These posts are arranged chronologically, gathered up from all the various categories I put them in, and including some along the way that I forgot to stick in the right categories. Over to the right is a link to the whole shebang.
Beginning two months after I started losing weight (May 13, 2008), I felt brave enough to post about my experience more openly. The "gains" post is the beginning of that.
I began to exercise regularly before I began to lose weight
Total immersion 3/03/08 I weigh whether to use a weekly block of extra time to swim, or to go to a daily Mass. I pick the swimming.
Y not? 3/31/08 "If there's hope for me to become comfortable with any physical activity, I guess there's hope for anyone."
Synch and swim. 3/31/08 I am learning the skill of "sculling."
While I was losing weight
Finding the time to exercise: the love and marriage model. 5/14/08 (148 lbs)
My swim bag. 5/14/08 Part of getting regular exercise has been keeping my bag packed and ready to go.
Meat, less. 5/23/08 We decide as a family to eat less meat, but I'm worried because I like to eat low-carb.
(that's me on the far right, 5/31/08)
More on less meat. 6/13/08 Link to an article by one of my favorite cooking writers, with sensible, low-stress suggestions for eating better and more sustainably.
Swimming with structure. 6/20/08 My workout routine as a beginning lap swimmer.
Minor milestone; and, the hidden advantage of being a dumpy, sedentary high school kid. 6/20/08 (135 lbs)
Stepping lightly on the planet. 6/25/08 "I can tell you what you can do, one very simple thing, that will make a dent in your food-related carbon footprint that is equivalent to having all the food you eat grown and produced at your very doorstep."
The "gains" series that began the whole thing.
Gains. A multi-part post. 7/14/08
Gains, part 2. What's wrong with me. 7/14/08 (The root of my weight problem is that I have an irrational fear of getting hungry.)
Gains, part 3. Living with what's wrong with me. 7/16/08
Gains, part 4. Getting over the fear of hunger. 7/17/08
Gains, part 5. Learning to be hungry. 7/17/08
Gains, part 6. The future? 7/19/08Monotonically decreasing. 7/22/08 Pictures of me at 160 pounds, 148 pounds, and two months into my weight loss (127 lbs).
Measurements. 7/22/08 What my measurements -- weight, height, etc. -- mean in terms of BMI-normal, overweight, and obese.
"These latest trials just happen to be the best data we have on the long-term effects of saturated fat in the diet, and the best data we have says that more saturated fat is better than less." 7/25/08 I eat a lot of saturated fat. It helps me lose weight.Asking for trouble? 7/27/08 I buy a bread machine.
Hey, speaking of diets, here's one designed by an engineer. 7/27/08 The "No-S" diet.
Hungry? Not so much. 7/30/08 I'm beginning to notice feeling full at meals.
Regimen confusion. 7/31/08 One way to sabotage yourself is to keep more than one diet plan in mind at the same time.
Bedtime snack or no bedtime snack? 8/1/08 I'm pretty sure that I feel better when I wake up after a twelve hour fast than after a seven hour fast.
To prove I'm not starving. 8/1/08 What I ate the last time I tracked everything. You can see that I don't eat low-fat at all (65 grams of fat on this day, nearly half my calories), but also that I don't have a junk food problem, that I get plenty of protein and whole grains.
Still going. 8/22/08, 119 lbs. Metastable steady-state reactors produce a certain output, at a certain temperature and volume, for a given set of input parameters. I'm no different.
Tweaking. 8/23/08 I keep adjusting my eating patterns as I approach my goal. One recent choice: giving up bedtime snacks for good. But the head games!
Vanity. 8/25/08 As much as I'd like to say that I entered this journey with an attitude of spiritual sacrifice, I can't. It's been a very me-me-me focused few months.
Morning puzzle. 8/29/08 Why am I interested in these food items?
The puzzle, a hint. 8/30/08
Eight hundred and seventy-five calories. 8/30/08 The answer to my puzzle post. How am I going to eat that much more every day?
Hmm. 9/14/08 The graph shows I've been falling off the wagon. It felt good to cross into normal territory a while back, and my sense of urgency is definitely less. (118 lbs)
Eat, drink, and eat some more. 9/17/09. Mistakes teach you things. I learned something very important: Alcohol is not my friend when it comes to sticking to an eating plan.
Loss mode, also known as the Bearing Diet. 9/17/08 I try to distill my way of eating down to a few simple, objective rules.
Yeah, I think that's what I'll call it. 9/17/08 The Bearing Diet for Not Eating So Damn Much.
Some more clarification about how I came to those rules. 9/17/08
Division. 10/2/08. Scrambled eggs is one of those breakfasts where I marvel at my smaller way of eating. They never look right except in a sprawling pile. Which is why I use a scale.
Malnourished: a head game. 10/4/08 This is what gluttony always sounds like to me: I convince myself I really "need" to eat more. (In this case, a half-pound of green beans.)
My birthday present? 10/5/08 Dinner out.
Monday I did something I've never done before in my entire life. 10/8/08 I tried to get faster.
113. 10/12/08
Serendipity. 10/16/08 Mark has been pushing me to expand my workout routine to include other things besides swimming.
