Day 6...Sort Of

So, today is sort of, kind of, day 6 of the Shangri-La Diet. I say "sort of" because it's been very difficult to get all 4 servings of the oil or sugar water in every day.

For example, yesterday was a total diet bomb. Not that I ate a lot. Actually, the total opposite happened. I had to work at my crappy PT job and had planned to bring a little bag of sugar and a measuring spoon so I could do the sugar water thing. Before leaving, I managed one dose of oil, but then as I was driving in I realized I'd forgotten my sugar. So, no oil and no sugar for the 5-6 hours I was to be away. But, as it turned out, I wasn't that hungry and did really well all day. I had an okay breakfast and just had some low-fat yogurt and a few cheese sticks while at work, my lunch essentially.

Then it hit me - About 4pm (with an hour left of work to go), I got the most intense headache. Granted, I could blame it on the lack of food, but it wasn't like I felt hungry or I was shaking, which is usually what happens when I'm hungry - I get the shakes. Also, it hit right after a patron was giving me grief. Since I'd worked there all day the day before, this was patron pain-in-in-a** number 9,999.

"Is that book age appropriate for my child?!!" She screeched at me across the reference department.

And, GAZ-ING! - a pain just shot through my brain. That was it for me. I had one nerve left and that woman took it. I felt sorry for the next innocent patron that was going to ask me for the millionth time if the paper went face up or down in the photocopy machine.

Here's another issue with the sugar/oil. You have to have a one hour window before and after taking it in order to eat or drink anything that has flavor. That means if you are sipping an ice tea, for example, you can't take any of this stuff while you are sipping or it won't work. So, if you figure I need to take a total of 4 tbls a day, and the window is a total of 2 hours, 4x2 = 8 hours of no food or drink other than water.

It has made me wonder if that is really what this diet is all about.

Day 3 in Shangri-La

Today is day 3 for me on the Shangri-La diet. The past few days have been weird, gulping down olive oil and sipping my hot sugar water throughout the day. One thing that has been difficult is just remembering to do it b/c the books says to try to do one or the other an hour before and/or an hour after you eat. You should not take the oil or sugar while eating.

Also, I notice with the warm sugar water that it takes awhile to drink it down. He says, in fact, to try to make it last and digest it slowly. So, while I've been doing that, obviously, there's not be a lot of time to eat in between meals. Yesterday was not a typical day, so we'll see how it goes today b/c I'm home more.

Of course, my husband thinks I'm totally insane and that this is a bunch of BS, but after reading so many people on line (though many are men, granted) that this has worked for, I still feel like it's worth trying.

One thing I've noticed too before doing all of this is that I am basically a bottomless pit when it comes to food. Unless I eat a huge amount, say, for example, I go to a buffet, which I rarely do, then a simple meal does not fill me up. I just don't feel like I've had enough to eat. If I go out to lunch with coworkers, they are all holding their stomachs and complaining about being too full. I may eat the same thing and I could eat it all over again. So, that is my hope for this diet approach, I just want to eat and feel satisfied. Is that too much to ask?

Starting with Surgar Water

Okay, I've read some more of The Shangri-La Diet, and I think I'm going to give it a go. Today is grocery day, so I can get some ELOV today. After my Pria bar and tea breakfast, I downed 1/2 cup of warm water with a 1/2 Tbs of surgar. It wasn't as disgusting as I thought it would be.

According to the book, if I want to lose 20lbs, I need to take 1 Tbs of sugar and 1 Tbs of ELOV every day. For 20-40lbs (which is really what I need to lose), I need to double that. I'm going to first see if I can tolerate 1 Tbs of each a day and go from there. The book also says it takes a few days to kick in, so since this is Weds., I need to see if I can at least make it to the weekend, preferably through the weekend.

I'll keep you posted....

The Shangri-La Diet

My latest discovery is a book called The Shangri-La Dietby Dr. Seth Roberts. Basically, this book claims that you will be able to eat anything you want and lose weight. Of course, the reason for this is because you won't want to eat anything because your appetite will be diminished. How does he do this?

He suggests drinking small amounts of flavorless oil (such as extra light olive oil) and sugar water throughout the day. The result (he claims) will be that you will not get hungry. In fact, he goes so far as to say that you won't even be that interested in food at all.

Part of me thinks this is a great idea, and actually, I have often wanted to find something that would keep me from getting hungry, that magic pill if you will. One of the reasons I have trouble with a very low calorie diet is because I just don't feel like I get enough to eat. Therefore, Roberts' diet seems like a possible answer to this, and it's using regular things like oil and surgar, not some weird0 pill you get from the drug store.

