Riding My Asterisk Off

No weight loss this week. I’m not thrilled but it’s ok…I weighed this morning, and won’t tomorrow even though I usually weigh in on Fridays. I somehow doubt I’ll lose 10 pounds overnight, unless my DDAVP wears off ealry and I pee it off (which can happen!)

That just means next week will be a 3 pound week, right? Right!

Considering I’ve been off the NS food this week, I’m really not too disapointed. It make take me a bit to get in the swing of preparing my own low glycemic and lower calorie foods.

A Big Mac is low GI, right?

Well, I think I have my answer. Two days off NS to calm my tummy, went back on it today…and instant yuckiness.

Damn, this means I have to actually cook.

You can file this under TMI…

I’ve mentioned before the, um, social unacceptablity of being on NutriSystem: people on the NS support boards refer to this common problem as “NutriToots.” Kind of funny, especially when you’re offending everyone around you. And if you have the sense of humor of a 6 year old (which I obviously do.)

It’s not so funny when the problem escalates with the longer you’re on the plan. I did think it was funny at first and took some comfort in reading others’ comments that after a while, it eased up and eventually went away. I got some quality alone time–I didn’t mind making the cats’ eyes water or sending other people running from the room.

Until Saturday night.

Without getting too graphic, let’s just say that this side effect grew to epic proportions, which increased to other bodily eruptions that had the cat looking at me like “What the hell did you just do? If I did that you’d be rushing me to the vet!” and had me =this= close to calling the Boy at whatever party he was at and asking him to come home so he could take me to the ER.

I was in a serious amount of pain; hell, having the brain tumor removed hurt less. At the worst point, not only was there pain and eruptions of the explosive kind, but I broke out into a cold sweat, I got that funky tunnel vision that preceeds passing out, and then felt as if I was on fire.

I literally crawled back to bed… I didn’t eat any of the NS foods yesterday or today, and aside from being totally wiped out from Saturday night’s torture, I feel fine.

Tomorrow I’ll eat a few NS things and see what happens…but if what happens is even remotely close to Saturday night, I’m tossing in the towel. I know how to do a low glycemic diet on my own, I was just happy to not have to make the effort to cook and clean up.

The Spouse Thingy is staying on it; he doesn’t have the same problem and he can eat whatever food I have left if I wind up having to stop.

Ok, we’ll toss yesterday up to a free day. I started the day with good intentions, but left the house unprepared for lunch time hunger pains–and they hit hard. Yep, we could have stopped somewhere for something healthy, but a burger sounded really good. So we stopped at Wendy’s, and I ate 75% of a single (no cheese) and half an order of fries.

But later we decided it was truly going to be a free day and went out for pizza. And holy crap, when did a large become the size of a smallish medium??? It figures, we decided we’re going to just ENJOY, and there was not a whole lot of pizza there…

Do I feel guilty?

Hell, no.

One of the things I don’t understand, surfing around support boards, is when people get honestly upset because they popped 3 french fries into their mouth, or they were stuck somewhere and had to eat what was available, and they go over daily calories by 40-50.

We all have to learn to eat in Real Life, not just with specially prepared foods in front of us. Once in a while you’re going to consume some not-so-wonderful-for-you things, and it’s ok. As long as you know you can limit it to one day every once in a while, it’s a good thing.

And I do understand some people are in a place emotionally where they just can’t allow themselves a “slip” because it will cause an avalanche of poor food choices, but for the most part–enjoy once in a while.

Your sanity will thank you.

Two days ago we were very, very bad… We stopped at Denny’s for lunch (grilled tilapia, which is a reasonable choice, but then there was garlic bread, and I said “screw it” and ate it, and was very happy about that.)

Later we went for a nice long walk…and I got three quarters of the way and then had to stop. I couldn’t walk any further, not because of a lack of endurance, but because my back and hips suddenly decided to mutiny. So he went home and got the car, and by that point I was so hungry I was going to eat the foam insulation in the passenger seat…so we went for fajitas.

And trust me, it was gooooood.

