Wednesday, January 28, 2009

High Fructose Corn Syrup

The first time I saw this, I nearly choked!



Now, there are plenty of spoof movies out there, but first, I wanted to call your attention to the "Corn Refiner's Association" at the bottom of the screen. Anyone find it ironic that now that HFCS is getting bad press, it suddenly has a marketing campaign? AWFUL!!! So, I only watched a few spoofs, but I like this one:



But for more information, check out this guy (I know...that first picture doesn't look good, but it is really a guy talking and showing pictures):



AMAZING!!!

Monday, January 26, 2009

SlimFast and Soy?

Never in a million years did I expect to go back to the SlimFast diet. I loathe the idea of buying the majority of my diet needs at Target. However, Katie has moved her wedding to the month of May now and the best Saturday in that month is the 30th because Memorial Day weekend falls early this year. So now I am really in a tizzy to lose weight as soon as possible and as fast as possible.

I am embarking, not officially and willing to quit whenever my fancy leads me, on the SlimFast diet. It's still common sense, only with liquids. The "plan" is:

Shake for breakfast....ummm, yummy! (they're okay, really.)
Small snack
Shake plus 1/2 a sandwich for lunch
Small snack
"Sensible dinner"
Small snack

Totally do-able and totally common sense. It is basically a way to get all the calories I need without really having to think about what, exactly, I'm eating. I think it will work for a few weeks, possibly the first 10 pounds and then after that I'm really going to need to begin eating again. That's okay because the SlimFast plan helps you with that transition. The SlimFast website actually includes a free plan to go on, so that's pretty cool.

The other thing I am going to add to my diet are Boca burgers or Morningstar burgers. By saying that, I mean that I am going to try to incorporate some veggie burgers. I would prefer to avoid the soy based ones, but since they are almost all soy based, I'll deal with it. It's only until the end of May. Easy-peasy...right?

I HAVE to lose the weight now, because after talking to my sister, she said she found the bridesmaid dresses, here, take a look! They are gorgeous!!! I love the color and shape and style, but they don't come in plus sizes, so I really need to get down to a 16. These are now my goal measurements: bust- 41 1/2 inches, waist- 34 inches, hips- 44 inches...yikes!!!

So there you have it. I plan on using SlimFast and Soy products to lose 4 dress sizes in 4 months. I can do it!

Friday, January 23, 2009

That's gotta help!

I had a tooth removed today.
The process was less unpleasant than I expected and though I was completely against the gauze being in my mouth, the actual procedure was okay. Now, however, not so much. It's not the pain though, because I have very little of that. There is swelling (and oozing...gross!) but that is just plain uncomfortable. What is really difficult right now is EATING. 

Of course that's a dieter's dream!!! I anticipate sticking to a relatively liquid diet for the next few days and have purchased a few cans of SlimFast to help get nutrients. Otherwise it's going to be soups, yogurt and crackers. I am actually looking forward to this. I made some good chicken broth the other day and it's sitting in my fridge just waiting to be used. I will add some chicken and veggies to it and call it lunch (probably dinner too)!!!

I am really interested in my thought process right now. A week ago, I was stubbornly refusing any and all "diet" food because I didn't believe in the low-fat diet craze. Well, I still don't feel like eating "franken-food" is healthy for long-term eating...I don't plan on eating it long-term! My goal right now is to find ways to cut out the junk from some of my regular meals. I am contemplating BocaBurgers as an easy to prepare lunch for myself and am intrigued with their Chik'n Patties, though they are actually more calories than the burgers. These are things that I would NOT be purchasing before, but now, I find myself willing to try them. The other thing I am considering (and searching out recipes for) is a grilled vegetable spaghetti sauce. I have heard good things about this type of recipe and think I'm almost ready to try it! Pair that with a large salad and a small serving of pasta and I've converted a "not-so-good" meal into a keeper!

The bottom line is that I can feel the change- I want to change right now. Still having to figure out what to do with working out, but just changing my food habits is a good start.

Weight's been jumping around on me; yesterday I was up to 211 and today I'm down to 209. I like weighing in daily, but I guess I don't take it too seriously. It's the feeling that counts...its just the numbers that can be measured.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Weigh-In

This morning I weighed myself first thing in the morning, something I plan on doing every morning from now on. Today I was 210.6. I will probably keep a list on the sidebar of my daily weigh-in so I won't be creating a new post everytime, we'll see. I will still post a weekly or monthly weigh-in post, with measurements.

In other news, I have been playing on researching SparkPeople's website. I really encourage you to go take a look. The site is overwhelming at first (and at second) but there is a lot of good information and a lot of hand-holding. I am really liking it...and it's FREE!!! Need I say more?

Look for another post within a day or two with my "body profile"- a written description of my body, it's condition, and it's needs.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

My Evil Wonderful Sister(s)

I talked to my sister, Katie, the one who is getting married this fall :), and as everyone in my family does, she asked how my diet was going. It wasn't a comment made out of the blue, as usual, I was being self-disparaging with talk about how much weight I would need to lose before her wedding and she asked how I was doing with this task of losing weight.

Katie has always been a rock for me. She has been in such poor health lately that it is easy to forget all she has accomplished. She is extremely intelligent, kind, generous, and wise beyond her years. She is also a committed follower of Christ and has been my role model for years. As Katie and I were having this conversation, I could hear the underlying scolding- the disappointment that, yet again, I had failed to do what I said I would do and that, yet again, I was not living up to all I could be. Above all else, my family wants me to succeed and does everything in their power to make sure it happens.

