photography query

I had a photo journalism class in college... and a photography project in 4-H that I'm not entirely sure I ever finished. Really, the only things I remember from the later was the "trick photography" section where I learned how to put my friends Jenny and Megan in a jar. (Jar and hand close-up, friend far away in back ground pretending to squirm.) In short, I am no photographer. But I want to take nice pictures of my food for you and I was kind of disappointed with my pictures from Costa Rica. : / Blargh. I probably won't be buying a camera anytime soon, but I want to start drooling. I want my next camera to last me. I want it to take pictures of fast movin' kids and still faces in low light. I'd rather delay the satisfaction of a zoom lens so that I can afford more image quality now in a body that I can build on. It doesn't need to be top of the line, but it needs to produce images that can be cropped and blown-up to an 8x10 for printing. 

Right now, I'm mostly using my iphone. As you can see from my previous post, most of the pictures are kind of blurry. With the phone, I don't have any control over exposure or focal length. I have a little camera that I took to Costa Rica that has some ability to change f-stops, but not very many. It would undoubtedly do a better job on the food shots, and now that I'm getting settled in, I'll start using it. But the controls are so little and the screen so tiny that you can't really gauge the differences between settings until you download the images onto your computer which is no good for vacays.  

My previously mentioned friend Jenny now lives far away and occasionally graces me with b-e-a-utiful pictures of my flower girl and other subjects. (If you're reading this, Jen, more please!) She has really practiced- you can tell. Her pictures have gone from good to wow over the past couple of years. So I asked her, "what kind of camera do you have?"

She responded, "this one, but I suggest a Canon Rebel with 50mm 1.8 lens, because it's cheaper and it takes good pictures." Due to the quick response, I suspect my friend has fielded this question before. It's no wonder she's been asked with pictures like hers. 

Does anyone else have any suggestions? If you upgraded to a fancy shmancy camera, do you feel like it was worth it or are you thinking of selling it on craigslist?

how to start a sorta-detox

My friend and her hubs are going to kick the sugar/carb addiction and I'm pretty stoked that she asked me for advice. What a compliment! She has yet to decide whether her two teens will be doing the cleanse too. I don't have kids so I can't really weigh in there. But I can say that the cleanse didn't feel like a diet, so they might not even realize it's going on! So here's my breakdown of how to kick-off a sorta-detox.

1.) may I suggest that you don't look at the scales and that you don't count calories during your time on the sorta-detox? It's hard enough to plan to eat clean. Focus on eating things that are good for you, not worrying about calories. It's a short period of time and you are retraining yourself- don't let yourself get overwhelmed.  If you are hungry, eat. Also, only plan to do it for 10 days. That way you aren't thinking, I can never have a diet coke again and then give up.

2.)  watch one of the documentaries to pump you up before you start planning. If you have netflix search for food documentaries or one of the following:

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is a good one if you want to see dramatic change. This one follows a guy that had a litany of health problems (from obesity to a skin disorder) and he went on a juice fast and eventually became so healthy he didn't need his medicine anymore. amazing.
Hungry for Change is the one I watched right before the cleanse and convinced Jeff to get on board too. Although it's production could have been better, (it was a little cheesy) it was very, very interesting. It explains how processed food are addicting.
Forks over Knives is inspiring me to add more meatless meals into my diet. I was already doing that but this doc. really upped the ante focusing on studies which show that plant-based diet can reduce the risks of cancer. (The "knives" in the title is referring to surgery scalpels.)

3.) Pick your "rules." You can pick anything from just kicking out artificial sweeteners to a full scale detox where you go completely vegan and/or wheat free. It just depends on what you want. For me, somewhere in the middle was good.

My rules were nothing refined (foods that have been so broken down that they only have one nutrient: white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sugar, bleached flour, etc.); no artificial preservatives (sodium nitrates, etc. That means no deli meats, and most salad dressings are off limits.), no hormones (in my meat or dairy); organic for the dirty dozen; and no preventative antibiotics. So my rules allowed natural sugar. I ate honey, maple sugar, and fruit. I was really addicted to sugar and the second day I came home and just ate a spoonful of honey straight. I had to have something! But the honey isn't as addicting because it's whole. I don't think I would have been able to go off natural sugars too although some people do and swear by it. God bless em'.

