Summer of Heroes - June 2017 Lifestyle/Weight loss Challenge

[HappyGrape]

13th of June

Questions of the day: Do you have plan, a minimum standard or a strategy for days where life hands you lemons, or your favorite cake? How will you deal faced with injury and you can't work out? How will you deal with vacations, family gathering, meals out, celebrations? I read somewhere on average we have at minimum 350 invitations to eat every single day! How will you manage to navigate through all that food that is always cheap and accessible. What are some of rules you have for yourself to navigate through all the invitations to eat and remain on course? You can willpower through any diet, but if you don't have strategy for the days it gets tough, and there will be days that it will be hard - you won't keep the weight off, even if somehow mange to lose it​

The Last two patterns are confront and conquer and acceptance & commitment. I will cover each in individual post below. So we will have Avoid, Scramble, Confront and Acceptance. Can you please share any other suggestions if you have them?​

 

[HappyGrape]

Pattern Interrupts - Confront

​

With Confront and Conquer, you actually put yourself in the situation or in front of the food, look the situation or food right in the eye and conquer it. It’s also helpful to tack on some of the negative associations as you do this. Then move on to a situation to which you presently have tons of positive sight, sound, feeling, taste and smell associations and eat a food that will help create the body you deserve.

It may mean you attend a gathering, where you normally eat a lot of heavy calorie food and decide not to! You face the situation, you think about what eating too much too often does to you and how it takes you from your goals, imagine never reaching your goals, you imagine how eating something you love - as watermelon gives you the enjoyment but also the freshness, the energy and it brings you close to the way you want to feel and loo. It may be attending a meeting with donuts and cakes and deciding you won't have any! You will enjoy the company, the conversation and you decide you won't eat junk. You say no! Focus on the way you want to feel, the energy, the confidence that a person proud of their body have. It may mean you imaging yourself dealing with the situation as pro few times before facing it.

But it requires you facing the situation, the food and the place and saying NO! I choose better. I deserve better. You have no power over me! I am in charge. I can say yes and I can say no and I can enjoy myself. I am bigger and stronger than a silly fake hunger, a cue or drive to eat. I can and I am enjoying living in a way that fits my goals. I have no fear of chocolate cake! I won't skip the occasion of the fun. I can eat plenty of healthier options, that are delicious and fuel me with energy and health. I can and I do what I set my mind on doing.

Regardless of how much you avoid a cue - some you have to conquer. You simply can not avoid all invitation to eat, or scramble all. There are just too many! Developing resilience, and confidence in your ability to say yes and say no is vital part of successful weight management


Sorry for the gif overload! Acceptance and commitment will be Fridays post as I need time to prep it. It kind of relates to emotional eating. Few people joined late - there was a post on cues few days ago that was leading to interprets. If you loo few pages back you will find it

 

[HappyGrape]

Last post for today but I thought it may be helpful. Also I would add physical hunger keeps growing. If you ignore fake hunger for about 20 to 30 minutes it goes away. One definition of physical hunger is empty hollow sensation in the abdomen, which may or may not be accompanied by muscular contractions or growling. It's little bit like tiredness. It's not an urgency. You don't have to run to bed as soon as you feel slight tiredness.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Thank you all for making me feel so welcome.


I started revamping my food intake about a week ago and feel great. I'm not a water drinker, but have been drinking more and I really think that's contributing to it. Also, started walking every day. I'm fortunate to have a treadmill I can use on rainy or extra hot days. Yesterday, I added in a walk during lunch time at work.


Answering today's question:
Well, yesterday I was faced with a situation. It was my birthday on Saturday, and we went to my MIL's yesterday to celebrate. She had picked up Arby's sliders and made coleslaw and served chips and dip. Plus, she made me a delicious lemon and white cake. Because it was for me, I really felt like I couldn't turn any of it down, however, I just took about a table spoon of coleslaw, 6 potato chips (no dip! and I love dip!), and I did eat two sliders. She dished out the cake slices, so I couldn't get an extra small one (plus, the whole she made it for me thing), but I did just say I wanted about half a scoop of ice cream. All in all, it wasn't too bad and I managed to stay in my planned calorie range because I had a very healthy breakfast and lunch.

