Well, I've done pretty well the last couple of days. We've eaten dinner at home all week. I can't say that I've stopped drinking entirely, but I've cut back substantially. I've been walking everywhere--to both my jobs, up to campus, strolling downtown with coffee. At least once a day, I've walked the mile or so to and from my house to Lawrence's lovely downtown. I figure, if I can't bring myself to run, at least I can incorporate as much walking as possible. And I've been doing my crunches and plank at home, too, with some sun salutations thrown in for good measure.
Cooper's belt is already a little loose at its regular notch, go figure. Why is weight loss so much easier for men?? I haven't weighed myself in a couple weeks. I'm dreading the result. I think I'll take another week of solidly eating good food and walking everywhere before I face the truth.
My friend has been doing South Beach for the last three weeks. She's lost about 8 pounds, looks great, feels good and she's sticking with it really well. I think that's the benefit of doing an established diet, rather then just "eating good and exercising." But we'll see. South Beach is designed to promote instant weight loss, whereas I'm looking for a more long-term establishment of healthy habits.
With that in mind, I've been thinking a little bit about my long-term health goals...
1. Lose 20 lbs. 30 would be great, but I'm in no rush. If I lose 20 lbs, it will help me to achieve some other weight-loss goals, including...
2. Fitting into my closet-full of size 4 pants, and being able to wear my small-medium button up shirts without looking like I'm preparing for a strip-tease.
3. Losing that back roll. This is my problem area--my stomach ain't bad, my legs are fine, I'm even okay with the size of my butt, but I have this back fat that widens my profile and makes my bras incredibly uncomfortable.
4. Get into a running routine. This is the hardest because it requires the real motivation and physical commitment. I really want to do it, and ideally participate in some 5K's and half-marathons. But this is dependent on weather, on my work schedule, on my laziness, on a million other excuses I have primed and ready to use at a moment's notice.
5. Yoga and meditation. Mental strength to supplement the physical. It's essential to my idea of healthy.
6. Lastly, I want to FEEL GOOD. I just want to put something on, the FIRST thing I come across in my closet that looks cute, and like the way I look in it. I want to have energy, exude confidence and simply feel good.
Today's breakfast was BOMB, by the way. I would have taken a picture, but it was gone way to fast. Chocolate Banana Vegan Shake FTW. Recipe can be found HERE.
February 08, 2013
February 05, 2013
the wagon
... this weekend, I fell off it. But, never fear, I jumped right back on it yesterday afternoon, once the hangover subsided, and I'm ready to do better than last week.
A lot of people I know are doing the no carb thing with pretty great success. I thought about going back on South Beach, but after a quick look through the recipes, I remembered why I couldn't stick with it in the first place: who can afford to eat meat every single night? Chicken followed by salmon followed by flank steak, then tilapia. The idea is great, but I'm 24 and my partner's job right now is literally "student." Plus, I really like to think that the best way to eat, and live, is in moderation, and I would like to follow that idea.
So here's Kelly's approach:
-Carbs are okay as long as they're fiber rich (wheat bread, pastas)
-Salad once a day
-Sodium=bloating, so my salt intake needs to be in check
-No processed sugar, only the natural goodness that comes from fruit
-Finally, none of that chemical shit. No soda, especially not diet soda, no preservatives.
-Booze TWICE a week. This doesn't mean I get to get hammered twice a week. That means I get a glass (maaaaybe two) of wine, or a beer on those special days.
-Situps and plank twice a day
Some of these are easier to stick with than others. The chemical one is probably the most challenging, because what doesn't have that shit in it these days? Oh hell, let's be real, the booze one is going to be the worst, but I think it's also the most important. Working in a restaurant takes its toll on you physically-you're more prone to eat like crap, drink a lot, smoke cigarettes, stay up late, etc.
Today's inspiration:
A lot of people I know are doing the no carb thing with pretty great success. I thought about going back on South Beach, but after a quick look through the recipes, I remembered why I couldn't stick with it in the first place: who can afford to eat meat every single night? Chicken followed by salmon followed by flank steak, then tilapia. The idea is great, but I'm 24 and my partner's job right now is literally "student." Plus, I really like to think that the best way to eat, and live, is in moderation, and I would like to follow that idea.
So here's Kelly's approach:
-Carbs are okay as long as they're fiber rich (wheat bread, pastas)
-Salad once a day
-Sodium=bloating, so my salt intake needs to be in check
-No processed sugar, only the natural goodness that comes from fruit
-Finally, none of that chemical shit. No soda, especially not diet soda, no preservatives.
