My Coke(tm) Addiction

[rowyn]

I've been dieting for the last three or four weeks. Sort of. I'd been planning to count calories, which has always been my most reliable method of weight loss, but counting calories has been too much work or something.

A few months ago, I was reading bradhicks's post about Nutrisystem. He mentioned that he'd been losing weight on the plan, and that it required he eat two pounds of fruits and vegetables per day.

And I thought, holy cow, no wonder you're losing weight! If I ate two pounds of veggies a day I wouldn't have time to eat anything else!

Originally I was just going to try crowding out my usual snacks by eating more vegetables, but after I weighed in at 164 three weeks ago, I just cut out junkfood during the week entirely. The closest thing I've had to a sweet since Sunday is flavored yogurt.

Instead of my usual cookies and candy while at work, I've been eating baby carrots, grape tomatoes, and flavored yogurt. I kind of regard fruit-flavored yogurt as a junkfood, because it's pretty high in calories and sugar by volume. But I don't get much calcium otherwise, so I've been eating it anyway.

Other than snacks on weekdays, I haven't changed much of my diet. I still have the same pastry-wrapped scrambled eggs for breakfast, and my lunch and dinner are heavy on pasta and light on everything else. Costco this weekend had peeled garlic cloves in stock, which is awesome because peeling garlic cloves is the only annoying thing about roasting them. All you need to do to roast peeled garlic cloves is dump them in an oven-safe dish, cover with olive oil, bake for forty minutes or an hour at 250F, then strain. So I've been having a lot of roasted garlic this week too. With pasta. And cheese. The cheese probably should count as junk food. I haven't lost any weight this week, although I'm down to 160 since I started.

Down to 160. SIGH. Twelve years ago, I weighed 120. I wasn't actually thin then, either. I doubt I will ever be 120 again; for one thing, I exercise a lot more now than I did twelve years ago. Still, four or five years ago I was 140 and it'd be nice to at least get back down to that.

I don't know if this diet is going to get me there. I really do not love fruits or vegetables. Baby carrots are kind of annoying to eat (after two cups my jaws start to hurt from all the crunching). Grape tomatoes aren't bad, though. Most fruits do not appeal and they all go bad way too fast. I should get a steamer and see if I can get Lut to steam frozen vegetables for me. I hate preparing vegetables. It seems bad enough to eat them.

But mostly, I really miss eating tasty food at work. Oddly, I do not crave a candy bar or an Oreo. No, I want something truly delicious, something that seems to justify all of those fat-building calories. I may break down and bake cookies this weekend, and bring whatever Lut and I don't eat on the weekend to work to give away on Monday so I can go back to behaving during the week. I don't binge on the weekends, I just don't worry about what I'm eating too much, as long as I'm actually hungry.

But the reason I started this ramble is that the lack of sweet foods has changed one thing: I am drinking more caffeine-free Diet Coke(tm) than ever. Like, eight cans a day. o.O. I have to bring five to work just so I don't run out. EACH DAY. As opposed to the TWO I used to drink at work. As vices go, it's not much of one, but yeesh.

The part that gets me is that I actually exercise so much more now than twelve years ago. I spend about half an hour walking and half an hour on an exercise bike 5 days a week. You'd think it would help.

I suppose it's why I'm not 200 lbs. SIGH.

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

A nutritionist said that some of my problems are because I only eat one meal a day. "The last time I tried to eat more than one meal a day, I gained 20 pounds that I've never been able to lose since." "Well, don't do that."

So I said I'd try... and so far, I've been miserably failing. At not eating twice as much food as normal, that is.

Also: Onion + Sour cream. >.< I did cook the onion at least.

[rowyn]

You didn't put maple syrup on it, did you? n.n

Trying to eat two cups of baby carrots takes most of a morning. I feel like I never stop eating doing this. Although I don't eat anything after dinner, still.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

No, but I had a sip of maple syrup afterwards to wash the taste out of my mouth. It tasted fine while I was eating it but afterwards it was 'ick'.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

*blink* Pastry-wrapped scrambled eggs? ... Explain?

I don't have breakfasts generally - two meals a day. I don't go to pains to remove carbs from my diet though. The cheese does weigh against your diet though.

I guess that you aren't keen on drinking ordinary water? What I drink at work is about a cup of apple juice diluted with 1-2 cups of water, myself, that cuts the sweetness down and gives the water enough flavor. At home, it's water.

