Ah, day 2. I weighed myself this morning and I am down 6 pounds since 10 days ago, which is awesome, and 2 ½ pounds since Monday. I didn't have time for breakfast this morning, so I subsisted on a light yogurt and a handful of nuts until lunch. I am saving most of my calories for BBQ chicken tonight. Mr. Bear Slippers is away at a journalism convention, so it will just be me and Baby Bear Slippers tonight. I will pull out the grill and serve up some BBQ goodness.
I have to say, it doesn't take me very long to remember why I hate this "life change" stuff so much. I really like sweets, and I have had to fight myself not to rob the candy dish in my co-worker's office. But, I have found a great way to help myself avoid this pitfall.
Weight Loss Tip #1:
Spend all of your calories first thing in the morning. By this I do not mean that you should start your day with ice cream on top of pancakes. I mean that you should plan out your day. Meals, snacks, dessert. Everything. I even plan out my splurges. If I eat a reasonable breakfast and lunch, that means I get a regular popsicle after dinner (not one of those sugarless imposters), and I can even have Thousand Island dressing on that big salad I will be eating with my chicken. It also means that I can't eat 10 snack sized Heath Bars because I don't have any calories left for the day. As far as I am concerned mentally, they were gone by 9 o'clock this morning.
Thinking this way has also made me look for low calorie ways to fill up. I really, really, really hate fake food (aka "diet" food). I think it is the Devil and it should be illegal. That is part of the reason that I have such a hard time finding ways to lose weight. I don't want to snack on food bars, or eat meal replacement shakes. I want butter and jam on my toast, and I want my toast to be full calorie bread. So in order for me to not blow my calories in one shot, I think big picture for my day. I know that I want some excellent BBQ sauce on my chicken and dressing on my salad, so I cram as many veggies as I can onto my plate. They help fill me up and they taste delicious. I made a delicious pasta with shrimp and garlic the other day. The topping for the pasta had shrimp sautéed in butter, and some real cream. I moderated the fatty foods by putting in a lot of other things. It was mostly mushrooms (fresh cremeni mushrooms), broccoli, carrots and onions. Then I tossed it with about two cups of cooked penne pasta. This made 4 servings of something that was mostly vegetables, but still tasted amazing. But because it was mostly vegetables, each serving came in at around 300 calories. Not too bad.
I guess my biggest challenge is learning moderation so that I can eat real foods. Perhaps I should define "real food" too. I mean food that doesn't have a lot of artificial (aka long unreadable names) ingredients. I have a friend that makes the best homemade bread ever. Baking bread is one of those things that I have sucked at forever. It is hard to do and it is regularly a failure. So I called her up and said, "Teach me please!" My friend happens to be a fitness instructor with 2 kids and body that looks like her childbearing is in the negative numbers. How can anyone with two kids have a tummy that tight? Anyway, one afternoon together and now I can make my own bread with nothing artificial in it. It is whole wheat (my dad even grinds his own wheat flour when he makes it), and there aren't any funny preservatives in the ingredients list. It makes two loaves which lasts my family about one week and it always turns out. I will have to check with my friend to see if it is okay with her for me to publish her recipe on my blog, but if it is you should see the recipe coming to a computer near you in the very near future. When I eat the bread, I just have to remind myself that I can only eat 2 slices per day. I can't have a slice at breakfast, two at lunch and then seven slices for dessert. Moderation. That is my first weightloss goal. Tonight, instead of eating garlic bread with my chicken I will have a big salad packed with sweet peppers and cucumbers, as well as some corn on the cob, so that I can justify the small amount of Thousand Island I will top the salad with. Moderation does not mean that I have to be hungry! Nor does it mean that I have to eat sugarless candy or low-carb ice cream.
I personally find it a hassle to cut up a bunch of vegetable to snack on during the day at work. Instead, I plan them into my meal so that I have a lot to eat and I can usually just pack up leftovers from dinner for lunch the next day. Vegetables already included!
