How Margaret Cho lost weight

I've always been a voyeur of sorts. Not the sexually perverse kind. I'm interested in how other people live their lives. I like to peek into their lives, know their back story, see how they interact with the world. So when someone famous famously loses weight, I'm curious about how she did it. I'm a fan of Margaret Cho. She's fantastically outrageous but also very honest in her comedy. I've seen performances where being fat and losing weight were part of her routine. She's been up and she's been down. She's down now and looking very good. I read an online account of how she lost weight. Sounds like intuitive eating to me. I wonder if she visited Elise Resch or Evelyn Tribole for counseling. They're my heroines. I've taken several workshops with them. Learned a lot which I apparently have been unable to put into practice in my own life.
So Margaret says she eats everything and it is great to be able to lose weight eating junk food. Um, that's not exactly what I want since junk food doesn't really appeal to me very much. I would rather starve than eat a McD's. I've never even tasted a Toaster Strudel nor do I long to do so. But I sure would love to continue to eat what I like and want to eat but learn to do it in an intuitive and mindful way. So far I have been unsuccessful at mastering that skill.
I once read that some people with eating issues (I hesitate to say "disorders" but I surely have eating issues) should stay away from their "trigger" foods--foods that they will overeat. For me, trigger foods are almost all the foods I like to eat. Anything that tastes great is a potential trigger food. How can I continue to eat well and be mindful about it?
I shall now go off to the gym to sweat while I ponder that question.

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

My uncle used to warn against saying "woulda, coulda, shoulda". He believed that a person should take responsibility for her actions and not second guess what woulda, coulda, or shoulda happened.
So I take full responsibility for the deliciously juicy burger I ate last night with two...not one...baskets of sweet potato fries. I know I shoulda ordered a salad. I know I coulda ordered a salad. I know I woulda ordered a salad if I had stopped and thought about it.....No. I wanted a burger so there's no shoulda, woulda or coulda about it.

Diets work for me

Diets don't work. That's what *they* say. But here's what I say....diets work for me when I stay on them.
I've been "off" WW for a while now. I lost slowly but steadily when I followed the diet. Now I'm not following the diet although I'm eating well. I'm eating chicken and fish. Eating brown rice and whole wheat bread. Oatmeal. Fruits and veggies. 1% milk. And I'm slowly gaining weight.
The "cheating" that I do on the weekends when we eat out is really not that different from what I was doing when I was on WW. And I haven't had to review a restaurant in a few weeks so I cannot blame the weight gain on that.
There's something about a set regimen that keeps me focused. And more than anything, it's the competition! I like a good game and I have to win any game I play. So when I am on a diet, I expect to lose weight and I make it happen. I may only be competing against myself but that's good enough to get me to work hard.
I'm going to have to go back on WW if I expect to lose more fat. Being a dietitian, knowing what to eat and how much to eat just isn't enough.
So, let the games begin. But they don't begin until Monday. Sorry about that. Don't want to enter the competition with a disadvantage....too much going on this weekend.

Biggest Loser

Of course I watch The Biggest Loser. I watch it while I'm eating dinner. Oh, according to healthy eating principles I shouldn't be watching TV while eating but that's what I do when my husband isn't home eating with me. I know I should be concentrating on my food, on the flavors but especially on recognizing when I'm satisfied but I love to eat while reading and/or watching TV. It's a pleasure I refuse to give up.
I have a love/hate relationship with The Biggest Loser. I love how hard the contestants work. How much they learn. And I love to see the physical and sometimes emotional changes (like improved self esteem).
I hate that they make them take off their shirts. Why do they have to be weighed shirtless in front of the world? We know they're fat. And most of us know what being fat looks like. A peek in the mirror as you exit the shower should be just about enough to enlighten you about how fat looks on the human body. So why? It might be instructive to show them at the beginning of the show and then when they've transformed themselves but not every week. There's little to be gained. But that's just me.
I love that we watch them go from couch potatoes to strong willing exercisers.
I hate that we never see them with the dietitian. We see the contestants with their trainers and with the docs but never the dietitian. Why?
Sure the exercise is part of the weight loss. They work out all day. It becomes their job. With that many hours of exercise, lots of calories are burned and lots of muscle is built. But truly it is the reduction in intake that in the end is the reason for their loss of fat so why concentrate so much on the trainers and exercise and not at all on the dietitian.
Oh, and Rocco. Give me a break. He's giving us shopping and diet advice? Rocco? There are so many dietitian chefs who could do a better job. I know. They're not celebrities although there are a few. Would be great to see someone like Ellie Krieger on there doing the cooking/shopping segment. That would add some credibility at least. Let's see, Rocco is the former star of a very revealing reality show and the former chef at a failed restaurant and celebrity whose star has fallen a few times too many. He's got no nutrition background but he's teaching the contestants how to shop and how to cook healthier fare. Credibility?
But you know what I hate the most? How they waste time. They've dragged the show out to two hours but they don't show two hours of footage. Repeating stuff after the commercial break is annoying and makes me leave at the commercial and not return until the repeated segment is over. I wonder if the advertisers know that.
I want to say, "Move it" to them. Move the show along a little. The pace is too slow. At least for me.
But I keep watching it. I wouldn't call it entertainment. Watching people sweat, deny themselves and complain. No, that's not entertainment.
I don't identify with the contestants. But I do root for them. I feel their pain.
I would like to see previous successful (meaning, they maintained their weight loss) contestants return to work with the new ones. Last season's winner was particularly motivating to me. She beat out a guy who was a killer with exercise. She has an amazing will.
Excuse me while I go make some oatmeal with water, sweetened with a little banana. Yum. Yuck.

