Super Powers (aka my diet tools and tips)

Happy New Year Resolutions!!

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First: SQUEEEEE! I figured out how to embed a YouTube video! It was all the fault of these mobile sites on my iPad. Tsk tsk.
Anyhow…
I have always been one for resolutions. Every year for the past two decades I’ve made a resolution to lose weight, become more active or eat healthier. Sometimes a combination of two or three, but always this trinity of choices.
Last year I made my resolution, kind of tongue in cheek. I had made the same resolution, to continue to lose weight on the slowest diet in the world by shedding between 1-2 pounds per month, as I had the previous three years. Then, late in January, I ‘met’ Katie from runsforcookies.com and realized I needed to take my resolution a little more seriously. So I did. You know the long story, but the cliff notes version for newbies is that I started moving a lot, very intentionally, making smart food choices, lost around 60 pounds and gained a whole new sense of self.
This week I have been thinking a lot about my diet bet, and how my friend who I am doing it with pointed out that every person she knew who was involved in the bet actually lost weight, thus ‘won’ the bet. I’ve been thinking resolutions are similar. Even if you don’t make it the whole year or meet your goal, most likely you made headway. This year you may not have made it past the planning phase, but next time you try you will be better prepared. This year you may have succumbed after 20 pounds and two months. This year you could do that again. Small goals. Baby steps. Small successes. Which brings me to the video.
Dr. Mike, from the video, points out that New Years resolutions absolutely work for a percentage of the people who adopt the practice. In fact, of the 41% of the people who made the resolutions, 46% of them were still working toward their resolutions six months later, as compared to 4% of the people who chose a random time to make a goal. With this study group, there was a ten times greater likelihood that they would be successful! He suggests that this is due to the feeling of community and the reflective nature of this unique and hopeful time of year. If you ever needed motivation as to why you should commit to your goals now, that seems proof enough to me! If I even have a smidgen of a greater chance at success simply based on when I declare my intentions, that seems like a pretty easy step to take. But ten times better chances? Sign me up.
So take a risk, make a goal, and jump. You never know, it could be the start of a brand new life.
Happy 2014!
Cheers for health and happiness!
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And if you liked what he said there…

Last Days of Summer

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Yesterday I was laying out our last few days before summer’s end and realized that we had one school night with early school night bedtime, ice cream for dinner night (a once a year tradition right before school starts) and one regular night with no big plans (that was last night). Sheesh! We haven’t let ourselves really go this summer so I decided to make a cake I’ve wanted to make for months for our last real summer meal of 2013!

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I made it using coconut milk whenever liquid was required and it is the most moist, delicious cake I think I have ever eaten. Or perhaps it has just been that long since I’ve enjoyed cake. Cake is not my thing, but it is Bradley’s thing. After we cut into her, licked the frosting, swallowed the coconut, finally made it upstairs to watch the new Barbie: Mariposa movie (which I snored through, sadly, I love the Barbie movies…) and got the babies in bed Bradley commented to me that he was highly concerned about the quantity of cake we had in the house, he feared there was an imbalance and had to go cut off just a little to make right with the world again. So he went down and nibbled a few crumbs. Then the balance was thrown off again, more cake needed to be sacrificed… You get the idea. It was so funny, watching him go through the same thing I do when something calls to me from the kitchen. Fortunately, cake is not my thing so I was able to leave it mostly alone.
Because of the cake, though, yesterday we ran, went for a walk AND some of us did our strength training. Hopefully that will balance out the big cheat!
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12 Hour Fast
I was reading online from some trainers, dietitians and nutritionists and one of them suggested making the evening fast – the break between dinner and breakfast- a real 12 hour fast. That it is entirely reasonable to expect yourself to fast for about 12 hours every night. One of my goals forever is to cut out night snacking. I can do a lot of damage to myself between the hours of 9:PM and 11:PM. About the time we are an hour into whatever we decide to do – movie, snuggles, chatting, reading- whatever- I want a snack to go along with it! If I make the goal of the 12 hour fast, that means I can eat the last of my food for the day by 8:00 on weekends and 7:30 on weekdays. So far so good and I am seeing the scale reflect the results again after using this strategy for only a couple of weeks!
I know it’s just a trick, but sometimes those little rules and games that I make for myself in this scenario are the differences between successful weightloss and gaining or staying the same weight.

