Rather than have a Sunday Confessional, I'm going to host Sunday Success Stories for you to share how the latest challenge is going for you.
How are you doing with the Discretionary Eating categories you chose?
What is working for you?
What is not working so well?
Do you have questions? Advice?
Speak up and leave a comment. This is your chance to shine, vent, or call for help!
I made it through a whole week at the beach until Thursday! My mom took me to my favorite restaurant and I couldn't resist fried shrimp, iced tea and a big ole piece of chocolate layer cake. So.... that knocked out pretty much every category but SOW, since after eating such a strict diet for a week my stomach couldn't take but so much food:)
ReplyDeleteOther than that I'm doing great-- for my 17th Anniversary dinner last night we had a big bowl of brown rice and edamame. My biggest problem is finding easy vegan recipes but I've been browsing more veg*n blogs. I think this week I will try the chick pea cutlets from Veganomicon-- they look good.
If anyone has any yummy recipes please send them my way!
I've taken my lunch to work each day and it hasn't been hard to be prepared. I will have to cook today for next week. I ate a wonderful dinner out (shrimp and grits) last night but will keep to one meal out every two weeks, if I have to.It's more "have to" than "want to" this month.
ReplyDeleteDoing well on not taking second helpings - would love to eat smaller servings.
Baby steps!
~Mad
I've done ok but certainly not perfect. I did a huge baking day where I had to make things for a church function and friends, and also some for us, so I used our own chicken's eggs rather than using up tons of flaxseed. So in a few slices of cornbread, or zucchini bread, I did consume a small amount of eggs. Yesterday we were at a family party where I would have been mercilessly mocked for being vegan (what a great family, huh?!?!) so I kept my mouth shut and ate what I thought would be ok. I'm sure there were some hidden dairy ingredients in a few things (and my daughter thought she detected bacon in a salad that I ate - although I couldn't taste it) but overall I think I was pretty close. I've done fine on the other categories - I definitely feel like my stomach is not aching for as much food now that I've been trying not to overeat for a while, and I only have 1 cup of coffee on each of the weekend days, but drink green tea during the week. One alcoholic drink over the whole week (oh - two I guess, I had some sangria at the party which was on the table with the lemonade so I thought it was just punch - I wonder how many kids drank it as well!?!?!) I made a rice/beans/onion/salsa thing and my husband even thought it was great. So I need to keep trying interesting vegan main dishes as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing OK. As always, I struggle with eating in the summer because I lack the structure of going to work every day.
ReplyDeleteI've made more of an effort to eat a healthy lunch and breakfast, along with a healthy supper.
All the great local produce and my garden really helps.
I've been really good with reducing seconds, but I still struggle with limiting different categories, like chocolate... I think I ate a chocolate chip cookie once this week at work just because they had just come out of the oven... And I couldn't resist.
I'm also doing well with limiting processed foods, although it does lead to having potatoes and rice a lot as sides because now I'm completely skipping my Annie's mac and cheese and some other organic rice mixes.
Any suggestions for some non-potato, non-rice side dishes would be greatly appreciated!
I've done fairly well. Of course, I ate a a Chinese restaurant for my birthday, but I don't feel guilty because it was planned in advance of the challenge. I also didn't want a birthday cake, so that helped. However, what I didn't plan for was the Coca-Cola I drank that day. I also had one day where my eating was out of control - I managed to cheat on SOW, SWEET and BUZZ. But other than that I did well.
ReplyDeleteYes, I did good!
I learned some things thinking about my food this week, but didn't meet all my challenge goals.
ReplyDeleteSOW -- Early this week, I discovered that when I dish up dinner, I give myself a smaller serving than I want, which supports the seconds habit. The rest of the week, I worked on "right-sizing" myself to start (even if it was just vegetables I was getting seconds on). Yesterday, my partner made dinner and I had very enjoyable seconds -- I was hungry, maybe not really really hungry.
I only at out once -- a mandatory office lunch. I declined another lunch out with my coworker, I think she was disappointed but a) we ate lunch together in the office anyway b) I really didn't want to spend the $ and c)I really didn't crave eating out. That social pressure thing though . . . it's not just for high school.
