3 in a Row!

I will lose 5 pounds by June 28th. I am not getting on a scale until then. I want to see absolute proof that what I'm doing is working.

 Ok, so I weighed this past Friday (the 14th), realized I've actually GAINED five pounds, and made a plan to lose 5 in two weeks. 

The plan? NO eating anything after dinner. This means no eating out of boredom when I get home from work. Exercise. A lot. No alcohol. Drink only water, tea, coffee. No fried food. No fast food. 

It's been a week (well almost), so how am I doing? Pretty good. I drank light beer Sunday night. The Spurs game was on! Give me a break!! Lol. I've been exercising, but I can do more. It's been a week since I drank a soda. I literally don't remember the last time I had fried food or fast food. Repeat: I DON'T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I HAD FAST FOOD OR ANYTHING FRIED. It could be two weeks or three weeks- I haven't the slightest. Which means I haven't been paying that much attention to those things. Which means... they are losing importance to me. But the most important thing is that I haven't eaten anything after dinner for THREE DAYS! 

As a guy I work with said last night: "No eating after dinner? That's a no-brainer! Dinner is your last meal of the day. Done." I realize how hard it is for some people to understand the significance of this. But for me, this is a huge step. I have been emotionally eating for as long as I can remember. 

As I was lying in bed one night this week I realized that I was legitimately hungry. Not emotionally hungry, but good old fashioned, tummy growling, hungry. It was easy for me to tell myself no. It's amazing to me that it is harder for me to say no to emotional hunger than it is actual hunger! Doesn't make much sense does it? During the work day I can tell myself to wait to eat my afternoon snack, even when I am really hungry (tummy growling). But when I get bored at work and I want a snack from the vending machine it's like a world war happening into head to say no. Crazy, huh?

I figure that if I can get through this first week, next week will be a "no brainer!"

Portions and Pancakes

Sometimes I crave Chinese food like a mofo. The other night at dinner was one of those times. Instead of spending money and clogging my arteries with 8 servings of New China Dragon Moon Wall, I settled for a frozen Chinese entree (a frozen entree I bought last weekend in anticipation of this craving). To make this dining experience seem more authentic I grabbed some chopsticks. When I poured the meal into my bowl my heart sank. The portion looked TINY in my bowl. There was so much extra room for more food if I had more on hand! 

Instead of caving into the craving for more, I sat down and ate. I ate the whole thing. Know what I didn't feel afterwards? Guilty. It is so nice to eat without guilt, something I rarely feel. Which is crazy. The truth is that the bigger the container is, the bigger the portion, hence the more available. To control portions, you have to control your environment. Note: Serving Sizes are not the same as Portions.

 "In the contest between environment and willpower, the environment always wins." -Bob Tshannen-Moran

If my HOME environment isn't helping me control how much I eat, how can I learn to control it outside of my home? As a test I made a serving size of Quinoa. Barely reached the halfway mark in my bowl! Infuriating.

I need to change my home environment! 

"It's easier to change your environment than it is to change your mind." -Brian Wansink

This whole ordeal took me back to my week at Hilton Head Health and a lecture I attended on Portion Control. The speaker had so many key points that I need to constantly need to keep in mind. 

-Find strategies to knock out a couple hundred calories a day. 

-Use smaller plates as a mindless eating trick for smaller portions.

-Dish out 20% less food than normal. You won't notice the difference. 

-Erase the "clean your plate" tape in your brain. You can waste food or "waist" it. 

-"Without portion control there is no weight control."

To kick things off, I practiced a little portion and environment control this morning with pancakes! Can you think of a happier food to experiment with? Nope.

I found a basic recipe for pancakes on allrecipes.com and modified it a little bit as part of my "strategy to knock out a couple hundred calories a day." Instead of  1 1/4 cups of milk I substituted non-fat Greek yogurt and water, used wheat flour, and left the egg out. By doing that, their recipe went from 421 calories per serving to 346. They weren't as fluffy as I would have liked them but they got the job done and were delish. I could've substituted an artificial sweetener for sugar but I didn't have any. I rarely use sugar for anything at my house, so I never think to buy Splenda!

346 Calorie Pancakes

Serves: 3

The What:

•1 1/2 cups wheat flour

•3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

•1 teaspoon salt

•1 tablespoon white sugar

•1 cup lukewarm water

•1/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt

•3 tablespoons melted butter

The How:

 •Whisk everything together. No need to get fancy. 

