Portion Creep, Weight Creep, and the Big Wake-Up Call....and the Good (bread) Plates Come to the Rescue. :D

Um, well, dang. Today, the scale said, "Hey, you're gaining too much weight, Missy."

174.4

The lowest was, for a brief few days, 169.8. Then back to the 170s.

I've had a bad case of portion creep. Or portion dump. Appetite came back with a vengeance with the release of tension once hubby found a nice job.

I've just been dumping food on my plate and going to town.

So, today, I went to the cabinet and got out the gold-rimmed heirloom Bavarian china that's decades old, plates I inherited from my mother-in-law. I figured if I was gonna eat less, I was gonna eat it in style.

Breakfast today got served on very small, very shiny/gleamy/pretty plates that are about 6 or 7 inches wide (though the serving area is only like 5 inches, the rest is rim.  They're pretty much bread plates. Or VERY TINY salad or appetizer plates.

Here's how I put the pretties to use: One for my protein. One for my fruit.

To keep the beautiful vibe going, I had my coffee in a matching ivory and gold-rimmed (though not Bavarian) Noritake teacup (so pretty) and Ralph Lauren saucer (so classy). I had acquired those years ago at a big sale where mismatched stuff got hugely discounted over at Macy's. It was a steal. The Noritake cup had no saucer. The Lauren saucer had no cup. But the pattern and colors matched, so I snapped them up super cheap. Less than 15 bucks for both, real china, real gold. SHAZAM! I use them when I am in the mood to jazz up my coffee or tea.

Those small plates means not a lot of food, but lots of eye-nourishment to help make up for it.

I figure my first meal of the day had crept up to 800 calories in the last couple weeks.

Today, it was 420. Much better.

I need to maintain or reverse the gain and lose some more again. The time of portion insanity ends...today....

Are you letting portion creep into your life?
Are you using old dingy plates?

Make your smaller portions prettier!

Use color or go get one of those "special china" pieces and use it, cause YOU are special, and once we're dead, the china does us no good. Use it now.

And on we go, in the fight against fat.

Next project--tackle the sloth and get back to movement. AKA "Where have my lovely muscles gone?"

Take care, all. Be well...

This makes 2 lbs off for the week so far, and off I go to get moisturized!..and back with pics plus a "Why We're Fat" Chart...And answering some questions from comments!

Tanita-san: 194.6

That makes 2 lbs off so far this week.

Tomorrow is the official last weigh-in for P5, although I'm not sure if we need to actually officially send it off. We'll see. Hubby and I will be eating lunch out, as we have an appt in an hour at the Aveda Truu Salon in Hollywood. Groupon score. :)

I've already had my hair cut and dyed by my trusted neighborhood stylist, so I'm just gonna use the Groupon for a conditioning treatment and maybe a blow-out. Not sure. My curls are lovely after the protein treatment I did on Saturday (to protect strands from imminent dyes), but we'll see...I'll make a decision at the salon.

I got bitten up like mad by skeeters walking Thursday, and I'm still itching like mad despite lots of Neosporin and steroid cream. Big pink bumps that itch! I guess it's long pants for the salon. No shorts today, while I look like St. Lazarus of parable fame.

So, nothing much from me today....sorry...but I did want to wish you a great Saturday, heat nowithstanding.

Updating after return home:

We just got home a bit ago. Had fun. After the salon, we walked around downtown Hollywood, FLORIDA (someone asked which Hollywood), ate at an Argentinian steakhouse. Hubby had skirt steak and fries, I had chicken and green beans. Neither of us touched the bread basket. No dessert. Two small salads as starters. Nummy.

Here's pics of us after salon-ing it:

Obviously, given the beef cut charts behind us, we're at the steakhouse.

Ooh, blow out and cleavage!

Beef and My Tasty Cut of Cutiepie!

Outside on a pretty, warm, late-late spring day in Hollywood, Fl....

If you are ever in South Florida and need to get hair pampered, I do highly recommend the Aveda Truu Salon on Harrison Street across from the Ramada. Relaxing. Clean, Very friendly staff. Good listeners. Massages. And aromatherapy. Nice. Ask for Leslie, Rachel or Ryan. All nice...