Didn't manage to get a vegan dinner in and my partner made me a sandwich one day for lunch, but did manage 4 vegan lunches. Like sugar and refined food, I don't seem to be able to meet even my achievable goals in part because of what I think of as previous meal planning/shopping overhang and because I'm not going to squash my partner's food sharing efforts. Only two sweets though -- homemade ice cream sundaes on office homemade ice cream day (how's that for a job perk) and my partner and I shared a chocolate bar one night.
Great exercise, Chile.
I'm doing pretty well. I had a bad Buzz day where I had 2 coffee drinks (the second one was an attempt to fix a very.bad.mood. - which didn't ultimately work at all). Have also been enjoying some amazing chocolate coconut non-dairy ice cream - so some more buzz points there. So ok, but room for improvement.
ReplyDeleteFor LITE, I've been doing pretty well, but not 100%. When I make something at home it's with whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour. The exception was at my parents' house last weekend, where I had to make biscuits and muffins with AP flour, because that's all there was. Otherwise, I feel pretty good about this category, and everything as been just as delicious.
SOW has been ok for the most part - I need to start paying a little closer attention to this one, but it's been ok I think.
Thumbs up for everybody's hard work! :)
I am doing ok, not as consistent as I'd like but overall feeling well - and down 5 lbs. Guessing it's because of reduced sodium.
ReplyDeleteAbbie, I never considered boxed pastas to be a "processed" food. I think limiting the "ready to go" food (i.e. frozen dinners or waffles) as the more "processed" types. Interesting in how we are in our stages!
You could be ultramotivated and make pasta or bread this week. Just a thought. My daughter and I made a recipe for "peanut butter bread" (5 ingredients, no eggs). Hint of peanut butter flavor, but my daughter gobbled it up.
I did cave and do one non-work meal out. (Any work meals were paid for by our office, so I hesitate to say "Hey! Let's redo everyone's schedule and plans on my account" when things are so crazy.)
I think this is a great learning process for everyone! Keep up the great work.
I've done very well on the SOW part, and I'm pretty proud of myself! The no sugar one is harder, not because I've sought out these foods, but because they have been served to me in social settings-a birthday party, and dinner in a friend's home. I'm not willing to be a party pooper, so I did eat desserts, but I don't think I over did it particularly.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good challenge. I like that we have some flexibility in choosing what we want to work on.
I've done a lot better than I thought I would. I think the key for me is not trying to go 100% right away. I've cut down my coffee intake from 3-4 cups a day to one, and I only had a bit of ice cream one day with a fudge ribbon. So BUZZ is coming along really well.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to do more baking and cooking from scratch, and that has been really good as well. I'm still working on the SWEET, but at least I'm using only raw sugar and with making my own food, I can dictate how much I'm putting in. I think this category is the hardest for me, as I have such a sweet tooth and have fed it indiscriminately for so long.
I have been trying really hard not to eat refined food, and I've definitely cut down. When I tend to eat it is when I'm not really being conscious of what I eat and I'm just grazing.
I think that's been the biggest benefit of this challenge: learning to be more aware of what I'm eating. That has made such a big difference. Great challenge Chile!
Yes, RJS, I know what you mean. I don't consider the pasta really processed, but it's the cheese sauce that it comes with, haha! I'd like to try making my own pasta at some point, but I certainly don't see a problem with the box! Same with the rice mixes, it's the sauce that's the problem. I've worked really hard in the last 4 years or so to move away from processed foods, but the sides at supper are the hardest, since potatoes get pretty boring after a while!
ReplyDeletePeanutbutter bread sounds really good! I'd love to try it. Did you post the recipe on your blog?
I love this challenge because it has made me think so much about my food. Didn't totally meet my goals *but* I did cook vegan dinner and mostly skip caffeine-alcohol-chocolate. A couple transgressions that I kinda saw coming (celebrations) and a visit to someone's house that resulted in a cuppa joe. The whole social factor is strong for me... You have gotten me poring over my cookbooks and really cooking so much more! I am thrilled.
ReplyDeleteGlad for a new week coming. It promises to be an improvement over last week. I was good with the no meat, fish once, local milk, no source for local eggs yet. No seconds. Caffeine can back over vacation but am cutting down again OK. Evening eating still the most difficult but I'm working on the motivation aspect too. 'til next time.
ReplyDeleteAbbie, I did post the recipe. It's very simple, which is great if you have kids!
