Beyond Mom » Fitness

The Primal Blueprint (Day 1)

jennydecki — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:40:41 +0000

It’s food experiment time!!

Time again to fix the diet that is making my husband tired, me fat, and the kids ditzy. Ok, maybe there are some other factors but diet is surely one of them. I have not been happy with the way any of us are eating and if you look at my recent LoseIt! history you will be as amazed as everyone else that I can gain and lose weight almost effortlessly eating the same things.

So it must be the food that’s wrong.

Now, I’m no nutritionist, and the nutritionists I’ve talked to at hospitals and in other settings have always advocated the food pyramid and insisted that I had to eat breakfast. Most important meal of the day even if I’m not hungry and all that.

I hated it.

I’ve also tried the Atkins diet but am so disgusted by the thought of no more vegtables or only certain low carb vegtables … I don’t think it’s sustainable.

Isn’t there some kind of blueprint – I kid you not I used the term blueprint – to tell me what to eat and how much that’s not a cartoon plate?

Then something interesting happened.

I’ve been a fan of coconut oil for a while. Ever since I got a sample from Tropical Traditions and made popcorn I’ve been totally sold on coconut oil as a great cooking oil. Then I ran across this post about using coconut oil called 122 Ways to Use Coconut Oil and one of them led me over to Mark’s Daily Apple and there they talk about the book The Primal Blueprint and the primal diet. (I got my book from the library)

Where you can have a pork chop and a salad and it’s not only ok, it’s the right thing for your body.

I talked to my husband about energy and mental clarity and he was on board.
I talked to the girls and they are on board. I was surprised, but really proud of them, they want to try the experiment, too! They did balk a little at “no peanut butter” but even that they overcame quickly and without much drama!
I had a conversation with myself and got over that I’d be cooking more eggs (I can’t eat eggs, they make my stomach hurt really bad, so I kind of hate cooking them because I used to love them) and would only be eating cheese or dairy sporadically, I was okay and on board.

So we are doing 30 days of primal to see how it works for us. If it has positive effects, then it’s going to be the way my family eats and will no longer be considered an experiment.

Today I’ve had beef, pork, a big salad, and some strawberries. The girls have had pounds of fruit, scrambled eggs, and salad/pork for lunch. (Since 6am – not at their last sitting! LOL)

Just because of the way my family runs, we do our “dinner” at around 3-4. Nighttime we have a light snacky type meal, not a full on 7pm dinner because no one sleeps well if we do.

Also? It’s ok not to eat breakfast if you’re not hungry. Or you can have a smoothie instead. I like it already.

Day 1 Results

I don’t feel deprived or angry or hungry. Nice!
The girls feel like they won the food lottery because the three of them got to split a container of blueberries, grapes, and strawberries for breakfast then a couple hours later got scrambled eggs.
My husband – well let me ask him – he says, “I feel pretty good. I just chilled my coffee with a little ice instead of milk.”

So far…so good. I’ll keep you posted on how it continues to go.

Note: There are no paid links or affiliate links in this post. One link looks like an affiliate link and I don’t know why. None of the people mentioned in this post know I’m posting. I am not a dietition or expert. Please talk to you doctor before making changes in your family’s diet.

3 Ways to Soothe Hunger Pangs

jennydecki — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:53:31 +0000

When you’re used to eating a lot and then you decide to go and stop eating a lot there’s a good deal of time where your gut (a real term for the brain system in your tum-tum area) is all confused. It wants what it’s used to. It wants more. You have to gently transition your gut from too much to enough and here are a few ways to do that.

First, realize that the crazy you feel is coming from your stomach and you are not really going to go insane if you don’t eat. Then, take a few deep breaths. When my hunger pangs get bad they make my teeth ache. Seriously. It’s horrible and makes me feel like I need to eat RIGHT NOW OR I’LL DIE – it sucks.

Of course, the best thing to do is time your meals so you don’t get that hungry. But when that doesn’t happen – because you’re human and things happen – here are four ways to soothe those massive hunger pangs. Also, please make sure to eat enough calories for the day to properly fuel your body. This is for pangs while you’re learning your bodies real signals, not tips for crash starvation diets!

Hot Tea or Coffee

While you should try to go decaf in order to not have an addiction to a crazy-powerful drug, it’s the warmth and the water that are the #1 ways to soothe your tummy and make those pangs settle down. My favorite hunger-balm tea is Pomegranite Rose from Zhena’s Gypsy Tea (not a sponsored link).