On the flip side, I'm a foodie. I really like good food and good wine (as my spare tire can bare witness to). I'm not sure if I like the idea of not ever being interested in food again. I'm not even sure this could really be possible for me or if it a good thing. My tough-as-nails side says that I should be able to control my eating without the use of tricks like Roberts suggests.

But, I'm thinking about trying this. I asked a friend of mine who used to be a personal trainer (C.M. I'll refer to her from now on), and she confirmed that it will supress my appetite. So, I'm adding extra light olive oil to the grocery list.

Back to Counting

Okay, okay, I'm back to calorie counting starting today. Obviously, the work out like a maniac thing didn't work. Since getting sick, I'm still back to trying to get my stamina up enough for multiple workouts each day, and even a 30 minute one has not been all that easy. I'm doing it, but I can tell a difference from before getting sick and now.

Plus, stepping on the doctor's scale yesterday didn't help much. The news was not really anything worse than I already knew, but still - sobering.

Today is grocery day, so that means it is a good day to stock up on vegies and fruits that will hopefully keep me full and happy. The fruit this time of year is pretty sad, but I'm thinking, maybe, apples? It is fall, so apples should be fairly decent this time of year.

I'm going to start at 1800 calories and go down from there. I know that sounds high, but considering I eat at least 2000 to 2500 when I'm not dieting, then it's at least something, and it's not so daunting.

Other than my weight, which my doctor didn't even mention, I had a good bill of health. Of course, she is on me about getting a mammogram, which I didn't do last year. I know. I'm so bad, but you know how everyone tells you they aren't that big a deal, that they don't hurt? Well, that is the biggest line of BS I've every heard in my life. I would love to see a man get his you-know-what squished between two piece of glass like a waffle iron and then say, "Hey, that was no big deal." Oh, and I love how you get through it all, you're trying to think happy thoughts through the whole thing because soon it will be over, and then finally, you're done and the nurse says, "Don't get dressed yet in case we have to do it again." "Again!?!...F-----???!!" So, you sit there freaking out in your little paper shirt praying to every God known to mankind that the darn thing worked.

Ah, medical science! Gotta love how they think of ways to torture your who-haas, but can't come up with that magic pill to keep us all young and thin.

Been Traveling

Become an M&M

Back to Normal!

Finally, I think I'm over this stupid cold. Yesterday was the first day I really felt "normal." I did my Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds - Walk and Kick DVD and felt really good.

This is actually kind of a weird DVD because the first 10 or so minutes seem way too easy and I start getting kind of cocky: "Hey, I could do this for at least an hour. I'm not even breaking a sweat!"

Then somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes into the thing, I'm feeling it big time. I still think I could handle more than the 30 minutes on this, but it's a good workout just the same.

Today, I also managed to get in 30 minutes of aerobics before heading off to the library, so now I need to concentrate on getting back to my 2xs a day routine. If it weren't for the fact that my DH had a beer ready and some burgers on the grill when I got home, I might have made it too. But, after having literally 70 patrons up stairs in the Reference Department five minutes after we opened today, well, let's just say I really needed the beer and burger!

I'd Rather Be the Pope

I'm back, and yes, as I suspected, I was getting sick, have been for a good week now. At this point, I'm at the cough here and there and constant throat clearing stage, but I'm feeling a lot better, almost normal again.

Needless to say, this put a huge dent in my exercise routine. However, tough as nails as I am, I'm proud to say that I still managed to get some exercise, even on days that I was feeling punky. I say "some" as in doing 20 minutes of cardio and 9 minutes of pilates abs, but more than that I just couldn't handle most days.

Today is my first day back to my multiple daily exercise routines. I did 30 minutes of cardio this a.m., and while I wasn't fabulous at it, I did manage the weights a little. I had to hold back a tad, but not that much. Tonight, I'm going for another 30 minutes of cardio and my pilates abs.

Now, for some really "this sucks" news, at least to me. Next week I have my yearly doctor's visit. Ugh! I really don't need to go in for a few more months, but getting into see her is like getting in to see the Pope ("Ya, Ya, You can be the President; I'd rather be the Pope"...Love me some Prince!), so I had to take what I could get because she's booked solid for the next three months. Yes, that means, ugh, I'm going next week! This also means I have to step on the dreaded s-c-a-l-e!

