Qjay's thread

Hey there!

Glad to see you found your way back! Journaling really helps to get encouragement. I know I appreciate your comments.
 
I love moral support! :D

Hey DarkEyes, I have found a VERY effective way of preventing the candy gifts is to throw them away right at that moment. They get upset and complain, the proper answer is "It is my gift, right? I appreciate the thought, and am doing something that feels good with it. Thanks much, I do appreciate it; you wouldn't BELIEVE how tough that was for me to do! It's like a weight off of my shoulders!"

Of course, I am a bit of a rude SOB, but sometimes you just have to be. Some friends of mine invited me over for a shrimp cookout over the summer and.. I don't eat shrimp. So I said so, they told me there would be other stuff there as well. The "other stuff" was some salmon, about 12 oz for everyone to share. Since this was a gourmet gathering, I politely tried some of the other foods, but I am not a shellfish lover (and had made that clear before agreeing to come over), so there wasn't much for me to eat. So I went out for fast food, brought it back, and ate it there to enjoy the atmosphere of the party. I have never seen someone go from laughing at my food quirks to being upset because the joke wasn't very funny when it got turned around; I brought enough to share.
It may not have been the healthiest option, but at the time I was not watching my diet. When a few of the other folks joined me for food, it was a really satisfying feeling, and my friends have never tried to do that to me again.

Sometimes we have to work really hard to do this, and when people try to mess it up, they have to be put in their place. Good luck with YOUR family :p
 
Hey Qjay how's it going? So I'll try the portion thing with some gummi bears I bought. Definitely an indulgence. But yeah I wish I could throw out the stuff. Unfortunately, my family is buying it for themselves lol. However I have not gone back to those cookies lol. I looked at them yesterday but I didn't eat them lol. The thing is we always have them in our house but its those keebler kind or whatever so i'm never tempted. These are actually good thats why it sucks cause they taste homemade lol. Anyway enough about junk food.

Hope things are going well today. I also battle with keeping my blood sugar in control cause I'm prone to having diabetes. I think 5g of sugar is about a tablespoon of sugar. and I think the average person has about 15 tbsp of sugar a day. So I try to read labels and stay in those limits. Its sort of crazy how much sugar there is in everything.

Good luck today. I'll be checking up again soon!
 
It's good to see you watching your sugar intake like that. I get it mostly from starches, that cause me problems. Sugar really doesn't seem to affect my diabetes nearly as much as pasta or rice does.
Either way, I'm down to borderline blood glucose levels the past few days, which is a massive improvement for me! :D
I also am going to my smaller belt notches, so that is a very nice feeling!
 
I love moral support! :D

Hey DarkEyes, I have found a VERY effective way of preventing the candy gifts is to throw them away right at that moment. They get upset and complain, the proper answer is "It is my gift, right? I appreciate the thought, and am doing something that feels good with it. Thanks much, I do appreciate it; you wouldn't BELIEVE how tough that was for me to do! It's like a weight off of my shoulders!"

haha good for you! i re-wrapped mine and gave it to other friends as a gift.
If i had eaten all the stuff that people gave me saying 'oh but its xmas, you can put the diet on hold' i would have gained about 5kg/11lb (i actually added up the calories to find that out too lol)

If they are offended that i gave their gift to somebody else then they should have used their brain and given me something more appropriate :)
 
Hey!

First off, thanks for reading and posting on my journal. I've been neglecting my favorite threads lately. :(

Personally, I LOVE hot food. I love hot sauce and jalapenos. When you are cutting out so much fat and sometimes alot of the flavor, you have to compensate somewhere. I throw banana peppers into just about everything.
I opted for the McDonalds as I had to leave for work at 5am and was starving for breakfast. I'll axe the pizza until next weekend.

I appreciate your advice.

Sparkpeople is really great. My husband has even joined!

I know what you mean by 'well meaning people'. My grandmother told me I was just pleasantly plump my whole life. And now, she tries to give me diet advice (mind you this woman has spent 15 years trying to GAIN weight & and now finally has gained a little too much.) Finally, I had to say Gran, I'm fat! The only way to REALLY lose weight is healthy eating, portion control, and exercise. She actually bought me this big plastic yellow belt that vibrates the fat right off you. . .FYI . .it doesn't work.

She is always offering a cookie or something she has left over from dinner. "Just one won't hurt!" Will it send my calorie intake to the moon? Probably not, but it will hurt my morale and possibly send me into a binge!

I don't blame you for trashing the chocolates. If you are anything like me, I can't even have them around. There is no such thing as "just one". If they are there, I want them.

Anyways, keep up the resolve!
 
... "Just one won't hurt!" Will it send my calorie intake to the moon? Probably not, but it will hurt my morale and possibly send me into a binge!...
Oh yeah!! Eating control looks different from the outside doesn't it? Like a smooth flowing stream - chuck in one little pebble and see those ripples!! :)
 
It's a rough day. I am really glad I picked up some sugarfree gum, because I am plenty full, and I just want to eat.
I had my normal start to the day (around 500 cals of breakfast), and a pack of the gum. My blood sugar is screwed, I got stood up TWICE yesterday (My last day before classes started up), I'm grumpier than $%^! right now, and I feel a little bit better reading over the new stuff in my diary here.
Maybe a nap will help...

