I love Saturday mornings. I sleep in a little, work out a little later than usual, and it’s my day to enjoy a bowl of shredded wheat with bananas, berries and soy milk.
It’s a little bigger than usual start to my day (in Weight Watchers terms it’s about 3.5-4 points). Usually I have a half an English muffin (Thomas’ Multi-Grain Light) with a teaspoon of organic fruit spread about an hour before I work out. On early workout days, I follow up my workout with either a spinach egg-white omelet or a yogurt with ground flax seeds. Today, because I’m working out later, I’ll have a late lunch, probably a big salad with shredded greens, tomatoes, carrots and these oh-so-wonderful little extras that make me so happy: 1 oz. Cabot 75% less fat cheese and my favorite crunchy in the whole world – Trader Joe’s corn tortilla crackers.
I’m a salad dressing freak, too. I love Trader Joe’s Light Ranch Parmesan and Light Creamy Basil. Both are low in fat and sodium (Hidden Valley Ranch light has 7 grams of fat and almost 300 mgs of sodium per serving so I gave that up quite a while ago). I like to make my own dressings, too. The one I’m using a lot these days is:
1 t. olive oil
1-2 T. balsamic vinegar (I’ve also used tarragon, rice and raspberry vinegar, too)
1 t. stone ground mustard (you can use regular or Dijon, too. I might get daring one of these days and use horseradish mustard)
1-2 (or more, depending on if I have to go out in public or not) minced garlic cloves
¼ t black pepper
½ t dried basil
Whisk it all together and dump on salad.
I drink a lot of tea, too. I know green tea is a good source of antioxidants, but I find it a little bland, so to pep it up, I team it up with a flavored tea bag, like raspberry or blueberry or chamomile. I stick a tea bag of each in a big mug, fill it with water, add a stevia packet and tada! Green tea with good flavor.
When I think back on the food I ate before I started losing weight (and even during the early days of weight loss because I was slow to change some food choices), it was nothing for me to consume a couple of eggs, bacon, two pieces of toast with butter or a bagel with cream cheese a few times a week. No wonder my cholesterol was almost 300! On days I’d eat cereal, ONE of MY servings of cereal equaled close to three of the recommended serving sizes on the nutritional info on the cereal box.
That brings me to my next random thought: food scales. I finally got a digital food scale the other day. For three years I’ve been using the manual kind that kinda sorta gives you a somewhat accurate weight. With so many of the recipes I’m using now calling for items weighed in grams instead of ounces, I had to get a digital scale that could weigh both ways. I love the accuracy. Like a good bathroom scale, a good food scale is worth the investment. I wish I’d bought one years ago.
I’d like to know how your food choices have changed since you started losing weight. Leave a comment and let everyone else know, too! I’m always looking for new twists on old favorites.
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P.S. I’ve updated my 2008 page with a few new photos, if you’re interested in sneaking a peek.
This cartoon, “Pardon My Planet,” was in our paper this week.
When I was 16, I weighed 150 pounds. That was about 20 pounds more than would be considered normal for my age and height, but at a size 12/14, I was hardly ginormous. Yet that’s what I thought I was. Self-conscious, I avoided walking past certain boys in school because I was afraid they’d “moo” at me or call me fat. They did that to a lot of girls who I felt were my size.
My negative body image caused me to make a lot of poor choices when it came to sex and relationships. Although I had some nice boyfriends in high school, the kind who really did like me for who I was, I always felt there was a “catch,” that somehow they were lacking because they liked me.
When I was nearly 300 pounds, this cartoon’s sentiment was most certainly true for me. I always dreamed of “that day” when I’d be 150 again. All my problems would disappear, I’d have self-esteem to spare, and life would be the way I always knew it could be, all because I weighed 150 pounds again.
I’m now 128, marking one year of maintenance, and what do you know? Problems still arise and I often lack self-esteem, although I admit not to the extreme of nearly 170 pounds ago. My weight, while definitely an important factor in my overall wellbeing, cannot define my life. I am (and so are you) more than weight, and yet I still base a good deal of self-worth on the number on the scale, the size on a tag, and the width of my hips.
How to undo that? Talking with friends who understand weight loss and maintenance, journaling, meditating, and reminding myself daily that I’m OK just as I am right in this moment are a few of the things I do to stay balanced.
My question to you is this: What do you think your life will be like when you get to goal, or even when you lose 5, 10 or 20 pounds? How do you stay balanced? And has your definition of “normal” weight changed since you were younger?
Happiness is…spiffy new tennis shoes. The old Nikes were slipping so it was time to put them out to pasture. They’ll live out the rest of their lives as gardening shoes. I bought a brand called Asics. They felt good for the few minutes I had them on, so we’ll see. I’ll get back to you with my review.
I also bought two pairs of cotton shorts that come to just above my knees and two new workout shirts, neither of which are white or black – a new thing for me. I’m a black and white gal. That way I always know my shirts and shorts/pants will match. I figure there’s no need to spend copious amounts of time figuring out what to wear to the gym. But when my friend Kristin bought me a cute pink t-shirt for Christmas (with the letters G.I.L.F. on it – I’ll let you guys figure out what that means. Oh, and I don’t wear it to the gym. I only wear it when I work out at home, for obvious reasons), I found I really liked wearing pink instead of black or white. Silly as it might sound, pink enhances my workout. So today I bought a blue tank and a very cool grey t-shirt – one of those high-tech-absorbs-moisture kind of shirts. I think I’m going to like them.
I also went to WalMart to buy stuff for grandbaby Claire, but I also needed new workout bras because I’ve been using my old 36Cs from the days when I weighed 30 pounds more than I do now. Well……the name of the bras I bought were called “Sweet Nothings.” And that’s apparently what I have: I bought a 34B and a 34 *gulp* A. And they fit. And Lynn is a little sad L
But the irony was not lost.
I always feel like I have to have a point when I blog, like I’m supposed to impart some nugget of wisdom or insight to readers, but today I just wanted to tell you how fun it was to upgrade my workout wardrobe.
Oh, wait, there is a nugget of wisdom here: ALWAYS treat your feet well. Don’t wait until your shoes are slipping and you have holes from wear. Buy new ones! Take it from someone who wears orthotics because she has arthritis in all her metatarsals and DIDN’T heed her own advice until today. Your feet are the work horses of your body. Give them a break and buy good shoes. Often.
Now it’s time to download some new tunes on the old iPod. Your suggestions are always welcome.
