Cupcakes and Fries, oh my!

This week I survived a two local festivals rife with Smith Island cakes, fried cheesecake on a stick, and oodles of hand-cut fries. I also managed a wedding buffet with crab dip, which I believe warrants some sort of medal! I even skipped the wedding cupcake! Well, to be honest, I did have a bite of a pink strawberry cupcake, but I handed it to my husband to finish. (Husbands really come in handy in these types of situations!)

                                          

I've continued to write down every bite and have felt stronger for it, but I have to confess it hasn't been without difficulty. I have been irritable and on the verge of tears all week. I am typically very calm and happy, but I've felt unsettled and weepy. I am not a big crier, but I've been tearing up at every sad thought and Hallmark commercial! I really think it's related to the diet. Carbs--especially the refined sugar variety--make me chipper, and refined sugars have been pretty much altogether slashed from my life.

The problem is, when I'm eating sugar, I do feel calm and joyous, but I also feel extreme energy highs and lows, and hungry all the time. Without the sugary sweets, I am managing my appetite, eating less food, and better quality food. I am hoping this emotional imbalance will smooth out as my body adjusts... In the meantime, carry a box of tissues for me!

Week 1 Weight Loss

I am convinced that first weeks on diets are a gift from the universe. I lost 6.5 lbs. this week. Kurt (my mathematical genius husband) says that means I'm 13% of the way to my goal. How cool is that?!

Day 7: Wine and Juice!

Today I spent a few hours volunteering for Bordeleau Winery at a local festival. I packed a Tofurky sammy in my purse and managed to avoid the many alluring snacks that accompany those types of events...though I did down about 4 oz. of free vino! Yay! I had such a good time working the event, too! It was lots of fun pouring wine and talking to people. I'm excited to volunteer for the winery again some time!

I want to say a word about fruit juice. I am one of those people who wakes up in the morning and walks zombie-like into the kitchen. I wake up with that first glass of juice! I love my early morning sips of juice, and I've been drinking OJ in the morning for years. However, I recently discovered Fruitables by Apple & Eve.

Fruitables is a blend of fruit and veggie juices. It tastes yummy, but it has 30% less sugar and is almost half the calories of OJ. OJ has 110 calories per 8 oz. serving, and Fruitables only has 60 calories. The ingredients include carrot, beet, sweet potato, and tomato, but it honestly just tastes like fruit punch.

Bonus: They carry it at Sam's Club, so you can get a good deal on it!

Day 6: Sushi yum!

Last night was my first dining out experience since I started my new fitness program, and I was wondering how it would go...

I went to Sushi De Kanpai on the downtown plaza with Monica and her niece, Lani. When I eat sushi, I always go for the cooked rolls, but the cooked rolls so often contain tempura! Yum! I love tempura! But it's not the healthiest option...

I ended up having a green salad with ginger dressing, miso soup, and two rolls; a California roll and a Delaware roll. I think most people are familiar with the CA roll, but the DE roll contains shrimp, asparagus, kanpyo, and cucumber. Both are super healthy sushi choices. I felt really good about my meal!

However... I was really hungry when my sushi came, and Lani asked for a piece of one of my rolls. I actually had to resist the urge to say "no" to her! I was feeling very protective over my little low-cal meal! (Sorry about that, Lani!) Of course, I shared with her, but I had to overcome my moment of sushi selfishness! It's always better to share, but I was soooo hungry! (Be forewarned: a dieting woman is very protective over her morsels!)

Eating out can be a challenge when trying to lose weight, but it can definitely be done! Japanese is one of the best options for dining out and keeping the food choices healthy.

The 5th Day: Nuts!

I never really understood the value of nuts until recently. Whenever I've dieted in the past, I have abstained from nuts because they are so high in calories and fat. I now see the error of my ways!


Nuts are not only a nice source of protein, but they are filling snacks! 1 oz. of nuts is 170 calories, and they provide your body with healthy oils. I got a sizable container of mixed nuts with sea salt from Sam's Club recently, and I just count out my portion or stick it on the scale. I have a new appreciation for nuts! (Please withhold whatever joke you are itching to post right now!)


One other thing that I want to mention are protein shakes. I am a fan of the shake in general. As someone who mostly keeps veggie, I count on those shakes as a source of protein. However, not all shakes are created equally. 


My trainer recently recommended Designer Whey. Well, let me tell you, the kind people at the Vitamin Shoppe let me try it and ew. I did not like it! Lean Body brand protein shakes are much more to my liking. I have so far tried vanilla, banana, and strawberry. The banana is my favorite! But if you're not into banana flavored foods, I'd say you can count on the vanilla. It's really good. I bought a few "singles" so I could try out the different flavors, and I intend to go back and buy a case of one flavor. They are on sale until the end of April at the Vitamin Shoppe.


