Monthly Archives: December 2009

Resolutions or goals?

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I wasn’t going to make any resolutions this year because I don’t think I have ever kept any resolutions I have set in the past. I think people who set resolutions, whether it’s to become healthier, lose weight, get more fit or what have you, set themselves up for failure. Not always. But most of time. In my opinion anyway.

This year, instead of setting myself up for yet another round of failed resolutions, I am going to set goals. Reasonable goals. Attainable goals.

Goal #1. To maintain my weight (within two to three pounds). Period. Not for the next six months. Not for the next year. But for the rest of my life.

Goal #2. To continue my healthier lifestyle. No matter how hard it feels like it is sometimes.

Goal #3. To continue eating healthier foods, but to also realize it’s okay to eat treats once in awhile and not punish myself, get upset or feel guilty for doing so. I do need to have a life, right? Everyone needs a little ice cream or cake or cookies or whatever they feel like having sometimes.

Goal #4. To keep up with my exercise program. Strength training at least three days a week with cardio at least three times a week if not four, five or six times a week.

Goal #5. To run at least three 5Ks this year. I signed up for the Fargo 5k in May and will do the Lakes Area Humane Society one in September. I don’t have a third one set yet, but have several possibilities.

Goal #6. To keep going to my Weight Watcher meetings. Why? They give me the encouragement and strength to keep going. I LOVE MY MEETINGS….the people, the leader, the helpers, everyone.

Goal #7. To keep tracking my food or at least most of the time. I am learning that it’s okay if I miss one day of logging. It’s not going to kill me or make me fat overnight!

Goal #8. To go rollerskating at least three times this year.

Goal #9. To get right back on the horse if I slip up a couple of days. If I falter one day, that doesn’t give me a reason to give up. I just have to keep going. What is in the past is in the past and what happens in the future is what matters.

Goal #10. To keep blogging in hopes that maybe, just maybe, I can give other people the encouragement or push or whatever it is they may need to start their own journey to a healthier lifestyle.

I wish everyone a happy and joyous New Year.

What constitutes as exercise?

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As a Weight Watchers member, I not only get to log the food I eat, but I also get to log my activity. I use up points for the food I eat, but I gain points with the activities I do, such as walking, running, biking or lifting weights.

The other day, I was looking through all the different activities listed on my eTools for my Weight Watchers site and was kind of amazed at the variety of activities that can count toward activity points – chopping or hauling wood, washing windows, bobsledding, cleaning gutters, climbing up a ladder, farming (cleaning the barn), grooming a horse, hanging wallpaper or storm windows or sheet rock, doing the luge or even ocean sailing. Seriously, some of the activities were kind of weird.

Typically, I have been logging my workouts, my treadmill time and my elliptical time, but did you know I also log points for doing laundry. I typically do my laundry on Sundays – yes, I save it all up for one day. I like doing it this way so that I can get it done in one shot. Well, one day anyway. I can have anywhere from six to ten loads depending on our week. It usually takes me pretty much all day to do, even though I am not working on it the whole time. My laundry is in the basement, so I have to go up and down the stairs each time I put in a new load or take one out of the dryer. I have been logging one hour per week for laundry. This gets me two activity points. And, if I didn’t have a cleaning lady, I could also gain one point for a half hour of vacuuming and one point for a half hour of scrubbing floors. So not worth it to me. I’ll keep my cleaning lady; she does a fantastic job. I can gain points in other ways! : )

I also count points if I go out shopping, especially if I am at the store(s) for a couple of hours. I log it as "Walking, leisurely" and I can get two points for one hour or four points for two hours.

With all the snow we have had these past couple of days, I could have earned three points for shoveling for an hour. I didn’t. We have a snowblower. Maybe next time, though.

When summer comes around again, I will be earning points left and right. For one hour of inline skating (rollerblading), I can earn seven activity points. If I do one hour of moderate biking, I can earn three points and for one hour of fast biking, I can earn seven points. An hour of swimming in a lake will get me three activity points and if I play frisbee for an hour, I can earn two activity points.

Because I know I can gain activity points, I try to move a little more often so that I can earn some kind of points each day. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. If there is anything I do that requires at least a little bit of effort, I will check it out on the activity list to see I can gain points. Sometimes I can; sometimes I can’t. If I can’t, it’s not a big deal. I know I do at least three to four days a week of real activity – as in sweatin’ to the max exercise, that I gain enough points to make me

One activity that is not on the list, however, is sitting on my butt playing on the computer or watching television. Darn. I would earn so many points…just kidding. Not really. I would seriously earn so many points. Too bad. 

