Day 1 of the SPAWN of SoDDD Challenge: Can the Princess Dieter convince Princess Wuss to do the 1200 Calories? The Battle's On! And some thoughts on eating at goal weight level and the upcoming holiday temptations...

Scale: 240.4

The Spawn of the Son of the Double Dog Dare Challenge begins TODAY!

If you didn't join in, too bad for you. The info and packet with menus is OUTSTANDING. Allan and crew did a great job. Thanks to all who put that together.

This is a short and disciplined challenge. The goal (at the strict end) is to eat 1200 calories and NO MORE plus a set number of ounces of fluids per day. The fluids are becoming second nature to me. I haven't missed the fluids goal a single day. In the previous two challenges, I think I only went over caloric goals three days, and I made up for all those and then some by eating less other days. So, really, I've been pretty damn golden since this series of challenges began. Even ill, I didn't overeat. Even on Thanksgiving, I didn't overeat.

This is the longest period of consistent sane eating that I've done...EVER...since I chubbed up in my twenties. I'm fifty. Do the math.

If you want to see how sticking to goal-weight caloric level and drinking oodles of water does a dieter good, go see Allan's charts today at http://almostgastricbypass.blogspot.com and marvel. Goal weight caloric level is not starvation level. It is a disciplined level--you will have to plan, think, control, and not overindulge, but that's what it's gonna take to MAINTAIN a weight loss, especially a massive one from hyperconditioned overeaters such as I am.  If you can't eat day in and day out at  your GOAL WEIGHT CALORIC LIMIT level, you will NOT BE ABLE TO MAINTAIN A LOSS. Period.

So, if living at this level was burdensome and un-doable, I would have had to reconsider my goal weight. Who knows? I may have to reconsider it anyway due to other factors. Or maybe I'll be one of the lucky few who can even go lower than goal weight. Doubt it. I've never skewed slim, not even as an active teen. My teen weight was in the 130's to low 140's, and that was biking, swimming, and walking a lot with a normal thyroid and being too poor to indulge in restaurants like I did as an adult (and do).

I have learned that I can enjoy many nice meals at 1700 calories. I can have filling and delicious meals. Not as much as I want every time. Not everything I want every day. Not a lot of my fave indulgences. Very little dessert. But that's how it is. People don't stay normal weight glomming on pizzas and cheese-drenched mega-burritos thrice a week and shoving cake and chocolate bars down the gullet every night. People stay normal weight, stay slender, stay lean by eating with constraints . And if like me you are a metabolic disaster, you don't get to fudge as much as some others. Life is unfair, then you die. (Okay, so I have the hope of  Heaven, which blunts the awfulness of that, heh.) So what's new? I assume God gave me a great brain, a caring family, and a dazzlingly loving and passionate and monogamously devoted hunk of a hubby to make up for a defective respiratory system, weak teeth, acne, eczema, depression tendencies, a crap immune system, and a screwed-up metabolism. Hubby says so. :D

So, when I eat with my Great Big True Hunky Love, I don't get second and third helpings. I guess I'll just have more sex.

Now, back to food:

I have not fully committed to the 1200 level. I am committed to not going over my goal weight level, and even to staying nicely under.

But I did test the waters. Yesterday, I had the first day that was really close to the DNA test diet recommendations for me (65/20/15)My carb/fat/protein ratio was  63/15/22. I also ate only 1208 calories. I was not hungry. I did have cravings. I almost had another mini-meal cause of those cravings. But I persevered.

It wasn't a lot of food, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. I think because I had a lot of fiber (36 grams) that helped make me feel full.

So, for me, this is an ambivalent beginning, but I am determined to continue to the end, no matter where in the acceptable caloric range I end up daily. Christmas will be a challenge, moreso than Thanksgiving for me. Christmas has emotional connotations and is so saturated in nostalgia that it may trigger the emotional monster. I will do what I need to do to calm the grief-monster that emerges, too, since my parents and beloved aunt are deceased. I always miss the gone-folks most at Nochebuena (Christmas Eve, when we Cubans celebrate the holiday). Dad and my brother watching over the roast pig is a memory. Mom making empanadillas from scratch. My aunt always stirring something in some big pot. Singing Spanish carols that were my mom's fave. Stories of "old Cuba" from parents and siblings. (I have no memories, so I always felt a big hole, a bit left out, but I'd sit and listen to the reminiscences.)

If I can get through Nochebuena, I'll be fine. :)

So, onto the SPAWN CHALLENGE:

Food Log...

BREAKFAST:
2 slices WW toast made into a sandwich with:
1/3 cup egg whites scrambled with 1/4 cup chopped tomato/onion/bell pepper and
1 slice 2% American cheese
3 slices Canadian bacon
1 cup fresh papaya chunkes with spritz of lime.
Supplements: Calcium +D, Magnesium, Quercetin, Fiber, Multi, probiotics
3 cups coffee
8 glasses water (6 before, two after)

calories:  333
fluids:  88 oz

LUNCH:
2 cups Amy's light in sodium Minestrone Soup
1 tbsp shaved parmesan
3 skewers Satay Chicken with 1 tbsp peanut sauce
2 cups decaf
6 glasses water

calories:  517
fluids: 64 oz (not counting soup)


calories so far: 850
fluids so far:  152 oz

DINNER: Was craving both SWEET and SALTY and arugula...so the weird dinner you see:

Arugula and tomato salad with 2 tbsp shaved parmesan and 2 tsp EVOO
WS hotcakes with sugar free syrup, 1 tsp ICBInotButter , 2 tbsp applesauce, and cinnamon
assorted supplements
2 cups decaf
4 glasses water

calories:  397
fluids: 48 oz

Total Calories: 1247
Total Fluids:  200 oz