Roni’s Weight Watchen Page(s) - Take 2 (the rebuild)

Tonight (after mustering enough energy to get out of the door) I hit a cardio kickboxing class.  The instructor always ends with 15 minutes of ab work and tonight she did such a simple effective routine I have to share. I still feel like I have a rock in the pit of my stomach!

Ok so here’s the routine… (I’ll link to the a description of the exercises as they do a much better job of describing and illustrating then I ever will!)

1. Start with 10 Reverse Sit Ups
2. Then 10 Basic Crunches
3. Then do 10 of them together (aka a Full Crunch)  
4. The end with a Modified Plank for as long as you can hold it (at least 10 seconds)
5. Rinse and Repeat 3 TIMES!

It’s so simple and the exercises varied enough I didn’t get board. Midway through the second set my stomach muscles were on fire! Try it and let me know what you think.

Labels: links, workouts

One of my favorite (non-weight loss) blogs, Problogger announced an unofficial Blogger Appreciate day! What a fabulous idea!

To quote Darren

We’re in it together, blogging is about collaboration and together going further than we can by ourselves - so why not help another blogger today by shooting them a word of encouragement, a pep talk, a congratulations, an idea to help them improve or some other positive constructive message. Better still, do it publicly on your blog and tell the world about another blogger who you appreciate.

Couldn’t have said it better myself!  My shout out goes to…

• All the active, supportive, amazing weight watchen community bloggers.  Every day you guys amaze me with your words of encouragement to each other. I may not be as active as I want to be but I’m reading!
• MizFit. Her blog (and her physique) motivate me on the workout front daily.
• Red. Whose videos give me a much needed weekly chuckle.
• CrankyFitness. An old favorite of mine that I have a lot of catch up reading to do! Always informative, witty and fun.
• Kathy Calculates. A women who may actually have more blogs then I do. :~P

Ok, I could go on, there are just so many good bloggers out there but I have got to go to work!

I really do believe our collaboration, support and encouragement take us further on this quest for better health and a trimmer waist line and I love being on this journey with all of you!

Labels: links

I thought you should know!

The Southwest Salad

I had 2 already and I can NOT believe I'm advertising for McD's but hey, it's good and when you are married to a fast food junky, it's great to have options.

The Salad with grilled chicken is 6 points (6.4 to be exact)(and that's with tortilla strips!) and the the bag of dressing is 2.5. But trust me you DO NOT need the dressing. The salad is just perfect with a squirt of lime juice and there is a lime in the salad.

Honestly, it's one of the most satisfying salads I've had out in awhile.

Labels: links, news

Well, for me and this post it did anyway.  Let me explain.

I don’t have much time tonight, it’s my long day at work. So I was just going to post my food journal and head to bed. Well, after analyzing my journal I realized it was a perfect example of what I call a grazing day (something I need to do on 12 hour work days) and I thought I’d use that has a simple topic and find a few articles that discuss grazing and weight loss, something that I attribute some of my success to.

Then I found this great article about permanent weight loss. According to the article, the study found that people who lost an average of 60 pounds and kept it off for an average of five years hold seven things in common.

1. They believe failure is to be expected, but that when you keep trying, ultimately you will be successful.
2. Those who kept their weight off realize that deprivation leads to binging and binging leads to setbacks.
3. They've learned to eat a wide variety of foods — even an occasional treat.
4. They closely monitor their weight, daily and/or weekly tracking loss or gains.
5. They plan for and exercise moderately for an hour each day and they add in activity wherever they can.
6. As a permanent way of life, these weight-loss successes choose plenty of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean meat and diary products and occasional allowances of sugar and fat.
7. They eat small frequent meals — often five — spread out over the day. They Graze!

I have NEVER agreed with an article more. I believe, know, agree, did, and DO all of these things!!  

Case in points… the grazing day…

Labels: insights, links, menus, Tips

Did anyone see the new show “I Can Make You Thin”? on TLC?  I didn’t watch it but I saw the preview and read this article.