Susan, the Cheese Course is a shop-meets-cafe where they sell all sorts of, um, cheese. I'm very fond of their cheddar and manchego. :D We go have salads there at times. Hubby likes the roast beef and I like the American Field Greens salad (greens, avocado, cheddar, bacon with a balsamic dressing). Very nice olive tapenade, too. It has a very small eating space inside and outside, but if anyone goes there, choose the outside. The courtyard at the Gulfstream Racetrack & Casino is so pleasant. People always look happy there. :)

Joy, thanks for the award, but I got it already. Scroll down my sidebar to see. :) I want to thank you for offering it to me, cause it's always wonderful when people enjoy hanging with the bloggy self. Please pass it on to a virgin awardee. :D

I got some new Zoya nail polish and off I go to prettify my toes...after some email reading and blog catching-up. :D

I'll leave ya with this:




Learn more about Healthy Meals

Freaky Day of Cancelled and New Appts, My Curls Blown Out for First Time in 1.5 Years, And Lots of Fanfare About Loss , which was Nice!

Yesterday, Tanita-san said 198.0

I don't weigh on Mon/Thur cause I don't sleep enough those days and am usually hurrying to drink my coffee and water , get dressed, and head to Pilates.

Today, there was a wrench in my plans. I heard this weird beep around 11:10 am (a few minutes before alarm would have gone off), and it turns out it was my clock letting me know power to it was gone. Yep. No electricity. I heard thunking noises out back. The electric company was doing work.

I called my trainer and said I was dressed and ready to head out when the FPL dudes left (the trucks were blocking the garage outlet in the narrow alley AND I had no power to lift the garage door, as it's electric and I have no idea how to get it up manually). Well, come appt time, the FPL dudes were still there and I'm in Miami and it's warm and I have no A/C! I'm in the house in bra and shorts and sneakers. The juice came on around 1:33, and the FPL guys says it will be on for a short spell, then out again for a few hours.

I said, "Can you unblock me so I can get the car out of the garage and be mobile?" He was handsome and nice and did just that. I made a hair appt, got it trimmed and, for a novelty, blown out. Haven't had my hair blown out in 18 months, as I went naturally curly in Nov of 2009.

Hairdresser said my hair was in amazing good health. I said, "I use lots of good moisturizers and oils and I don't blow out or use flatirons. My hair has grown out without being abused. I also don't use regular shampoos. I use either a conditioner to cleanse, or a lowpoo cleanser (mild, no sulfates), and only occasionally use a stronger clarifying poo (a couple times a year), to make sure there's no build-up. I add conditioner to my hair every day after I get up and leave it in there. :)

Hypothyroid gals know what I mean when I say my hair thinned and turned to straw from the disease, and so it needs gentle care and loads of moisture. I have a lot less hair than I used to. Dang you, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis!

Here's pics of the blown-out Princess, who will soon be reverting to her natural curls. She didn't use any gels, creams, leave-ins or serums. My hair, essentially product free:

I'll do a protein treatment and deep condish to nurture it after the blow-drying trauma and back to my regularly scheduled curls, as in these pics from earlier this year:

Since I had no electricity and couldn't fix my eggs, I headed to the bagel place after my hair appt. I had eggs scrambled with spinach and mushrooms, some bacon, coffee, lots of water, and asked her to bag up the bagel (comes with eggs) and potatoes for hubby. He may not want either, but hey, I paid for 'em, so they're coming home for him or the trash.

I got so much hoopla at both the salon and the bagel place. I hadn't been to either in 3 months, so I've had more losses. :) Like 27 pounds more. I kept getting fussed over, complimented. I was a bit embarrassed, but it still was a glowing feeling mixed in with the embarrassment. :) The waitresses started talking to me about their losses and food issues (one lost 80+ and the other 50+ and she's an OA member).

I kept hearing, "transformation" and "makeover" and "look younger" and "look great" at both the salon and the restaurant. It's encouraging. I have a ways to go, so being cheered on is a good thing.

And to all who cheered me on here, complimented me, and made me feel like a REAL Princess, thank you. Thanks so much!

Well, since I didn't get my usual 1 hour Pilates, I'm gonna have to figure out another way to ramp up some activity here at home. I feel out of sorts when I don't get my good trainer-facilitated workout. My joints and body always feels so energized and GOOD after Pilates... Oh, and I lost my trainer fee. The policy is 24 hours for cancellation. Gee, thanks, FPL, for not giving ME warning!


I'll leave ya with two pics, one of me and one of my hubby, before our walk last evening. My hair is gunky and damp (it was dirty, and I like to wet my hair before walking to help keep me cool). Notice the TUCKED IN top. ; )  I am still fat, but hey, I have a waist:

Gunky Hair and 198.0 lbs May 18, 2011

Sweet Honeypie o' mine at 170 lbs who needs posture work. Computer hunch, begone!

