Operation :: Goddess

My new favorite breakfast.

My new favorite breakfast is 1/2c (one serving) of Fiber One, mixed with 3/4c (one serving) Total. Add 3/4c 1% milk and 1/2c sliced strawberries, and you have 281 calories, 4 grams of fat, 65g carbs, 13g protein, 20g fiber (RDA is 25g, and this is probably the biggest area where most people don't meet their RDA), and 100% of a good chunk of your vitamin and mineral RDA's.

And, to top it all off, it's *good*.

Posted by Laura at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments

Woo!

<-- Lookit that, more weight lost!

Posted by Laura at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

Calcium and Vitamin K

One thing that I've come to realize by tracking my nutrition intake over at Fit Day, is that I'm not getting enough calcium. Fit Day has these handy reports that spit out the facts on what comprises your diet, and I'm only ingesting about 75% of the RDA of calcium. I'm short on Vitamin K, too, which I found to be interesting. Those were the only areas - in some areas I'm WAY over the RDA, like Vitamin C (over 600%!).

Calcium is, of course, beneficial for bone structure, hair, and skin. Discovery Health has a good quiz to help determine your calcium intake. My RDA is 1500mg per day. The website recommends getting calcium from the foods you eat, rather than from a supplement. Natural sources of calcium include milk and dairy products, spinach, beans, brazil nuts, tofu, and some fish (whitebait? never heard of it). If you can't get enough through food, using calcium citrate is recommended over calcium carbonate (which happens to be the cheapest and most widely available), because the latter isn't as readily absorbed, and may cause constipation. And you don't want that!

As for Vitamin K, Vitamins.com says "Vitamin K plays an important role in the intestines and aids in converting glucose into glycogen for storage in the liver, promoting healthy liver function. It is also essential for bone formation." And apparently it's good for the skin, because there's a ton of Vitamin K ointments out there. According to this website, natural sources of Vitamin K can be found in leafy green vegetables, fruits, beets, potatoes, eggs, seeds, dairy products, and meats.

Sigh. I'd better get on the ball, or I'm going to be old and brittle with a messed up liver.

Posted by Laura at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

Progress Prompt

Today's Progress Prompt:

"What are your hobbies? Are they activity- or passivity-based? What were your hobbies as a kid?"

When I was young I was very involved in horseback riding. I competed often and was a member of Pony Club. I would ride almost every day of the week, and when I wasn't riding I was working at the stable to help pay for my board. That involved a LOT of physical activity, and as a result I was a very sturdy teenager. I wanted to be willowy, I ended up just strong. Eh, what can you do.

Nowadays my hobbies are reading and writing, and I also very much enjoy making gift baskets for people. I've also made physical fitness and health my hobby, now. Five or six days a week I work out in some form or another - today was Yoga, which I ADORE and would do more if I had more quiet time. As it is, it only seems to work if I do it first thing on Saturday or Sunday morning, while Dear Husband and Dear Step Daughter are asleep and therefore can't point and laugh at my contortions. I'm always on the lookout for new recipes (another hobby! cooking! lookit 'em all come out of the woodwork!), and I'm always trying to figure out new healthy things to stuff in my pie-hole.

Hmm. Looks like I need to get more interesting hobbies.

Posted by Laura at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

False Fat

This is a good quiz to help you find where the hidden fats are in your diet. For me, I may be eating too much wheat and dairy, which makes sense to me since I do love my bread and cheese. I also go for the diet/fat free/nonfat stuff a lot, which contains a lot of aspartame (sugar). Aspartame is a chemical whose properties I'm not altogether sure are good for a body, anyway (it's made by joining two amino acids together, which makes it a protein fragment - the compounds of which are formaldehyde and methanol).

Anyhoo! Just some stuff for me to work on.

Posted by Laura at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments

Blah!

Yee-uck. I had Taco Bell for dinner last night, and whole bunch of that crack I mentioned below. As a result I feel blobby and gross this morning. It's really strange (but probably a good thing) how when I go for a long while eating healthy foods, when I fall off the "wagon" and splurge on junk, I end up feeling crappy.

Yarg. Coffee. Need coffee.

Posted by Laura at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments

Duuude.

You know what are like crack? Kit Kat Bites. Seriously. Those little eeny half-bite size little things that come in a pouch? CRACK.

Posted by Laura at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments

Handy
Huh! Here's something handy that I didn't know about before. Would've saved me a heck of a lot of work, cropping and posting all of those charts for my daily progress like I used to do. I can make my FitDay information public. You just have to go here, and you can see everything you ever wanted to know about my eating and exercise habits and goals.

I've created a link to the left entitled "My FitDay Page". You learn something new every day.

Posted by Laura at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

Oh. My. God.

Did you know that the typical restaurant-style caesar salad (about three cups consisting of romaine lettuce, chicken, shredded cheese, croutons, tomatoes, onions, and dressing) is ***603 Calories*** and ***20 grams of fat***??? If you take away the dressing (find a fat-free substitute!) and croutons, it's only 241 calories and 5.5 grams of fat. Man alive, I wish I'd figured that out *before* lunch.

