Wow! Victorious Breakthrough

I was stressing about a number, and my past experiences with that number. The number was 330, a place I've plateaued several time. I really believe drinking 64 oz. of water before eating, and within the first half hour after waking up, have helped me break through this typical plateau. Today, I weighed in at 329, that puts me at 34lbs lost, only 3 lbs away from having lost 10% of my body weight. I'm really excited about how things are going.

Further great news, everyone in my family has lost weight. My hubby has lost about 20lbs, I'm not sure what my oldest daughter has lost, but her prom dress was too big, and she had to go with a different one because she had lost weight, and the youngest wouldn't weigh herself when we began, but since she has noticed a real change she is weighing herself now. We had been keeping our bathroom scale under the sink, none of us really wanted to know what it said, but now it is out in the bathroom and we all weigh in frequently.

Okay, so I'm excited about scale breakthroughs, but I have to tell you, I try not to obsess with the number on the scale. I'm being honest, if I step on the scale, and I don't like the number, I don't track it. In other words my weigh ins look far between when I'm plateauing. It is a mind set that the number I don't like is not permanent, and tracking it would make it permanent. 

So, non-scale victories: yesterday I walked quite a bit around downtown and it wasn't terribly strenuous like it used to be, and I stayed on plan yesterday, even with eating out and having a busy day of meetings. Perhaps tomorrow I will talk about eating out strategies that work for me.  Also, yesterday I got to wear this great dress that I had bought a few months back at the thrift store. I really like it, and it makes me feel sassy. Finally, a huge non scale victory yesterday, I have a denim jacket that I bought quite a while ago, but it never completely buttoned, yesterday I was able to button it, easily. Now how is that for sassy! (Below is the sassy dress, not on the same day, but....)

Re-Learning Social Eating

Yesterday I had an event with my daughter. It tested my resolve a bit. It was a mother daughter lemonade party. We planned ahead and took our own Zevia sodas, since I knew I wouldn't want the lemonade. It is always challenging eating in a social situation. So much of our social lives are centered around eating. Think of this, does a wedding feel complete if there isn't cake? How about a funeral, with no food? Or, even more regular things, like how about going to the movies? Spending family time? Netflix and chill? All of it seems to involve food. For a food addicted person this can be challenging.

Think about it, food addiction isn't like other addictions that can be stopped entirely. (I'm not saying that stopping isn't a challenge.) This is where the problem lies. Couple that with a society that glamorizes overindulging, and it is no wonder we have an obesity epidemic. I could go on and on about the ties between eating, media, body image, weight, and exercise, but what really matters is how am I dealing with those issues today?

Like any addict, it is one day at a time. Yesterday, I was victorious. I avoided the gluten filled foods, which is a challenge for me. I ate the vegetables and fruit, and indulged in a bit of fruit dip. In the end, did I feel deprived? No. It is those little victories, where I change my actions for my pursuit of health, that really are awesome. These are daily reasons to thank God as he transforms my mind, and consequently my body. I'm realizing daily, that I'm no longer a slave to my desire to eat. In fact, I am finding more pleasure in eating well than I was in just eating as my flesh willed me to.

The Quest for "On Plan" Coffee

So, I have not always been a coffee drinker. When I was younger I liked the aroma, but not the flavor. Then in my late teens, early twenties, I went through an obsession with espresso. I think perhaps I liked the accessories, i.e. the demitasse cups, more that the beverage. After moving to Colorado, at age 23, I was still an occasional coffee drinker. Back then my caffeine of choice was Diet Pepsi. When I did drink coffee, I always wanted plenty of cream and sugar. I continued this way until my husband, oldest daughter, and I moved to Oregon.

Then begins our Dutch Bros. stage. When we moved here we had never heard of Dutch Bros. We both agreed that Starbucks was not our thing, but a friend of ours turned us on to Dutch Bros. and we ended up pretty addicted. There have been times on and off in the 12+ years we've been in Oregon that we had Dutch Bros. daily. There have also been times that I've been totally off coffee. Somewhere, about 8 years ago I stopped drinking Diet Pepsi, and that may have been why the coffee intake raised.