Well, I better go earn some real activity points right now. The elliptical is calling my name – 25 minutes earns me three activity points. Hopefully it’s enough to burn off the three homemade chocolate chip cookies I ate while playing on my computer!

Lost all control…UGH!

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So much for being happy and proud. 

For the past two days, I have done nothing but eat. Literally. Thursday started off good and I was so looking forward to our meal of ham, riced potatoes, green beans and corn. Simple and healthy. Our meal was good and I did fine with it, but it was what I ate prior to the meal and after the meal. UGH!!!!!

As everybody was coming, there seemed to be more and more tempting foods…cheese and meat and crackers, baked goodies, chips and dips, candy and lots of other really, really, good snacks. I thought I had control, but as soon as I let myself have a taste of this and a taste of that, it went down hill really, really fast. It was like I couldn’t control myself. I don’t know what happened. I almost felt possessed.

There was food on every inch of counter space and card table space in our teeny, tiny kitchen. It was kind of ridiculous really. My sister-in-law alone brought enough food for an army. And every last bit of it was unhealthy. She brought ice cream, chips, dips, crackers, cheeses, meat, cookies, popcorn, peanut brittle, candy and a whole lot more. My fridge was stuffed to the max. (And so was I.)

I seriously lost control. I just kept eating and eating and eating. Every time I would go in the kitchen, I would grab a handful of that or a piece of this or a plateful of something else. I tried to do most of the cleanup work, because I wanted to, because it kept me busy and moving around and not just sitting on my behind. But where does the clean-up work take place? In the kitchen. And what was in the kitchen? Yep, the food. The glorious food.

Luckily, we also played games, which I liked, because that kept me away from the food. But regardless, I had no problem making my way back into the kitchen time and time again.

Eventually, I lost track of everything I ate, I didn’t log a single morsel on my Weight Watchers site. I have no idea how many points I ate. I really don’t want to know. And now, it doesn’t matter, I just know it was TOO MUCH! I am not going to beat myself up over it. Christmas does only happen once a year. I am just going to move forward and start fresh today. What you do in the past is in the past and what you do in the future is what matters. Right?

I am glad I got a workout in on Thursday and as soon I finish writing this, I am going to go do another workout. A really good one. I know I won’t burn off everything I ate, but it sure will make be feel better.

Happy and proud

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Merry Christmas Eve to all my dear readers!

Despite having a sinus infection (Yuck, by the way!), after I got up this morning and had my breakfast and visited with my parents a little, I actually worked out – for about an hour and 15 minutes. I was so proud of myself. I felt like crap, but after I worked out, I actually felt a little better. I could barely breathe, but I think all the sweating I did helped to get the infection out of my body. Or at least that’s what it felt like anyway.

I am off this week on my exercises because of my work schedule. I typically work out Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but this week, I had to do it on Tuesday, today (Thursday) and then on Saturday. I am hoping to get back to my normal schedule next week, but we’ll have to see what happens. Work and the holidays kind of interfered, but at least I still did it!

So, why am I happy? Besides working out, it’s because my husband and I are hosting Christmas Eve at our house and so I am in charge of the meal! I love when I am in charge because then I can make things my way, which tends to be on the healthy side. So, what’s for dinner tonight? 

We are having ham, riced potatoes (there will be gravy for those who eat it), green beans, corn, Jell-O (sugar free) with Cool Whip (fat free) and in honor of my in-laws (who both recently passed away), my husband is trying his hand at making Lutefisk and my brother-in-law is going to try and make Swedish meatballs. And, I do have a tray of goodies – it is Christmas after all. 

I think we are going to have a great evening and a wonderful day tomorrow!

Again, I wish everyone a very happy and blessed Christmas. May all your Christmas wishes come true!

I know why I hate baking

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Yesterday, after a crazy day, I ended up having to bake cookies for our Christmas cookie bake sale at work. First, I realized I don’t particularly care for baking. Second, I didn’t get home until after 8 p.m. Third, I was tired and crabby. Go figure, right.

