Keeping the Pounds Off!

Comments on a Candy Jar

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:58:00 +0000

I was in a small neighborhood eatery tonight. At their cashier counter was a bowl with Hershey Miniature Candy bars. A white piece of paper was taped to the bowl and someone had taken a black Sharpie and written "25 cents". Between me and two other people, we came up with these comments.

"Twenty-five cents - - - or your soul . . ."

"Twenty-five cents? Is that for the whole bowl?"

(Picking up one of the pieces) "You know what we call this size? We call it "why bother."

What do you think when you see a bowl of individual candies sitting in front of you? Do you find yourself looking at the eye-candy and cracking comments? Do you start looking through the candy to see what is there? Do you avoid looking at it completely?

No answer is the correct answer. No answer is the wrong answer - unless your response is to start eating your way through the jar.

I made my joke and moved on. What do you do before you move on?

Jane~

Quick Post about Feelings and Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:35:00 +0000

this is the app, but not the game
I am playing again and again

I am having a good week and it is incredibly busy with work - when I am not wasting time playing a stupid solitaire game on the iPod. No time right now to post something significant except this: I am well. My food is in the right quantities, the right combinations and I am not obsessing over anything today. What a concept!

Part of my Gratitude List:

My younger daughter went to the store for me and bought the sweet potatoes and carrots I needed to make lamb stew in the crock pot last tonight. It is the first one I have ever made with lamb. It smells great but I am not eating it until Wednesday lunch so stay tuned. My older daughter called and we had a really nice long conversation and it just made me happy to kick back and chat with her. We had only a short call on Mother's Day due to our work schedules and I felt the feeling of being short changed from my mother-daughter(s) time. My younger daughter also had to work on Mother's Day so we had only about 10 minutes together - and she had to wake up 4 hours early just to wish me a happy Mother's Day before I left that morning (which was very sweet of her). Then she went back to bed. I was asleep by the time she was back from work. I am getting time with Younger on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. My kids are adults. I love mother daughter time, face to face or 1200 miles away on the phone - it makes me so happy to be close with them. It is a blessing.

Mom says the sign on her elevator
was written in crayon

My poor mother: no one could visit her on Mother's Day in New York. Her elevator was out of order all day. That meant my sister with her three children (including a 1 year old) and my brother with his 2 artificial legs could not get up the seven flights to her floor and mom cannot take seven flights of stairs down and then up again. If it had happened to HER mother, my grandmother would have said the world was against her and bla bla bla. But mom took it in great stride. But everyone had phone calls with her and she had my card and gifts from when I was there last week. She waited to open it until Sunday. Every generation we either get a little worse or a little better. I think in emotional health, we are getting better one generation at a time. I could hear how happy she was laughing over the card and there was not a trace of self pity in her voice.

Today is a busy day. I am going to dinner to celebrate my friend's 19th year of Keeping her pounds off. (how ironic that the celebration for long term weight loss includes food). I am going to go to work and bring my lunch with me. I am going to go to the dry cleaners. You didn't need to know that - I am just reminding myself.

Can you see positive progress in your family generations?

Until next time

Jane~

Happy Mother's Day 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:57:00 +0000

Caution: Some common trigger foods mentioned but only as they relate to past behaviors.

When all the various generations of in-laws were alive our family would visit with the extended family for Mothers Day. That meant Italian pastries at one house, Polish desserts at another, and giant ice cream sundaes back at home at the end of the day - usually eaten while I rehashed all the conversations of the day and built resentments to savor with every spoonful of ice cream. Ice cream was how I coped with a lot of feelings.

Twenty years ago we moved to Florida and Mothers Day became all about me. We got 1200 miles away from the dessert caravan and developed our own Mother's Day food traditions that continued until a few years ago with breakfast was in bed, consisting of a three egg omelet with Boar's head ham and mozzarella and Swiss cheese with sauteed mushrooms on top and a side of sliced strawberries, cut to resemble cut little hearts. This was followed by coffee and doughnuts after church in the church social hall. Then a lunch of two kinds of shrimp salad on twin rolls and a Corona beer with a lime - eaten while I watched A Woman Scorned: the Betty Broderick Story and Her Final Fury: The Betty Broderick Story, Part 2 from my fluffy reclining chair. (don't ask about Betty Broderick - I had a strange fascination with the story, which means I am strange and need therapy). Of course there was dessert. We still had our northern family via phone calls and ice cream sundaes were still how I buried my feelings.

More than food changed over the past few years. I am learning to feel the feelings - good bad or indifferent - and not use food to hide from things that are unpleasant or make me anxious in positive or negative ways. It is not always easy. Often it is hard. Binges weren't all that easy either. Carrying around an extra 200 pounds - damn hard. In feeling the feelings without the masking effect of my food-drugs of choice, I get through them and move on without damaging my body or packing on pounds.

Now on Mother's Day I make my own (different) breakfast and I prefer not to eat in bed. We don't hang around for the coffee and doughnuts after church.I still eat one shrimp salad but I don't eat twin rolls and we don't have a recliner. I am still having my tri-annual Corona Beer. (I drink three beers a year - assuming they are Corona and we have limes). Betty Broderick is off of the menu (and still behind bars, which is a good thing as she shows no remorse). This year we are going to the movies to see Dark Shadows, make phone calls to our loved ones who are not in Florida and enjoy what comes to us in our day. I will feel the feelings and not seek to hide from them or cover them over with fudge and cherries. There will not be any ice cream sundaes. It is a plan that works for me. That is the best thing of all.

Have a great Mother's Day. Feel every bit of the day and know that you can do it without hurting yourself with food.

Jane~

Lose the Blame and Shame and Take Action

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:33:00 +0000

By now you have heard about the Institute of Medicine's report, released this week, identifying key obesity-prevention strategies to help this country stop becoming more and more obese. I have not purchased the $49.00, 462 page report. If anyone has a free copy, please pass it on and direct me to the well. Right now I am going to write about only a tiny bit of the report.

What I have surmised in the limited parts others have shared, the study suggests we must shift from personal blame when assessing obese individuals. It details how hard it is to live in our current society and maintain a healthy weight loss after obesity. I would like to share briefly on my recent experience in this area.

I didn't take this photo. I found in
on google. Picture an additional
8 pizza boxes and you will see what
I saw in NYC.

