mama bear's diary

3

3bearsmom

New member
Well, today I turned 40. I had a goal of reaching 160 by now but sadly I did not meet that goal. I have a new goal of reaching 135 by June 2008. I need to make some smaller goals with rewards along the way to keep myself motivated but am not real sure how to go about it. Perhaps every 10 pounds I will treat myself to something from Bath & Body Works or something like that. I have GOT GOT GOT to get control of my snacking habits. Sweets are my absolute downfall. I get the worst cravings in the afternoon. I also for some reason like to nosh on something as I read the paper which is just keeping myself "busy". I am planning to start a food tracking system for myself to really see what exactly and how much am I eating. December is just started and I look forward to seeing what I can accomplish in the next 30 days.
 
Today was another day of cake. I finished the leftover birthday cake for my afternoon snack. At least it's gone and won't tempt me now. BUT...a friend is coming over on Friday and we plan to do a little Christmas baking. I plan to use most of it for gifts but I will have to taste a few things to make sure it's acceptable. That being said I am upping my excercise routine. I will not gain weight this Christmas season if I can at all help it. I'm doing better this year than last year at this same time.
 
3bearsmom said:
Today was another day of cake. I finished the leftover birthday cake for my afternoon snack. At least it's gone and won't tempt me now. BUT...a friend is coming over on Friday and we plan to do a little Christmas baking. I plan to use most of it for gifts but I will have to taste a few things to make sure it's acceptable. That being said I am upping my excercise routine. I will not gain weight this Christmas season if I can at all help it. I'm doing better this year than last year at this same time.
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Baking is definitely a downfall for me. Maybe you could reward yourself if you only eat X amount of cookies (obviously NOT a food reward). Try drinking lots of water, and chewing gum while you're baking. Or if you leave out some veggie and dip you might snack on those instead.

Let me know how it goes :D
 
Well, I got too busy the last few days to even get on the computer but here I am at last. I wish I would have thought of the veggies and dip idea. I did taste a little yesterday when we made a few things but today was a little worse. I think it's because yesterday we focused more on candy but today we baked some cookies and I just have a HARD time with warm cookies straight out of the oven. I am sick of sweets though and it's not just from tasting. it's also from smelling. my whole house smells sweet. I got some fresh snow peas for snacking along with some carrots I plan to make use of the next few days to take care of the need for snacks. I also plan to pick up some salad makings tomorrow. I am craving that right now. thanks for the ideas for overcoming temptation!
 
I threw out a whole bunch of cookies the other day and was so proud of myself. I'd rather waste them than "waist" them. anyway, today was the beginning of getting back to working out. I went to Curves for the first in a long time. hate to let that slack off, I feel so much better when I get there and get that 30 minutes in. I do feel it in my shoulder though. I "self-diagnosed" myself with bursitis in my left shoulder 2 weeks ago and have been "babying" it until today. Oh well, to me it's a small price to pay for how much better I feel after getting a move on-on the work-out curcuit. I weighed myself yesterday morning and am 174 pounds. yuck. I am determined though to reach my goal of 135 by the end of June. as I just typed that I have to admit I hesitated because while I am determined there is definately a part of me that is scared I'm gonna fail. I know what to do though and I know what my downfall is...:sweets. I reach for them when I'm not even hungry...just feeling stressed and in need of a pick-me-up. I did better today though and I think it's part of 2 things. 1. the workout. and 2. I drank more water. I really hope to see a 5 pound difference (less of course than my starting weight) by the end of January.
 
I threw out a whole bunch of cookies the other day and was so proud of myself. I'd rather waste them than "waist" them. anyway, today was the beginning of getting back to working out. I went to Curves for the first in a long time. hate to let that slack off, I feel so much better when I get there and get that 30 minutes in. I do feel it in my shoulder though. I "self-diagnosed" myself with bursitis in my left shoulder 2 weeks ago and have been "babying" it until today. Oh well, to me it's a small price to pay for how much better I feel after getting a move on-on the work-out curcuit. I weighed myself yesterday morning and am 174 pounds. yuck. I am determined though to reach my goal of 135 by the end of June. as I just typed that I have to admit I hesitated because while I am determined there is definately a part of me that is scared I'm gonna fail. I know what to do though and I know what my downfall is...:sweets. I reach for them when I'm not even hungry...just feeling stressed and in need of a pick-me-up. I did better today though and I think it's part of 2 things. 1. the workout. and 2. I drank more water. I really hope to see a 5 pound difference (less of course than my starting weight) by the end of January.
3bearsmom
 