If you do have tea or coffee, please don’t ruin it with a bunch of sugar and cream. The point of the tea/coffee is to soothe your tummy, not add unwanted calories to the mix. Green tea is also supposed to help pangs, but that’s not really a proven thing. Also, the smell of coffee is supposed to help hunger pangs, also not proven.

See what works for you and then keep a stash of your favorite handy to make quickly. When the crazy-hunger hits, you don’t want to have to search your kitchen cabinets for tea bags because it increases the chances you will just give up and grab a snack instead.

Exercise

This is another one that only works if your hunger pangs are fakers and not because you’re truly hungry. Get up and move. If you’re doing something you’re not focusing on your hunger. Not focusing on your hunger makes it less obvious and bothersome.

If you don’t have the time or ability to walk around the block and get some fresh air and away from your fridge, then do an exercise video. Can’t do an exercise video? Clean something. Heck, maybe clean out the dishwasher – that’s gross and might help get you through to mealtime.

Eat Your Veggies

If you can’t ignore it, can’t clean it away, and can’t make it to your next meal or snack then you have no other choice but to eat some food! Don’t make it a big deal. If you have to eat, you have to eat, it’s okay. Don’t feel guilty or bad or gross about eating, because that will make you more likely to give up and grab a cookie instead of feeling good about your decision and choosing a healthy food.

There are veggies, there are fruit, there are portion controlled servings of cereal, whole grains, or peanut butter. There are healthy fats like avocados. There are so many ways you can eat and still feel good about yourself!

Foods aren’t good or bad – they’re just food. Some are healthy, some are unhealthy, some are packed with nutrients, some are cupcakes. They can all have a place in your life. Some more than others!

Do you have any great tips for abating fake hunger or getting through to that next snack or meal? I’d love to hear them!

Four Ways to Fit Exercise Into Your Day

jennydecki — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:02:50 +0000

Don’t Commit Yourself

We all want to rock out our workout first thing in the morning to get it out of the way, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen that way. The snooze button gets hit, the kids spill milk on their pants and extra time is spent getting everything ready so she doesn’t smell sour all day, or you realize that the kids are out of hot lunch money at school, you don’t have singles, and you need to get a lunch ready with nothing but peanut butter, jelly, and a child with a peanut allergy in your kid’s class. (or your child with the peanut allergy – whatever)

These things can be an instant downer and push your workout out of the morning completely. You look at the clock and realize you’ve got no chance to fit your morning workout in. Don’t freak out! Find another time during the day to fit it in. Even if it’s after the kids are in bed, get it in, you’ll be glad the next day you did.

If you are a night person and usually work out at night, find another way to get your workout in. If you usually run and it’s raining, do a video inside. Have multiple back-up plans so you can get your exercise in. It doesn’t work if you only work it sporadically.

Don’t Be A Clock Watcher

Again, if your schedule is hectic – and come on, who’s isn’t? – you may find yourself with fifteen minutes in your day where you finally have a chance to breathe. Use it! Life doesn’t run on a tight schedule and neither should you. If you only have fifteen minutes, get out a 1 mile Walk At Home and power walk your break.

Maybe you only have ten minutes until you need to make dinner. Get in ten minutes of your workout and then redo it when the kids are in bed. It’s better to workout 30 minutes a day in three chunks than to skip them all because the timing just isn’t working for you. I understand you won’t feel that sense of accomplishment that you do when you get your workout in from beginning to end and then stretch it out, but you also won’t feel as bad as if you skipped the whole thing.

Eating Before – Eating After

Have easy to eat meals and food on hand. Not so you can graze all day or anything – that would be not-so-great for your health and well-being – but so you don’t have to choose between making some long, drawn-out egg white omlette and exercising. Eat an apple, have a yogurt – and then work out. If you prefer eating after your workout then reverse the order and get moving!

If you own a microwave and can eat eggs (I do not and cannot – sigh) then here is a quick and easy morning breakfast recipe packed with protein. Meal-in-a-mug challenge sponsored by Egg Beaters (It’s a post by Miz Fit – whom I adore)

Don’t Limit Yourself

Non-standard workouts count! If you have to choose between taking care of the kids and doing a video – choose option C (all of the above). Personally, I like to throw in a DVD and have the kids do my workouts with me (keeping healthy as a family and all that) but when they don’t want to I’ll take them outside and race them to the end of the block and back as many times as I can handle.