-Booze TWICE a week. This doesn't mean I get to get hammered twice a week. That means I get a glass (maaaaybe two) of wine, or a beer on those special days.
-Situps and plank twice a day
Some of these are easier to stick with than others. The chemical one is probably the most challenging, because what doesn't have that shit in it these days? Oh hell, let's be real, the booze one is going to be the worst, but I think it's also the most important. Working in a restaurant takes its toll on you physically-you're more prone to eat like crap, drink a lot, smoke cigarettes, stay up late, etc.
Today's inspiration:
February 01, 2013
good mornin', Day One
Looking back on old posts from years ago, I am reminded that dieting is hard. I've tried on and off to lose weight, but when I really think critically at my efforts, I don't really think I was deeply motivated. I thought about deleting my past sporadic posts about dieting, because it makes me look flaky, then I thought... wait, I am flaky. Best to acknowledge it, accept it and work on it.
They say (and when I say "they," I mean the voice-over on Special K commercials) that if you make one smart eating decision, it will make your next meal choice easier. Eating well begets eating well. The problem with dieting is that we are faced with numerous meal choices daily, and I think that is where I get tripped up. I can eat a good breakfast and force my way through a salad for lunch, but by 5PM, I'm ready to throw in the towel, pour myself a glass of wine and pop in a frozen pizza. Most obvious statement ever: diets are about self control, of which I obviously have very little. This is going to be about stick-with-it-ness. I keep saying that this is about the wedding (TBD in 2014), but it's not. I really do want to lead a healthy lifestyle. I want to be one of those annoyingly fit people who wake up every morning refreshed and calm (instead of reeking of booze and and wrought with self-loathing, which has been known to happen to me weekly). I want to have energy and motivation and I think diet and exercise is the best way to obtain these traits.
This morning I've done a few calculations... I could lose 22 lbs by July 5 if I eat 1,502 calories a day. Now, that is 200 more than I usually try to consume, but I have a hunch that if I cut out the booze, sugar and anything processed (which I avoid anyway), I could easily shed the weight. I was expecting it would take a full year for me to lose 20 lbs, but this is an added bonus. If I stick with this meal plan along with cardio, muscle exercises and yoga, I could easily lose 10 lbs by May, which is right about when I'll be wedding dress hunting. I want to be closer to my goal weight then by current weight by that time.
Alright, enough. Here's my pretty breakfast, filled with fiber and vitamin c:
They say (and when I say "they," I mean the voice-over on Special K commercials) that if you make one smart eating decision, it will make your next meal choice easier. Eating well begets eating well. The problem with dieting is that we are faced with numerous meal choices daily, and I think that is where I get tripped up. I can eat a good breakfast and force my way through a salad for lunch, but by 5PM, I'm ready to throw in the towel, pour myself a glass of wine and pop in a frozen pizza. Most obvious statement ever: diets are about self control, of which I obviously have very little. This is going to be about stick-with-it-ness. I keep saying that this is about the wedding (TBD in 2014), but it's not. I really do want to lead a healthy lifestyle. I want to be one of those annoyingly fit people who wake up every morning refreshed and calm (instead of reeking of booze and and wrought with self-loathing, which has been known to happen to me weekly). I want to have energy and motivation and I think diet and exercise is the best way to obtain these traits.
This morning I've done a few calculations... I could lose 22 lbs by July 5 if I eat 1,502 calories a day. Now, that is 200 more than I usually try to consume, but I have a hunch that if I cut out the booze, sugar and anything processed (which I avoid anyway), I could easily shed the weight. I was expecting it would take a full year for me to lose 20 lbs, but this is an added bonus. If I stick with this meal plan along with cardio, muscle exercises and yoga, I could easily lose 10 lbs by May, which is right about when I'll be wedding dress hunting. I want to be closer to my goal weight then by current weight by that time.
Alright, enough. Here's my pretty breakfast, filled with fiber and vitamin c:
July 13, 2011
skinny ink
from the blog: http://candimandi.typepad.com/
2.5 more pounds OFF of my body!!! I celebrated last night with a glass of wine (don't tell Arthur Agatston, M.D.). That's a grand total of seven pounds lost in the first week of dieting. Cravings are still in check and I've decided that at the end of this long road, I'm going to reward myself with a tattoo, on my arm, my least favorite part of my body. The above-image is a personal favorite.
