Just thought I would share something personal today. Fourteen years ago, on November 22, 1996, my hubby and I got married and began our journey together. Along the way we have had four beautiful children we adore.
We believe in eternal families and since our family began the day we got married, we like to celebrate our special day with our kids. Every year they get excited for our anniversary, it's like a birthday for them since we always do something special together.
A tradition for the past few years has been going out to a fun restaurant where they cook dinner in front of us. Flying utensils and shrimp tails always get the kids giggling. My favorite part is when flames shoot out of a volcano of onion rings. I love to watch as they are motionless in their chairs, wide eyed with their mouths hung open. Afterwards, we always end the evening with ice cream at Baskin Robbins or Cold Stone.
Unfortunately this year, we all have the sniffles. We are doing something different while keeping with the spirit of doing something fun and special. For lunch, we all ordered our favorite dishes and doing take out from the best Thai place in existence. Following we are going to cuddle up and watch the movie, A Christmas Carol, that came out last year. (We haven't seen it yet)
The children are going to be surprised when we make homemade Oreo cookies. We saw this recipe awhile back and I wanted to wait for a special day to make them because will power only goes so far when you see these. For dinner we are having various appetizers, per the kid's request.
This has become a fun tradition for our family that will carry on for years. I'm interested in seeing how this tradition will play out as they grow older. Until then, I look forward each year to share it with them.
(This isn't a good photo, I took it with my iPhone from the original. We need to scan the original and make it digital. It's on my "to do" list.)
With all that's on your figurative plate, it's easy to scarf down everything on your literal one without a thought.
To slow down, swap circular dishes of square ones.
According to feng shui practitioners, circles stimulate mental chatter that prevents you from focusing on your food.
But squares inspire ken gua, or self-awareness. Cultivating this quality allows you to tune in to your body's satiety signals, so you stop eating when you're full.
It doesn't require hours of toiling away at the gym to get the benefits of exercise. In fact, all it takes is clipping on a pedometer:
Studies at California's Lindora Medical Clinic found that those who used a pedometer lost 60% more weight than nonwearers.
These gadgets provide immediate feedback and incentive to take more calorie-burning steps each day, says integrative medicine specialist Hyla Cass, M.D.
You may think your struggle with the scale is due to an insatiable appetite, but it’s more likely your head that’s to blame for your battle against the bulge.
WE'VE ALL HEARD THE PHRASE “emotional eating.” It brings to mind the heartbroken woman working her way through an entire box of chocolates after being dumped, the homesick college student finishing off a large pizza, or the recently laid-off friend making her way to the bottom of a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips while trying to pay her bills. But most emotional eating takes place on a far more subtle scale—which may be the reason you can’t drop those last 5, 10, or 25 pounds.
“About 75 percent of the people who come to see me for weight-loss advice eat to deal with their feelings.” says Jane Jakubczak, R.D., the coordinator of nutrition services at the University of Maryland. “But because it’s such an unconscious act, they often don’t even realize they’re doing it.” For many of us, that mindless munching can sabotage even the best-laid healthy-eating plans. “In my experience, emotional eating is the top reason diets fail,” says Linda Spangle, R.R., the author of 100 Days of Weight Loss. “You get into a pattern where every time you fell anything—sadness loneliness, anxiety, boredom, even happiness—you turn to food.”
While it isn’t realistic to think you can banish every single emotional eating episode (sometimes a chocolate cupcake really can help turn a bad day around), it is possible to cut back on the behavior and ultimately avoid piling on pounds. But before you can do that, you need to understand why your emotions are making you indulge in the first place.
Searching for comfort in all the wrong places
Most binges are connected with negative feelings—you’re upset, anxious, or angry, so you divert your attention from whatever is causing you angst (your nagging mother-in-law, perhaps) by eating. “Food can act like a drug,” says Geneen Roth, the author of Women, Food, and God. “It can take the edge off whatever is going on, similar to the way a drink does for alcoholics. People think to themselves, ‘I may be feeling upset, but at least I get to taste something good.’”
Unfortunately, this tactic is a temporary fix at best. “After you’re done eating, you still have to deal with the original problem,” says Spangle. “It’s like when a baby is crying because he needs a nap. If you feed him, he may stop screaming. But once you’re done giving him his bottle, it won’t take long before he realizes he’s still tired and starts wailing again.” On top of that, bingeing can actually make you feel worse in the long run. “Afterwards, you beat yourself up because you feel mad and guilty about what you just did,” says Spangle. “And then you eat more to deal with that distress; it’s a vicious cycle.”