The kids get worn out (yea!) and I get my exercise in. It’s not a tape, I don’t know exactly how far I’ve gone, but I feel good about myself. I’m looking into getting either a Striiv or a Fitbit so if you have any opinions on that, please share them with me – I’m kind of paralyzed and can’t make a decision. But I know I did a good thing playing with my kids, being a great parent, and getting exercise in the old fashioned way – play!

So what can you do? Play with your dog, cat, kid, or run back and forth in front of your fishtank – whatever you can do to get your heartrate up and be active.

I hope these will help you get over some of your reservations when you feel like you don’t have time. I was totally inspired to write this by a post I saw over at Miz Fit so go up and check out the microwave recipe and then hang out on her site – as long as possible – because you’ll learn so much and smile a lot. She’s worth your time.

The biggest, most important thing to remember is to try and not be all or nothing about your workouts. You don’t have to do it perfect every time. Be consistent – or as consistent as possible – and eventually you’ll find your routine and find those days where everything goes wrong and your workout is messed up happen less and less.

Be kind and forgiving to yourself, but don’t give up!

I Fear Over-vitamin-ing is Occuring.

jennydecki — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:41:41 +0000

There are documentaries that tell me vitamins are worthless, and others that tell me vitamins are essential and can cure cancer.

What’s a girl to do?

Land squarely in the middle, I guess.

I take vitamins for the things that scare me (Lutein for eyesight, for example) and leave the rest alone. I do take a multivitamin, too, because it seems like a good idea.

My “just the tip of the iceberg” brings me to a solid intake of 6 vitamins a day. Which seems like a lot, but not compared to that one guy I saw on the Obsessed show where he obsessive-compulsively took a metric ton of vitamins a day. Of course, since I don’t have OCD it may be an unfair comparison to say, “Hey, I’m doing great next to the guy that needs exposure therapy!”

But even if it’s just the placebo effect that makes me feel better, I feel better taking vitamins than I do taking pharmaceuticals whenever possible. They seem more…safe. Or less dangerous. Which are two different measurement scales, in my mind.

Whatever. I’m sick and I need a boost or I’ll NEVER get through my math homework. Math requires clarity and focus and I have the sniffles and aches and pains. The aches and pains are more from slipping on the ice two nights ago and landing flat on my back (my glasses flew off my face and behind me a couple feet) and not the stupid cold that won’t just go away.

Or maybe if I can convince myself I’m too sick to work I can crack open the red blend I got from the store the other day and see how it tastes. It’s called Apothic Red and looks cool as all-get-out. In addition to my two bottles of Chateau Ste. Michelle (also known as the “grown ups boones farm” for those in the know) I could forget all about being sick.

Hey just because I want to drink three bottles of wine and pretend it will work the same as NyQuil, I will probably have one glass. But a girl can pretend, right?

Where do you fall on the vitamin spectrum? Do you take a multivitamin? Do you skip them entirely? Or do you have a selection of Greatest Hits that you stock up on when they go on sale at the drugstore?

Tony Robbins, Self Help 101, and Being Awesome

jennydecki — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:50:32 +0000

Everything is okay. I don’t want you to think that because I’m talking about Tony Robbins or Self Help that I’ve got a crisis going on. I re-evaluated the pricing on my school stuff and I’m okay with it. A basic cost-benefit analysis reveals that the amount of time it would take to research and fix the problem would cost more time than the money I would save doing so. I”m happy with my choice.

Every Time I Think I Found My Passion

How many times have you heard someone say, “Find your passion and you’ll never work a day in your life”? Or, “What is your passion?” passions are tricky what if I’m wrong what if my personality isn’t what it needs to be to be what I think my passion is. What if what I think I’m passionate about really is just something else I can be really good at but not enjoy, you know, like writing.

So I Turn To Self Help

Being a Smarty McFarty makes it difficult because when I turn to self help it can’t be total b.s. The self help needs to be simple but not stupid. Clear but not written in a way my five-year-old understands. I need smart + basic to = excellent self help.

