Eat Up, Buttercup. 3/5

    When I was chubbier...I ate less than I do now. It went like this:

10 AM- Wake up, have coffee
12PM- Lunch? Bagel. Buttery spread. Maybe some cereal.
2PM- Get ready for work, ....I'll buy dinner.
3 PM- Another bagel might work.
9PM- Take a break...drive to Panera, get fat soup and bread.
10 PM- Time for animal crackers. I'll have some cranberry juice.
11 PM- Home. Crash time.

    It's no wonder my scrubs were gettin' a little bit too tight.  I was working as a nursing aide and although it was a pretty physical job, my diet just wasn't doing anything to help me out.

  So here's to food. We could do this the old fashioned way, but what with computers and all, I'm going post a few links and we'll be there in no time.

Figure out your calories.

   If you signed up for sparkpeople, they give you a target calorie range. If you didn't, here's another way to figure your needs out. I said I would never count calories, and some people might not want to- which is why I like sparkpeople.com so much. You're counting, but if you follow the meal plans set up, you're not doing much more than clicking the foods you've eaten.

  As for the calculator- if you have a dog, and you walk him/her each day, but for the rest of the day you're not so active, then you can get by with Sedentary or Light Activity if you're using the calculator. If you go to the gym and you're doing intervals each day plus weight training two to three days a week, I would use somewhere between Light and Moderate Activity- Closer to moderate if you're doing jog/sprint intervals.

    Once you have a magic number, try your best for one day to right down how you're eating right now. See how many calories you're taking in, and if you enter them into sparkpeople.com, you can see how much fat/protein/carbs you're getting.

  Now, let's fill those puppies up. Calories can mean nothing if you're eating bagels and ceral and animal crackers. So follow this rule of thumb: 1 protein, 1 complex carbohydrate, 1 healthy fat - at each meal.

CC's= sweet potatoes, oatmeal, brown rice, sprouted bread...etc.
P= tofu, beans, lean cuts of this and that, tempeh, etc. (I use greek yogurt as a protein!)
F=olive oil, avocados, nut butters, etc.


   I like spark's setup for meals. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one to two snacks. Pack your lunch the night before...it's so helpful and such a relief to know that everything is all done and ready!

    Remember to get plenty of leafy greens and around 3 to 4 servings of fruit. Aim to get 4 to 5 servings of veggies a day and you'll be golden. Once you fill your calories up with foods that will work for you and not against you, you'll see a change in your weight, in your energy, in your mood, everything. It's hard to get enough veggies and fruits...I still struggle on some days.

   Take a high quality multi-vitamin, drink at least 64 ounces of water each day (herbal, caffeine free tea counts! For every caffeine drink you take in, add another 6-8 ounces of water to your intake goal).


Uhhhhmmmm....I know I'm missing things. But I think that's a good start!


 

Choices....part 2/5

     There's this great quote about choices, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it says or who said it. So obviously I'm really helpful. Anyway.

     When I was bigger, I could not see that it was because of my choices. And not only was I bigger, I was unhappier, unhealthier, and angrier. I was my world...I was so worried and focused on what the next day would bring in the way of my job, my successes and failures, that I could hardly see that it was my own chubby-snippy-angry self getting in the way of me truly living. I had chosen to study a field I wasn't passionate about. I had chosen to neglect my nutrition. I had chosen to pay for a gym membership that I hardly ever used. I chose to eat bagels and tater tots galore. I had chosen to focus on a way of life that I thought would help me find that darn American Dream.  (I was set with the white picket fence deal, Brett's family owns a great fence company).

    In making all of those choices, I lost myself. So one day, after seeing a number on the scale that I was unhappy with, I made another choice. I chose to lose some weight. I joined http://www.sparkpeople.com/ (free website that is incredibly helpful and motivating)  and I began my journey of different choices there. I had no idea that in losing weight, I would gain so much more.

    For me, it started that one little choice. I finally gave up the endless excuses and made  a change. Anyone can do it, and you don't need anything but yourself to do it. So while I'm not a weight loss expert, I want to help anyone (even if only one) that I can start their journey. So while these first two posts have been jibber jabber about excuses and choices, the next three are going to be pretty simple: food and exercise.

     I guess I'm doing this because I've been asked a lot how I did it- from friends to people I've trained to people I've met on SparkPeople. And so many people have done it before me and have lost more than me, and I realize that. So I'm just another person but if I can be of any help, please don't hesitate to reach out. So feel completely free to ask any questions (private or public) from anything as simple as what intervals are to something as complicated as caloric needs per day. If I can't answer it, I have a lot of great resources to offer up.

  

     So for today, if you're bored, check out sparkpeople.com. If you're trying to lose weight or trying to get healthier, make the choice to sign up.