 

[HappyGrape]

For me, over doing it with activity is still the biggest reason to end up eating too much but here are some of my lemon/cake strategies

- vacations. Track, walk, eat my veggies. I eat little more but still try not to go in negative too many days.
- family celebration -eat my veggies, say no unless I really want dessert, only have dessert if not full already
- illness or injury - reduce calorie intake. Remind myself in the past when I didn't listen to my body it never worked
- don't try to compensate for a meal or a day that end up finishing in intake more than burn. Move on as normal
- if I really want a specific treat and I am not hungry at all have tiny little bit and share the rest. Never if I am already feeling very full, but ok if I am satisfied without feeling full
- eat out at least few times weekly


For me confront was really important. On and off behaviors did not work for me AT ALL and as I am getting older i started hating post holiday diets. I felt the need to be able to be social, to be able to go on vacations without the post vacation diet, to be able to be consistent. And even after a day or few that end up not that good - I go back to normal or very modest deficit. Avoiding diet mode is what I had to confront. Key was to commit to changed behavior and not to a short term plan. I make sure I eat out, I enjoy my meals and rest when needed.


most of the time

 

[dolewhipdreams]

QOTD: This is something I'm definitely working on. Today is going to be one of those lemon-filled days. It's a coworkers birthday and we're going out to lunch to celebrate. She's picking the place and there's a good chance that there won't be any really healthy to choose. So for days like this I make sure I either have healthy snacks and meals prepped for the rest of the day or I at least have a list of foods that I can throw together to make sure I don't go way overboard. So even though my lunch will probably be a little more than I would like, I have a low cal/carb/sugar dinner all ready to go and I know that I'll eat that plus only fruits and veggies the rest of the day.

Having a strategy like that helps me let go of any guilt I might hold on to after eating a bigger lunch. Life is all about give and take, right??

Great question

 

[piglet1979]

For me it depends on the day. Some days I am really good at saying no others I don't. I do have to say at parties now I only get a small piece of cake and 1 scoop of ice cream. I also leave behind all the extra frosting that gets left on the cake tray. I do my best to eat healthy at parties but I don't always have a choice. This will change this year. My family always has pizza at birthday parties and over Christmas this year I realized (well maybe just accepted it finally) that cheese makes me sick so no more pizza. After going to a party in February I realized I have nothing to eat at the parties and will need to either bring my own food (most likely a salad for the convince of it) or eat at home before I leave. This will help.

When going out to eat I try to eat something healthy like bakes chicken and a veggie. My biggest down fall though that i need to work on are the days that get crazy. This was last week. We ended up eating at fast food places most of the week just because it was quicker and easier. My husband and i are trying to plan better this week and stay on track. As long as a monkey wrench doesn't get thrown into the mix this week I think we planed our food pretty good.

 

[piglet1979]

Today has started off rough. My daughter woke up with a lot of pain in her ankle. It breaks my heart watching her try to walk and have tears in her eyes. So instead of just getting me together I had to help her as well. I did not plan for this. Also, my son wanted to talk more then get ready this morning and just followed my husband my my self around. So I was running really late and didn't get my lunch together. I am going to head over to the Cafe for lunch as they have some good healthy food. On days like this I wish i can eat salads from restaurants. What ever they put on lettuce to make it last longer (usually bagged lettuce)makes me sick so I avoid eating salads outs. I ate good yesterday and want to keep up with it. We have nothing going on today other then taking the kids to the library so I will go to the rec tonight to get a good walk in.

 

[Lady Marie]

@piglet1979 Wishing your daughter a speedy recovery! I can't imagine how tough all that must be

Having a strategy like that helps me let go of any guilt I might hold on to after eating a bigger lunch. Life is all about give and take, right??

Sounds like you have a good plan -- all about finding that balance!

How will you deal faced with injury and you can't work out?

Gahhhh - this speaks to my worst fear right now.... I am terrified that I am going to get sick or injured and completely loose my momentum. I have no plan for this at the moment, but it's something that definitely crosses my mind. From a practical stand point, I should just reduce my calorie intake, but I can't say for sure I would have that willpower. Heck, I've been trying that forever, and it hasn't worked yet.

How will you deal with vacations, family gathering, meals out, celebrations?

This is getting better, but I wouldn't say I have a plan for every occasion. Recently, bringing my own la croix waters with me helps with at least mixers for when we have drinks, or if I'm not drinking, it's a yummy beverage so I don't feel like I'm missing out too much. As for meals, I am trying to have the food offered at parties, but in small portions. Sometimes this derails -- like Sunday night having my favorite Hungarian dish I only get a few times a year (FOMO is real!) -- and now I am paying for it. The scale is not amused. Meals out are a little easier as I am trying desperately to shift my mindset from eating out as always a treat (since we do go out a fair bit), to just another meal that I don't have to prepare-- that's the treat part, not the bad food. It's not consistent yet, but I'm working on it.

 

[Oneanne]

QOTD: So timely, as yesterday was my birthday and having just come back from vacation with no real food in the house I chose to go out to dinner with my Sister (instead of going to the grocery store) and ended up over doing it with a cocktail and a dessert. Because, like, it was my birthday. I'm already paying for it this morning, as I woke up tireder after a complete night's sleep than I did yesterday on virtually no sleep at all. Plus my dairy intake was higher yesterday than it had been while I was on vacation, and the cough was back this morning... so that answers that question. Normally vacations are a challenge... for WDW in particular I go thinking it'll be easy with so many good options available and so much walking to burn it off, but then again with so many options it is easy to slip. During the retreat it was quite easy to eat better as we were served our meals - they were always buffet style and I was able to consume minimal dairy and gluten without much fuss or bother. I felt like I may have taken off a pound or two while there.

