life+running » diet

WWinning + Green Jell-o

chimes — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000

You guys may have noticed that I’ve been adding WeightWatchers (WW) points + values to al(most)l my recipes and to things I pin on Pinterest.

I kept it pretty secret from all but my inner circle of peeps, but I’ve been doing WeightWatchers since January. I did the 3-month signup bonus and my 3 months is up.

[ source ]

So, what did I think? Let’s back up first so I can tell you why I did it. Because I’m sure you’re all scratching your heads.

FYI This is going to be a longer nutrition-related post. If you come here for crafts and recipes, come back tomorrow.

Actually, let’s back up and talk about how WW works. Based on your weight and gender you get a set amount of points each day. You get another amount of points to dole out to yourself throughout the week (splurge points). And you get activity points to swap for food when you exercise. The amount of points a food has is determined by its content: Fat, protein, carbs and fiber. I’m not sure how they calculate values with these things, but things that are bad for you are almost always high in points (except for fake things like diet soda that are free, but not good for you). With the new system, all fruits and almost all vegetables have a zero point value. The idea being that you will choose free / low point — POWER — foods to fill yourself rather than high point valued stuff. You can do this online or go to meetings. I didn’t go to meetings because I would obviously be booed out of the room. A skinny person going to WW? Come on.

But I had different reasons for joining:

One: Mark has been working towards a significant weight loss and has been on and off the program for years. His parents have also been on the program and have had major success. Mark seemed to have more success when he’s around his parents, who understand point values and how the system works. Since I’m his support system here, I thought I would give it a try — so I could at least understand how it works and not continually shove my nutritional-whole-foods-holy-shit-why-would-you-eat-that down his throat [ he still gets a bit of that, but not directly pointed at him ].

Two: I had just come off of 4 weeks of eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Which sounds like a great theory, except I hadn’t (and still haven’t) mastered competent eating — which means I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want but am in CONTROL of it. The previous 4 weeks had given me a pretty nasty sugar addiction. Not to mention a few extra pounds that go with the annual holiday binge. I was set to start tracking my calories on Livestrong again, but when I do that, I usually go completely insane and I also am tracking calories in vs. calories out, and I tend to eat more empty calories instead of picking filling foods. I needed a system that would help me kick the sugar habit and get back on the healthy track. With “free” fruit I would be able to eat a filling apple for “free” instead of having a piece of chocolate that was the same amount of calories, but was actually 5 points. No more empty calories. And I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to binge on fruit.

Three: Here’s where it gets personal. I don’t like gaining weight. Nobody does. But I *really* don’t like it. And when I gained even a little bit of weight, I used to freak out and over-exercise to compensate for eating. I don’t do this anymore, but I still have the “calories in / calories out” mentality in which I equate exercise to food. I will bargain with myself when I want something I know I shouldn’t have — like say, a whole pint of ice cream. If I ran 7 miles that day, I would tell myself that I deserve it. Not a good way to think.

That’s why I did it. Now how did I do it?

Well, the first two weeks I was on the points system I was pissed off and bitter, and a little anxious that I was going to gain weight. Apparently being pissed off and bitter is normal. But I was pissed off because you could have all this “fake shit” (processed fake fat-free / reduced fat — non-whole) for free, when things like peanut butter were high points. I grind freshly roasted peanuts for my peanut butter. And you’re telling me that I can have an ENTIRE thing of sugar-free green Jell-O for free? This is silliness. And wrong. However — I had to remember am NOT their target demographic, and if you can lose 50 lbs for your health by eating green Jell-O then, good for you, and think of good nutrition once you’ve gotten over that first weight-loss hurdle.

[ in fact you can have a whole swimming pool of it if you would like. source ]

In the first few weeks, there was definitely what I like to call “point shock” happening. And “point envy”. I got 26 measly points because I’m a little person and obviously don’t need to lose a significant amount of weight. At that time, Mark got something like 69. Or 100 as I mentally rounded his point value to. Dinners together were extremely stressful because I couldn’t have pretty much anything we used to eat — which is funny, because I pride myself on eating healthily. I quit eating pasta, which I had already mostly done because of the gluten issue, but pasta is 4 points per serving. Couple that with 7 points average for dinner, and that’s half my day’s points right there. Then I’d grab something that I normally ate for a snack and find out it was 6 or more points — LARABARS?? I love you Larabar, but you are no longer my afternoon snack. Post-long-run, maybe. Or on special occasions only.

Since most of my snack items were high point values … apples with peanut butter, celery with peanut butter, Larabars, hot cocoa with marshmallows, cereal, nuts, granola (oh god, granola! 1/4 c = 8 points for Love Crunch!) … I started having fruit for snacks.

