Category: General Weight Loss Tips

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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General Weight Loss Tips

Muffin Head

For Tuesdays breakfast I had a blueberry nut muffin with 1/2 cup whole organic yogurt, 1 T all-fruit strawberry jam and 1 T cashew honey butter. 445 calories

Later on in the day I had another muffin: 200 calories

For lunch I made Jamie Olivers/The Pioneer Woman’s Asian Noodle Salad (300 calories per serving)

Isn’t it beautiful?

I added almonds slivers and peanuts to mine.

I had two servings at lunch for a total of 600 calories.

Dinner was a shared frozen pizza. Appetizing eh?

Nothing like a greasy pizza photo taken with the flash. Total calories: 600

Total calories for the day: 1,845

Exercise: 45 minutes of Insanity, burned 400-500 calories

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General Weight Loss Tips

April Continues

Last week I was swamped. Catching up on projects, sending out jewelry, and doing a lot of cooking. I took photos of my food, but before I knew it I was going to bed. I just didn’t have the time and energy to post last week, but there was another issue going on.

This could have been preventable as it was a pattern and I see it now, but at the time I was annoyed and I let it get the best of me. The week before last when I was posting photos of my food everyday, I was also doing something else secretly: I was weighing myself everyday. This is a bad habit and it doesn’t consider the big picture. Logically I know this. But, I was losing. Every day the scale was lower and I was like a moth to a flame.

So Saturday in DC came and we ended up walking close to nine miles. I don’t walk a lot and it just about did me in. The next day I got on my friends scale and noticed that my weight was up. Water retention. And then the next day we walked some more and I ate a very salty Thai meal. And on Monday we drove home. Which caused another spike in my weight. When I travel, I blow up. I KNOW this about myself.

But when I got home and stepped on the scale all I saw was work undone and I was upset and annoyed. I know the lesson of this is: I retain water and that is the stage I’m in: losing water. I also know that exercise and travel always causes my weight to fluctuate.

Instead of being healthy about it, continue doing what I was doing (which was working) I just said “f this” and stopped. Everything. We ate out almost everyday last week and didn’t exercise until this past Sunday. If that wasn’t sabotage I don’t know what is.

Looking back, I wish I would have just shrugged it off, stopped weighing myself, exercise and watch what I was eating, and drink lots of water. It would have gone away and things would have evened out again. So this is my calling myself out on destructive behavior.

This is also me continuing what I set out to do this month: kick ass. And so it continues. Fluctuations are not the big picture. Five pounds up or down is not the big picture. Doing good consistently is.

And now I bring you my eats from yesterday (monday):

I was not hungry until about noon yesterday. Instead I drank lots and lots of water. I came home for lunch where I prepared a plate of rice, onions in masala sauce (trader joe’s), spinach (with dressing and a little feta), and half a slice of tandoori naan. Total calories: 535

Later on in the afternoon I was hit with the baking bug. I purchased a bag of Sucanat over the weekend and was itching to try it. You can read more about it here. What I miss most about being sweet-free is baking. I also miss having a muffin for breakfast and so I’ve decided to add natural sugars into my diet (I’ve been eating honey for awhile).

I loved getting in the kitchen and figuring out a new, healthier recipe for muffins. I can’t describe the satisfaction really, but these are quite good. I used whole wheat white flour, sucanat and my own apple sauce. They are a bit higher in calories than I had hoped, I used vegetable oil and filled the muffin cups pretty full- I like muffin tops, what can I say?

I followed Krissie’s advice and froze the rest for reheating throughout the week and to avoid eating too many. I ate two at 166 calories each.

For dinner I made a pepper, onion and spinach stir fry in a Chinese sauce over rice. This was surprisingly filling and low in calories. I actually calculated it several times to make sure I was correct. Calories: 300 (maybe a little less)

And for a night snack I made smoothies with bananas, milk, frozen mango, frozen cherries, a splash of vanilla and walnuts. About 250 calories

Total calories for the day: 1,417

Exercise: 45 minutes of Insanity, burned about 400-500 calories

Earned my sticker for the day!

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