ReplyDeleteI had another thought - have you tried spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti? There are also a number of rice dishes you can try, without a lot of effort. Even tossing fresh (or dried) herbs in some steamed rice would be something.
Oh, man... I am doing AWFUL on this. I'm sitting here drinking a glass of wine after eating a York Mint pattie, a pasta with a cream cheese sauce, and Taco Bell on the way home from a gig... and we went out to eat yesterday! Oh, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch was $1 a box at the grocery store last week... so we bought 4 boxes and a gallon of milk. I don't think cereal has touched our house in YEARS, and milk hasn't entered for at least 5 months. I'm doing so much worse than I do even normally on this stuff!
ReplyDeleteBut... I'm putting it all behind me... turning over a new week, and starting fresh. No need to make last week spoil the whole month! Here's to charging forward.
We ate out once. My daughter won passes to a water park in the library reading contest. The park wouldn't let us bring in any outside food so we had to eat lunch there. I had coke zero, a cheeseburger and fries plus I ate one of my son's leftover chicken tenders. That meal pretty much blew in all categories. Other than that I've had a really good week. We normally eat out at least 2 times per week so 1 meal in ten days is great.
ReplyDeleteToday was my youngest daughter's birthday. I only had one small slice of her made from scratch birthday cake.
This challenge has really made me aware of exactly how much crap I've been putting into my body.
Being vegan is a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've had a few pleasant surprises, such as finding out my favorite brand of whole-wheat bagels are vegan.
ReplyDeleteWe even had dinner at a friend's house tonight, and they were totally chill with us being vegan. We just brought our own tempeh.
It's been great! I think after this challenge I'll go back to eating dairy/eggs, but just until I use up what's in my house. I just can't see myself throwing it away. But I'm not going to buy anything new that's non-vegan.
Oh, I don't know if I've posted this already, but I made some super-rad cookies for a potluck the other day. Nilla wafers (the Hy-Top brand are vegan and cheap) with wasabi paste between them dipped halfway in dark chocolate. This is seriously good, my newly-pregnant friend thought of this. It was a big hit at the potluck, they were gone in 20 mins!
I'm pleased with my progress so far. I have been completely successful at 100% SOW. I reduced my caffeine intake by more than half, I had 2 sodas this week and no chocolate. I was home all week and ate prepared food twice and prepared all my other meals myself. Eating out 2 times is much less than normal. What I haven't been as successful at is reducing the processed foods that I eat. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I didn't do the grocery shopping this past week and now there is nothing but processed stuff in the house.
ReplyDeleteCAFE - Only ate out once, but it was for my anniversary. We chose a local restaurant that receives all their produce through CSA subscriptions so I don't feel totally terrible.
ReplyDeleteSOW - Rocked it!! Wooot!
LITE - Pretty good, I only caved in at the office. Darn co-workers bringing back treats from vacation really do me in!!
CAFE- I ate lunch out once, but that will probably be the only time this month. I figure three meals a day, for 31 days, eating out once means a 99% success rate, right?
ReplyDeleteLITE- About 95%, which is usual for me.
SUGAR- Well, it turns out I have more of a sweet tooth than I thought. A couple of times I ate sweets that coworkers had put out, completely forgetting about this challenge. But I haven't made or bought any sweets at home, and have been eating lots of fruit.
What is working for you?
ReplyDeleteI have been successful in all but one category.
I've abstained from refined foods, sugars, seconds, most stimulants (as described in my sign up post- caffeine only when I have a persistant headache) and... drum roll please...
meat.
What is not working so well?
I *have* eaten out. I had a veggie sub at Subway. No cheese, no meat. Just veggies. Yum (really!).
Do you have questions? Advice?
No questions or advice.
I will add that the past week has been meat free for me. Not quite vegan because dh picked up a pack of cheese while we were trying not to eat out while moving (instead of meat- he's trying to eat as little meat as possible and, IMO, cheese is a step above eating meat for him) and I ate some of it out of pure hunger. Twelve hours away from home cleaning, mowing, loading up a vehicle with boxes will do that to you. However, I did not sign up for the vegan challenge so I think I'm doing well considering it wasn't s goal of mine.
So far both Brett and I have been doing really well. We went out to eat August 1st as mentioned when we signed up for an early birthday celebration and were able to stave my dad off about taking us out to eat. By the way - he got me an avocado tree for my birthday, perhaps I can enjoy indoor Missouri grown avocados 'til my hearts content one day.
