Messy at work

Messy at home

Messy in the car

Messy pretty much everywhere!

It’s funny to think about because it was only John and I. Honestly – why was it so hard to be neat and organized? I’m not really certain, but I’m pretty sure it’s because I was lazy. After work I didn’t want to spend time cleaning the house or cooking so we’d just go out to eat and then see a movie. On the weekends vacuuming seemed like such a waste of time, and it was much more fun to go shopping or visiting with friends.

Once the children started coming along my organization skills picked up considerably, and by the time we brought baby number 5 home from the hospital I finally had my act together.

Why am I mentioning organizational skills on a weight loss/maintenance blog? I am mentioning it because I think it is important when working on such an important area of your life like losing weight to get healthy, it’s also important to think about other areas of your life that could help you in your endeavor to get healthy and fit.

And I believe that being organized in general can be helpful when attacking a weight issue. At least it has been for me.

Here are some things I do to stay organized, even with seven kids: (And although I TRY, I’m definitely not saying I’ve got it all together!! Definitely not!)

I try and only touch papers once. Whether it’s mail or papers the kids drag in, I look at it, file it, toss it, or handle it.

I loved the FlyLady website and daily emails. For a time I followed her plans and it really helped teach me how to keep my house cleaning without cleaning all day long! (And by the way – I don’t like cleaning!)

I have a set schedule for the big jobs – like cleaning windows, the garage, the game closet. That way if it gets messy I know that it will get clean shortly.

I involve the family. Even though I have a large family who can help, I don’t want them to feel as though they are constantly cleaning. So we have small things to do each day, and then have a Friday cleaning time, where I make a list of everything that needs doing and they pick what they want to do. We can clean our whole big house in about an hour. Then we are done!  Here’s what a list may look like:

• dust everything
• sweep all the wood floors
• mop the kitchen
• general straighten
• organize library books
• clean all bathrooms
• vacuum house
• straighten up pantry
• clean your own room

As a reward, after we are done, we have homemade pizza and watch a little kid movie. It’s amazing how fast cleaning happens when something good is waiting at the end.

I make daily to-do lists. This helps a lot – even if I don’t get it all done.

I look at a room as I’m leaving it. When I leave the bathroom I take a quick glance over my shoulder and see if there is anything I need to take out with me, or something I should put away before I walk out. Training myself to do this has helped a lot. Now if only the kids did this too!

Being organized around the house has helped me with my weight maintenance. Because I don’t have to spend a lot of time and/or energy with the household chores I find it enjoyable to plan meals, precook foods, and fix healthy snacks for everyone. It also frees up exercise time without guilt.

How do you feel? Do you think that trying to be organized can help you in achieving your goals? Diane

One place I still don’t have any good organizational skills is the car. If you have any “keep the car clean” tips I’d love to hear them!

Weekends throw us off our schedules. Monday thru Fridays are predictable for a lot of us. Weekday by weekday we go through our days knowing what to expect. Predictability helps with weight loss. So when the weekend comes around with its crazy kids schedules, get togethers with family, birthday parties and errand running, our predictable eating schedule is out the window. Unfortunately for me, also out the window would go any semblance of making good choices. I really wouldeat 2 Cinnabons, which I now know have 813 calories a piece, washed down with a diet coke.

I would let the freedom of the weekend schedule be an excuse to “take a break” from my diet and every time I did that, I’d fail to start my diet back on Monday. The freedom of weekend schedules can be wonderful. It’s healthy emotionally to have some days during the week that you are able to catch up with friends and get some things done around the house. But with that freedom comes the pitfall and danger of letting down your guard with regards to your food choices. Year after year went by with me using the day of the calendar as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted. And year after year I got bigger and bigger.

The year I lost weight I realized that weekends were yet another thing I had to worry about.

