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Lose 26 Pounds Eating at Home

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 06:10:13 +0000

Does this sound like you? “I am so frustrated with my ability to lose weight. I exercise 5 days per week, and still can’t seem to lose weight. I make all the right choices when eating out, too.” Think about how many times you eat out. As simple as it seems, eating half (or more) of your meals at restaurants can make it extremely difficult to lose weight even if you “make the right choice”. We often lose track of how many meals we are eating out, and then seem mystified as to why we can’t see the pounds drop. Cut Calories in Half Restaurants sneak in extra oils, butters, and mystery sauces creating high calorie foods. By cutting 2 tablespoons of butter or oil, you can save 200 to 300 calories. That equals half a pound of weight loss every week! Serve Your Own Portions At restaurants, you don’t have as much control over the portion that is on your plate. When at home, you can easily follow the half plate vegetable rule. However, the restaurants will serve up double or triple what you need to eat for a meal, and likely, not enough vegetables. You can also use smaller plates at home. Plan, Plan, Plan Make sure to plan out your grocery shopping list and the meals that you will have for the week. When we fail to plan, it is easy to resort to take-out food. The extra 10 minutes is worth it—for your health and wallet! You will be trimming your waistline and your budget. The key to succeeding is to be committed. Stick to the rule of eating from home, and your health will improve. Here are a few of my favorite healthy recipe websites for home cooking: Skinny Taste Spark Recipes Eating Well Do you have any tricks for eating at home more?

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Lose 26 Pounds Eating at Home

Why Alternate Day Dieting is Disastrous

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:00:28 +0000

Try eating over 2000 calories one day, and then depriving yourself to 1000 calories the next day. This is another form of yo-yo dieting. Some are saying that alternate day dieting will help to keep you satisfied, but ultimately result in a calorie deficit and weight loss. After all, Dr. Oz uses this technique for himself, so it must be effective, right ? Don’t Mess with Metabolism The big problem here is that you are playing with the metabolism . You would put your body in starvation mode one day, and then at a more normal calorie diet the next day. This could set you up for overeating and defeat the purpose of the diet plan. Plus, studies have shown that long term yo-yo dieting over the years can slow the metabolism . The creators of this diet thought that by never staying consistently low with the calories, one would be able to avoid the “starvation mode” metabolic slow-down. You would be able to eat low calorie one day, and then the next day, rev the metabolism. This is a great idea, but the metabolism is not that sensitive. It takes years of following a specific calorie level to change the metabolism. Instead, Find Your Perfect Calorie Level If your goal is weight loss, finding the perfect calorie level is the key. It is tricky, but if you create a calorie deficit that is not too low, you can trick the brain into thinking you are not dieting. You will not get as hungry, will still stay satisfied, and keep the metabolism revved. This type of calorie level usually results in .5 to 2 pounds of weight loss per week. The One Positive Following the alternate day diet can actually keep you satisfied with your food intake. Knowing that you can have a normal calorie level some days and only have to deprive yourself a few days is a relief for many. However, the positive does not outweigh the negatives. Have you ever tried this high calorie, low calorie diet?

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Why Alternate Day Dieting is Disastrous