But, it was my choice to bake. We decided to have a cookie bake sale at work to raise money for our local United Way. Even though I really, truly don’t like baking (it’s almost at hate status), I thought this was a great way to raise money for a wonderful cause. Plus, baking cookies for someone else meant that I wouldn’t have to have the cookies in the house and not have to worry about eating them. Good thinking, right? Not necessarily.

I found out the reason I hate baking. I love to eat the batter. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to eat batter. It doesn’t matter what I am whipping up – cake, cookies, doughnuts, bars, brownies – I love to eat the mix. Most often, I actually prefer the batter over the finished product. 

Last night I tried a new recipe, a fairly simple one at that. They were called Lemon Snowflakes. You take a lemon cake mix, one that has pudding in the mix, and mix it with two and a fourth (2 1/4) cups of Cool Whip (you realize these are two of my favorite things – cake and Cool Whip), one egg and some powdered sugar. You mix the dry cake mix with the Cool Whip and egg until they are mixed together really well. The mix is going to be extremely sticky. You then take a small teaspoonful of mix and drop it in the powdered sugar. Roll it around a little and then put it on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes at 350º or until the cookies are slightly golden brown or the powdered sugar looks cracked.

I don’t think I even tried the cookies when they were done, but I probably ate enough batter to make at least a half dozen cookies!

One, I don’t think I will be baking anymore cookies anytime soon because, two, I felt really sick to my stomach and three, I had one heck of a toothache. Maybe now, my sweet tooth will be cured.

Doubtful!

Said no to Coldstone, but those darn caramel krispie marshmallows

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Okay, so this weekend was my family Christmas. As expected, my sister brought a wonderful array of meats, cheeses and crackers. She didn’t bring my favorite cheese, Dubliner, and I was ever-so-grateful. And as expected, my brother brought a wonderfully delicious veggie tray. Thank goodness!

Regardless though, I still chowed down on the cute little pieces of snowflake-shaped swiss cheese bites and cute little cubed marble jack cheese bites (about 10-12 pieces combined), along with about the same amount of pieces of really good summer sausage, which was cut into little one inch stick pieces. MMMMMM, it was so good. I didn’t have any crackers, but did have one of my mom’s delicious frosted sugar cookies. And………..I ended up eating three of her marshmallows dipped in caramel and rolled in Rice Krispies. For something really so simple, they are just so good. 

Besides the sweet treats, I did have one bun (not my Arnold sandwich thin) with the barbecue turkey we brought, which was out-of-this-world good, if I don’t say so myself. And I probably ate nearly two cups of baby carrots, several pieces of celery, a handful of oh-so-sweet cherry tomatoes, several pieces of Chex cereal that I picked out of the really tasty homemade Chex mix my other sister brought and a couple teeny, tiny pieces of peanut brittle. Oh, and I had a couple scoops of the good-for-you pasta salad I made. 

I ended up tossing together a pasta salad the morning we left that was made with Fiber Gourmet rotini noodles, broccoli slaw, black olives, green onions, green pepper, reduced-fat parmesan cheese and fat-free Kraft zesty italian dressing. It turned out pretty good for not using any kind of recipe. I liked it and I think my family liked it.

All in all, I was okay with what I ate. I didn’t figure out my Weight Watcher points for Saturday, but I was okay with that, too. And I really didn’t feel that bad for eating three of my favorite marshmallow treats. I mean, come on, I only eat them once a year. I did maybe go a little over board on the meat and cheese, but that’s life, right?

But the best part was that this morning, I got up early and worked out before meeting my family for breakfast in the breakfast room at the hotel. I actually don’t usually work out on the weekends, or at least not that often, anyway. But today I did. It felt good. I felt like I needed to after yesterday. Plus, to be 100 percent honest, I wanted to show off – if that’s really what you want to call it – in front of my family. Kind of weird, I know, but I know for a fact if I would have been at home, I wouldn’t have gotten up early to do it. Plain and simple. They gave me the incentive I needed, I guess. Despite why I did it, it felt good and I was really happy I did. 

After we left the hotel and headed home, we stopped at the Maplewood Mall and shopped for several hours. We then stopped in St. Cloud and shopped for several hours more. We made one stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond, which is in the same location as Cold Stone Creamery. I had told my son and husband if we were that close to my favorite ice cream place that there was no way I was going to not stop. I had to. How could I pass it up?

Well, I did. As much as it hurt and again, in all honesty, it truly hurt. My mouth was salivating, there’s no doubt about it. But I did it and I think my husband was proud. He said, "Now that’s willpower!"

