You've probably heard that saying somewhere along the line. And tonight while I was on the stair climber in the gym, with sweat dripping down my face and running down my arms and back and stomach...I thought of this.
If sweat really was fat crying, then my fat must have been freaking devastated tonight. I love days like this, where I succeed in making healthy food choices all day and then get a good work out in. Can I make it two in a row? I hope so! Today certainly wasn't a "second in a row" - because last night, I had a ridiculous craving for carbs...it turned into a bit of a carb-fest. Not good.
But today, I moved on and redeemed myself!
How were your choices today?
From overweight gym class failure to marathoner.
Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Lord, give me strength....
My older daughter in in Kindergarten. She is a Daisy Girl Scout this year - and guess what time it is? Yes. You guessed it.
Girl Scout Cookie time.
Back in the day when I was a Daisy Girl Scout...(you know...ummm, just.... 19 years ago...ahem), we took orders on order forms, then turned them in, and the cookies came awhile later and we had to distribute and deliver them. Now, the girls have the cookies ahead of time. They can bring them with door to door and exchange money for goods on-the-spot. Speaking of money - $4 a box this year. WTF is THAT all about?! Geeez - before you know it, they will be charging a kidney or something!
Anyhow. What does this mean for me, exactly? It means that I now have dozens of boxes of cookies sitting in my house. Every single cookie seems to call my name from within. It's like a massive chorus....eating away at me with urges to eat away at THEM. Granted, the cookies are to sell. They aren't mine unless I buy them. And I am sure we will buy a couple of boxes. But we need to PLAN for it. The problem with having them around is that I could say, oh let's open a box. We'll buy it. And then, Oh, lets open another box. We'll buy it....and so on. That could be one heck of a slippery (and expensive) slope!
So I declare now, I will NOT GIVE IN TO TEMPTATION. The only cookies I will buy and eat will the what my husband and I plan ahead of time to buy. And that number will be very minimal. There will be NO spur-of-the-moment "Oh, we'll just buy one more box" crap!
So STFU, cookies. I'm NOT listening to your evil chants of deliciousness.
Girl Scout Cookie time.
Back in the day when I was a Daisy Girl Scout...(you know...ummm, just.... 19 years ago...ahem), we took orders on order forms, then turned them in, and the cookies came awhile later and we had to distribute and deliver them. Now, the girls have the cookies ahead of time. They can bring them with door to door and exchange money for goods on-the-spot. Speaking of money - $4 a box this year. WTF is THAT all about?! Geeez - before you know it, they will be charging a kidney or something!
Anyhow. What does this mean for me, exactly? It means that I now have dozens of boxes of cookies sitting in my house. Every single cookie seems to call my name from within. It's like a massive chorus....eating away at me with urges to eat away at THEM. Granted, the cookies are to sell. They aren't mine unless I buy them. And I am sure we will buy a couple of boxes. But we need to PLAN for it. The problem with having them around is that I could say, oh let's open a box. We'll buy it. And then, Oh, lets open another box. We'll buy it....and so on. That could be one heck of a slippery (and expensive) slope!
So I declare now, I will NOT GIVE IN TO TEMPTATION. The only cookies I will buy and eat will the what my husband and I plan ahead of time to buy. And that number will be very minimal. There will be NO spur-of-the-moment "Oh, we'll just buy one more box" crap!
So STFU, cookies. I'm NOT listening to your evil chants of deliciousness.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The inner fatty
First of all, let's be honest. No - I'm not saying "inner fatty" to be mean. But come on. If you are
reading weight loss blogs, you probably have one. I have one. I will
always have one, no matter what my outer appearance is or how fit I am. I
will always have an inner fatty, lurking and waiting to pounce. It is my inner fatty that makes temptations so HARD to resist!
So - you're out to eat with some friends, and the menu is screaming at you. "CHECK OUT THESE NACHOS, BABY!! I'VE GOT THE CHEESIEST CHEESE STICKS AROUND! GO AHEAD! TRY MY TRIPLE DECKER MUSHROOM SWISS BURGER WITH ONION RINGS!!"
Or maybe you are at the end of a meal, regardless of whether you made a healthy choice or not, and now the dilemma presents: Should I order one of those Triple Chocolate Fudge brownies that looks ever so delicious on the dessert menu?
Maybe you are with friends (or on your own) and somebody (or yourself) suggests hitting up Five Guys for a burger. How about when your work environment constantly has doughnuts available? Or when there is a pot luck going on every other day for one reason or another?