Today, Katie wasn't listening to my usual round of excuses like, "Yeah, I'm doing okay," which is code for, "I was doing okay until I ate a full meal at Panda Express and a box of candy last night." Nor did she pay attention to my favorite excuse, "I just don't know which diet to do," which is really code for, "I just don't want to put forth the effort." Instead she urged forced me to start a diet, right now. She made me promise to start today, with whatever diet I chose and she told me how I was going to choose. I chose to put two different diets in the hat- both of which I believed that I could start and stick with, even if I didn't agree wholeheartedly with either of them. I chose eDiets (which is what I put meaning the standard, low-fat, American diet. No restrictions on processed foods or types of foods as long as they meet my caloric, and general health, needs) and Body By God which has a lot of good tips, but is a little less "normal" than eDiets but healthier on a long-term scale. Both names went into a bowl and though I would have preferred to pull out Body By God, I don't believe in mistakes, and I pulled out eDiets.

I have now committed to stay on this diet, even though I don't agree with everything in it, until Katie's wedding which hasn't been set yet, but will be sometime this summer. Enough time for me to apply myself and lose a significant amount of weight. When I feel like quitting and doing a different diet, I am to remind myself that I will be able to change diets after her wedding. I can't afford to do eDiets, and though I don't think I really need a plan, I am going to sign up for SparkPeople because it is free and they do much of what eDiets charges you $30 a month for. They use a points for reward system and you get a certain number of points for accomplishing tasks, like journalling, entering food into the food log or reading health articles. (If you read this post, check it out and decide to sign up, reference my user name "krankemommy" and I get some points!). I have seen the website before and thought it was really nicely done so I am headed back there for some direction and community.

I will be journalling here (and there) about my progress and doing weigh-ins and measurement posts too. Please post comments...that's what they are there for!!!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

A Book List

I wanted to call your attention to the book list on the left as well as to give a (partial) review of two of the books on the list. Yesterday, while I was at Target picking up my nasty antibiotics I grabbed two books that I have been seeing for a while, but never bothered to look at. The first is The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, and is a really interesting look at what it takes to create our food and what is really in it. The idea is that when a species, like humans, are truly omnivores, it becomes an ordeal to figure out what to eat; the sheer number of choices are overwhelming. Today's supermarket has just exponentially exacerbated the problem because most of what we see isn't even real food! Add to that, we have the problem of the medicalization of eating (we call it nutrition) and you have to have a degree to know what is "good" to eat. It's not really a "diet" book because he doesn't particularly give you guidelines on what to eat, it is more about the impact our eating has on everything else. Very interesting reading. I am still reading it, but I have glanced through it and think that it will be a challenging read. (1/18-edited to add, this book takes an evolutionary approach which thoroughly impacts the authors conclusions and reasoning. In one case he is talking about corn's evolution and how smart it was to throw itself on the mercy of humans...what a brave evolutionary jump...so on and so forth. I am still reading it, though it has been, at times, difficult to keep reading, for that reason alone.)

The second book is In Defense of Food by the same author and the main concept, as he states in the very opening (Pollan, pg. 1),
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.
This book is going to be really interesting and is essentially an extension of what he found in The Omnivore's Dilemma. These books are both on my immediate reading list. His writing style is very entertaining and still informative...I am excited about reading these!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

New Year, New Plan...

I am still doing eDiets, but extremely loosely. In other words, I am doing what I originally thought was impossible- I am combining diets. I actually already found a diet that did that based on the BBC show, You Are What You Eat, with Dr. Jillian McKeith. She wrote a book of the same title that I purchased not too long ago. What I like is that she gives you symptoms to look for in your body, like cracking or splitting on your tongue, tells you what caused it and what to eat to remedy it. I enjoy the show and her book was really interesting. She is big on juices (homemade of course) and recommends a periodic juice fast.

What I plan on doing is my regular meal schedule for Perfect Weight America only with eDiets portions. I do plan on limiting my quantity of fats but allowing for better quality. I really do think that butter and coconut oil are good for you, but that doesn't mean that you need 2 tablespoons to fry an egg. I intend on gradually introducing my kids to the PWA diet because more than me, they stand to benefit from this.

One of the new tricks I have been employing is one that I learned in the book, Body by God, by Dr. Ben Lerner. His principle is to eat the foods according to their use; high carbs in the morning, low-carbs in the evening, etc. One of his tricks is a delay strategy. I don't have the book in front of me so I can't quote it, but I will tell you what I've been doing and if you want more details about how to do it-look up his book, it's great! Okay, I am a bad eater. I have bad food habits and I love my junk food. This wrecks every diet I have because though I can be good for several days, inevitably, my snack cravings come back full force. Lately, when I have been feeling a craving for something I know I shouldn't have, I delay. Sometimes I try to substitute a healthier version, but other times, I just promise myself to have the treat later and then I divert myself by doing something else or thinking about something else. I also try to drink a glass of water any time I am feeling like I have a case of the munchies coming on. It has been working fairly well over the past few days, which is fantastic!

Don't quit on me, I haven't quit yet!!!

OOOHH, I have more incentive now...not only do I want to get pregnant, but my sister is getting married!!! Now I really have to lose the weight for nice looking, lasting pictures.