The calorie-uncounting experiment: Week 3 Progress report

For those new to my blog, I recently stopped keeping track of calories in an effort to be more 'normal' about the process of eating.  In conjunction with a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and finally ~90+ pound weight loss, I found that (?obsessively) tracking my calories helped to keep me on the straight and narrow.  So it was with some trepidation that I decided to go against what I determined was working for me.

Three weeks ago, I stopped inputting my eats into Daily Plate with the caveat that I should eat as though I was going to log the calories.  This was really an effort to avoid excessive BLTs (bites, licks, tastes) or ordering a Monte Cristo when I would never have done so in the past.

I truly expected a disaster:  weight gain, worry, lack of control and quite possibly the end of the world as we know it.

But so far, that hasn't happened.  The world didn't end (despite all best predictions and a big volcano eruption in Iceland). In three weeks, I haven't gained weight, which is plenty of time for me to pack it on.

Some other things I've noticed so far:

• I feel like I'm eating fewer calories, but I am actually not.  As many people warned me, the rainman-like calorie calculations will still happen in my head, even if I'm not officially noting them on paper or online.  On a few occasions, I've done a rough estimate in my head of calories at the end of the day and they are in line with what they were before this experiment, despite me feeling like 'I hardly ate anything.'  I do fear that I'm not getting enough protein and I need to keep an eye on that.  This is a little bit discouraging.
• I'm hungry at very strange times.  Like 4am. Regularly.  As I'm listening to my hunger signals more, I find that sometimes I'm not that hungry at dinner time or before bed.  I suppose that the 4am wakeup call is nature's way of telling me to have a snack before bed, even if I'm not ravenous. The nights that I've done this, I haven't awoken at dawn.
• I AM making slightly different food choices, and part of that is due to the freedom from weighing and measuring.  It is also due to the fact that I am listening to what my body is craving rather than what I feel that I 'should' have.  I have cut back on my Hugh Jass salads because they just aren't as appealing  (I know, I know- ANOTHER one of my 'tricks' of getting back on track...which feels very hypocritical.)  My "BLTs" are unchanged and I haven't ordered a Monte Cristo yet, but who knows, I very well might one day if someone would split it with me.  On that note, I did order a totally un-Deb-like breakfast the other day with Eden & Janetha:  A Dutch Baby from Elmer's.  And dare I say that I was almost a little bit proud of myself?  Crazy risk-taker, I am!  Needless to say, it was freakin' amazing and I was stuffed for hours.

Usually, I only lust after these 'babies' from afar.  I ate ~1/3 or 1/2 and added some egg whites on the side for protein- stuffed!

Eden sent me the following photo using the cool new free labeling app called Labelbox that we're all in love with: 

But I added my own label to it.

•  I am not being held hostage to 'actual' serving sizes.  Here's a great example:  I eat 100-calorie microwave popcorn on most days.  I usually have two and sometimes even three if I'm feeling particularly 'snacky' (which is roughly the same as a large bag).  Recently, I ran out of them and started making popcorn from scratch in a microwave bowl. I've been grabbing a handful of kernels that turns out to be roughly 1.5 servings, and I've added a tiny amount of truffle oil from a spray bottle. I've been very satisfied and haven't felt the need to go back and get another bowl yet.  So my serving sizes are more in line with my stomach and my head, and not with a label.  Apparently, this is new to me.

This was not my usual night in with my Orville Redenbacher 100-calorie popcorn.  It was New Year's Eve in Iceland (hence the crazy-hott tiara over the beanie look) and I hadn't had popcorn in about 2 weeks.  I was thrilled with this find.

•  I am not going clinically insane.  Somehow I thought that I would be a wreck and this is not the case at all. Granted, I've been home and not traveling, so I am able to have my shakes at breakfast and my MOIST protein muffins whenever I get the craving for rich, chocolate cake.  And this does help me tremendously.  I will be full of trepidation on our next trip.  Of that I can assure you.