Day 9 of P5: Thoughts on becoming "less ugly", um..."more pretty?" Also...What sort of prize would you want in a giveaway...and Oh, yeah, that's right, it's supposed to be a CHALLENGE and HARD! And a V-Day pic I turned into Profie Pic...

Tanita-san says I'm 221.8. 

Small downtick. Good. Lagging this week, but hope another whoose is a-coming.

Beautiful day today in Miami. Thoughts of beauty have been swirling in my brain in tones of aqua, lavender, and minty green. :) A scosh of raspberry pink here and there for delight.

I think because I've gotten so many compliments the last few days--from strangers, neighbors, and family--that I'm thinking, "Okay, I guess I'm less ugly."

See, that's how my brain wants to work. So, I tried to do an auto-correct:

"Okay, I'm looking nicer. Enjoy it!"

I have a hard time thinking of myself as anything but homely or averge or plan or, on bad days, just plain butt ugly. I've never been the "pretty" sister. I wasn't the pretty teen. Even my best male friends would tag me as "average". Only those besotted with my charms would venture a compliment about my looks.

I'm not one of the pretty people. Never have been. Though I was cute at times as a kid. I got the pics to prove it. I wasn't a beautiful bride--hubby would dissent here--and I'm not a beautiful middle-aged woman.

I have a hard time sometimes with compliments. I have to stop, unfreeze my brain, and learn to say thank you when someone says, "Wow, you're looking great!" or "You really look good!"

I have to learn to be gracious and less self-critical.

I've seen women who are not standard-beauty  beautiful who consider themselves beautiful, act beautiful, and convince many people they are in fact beautiful. I could learn a thing or two from them. Just act like you are, and people may well start to see that, too.

Well, at nearly 51, I should try something different, yes?

Been thinking I'd like to do a giveaway. I did one on my previous blog...and never did one here. I don't get stuff from sponsors, so I'd pay for it myself.

I have had a lot of insight and value from certain books, and I thought maybe give one of those away. But maybe I should ask:

If you could get something in a contest (and no, I'm not talking cash or a huge prize, cause I ain't Bill Gates here), something modest but useful to your weight loss journey, what would it be?

What's your first choice, and what's your second one?

1. Book
2. Exercise DVD
3. Some exercise item (a fitness circle, a toning ball set, resistance bands)
4. Some low cal or "healthy" food item
5. Inspirational/Motivational audio tape
6. A weight loss reward item: like lipstick or nail polish or a commemorative bead bracelet
7. Some mystery prize you won't know what it is until you get it
8. A gift certificate to Amazon to pick your own "health enhancing" item or weight loss reward

And do you prefer giveaways with some task (write a 25 word blurb about what works best to motivate you, a limerick, an essay, a photo, etc) or one where  you just add your comment with email?

Just wondering as I plan for one for this blog.

Got a cute motivating email from our Fearless Leader. Reminds us we're supposed to be, er, suffering? Um, no, "challenged." Yeah, that's it.

Well, anyone doing the exercises knows it's a challenge. (Really, I'm not the only one dying from the strength ones, right?) And some days, 1200 calories are tough, some days not so much. So, the level of "challenge" varies. But it's supposed to be hard. It's not the Phase 5 DDDY Picnic. It's the Phase 5 CHALLENGE!

Am I challenging myself enough? Well....that's a thing to ponder. How much am I pushing this to do the best I can. Don't wanna waste the opportunities, right? And, hell, there's a killer set of prizes!

So, those are my thoughts today....and now I'm off to workout: Be well. Be very well. Be good to yourself. Call yourself beautiful...and maybe believe it.

Oh, and here's a V-Day pic. I put on a lip gloss I bought last summer for Xmas, but saved for V-Day. Very red! My shoes and purse were red. My top black lace. Hubby said it was sexy. Good. He's the only one I was out to wow:

Red V-Day Lips!

Making Exercise Beautiful....Making the Time Exercising Useful to the Interior, not just Exterior....Looking for bliss, I guess...

Since I began walking due to the Phase 4, I've made an effort to make my time walking beautiful. It makes it pleasurable, even when my ankles are killing me:

~I try to find prettier streets in the neighborhood. Ones with trees or houses I enjoy looking at. I found a small enclave of Mi-Mo homes. It cheers me up.

