Sassjelly's Blog

So I didn't think sensa worked.  I believed it is designed to prevent over eating and it really didn't make me eat any less, especially when you are watching what you are eating using my fitness pal.   I decided to return it.  I really didn't get full any faster when I was eating less, I was still hungry.

Now I am annoyed, because I decided to go for the tried and true and just do hard work, watching my calories along with a ramped up exercise regimen.  I started doubling up the insanity workouts and reducing the calories, but now my fat percentage listed as neck size and weight aren't coming down.

The sensation of being hungry actually went down in between meals, well except when I start eating, then I really want to eat.  And I do have more energy through out the day.  So I did pass that hurdle.  Frustrated because I feel like I am working hard, but I can't lose the weight. 

Well I didn't feel sensa was making any difference.  I still ate everything I planned to eat.  It's not like I go to a buffet everyday and then hold back.

So I tried to cancel it, and it gave me some web trouble shooting tips, like did you sprinkle enough, did you put it on everything you ate, did you want to try month 2 before you give it up.  So I extended it for another 14 days and will be more religious about putting it on everything I eat.

I noticed that if you sprinkle it on to your tongue and then stick it to the roof of your mouth, it expedites things, after all that is how it works, right.

Also I started Insanity now on day 8 of it, and amped up the excercise, as well as watch what I eat more, especially in the evenings, even though that leaves the hungry feeling.

Turned it up a bit for after the holidays to burn the extra calories I loaded up on.

Will see how it goes.  Will see won't we. 

Well if you look at my food diary, it appears the Sensa is not curbing my diet.  Rather it does take some of the exhilaration out of eating.  For some reason either it removes the guilty pleasure of eating food you shouldn't eat or it numbs that taste center specially designed to make forbidden things taste better or in my case chocolate.

Well so in the end, I decided to do my control, by just sprinkling it on all the food that we eat during meals.  So for the most part my mom doesn't know that she is getting Sensa or what it does.  If they lose weight I really know this is a gold mine.   I will find out in a month.

Here is too losing poundage.   

Man if I could just float in ocean for a few more days and stare at the sun and clouds. 

So I got my sensa package in the mail yesterday and tried it today in my coffee and yogurt.  So far no huge difference, like immediate sensation of fullness upon sniffing the stuff, but I do feel more empowered as if my satiety is in my control when I sprinkle, and that I think about whether I am going to sprinkle it on stuff I am not going to eat.  So in that case instead of regret and loss I feel when I realize I ate too much like after I log in the items on MyFitnessPal, I guess it makes me think about it before I chew it down instead of the remorse I feel after I swallow it down.

I decided to give the other month1 package to my mom, to act as my control, since she is not all too aware of what sensa does and not too actively concerned about her diet or her weight or should I just sprinkle it on her food without her knowing.

Well I know in one of my earlier blogs I mentioned an easy way to diet is fasting, since you make no decision at all, you just don't eat.  An easy decision accompanied by nice retreat like environment and lack of daily stressors makes this method of attack particularly revitalizing, simplifying, and enlightening.  But in the world of reality and daily minor difficulties another annoyance to add to the list.

So that is why I decided to try Sensa and ordered my free 30-day trial.  The philosophy is if you smell good food, the olfactory nerves which connect to the brain will provide you a sense of early satiety.  I really do believe this because I notice that I do get fuller the longer I smell the food that smells yummy.  

Just a little smell really starts the appetite, but a longer whiff, say while you are waiting in a long order line, really makes you full after the first bite.  This happened to me and my three friends while we waiting at the italian food stand for 15-30 minutes to get our order, starving, and salivating over every whiff.   By the time we ate, all we could manage was 1 bite.  Sometimes I notice this also, when you are cooking, and smelling the food for hours, and really enjoying it, that by the time you sit to eat, you are half full.

Seems like sensa would work also, if you just took the half-minute before each bite just to smell-eat the food before you chowed down and got all your senses satisfied by taste.

So sniff that chocolate cookie, that fried chicken, or vanilla ice cream before you wrap your tongue in it.

You know I was thinking today about the time I lost 20 pounds and then got scared and gained it all back.  Doesn't make any sense because I worked so hard and earned every ounce of  loss, but I felt I lost something else, that cost more than weight.  It was bizarre because I was never really obese, looked fine in street clothes, just never looked like a model or the skinny girl.

