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Weight Loss Exercise

Smoothies for Weight Loss



Trying to lose weight can be very difficult for many people. When you’re on a diet, you have to watch what and how much you eat. People often find it hard to prepare a meal that provides the right nutrition without going overboard in terms of calories. If you want to incorporate good nutrition into your diet, smoothies for weight loss can provide a healthy and balanced diet without unneeded calories.

How Does a Smoothie for Weight Loss Work?

Smoothies for Weight Loss

Smoothies for Weight Loss

To get the most weight loss benefit, start your day with a smoothie breakfast. We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A good breakfast jump starts the metabolism and helps your body burn more calories throughout the day. Many people make the mistake of eating a breakfast that is high in quick burning carbohydrates. This leads to hunger pangs and snacking very early in the day. The right breakfast smoothie recipe will curb hunger pangs while providing the body with the ideal amount of fat, proteins, fiber, and carbohydrates.

A smoothie recipe for weight loss contains the right balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates. The recipe should include whole fruits, yogurt and whey protein. Fiber from fruit helps to fill you up while eliminating the extra calories. With the right balance of nutrition, carbohydrates are metabolized more slowly to prevent a sugar rush followed by a sugar crash.

A healthy smoothie for breakfast is important because it sets the stage for the day. If you make healthy food choices at the start of the day, you are more likely to eat healthy the rest of the day.

Fruit Smoothies for Weight Loss

Smoothies are often made with a combination of fruits. High in fiber but low in calories, fruits are ideal for weight-loss smoothies. If you want to add fruit juices to your smoothie, make sure it has no added sugar. You may want to mix yogurt or tofu to give a creamy consistency. The protein and small amount of fat in yogurt and tofu also make you feel full longer.

There are many different fruits that you can add to your smoothie, including mangoes, berries and bananas. A banana and strawberry smoothie tastes delicious. You can also try other fruit combinations. Experiment with different fruit smoothie recipes and you’ll never get tired of the same diet foods.

Green Smoothies

One of the best smoothies for weight loss is a green smoothie. A green smoothie may not be everyone’s favorite drink but it is amazingly nutritious and has a very low calorie count. You may want to consider mixing leafy greens with a fruit smoothie if you are trying to lose weight. Spinach or kale can be combined with bananas and berries to make a good-tasting smoothie for weight loss. If you are not a fan of green smoothies, combine them with a strong-tasting fruit to mask the taste of the greens.

How to Make a Healthier Smoothie

Green smoothies and fruit smoothies are the most popular choices for weight loss. You can make your smoothies more nutritious by adding fat-free milk or unsweetened fruit juice. Smoothies are rich in many different nutrients and fiber but are much lower in calories, fats and sugar.

  • Smoothies for Weight Loss


Smoothies for Weight Loss

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Soul Food and The Diet

I can say with total confidence that there is nothing  nutritionally redeeming about this meal. It was floury, sugary, buttery, and deep fried. This is exactly that I ate Saturday afternoon, it was brunch and it was out of this world. For the past month I’ve allowed myself to have an indulgent meal or two on the weekends and this was no exception. Although I will say that I’ve had nothing truly this indulgent in a very long time.

I can also say with total confidence that if you’re ever in Roanoke Virginia, Thelma’s Chicken and Waffles is a must. This was by far the best fried chicken and waffle I’ve ever had. The waffle tasted like a snickerdoodle cookie. The potatoes were fried, buttered and seasoned to perfection. And the chicken was insanely good. We did not speak. We ate. I ate 3/4 of my waffle and gave the rest to Josh. It was that rich.

I will say though,  as good as this meal was, it did not make me feel good physically. Not that you’re surprised. I mean, look at it. Everything is brown!

This brings me to my next observation and thoughts and wonderment: my diet. For the past two months since I’ve changed up my diet (yet again) I’ve stopped buying the following: bread, cheese (occasionally I will buy raw cheddar or feta), milk, processed snacks such as crackers and cereal and frozen pizzas. Our meals at home consist of breakfast, eggs and bacon, yogurt with jam, or oatmeal with various mix-ins. Occasionally I will have a Kind bar or Pure bar. For lunch I will have stir fry, or a salad. Dinner is something Chinese inspired. I’ve been making vegetable stir fry with peanuts or cashews or a regular basis.

When I eat out on weekends, or at someone’s house, I eat pretty much what I want. Not excessively in portion, but just whatever is handed to me or I feel like eating. I still say no to sugar most of the time. This year, since giving up refined sugars, I can count on both hands how many times I’ve had dessert. Last year, I didn’t have enough hands.