I have decided to use self help to check my premises. The stuff you always believe to be true but that may not be anymore and taking the time to re-check my basic beliefs about my wants, needs, and goals without pressure from some outside crisis is the perfect time to get a real answer. Plus, it can help me set up systems that I can fall back on if a crisis does occur. Systems I don’t have to learn when I’m feeling under the gun with pressure.

Why Tony Robbins?

I know you have probably heard me whine about how much I dislike TED presentations. A bunch of successful people talking to each other about ideas. I love ideas as much as the next girl and I come up with oodles of them but…I don’t know…it all seems so genius-circle-jerk to me. But usually I hear about Tony Robbins from people who wear Velcro because they aren’t capable of tying their own shoes and think the ultimate in success is a great Dungeons & Dragons game. But I went for the TED presentation because I figured even Tony Robbins couldn’t phone it in with a crowd of geniuses. There he was on stage goodness knows how long ago (look it up) swaggering, being smart, cussing during his speech, keeping it low key and simple. I was SOLD.

Here. See for yourself.

Unfortunately I”m about 20 years too late to be able to actually SEE Tony Robbins because he’s off talking to really important genius types or saving small villages from crack. Whatever. The average person talks to someone who has been trained in the Tony Robbins “way” – yeah, I know how well people learn their craft…I don’t want someone else…I want Tony Robbins.

If At First You Don’t Succeed

But I try and prop myself up with the knowledge that there are books and there are – it seems – thousands of YouTube videos (all making sure to clarify that Tony’s passion is why people do what they do – I’ve heard it a thousand times) and I have access to all of this for my internal version of Spring cleaning.

Why Not Zig Ziglar

I totally respect that other people love the Zig Ziglar. He has good stuff to say. But I just can’t listen to that down-home tone and message without wanting to vomit a little in my mouth. I watched his Prime the Pump video and couldn’t get past the fact that he was pumping an actual pump on a pedestal. While I think his message is 100% right on, I just cannot deal with the delivery system. I’m glad he has helped so many and am sure he will continue to do so – even posthumously – but that’s just not my speed.

I need more of an urban edge. It also doesn’t hurt that Tony Robbins looks like someone I know so I find him much more friendly-looking than other self help helpers.

Why Some Self-Help Person?

The reason I decided to rock the self help people is because I have all the complex questions of my life answered – for now – and when you’re not putting out fires or trying to save yourself or others…that’s the time to work on your basics. Get down to the premises and see what’s really important to you.

Most self-help gurus ask you to look at yourself and determine what the most important thing is to you. Tony Robbins has five or ten so things like control, certainty, uncertainty that you need to rate to see what kind of person you are and then figure out what you want to do.

Well. If you’re in a time of crisis, you will answer those questions VERY differently than if everything is pretty ok across the board in your life. If you answer them in a time of crisis you will not get the real answer, but only an answer that’s real until the crisis you’re in wears off. Then, the help becomes outdated and you forget your answers to the questions and you also don’t go back to see who you are once you are not in crisis.

Self-help is only really helpful when you don’t actually NEED help at a given moment. Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are books for specific problems you can pick up when you’re in crisis. But your Zig Ziglars and your Tony Robbins-es and the other general make your life great teachers? You just can’t do that kind of stuff when you’re freaking out, because they give you the tools. If your house is burning down and you haven’t already got the tools stashed in your car to turn on a water main you’re not going to look for tools, you’re going to look for a fire hose. The biggest, easiest solution to your immediate problem.

So, since I’m doing just fine, I’ve decided to do a little mental spring cleaning. I’m going to take a look at some of my basic premises and beliefs and make sure they still make sense. Check for cognitive dissidence in my thought patterns (the belief of two opposite things at the same time – your basic abortion vs. death penalty thought process). It’s like taking your car in for a tune-up. You’re not getting anything fixed, you’re just increasing the performance of your already-running car.

How about you? What do you do when you feel like you need a mental tune-up on your brain?

Ankle Part Seven-Thousand: Vitamins and Atkins

jennydecki — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:09:32 +0000

I’m thinking I could use a little extra help healing, right?

So what’s a smart girl to do?