Feeling Funky

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:46:22 +0000

I’m in a funk. I’ve stopped myself from many times from going full on Debbie Downer here, and so far so good, but I can’t keep it in any longer. I can’t recall ever feeling like this, I feel like I’m not connecting, not fitting in, not understanding anything that’s coming my way. I feel like I’m trying to walk in very thick sand. I’ve lost the twinkle of hope, that passion for making things happen. That spark to stretch myself and try something new. All I want to do is retreat. And this has been going on for months. I’m hesitant to even put this out there because, really, does the world need more words about sadness? Loss of hope? And then I realized that I know it will come back and this too shall pass, but I feel an itch to share, regardless of how vulnerable it makes me feel. And you want to know the weirdest part about this funk? It has nothing to do with weight loss. I’m losing, and lately due to loss of appetite, rather rapidly (13 pounds in one week.) Normally I would jump for joy to see these numbers on the scale, but lately, I’m indifferent. I have a few ideas as to where these feelings are coming from. For starters, I’ve become scared to try something new. In the past four years I’ve tried a little bit of everything…design, catering, jewelry, clothing design, blogging, e-book writing, and a few more other things that I’ve forgotten along the way. Each time I start out with this hope of what I could become. I fall in love with the potential of a new business, a new idea, a smaller version of myself. I have great desire to “do big things”, but sadly, I’ve come to realize that I was more in love with the result rather than the process. And because I believe everything in life is connected and related, I know that deep down, what I do and how I make a living has a lot to do with how I feel and care about myself. And somewhere along the line I never figured out or changed my perspective enough on any given thing/business/idea/project to fall in love with the process (a line I’m stealing from The Biggest Loser.) And I want to get there. To be in the love with the process of taking care of myself rather than the result of being thin, or doing things because I love the action and not because its a defined direction or path. I find myself worrying so much about things I do and don’t have control over. My mom emailed a quote to me recently, “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.” – Harvey S. Firestone The last line is the one that hit me the most “accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself”. I’ve come to realize that I haven’t defined who I am or who I want to be. I’ve been waiting on other people to tell me who I am, or who they want me to be or who I can be. That path can be very unsteady. I’ve realized, that I’ve been relying on my past experiences to define who I am. These experiences from junior or high school where I never felt good enough…my clothes, hair, makeup, body, personality…always fell too short. In the days when opinion flowed out of mouths so freely, where everything on the outside was the measure of a worthwhile person, those days still linger too many years later. I want to give myself permission to define who I am, who I want to be, and unapologetically become that person. I want to move forward even when fear starts screaming in my head. Fear that my efforts are lost, that they won’t get me anywhere, or that it’s pointless to try. Recently, I’ve had strong desires to start painting and illustrating again, a skill that I picked up in college and loved. I let it go because I didn’t let myself get good enough. I feared the work that was involved in getting good, I worried that I would spend all this time and never arrive. That I could never feed myself off of it. That it wouldn’t matter. That I’d never be good enough. And the realization that I stopped doing something because I was both in love with and afraid of the result, rather than the process, knocks the wind out of me. And I understand deeply, where this trend pops up over and over again in my life. Silly little things and the big stuff too. I’ve put so much weight in these imaginary outcomes, that I’ve stopped myself from ever starting or even being in the process. What if I lose weight and I’m still ugly, or have a loose skin? What if people resent me? What if I get unwanted male attention? Why both lose weight? What if I start painting, but never sell a print? What if I never wrap my own canvas? What if I’m never taken seriously? Why bother painting? What if I never make a good living doing what I love? What if my businesses stop growing? What if I can’t keep up with the growth? What will I have to give up in order to make more income? What if I start marketing my design…what if I fall short? or make a mistake? or ruin my reputation? What if I’m never credible? What if I fall short or miss a deadline? Why bother design? And I do this with everything, cleaning, exercising, work, meeting new friends, staying in touch…on and on and on. I can play the “what if” game for so long that I wake up at 29 and realize that I stopped it all before it got good. Update: This post is good timing for the Things I’m Afraid to Tell You series of blog entries that are making their way around the blogosphere.

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Feeling Funky

Hand Me a Tissue

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:20:24 +0000

I don’t want to start this blog out by saying “I’ve been sick”, because that’s just not fun. It’s April and like clockwork, I’ve got a stuffy nose, itchy ears, piles of tissues everywhere and a cough to come. I haven’t tasted or smelled food in days. Many, many days. It takes the fun out of eating. Lately I just eat because I’m hungry and I have to. That’s a concept! Last week I started emailing my daily food and calories to my dear friend of a million years and it felt so refreshing to say to someone “guess what? I had two smoothies and a subway sandwich today” without a return comment about balance, or how I should be eating more of this or less of that. Sometimes that’s all I want, peace with imperfection and less justification. I know that for me, as soon as I start creating rules and rituals about what I should and should not eat, I get into obsessive eating trouble. Not that I don’t aim to have better eating habits, it’s just that so often I find that I create them more out of the approval of other people rather than my own belief system which is balance and moderation. And that’s that. Moving on. Edit: And of course, after writing this I go and read this wonderful post by Andie from Can You Stay For Dinner? Her post is so good, and so well written that I want to go to Seattle and give her a parade. Read: The Weight Loss Dilemma. My favorite line: “Please know that there is nothing wrong with eating as cleanly as one can. (If you do and if you strive to- I applaud you.) There is similarly nothing wrong with having Skinny Cow ice cream bars in your freezer beside organic frozen vegetables. (Tell me you have Cool Whip?) There’s nothing wrong with any of it and my bottom line remains: Judging others’ eating styles and deeming food choices as inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’ only leaves us feeling and looking ignorant and unenlightened. The point of this post, as always, is to let you know that there’s middle ground. And also that I don’t want this blog to exclude anyone who’s hungry. My table serves Kit Kats and kale chips in varying amounts.” Thank you Andie!