•Heat skillet on medium heat with cooking spray (I use Olive Oil spray obviously)

•Measure out EACH pancake into 1/4 cup before you pour into the skillet

•Pour into skillet and flip when edges become golden and batter starts bubbling up

This mix made 9 pancakes, which I divided into 3 servings. Yes they're kind of small, but this is a serving size. 

I dressed my pancakes with 6 medium strawberries and 1/4 cup of light syrup, which added 120 calories. I could've cut the syrup portion down but I just looked at the serving size and poured it on. Proof that serving size does not always equal portion size! I could've eaten a smaller portion than the serving size and been fine. I had a ton of syrup left over.

As I was getting ready to serve myself I started thinking about my dishes...

Would I have another frozen Chinese moment? Would I feel deprived if there is plenty of extra space on my plate for more?

Maybe I should use my small plate- trick myself into feeling more full? Research shows that people eat 20-30% more from large plates. I put my pancakes on the large plate and the small plate. The small plate just looked better because it filled the whole thing up. As simple as it seems- your plate size can make all the difference in how much you eat. 

Big Plate. Pancakes look tiny. 

 Small plate. That looks better.

Don't Give Up

We're all guilty of giving up on goals we set. We get bored, tired, forgetful, lazy, sad, mad... We part with all the motivation we once had. Those deadlines pass us by, leaving us wondering why we try. If we all do it, in unity, on opposite sides of the world, then we can all change. Together. A history teacher I had in college started her first day of class with the saying "there's nothing new under the sun." This is especially true of human nature. While we are adaptable, we have to really work hard on making changes that stick. Nothing we go through is new. There is someone else who has experienced the same struggles. In a way, I find this comforting. If there are millions of people out there struggling with food addiction, depression, forgetfulness, laziness, sadness, or anger in the same way I am, then there must be millions who have overcome it.

It amazes me at how many repeats I play over and over in my life. It seems like the same thing every time. I get upset about being fat. I swear I will change and I make a plan. I'm going, and I'm going hard. I lose a little. Then I fall off. I get back on, new plan, get upset, fall off... over and over again. I fall off the same way every time and each time I "solve" my problems in the same way. I eat the same comfort foods, I develop bad sleeping habits, I drink. OVER and OVER again. I never meet my goals. Where does the motivation go?

I am determined to keep going this time. I came across this saying on Pinterest today and it really hit home: "Don't give up on what you want most for what you want right now." This has me written alllll over it. I am the most compulsive person in America. I promise you. I NEVER think about the future and the side effects my actions right now will have on me. So, I broke it down into what I want most all the time and what I always end up wanting "right now."

•Don't Give up on What You What Most:

•Health

•Being Thin

•Happiness

•Long Life

•Confidence

•Cute Clothes (yes, this is one of them :)

•Being Comfortable

•For What You Want Right Now:

•Pizza

•Chinese Food

•Nachos

•Chips

•Ice Cream

•Alcohol

•Peanut Butter (don't judge)

•Fast Food 

If my "right now" always ends up being the same things over and over again, then it should be easy for me to start saying no. If I'm reaching for the phone to order a pizza I need to quickly realize that it is not conducive to meeting my long-term goals. Note the difference here: if I plan on ordering a pizza for dinner early on and it is not out  of compulsivity, then I can deal with that. It's those "gotta have it right now" moments that keep jamming my future up. The good thing is that "right now" quickly passes by and you can hit repeat to get back on the bandwagon. The bad? The future you have planned gets further and further away.

The most important thing is that we DON'T GIVE UP. No matter how long it takes us, we have to finish. Even if we are on repeat we must keep going. Even though it may not be clear right now, we learn something every time we try. 

 

I've Gained 5 Horrible Pounds

The good, the bad, the ugly. That's what this journey is all about. Learning to keep the good going, controlling the bad, and stopping the ugly. Lately I'd say I've been bad. Not totally ugly, because I have had spurts of good. I haven't been exercising as much as I need to be and my food intake has been less than perfect. I met with my trainer on Friday for an assessment. I've gained 5 pounds since my last one, lost an inch in my waist, gained an inch and a half in my hips, upped my BMI, and slightly lowered my body fat percentage (.02%, so for those of you about to say I probably gained muscle. Not really). 

