mizducky's migrations: a weight management blog with attitude

Weekly weigh-in: hurrah! ... I think

Today's numbers -- drum roll, please:

• Today's weight: 199.5 lb
• Change since last week: -1.5 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 134.5 lb
• Average weekly weight change: -1.62 lb

Admittedly it's kind of hard to tell for certain with my Heisenberg Uncertainty Bathroom Scale, but it looks like I have finally cracked the 200-pound boundary! Hurray for me!

Again, as I've also ranted on at length, the magic number on the scale has a certain arbitrariness to it -- which is kind of why I haven't replaced my crap bathroom scale (besides the fact that I'm a tightwad), since its imprecision reinforces how arbitrary its readings are. Plus something as goofy as an overly-salty dinner could easily cause my weight to jog back up next week ...

But contradiction and inconsistency have never stopped me before, so I am going to unabashedly bask in this moment.

Now, way back at the beginning of this project, I had said that in lieu of setting a goal weight according to those IMO ridiculously underweight actuarial tables, I was simply going to aim for 200 pounds, and see what things felt like when I got there. Well ... I've gotten there, and things feel pretty darned good. I haven't gotten all precise with a pedometer but I think I am now capable of walking a mile without wrecking myself. Even more important to my soul, I can now spend an evening out dancing without being a wreck the next day. I haven't blown off all the meds, but I've been able to drastically reduce a bunch of them, as well as do without the CPAP machine.

I still don't think I'm ready to take up backpacking again -- even in my 20s when I was in excellent shape, my knees weren't too happy about that sport. And though I intend to try bicycling again, I'm not sure my knees will care for that either. But even if I completely halted in place right now, I think I could happily work with my current physical state for a good long time.

Certainly I wouldn't mind taking off even a little more -- as long as the process stays as gentle as it currently is. In other words, no changes to the plan, and if any more weight comes off, that's fine. And if not, that's fine too. According to my calculations, I'm still in just enough of a calorie deficit that I can expect continued very gradual weight loss for some time to come. And that's just fine by me.

Weekly weigh-in: holding steady amidst the busyness

Sorry to be posting so late--it's been yet another wacky week. The numbers:

• This week's weight: 201.0 lb
• Change since last week: 0.0 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 133.0 lb
• Average weekly weight change: -1.62 lb

So you see, there wasn't much to miss as I'm holding steady from last week. Which is fine--nice to be stabilizing around that weight. Hopefully, things should be slowing down a little fairly soon now, and I'll be able to devote a little more time to this blog again. But it's nice to know, even though I am so busy, that my little regimen is not melting down under the stress but staying effectively in place.

In praise of watermelon

"The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world's luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took; we know it because she repented."

This Mark Twain quote just slays me. And I just had some watermelon deserving of such an epigram.

It was one of those baby seedless jobbies from Dulcinea Farms, and it was crisp-fleshed, super-sweet, intensely flavorful, and a beautiful ultra-watermelon-red. Just a few soft little white seeds, too. And it's also healthy as all-get out, naturally low in calories and the deep red color shows how loaded with lycopene it is.

I should have taken a photo of it, it was so pretty, but wanting to eat it kind of distracted me. There are leftovers; they're all cubed up and squirreled away in the fridge. Ice-cold watermelon on hot humid day--yum.

Weekly weigh-in: inching in more ways than one

First, the numbers (late again):

• Yesterday's weight: 201.0 lb
• Change since last week: -0.5 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 133.0 lb
• Average weekly weight change: -1.64 lb

So my cheap-ass bathroom scale continues to measure weight according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: the very act of stepping on the scale to measure my weight seems to change its mind about what I weigh. This is wonderful reinforcement about the general meaninglessness of any particular number on the scale, but does make it a little challenging to do this weekly weigh-in exercise. So the above numbers should be understood to be all approximations ... but reasonable and even conservative approximations. And that's okay.

Especially since I measured my waist recently, because I was once again detecting that clothes I had bought only recently were hanging on me a bit more loosely than when I bought them. And it turns out that my waist has now snuck down to the 40" mark, which is pretty damn remarkable since I can't remember when last my waist was that small.

In fact, it's even cooler that I actually have a waist now. Not just because of aesthetics, but also because its those abdominal fat deposits (as opposed to the ones on ass and thighs) that correlate so significantly with type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and similar health issues related to weight. I had long been one of those hour-glass shaped fat women, but in more recent years I was definitely getting into the so-called "apple" shape that heightened my statistical risk.

Yeah, it's all statistics and correlation does not equal correlation and all that crap but having gotten off easy with one big statistical bugaboo last summer (the ovarian cancer scare), I'm just as glad to be no longer pressing my luck on any other medical risks that I can avoid. After all, there's only so many times you can tempt the Fate Goddess before she gets tired of your hubris and slaps you one upside the head. Or so I like to believe ... and hey, it's working for me so far.

The 10 Best Foods You Aren't Eating

Now here's a nice basic article on ten foods that are great for health. I think I've tried just about all of them at one point or another; in fact, cabbage (and other cruciferous vegetables), beets, and prunes are permanent fixtures on my shopping lists.(By the way, if you want to get gogi berries without the high markup at chichi natural foods stores, check your local Asian market--the Chinese have been using it as a medicinal food for centuries.)

read more | digg story

Singing the praises of Stevia

It's been ages since I've had a new addition to my list of Diet Foods That Don't Suck, but I've finally stumbled across a real beaut. Actually, I had been hearing about stevia for some time, but just hadn't bothered to check it out until just the other day--and now I wish I'd done so years ago.