In other news, after taking the poodles to their vet appointment this morning, the three of us took a robust walk around the park. Beautiful weather for walking poodles!

You Get a Recipe with Day 4!

One thing that Maria the trainer wanted me to mention in my blog is, as she put it, timing, timing, timing.

To be honest, this is not something that I think much about. The timing of my meals tends to be dictated by my tummy. That said, I have noticed that there is a regular pattern to when I eat my meals.

Typically, I am eating six times a day, every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. This gives me time to digest and get hungry again. Like I said, I don't think much about it, but evidently I'm doing something right! I guess this way of eating keeps the fires of your metabolism stoked. Maria also specifically recommends eating 1 1/2 hours prior to a workout and not waiting until you're starving because then you'll be crashing your metabolism.

For me, the key to staying on track has been journaling my food. I have to admit that in the past I've gotten lazy and didn't write down every morsel, but to be a successful superhero journaler you have to write it all down!

Recipe share time! This recipe is inspired by one from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking. The book calls the recipe "Sloppy No's," but I prefer to call mine, "Sloppy That's-So-Yummo's"! (Note: My version is not vegan, though it is still vegetarian.)

SLOPPY THAT'S-SO-YUMMO'S


Ingredients:
1 tsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green onion
1 finely chopped jalapeño
2 minced cloves garlic
1 TB. chili powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 can tomato paste
1 cup water
2 tsp. Molasses
2 tsp. Tamari, soy sauce, or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1 can Eden Organic Pinto Beans (drained)
1 package Morningstar Farms® Meal Starters™ Grillers® Recipe Crumbles™
1 package of whole grain buns


Preparation:
Heat the olive oil in a pan & add the onion and green pepper; sauté for 3 minutes. Then add jalapeño, garlic, and dry spices and sauté for 2 more minutes. Add tomato paste and garlic and stir well. Add the Veggie Crumbles. In a separate bowl mash the pinto beans with a fork and then add those, along with the molasses and tamari. Stir and then simmer on low for maybe five minutes. Serve it up on the buns! 


By the way - I use Arnold Sandwich Thins to make this a lower cal sammy!

Questions of Day 3

It has been expressed to me that perhaps, "Pink Icing" is not the most fitting name for a blog about fitness. After all, what does cake have to do with fitness? The answer, of course, is very little...

However, when embarking on a fitness plan, you are really setting out to negotiate a balance of healthy delicious foods with the occasional treat. If I couldn't have any treats, I would just sit in a corner and cry! Pink icing represents a delight, a treat, and a decadence... and sometimes we need that!

Another question that has been nagging me for some time is about vegetarianism. I think of myself a vegetarian because I abstained from all forms of meat (fish included) for 15 years, but for the past five years or so I have actually been a pescatarian. I currently eat the occasional piece of fish, but lately I have been flirting with the idea of veganism.

I started reading Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet, and I dabbled in being vegan for a day or two a week. Dabbling has been a good experience for me; vegan days reveal my reliance on dairy. Experimenting with veganism has helped me to understand that I can make better choices rather than always relying on butter, milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs... I love dairy, but now I'm inspired to eat less; and when I do eat it, I try to make it higher quality organic dairy to avoid the hormones and antibiotics in non-organic dairy.

Although I love eating vegan, it is too restrictive of a lifestyle for me. I will be sticking with my mostly vegetarian diet with the occasional bit of fish. One thing that I really took away from Alicia's book is that she encourages readers to broaden their consumption of whole grains. Instead of just brown rice, I now make sure my cupboards are stocked with hulled barley, quinoa, and bulgar. Barley is my favorite! It's so chewy and filling!

Day 3 was a sweeping success. I will post a loss at the end of the week. Stay tuned! And thanks for the encouragement!

Fitness Plan 2010, Day 2

Day 2 was good! I trained with Maria in the morning and showed her my Fitday.com log; she gave me kudos for my pie chart. I followed up my strength training with 20 minutes on the bike.


I have to say that I am not thrilled with a mere 20 minutes on the bike, but the pain was insufferable and I had to stop. For the past couple of weeks I have been dealing with left knee pain that I believe to be tendonitis. I need to stretch and ice it for a while.


For dinner I made a quinoa-corn chowder that turned out to be really yummy! If you haven't tried quinoa, it packs quite a nutritional punch! (Just make sure to rinse it first; otherwise it ends up tasting a bit soapy!)