I guess there’s always next time. Right?

Family gathering

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I am a little nervous about today as I am celebrating Christmas with my family in the Twin Cities. This means lots of fun, storytelling, laughter, games and unfortunately, food.

We all bring something to share and not always is there the healthiest of foods. I avoided doing any Christmas baking with my mom this year, but she went ahead and did it without me. I thought maybe she would skip it, too. I guess she only made four different kinds of Christmas treats, but I know one of them is a favorite of mine – marshmellows dipped in caramel and then rolled in Rice Krispies. I know I will have one; I just hope I can limited myself to just that.

My husband and I made roasted a turkey breast and then shredded it and added barbecue sauce for sandwiches. Kind of like pulled pork sandwiches, except we decided to make it with turkey breast because we thought it would be healthier. I will probably eat just the meat and skip the buns. My mom is bringing the buns and I am sure they won’t be of the healthy variety. Maybe I will bring an Arnold’s Sandwich Thin with me. I know they are okay and only one WW point.

The foods I am most dreading are the snacks my one sister is going to bring. She works for Sargento Cheese and always brings the best variety of cheeses for us to munch on. My favorite, which she always happens to have with her, is Dubliner, which is a semi-dry, harder cheese with a slightly stronger taste. It is similar to parmesan or asiago, which I also happen to love. She lives in Wisconsin, which is also known, I guess, for its variety of fun summer sausages. She always has a variety of those, too. And, of course, what goes with cheese and meat, but crackers. Again, she brings a wide array of crackers and all of them are the full-fat version. 

I know I talk a lot about my love of sweets, but cheese, meat and crackers are also one of my downfalls. UGH! I can sit and munch on cheese, meat and crackers all day and not eat anything else. I am going to have to keep myself busy so that I stay away from the food table. At least I can count on my one brother, who typically always brings a large veggie tray…let’s hope he doesn’t disappoint me this year!

Have a super weekend…I will let you all know how I did when we return on Sunday. I am kind of nervous.

Managing the dreaded buffet

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My husband and I headed out to do a little Christmas shopping yesterday after work and knew we would be eating out for supper. We had settled on a quick bite at Jimmy John’s, but just as we arrived, I saw the sign for the Chinese buffet place and my mouth started watering. 

My head knew we should have stuck with Jimmy John’s, where I would have had a Turkey Unwich (two WW points for the whole sandwich) and a bag of Lay’s baked potato chips (another two points). But my mouth and my stomach were longing for China Buffet. Not sure why, I haven’t eaten at that place for probably two years. I kind of don’t like it, yet at the same time, love it. Weird.

The car ended up veering into the parking lot of the buffet place and I was almost feeling a little panicky. But at the same time, I was feeling okay about it. Again, weird. I kept telling myself, "Yep, you can do this. You don’t have to stuff yourself silly. You can just have a couple of things and that will be enough. It’s okay if you just sit there while your husband continues eating. You are going to be just fine."

Well, 17 WW points later (I actually logged everything, but somethings were just an estimate), we were finished. But, I didn’t stuff myself. I did okay. And I did end up just sitting there while my husband finished and I was okay with that. I didn’t feel the need to eat just because he was eating, you know what I mean?

My first trip up to the buffet, I selected two crab rangoons, about half a cup of fried rice, one piece of sweet and sour chicken (without the sweet and sour sauce because I don’t like it), one small piece of General Tao’s chicken, one small piece of honey chicken (I just needed a taste – a bite- of each), about a cup of green beans (these are actually my favorite thing about a Chinese restaurant) and one dumpling with hoysen sauce.

I decided that I could go back for round two because I really didn’t have that much on my first trip. So, the second plate had about another half a cup to three-fourths of a cup of green beans, one more small piece of General Tao’s chicken and one more small piece of the honey chicken, about a tablespoon’s worth – literally – of those tiny, little, thin Chinese noodle things (I’ve never tried them and I just wanted a bite), about a tablespoon’s worth of lo mein noodles, which I actually didn’t even finish because I didn’t really like them, a coconut macaroon and a couple bites of bananas.

I actually didn’t finish eating all my thin, little Chinese noodles or the green beans or my rice, I listened to my stomach, which was telling me I was full. Oh, I also drank nearly the whole pot of tea I ordered. I just love the tea at Chinese restaurants.