It is getting harder to find environments where there isn’t an array of unhealthy food choices available. When I was in NYC I found a commercial fitness gym near my mom’s apartment where every trash day there would be stacks of pizza boxes in their trash pick up. I wondered who is eating all that pizza and how it could be disadvantageous to the brand the commercial center is trying to promote. I am not trashing pizza as good food. Pizza can be healthy food, depending on how it is made and an individual body's tolerance for wheat, cheese and other toppings. It just seemed to me to be out of place at a fitness gym. This was not a large facility but there were a lot of pizza boxes.

Then there is the office supply stores. Office Depot, Office Max - they now have candy and snack foods at the purchase point. When did a trip to pick up paper, pens and paper clips become a chance to pack on a few pounds?

In New Hampshire they have 'State Run Liquor Stores.' We stopped at one. Guess what? They sell alcohol, they sell lottery tickets, they sell cigarettes, they sell an array of chocolates and other candies - and they were doing a brisk business of selling candy that day. Gives me a new image when I think of their state motto: Live Free or Die.

My OB-GYN (who is a friend), sometimes promotes new (decidedly non-gynecological) cosmetic/spa services he is adding to his practice. On those days you walk in for an appointment and the office staff invites you to sample the cheese tray and dessert cookies and even some candies. In past times, did our mothers and grandmothers ever get snacks in their doctor's offices? A few months ago I posted that an appointment with my dentist included an invite to sample chocolate muffins. When I was a kid, all my dentist ever gave me was a tooth brush. . . .

When I was growing up in New York, funeral homes where restricted by law from offering any foods or beverages in their establishments. (water fountains were permitted). I do not know the current law and in New York but in Florida, a major local funeral home here in Orlando has a snack vending machine. Someone in a food industry has figured out that death and stress can ignite appetites. Is any place 'safe' from the influence of food marketing?

I agree that it must shift from personal blame when talking about the cause of obesity. I think it is equally important to accept that personal action is a must for each of us, if there is to be recovery from it. Take away blame - please. No one should ever be shamed for being obese but encourage personal action as the only thing that will lead to the path away from it. But without personal action, you will have millions of obese people whining about how it is our their fault while simultaneously reaching into the cookie jar for another cookie when one is already in their mouths. We have to be willing to change our actions and re-actions to be free of the negative results. There are very few voices out there working to change the environment to help us. It is still up to each of us to help ourselves.

Action remains the magic word.

Your turn: name some places that sell or offer foods today that didn't offer foods 10 or more years ago?

Jane~

Back in Town and Overwhelmed

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:27:00 +0000

I took this photo from a pier in Chelsea

I got back home from ten days of travel and business on Sunday night. It was not a vacation because there was no downtime, no restorative resting. I drove through every state north of Maryland and east of Pennsylvania, except for Rhode Island. (hey, I spent a month in R.I. one Sunday when I was 13 - I vowed never again). I visited beaches in Maine (while wearing my winter coat), the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. I danced in FAO Schwarz on the big piano from the movie BIG, I attended the opening night of the Broadway play Don't Dress for Dinner.' - and was happy to see one of the actresses got a Tony nomination a week later. While not a vacation, the trip was lots of other things: fun, rewarding, stressful, hard, happy, jam-packed with family, precious mother-daughter and daughter-mother time and even a half a day with just my husband and The Big Apple. It was all so emotionally, physically and spiritually draining and renewing all at the same time. Does that make sense???

This photo was taken with the panoramic feature on my Android phone.
The school bus was passing by in the right direction just as I
was taking the shot. It caught in several frames to make one long bus.

Upon returning home Sunday night I immediately had to get to work (yes that night), because I had events Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the theme parks and I did not give enough time to preparing them while I was away, despite bringing two computers and all my files with me, despite the 'plan' I had for getting the work done. What was I thinking? My 'plan' was to work from 8pm to 10pm each night on the computer. In reality it was 11pm or later before I turned the computers on - and I turned them off 15 minutes later when I realized I was falling asleep at the keyboard.

Maine's Southern Coastline was pretty

The weather up north ran from 32 degrees to 65 degrees. The weather in Orlando - 92 degrees. My body is fighting being re-acclimation to Florida's heat and humidity. My feet are swollen and my calves hurt. My fingers are puffy and I have had a headache for two days. Aspirin is helping. Peppermint on the temples is not.

My mom wanted to go to Coney
Island and the original Nathan's
for a hot dog. A return to her past.

My food was perfect the first four days but as the trip progressed the scale got skipped a few times; bites, licks and tastes started surfacing. On day eight, my daughter's birthday, I was hovering over a piece of New York style cheesecake and ready to stab anyone with a fork who came near me. By the final day in the land of Broadway I know that if I played the part of a crack addict seeking a fix in a Broadway play, I'd win a Tony using my food addiction as my reference experience.

I have discussed the slippery slope before. The slope does not get easier with experience, it gets slipperier. It is better if I don't even go down that path. I do not want to hurt myself with food. I am taking the suggestion of my mentor and taking some breathing time. I will still be blogging. I am just going to keep them a little short for a couple of weeks and limit my reading and comments for the same short time.

I have so much I still have to do and I need to accept I cannot get it all done in my time or in the time demands of anyone else. I have to proceed one day at a time. For right now I just want to get rid of this headache.

How do you handle re-entry after an extended stay away?

Jane~

Fiddleheads, the Extraterrestrial Vegetable

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:07:00 +0000

Tell the truth: If you came across this
in the woods. Would you eat it?

I walk into a country store in Vermont. The woman behind the counter is rinsing and trimming green things that look like green beans encircling dollops of pesto. It looks like something brought here from outer space. Something that was deposited into our rich soil to take root and when it grows, will eat earthlings to make room for the race of three-eyed Martians coming over later. I ask her what it is and she says "these are fiddleheads. They are ferns that grow in the woods. This is what they are before they have sprouted." I ask if people buy them and plant them like tulip bulbs. She looks at me like I am insane and says 'you eat them."

Or, $12.99 a pound

No, this is not the point when I woke up from a dream. This is the actual account of my afternoon on Saturday, crossing Vermont on a road trip with my mom. Yes, it is possible that after 72 hours in a car with my mom, I have crossed the barrier from sanity to complete lunacy, (more on that later), but that is not the case here. By traveling through Vermont and stopping at a small country store, I have been introduced to a new (although possibly an outer space) vegetable.