Posted by Laura at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments

Is anybody out there reading?

Just curious, since I rarely get comments. Albeit, this stuff is rarely inspiring of feedback. ~grin~

Posted by Laura at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well, heck.

Back a while ago I said I was going to stop tracking my calories (I was using FitDay). As much of a pain in the ass it is, I guess I still need to do it if I really want a bead on what I'm eating. So back to FitDay I go, but I don't think I'll double-post what I'm eating and the resulting daily chart here. That's just too much work. Besides which, I doubt you REALLY want to know how much fiber I have in my diet. Heh.

I will post my observations on what I eat (good, bad, or otherwise). So far, still WAAAAY too much junk food. And probably overboard on calories, too. I need to keep my calories around 1200 to 1300 a day. Seems low, but my metabolism isn't all that high. Until that dramatically increases through exercise (and I should know when that happens because I'll a) lose weight like gangbusters; and b) be tired all the time because I'm not eating enough), I'll keep the calorie intake low.

Weigh-in's will be every Friday morning, and I'll post the results over there to the left.

Posted by Laura at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

Doing Good

Day 2 of my Shape Up efforts, and so far so good. Yesterday did feature a slip-up in the form of pizza for lunch, but I managed to stay away from the junk food. Oh, wait, I did allow myself a small scoop of ice cream after dinner (quoth Calvin: "You can't eat just one scoop of ice cream!" I could.). I worked out and as a result my legs are weak and shakey (or just y?) today.

Today was Fiber One cereal with 1/2 banana for breakfast, black bean pasta (4 g's fat, 190-ish cals, meatless, recipe from my "Loonyspoons" cook book) with cukes in balsamic vinegar for lunch, an apple for this afternoon's snack, and beef stir fry with tons of veggies and edemame instead of rice for dinner. Workout tonight is cardio (elliptical), with a bout of jump rope thrown in every five minutes.

Tons of green tea consumed both days.

My Favorite Shape-Up Snacks:

- Thickly sliced tomato topped with a spoonful of hummus and a thin slice of mozzerella
- Ak-Mak crackers spread with almond butter
- A handful of mixed nuts
- Any raw fruit or veggie
- Celery spread with light cream cheese, a sprinkle of garlic salt, and topped with sliced olives
- Yogurt mixed with a handful of granola
- Cottage cheese mixed with sliced pineapple
- A fruit smoothie (yogurt, berries, 1% milk, ice cubes - add a scoop of protein powder if it's for breakfast)
- Sliced cucumber drizzled with balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil
- Ezekiel or sprouted bread, toasted, spread with almond butter
- A hard-boiled egg
- A whole wheat pita with a couple of spoonfuls of Dawn's Black Bean and Corn Salsa (black beans, corn, chopped red onion, chopped cilantro, diced tomato, garlic/salt/pepper, fat free italian dressing - recipe by my friend Dawn). Also good with crackers, or mixed with a can of tuna!

Posted by Laura at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

Shape Up

The ladies over at the Shape Up Board are starting up another Community Challenge. Just in time for me to get myself together for Hawaii. I'll be posting the journal assignments here, instead of keeping a written one as I have in the past. Since I'm in front of the computer almost constantly, I'll probably stick to the assignments better that way.

So! Today's goals are to shop for SU-friendly foods (low (not NO) carbs, high protein, limited sugar, "healthy" fats), dig out my Shape Up! book and workbook, and get my butt moving on some cardio.

Posted by Laura at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments

Progress Prompt

From the February 17th Progress Prompt:

"What are your food triggers? How/why do they trigger your cravings? What do you do with them when you're on a weight loss program...do you modify their recipes or eliminate them from your food plan altogether?"

My food triggers usually surround junk food - my meals are generally healthy and I'm fortunate in that I prefer the healthy meal choices, usually, over the non-healthy ones. Of course, every now and then I splurge for a cheeseburger or Taco Bell. Depression and anxiety are DEFINITELY my food triggers. I think they trigger a food craving in me for the warm and comforting feeling I associate with being full - and if my stomach is full of food there's no room for knots or butterflies. Strangely enough, reading a book triggers a craving for potato chips - I used to plow my way through an entire bad of Lays Salt-n-Vinegar when I was a teenager, curled up on my bed with Emily of New Moon. Nowadays when I get a craving I try to gulp down a bunch of water first. If, ten minutes after that, I still have the munchies, I try to go for some fruit or raw veggies. If that *still* doesn't take care of it, I allow myself just a small helping of whatever I'm craving - a cookie, a handful of chips, a small glass of chocolate milk. The small amount satisfies my craving just as much as if I'd pigged out. If I'm depressed or anxious, I try to get up and get moving. Working out or going for a walk helps a lot, or I drive up to the book store and browse for an hour.

Posted by Laura at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments