Do Yourself A Favor

Since eating healthy has now become a habit for me, keeping my calories in check during the day is no longer a challenge for me quite like it was at this point last week.

However, this weekend I allowed myself a treat. Some dark chocolate Hershey's Pieces candy. Don't freak it out, I didn't splurge and go hog wild. I simply adjusted my calories, eating less "real food" to accomodate for the treat I planned on having.

With it being Monday again, it's time to get cut that shit out. And although I didn't snack today and could afford a handful of pieces, I have identified those little chocolate nuggets as a slippery slope food for me - especially on days like today where work was hellacious and I want so badly to convince myself that I deserve it. I even tried reasoning with myself, saying I'd have 10 pieces and call it good. But I don't know if I could do that for sure. So I will do myself the favor and avoid completley.

Sometimes you have to be honest with yourself about what is feasible and what is not. Just admit it when there's a food you may or may not be able to control yourself around - and avoid it. That simple. Remind yourself how hard you've worked for healthy eating to become seamless, and then don't ruin it with mindless noshing.

On a side note, I definitely felt the effects of incorporating sugary treats into my diet this Monday morning. I had NO energy, was "irregular," and felt toxic on the inside. To be honest, despite the craving, I'm excited to get back to feeling clean and lean.

Progress Makes Perfect

Well, I've officially been eating lean and clean now for the entire work week. In my opinion, when if you are able to give up some of the most delicious foods known to mankind for even just five days, it makes you an authority on healthy eating. So here are some of the tactics I can now say, "I swear by."


1) Write down everything that goes into your mouth and how many calories it had.
I know it sounds neurotic, but I assure you, that's the point. "How the hell am I supposed to know how many calories are in 6 BBQ Jimmy John's chips?" you ask? Well, you're not. So it forces you to go through the process of researching the nutrition information, and then following that up with some mathematics to figure out the exact calories per your unique 6-chip portion. Sounds like a hassle, huh? It is. So skip the chips and half a clementine instead (20 cals).

2) Reward yourself early, reward yourself often.
Believe it or not, I used the gold old star-sticker strategy to reward myself throughout this journey. Yup, every time I reached a goal, I put a yellow star sticker on my progress sheet. At first I said, "I'll put a sticker down if I reach my goal for the day." But then I realized, a day is a long time, ladies and gentlemen. Think about it: every day, you have to keep your willpower in check for 1,440 consecutive minutes. And believe me, a few of those are going to be haunted by cravings for Oreos. So I figured, if I made it through breakfast without going beyone 200 calories or incorporating a few peanut butter M & M's before noon...STICKER. If I had my salad and fiber bar for lunch and refrained from taking a trip to the vending machine...STICKER. If I got home and prepared my own dinner aside my Mom and Dad who were busy chowing on cheese toretellini...STICKER. Some days,I would rack up 6 stickers, but it worked. I have never come across a meal (or day, for that matter) that I didn't earn my sticker. I know a sticker can't buy me shoes and doesn't have any value in the real world, but mentally, getting a sticker was like winning the lotto. Create your own value system and reward often in the beginning to keep yourself on track.

3) Always order the small.
I haven't eaten out much this week, for obvious reasons. But I did head to Jamba Juice this morning for a little pick-me-up. Normally I get the medium (24 oz.). Sometimes I get a large (32?). But today I got the small. After 16 oz., I felt full enough, got my serving of fruit, boosted my immunity and it only cost me 150 calories. What I'm realizing is that whether it's a tall latte, a small cup of fro-yo, a smoothie, or an order of fries - there really is no reason ever to order bigger than a size small. I firmly believe it should never be your goal to "feel full" after eating, it's to feel full enough. And that's precisely what the purpose of ordering the small is. Bring food back down to it's basics - it's fuel for your body to function. When you fill up your gas tank, you stop at the point where it's full enough. You don't keep filling when it already has enough to do it's job, right? Same thing goes for food.