"Eating" my go-to breakfast shake: lady-like as always

I do want to mention that I believe that it was helpful for me to stick with counting calories and eating many Hugh Jass salads a few months ago when I had just come off the holidays and crazy amounts of travel.  It gave me a sense of normalcy and structure, which definitely helped to get me back on track. I'm beginning to feel that different strategies can work at different times of one's life. There certainly is no 'One Answer.'

So that's the report from here.

Q:  Have any of you experienced something similar, or something wildly different when you stopped tracking calories?  Or if you still do track, how is that working for you?  Any other fans of popcorn, Dutch babies or Monte Cristos (my favorite 'sandwich' in high school).

Lessons learned on my Palm Springs Girls' Weekend

I've had Girls' Weekends in Palm Springs for about 5 years now and I learn something new every time.  Once I learned how to put my hair in a sassy (read: Non-grandma) 'up-do'.  Another time I learned that if you serve too many tropical cocktails, there will be pineapple garnish floating past you in the pool. The weekends are always fun, and different.  Apples and oranges. Or wine and cheese.  It just depends on the crowd.

This past weekend, I had two of my closest friends come to visit. Both happen to be bloggers, which is how we met.  One of the girls is Eden from Eden's Eats who I see very regularly.  The other is Janetha from Meals and Moves, who I email a lot but had only spent 3 face-to-face hours with prior to this weekend.

As I love to look at life in terms of what can be learned, that will be the topic of today's post.  So without further ado, here is what I learned on this girls weekend...


1. People who 'poo-poo' the internet for meeting people are only considering the bad side of society.

• I did not start blogging to meet people.  I blogged to help & inspire people who were trying to lose weight.  In fact it took many months of blogging before I realized that I should ever reply to comments left on my posts!  So for me, meeting friends through blogging was a happy surprise.

• Sure, there are bad eggs out there, but there are also millions of good ones.  Hopefully, you only encounter the good ones.

Weird internet trawler

• If you 'connect' via email, text, twitter, facebook, there's a pretty good likelihood that you'll connect in person too.  I'm sure that there are exceptions, but hopefully they are infrequent.

2.  Finding people of like-mindedness helps to form friendships

• I can't tell you how easy it was to make decisions with these girls.  It doesn't hurt that they are flexible and un-selfish.  Sometimes on trips with many people, trying to decide what to do or where to go can be exhausting.  Not so here!

Market Mecca:  Trader Joe's

•  This is why so many 'real life' friendships form from people in blogging communities. We have a lot in common.

3. Age is just a number

• I'll admit that I am the least ageist person I know.  I hang out with people in their 70s and people in their 20s.  A person is not just a number- it is the sum total of their personality and their soul.  We had 3 decades spanning our little group this weekend and it was never a concern.

 4. There is a Super-Blogger Gene

• I have marveled at 1, 2 and 3-post per day bloggers since forever.  I am impressed at 3x/ week bloggers!  I've never, ever blogged more than that, and these days, I'm thrilled to post every 1-2 weeks.  This is due to many factors, including snafus with Blogger/Picasa, but also extends to my writing style and my lifestyle.  I could apologize for this, but I won't.  I'm happy with this schedule and hopefully other people are too.

• People like Janetha and Eden are ultra-genius bloggers/readers.  They bang out posts while reading dozens of other blogs all while gabbing and cooking and cuddling kitties.  It's amazing!  As I sit here writing, there is absolute silence and frighteningly, this post will have taken me the better part of an entire day.  I'm in awe of bloggers who are so consistent, creative and gifted, like these two.

• I believe that blogging is a skill like any other.  Some people are naturally gifted and others can do it, but they really need to work at it.  Think of those kids who were naturally talented ballerinas or soccer players.  Or others were science geniuses. Same thing.

 5. It's fun to be around people who like to share food.

• I know that many, many people frown upon sharing their dishes.  It's definitely not for everyone. Quite frankly when I'm in the UK (from where my husband hails), I practically have to wrestle my dining partners to the ground just to get a bite of their Shepherd's Pie. I'll just start off by dropping hints like "WOW! That looks amazing! Is it as good as it LOOKS?!"  Then when they say it is, in fact life-changing and still don't offer me any, I take them down.  Don't even get me started on the Spotted Dick.

