Have I begun writing newspaper articles on cheese? Become a super-secret cheese taster sent out to judge which brands/flavors are best and then reporting back to my boss?
Sadly no, although a cheese aficionado such as myself certainly spends time dreaming of such things (oh wait, is it only me who daydreams about cheese?), this is a much less tantalizing type of reporting. Last week after my birthday I wasn’t working quite as hard at my weight loss, at least not as hard as I had been in the weeks leading up to my birthday. My workouts were kind of blah, not as frequent, and I went on the nastiest sort of cheese-eating binge. I think I mentioned on here that we locked the cheese up for a few months? Like, put it in a bag with a zipper, and then put a lock through the ends of the zipper that only TH knew the code for. Some will find this incredibly juvenile, but I would much rather have my cheese locked up than be fat. Juvenile or overweight? I’ll take juvenile please. Yes, my will-power in this area is lacking, but I found that eliminating the option of eating it worked far better than sitting at my desk late at night fighting back and forth with my future and present selves trying to resist the temptation of the 4 year aged cheddar calling out to me from the drawer in the fridge.
Recently we didn’t start locking the cheese back up, as it makes a nice snack to feed to T1 when we are out and about or in the middle of the day. Plus it’s very annoying to be preparing a dish and realize I can’t move forward with it until That Husband comes home and unlocks the cheese bag for me.
So it had been unlocked, and I had been dipping in far too often. 4, 5, even 6 ounces a day. And that’s just what I snacked on in between meals, sometimes we would have cheesy dishes on top of that! Really quite gluttonous of me.
TH has an area of life where he’d like to improve, and we’d been talking about it each night (pillow talk if you will), and I had the brilliant idea to add in cheese reporting to our nightly discussions. He’s already after me each night to take out my contacts and brush and floss my teeth, so why not give an embarrassingly candid report of my cheese sneaking throughout the day as well? Each night after we read scriptures and pray and kiss he asks me “Have you brushed your teeth? Taken out your contacts? Flossed? How much cheese did you eat today?” and then I turn and ask him about his things.
It’s been incredibly effective, and as long as we keep it up I think my days of eating my weight in saturated fat are behind me. If you’re wondering, last night I reported that I ate about an ounce of cheese as I grated it for the pizza we were having. I’m getting better about slicing off pieces to snack on, but freshly grated cheese is my arch nemesis and for now the cheese keeps coming out on top. I will prevail though!
If you haven’t involved your significant other in your weight loss efforts, please sit down and have a talk with them about how they can help you! I would not have gone from this to this in 3 months if That Husband hadn’t been deep in the trenches with me the entire time. He alters his schedule to watch T1 while I go for a run, has sworn off of processed foods and desserts (he used to have a “bag of crap” to dip into whenever he had a craving, but he doesn’t even have that anymore!) as well, and helps remind me that satisfaction in the long term is so much sweeter than indulgence in the short term could ever be. If you’re nervous about how they would handle things, be frank about the kind of support you need, and how they can provide it for you. You’ll feel so good conquering this mountain together!
April 27th, 2011 on 8:25 am
Doing this, as well! I am currently trying to shake off the 10 lbs I have gained since we got married, and while it sounds like a small amount to lose, sometimes I think it is the hardest weight to lose. Those last 10 will kill ya.
Anyways, I have asked my husband to question me every night about what I ate, as well as to stop me if he sees me attempting to cheat. I have also picked up running again,so I am also having him say something like “you are going to go run today, right?” I feel like it keeps me accountable. Honestly, though, I think he feels like he’s being mean to me so I have to keep reminding him that I asked him to do this for me.
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April 27th, 2011 on 8:46 am
You are doing a fantastic job on your weight loss!! You look awesome! I’m hoping your weight loss gives me the motivation to loss my baby weight!
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April 27th, 2011 on 8:48 am
I love the way you two involve each other in your goals! And what an impact it’s making.
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April 27th, 2011 on 8:49 am
It’s so hard to stick to a plan when you’re doing it all on your own! I love that TH helps out. And I SO need to put a lock on some of my own “weakness” foods.
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April 27th, 2011 on 8:50 am
Oh my. I love cheese something awful. I think if I was home all day, I’d easily go thru my cheese as well. I try to stick with maybe an ounce or two at dinner time to satiate me.
For me, I love the feta. All types, but mostly the sheep’s milk feta from the Polish grocery store. It’s so creamy and good. I could also go on and on about cheese.
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April 27th, 2011 on 9:16 am
My fiance is very supportive of my healthful efforts, but due to my own personal disordered ideas about eating and food I get very sensitive to any feedback I get from him. So, for us, it is better for him to not be very involved in my endeavors.
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April 27th, 2011 on 9:19 am
I’m so happy you have support from TH!
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April 27th, 2011 on 9:24 am
I have similar struggles with cheese, but for different reasons. Because of my IC, I shouldn’t eat aged cheese. Though it doesn’t give me the same instant bad reaction as oranges do or something like that. It’s more just over time I will regret it. It’s hard, and I don’t have much advice! Maybe having more spreadable cheese (goat, cream) or crumbly ones (feta) would help because then you can’t just cut off a slice. You can still have cheese when you need it, but it’s more work when you want to sneak some.
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April 27th, 2011 on 9:40 am
I hate cheese (unless its on a sandwich or pizza or pasta). But the way you feel about cheese is the way I feel about anything that has at least a 1/2 cup of sugar!