Err.. and hello yourself M2M, and thanks! :D
 
Second meal of the day, a HUGE salmon salad with some honey mustard dressing; probably 600 calories total. Still hungry and on my second pack of gum for the day, dammit. I hope I can cut SOMETHING back...
 
Yeah, this day has been a rough one. Lucky for me, my body thinks Jagermeister is food, so at least my blood sugar will aintain as pretty close to normal.
Outside of the fifth of jager, I am somewhere in the neighborhood of 1800-2000 calories. I've had a nice steak and some pepperoni sticks (4 oz, tops).

Hey, here's a neat trick, folks: Microwave your pepperoni sticks on a paper plate or some paper towels; it melts out a lot of the fat and oil. I do mine for about 20 seconds at a time, until they are HOT and have run a bunch of the oil into the plate/towel, then I roll them under another paper towel and squeeze out even more of that crap.
At FIRST I thought "I'm wasting food!" if you can believe that. I really hate what I learned from my parents, sometimes...
 
It sounds like we both had sugar problems today Qjay. :) I find it hard to grasp how much impact it can have on me.

Is being hungry part of what happens to you when your blood sugar is messed up?
 
OH no, i hope tomorrow is a lot better for you.

Heres another tip, flame grill or BBQ any fatty meat - the fat just catches fire and a lot gets burnt off :)
 
Oh, the sugar wasn't my problem, it was mostly just craving large amounts of fats and starches. I went out to eat this morning, Eggs benedict. :D
Well, it could have been worse, right ;)

I'm just trying to eat carefully this evening, make up for some of the horrors I inflicted upon myself last night. When I ran out of Jager, I started in on my Rum... blech, bad combination.

The "blood sugar is screwed" comment basically meant that I was sleepy, my mouth was dry, and I couldn't concentrate, but alcohol lowers your blood sugar rapidly as your body processes it. Basically it helps reduce those symptoms as your blood alcohol level rises. I ended up eating about 5 cups of popcorn (300 calories) as a snack, and had some leftover beef barley with veggies, to round out my calories for the day (not counting alcohol, once again :p ) and so at least I had some food in me when I finally did decide to get some sleep.

The diabetes didn't make me hungry, though, it was a "comfort food" craving, and I got through most of it without TOO much hassle, but I am glad I feel better today. Just a bit sleepy. but that's pretty normal this time of evening.

Well, I am going to grab a snack and maybe a nap. Thanks for dropping by!

PS, I LOVE to grill out when it's warm, but an Oregon Winter is basically cold and wet; not much fun to cook in. I usually drain off as much fat as I can from any meats I cool, then pat them "clean"; it just seems to make a nice difference in the way my mouth feels afterwards. I really hate that greasy feeling if I don't remember to do it.
 
AAAARGH!
You know what really ticks me off? I am sitting here doing research about diabetes and weight loss and food and portion control... and it all sounds so dang GOOD! I am just winding down, getting ready to get some sleep, and all of a sudden I am wound up and thinking about what I can go eat! It sucks, and it is so incredibly not fair...
Yes, I'd rather whine about it here than go eat it out there, so if anyone decides they need to say something, think carefully. Criminy, I HATE feeling like this!
 
Been there. . . .

And I've also lost sleep thinking about the big weigh-in in the morning. . .
As if staying awake would magically melt another pound off or something.

My aunt-in-law is diabetic. She just recently found out and hasn't been taking the necessary steps to be healthier. I just told her about sparkpeople. She said she is going to try it.

Soooo. . .basically what I'm saying, is keeping getting info. You are doing all the leg work for me :)
 
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How's this for a theory:
- Sounds like you are a night owl, awake a lot at night. Yet you sleep at odd hours (naps in early evening).
- You live where winters can be harsh and cold with not much daytime sunlight. When there is bright sunlight, how much direct exposure do you get to it? Or are you mostly indoors, without seeing much natural sunight?
- You crave "comfort foods" - especially many foods high in tryptophan, or that help serotonin production.

All classic for SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder (which, by the way, can affect people year-round if they spend most of their time indoors away from a good source of bright natural sunlight, or working nights, e.g. night shift workers). Although SAD is usually associated with carb cravings, most of the SAD studies have been done on women, whose cravings tend to range to carbs and sugars. But about 20-30% of diagnosed SAD sufferers are men - the known ones. How many are undiagnosed? Bottom line is, SAD results in cravings for foods rich in tryptophan and/or produce serotonin. Mens' cravings are usually more for proteins, fats, and comfort foods (see ). Sound familiar?

If possible, try spending more time outdoors during whatever daylight hours you get. Even if it's just a half-hour walk or something.

Or see if you can get a SAD light. A medical diagnosis of SAD may even result in insurance covering the light (if you have good medical insurance).

Weight gain in winter, especially in darker/colder areas, is no coincidence.
 
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