My love affair with coffee was rather full blown. I started brewing coffee at home. The only problem with brewing it at home was that if I brewed a pot my husband would maybe have a cup, and I would drink the rest. (Who wants coffee that sat a day, and who wants to waste coffee?) This became a thing for a while, always with lots of soymilk and sugar, or maybe agave. Then, we decided a French Press would be better than brewed. Partly because when you brew drip coffee, it always seemed that if you brewed half a pot it wasn't strong enough. We got a couple of small French Presses, and started making our coffee that way. Still, all this time buying coffee at Dutch Bros. or other such coffee houses when we went out and could afford to.

Then, almost 4 years ago we moved to Corvallis, OR. We still drank Dutch Bros. a few times a month, and we also tried most of the coffee shops around town. We found a local coffee shop we really liked, but still tons of cream and sugar. I opened my shop and my coffee addiction really reared it's ugly head again. The shop was near Starbucks, which was and still is zero temptation for me, and Einstein Bros. Bagels. Well, the drip coffee at Einstein was good, and if I purchased it early in the day, I could have unlimited refills. This was not good for me. I got a little out of control for a while.

During all these years, and our family's attempts to get healthier, we had at some point discovered cold brew coffee. About a year and a half ago we bought a pot to cold brew coffee. If you don't already know, cold brew is much less acidic than hot brewed coffee. It also retains more of the good anti-oxidants that are in coffee. Consequently, it is naturally sweeter tasting. Still with the benefits of cold brew, my husband felt it wasn't strong enough.

Then, research led me to Turkish style coffee, and that led me deeper to using Turkish style coffee in a cold brew process. Turkish coffee is just a much finer grind of coffee. The texture of Turkish style coffee is like that of cocoa powder.  You can use any type of coffee in that grind. We like a locally roasted coffee called River Mud. To make the cold brew you mix 1 cup of ground coffee with about 1 quart of cold water, and let it sit on the counter over night for at least 24 hours. Then you strain out the grounds. We use our cold brew pot's strainer, but you could use a nut milk bag, or similar. It is really that simple.

Today, my on plan coffee is 10 oz. of cold brew, 3/4 cup of organic almond milk, and 2 teaspoons of agave. This comes in at about 55 calories. Much better than my fave Dutch Bros. drink that comes in at 440 cals for a similar size. These type of choices help me stay on plan, and not feel deprived.

Little Victories from Sparkpeople Blog 4/30/17

Victory is not always shown on the scale! As I've mentioned in one of my previous blogs, my hubby and children are eating buddies, and as such every time we want to do something as a family it seems to involve eating. My husband works delivering pizza (a job we are trying to get him out of), and he has been saving his change every night towards a family night. Now, for us that would usually mean a dinner out. 

Here is where the victory is, last night we decided to spend the saved money for a family night in the theater. We further decided that we would stop at the local co-op and get snacks to take with us so we didn't have to have popcorn and candy at the theater. Everyone in the family was allowed a sweet snack, and a savory snack, plus a drink. I was so excited to find toasted chickpeas as an on plan savory snack, and I already had a Skinny Girl protein bar, so that was my sweet/meal all in one. I was looking forward to a Zevia soda, but they didn't have any flavors I liked, so I had a slightly sweetened mint iced tea as well. 

So, learning portion control, and eating 6 small meals a day has been such a key for me. I was concerned that with this whole bag of chickpeas, that was 5 servings, and eating while in the theater, I would be unable to monitor them. I only ended up eating one and half servings. I stayed totally on plan, plus I think going to the movies was so much more memorable for us as a family rather than eating out. What fun! 

The still learning portions of the day are that my oldest daughter, who seems to know no moderation (sadly I've taught her that), had to buy this big sweet trifle thing as her sweet and probably almost a cup of sesame sticks as her savory. Much larger than a portion. My youngest had a bag of chickpeas like mine and ate the entire bag, she also ate a small, but still more than a portion bag of tiny peanut butter cups. My husband did okay, since he got only apricot bars and ate those. So the learning thing is that next time I will bring home treats and portion them, particularly the savory treats as they were hard to find in portion sizes. If I take them to the store to pick their own sweet I will be more specific about sizing and portion. 

However, learning aside I'm still counting this as victory. We did something as a family that, although it involved eating, didn't center around eating. Plus, I was able to "indulge" but still stay on plan with my family. Reinforcing for me that this is a journey of small steps and decisions that add up to a result.