What you’re really craving
If we all soothed ourselves with crudités and fresh fruit, it wouldn’t be so bad. But we’re grabbing candy, cookies, macaroni and cheese, and French fries—and the reason comes down to biology, It turns out your body is hard-wired to make you pass right by the salad bar and head straight for the bakery aisle instead, “When we eat carbohydrates high is sugar of fat [like a brownie or cinnamon roll], our body releases the brain chemical dopamine,” says Karen R. Koenig, the author of The Food Feelings Workbook. “It stimulates the brain’s pleasure center, so you’ll want to keep eating to repeat the experience again and again.” And if you aren’t after carbs, you’re probably craving sugar and fat—overconsumption of which ups other brain chemicals linked to pleasure and euphoria, according to a recent study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. But while science shows why you crave certain types of food, the specific dishes you gravitate toward are often ones you associate with pleasurable memories. “Something fabulous was going on when you used to eat that food, and you want to replicate those happy times,” says Roth. If you feasted on lasagna during fun meals as a child, for example, that’s what you’re apt to pile on your plate as an adult when you’re looking to feel better. If your mom soothed you when you were upset with a big bowl of chocolate ice cream, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s may very well be what you reach for when your job gets too stressful.
But you don’t need to let biology and what happened to you as a child stand between you and a flat tummy. You can put a stop to your emotional eating patterns. The key is breaking up the automatic connection between food and mood, learning to identify when you’re eating due to reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with your stomach, and retraining yourself to get pleasure from other things, like exercise and friendship. The following eight proven strategies will address these issues—and help you get slim for good.
This summer we grew a boatload of squash. Seriously. The amount we grew could have easily filled a small boat like this:
You think I'm kidding? I should have taken a photo.
Nevertheless, we have A LOT of squash to eat. Luckily, we love it so it will be a great to eat from our harvest over the winter.
I've often wondered if you could truly substitute squash for pumpkin. I've always assumed you could, but never got around to confirming my thoughts. Recently, my mom beat me to it. She substituted in a recipe and brought some over for us to try. It was very similar, but she also messed with sugar substitutions, so that might be why I'm a little reluctant in saying it was an easy swap--there was more than one variable.
I saw a recipe on Twitter today that I want to try HERE. I have all the ingredients minus the pumpkin and I'm craving something sweet. If I have enough time, I think I'm going to do a little subbing of my own.
Every day I think of something I want to post about, then every day I'm too exhausted to post. Today I'll give you the highlights of my week, and hopefully get back to regular scheduled programming tomorrow.
The weighin My weighin wasn't great - 175.6. Up 0.6 pounds. This seems to be my destiny, and I don't like it one little bit. I'm super perfect on plan for two days and then totally blow it the next day. Wash, rinse and repeat.
What went wrong Thursday it was a loaf of my most favorite bread. It's store bought, but perfect bread. Dave's Killer Seed Bread from Portland, OR. I love this stuff. It's very healthy, all organic and full of good stuff...but it's high in calories when you eat several slices with light Smart Balance and a drizzle of honey. I didn't eat the entire loaf, but I made a good dent in it. I don't buy it because I know I'm weak when it comes to bread. My husband (darn him anyway) brought it home from Costco. Same with the best tortilla chips I've ever tasted (the kind they serve in Mexican restaurants), another bad day. He's now on restriction, he has to buy from a list. If it's not on the list, he can't buy it. New rule (that he probably won't follow, but a girl can try).
What went right To add insult to my gain is that I worked out like a maniac last week. I've started a new routine where I do ten minutes of warmup on the Stairmaster, then my weights for an hour and finish with an intense 20 minutes on the StairMaster. Since I detest cardio, this really works for me. It seems like that 10 minute hard warmup gets my heart rate up and then during weight lifting it stays up high. I also seem stronger when it comes to lifting by keeping my cardio at the end, like all the books recommend and I've been ignoring for years. My workouts are now a full hour and 35 minutes. Of course some of that is wiping down the StairMaster twice and walking to different areas of the gym. I figure a good hour and 20 minutes is solid exercise time.
I've also been forcing myself to really do the lower body strength exercises every other day (alternating with upper body). I hate the lower body strength training almost as much as the cardio (not quite, I don't hate anything like I hate cardio).
On the days I didn't eat bread or tortilla chips I actually tracked all my calories, four out of seven days. Not bad but the bread and tortilla chip days put me way over my calories.
Yard Work - Me! I did yard work last weekend. Yes, me with a rake in hand. Probably the first time in ten years I've actually worked in the yard (maybe 20 years). We have the world's largest Maple tree in our backyard. It's actually eight trees that grew up out of one spot. Imagine the leaves from eight gigantic maple trees. You couldn't even see the lawn beneath the leaves. I raked for three hours. My husband and I switched chores last weekend. He went to Costco and grocery shopping (hence the two loaves of bread and two giant bags of tortilla chips). I chose the yard work because I wanted to be outside.
The coolest thing was when I discovered the ivy had climbed about 20 feet up the trees. Now that's not the cool part, ivy on trees is very bad since it kills them. What was cool was me climbing up the trees and pulling off the ivy. I'm a lot stronger than I thought (thank you 20 and 25-pound dumbbells).