As you can imagine, this was a shitty way to start my weekend. I realized I had one of two choices: get depressed and beat myself up... or get good again. I decided to return to good. The first step? Discover why I've been bad. That was easy: work has been a little frustrating lately. I am an extremely career driven gal and work means everything to me. That could be a part of the problem. So how have I been "dealing" with this problem? Late night snacking. So, now I have 3 problems: 1) Letting work frustrate me 2) Forming a bad habit of late night snacking and 3) 5 pounds that I busted my ass to get off have landed their ugly faces on my hips (literally). 

When MC (my coach) measured me she asked if I could feel the gain. I honestly told her no. I thought I would have lost some! Crazy. I am so glad I was able to see this for what it is. On Thursday night (night before my assessment) I went to the store to get dishwasher detergent after work. I came out with this:

See that bag of chips? I ate it all. See that dip? Licked it clean. The soda pop? Drank half of it. I did actually need coffee creamer. Once I stepped into the grocer, washing dishes immediately became the least of my priorities. All I could think about was what kind of shit can I get to snack on? Next thing I knew I had almost forgotten dish washing liquid, was at the Redbox, and then on my couch mindlessly snacking and watching Safe Haven. Snacking until my hand came out of the bag empty handed. Snacking + Nicholas Sparks? What am I? A masochist?

At my assessment all I could think about was if I HADN'T binged on chips, dip, and soda, how different would the results would have been? My chip chomping session began about 11pm Thursday night and my assessment was at 7am Friday morning. I hate to be inappropriate here, but I hadn't had my, er, "post-coffee routine" yet if you know what I mean... Maybe the gain was faux??

After realizing that I may never know the answer to that, I admitted to my coach (actually both coaches, I think it was a planned intervention lol) that I have been doing the dirty late at night: eating instead of solving what's bothering me. They both suggested some alternative snacks at night. One of them said hard boiled eggs and the other chimed in in agreement. At first I thought they were kidding. Who the hell ACTUALLY snacks on an EGG? Well, these two fitness queens were dead serious. 

Ok, I'll try it:

Uhmmmm... Not convinced. 

S & P, 0 cal hot sauce should be good...

I was pleasantly surprised. Cooking the eggs gave me time to think about what I was doing. After I got over the initial hump of needing to snack, I was able to eat because I was a little hungry. Because I had it portioned, I was forced to stop before I ate enough to turn myself into an angry hen. 

Next step? Make a plan. 5 pounds down by June 28th. I got do that. Do the good that got them off in the first place. Control the bad, and block out the ugly. 

Getting Fit With "Fitspiration" and SMART Goals

Remember a while back when I asked for a few guest bloggers? My wish was granted! Michelle Pino with Skana Spa in Upstate New York emailed me with this awesome idea. Below you will find her entry on a creative way to set some goals. Her "fitspiration" board can be a source of motivation for wherever you might need a reminder. I'm going to make one and set it as my background on my computer. The one I made for myself is at the very bottom. So get to reading, and thank Michelle for taking time to share some ideas!!

Getting Fit With "Fitspiration" and SMART Goals

As many health experts know, there are a lot of people who want to get physically fit yet fail to do so. While the reasons why they are not successful in their ventures can be diverse and complicated, one of the primary factors that entails failure is a poorly devised goal. In order to be successful in accomplishing a fitness goal, it should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. When all of these elements are present, the individual who has devised the goal is much more likely to accomplish it.

In addition to making use of SMART goals to accomplish one's fitness goals, making use of fitspiration principles can be advantageous. In short, fitspiration is a principle, which involves creating an inspiration board as a tool to motivate you as you attempt to exercise and make healthier choices. As many know, it's easy to say that one is going to start eating well and working out consistently. Making these goals a part of your permanent lifestyle, however, can be more challenging. This is the case for several reasons, including the fact that habituation often leads to the maintenance of unhealthy behaviors. Creating an inspiration board can help break the ugly cycle created by these bad habits, however.

While the idea of an inspiration board might seem complex, it's not. The inspiration board is a board you can decorate with images or photos of places, people, or things that make you want to jump up and work out. You can select your images from a wide range of places, including printouts from internet pages and fitness magazines. When you choose your photos, make sure you select ones that really motivate you rather than simply selecting a picture of a spinning machine because it pertains to fitness. If, for example, a famous athlete with great deltoids inspires you to get excellent arms, select that image. And if eating healthy is the aspect of getting fit that you find fun or intellectually stimulating, select an image of a beautiful, colorful salad chock full of fresh fruits and nuts.