Previously the different diets I had tried felt restrictive and rule oriented, so when I started losing weight using my own plan, I wanted to lose weight in a way that I could follow always, not just on the weekdays, and not just until I lost weight. I wanted something that really would become a new way of life for me.

So using my three steps, I started losing weight. Weekends which were previously a food free for all became less about the food and more about relaxing and enjoying the family being together. I consciously chose to not overeat, not buy the Cinnabon when we were at the mall, and bring my own snack to the movies. (I know, you’re not supposed to do that, but who is  going to tell?!)

Realizing and acknowledging that weekends were dangerous for me was one more step towards achieving my goals. As you head out for kids ball games, trips to mall, cookouts with family and friends, remind yourself that the weekends are about recharging your emotional batteries, and not about eating as much food as you possibly can! 

Even to this day, all these years into maintenance I am still deliberate about not overeating on the weekends. How do you do on the weekends now as opposed to before you started getting healthier?  Diane

I was talking with some friends the other day who were asking for some weight loss advice. I told them some basic things and then they asked me if there are some foods that I just can’t live without.

It was an interesting question and one that I hadn’t really thought about too much. I realized that there are some foods that I do enjoy eating and would in fact be sad to see them go completely. I suppose if I needed to I could live without them, but I wouldn’t choose to. I thought it would be interesting for me to share my three favorite food/groups and then see what foods you wouldn’t want to have to live without.

Here are my top 3:

1. chocolate (I know this is bad, but I would miss it!)

2. Greek yogurt (this is a relatively new love of mine)

3.  fruits, apples, blueberries, and strawberries in particular

Looking at my list I see that I have a definite sweet tooth. My tendency is to gravitate towards the sweeter things and I suppose that’s alright as long as I’m balancing the sweet things with the healthier things in life.

Here’s a great site, The World’s Healthiest Foods, which has some great nutritional information for you to read up on. Even though I’ve maintained my weight for a long time, I am always looking for better ways to enhance my health.

So what are three foods you wouldn’t want to live without?  Diane

It is:

I’m just not ready.

Like I said, I used this one myself for years, so I can come at this excuse from both sides.  From the side of having lost 150 pounds and kept it off, and the side of weighing 300 pounds and telling friends, “I’m just not ready to commit to a weight loss program.”  When people tell me this now, this is what I think: What are you not ready for:

High blood pressure? 

Bigger sized clothes? 

Diabetes? 

Difficulty with your joints? 

What?”  

When we use the excuse, “I’m not ready,” what are we really saving?  We are saying “I’d rather deal with all the problems being overweight brings, than try one more time to get my weight under control.” 

That’s what I said.  I’d rather not fit into the seat belt or develop a potentially serious health issue than try to get healthy.  This excuse really doesn’t make any sense does it?  After all, who would willingly choose the unfortunate consequences of obesity over the benefits of healthy living?  When you see it written like that, it may give you pause.  Has your doctor ever cautioned you about what lies ahead if your weight doesn’t improve?  Mine did, and I didn’t listen very well.  He told me that I was heading down a slippery slope that was going to be harder and harder to climb up if I kept letting my weight creep up.

He was right.  It was a lot harder to lose 150 pounds than to lose the 50 I needed to at that point in time.  I didn’t listen to him then, but rather continued to gain and gain.  If you are midway through your journey right now, don’t be tempted to give up and tell yourself “I’m not ready to finish,” and let it go at that.  Tell yourself, “I’ll never be READY, so I may as well continue/start right now.”  That’s what I finally did.  I realized there was no perfect month to start.  There was no perfect day to get started, and there was no magic to a certain program.  I started, and I didn’t completely stop until I reached my goal weight.  It’s not about how long it takes, but the fact that you continue to try that’s important.

Have you ever felt “not ready” to get started? Do you ever feel that way along your journey?  How do you keep on track?  Diane

♦The good old fashioned rubber band trick – you know that one – you slip a rubber band through the buttonhole for the pants and then thread the loop over the button. Guaranteed to give you another inch in the waist as long as the rubber band doesn’t pop. (I learned that pony tail holders are stronger.)

