a big believer in treats, but my mom can't have a box of chocolates or a freezer full of cookie dough and have just one. I am fortunate that this isn't my eating MO! So here is what I told her. I wanted her to weigh everything and count calories whenever possible... even when she thinks she knows them double check. (In the past she has been big on telling me "I know how many calories are in ____" ...well that's great... I do too but I measure and weigh to be sure I'm accurate. Let's face it you are only going to lose weight if you know exactly how much you are eating... *thinking* you know is how you got where you are! I wanted her to eat a 300 calorie breakfast... not one freaking banana cause she's not really hungry... "but I guess you were hungry 2 hours later when you had to get lunch at Taco Bell... eat the damn breakfast!" (Yes this is really how we talk to each other) So she is essentially to follow my plan minus the dessert, she says she doesn't need it. So she's eating 300, 100, 300, 100, 400.. or there abouts and yes I know it is 1200 calories, she is 55 and her metabolism is shot! I also wanted her to workout for at least an hour a day preferably an hour and a half. Boy oh boy did she balk at that. But I said, as I have many times, "what you have been doing hasn't worked I really think you need to exercise a lot to pick up your metabolism."

She attempted to submit some dieting clauses... these may sound familiar:

#1 "I Can't Do That"
As for the longer exercise she gave every excuse imaginable... including that the dogs get too tired after 45 minutes... the dogs?!?! "Drop the damn dogs off at home and keep walking!"... "Oh" she said.... I'm serious about the exercise folks, 45 minutes is not enough, try kicking out 60 plus minutes of cardio 5 times a week and you will see HUGE results.

#2 "What About A Day Off"
"You don't think you deserve a weekend off after a good week" My mom asked. "What?! stop messing with me mom!" I shouted into the phone. "I'm not...I'm serious" she said sheepishly. "NO I don't!" I retorted... You see it is something as simple as thinking you deserve a reward for being good that is indicitive of a sabotager. Your reward for being good is not being fat! If you allow yourself to earn treats... you are going to earn your way to one thing... your old goddamn lifestyle. Weight loss will only work if you change the way think about your relationship with food.

#3 "I Can't Start Today..."
Then she told me she couldn't start right away because she had a whole bunch of food in the garden. "Throw it out" "I will not throw it out I can't throw out perfectly good food" "Mom when you are a financially stable overweight woman you are still throwing it out... you are just throwing it in your gut instead of the trash" (light bulb moment people... take it in) I then told her to give it to a food pantry which she agreed she could do.

In the end she took notes and agreed to try it my way for the next month. Okay so her first week she was still challenging me... what else is new? Then she came to my house and noticed how much thinner I am now and said "I want a piece of that" went home and sucked it up and tried it my way... and what do you know?... boom... three pounds lighter! Let me just say this, I am incredibly proud of my mom. She sabotages herself for a living... and it is deep rooted! She said after she weighed in (only once a week) she was so elated and felt so proud that when she went to play bridge (a temptation disaster waiting to happen) she stopped on the way and had a double hamburger (330 cal) so she wouldn't be hungry and she could be in control of her calorie intake. This was a huge victory for her, typically she would skip lunch and then figure she could have all the snacks to make up for it. This time she felt in control and didn't give into the snacky temptations and left there feeling better than ever. Once you get going it is an upward spiral... control begets control. Try it! If my mom can do it you can do it. Give it one week. You can do anything for one week. This is not starvation... this is not impossible.. this is accounting for what you eat and exercising... that is all.

18 comments:

E. Broderick Photography said...

I love that--throwing it out in your gut, not the garbage. I don't have an issue with throwing out food, really. Obviously I am not purposely wasteful, but I don't really overeat just to save food. (I'm the opposite--"This is one day old. Does it smell weird? What's that funny spot? Mold must be invisible before you can see it so there could be mold...ew! Throw it out!") By biggest mistakes, I think, are: not being prepared. (Packing my lunch on work days can be hard.) Snacking out of boredom and/or habit. Example: popcorn when I watch a movie. Empty carbs. I do have a bit of an emotional eating issue, too--not like I am distraught and eat a tub of ice cream, more like--I'm tired, bored, cold--I want a hot chocolate. There's a perfect apple in the fridge, but I'm "not in the mood"--I want something else...I am a moody-eater. Good for your mom! I don't feel like I lost anythign real this week but I dragged my ass o the treadmill at 6:30 even though I wanted nothing to do with it and--like almost always--once I started I actually liked it! Oka--this time, I really am goign to bed. ;)

Mr Furious said...

"... Once you get going it is an upward spiral... control begets control..."

What does it say about me that I read that as "bagels"...

Toast said...

Finely Someone Does What I Tell Them To!

Uh oh. Looks like someone has AOHD...

Mrs Furious said...

Eileen,
Obviously I am not purposely wasteful, but I don't really overeat just to save food.
Yeah I think this is somewhat generational... I feel like your mom would feel the same way.

