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So, I had one fantastic week!  Lost five pounds.  Then along came Halloween.

It was like an avalanche of mini-candy bars buried me.  It was bad, very, very bad. 

I gained those five pounds back.

Today, though, I am 100% committed to myself and my weight loss plan because I just found out that once again, I am flying to New York in December for the office Christmas party.

So I am deterrmined to use this as the impetus I need to get serious and get some weight off! 

Today I ate a 'clean' diet.  For breakfast, old-fashioned oatmeal.  Lunch was a big salad at Souplantation.  Dinner was green beans and some barbecued chicken breast.  Snack tonight was a Granny Smith apple and some fat-free popcorn.

Earlier in the day, I laced up my sneakers and went on a two mile walk with my 9-year old daughter.  I used the RunKeeper app on my iPhone.  I loved having the feedback about our time, distance and speed. 

I'm thinking I'll ride my exercise bike tomorrow, then on Wednesday, go to the YMCA to get a lesson in using the equipment there.  (We joined recently but I haven't yet actually exercised there.)

Wish me luck!  I'm going to try to lose as much as I can in the nearly six weeks I have before my trip to NYC!


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You guys.  I'm having good days, followed by really bad days.  You know Geneen Roth says every diet is followed an a binge . . . inevitably. 

I don't want to believe that is true but maybe it is.  It explains why a person who has successfully lost weight would gain that weight back.  It's just maintaining balance in the universe. 

I intend to write here but once again I've had a jam-packed day and now I need to get to bed.  It's 1:21 a.m. and tomorrow will be a really busy day (again). 

Today was a bad day in terms of eating.  I won't even detail it.  (It's for your own good.)

Yesterday was bad, too.  Saturday . . . bad.  Until then, I was doing great, eating only what I was supposed to eat . . . sigh.

Okay, so back to basics tomorrow.  I'm beginning to fear that I will never actually lose weight. 


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I've realized that I am terrified. 

What if I choose the wrong diet?

What if the diet doesn't work?

What if I stay fat forever?

I can't figure out why I am so afraid.  I have done this before.  I've picked a plan that seemed appropriate for me (a middle-aged woman with insulin-resistance who is an "apple").

Fear won't stop me, though.  And really, any diet that reduces calories and increases activity will work.  So, I don't have to be afraid of failure.  

Anyone else afraid of this whole dieting thing?  


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I focused today on preparation.  I went to a good produce store and bought fresh vegetables and fruit. 

When I got home, I cleaned lettuce, chopped it and added some other vegetables to the salad.  Now I am prepared for the week's lunches.

When I have the appropriate foods in the house, I am setting myself up for success.

What have you done to prepare for success?


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We've had a membership at the local YMCA for a few months now, but I've never worked out there.  I'm not exactly a gym person, though I like the idea of strength training using convenient exercise machines.  (I've worked out at gyms before, so I do know what I'm missing.) 

This afternoon, I took my four kids to the YMCA.  We endured the Orientation, my kids got their ID tags and my daughter swam in the (outdoor!) pool.  After the hour-long Orientation, my boys and I worked out on the elliptical machines for twenty minutes. (That's all we had time for since the Orientation took so long.)

Not much, but a good start.  Plus, now I know the next step to take so I can get trained to use the strength training machines.  They have a cool computerized system that helps you work out and stay on track and improve and all that good stuff.

Here's what I ate today:

Big, big salad at SouplanationTurkey noodle soup (whole wheat noodles!) at Souplanation

Lots of chopped up vegetables cooked with eggs.  Sort of an omelette, really.

98% fat-free popcorn

That doesn't sound like very much–the problem was that I am totally out of practice at eating breakfast.  I need to try to eat earlier in the day tomorrow so my blood sugar stays stable and all that.

And now, I'm heading to bed . . . after I make my son's school lunch.


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This first week is so important.  If I don't see results, will I falter?  Will I give up? 

I'm staying off the scale until Monday morning.  While I appreciate feedback, if I get on the scale too early to see results, I will feel discouraged. 

How often do you weigh yourself?

I am worried about weighing myself again on Monday, even though I am eating what I am supposed to andn getting exercise.  (Yesterday, I didn't have time to go to the YMCA, so I rode my exercise bike at home. Tonight, I'll be heading back to the YMCA, though.)

