Monday, September 7, 2009

Surviving the Vacation

It seems fitting that if you go on vacation from your day-to-day routine that includes your regular eating habits. Right or wrong that often ends up being the case.

As I prepared for my vacation in August, I didn't really make any promises to myself other than to "not go overboard" at mealtimes. My daily eating routine typically consists of breakfast, 2 small morning snacks, lunch, 2 small afternoon snacks, dinner and an evening snack. While vacationing, I usually ate 3 big meals. Those meals sometimes included food items that I don't normally eat such as waffles, cream based soups, french fries, peanut butter cookies, etc. My splurges were usually side items vs. the focal points of my meal.

Although it was an active 12-day vacation that included rock climbing, snorkeling and a LOT of walking... I put on 6 lbs. I suppose that's not too bad. It's been two weeks since my vacation and I'm down 3 lbs. In the end, I never let myself forget that eating healthy is a priority. So, I think I maintained a decent balance of splurging and restraint. That's what vacations are about right?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Restaurant Nutritional Menus

I have a weakness for dining out. So, I have collected a list of restaurant nutritional menus; even some places I never go. I keep them handy in my email Inbox so it's never more than a couple touches away on my iphone. Enjoy!

(If you know of any others please post in a comment. I'd love to expand this list.)

Baja Fresh

Bob Evans

http://www.bobevans.com/menu/nutrition.aspx

California Pizza Kitchen
http://www.cpk.com/menu/pdfs/main-dessert-nutritional-menu.pdf

California Tortilla

Champps

Chili's

Chipotle

Cold Stone Creamery

Cosi

Dunkin Donuts

Five Guys

Don Pablo's

Longhorn

Macaroni Grill

Mimi's Cafe

Olive Garden

Outback

On the Border

Panera

PeiWei

PF Changs

Pizza Hut

Potbelly's

Red Lobster

Robeks

Ruby Tuesdays

Saladworks

Starbucks

Unos

Vapianos

Z Pizza

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Helpful Resources

Books I Love:

  • The Beck Diet – Not actually a diet at all, but how more about tips on how to stick to any diet for good.
  • Volumetrics – Feel full on less.
  • Mindless Eating – Why we eat more then we think we do and how our culture persuades us to do so.

Blogs I Read:

Email Newsletters I Get:

  • Hungry Girl – Helpful substitutions on high-fat foods.
  • Weight Loss Joy – Newsletters that deal with specific issues – mostly emotional triggers for eating and how to deal with them.
  • Runner’s World – A range of topics on running, fitness, and nutrition.

Magainzes I Receive:

  • Women’s Health
  • Self
  • EatingWell
  • Runner’s World
  • Weight Watchers Magazine

Friday, July 24, 2009

5K is Tomorrow!

I'm excited for the big 5K tomorrow and looking forward to it being done so I can a) party and b) scale back a bit on the running. For some reason, my weight loss has been standing still. I've been carefully monitoring my calories but something funky is going on! Stay tuned for updates in a couple of weeks, hopefully I'll have weight loss news at that point!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Choo chooooo

I'm still chugging along like the little engine that could.

As part of my maintenance routine I continued entering all my food in thedailyplate.com.  I put that to rest but wasn't totally comfortable with not tracking the food I ate, so I quickly replaced thedailyplate with a personal food log.  I would document everything I put in my mouth along with the actual or estimated calories.

About 2 months ago, I put the food log to rest as well.  Thankfully, I have stayed within a 5 lb range and hope I can continue.

Recently, I realized that when I stray too far from my personal eating guidelines and still maintain my exercise routine that I will surely suffer the consequences.  The past two weeks I gave myself a little too much slack then did a "long run."  A day or two after the run my body and emotions gave me a rude awakening.  I was extremely fatigued and emotional.  Not good.  So, I will be keeping an eye on that!

Chooo chooooo

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Things on My Mind: Vacation, Training for a 5K, Goal Setting

Vacation
Bill and I just got back from vacation and I managed to not gain a bunch of weight - hurray! I tried very hard to focus on eating healthy and fresh foods and to not over eat at meals. I must admit I didn't feel like I was doing that great, but the scales say I did just fine. As of this morning I was up .9 lbs - nothing to cry about. Hopefully I can work that off and come Saturday's weigh in, I'll be even or just slightly up. I'll take it! Vacations have always been hard for me, but slowly I'm learning how to have fun and not always associate that fun with food. It will be a life long struggle I am sure, but I take comfort in the fact that I can see progress! That makes me both excited and super optimistic for the future.

Training for a 5K
I admit I have a thing for runners and have always longed for the ability to run - a mile, two miles, ten miles, etc. I've tried a few times before and ran in 2 5K races and 1 10K, but I didn't train for either one. After Trina took up running (hi Trina), I decided that I had no real excuse to not try and become a real 'runner.' I decided that I should run a 5K and truly train for it this time around. I enlisted Bill as my running partner and Trina helped me find a race that would be the right distance out for the 9 week couch to 5K training program. As of this Monday, we are on week 6 of the program, with only 3 weeks left to go! I am both nervous and excited for the big. Tomorrow is our first non- stop 25 minute run (slow slow jog, if you will) and I'm looking forward to seeing if I can do it. My goal is to some day run a 10- miler, but I don't see myself doing that anytime soon. I'll try a couple of 5Ks if this one goes well, work up to the 10K (6.2 miles I believe) and then slowly make it to the 10-miler. People do it all the time, why shouldn't I!? Wish me luck.

Goal Setting
In the past, I've dieted as follows: eat very little, lose weight, worry that at every moment I am going to snap and gain all my weight back. And what do you know? That's exactly how it went. I remember the last time I was slimmer - we were in Charleston and Savannah and all I could think beforehand was 'put up with your hunger until the vacation - and then you can eat all you want!' And eat I did - all the way back up to my starting weight plus some. I always thought I'd never be able to truly lose weight because it was too hard and I was always too hungry. I've given up that method of dieting and that mindset and have truly adopted something I can live with and love! (That of course being the weight watchers plan along with my own self discoveries) That being said, I'm slowly getting close to the point where I'll actually say 'ok, this is it, now I can maintain.' I admit that the thought terrifies me and maintenance does seem scarier then losing. However, I am looking forward to buying clothes and staying in one size. I've been trying to buy nicer clothes for myself nowadays to encourage myself to keep going and when I shrink out of those nice clothes it's both exciting and sad at the same time! Anyhow, I'm rambling. My point here is that the time has come for me to really try and focus on a final goal number. Right now, I've lost 50.7 lbs and want to lose an additional 16.3 for a whopping total of 67 lbs. It seems so crazy to me that the big (pun intended) part of this process is behind me (haha, also funny) and that I am truly on the last leg of the journey. If this were a race I'd be nearing the finish line, the crowd would be cheering me on! 16.3 to go - I can do this and I will do this. One baby step at a time.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Snacking extreme

After dinner I got the munchies.  So, I grabbed a bag of Flat Earth Tangy Tomato Ranch Baked Veggie Crisps and some chipotle salsa. One after another I ate the yummy chips until...

...the bag was empty.  That was 130 calories x 6.  That's 780 calories.  *sigh*