Nobody is perfect. Even the most successful "losers" have given in...probably multiple or dozens of times during their journey. I know I sure have! I have an especial weakness for wine, which really is just a bunch of needless liquid calories. But I truly enjoy wine. Ummm, and doughnuts. And chocolate. And mushroom swiss burgers. And nachos and onion rings and mozzarella sticks. Mmm, and pizza. Oh, and most crappy food in general. (Can we say, HELLO inner fatty!!)
But once you learn how to say "no", it does get easier. You get used to it. You become proud of yourself for being strong. You learn what techniques work best for you. You can absolutely figure out how to tell your inner fatty to STFU!! You CAN win the war with your inner fatty!
But how? Here are a few of my tips. First, avoidance. If I can, I try to avoid a situation where I know crazy temptation will be. This won't always be possible, but for example - at my previous work place, I knew there were doughnuts available in a certain spot every Friday morning. I normally walked by that spot daily because it was the most direct route from place A to place B...but on Fridays, I would purposely take a different way, just to avoid even seeing the doughnut table. This might work with fast food places - if you go by one on your way to work and find yourself stopping too often - take a different way! Even if it means a few minute longer drive, who cares. You will save the time not waiting in line, you will save money not buying the crap, and most importantly you will save your health! When it comes down to it, your inner fatty can't rear his/her ugly head if you don't give her a chance to.
Another good one is distraction. This is easier said than done, but if there is a pot luck going on, contribute a healthy dish and encourage others to do the same. Then make a beeline for those healthy dishes, load up, and try to avoid the less-healthy options. Just distract yourself from the junk, with a plate full of healthy! Or if you find yourself sitting at your desk, craving one of those doughnuts that you know are lurking around the corner - chew some gum. Not only might it distract you, but even if not - a doughnut will taste like shit with a minty mouth :-) If you are at home, feeling munchy - go for a walk. Play with your kids. Read a good book. Just do something that you can get into, and that will help you forget your craving.
I love to look up calories! For example, there are 840 calories in a cheeseburger from Five Guys and another 310 in HALF an order of regular sized fries. Now think about that for a minute - how hard you work every other day. Maybe you exercise your butt off, or count calories...think about how this one meal (which will be over before you know it) is going to derail all of that hard work! I actually did this with Five Guys myself once...I was with a large group of people who mostly wanted Five Guys for lunch. Everyone ordered, I did not. Instead, when we got back to the house, I had some broiled garlic shrimp. It was delicious, and I saved 1000+ calories! TAKE THAT, INNER FATTY!
Planning is important! Maybe you are going out to eat...check out the menu ahead of time. Plan out what you are going to order and figure it into your daily calories. Then when you get there, stick with the plan.
Weigh yourself as little or as often as you need to in order to keep your inner fatty from getting out of control. Some people prefer to weigh in only once a week or once a month. Or even not at all, instead going off of inches or how their clothes are fitting. For me, more frequent weigh ins work best. I like to see the fluctuations and I like how I have gotten to know my body and how various things affect it. It helps me to plan and gauge my progress. I don't freak over the short term patterns...I only record my weight once a week, for example. But if I see that my pasta binge one night caused 2 lbs of water weight gain the next day, I might try extra hard to drink more water to flush out the bloat.
Keep sight of your goals and motivations. Write them down. Blog them. Put pictures on the fridge. Whatever it takes - just always "keep your eye on the prize". Before you down a 1500 calorie junk meal, ask yourself, is this short term happiness going to be worth it? What do I want more, this greasy food, or my health? If you answer the smart way, your inner fatty will die a little inside ;-)
Do you have any tips for beating the inner fatty? I'd love to hear them!
So - you're out to eat with some friends, and the menu is screaming at you. "CHECK OUT THESE NACHOS, BABY!! I'VE GOT THE CHEESIEST CHEESE STICKS AROUND! GO AHEAD! TRY MY TRIPLE DECKER MUSHROOM SWISS BURGER WITH ONION RINGS!!"
Or maybe you are at the end of a meal, regardless of whether you made a healthy choice or not, and now the dilemma presents: Should I order one of those Triple Chocolate Fudge brownies that looks ever so delicious on the dessert menu?
Maybe you are with friends (or on your own) and somebody (or yourself) suggests hitting up Five Guys for a burger. How about when your work environment constantly has doughnuts available? Or when there is a pot luck going on every other day for one reason or another?
Nobody is perfect. Even the most successful "losers" have given in...probably multiple or dozens of times during their journey. I know I sure have! I have an especial weakness for wine, which really is just a bunch of needless liquid calories. But I truly enjoy wine. Ummm, and doughnuts. And chocolate. And mushroom swiss burgers. And nachos and onion rings and mozzarella sticks. Mmm, and pizza. Oh, and most crappy food in general. (Can we say, HELLO inner fatty!!)