In the past two months I’ve lost 18 pounds with stalls when I get out of “the zone”. It’s still a struggle. The internet makes me feel food shy, as in, scared to share. When you share, you invite criticsm and advice. Two things I don’t deal well with especially when it feels short sighted on unjustified. Nothing annoys me more than an opinion pretending to be authority. How do you guys deal with it? Why do we care so much about what other people eat?

And I’m no different. I follow the blog of a radio/tv personality who recently lost 60+ pounds. She looks great! But her daily food logs are disappointing. Her calorie goal is 1,100-1,200 a day. And most of those calories come from candy, coffee, cottage cheese, cookies and pizza crust to name a few. When she has what I would call a successful day of eating healthful foods, she calls a “bad” day because her calories float towards the 1,500 mark. I would never say anything directly to her in a comment, and I can guarantee she isn’t reading this blog. But, I know what it’s like to want to fix people. To want to suggest that they can do better. I get that.

But I’m getting to a point in my weight loss journey where it is hard for me to share. It is hard for me to say “I’m trying this” and then not following through exactly, or changing things around so much that my head spins. In the past two months I’ve lost 18 pounds, but I still feel like I’m spinning my wheels. Taking two steps forward and two steps back. I get in the zone. Where it’s easy. You guys know what I’m talking about. The weight loss zone, where everything is mindful, you feel hunger and full, you’re making good decisions, you’re feeling confident and positive, the scale is moving down. You can see your future self, continuing down this path. It’s like it never was before.

And then poof. It’s gone. You’re out of the zone and it feels like someone plunked you down in the middle of the sea without a life jacket. It happens quickly and without warning. And it leaves me wondering from the head space of assumed observers…was I too strict? not strict enough?  and why oh why can I not stick to anything?

This is why so many people stop blogging about weight loss. It is hard to continue putting yourself out there. To continue to observe, to continue to make new declarations, that this time, no really, this time I will do it. It’s gonna happen. And after five years, it’s hard not feel a little pain and discomfort from it. To have your failures in writing. It becomes glaringly obvious what you’re doing wrong, and everyone is happy to tell you.

I commend myself for continuing to be here. To continue to over share exactly why this is hard for me. I didn’t think I’d last this long. It is painful to still be here, right where I was before. To have clear mistakes and missteps right in front of me. To have the opinions of others who are in “the zone” hovering over me ready to lead me down the righteous path. Their path. Willing to hand over their key to success…if only you’d stop…if only you did this…all you have to do is that…this is where you’re wrong… this is what you should be eating…you’re too hard on yourself…you’re not hard enough… please stop eating bacon…please stop eating fruit… you just need to write it all down… just do what i did…

I realize that I contradict myself, I make big claims, I declare that I’ve changed. And I have changed. But I’m still fat. And some days I’m hopeful that I won’t always be, while others I wonder how I can be any other way. I’m dishing out my issues and my desire to change on a weekly basis. I know what to do, I know what it looks like, I even know what it feels like. I’ve had temporary success.

I love feeling exhausted from exercise. I yearn for the feeling of sweat and fatigue. I love the feeling of an empty stomach. I love the feeling of control that comes from documenting it all. I love the high from feeling above my weight, the feeling of I got this. But it’s oh so fleeting because as much as I strive for it all, I toss a brick at it any chance I get. To prove to myself, nope not this time.

So this is me un-declaring myself from all the promises I’ve made. The promise to stop eating sugar or flour until I’m at least minus 100 on the scale. The promise to do it all in one years time. To do it all quickly. To do it on your terms or their terms or by the book or the rules. There will be times when I pass on something to eat, just because. There may be times when I eat too much. I want to free myself shackles of weight loss, the guilt, the shame from not being there. I’m okay as a fat woman. I am beautiful. Have you seen my eyes lately? They sparkle. I have full lips. Hair that sometimes stays in place. I have hands that type for me. A mind that is endlessly curious.

All I truly want is to fill my heart with that which truly makes me happy. Overeating has never made me truly happy. The only declaration I can make is to stop eating for no reason, past fullness, past feeling, past emotions. To stop and think about what I’m doing to myself. I know and always have known what good food looks like for me. The only promise that I can make to myself is to stop eating past fullness or the wrong reasons. I can’t promise that it will always be the healthiest choice, or not involve butter, but I can make a real promise to eat less of whatever it is. To enjoy and savor, rather than stuff. A successful day is one where I eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full. If that involves anything from  fried chicken to a lovely salad, then so be it.