This week was crazy what with the visitors and family time. You'll see some results next week for sure! I'm having a hard time picking up my routine when I entered the week half way through! Tomorrow is a new week thank god.

Mrs Furious said...

Toast,

I feel like an idoit... what is AOHD?

Mrs Furious said...

I especially feel like an idiot for spelling it "idoit"!

E. Broderick Photography said...

Funny--you always point out your spelling mistakes but I don't think you caught the funniest one of all. From the day with the picture of the scale at 117--you typed 'pubic' instead of 'public.' Hee, hee. Yes--my mom will eat something half rotten if it means not throwing it away. And I think that is why I am overboard in the opposite direction. When I go to their house I am always checking dates and sniffing everything before I dare eat it. GROSS! (Yikes--just re-read my entry, holy typos at 1:00 in the morning!)

Mrs Furious said...

shit I've got to go fix that one! You all need to let me know this stuff!

michelline said...

shit I've got to go fix that one! You all need to let me know this stuff!

Well, in that case, the title of your post should be "Finally..."

And right here - well that's great... I do to but I measure and weigh it should be "I do too.."

Hey don't hit me, you asked :)

Mrs Furious said...

Dammit.. I keep looking at Finely... thinking why does that not look right.. and yet Mr F and I never caught it!

too... shmoo.. that's nothing!

michelline said...

The only thing I would disagree with is on the exercise. I don't disagree that 60+ minutes of exercise will show big results, I don't agree that it's a necessity. If you're working on your eating habits, you can see good results with 30 minutes a day. I also think it's much more realistic for most people.

10 years ago, when I lost 50 pounds, I did it by exercising on a machine (called an airwalker) 30 minutes a day, and following good eating habits.

I've never gotten back to that low point I was at over 10 years ago, but I have had my ups and downs. My problem is I eat whatever the hell I want. It's only the exercise that's keeping me from exploding.

michelline said...

too... shmoo.. that's nothing!

lol. The to/too errors, wherever I see them, always stick out like a giant flashing light to me.

Mrs Furious said...

If you're working on your eating habits, you can see good results with 30 minutes a day.

I think it depends on who you are. My mom has exercised for 30 mins several times a week for years and still managed not to be able to lose weight at that level. #1 you are a man.... and ten years ago you were a man in his 20s! Women need to work harder to lose those pesky fat stores! #2 age is a factor here. I think 30 min for cardio health or to maintain is probably ample for most people.... as long as they work hard for 30 min. My mom, for one, is definitely not running! I think it depends what you want out of your weight loss and how quickly you want to see results. Obviously I am pushing myself and seeing big results.. I find that much more motivating .... I'd rather kick it out a little longer and see bigger changes. I'd also rather make up more of my calorie deficit with exercise than food :)

Mrs Furious said...

The to/too errors, wherever I see them, always stick out like a giant flashing light to me

I'm usually typing with one hand... I can't be that picky! And no matter how many times I read something I just don't ever see those mistakes.

E. Broderick Photography said...

Spelling mistakes. Funny. I notice everyone else's before my own. I think when we write we know what we mean to say so we read it as if we had written it correctly. Our brain "fixes" it for us. I shared that theory with my kids when I was a teacher and they used it all the time. "Miss Tierney--I didn't even see that--my brain fixed it for me!" It was cute. Obviously some of them were full of shit, but it let the really bad spellers off the hook and they didn't feel as ashamed. I am personally a very good speller. I am not always careful, especially in casual writing like in a blog--or late at night--but I honestly think it is an innate skill. You either have it or you don't. I know plenty of very intelligent people who can't spell to save their lives and others of us have always been able to spell correctly. Some of it I attribute to reading--I read like crazy my whole life and I think the more you see words, the better you spell them. But I also think for some people it is just missing--like a genetic quirk or something! And I hate for kids to feel bad about that. Some kids are careless but many simply don't know how to spell and don't see their own errors. Parents often get all worked up about it and want to know what I (teacher) or they could do to fix it. I tried to establish the difference between being careless and simply not knowing and pretty much encouraged them to back off and let it be. Okay--holy tangent, BatMan. :)

Mrs Furious said...

I hear ya... for some reason I feel like I make more spelling errors when I'm posting/commenting than I ever have before. Possibly because I am doing it so fast. I hate the comments since you can't go back and change them! But I agree when I am writing so quickly I often seem not to spell things wrong as much as type a homonym for some reason... like it is the first spelling my brain assumes and I just freakin' type it and then of course I read it the way I meant it... and added bonus spell check won't catch it either!

Toast said...

I feel like an idoit... what is AOHD?

Adult-Onset Homophone Disorder.

I decided there had to be such a disease the first time I found myself typing "Know" when I meant "No".

Mrs Furious said...

Adult-Onset Homophone Disorder

That is fucking hilarious... I absolutely have it!

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