Hint, if you are trying to save $, skip the organic fruits and veggies- In my opinion the pesticides hurt us less than the hormones and antibiotics, but the good thing about organics (fruit, veggies, dairy) is that they last longer. I don't know why, but they do. I guess when you poison something a little it dies faster. If your goal is just to kick the sugar/carb addiction, obviously you can skip the organics all together.

4.) Plan your 10 days. (or 14, or 30!)  It'll be difficult to stick to the game plan if you don't know exactly what to cook when you get home from work. As you know, cooking from scratch takes longer, so you don't want to be hungry and trying to think of what to have for dinner. (Hint: plan for snacks too.)  Here's what I planned.  (The red bean curry was amazing! The pumpkin spiced oatmeal was not. Surprising, no?)  You don't have to stay on your menu if you feel like free-styling. I mixed my breakfasts around. It's just good to have a game plan mostly for grocery shopping so that you won't have to make a mid-week run.    

5.) Go grocery shopping. Plan that it will take longer than your typical run and expect it to cost a little more. Produce is more expensive than processed carbs. And that's because the way our governmental subsidy system is set up.... but that's a long (and controversial) story. But I can say, it's not going to be as much as you think because you aren't going to have waste and you hopefully won't have to be making little trips to the grocery store on the way home.

6.) Have your last supper! Go out to eat and let someone else cook for you. Enjoy it, realize you aren't giving it up forever, and then pack your lunch for tomorrow!

Another 9 days for your pleasure

So I'll be adding in a small amount of processed foods to this week's meal plan, but for the most part it is free of most isolates, added hormones, and preventative antibiotics. Caution on the bacon. I'll be consuming it in small quantities.

day 1
B- Soft Boiled Egg and Cheese
L- Salad with Guacamole and Black Beans
S- Honey Chocolate with Almonds and Coconut
D- Chicken with Chipolte Orange Glaze and side of Quinoa
*cook extra chicken for day 2's lunch and dinner and day 3's dinner
** substitute red peppers for the chipotle chilies in adobo sauce if the ingredients list has stuff you can't pronounce in it... or if your grocery doesn't carry it.

prep: dry ingredients for morning oatmeal

day 2
B- pumpkin oatmeal
L- salad w/ leftover chicken
S- Bananas
D- Bulgar Salad with Chicken and Feta Cheese served in a pita

prep: make roasted vegetable tomato soup (recipe previously posted) and divide into deli containers. After cooled, put some in freezer.

day 3   (I'm having company over, so meals will be a little more indulgent today and tomorrow)
B- Banana sliced in half longways with homemade peanut butter
L- Roasted tomato soup
S- Granola
D- Chipolte Chicken, Jalapeno, Mushroom, Bacon, Gouda whole wheat Pizza.
*freeze extra pizza dough.

prep: put ingredients in bread machine, set timer.

day 4
B- eggs and bacon with homemade bread
prep: marinade chicken
L- tomato soup with mozzarella grilled cheese
S- Apples with homemade Peanut Butter and Honey
D- Leftover bulgar salad with marinated chicken and side of broccoli dressed in garlic butter

day 5 (A Monday holiday! So my lunch and snack can be more time consuming and less portable.)
B- yogurt and blueberries
L- tomato soup with mozzarella grilled cheese
S- baked apple with oats, raisins, cinnamon, and honey 
D- Salmon with Quinoa
*cook extra salmon for day 6's lunch

day 6
B- bacon and eggs
*cook an extra slice of bacon for tonight's dinner and day 8's lunch. make 2 hard boiled eggs for day 7's and day 8's lunches.

