1.5 pounds a week

My favorite online calorie counting tool is Calorie Count.  I stumbled across the website while interning with the Illinois government summer of 2006.  I had one of those coupons for a free any size coffee drink at Caribiou Coffee and googled "Turtle Mocha" to see if it was acceptable to my calorie-counting-self.

Holy 90 grams of sugar!  16 oz of that mid-day snack had 587 cals, 15 gs of fat, 98 carbs, and did I mention - 90 gs of sugar.  The sugar alone lead me to abandon that free ride to a diabetes.  I don't remember what I got that day, but I do know it didn't have the words Turtle or Mocha in it.

A lot of times foods are so misleading, especially when it comes to eating out.  Yesterday I spent time comparing the calories in different tortillas at Jewel-Osco (or is it just Jewel now?).   A corn tortilla the size of my palm somehow managed to squeeze in 250 cals whilst a multigrain tortilla as big as my head was only 100 cals.

What about a Bagel vs. donut?

Test your calorie-counting skills here

I'm still working towards my weight loss goals so I can someday say, "I used to weigh 30 pounds more".  Ok, so that's not as dramatic as MTV's "I used to be fat", where kids lose 80-100+ lbs and then parade around saying "I used to be fat"...but I watched an episode yesterday and wanted my own mantra to picture saying.

Motivated by the desire to slim down and MTV's show, I created some personalized calorie-burning analysis to meet my weight loss goals:

My general calorie analysis (from Calorie Count )
You should consume about 1,209 calories a day to reach your goal weight. This is at a reasonable weight loss average of 1.5 lbs per week, which should be reached by July 19, 2011.

My Daily Caloric Expenditure
You burn 1960 calories during a typical day.  (Remember that this estimate is based on your body weight, height, age, gender, and your average level of activity.)

*These analysises was based on my age, height and activity lifestyle. I characterize myself as having a "sedentary" activity lifestyle since I met the following: At work - you work in an office; At home - you're usually sitting, reading, typing or working at a computer; Exercise - you don't exercise regularly (As of last week, I do exercise regularly...sometimes turning until always)

So here's what I did today.  I counted out all my calories, which involved some planning ahead of meals, i.e. no brainless snacking today.   Then I subtracted the calories I ate from my daily caloric expenditure.  Re: Calorie Expenditure, normally I'd add the estimated calories burned during exercise to the caloric expenditure, but today I did a light balance/flexibility class so I left it out.  I took this number and divided it by 3,500 (the amount of calories a body needs to burn to lose 1 lb).

MY STATS for 1/18/2011
Today's workout: light 30 min. Balance and Flexibility Class
Today's food:  Breakfast - Slim Fast (190 cals), Lunch -Tortilla and mozzerella (275), tomato soup (320), Snack - Dannon's light and fit strawberry yogurt (80), 100-cal kettlekorn (100) dinner:  mashed potatoes (100), green beans with olive oil (100), boneless pork loin (122); Zero calorie items:  Water, Berry La Croix, Diet Coke = Total cals: 1287 

Deficit: 673 calories = 0.19 lbs

Today I lost (will lose) 0.19 pounds.  I like the sound of that more than, "Today I burned xyz calories."
1.5 lbs per week. 30 pounds lighter by July 19, 2011. Do it to it.

What's up Alanis?

I don't own an iPod.  Instead I use my Blackberry phone to listen to music on the go/while working out, exclusively via Pandora's app.  Right now, to understand where I'm at we'll have to do a flashback back to 1995 when most girls aged 10 to 30 reveled in the girl power antics of Ms. Alanis Morrisette.  That's where I've been while working out these last two weeks: Alanis Pandora internet radio station feat. Alanis herself plus Sheryl, Tracy, Jewel and all those mid-90s chick rockers. Not sure how I got here especially considering the most recent concert I attended was Wu Tang -- not my type of music, but a super good concert (isn't it ironic?).  Alanis is mos def singing about diff stuff. 


It's been two-ish weeks since I created her Pandora station and I ain't sick of her yet. Maybe because her music brings me back to my debt-free-stress-free-pre-teen self when I delighted in stuff like getting a Jagged Little Pill cd for Christmas and thought I was super cool when I found the hidden acoustic track, Your Room.
 I also managed to finally wear a Bebe sport 80s style workout sweatband I bought on clearance for $1.50 around the time I started college. Gotsta keep it real.  