A good friend of mine (who also lost a significant amount of weight) caught it last night and said the host, Paul McKenna actually had some interesting insights. His 4 Golden Rules of Weight Loss are…

1. Eat whenever you are hungry
2. Eat only what you want, never what you think you ‘should’
3. Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful
4. Stop when you even think your body is full 

I agree with him to a point, but #2 bugs me a bit. I mean if we all knew what we SHOULD be eating most of us wouldn’t need to lose weight in the first place. Right? Now 1, 3 and 4 are ok in my book. You shouldn’t be starving yourself, you should enjoy what you eat and you need to stop eating when you’re full.  Got it. But how does HE make ME thin? I mean the title REALLY bugs me.  Maybe I’m getting bitter in my old age, but it seems like a big marketing ploy to get you to watch. Kind of like “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days”, “Drop 2 dress sizes this week” or my personal favorite, “Eat what ever you want and still lose weight” campaigns.  

So I really can’t give my opinion on the show as I haven’t seen it but I would love to hear your reviews. I’m going to try and catch it next week.

Off to watch Medium!

Update:xamcx posted her thoughts on the WeightWatchen Boards and I thought it was a good idea to get some good conversations going with those that have seen the show. Please feel free to join in the conversation.

Labels: links, menus

I’m feeling SO better! Not 100% but a lot better. Tomorrow I WILL be going to the gym and getting back into my groove. It will be my first workout WITH the trainer! I can’t wait. 

Anyway I thought it would be fun to do a bit of a link fest today. I’ve been collecting a few things all week that caught my eye.  So here goes!

In need of some motivation?

Girl on a Mission gave a great Pep Talk to herself that everyone should read. One of my favorite quotes…

If I want my future to be a healthy, happy and prosperous life, I have to love where I am headed and look forward to the journey.

I also have stumbled on an AMAZING success story. You really have to check out Lynn's Weight-Loss Journey. She has awesome before an after photos and great insights on food, exercise and maintenance.

How about a laugh?

Red’s been leaving comments here for sometime and I always found him funny in a sarcastically humorous way. Well, he’s started a video blog called Unstarved which I find hysterically funny. It’s nice to put a face to the name and get a good chuckle every week.

The next one made me laugh in a “Holy Crap! People actually do like my ideas” kind of way.  Amanda from Down Home Dieting made one of my recipes and posted about it with a ton of pictures. It was a very flattering post for me so I feel a little egotistical sharing it but hey, it's my blog right?! ;~P  Thanks Amanda!

A game?

This Eat This Not That game is actually fun and I learned a few things about some fast food choices I didn’t realize.

Okay, that should sufficiently keep you busy for a little while! Have fun and I hope are having a great weekend!

Labels: journal, links

No time to post tonight but I wanted to pass on this link about another struggling loser.

I also posted my super bowl treat!

Night!

Labels: links

A few people sent me a link from the NY Times entitled In the Fatosphere, Big Is In, or at Least Accepted and wanted to know what I thought.   

Why my opinion?

I don’t know, but, OK, I’m always up for sharing my 2¢ :~)

The article showcases fat acceptance blogs like Shapely Prose and The-F-Word. There is a huge online community and they have an RSS feed called the fatosphere.

My first response was cool, to each there own. I envy their self-confidence. Big IS beautiful IF you are confident and happy in your own skin.  I hate to use sizes in an example as they are very arbitrary but, I’d much rather see a happy, healthy, confident women wearing a size 18 then a depressed, malnutrition, insecure size 2 any day.

However, fat acceptance is skirting a fine line for me. It’s intertwining body image, health and fatness, and that can get confusing. A thin person can be as, if not more, unhealthy then a fat person and vice versa. So why focus on fat acceptance and create a fatosphere. Shouldn’t we be spreading the word on health acceptance, teaching people proper nutrition, the benefits of whole foods, how great it is to be active? Shouldn’t we be creating a healthosphere?

In my case, I was fat for one reason and one reason only, I ate too much. It's plain and simple. I was unhealthy, tired, inactive and depressed. I used food as an escape and made unhealthy choices. Some people may not have considered me “fat”. I averaged a size 14 for the majority of my 20’s. But size is just a number. I overate. I didn’t exercise and I was overall unhealthy. Someone else who had my same habits might have been a size 2 or even a 22. The point is, I was unhealthy, my size was irrelevant.

