Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

After a few weeks of eating slightly over my calories, I have had a really good week.  I write it all down, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Then today, I did something stupid, stupid, stupid.  I hate it when that happens.

It was a crazy day at work.  We have a huge conference next week and all the last minute prep was overwhelming.  It was stressful but I was handling it with humor and a list.  I forgot to bring my lunch so I ran to pick up some KFC grilled chicken.  I was well within my calorie limit with this choice and glad that I had more than enough calories left over for dinner.  Today is a day that I don't exercise so I am always pretty careful about my food on those days.

Later a friend called and said she was going to run by Sonic and pick up her lunch and a chocolate milkshake.  Oooooooohhhhhhh, milkshake!  I asked her to bring me a small chocolate milkshake.  Yum.

She walked in with the milkshake and I tasted it.  SO good but . . . what is that taste?  This is not just chocolate.  She tasted it.  Chocolate peanut butter.  Wow.  Even better.  I slurped that yummy concoction down and finished some more conference prep. 

Later I pulled up my Daily Plate on Livestrong.com to record my decadent treat.  WHAT THA??????????????  A small chocolate peanut butter milkshake from Sonic is 678 freakin' calories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness.  I typed it into my Daily Plate and I have one, yes one, calorie left for dinner.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The moral of the story . . . take the time to look it up before you decide to eat it.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Love My Bugg

I was never one to commit to wearing a pedometer and was never one to completely understand how to figure out calories burned at an activity.  So although the concept of "burn more calories than you take in" was so simple and clear to me, the problem was . . . how do I really know how many calories I'm burning?

The problem centers around the fact that you burn calories with every little move of the finger, ride of the bike, jog around the neighborhood, and even when you sleep.  How could I keep up with all of that and get an accurate picture?

I had seen the Bodybugg on TV on "The Biggest Loser", heard others talk about it, and even read a little on-line.  But I didn't really get it until I got one.  The Bodybugg is a little square contraption that has an stretchy arm band attached.  You wear it all day (and night if you like) on your upper left arm, except in the bath or shower or pool.  It does NOT like water.  You can get a small display that looks like a digital watch that you can wear on your arm or clip it to your pants or bra strap like I do.  The display gives you the data if you are into instant gratification as I am. 

A couple of times a week, you hook it up to the computer, go to their site and upload your information and charge the battery.  I won't go into all the details on what you can do but there is tons of info on their site so check it out.

So what the Bodybugg basically does is counts calories you burn as long as you are wearing the armband.  It also counts steps you take, amount of time at an activity, calories burned during activity, calories per minute burned during high activity. 

So here's how I use it.  I wear it all day and night except in water.  The armband counts calories from midnight to midnight so I know how much I burn in total during a 24 hour period by checking the running total on the display.  When I attend dance class or just want to see how many calories I burn during an activity, I set a "trip" and the display tells me.  When I reach my calorie burn target, the display alerts me.  Since I am counting and logging calories all day on Livestrong.com's Daily Plate, I don't use Bodybugg's website for meal tracking but it is available for those that want to do that.

Every morning, I go to Livestrong and pull up the previous days meals.  Then I enter my total calories burned (the display will show you the previous day's total) and compare how many more calories I have burned than I took in.  Some days I burn a couple of hundred more and some days I burn over a thousand more. 

My target to lose 1.5 pounds each week is to burn 800 calories more each day than I take in.  That goal is based on age, height, and current weight but it sounds like a lot, right?  It's really not.  Remember, you burn calories when you sleep.  But what happens is the armband and display remind me to get up off my hiney and move a little more.  Instead of sitting at my desk, I get up and walk around a couple of times more each day.  When I'm in the car for long stretches, I "dance" to the music on my Ipod.  Yeah, I look stupid to people in the other cars but they don't know me, right?  The point is, the little device reminds me that I need to move.

Bodybuggs are a little pricey - over $200 for the armband and display - which made me hesitate for a long time before buying one.  But it was well worth the money.  There are other brands with similar devices and all work essentially the same way with very few differences.  I have no knowledge if one is better than the other, I only have experience with what I own and I am receiving no compensation for endorsing the Bodybugg.  I just love it and want to share how it has helped me lose weight.

How do you track your exercise?

Meal Tracking 3/16/2010

Today was a busy day and I love being back to tracking my food.  I had enough calories left over for dinner to have some yummy Swedish Meatballs with sauce over egg noodles.  I love that I can have just about anything I want as long as I have just one serving.  And I still have 288 calories left today.

March 16th, 2010

Meal

Item Brand

Item Name

Your Servings

Calories

breakfast breakfast

Laughing Cow Thomas

Light Swiss Cheese Bagel Thins

1.00  1.00

35 110

breakfast

Oscar Mayer

Pre-cooked Bacon Slices

1.00

70

breakfast

Raw Spinach

1.00

7

breakfast

Starbucks

Venti Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte

1.00

160

lunch

Kashi

Mayan Harvest Bake

1.00

340

lunch

Jello

Mousse Temptations - Dark Chocolate Decadence

1.00

60

lunch

Navel Orange

1.00

64

afternoon snack

Back to Nature

Cranberry Pecan Granola

0.50

100

afternoon snack

Chobani

Nonfat Plain Yogurt

1.00

100

afternoon snack

Truvia

1.00

0

dinner

Prepared Ikea Cream Sauce

0.25

64

dinner

IKEA

Swedish Meatballs

1.00

210

dinner

Great Value

Wide Egg Noodles

1.00

220

Totals

Calories

1,539.50

It Was A Good Day

The last two days I had meetings and there was eating out.  I didn’t do too badly but I cannot be sure of the accuracy of some of my calorie estimates.  So today, it was back to my routine and carrying my little cooler of healthy food.  I love it when things are in my control.