Ferns are something I use to decorate the house and garden. I have never considered eating them. I have a cereal that my friends call my 'mulch munch' because they say it looks like twigs, leaves and mulch. Now I am told that ferns, before sprouting, are edible? Holy Crap Batman! People are eating houseplants before they become houseplants??

My fiddleheads. My cousin's oven

I asked her how they were prepared. She explained that she roasted them like peppers in the oven or on the grill, with a touch of oil and a hint of salt. I never heard of them before and quite honestly they looked like food for Space-Triffids here to settle their colony, but I bought a 1/2 pound and cooked them at my cousin's house two days later. My cousin not only knew of fiddleheads, she even had a copy of a gourmet magazine with fiddleheads pictured on the cover. What a funny coincidence.

Extraterrestrial

Fiddleheads are tasty. They taste like a combination of green beans and baby spinach. They have a good texture. They cook easy. There is no peeling or cleaning besides a quick rinsing. They are low in calories and they are a new vegetable on my table. Once cooked, you can pick them up by the green-bean looking tail and pop them into your mouth like a snack. I love a good, healthy snack. I like fiddleheads - but they still look like alien food.

Now a quick Mom story update. In all good humor, there are moments when we drive each other crazy. Being alone together in a car for hours on end can be hellish unless you remember to not take yourself too seriously. We kept things light and it makes all the difference at the end of each day. At one point, 265 miles from her home, I turned to mom and said I was leaving her on the side of the road and calling my brother and sister and telling them where they could find her. Mom replied "do you think they would come and get me?" I said "No, they would ask me what was wrong with me that it took me 265 miles to throw you out of the car when they would have done it in under ten."

Have you ever eaten fiddleheads? How do you cook them? Do you eat a vegetable no one else ever heard of? Are you sure it is not from outer space?

Jane~

Happiness is not. . . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 03:12:00 +0000

‎"Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present." - Jim Rohn

Not my Mom's anything

A few months ago Mom and I talked about taking a car trip this year to Maine. She has always wanted to do to Maine (my mother is strange for our family - she likes COLD weather. Cold COLD COLD weather. We took her to Alaska a couple of years ago but it was during a heat wave (for Alaska), so she thought Maine would be her Nirvana. Financially, this was not the year to take a trip but then I read the Happiness quote. After praying on it and discussing it with my husband, I flew to New York on Thursday and tonight Mom and I are snuggling under the blankets listening to the 30 mile and hour winds howl outside our hotel room door in Ogunquit, Maine. Today we fulfilled Mom's desire to visit all four corners of the USA: Washington, California, Florida and Maine. (she does not count states that joined the USA after her birth.

We had a great dinner tonight at a seafood place on Post Road. I had a lobster salad and a glass of chardonnay but first I started with clam strips and tartar sauce. I normally do not eat breaded/fried fish and while I enjoyed it tonight I would not choose it again tomorrow It is not one of those things I could eat often. I am not use to fried foods anymore.

Last April/May, my mom and I took a road trip out west to visit her brother whom she had not seen in 20 years. We were going to put the trip off because my sister was having a baby at that same time but we decided life goes on and we stayed with our plans. Thank God we went last year because my uncle passed away earlier this year.

Today I heard that everything that happens in life is either a blessin' or a lesson. What do you think?

Jane~

Weight Loss Via Vampire Method?

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:21:00 +0000

Once a month, once a week, once a day. These are acceptable ways to use a scale.

I read about some wild uses of the scale a few weeks ago and one of the reasons someone got back on the scale again freaked me out. Not because I thought I was better than this person, but because I know I was exactly as obsessive as this person, once upon a time ago.

I weigh once a day, maybe 5 days each week. If I miss a day I am not obsessive about it the way I was a few years ago. I make my bed once a day I weigh once a day. Sometimes I do not make the bed. Oh well. No damage done. Same with the scale. If I miss a day I will have the opportunity to weigh tomorrow. It feels right to be healthy and reasonable about the scale and not use it as a measure of if I am worthy enough to have a good day. The scale is a measurement, not a punishment.

Compare that with compulsive, unhealthy uses of the scale:

Jumping on and off after every meal
On and off 4x in 1 hour if the number offends/annoys me
Weighing before and then after exercise
Weighing again because you had a bowel movement
Weighing again because you threw up (voluntarily or involuntarily)
Moving scale all over room to find the 'one spot' the number is lowest
Weighing again because you gave blood which = 16oz loss for a couple of hours

I am not judging anyone here. I have done all of the above in times past, with the exception of #7 and the only reason I didn't try #7 is because I didn't think of it. Now that I have seen someone else do this I felt the urge to write this.

Giving blood is a kind and loving act. Giving blood saves lives, it is not a viable weight loss method. The good deed does not come with a prize. That has to be the reward, not weight loss. Yes, you will lose that pound of fluid - briefly. You will then gain it right back when you drink water and eat your next meal. It is not weight loss it is scale fluctuation - let it go.

Donate blood and know you are a good person because of your donation, not because of a any number on your scale. Bloodletting is not keeping the pounds off. If it were, I would have invested in medical leeches and be raking in the blood money.

What is/was your most insane scale or weigh-in behavior? Have you gotten away from it? How did you arrest your behavior?

Jane~

My Ass in Jeans

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:06:00 +0000

Last month I wrote a post on how I got compliments on my ass when I wore a pair of jeans - for the first time in my life. Someone suggested I put up a photo of me wearing the jeans. Well, I wore the pants again today and thought to take out the camera and get some photos. I cannot believe I am posting a picture of my rear. - This from a woman who systematically destroyed ANY photos of me taken from behind since I was 19 years old. It did not matter if they were my photos to destroy or the property of another person; I destroyed the photographs and then dealt with the animosity of the owners later.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt. I thought out of sight/out of mind. It was more than stupid and vain, it was sad. I am glad not to be that person anymore. I am grateful not be in that pain today however I still do not like my ass. All I can see are the rolls of skin that cling to what is left of my tush and thighs and saddlebags. But I do like that someone else saw something worth commenting on, therefore I will keep doing the kettleball and lunges and squats.