Very little to report, other than that. I've almost finished The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, which was the perfect reading pair with my dieting. I started the book not only as a dieting aid, but also as a brainstorming aid. Come the spring, I have to write a 60 page history thesis on a topic of my choice, and so far I can only narrow the topic down to "food." 60 pages is a lot, but I don't know if I could fit the entire food industry into it, at 12 point font, double spaced. A few years back, I wrote a miniscule 12 pages on a group of individuals from the 19th century who started a vegetarian commune in the middle of Kansas. Their philosophies were part of a larger food movement at the time, based on temperance, vegetarianism and a dangerous dose of optimism. Individuals like Bronson Alcott and Sylvester Graham (father of the graham cracker, which he believed would be the main nourishment of the future) led this movement straight into the ground; losing family members and dreams in the failure. I would like to fill that story out, maybe researching vegetarianism in a larger context--its philosophies, its successes as a movement, as well as its failures, and relate it to modern vegetarianism led by men like Peter Singer and the canon. Maybe...
Sidebar: Coop just awoke, my loveable six-foot zombie. He can barely form words fresh out of bed. It's just the cutest.
July 12, 2011
Kelly becomes her mother.
South Beach diet, week 2. I always thought that only boring adults did diets that come from a book, but here I am--I've lost four pounds in a week, which is four pounds more than I was losing on my own "Eat nothing and like it" diet, therefore Arthur Agatston, M.D. is my new best friend and his diet book is my Bible. So thanks, Mom, for lending me the book... I'm beginning to wonder if I'm 22 or 52.
It hasn't been pleasant. The carbs I'm not struggling with, it's the lack of sugar, namely fruits that's killing me. I have a lone orange chilling in a fridge full of chicken, salmon and leafy vegetables and it keeps tempting me with its sunny disposition and sugary innards. But I will stay strong until the end of this horrible Phase I. My boyfriend joined in on the diet fun--I can't tell if it's for his own health or my own. But it's sweet, and so comforting to have my favorite partner with me through all this.
Phase I will end the day before my birthday, which seems like the perfect day to splurge and reward myself for (hopefully) losing the customary 10 pounds. If I do not lose those promised pounds, Arthur Agatston, M.D. will be on my shit list and his book will be banned from my household. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I'm getting a new dress for the occasion, and I'm crossing my fingers I can squeeze everything into a medium, especially the girls, which have been the most difficult to deal with. I'll be ever so slightly sad to see them go back to 34 B where they belong. Coop's sadness over the situation is more pronounced.
Laterrrrr
It hasn't been pleasant. The carbs I'm not struggling with, it's the lack of sugar, namely fruits that's killing me. I have a lone orange chilling in a fridge full of chicken, salmon and leafy vegetables and it keeps tempting me with its sunny disposition and sugary innards. But I will stay strong until the end of this horrible Phase I. My boyfriend joined in on the diet fun--I can't tell if it's for his own health or my own. But it's sweet, and so comforting to have my favorite partner with me through all this.
Phase I will end the day before my birthday, which seems like the perfect day to splurge and reward myself for (hopefully) losing the customary 10 pounds. If I do not lose those promised pounds, Arthur Agatston, M.D. will be on my shit list and his book will be banned from my household. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I'm getting a new dress for the occasion, and I'm crossing my fingers I can squeeze everything into a medium, especially the girls, which have been the most difficult to deal with. I'll be ever so slightly sad to see them go back to 34 B where they belong. Coop's sadness over the situation is more pronounced.
Laterrrrr
June 06, 2011
another diet blog
So, here are the facts: I want to lose 25-30 pounds, at about 5 pounds a month for the next six months. By consuming about 1200 calories a day, exercising four days a week, drinking alcohol only twice a week (spoiler alert: this one will be painfully difficult), and complementing the physical change of my body with a mental one, I will increase my confidence, form a better understanding of my body, and build a deeper connection with the food that I consume.
I think the first thing to address when one wants to change their body, is how they got to where they are in the first place. I've been slowly gaining weight since I turned 18, though a couple bouts of depression and consequent drug and alcohol abuse kept this weight gain from being perceptible. But here I am now, 22 years old, happy, in a healthy relationship, with basically no complaints other than the 30 pounds that I've acquired.
I blame the relationship. And in a way, I'm lucky that I can do so. About the only good that my depression did was keep me thin-sadness for beauty-and that was not a worthwhile tradeoff. However, my man and I have certain habits that are less than healthy, despite the psychological benefits of being in a happy relationship. Binge eating, for example. Drinking two glasses of wine with dinner every other night. Dessert. Lattes. Late night munchies. All of these activities are sooo tempting and sooo detrimental to a diet, especially when you have a partner to enable you. I have the mentality that just because I'm happy, it is okay to splurge, but when you splurge often, and with a buddy, it takes its toll. On your thighs.