ReplyDeleteI AM wishing we had signed up for the BUZZ portion of the challenge though. We are working through the last of our coffee and are going to be taking a brief "hiatus", neither of us like being addicted to caffeine, and we are both cigarette smokers and are trying to get on the path to quitting and we realized that coffee is a big trigger for smoking.
The week went well. I am trying very hard to avoid seconds and extra sweets. The over eating is my problem and I only failed twice, once when I made Seitan Noodle Soup and last night when I ordered a second batch of spring rolls. Though in total I only got 3 of the two batches I ordered. They go quick when you share with the whole table!
ReplyDeleteSweets I think I did great with, though I did indulge in soy cream and a single serving of dark chocolate covered almonds during the week and weekend.
The veg*n thing is easy but I am being especially diligent and trying to make things homemade rather than buy packaged goods. I hope this week to have more whole foods and reintroduce exercising. Shocking what happens when someone throws down a gauntlet!
Thanks Chile!
Thank you all for checking in. Remember that this challenge is ultimately for your benefit, so the more effort you put into it, the more you get out of it. There is no need to "confess" your slips. I'd rather you look at why those slips happened and learn from them than have you beat yourself up over them.
ReplyDeleteIB Mommy & others seeking veg recipes, check out the links in the sidebar section near the bottom for Food & Health. Vegan LunchBox has lots of great kid-friendly recipes and ideas, good for adults too. Fatfree Vegan Kitchen is chockful of recipes. And, Yeah, That Vegan Shit gives the R-rated version of vegan cooking. :)
Mad & Bobbi - sounds like you are both doing well.
JAM & Joyce - Gatherings and potlucks are one of the more difficult places to try to control what you eat. I've found this to be a challenge, even in veg groups, because of my tofu allergy. Do the best you can and enjoy the company.
Abbie - Tasty side dishes of the starchy variety can include whole wheat couscous (with the advantage of cooking really fast), bulgur (a dry pre-cooked cracked wheat product)- plain or as something like a tabouli salad, cornbread, sweet potatoes (baked, boiled, grilled), whole wheat berries (which cook faster if sprouted for 1 day), pearl barley, corn tortillas, etc.
Susan - working with partners and family that are not making the same changes does lead to the need for negotiation and consideration. In the office, maybe you can establish an "eat-in" tradition.
Chessa- chocolate is my drug of choice for the bad mood repair. It doesn't work any better than coffee... Traveling is another area, like potlucks, where sticking to ideals can be challenging.
RJS - congrats on the 5 pounds! Wow. Are you able to share the peanut butter bread recipe? It sounds intriguing. Oops, I see that you did, and will go check it out.
Heather - yep. Awareness is a biggie. Congrats on recognizing your habits.
Mamabird - hm, maybe I'm going to inspire more home-cooking. I sure hope your family appreciates it. :)
Susan - each week better is a good goal!
Jennifer - don't beat yourself up over it. Sometimes when we make a commitment to change, something inside resists and works hard to sabotage our efforts. Change is hard. Just keep at it.
WMF - what a sneaky water park policy! Increased awareness is, as I've already said, a very good thing. Food in, crap out....
Krista - those are some strange-sounding cookies. I can see the appeal for somone pregnant with ... different ... cravings, but others like them, too? Hm.
My - good progress on most fronts. A trip to the store will help on the last.
ECB - sounds like a great restaurant choice!
Adrienne - treats in the office are hard to resist. There have been some interesting studies about the likelihood of eating a bit of candy from the jar on the desk based on its proximity to the person. At my mother-in-law's house, I ended up snacking constantly on her sweet candies until I asked if I could place a dishtowel over them so I didn't see them every time I went in the kitchen.
Jen - way to go, especially with the stress of moving!
Jennifer (and Brett) - your very own avocado tree? Wow! How long before it might produce? I assume it has to be kept inside to survive your winters. You can add the BUZZ to your categories if you want - let me know.
Calimaryn - glad the challenge is helping you make some changes.
Chile - I am not entirely sure how long it will take to fruit. From the little amount of research I've been able to do so far, we are looking at probably 3 years or so. Perhaps with good care (keeping the leaves misted for "humidity", keep the plant insulated indoors over the winter to keep its soil temperature warm and constant, and perhaps getting a "grow light" to supplement some light) it might go sooner, but we'll see. I was happy that the thing had a years warranty just in case I managed to kill it.