But once you learn how to say "no", it does get easier. You get used to it. You become proud of yourself for being strong. You learn what techniques work best for you. You can absolutely figure out how to tell your inner fatty to STFU!! You CAN win the war with your inner fatty!
But how? Here are a few of my tips. First, avoidance. If I can, I try to avoid a situation where I know crazy temptation will be. This won't always be possible, but for example - at my previous work place, I knew there were doughnuts available in a certain spot every Friday morning. I normally walked by that spot daily because it was the most direct route from place A to place B...but on Fridays, I would purposely take a different way, just to avoid even seeing the doughnut table. This might work with fast food places - if you go by one on your way to work and find yourself stopping too often - take a different way! Even if it means a few minute longer drive, who cares. You will save the time not waiting in line, you will save money not buying the crap, and most importantly you will save your health! When it comes down to it, your inner fatty can't rear his/her ugly head if you don't give her a chance to.
Another good one is distraction. This is easier said than done, but if there is a pot luck going on, contribute a healthy dish and encourage others to do the same. Then make a beeline for those healthy dishes, load up, and try to avoid the less-healthy options. Just distract yourself from the junk, with a plate full of healthy! Or if you find yourself sitting at your desk, craving one of those doughnuts that you know are lurking around the corner - chew some gum. Not only might it distract you, but even if not - a doughnut will taste like shit with a minty mouth :-) If you are at home, feeling munchy - go for a walk. Play with your kids. Read a good book. Just do something that you can get into, and that will help you forget your craving.
I love to look up calories! For example, there are 840 calories in a cheeseburger from Five Guys and another 310 in HALF an order of regular sized fries. Now think about that for a minute - how hard you work every other day. Maybe you exercise your butt off, or count calories...think about how this one meal (which will be over before you know it) is going to derail all of that hard work! I actually did this with Five Guys myself once...I was with a large group of people who mostly wanted Five Guys for lunch. Everyone ordered, I did not. Instead, when we got back to the house, I had some broiled garlic shrimp. It was delicious, and I saved 1000+ calories! TAKE THAT, INNER FATTY!
Planning is important! Maybe you are going out to eat...check out the menu ahead of time. Plan out what you are going to order and figure it into your daily calories. Then when you get there, stick with the plan.
Weigh yourself as little or as often as you need to in order to keep your inner fatty from getting out of control. Some people prefer to weigh in only once a week or once a month. Or even not at all, instead going off of inches or how their clothes are fitting. For me, more frequent weigh ins work best. I like to see the fluctuations and I like how I have gotten to know my body and how various things affect it. It helps me to plan and gauge my progress. I don't freak over the short term patterns...I only record my weight once a week, for example. But if I see that my pasta binge one night caused 2 lbs of water weight gain the next day, I might try extra hard to drink more water to flush out the bloat.
Keep sight of your goals and motivations. Write them down. Blog them. Put pictures on the fridge. Whatever it takes - just always "keep your eye on the prize". Before you down a 1500 calorie junk meal, ask yourself, is this short term happiness going to be worth it? What do I want more, this greasy food, or my health? If you answer the smart way, your inner fatty will die a little inside ;-)
Do you have any tips for beating the inner fatty? I'd love to hear them!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A quarter
If I had a penny for every pound I have lost....I would now have a whole quarter :-)
I am SO excited, and I did a little experiment to get there so I am glad that I have increased my knowledge. I found through trial and error that I am more likely to lose weight after days that I eat more calories (not a ton, but more, and healthy). On days that I have tried to be super strict, I am more likely to just stay the same. That isn't always the case, but it does seem to be a little of a trend. I imagine that with my exercise, my metabolism has improved and it takes a few more calories to fuel my body now. When I don't eat enough calories to compensate, the pounds all talk to each other saying "screw this, let's hold on for dear life, she NEEDS us, she is starving!"
At least, this is my theory.
I am SO excited, and I did a little experiment to get there so I am glad that I have increased my knowledge. I found through trial and error that I am more likely to lose weight after days that I eat more calories (not a ton, but more, and healthy). On days that I have tried to be super strict, I am more likely to just stay the same. That isn't always the case, but it does seem to be a little of a trend. I imagine that with my exercise, my metabolism has improved and it takes a few more calories to fuel my body now. When I don't eat enough calories to compensate, the pounds all talk to each other saying "screw this, let's hold on for dear life, she NEEDS us, she is starving!"
At least, this is my theory.
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