Oh, I didn’t mention I was concurrently tracking on Livestrong for the first week because I was CERTAIN that “free” fruit was a conspiracy. Bananas are like 150 calories. Most certainly NOT free. I found out that I was actually eating a lot less calories than I normally do, and that my sugar intake had gone down, but was still pretty high. So I swapped out one of my daily snacks with a vegetable. And I quit tracking on Livestrong because I only have so much sanity and time.

I also tracked my fruit as 1 point per piece for about a week. But then decided that I was already feeling much better about everything and that if I did that, I would go insane. So I quit tracking fruit as points.

I mentioned above that I wanted a system that would help me get out of the “calories in / calories out” mentality. So, instead of swapping activity for food like most everybody else does, I chose not to do so.

I also chose to edit the amount of splurge points I got per week. The default amount is 49. I got 26 points a day. 49 extra points throughout the week averaged out to be 33 points per day — which isn’t too terrible, but when I thought about how many calories those extra points equated to, it just didn’t make sense for me. I’m 5’2″. Even in maintenance I need about 1300 calories. 26 points ends up being about 1300 (or MORE) calories as it is. I got some guff from a few people for not using all 49, but it has worked for me for the goals that I wanted to achieve.

The outcome?

I quit mentally swapping food for exercise. Period. This, in itself, was totally worth the $60 3-month subscription. I can’t even tell you how much I’ve paid in therapy to do the same damn thing and not have it work. We couldn’t figure out how to get rid of this thinking. Now I did.

I still aim to exercise 60+ mins 5-6 days a week to maintain a healthy heart … and let’s face it, a hot bod, but I’m not bargaining with myself on the stairstepper for an extra 15 minutes just so I can have a freaking Butterfinger on my fro yo from Orange Leaf.

Sugar intake? Gone WAY down. In fact, I see sugary stuff now, and I don’t HAVE to have it. I also went into this knowing that I wasn’t going to consume fake sugar as a substitute because that wouldn’t make the cravings go away. Besides the fact that I think that fake sugar is poison anyway, so why would I throw one of my major values out the window to get “freebies” on WW? Our fridge is now chock full of fruits and veggies. I’ve also pretty much completely cut out starchy carbs. Scary. But it’s been amazing on my stomach. Now a bowl of cereal to me is like cheesecake to the rest of the free world. Well, and to me. Cheesecake is pretty awesome.

WeightWatchers also helped with binges. I still binge eat from time to time. But if I have to track it? I don’t. I still binge ate on Livestrong, but I could exercise harder (within reason) to make up for it, OR, I just plain wouldn’t track it because looking at all the salt, sugar, fat, calories and other crap that I just consumed freaked me out. But with WW points? They’re points. It’s the same idea, but for some reason it doesn’t freak me out as much. So if I would have a binge, I’d track it. And then figure out how to edit the rest of my day’s worth of food to fit into the system. Which helped binges become less and less frequent. Binging is when I dipped into my splurge points (and EXACTLY why I didn’t give myself 49. We would be having a completely different discussion if I’d done that.). When not under the influence of alcohol, my binges have gotten a lot better and have been infrequent. To the point of me being able to have a half gallon of ice cream in the freezer for FOUR days. That has to be some sort of record. FOUR WHOLE DAYS. And peanut butter in the fridge for a week or more at a time.

I did not lose much weight on WW. In fact, there were weeks that I gained. However, I have been doing this concurrently with LiveFit and beefing up muscle-wise. But it’s really daunting to see the scale going up (not by much) when you’ve worked so hard at BOTH diet and exercise. My jeans tell me that I’ve lost fat. So I’m going with the jeans.

HOWEVER, Mark has lost 20+ pounds since I started WW with him in January. And I can’t help but think that me being on this program with him has helped immensely. That reason alone was worth me giving this a shot.

Bottom line? I’m not going to continue my paid online subscription. I am leaning towards sticking with WW but using my freebie phone app (that doesn’t actually tie into WW, but has a barcode scanner and everything like the app does — just doesn’t sync w/ your account). Me being on it has helped Mark immensely, it’s helped me kick sugar, cut back on binge eating and get rid of the “calories in / calories out” mentality. Worth. It.

[ featured image source — in case you want to buy 24 packs of sugar-free green Jell-o ]

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For REAAAALZ

chimes — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

I’m posting this on Christmas Eve because I’m trying to remind myself not to overindulgeor overdo it this weekend or next. I tend to overindulge and then try to work my butt off to make up for it. That doesn’t work. Years of my crap eating and thinking are finally catching up to me.

Remember that time a few weeks back that I posted about starting this badass workout routine? This one that promised that I’d get super ripped and awesome?

I’ve gained a pound. I took their suggested days off (it’s written for beginners to fitness) and I spent the first week eating way more than normal because my brain hadn’t got the memo that I’m building muscle and trying to shed fat. This week I took MY days off (ie. 1 day) and on the off days from this program I’ve been running or doing some other cardio activity since we haven’t hit the cardio portion of this program yet.