L- Chilled Salmon on a Salad
S- yogurt with Blueberries and Almonds drizzled with honey
D- Naked Burritto: lettuce, chicken, black beans, corn, avocado, salsa, organic cheddar, bacon
*cook extra chicken for day 7's lunch

day 7
B- chia seeds in oatmeal
L- Salad with chicken and a hard boiled egg
S- granola
D- lemon garlic shrimp with veggies and side of quinoa
*cook and chill extra shrimp for day 8's lunch

day 8
B- yogurt and blueberries
L- chilled shrimp on spinach salad with tomatoes, hard boiled egg, mushrooms, bacon.
S- apple and peanuts
D- warming sweet potato and lentil salad
Dessert- vanilla roasted pears with granola sprinkled on top

prep: make day 9's meatballs

day 9-
B-soft boiled egg and cheese
L- tuna salad on greens
S- honey chocolate with almonds and coconut
D- lamb meatballs with lemon cumin yogurt sauce in a pita with feta
*make extra meatballs and freeze in accordance with recipe


P.S. I didn't list assembling the next day's lunch as prep, because I do that every night.
P.S.S. When I have a protein on my salad I'm perfectly content to skip salad dressing, but when I do make a salad dressing I use my friend Amanda's recipe for balsamic vinegar. But I'll save that for another day.           :)

sorta-detox, day 9: Nearly there, and Lent nearly here.

Nearly there

The sort of detox is nearly over. Tonight we are having an encore of the favorite new recipe, chicken curry over brown rice. And then tomorrow night we are all going out to eat where we will not scour the menu for something that fits within our guidelines. I'm looking forward to my Pink Lady Sushi Roll of Crab, Masago, Cucumber, Avocado, Crunch, Soy Wrap, with Creamy Spicy Sauce. Drool! However, I will not order a diet coke- a new habit I want to keep- I still crave a big fountain soda, but no more pop for yours truly.

My goal was to post more throughout these ten days, including our recipes, victories, and defeats. I will likely post the successful recipes a little later, but for now, I simply give you a very simple, blank meal planner that you can hopefully print for your own healthy eating goals.

Meal Planner
	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	ingredients needed	prep ahead tonight
Saturday
Sunday
M
T
W
Th
F

I've found it takes far more time than expected to eat whole, or clean, or whatever you want to call it. It's a lot harder to get more calories than you need when there is no instant gratification and when you plan your meals. I haven't felt deprived, other than when I want something specific (cookies, ice cream) or just immediately (drive throughs). We've ate like kings yet we've lost weight. But the absolute best thing is that I haven't had headaches. Usually I get a headache every other day. Sometimes more, sometimes a little less- but through these ten days I haven't had more than an, 'I'm hungry headache' that went away within five minutes of eating. I don't know if the headaches are synced with my hormonal cycle so I've made another meal plan for the next 10 days and see if I can keep this thing going. I'm really curious to see if I'll go another stint without a headache.

Lent nearly here

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, is really early this year: February 13th, in fact. I suspect my Lenten exercise will have something to do with this little sorta-detox experiment. I usually try to pick one of the seven deadly sins/heavenly virtues to work on in a specific way. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Last year was greed, only spending what I had to so that I would give the extra to a charity. Before that was sloth, getting up as soon as the alarm went off, not putting off tasks, exercising, and other ways of practicing diligence.  Sometime before that was pride, avoiding mirrors- (I think I misunderstood pride a little back then.) It's been awhile since I've hit gluttony, and I think this year I should revisit it. The last time I worked on gluttony/temperance I simply fasted, to better understand hunger, which so many of my brethren live with, and to practice the ancient tradition which I had never really fully embraced. This year, perhaps I'll continue on this path of whole foods and change it a little to make Lent special. I've learned that when you only eat what you've prepared and only whole foods, it can shift your thinking from living to eat to eating to live. I've not once ate out of boredom or regretted eating something these past ten days. I've been truly hungry each time I've ate and each meal has nourished me, not just filled me up. I plugged in a few of my days to my fitness pal, curious about the amount of potassium I was getting instead of trying to squeeze the most out of my caloric alotment. (Turns out I was coming in under the caloric budget every day, even with snacks)
Often when I say grace, I try to quickly realize where each food comes from, what it took to get in front of me, and pray for that farmer, or thank God for the animal, etc. With this practice, that process can happen earlier are allow you more time to consider it when you are cooking, and sometimes even when you are shopping. You feel and wash each item. When you do buy something packaged, you read the ingredients. Any ideas on how I could incorporate this eating exercise into a Lenten practice would be welcomed in the comments section.

sorta-detox day one

Yesterday's dinner was the first meal on the "sorta-detox" - After a busy Sunday, the four of us went to Sam's Club to look for what we could (fruits and veggies not on the dirty dozen and some organic greens) and then to Martin's (our local grocery) for the rest. It was somewhat expensive, (especially organic cheese!) but not as bad as we expected. Looking at every label did make the shopping experience a long one, even with dividing and conquering . okay boys, you go get chicken and steak. We're going to go get seeds, cheese, and beans!