Paradigm shift. 10/31/08 "So how was your swim?"
"No. I hate it. I get shin splints and my knees hurt." 11/3/08 I get on the treadmill for the first time and I go 1K in 26:33.
Volume. 11/07/08. Short review of The Volumetrics Eating Plan.
Weight maintenance. 11/8/08 The secret of the transition is to realize that there will be no transition. I would like to say that I can never go back. Instead, it's apparent that I am free to go back. And equally free not to. (111 lbs)
Small victories. 11/8/08 In which I get over my angst and ask for a salad instead of hash browns.
The old me would have sat in the car with the kids, the heat running, and waited for rescue. 11/11/08 I've definitely changed.
In a way, I'm already there. 11/11/08 Three more pounds. You with me? Just a little bit longer? (Thank you so much, CJ/Jamie, for your short comment on this post. Believe it or not, I thought about it a lot for the weeks that followed.)
The last three pounds
Schedule questions. 11/12/08 How do I structure my evenings at the gym?
8 AM in the kitchen of good and evil. 11/12/08. I am a recovering crust-nibbler. Here is my slightly ridiculous coping strategy.
(A short series in which I blog everything I eat in one day:)Boiled egg, tomato juice, and black coffee. 11/12/08 The boiled egg first thing in the morning is a signal I send to myself: This day is for choosing. Get ready.
Whole raw milk. 11/12/08
In-the-mood pasta salad. 11/12/08 I still remember that the very first week I started losing weight, I made myself a giant batch of a particular pasta salad and ate it for lunch every day that week. In honor of that first week, I return to the same pasta salad. Recipe included.
Seven almonds. 11/12/08 It took me a while to get used to the idea of a single-digit number of tiny things as a snack. I do it almost without thinking now. Bonus: A decent rule of thumb for controlling snacks, especially snacks of unknown composition.
Fajitas. 11/12/08 An example of a meal where I didn't count calories.Okay, I'm hungry. Hungry, I'm okay. 11/12/08 This attitude has taken practice.
Positive eating. 11/13/08 Link to an article about people focusing on what they should eat, rather than on what they shouldn't. There is, of course, one big problem with books and articles like this.
The mean rules. 11/13/08 This is how I will define having reached "goal."
Thanksgiving. 11/13/08 The irony has not escaped me that I will most likely achieve goal within a week or so of Thanksgiving.
Averaging. 11/14/08 In which I lose sleep fretting about breakfast, and finally come up with the obvious solution.
What about the clothes? 11/15/08. Dressing my new self.
The magic number appeared this morning. 11/16/08 I don't count it as goal yet.
Head to toe. 11/16/08 I evaluate how I look and feel.
The first Mass reading on the day my scale read 108. 11/16/08 Okay, okay, I get the point.
"Rethink Your Plate" 11/16/08 Link to an article that summarizes my entire mealtime strategy in a single page.
No subject. 11/16/08 A before-and- ... not "after," but "so far" picture. Me at about 109 pounds.
Roast vegetables, four ideas. 11/17/08 Because someone asked for my recipe.
The scale. 11/19/08 I am a believer in weighing oneself daily.
Remorse. 11/19/08 "Why? Why did I make blondies for the kids' tea time? Why? Why?"
Commitment. 11/20/08 Today I gave away a bunch of clothes in sizes 10 and 12.
Licorice. 11/20/08 Lately I can't get the idea of eating an entire bag of black gumdrops out of my mind.
The power of routine, or, is it a good or bad idea to be flexible? 11/20/08 One thing I'm discovering is that I screw up (eat too much) far more easily when I deviate from my usual schedule. I still have a problem.Wool socks aren't enough. 11/21/08. I am cold ALL THE TIME.
107.8. 12/21/08 The first measurement below my target weight doesn't mean I'm "done."
Sushi strategy. 12/21/08 I made some mistakes at this meal, but I learned from them too. Here's what went right and wrong.
Stuffing. 12/25/08 Here comes Thanksgiving. Is it still gluttony if you stuff yourself with plain boiled okra?
How to answer "the question," and a musing on delayed gratification. 11/25/08 What do I tell people who ask me, "How did you do it?"
More about delayed gratification. 11/25/08 Christy gives me a good answer to "the question." And: Is it possible to MAKE yourself be motivated by the short-term reality (behavior) instead of the long-term dream (weight loss, or health, or fitness?)
"It is one thing to KNOW what one should be doing and eating; it is another, more shameful thing to acknowledge that you are too weak to do it." 12/27/28 Margaret inspires me.
Not with a bang but a whimper. 11/28/08 "Congratulations, hon." We both twirled our index fingers in the air and muttered, "whoo."
Maintenance
Now what? 12/2/08 So I got over the stomach bug, and my appetite came back, and I found myself wondering: What should I eat?
Self-awareness. 12/2/08. Could it be that... once you KNOW what you should do... moral behavior, or "good" behavior, or "healthy" behavior (take your pick) is nothing more than the setting-up of the right incentive structures for oneself? Can one version of the "self" set goals and constraints for the other?
