I do not like to cook and in fact never do it when I am not trying to lose weight. My husband usually does the bulk of it. However, when I am in weight loss mode, I start cooking- a lot.
Eating regular home cooked dinners takes the "sting" out of the whole diet experience. My husband is like most men and will eat whatever is put in front of him, but I have a higher threshold for the real "diety" kind of dinners. I have every Weight Watchers cookbook there is as well as Hungry Girl and a few others. And, I have given them all away.
Start using the Cooking Light website. Cooking Light is the perfect mix between what Weight Watchers cookbooks have to offer and regular high fat foods that we all love to eat. Get yourself a regular three ring binder and throw the recipes that you like in the binder after you use them. If you are doing Weight Watchers, divide the calories by fifty to get the number of points in the recipe.
I just made the Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins which my family loved. They are only four points and because they have peanut butter in them, they have protein and stay with you longer than a regular muffin. Also, look up "Kathy's Chocolate Party Cake" if you want something sweet. I made it in a regular 9 x 13 pan because who has time to deal with all those layers? You will love it, I promise.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Picking Your Battles
Right off the bat. A few things I know for sure (Sorry Oprah)
1. YOU MUST BRING YOUR LUNCH TO WORK
This is the most important working mom dieting rule. You will NEVER lose any weight if you eat out every day. I don't care if its a salad bar or subway. You still need to bring lunch. In fact you need to bring more than lunch, you also need to bring at least two snacks with you.
Buy yourself a lunch box like your kids have. I take one of those insulated ones from LL Bean that is flat so I can fit a Lean Cuisine in it. I pack my lunch and a snack for the morning and one for the afternoon. You need to set yourself up so that all the food and the drinks you need are in your lunch box and you have NO reason to be in the break room or anywhere near a vending machine. You are removing the big areas of temptation in your office.
This was a HUGE deal for me as I already get up at 4:45 for work and could not imagine spending the time in the morning making up a lunch. Once I started doing it, I realized it doesn't take that much time, but I also rely heavily on frozen foods. I read Jillian Michaels' last book about preservatives in processed foods and tried to actually "make" my lunch and I just couldn't do it and had to go back to my lean cuisines and smart ones. As the title says, its all about picking your battles.
2. YOU MUST DRINK WATER
Buy one of those cute environmentally friendly water bottles and fill it up each day with water and ice and bring it with your lunch box. A lot of the weight you lose at first is water weight and the best way to get that off is to flush it out of your system with more water. I don't buy into the whole "water keeps me full" thing. I just know it will speed up the weight loss process and I am all about that.
3. Exercise
Any nutritional expert is not going to like what I have to say about exercise, but I am going to tell you what I have experienced with it. First of all, I DO exercise on a regular basis. Even when I am cooking dinner in the deep fryer, I am still exercising. I use it for a lot of stress management, it helps me sleep, and it keeps me from getting sick. If I could manage my stress and sleep well without it, I would give it up in a heartbeat. I do not enjoy it. Well, I have found one thing I enjoy, but more about that later.
Anyway, I had always had a theory that weight loss was really mostly tied to what your were putting in your mouth and not how much you were working out. I have found that when I have INSANE weeks at work and just can't get to the gym, I still lose weight if I have managed my food well. This summer I read an article in Time magazine that backed up this theory.
That said- you should shoot for working out three times a week.. Pick one night a week that you can exercise and then do it once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Exercise is an appetite suppressant. If I go on a run on a Saturday morning, I will not eat as much the rest of the day as if I didn't run. If I KNOW I am going to the gym in the afternoon, I am not going to belly up to a big cheese burger right before it.
I have never been able to do dvds at home because if I am in my house, it is too hard to do this uninterrupted. Plus, the layout of my house is not really conducive to it. I run because it is the most bang for my buck in time and I take zumba classes at the gym. Zumba is really fun and a great workout. When I can afford it, I do weights with a personal trainer because I am not very motivated to do that. In order to not be at the gym every day, I will double up my workouts (class then trainer)because I would rather be there one day for two hours than two days for an hour each. My gym is not close to my house, it is close to where I work.
4. Splurge once a week-
This is why I like Weight Watchers. Pick one meal a week that you want to splurge on and have whatever you want. I usually choose a Friday or Saturday night and I go for chicken wings and light beer. This is what will keep you going. Most diets out there-WW, Body For Life, 90/10 allow for splurging. Keep it to one meal a week and you will be fine.
more later...
1. YOU MUST BRING YOUR LUNCH TO WORK
This is the most important working mom dieting rule. You will NEVER lose any weight if you eat out every day. I don't care if its a salad bar or subway. You still need to bring lunch. In fact you need to bring more than lunch, you also need to bring at least two snacks with you.
Buy yourself a lunch box like your kids have. I take one of those insulated ones from LL Bean that is flat so I can fit a Lean Cuisine in it. I pack my lunch and a snack for the morning and one for the afternoon. You need to set yourself up so that all the food and the drinks you need are in your lunch box and you have NO reason to be in the break room or anywhere near a vending machine. You are removing the big areas of temptation in your office.
This was a HUGE deal for me as I already get up at 4:45 for work and could not imagine spending the time in the morning making up a lunch. Once I started doing it, I realized it doesn't take that much time, but I also rely heavily on frozen foods. I read Jillian Michaels' last book about preservatives in processed foods and tried to actually "make" my lunch and I just couldn't do it and had to go back to my lean cuisines and smart ones. As the title says, its all about picking your battles.
2. YOU MUST DRINK WATER
Buy one of those cute environmentally friendly water bottles and fill it up each day with water and ice and bring it with your lunch box. A lot of the weight you lose at first is water weight and the best way to get that off is to flush it out of your system with more water. I don't buy into the whole "water keeps me full" thing. I just know it will speed up the weight loss process and I am all about that.
