Archive for May 2010
This post comes to via my hotel room in South Carolina. We are en route to our first family Disney vacation and we are ECSTATIC! Besides some horrific traffic in Virginia it’s been smooth sailing and Little Guy has been really enjoying it.
If you didn’t catch it in my Thursday Thoughts Post I have issued a Food Journaling Challenge on BlogToLose and will be journaling all vacation on my twitter food journal account, @RonisFood. I’m also planning on posting recaps here on the days I don’t drop from pure exhaustion.
Today started nice and relaxing. We had most things packed from the night before. Little Guy and I woke up early, as usual, and had breakfast. I kept it fairly light, some fresh mango and a 6oz flavored yogurt, as I knew I’d be munching ALL day in the car.
My munching started with some watermelon and a 90 calorie granola bar. I packed us up with TONS of snacky items I wouldn’t feel guilty eating. Carrot sticks, celery sticks, dry cereal in baggies, granola bars, oranges, and some quaker mini delights.
Once we hit the hellish traffic in Virgina, hubby and I decided to bail from the highway and have lunch at Panera. I stuck with a you pick two, black bean soup and asian chicken salad with the dressing on the side. Oh! and the apple.
We hit the road again and not before to long I started munching again on the celery and carrots. I told you. I can literally eat non-stop while driving. I’m a bottomless pit!
After a couple of more hours we stopped again to stretch our legs and I HAD to get a McD’s cone. It’s like a road trip staple for us.
Of course we used out time out of the car to get goofy. We’ll at least little guy did. 
Back in the car and yet another snack
After 9 hours we decided it was time to stop. We got a room and took a nice stroll to a restaurant for dinner.
I am SERIOUSLY loving all this family time.
As for dinner…. Hubby ordered wings.
a favorite of his. I had ONE plus the celery. I have to have one. 
Then the waitress dropped off this warm, out of the oven bread. Actually it wasn’t bread. It was more like dough balls.
I almost killed her. Again, I decided to have ONE. It was hard, REAL hard, not to have another. They were OUT OF THIS WORLD!
I ended up ordering a salad with the restaurants ‘famous’ chicken. I don’t normally get salads with fried chicken on top but I really wanted to try this ‘famous’ chicken, so I did. What I didn’t expect was this monstrosity.
Notice the dressing on the side. I always get dressing on the side. It’s a habit.
The salad was good. Too good. I couldn’t have easily eaten the whole thing but I didn’t.
Instead I tried a bite of the husband’s shrimp and had 2-3 of the tables french fries. Then I pushed the plates away.
Could I have eaten the whole thing? OMG YES! But I wasn’t eating because I was hungry. I was eating because it was in front of me. This may be the hardest thing for me. Stop eating when I’m satisfied. Simple concept I know. I’m getting better.
So day one on our vacation is a success on many levels! Little guy did awesome in the car. I feel good about my food choices without feeling deprived. We checked off about 30 states in our license plate game. AND we are 3 states closer to Disney!
I hope you had a wonderful day. I’ll hopefully post tomorrow night, but if I don’t get a chance you can check up on my food journal via @RonisFood.
Have a good one!
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Ask Roni_v32s2 – Running before losing, Falling of the Wagon, Regular Slip Ups, Learning to Run
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FINALLY! Sorry for the delay. I recorded this a few weeks back and finally carved out a few hours to prep it and upload before heading hitting the open road towards Disney. I’m happily and weirdly saying that this will be my last video…. with HAIR!
Topics in this video include…
- Running before Losing the weight
- Have I ever Fallen off the Wagon – A kick in the butt for those that lost motivation.
- Strategies for Dealing with Slip Ups
- How to Start Running
Links mentioned in the video…
- The Couch-to-5K Running Plan
- My Pittsburgh Marathon Recap
- GreenLiteBites – All my creative food explorations
- My Posts with Workout/Running mixes
I confirmed a bazillion times she was accepting new patients, even telling him that I had called that specific clinic and they told me all of their therapists weren’t accepting new patients. The doctor smiled and said he was sure of it, she was taking new patients. With all my might, I drove past every freakin’ McDonalds on my way into work. With all of my will power, I fought off every urge to stop and just binge.
I’ll be back on Monday!
Today’s guest post is from Sarah of Australia Forum where you can find information about living in Australia. She is writing about resisting foods while on vacation – something that sometimes is very hard to do.