When my husband saw all the ivy off the trees he asked me how on earth I got up there, he asked me if I had pulled over the ladder. I told him no, this 55-year old woman climbed up in the trees and held on to branches as I reached out and plucked ivy off the tree with the other hand. Some of the ivy stems were at least an inch thick and I had to use a screwdriver to force the ivy suckers off the tree. That's the first time outside of the gym that I thought wow, I'm pretty strong. Being strong really comes in handy in real life...like climbing trees and pulling off ivy.
Team event Speaking of being strong, I have a team event (for work) on Nov. 30. At first I was super excited about it since it was my first pick of six choices. My coworkers (there are ten of us) are going up to Mt. Vernon for the day and doing the Eagle Rock Challenge Course. It's one of those corporate things to help build team trust and relationships.
It has things like walking on ropes high up in the air, a trapeze thing, and other similar activities. After I looked at some videos online I'm not so sure this is a good idea. I have a bit of a fear of high places. Not terrible, it's just not something I prefer to do. I guess I should have looked at the website and the videos prior to voting on my choice. I just hope I'm strong enough to do this. I work with mostly younger and very fit people. Most are late 20's or 30's and I'm by far the oldest and fattest person on my team.
We have to sign waivers that we won't hold the City of Mt. Vernon responsible for any injuries, and wear hard hats. It's not like I can say no, I don't want to go, then I'm not a team player and it's all about being a team player where I work. If you don't want to be on a team, well, there's the door...good luck in your job search. This isn't me in the video below, but I'll probably have a similar video after the 30th of our adventure (if I live to talk about it). Wish me luck! This is also part of why I'm upping my weight lifting time at the gym. I don't want to be the weak, 55-year old fatty that can't do this.
Quicken aficionado I must mention my new hobby. Finances! Another thing I haven't done in 20+ years of marriage, looked at our finances. We both work, have decent jobs with decent salaries, no kids, yet there never seems to be enough money.
I purchased Quicken 2011 a week ago and have spent hours looking through everything and entering information, downloading all our bank stuff online (way cool). Yikes! I had no idea I was spending so much money on groceries. It's embarrassing. I can't even write it out here because we (I) have been spending more on food than most people probably spend on a family of six or more. I didn't know the price of anything because I don't look at prices when I shop. I know, I'm an idiot when it comes to money. But that's all changing. We have a budget! Now that I'm tracking everything in Quicken I'm much more aware of what I'm spending.
Plus all the crap I buy that I don't need. I found myself at the pharmacy yesterday picking up my asthma medicine strolling through their attached gift shop. I always buy some piece of junk when I go in there because "they have the cutest stuff". Emphasis on "stuff". I don't need any more stuff, I have plenty thank you very much. :)
Plans for the coming week Stop eating bread and chips! I never eat these things, and I just went a little nuts with them in the house. It's like a crack addict knowing there's a bunch of crack sitting in their kitchen. Seriously, that's just foolish. If it's not in the house I won't eat it.
Yes, I know I live with another person. I know he should be allowed to have what he wants to eat, but...well, I guess there are no buts here. I should be able to resist. It's just really hard for me. He won't be doing it again if I can help it. He's always very supportive and he thinks I have things under control with food. I keep telling him I'm like an addict, but I really don't think he gets it. He never eats out of boredom or loneliness, he eats when he's hungry. What a concept.
I have real plans to track my food every single day. Even on Thanksgiving day. Stay within my 1400 calorie limit.Even on Thanksgiving Day. Tracking really helps.
Continue with the exercise and water. Both were great this week.
I know it's Thanksgiving week, but we're staying home and that helps. I'm in control of what's being cooked and I can cook a good, tasty, yet very healthy meal. Hopefully I won't go crazy on the healthy food...which I've been known to do.
Tip: Combine any remaining bean mixture with pasta or brown rice for a quick and easy dinner.
Serves 2
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total times: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup chopped onion
1 tsp cup low-sodium chicken broth ( or vegetable stock)
1 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Zest of 1 lemon
8 slices (½ inch each) whole-wheat baguette, toasted
2 plum tomatoes, cut into 8 slices
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
Preparation:
Combine olive oil and onion in a medium skillet. Sauté over medium for about 5 minutes or until onion is tender.
Add rosemary, broth, and beans to the onions. Slimmer gently for another 5 minutes or until broth is reduced and thickened. Remove from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper, if desired.
Fold in parsley and lemon zest. Top each baguette slice with a tomato slice and 2 tbsp of the bean mixture. Garnish with pine nuts and serve.
Make 2 (4 crostini) Servings:
Weight Loss Recipes Amount per Serving: 252 calories, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 32 g carbs, 11 g protein, 8 g fiber, 137 mg calcium, 4 mg iron, 43 mg sodium