It could also be the reintroduction of meat into my life after six years of vegetarianism. I do not regret this decision at all. I am not the person I was when I turned 16 and decided that eating animal flesh was evil. The more I learn about American foodways, the less effective I think vegetarianism is at solving our problems. A lack of transparency in the food chain lies at heart of American food culture, and simply rejecting a part of that problem does not solve anything. I've realized that being an omnivore is very interesting and delicious, and I embrace this evolutionary taste. For me, making smart choices about the meat I consume is more important than abstaining from it entirely and in buying local, sustainable meat and seafood, I insert my opinion into the twisted path that is American foodways. For my body, however, this choice added about 200-400 calories onto my daily intake, and that aint cool.
So that's where I come from, here's where I'm going: I decided to keep a blog as a way to force myself out of the mentality that going on a diet is some sort of embarrassing secret that I should do, with guilt, as if I was punishing myself. I realized this morning while sipping on some lovely green tea that my sister gave me, that the embarrassing part already happened: I gained thirty pounds. It's there, physically evident on my body; no denying it happened. So why should I hide the fact that I'm doing something about it? Rather than wrap this diet in guilty vibes, I see it as an opportunity to improve myself, physically and mentally; in this way, I feel strong and empowered.
Since I'm attempting to improve my body, I thought I might work on my mind, too. I've sketched out a tentative book list, which will focus on the way individuals interact with their food. I'll begin with The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollen, followed by some articles by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marion Nestle, perhaps re-read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and will finish off my diet with a more broad look at ecosystems and our place within them, with Rachel Carson's infamous Silent Spring. I'm sure more will be added to the list as I do research.
So, there it is, in painfully close detail. If you'll excuse me, I have a run to go on.
I think the first thing to address when one wants to change their body, is how they got to where they are in the first place. I've been slowly gaining weight since I turned 18, though a couple bouts of depression and consequent drug and alcohol abuse kept this weight gain from being perceptible. But here I am now, 22 years old, happy, in a healthy relationship, with basically no complaints other than the 30 pounds that I've acquired.
I blame the relationship. And in a way, I'm lucky that I can do so. About the only good that my depression did was keep me thin-sadness for beauty-and that was not a worthwhile tradeoff. However, my man and I have certain habits that are less than healthy, despite the psychological benefits of being in a happy relationship. Binge eating, for example. Drinking two glasses of wine with dinner every other night. Dessert. Lattes. Late night munchies. All of these activities are sooo tempting and sooo detrimental to a diet, especially when you have a partner to enable you. I have the mentality that just because I'm happy, it is okay to splurge, but when you splurge often, and with a buddy, it takes its toll. On your thighs.
It could also be the reintroduction of meat into my life after six years of vegetarianism. I do not regret this decision at all. I am not the person I was when I turned 16 and decided that eating animal flesh was evil. The more I learn about American foodways, the less effective I think vegetarianism is at solving our problems. A lack of transparency in the food chain lies at heart of American food culture, and simply rejecting a part of that problem does not solve anything. I've realized that being an omnivore is very interesting and delicious, and I embrace this evolutionary taste. For me, making smart choices about the meat I consume is more important than abstaining from it entirely and in buying local, sustainable meat and seafood, I insert my opinion into the twisted path that is American foodways. For my body, however, this choice added about 200-400 calories onto my daily intake, and that aint cool.
So that's where I come from, here's where I'm going: I decided to keep a blog as a way to force myself out of the mentality that going on a diet is some sort of embarrassing secret that I should do, with guilt, as if I was punishing myself. I realized this morning while sipping on some lovely green tea that my sister gave me, that the embarrassing part already happened: I gained thirty pounds. It's there, physically evident on my body; no denying it happened. So why should I hide the fact that I'm doing something about it? Rather than wrap this diet in guilty vibes, I see it as an opportunity to improve myself, physically and mentally; in this way, I feel strong and empowered.
Since I'm attempting to improve my body, I thought I might work on my mind, too. I've sketched out a tentative book list, which will focus on the way individuals interact with their food. I'll begin with The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollen, followed by some articles by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marion Nestle, perhaps re-read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and will finish off my diet with a more broad look at ecosystems and our place within them, with Rachel Carson's infamous Silent Spring. I'm sure more will be added to the list as I do research.
So, there it is, in painfully close detail. If you'll excuse me, I have a run to go on.
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