[rowyn]

They're "Toaster Scrambles", from Pilsbury. Shaped like a pop tart, but with a scrambled-egg & sausage filling, and a flaky crust. They're tasty. Not particularly healthy, but not horrible.

I really like Diet Coke, and water is just meh. Maybe if I saw some solid scientific evidence that water was actually healthier than caffiene-free Diet Coke, as opposed to vague net rumors about how Nutrisweet and/or carbonation is bad, then I could motivate myself to change. As it is, it hardly seems worth it.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I see! They do sound delicious. };9 It's just a granola bar in the morning for me, before my quicky cardio exercise and lunch. On the weekends when I don't exercise, I usually have oatmeal in the morning as my breakfast, with applesauce and cinnamon.

Man, all this healthiness is kind of depressing. <_< As far as diet Coke vs water, I guess that I just never got into the habit of Coke - my thing was more those smoothies like Odwalla, before I realized how much sugar was in them, so when I figured out I needed to cut back, water and diluted apple juice seemed more natural.

[octantis.livejournal.com]

I hear ya on the soda. I keep trying to get myself away from soda in large part because I think it's done a real number on my teeth, but drinking straight water feels... weird. Like I'm feeling my gut bloating out but it's not 'quenching'. Blargh! Probably made a bad association somewhere in my head that I'm having trouble de-programming. >_

water vs. soda

[trumpet-lily.livejournal.com]

I read an article about this recently, called Why Soda Pop Drains You Dry. It addresses the issues of our acid/alkaline balance; our calcium/magnesium/phosphorus balance; how carbonation deprives us of oxygen, and how it leeches calcium out of our bones, causing osteoporosis. Try www.unhinderedliving.com/soda.html.

Re: water vs. soda

[rowyn]

Thanks for the link!

[rowyn]

Oh, and the flaky crust is not particularly sweet, in case that part sounded weird. It's very vaguely croissant-like in flavor, is the nearest comparison I can think of.

Breakfast pastry

[level-head.livejournal.com]

It actually sounds good. I still drink the same quantity of Snapple (20-30 bottles per day); I am able to confirm that the Aspartame threat situation seems not to be an issue.

Good luck on your undertaking, but please don't put a lot of anxiety into it. From my very first LJ post: "1. Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her."

I confess that I am so used to being very large, and so unused to my odd current situation, that the idea of you and I being less than ten pounds apart is quite surprising (I was 170 Tuesday). But the big variation has been on my end ... well, and middle and such.

Best wishes!

===|==============/ Level Head

Re: Breakfast pastry

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Impressive non-essential number there my friend! :)

Mako

Re: Breakfast pastry

[rowyn]

It was low enough to worry me! But fine after all. :)

Re: Breakfast pastry

[rowyn]

Are you in good health, sir? 170 sounds rather underweight for you.

Re: Breakfast pastry

[level-head.livejournal.com]

I am, in fact. A body mass index of 21-22 is in the range of "normal" and I feel well and am still working a great deal.

===|==============/ Level Head

[rowyn]

I am glad to hear it! It is very strange to think of you as only ten pounds heavier than me, though. Goodness!

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Well ... at least we can now move on to less-weighty matters.

I am still eating lots of eggs, and those pastry breakfast bits sounded good. Some of the Hot Pocket brand items are not bad -- the four cheeses one is quite nice, for example, so if the egg pastries are done well, they could be quite convenient. You like them, so I should try them.

===|==============/ Level Head

[rowyn]

I've tried several different hot pocket or egg-sandwich type things, and while some have been pretty good, the Toaster Scrambles are my favorite. I hope you get the chance to try them. :)

muscle mass and metabolism

[trumpet-lily.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you like weightlifting; but if you could put enough of that into your exercise routine to increase your lean (muscle) mass, your metabolism would improve, making it easier to lose weight. If you don't have much experience with it, a personal trainer would help, at least for a few sessions until you get the hang of it. Let him/her know your specific weight-loss goal.

Re: muscle mass and metabolism

[rowyn]

I actually have a bunch of free weights and a weight bench in my basement. I know I should get back to it, but I find exercising pretty boring, and mainly manage to convince myself to keep at the exercise bike by being able to write on my smartphone at the same time. :/

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard nods. I totally get that. I'm eating determinedly healthy, I'm exercising a lot, and, um, the only time I actually lost weight was when I had the flu. Grumph. Except, well, I am 200 lbs.]

[rowyn]

You're also like 6 inches taller than me. We're about the same BMI. :/