Then we got to my place and started making dinner and lunches for the next day. One of our sorta-detox cronnies had a bible study the next evening so we assembled the prep for her dinner too. Actually cooking, even a simple meal of a london broil, microwaved sweet potato, and sauteed green beans, takes a long time on a school night! I knew that already, I mean I cook more complicated menus than that for guests, but I guess it just seemed super long because I realized we'd be doing that every night for 10 days. I was pooped after we finally got my kitchen clean.

But the fruit of our labor was something that reminded me of home. I had a colorful plate that had been made with the food groups in mind and was meant to nourish us, not just fill us. It was great, and it made me appreciate my mom. Years and years she had worked full time and came home to cook me a balanced dinner. She rarely picked something up from a fast food resturant and always made sure that there was a meat, a fruit, and a veggie on my plate. That took time, that took sacrifice, and that took love. And it made me want to read this.

Alas, I forgot my prepared steak salad and delicious homemade balsamic vinaigrette in my fridge this morning! Grumble grumble. I guess I have my lunch for tomorrow on deck. So I had to track down a meal in this city an hour from my apartment. It was harder than I thought. I ended up going to a restaurant that toted itself online as being organic, but once I got in there, I didn't see any mention of organics. I tried to get something safe, I asked for the veggie veggie sandwich but on a salad. I suspect the pepper jack cheese in it was not organic, but I made the best out of what I had available and didn't veer too far off of the diet plan. It was just frustrating to have to go off the plan before 24 hours had past.

Anywhosal, below I've posted my shopping list and menu plan. (Which we've already adjusted because the grocery store ran out of broccoli- have you ever heard of such a thing?) The main idea of planning it out was to have a grocery list with minimal waste, limited amounts of sugar, and the other food groups balanced. I highlighted things like wheat, dairy, meat, and sugar to keep a visual of what each day looked like. I wanted to be sure that I didn't fall into my usual ruts of eating too many carbs, etc. I'll post some of the recipes as we go.  :)

P.S. Did you know how delicious a baked sweet potato is?! I didn't! I'd only ever tried to make them as fries and this was wayyyy better! They just came out of the microwave and we sprinkled cinnamon on them and boom. Freakin' like candy.

PROTEIN

ÿ        Eggs

ÿ        Chickpeas

ÿ        Red Kidney Beans

ÿ        Ground Turkey

ÿ        Chicken

ÿ        3 steaks

VEGGIES

ÿ        Onion

ÿ        Red Onion

ÿ        Carrots

ÿ        Peppers (Red)

