Weigh-In Results and Thanksgiving Stats

Somebody's been hitting me with a lucky stick for the past two weeks.

The scale went down another 2.6lbs at the nutritionist's today. So something is going right. I just can't figure out what it is.

I suspect two possible factors.

1) Right now, for whatever reason, my stress levels are low. I'm not stressing all that much when I don't eat perfectly. Nor am I allowing my binges -- really more like slip ups, I guess -- to extend too long. They're like a blip on the radar, mostly. Last week I was sliding into a series of days of bad and/or overeating, but luckily that pattern snapped when I returned to work.

2) My portions are smaller. Whether I'm eating on plan or off, I just can't consume as much as I used to. And I don't like feeling disgustingly full anymore. It hurts. Consequently, my slip ups are nowhere near as large as they used to be. Could be mitigating the damage somewhat.

In anycase, I'm feeling like a lucky little sod for having eked out a loss despite some fairly frightful decisions last week.

Now, on to this week. I've got two dinners out coming up (Wed and Fri nights) and then the all-too-tempting Turkey Day itself to contend with.

My nutrionist gave me some very eye-opening information today. Last year she and her co-workers at the Look Ahead Study ordered in a Thanksgiving Day Meal for one from a local deli. They measured and weighed and calorie-counted everything that came in that meal -- again, ordered for ONE PERSON.

I photographed the sheet she gave me below (sorry, no scanner) and hope the picture is clear enough to read. It should be if you click on it and get the blown up version.

The pecan pie dessert is scary! I'm so glad I didn't buy that pie last week. By the way, both desserts came as 3 oz portions. But when they weighed them, they discovered they were really six ounces each!! It's illegal in NY to short anyone on a weighted amount, but you can throw extra in without any problem. So I guess this deli owner is really generous.

If you can't see the total here, it's 3,705 calories for the dinner as it was packaged and sent by the deli.

My nutritionist wanted me to have this because on Thursday, when I'm at work, there will be a Thanksgiving feast available for everyone, courtesy of our local deli. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

She also gave me this handy tip sheet on coping mechanisms for the holidays. I'll upload it, and again, hope you all can read it if click on it and get the bigger version.


I took a close up of the one box that lists some helpful food substitutes to lighten the calories. This should be legible, I hope.

Notice that choosing pumpkin pie instead of pecan pie saves you 225 calories. Sigh. Goodbye, pecan pie.