So here are the photos and the link to the blog that led me to post them here.

http://www.keepingthepoundsoff.com/2012/03/tgiff-trading-goosh-in-for-firmness.html

Jane~

Soap Box Sundays: Faking Food

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:32:00 +0000

This Sunday we have a rant that wraps up the previous rants against food companies.

Correction! As this quote from an article on Yahoo will explain - I will no longer think in terms for food companies. To be a savvy, healthy consumer I need to think of them as food manufacturers.

Food fraud -- the adulteration, dilution or mislabeling of goods stocked on the shelf -- is part of a growing trend of faux household goods . Although there is little data on the frequency of food fakery, experts say there's growing awareness of the problem. The lack of information on the subject recently prompted the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention -- a nonprofit that sets standards used by the FDA -- to establish a Food Fraud Database. And a new study in the Journal of Food Science analyzed the top offenders identified by the database, including olive oil, milk and honey. "We're seeing similar trends in food to other items -- if it can be faked, it probably is."

The next time I shop I will be checking to see where the powdered milk is manufactured. I already will only by honey from the hive keeper and olive oil from purveyors who have passed muster. Ground beef - let's not go there (pink slime).

Not my food

Many years ago I scoffed at my husband's grandmother who would not use ground pepper unless she herself did the grinding at home. She said "how do I know what they put in it. . . " Grandma Bea (if you can read this in Heaven), you were right. Who knows that they put in anything?

How does all this make you feel? Are you already in the process of calmly making changes in your food purchases to insure they are not adulterated? Or are you at the jumping off point of giving in and accepting non-food foods as 'the way it is ?

if you want to read the whole story you can click on the link to see the whole article.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/880/8-food-frauds-on-your-shopping-list/

Jane~

Do Not Talk to Person with Spinning Head

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:46:00 +0000

For those who need a user friendly guide to Me:

If my head is spinning around, turning green and wrathful things are spewing from my eye sockets and mouth - do not stop to offer me advice or suggestions. RUN and talk to me when I wind down. We will all have a happier day. . . .

This will be the first line from my yet-unplanned-never-to-be-written marital relations book.

My husband made the innocent mistake of asking me what was wrong when he saw I was frustrated with something on the computer. Since I am not mature enough to say "don't worry about it. It has nothing to do with us. Let me kiss you good bye and have a great day at work," I responded with "website issues on my business site." I responded verbally with that. I understand that my face was a mask of hate illuminated in the glow of my lap top's screen.

My darling man cannot stand it when I am upset and feels he has to do all he can to help. He made an innocent suggestion that I should change hosting companies if my current provider is not going to satisfy my needs. I started to take his head off with how that was not an option right now and certainly not the easy option. It seems my voice escalated. When he went to respond I stopped him and said "Let's start over. This is one of those times when do not want advice or suggestions or help. I just wanted you to hear me and let it go.

Sigh.

I knew better. I should have not even said anything was wrong. It would have been better to refuse to divulge. Now he felt I was pushing him away as an annoyance. He was on his way out the door. He knew I was annoyed. He thought he had a workable solution. His need was to impart his kernel of wisdom (that kernel word is making the rounds on the blogs this week, notice?) and feel that he helped his spouse.

I just needed him to leave me alone to have my hissy fit with the hosting company and move on.

We both had needs that were not being met at that moment. The difference was I knew he would get over his and he was worried I would eat over mine.

I didn't eat over it. The thought didn't even cross my mind (miracle of miracles). It was not wrong for him to be worried. He knows my history better than anyone. He knows what triggers me. He knows that in (my) panic mode my addition seeks out a fix. He was concerned. I think he wanted to be the fix and protect me. I know it started out in love. I am sorry it became a wound because of my insistence on being left alone with the issue. Happily, it ended with just as much love as it started, and it ended without me reaching for (or consuming) food inappropriately.

Like marriage, keeping the pounds off is a continuous work of action and love and commitment and, because we choose to make it so, it is a work of laughter and fun, too.

How do you deal with someone wanting to help you when you want to be left alone? Can you recognize when alone is not the best choice for you today?

Jane~

HUNGRY Games Video - not be be confused with post from the other day

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:09:00 +0000

My daughter Rory saw my Hunger Games post and gave me this video that DOES have to do with food and eating. If you know the real movie you will probably find it funnier than if you know nothing about the real movie. Luckily, I have a 20something daughter who has read all the Hunger Games series and tell me what the heck it is about. After you click the blue dot there is an unavoidable Progressive Ad. Do NOT click where it says "click here" on that screen. There is another scene after the ending credit with the screaming pink dressed lady. The line she will say is pretty true and raw.

How Bad was the Titanic TV Movie?

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:32:00 +0000

"By the end of the movie I was rooting for the Ocean."
- My review of the Titanic TV movie

Ever since I was a child and my aunts told me how my grandmother's brothers, coal stokers on the shop, were killed when the Titanic sank, I have been a Titanic buff. Read everything, saw everything, memorized it all, including Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic. I've been to the museum here in Orlando a few times. I drove 100 miles once to see the traveling exhibit. When I was an adult and could find the list of those who were on the ship I realized my aunts ~~lied through their tar and nicotine stained teeth~~ were incorrect. No one with my paternal grandmother's maiden name was even on board.

This week's TV movie was the worse piece of story telling I have ever seen. There was literally NO character I cared to see live through the disaster. When you cannot even like the poor kids. . . .it is really bad writing.

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with keeping the pounds off.

Or does it? Everyone knows the story of the Titanic. We know it goes down. We know most people died. We know some people made it harder for others to live.

In a way, this is the story of many obese people. We already know the story. We can see the ship going down. We know people are dying and we know in enabling others, it makes it harder for some people to live.

But still we watch and wait, and hope. Maybe this one will reach for the lifeline? Maybe that one will find a better way off the sinking ship. Maybe, just maybe someone will find a way to stay afloat and alive long enough a lifeboat to come by and pull them to safety. Or maybe not.

Speaking of the survivors: the lifeboats had room for a couple of hundred more people but they remained empty. They refused to go back and pick people up because they were afraid they would be swamped and capsized. Could you live with yourself if you were in that situation and didn't go back to pick up children - or your own family members or friends who were out there dying?