For stevia may be the holy grail of weight-conscious people: an all-natural, herb-based sweetener with zero calories and zero carbs.

Yep, you read that right. I know--seems highly improbable, no? That's why I resisted checking the stuff out for so long. I thought it had to be a crock. But no--the stuff is really what it bills itself to be.

I bought a jar of powdered stevia extract from Trader Joe's, and have used it successfully in a variety of ways. It's great for sweetening beverages and sprinkling over tart berries or plain yogurt. Its powdered form makes it reminiscent of powdered sugar; only about a quarter-teaspoon is enought to sweeten a big glass of strong iced coffee to my liking. Like other non-nutritive sweeteners, it does have a slightly bitter aftertaste, but less so than several others I've used over the years, such as saccharine. And unlike saccharine, this stuff comes not from a test-tube but from a plant that's been grown for its naturally-sweet leaves for years.

The stuff is not without controversy -- apparently, due to some later-debunked studies, the FDA put a total embargo on the stuff for some time; when those studies were debunked, the FDA relented sufficiently to allow its sale but only when sold on its own as a nutritional supplement. One can't help but sense the long arm of the chemicalized diet food industry, leaning hard on the FDA to keep this stuff from cutting into their profits. Especially since the herb is apparently super-easy to grow at home.

It's by no means perfect--right now I'm unclear on how useable it is for baking, though I suspect that since its sweetening power is not based on any sugars, it probably can't pull off any of the confectionary chemistry that only sugars can pull off. But there do seem to be stevia cookbooks out there, so I intend to check them out. Making some baked goods that are high in healthy nutrients and low in refined-sugar empty calories would definitely be sweet. (Sorry--couldn't resist.)

For more about stevia, check out this page.

Weekly weigh-in: slowly she inched, step by step ... plus: the "did you just lose some more weight" syndrome

Thought I forgot about y'all, didn't you? Life got hectic yet again. But first, the numbers:

• Yesterday's weight: 201.5 lb
• Change since last week: -0.5 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 132.5 lb
• Average weekly weight change: -1.66 lb

Just inching along some more ... or at least I think I'm inching along. Truth be known, my cheap-ass bathroom scale seems to have gone out of whack, so that if I step on it three times in succession it gives me three different readings. Needless to say, this kind of imprecision is kind of crazy-making to my inner diet-obsessive (not to mention my inner science geek). However, the idea of replacing the scale is running headlong into my inner tightwad, who refuses to cough up another chunk of change for another crappy scale, and is absolutely having a cow over the exorbitant pricetags on non-crappy scales.

Sooner or later this situation is going to frustrate me enough that I will break down and replace the damn thing, but in the meantime I'm treating it as another object lesson in the arbitrary nature of that magic number on the dial. Because, as a matter of fact, I'm continuing to get more than enough outside acknowledgement of my weight loss to negate any weirdness generated by my weird-ass bathroom scale. Though sometimes that outside acknowledgement has its own little weirdness factor.

You see, I've noticed this phenomenon: normally people who see you on a regular basis don't make comment on any change from day to day, because it's so slight as to be unnoticeable. But there seems to be some threshold of cumulative weight change that's sufficient to cause those same people to suddenly go "hey, did you just lose some more weight?"

Of course you didn't "just" lose that poundage--you've been slowly and patiently working them off for the past several weeks or months. But to the outside observers, it's only just crossed that threshold of visibly noticeable weight loss. And since they perceive it as having only just happened recently, that's how they phrase their comments. Don't get me wrong--I'm totally stoked to receive those comments, however they happen to be phrased. But I just can't help being amused.

Anyway, apparently I must have recently crossed another of those thresholds of visibly noticeable weight loss, because in the past week I have received a whole new raft of "hey, did you 'just' lose a bunch more weight" comments from people who see me on a semi-regular basis.

Mind you, I think I may have helped that along at least a little by some new clothing purchases--nothing like wearing some jeans that are not baggy for a change to draw attention to the changing contours of one's bod. Of course, if I'm doing things right those new jeans will eventually become baggy in turn, and my continued progress will once more be camoflaged . . . until I cough up money for yet another wardrobe replacement.

And then, I'm willing to bet cash money that I will provoke yet another new round of "Hey--did you 'just' lose a bunch more weight?" Heh. Guess I'm easily amused. Though no less grateful.

Weekly weigh-in: twiddling downward this time; plus: goodies for "E"

Today's numbers:

• Today's weight: 202.0 lb
• Change since last week: -1.0 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 132.0 lb
• Average weekly weight change: -1.67 lb

So this week, the pound I've been twiddling up and down the past couple of weeks has twiddled back down again. Hmmm. I'll only consider that a serious return to a downward trend if next week I either stay there or twiddle further downward.

Otherwise, nothing much to report. Just staying the course, while further settling into my new living arrangements. I continue to cook for Mr. "E", which sometimes includes a goodie or two I normally wouldn't mess with. For instance, I bought some more-decent-than-usual-looking supermarket strawberries, so tonight I'm going to make strawberry shortcakes for dessert. This is not such a heavy-duty hit as it sounds, either from a calorie or an effort standpoint: the biscuits are those Pillsbury poppin-fresh jobs, the whipped cream is out of a spray can, and the strawberries just need slicing and maybe a teaspoonful of sugar to get them to release their juices. A relatively low-impact way to make "E" smile, which makes me smile.