Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Road Trip!

So I must say how proud I am of myself! I gave up everything with sugar and/or sweeteners this week and I must say I feel great! Half way through the week, however, I realized that I did not give up my addiction to gum, which has sweetener in it. I felt really guilty at first, but then realized that I gave up Crystal Light, Diet soda, sugar-free jello, sugar-free pudding, sugar-free popsicles, and mainly stuck to whole foods... so I figured I could justify my little 5 calorie stick of gum :) Sorry to you die-hards out there who may think that I have compromised my efforts. After a long plateau, I was able to lose 3 lbs... Let's hope I can keep that up! What am I saying?! I will keep that up!!!

So this week I'm going on a little road trip... I always struggle on a million different levels on a road trip. I get the munchies in a bad way... and not the kind of munchies that baby carrots and celery can satisfy (sorry folks, just don't like them that much).  Not only is the ride hard, but I'm going to see a bunch of my family, and for some unknown reason whenever I'm around my family I have a ridiculous bottomless pit! (I'm definitely a social eater... If I just stayed at home by myself all the time I'd be very healthy!) I must also mention that when travelling I have a strange desire to eat out at any given opportunity (which is not normally a struggle for me), and we all know that even the healthy options in restaurants are usually high in calories or have "hidden" fat and calories. I like to know exactly what's in my food and how it's prepared and there's very few places to eat that you can actually know those things... call me a control freak, if you must.

What do all these things have in common, you ask? Out-of-control portions... that's what! So in my day-to-day life, I try to eat 5-6 smaller meals, each containing 200-300 calories and each containing some form of protein and carb. Here's the deal... since I know I probably won't have my usual protein/carb meals, my goal this week is all about portion and calorie control. I budget 1200-1500 calories a day, so I will still eat 5 times a day (another hard thing for me to do when I travel) and each meal will still be from 200-300 calories. Here's the catch... I can't have more than one portion (suggested serving size) of any food in a meal. Meaning, if I want to go get frozen yogurt I can't get 300 calories worth, I can only have 4 oz., which is about 120 calories worth. Then I need to fulfill the rest of that meal's calories with something else (preferrably a healthier choice).

Since everybody has their own eating plan, hopefully one that works well for them, my challenge to everyone this week is to pay attention to the suggested serving size and stick to it. This goes for you skinny-minnies too! We miss out on a lot of nutrients from a large variety of foods because we tend to get full on, or waste our calories on one type of food. The more variety we have in our diets, the more likely we are to be healthy and energetic because we'll be getting the nutrients we need... that is, if we are choosing a healthier variety :) "Moderation in all things"! Good luck to you all! Hope you're keeping up :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

My Ultimate Challenge!

So? How did the challenge go for you last week? I'm not going to lie... I messed up one night!!! Grrr! And guess what I messed it up for?! That's right... SUGAR!!! I have a serious addiction to sugar, but only after I take my first bite. If I don't eat sugar, I don't crave it. Funny how that works!

With that being said, I bet you're never going to be able to guess what this week's challenge is! Before I tell you for sure, I want to make it clear that I'm trying to set up these challenges so they can be continued... so I will still be trying to not eat after 8:00 in addition to this challenge.

Here goes... This week is a no-sugar week (we can do anything for 7 days). Meaning no processed sugars. Fruit is fine, honey is fine, but foods with high fructose corn syrup are difinitely out, along with artificial sweeteners! I think even harder than giving up sugar, will be giving up the artificial sweeteners (for me). If you know me at all, you know that I love Diet Cherry Limeades, Crystal Light, and really anything sweet that I can save calories on because it's sugar-free! Yumm!!! (Don't get me wrong, I'm not an absolute junkee, but those things usually save me at one point throughout the week.)  But artificial sweeteners can actually do more harm to our bodies than sugar. There are actually some fascinating articles if you want to google them. I don't believe everything I read, but I do know that I have less energy and sometimes even feel sick when I have excess artificial sweeteners.

This will probably be the hardest challenge for me... at least for the first week (after that it becomes more habitual), but I know that if I do it 100% I will feel soooooo much better and more energetic! I'm totally banking on all of you doing this with me, because when I'm dying for some frozen yogurt, I'll be telling myself that I can't let any of you down :)  Best of luck to you all!!!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Weekly Challenge - Late night eating... in or out?

Howdy!

So there's been an ongoing debate about whether or not eating late at night is good or bad for you.  Since this is my blog, I'll give you my opinions/logic and you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to accept this challenge.

What I do know is that food is fuel. With that being said, I feel it's most important to have food throughout the day to keep yourself energized and fueled up for the things you need to accomplish. What is the meal most often skipped? I'll give you a hint... it's not lunch or dinner. Why do we skip a meal (breakfast - in case you didn't figure it out) that will help get us fueled for the day?! Not only that, but generally speaking if breakfast is skipped and we wait until we are hungry to eat, we will more than likely eat too much or eat foods that are immediately satisfying... either one is not so healthy.

So why am I talking so much about breakfast when this is supposed to be about late night eating? What I've found in my own experiences is if I eat right before I go to bed, I don't wake up wanting food. In fact, the very thought of food disgusts me. Thus I get into a horrible cycle of not eating until later in the day and then eating too much because I'm so hungry.  Not to mention, that come night time I'm tired and am looking for something easy and something that will give me a sudden boost of energy (usually sugar or simple carbs... boo!)

Therefore, my challenge for the week is to not eat within 3 hrs of bedtime. I usually go to bed around 11 so I'm not going to eat after 8. Along with that, I'm going to make every effort to wake up in time to eat a good, healthy breakfast. If you want, you can do both challenges with me :)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Hello Friends!

Hey there! I'm so glad that you decided to join me on my journey towards my goal! I've been stuck for about 1 1/2 years now at my current weight and need your help. If I know that I'm possibly helping others on their quest for health, I will be motivated to continue on. I've learned throughout my life that it doesn't matter if you're 300 lbs overweight or 50 lbs underweight, you need to live a healthy life in order to be happy, healthy, and energetic. I will be issuing challenges for better health through time and would love it if we could do these challenges together. I'm totally excited and ready to do this! Bring on the health :D