My Love Affair With Bread

“Oh, God above, if heaven has a taste it must be an egg with butter and salt, and after the egg is there anything in the world lovlier than fresh warm bread and a mug of sweet golden tea?”Frank McCourt, ‘Angela's Ashes’ (1996)

 

I love bread…..the smell of warm yeast rolls wafting through the cafeteria at school and down the hallway towards my room….I think I can gain weight just from the smell of baking bread.  Bread is a MAJOR weakness of mine.  I can remember while I was growing up my mom would make home-made wheat bread.  I couldn’t wait for it to come out of the oven so I could spread some peanut butter and jelly on it while it was warm….a nice thick slice, too.  I can’t blame my eating habits on anything other than the fact that I have a love affair with food…..I love to eat really, really good food! 

Bread has been on my mind a lot this week because when the ladies at Weight Watchers told me to change up my eating this week I decided to split from bread. I made the decision because I have gone gluten-free in the past and I did drop some weight.  I have not had any bread or rice in 5 days.  The only carbs I am taking in are coming from fruits and vegetables. Wait….I did have oatmeal twice but this week I had less of it and mixed a tablespoon of low fat peanut butter into the oatmeal.   I also upped my protein intake slightly.  The first couple of days weren’t too bad but it’s getting rough.  I’ve been trying to make up for it with more vegetables with meals.  I am NOT good at getting vegetables in.  I even ate out twice this week and the only sides I had were broccoli.

Has it worked?  Yep…..since Sunday I have dropped a solid 3.5 pounds.  Nice jump start!  Problem is….on Saturday I have friends coming over to eat and have a few drinks.  I may be in trouble so I better be extra good until then!

Intro!

So, as part of my weight loss journey I have decided to use this blog as a sounding board, frustration, microphone…..you name it.  I’ll talk about my frustrations, triumphs and whatever else strikes me….and it may not even have anything to do with weight loss.  However, in the larger scheme of things, everything has something to do with weight loss.  You understand this if it has ever been a struggle for you.

So….

In 2006 I weighed about 270 pounds….that’s a lot of weight to carry on a short body (I am 5’1″ on a GOOD day haha).  I slowly lost about 30 pounds….and then had a car accident that laid me up for a bit.  I gained about 10 back and then got back on track after a couple of months.  I lost some more until I was down almost 40 total….then in November of 2009 I came down with swine flu and within a month of recovering from that I came down with shingles.  It took me awhile to get my health back on track and within the next 6 months I gained back almost 30 of what I had lost.  Then in June of 2010 I cracked down heavy on the exercise and nutrition and lost about 1o on my own last summer.  Then I joined Weight Watchers back in July of 2010.  Since then I have lost 28.5 pounds.  However….that has not changed since early November of 2010.  So for the past 3 1/2-4 months I have been on a serious plateau.  I have wavered between 209 and 206 since November.  It’s a huge struggle for me.  And it is sooooo very frustrating because I eat very healthy (I think) and I am pretty active.  I work out at the gym about 4 days a week.  It’s difficult to fit more workouts in because besides the gym, I have a family, teach full-time and am working on my doctorate.  Yes, I am wearing smaller sizes but it is so nice to see those numbers go down.

I’ll be trying this week what the ladies at the WW meeting suggested to try to break my plateau….eat “differently”.  I do tend to eat the same things over and over…..every morning during the week it is 1/2 cup of oatmeal cooked.  It’s just easiest because I can pop it in the old microwave and walk away.  Eating differently is probably going to mean getting up earlier so I can invest some more time in breakfast ..… not so sure how that will work since I am all about saving time!  A friend of mine also suggested more sleep since it has been linked to weight loss.  And, personally, I need to drink more water.  So…





Three goals for this week or the immediate future…

1. More water
2. More sleep
3. Change up the food

We shall see how it goes!