Is it any different if we escape from a obese death and do not offer back help to those still floundering in the ocean of Obesity? The difference is we can bring the lifeboat to them, but they must be the ones to climb aboard. We cannot fish anyone out of the sea if they will not expend their own efforts to survive.

We can't re-write history. We can just change the angle at which we view it. What can you do to help someone on the disaster ship Obesity become a survivor?

Jane~

Very Disappointed!

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:20:00 +0000

I went to the movies this week all excited now that they finally came out with a movie that is all about me and you - the people trying to lose weight (and perhaps) keep it off.

I did not know how much food porn would be in this movie so I planned for a show between lunch and dinner when I could know any hunger I might feel would have nothing to do with what my body physically needed. I packed a bottle of water with lemon. I even brought my note pad and a light up pen in case I heard something worth blogging about.

Well, I never got hungry. I didn't write anything down and there wasn't any food porn.

Turns out The Hunger Games wasn't about what I thought.

Well, that's okay. it is a great title for a weight loss book. . . wait . . .what?

Oh, The Hunger Games was a book before it was a movie?

Damn.

Jane~

Does SAS*S Yourself Slim Measure Up?

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0000

A few months ago I was contacted by a publisher and book tour operator who asked if I would read and blog a review of a weight loss book being released under a new title. There would be no compensation (except for a copy of the book) and I am free to write my review based on my thoughts and feelings, be they positive, negative or just bland.

The book is S*A*S*S Yourself Slim, by Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD. Her website is cynthiasass.com The original title of this book was Cinch!: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches. This is my first experience with this author's work. My review is based completely on my opinion of the current publication and what I think of the methods and suggestions in contains.

If you had asked me in the first twenty or so pages what I thought of her book the review would have been a bit snippy and unfavorable. I got past my objections and continued reading. By the time I finished the book I was suggesting it to several people as a weight loss maintenance reference tool. I see things in this book helping me with the next thirty years of keeping the pounds off. I think it is a good read for people who want to be in maintenance and not bouncing around regaining their pounds. In that way it joins Refuse to Regain as a book I will continue to reference over and over on my journey maintaining my weight loss. Coming from opinionated, smart-ass, know-it-all me, that is great praise for a book.

I recommend it as a weight maintenance aid. I do not necessarily recommend the book as a weight loss method. I did not loose my weight this way and I do not agree with Sass' 5-day Fast Forward Plan. From my experience EVERY diet plan - EVERYONE OF THEM starts off with a way to quickly jump start and lose weight. Anyone who sticks to a strict eating plan for one or two weeks is going to lose weight - ANY PLAN. I do not understand why the people giving testimonials in the book were talking about one week or two weeks or a month using the S*A*S*S Yourself Slim plan but there was very, very little from people who have done it for months or years.

Remember Cynthia from
any of the morning news
shows or Dr Oz?

Cynthia Sass has many good ideas that are practical and interesting. She is very vegan-friendly and in her 'writing voice,' never talks down to the reader. Even though I have already lost 220 pounds, I found things in S*A*S*S Yourself Slim that I am adopting into my action plan of eating and if they work, I may be doing them for the rest of my life.

The title of the book is not just a fancy use of the author's own last name. S*A*S*S stands for Slimming and Satiating Seasonings. Sass strongly recommends the use of natural flavors and seasonings in place of sugars, artificial sweeteners and sodium. In fact, S*A*S*S-ing up food is an essential part of the plan. Up until I read this book it never occurred to me to add citrus zest and cinnamon to fat free Greek yogurt while leaving out the Splenda. I have done this a few times over the last two weeks and my Splenda consumption is down to one packet a day and I have given up sugar free gum as a side bonus. I have been adding more herbs and spice to my vegetables - real herbs and spices, not the store bought Mrs Dash variety.

Another idea I received from reading S*A*S*S Yourself Slim was in packing a better 'emergency food kit' for traveling. Sass offers several suggestions and I have already bought a few of them for my upcoming trip later this month. Then there is the coconut oil. Can we talk coconut oil a minute?

OMG where has this been all my life. Yeah, I know, until recently coconut oil was not in the mainstream vernacular, but I have been reading about it for over a year and still I never thought to try it until I read about it in this book. I am now hooked on it, in a good way. For the past few years my average daily intake of fat grams has been too low. I do not generally eat milk fat, I gave up real peanut butter, I rarely use cooking oil, rarely eat egg yolks and my meats and poultry are always very lean. Coconut oil has been a tasty addition to my meal plan, along with avocados. I use the coconut oil in breakfast smoothies, a salad dressing, a fat free ricotta dish and a chocolate concoction - without artificial sweetener or added sugar.

Speaking of chocolate: the S*A*S*S has a mandatory daily chocolate indulgence. When I first read this I was ready to chuck the whole book because a daily indulgence goes against everything I do in my maintenance life. But then I thought about it. Indulgence does not have to be a bad word. The choice of the indulgence still needs to be healthy. It is not a daily cheat. Sass includes recipes for chocolate truffles that she suggests for the chocolate indulgence. She uses semi sweet chocolate chips, (the only processed sugar I recall anywhere in her plans). That could still be too much sugar for my addict mind, so instead, I have used cocoa powder or an 85% dark chocolate bar, which contains much less sugar. But what about the people who are allergic to chocolate? What about the people who do not like chocolate? (are there such people???)

One thing I did not like was the use of less-than-motivating 'success stories.' As I stated earlier, every diet written with the possible exception of the Eat-Everything-All-The-Time-Plan, has a week or two at the start where you drop lots of weight and inches. This book has before and after photos/stories sprinkled throughout. The problem is the before photos and the after photos are not much different. In the first before/after photo, the woman lost 10 pounds in thirty days. There isn't much different about the photos that cannot be explained by a different cut of clothes and a different stance. Thirty days? I want to know how she did after 6 months or more. There is a continuation in her story. This person wrote about how she went from size 10 to a size 4 - but there is no photo and no mention of the number of pounds lost. Why no updated photo?

Two stories later in the book is another person who lost 11.25 pounds. Maybe it is just me but I do not see any real difference in her before an after photos. She is wearing the same clothes and in a different position. This happens again in a later story and again and again. Lots of people lost around 10 pounds in thirty days. But these stories were in the originally released book. If you are going to do an update it is a great chance to show what those people look like now, isn't it? She didn't do that. Instead, Sass added seven new S*A*S*S losers with their stories (only 5 of them had photos). As someone who likes visual evidence whenever possible, I would have preferred to see more concrete examples. What better way to show that your plan is successful over the test of time then to have testimony and photos taken a year or more apart?

