Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Wacky Wednesday and I wish I was in Rome

Today would be a nice day to be in Italy. I have been thinking about travelling and how much the dollar stinks so travelling abroad really isn't the most practical thing at the moment. I love working on my own schedule, but it would be nice to be sent on a business trip to Italy.

Anyway, I called the doctor to complain about my bloated. I woke up and my feet are swollen. One should not wake up with swollen feet, even if they have a tendency towards them. I don't usually have swollen feet.

I am SORE from yoga. A good sore, but sore. I am definitely strongly considering joining the gym.

I forgot my sneakers. I'm annoyed with myself.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jess,

Sorry to hear that you are feeling bloated!

I know this is none of my business, but I obsessively read weight-loss blogs, and stumbled upon yours, and am enjoying it!

You seem to be at the same place in your weight loss as I was a few years ago. I had someone tell me this, and I didn't like it, but it worked: You're eating too much, too many calories, to lose weight. You need to find lower-calorie substitutes for some of your foods.

For example, a margarita has 400-600 calories on the rocks, and closer to 1000 calories if it's a fruit-flavored frozen variety. You need to cut those out, or have one as a rare treat once or twice a year, or buy some sugar-free margarita mix and make your own at home, instead of having them in restaurants. Same goes for smoothies. Even though there's fruit in them, and juice, they pack a ton of calories. They are special treats.

Also, when you have sandwiches/burgers/veggie burgers on lots of bread, if you just skipped the bun, and ate with a fork and knife, keeping all of your toppings, you'd be skipping around 200 calories that really aren't very filling.

My personal weakness was breakfast - I used to have a bagel w/ some cheese on it, which is like 500 calories, and I'd be hungry 2 hours later. So I thought that meant I needed more food (which usually ended up beign junk food in the office or a donut, etc.) Really, I needed different food. Now, for breakfast, I have oatmeal w/ a small spoonful of peanut butter in it (for the protein and fat), and am full for a much longer time for far fewer calories - around 300.

Also, for dinners out, look up the restaurant and nutritional information before you go, and decide what you're going to eat then, rather than when you're at the restaurant and hungry. It's a real eye opener. If a restaurant doesn't have nutritional information on it's website, you can usually search for it via google, and get good results, particularly if it's a chain.

I don't know how tall you are, but I'm 5'1", and currently weigh 113lbs, down from 130lbs, which wasn't fat, but was too much for my height/bone structure. I don't have a great metabolism either. I find that if I eat more than 1500 cals/day or so, I gain weight. To lose, I need to keep it around 1200 cals/day, max. But that's just me. It's hard to stay that low; in order to do so, you have to learn what foods keep you full and which are just empty. Things like baked Lays chips don't have many calories, but, they don't make me full at all, so I cannot eat them. Things with more calories, but also some fats and proteins and fiber, will keep me full for much longer, so they're worth the "calorie expenditure." Make sense?

Finally, the best thing I did for myself was to lay out a plan based on time of day. I give myself 300 calories to eat in the mornings before work (i.e. breakfast), 500 to eat while at work, including lunch, and 500 more for after work, including dinner. That may not be ideal, but, at worst, if I use up my allotment for that time of day, I'm only going to be hungry for a few hours until I reach the next point in my day. It makes me really think, "do I really want that muffin?" at 10am when it's sitting in the office. Muffins usually have around 400+ calories, so that'd be just about all I'd get to eat until after work. So, once I think of it in those terms, the answer is, usually, no. And, when it's yes, then I'm hungry in the afternoon, and "teach myself a lesson."

I don't know if any of this will work for you or not, and if not, then forget I said anything. But, if so, great!

You are doing a great job with the fruits, btw!!!