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Hand Me a Tissue

Me Vs. The Lawn

admin — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:42:49 +0000

You know, I kind of love the idea of exercise that gets something done in the process. And that’s why this year (after two years of living in this house) I’ve taken on our yard work as my new chore. Usually we just pay someone to keep up with the fast-growing grass, but it’s kind of expensive. I have to tell you though that me and Josh are not “handy man” material. Computer people, yes, but not the do-it-yourself type. I’m convinced that keeping up with the yard myself will help me with my weight loss goals. I don’t know many overweight landscapers or gardeners, do you? Pushing this mower was hard work. There is one big hill on our lot and its crazy steep. I chose the push mower for a few reasons, 1. its old school and I’m always nostalgic for times I never belonged to 2. it’s harder than a gas or riding mower 3. it’s cheaper 4. it’s easier. I honestly can’t imagine me and josh purchasing and storing gas. The thought of going to the gas station and putting gas in a container and then figuring out how to put it in the mower without the fear of blowing myself or the house up and then finding a place for it, is just not going to happen. 5. it’s better for the environment. I did have the yard man do one round of mowing for me so that I could start fresh with short, easier to cut grass. I read a story recently about a woman who stays in shape by push mowing her lawn for an hour every day. I can believe it. I looked up the calories burned and it’s anywhere from 450 per hour (for an “average” size person) and closer to 800 for me. Not only will I be taking care of the grass, but I will be doing things like trimming these wild hedges. I’m not 100% sold on having bushes in front of the house, but I can’t think of anything better right now, and think they are fine for now. My other project is building a new walkway in front of the house which I started digging out last night. Digging is hard work! And I used the old heavy step stones like weights, doing sets above my head several times. This work makes me feel satisfied and happy in the strangest of ways. I love planning out my ideas for the yard and then getting my hands dirty and making them happen. This is such a foreign world to me. Growing up, my Dad took care of the yard and then after that I just lived in apartments where I had little more than a few potted plants. Today, I’m planning a special trip to the local green house to get more plants! Pinterest is helping me gather my inspiration. Want to see? My biggest inspiration is the yards I saw on the Venice Beach Canals in California. If you’ve ever been, you know what I’m talking about. It’s incredible what these people can do with a small space. Click Photo For Source Click Photo For Source Click Photo For Source Click Photo For Source Of course, I don’t have the California weather to support most of these plants, but I’m inspired by the arrangements more than anything. Ah, I will live there, if only for a month, once in my life! That would be a good time. If you’d like to see more of my outdoor inspiration in pinterest, you can view them here and here .