ÿ        Tomatoes

ÿ        Avocado

ÿ        Green Beans

ÿ        Salad

ÿ        Garlic

ÿ        Mushrooms

FRUITS

ÿ        Apples

ÿ        Pears

ÿ        Oranges

ÿ        Lemon

DAIRY

ÿ        Feta

ÿ        Parmesan

ÿ        Cheddar

ÿ        Plain yogurt

OTHER FOOD

ÿ        Cilantro

ÿ        Flat leaf parsley

ÿ        Beef broth

ÿ        salsa

OTHER OTHER

ÿ        Disposable dressing containers

ÿ        nut milk bag

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks or Dessert
Sunday	X	X	Salad, Sweet Potato, Broccoli, Steak
Monday	Yogurt, granola, almond, fruit parfait	Roasted Veggies Tomato Soup w mozz and a side salad with cucumbers, broccoli, red onion, chick peas	Mediterranean veggies and chicken w side of steamed broccoli	Oatmeal and raisin stuffed apples
Tuesday	Oatmeal with nuts, cranberries, and maple syrup	Salad w Grilled Chicken, black beans,  avocado	Red Kidney Bean and Curry over brown rice
Wednesday	2 Soft boiled eggs and a piece of cheese	Brown rice, chicken, black bean, avocado, salsa bowl	Warming lentil and sweet potato salad	Pumpkin granola
Thursday	Green smoothie with protein powder	Peanut butter on  apple slices, Tomato Soup	Salad, 100% Whole wheat bread (from my 5 minute a day book) Panini’s  (caramelized onion, roasted red peppers, cheese, Chicken)	Vanilla roasted pears
Friday	Pumpkin spiced oatmeal	Greek chicken salad	Bulgur Salad w Chickpeas, Roasted Red Peppers ,Spiced Cumin Dressing	Almonds and dried cranberries
Saturday	2 Soft boiled eggs and a piece of cheese	Pesto Salad Tomatoes and Mozzarella Some protein?	Quinoa and lemon chicken
Sunday	Yogurt, granola, almond, cranberry parfait	Curried apple chicken salad over salad	Roasted veggies and turkey meatballs	Peanut butter on whole wheat English muffin
Monday	1 orange 1 egg	Pear, cranberry, feta, balsamic salad w leftover Quinoa	Turkey Chili	Cherry, walnut, cocoa cookie
Tuesday	Apple Chia seeds and yogurt	Curried apple chicken salad over salad	Salad with Pears and Gorz and bals. Mushroom Bourguignon Sautéed Green beans
Wednesday!	2 Soft boiled eggs and a piece of cheese	Turkey Chili	Chicken m’room marsala  with Green beans

sorta detox, t-minus 3 days.

I gotta text from a good friend last night. A friend that I grew up thisclose with, a friend I got to stand behind at her wedding, and a friend who's daughter is the cutest thing since puppies were invented.

pal:

"Read your blog. You need to read it starts with food. I did a whole 30 challenge in October. Lost 10 pounds. Was hard but worth it. You can do this."

First off: Yay! Someone read my post! lol.
Secondly: How sweet to send me some encouragment!
Third of all: Wow. Can't wait to hear more about it. She gave me the okay to post our convo, so here's the email thread that ensued. (Is that a thing, an email thread? Whatever, you get the picture.)  It contains some of those documentaries I promised and even a recipe that sounds pretty tasty!

pal:

here's the websitehttp://whole9life.com/category/whole-30/

I read the book - and was inspired - mostly for my MS and trying to reduce a lot of inflammation - so i challenged myself and did it for 30 days
it was hard - and sometimes my stomach was pissed off b/c I was detoxing but it was so worth it
I'm doing it again right now - well sort of - until after I get over this terrible cold or whatever I have - but I don't eat dairy, sugar, grains, or even vegetable oils just everything in true form
so meat, veggies, and some fruit. You sleep better at the end of it and you feel better i also perform better at yoga when I do it.

moi':

Has it helped your inflamation any?  Is whole 30 just this inspirational newsletter or do they give you a meal plan?
Was it difficult to plan all these meals? Did the hubs do it with you?
Did you have a specific imbalance that needed to cut dairy and sugars (in grains and sugar form)? Do you eat legumes?

I watch these documentaries and have read these type of books in the past- I think they can get a little conspiracy theory, or a little extreme, but really, I do think we eat to much crap. And I'm on board for watching/reading this stuff if it gets us thinking and fired up to make a change. (That Jamie Oliver can grind on your gears because he gets overly theatrical and seems to exploit people, but hey- a wake up call, is a wake up call) I don't think it's necessary to juice everything that goes into your mouth, but I do eat WAY too much crap. And for people trying to figure out what's going on with their bodies (like Joe Cross from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead), I think it's such a common sense approach to cut out everything, see if you feel better, and then slowly add stuff in. I know like 3 people that have discovered their gluten intolerance by doing that.

I went to the grocery store last night and bought some "health" foods: chia seeds, apples, spinach, organic milk, bulgar, real maple syrup (for sugar replacement), whole wheat english muffins and maybe a couple other things. It ran me like $50. It was just a few small bags and I was like, what's wrong with our food system that it costs way more to eat foods that have less done to them.  ... Well actually I know why because I took a course on farm policies in law school, but it's no wonder we're all overweight and sick.  I know that most of those things are cut from Paleo methods- I might do that sort of cleanse for lent. But right now I'm mostly concerned about isolated nutrients, preventative antibiotics, and added hormones... the hormones really freak me out.