This is not a halt in the journey to be less fat, I thrive when I count calories. This is me claiming my fatness in an honest way. Why I’m still here and how I can strive towards a healthier body without punishment or belittlement. Without the temporary high that comes from The Zone. The self-righteous, I got this. Because I don’t. I never did. I don’t know what it looks like, but all I ask from myself and from you is to release me from expectations and perfection. I know there are healthier things to eat than bacon and eggs, but lord help me if I will stop eating them. I know fruit has sugar, but I will always congratulate myself for grabbing grapes instead of cookies, just like I did this afternoon.

 

 

 

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Dear April

My last entry accidentally got deleted. This has happened maybe twice since I started blogging four years ago and I think it happened when the server updated and it got lost. So I apologize for that, it wasn’t intentional, especially since it took me forever to write and now I have no interest in writing it again.

It’s April! I have so many plans and goals for this month that I’m very excited about. But first, I have some updates:

No Sugar. It’s been three months without sugar. I loosely say no sugar. I eat sugar in other forms such as fruit, natural sugars (I’ve added honey back in), and I will add sugar to a Vietnamese or Thai dish if it calls for it. It has been hard…some days harder than others. Right now I have cake and cookies in my house. I plan to give them away. It’s nice to not have them haunt me. I have sugar in the house, and I still bake. My treats are in the form of my glucosamine “candies”, Izze drinks, all natural fruit jam on toast/oatmeal/yogurt, and fruit smoothies. I’ve been hesitant to tell people I’m not eating sugar, in fact, if you don’t read this blog you probably don’t know.

I don’t want to be watched and I don’t want “sugar-free” to be confused with carb-free or have people think “oh she says no to ice cream, but yes to pizza! bah!” indeed so. This sugar-free thing is for cakes, cookies, ice cream…obvious sugar. It’s not a dietary guideline, it’s just me trying to get rid of something I have a hard time not overeating. I like rules.

No TV. I have to admit I’ve gone almost five weeks without my regular rotation of TV watching and will confess I’ve been watching Mad Men on DVD this past week (season four just came out). Not a ton, and not like before when I get obsessed and watch five in one sitting. But, considerably less. I’ve noticed that I don’t miss TV in the mindless sort of way of passing time or procrastinating- I can always find ways to fill my time with work. However- I’ve come to realize that watching an episode of a good show with Josh is a treat for a days worth of work. We both work from home and it’s a nice way to turn off from work and relax together.

Strength Training. Can I just say that I love strength training? I’ve been doing it off and on for almost five years now and it’s very rewarding. We picked it back up in January and I’m lifting weights that are 10-30 pounds heavier than I was then. We make notes during each session- can we increase the weight or stay the same. On February 3rd I could only do 80lbs. on the pull down machine (for arms, back and shoulders) and said I couldn’t do more.

Today I was able to pull down 120 lbs. That’s a 40 lb. increase in strength, meaning that I’m gaining muscle. This is the same for almost all of the machines I do. Did you know that for every pound of muscle you gain, your body burns 50 extra resting calories? Gaining 10 lbs. of muscle is 500 extra calories burned a day! I love that and I can tell that it is one reason that I’ve not gained any weight since January.

Insanity. This week marks the 12th week of Insanity! I’ve lost 12-15lbs (it’s goes up and down) so far. I just can’t believe we’ve stuck with it for so long. We are already in our second rotation. I will admit that the past couple of weeks have been harder, we’ve done at least three workouts a week instead of our usual six. So we are getting back on track with six workouts this week.

April plans and goals:

The next two months (and most of summer) are going to be pretty hectic. I really need to step up my organization and will need continued exercise and eating well if I’m going to stay on top of everything. Spring marks the beginning of  of jewelry shows and my freelance design business is growing so I can use all the energy I can get.

I’m stepping up my game this month. I’m dedicated to counting calories and keeping a food journal. My goal it to lose 10-12 pounds this month with continued exercise and food tracking. I have no interest (as usual) in doing this by eating “diet” food, my method is to eat less, control portions, eat from home as much as possible and enjoy the food I’m eating.

Continuing with 5 days of the Insanity Workout with one day of strength. We may add yoga and running back in if the spirits moves us. And speaking of us… Josh is wearing all of his jeans now. All of the jeans that just a month ago would too tight. I am still steadily wearing a size 24/22. I’d love to be in a 20/18 by mid to late summer.

What are your April goals?

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