After you select the images you want, choose your favorite and place it at the inspiration board's center. This will be your "anchor" image, or the one that functions as the theme for the entire board. Once you've selected your anchor image, you can place all of the other images you've selected around it. You'll probably find that some of the images are not thematically related to the anchor image. You can discard these or save them for use later. After you've arranged all of the remaining images in an aesthetically appealing way around the anchor image, you can hang your inspiration board in a highly visible place. In so doing, you'll have a constant motivating factor, which will encourage you to work out. As your fitness goals change, you may find it advantageous to remove some images and put up new ones.

For many people, accomplishing fitness goals seems impossible. It doesn't have to be, though. By using fitspiration principles and SMART fitness goals, you can start feeling great and looking good in no time. Good luck!      

Here is an example:

Photo sources:

·         Everyone has his or her own source of inspiration, but to me the outdoors is my inspiration, so I’m using this as the anchor of my motivational board.  As part of my initiative to spend more time doing activities outdoors, I’ve started to learn to golf at Atunyote, a New York golf club near my work. I usually golf 9 holes, it’s nice to be able to spend most of the time walking. What I like about it is that it’s a leisurely sport, nothing too strenuous.  

·         Love this quote, so simple, yet so true! Source: Do What You Love

·         An easy to way to stir up some motivation is to treat yourself to some new workout gear!  Choose fun colors that will make you excited to show them off at the gym! Source: Sneakers

·         Your body needs nutritious foods as fuel for when you exercise.  A great source of clean eating recipes is Clean and Delicious.  They have delicious recipes along with instructional videos including a clean chicken & veggie stir-fry recipe. 

·         Park of my initiative to spend more times outdoors this summer is to go for simple walks, or a leisurely bike ride.

Here is the Board I made for myself:

This Happiness quote is one of my favorites. It is such a good reminder to enjoy things on the way, instead of focusing on the end result. The top right photo of food is a picture from Hilton Head Health, to remind me about my awesome experience that yummy food doesn't have to be food that is bad for you.  Under that is Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, my "girl crush" lol and Cross fit queen. She is my health and fitness role model. To the bottom left: kettlebells. For crossfit, no surprise there. In the bottom middle: a creppy picture of folks in the swimming leg of an ironman race. I will complete and IronMan before this life escapes me. and finally, to the bottom right: my happy place, the beach. 

Want More of Me?

I can't figure out how to get a widget for my Vine profile, but if you want to follow me on there my profile looks like this:

I will be posting food and fitness videos on there before they make the blog, or the Facebook, or the Twitters, Pinterest, Tumblr, or whatever other user-generated website I get bullied into joining! Lol. 

But just do you know, I might post a few newsie videos too, since my smart phone    ain't so smart about letting me synch more than one twitter account! Or maybe it's me! Ha!

P.S. I have some awesome posts in the works for ya! Including a vey special guest blogger! So stay tuned!!

115 Calorie Breakfast Tacos

I know, I know... I have a serious obsession with turning everything I cook into some sort of Latin-inspired dish. This morning I had every intention of just making a boring plate of scrambled egg whites. Next thing I knew, I was adding hot sauce, onions, bell peppers, and cayenne pepper. This breakfast "taco" was so shockingly awesome I may just make another one for dinner tonight! I don't think I'll ever use sour cream ever again. I have been substituting fat free Greek yogurt for about a year now and I absolutely love it.

The What:

 •Wheat Pita (I prefer Joseph's- they are 60 cals each)

•1 tablespoon of nonfat plain Greek Yogurt

•Handful of diced bell peppers and onions

•3 tablespoons of egg whites (I used the kind in the carton)

•Teaspoon of calorie free hot sauce

•Cayenne Pepper to taste

The How:

Ok, just kidding. I'll explain. I was experimenting with my Vine App :)

•Scramble egg whites with hot sauce, cayenne, bell peppers, onions, and salt and pepper. Set aside on paper towel to drain.

•Heat pita (it might look gross, but I just used the same skillet I cooked my eggs in. It's all going to the same place anyways). 

•Put egg mixture in middle of pita, plop the Greek Yogurt on top, fold like a taco and enjoy!