~I think thoughts of healing. I talk to my joints and muscles. I ask my body to heal. I focus on proper posture, make small corrections with each step as needed. I focus on balance, a clear stride, on a beautiful posture.

~ I meditate on a piece of poetry or a haiku (small enough to focus) a bit of beautiful lyrics from a song or a Bible verse. I just let my mind play with the beauty of the words or thoughts.

~I pray. Sometimes, just for the people I pass. If I see an older person puttering in their yard with a cane in hand, I pray for their joints to be healed or free of pain and for their relatives not to forget them. If I see a lady who looks like she's rushing home from work with groceries, I pray for her to find ease in preparing her evening's meal and for her children to appreciate it. If I pass a tree that looks ailing, I pray for it to be rid of its pests. If it's rush hour, I pray for drivers to be safe. If I see another heavy person walking my route, I pray for them to get healthy and keep exercising and get home safely.

If there were a kyudo club in my area, I'd take it up. If find the practice aesthetically and meditatively beautiful. The ritual of it. The posture. The outfits. The actual weaponry. The focus. The gloves, even--and the 3-fingered glove when the hand is in shooting position, it's one of the most erotic things to me. Absolutely makes me kinda giddy. I find it entrancing, the way I find the movement of the feet in kendo entrancing The kyudo tradition of including serenity and beauty and unity, even when using a dangerous thing (bow and arrow), ravishes me.

Taisen Deshimaru in The Zen Way to the Martial Arts (1982) wrote:

Who releases the arrow? When is it released? When body and consciousness are one and perfectly detached; then the arrow flies freely to its target. The shooting stance is also important; it must be beautiful, harmonious -- both inside and outside the body.

I sometimes am in a nice zone in Pilates where my interior is as busy and productive as my exterior, but sometimes, I'm just telling myself, "Yes yes, you can do this, can get through this, breathe in, breathe out, you're a warrior..GAH!"

heh

But walking, when I start with pain (hips) and end sometimes with pain (ankles, knees) has a pace and duration that allows me to just be within myself and with my body in a strange sort of way that, yes, can be amazingly cosmic and expansive.

I don't like making walking about counting steps. I count calories and I keep a time frame for exercise, but the walking itself...I just want to BE and BECOME. If that's Zen, fine. If that's spiritual, fine.

I just want exercise to become something so beautiful I cannot live without it. I want movement to bring me crazy pleasure, delirious pleasure. I want to end up seeing it as a joy.

So, this is one way.

How do YOU do your walking? Do you find ways to make exercising beautiful and pleasurable and not just utilitarian?

I'd like to know...

If You Like Chili Mac (I do!) and If you have naturally curly hair...

727 days to go...

I love beans. I love tomatoes. I love ground beef (or the fakey soy crumbles you can use like ground beef). I love cheese. I love it mixed together, and I love it mixed together and then thrown over pasta.

These days I use super-high fiber pasta from FiberGourmet as my first choice (though I still have a stash of DreamField's higher fiber pasta to go through). Hubby loves chewy texture that holds up to next-day reheating. I like that we get a super dose of fiber. (Not the gas, but, hey, fiber! Filling and regulating!)

So, if you want to make a less diet-deadly version of Chili Mac than, say, Steak and  Shake's version, visit Hungry Girl's remade recipe of this comfort food, that is, if you like the following stats for 1.5 cups of the stuff:

Serving Size: 1 3/4 cups
Calories: 297
Fat: 2g
Sodium: 637mg
Carbs: 55.5g
Fiber: 9.75g
Sugars: 11.5g
Protein: 19g

POINTS® value 5*

If you're doing the WonderSlm diet, you can add the veggies, more spice to the Vegetarian Joe and throw that on half a cup of  FiberGourmet pasta and top with lite sour cream or lite cheddar and you're set. A little carb cheat, but you get lots of filling fiber that shouldn't spike up your sugar.
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

If you're a naturally curly girl (or you just want to use very gentle styling products without silicones or sulfates), there's a giveaway today. You only have until 11:59 to leave a comment on the Naturally Curly facebook page (scroll down to the giveaway entry on their wall). They've been doing giveaways for some days--this is the 8th day and they will do 10 total. Today, you can win a Deva Curl set of products (NoPoo hair cleanser, OneC conditioner and I can't read if there is a styler, but prolly).  You need to leave 3 reasons why you need this sulfate-free product line. :)

If you google Deva Curl or Deva Chan, you can find out about the line and salon that coined the term "Curly Girl Method" for caring for curls.