Monthly Archives: December 2011
2 Days Left — Can I Stay Below the Red Line?!
I don’t want to take any chances with the scale so today I am doing a semi-preconditioning day. Since we have today and then just one more day left of the year I would hate to blow it the last day and go up over my red line. So just to put a little more distance to that red line I am really watching today. Here is my weight chart for today.
Stayed the same as yesterday.
This morning I did not get my exercise session in.
Breakfast today I had some protein and veggies — roast beef, cauliflower, and egg beaters.
Then for lunch I had more protein and veggies– a salad with 3 oz of shrimp on it.
For snacks today I had a pear, an orange and some fruit (that takes care of my 3 fruit for today).
and a high protein hot chocolate.
For supper I had a veggie sub from Subway.
For a snack at night I had a protein hot chocolate and 6 biscottis.
Okay, we will see what Saturday brings!
Tomorrow (Saturday) will be the last day that I will blog all my food! But I will post my weight chart for the whole month on the 1st (daily and the starting and ending chart). This way my weight will include the New Year’s Eve party food. It wouldn’t be fair to leave that off now would it? 
What do you have planned for New Year’s Eve? Have a Happy New Year and be safe!
Another Holiday Luncheon!
I am not eating good enough to see a good drop on the scale and I don’t see it getting better today. Remember my goal is to maintain my weight so I am okay with having another luncheon and indulging a bit. But I did work around it and didn’t have much the rest of the day. So to start here is my weight chart. Still up 2.5 pounds from my lowest this month but still down almost 2 pounds from the start of December.
Here is my food log for the day. Did not have a plan…
I woke up and did 40 minutes of Zumba and burned 321 calories (on my log it says 312, I transposed my numbers it should be 321).
I had a lot of errands to do before I went to the luncheon so I was running late and did not eat breakfast. I wasn’t that hungry and I knew I was going to eat a big lunch so I went with it and did not eat breakfast. I know, I know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day but I really wasn’t hungry so I did not eat, I was just listening to my body and knowing I would eat soon I was fine.
So my mom had a get together with some people that used to work at the restaurant with us (we owned Hickory Joe’s Restaurant at one time for those who don’t know). So she had her normal spread with lots of good food!
We had homemade chicken, corn, noodle soup to start.
Then I had Ham BBQ, potato salad, broccoli salad, spinach dip with tortilla chips, fruit with fruit dip and jello salad.
and for dessert we had carrot cake…
I did pick at some peanut brittle, some chips and a pickle.
So I felt that was enough food for the day so for supper I just ate some fruit.
I didn’t count the calories I had today but the way I felt, I am pretty sure I ate to maintain. I felt comfortably full but did not feel like I overate or underate.
So as promised Friday I will really watch what I eat and drink lots of lemon water. I would like to see a drop before New Years Eve.
For New Year’s Eve I am going to eat very light and low carb all day until the evening get together at my sister-in-laws. We are having seafood and I am sure some munchies! I will also get a good walk in to burn a little extra calories!
Do you have a plan for New Years Eve?
Continue to Exercise and Drink Your Water!
Today I weighed in at the same as yesterday.
Here is my food plan for today…
Here is my actual food log…
It is important to keep up with your exercise even if you are a little lax in the food department. I got up around 6am to get a workout in today. I did the wii Zumba class and a medicine ball workout that my friend Mark gave me, using an 8lb hand weight.
The medicine ball workout is intense and my muscles quiver when I am done. I use the WOD Timer to keep track of my 30 sec work period with my 5 second rest period and the 3 intervals.
The zumba workout was a 20 minute beginner workout. I burned 262 calories for the 34 minute workout (Zumba plus medicine ball workout). Not too shabby!
For breakfast I had a protein shake and a grapefruit.
The shake was made with our supplement protein shake mix, 1/2 cup of water (plus I added some more water because it was too thick for me), and 1 serving of the yoplait chocolate banana smoothie (which is 1/2 the bag).
It comes out thick and delicious!
For lunch I had romaine, tomatoes, green peppers and tuna with Cardini’s light greek dressing.
For snacks I had 6 biscottis and a pear.
For supper I had planned a turkey meatball pizza but my sister-in-law sent home some ham and green beans with my husband so I had that instead. YUM!
