Burning Off Those Calories:
One small chocolate chip cookie (50 calories) is equivalent to walking briskly for ten minutes.
One jelly donut (300 calories) will take 20 minutes of walking at a moderate pace (20 minutes per mile) to burn.
A double patty cheeseburger, extra large fries and a 24-oz soda (1500 calories) are equal to running two and a half hours at a ten minute/mile pace.
Putting into perspective the time frame it takes to burn off some of the foods I love, is making me think twice. For instance, those darn sugar cookies I ate yesterday at 180 calories a piece. UGH!!
I bought lemons, and limes to flavor my water last night. One of my readers suggested lemons…so I thought…I’ll just try them both. Tonight I bought some organic baby spinach and organic salad mix. I’ve got vinegrette dressing so I should be set for this weekend.
I still haven’t come up with a low fat meal that I think everyone will like on Sunday. I don’t like cooking separate for me. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have time to do some to figure something out. Actually, the people that are coming over, could stand to lose weight too. I’d really be doing them a favor if I could come up with a low calorie meal.
I hope you feel better soon. I am sorry about the cookies.
One trick I use to make myself less likely to binge and it works so far. I put yogurts in the freezer. They get brick hard after a night in there. It really slows down my eating down. I can also count it as a low fat dairy. Sometimes I mix a tbs of coco mix in before I freeze them for an added treat but that is a bit messy.
VH Melville
I just came across your blog and read through the most recent entries. As someone who has had issues with weight in the past, I thought I could offer some advice. Feel free to take it or leave it, but I think that what follows will help address some of the issues that you’ve been having.
To put it bluntly, the Slim Fast diet is a starvation diet – you will lose weight (and a lot of muscle mass), but you will also likely put the weight back on once you have started to eat normally again.
A better approach is a simple calorie-controlled diet in which you eat small meals every three hours. Take the calories that you should be consuming each day (a MINIMUM of 1200 but should be much more depending on the amount that you weigh right now) and divide that by six. Eat that many calories every three hours in the form of a healthy meal. You should have a low-fat protein at every meal (chicken, cottage cheese, egg whites, etc.), paired with a complex carbohydrate (brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat bread, sweet potato, etc.) and green vegetables (broccoli, green beans, spinach, non-iceburg lettuce, etc.). These foods will keep you full and prevent the cravings that lead you to eat 5 sugar cookies in a sitting.
Green tea and raspberries is not an adequate breakfast – you will be starving within in an hour, which will then lead you to binge (that’s what happens to me). A green salad is not enough for lunch. You have to feed your body healthy, whole foods in order to lose weight, as counterintuitive as that seems. If you’re starving yourself, you will not only sabotage your diet through making poor food choices, but your body will not let go of the fat.
I would also recommend counting calories – set up a spreadsheet and record every bit of food that you eat. After a few weeks of doing this, you will start to see where you can make changes. Ideally, your diet should be composed of 40% protein, 40% complex carbohydrates and 20% fats. Is it?
Exercise is important as well, though diet is the critical piece to losing fat. Lifting heavy weights will help you to build muscle mass, which burns more calories. Cardio is important as well.
If you’re interested, there are a number of fitness message boards on the web that are great. I spend a lot of time at the Health & Fitness board at http://www.thenest.com and on the boards at http://www.oxygenmag.com. There are a lot of people willing to give advice on those boards, if you have any questions about what I posted above.
Doing the above has helped me lose weight and keep it off. It’s a lifestyle change, not a diet. Whatever you do nees to be sustainable. Most fad diets simply aren’t.
I hope you take this advice in the good spirit with which it was intended. I just want everyone to be successful at their weight loss efforts!!
Take care.
I’m not the one for counting calories.. It’s just to much effort. I like to just take my Vitamins and call it a day. I don’t know why, but it works for me. When I started craving healthier foods instead of forcing myself to do it, I knew I found what worked for me. Not saying that you’re tastebuds changing will happen to everyone, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Anyway.. I was thinking of low fat means for ya.. I’m a soul food cooker, so I don’t know if you cook alot. I like using smoked turkey wings in cabbage or greens or even navy beans instead of pork. Great low fat and healthy side dishes to go with the meat of your choice.
Good on you for being brave enough to tackle the weightloss in such a public manner – snaps to you!
Also, don’t worry about “what everyone will like” – you serve what is right for you, and your family and loved ones will either support you and love you, or they’ll be looking for a fat lip.
You Rock !
I’ve checked out the nest website and have already signed up. There sure is lots of information there. I also went to the oxgenmag site. That site is much more commercialized but also has good info. That Fruit Salad looks wonderful. I’m putting that on my menu for Easter Sunday.