I’m a bad blogger. Yep, it’s not a big priority in my life, but I still enjoy it to a degree. A year ago, I dumped most of my blog because it was mostly just me talking to myself. It still is, kind of. But I really want to be a good blogger. I see a lot of good blogs, but mine will probably never compare in quality. Frankly, real life (and Facebook) is far more interesting than anything I could blog about. Sorry I didn’t finish my advent series if you were interested in that.
I really wanted to talk about my resolutions for this year, but there’s one big one that I’ve been working on since last week. I have the goal this year to lose weight. At the moment, I’m working toward 1 pound per week, but it’s hard work. I haven’t been exercising nearly enough, and staying within my daily food intact limit is very challenging. We have a Wii, which has some good physical games. Actually, we only have one good game I can play, Wii Sports, but it has a lot of challenging games. I plan on starting to do a little bit of each game every night, but I have some projects to finish before I can really get into it. We’ve had the Wii for almost a year, and we haven’t used it very much, I really plan on changing that this year, since we paid a lot for it, and I don’t want to see that money wasted.
The new year always sends me into an excited frenzy of ‘change’ but I really feel like this year I need to focus on the weight loss, and let little habits change each day.
My recent experience with food labels in the Starbucks Protein Plate is not an isolated incident. Misinterpreting food labels is Weight Loss Myth #4 on a list compiled by James A. Peterson, Ph. D., FACSM in a 2008 Health & Fitness Journal.
Peterson’s complete TOP 10 list of common weight loss mistakes:
Severe calorie restriction
Having a narrow perspective of the problem
Failing to maintain muscle mass
Misinterpreting what some food labels are saying*
Trying to lose too much, too soon
Believing the myth of spot reduction
Mistaking water loss for fat loss
Buying into the “magic beans” theory
Following unproven dieting advice
Considering surgical solutions
* Peterson states that “[i]t is extremely important for individuals who want to control their weight to be aware of the fact that…’no fat’ or ‘no sugar’ does not mean ‘no calories’.”
I would add that food labels other than the standard numbers chart (see above) are misleading by design. How else could Starbucks take a product that is 41% fat, 41% carbs & 18% protein and call it at ‘Protein Plate’?
Tonight world, I have tried something new… I have eaten Bison. Whenever we’re browsing the meat section at the supermarket my husband suggests we should make Bison burgers and I ususally defer… no, no, no, we shouldn’t have Bison, why should we? But tonight the pickings were a bit slimmer then normal… I was frustrated by the lack of skinless boneless chicken breast… so finally said sure, lets try the Bison. I guess it was well if I can’t get what I want, might as well finally make husband happy.
When we got home I began counting my points before cooking because even though I had planned out my full day I had forgotten to take my simple but balanced lunch to work. So I had to improvise… I realized going out wouldn’t do, I wasn’t ready for the temptation of resturant portions, even lunch portions… so I chanced the work cafeteria…Well, how about a sandwich.. wait they put like a pound of meat on it, no matter what you ask. Then I thought, oh, how about egg salad, egg is good. Well, I didn’t really think that all the way through… egg is good but egg mashed with mayo and other items on thick slices of bread, is not quite as good.
So when I got home I realized not only had I spent more points on lunch then I calculated I had barely eaten anything I should that day. I was eating my first vegetable while I did my calculations. Knowing I didn’t have the energy to combine what left I needed to eat into a nice meal, when my husband offered to make me a bison burger, I accepted… after realizing a bison patty was essentially equivalent to a lean hamburger, and if I skipped the bun, I wouldn’t be in too bad shape. So while he started cook I started planning the rest of my food…
The burger was done first, so as I sat that this computer I poked a fork into my patty, carefully separating a bite sized piece, I admit in retrospect, I was not savoring this correctly… but then the taste hit my mouth… and it was good! This was delicious! I could taste the spice my husband used on it, but I still was able to distinguish the difference between this bison and beef… the Chicago Steak Seasoning actually seemed to compliment the Bison better then beef ever had. Part of me thought, as I continued to work my way through this patty (much slower then when I started), that we should do this more often… who needs beef burgers….
… and then, it hits me, why I think I didn’t want to try Bison. Images from stories in gradeschool, explaining the overhunting of the buffalo… flashed before my eyes… what made it funnier was some of the flashing was scenes from the Oregan Trail video game of my youth, hunting mode (one of the most fun parts of the game aside from naming characters after people you don’t like and watching them die of dysentary). But, this thought is silly, right? The bison I was eating was specifically raised to be eaten… so its ok… wait, or is it? Thats not very humane growing living food to eat… well, at least it wasn’t young Bison, like veal. Or was it? What do I know about Bison? On the other hand growing things to eat, we grow plants to eat to, its living too… but I guess a plants life is much more passive…
Wow, was I a vegetarian for 10 seconds? or was I a meatatarian for 5? All I definitely knew was that was much more thought provacative meat then I had imagined…
… and unfortunatly after my Bison meat relevations I had to finsih up planning the rest of my food. Eating can be exhausting when you’re trying to be so precise about it. But as of now all vegatbles, fruts and dairy have been consumed…more observations on food balance later..