I had a protein bar for a snack.
Tomorrow I am worried about the scale after eating ham and I have a luncheon tomorrow that will also have ham. I need to drink 10 8oz glasses of lemon water tomorrow (Thursday) to help get rid of water retention. Friday I will definitely need to do a Precondition day since I haven’t had a really clean day for awhile.
How much water do you drink a day and do you add lemon?
Getting Back to Normal Eating!
Here is my weight chart for today. Yay, it is already starting to go down even if I still ate some junk last night.
Today I made a plan, something I have not done for a few days.
My actual food log…
The reason there isn’t that much difference in calories after adding the cookies was the difference in calories for replacing the chicken with the Deli Fresh Turkey. I had to use it up that is why I switched.
For breakfast I had oatmeal, with 1T of peanut butter and 1/2 of a banana.
I had a 1/2 of a crispy peanut butter and jelly bar for a snack.
I had a veggie sub from subway for lunch. I also had a bag of BBQ baked Lays chips.
I had a Keurig Chai Latte for a snack around 2:00.
And then the other half of my protein bar around 5:30.
For supper we had Turkey BBQ with cauliflower and mini pierogies. I sauteed the pierogies in olive oil.
After supper I did have 3 cookies. It really is true, it is much easier when they are not around
Do you still have holiday food left in your house?
Christmas Weekend Plus Monday!
I made a decision that I was not going to stress out over what I eat over the Christmas Holiday, which ended up including Monday I know that I will eat normally again and my weight will come back down as quickly as it went up. Here is the weight chart from the whole weekend plus Monday.
I gained 2.6lbs since the 22nd of December. I was hoping for 3lbs or less so I was in the range I figured I would be. Now MOST of this weight is just water weight and will come off as quickly as it came on as long as I go back to my normal eating and not gain any more. The key is to get a few days in with some healthy eating and no junk until my weight comes back down and to NOT just continue to eat this way until New Years!
I am going to post all the pictures of all the food that I had at my disposal since the 24th! I did the treadmill on Christmas Eve while I was baking cookies. I would put the tray of cookies in the oven and do 9 minutes on the treadmill until I hit 30 minutes on the treadmill.
Here are my calories that I burned while on the treadmill when I was baking cookies. This includes the “downtime” while getting the cookies out of the oven etc. Yes, in the background are the cookies I was baking!
So here are all the cookies and baked goods I had at the house. Some I made and some were given to me by friends and family! This is all the food I picked at all weekend! I did give some of these away as well – they were not all for DH and I!
We went to my parent’s for a little while and here is what we had at their house.
So I pretty much picked at goodies and had snacks all day Christmas Eve!
And now for Christmas Day… started off the day with one of those homemade sticky buns from my Mom!
After breakfast Cole opened his presents…
We ate at my sister-in-law’s. She had a very yummy dinner around 2:00. Father-in-law scoping it all out!
Yes, lots of food! There was turkey and ham also! So at least today I got some protein in! My sister-in-law was testing it to make sure it was good enough for every one to eat She is nice like that, so thoughtful!
And of course there was dessert. Pear crunch pie, apple pie, cookies and fudge!
Then at night my parents came over and we had shrimp, clams, cheese, bologna, chips etc. I forgot to take a picture of this… I think my brain was in a food coma! Anyway, that pretty much sums up Christmas Day. We did have a lovely day with family, it wasn’t just all about the food lol!
On Monday I was still off work and there were goodies all around. I did have a few healthy things during the day. I had a grapefruit and a high protein hot chocolate for breakfast.
Then for lunch I had a shrimp salad. Sorry about the picture, it was with my phone, my DH had the camera.
That’s about where the healthy stopped. I then picked at some cookies for supper (see pics above ).
I did do zumba on the wii and burned 243 calories so I got my exercise in!
Now the holidays are over until New Years Eve so it is time to eat normal again and get my weight back down to where it was before the Christmas weekend. The good news is I did not go back up over the red line at all!
How was your Christmas weekend? Just curious, what is your plan? Are you done splurging until New Year’s Eve or are you going to continue to splurge until after the New Year?
Treadmill Routine
Here is my weight chart for today. Up a little from yesterday.