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Me Vs. The Lawn

29 Resolutions

admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:43:40 +0000

Good Morning! I took the past couple of days off of blogging to sort of regroup before my 29th birthday. This year (to sound like my old hokey boss in nyc) is going to be transformative. I’ve created a list of goals and resolutions that I want to follow and remind myself of often over the next year. 1. Leave Obesity Behind . I’m determined that 29 is my last year of being an obese person. I’m fine with being chubby at 30, but not obese. These past few weeks have been really good for weight loss and I know what it looks like, I always have. I know what it takes. I don’t just want to be thin, I want to be strong and able-bodied. I want to be able to climb a rock wall, go kayaking, run, swim, and play sports. I want to find a new identity as a smaller person who leads a bigger life. I want to stop killing myself with food. I’ve created a little more details and action lists as to how this goal will come to be, but for now this is my main goal this year. If I accomplish nothing else this year but this one goal, I will be satisfied. The main thing that I do is keep a food journal, this is number one and most helpful. The second thing is establishing and maintaining a regular exercise routine. The third thing will be creating time for daily meditation and inspiration for my goal. I’m working on an inspiration scrapbook that I will work out of over the next year. I’m a visual person and I want this scrapbook to be a place where my goals are laid out. A book that I can turn to every day as a reminder of where I’m headed. I will also spend the year sharing here, but also keeping a private daily journal. I keep thinking how nice summers will be when I’m not sweltering in layers. How wonderful it would be to wear a tank top and Bermuda shorts and not feel self-conscious. How amazing it would be to wear a sleeveless dress and not have to wear a cardigan. 2. Lowered Expectations. My biggest struggle for as long as I can remember is having high expectations (if not unrealistic at times) of other people. I tend to wear my heart of my sleeve and find myself tore up over everything people do or don’t do (or say and don’t say). I can hear my mom saying “you need to develop thicker skin”, and I never knew what that looked like. This year I want to let that go. Instead of worrying about and wondering if and why other people don’t like me, I’m going to take that energy and put it back into liking myself. I expect people to be better than I am, and give more than I can, and it’s just not fair. I expect kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness from those who are friends, but I don’t always get it. I expect those around me to care about what I’m doing, to be interested, to say something, anything to let me know that they care. And there are people who do and there are people who don’t and I have to stop waiting for people to get me, to validate me, especially when I haven’t let them in. So when I find myself going down the familiar path of wanting more from someone else I will simply whisper to myself “lower your expectations, it’s not about you” and move on. I realize that my high expectations keep me a victim of other people, they keep me negative and things begin to fester. The act of nothing from someone else, turns into something and I want to be better than that. 3. Embrace Humor. I love having a sense of humor and I like when mine comes out. I love laughing with other people and being silly. I have a pretty good (if not crass at times) sense of humor, and I want to embrace it and bring it out more. I want to be fearless in that regard and trust that I can laugh at life and be less serious. It’s in me and I want to bring it out more. 4. Work Harder, Be Focused. Here’s the thing. I keep myself busy, but for the most part it’s just me being busy. I’m actively trying to figure out who I want to be when I grow up. I want to figure out my life’s work. I waste a lot, a lot of time being overwhelmed and worrying. It’s not productive, it’s not moving forward, it’s not growing, it’s not anything at all, but wasted time. I get excited about ideas, I have more ideas to fill up a warehouse. And I don’t know what they mean. I wait until the last-minute to do things, and often I find that they are half-assed. I want to stop doing that to myself. I want to work harder in confident, focused ways. I’m not 100% what they even means, but I want to get closer to whatever that is. I want to improve my writing, design, illustration and photography skills. I want to do more work that I’m proud of. 5. Have Blind Faith. I don’t put a lot of faith in the notion that things will just work out. I don’t trust the process. I don’t trust that things will just happen on their own, or naturally, or in “god’s will”. I have deep-rooted fear it not growing so much so that I become stagnant from the fear, how’s that for irony? I believe we have to make things happen, and actively seek out what makes our hearts sing, but… I want more blind faith this year. As I write this I can feel my chest tighten and my breath shorten. I see flashes of all of those episodes of Oprah that I watched growing up where women got lost and they are crying on her stage at the age of forty or fifty because they stopped seeking out what they wanted long ago. They let kids, marriage, and careers take hold and forgot to seek their dreams and maybe those are/were their dreams, but an essence was lost in the day-to-day. This year, I want to stop fearing my journey. I feel as though this worrying is mostly misguided and I want to trust my unplanned process this year. I want to believe more that just by doing, I will get where ever I need to go. I want to change my perspective. 6. Less TV. I’m setting a two hours a week rule for TV, unless I earn time as a reward for extra exercise or meeting a deadline. 7. Eat Less Factory Food. I’m not looking for perfection, just being more mindful and better about this. 8. Let Go of Perfection. Perfection is the root of my procrastination and I need for that to go away this year. Before starting a project I get so wrapped up in wanting it to be perfect, that I never start. I need to just start, work hard, be focused and have blind faith that it will work out. 9. Let Go of Validation. I need to stop waiting on other people in my life to cheer me on, to get what I do, to support my goals. In all honesty, I don’t do this very well for others and I should stop expecting (those pesky expectations again!) for it in return. I want to stop waiting on others to define who I am. 10. Spent More Time Outside . Lets be honest here, nature is scary. There are bugs, spiders, snakes, bears, and poisonous plants all ready to jump out and get us! Living in Floyd leaves little room for admitting to such fears, but mine is alive and well. I want to spend more time in my garden, but what is a spider crawls on me? I want to sit on the porch at night, but what if somethings flies out and attacks me? I want to go camping, but what if a bear tries to eat our food and eats us instead? I want to go hiking, but what if I fall off of a rock? I could keep this up for days. I’m taking baby steps in our own yard and deck. I bought a little bistro table for daily outside dining, I’m going to decorate the porch with potted plants (that I will have to go outside and water!) and twinkle lights. I want to walk around our (small, yet adequate) property. Walk up the steep hill, mow the lawn, get my hands dirty, pull the weeds, trim the hedges, have a picnic… you name it, I want more of that. 11. Take More Risks. I’ve toyed with a couple of moderately life changing ideas, like going back to school or getting a job outside of the house. And while I’m not convinced either of these are good ideas right now, one would bring more debt and the other would require significant car time. I want to be a little more open to these ideas. There is a part of me that believes I’m not qualified for either, and I want to get over that and get better either way. 12. If I Get Stuck, Seek Pen and Paper (or a blank word document) . Write it out, let it go. 13. Create a Beautiful (uncluttered) Living Environment. 14. Go on More Adventures. 15. Get Dressed Every Day. 16. Move More. 17. Limit Social Networking to 30 Minutes a Day. 18. Make My Health and Wellness a Top Priority. 19. Smile More Often. 20. Let People In. 21. Get Over Embarrassing Things From My Past. 22. Act With Love. 23. Challenge My Fears. 24. Be More Spontaneous and Flexible. 25. Cook At Least Five Times a Week. 26. Make Everything From One Cookbook. 27. Visit a New State. 28. Develop My Blogs. 29. Have A Lot More Fun!