ReplyDeleteWell, we probably only have about a weeks worth of coffee left so let's sign up for 50% BUZZ with the caveat that this starts after the coffee is gone. I will have to sign us up for that at the get-go if you continue on with this challenge next month.
Jennifer - I think avocado is going to have to go on my wish list of trees. At this rate, I'm going to need a really big house for the indoor dwarf varieties and a few acres for the orchard. LOL!
ReplyDeleteAnd, it's time for me to report in on how I did with the challenge.
Buzz - thanks to the vertigo (tiny bit still lingering), my coffee consumption has been reduced significantly. No alcohol and a little less chocolate than usual. So, doing well on that part.
Cafe - good there, especially considering MIL was here and I was tempted to go out more. Luckily (?) she really likes my cooking so I felt some pressure to make all but one meal from scratch.
Lite - lemme think. I think I did fine on this one.
Sugar - do we have to talk about this? I mean, you don't want to hear about my failures. This one was a complete failure. I am a slave to my sweet tooth. :(
SOW - huge improvement here.
Veg - fine until high stress plus hunger led to an inappropriate sampling at Trader Joe's yesterday.
Hi Chile - I wrote a short post about my progress here: http://soapbox.valamity.net/apls/its-monday-please-excuse-the-messy-mind 50% SOW is HARD. I'll come back to read comments later, gotta have some lunch.
ReplyDeleteI didn't sign up to the challenge, knowing that I'd set myself up for failure, but I have been trying to eat only when hungry ~ the dogs decided to help me with this by stealing my mixed fruit & nuts that I pick at ~ the only problem being that I'm not really hungry, so I'm not really eating. I didn't think it would show, but my friend Jamie took 1 look at me on Sunday, told me that I haven't been eating because my daughter isn't here & tried to feed me up on bacon, chips & beans! He was so sweet, cooking the food, (which I made him eat!) but can't comprehend non-meat-eaters & especially anyone that cannot eat pig in any shape or form. I don't know how often I've told him that we don't eat meat & that pig at least has me doubled up in pain for hours or days on end...
ReplyDeleteStephanie - thanks for the report.
ReplyDeleteKilli - please try to get some healthy food in to keep up your strength.
My dog prefers bread, still in the plastic bag, to fruit and nuts. ;-)
I have dogs that steal ricotta, grapes & tomatoes. They'd eat all the bread & the wrapper, too, if I let them! I lived for years on bread & porridge due to what was expected of me if I ate what my ex bought. Potatoes are meant to be very good nutritionally & I love those (baked with butter & cheese, preferably). I bought more grapes & peas-in-their-pods this day. I wonder if doggies eat pea pods...
ReplyDeleteI have a horse that tried to eat her way into my rucksack to eat the juast-baked bread I had inside it!
Do I attract the crazy animals, or do I turn them crazy?
I haven't been doing too bad, surprisingly enough! Even while at the Folk Music Festival this weekend I mostly only ate when I felt hungry. I only had one coffee drink all weekend, and we brought healthy snacks along so we didn't eat too much fried stuff. I had no alcohol whatsoever, but that's not unusual for me.
ReplyDeleteMy stepfather passed away last week after a bout of pneumonia that he couldn't fight (with an immune system weakened after an on again off again 10 year battle with leukemia).
ReplyDeleteSo, I haven't done anything toward my goals yet. Convenience prepared food won out this week.
Yes, I know those cookies sound strange, but it was akin to eating chocolate with red pepper flake in it. There's just something about spicy chocolate...
ReplyDeleteKilli - I have no idea. All our dogs end up with some of the same personality quirks, so I suspect we may be influencing their behavior.
ReplyDeleteTheresa - that's great you were able to maintain your goals while away at the festival.
Lauren - I'm so sorry for your loss. I read elsewhere that it was unexpected as well, which can make it even harder. Be gentle with yourself.
Krista - I'll take your word for it. My sweetie is the big wasabi fan here; maybe I'll stir a pinch of it into his hot cocoa next time I make it. LOL
I wrote up my progress report here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.blogosaurusvex.com/2008/08/14/mid-way-check-in/