This morning I got up at 6:15am to do 45 minutes on the treadmill. I did my normal routine of walk/run. I like this routine because it makes the time go faster.
Here is my routine:
5 min warmup (3mph)
5 min jog (around 4.5-5mph depending)
2 min walk (4mph)
5 min jog (around 4.5-5mph depending)
3 min walk (4mph)
3 min jog (around 4.5-5mph)
2 min walk ( 4mph)
3 min jog (around 4.5-5mph)
Then I either do the program again or just alternate jogging and walking until I am done.
I did the treadmill for 45 minutes and according to the treadmill I burned 368 calories but the treadmill usually shows a higher calorie burn than my bodymedia by about 50 calories so I just estimated my burn at 300. My bodymedia needed charged so I did not have that number today.
For breakfast I had a grapefruit and a chai latte keurig kcup.
For lunch I had leftovers from yesterday (my tuna, tomatoes, snowpeas, feta mixture) and one slice of the whole wheat pizza with turkey pepperoni.
I snacked on my peanut brittle throughout the day.
For supper we had our Subway subs…
After supper I was baking cookies so I did snack on some of those and a piece of peanut butter fudge. I will post all the pictures of the goodies that I got from friends and family. I probably won’t get time to post tonight or tomorrow so my next post to report in on how I made out for the weekend will be Monday. I will tell you that I will not be counting calories but I will listen to my hunger levels and not eat until I am overly full. I will also get in exercise both days.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Dorie
Resistance Techniques!
Today is the start of Week 4! Wow December is going fast! So here is the daily weight chart…
and here is the “Weekly” weight chart if you don’t want to see the daily up and downs…
I actually had a loss this week. I wasn’t so sure I would since I was so low last week because of being sick. So my total loss for the 3 weeks is 4.4 pounds.
I did not really have a plan today so this is my actual food log for the day.
I had lots to do today since it is only a few days away from Christmas! So I got up early to get a good treadmill workout in. 62 minutes and burned 455 calories.
For breakfast I made oatmeal with 1T of peanut butter and 1/2 of a pear.
For lunch I made a really good concoction! I used bumblebee lemon and cracked pepper tuna steak, bumblebee brand is about 200mg less in sodium so if you are sensitive to water weight and bloating you want to check sodium content in foods.
This is so easy to make — just put it on a microwave safe plate and microwave for about a minute. I steamed some snowpeas and then sauteed the tuna, snowpeas, and tomatoes with feta cheese. I mixed up some olive oil, rice vinegar and truvia and added to the pan. The feta will melt a little to make sort of a cheesy sauce. I then threw some olives in just because I was hungry for them. But if you are sodium sensitive don’t add olives. I topped with grated cheese. This was yummy and satisfying!
I made a Christmas decoration today with a vase, wax paper, scented pine cones and some lights and ribbon. Very easy to make and looks nice. I got the idea from the TV show “The Chew” anyway here it is…
I have to fix the wax paper so it doesn’t overlap but I thought it turned out pretty nice.
For supper I made a whole wheat pizza kit that I had in the freezer and added some Turkey pepperoni. If you haven’t tried the turkey pepperoni you really should. They are a nice snack too. I had two pieces of the pizza.
Then after supper I decided to try a recipe that my friend Kelly gave me for peanut brittle. Yes, it turned out yummy and is hard to stay out of! So I did have a “few” pieces of that
Okay as promised I will talk about the resistance technique. This comes from Beck Diet Solution which uses cognitive strategies to help you “stick” to your plan. Shapes to Come will be starting a 10 week group program that combines behavioral strategies with Shapes to Come program and one-on-one consultations. Let me know if you want more information.
Anyway… First thing you need to know about cravings is that they take 12-25 minutes to go away. YES, cravings go away even if you don’t give into them. Yes, they are uncomfortable but you can withstand them. First thing you want to do is rate your craving on a discomfort scale (1-10) 1 being not uncomfortable at all (sitting watching TV) to 10 something very uncomfortable (a broken arm). You can make up your own scale.
After you rate how uncomfortable you are then you need to see how long it lasts and record it. This proves to you that they do go away! While you are experiencing the craving you want to use resistance techniques, some being mindset techniques and some being behavioral.
Mindset techniques:
- Label it – It is just a craving. It is uncomfortable and intense but just like hunger it is not an emergency.
