Real People. Real Solutions. Real Quick
What is the best way to be able to confidently look January 1 in the face? Losing weight before the Holidays.
Give yourself an opportunity to celebrate with some good food this season by taking a few pounds off now. Though you should still eat in moderation and keep up with your exercise routine over the Holidays (read more on preventing Holiday weight gain), adopting these simple tips should let you see a much happier New Year.
Continue reading ‘Holiday Weight Loss’
Yup, that’s right. The Holidays are approaching and with the joy also comes the despair: How to keep from waking up on January 1 feeling like a heffer.
I’ve rounded up last year’s articles from both of my blogs on keeping holiday weight gain at bay. With tips on how to eat better, how to trick yourself into eating less, and how to fit in some exercise, this year you might just be able to button your pants come January.
If you have any tips you would like to share on how you avoid Holiday weight gain, we would love it. Knowledge is power.
- Eat With Control This Holiday Season
- Keep Yourself from Bingeing This Holiday
- Simple Tricks to Keep Your Eating in Check Over the Holidays
- 5 Easy Ways to Keep the Holiday Pounds Off (It’s Easier Than You Think!)
Prepare now and have an enjoyable Holiday season.
If you saw my last post on backing off on sugar for a bit, you will see I am a “sugarholic.”
So I went seven days with no added sugars (OK, there was some sugar in my peanut butter. In fact, it’s hard to find peanut butter without sugars. Even my Skippy Naturals has sugar in it. What the…? Only Laura Scudder’s so far does not. But I digress.)
On the seventh day I had a Java Chip Light from Starbucks. Light is good, right? Except for one thing: It triggered my sugar craving big time because it does contain sugar. I was surprised. Seven days with no sugar, a little bit of sugar and then – bam!
Continue reading ‘And Sugar Makes Me Happy’
Really? Sugar is good for you?
Probably not. But for me, anyway, it’s good mentally. I live for sugar.
As humorist Erma Bomback would say, “Just think of all those women on the Titanic who said, ‘No, thank you,’ to dessert that night. And for what?”
I would never had said “no, thank you,” and I would have died a happy woman. Sugar is the elixir of life. It makes you happy, warm and fuzzy. Whether it’s in the form of dessert or Starburst, it’s a lovely and comforting chemical. (Starburst, BTW, are hard to eat while driving. All that unwrapping is probably not safe. Just suggesting.)
SUGAR SPREE
With all the deadlines I’ve been on lately, I’ve been a bit indiscreet with my sugar consumption. The last week or so it’s been sugar morning, noon and night. I’ve been so happy about it, too. Until yesterday, when I started to feel crappy. I disregarded my work and slept half the day away. I passed out last night and slept in this morning. I’ve been nauseous, too. Before you think I have the flu or some other illness, the truth is really this: I have a sugar hangover. And my body is rebelling.
So today I cut myself off of refined sugar.
Continue reading ‘Sugar Is Good for You’
Little quinoas everywhere.
I’ve never had quinoa before, which is surprising considering I’ve been a vegetarian for exactly 30 years. I decided to try it today for lunch. (And let’s face it – I haven’t been shopping and was running low on food options that don’t involve ice cream or crackers.)
Red quinoa has 2 grams of fat, 4 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of protein per serving – it’s gluten free, too. I microwaved it with a bit of vegetable broth (well, too much vegetable broth apparently because it was a too strong), and used it as a bed for my salad.
So what did it taste like?
Continue reading ‘What’s for Lunch? Red Quinoa’
If you’re reading this blog, you already know what I am talking about.
Overeating. Binging. Eating far too much, too fast. You know it’s bad for you. You know it’s unhealthy. You know it will often lead to more and more “bad” days until once again you can’t button your pants. After your eating spree you will wake up feeling bloated, fat, puffy, and sick. It’s the overeaters’ version of a hangover (the “foodover,”) at which point you ask yourself, “What was the point of that?”
Continue reading ‘Overeating when we know better’
[Click on the Weight Loss category to read earlier posts...from Day 1 and on.]
I have not been diligent about posting. This will be the last daily/every couple of day post. It’s time to move to weekly. And I haven’t not been posting because I haven’t been doing well - I’ve just been busy. You know, trying to make a living between writing, designing, training and teaching.
I’ve actually lost three pounds finally. Not a big deal I know, especially since I lost over 80 pounds before. But what’s important to me is that my pants are a bit looser. How can they be looser after only a three pound weight loss? Well, as of yesterday it was 20 days (minus one binge) of eating better and being more focused with exercise. 20 days is three weeks – enough to start seeing a change in body composition if not so much on the scale. So yay me!
I still had some muffin top going on in yesterday’s jeans, but I felt like I could move around in them better. I didn’t feel like I was suffocating or unable to lift my legs..and I was able to dance in them, even after eating a sizable portion of Pad Thai.
What this does is motivate me to keep going because, gosh darn it, some day I will fit back into ALL my pants. That is my ultimate goal. Not some number of the scale.
Continue reading ‘Losing Weight: Days 19-21 – Looser Pants’
[Click on the Weight Loss category to read earlier posts...from Day 1 and on.]
“I’m back…back in the saddle again.” The famous line from Aerosmith’s “Back in the Saddle Again” rings through my head as I write this.
I’ve been back in the saddle since my fateful slip on Day 14. While it amazed me how much fatter I felt after just one binge, it’s equally amazing how much thinner I feel a few days later. I’ve been back in control four days now and it’s going well. I think I scared myself straight.
One of the lessons I learned this last week was that all work and no play makes Helen a very bored girl. And a bored girl left alone with a tray of really good brownies and a bag of M&Ms is apt to find a way to entertain herself.
Another valuable insight I discovered is that:
Like earthquakes, we can feel binges coming on. The stress builds – your control cracks – more stress builds – more cracks appear – then wham! Earthquake (or binge, as it were). We need to recognize the pre-shocks and find ways around them.
Continue reading ‘Losing Weight: Days 16-18 – Don’t Give Up’
Ouch.
I feel off the wagon yesterday. Far off the wagon, bumping along down the road as I went headfirst.
Bump.
Bump.
Right into the yummy brownies. Into the heavenly M&Ms. Into the Cheese Its (ugh. They were nasty.)
Why? Because I was tired. And probably because I took the happiness of eating away and did not replace it with something that would make me equally as happy.
All work and no play = binge. Big time.
Continue reading ‘Losing Weight: Days 14-15 – Off the Wagon’
I’m taking the weekend off from blogging about weight loss.
On the bright side – when I got on the scale this morning I was down 1.5 pounds. Finally!
I had a few food challenges to overcome today: Pizza with family members and then a trip to the movies, which meant popcorn. Movie theater popcorn is very, very high in calories and fat. The Center for Science in the Public Interest found that a Regal theater medium popcorn, about 20 cups, contains 1,200 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat. So although I had maybe 1/3 of a medium popcorn (sneaking handfuls from the kids), I am still looking at 400 calories and 20 grams of fat – for a snack. And this is in addition to the 1.5 slices of cheese pizza I had for lunch and the brownie I just had for dessert. My total calories today were probably around 2,000 – not low enough for weight loss but not enough to gain, considering I burned at least 500 calories at the gym this morning. It’s so hard to burn calories and so very easy to pack ‘em in.
I didn’t continue eating junk after the dessert brownie. When you finally reach this point of control – you know you are on your way to success.
It’s about looking at the week, not one particular day. Eating more today means that tomorrow will be a lighter day to compensate.
Onward and forward.
Until tomorrow.
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