Maria text messaged me after dinner and I gave her the run-down. She expressed some concern over the high carb content of the meal. I let her know that I added a Boca burger to bring more protein on board, but still I got a stern warning. The thing is, any meal that is high carb (which I love!) throws off that pie chart ratio that I was talking about. That magical ratio really is the key to maintaining muscle mass; it's no good running off to the gym to lift and then not properly feeding it.


One of the best things about starting any diet is actually getting on the scale during the first week. The water weight loss happens quickly and provides nice inspiration... minus 2.5 pounds after just 2 days! It's too bad that kind of loss doesn't continue over the life of a diet!


I'm happy to wake up to a lovely morning with yesterday's rain gone. It's breakfast time. How do we feel about veggies in the morning? 

Fitness Plan 2010

Yesterday was 2010's inaugural day of what seems to have become my annual diet. When one sets out on a diet, there are several things to consider. How will I go about this "diet"? What kind of diet will it be? When do I start?

This how I came to this year's diet:

I was married on May 30, 2009. I lost 30 pounds before my wedding by spending several hours at the gym every day and journaling my food. Less than a year after my wedding, let's just say that those 30 pounds are no longer floating around in the universe without me! I--naturally--feel as though I have been horribly wronged, but by whom? Hmmm... I can give you a bunch of possible "reasons" for this weight gain--stemming from injuries that have kept me out of the gym to fertility drugs with weight gain side effects--but the fact of the matter is that most weight gain is simple mathematics: calories in exceed calories burned and that equals weight gain.

So, a minimum goal for me at this point would be to lose 44 pounds, but I am going to set the bar a little higher. My weight loss goal is 50 pounds... then there is keeping it off, but one thing at a time, people?!

As far as what kind of diet I will be on, I have decided to go back to my good old fashioned food journal. I use a Diet & Fitness Journal published by Peter Pauper Press. There is a section at the beginning that gives you a formula for calculating your resting daily calorie burn; mine is 2,206 to maintain my current weight. I have decided to cut 500 calories a day from this number. That means that if I did not exercise at all, I would lose 1 pound per week (-3500 calories equals a 1-pound weight loss). I am exercising, so my loss should be a little faster.

One other thing about my "diet" is that I am not calling it a diet. I am calling it my "fitness plan," and it is more than just food journaling and working out. I want to lose fat while maintaining muscle. The way to do this (according to my trainer, Maria) is to make sure you are eating the right ratio of protein to carbs and fat. Imagine a pie chart; Maria says that it should look like a peace symbol with one-third of your calories coming from each group--protein, fat, and carbs. (You can get your very own pie chart by logging your food at Fitday.com, by the way!)

That's it. That's my plan. Now, I am hoping that today--my second day--doesn't end quite the way yesterday ended... with me curled up on the bed sobbing for no apparent reason with a husband totally unsure of how to console me. Inaugural diet days can be rough!

For those who know me well, you are aware that my weight loss journey has been a long one. However, in all of the years that I've dieted, I have certainly never blogged about it. I can't say whether it will help, but I figure that an extra measure of accountability can't hurt! So readers, you get to go on this special mission of torture--I mean, mission of fitness--with me.

Life-changing & full of fiber!

Now that I cook dinner nearly every day, I’ve had to come up with some yummy dishes that are also easy to make. Monday I threw some ingredients in the slow cooker and came home to a batch of spicy chili. Last night we had honey Dijon skillet salmon and sautéed spinach. Both of these were delicious and simple meals, but I have figured out a shortcut to black bean soup that is life changing.

Life-changing Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

2 cans of black beans

3 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles

Spices to taste (I use chili powder, cayenne, smoked paprika)

Preparation:

Cook the garlic in olive oil in a small pan on the stove. Remove it from the heat when it gets a little color. (Be careful not to burn it because there is nothing worse in the entire world than burnt garlic.) Place all of the ingredients including the olive oil/garlic into your food processor or blender and puree it. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan, heat and serve.

Easy! Right?! You’ll love it. Promise.

An ode to my fave dessert!

Cupcakes

Peel back

the zig-zagged wrapper

from the fluffy yellow cake,

crumbs tumbling,

careful not to tear

its perfect form.

Break off

the bottom stem,

flip it over,

and place it atop

the thick gloss of frosting

creating a cupcake sandwich.

Centered on a ceramic saucer,

arranged beneath cellophane

in luminous white boxes,

behind bakery plate

glass windows,

or dreamily set

upon cake stands

the day of a wedding:

this is really, truly

just for you.