I am taking from S*A*S*S Yourself Slim the parts I like and leaving the rest behind. I liked more than I expected. I am looking forward to trying more recipe and S*A*S*S suggested herbs and seasonings. I have been working toward getting off the artificial sweetener (again) and the S*A*S*S plan for flavorings has really inspired me to really incorporate those changes on a permanent basis. Hopefully the inspiration will not wear off after thirty days. I will write an update at the end of May on the subject.

I am a food addict. My experience was my school, my continued weight loss is my degree. I do not agree wholeheartedly with her chapter Conquering Emotional Eating. I think it is too simplified and does not properly address food as addiction on the level of alcohol and drugs. I respectfully suggest that addiction to food is more than emotional eating. We are seeing more and more medical professionals publicly acknowledge that food addiction is real, without an easy answer or cure. This is one of the things I love about Dr. Barbara Berkeley's book. She suggests a 90-10 plan BUT she respects that addicts are addicts. She states in her book that 90-10 is not an excuse to pick up the addictive foods. If you are an addict you still must refrain from your addictive foods.

Sass has a Masters in Public Health and is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant. She consults for multiple professional sport teams.I readily concede that Cynthia Sass knows what she is talking about regarding food and nutrition and her years of counseling people have given her great insight on food issues. I also think there are people for whom this book will be the right thing at the right time. I can't offer you my copy of the book: I am going to be using it in my journey of Keeping the Pounds Off.

We will talk about it again next month.

In your eating plan, are your foods filled with a variety of satisfying and satiating seasonings? If not, why not?

Jane~

Disclaimers and Disclosures

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

They offered about this much

A company contacted me and offered me a small amount of money if I would write a blog on the subject of plastic surgery in the abdominal region. It did not matter that I have not had such surgery. They just wanted me to write about it and post two links to their site and let them link back to me. Hey, I can always use a few bucks for my plastic surgery wish fund and I was certainly willing to write on the subject. But then they told me

Our guidelines include that you should make the post personal and don't put any tags or disclosure that it is a paid or compensated post.

To which ~~I replied "Bullsh*t. Get away from me Satan."~~ I replied No thank you."

My personal belief is there should be full disclosure when someone writes something and is compensated for it. When I wrote my post on Quest Protein Bars I was careful to let everyone know I was reviewing the product without any compensation in money, product or other. I really liked the product and wanted to share it with you here. If I had received some sort of compensation for writing about the Quest bars that would have been fine and good as long as I disclosed it first.

If I receive a free product in the mail to review I state that I received the product free to evaluate it. I like to think that if I were offered 100 times the amount they wanted to contract for that I would still have said no. I hope to God my integrity would withstand such a temptation. This wasn't much of one so I cannot really say I was put to the test. For today I will continue to say I can sell space on my blog but I cannot sell you my soul.

I do not know what your thoughts are on this subject but I would like for you to share them with me (us).

Oh, and if anyone writes about tummy tucks with links back to a site for them in the next several weeks, we all know you are getting paid to do it. You might not be allowed to tell us, but we know.

PS: Wednesday I am posting a book review. The book was given to me. There was no other compensation and I am free to write my review as I feel it should be done. The publisher has not interceded in any way nor have they asked to read my review first. I like that.

Jane~

Whatever happened to Baby (Fat) Jane?

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:02:00 +0000

Got the idea to continue this from Munchberry's blog, who got it from Karen@WaistingTime, who got it from Roni's Weigh, who got it from . . .does this sound like the' Begat's portion of the bible or what?

Anyway, here are my responses. Either you are a blogging friend who will get to know the younger me better or you are an identity thief looking to get an idea of what my passwords are on my bank accounts. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading.

1. My parents told me…“you are lazy and spoiled and we cannot wait until you have your own children."

2. I wanted to grow up to be a… a writer or an actress/singer. I cannot sing or act. Thank God for writing.

3. I refused to eat… onions, cabbage, cottage cheese. I STILL never eat cottage cheese.

4. My favorite thing to do outside was… ride my bike everywhere

5. I broke my… arm when I was seven, playing at the top of a flight of stairs with my cousins.

6. I liked to wear…(at age 10) fishnet stockings, prairie dresses and hats

7. My parents always… made sure we went to the dentist twice a year - even when we were really broke, we got to the dentist.

8. I thought that Santa was… stingy with the oldest kid in the family (me)

9. My favorite cartoon was… Josie and the Pussycats, Scoobydo, Winnie-the-Pooh

Big me next to my cousins
of normal weights, I look like
Hagrid next to Hermione

10. I was the… fat girl in every grade, in every troop, in every family gathering

11. I got in trouble when… I lied and got caught. I once picked flowers from a bush outside the building where we lived and told my friend I was going to say they were already on the ground when I found them. I did not know that the bush was in front of the open window to father's office in the building and he heard me planning the lie. He came out a minute later and I ran to him with the flowers and told him the lie and BAM, did I get smacked.

12. My bedroom was… shared. Between age 8 and age 14 we moved five times. Sometimes I shared with my sister and sometimes with my sister AND my brother (he is 9 years younger than me). The bedrooms were never decorated in any particular theme. I did have posters from TV magazines on the walls: David Cassidy, Randy Mantooth, Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul.

13. My favorite food was… pizza or rather the cheese off a pizza.

14. My parents always made me… go to bed too early.

15. My first crush was… Tommy Laboux, in Kindergarten. We even kissed at age five.

16. My favorite toy was… my brother's Fisher Price Garage. I loved the elevator.

Even then I was aware my
ass showed. You have to
love that bathing cap~

17. I thought school was... a scary place. I was mostly the odd girl out. Up until 6th grade I would rather stay home. Starting in 6th grade I would have one teacher each year who made me feel special and I would want to go to school each day.

18. My biggest fear was…Vampires. I took a book on vampires out of the library and there were photos in it from movies. One photo of a woman vampire in her coffin with a wooden stake in her chest. She looked exactly like my recently deceased grandmother, who I did not like alive - the idea of her coming back as a vampire scared the CRAP out of me for a whole year. (I was 11).