I knew I had to go see her in a few months, but my plan was that by then, even if I hadn't lost that much, I'd be solid as a rock from all my exercising. Now, I've got neither going on - bupkiss. (Is that how you spell bupkiss?) Normally, she's pretty low-key about my weight, but I would be really surprised if she doesn't say something since I'm sure I'm a good 10lbs heavier than I was last time she saw me, and back then I needed to lose 20lbs. I'm already envisioning her eyes bugging out when she sees that 3-digit number on my chart.

To top it off, this woman is a stick. She's a very nice stick, but just the same, he's about 6 feet tall and probably about 120lbs, maybe. So, it's hard for me to really talk with her about weight issues because, obviously, she doesn't have any. The few times I've attempted it, she's pretty much said to eat less and exercise more. Ah, yes, duh. I know she's right, but it's hard to hear that from someone who you could probably kill if not really injure by simpling sitting on her. I'm sure I could at least crack a rib or two.

Getting Sick?

It's amazing how you can feel fine one day and the next feel sick as a dog. That isn't the case, at least not yet, but I woke up around 3am with a killer soar throat. My husband has been sick for days now, first the throat, then the nose running and running and running. I've tried my best to keep away from him. I'm even sleeping in the guest room.

I'm still in the "Dang it! I'm not going to get sick!" stage, but seems like everyone around here has got this thing right now. I'm going to double up on vitamin C and keep at the exercising. What else can you do?

That will really be the worst part of it because I'm so in the workout groove right now.

My latest DVD purchase is Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds - Walk and Kick. It's a 1/2 hour walking slash kickboxing version of her other workouts, and I'm giving it the thumbs up. Actually, I would like to find a longer version of this same workout. For anyone who has ever had a kickboxing class, this may not measure up to what you've done before, but it's got some of the same moves. (I took one years ago and loved it. Unfortunately, the teacher moved to another town to open up a studio, so the class at the local community center ended after that.)

For anyone who uses her other walking DVDs, this is a good change of pace. It still is very much like her other routines, but she adds more kicks (of course) and some arm work including punches. She doesn't use any weights for this one, but if you're really tough, you could probably hold some in your hands while you punch. Me? Not that tough (yet).

Almost on Week 3

This Wednesday will mark three full weeks of my exercise mania, and so far so good. In fact, physically and mentally, I'm feeling really good. I still have about 30 lbs to lose, but my stamina is getting better. I even managed to do my killer fat burner 3mile DVD on Saturday and survived. Sure, I felt like going to bed right after I finished and it was only 8pm, but I made it through the entire routine with the weights. Considering there is no way I could have done that three weeks ago, that is a huge step for me.

I passed on the Pilates machine, but I found a wonderful DVD at my library that I'm hoping will give me some of the same targeting workouts.

After I abuse my employee library privileges and keep this for longer than I'm supposed to, I'll probably end up buying it. The DVD includes 20+ mini routines, anywhere from as short as 8 minutes up to 30 minutes. For example, yesterday, I did a 30 minute walking DVD in the morning before going to work. Then I came home, did the 8 minutes abs/gluts on this DVD, and followed that with a 1 mile DVD. So, it offers some good "squeeze them in" workouts. Plus, I know I need to tone up as I try to lose this weight. My abs are a major problem area for me right now.

I'm off to a full day, gotta blog, then exercise (planning to do another Pilates abs/gluts and then my easier 3mile DVD), and then cracking the books for teaching class tonight. We are doing pronouns! Oh, joy!

Fatand40 @ Squidoo

I discovered Squidoo recently so decided to put together a sort of library of exercise DVDs and other related stuff I've started to collect since my stab at getting fitand40.

Check out my new lens, as they call it: http://www.squidoo.com/fatand40/

Free Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers has an offer this week for free registration. I think that usually costs about $35 to register, so that's a pretty good deal if you've ever wanted to try this weight loss program. I've done it about three times, and so I'm a life time member. That means I can join back up at any time without the registration fee, just have have to pay the weekly weigh-in fee, and it's usually discounted a dollar or two for life timers.

Obviously, since I gained all my weight back more than once after going through this program, it didn't work for me, but I don't totally discount it either. In fact, I know that if I were to go back I could probably get all this weight off in about three to four months. However, then I'd be back at the same problem - keeping it off.

Their new ad campaign says "Be an After. Stay an After," suggesting that you'll get it off and keep it off, but on that, at least for me, I think is where WW does not deliver. After I got it off, each time I was with their program, the support for keeping it off was lacking. And, I soon realized that it really just meant eating about 1200 calories a day forever, and that was something I couldn't do. So, their idea of "keeping it off" is keeping yourself on an extremely low-calorie diet for the rest of your life. I don't need to pay someone to tell me that works - duh.