Go to the vitamin section and start rocking out with the muscle-building vitamins. Enter Co Q-10. I have heard everyone from my doctor to my pharmacist to random people who’ve seen me limp in public recommend it. I took it when I was pregnant (maybe that’s why D is the Mack Truck of babies) and realized I wanted to start taking it again. At $45 a bottle I was lucky it was buy one get one free at Walgreen’s or I would have cried buying it. Of course, that $45 bottle was the 200mg that will last me three months. So with the buy one get one I spent $45 for six months of Co-Q-10. Also it has something to do with mitochondria – and if there’s one thing I learned from Parasite Eve, it’s that the mitochondria are VERY important to keep happy and healthy so you don’t spontaneously burst into flames. (That was for you, two people who’ve played that video game…all for you…)

So. Much. Awesome.

So I’m braced, looking out for my mitochondria, and doing other stuff like propping it up to keep my ankle from getting any worse and, hopefully, maybe even helping to speed my recovery.

In that same vein, I’ve been reading about food intake and this and that and almost bought something else at Walgreen’s last night but didn’t because I was scared of it. HGC. I don’t know what the hell it is but I read like three books over the last week that talked about it being essential for your hypothalamus in order to be all, “Oh hai you’re not supposed to hold onto all that fat!” Because even though I’m eating less and losing weight it doesn’t seem healthy that I’m eating less than my kids. No, really. They eat good kid amounts of food. I eat less. Than a 40 pound child.

F that. Seriously. That CANNOT be right. I’m not sedentary, either, but EVEN IF I WAS eating less than a child is screaming that there is another explanation for the issue. So after reading and reading and reading and checking out struggling people, successful people, people who used to be successful but now aren’t and people who have succeeded after a diet relapse. I’m going on the New Atkins program.

Because NEW Atkins has you eating veggies from day one. Which means it’s not insane like OLD Atkins. Plus lean meat is not discouraged and if you have very lean meat you need to balance it with fat in the form of “a pat of butter or a tablespoon of olive oil” – I’m pretty sure we can all agree that’s not going to make you a beast in a mumu. Three meals, two snacks, 4-6oz. of protein in each meal and … I don’t remember what the snack guidance was. But 20 carbs a day and 15 of those carbs are from veggies. Plus, there are zero carb veggies, so eat up leafy green lovers! I’m a leafy green lover and that’s what kept me away from Atkins since I did it like 10 years ago – I couldn’t NOT eat salad. Eating salad = FAIL also makes NO sense. I’m done eating in a way that makes no sense. Oh, and F the food pyramid, too. Something is wrong with that, too, I just can’t put my finger on what.

Plus the extra protein from New Atkins will help me not F up my muscle in my ankle any more than it is right now.

I really don’t want to limp forever if I can avoid that, kwim?

Cinch!: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches! (review)

jennydecki — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:15:33 +0000

If you’re looking for an expert with a bestseller already under her belt to tell you how to lose weight and keep it off without cravings or endless agony, Cinch!: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches! will be a great book to add to your library!

Cynthia Sass (Twitter – Facebook – Website) is the author of Cinch! but is also well-known for her previous bestseller, the “Flat Belly Diet.” The new book brings her knowledge and experience to a new 30-day program that’s good for any lifestyle!

The goals of Cinch! are both simple and complex:

End Overeating

Yep. That’s it. Told you it was simple and complicated all at the same time!

Cynthia and her research have come to the conclusion that the best way to get to the place where you just don’t overeat anymore is to balance how you combine your food at each meal. The combination can either leave you feeling bloated and unsatisfied or, by following Cinch!, you can end your meals feeling full and satisfied and as a bonus of choosing the right foods you will also rock your metabolism and burn fat.

It’s not just a 30-day plan, either. It starts with the 5-day Fast Forward plan. The Fast Forward plan gets your erratic eating in check by focusing on five simple foods. A diet for omnivores and vegans alike, the first 5 days of the plan should see you at up to 8 pounds of weight loss. That’s because the five foods are low in calories but packed with nutrients and natural hunger-fighters that keep you feeling full longer while getting those junk foods out of your everyday diet.

All the meals in Cinch! are created for you and are fully interchangeable. Vegan and vegetarian options are covered as well.

This is a diet for everyone (that has talked to a health care professional to make sure they can go on a diet at all, no jumping in without making sure you’re healthy enough to go on a calorie-restricted diet!) written by a professional that is the weight loss blogger for Shape magazine and knows what she’s talking about.

Cinch is available at these online retailers – so no matter where you like to shop there’s a store for you:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/o2oCinch
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/CinchBN
Borders: http://bit.ly/CinchBrdrs
IndieBound: http://bit.ly/CinchIndie

Disclaimer: This review included me actually reading the book and thinking it makes good sense for people who want to follow a calorie-restricted diet while eating foods in certain combination in order to increase the feelings of fullness. I received the book for free and the opportunity was given to me through the One2One Network.