I'm not a good planner, which is a major part of my problem, so I don't have a good-day plan or a bad-day plan. But I'm going to give it a shot and tonight I clean out the 'fridge and get started on simple/clean eating again... which requires a lot of planning. I took a look at the nutritionist's calendar and won't be able to get a late appointment until July but that will still work out fine, giving me the rest of June to do my own elimination thing for a couple weeks, and also get going with a couple one-on-one sessions with the yoga gal... so I will be able to satisfy my two goals for this month.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

 

[Deffenm]

I am really behind on all of the QOTD's. We had a really good first week on our new healthy lifestyle. I lost 6 pounds. My DH will only weight himself once a month when he goes to the doctor for his check up in preparation for his surgery. I am learning to enjoy cooking. I made egg roll in a bowl and pizza with a fresh ground chicken breast crust. This really hit the spot for old unhealthy favorites. I love ice cream so frozen bananas in a food processor are a good alternative. The kids have surprised me and have either eaten the meals I made or just made themselves dinner. This helps out a lot so I don't have to make multiple meals. I do spend time meal planning and looking for recipes each week. It works out well as I do this on Friday evening during DD volleyball practice.

I have been sticking with my training schedule and am enjoying the rush I get after a complete my runs.

DH has a guys fishing trip Wed-Sunday this week so tonight him and I are preparing his meals for next several days. We purchased portion control containers from Amazon that we will use to pack his meals in. We also have a vacation planned to the OBX with extended family in a little over a week. I have shared my meal plan with the family and everyone agrees they want to eat what we are eating with a few treats thrown in for the kids. Having support is going to be such a key to our success.

I saw this quote posted and I love it "You are not a dog so don't reward yourself with a treat". That was always me. I had a good day, let's get pizza. I cleaned house, lets get ice cream.

 

[piglet1979]

I love ice cream so frozen bananas in a food processor are a good alternative.

I am going to have to try this. It sounds really good. Also, that is awesome that your family is being so supportive.

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

QOTD- I guess I sort of have a plan. I have been dealing with bouts of severe migraines/ vertigo that can last weeks and even months. When that happens everything goes out the window. I end up barely moving, days in the recliner, sleep there too, and once I can keep food down it's crackers, bread...which makes me put on weight and feel lousy. Knock on wood...not 1 episode in 2017. I just go in survival mode when this happens. I have gone months where just getting back to shopping and 6/8 months to even start to drive.

When it comes to trips. I try salads, chick, fish...but I definately give in to a few items and come home a few pounds heavier no matter the amount of walking. I do try and get DS to share a few bites of their items so that I feel satisfied but it can be tough.

We have 3 birthdays at my home in July plus 3 nights at WDW so I am planning for chicken, seafood for the birthday foods, and my cake will be homemade, SF cake mix, use pumpkin puree, and SF frosting...may even do as cupcakes. My sister wants yellow cake. fudge icing..just sayong it makes me crave it but I will either have none or a small piece and send the rest home. Dh wants yellow, whipped icing, cream and strawberry filling...that I will definitely have a small piece. Again, I will try and have lean proteins and lots of veggies that day.
A long time ago I learned to always eat something before going to any social event. My SH family would say dinner at 6, so you arrive at 5 and then dinner is not until 8/9. This would happen ALL the time so we would eat and feed the kids first.

 

[sweetpeama]