I’ve never been very strict when it comes to my diet. My parents ensured a healthy household by spurning snacks (we rarely had soda, candy, or chips in the house) and mandating a family dinner every night (no leaving the table until my plate was clean…and our dog was not keen on veggies). So when I got to high school and came face to face with the absolute splendor of the vending machine, I went hog wild, so to speak. Thus began my love affair with anything sugary, fatty, or riddled with sodium. Of course, as I advanced towards adulthood, my high-calorie, low nutrition diet began to take its toll. In my early twenties I gained weight and frankly, I felt awful, not just physically, but emotionally. Eventually, the number on the scale shocked me into diet and exercise, but to be honest, while I’ve really gotten on board with the exercise aspect of healthy living, I’ve had a hard time sticking to a diet.
Now, when I’m at home, I have a much easier time of it. A fridge once filled with soda and candy now houses fresh fruits and vegetables, Greek yogurt, and a low-cal caffeine fix (iced tea). My pantry has likewise been made over. I tossed the chips and sugary cereals in favor of granola, protein bars, and wheat pasta. I’ve introduced a wide variety of foods that meet my dietary needs and still curb my cravings, and I find that when I want sugar, an orange or banana now sounds just as good as a Hostess cupcake. So I’ve made some progress on the home front (although I admit, I still keep some gourmet dark chocolate bars in the cupboard for after dinner). The real problem for me is eating out, which I’m sad to say, I do frequently and without inhibition.
It really hit home when I recently took a trip to San Francisco with my husband. You know how that goes. We ate every meal out. And we didn’t look for healthy meals…we opted for eateries ala Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. But here’s what happened. I began to feel bloated and lethargic, not to mention the knot of discomfort lodged in my lower intestines. I realized that what I was eating was making me feel ill. And after wasting an entire vacation day languishing in the hotel room, regretting the previous day’s menu (chocolate chip French toast at Dottie’s True Blue Café, fish and chips, a trip to Ghirardelli Square, and dinner at Perbacco, where an egg yoke exploded out of my made-from-scratch ravioli…plus three glasses of wine), I decided I was going to have to control myself. Yeah, easier said than done, right? But I was able to formulate a plan and stick to it.
First, I decided we would have breakfast at a natural café across the street. They offered organic veggie omelets, granola with fruit and yogurt, and a number of other healthy, filling, and taste-satisfying options. Then I looked for salad and sandwich type places for lunch, and splurged a little on dinner (although I made sure to start with salad instead of cheesy appetizer). In a couple of days, I was feeling back to my old self and congratulating myself for a job well-done. I had successfully found a way to stick to a diet (albeit altered from the one at home) and still feel like I was enjoying all the fun of vacationing. In truth, I may not have been able to control myself if I hadn’t gotten so sick. But deciding to take a step is half the battle. The rest is in the planning, so if you’re determined, like me, to stay healthy while on vacation (and really anytime you’re eating out), be sure to look online for healthy food options before you go, instead of searching for food on an empty stomach (when everything looks good). A little legwork and a lot of options will ensure success on the food front so you can forget about it and have some fun!
How do you resist temptation on vacation?
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I’m not very good at taking a break from blogging. It seems as if it has become part of my daily life, part of who I am, for better or for worse. I like sharing my life and my story with all of you. It’s something that I enjoy doing, even when people don’t understand what I’m trying to say all the time or think that they know more than I do. When I miss days, I miss blogging. I just can’t stay away. Plus, blogging is how I pay quite a few bills, so taking time off hurts my wallet. We don’t me to starve, do we? That’s not exactly the safest method of weight loss.
On my last post Screaming Fat Girl left a good comment that pretty much summed up how I feel and is the only comment in the last few days that actually made me realize anything about myself (yes, sometimes comments do hit things that I’m unaware of):
You feel and think like many people who have been overweight all of their lives. First of all, you are sensitive because you have been attacked all of your life. You also find comments hurtful because you place validation of yourself in the hands of others because you have been abused and judged all of your life. You are so accustomed to being evaluated and having your value attached to your weight that you take even the random comments of strangers who in no way know you or are equipped to judge you to heart. I know you do this, because I do it, too.
You’re also judging yourself and saying you make “excuses” and aren’t responsible. You are saying these things because that’s part of the judgment others heap on you. There is a difference between a “reason” and an “excuse”. There are reasons you can’t lose weight. They are not “excuses”. People who talk about excuses are only interested in blame because it serves their purpose, which is to elevate themselves at your expense. Accepting their view of you and their judgment only makes losing weight all that much harder for you. You need to understand the reasons you can’t lose weight so that you can start working on getting past them. You don’t need to see them as “excuses” because that just means you embrace the notion that you are weak and irresponsible and therefore powerless.