Eating Better

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Today’s run was amazing. Since the pressure of training is off I was able to just relax and not worry about making mileage. I decided to just do a loop around what I used to call the big loop but now it seems like a pretty short loop. It was almost refreshing to do just a 1.5 mile run. I modulated my pace to match the incline and decline again and found great results- I ran my best time ever! Woot! We followed that up with an abs and arms workout.
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***
I’ve fallen into my typical dieting pattern lately. When I first get going on a weightloss plan I am really healthy and smart about it. I get strict about what kinds of foods I eat and make very intentional healthy choices. Over time, I start making substitutions- like a snack of carrots turns into a bag of pop chips- still within the calories, right? I keep doing that until I end up with a compromised diet filled with more processed foods (mostly processed soy, like vegetarian chik nuggets) and my snacks turn into processed foods like granola bars and healthy snack mixes instead of fresh produce. I eat within my caloric allowances but not with the level of nutrition I should be getting, considering what I’m asking my body to do.
Yesterday at the color run there were lots of pictures taken of me. Seriously, it was my first official run so we were at a kindergarten graduation-level of picture taking frenzy. After seeing myself in a myriad or running poses, I can’t deny that I have a lot of belly to lose still. My legs and arms and head and neck are looking pretty good… I just need to find my waist and hips now. 🙂 I say all of this while also acknowledging how far I’ve come and how proud I am of all my progress. I just have not been being entirely honest with myself about what is happening with my body, my tummy in particular. Add to that the health risks of belly fat and I think it is definitely in my best interest to continue along this path of weightloss and fitness.

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As I’m reading more about muscle building and diet (eat complex carbs with protein and two fists of green at each meal), one thing I keep seeing over and over is the advantage of complex carbohydrates over refined grains. That unless I’m giving the proper kinds of fuel to my body I’m going to continue to maintain my weight instead of lose. I read specifically about how to lose belly fat and over and over- cardio and healthy carbs. What’s a girl with a gut to do?
I’m pleased to say that over the past few weeks we’ve been very consciously doing a lot of replacements- brown rice, wheat flour, whole grain breads- and we are feeling really good and the food tastes amazing. I made super yummy banana blueberry muffins yesterday that taste excellent but are also pretty healthy! This is one of those lifetime changes that I committed to at the onset of my weightloss project. I’m so pleased that we’re actually following through and that my family is enthusiastically on board.