♦The wet the waistband and upper hip trick – this one I liked a lot and used it in conjunction with the rubber band. I’d dampen the waistband and several inches below slightly. I then pulled and yanked on the pants as they dried. This seemed to give me some breathing room.

♦The cut the elastic in your tights and knit pants trick. This worked as long as all the elastic didn’t come sailing out.

♦The stretch your shirt over your knees trick. Take one too tight t-shirt, sit down and stick your knees into it. This gave me a good amount of hip room.

♦The it’s out of style trick. I’d just claim that some article of clothing was out of style and buy a new shirt or pair of pants in a larger size. No one was the wiser. . .

♦I even tried to trick myself into thinking my pants hadn’t really gotten bigger, rather they had shrunk in the dryer. (Not that I ever dried my pants – they were always line dried so as to avoid extra shrinkage.)

Of course even when I was employing all these tricky tricks I knew I wasn’t fooling anyone. Not myself – not my husband – and certainly not my friends who saw me on a daily basis. Anyone with eyes could see that I was getting bigger and bigger. No amount of clothing trickery was going to make anyone believe otherwise.

I suppose it came down to the fact that I was really trying to lie to myself that it was the clothing’s fault that I needed to use a rubber band at the waist. Surely the five times I swung through the McDonald’s drive-thru in one week didn’t make any difference in the fit of my clothing. It was just the clothes or maybe water weight.

As I gained more and more weight even I couldn’t convince myself that trickery was working. I then began trying to convince myself that I was getting so big because of a failed metabolism or some other medical issue. I even went so far as to have a thorough check-up – just convinced that I needed to go on some kind of medication. I didn’t. And of course now I’m glad that I didn’t have an underlying medical condition.

What I had was an eating problem.

All the clothing tricks in the world couldn’t camouflage that. It wasn’t until I came face to face with myself one day and knew I needed to really change my lifestyle did I give up the clothing tricks. Changing my relationship to food involved not only the food choices I made on a daily basis, but also coming to terms with the fact that I needed to be honest with myself about my appearance and my size.

As I lost weight I had to employ other clothing tricks – like taking in the waistbands, armholes, and shoulder seams. Those were good tricks to learn!

Have you ever played the clothing trick game? Diane

I’ve flown on and off my whole life. I always enjoyed flying until I became an adult, and then all of a sudden it made me really, really nervous. I fly when I need to, but don’t love it like my husband does. Every time I fly I  grip the armrests willing the plane up in the air and then just as fervently willing it down again. Fortunately, every time I’ve flown it has been a safe flight. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always the most enjoyable flight.

I successfully avoided flying for a long time while I was obese. I had an opportunity or two to fly somewhere but always managed to get out of it. There was one time where I absolutely had to get on an airplane, so I did.

I had been morbidly obese long enough that I knew it wasn’t going to be a lot of fun sitting squished in a seat several sizes too small for several hours. I had already experienced the humiliation of breaking chairs, getting stuck in booths at restaurants, and getting winded just walking up a few steps to understand that my obesity was a huge problem.

Once I arrived at the airport that morning I went directly to my gate. I looked around at the other passengers and – as expected – I was by far the biggest person there. I felt like everyone was looking at me – secretly hoping they weren’t seated next to me. If I had been them I would have secretly been hoping the same thing. More and more people came to the gate and I heard the attendant announce that the flight was full. “Great,” I thought. “Now I will have to sit next to someone for sure.” And sure enough, a few minutes later there I was.

I was in the window seat, a medium largish man was next to me, and a skinny man was occupying the aisle seat, hanging onto his armrest for dear life. I wished I could just suck in my girth but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make myself any smaller. I struggled with the seat belt after reassuring the flight attendant that I definitely did not need a seat belt extender. I really needed one, but with a lot of tugging I managed to get the belt buckled. I knew that belt wasn’t getting unbuckled until we reached our destination. I was afraid I might not get it fastened again.