I like the idea of reporting your cheese habits though. I think I’ll do the same (but for sugary food/snacks)
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April 27th, 2011 on 10:16 am
Cheese is so good. Dairy in general. I recently made myself stop buying full fat greek yogurt even though it is SOOOO good because it has like twice the fat and calories of the 2%. As much as I love cheese, though, I’m not addicted. My addiction would be sugar. Which is gross to me on an intellectual level but omigosh my body loves it so much.
I think it’s great that you and your husband help each other with your goals. That’s one of the really sweet intimate parts about getting to be so in love and in trust with one another.
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:06 am
I love cheese too! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LLOOOOOVVVEEEE me some cheese. Especially on a salty cracker with a glass of red wine. Yeah, that’s great on the calorie intake.
I want to take a cheese making class next fall.
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:22 am
Mmmmmmmm, grated cheese. Gets me EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I love it. My biggest enemy in the food category is chocolate, right now more specifically, leftover Easter candy. If I say I want some, husband says, “No you don’t. It’s bad for you.” Usually I try to only say it if I’ve actually earned it, but it’s a good reminder to not go crazy.
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:25 am
I used to be a cheese addict until I started eating paleo. Now it’s a rare super treat, which makes it so much butter. I never thought I could conquer my cheese addiction.
But, what I really wanted to comment on, is that I think it is great that you post about the partnership that you and TH have in your marriage.
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:38 am
I love this! We have been doing a similar thing for years now, with “binge” eating in general. It was never even a conscious choice, but it helps leaps and bounds with emotional eating. When I know that I am going to tell Ross that night “I ate all the leftover X as a snack while you were gone” it’s easier to assess “am I really hungry? or do I just want to eat?”
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:51 am
Mmm cheese….
Unfortunately my fiance doesn’t have that kind of willpower to restrict me from eating crap - he always gives in! But right now I’m thin - he might be more vigilant about it if I started gaining a lot of weight.
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:54 am
How awesome that you have nightly check ins! But you are right having the support and accountability makes things easier. I wouldn’t have been able to lose 20 pounds with out the help of my husband and him being supportive. It took me 6months. Like you I just made a few lifestyle changes. We have always eaten healthy. However with a few tweaks here and there, I was able to lose the naturally and didn’t have to resort to the fad diets. Trust me, I’m a fan of fad diets. haha. Anyway, just wanted to you know that you look great. Keep up the good work. And before you know it, you will have reached your goal weight. At times, it will seem harder than before…, but you will get there. Once I lost 7 pounds, it was always hard for me to push beyond that because I’m not that heavy to begin with, but through perseverance and the support of the hubs, I was able to get to my ideal weight. And most importantly maintain it as well.
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:57 am
I definitely hear you about locking up the cheese. It is so much easier for me to not having anything at all (i.e., cheese, chocolate, cookies) than try to eat things in moderation. If I have a bag of cookies at home there’s a very high probability I would eat it all in one (maybe two) days. So I’ve had to just stop having those things around.
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April 27th, 2011 on 12:29 pm
We do this with flossing and now I am the best flosser! I agree it’s better to be in the trenches together!
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April 27th, 2011 on 12:42 pm
It’s hilarious how much I relate to this! Cheese is my weakness. I’ve tried to stop buying so much of it because if it’s in the house I will mindlessly snack on it! My husband will ask me how much I ate at night too! (I told him how I wanted to majorly cut back on my dairy intake)
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April 27th, 2011 on 12:46 pm
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who does things like that! I’ll leave sugar in my car so if I want it I have to go outside and I have DH ask me if I went to the gym every night.
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April 27th, 2011 on 1:22 pm
I love cheese too!! I just went to a middle eastern grocery and picked up some feta and “california cheese” whatever that means. What I love most about it is that you buy it in bulk so I can ask the deli guy to give me 1/8 of a lb of cheese or the smallest cut piece already, which makes me feel better and helps me control myself rather than buying HUGE precut wedges. (Oh costco, you are my weakness for cheese. Cheap and big…*sigh*)
I’m really glad TH has helped and kept you accountable on something. It kind of reminds me of how my boyfriend reminds me to study when all I really want to do is everything else.
Great post!
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April 27th, 2011 on 2:27 pm
This post was not very helpful, because now aaaaaaaaaaaalllllllll I can think about is how good all the cheese in that picture looks, and how I’d like to eat some right now.
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April 27th, 2011 on 11:54 pm
I don’t have a nightly check in with my hubby but he does notice if I’m not working out. He will ask me about it if he see’s me miss more than 2 days. Which I really appreciate!
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April 28th, 2011 on 9:17 am
Awe you two are so cute! That’s so sweet of him to do a “cheese roundup” everyday for you.
Btw, I know gum isn’t exactly “Real” but when I’m cooking dinner and feeling snackish, I always chew it. Cheese is totally spoiled by minty fresh breath. Does the trick for me!
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April 28th, 2011 on 12:20 pm
I’m almost convinced that cheese addiction is real. I had to stop eating cheese for 6 months to curb my cheese sneaking. I lived alone, yet I still used to feel like eating cheese was something I had to hide.
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April 28th, 2011 on 1:21 pm
My husband and I also report to each other each night. Since I’m bad with not exercising, he will ask me if I walked the dog in the morning and how far we went. When I feel tempted to skip it I think about my sad doggie and what it will feel like to tell my husband. It works! Also, calorie counting has held me very accountable to my 1600 per day goal, and I have lost 17 pounds! Grating cheese is the hardest for me. I found that if I light an unappealing scented candle while grating it slow me down (a little).
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