Does This Ankle Brace Make Me Look Fat?

jennydecki — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:02:02 +0000

Just kidding – it lives under my pants, how could it make me look anything, really?

But since last night when I almost fell over in the bookstore, I decided it was time to bring in reinforcements for my poor ankle that does not seem to want to heal. I mean, it does when I’m in warm areas and don’t move or put any pressure on it – then it’s fine – so much so it’s easy to forget when I stand up that there’s a problem and it leaves me yelping before I think maybe public places are not yelp-appropriate.

So J and I went to Walgreen’s and hit up the “old people” aisle. The one we all know we’re going to do a LOT of shopping in the older we get. I don’t mean it in a derogatory way at all, but you generally don’t see a bunch of teens or 20-somethings hanging out in the cane and bedpan aisle all, “What’s up, dude? Where you been? Over by the cologne? That is SO last year, this year is shower seats and heating pads, yo!” Yeah, all the rage.

The problem is I have this huge instep. My foot is rounded on top. It’s not a pile of fat, but it has made shoe shopping kind of an abomination since I was old enough to realize there was a store full of shoes and about three pairs would fit me. That is some serious frustration.

So J suggested trying on the ankle braces. I was all, “Oh hey, this isn’t a shoe store!” and she was all, “You really want to buy them all and return the ones that don’t work JUST so you can try them on at home instead of in the aisle at Walgreen’s? What? Don’t want to be judged?” Which made me realize I was just being silly and the trying-on began.

Four ankle braces later and we put the one on I’m wearing now. It’s lightweight, easy to put on, fits into my shoe, and is black. All things that will help me mask it under my black pants, in my black shoes, over my black socks. It does have a little white tag on the front and I’ve been staring at my black Sharpie all morning wondering if it would look better if I colored the tag or cut it off.

I also (finally) bought new sneakers. I have a pair of amazing running shoes, but they adjust for my very slight pronation so they KILL to wear with the owie ankle. My regular walking shoes have insoles in them because I’ve had them for three years and wore them the heck out. This was before I was informed that you’re only supposed to wear sneakers about six months or 400 miles or something because they wear out – just like anything else you use almost every single day. (That was a serious “duh” moment on my part.) While I was at the store (It’s a store I hate more than anything but they have the best shoe selection for my awesome size 11 feet) I also ran across an adorable pair of black flats so had to pick them up, too. I don’t shoe shop often and if I told you how long ago I got my current pair (yes, that’s singular, did I mention I hate shoe shopping?) of black flats you’d probably cringe.

So now I’m the proud owner of two pairs of black flats (well one has a quarter-inch heel, but isn’t that splitting hairs?) and a new pair of gym shoes to walk from the train to work. Plus an ankle brace to help me get to work without crying, which will be a big plus this week.

Next post? The vitamins I bought. Oh yeah, I’m going to heal this ankle if it kills me. Oh, and Atkins. Yeah, the new one. It’s different than the old one, I promise.

A New Weight Watchers? This Just Might Work!

jennydecki — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:37:01 +0000

I can only imagine how hard it must be for some people seeing the new points system that nudges them toward healthy choices, a woman is quoted in the New York Times as saying on the online message board,

“I don’t want to be forced to choose veggies. I do NOT like veggies or fruit,” one member wrote in an online discussion on the Weight Watchers Web site. “I feel like I am being forced to ‘diet,’ and that is what I DO NOT WANT.”

You know what? Disliking things that are healthy for you and wanting to eat diet foods that are processed and canned and have nitrates? Cry me a river. Seriously. If you want to put snickers bars in your gas tank, you can, but it will ruin the car. Why do you think you can do the same to your body – put crap into it – and not be breaking it?

When someone tells me they don’t like fruits and veggies, I hear, “I don’t want to give my body the fuel it needs.” I then stop caring about their weight loss sorrows. Because I don’t like whole grain pasta. So I don’t eat any pasta except for a very small side dish when my husband makes it for the kids. If I can’t find a replacement for white-four-based pasta and I don’t like whole grain pasta – it’s bye bye pasta altogether. I don’t say “I don’t like it” and continue to eat bowls and bowls of the regular pasta.

