12W12S2P Update: Test Run

We had our annual Turkey Feast at work today, and I used it as a gauge to try to plan my "attack" for Thanksgiving day. This is what I ended up eating:

• 3 ounces white meat turkey
• 2 tablespoons gravy
• ½ cup mashed potatoes
• ½ cup stuffing
• ½ cup triple-squash soup
• 1 spinach roll (roll with spinach, onions, and cheese)
• ½ cup green beans
• 2 tablespoons light pumpkin dip*
• 2 Danish butter cookies
• 2 spice wafer cookies

All told, LoseIt says that's approximately 700 calories of food. That's kind of a lot, more than half my calories for the day, and I want to do better for Thanksgiving. I know that I will have more vegetable options on the Big Day -- there were not a lot of plain, unbecasseroled vegetables available today, since 50% of the covered dish contributions were desserts. Our family dinner always includes broccoli, and I have no qualms about helping myself to half a plate of broccoli. I may also make some veggies of my own, just to make sure there are enough, since I know I won't be the only person at the table who is trying to be careful.

Here is my plan so far: same amount of turkey and gravy, no mashed potatoes, same amount of stuffing (because my Uncle Quack makes some damn fine stuffing), half a dinner roll (although I will tell you right now that the spinach roll was worth the indulgence), way more vegetables (including V8, which is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED for me to feel like I have had a complete Thanksgiving meal), and only a little bit of dessert. I am planning to make a lemon custard pie that is a Weight Watchers recipe that only has like 2 points per serving. Although I keep insisting that I am not doing a low-carb diet, per se, I will admit that cutting back on starchy foods does seem to be an easy way to stay on target.

The other accommodations I have made today? Small breakfast (oatmeal with raisins) and small dinner (probably a can of soup, and some whole-grain bread if I have enough calories). Lots of water and Diet Coke. And an early bedtime.

=====

For like the last three years I have been making pumpkin dip for our Turkey Feast, because it is DELICIOUS, but it's also sort of high in calories because it is basically a bowl of creamed sugar. So I made it a slightly different way today, made it "lighter," and it was just as good, maybe even better because the flavorings were a little richer. If you will be at my sister's baby shower, you'll be eating this recipe.

• 15 ounce can pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• small package of sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
• small package of sugar-free instant cheesecake-flavored pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon (or so) pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 16 ounces fat-free Cool Whip

In a large bowl, beat together pumpkin, pudding mixes, spices, and vanilla with a hand mixer until well-blended, uniform in color, and fluffy. Add half the Cool Whip and beat on medium-high speed for two minutes. Add remaining Cool Whip and beat on high speed for another two minutes. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Turn out into a serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve with graham crackers, spice wafers, or cookies. (Or, if you are me, eat straight out of the bowl with a spoon.) Approximately 30 calories per 2 tablespoon serving.

12W12S2P Update: Oh Shut Up Already

I've been really bad in the last month or so, if you define bad in the same way that I do, which is actually being hungry and eating something.

Since I started this diet-or-whatever back in May, I've probably cut my calorie consumption in half, or close to it, anyway. Right now I get 1,353 calories a day on my plan, and I figure I was probably around 2,300-2,500 per day before I started. That is not an insignificant change.

Most of the time, I am fine with this, but lately I've been allowing myself "undocumented" treats, like an extra cookie here or there, and clearly it is adding up, because I am not losing weight as quickly any more. And I am getting frustrated, and allowing for more "undocumented" treats, which blah blah blah -- you know the drill.

I don't stop the emotional eating, even after all this time and all this (relative) discipline, is what I am saying.

Now we're getting into what is probably the worst time of the year for a dieter: the dreaded Holidays. Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK. Christmas is exactly a month after that, with New Year's right behind. Between now and then, I have one office Turkey Feast (this Wednesday), one World's Second Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (night before Thanksgiving), Thanksgiving itself (which I usually celebrate twice, once in the early afternoon and again in the evening), a baby shower for my sister (Saturday after Thanksgiving), the annual Haldaman Christmas party, Christmas, New Year's Eve, plus whatever we happen to do at the office. That list doesn't even include a retirement dinner for my dad, which we are hoping to celebrate while my sister and her family are in town from Chicago.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle this, so that I can allow myself to have a good time at these parties without starving myself the rest of the time, and still keep losing (or, at least, not gaining). I can't eat nothing but broccoli at Thanksgiving dinner. I can't eat nothing but salad the rest of the time (especially not when that salad is made with oh-so-yummy and also oh-so-fattening hot bacon dressing). I am hoping to get in some extra exercise over parts of the holiday period, but I don't know if it will be enough to counter-balance the plate full of carbs and turkey skin that I normally eat for Thanksgiving dinner (stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls -- and sorry, but a nice crispy skin is the best part of the turkey).

AND OH MY GOD I WANT SOME PIE.

But mostly I want to find the place in my head where I can tell myself that it's okay to have an "off" week once in a while. I've been on this diet and doing pretty well since the beginning of May. Six months. I've unofficially lost somewhere between fifty and sixty pounds (officially, 37½ lbs.). I am entitled to a treat, and I know this. Rewards and positive reinforcement are good motivators. But I don't know how or where to draw the line between "occasional treat" and "unearned entitlement." And I don't know how to turn off the part of my brain that keeps saying that a week of zero loss and zero gain makes me a complete and utter failure and I should just go drown myself in a gallon of ice cream, or worse: I should never be allowed to eat again.

And I really need to figure out how I can fit some pie in there, while I'm at it.

12W12S2P Update: Hanging In

Lost another 2½ pounds since the last time I weighed in (last weekend, maybe), which is pretty impressive because I also have PMS. (I always get that special combination of bloating and constipation when I have PMS, which makes weighing in especially ... special.)

That is the single weirdest thing about this diet, so far: I am now getting regular periods. WTF? I have never gotten regular periods in my whole life, except when I was on the bill. I once went almost A WHOLE YEAR between periods. That is one thing I could have probably done without, but oh well. Since June or July, I have gotten my period every month. I only had maybe five periods in all of the last year prior to that.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THESE THINGS, STAY OFF THE INTERNET. LULZ.

Anyway ... it's getting cold and when it gets cold I like to eat heavy, rich, warm foods. So tonight we are having chicken enchiladas (or, as we like to call them for reasons that we don't even know any more, "chicky-itchy-llamas"). Except we're making them with turkey. Our recipe comes basically from the back of a can of Old El Paso enchilada sauce, the red kind (so I won't reprint here due to copyright issues, because I am not Cooks Source magazine), but we do make the following changes:

• Only use one can of sauce (yields 6 enchiladas, instead of 12)
• Ground turkey or chicken, instead of ground beef
• When browning meat, add ½ cup or so of diced onion
• Use low-fat or fat-free cheese
• Serve with a little bit of nonfat sour cream

Try it sometime. You'll really like them! By my math, using this recipe, there are about 210 calories per enchilada (variable depending on the leanness of your meat and the calories in your tortillas and cheese). And I usually eat 2 enchiladas, plus a little bit of rice and a little bit of beans? About 600 calories of LOCO BUENO. (We have ours with fat-free refried beans and Spanish/Mexican/taco rice.)