Got on the scale this morning…in spite of the fajitas (and chip & salsa, the torilla, and the little corn tomalito that no sane person can resist) I was down 3 pounds for the week.

I am a firm believer in one good “cheat” meal a week, but having eaten out twice in one day just felt, well kinda naughty. 🙂

If you’re interested in a low glycemic diet, but don’t want to bother with something like NS, check this book out. I read it a couple of years ago; it explains the whole low GI diet quite clearly and for those who aren’t as lazy as I am, it’s easy to do.

Face it, I buy NS foods for convenience…

Tsk. It’s totally not fair that men can lose body fat faster than women. He’s down 11 pounds and I’m still stuck at 8.5… Yes, I’m whining!

There is a downside to the whole NurtriSystem plan. The food is good, its filling, it works, but… When you buy your food, you get 28 days’ worth. If you choose autoshipping, they’ll send you the same thing everytime unless you tell them to change things. All god.

But you buy 28 days’ worth, and they autoship every 30-31 days. So at the end of Day 28, if you’ve stuck to it and not eaten other foods as your main entrees, you’re out of food.

It does not add up. Nope.

So…I’m at the end of Day 28. I do have some food left over because there were a couple meals when I ate out (made good choices, I think) and there are a couple of things I won’t touch because they’re (to me) nasty. I’m left to wait until my next shipment gets here (supposedly it goes out tomorrow, I’ll believe that when I see it) and to contemplate whether or not I should have saved all the boxes the food came in.

‘Cause if nothing else, I coulda blended the boxes together for a nice high-fiber carboard shake…

OK, if it’s not water weight, I’m going to shoot myself. Over the last couple days my weight has inched back up the 3.5 pounds that I lost last week, in spite of sticking to the diet like Superglue… I’ve struggled to take in 1200 calories a day–the last couple days I’ve been under 900. Not good, I know, but I doubt just a couple days is enough for a body to suddenly scream Oh No we have to hold onto everything!

Intellectually I know it’s water for the sole reason that my DI medication hasn’t worn off for the last 4 nights, and when it doesn’t, I don’t pee off everything I’ve had to drink. But knowing that doesn’t make me feel any better.

If I do get a couple nights of breakthrough on the meds, I think I’ll be even for the week. No loss. Dammit.

::jumps up & down:::

Down 3.5 pounds for the week!

A small personal victory for myself yesterday: I was out running errands and managed to get stuck behind an accident…so I turn around and decided to cut through the air force base to take the back roads home (it took 30 minutes to mve 4 car lengths…I figured the long way home was faster…) By then it was almost 4 p.m. and I still hadn’t had lunch and was very hungry and thristy.

The base has a conveniently located Burger King. I decided to go through the drive through and get a Diet Coke…and I resisted the call of the Whopper Jr. Granted, I should have stopped and eaten something because I was right at the edge of eat-or-get-sick, but I waited.

And yes, I’m proud of me. In the past I would have used low blood sugar as a reason to stop and eat a burger.

Now, if it had been Wendy’s…oh yeah, I would have stopped and gotten a small chili and a side salad…

Small victories…I have this pair of jeans–my favorite pair–that have been just a wee bit too snug in the waist to be terribly comfortable, so I haven’t worn them in about a year (hell, they were tight in the waist then, too…)

On a lark today I decided to try them on–they fit. I can sit and not feel like I’m being cut in half. Now, they’re not hanging off me, but they’re comfortable.

I need to wear the crap out of these, just in case they don’t fit again in a few weeks…

In other news…last night we decided we’d been doing well enough that we could eat out. We chose Red Lobster and each got the Tilapia with broccoli on the side, and limited ourselves to just one of the cheesy bisquits. Less than 500 calories for the whole meal. Even with that, at the end of the day I just barely hit 1200 calories. Oddly enough, oveeating hasn’t been an issue with this–undereating has. I usually end the day at 1000 calories, 200 short.

And no, I’m not happy about that. I *know* I need those other 200 calories…who’da thunk it’d be hard to get them in…?