Interesting article about food diaries

Double Your Weight Loss: the Write Idea

Wouldn't it be nice if there was something you could do to double your weight loss efforts?

According to one of the largest and longest running weight-loss trials ever conducted, there is.

What's this new weight-loss miracle? Is it a drug? A new machine for blasting your abs? A crazy diet where you eat nothing but broccoli?

Double Weight LossNo. It's simply your keyboard. Keeping a food diary -- recording what you eat throughout the day -- can double a person's weight loss efforts, according to a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research. Read more . . .

YAY for my online Food Log

I think this is going to help A LOT in keeping me on track or, rather, keeping me from letting getting off track last longer. I have been sick for the last week and a half. Between horrific menstrual pain and a bout of food poisoning, I just did not do well. And my food log shows it. I didn't keep it correctly, didn't even go back and try to at least guess at what I ate. It was grim.

Now, had this been a paper log, it would be under a couch or bed at this time and I wouldn't have the energy to find it. So I would just lapse back into not paying attention to my diet and how I feel. But because my food log is online, accessible from anywhere I can get on a computer, I have been able to drag myself back to keeping it . . .and to thinking about the consequences of eating bad stuff. (I'm pretty sure the food poisoning was not at all helped by eating junk food last weekend because I was still feeling crappy from my period.)

Anyway, I feel quite hopeful that this is the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship that helps me completely change my lifestyle!

Combatting Resistance

Anyone who is trying to overcome bad habits and make positive lifestyle changes faces it. Resistance to change. I'm struggling with that right now, so I'm trying to make tiny changes that I can slip under the radar of my subconscious. :D Additionally, I'm struggling to rebuild a body devastated by three years of chronic pain. This week (and you may notice my weeks run Thursday to Thursday because that is when my TOPS Chapter meets) I am working on two things: totally removing refined sugars from my diet and just getting back in the habit of exercising every morning.

So far the sugar is going pretty good, but that's because this is a goal I return to regularly and have made permanent progress on over years of behavior modification. My goal for this week is to have no more than one sweetened soft drink. I allow myself the one because I have a very public life and chances are I'll be somewhere in the next week where a soft drink is my only option and I'm thirsty.

At home I use raw sugar, when I use added sugar at all. The only things I add sugar to are coffee and oatmeal. Raw sugar, at least in my opinion, is better than refined. It could be all my head, but when I miss my morning coffee and have to have coffee at office where the choices are white sugar or artificial sweetners, I notice I am more . . hyper. I'm not sure of a good way to test the validity of this observation, but I figure, eh, if raw sugar works, even in my head, I'll just use it.

I've having a more difficult time with exercise goals. Anyone who knows me knows I have a ferret-like mind that is easily distracted and so, as I've been doing searches and reading books about physical training, it is easy for me to see a cool link and end up pondering a page on the effects of climate change on larval termites or something bizarre like that. I've been adding to the links at the side though and have added a page to my Food and Exercise Log (see links at right) where I am compiling exercises I can manage and the reps each day.

So, I guess my exercise goal for this week should be to come up with a program I can manage and stick to it.

Friday, November 11, 2006

Got up 630a

breakfast
coffee
leftover noodles

500 mg calcium
1000 mg C
1 garlic capsule

snack
none

lunch
bowl of beef soup

snack
none

dinner
2 pieces chicken
2 bisquits
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
12 oz coke

30 mg Cymbalta (doctor increased dosage a bit, so let's see if I start feeling better.)

went to be 1230a

Some small improvement in irritability. One of my agents commented that it was good to hear me humming again. Of course, I was humming Re: Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

Out of bed 630a

BP 118/80

Breakfast
2 mini bagels
coffee

500 mg calcium
1000 mg C
garlic capsule

snack
none

Lunch (1230p)
clam chowder
sourdough roll

400 mg ibuprofen
40 mg Cymbalta

snack
green tea

Dinner
chicken noodles

evening snack
nachoes
ice tea


Still feeling quite taut and hostile. Been going on all week. Thought maybe it was the election, but it has not eased up at all. Thought maybe it was because I had a couple of beers earlier in the week, but that should be out of my system by now. So I have no clue why I'm so angry and ready to cry.

Wednesday, November 8, 2005

Woke up 6a

Breakfast
two mini bagles
coffee

Snack
chocolate coin

Lunch
bowl of beef soup
sourdough roll
(walked to WHHS to help a friend)

Snack
1/4 sandwich
strawberry
2 olives
cauliflower floret

Dinner
Pork stirfry
3/4 wh rice

Bedtime 1030 BP 79/41

Very tense and angry. Difficult to relax or s

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Woke up: 430a

Breakfast
coffee

Snack
chips

Lunch
Beef vegetable soup
Whole grain bread.

Snack
None

Dinner
Leg quarter BBQ chicken
1.5 cup pasta roni

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Got up 6a
BP 124/72

Breakfast
Raisin Bran
1/2 c 1% milk
Coffee

Snack
Strawberry Yogurt

Lunch
Split Pea and Ham Soup
c raw veggies

Snack
none

Dinner
way to much junk

BP 164/72
Bedtime 10p

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Woke up around 7a. BP 105/55 (it was 116/72 when I went to bed)

Exercise
Mild stretches, walked to store

Breakfast
Half a bagel, a slice of ham and cream cheese
Large coffee

Snack
Low Fat Pumpkin Muffin, medium

Lunch
1 cup seafood salad

Snack
Bagel

Dinner
Pork kabobs
Broccoli

BP 124/74 8p
Bed 8p

Food And Exercise 10.6.6

Better Today

I lay in the middle of the empty master suite, just getting the feel of it, arranging things in my mind. Wouldn't mind doing something really radical, but will probably stick with the bed between the windows. Ironic that I have one of the biggest beds you can get and I use less than a single bed's worth of space. But that could work out. LOL If I decide to cam a lot, I can set the cam to only see the side of the bed I don't use. It will look like I make the bed.

Anyway, while laying there I decided to do a bit of stretching. Ended up with 20 leg lifts, 10 each side leg lifts and a variety of stretches and yoga positions. I hope I can keep the furniture to a minimum so I have room to do this every morning. Just feel better when I start the day with some floor exercise.

Breakfast: 730a
Jack's Sausage and Egg Bisquit

Snack:
Large Coffee and flirts

Lunch:
Subway Italian BMT, 6"

Dinner:
3 pieces chicken
1/4 cup collard greens
2 Tbs mashed potato/gravy
12 oz cola

Food And Exercise for 10.5.06

Not one of my best days:

No exercise.

Breakfast
Coffee

Snack 9a
Coffee
Low Fat Berry Peach Scone

Lunch 11a
sausage
serving Lay's chips

Snack
Fish sandwich

Dinner
Baked potato with cheese, sour cream and chicken
1/2 cup pasta
sm apple