On a fluke, I decided to join the Bally's 6 week challenge, exercised 2-4 hrs a day and dropped weight from 138 to 118, size 8 to size 4, and survived on 800-1000 calories a day, all with discipline and dedication for 6 weeks.  But as the weight dropped and my body looked svelt, I felt I lost something.  I lost the excuse for why things didn't work out, why I was unhappy, why I felt sorry for myself.  Because how could a skinny girl be so unhappy.  I guess the story goes back further, now that I think about it.  

Back in high school I got a lot of unwanted attention because I was pretty and attractive, perhaps two of the worst things to be on the receiving end of when you are awkward, shy, have low self-esteem, and just feel lousy about yourself.  It feels like you are being attacked and can not hide and the last thing you want to be is to be exposed and receive attention.  So I decided that I could help make it stop by dressing bad and gaining weight and it worked.  I guess that is why it bothered me when I lost weight five years later, although it protected me, I think I got used to it and it provided a super convenient excuse for everything else that didn't work out.

Now ten years later, all I want to do is figure out ways to look younger, thinner, and more attractive.  Doesn't make any sense.  I never really liked being fat, but I did enjoy the insulation and excuses that it provided.  Pretty f---ing awesome if you ask me, to be fat, too bad it doesn't work forever, and eventually you have to make an excuse for the excuse about why you're fat.

Well I finally did it!  I am very excited!  I always wanted to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and today was the day I made it to the bottom.  I took the South Kaibab Trail connected to the Bright Angel Trail after crossing the Colorado River via the Bright Angel and Silver Bridge.  Took the hiker express shuttle and started my descent down 5000 feet and 3 miles and 2 hours, crossed over at the bottom 2 miles and 1 hour, and then back up 6 miles to 7000 feet 4 hours.  http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=865084&code=9fff2c50b2caf07305dfbba4d1a17503

I went to a kick boxing class the other day... and my question is why does there always have to be that crazy guy  there who is way too in to it.  Breathing exericises, crazy kicks and over excited punches.  If you are going to huff when you breathe out wouldn't it be better to just open  your mouth, instead of keeping your lips part pursed so you can make that noise that's not really a whistle and not really a groan.  Odd but he doesn't make that sucking noise when he breathes in.   All he needs is a head band, no a bandanna  the kind you place across your forehead and tie in the back with a japanese sun and some shorter shorts to get his Richard Simmons on.  How come its never the super buff, cut dude, the athlete that makes that crazy noise, but the older, shorter, pot belly, slightly hair-ier guy.  If he was cute, I would have cut him slack, for making that human seal noise, but this was just downright annoying.  I was afraid I would hear the launch of spit and then feel the wet of spit coming my way

Ok so my last motivation to lose weight was impending trip with work mates and nothing is more embarassing than seeing more flesh and less dress on people you work with.  I am of the age where you are drifting from young adult to middle age and things are just starting to fall apart and yet fat seems to stay on so well.

My motivation this time is break up with boyfriend, I needed a spirtual cleansing so I fasted on tea and honey for four days and hiked the great outdoors for four hours a day and lost a pound a day.  Unfortunately once I started eating food again, my colon was confused, but my appetite was not  and came back with unrelenting voracity.

I did learn that it is easier to eat nothing than to eat less.  It is much less painful, your appetite starts to go away and you don't make any decisions, like when should I eat some but not all, or now that I started eating when should I stop.  You just don't eat and now you got tons of free time to go do something and think about things clear your mind and meditate.

Unfortunately, eventually you must eat again or you will die, and by the fourth day I actually started feeling tired and did experience a decrease in energy, for the first time.  It's when you start eating that your body becomes consumed with the idea of food, how, what, when, where and always more.

So here it goes again time to lose weight, but I did learn something, when food is in my mouth I am tempted to eat more, if it is not, I am very okay with fasting.  So no multiple mini-meals for me, maybe just breakfast or just lunch or just dinner and then tea and honey for contemplation.

I really did like fasting, but then again I was on vacation, and didn't have much on mind.  Bad boyfriend, bad, bad!