 

• Janetha & Eden are all about the sharing, which was glorious.  We ordered our own meals based on the knowledge that we would be able to sample everyone's dish and not plunge into deep 'entree envy.'  This way, we could order our mostly healthy eats (for our bodies) but make sure to wash them down with some extra well-done french fries (for our souls). 

 6. Learning from each other is fun

• Tech-stuff:  When three bloggers get together, there are bound to be things that some girls know and others do not.  For example:  Eden looked at my cell phone and saw that her blog is on my main screen. Her response..."An app?  How am I an app?"  Janetha showed us some of the virtues of clicking and dragging photos directly from a photocard into Windows Live Writer. Who knew?! Eden was going to show me how to use my ipod but there simply wasn't enough time (embarrassing fact: I have never uploaded a song from itunes and therefore, I've trained for 3 yrs without music- someone kill me)

• Kitchen techniques:  It was interesting to hear different takes on modifying recipes..."if we did such-and-such, it could get more crunchy, do something else and it gets more MOIST."  Eden showed us how to make home-made ice cream with much more unsweetened almond milk than I had been using and I loved the result! And she turned me on to the Silk brand unsweetened almond milk that only has 35 calories per cup and to the Low Carb yogurts from Kroger/Ralphs that are delicious and creamy!

• Products.  This particular trip, I got to share the joys that are the (50 calorie, made from yogurt) Brummel & Brown spread with mind-blowingly delicious Akmak crackers.  And the girls got to see just how easy it is to whip up the microwave protein muffin and some smoothies.  
• Shopping Wisdom:  We also had a ball at the markets, pointing out our favorite and least favorite products. I did buy some crack-like Mojo Bars and higher-protein Kind bars.  But let's just say that I won't be buying the 600+ calorie so-called Kobe burger patty from Trader Joe's and it has as much to do with the fact that it tastes like cardboard as much as the ridiculously high calorie count.

Best cracker on earth

 7. It's nice to be around people who love your 'kids', even when their behavior is hideous

Don't let this innocent face fool you...

She's capable of mass destruction and destroying Auntie Eden's shoelace

Only your true friends eat the food your cat canoodled

The plastic wrap ensures safe step

8. It's helpful to be with people who support your lifestyle choices:

• Both girls are currently living a healthy balance in my opinion.  While Eden emerged beautifully from an eating disorder, Janetha stays fit with a non-obsessive healthy diet and hard-core-but-not-excessive exercise.  Having been a life-long yo-yo dieter who dabbles with excessive exercise, I'm currently striving for more normal-eating without obsessing.  Only a week or two into my calorie un-counting experiment, I think that things are going well and I'm not going insane like I thought I might.  Eden and Janetha shed light for me on what 'normal' looks like.

• To each her own workout: over the 3 days, Eden & I hiked; Eden & Janetha Insanity: Janetha did Body Rock & I went to step class.  And on the 7th day, we rested.

Janetha is insane for Insanity

Eden was insanely loving the floor after insanity

Eden & I hiked our tushies off

 9. Laughter is the best medicine- photos can speak for themselves

Sonny! Behave!

 

( when we passed the senior citizen after this photo, he announced "I'll take two of those" )

 

 

 

Celebrating Janetha's birthday a little early

 

In the weight-lifting section of Clarks, the best health food store on the planet.

What anyone does with pastel pink 1-pound weights, I'm not sure

 

Hmm?

To see what Eden had to say about the weekend, click here.  It turns out that she learned a few things from us too- from Janetha click here and for  me click here.   And if you notice similarities between our posts & photos, it's because we think astonishingly alike.  It's like one of those times where you and your BFF wear the exact same dress out to lunch.