For me celebrations depend if they are with my side of the family or husband's side. Let's compare Christmas Dinner for an example. My side it is apps of cream cheese and crab dip, with crackers, salsa and chips, huge fruit tray, 2 veggie trays one of non pickled items and one with pickles-The red hot cinnamon pickles are delicious I could eat them by the jar and have done it once or twice ( OK more than that), the pickled beans and carrots are ok as are the dills and bread and butters now the beets I leave them alone), cheese and cold sausages, popcorn cake, and homemade caramels in several flavors. Inlaws if there is anything it is several kinds of cookies, potato chips and dip, chex mix, and not a veggie in site. Meal my side it is usually prime rib, baked potato, a steamed vegetable usually brocolli or peas and carrots, sometime crab legs depending on the price. If we don't have prime than we have a pork leg roast that my dad and brother carefully prepare doing a nice brine and smoking it with just enough fat to not dry it out during the smoking, oh and we also have green bean caserole, and candied yams. Inlaws it is usually a dried out turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, maybe a lettuce salad, a small veggie tray which does get kept out with the desserts for later, green bean casserole. Though this last year they decided to do Italian Theme which non of them can cook decent though from what I hear it was not Tony's Town Square bad. Very heavy on lasagna, spaghetti, chicken alfrado, and since I have the youngest children ( older brother's kids are 18, 20, 22 now, sister's are 20, 23, 25 and step is 26 ( with a 8 year old), younger brothers are step is 20 and then his is 16) and I wanted something that I knew my special needs child would eat that was not going to have me in the kitchen all day I cheated and went and got 3 family size papa murphy's pizza's just before close the day before put them in the basement fridge cooked them up just before heading out the door for the drive-covered them with foil, and cut them into squares there. Ended up being a hit especially with the teen and 20 something boys. Dessert is more cookies, pies, cheese cake, and chex mix for husbands side where mine is a low fat pumpkin bar ( mom uses applesauce in place of the oil).
With my mother in law having had heart surgery for valve replacement less than a month ago it will be interesting to see how things change in the meals offered at on that side of the family though I think that there will be some resistance at more vegetables and less high fat high sugar items. I mentioned the idea of doing honey glazed carrots for Easter and got told that did not sound good and to please just bring corn or another plain hot vegetable. I did a mixed one in the crockpot that had some butter and seasonings on it that my father in law originally said he was only taking because that was the only option and then was caught going back more than once for more. Some members of husband's family do not care for my I am not giving into certain people's pickiness on food and my bringing new items to things but I love to experiment with new recipes and keep a list of ones I want to try book marked. My side is more open to trying though the challenge is food allergies. Myself I am allergic to tomatoes, sister is allergic to tree nuts, coconut, celery, sister in law to coconuts, and niece to dairy, citrus fruits, pineapple, corn and popcorn.

 

[courtneybeth]

13th of June

Questions of the day: Do you have plan, a minimum standard or a strategy for days where life hands you lemons, or your favorite cake? How will you deal faced with injury and you can't work out? How will you deal with vacations, family gathering, meals out, celebrations? I read somewhere on average we have at minimum 350 invitations to eat every single day! How will you manage to navigate through all that food that is always cheap and accessible. What are some of rules you have for yourself to navigate through all the invitations to eat and remain on course? You can willpower through any diet, but if you don't have strategy for the days it gets tough, and there will be days that it will be hard - you won't keep the weight off, even if somehow mange to lose it​

The Last two patterns are confront and conquer and acceptance & commitment. I will cover each in individual post below. So we will have Avoid, Scramble, Confront and Acceptance. Can you please share any other suggestions if you have them?​

For me, everything is structure and a pattern of building good behaviors. But oh man, when there's bad days there are BAD days.

I have to take each day as it's own day. The mistakes of yesterday cannot fall into tomorrow and the successes of today only clear a path for tomorrow.

 

[HappyGrape]

14th of June
WhooHoo Wednesday! What makes you smile today?

lol - @piglet1979 will have some work to do to revive the theming of posts!​

 

[HappyGrape]

Me - less than 10 days to go to CALIFORNIA!!! And going to Aerosmith concert tonight. I feel great.

 

[Liberty Belle]

QOTD:

It's my oldest friend's birthday today. There are three of us who have been friends since middle school (38 years!) and our birthdays are all within 6 days of each other (June 8th, 10th, 14th) and we all turned 50 (*gasp*!) this year. So that's what is making me smile today.

 

[4Mickeys]

It was my birthday on Saturday

yesterday was my birthday

Ok you two having some sneaky birthdays! These cakes can be enjoyed thoroughly with no calories

​

Hope you both had fabulous days

WhooHoo Wednesday! What makes you smile today?

Well that picture of Chris/Thor for a start

Me - less than 10 days to go to CALIFORNIA!!! And going to Aerosmith concert tonight. I feel great.

I love live music - hope you enjoy and less that 10 for DL so much fun hope you enjoy the original.

It's my oldest friend's birthday today. There are three of us who have been friends since middle school (38 years!) and our birthdays are all within 6 days of each other (June 8th, 10th, 14th) and we all turned 50 (*gasp*!) this year. So that's what is making me smile today.

Sounds like a fun group - its nice to have life long friends like that - I have a friend and we went to Kindy together and we are 44 our birthdays are 6 months apart though - I am the younger one lol

 

[piglet1979]

Woohoo today is that we finally got summer camp situated for my daughter. I had to even get them a doctors note for her to use a wheel chair for there zoo and science center field trips. But I think we are good. She woke up not in pain today or at least not any more pain. Yay!! However she woke up really crabby today. I will take it though.

Pictures may not be great when I take over. I am not 100% sure how to get them. But I will figure it out. I also have a few live shots that I am going to share as a few of the Avengers have been taped where I work.