The whole flight was exceedingly uncomfortable – both for me and my poor seat mates. Not surprisingly, neither one of them spoke to me during the flight. Fortunately, my flight home was better as I had a seat to myself.

I’ve read a lot of stories in the newspaper lately about Southwest Airlines requiring passengers as big as I was to purchase two seats. Having lived both sides of this situation I am torn on what is the right way to handle an obese passenger. I understand the airlines’ concern, but I also know that sometimes obese people need to fly and they can’t always afford two tickets. It’s a bad Catch-22.

What’s your take on airline flights? Have you ever felt uncomfortable on a flight, and do you think obese passengers should be required to purchase an extra ticket?  Diane

This Saturday I thought it might be fun to just give you a list of foods that freeze well. Why? Because when you are a busy man or woman, having foods that you have prepared in your freezer ready to heat into a healthy meal can be very helpful. I know that always having some frozen meals in the freezer has saved us money and calories! Not swinging through the drive-thru or visiting a pizza place is a great reason to have a few frozen meals on hand.

Here are some of my favorite meals to make ahead and freeze:

♦Vegetarian Lasagna

♦Wild Rice Chicken Casserole

♦Chicken Pot Pie Filling (I add the crust at the last minute)

♦Soups of all kinds (minestrone, chicken noodle, vegetable stew, etc.)

♦Homemade vegetable and chicken broth

♦I always have cooked frozen chicken on hand. I freeze it in 2 cup serving sizes for casseroles, enchiladas, wraps, soups, etc.

♦Brown rice freezes beautifully. I thaw it and use it with all kinds of meals.

♦If you are a ground beef eater, cooked ground beef freezes well.

♦Red pasta sauces

♦Chili

♦Pizza dough (yum!)

So you see these are just some of the meals that you may find in my freezer on any given day. With seven kids my life is sometimes a bit hectic so it is nice to have a ready made meal or two.  Have you ever frozen meals with success?  Diane

When I get my act more together I’ll put more of these recipes up. Some are on the blog already, like the pizza dough and the minestrone soup. Also one book I love a lot is called “Keeping Foods Fresh.” It’s a wonderful resource for food safety, freezing and refrigeration times, etc.

It was hard.

Those obese years are ones that I could look back on with so much regret that it paralyzes me. And honestly, for a while I did. I spent a lot of time regretting what I had missed, and regretting what I may have accomplished if I hadn’t allowed myself to get so big. Fortunately, that period of regret didn’t last very long and I was able to put the regret behind me and accept the fact that those years were still good for me and my family, even if they weren’t perfect. After all – who has a perfect life?!

Regretting isn’t very positive, but remembering is. I like to remember some of the hard times I faced as a morbidly obese woman because those memories help me stay focused and on track. When I remember some of those difficult times I know for certain that I never want to be that big again. This helps me when:

I think I don’t want to work out.

I am tempted to eat more than a small portion of dessert.

When the chips are calling my name.

When I’m faced with the choice to be active or sit down.

More often than not I get off the chair and move away from the brownies. Just as I moved away from obesity, I have learned that moving away from temptation and moving towards good choices and more activity is a good thing.

Do you think it’s good to remember where you came from or is it better to try and forget those years?  Diane

You notice that the picture is taken on the beach. You will also notice that I am not wearing a bathing suit. Instead I am wearing homemade capri pants and a size 2X t-shirt. I did take off my little white tennis shoes, but that’s as far as it went. No bathing suit for me. It was extremely uncomfortable to be getting my capri pants soaking wet, but I didn’t want our little daughter to miss out on the fun.

I never loved parading around in a bathing suit. I’ve always been on the modest side so whenever I needed to wear a bathing suit I felt uncomfortable, even when I was an average size. But that feeling of basic uncomfortableness progressed to absolute horror once my size could be compared to that of a football player. And so I didn’t ever wear one again.