a new beginning for me today, as I suspect it is for lots of folks in the same overweight boat as me, being the first day of a new year. I did well today with my eating until about 3:30 this afternoon when I indulged in a few hersheys kisses. I am a stay at home mom and seem to have trouble in the mid to late afternoons. I think I just get mentally exhausted and feel stressed by then so I reach for something sweet to pick me up. I got all my water in today which is the first I've been able to since it turned cold. I can easily drink water when it's hot outside but just don't want to when it's cold out. I really don't want to fail on this so I am giving my son all the chocolates I got for Christmas. DH got a deer today and I am NOT happy about it. He loves to hunt and I don't have a problem with that, but don't expect me to be thrilled about it when he gets one. He doesn't want to plunk the $100 down to have someone else process it so he will be bringing it home and doing it here. I have in the past help him but don't really feel I should have to when I have been busy keeping up with a 1 yr old and 3 yr old all day. He knows I hate that job.:banghead:(not taking care of the kids, I love that, but I hate cutting up deer). Also, I am busy the next 3 evenings and simply can't help him do it and forget trying to do it during the day with 2 little ones under foot. so...I've vented about that now and I just feel like running up a HUGE visa bill because he's too tight to pay someone else to deal with that mess. how's THAT for marital harmony?!!? I won't do it though and I REFUSE to binge on sugar as a stress relief this time. (I am prone to do this).
Next I need to find out how many calories I should be eating to lose weight. If I'm not mistaken I should eat about 1700 to lose but am not sure.
 
Hi there! You brought up baking and I wanted to ask if you ever tried baking with splenda instead of sugar. Before Christmas I tried making this whole wheat splenda biscotti thinking I was so clever. I don't know if it's because I used pastry flour instead of all purpose or what but they turned out awful. Any tips?
 
I'm sorry I am not qualified to help you on this as I have never made biscotti before.(my specialties are gooey desserts and bars or cookies.) I also have never used splenda before in baking. I have however made cookies and used half the sugar it calls for and they turned out fine other than a small change in texture, they were plenty sweet enough without the full amount of sugar. I don't know if it would work for any kind of cookie or cake but imo it is worth a try. I am known by my close friends as the substitute queen in my cooking and baking. I never have pastry flour or cake flour on hand so I have a cookbook with a page or two of substitutes for those items and others that I refer to and use. my guess is it would be due to the use of all pastry flour in the biscotti if it called for some regular. I don't know for sure though.
 
Lol, baking with substitutes is pretty hard. The only thing I can get to turn out half way decent with good substitutes is pizza dough!

Are you planning on making any baking recipes with substitutes? I've heard that applesauce is a good substitute for oil. That mashed bananas or mashed beans are a good substitute for butter/shortening.

I was thinking of baking up some oatmeal cookies without anything really bad in them but I can't figure out a substitute for brown sugar. I guess I'll hold off until I can figure that out.
 
my substitutes tend to be for different flavors of things. ie. maybe a raspberry cheesecake instead of chocolate chip, or like the other evening I made potato soup for my family and after I'd already started realized I didn't have cream of chicken soup that it called for (it was a new recipe) so I just made a white sauce and put a bunch of cheese (both velveeta and cheddar) in it. I tasted it (didn't want to eat much of it because it was definately NOT diet friendly) and have to admit it was quite delicious. my family LOVED it.
I have heard of substituting applesauce for oil, but have never heard of mashed banana or mashed beans for butter/marg. I bet mashed banana would make some things yummy depending on what it was.
 
today was a little bit of a "down-in-the-dumps" day for me. I weighed myself yesterday and was down a half pound. I thought I did really well but today when I weighed I was up a half pound. gggrrrrr.:cuss:anyway for breakfast I ate a kashi granola bar. then I had to run to an appointment after which I had to go to walmart where I bought 3 donuts. 1 for each of the kids. none for me. however when I got home the youngest had dropped his instead of eating it and when I offered it to him again he didn't want it so guess where it went? yours truly. for lunch I had a cheese stick and a huge bowl of green beans. then this afternoon, when I always get the munchies I had some dark chocolate and some raw almonds. for dinner I had pancakes with cherry sauce. (This was naughty I know) I also didn't get my water it today.
Tomorrow is a new day and I am going to be better even though we are going away for dinner and I know my friend is making baked ziti.:drool5:
I have been a member of Curves for almost 2 years and though I love it there are too many times that I just can't get there...so...I am thinking of getting an elliptical. They are on sale right not at k-mart for 199.00. I'm thinking I know I spend almost $350.00 a year on my membership at Curves and don't even get to use it much some months, so I hope I can talk my DH into letting me get this instead. if I come at it from the money perspective I think I might. I can hardly wait to be able to work more excercise into my day. I know that is what it is going to take.
 
