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General Weight Loss Tips

What is Enough?

Yesterday’s breakfast was a banana nut muffin and hardboiled egg. Two breakfast items that I have ready for grabbing and eating in the morning. I love having healthy prepared food on hand for mornings that I just want to eat and not cook (most mornings). I almost always wake up hungry and this is enough food to keep me full until lunch time.

I’m always reminding myself that I can be full and satisfied on less food. By default, I always want to eat more. I hope over time my default will be “enough”. But, I have to remember that this is something I deal with and act accordingly. For now, I will want more muffins, more eggs…more. I don’t need it, I’m not hungry, it’s just a habit I’ve gotten used to. total calories: 270

I think about eating out and how most plates are filled with enough food for four meals. In a lot of ways we are conditioned to want more food. I find that I am scared of hunger. I’ve been known to order food on a menu that I think will give me the most food. Have you ever done that?

This meal was enough.

And around noon I was hungry again. It’s okay to be hungry.

Repeat from yesterday: boca burger on whole wheat with jalapeno cheese, spinach and a little mayo: 413 calories. Asian pasta salad, about 125 calories. total: 538

Mid-afternoon snack: muffin: 200 calories

More cranberry tea throughout the day:

Dinner was delicious. And honestly I was famished by the time I got to cooking.

One of my favorite quick and healthy meals. Spinach salad with 1/2 boiled egg, tomato, feta and vinaigrette dressing. Sweet potatoes cooked in the microwave until tender, sliced 1/4-1/2 inch thick and fried in a little olive oil on the skillet. Sprinkled with sea salt, garlic and cayenne. About 1/3 C rice noodles with grilled pork marinated in fish sauce, lime juice, garlic and sucanat. Total calories: 550-600

Another late night snack of a muffin: 200 calories

Total calories for the day: 1,758-1,800

No exercise! Boo to us! We really should have exercised before dinner. By the time we had dinner in us all we wanted to do was veg out. I ended up falling asleep on the couch to The Stand. I can’t make this stuff up.

We’re celebrating Easter with my family this weekend. My plan is to exercise before we hit the road this morning and again over the weekend. I want to be as active as possible. I’m even thinking about going to the rec. center for raquet ball.

I’m planning to make a big salad for easter dinner and fill up half my plate with it. I’m also going to make a carrot cake with natural sugar, whole wheat flour and lots of fruit and vegetables. And finally, I am reminding myself to drink lots of water, take photos and be mindful.

What are your holiday eating plans?

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Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

Staying Hydrated

I’ve been on my game this week with food and exercise, and you know what? It’s making everything else go a lot smoother. My stress is down, I feel good, I am hopeful, and I’m more productive. All of those things make me happy and life just a little more manageable. I believe everything is related and how I take care of myself is directly related to all other aspects of my life. I want to remember that.

I baked a new batch of muffins yesterday morning. Banana nut using white whole wheat flour and sucanat. There are about 200 calories each. I’m working on getting them even lower in calories by replacing some of the oil with applesauce or pineapples.

I love having muffins on hand this week. They are so easy, filling and delicious. Just 20 seconds in the microwave and breakfast is ready. I know what the ingredients are and I know that I don’t feel bad about anything in these muffins. They don’t give me that familiar spike and drop that muffins from my past have.

Lunch was so good! I love boca burgers, and pretty much all meatless (and meat!) burgers. I love burgers, what can I say? My maiden name is even Burger. I’m going to work on making my own meatless burgers next week, but for now these frozen ones are handy.

Whole wheat bun: 180 calories, boca burger: 140 calories, spinach: less than 5 calories, 1/2 oz. pepper jack cheese: 55 calories, 1 t mayonnaise: 33 calories. Total: 413

Another treat from yesterday is in the form of fruit tea. I’ve been coming up with various fruit tea concoctions and this one is my current favorite. I used regular brown ice tea mixed with unsweet cranberry juice. It’s about 10 calories a cup and very refreshing. It feels cleansing and is helping me  stay hydrated.

An ice cold glass of this truly feels like a treat to me. I had several glasses of it throughout the day. I’m started to understand the importance of hydration for exercise. I can go longer and harder when my muscles are hydrated.

The rest of the days food goes without a photo. I meant to take my camera to my creative women’s group yesterday but forgot as I buzzed out the door. We all brought healthy fare and my plate didn’t reach above 500 calories. I brought some of my leftover asian noodle salad. I enjoyed a carrot and cabbage salad. Two small chick pea patties. A small slice of whole wheat bread with olive oil and goat cheese melted on top. And one of my friends applesauce sweetened chocolate chip cookies.

When I got home I was still hungry so I enjoyed half of a bacon and spinach salad (one slice of bacon, half slice of bread, and lots of spinach) at around 150-200 calories and several rice and nut crackers at about 200 calories.

Total calories for the day: About 1,462-1,500

Exercise: 45 minutes of Insanity cardio (400-600 calories burned)

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Weight Loss Exercise

Crash Diets: Are They Good For Losing Weight?


Crash diets are any diets that are designed to make you lose weight in a very short period of time. Mostly, crash diets do not advertise themselves under that name, but are more likely to give themselves a more original name. They usually promise that you can lose “20 pounds in 2 weeks” or something similar. They often revolve around a gimmick, like the “Chocolate Bar Diet,” where you eat one chocolate bar every day and little else (I’m not sure if that’s even a real diet or not; it was just meant as an example).

Crash Diets: Are They Good For Losing Weight?

Do Crash Diets Work?

Do Crash Diets Work?

There are two main problems with any kind of crash diet. The first is that they pose health risks. Your body has certain nutritional requirements. If you have a weight problem, that means you are probably overeating. That is, you are taking in more calories than your body needs for optimum functioning. A crash diet takes you to the other extreme, forcing you to take in fewer calories than your body needs. This may sound like a balance -undereating to make up for overeating, but your body is not meant to go to such extremes.

Problems with Crash Diets

The other problem with crash diets is that, even when they work, the results are usually temporary. You can only undernourish your body for so long. Once you take off the weight you wanted to lose, you will have to go off the diet. At this point, you will most likely start to overeat once again, causing you to gain back the weight you lost. In fact, in many cases people actually end up gaining back more weight, putting them in a worse position than they were in before the crash diet.

Watch Out for Appeal of Crash Diets?

Crash diets can be appealing, because the promise fast results. However, you have to realize that losing weight in the long run requires some long term lifestyle changes. After all, you want to lose weight to be healthier. You may also want to look better, but hopefully you also care about your health. For this, your goal should not be to lose an unrealistic amount of weight in a short time, but to gradually lose weight in a healthy and natural way. This involves regular exercise and a diet that may involve cutting back on calories, but also includes enough nutrition to keep your body working at its best.

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