3. Exercise
Any nutritional expert is not going to like what I have to say about exercise, but I am going to tell you what I have experienced with it. First of all, I DO exercise on a regular basis. Even when I am cooking dinner in the deep fryer, I am still exercising. I use it for a lot of stress management, it helps me sleep, and it keeps me from getting sick. If I could manage my stress and sleep well without it, I would give it up in a heartbeat. I do not enjoy it. Well, I have found one thing I enjoy, but more about that later.
Anyway, I had always had a theory that weight loss was really mostly tied to what your were putting in your mouth and not how much you were working out. I have found that when I have INSANE weeks at work and just can't get to the gym, I still lose weight if I have managed my food well. This summer I read an article in Time magazine that backed up this theory.
That said- you should shoot for working out three times a week.. Pick one night a week that you can exercise and then do it once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Exercise is an appetite suppressant. If I go on a run on a Saturday morning, I will not eat as much the rest of the day as if I didn't run. If I KNOW I am going to the gym in the afternoon, I am not going to belly up to a big cheese burger right before it.
I have never been able to do dvds at home because if I am in my house, it is too hard to do this uninterrupted. Plus, the layout of my house is not really conducive to it. I run because it is the most bang for my buck in time and I take zumba classes at the gym. Zumba is really fun and a great workout. When I can afford it, I do weights with a personal trainer because I am not very motivated to do that. In order to not be at the gym every day, I will double up my workouts (class then trainer)because I would rather be there one day for two hours than two days for an hour each. My gym is not close to my house, it is close to where I work.
4. Splurge once a week-
This is why I like Weight Watchers. Pick one meal a week that you want to splurge on and have whatever you want. I usually choose a Friday or Saturday night and I go for chicken wings and light beer. This is what will keep you going. Most diets out there-WW, Body For Life, 90/10 allow for splurging. Keep it to one meal a week and you will be fine.
more later...
Welcome to My World
I am a 40 year old professional dieter. Each time I have some sort of major transition in my life (college, marriage, baby, new job, turning 40) I put on anywhere from ten to forty pounds. Once I come out of my transition fog, I realize that I can't fit into any of my clothes and am forced to deal with it. I have done Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Adkins, phen fen, Body for Life, and Weight Watchers. I have read EVERY book out there on dieting and devour every magazine that exists on the subject. I watch Biggest Loser, Dr. Oz, or any show I can tivo about weight loss.
Now, about the working mom part...I am a middle school principal and I have one child. I am FAR luckier than most working moms in that my husband does work out of the house and I only have the ONE child. So, while my hours might suck, I do have some help (except when he travels), and I only have the one kid (who is in fifth grade). I have found that I have to adapt having a healthy lifestyle and losing weight around work and family and know that most women do-which is why so many times we don't. It seems overwhelming to find time in your schedule to make lunch when you already make it for your kids or exercise when your really, truly don't have an extra minute or frankly the extra energy. I am going to share with you how I manage these things and after all my research and through trial and error what has worked for me.
So, like most people in America right now, I have once again resolved to lose weight. In November I turned forty and started celebrating...There was a weekend with friends, a concert with my husband, and then in December a ten day cruise, followed by Christmas at my mothers house. I knew I was headed in this direction and I completely own it. I don't regret any of it and knew I would end up here.
I made the decision to write a blog for several reasons. As I said earlier, I have a ridiculous clearing house of knowledge about what works and what doesn't work in the dieting world. I have spent A LOT of time researching this and hope it can save somebody else some time. And, as I said to my husband when considering going to Weight Watcher's meetings, "I simply can not be out of the house one more night during the week." As someone who used to do some freelance writing, writing about it seemed the next best thing.
How much weight do I have to lose? This time around I am shooting for eighteen pounds. I lost about twenty five pounds two years ago and never really got to the "last ten" and I have decided to get rid of the seven I gained this fall and finally tackle the last ten pounds I have been screwing around with for two years. My diet of choice is Weight Watchers which is the most "family friendly" diet. Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem work fine, but I think it is impossible to manage in a house with other people.
Now, about the working mom part...I am a middle school principal and I have one child. I am FAR luckier than most working moms in that my husband does work out of the house and I only have the ONE child. So, while my hours might suck, I do have some help (except when he travels), and I only have the one kid (who is in fifth grade). I have found that I have to adapt having a healthy lifestyle and losing weight around work and family and know that most women do-which is why so many times we don't. It seems overwhelming to find time in your schedule to make lunch when you already make it for your kids or exercise when your really, truly don't have an extra minute or frankly the extra energy. I am going to share with you how I manage these things and after all my research and through trial and error what has worked for me.
So, like most people in America right now, I have once again resolved to lose weight. In November I turned forty and started celebrating...There was a weekend with friends, a concert with my husband, and then in December a ten day cruise, followed by Christmas at my mothers house. I knew I was headed in this direction and I completely own it. I don't regret any of it and knew I would end up here.
I made the decision to write a blog for several reasons. As I said earlier, I have a ridiculous clearing house of knowledge about what works and what doesn't work in the dieting world. I have spent A LOT of time researching this and hope it can save somebody else some time. And, as I said to my husband when considering going to Weight Watcher's meetings, "I simply can not be out of the house one more night during the week." As someone who used to do some freelance writing, writing about it seemed the next best thing.
How much weight do I have to lose? This time around I am shooting for eighteen pounds. I lost about twenty five pounds two years ago and never really got to the "last ten" and I have decided to get rid of the seven I gained this fall and finally tackle the last ten pounds I have been screwing around with for two years. My diet of choice is Weight Watchers which is the most "family friendly" diet. Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem work fine, but I think it is impossible to manage in a house with other people.
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