There we go. This is more like it. It would have been about half if I hadn’t binged on Christmas. But back on track. More like ahead of the curve. Depending on what start date you look at. If you figure from 1/7/09 then I’m 12 lb or so off the pace. But if you figure from 12/06/09 then I’m about 10 lb ahead of the curve. I think that I’ll use the 12/6/09 numbers. Since using the other give me a negative to consider every day and I don’t want that. So the newer numbers it is. I also did the monthly measuring this past week. Those numbers are going to be from the beginning since they change much more slowly than the others. So far I’ve lost 13 inches since 4/5/09. Half from my waist. I’m still in the 270’s this week and have been all week. No points change this week then. No worries. I haven’t been doing the Wii Fit Plus as much this week. I need to get on track to get back to work tomorrow. Vacation is over. I have to step up the pace. Doing the Wii in the morning is not practical. So I will do it later in the evening. Likely after the kids are in bed so I don’t have to listen to their comments and have them bouncing all over the place. My spreadsheet is approaching a meg in size. I am a detail and analysis person so I am tracking everything I can think of. From both starting dates too.
Here are the column headings I have on the main sheet at the moment: Date, Weight, BMI, Fat%, Fat lb., Curve, New Curve, Calories, Weight Class, Total, Ave, Week, Cal/Lb, Off Curve, Off new Curve
The reason the sheet is so large is that is goes all to my goal date of 11/11/11.
This morning I found some yoga videos on YouTube and tried them out. I know part of my high blood pressure issue is the stress and anxiety I feel constantly. There’s nothing really triggering it, except possibly my fears about not having a job and money, but I need to find a way to calm myself down. I did some breathing exercises and a few blood pressure lowering poses (or so they say) while listening to classical music and I did end up feeling much more relaxed.
Food-wise, well, I ate just fine but I barely reached 1000 calories for the day…so maybe I thought that gave me a reason to binge on some cookies? I don’t know. I was baking some cookies for the BF’s co-workers but then he found out he doesn’t have to go back into work until Wednesday! Now I have several dozen M&M cookies sitting around and I just had to eat a few. Luckily they were small and I only ate 3, but I just worry about the next few days and how I’ll do with them. It’s so ridiculous when you can’t control yourself and you have to keep coming back for more. At least it didn’t put me too far over my limit that Spark People sets. I’m going to try and spend as much time away from my house tomorrow as possible and also see if some neighbors want these amazingly delicious cookies, haha.
The BF and I did not go to the gym today as planned! He got home from work later than expected and we had to go to the store and get a bunch of stuff and by the time we got back it was time for dinner and now it’s suddenly 9:30! So tomorrow, I’m going with or without him.
Hope you all are having a fabulous first week of the year!
A balanced diet and regular physical activity are the building blocks of good health. Poor eating habits and too little physical activity can lead to a jelly-belly and related health problems. By eating right and being active, you can stay at or reach a healthy weight.
The basis of a healthy diet is eating a wide variety of foods. Every day, you should try to eat:
*6 to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, or pasta. One serving equals one slice of bread, about 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, or 1/2 cup cooked cereal, rice, or pasta.
*3 to 5 servings of vegetables. One serving equals 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables, or 1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw.
*2 to 4 servings of fruit. One serving equals one medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped, cooked, or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice.
*2 to 3 servings of milk, yogurt, or cheese. One serving equals 1 cup of milk or yogurt, 1 1/2 ounces of natural cheese (such as Cheddar), or 2 ounces of processed cheese. Choose low-fat or fat-free products most often.
*2 to 3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, or nuts. One serving equals 2 to 3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry without skin, or fish. You should eat no more than 5 to 7 ounces per day. One half cup of cooked dry beans, one egg, or 1/2 cup of tofu counts as 1 ounce of meat. Two tablespoons of peanut butter or 1/3 cup of nuts counts as 1 ounce of lean meat.
The larger number of servings is for active men. Eat a smaller number of servings if you are a woman, inactive, or trying to lose weight.
OK, now that all of the revelry is over, I have to buckle down and get with it on the resolution front. My resolution this year, like many other millions of Americans is to lose weight. We all have parts of our bodies that we are not thrilled with, but for me I put on 25 pounds in the last year due to various medical reasons. I am hoping that this does not mean that taking it off is going to be impossible, but I am going to give it the old college try.
A) The French cookbooks need to put away for a month or so, unless I can find some recipes that are diet friendly
B) Start cooking more out of Dean Ornish’s cookbooks and the South Beach cookbooks, both of which I have a copy of
C) Start getting more aerobic exercise. My anemic attempts at using the Wii and taking a walk are not cutting it
D) Track my progress and track everything that I put into my mouth. This is a page out of the Weight Watchers program.
E) Take it one day at a time, and it I fall off one day, get back on the horse the next.
That in a nutshull is my plan to lose weight. I know it is not some kind of supercharged program, but I don’t know if I would do well on one of those. It seems very complicated and intimidating to me with lots of restritions.
I also don’t know how well I would do by eliminating carbs, like a lot of the popular diet programs do. Don’t get me wrong, I am going to try to work in more complex carbs when I eat them, but I think some carbs are necessary for sustaining my energy and my mood. I find that when my blood sugar gets too low, my mood goes into the toilet, which is something I want to avoid. Talk about negative reinforcement!