I'm heading in the right direction so I just need to keep moving.


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Today is Halloween. I haven’t had any candy for quite a while now, and have really avoided soda pop too. I have one of our chickens in the crockpot with a little smart-balance-butter, garlic, and seasoned salt. Once Hubby gets home from work, he’ll grab some chicken, some baked butternut squash (with cinnamon and brown sugar)  … then put on his costume and take my Kid trick-or-treating.

Yes, they are bringing home candy this evening. One of my huge weaknesses. So I’m PLANNING on eating a few pieces of candy tonight. We’ll go through all the candy, fill up a quart canning jar with what my Kid can eat (no corn or peanuts or artificial colors), then we’ll buy the rest of the candy from him with a movie.

What Hubby and I don’t eat tonight goes to his job tomorrow. Thus, only ONE day (evening, really) of candy!

Now, on to the coming holidays … my plans have to be (1) gluten-free (2) corn-free (3) dairy-free (4) use as much from our little farm as possible.  Planning these menus:

Thanksgiving:
huge chicken (ours!), roasted with garlic, “butter” and poultry seasoning
stuffing with mushrooms and water chestnuts
potato skins with bacon and rice cheese
sweet potatoes with “butter” and cinnamon-toasted-pecans
cranberry-and-orange muffins
pecan pie tarts

Christmas:
ham (gotta buy this year)
homemade bread
green beans with sliced almonds
mashed potatoes
apple chunks fried in cinnamon with walnuts and pecans
pumpkin-cheesecake-yogurt tarts

Fairly healthy. The pecan pie tarts are made with brown sugar instead of corn syrup. Took a while to find THAT recipe! And the pumpkin-cheesecake-yogurt tarts are made from a frozen yogurt we discovered yesterday at local frozen yogurt place.

What would YOU add to these menues? What are you serving?

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If we don’t defend the nutritional food standards it is highly likely school food will return to the appalling pre 2005 standards.Considering Mr Gove is such a big fan of history it is ironic that he spectacularly fails to learn from it. In 1980 when Thatcher was busy busy ripping the heart out of the school system she abolished nutritional food standards for school meals, freed schools from having to provide them and introduced a nasty form of tendering, (compulsory, competitive tendering) which saw decent school cooks slung out on the scrap heap whilst fast food merchants moved in. She also allowed changes to the pricing system which meant unscrupulous caterers could sell junk, mark up it up, make profits while our kids health & nutrition suffered.And what was the result? Well school numbers fell drastically (way more spectacularly than ANYTHING Jamie Oliver caused) Cooks left in droves and the standard of meals fell.Teachers knew it. Heads certainly knew it. The Soil Association knew it. Catering staff and dinner ladies knew it. However most parents didn’t. They assumed their children were being fed the sort of the food they had been traditionally served in the past.When Jamie Oliver revealed this there was an outcry. I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say as a result the government set up The School Food Trust. It did an amazing job in drawing up new nutritional standards and kicking out the confectionery and fizzy drinks from schools that some caterers relied on to make a profit. They were criticised, mocked and ridiculed by some caterers and politicians but they stuck to their guns. They proved that you could serve tasty and healthy school meals that crucially children would eat. I was appointed as a trustee to the board so saw first hand what a great job they were doing. School meals were not all perfect but they were dramatically better than the junk served pre 2005. Anyone who doesn’t believe me please look through my archive of photos.Cue the coalition government. No one expected that they would invest in school meals and push for improvements but few expected they would deliberately try to subvert the excellent work of the last 5 years. The first thing Gove did within days of taking office was to cancel the roll out of free school meals to kids from families under the official poverty line. This money has gone from the mouths of the poor to a fund for academies.Gove has deliberately chosen to exempt all free schools and more importantly academies from the nutritional standards. He knew it would be deeply unpopular to actively overrule the standards for all schools – there would have been a national outcry with the medical organisations, health charities and food campaigners up in arms. Instead his sly ruling that nutritional standards don’t apply to academies means the standards will now be undermined as academy schools grow and grow.So what should we do? I want the School Food Trust to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jamie Oliver, Local Authority Caterers Asoociation, Food for Life Partnership and The Children’s Food Campaign. Michael Gove needs to be told in no uncertain terms to make the nutritional standards applicable to all school. If they don’t then the school food revolution is doomed. I am in the process of writing to all these organisations and I will post up their responses when I get them. We need a bit more solidarity and the above organisations should be working together much more closely.Update…..I have now written a short etter to all the above organisations. See below.
Dear friends,
I am writing to you all to ask you to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jamie Oliver.

