1) They politely suggest that you go back on packaged food- beginning with lunches only. And you agree. It is a good idea. You have one meal you don't have to think about and it provides nice structure to the day.
I was surprised at how far you can stretch 475 calories. The packaged lunch was 1-300 calorie frozen entree (amy's burrito, a lean cuisine, or a kashi meal), salsa added 25 calories-
1-100 calorie salad (bean and tomato, lentils and feta, or orzo - not pictured), and 75 calories of either string beans or broccoli (that is A LOT of veg).
I spread it out all afternoon and I did not need a snack on most days, freeing up a lot of calories for dinner/pre-dinner snacking. I vowed to continue the frozen vegetable addition into my daily meals, but I have yet to actually do it.... I have, however, cut down on my alcohol drinking calories.
2) You feel VERY guilty about the slip in compliance. And it is a major slip- because this is real weight. That means 14,000 extra calories! Ouch. I hope they were worth it...
3) Finally, you get down to it and realize that you only have 2mo (or the rest of your life) left, and slip-ups are a normal part of life- so you get back up on the horse.
To do that, I am utilizing my blogging audience. I am going back to my daily recording (boring) blog posts. I need some additional accountability. I also need some of my own self-imposed structure. I need to know that I will be able to do this for myself when the dietitians and counselors are gone and it is just me. I need to find out how this diet will work for me. For my health. For the long haul.
I guess you can say this has been a long time coming. I have been in an eating/diet/recording funk for a while now. It was easier before to keep things under control though because of a number of stress related reasons-- but now my body has adapted to my high stress level and I am normally hungry.
So now I have to adapt.
I have the tools, I can do it!
I hope! :)
4 comments:
You can do it! You can.
And that Amy's burrito looks very very very delicious. So delicious that I may get one now.
Yes! You can definitely do it.
I am totally supportive of your final push in the effort! That said, you've done an amazing job and I'm sure they're just getting on your case because you're one of the few that remain so focused and compliant. I also think that we could attribute the gain to an amazing birthday cake that you made for a particular old as coal friend :)
Liz -
Hang in there! I'm also in the CALERIE study (early days...only 5 mos in) and the dieticians weren't as amused as I was with my calculations regarding how many meals I needed to substitute with cucumbers and broccoli in order to enjoy a couple of good single-malts. :) Good for you for making yourself accountable to us all--you can do it! Thanksgiving was bad for me (devout foodie + over 90 people at potluck family reunion + ridiculous food = extra pounds), so I've also needed to get back on the horse. Incidentally, your broccoli looks *delicious*--still crisp and healthy...yum! Do you stir-fry it with garlic? OMG, so good! If this is going to work as a lifestyle, we need to be realistic and accept the fact that once in a while a wine-and-cheese dinner will occur--it just can't be every night. I say this to justify my own love of cheese, of course. :) For me, denying myself those pleasures will make me rebel--so I try to cut back ahead of time (it's pretty easy to substitute extra veg for a few days ahead to "gain" a few hundred calories). Smaller portions in the heat of the moment don't always work for me, and cutting back LATER is possible but more difficult. Good luck--just remember that you're doing this for you and we respect you for it!
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