It’s a 16 week program and I’m on week 3. I’m not seeing the results I want, and I think it’s because I’ve been ignoring their diet plan. I pretty much do their diet plan anyway, except I have a sugar problem. It’s like crack. And this time of year is even worse.

And I quit doing cardio because it doesn’t prescribe it. I need to add this back in — even if it’s 30 minutes easy after lifting. It’s better than nothing and will get my muscles loosened back up.

Also, I have a bad habit of eating super late. For instance: It’s almost 8 PM (yes I wrote this on the 20th and scheduled it ahead for Saturday) and I haven’t had dinner. Whoops.

That being said, the purpose of this post is to remind myself that my stomach isn’t a garbage can. This is important. I need to go back to being a food snob. If it’s not incredible, do not eat it. And I need to remember that, for now, since I’m trying to mold my body a certain way, food is fuel. Which really, that’s what it should be anyway.

However, I will have a few treats. Just not the mountains of peanut clusters (sorry mom) I normally have.

Also? I promised I wouldn’t blog about this here. So since I broke that promise, I’ll give you all my 3 week progress photos. I will tell you that they don’t look any different than when I started. I swear. The highlight of this? One: Tuesdays and Thursdays I lift when the wrestling team does AAAAND I have moved past the girlie weights to the men’s weights (the free dumbells — the girlie ones max out at 20 lbs).

And for those of you who haven’t realized I have no filter, yes these are polka dot underwear. I could have put on a bikini, but it actually covers LESS so I kept my underwear on. I did cut out my face in case these get distributed on the internets. I don’t have to own up to them.

[okay, i lied. my arms are much more awesome than ever]

Also … I noticed that my right side of my abs is FAR fitter than my left side. I wonder why that is and if it has to do with the fact that I have a somewhat bum leg on my left side? Either way, this is noted and I’m going to try to work on that.

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30 Day Shred

chimes — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:15:26 +0000

For those of you who don’t know, I recently went through kind of a rough patch. During that time, most of my healthy lifestyle and habits went out the window. I was eating pizza and ice cream on a semi-daily basis. But magically, I was losing weight.

Something was up. I don’t know what, but whatever it was finally caught up to me.

So 10 pounds that I shed during that time have crept back up on me in a very unflattering manner. The weight I lost was mostly muscle. Let’s just say it didn’t come back in that form.

Here’s where most of my readers (all 5 of you?) groan. Well, you know what? I like to look a certain way, and dammit, I know if I work at it, I can get there. I’ve been there. I worked HARD to get there. I’ve been lazy. I need to quit being lazy. Despite what you may think, you don’t get this body for free. I was damn lucky to have maintained it the past few months, but my luck is beginning to run out.

It begins today.

I’m getting my ass out of bed and working out in the morning. I’m starting with Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred. It’s painfully hard. Even for somebody who’s in as good of shape as me (haha, which isn’t as good as you would think actually).

I’m going to bring the DVD, my weights and mat home with me when I go for Thanksgiving. I’ve got an elliptical at home and some of my old favorite running routes live on the gravels back there. Turkey, do your worst. I’m ready.

Today was day one. I was GOING to get up and run. But it decided to thunderstorm. I remembered that Jillian was waiting for me in my living room. So, I hung with her for 20 minutes. To me, that’s not a good enough workout. So, I’m probably going to hit the gym over lunch today. And by probably, I mean I AM going to hit the gym.

Also, I’m burning P90X from my work computer and taking it home with me. I need an ass-kicking workout. I want to be ripped again.

Here’s my inspiration …

Lolo and Jillian. Yes, I found a picture where Jillian looks BEAUTIFUL and less like a man (I think she’s gorgeous anyway, but I’ve heard other people say otherwise).

Anyway. I’m uncomfortable where I’m at right now and that needs to change. I’m afraid I’m going to continue packing it on like I did last year, and I don’t want to get to that point again. I saw the magic number on the scale last month. I want to see it again. And I want it to stay there. But I want to do it the right way, not the wrong way.

I also realize that means I’m going to have to cut out a LOT of the crap I’ve been eating lately (sorry, no more beer and Fong’s Pizza for me). Sushi can stay (thank god). Fortunately, I’ve fallen in love with some healthy food (arugula, tomatoes, cottage cheese, beets, etc) over the years, so I should be able to get back into the swing of things. I just have to watch myself. And THINK before I eat. THINKING is the biggest part of holiday weight gain for most people, or I should say lack thereof. I’m vowing to think before I eat this year. For real this time. Food is fuel. I need to think like an athlete again. Hopefully I can get strong enough to do my half marathon in April this year. But I have to start somewhere, and it begins now.

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