So here is my food tracker for today.  The only thing not on there is the Endangered Species Dark Chocolate that I will be having here in a few minutes as an evening snack.  I still have about 520 calories left and the chocolate is 210 so I will still be well within my daily allowance.

I hope you had a good day too!

February 25th, 2010

Meal

Item Brand

Item                     Name

Calories

breakfast

Philadelphia (Kraft)

1/3 Less Fat Strawberry Cream Cheese

70

breakfast

Thomas's

Bagel Thins

110

breakfast

Coffee

8

breakfast

Nestle

Coffee-mate Liquid, Hazelnut flavor, Sugar Free

60

morning snack

Hummus

88

morning snack

Tostitos

Multigrain Tortilla Chips

150

lunch

Kashi

Tuscan Veggie Bake

260

afternoon snack

Chiquita

Coconut Pineapple Bites

40

afternoon snack

Back to Nature

Cranberry Pecan Granola

100

afternoon snack

Fage

Total 0%

90

dinner

Spicy Chinese Shrimp and Veggies With Rice

366

Totals
Calories
1,342.00					.

Recipe: Pesto, Spinach, Tomato, and Goat Cheese Pizza

I am not a big fan of traditional pizzas.  But since I am trying to eat healthy and get a wider variety of ingredients into my diet, I have tried a lot of things that I never really thought about before.  

I knew I loved spinach just about any way you fix it and I knew that a little goat cheese  will go a long way to adding flavor without a lot of calories.  So when my daughter made a yummy tomato and goat cheese pizza from a Cooking Light recipe I thought I would start experimenting and try some additional ingredients.   

The pizza recipe below is what I came up with.  It uses some prepared ingredients, some fresh and it makes a pizza with 6 slices at 221 calories per slice. 

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 100% Whole Wheat Pizza Crust by Boboli
• 2 tbsp Pesto from the grocery
• 2 oz Fresh Raw Spinach
• 1 medium size Roma Tomato, sliced
• 2 4/5 oz Alloutte crumbled goat cheese
• 2 oz Asiago Cheese or Parmesan, shredded

Directions

Spread pesto on pre-made pizza crust. Layer on spinach then add sliced roma tomato. Top with goat cheese and sprinkle with asiago cheese.
Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.

This pizza is pretty filling and you get a lot of veggies in.  You could add diced chicken or chopped artichokes, or replace the Roma tomato with chopped sun-dried tomatoes.  Be creative and make it your own.

Breakfast That Feels Like You're Cheating

So we all know that breakfast is important, right?  But most of us don't take time to eat it.  Or we eat crap.  Speaking of . . . what justifies crap?  Well, to me it's things that don't fill you up or things that are fast and easy but not enjoyable or things that make you feel blah.  So I have had to work at breakfast.

I don't do carbs for breakfast - no cereal, no sweet stuff.  I gotta have me some protein.  I am a meat girl when it comes to breakfast.  And it must be portable.  I usually eat it in the car so you can see how cereal might be a problem, sorta like texting while driving.  Fruit is okay but rarely does it fill me up.  So, again, I have to work at breakfast.

I like breakfast sandwiches and that's usually what I have each morning.  Don't turn you carb hating noses up at me! There are tons of good options (calories, fiber, and lower carbs) out there now for breakfast breads:

• Thomas' Better Start Multi-Grain English Muffins  (100 Calories) 
• Arnold Multi-Grain Sandwhich Thins (100 Calories)
• Thomas' Bagel Thins  (110 Calories)

You can trim calories for the meat portions of a breakfast sandwich by paying attention to serving sizes and using leaner cuts.  Sodium can be a problem so compare labels.  My favorites:

• Jones Farm Canadian Bacon (60 calories for 3 slices)
• Jimmy Dean Light Bulk Sausage (140 calories for a 2 oz. patty)
• Center Cut Bacon (50 calories for 2 slices)
• Johnsonville Smoked Turkey Links (110 for a whole link, I usually use half)

Can you tell I love pork???  Which brings me to a point - don't deprive yourself of things you love.  If it is something you are not willing to give up, don't.  It will only make you miserable.  Just figure out a way to make it healthier and eat less of it - like JUST one serving instead of 6.

So . . . back to breakfast. 

I choose a bread and a meat and then . . . my favorite substitute for decadence . . . Laughing Cow Light Wedges.  I love cheese.  Truly love it.  And not only do I hate fat free or low fat stringy, yucky cheese, but it's hard for me to stop at a 1 oz. serving of the real thing.  But Laughing Cow is a great substitute.  And it is only 35 calories per wedge.  I use it in so many recipes, some of which I will share later, and it makes my breakfast sandwiches feel like I'm cheating.

So, for example, my most favorite breakfast:

• A Better Start English Muffin, toasted
• A wedge of Laughing Cow Light spread onto the muffin
• 2 slices of semi-crispy center cut bacon, halved and layered between the muffin

It's a very filling breakfast for only 185 calories.  Sometimes I use 4 slices of bacon just 'cause it's so yummy and I can still keep it below 250 calories.  That is so much less than a fast food breakfast or a frozen breakfast sandwich.  And less than a bowl of cereal too.

As you can tell by now - I only count calories.  I pay attention to sodium, fat, fiber, carbs and protein but I don't limit myself in any area.  I am very healthy despite being fat so someone with health issues might not be able to do things the same way I do.  But this is what works for me.

Hope it works for some of you too.