Moderators: JeffN, f1jim, carolve, Heather McDougall
Another comment she wrote that strikes me as both brilliant and relevant:wildgoose wrote:MWL is a choice. A choice you’re making for your health and your weight, to get where you want to be. It gets easier with time. Does the Pleasure Trap ever quit tempting you? No. You learn to stay away from the biggest temptations, and how to get right back into the groove if you stray. But are you ever totally immune? No. It’s always a choice. I look at a year-plus at goal weight, a level of health that I haven’t known in years, a wardrobe where everything is comfortably loose and everything in the closet fits — and I’m OK with not having some of my old comfort foods around.
I feel very lucky to have the benefit of her insight informing this group! Onward!wildgoose wrote:Sometimes it feels like a tempting food is reaching out, grabbing you by the collar, prying your jaws open, and leaping into your mouth. The desire is so strong, it feels like you HAVE to satisfy it, RIGHT AWAY.
But you don’t. Nothing awful will happen to you if you don’t inhale that sweet, salty, fatty thing that’s calling to you. You will be uncomfortable for a short while. Maybe for a little more than a short while. Ignore it. Distract yourself. It will pass. And then you will be all right. Better than all right, in fact. In addition to feeling physically better, you will have achieved a mental and emotional victory that is worthy of pride.
The process is also cumulative. The more times you surf through those urges to eat off-plan, the more time you are building up between now and the last taste you had of what you’re trying to avoid. The memories of that taste are less fresh, less acute. In addition, your successes mount up and you believe in the process more and more. It gets easier.
JeffN wrote:Vegetable Lasagna
made with spinach, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, onions, peppers and home made sauce.
Tomato Sauce
2 Boxes POMI Chopped Tomatoes
Fresh Garlic, Basil, Oregano
Lasagna
1 lb frozen chopped spinach
1/2 lb frozen mushrooms
1 lb frozen zucchini
1/2 lb frozen carrots
1/2 lb frozen onion, pepper mix
2 sweet potatoes baked
Filling
Mashed sweet potatoes and thin with warm water while veggies thaw and then mix thawed veggies in with the mashed sweet potato to make the filling
1/2 cup sauce on bottom of pan
1 layer whole grain noodles
1 1/2 cup sauce
1/2 sweet potato/veggie mix
1 layer noodles
1 1/2 cup sauce
1/2 sweet potato/veggie mix
1 layer noodles
1 1/2 cup sauce
sliced tomatoes
Bake covered for 45 minutes at 375
andGreenFroG wrote:Yes - had a take out meal of steamed veggies and rice and was able to stay away from the added sauce on it, which was full of oil. It tasted great and I felt successful. We took our meals to a park, hiked around, and celebrated Valentine's Day.
A wonderful illustration of what we can achieve with time, adherence, and ongoing practice. Carry on!GreenFroG wrote: My husband helped me a lot in celebrating Valentine's Day. He said he purposefully did not buy me chocolate and we planned an outing together where food was not the main focus. We went to a park and hiked around for the day. Slowly learning to incorporate these behavioral changes into my lifestyle!
Thank you so much for sharing that fun anecdote! A week ahead filled with starch, veggies, exercise and sunshine - who could ask for more?!?VegSeekingFit wrote:My husband has compared me to a caged animal as I pace around the house. I told him that this is exactly how I feel - trapped!
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. YES To be completely honest this was very close to a no. On Monday after the takeout I was really tempted to have cookies and ice cream after dinner, since I already had no’s from dinner, but then I thought that wasn’t fair when he clearly tried so hard to honor my eating habits so I ate fruit instead and thankfully the rest of the week wasn’t too hard after I refrained that night.
Noella wrote:I like doing physical exercise and accomplishing something useful at the same time. This week turned out to be quite productive. I followed your advice to get started doing just ten minutes of something physical, as a priority. That small goal of just ten minutes meant I did at least a little and it I usually led to me doing more. I then felt motivated to follow some basic exercises with spring cleaning. My washing windows and decluttering closets inspired my husband to install additional upper shelves, and apply fresh paint inside our bedroom closets and our kitchen pantry cupboard. so trying to get more exercise led to lots of nice improvements:
Our pantry cupboard looks AMAZING with fresh paint and organizing of the big jars with a variety of whole grains, legumes and whole grain pastas on display, so colourful, inspiring and beautiful to look at. My closet looks wonderful with fresh paint, another upper shelf for storing off-season clothing, and its much more organized, too. I have all of my workout clothes in one basket and all my cross country ski clothes in another. I put these active wear baskets on a shelf at eye level with labels to further motivate me to get moving each day.
squealcat wrote:Snacking at my daughter's continues to be a challenge but I go there only once a week. I just brought along plenty of food to eat and have extra, cooked potatoes at home for when I am tempted.
Gimmelean wrote:I batch cooked sweet potatoes, butternut squash, roasted ratatouille, dal, and bought a big container of pre-washed salad greens this week.
GreenFroG wrote:6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes - had a take out meal of steamed veggies and rice and was able to stay away from the added sauce on it, which was full of oil. It tasted great and I felt successful. We took our meals to a park, hiked around, and celebrated Valentine's Day.
GreenFroG wrote:Yes, felt like I avoided a lot of temptations on Valentine's day by going to the park. My husband was very helpful in supporting me.
GreenFroG wrote:My husband helped me a lot in celebrating Valentine's Day. He said he purposefully did not buy me chocolate and we planned an outing together where food was not the main focus. We went to a park and hiked around for the day. Slowly learning to incorporate these behavioral changes into my lifestyle!
VegSeekingFit wrote:* Walked outside 3 days !!! Have decided to remain indoors only when temperature is below 20 degrees. So tired of the cold!
* Exceeded goal of averaging 8K steps / day over the week (still Pacing with a Purpose...)
moonlight wrote:I'll brag a little about surviving the Valentine's Day minefields without succumbing to the chocolates. I really stressed to my sweet husband that I really really really was serious about NO BOX OF CHOCOLATES!! We, instead, cooked dinner together using a new stir-fry recipe for our new wok. It was fun. The next day I was on my way to go hiking. I had a friend riding with me. I told her how good I felt about fiending off the chocolate. We got to our destination, meeting a couple of other friends, and the friend riding with me pulled out four bags of chocolates! - dark chocolate with a freeze-dried strawberry inside... Very good sweets for sure! She started giving us all our bag of chocolate, and when she got to me, she said she understood if I didn't want the gift after hearing my story in the car. I said she was right, and I politely declined. I'm not sure I would have had the resolve to do that on my own. I was so thankful for our previous conversation. The peer pressure of being in the group may have won out, and I would have taken the bag. Anyway, long story but a good one for me.
moonlight wrote:She started giving us all our bag of chocolate and when she got to me, she said she understood if I didn't want the gift after hearing my story in the car. I said she was right, and I politely declined. I'm not sure I would have had the resolve to do that on my own. I was so thankful for our previous conversation. The peer pressure of being in the group may have won out and I would have taken the bag. Anyway, long story but a good one for me.
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