- Stand firm – Tell yourself you will absolutely NOT give in! Remind yourself to strengthen your resistance muscle and weaken your giving-in muscle.
- Imagine the aftermath of giving in – Think of eating the food then think of how you will feel afterwards and your goals you want to meet.
Behavioral techniques:
- Distance yourself from the food you crave – when the craving comes from seeing or smelling the food – distancing yourself may help – you can get rid of the food or remove yourself from the area the food is in.
- Drink a no- low- calorie beverage—club soda, water with lemon, tea etc
- Relax – do some relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, meditation etc.
- Distract yourself – Use your distraction list and do things off of that list.
Make up your own distraction list but some examples are… do a crossword puzzle, surf the net, chat with a friend, read a book, take a bath, brush your teeth, go for a walk etc.
Record the things you do and how well they work. Remember it will go away and the more you resist the craving the more you are strengthening your resistance muscle — the more you give in to your craving you are strengthening your giving in muscle.
Which one do you want to get stronger ?
Let me know if you use any of the techniques and what work best for you!
Chocolate Cravings
Still maintaining my weight, which is a great thing since the Christmas treats are all around us!
Here is my food plan for today.
Here is my actual log.
I started out the day by doing the Biggest Loser DVD. I like this DVD because it has some strength training as well as cardio. I burned 214 calories. It is not a ton but it is important to do strength training so you develop muscles. Muscles burn more fat that fat will!
All you need is some weights and a mat. They call for a water ball but show you how to do it with just the weights. I used a medicine ball because I don’t have a water ball.Cole was there to supervise my workout!
For breakfast I had a mini bagel with1 egg and 1 oz of cheese.
I cooked up some apples and pears (idea from a friend of mine ). I used some diet sierra mist to cook them in plus added some cinnamon. You could add some cornstarch to thicken the juice into a sauce. I will eat them as a snack later on in the day.
Had a high protein hot chocolate for a snack around 11:00.
For lunch I had a smart ones, Rigatoni in vodka cream sauce and some cucumbers, tomatoes with some sweet and sour dressing.
For a 4:00 snack I had my cooked pears, apples with yogurt on top.
For supper around 8:30 I had seared crab and sweet and sour snow peas. The snow peas sauce was made with maple syrup, rice vinegar, sesame oil.
I skipped the pierogies that I had planned. But later in the night I wanted chocolate – I think it was just because it was in the house but I enjoyed it! I had a chocolate cookie, chocolate covered oreo (from my treats), chocolate kisses, and a peanut butter marshmallow egg. Here are some pics in case you forget what they look like! I didn’t eat the whole plate of treats just one of the chocolate covered oreos!
Tomorrow (Thursday) I am going to have a good workout and I will do cravings resistance techniques so I do not indulge in so much chocolate tomorrow. I will go over that technique in tomorrow’s post so stay tuned!
Christmas Party and Goodies!
Today my weight was the same as yesterday. Which is good. I am eating to maintenance with some of my Christmas treats instead of over eating. Here is my weight chart.
Here is my food plan for the day.
Here is my actual food log for the day.
Tuesday’s are my rest day so no exercise for today.
For breakfast I had a grapefruit, yogurt and a high protein hot chocolate.
I didn’t have a snack this morning. I actually ate my yogurt at around 10:30. So I just drug out breakfast a little.
One of my friends brought me some delicious treats.
I will eat some of these tomorrow but I have a party tonight so I am not going to over do it today.
For lunch I went to Subway for my Veggie Sub.
I do love Subway
There was a Christmas party at 5:00 at the office that I was invited to. So I did not have my snacks and just decided to eat something at the Christmas party. Here is the beautiful spread they had there…
There was also wine, beer, chips and pretzels.
This is what I had…
So on my plate (and this is just a very small plate), I had, small piece of flatbread with spinach dip, 2 cubes of cheese with honey mustard and veggies with Ranch dip. Now this very small plate full was still 269 calories.
When dealing with Christmas parties I tell my clients to limit your plate to 3 things. Scope out the entire buffet, decide what you really really want and then only put 3 things on your plate. I do tell them they can then have 1 slice of dessert as well. I didn’t have a brownie there I waited to eat some cookies as my dessert at home. A lot of people will just have a little bit of everything and that can really add up. Especially at the pot luck dinners where there are 20 different things!