Purpose

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When I began writing this blog it was all about me. Me, me, me. It still is. Ha ha! As time has marched through the months, I have remained determined, I have continued to lose weight, I have become an athlete and I have been answering a lot questions along the way.
I totally get that. Seeing other people and reading the stories of other weightloss warriors was so important to me in the beginning. I was like, “If she can do it, so can I.” Seriously, at 340 pounds I was feeling like I needed to make a choice to live this lifestyle of an morbidly obese woman, or to lose it. Gaining more and giving in seemed easy and, to be frank, gluttonous fun, but it also just meant the climb back to health was going to be that much harder. Giving in to the fat seemed simple, easy, like a choice, but really it was just the lazier choice for me. For me, an unhappier choice. A limiting choice, but a choice nonetheless. Obviously I decided to take the hard route, the one with miles to run and food to control.
Anyhow, I have arrived at this point where people want advice and if you have spent ANY time with me or spoken on the phone with me over the past few months or the past few years, then you know how much I love to talk about diet and exercise. You know how much I would just love to sit down with you and make an action plan to get you moving, to clean your cupboard, to get your ball rolling… You know how much I love goal setting, for me AND you! I love to talk about this.
I have been careful on this site not to try to be inspiring (what a weird thing to say), to not give too much advice, to appear as just myself and let my story speak for itself. My reasoning is because:
1. I have only my own experience to speak from and my own knowledge base. Aside from the one nutrition class that I took in college, I have no professional training or expertise. I get my information from online, from a few doctors and from a few texts. But I would hate to give stupid advice that ends up in a lawsuit. So, let the record show that this site is never ever to take the place of your medical professional’s advice!
2. I have seen several weightloss sites where the women focus on inspiring other people as their primary source of motivation. I’m not going to deny that when people tell me that my choices have prompted a healthy shift in their own thinking it is incredibly motivating to keep moving forward and personally fulfilling. It feels good to affect positive change. But inspiring others seems like a dangerous thing to rely on for forward momentum. Eventually I will stop losing weight and just to maintain. Will I be as inspiring then? And if not, where will my feedback come from then? I need to build habits that encourage me to be self reliant, or reliant on my immediate support team more than relying on inconsistent feedback.
3. I don’t want to look like a know-it-all. A bragger. A compliment seeker. A glory hound. A narcissistic prat. Giving too much unsought advice can make me seem like all of those things.
4. Many ideas come from other sites, but much like an informational report, it is integrating into my lifestyle seamlessly and becoming mine- my belief system, my thought processes, my way of maintaining focus. But many of those ideas started as seeds at runsforcookies.com or theboringrunner. That said, I don’t want to reference their sites every time I talk about the way I process my life or get called a plagiarizer if I don’t. So I think I’m just going to write and talk. I’ll give as much credit as I can, but I wonder if I’m worrying too much about things like that. I just freak out in this litigious world.
All those things said, I am starting to realize through conversations that I am accumulating wisdom and thought processes that are working for me. I have smart things to share with people, so I think I’m going to start. I’ll still post all about me, but maybe I’ll throw some of my thoughts on eliminating bad foods, exercise and my tougher thought processes about the fixing of metal blocks and fear that hold me back a little more. I know for me, the mental work is the trickiest.
As always, I welcome your thoughts, questions and success stories!
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Today when I was running I sweated my phone to death. She’s gone on to other places, greener pastures… Her twin will be here in a few days. Until then, a dirth of photos. I apologize in advance that you won’t be able to look upon my glowing apricot skin and cascading chestnut locks for a few days.
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I met my goal on my Wii Fit today! Woohoo! I made a new goal to lose 10 pounds in the next two months. If I make it that will be my 40!
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Goals:
I think I’m one run away from hitting 100 miles. What a perfect time for my phone to break! Sheesh!
I ran 3.1 today
Goal: 12
Abs: 0
Goal:3-4

Stretch

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One of the most obvious things that makes me feel ready to exercise is stretching.
A lot of the time when I feel sore and don’t want to exercise if I stretch it gets rid of that sore feeling and replaces it with this tingly feeling. It is incredibly invigorating and makes me want to zoom.
That does seem obvious, doesn’t it? Yet… It is one of those things that I know works but my brain conveniently forgets when I’m feeling less than motivated to work out.
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I’ve been aching in my joints lately. Yesterday’s run was a hard 3.3 and today I just pushed to a 1.6 before I started feeling, just, achy. I have a twang that, if i don’t stretch it well, starts up aout one mile into my run. I told Bradley about it and he pointed out that I’m not doing two things: hydrating after my runs well enough or eating protein after my workouts to rebuild muscles.
Looks like I need to be doing more of that.
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I challenged my students to run/walk/hike a marathon over the next month. They have until June 14th to log 26.2 miles. Every kid who does it gets a prize. I also challenged my families with a mileage challenge- whoever gets the most averaged human miles will win a gift basket. I’m thrilled with their enthusiasm! So many of my kids came back to school reporting that they went out for a run with their parents or they went for a walk all together. I’m delighted that I was able to get some people moving! Our bodies are AmAzInG!!!
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Workout Tally
Abs Workouts: 2
Goal: 3
Goal for prize: 4
Miles ran this week: 13 (WOOT!!!)
Goal: 15
(All signs point to making my goals AND my reward ab goal! Woot !)