4) Think about things from a medical standpoint.
I often thought about what my body would go through in the time after I would ingest some calorie bomb like a greasy burger or chocolate lava cake. I'm convinced foods like these send your body into some serious shock. All your internal systems must go into overdrive figuring out how to process the contamination - it's like an oil spill in your body and let's just say...clean up is a bitch. Your body does you a lot of favors in life, do one for it. Give it foods that are easy to process and help it function better over all. How simple is that?

5) Keep it to yourself.
This next one is going to sound like an oxymoron since I'm writing a public blog about my experiences. However, if you remember my very first post, I declared the purposed of doing this was more for me - to hold myself accountable by putting words on paper. Kind of like a contract. But as far as telling people about eating less and working out more, or the details of how my pants are fitting on a daily basis, or complaining about calories or being hungry, etc. etc. etc., I just keep this process to myself and battle for a better body on my own. The less I talk about it in the open, the less excruciating dieting seems. Plus, people get diet envy. Most people, your friends and family included, probably don't have the willpower you are mustering up right now, so the fact that you have it is definitely something to envy. Don't let anyone throw your game in a fit of jealousy. Keep on track by keeping your mouth zipped.
There you have it. I'll reflect more next week.
Anything is possible:
Monday's starting weight- 120
Friday's starting weight- 115

A Little Psychology 101 For You

Back in college, I took a basic behavioral psychology class. It explained a lot of things in the way of why people do what they do.

One thing in particular that I retained (one thing out of a $100,000 education ain't bad, right?) is that it takes people THREE times of doing a certain action for it to register as an actualized habit.

Well, I've officially gone three full days on this diet plan. So let's hope healthy eating has become a habit for me now, and that I find it as easy to stick to as brushing my teeth or any of the other routine actions I've cemented into my life due to sheer repetition.

New Rule

Every time I take a bathroom break, I do 25 squats. From brushing teeth to pee breaks at work, I don't come out until I finish 25 squats.

Be full, not fat.

This is getting a lot easier. I'm convinced that by cleansing my diet and pairing it down to eating only good-for-you foods, I actually don't feel as hungry as I thought I would. The foods I'm choosing to ingest have really great "bang-for-your-buck" qualities, so I fill up on less and have more energy overall.

I know, this sounds like a testimonial that would go in SELF magazine, but I'm speaking the truth from what I've observed so far.

You want to know what else is crazy? I haven't even been craving, let alone desiring, foods like French Fries, Jimmy John's subs, or Dairy Queen Blizzards. I just feel like, "What's the point?" - I'm not going to be full, just fat.

Eating less makes you cherish (read: enjoy) the food you do get to have. Just give your healthy eating plan some time to kick in.

Taking the Easy Way Out

Zoning out on the train ride to work today, I let my mind drift a little. And no, this had nothing to do with it being 4/20.

I thought to myself, "What's so hard about NOT doing something?" All day long I do difficult things when I'd rather just be sitting around doing nothing at all. So when it comes to NOT putting shit-food into my hand, then mouth, then body...or NOT going over to the cabinet, pulling out the bag of Reeses Pieces, emptying some into my hand, and reclipping the bag shut...why is it that I don't pass up the opportunity to do nothing?

I guess the same can be said for people who can't resist calling or texting an ex. I mean, really, it would be a lot easier to just not open up a new text message template, type-backspace-type all your enraged words, then go through the phonebook, select him, send, and spend the next undetermined amount of minutes/hours/days in unsettled silence. Right?

But we do it anyways. And as an actively lazy  member in today's American society, it makes no sense to me how we go about selecting the action items in our lives.

Nonetheless, I'm changing the meaning behind taking the easy way out. This no longer means having dessert just because, or eating the Oreos because they are there. My strategy is a whole  lot easier than that. My strategy is removing the thought from my mind all togther.

And who doesn't enjoy having one less thing to worry about?

The Fridge Is Haunting Me...just sharing.

There's Buca Di Beppo leftovers in my fridge right now. Enough said.

I figured if I keep my hands on the keyboard, I'll keep them out of the fridge - hence, this posting. I have to remember, CLEAN AND LEAN ONLY. Buca cream sauce and penne pasta at 11pm is neither, take my word for it.