We, fat people, are very prone to seeking approval of others and substituting their judgment for ours. It’s the first thing we need to work on if we are ever to become whole and strong. It’s hard, but it can be done. Maybe you have to get mad first. Maybe you have to fight back, or maybe you have to grow some Teflon over your sensitivity. I don’t know what will work for you, but it’s something worth exploring.
It’s natural that you judge yourself since you have lived your life feeling that you deserve to be judged. You don’t deserve that, not from others, and not from yourself.
I don’t think I can even add anything to that. It sums me up perfectly. I’ve always looked for outside validation and quite often what I received was judgmental and negative. I have somehow allowed random strangers who know nothing about me to have the power to judge me. They may have meant it as constructive criticism, but for me it felt like a judgment. And that’s quite disappointing.
Sometimes people don’t understand or know the full picture, and they can only comment on what they see. Sometimes that limited picture is skewed by their own perspective which might be different than mine. I’m not as aggressive or obsessed about weight loss as some people think I should be. I understand that people have different ideas about life and weight loss than I do – and that’s okay! Sometimes in the heat of the moment it’s hard to remember that because they aren’t discussing ideas in theory but ideas in relation to ME. I’m moving on from all the comments from the past week because they are not what matters to me. What matters to me is that I know what I’m doing. It matters to me that I know I’m doing well and taking steps to better my life, whatever that means in regards to weight loss. I will try not to take things personally from people who don’t know me personally. It’s another evolution in my life as a person and as a blogger. I think it will be a good thing.
Other than clearing that up….
If you did the a merry workout pledge send me your photos and times/distances! Please?
I’ve been a little sick the past couple days. I’ve got a sore throat, fatigue, slight fever… good times! The plans I had for these days have been sort of a bust because of that. I haven’t felt like doing anything but sleeping it off/drinking vitamins. My takeaway for you? Emergen-C is gross. But being sick is grosser.
On Monday I’m joining the YMCA for the month that I’m staying here. It’s crazy expensive for just a month membership (I hate how gyms punish you if you aren’t going to be a long term member) but I’m drawn in by the fact that they offer both Zumba and kickboxing classes. I can’t pass that up. Two of my favorite things in one place! Plus, I love YMCAs and my workout there last week was a good one.
And now I’m going to go back to being happy and working on the healthy. Go away sickness!
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WW ~~ Version 2001 ~~ Winning Points
It worked for people then. This formula can still work now.
The car wash and then this …
This was an unexpected, delightful sight to see tonight.
)1st meal
~~ 6 pts ~~ 1 c unsweetened almond milk + 1 scoop protein powder + spinach + 1/2 banana + 1/2 c blueberries + water
««« 2nd meal ~~ 3 pts ~~ 1/2 c 0% Greek yogurt + 15 g granola
««« 4th meal ~~ 3 pts ~~ 1 cup cherries + 1 f.r. egg
By weighing my food today and last night, I can definitely see that while I’ve been eating incredibly healthy overall, my portions have been too large for weight loss.
««« Traffic at a standstill today on the expressway … like my weight loss right now.
««« 2nd meal ~~ 3 pts ~~ 1/2 c 0% Greek yogurt + 15 g granolaI was eating at least double this amount of both foods!
««« 3rd meal ~~ 6 pts ~~ turkey burger + broccoli + 1/4 sweet potato + 1 pat butter
««« 4th meal ~~ 3 pts ~~ 1 cup cherries + 1 f.r. egg
««« 5th meal ~~ 6 pts ~~ 4 oz cooked chicken breast (w. curry & garam masala spices … yum) cooked in Pam spray + brussels sprouts + 1 carrot + 1 pat butter
««« my digital food scale gives 11 different nutritional food values.
««« 6th meal ~~ 2 pts ~~ roasted red pepper hummus + celery
««« 7th meal ~~ 4 pts ~~ 1 Lärabar
Notice, I didn’t ask if you like to work out. I asked if you like to sweat. Earlier this week, Jenn let us know that she doesn’t mind getting herself a little sweaty for a good cause—a good cause being a heart-pumping workout. I don’t mind a sweat either, as it serves as proof that [...]