As with any issue, there are going to be to extremist sides. Those that feel all fat people are so by choice and they need to lose weight and those that think all fat people should be, excuse the pun, fat and happy. I, just as with most issues, like to think you need to realize that one size does not fit all.

Overall my feeling is this…  if people are happy and healthy that’s all that matters, size truly is irrelevant.

Labels: insights, links

“Once I started, I figured I’d blown it anyway, so I might as well have everything I like”

How many times have you said that?

Be honest, come on.

I’ll help you get started.

I just did it….  Sunday!

Yup, Sunday. I went out the night before, drank a bit, overindulged, nothing major but way more then I normally consume. The next morning I tried so hard to fight that feeling. Normally it’s hard, but boy it’s even harder when you only had 4 hours of sleep and a have hangover with a 2 ½ year old! Slowly through out the day I picked, and picked and picked. Then I went to a movie with the some friends had some popcorn came home and discovered the husband and the toddler ordered pizza. PIZZA of all things. Most of you know about my Pizza Addiction, so I won’t reiterate. Let’s just say, even though I wasn’t even the tiniest bit hungry I ate the leftovers slices. ALL OF THEM.

What is wrong with me?!?

Well after the pizza ‘incident’ I sat down to read a new magazine I found while grocery shopping this weekend called Eating Well.  Flipping through the pages of some interesting recipes and pictures I come across an article entitled Change the Way you Think About Food. I thought the magazine was mostly about recipes and preparing food, so I didn’t expect to see such weight loss inspired story.

Anyway, I began reading it and was immediately drawn in. It was the most insightful article about the binge eating cycle I’ve every read. It even described exactly what happened to me Sunday night…

“anytime we see or smell food, several systems kick in simultaneously in various parts of the brain to make sure we don’t miss the opportunity to chow down. The brain’s reward and motivation system gets fired up (“I must have that pizza now!”), while centers of the brain that link to emotion and memory switch into higher gear (“The last time I had pizza, it made me happy!”). At the same time, the brain’s pleasure centers are activated (“Pizza is yummy!”), with the most high-calorie foods causing the most stimulation (“Pizza with double cheese and pepperoni is even yummier!”). The result? Too often we dig in, hungry or not.”

I mean seriously, they even used pizza in their example. It’s like they were writing it to me, about me!

The article goes on to describe, what it calls,  the “almost eating disorder” (which I have, without a doubt!).  It continues with the science on why we overeat, why diets don’t work and how we can take control. It really is the most comprehensible article I’ve ever seen on the subject.

After I finished it, I just knew I had to share it with you. I immediately looked the article up online and I was EXCSTATIC to find it so I can share it with you! If you ever experienced that cycle of eating just because it’s there or binging because you ‘already overate’ this is a MUST READ! 

So I guess you can figure out pretty easily my weekend didn’t go so well. Actually I had a great weekend I just ate a bit more then I wanted to. I did get a TON of work done and I had some fun going out with the husband one night and seeing a movie with friends the other. Plus today we took the toddler out all day and had a blast at the mall. I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend, I just wish I didn’t eat so darn much!

OK, I can’t dwell on it. It’s over. I did it. I’m moving on!

So all this work I’m talking about, let’s see, I finally added a new template to the community, I announced a recipe contest on GreenLiteBites, updated my workout and weight progress pages, and worked on a logo for my new company site (don’t worry I’ll announce it soon.)

After a weekend working on fun stuff, tomorrow is back to work. Although I don’t want to prepare for classes I welcome the set schedule again. I need a little bit of structure to get out of the eating funk I’ve been in since the new year.

Oh! and one more thing before I go! Today I received a note from the gym that I lifted over 500,000 pounds since I started working out in August! And I signed up for a personal trainer! I’ll let you know when I have my first session! Free weights... HERE I COME! :~D

Labels: journal, links

Perfection isn't worth it.

This is a great read and I'm loving Crabby McSlacker's blog!

Just a midday post while I procrastinate at work. :~)

Labels: journal, links