Data Collecting

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As a family we have been taking this whole health thing by storm. We are not messing around, people! Daily, you can find the Lj’s out walking, running, playing, riding- whatever. We try to make healthy choices and we are looking at our lifestyle carefully, being very intentional about what we do and what we eat.
Part of what we are doing is tracking ourselves with the Wii Fit. At first, we were so annoyed at the whole body check thing. It feels judgmental and kind of rude as it chides you over your lack of balance, nags you abut not showing up daily for workouts, tells you how frequently other family members work out in comparisons to you, and the worst- announces where you fall on the BMI scale with “That’s Obese!” Being told to me every time I weigh myself. Not exactly big on handling us with kid gloves, let me just say that. However, two things have happened as a result:
We have changed how we talk about fat/overweight/obesity in our house. It used to be that no one could say anything to me about me being fat without reducing me to tears. Jude used to comment quite often on my weight without trying to be mean, but it was hurtful. I was sensitive. I was not happy. It had very little to do with his observations and more to do with my self perception and unhappiness with my unhealthy body. Now we share all of this information, we share our weights, measure ourselves often and we can talk about fat in our house without tears now. Without awkwardness. It opened a dialogue that is very honest, thanks to the cutthroat way the Wii matter of factly tells us we are fat, out of shape and aged beyond our years! (That is not entirely true- my Wii Fit age is usually 35 or below now. Today I am 23!)
The other thing that has happened is the ability for us to track ourselves as we collect data by checking in often on the Wii. While I check in daily, the rest of my family is less consistent. Bradley is checking in almost daily and the kids are about once a week or whenever they feel like it; we don’t push them to do it. We want them healthy – not obsessive. I am wavering between 245-249, gaining and losing half pounds, full pounds or more day by day. I thought it was just me, but it turns out that when we look at our data collectively, we all follow the same patterns- every one of us Lj’s! As I fell and lost to hit my 245, so did my whole family. We all dipped then. Easter came, and we all gained a little. Now we have all, plateaued as we ready for another loss cycle. It was really interesting to see, and I’m excited to continue tracking ourselves to see what happens over longer ranges.

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Fruit Binge

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Lately when I start to have a problem- like, I want to eat a bunch, eat wrong foods, skip working out- instead of giving the universal excuse of being tired, I’m trying to go a little deeper and see what is actually at the root of the craving.
This weekend was tough. Unfortunately, we have a somewhat strained relationship with some of our family members and when our kids head out for a weekend away with them it causes me a bit of anxiety. When I have anxiety I look to distract myself. Apparently my main form of distraction is food. Add to that the return of PMS (really?! So soon?!) and lets just say it was a weekend to fight through.
I wanted to eat. So when I looked deeper, I realized I wanted to eat my anxiety away. I wanted to not be in control. I wanted to not think about every little thing that went into my mouth. I wanted to just sit back, relax, and wash all worry and over-thinking from my brain. While on a diet, that is almost impossible as you’re adding up each calorie and fat gram before it even passes over your teeth… On Friday I did that with garbage food- chips & candy.
Today I was getting frantic on the way home as I realized it was happening again- I could feel it coming. I knew when I got home the chips and salsa (which I don’t even like that much) would call out to me even though I knew they would make me sick. So I had Bradley preemptively stop and spend a whole bunch of money on watermelon, strawberries, grapes, mango, cantaloupe, pineapple and any other fruit that looked or sounded even near to yummy. I came home and prepped everything, stacked it on a plate and went to town. It was fabulous. My stomach was full and I got to nosh and nom to my heart’s content, but I didn’t feel sick and I didn’t feel guilty. Phew!
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The Eats

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What are you doing? How are you doing it? What is your secret?
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Anyone who has dieted more than 25-30 pounds off knows the answer to this questions:
Eating less and/or moving more. There are crash diets and ways to lose a quick five or ten, but those ways aren’t usually a long term solution. To do it right and do it big takes an actual commitment to a lifestyle change, not rely on a quick fix.

I don’t do a program. I don’t do weight watchers or any other buy in types of things. I just count calories, say no to myself and sweat hard at least once a day.
It’s not rocket science, just basic science. Less fuel + more movement = fat burned as fuel. That is, as long as you don’t move so fast you burn muscle.
So, what do I eat? On a typical workday here is a sample diet. If I don’t include measurements, it’s because I had one serving.
Breakfast:
Morningstar veggie patty
Whole wheat English muffin
1t Smart Balance buttery Spread light
Lunch
3-4 veggie chik nuggets
4 slices apple
Yogurt
or
Greek yogurt
Granola
Blueberries
Chik nuggs (just a great source of flavor and easy vegetarian protein)
Dinner
Usually have a stir fry or boca burger or salad-ish version of the family dinner-
Taco salad on taco night
Bun-free burger on hamburger night
Pizza night is 1-2 slices and salad
Snack
Fudgesicle (those are a totally reasonable treat!)
Or
Popcorn
OR
My ridiculous raw oatmeal thing. Nom nom nom.
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More than anything it’s just:
*Cutting everything back to serving size (portion control)
*Eating a lot less processed food (trying, but tricky as a vegetarian with all the soy)
*Eating lots of whole grains (more brown rice, chia, quinoa, fiber filled pasta)
*Running walking, cycling lifting, stretching – not all, but some every day
*Making goals (5K, 40 before 40)
*Resolving to be determined to make my life better through weight loss and exercise