19. My favorite story was… Anything my mom read to us. Mom always read books to us at night and she changed the stories to make them more fun for her and for us. Example: B is for Betsy - in my mother's version, Betsy took onion sandwiches to school each day.

20. My favorite memories… when my father would pick me up at school in the afternoon and take me with him to a movie. Sometimes he took me to the race track and sometimes to a car auction. It was always special to be out with him.

Well, during the time I wrote this I didn't eat and burned at least 12 calories typing. I have my laptop on my lap, heating up my thighs for another 10 calorie fat burn. That is my keeping the pounds off moment for this hour.

Let me know if you do this list on your blog so I can come a and learn more about you.

Jane~

Can You Handle Food Situations Today: Take My Test~

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:59:00 +0000

We live in the real world - a world that seems to want nothing more than to bombard us with food, Food and More FOOD. We cannot escape from the ads, commercials, billboards, food displays, kiosks, and restaurants, snack foods and candy stands. Not completely. We have to co-exist in this world, such as it is. Is your mental/emotional and physical recovery sound and strong? Are you in any condition to handle unexpected food situations today?

I have developed a scientifically-sound (hey, I took science in school), reasonable, fool-proof test to help you determine for yourself just how much food noise you can handle on any give day. Here is the test:

When someone with a food I want crosses my field of vision, I will:

A. Avert my eyes

B. Allow myself 3 seconds to gawk and then turn away

C. Scream for them to "LOOK--UP IN THE SKY!" - and while they are looking up, steal their food.

If my answer is A or B, I am okay to join the world with reasonable comfort. If my answer is C, I need to stay home or get some outside help. Many days I am an A or perhaps a B. On the C days I am in a dangerous place unless I recognize the danger and stay open to admitting it and reaching for the tools to get me through it.

How do you test your susceptibility to 'food noise' in your day?

Jane~

Where is Our Morning After Pill?

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:45:00 +0000

*this post takes no position on moral or ethical issues involving the 'morning after pill' as a method of birth control or protection from unplanned pregnancy. The 'pill' referred to in this post relates only to weight loss.

If I throw caution to the wind and interact inappropriately with my lying, good-for-nothing Lover (food) I find myself regretting it the next morning and there is no pill I can take to make sure I do not gain weight; no emergency digestion intervention. My manifestation of this disease does not include bulimia and even if it did: bulimia is not a next-day remedy. Bulimia does not negate an entire meal every time one purges.

I am a failed bulimic. I tried it a few times over the years and could not bring myself to throw up, no matter how much or what I ate. I spoke with a dear friend recovering from that manifestation of eating disorder. She shared with me that, after purging, it is common to go back and eat again. Although the act of purging got easier as her disease progressed, the results became less effective as a way to maintain her weight- not to mention it can kill you by rupturing your body and throwing your electrolytes into such imbalance that your heart stops! It is not a 'safe and effective pill.'

Not my jeans - yet

If I eat too much or eat the wrong things and I repeat my eating behavior again and again, in a short time the results will begin to show. There is no hiding in tent dresses and pants with elastic waists. I kept a few different sizes of clothes around for plump days vs. thin days. Now I discard clothing as soon as it gets loose. I do not have things with expanding waists (except for my workout clothes). I do not hold on to the larger sizes. No giving myself a place to hide and my disease likes to hide. I cannot allow it any hiding places in my life. I resent this. I resent that I cannot allow myself a few days of ~~freedom~~ (there is nothing "free" about it - it is a return to hell) because it will always include a weight gain of one or two sizes, even if it is just for a few days. I am not worried that I could not recover from a weight gain. I am worried that one day I will just not care enough to stop and gain three sizes, four . . . five.

The best way I have heard this described is 'not being in a fit spiritual condition.' When I am in a fit, spiritual condition I can go anywhere and do anything without hearing the siren call of food. I do not have to avoid food situations at every turn because I am released from the obsession by a power and feeling of peace that fills me in a way food never will. When I am not spiritually fit I start to think that there is no answer.

If we accept that a break from doing what works can be lethal, why do we entertain the idea anyway?

Please write and share your thoughts and experiences.

Jane~

Looking For Answers without Food

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:36:00 +0000

I had a good holiday weekend without inappropriate eating. I am still eating correctly today BUT I have thoughts that go the other way. Why is it the day AFTER the holiday, I find myself wanting to reward my successfully surviving the food minefield by eating things just one day ago I knew unquestionably, I could not have and still be food-sober?

Question A: What is it about getting past an event without overeating that makes someone (me) want to eat more that usual and differently that normal?

Jane~

Hoppy Easter and Lustful Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:26:00 +0000

Look! Living, breathing Peeps!

In Florida it is illegal to dye chicks. bunnies, and all pets. If it weren't I would own the two bunnies in this photo and our white bichon would be next in the dye -line. He would look lovely in periwinkle. Oh well, I will have to settle for dyeing my own hair every 6 week.

Hoppy Easter! In Keeping the Pounds Off Land, I have been enjoying the traditional Italian Easter Pie (a savory pie, not a sweet pie). I made mine with corn tortilla instead of wheat crust and substituted the mozzarella with Daiya cheese. I am going to make my first leg of lamb today. There will be no sugar free lemon custard this year. I am looking forward to fresh papaya and mango drizzled with lime juice. Yesterday we finished last minute food shopping and while we were in the store they brought a truck load of Easter Candy to the front of the store and put signs up marking down the price to binge-eater-friendly levels.

There is nothing shameful
about the truth!

I need to share a secret. In all honesty, there is a part of me that today wants to jump in the car and go to that store where Easter chocolates are now marked down to 10 for $10.00. From there I would hit the ice cream aisle - hard and I do not know where I might go after that. Monday (or next month) I would wake up and wonder what the hell happened to me.

Sometimes such thoughts and feelings come up. I share them, without shame, so I do not become sick. I do not need to be guilty for my thoughts. If I keep these thoughts secret I will give them life and power over me. The feelings will become facts. I am only as sick as my secrets. Sharing these thoughts with you, they are no longer secret. Secrets brought into the light lose their power. They are weakened by the dazzling light of rigorous honesty.