Indulgence

I've been thinking. Because I have been trying so hard to follow a healthier diet, I've avoided all the foods that most people consider indulgences. Pizza. Ice Cream. Fried foods. Chips. So my diet has been pretty boring (yes, I'm a great cook and I am trying to make tasty meals but it's still pretty boring to eat this way). Also, I still do consider those foods to be indulgences so that when I do eat them, I overdo because I indulge.
If I'm ever to win this battle, I have to learn to eat all foods even the ones that are triggers for overeating for me. How to eat one slice of pizza? How to eat only one scoop of ice cream? I don't know. I think my main issue with food is that if it tastes really good, I just want to keep eating it until it's gone.
With ordinarily tasty food, I can stop when I am satisfied. But with really good food, no way. Even if I know I can eat the rest later or the next day, I still want it all at one sitting.
I'm not sure how to overcome this indulgence issue.
I'm still thinking of pizza. Would love to eat a whole 8 slice cheese pizza. I mean, that's my pattern. Buy one pizza, open the box and start eating. And that's exactly what I want. When I say I want pizza, I don't mean a taste or one slice...I mean one whole entire pizza.
Not actually sure I could still eat that much without getting sick but that's how my mind works.
I'll have to do some reality testing soon. One slice with a salad and a diet coke. That's on the menu for later in the week.
I can't wait.

Obsession

Pizza. That's all. Just pizza. Yesterday while driving, notions of pizza began creeping into my thoughts. Maybe it's because I'm still lamenting not having had my NY pizza a few weeks ago. Or just because longings for foods that I haven't eaten in a while are beginning to nag at me. I've indulged. I've eaten out. I've gone astray. I had one huge delicious Carvel sundae. I've had french fries. Chinese food. Pasta. The forbidden list too long to go into here. But I haven't had pizza. Oh, there are other foods I've avoided. Like fried chicken. Or rather, the crust on fried chicken. Oh, my heart flutters at the thought. Swoon. Sigh.
But right now pizza is on my mind. Not fancy pizza. Not upscale pizza. Just good ole NY style pizza. Not extra cheese. No pepperoni (yuck). Certainly no ham and pineapple. Give me a break.
I'll work on extinguishing the pizza obsession but if I cannot transfer the images from pizza to broccoli some time soon, I'll give in to temptation. It actually worked well with the Carvel. I had my fill. Delicious though it was, I'm okay for now. One week without visions of pints of ice cream.

Fallacies about gaining weight

I was just watching The View. I should be working but I'm finding lots of ways to seduce myself away from work. One of the pitfalls of working at home. There's laundry to do--something I have no desire to do but pit laundry against working and I'll choose laundry. Anyway....I was watching The View. Barbara Walters said it had taken her one year to lose fifteen pounds and that she gained back three this past weekend by eating one box of popcorn. (Cue laughs from the audience.) So a wisp of a woman is lamenting the gain of three pounds. And lamenting how "easy" it is to gain weight when it's so hard to lose.
I've lamented the same issue over and over but then it occurred to me while I was unloading the dishwasher (yes, another ploy to keep me from working) that it isn't easy to gain weight. We have to work at it and work hard. You don't gain three pounds from one box of popcorn unless it's the huge box and you've poured on lots of fake butter and lots of salt. Then maybe...just maybe...if you also spend the weekend in bed or plopped on the couch not expending any calories, you might...might...see some weight gain (more probably from water retention from salt!).
No, it isn't any easier to gain than it is to lose. It's just that when we go off our "diets" we tend to go way off, eat lots of calories, exercise less. Then after one week of indulgence when we notice a weight gain, we're convinced that it was just one itty bitty box of popcorn that did it.
I spent two days in LA eating large quantities of food. Then I went to NYC where I ate not large quantities but lots of foods that are high in calories. Thankfully, I walked a lot and went to the gym to offset the calories somewhat. But still I gained two pounds. I'm not shocked. I ate for those two pounds. I ate dessert. I drank some Pepsi. I ate bread. French fries. Burgers. Pastrami. Bagels. Bialys. Cream cheese. Chinese food. Etc.
In other words, I earned those pounds. I worked hard for them. As hard as I work to lose weight.
No, Barbara, it isn't easier to gain than it is to lose. It's just oh so much more fun and mindless to gain.