Something interesting- I am still eating full fat sour cream and peanut butter and I’m fitting it into my diet with no problem. Furthermore, I’ve decided to leave them in my diet. I like both of those things so much better than the diet versions!
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Good news- I think my hip is healing well at last. I learned a tough lesson last week by pushing to run too much too soon, just like everyone said I would (you were right, Bradley)! Last night I was able to sleep on my hip for the first time and on Saturday I ran a quarter mile. So there is progress. But it will have to be slower than I like. Baby steps, right?
More good news?
I’m thrilled that I lost that pound! I had been hovering between the 5-9 range in the ones column for a few weeks. This weekend my weight hovered in the 2-6 range. Progress? I think so.

Katy my Lady

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I’m going to admit something here that I’m both sickeningly embarrassed about AND gleefully proud of. You know, so I can be all self deprecating about it but openly fan-girling it up with my guns-a-blazing.

Katy Perry.

I know, Katy Perry. That bastion of class, refinement and taste. In another life I am her. I am dancing around on a stage, formerly married to Russel Brand, dating John Mayer (ok, that’s where I draw the line) sporting whipped cream effusing garments while gyrating and singing about love and lust unapologetically. In this life I’m a teacher, but that looks like fun, right? In this life I’m only supposed to like overly sensitive indie rock. But my inner thirteen year old likes to work out to Katy Perry!

I get my earbuds in and fire up Miss Perry, round the corner and laugh at her memories of that crazy party, listen to her reminisce about falling in love and then it’s the wee hours and its just me and Katy and she’s telling me how I’m a FIREWORK and I believe it and I take off running for a block or two or three and so it goes over and over. At the end I’m all sweaty and smiling coz the whole time I was walking and running alongside that California Katy girl.

She makes me feel good. She makes me want to run. So what if she is this crazy ridiculous girl. If she can get my rear end to run and at the other end I’m smiling and raising my fists and jumping over the curb like I can really do karate then she certainly isn’t something I need to be ashamed of, right?

I say YES to Katy Perry!
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For now…
(I’ll keep you updated as this is bound to change… Ha ha ha!)

Tracking

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One of the most useful things I do as a dieter is diary. I remember as a kid my mom constantly writing down her portions from all the different food groups as she lost weight through weight watchers. I always thought it looked like such a pain.

When I was dieting for baby I got to a point where I wanted to diary so I could see what I was eating. I invested the best 40.00 I’ve ever spent on the Calorie King. It tracked weight, vitamins, minerals an calories. It broke my food down into genres and sub genres, encouraging me to eat fiber and discouraging me from eating too much or poor choices. But what it really did was help me see the connection between intake and output of calories. It helped me to see that when I took a walk, my net calorie intake would shrink from the calories burned and I would end the day having consumed 1600 but only showing 800 or so. What a motivator.

Calorie King is a subscription thing these days so I’ve let it go. I invested 3.99 in Livestrong. While it doesn’t break everything down into pie graphs and it doesn’t track the vitamin/mineral/fiber content I’ve taken in daily, it does show me how my calories are being consumed. It helps to keep me accountable. It reminds me of portion sizes. It makes me consider whether I should eat the tablespoon of peanut butter or the endless pile of celery. It subtracts my calories burnt for exercise based on how much I weigh right now (like, I burn more than Bradley because I weigh muchly more than he and have to carry all that around). But mostly it just keeps me accountable and that is unmatchable motivation.

There are others that have a community attached but the apps don’t attach and I’m an iPhone and iPad girl so I’m cool with Livestrong. 🙂