If anyone comments how they've lost fifty or one hundred pounds and 'never have such thoughts' and 'would never consider eating such foods under any circumstances.' - they need to go away because I want to slap them. The theme is rigorous honesty and I honestly do not believe anyone goes from obese to slim without ever again caressing their addictive foods with lustful eyes. Not everyday of course but some days, with some foods. In my own experience the thoughts come seeping in and my eyes get that lusty gaze as they look at whatever it is at that time. I try to make sure I do not purposely put myself in the position where I will be lusting with my eyes on a hungry mind and stomach, but it can happen. I do not believe anyone who says they never, ever have such thoughts.

I know people (including me) can have these thoughts and not capitulate to the food. Heck, I could not be here now, no longer obese, if I gave in to each lustful gaze. Looking is not eating - it can lead to eating, but then so can denying and lying. It should never be necessary to lie to others to make people believe such thoughts never even enter their minds.

In keeping the pounds off, is anything keeping you from shining light on your secret food thoughts?

Jane~

The George (Clooney) Factor

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:30:00 +0000

Just one kiss?

Have I ever told you how much I adore George Clooney? I mean, c'mon: what's not to love about George? George is so cool that my husband has given me his blessing to cheat with George the minute George comes knocking at the door. Poor George. I see myself channeling Kathy Bates' character in Stephen King's Misery and keeping George as my ~~hostage, prisoner, sex slave~~ unwilling house guest until the spring thaw.

Yet, with all his debonair charm, with all his sexy looks, intelligence, sense of humor, wit and yes, I dare say - his money; with all there is wonderful about George, having George would not be enough to keep me from compulsively overeating. I know if the addictive food obsession of my mind and body was triggered and I relied on the magic of George to keep me from the food it would not last long. I need to take the steps that keep me from indulging myself in food and then punishing my body with all the additional food that would follow.

So, if even Gorgeous George Clooney is not be enough, what would be enough?

I have to be at peace in my own body, in my own mind, with my own soul. There is nothing outside of me that can change me. It has to come from within. I believe the God of my understanding has placed his/her spirit within me - within each of us. I believe I am offered the power and peace over this eating malady each and every day. I only have to choose to accept it. If I accept it I will find that the rest of my life continues to flow without the lubricant of overeating. If I do not accept it, I have to accept that nothing will satisfy me for very long - not even George Clooney.

Jane~

Chivalry is Alive and Well

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000

So this morning I got up and dyed my hair (root time) and decided to get a hair cut and pedicure. To be equally prepared for both activities I wanted to wear something on my body without a collar and something on my feet with my toes exposed. I donned an attractive, tropical, purple, white and gold summer dress with a fitted high waist (perfect, as I have a high waist) and plunging neckline that shows off 'the girls' (what is left of them). I wore low heeled sandals. I thought I looked good and felt good, too.

Not my 'girls', but similar view

I went out for coffee with a friend. As I was walking through the coffee shop toward the door, a man (late 40's) and his young daughter (or granddaughter) were sitting at the table nearest the door. He was watching me walk toward the door. Before I could get to it he jumped up and held the door open for me. There was no one behind me, he was not leaving. We do not know each other. The table and his seat were not so close to the door that his chivalrousness would have been expected by anyone below the rank of Queen (or in this country reality TV star).

Either

I look too old to open a door carrying a small coffee
My 'girls' were worth the extra effort (hardly)
He saw a woman coming to a door and made a gallant gesture because it is his nature

I am sure the answer is (3) but it made me feel good to think that a stranger would jump out of his chair to open a door for little ol' me on a day when I happen to feel that I look really good. I should take care to look and feel good more often.

Have you noticed any differences in the way strangers treat you when you are feeling good about you?

Jane~

Tale of Two Bunnies

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:30:00 +0000

I didn't make this up but thought I would share it:

There are two chocolate bunnies who meet in an Easter Basket at the end of Easter day. One bunny has a large bite missing from his butt and the other is missing his ears. The first bunny says to the other "My ass hurts." The second bunny says "What?"

Maybe I can't eat 'fun' foods but I can insist on having fun in my life.

How are you enjoying your life today?

Jane~

This blog is not. . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Cartelli) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:00:00 +0000

This blog is not a political blog, a family life blog, a TV blog, or a housekeeping tips blog. It is not about fashion, nature, travel, pets, or nuclear fission.

This blog is about maintaining weight loss and everything that touches that process.

Everything that touches that process.

Over the past three years I have posted stories that touched on how political policies affect weigh loss. I have posted how my family interacts with me in my changed-food world. I have offered thoughts on exercise via housekeeping and how it does not make me sweat enough to be effective as a weight loss tool. I have discussed my clothes and what other people are wearing (and shouldn't). I have talked about the beauty of sunrise on the nude beach, traveling across country without losing my food sobriety and wrote on how my dog ate my breakfast. I think posts on emotional meltdowns and picking up the food in response, qualify as a nuclear fission discussion.

The point is this: this blog is about maintaining weight loss and everything that touches that process. If I maintain long enough, everything will touch that process. Given enough maintenance time, I am sure I will find a reason to talk about experimental aircraft as they pertain to maintaining weight loss. I haven't found a connection yet but you never know.

What subjects (as they pertain to maintaining weight loss) would you like to read on Keeping the Pounds off?

Jane~

Keeping the Pounds Off!

Comments on a Candy Jar

Quick Post about Feelings and Stuff

Happy Mother's Day 2012

Lose the Blame and Shame and Take Action

Back in Town and Overwhelmed

Fiddleheads, the Extraterrestrial Vegetable

Happiness is not. . . . .

Weight Loss Via Vampire Method?

My Ass in Jeans

Soap Box Sundays: Faking Food

Do Not Talk to Person with Spinning Head

HUNGRY Games Video - not be be confused with post from the other day

How Bad was the Titanic TV Movie?

Very Disappointed!

Does S*A*S*S Yourself Slim Measure Up?

Disclaimers and Disclosures

Whatever happened to Baby (Fat) Jane?

Can You Handle Food Situations Today: Take My Test~

Where is Our Morning After Pill?

Looking For Answers without Food

Hoppy Easter and Lustful Thoughts

The George (Clooney) Factor

Chivalry is Alive and Well

Tale of Two Bunnies

This blog is not. . . .

Does SAS*S Yourself Slim Measure Up?