I felt okay. I felt good. And, I actually felt proud of myself. I didn’t overeat at the buffet. Every other time I have been there, I have gone through the line probably four times. Not kidding. Granted my plate is not heaping every single time, but nonetheless, I usually make at least four trips, which usually includes one plate full of desserts. Again, not kidding. 

I did end up going over my WW points for the day, but only by three. I was pleased. I didn’t beat myself up over it. I didn’t pig out. I ate what I felt was normal. Seriously, I felt so good about the whole thing. And the best part, when we were done, for the next three hours, my husband and I shopped – this meant lots of walking (not fast paced walking, but better than sitting for three hours, righ?). And, we are about half done with our Christmas shopping. We are way ahead this year. Woohoo for us!

Muscle versus fat

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Here it is…five pounds of fat – the big gross looking blob at the top and five pounds of muscle – the meaty, smaller slab on the bottom.

I have been told more than I can count on my fingers and toes that when people start exercising, they gain muscle and muscle weighs more than fat, which is why you tend to gain weight after starting an exercise regimen. 

Well, guess what people? Five pounds is five pounds. Muscle DOES NOT weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound is a pound. Unfortunately.

Well, this answer really didn’t satisfy me, so I did a little research. One website I looked at – www.onemorebite-weightloss.com – said that muscle is heavier by volume than fat. It also stated that a five pound pile of fat will take up more space or volume than a five pound pile of muscle. The example the site listed was that a woman weighing 150 pounds with 19 percent fat will look much smaller (and be much healthier) than a woman who weighs the same weight but has 35 percent fat.

Because muscle is more dense than fat, the person with less fat and more muscle looks smaller. 

Are you getting it yet? 

Another website, MSN Health, noted that The rationale that muscle weighs more than fat is often cited as an explanation for why a person might find that they aren’t losing weight or even gaining weight for that matter. The fitness expert said that when you are in an exercise regimen, theoretically, you are losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time and the effects cancel each other out. So in theory, she said you won’t see the desired weight loss as measured by pounds on the scale, even though you may be improving your looks.

She went on to say that people can certainly improve their appearance with exercise without always seeing a change in body weight by becoming more firmer, more sculpted and sometimes – not always – leaner. 

But, this fitness expert also said that it doesn’t mean you are gaining massive amounts of muscle or, for that matter, losing lots of fat. This fitness expert, Martica Heaner, also went on to blather for many more paragraphs, but it was too much to put in here. If you want to check out the link, here it is: health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx

So, does that make it any clearer for you? I didn’t think so. It didn’t really make it any better for me either. I get the whole five pounds of something weighs the same as five pounds of something else. That makes sense. The rest of it? Well, not necessarily so.

I guess the bottom line is that I will keep exercising because I know it is good for me and I won’t necessarily worry too much about the numbers on the scale. My smaller clothes still fit and that’s all that matters, right?

Downfall foods

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The other day I was thinking about some of my downfall foods, you know, the ones that can get you in trouble. I realized I have a lot of those types of foods.

Yesterday, when my husband and I were at the grocery store picking up a few things for supper, he wanted to buy some cheese for an appetizer before our meal and I politely suggested we find something else. We opted for some olive bruschetta and pita chips, which turned out to be very good…especially with the zin and pinot noir we were sipping on. 

Cheese, I have decided, is one of my downfall foods. I do eat cheese on an almost daily basis, but it’s Weight Watchers string cheese, which is the best good-for-you string cheese I have tried. I also eat a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch nearly every day during the week. I use the 2 percent cheese slices that are only 50 calories each. I typically buy Crystal Farms because it is the cheapest. Plus, they are really good and they melt really well.

When it comes to cheese, though, I could eat it at every meal. I love all kinds of cheeses, including cheddar, colby, Dubliner, swiss, smoked gouda, feta, mozzarella, muenster, Jarlsberg and oh so many more. I really wish cheese was better for you.

I have other downfall foods, which I have talked about on a regular basis, including ice cream, chips and dip, Cool Whip, sugary cereal, cookies, cakes, bars, almost anything chocolate, crackers, creamy pastas and oh my, there are so many more. 

So, what about you? What are your downfall foods and what do you do about them? Do you cut them out all together? Do you have a treat now and then? Can you control yourself around naughty foods?

Please share your food addictions with me and also any tips for how you deal with your downfall foods. I can’t wait to hear from you and I look forward to reading your thoughts!