I mean, how entitled is that? Other people would love access to veggies, fresh OR frozen, and there are actually people that are angry because most fruits and veggies now have zero points.

Anyone who can’t understand why an orange is zero points and 8oz. of orange juice is 3 points needs to do more research on nutrition. Joining Weight Watchers is not a substitute for learning and knowledge. It is there to help.

And I’m really excited about the new points system. It makes sense to me. It may, upon closer inspection, be the way people are actually supposed to eat for running an efficient, well-tuned body. At least the food aspect!

So I, who have never even considered joining Weight Watchers before, who thought the point system was screwed up and did not promote health – just might be changing my tune. I need to see more information to make a real decision and figure out if I’m going to join or not, but if it can help me reach my goal, I’ll be joining.

No matter what I do, I think Weight Watchers should be applauded for being willing to make this change to a system that has become entrenched in brains of so many women. It’s a risky move. Really. I know a few people that know the point values for EVERYTHING and now that’s going to change. It could alienate those women.

But it will bring in many more women who have a goal of health. Not just eating gross processed diet foods and not caring about what those things do to our bodies. It will work with my lifestyle.

Gosh, I guess I’m more excited to learn more about the new Weight Watchers PointsPlus plan than I originally thought! But, that being said, I need a food scale. I’d ask my husband to get me one for Christmas, but then I’d kill him if he really did. I mean, who wants a food scale for Christmas from their skinny-minnie husband? LOL Between that and wanting HeavyWeight Yogaand a fitbook(or a FLogg) I seriously could make myself the most amazing gift basket. It would rock SO hard. The ultimate healthy love-yourself gift basket.

Maybe I’ll make one and find someone to give it to as a way of giving this holiday season. Because I’m doing a pretty good job releasing weight and you know what, I’m going to continue to do so by staying away from judgement and drama and feelings of my achievements not being good enough. Especially important with the sprained ankle and the number one reason I’m looking to get the yoga dvd. I could modify to keep pressure off of my ankle, I think.

Disclaimer: While I'd love to do an in-depth sponsored review of the new
Weight Watchers PointsPlus plan and will probably add it to my PR Wish
List (if I remember) this is not a sponsored post. The amazon links to
stuff I love are affiliate links so I might make like five cents if you
buy something through one of the links.

Quick But Important Weight Loss Update

jennydecki — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:59:43 +0000

After my utter frustration at gaining a pound one of the three days after my surgery where I did not eat any food (solid or otherwise) and only had 2-3 sips of water during the day due to the horrible nausea, I decided to just …

… wait for it, this is gonna sound stupid …

…RELEASE IT!

Ok, I know you’re thinking I’m full of s**t and you can’t just release weight. But you know what, that mind over matter thing has been proven several times so having your mind right is never a bad plan in relation to anything you may do with your life.

So (I hear you asking while trying not to smirk openly at me) how do you release the weight? Or, better, why do you need to release it in the first place?

I got really caught up in being the healthy fat girl that I don’t know any other way to be. I don’t want to be thinner because then people will feel even more comfortable uttering hateful things about others when I’m there. I want to exist as an exception to the rule so people realize that the obesity crisis isn’t a whole bunch of strange, shadowy people huffing twinkie goo and being lazy, it’s your friends – your mothers – your fathers – your children – who need love and attention, not shaming and mandatory weigh-ins.

To try and teach people to fight with love and see people as individuals, not as a measure of their fat cells.

But you know what, people – you haven’t done a whole hell of a lot to further the cause, and I feel like I’m just alone in the wilderness out here.

Screw this. I’m losing weight and we’re all going to just pretend I was never the chick you couldn’t figure out why she was fat because she ate less than you. Now I’ll just be the chick who is, of course, not fat because she eats less than everyone else.

Be free, fat. I don’t need you anymore. I love myself regardless of what I look like. I will still be me and amazing and lovable and full of life even if I weigh less than I do now.

I’m going to light a candle and meditate on it tonight.

Think I’m being airy-fairy? I have a middle finger right here that would like to argue with you. Because you know what, I don’t care what you think. If this works, you’re going to feel salty as HELL.

Just sayin’

Oh, the catalyst for this whole thing was the realization that, for the first time in years and years, I don’t have 100+ lbs to lose. I’m finally under three digits in the “I want to lose” category! WooHOO!