It wasn’t easy to live in Florida and not own a bathing suit – especially when so many people I knew had pools and beach/lake houses. The girls were frequently invited to pool parties when their little friends celebrated a birthday. And the invitation usually read, “Moms are welcome and encouraged to swim!” Yeah, right, I’d think.

But I’d lumber off to the party, excited girls in hand. I dreaded every minute of the days leading up to the party, knowing that me and my one other obese friend would be the ones standing at poolside watching our children swim with the other moms who weren’t mortified at the thought of wearing a bathing suit. I was always relieved when the party was over and I could escape.

I tried to convince myself that it was okay to wear a bathing suit but I just couldn’t do it. I even tried a few on in the “Women’s Department” at Sears but cried in the dressing room because it just looked so horrible. So I put the suits back on the rack and didn’t try one on again for about six years.

After I lost my 158 pounds I bought a bathing suit. Going swimming with my kids was pure joy. I didn’t love the way I looked in a bathing suit, but I just got into the water quickly and didn’t get out again until we were leaving. I knew that my arms and shoulders looked fine so whatever else I didn’t like couldn’t really be seen and I was okay with that.

To this day I still don’t parade around the pool deck in just my swimsuit, but I don’t completely avoid the pool and beach either. Just knowing that I can wear a bathing suit and not feel as though everyone is whispering about me is a victory. I wish I had possessed the self-confidence to just be comfortable in a suit while I was morbidly obese, but I didn’t.

How do you feel about bathing suits and swimming these days?  Diane

I was reading the USA today a few days ago and they had an article about the amount of sugar in certain candies and cookies. I was horrified and a little surprised to learn that an Oreo cookie has approximately 1 tsp of sugar per cookie. I did some internet searching and found this website that you may find interesting as well. It’s called SugarStacks and the authors of the site have taken several different foods and stacked sugar cubes in front of each food/drink so we can visually see how much sugar is in a serving.  The sugar cubes are 4 grams, and a teaspoon of sugar is 4.2 grams, so the visual picture is pretty close.

I consider myself pretty well-informed on nutrition in general. I’m not a nutritionist, but I’m a label reader and have read lots of books, articles, and studies on food, dieting, and weight loss. But even I was shocked at the amount of sugar in some very common foods. I don’t know why I was shocked because I understand that sugar sneaks into a lot of processed foods – even foods that you aren’t expecting to find it in.

For example, many tomato products like spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, and ketchup have high sugar contents. Fruit juices are another source of sugar, and even when I was in the midst of losing weight I’d forget about how much sugar was in 20 oz of juice! A lot! Cereals are also notorious for containing lots of sugar – even some of the “healthier” cereals have quite a bit of sugar added to them. Fruit flavored yogurt is another source of sugar that I sometimes forgot about too.

So what do you do about all this sugar floating around?

Well, I think one of the first things to do is be aware of how the sugar appears on the labels. Obviously if you see sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, or maple syrup that’s sugar. But, there are a lot of sugars that masquerade under other names, like sucrose, glucose, lactose, and fructose. There are also sugar alcohols, like sorbitol and others which are found in chewing gums and breath mints. So watch out for sugars that aren’t obviously listed as sugar on the label!

Once you are cognizant of how the sugars are labeled and how much there is you can begin to make more informed choices. There may be some foods you want to avoid. I don’t drink much juice – instead opting to eat real fruit. Obviously things like candy and cookies have a lot of sugar so those are best saved for special occasions and not as a daily snack.

And as you are working on reducing your sugar intake you can begin to influence people around you to make healthier choices. I know that once I showed friends of mine how much sugar was in certain foods they started choosing healthier alternatives.

How do you feel about the sugars in foods? Do you try and avoid sugar altogether or just watch your sugar intake?  Diane