Good night folks. Even though I'm a little hungrier than normal, I can go to sleep with a clean concious and diet for the day. That feels nice.

It's (unfortunately) Time.

I remember a time - long, long ago - where, believe it or not, I never thought about my body. I ordered what I wanted off the menu (namely cheese fries and a chocolate malt), didn't ask for half my meal to be boxed up, and somehow still remained about 100 lbs.

Then I went to college. And before you guess where this is going, guess again. I actually managed to stay in shape. I blame it on filling my curriculum with exercise science classes and finally learning the true evil behind a calorie. I became paranoid. Food in meant calories out. And I stuck to my routine like a drill sergeant, somehow winding up well below my ideal body weight and looking like a tree with branches for limb instead of a woman with some nice curves.

Don't worry, that didn't last long. I took a job as a senior in college waiting at an upscale steakhouse. Everyday, every item on the menu was prepared and put on the line for us to do "Taste Plate." That meant that every member on the floor that night had to take a handful of forks and take one bite of everything to determine unanimously whether or not the dish could be served. This was the restaurant's way of making sure everything was up-to-par for the patrons. This was my way of gaining 15 lbs.

And because I rushed from school to work, and got off around 11pm each night, I didn't have time to throw down at the gym. I considered all the walking I did in the restaurant my workout, and called it good. And to celebrate a hard night's work, I'd head out with the rest of the servers and get tanked on sugary cocktails. Lovely.

Soon after, January First was rolling around and so was the skin around my stomach. I had never been that out of shape. I couldn't even remember the last time I spend 30 minutes on an elliptical. And I stopped wearing anything but sweatpants and my work uniform. As such, I decided to go to 24-Hour Fitness and sign up for a gym membership and a trainer.

Working with my trainer was the best experience of my life. He had designed both a workout and an eating plan for me to follow. On days that we didn't train, he would text me to make sure I had hit my calorie burn and that I was eating regularly. In just 2 weeks, the weight had literally peeled off. I remember looking in the mirror while on the stair-master not seeing my butt anymore. I received comment after comment from friends about how "noticeably leaner" I was. And best of all, I had nothing to wear - everything was too big on me.

Then I met my ex-boyfriend and stopped seeing my trainer all together. In the beginning of our relationship, I was completely blinded by love and would gladly go for midnight runs to Sonic if only it meant spending time with him. A couple months of this, and there I was - back out of shape. I never lost the weight again. In fact, whenever I would think back to the time I was 105lbs, I simply said to myself, "I was too skinny anyways."

Bullshit. I looked and felt great. I was eating clean and lean and looking my best.

Let's fast-forward now to the present day. I have no idea what the scale would say, in fact, I don't even need to know a number - I have words for my current weight: Not Good. What is good is the way I dress. It masks everything to the public eye, leaving me and excess skin to meet up at the end of each day. This secret rendezvous has to stop. I need to start dieting.

For me, I know food is my downfall. There's not a day that goes by that I don't blow healthy eating habits on something from the vending machine, a cookie from my parent's pantry, or donuts in the breakroom at work. I don't eat to cover up pain or deal with stress, I just haven't accepted that "my metabolism" and "calories from shitty food" must have had a falling out somewhere along the way. And now I simply have to revert back to the olden days. I need to combine my knowledge of exercise science with my former drill sergeant attitude and clean up shop. Period.

I don't know if anyone will read this blog. In an effort to not be "that girl," I sort of hope not to be honest. But you know what? Words on paper (read: screen) have held people accountable for many things in the past, and thus I feel it is the best system for me to keep on track. So mark these words - banging body, here I come. And here's how it's starting:

Week One Goal: Detox
Consists of...

• eating balanced foods
• cutting out sweets
• preparing smaller portions
• eating until 80 percent full
• eating slower
• not binge drinking (FML)

I will also be privately logging what I eat from now on, along with the caloric intake. This will force me to do math, which in turn will make me much crankier than being hungry. Heads up, everyone - and a special sorry to those who work with me.

My goal for today: don't blow it.

See you tomorrow.

(PS: if you want to know about the specific foods I'm eating, just send me a message and I'll be glad to share.)