What kind of yoga do you get into? With a group or at home?
 
... can I post our convo on my blog?

Miss you, hope the family is well.

 

See, told you I asked permission.

pal:

Yes, it has helped my inflammation. Between watching mostly my gluten intake (i rarely eat breads etc) I haven't had an epsisode in a long, long while. In fact, I can say that I have a nasty cold right now and my legs haven't went numb - usually I'll go numb while I"m sick so something is going right. I know its partially conspiracy theory too - but I honestly believe wheat is a huge problem in this country. Another very fantastic read is Wheat Belly - give it a shot too - it talks about how wheat of the 1950's is not the wheat we eat today and has been genetically modified as well. So the wheat is affecting people differently.

[Hubs] didn't do it when me the first time- ther ewasn't really a meal plan but usually my day would go breakfast: eggs and avocado, lunch would be a salad with protein and homemade dressing and nuts. dinner would be steak, sweet potato, and a green veggie  - rinse and repeat  - it got a bit old - I know that this whole30 thing is HUGE in the crossfit world - so I'm not as hardcore as some people.

I do agree it's insane about prices - we do try to stick to organic milk - as for organic fruits and veggies - I try to buy only organic from the dirty dozen - organic bananas aren't necessary, but organic strawberries are better to buy.

Fun fact about organic milk - it stays fresh longer - i know its weird, but it does. Organic strawberries do too in the fridge. Also I feel you on the real maple syrup - ITS FREAKING INSANE how expensive some stuff is.

For a nice yummy breakfast I make this as a cereal replacement - http://paleomg.com/pumpkin-granola/ IT'S DELICIOUS.

I watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead too - made me want to juice everything!!!

I honestly think staying away from processed foods in general is the best form - ive been looking at ingredients more and when I can't pronounce something its probably not a good idea.

I go to a yoga studio 4 times a week for an hour or hour and a half at a time. Keeps my anxiety at bay and you can post what you want. :)

Did you read that? Her diet is helping her control her Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). WOW!

moi':

That's awesome! I'm so glad you aren't having episodes. That right there is amazing, and like you said, something is going right. 

Yea, I watched King Corn, read the Omnivore's Delima and just some other articles and so forth in my Agriculture and Rural Lands Law class- so have a little bit of an understanding of the modified wheat thing. I mean, all that stuff seems like a good idea at first- more food, less $, more people eat. But now we are realizing that this stuff is having unintended side effects. I have a friend who's involved in the agricultural world and she get's upset when people attack modern farming practices because it's necessary to feed everyone at the prices we're accustomed too. And she's partially right I think, we have to realize that we as consumers have somewhat chosen these practices, and most American's cannot afford to eat whole foods like we're suggesting. What really gets me up in arms is when food companies use science to trick and mislead consumers. So like, MSG making us fat, or using addictive isolates.  As an aside, did you know one of the reasons corn is used in everything is because we subsidize it so much that big farmers are pretty much forced into using/growing it. And one of the reasons we subsidize it is because we are using leftover fertilizer (nitrogen) from the second world war. That stuff is pretty interesting.

Yea; the organics lasting longer thing is wild! Why that is!? I feel like it sets off the cost a little bit- I never have to throw organic milk away before I get to use it. I didn't realize that organic fruits lasted longer. I guess that makes sense though- there's no poison on them. I wonder about rasberries... I never buy rasberries because they go bad so quickly, especially for the price. 

Pal:

That makes a ton of sense about the industry and feeding everyone.
Next summer maybe think about joining a CSA with [future hubs]- i'm sure your area has them.
I do mine all year round it just depends, but for example = for the summer - I pay a flat fee and go pick up fresh vegetables at a farm about 3 miles from my house. It's great - CSA - community shared agriculture. I get some delicious local foods and don't worry about pesticides etc b/c she's an organic farm. http://www.localharvest.org/

Your OmNoms in Black & White

If you aren't logging your daily calories, that may be perfectly fine. I have pals that are succeeding in the battle of the bulge by just making better choices and not worrying about the caloric formula. However, if you aren't losing the weight the way you want, may I make a suggestion? Log everything you put in your mouth for two weeks. No need to find out the nutritional information, just write it all down. And if you do log your food already, step back and look at what you've ate over the last two weeks. Why? you might be making the same mistake I was.