When I got home I had leftovers for dinner. Turkey sausage with sauce and peppers and onions over 1/2 cup whole grain Angel Hair pasta.
Then I did have 3 cookies! I do love those cookies!
That is my food log for today!
So how do you deal with Christmas parties so you do not gain weight over the holidays?
Fix What Stops You!
Here is my weight chart from today. I have been eating pretty normal for the last couple of days so my weight should be balanced back out from being sick. So from my lowest point I am up about 1 pound – not too bad – I usually expect 2 pounds back up after being sick and not eating.
Here is my food and exercise plan for today.
Here is my actual…
Decided it was time to get back to exercising. I have been feeling pretty good now. So I got up at 6am and did 45 minutes of just walking (no running) on the treadmill. I will ease back into that slowly too. I burned 281 calories.
One thing that used to stop me from exercising was that I used to hate getting up early, trying to find all my clothes for exercising and then by the time I got it all together I would feel like I didn’t have enough time to exercise. So anytime something like that seems to stop you again and again from doing what you plan on doing you need to fix it. Don’t just muddle through and hate every minute of it or give up.
So there are a couple of ways that I have jumped over the problem. I can either wear my workout clothes to bed. I do this if I have to get up extra early so I can just roll out of bed and do my exercising. Or set them out the night before, but I have quite enough to do in the evenings to get ready for the day. So what has made things easier for me was this bag from 31 (my sister-in-law sells so if you want one let me know ) but any bag or container will do. It is nice and big and I have put all my long sleeves, short sleeve, no sleeve shirts as well as my exercise pants and shorts and sweats, my sports bras and socks. Anything that I will wear to exercise. That way it is all in one place…
So I can just grab, throw on and go out the door or to the treadmill! More about coming up with solutions to our excuses later!
For breakfast I had a leftover piece of french toast. The recipe from yesterday makes two pieces so I just put the other in a ziplock baggie and then this morning popped it in the toaster to heat.
If you are really ambitious make a couple batches and throw some in the freezer, wrapped individually. That way you have a quick breakfast that tastes yummy!
For a snack around 10:30 I had my grapefruit…
At around 12:30 I had my lunch which was leftovers from last night. I put the sausage link and peppers, onions and sauce in a slice of bread for a “hoagie.” I also decided I needed some veggies so I had cucumbers and tomatoes with vinegar, grapeseed oil, and truvia sprinkled over top.
Throughout the day (2-7) I had biscotti and an orange for my snacks.
For dinner, we had angel hair pasta, chicken, light classico alfredo sauce and broccoli. I cooked up the angel hair last night and threw the cut up broccoli into a container so my DH could throw it all into a baking dish with chicken so we were able to have a yummy meal when I got home from work. Here is his masterpiece, YUM! (Thanks honey, dinner was delicious!)
When I got home I ate two cookies and had one of my peanut butter, marshmallow treats.
That is all for the food log today.
Now I want to help you brainstorm solutions to what is standing in your way to reaching your goal. What I want you to do is state at least one reason (reasons are just excuses that we convinced ourselves are legitimate) for why you are not working towards a goal you want to achieve. So for example you may have convinced yourself that you do not have time to exercise so I want you to say to yourself, “I can’t exercise because I don’t have time.”
And then I want you to rephrase it and say something like this “How can I find time to exercise?” Or say… “How can I fit exercise into my day?” This gives your brain reason to think about the problem and come up with a solution. If you just say “I can’t” and leave it at that then you are allowing your brain to say, “oh, ok so we can’t find the time so I may as well not even try to come up with a solution.”
Once you rephrase your problem come up with 3 things you could do differently to help alleviate the problem (excuse!). So in our example your brain may come up with, exercise 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night, or while you are watching your favorite TV program, walk up and down the steps during commercials or after dinner ask someone in your household to clean up the dishes while you take a walk or do a dvd for 1/2 hour. Be creative you never know what you may come up with! Figure out what works for YOU!!!
I am not saying this will be easy! Okay, good luck coming up with solutions. Feel free to email me or comment below if you need help brainstorming! Or let me know a creative solution you came up with to alleviate a problem!