Less really is more, where I live now. 12/3/08 Indulging looks so much different now. So does overeating. Everything is smaller, and made of better stuff.
One more thing about not beating myself up over treats. 12/3/08 On being a recovering bulimic.New cravings. 12/4/08 I can't believe it, but I'm actually looking forward to exercising.
Tipping point? 12/08/08 The limits of "tips and tricks," for weight loss and other goals.
Gain mode. 12/9/08 What, I have to gain weight? Well, now, that's just bizarre.
Tracking again. 12/12/08 I need to go back to calorie-counting again, because I need the data. Bleh.
It's always worth mentioning. 12/13/08 In which we go out to dinner for our anniversary, and I eat too many beets. Bonus: My restaurant rule of thumb.
The much-requested "big pants" picture. 12/17/08
Bewildered. 12/18/08 The data shows I'm doing something right! But I don't know what it is!
Another kind of food goal. 12/21/08 Jen at Conversion Diary came up with a good one, unrelated to weight loss.
Insulin and my weight loss. 1/1/09 Did my hard work begin, or end, the day I started to lose weight? (Sort of a book review of Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories)
Reasons to eat or to fast. 1/2/09 "As I prepared to think and write about gluttony and addiction, I realized that first you need to distinguish all the different reasons people eat. They fall into three classes, I think. Let's start by listing the reasons people eat or fast."
Gluttony: a definition. 1/2/09 (From the Catholic encyclopedia.) I love the catalog of five ways to be a glutton.
The steps to take: prudence, temperance, and fortitude. 1/2/09
Working hypothesis. 1/3/09 Maybe the reason I suddenly became able to lose weight was because after nearly two years of fairly-low-carb eating, I hit some invisible internal tipping point.
Breakfast experiment. 1/4/09 It's still a little tricky to decide how to cut calories when I get a bit heavy and to add calories when I get a bit light.
Compulsion. 1/9/09 Have I mentioned that I still experience the compulsion, or the impulse, to eat too much or to eat the wrong stuff? Yes, every day, pretty much. How do I resist?
Weight loss miscellany: Link to a low-carb diet blog that seems like a good resource. 1/18/09The long dark bedtime snack of the soul. 1/18/09
Food, yuck. 1/23/09 "Yesterday a friend asked me for I-can't-stop-eating advice. The timing was kind of funny because I'd had an I-can't-stop-eating day. Yes, it still happens from time to time."
This is what maintenance looks like. So far. 1/24/09 Is it harder to be maintaining than it was to lose weight?
The paper rules. 1/24/09 How I chart my weight each morning, and what I do when it goes out of bounds.
"I get filled up on the smell." 2/4/09 Three advantages to dropping the habit of nibbling while cooking -- most importantly, so you can really enjoy your meal.The Beck Diet. 2/6/08. I had a chance to skim through the book. Was I channeling Dr. Beck the whole time I was losing weight?
Salad for breakfast. 2/7/09 Isn't it strange that with all my effort to pack more vegetables into my day, it would take me so long to realize that salad can be a fine breakfast food?
Back in weight loss mode. 2/8/09 Yesterday I decided to go into weight loss mode and remain there until my five-day-running average drops below 108. So, several days of work. How'd I do yesterday?
Small victory of the day. 2/9/09 "Willpower is nothing but the sum of all your difficult decisions made right."
Gluttony is different from sloth. 2/9/09. Part of the Induced Exercise series.
Yesterday's small victory. 2/11/09. In which I compensate for eating too much popcorn.
So how are YOU doing? 2/12/09. Eleven comments.
In which I really and truly recommend a diet book. 2/15/09.
Either or: a small victory. 2/23/09. In which I learn to challenge the sabotaging thought that I don't just want this extra food, I need this extra food. (plus a recipe for bran muffins)
Before and After. 2/26/09. On my first Ash Wednesday fast as a post-glutton.
Obsessed with the numbers. 2/26/09. I realize that I've lost my long-term view of maintenance and started reacting to the numbers on the scale, and I write to try to get myself back on track with a focus on behaviors.
Revelation on the gluttony front.3/4/09. I still have a drug-like addiction to eating BIG, and I still have to fight it.
My own personal madeleines -- or, maybe there is a time and place for excess. 3/12/09. In which I enjoy something to excess and reflect on whether it is sometimes okay.
A new path. 4/28/09 I did something new yesterday. I ran around Lake Calhoun.
28:24. 5/2/09
"So was it fun?" 5/3/09 Not exactly. Why, then, do I want to do it again?
A long-term running goal 5/4/09
What's so hard about running. 5/8/09
(For posts later than this, see the category Chronological Index. Latest posts on weight loss, weight maintenance, and gluttony are at the top, and this post is at the bottom.)
Thanks for this index. I've mentioned your weight loss and things you've discussed to several people and this will make it easier to refer them to your blog.
Tabitha
Posted by: 4ddintx | 08 May 2009 at 04:17 PM
wow...you look fabulous! What a great job you've done.
Posted by: Valerie | 10 May 2009 at 09:35 AM
Congratulations! Wow. What a great job. I am impressed.
Posted by: Robin @ Heart of Wisdom | 07 September 2009 at 08:54 PM