So this is what I am left with for the day… Not eating a butt-load of candy is not the end of the world, I can eat well, so long as I do it in moderation, and diet food sucks, so find ways not to have to eat it.
Happy eating!
F. Bear Slippers
I have to say, it doesn't take me very long to remember why I hate this "life change" stuff so much. I really like sweets, and I have had to fight myself not to rob the candy dish in my co-worker's office. But, I have found a great way to help myself avoid this pitfall.
Weight Loss Tip #1:
Spend all of your calories first thing in the morning. By this I do not mean that you should start your day with ice cream on top of pancakes. I mean that you should plan out your day. Meals, snacks, dessert. Everything. I even plan out my splurges. If I eat a reasonable breakfast and lunch, that means I get a regular popsicle after dinner (not one of those sugarless imposters), and I can even have Thousand Island dressing on that big salad I will be eating with my chicken. It also means that I can't eat 10 snack sized Heath Bars because I don't have any calories left for the day. As far as I am concerned mentally, they were gone by 9 o'clock this morning.
Thinking this way has also made me look for low calorie ways to fill up. I really, really, really hate fake food (aka "diet" food). I think it is the Devil and it should be illegal. That is part of the reason that I have such a hard time finding ways to lose weight. I don't want to snack on food bars, or eat meal replacement shakes. I want butter and jam on my toast, and I want my toast to be full calorie bread. So in order for me to not blow my calories in one shot, I think big picture for my day. I know that I want some excellent BBQ sauce on my chicken and dressing on my salad, so I cram as many veggies as I can onto my plate. They help fill me up and they taste delicious. I made a delicious pasta with shrimp and garlic the other day. The topping for the pasta had shrimp sautéed in butter, and some real cream. I moderated the fatty foods by putting in a lot of other things. It was mostly mushrooms (fresh cremeni mushrooms), broccoli, carrots and onions. Then I tossed it with about two cups of cooked penne pasta. This made 4 servings of something that was mostly vegetables, but still tasted amazing. But because it was mostly vegetables, each serving came in at around 300 calories. Not too bad.
I guess my biggest challenge is learning moderation so that I can eat real foods. Perhaps I should define "real food" too. I mean food that doesn't have a lot of artificial (aka long unreadable names) ingredients. I have a friend that makes the best homemade bread ever. Baking bread is one of those things that I have sucked at forever. It is hard to do and it is regularly a failure. So I called her up and said, "Teach me please!" My friend happens to be a fitness instructor with 2 kids and body that looks like her childbearing is in the negative numbers. How can anyone with two kids have a tummy that tight? Anyway, one afternoon together and now I can make my own bread with nothing artificial in it. It is whole wheat (my dad even grinds his own wheat flour when he makes it), and there aren't any funny preservatives in the ingredients list. It makes two loaves which lasts my family about one week and it always turns out. I will have to check with my friend to see if it is okay with her for me to publish her recipe on my blog, but if it is you should see the recipe coming to a computer near you in the very near future. When I eat the bread, I just have to remind myself that I can only eat 2 slices per day. I can't have a slice at breakfast, two at lunch and then seven slices for dessert. Moderation. That is my first weightloss goal. Tonight, instead of eating garlic bread with my chicken I will have a big salad packed with sweet peppers and cucumbers, as well as some corn on the cob, so that I can justify the small amount of Thousand Island I will top the salad with. Moderation does not mean that I have to be hungry! Nor does it mean that I have to eat sugarless candy or low-carb ice cream.
I personally find it a hassle to cut up a bunch of vegetable to snack on during the day at work. Instead, I plan them into my meal so that I have a lot to eat and I can usually just pack up leftovers from dinner for lunch the next day. Vegetables already included!
So this is what I am left with for the day… Not eating a butt-load of candy is not the end of the world, I can eat well, so long as I do it in moderation, and diet food sucks, so find ways not to have to eat it.
Happy eating!
F. Bear Slippers
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