Refusing to insist that nutritional standards apply to ALL schools is a major threat to the school food improvements we have seen since 2005.

I urge you to write a joint letter to Gove calling on him to apply nutritional standards to ALL schools. If he refuses then start a mass campaign. You will get huge public support with medical organizations, health charities, teachers unions and parents lining up to support you.

Regardless of how tough things are for your organizations at the moment I believe the future of the school meal service depends on this one decision and a failure to stand up to Gove now will have dire consequences on the meals our children will be eating.

If you don’t win this then much of the excellent work you have done in the past will be for nothing.



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Below is the letter I had published in the Guardian:Click here -( it is second letter down)I’ve had the most fantastic responses from Jamie Oliver’s team, LACA and the Children’s Food Campaign.Whilst the School Food Trust agrees with most of my sentiments they are keen to collect evidence before starting a campaign. I have huge respect for the Trust but I think their logic is flawed and that their position is highly dangerous.Firstly, we already know what happens when minimum nutritional standards are removed. The abolishing of these standards in 1980 led directly to appalling quality school meals. We certainly have plenty of evidence already to support this position.Secondly, given how recently new academies have been released from the standards it is highly unlikely we will find much evidence of degeneration yet. However just because they are keeping largely to the standards now is no guarantee that they will do so 6 months, a year, 2 years from now. I am worried that a report saying that by and large the academies are keeping to the standards you will be effectively undermining the case for any school to be held to nutritional standards? I could well imagine the government using a report to make such a case.I am concerned that Headteachers are facing very difficult financial decisions. Just last Friday we learned that music education faces a 27% budget reduction. Faced with this sort of news I am worried that some heads may well be tempted to make catering arrangements that allow them to make money from their school canteens by stocking confectionery and other items we were so pleased to see the back of.I still believe that this government is using the academies issue to engineer the demise of the standards.

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Unbelievable! So Gove is absolutely happy to insist that the new academies and free schools he is hell bent on setting up will be forced to teach about the sanctity of marriage but completely free to serve poor quality food that doesn’t meet minimum nutritional standards. Have a look at the story in todays TelegraphThis just shows how right Jamie Oliver, Children’s Food Campaign and LACA are to fight this dangerous ruling. School Food Trust – please don’t give this government any more cover. Below is a copy of the letter I have sent to the Trust:Hi Rob,Thanks so much for your reply. I disagree that we need to collect evidence.Firstly, we already know what happens when minimum nutritional standards are removed. The abolishing of these standards in 1980 led directly to appalling quality school meals. We certainly have plenty of evidence already to support this position.Secondly, given how recently new academies have been released from the standards it is highly unlikely you will find much evidence of degeneration yet. However just because they are keeping largely to the standards now is no guarantee that they will do so 6 months, a year, 2 years from now. Are you not worried that if you produce a report saying that by and large the academies are keeping to the standards you will be effectively undermining the case for any school to be held to nutritional standards? I could well imagine the government using a report to make such a case.I am concerned that Headteachers are facing very difficult financial decisions. Just last Friday we learned that music education faces a 27% budget reduction. Faced with this sort of news I am worried that some heads may well be tempted to make catering arrangements that allow them to make money from their school canteens by stocking confectionery and other items we were so pleased to see the back of.I have huge respect for your work Rob and think that you and Judy have done a fantastic job with The School Food Trust. I am simply raising these concerns because I am deeply worried that this government is effectively engineering the demise of the standards that have done so much to protect children. I think that your review of the academies is fraught with danger and I raise this not to be difficult but as a friend.The government are fighting on many fronts at the moment. Making a u turn on this will not cost them any money. I think it is worth pursuing.

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