To see Janetha's take on dining out at Elmer's, Fisherman's Market and Manhattan in the desert, click here.  For her summary of our home-eats, click here. For her take on all the rest of our shenanigans, click here.

I can't thank these girls enough for such a wonderful weekend and for teaching me so much!

 Q:  What do you learn from girls' weekends? Or just girls? Any techie wisdom? Sharer? Any guesses on the last photo?

Savory Trifle: The sashimi version

The other day I got Hungry Girl's Newsletter in my inbox.  Something caught my eye...a savory trifle! I forwarded the recipe to two people:  one I thought would love it (Eden of Eden's Eats), and the other I thought would hate it (Derek of SmoothieGirlHusbandFame).

Even though Derek loves his grandmother's REAL and traditional English Sherry Trifle recipe, he was shockingly supportive of this crazy idea of putting savory ingredients into a trifle bowl.

Eden of course, was not just supportive, but she said "Hey, let's make one tomorrow!"  So she came over for lunch and we went to town throwing pretty much everything from the fridge into this trifle.  

In the mix:

• Sauteed mushrooms
• Shredded kabocha squash
• Cauliflower "rice" aka grated into teeny weeny bits
  
• Lettuces- assorted, chopped
• Sliced persian cucumbers
• Microwaved chopped collard greens 
• Sashimi pieces
• Sliced avocado
• Shredded nori sheets for garnish.

Method:  

• Layer each item and make it look really pretty before your cat comes to sniff it. 
• Laugh at your cat as she walks away with nori sheet strips caught in her whiskers.
  
• Sit down at the table with your food art.
• Look at the enormous pile of food in front of you and discuss with your dining partner the fact that you'll surely eat only a fraction of it.
• Devour the entire trifle.
• Feel lucky if you are hungry for dinner, many hours later.

I see this as the love-child of a Hugh Jass salad and a protein-packed stirfry, only prettier.  Heckyeah for cross-breeding.

Photos...

An enthusiastic-looking sashimi chef

Quality control department slacking off

Quality control department reporting for duty

The finished product

Aerial view

Lunch time!

Q:  What would you put into a Savory Trifle?

New calorie-uncounting experiment: Join me on the train wreck?

What the...?

It seems that I just posted about what is working for me in my weight-maintenance journey right now and rounding out the list:  tracking calories with Daily Plate.  It takes a lot of effort to do this as I'm someone who loves to have small tastes of many types of foods.  It probably takes a good solid 45 minutes every single day to document my eats. 

One of the reasons that I included "Tracking calories" in my list was because when I would stop tracking, I noticed that I would gain weight.  However, I recently realized that every single time I stopped tracking happened to coincide with traveling.  Convenient, right?  Surprising that I gained weight?  I think not.

Well, after that revelation, I decided to track calories while traveling.  The result?  I gained weight.  Surprising?  Really, not at all.

So the other day, I decided to try to NOT track calories (gasp!) while I'm home, and under 'normal' circumstances (no holidays, etc).  I want to see if I can in fact listen to my body (double gasp, falter) and try to eat sensibly without keeping track of every morsel of food I consume.  My only two requirements:

1. I can't eat something simply because I know that I don't have to 'count it'.  I have to pretend that I will still 'count it' even if I am not.
2. I have to try to really listen to my body and try to respect it:  truly hungry or bored/tired/anxious etc?

I have no idea where this mini-experiment will take me.  I usually revert back to tracking calories and I very well may do so again.  I may even do so specifically on trips, just so that I am that much more accountable when the temptations are simply through the roof.

I really wanted to get on board with the whole "Intuitive Eating" movement way back when it started about 10+ yrs ago.  I even saw one of the dieticians who co-wrote the eponymous book.  Did I learn to eat 'intuitively'?  No.  But there are countless bloggers and dare I say 'regular' people who do this every single day.  Once again I aspire to join their ranks.

Finally, there's one thing I do know about normal eating...

Normal:  Sharing your sandwich with your cheeky cat on a road trip

Wish me luck and feel free to share your stories or thoughts with me!