On the up side, I learned a lot on the WW program, especially about food. Because I'd been so thin most of life, I never thought much about what I ate. If I liked it, I ate it; if I didn't like it, I didn't. Nutrition? Calories? Carbs? What where those? So, I do credit WW with teaching me about food.

The WW program is really geared for people who need to lose a lot of weight, 50 to 100+ lbs, and who have issues with food. Most of the meetings I went to dealt with very heavy people talking about weird things like hiding food in their closets. Or, I used to love it when they'd complain because they couldn't eat all the food they needed to on the WW Points System. Yeah, here I was literally starving for the first three weeks with me 20 points (I got used to being hungry some how for awhile after that), and these people with their 50 points had too much food - wa wa - poor babies.

So, those are my issues with this program. It works in the short term. I learned a lot. But it's not something most people can do forever, at least that's my opinion.

Comments on the New Strategy

I've sort of talked about my latest diet strategy, exercising a lot, but the other issue has been food. Honestly, I just got to the point (and yes, I know, it's only been a few weeks) that I'm (yet again) sick and tired of writing every single thing down that I eat. This was my big problem with Weight Watchers, along with eating about 1200 calories a day, forever.

Something that I've begun to realize with my new exercise schedule is the fact that if I want to exercise in the evenings as well as the mornings, I really can't eat much of a dinner. This then is another addition to my latest strategy - cutting down on a meal. I don't meaning cutting out, but instead of having, say, a sandwich, I may have a few cheese sticks and a piece of fruit. That way, around 6ish I'm not too hungry or too full to exercise.

At this point, I'm about two weeks into this new strategy. Thus, it's way too early to tell if it's been working or not. I think if I can manage for a few months, 2 or 3, then I can gauge my success better. One result so far is the fact that I feel pretty good mentally if not physically. I guess those endorphins are kicking in.

Tempted by Pilates

I came this close this weekend to buying a pilates machine.

QVC had a really nice one on sale for about $300, and it included lots of extras. I had my credit card in my hand. Hey, I have Christmas money I haven't spent yet, and I'm too fat to buy clothes, so why not spend it on something that might help me get into some new clothes? Plus, I've been so good about exercising lately. Heck, I deserved this.

But then I had a thought - how many calories would I actually burn with this type of exercise? It was definitely what I liked to do - lots of stretching - no jumping around - but would it be intense enough for my new diet strategy - exercising like a maniac?

So, I went over to Self.com, which has a calculator for this kind of stuff, and checked it out. I plugged in 30 minutes and the results? 100 calories! Yup, that's it! 100!

I burn 3xs that with my walking DVDs, so that sobered me right up. I felt so cheated though. I was so ready to buy that puppy. I zipped over to Amazon.com and ordered some new Leslie Sansone DVDs (and a book of course...I can't help myself....almost as bad as French fries).

I'll let you know how my new DVDs are once I get them, but for now, it's back to Leslie Sansone - Walk Away the Pounds for Abs - 3 Miles.

Dangers of Gum

I've never been much of a gum chewer. Usually, I chew it for a few minutes, get all the good flavor out, and then toss it. But, my DH put a few tins of Altoids gum in my stocking, and I'd forgotten all about it until yesterday. Not thinking about it, I popped a few in my mouth and munched for awhile. As is my usual with gum, tossed it out once the flavor was gone, and tossed in another.

Not long afterwards, I noticed I was ravenously hungry!

I had totally forgotten one reason I normally don't chew gum - it makes me hungry!

I did some Internet research on the issue of gum and hunger, but surprisingly, I didn't find anything definitive about it, at least not during my 5 minutes of lengthy research. But, I think it just comes down to the fact that when you chew like that, your saliva goes crazy, and you are telling your body that you're eating, when in fact, your not. You're just chewing. So, then your body says, "hey, where's the food? don't I get something in my stomach after all that nawing?"

So, the Altoid tin is now closed. I'm not sure if I'll ever chew gum again!

MLK BBQ

I'm throwing my diet to the wind and having burgers today. We are having a BBQ for a party of two. Since it's MLK Day, we are both home for a change, so we are firing up the grill, and that means our famous messy burgers, complete with cheese, blue cheese dressing, tomato, pickle, lettuce, oh and the burger too of course.

I'm planning on eating very light all day, and I've actually managed to do one of my 3mi DVDs again, so hopefully, the damage won't be as bad as it could be.