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29 Resolutions

5 Ways to Add Pizzazz to Your Diet

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Following a diet routine can be a smart way to focus on weight loss. However, it is easy for the routine to become boring . Here are a few ways to liven up your food choices so that you can stay satisfied, yet on track with your health goals. Continue reading…

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5 Ways to Add Pizzazz to Your Diet

Mini Meals

admin — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:56:32 +0000

I ended up eating a lot of mini-meals yesterday instead of my usual three meals. The day started with fresh orange juice mixed with pomegranate juice and theraflu because I feel a cold (second cold since December!) coming on. I’m determined to beat it. I made a big batch of Ashley’s Garlic and Greens soup and went and deleted the photo on accident. This soup was so nice in the morning, I ended up eating it for breakfast and again a couple of hours later. I had a friend over who thought the soup was amazing too. I also liked that it was so filling, yet so low in calories. We got about five large bowls out of the recipe. Thanks Ashley, I’m making another batch today! Here’s her recipe with my small changes: Garlic and Greens Soup -1 head of garlic, minced (I used about eight cloves) -1 yellow onion, finely diced -1 tbs evoo -1 bunch kale, bok choy, or chard, chopped into bite sized pieces (I used a bag of frozen spinach) -3 yellow potatoes, diced, not peeled (I used three carrots) -8 cups vegetable stock (I used chicken stock) -1 tbs seasoned rice vinegar -s&p to taste * I added 1/2 C whole wheat couscous to the soup towards the end. in a large soup pot, saute the garlic and onions in oil until transluscent. add greens, potatoes, and veg stock and bring to a boil. simmer everything about 25 minutes until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork. Just before turning off the heat, add the rice vinegar, and s&p to taste. A couple hours after the soup I had a serving of Noosa yoghurt with blueberries and honey. And a couple hours after that I had a croissant with strawberry jam, fresh strawberries, chicken+apple sausage, and a peanut-date ball. A couple hours after that I had a 1 cup serving of raisin bran with whole milk. And another chicken sausage later in the evening. Lots of food! I also did a session of the Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga . It did wonders for my knee and my mood.

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Mini Meals

Sweet Potatoes: Top Carb for Weight Loss

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Some might think the words weight loss and potatoes don’t go hand in hand. But, it is important to remember that we need a moderate amount of healthy carbohydrates to keep weight loss going. A sweet potato at dinnertime can help to balance the meal, add nutrition, and keep you feeling full and satisfied. Continue reading…

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Sweet Potatoes: Top Carb for Weight Loss

5 Calorie Slashes to Lose 1 Pound a Week

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:00:18 +0000

Theoretically, weight loss happens when you take in less calories than you burn off . Of course, nothing in life is quite this simple, but keeping this notion in mind throughout the week is important. You might be surprised at how quickly you shed those last few unwanted pounds using these 5 diet tips. Continue reading…

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5 Calorie Slashes to Lose 1 Pound a Week