yesterday wasn't as bad as it could have been. I did eat baked ziti-probably more than I should have, but I didn't eat any lunch and barely any breakfast so calorie wise I think I did ok. I know I should never skip b-fast but frankly I had NO time yesterday with getting myself and the kids ready and off to church. Sunday's are always a little crazy at my house in the mornings.
I broached the subject with DH of dropping my Curves membership and buying an at home elliptical for myself instead. I figure I spend almost $350.00 a year on the Curves membership and some months I can't get in there but two or three times. It is not worth it at that rate. Whereas I can get an elliptical on sale for $200.00 and at least it would be in my house and I could use it more regularly. I think from the money aspect of it I can talk him into it, but he's probably thinking I would not use it any more than I use my ab-lounge. If that was the case I would agree with him, but I know myself and I know that when I used one before I really liked it. besides, I could watch Regis and Kelly or something while I work out. I am desperately needing to get my heart-rate up and get a good workout at LEAST every other day for myself to lose this gosh-darn weight!!!
 
I think having your own elliptical is a great idea. I wish I had some in home cardio stuff, especially right now when the weather makes me feel like I don't even want to leave the house.

As for the baked ziti, it sounds absolutely delicious. After reading your post I'm thinking about making a baked pasta dish and substituting spaghetti squash instead of pasta to up the fiber and lower the calories. Thanks for the inspiration!
 
I have heard of people substituting spaghetti squash for pasta in dishes but I have never tried it. I think I would like it fine, but am not sure my family would. Sometimes I think what the heck, if I'm gonna eat healthier so are they and if they don't think they like it they can learn to anyway or make their own! lol
I haven't purchased my elliptical yet though I can hardly wait! I need to either get a sitter for the little ones during the day or wait till a Saturday when DH will be home from work to watch them so I can take my time in shopping for the exact one I want. (within my limited budget of course). I have decided that the only way this weight is going to come off and I can reach my goal is if I can workout for a good half hour every day at least! and I am finding it extremely difficult to do that these days. very frustrating!!!!
 
I have had a busy morning today and didn't have time to do more than grab the half of the banana my 1 year old didn't eat for breakfast. Now I have just had a lunch of leftover green beans and just a couple of bites of potatoes for lunch. I did have a cookie for a snack along with a glass of oj. I hope to go out on Saturday and buy my elliptical. I hope my hubby can watch the kids. He hasn't said whether he minds if I do this or not, but I am wasting money on my curves membership when I can't even get out of the house to go, so I'm thinking an elliptical will be less waste than that!!! I am psyched!
 
My Saturday didn't quite turn out like I hoped. When I brought up to DH my hopes of getting the elliptical he was less than enthusiastic (there is a distance between us lately that I can't quite put my finger on-but that's another issue) so I have decided to save my OWN money and buy one. I don't work very much and don't have a way to earn money very quickly so it may be longer than I'd hoped, but if I buy it with my own moo-lah, he can't complain. Sometimes I get so frustrated with him. If he wants intimacy like I suspect he does and I don't because I feel very unsexy and unattractive I would think he would be glad for me to get a piece of excercise equipment to get into a shape that would make me feel more like doing the wild thing. ggrrr.
 
Ahh.. men. A regular source of frustration. But you know I've found that even if you're not feeling sexy, sometimes you should just go ahead and go for a romp. It's good exercise and many times some of the overeating we do is as a result of not having all of our needs met, whether they're physical, sexual or emotional. Hopefully this isn't too much TMI, but since I've gotten on this fitness journey I've told my fiance that he'll probably enjoy the fact that part of my well rounded view of fitness is going to include giving into his advances at least 3 times a week. He was thrilled.

While you're saving for the elliptical you might think about getting one of those stairsteppers. They're only about $50 at Target.
 
what a great idea! I will check it out. I like Target's things but didn't realize they would have something like that. Don't know why I never looked there before. thanks! I have hope now.
 
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