On the exercise front, things are still going well. Splitting them up has helped a lot. It has also motivated me to squeeze in short workouts on days that I normally feel too pooped to do any exercise. It just feels weird not to exercise every day now. Too bad I couldn't just eat whatever I want every day and exercise to loose weight, but of course - not possible.

Fat and Silly Today

Is this too funny? My friend Lei from "A Hearty Life," and about 50 other blogs (the woman, seriously, does not sleep!) turned me onto this link at blyberg.net: http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/

You can make your own card for the old style card catalog. I'm going to have to send it to all the librarians I know. Thanks, Lei.

Ballerina Break Up

My life, as usual, is crazy right now. I'm still doing 20 hours at my crappy part-time job; I've started teaching one night a week at a local university; I'm setting up two web classes for me to start teaching in February at a junior college; I'm trying to get through a book (good but kind of depressing) someone gave me to review; and oh yes, I'm still trying to keep up with all my web writing and paid blogging gigs.

To say that it's hard to find time to exercise is an understatement. However, I've decided to make it a priority, even if that means my Christmas tree is still up - Yes! I know. I'm awful! - I am determined to get in some exercise every day.

One issue I've had along with the time thing is the energy thing. I know I need to exercise for more like an hour each day rather than 30 minutes if I really want to burn off some of this gut, but after 30 minutes, I'm exhausted. So a friend of mine, who also used to be a personal trainer, suggeted something I've been thinking about but just wasn't sure was doable for me - breaking up my workouts.

I know I can do 30 minutes; plus, it's easier to squeeze in a 30 minute workout than an hour long one. I don't expect to do this every day, but a good number of days I think I can. For example, yesterday I did 25 minutes of Yee, then later that evening I did 20 minutes with Leslie, and then the DH and I went on a brisk mile long walk with our dogs.

It felt great getting all that in, and while I know I just don't have the time to do that every day, I'm going to try it out on the days that are more my own, days I'm not at my PT job for example, because, though I have a lot to do, I can organize my time as I want to without literally punching a time clock.

I'm still counting calories, but I just know from past experience that exercising always is the key for me to lose weight. My body needs it, and metally, I always feel better when I've exercised regularly. I think some of that is from my dance days. I may be a big fat ballerina now, but I still have to move.

Past Time for Calcium

I've taken a multi-vitamin for years, but I am finally taking a calcium and vitamin D supplement. I know. I know. It's really past time for me to be taking these, and what is so stupid is (a) they are pretty cheap, about $5 plus there was a $2 coupon stuck on the box and (b) they actually don't taste that bad.

I'm such a baby when it comes to taking pills and medicine. If it tastes icky, then I just can't get it down, but these are sort of sweet tasting, probably because they are 10 calories each. Yes, can you believe it? My vitamins even have calories! Damn!

But, my mom's doctor is trying to talk her into taking some drugs because she has signs of osteoporosis, so she's been doing a lot of reading up on the whole thing lately and finally I listened to her (for a change) and started taking two of these puppies a day. Seems like, according her to her research, fat white chicks with small bones (yes, there are small bones under these layers of fat), who are fair skinned have a higher risk of this. To top it off, between my grandmother's issues and now my mom's, well, the writing is pretty much on the wall for me.

Hopefully, better late than never.

Jazzercise from the 80s?

One of the perks of joining Spark People are its daily newsletters you can sign up for (or not sign up for, your choice). Since I'm not just trying to lose weight but generally trying to get fit as well, I signed up for the exercise newsletter and the general daily one.

Today's exercise newsletter was touting the benefits of Jazzercise, which I've taken on and off for years depending on where I've lived and where classes have been offered. For the past, say 8 or 9 years, I've lived in an area where the closest classes have been a good thirty minute or more drive, and the classes offered have been extremely limited, so when I heard that classes were now offered in my town and only about 15 or 20 minutes away, I was very excited. I even blogged about it here.

Other than the fact that the class was only s0-so, the real kick in the pants was the price, $10 for walk-ins (though the first class is free) and after that it's $8 a class. Back when I took it previously, it was $5 for walk-ins and about $3.50 a class. Yes, a huge difference.

So, when I read this in my Spark People newsletter today, I had to wonder if they were quoting Jazzercise fees from the 1980s or something: "Because individual instructors independently own Jazzercise classes, there is no set rate. You will find that classes cost anywhere from $2 to $7, depending on the number of classes you purchase."

If I cared enough, I'd write to Spark and tell them they are wrong, wrong, wrong, but instead I'm blasting them here.