Feeding My Brain

Well, I am home after a WONDERFUL cruise!  I did indulge quite a bit over the week... too many temptations to avoid all together.  I'm not sure of the effect those indulgences will have on the scale... I'm a little scared.  I am happy to report I got a ton of activity over the week on the ship.  I earned 11 points and averaged 94% of my daily goal over the week!  I am back on plan starting tomorrow and hope my next official weigh in next week will show no more than a 5lb gain.  No pic this week since there is no official weigh in for today.  Check back next week to see how I did!

Now... on to feeding my brain...

I love to read. At any given moment I probably have 4 (or more) books loaded on my kindle.  I'm sure I'll read lots of things this year, but I'm going to focus mostly on books about weight loss & health.  If you have any great recommendations, I'd love to hear them!  

As I feed my brain along this journey, I'll try to share a bit of the knowledge I gain with you!

The book currently keeping me inspired (and on track) is Weight Loss Boss by David Kirchhoff. He is the CEO of Weight Watchers and has a wonderful blog called Man Meets Scale.  He writes with just the right amount of science & humor for my tastes.  And even though he is the CEO of Weight Watchers, it is not really a book about the WW program.  It's really just the story of his weight loss journey.  As someone who has gone down this path ahead of me, he's certainly got some great information and inspiration to share!  Here are some little bits of wisdom I've gained from the book so far:

• "I can focus my energy on developing mental muscle power to withstand the temptations of a food-dense environment."
• "there seems to be a link between my optic nerve and some kind of trapdoor into my stomach"
• "So does beer make you fat? In a word, yes (or at least likely). Beer obviously has calories, but it also has the ability to radically lower eating inhibitions while under the influence."
• "I ate without thinking and gained without noticing … if I looked the other way when I walked past the bathroom mirror."
• "I will always have to watch what I eat because I still live in the tempting food environment that got me heavy in the first place. I eventually came to realize that I had to respect that fact by taking steps to alter the way I interacted with my environment."
• "A healthy lifestyle is not a moral straitjacket. Rather, it is a combination of healthy habits you feel good about and can stick to."
• "weight loss is often not a direct journey. It has its twists and turns, ups and downs. There are periods where you are highly focused and times when you wear doughnut glasses."
• "So the government came up with a simple mnemonic: a dinner plate. Fill half with fruits and vegetables, a quarter with whole grains, and a quarter with protein. Dairy is represented by a glass of low-fat milk, next to the plate. It displaces the esoteric food pyramid, which might have been a gift from aliens visiting ancient Egypt."
• "Plus seeing a ton of food is beyond sexy in my simple mind."
• "The only way anybody can lose weight is to make different choices and live in a different way. The sooner that you put your belief and trust in yourself, the sooner you will realize that you manage own destiny."

Kirchhoff, David (2012-05-08). Weight Loss Boss: How to Finally Win at Losing--and Take Charge in an Out-of-Control Food World. Rodale. Kindle Edition.