I am starting a health assessment with a Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, who just happens to be my sister. Why? I sort of had a little mini breakdown after stepping on the scale this past Wednesday- I had gained all six pounds back that I had lost since the begining of my diet. I couldn't figure out why and I weighed myself like three times. :::this can't be right. this can't be right.::: People in the gym probably thought I was a spaz. It turns out that it was due to run of the mill fluctuation and was back on track the next day. However, that didn't stop me from calling my sister in a panic. "I've been good! I don't understand. I've been running, I've been eating well, I walk my dog at least 45 minutes a day. What's going on? I don't wanna go back!"



source: http://www.promisescomic.com/shop/books/



We talked about fluctuation, the best time to weigh yourself, how often you should weigh yourself (my sister throws the scales out all together), and how just counting calories isn't the most effective or healthy way to loose weight. We also started talking about my motivation for loosing weight and how I was concerned that my hormones and the medicine I went off about three months ago might be contributing to my weight changes. We talked about the hormones and antibiotics hidden in the typical American diet, and a whole host of other health topics.

Long story short, she sends me a health history in the email today- and it includes more than your parent's health histories. It asks things like, "What foods did you eat as a child?" and "What percentage of your food is home cooked?" and "Do you crave sugar, coffee, cigarettes, or have any major addictions?" So this eval got me thinking, "What, really, is my current diet like?" I sat down with my food log of the last 20 days and a highlighter. Turns out I was eating "treats" more often than I thought. I have reduced my intake of that kind of stuff a bunch. And I think if I would have cut them out all together or drastically at first, I would have just given up. But now, after I've had time to wean myself off a bit, I see that there is still a bit too much chocolate and not enough veggies in my diet.
So my point is that even if you aren't using a strict caloric diet, I would suggest reevaluating your diet every so often-just to see if you can make some small changes to up the ante and better your game plan. Just a thought. And, of course, I'll tell you what I learn from the health coach. ;)

Have you ever hit a plateau or'ev become discouraged with slow results? What did you do to recharge your batteries? What did you change to energize your efforts and increase the payout?

Presents! attainable goals & rewards

I've been dieting for only about three weeks, but I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself. I usually don't last this long and I'm attributing it to, primarily, two things.

One, Myfitnesspal.
If you have an iPhone and want to loose weight, you absolutely must download this free app right now. If you do not have an iPhone I would still suggest you use their website version, or a comparable site, but having it with me at all times is so handy. Not only will it track your calories, sodium, sugar, and weight or measurements, it will also prepare handy dandy reports that give you a graphic representation of how many calories you've consumed or burned over the last week. Coolest of all, it has a bar code scanning feature where you can hold up your phone's camera to just about any food item and boom-bam-done. You don't even have to search the database. I also like that it has a little online community where you get status updates on your pals. It's helped me tons for accountablity purposes. Which is actually why I'm doing this blog! Hopefully logging what I learn along the way will keep me on track longer. I feel more motivated myself when I can be a cheerleader for someone else, so I'm cheering you on... even if not for totally altruistic purposes!

Two, attainable goals and rewards.
I have my google calendar filled to the brim with reminders, goals, and concerete rewards. I weigh in tonight and if I have lost one pound since last week, yours truly gets a present.

Nothing huge, but something to look forward to. I don't think my pocketbook will suffer much damage, especially since I'm packing my lunch in lieu of eatting out now. So if I've lost a pound, I get a Last Tango - bright terracotta creme nail polish from Sephora. Drool. Last week I met my goal and sent flowers to my sister who is kicking butt at her new business- I'm so proud of her. One rule: no food rewards. I have new workout apparal, an awesome present for mom's birthday, a statement necklace, and a lilly pulitzer agenda coming up!

Might I suggest you give it a shot too? If you do, tell me what things you're working for in the comments!