Oh you fancy huh.

Nail done, hair done, every thing done.  Well, not quite.  I haven't gotten my nails done since summer 2010 and my hair has seen better days, but I did get myself a job with a prestigious not-for-profit, and I also moved to a new place to be closer to said job.   

Sadly, here's the skinny: between a new job, moving, general lack of sleep and the holidays, complete focus on diet and exercise were not the best, aka came to a complete halt .   I knew I had to refocus when on a recent trip to Palm Springs my daily food log read:  1.) 1/4 bag of Funyuns 2.) 1/2 bag of Cheeto Puffs, off-brand 3.) bottomless bucket of Poolside Punch. It didn't help that on the plane ride to Palm Springs Eat, Pray, Love feat. Julia Roberts was playing and I watched the whole thing inspired, interpreting the message as, "Eat whatever you want, however much you want, all the time and you'll be happy."  I'm reading the book now, and it doesn't seem to have that message so I'm not quite sure how I created that life lesson.


  Anywho, a week or so after those Californian travels I returned home and attended a Cookie Party where I sampled a dozen different types of cookies, and left with a tupperware filled with 30ish cookies.   And all the candies and cookies at work.   And more cookies.   And then there was Christmas dinner, aka stuff my face non-stop from 2 p.m. until 9 p.m..  But don't get too excited Overeaters Anonymous, the BRAKES are a coming!   




Embarrassingly gained some pounds in my work's Maintain Not Gain Post-Holiday Contest Weigh-In - CHECK
Signed up for a spring race to get my running back on schedule - CHECK
Gym membership - where I plan to do quick lunch workouts Tu/Ths - CHECK
Dusted off my Yoga Mat and Julian Michael's Yoga Meltdown DVD - CHECK
A new weight loss ticker design -- I'm now a goldfish swimming toward my goal instead of an apple just moving along as the pounds drop (see above)  - CHECK
Skim milk instead of cream in my coffee - CHECK
Slowing down on cookies - CHECK


Oh, and most importantly, my 2011 New Year's resolution.  I will not eat Funyuns. - CHECK  


Fair.


On another note - via a friend's Facebook post, I read of a website called spokeo.com - it's a new online phone book w/personal information and "it's not your grandma's phonebook": everything from pics you've posted on FB or web, your approx credit score, home value, income, age, etc. -- but THANK GOD, NOT your weight.  (Remove yourself by searching your name, find & copy the URL of your page, then go to the bottom right corner of the page and click on the Privacy button to remove yourself....)


I visited old Spokeo.com and found myself, after I sifted through 60-something persons in Chicagoland with my same name.  Spokeo painted me as a pretty successful gal.   According to them I'm in my late 30s, I'm married and I have a house.  They must've done a special profile for me and predicted my Sallie-Mae-paid-off-student-loans future.  Usually, I try to keep such personal info. between me and my closest 916 Facebook friends...or not.  I'm not mad at Spokeo.  I just want to know why they didn't mention that I like Funyuns. Now run and tell that. Those sillies.

Sham Shuff

It's OFFICIAL.  I'm registered to run the Shamrock Shuffle 8K in Chi, April 10th!  Who's with me? 

In other news, where has my blogging self been these past few months?? 

More details to come soon...Happy New Year!



Black Friday

It's the day after Thanksgiving and I find myself super full from yesterday's yummy dinner of southern cooking:  Collard Greens, Yams, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Turkey, Ham, Garden Salad, Gravy, Stuffing.  Dessert of chocolate cake, red velvet cake and banana pudding.  It was the works.  A solid five meals worth of food.  Trying to get back on track today with lotsa fiber, fruit and veggies.

Brunch:  Garden salad with Italian dressing, 4 cubes of pepperjack cheese and tomatoes. Butternut Squash soup & a cornbread muffin.

Snack for later: a banana.

Then how's about a 5k, Sunday brunch & cats?

September has been uber busy!  I started a new job and have a completely new work/workout schedule.  Good thing about my new job, is that instead of commuting by car, I now commute by train and get to walk lots throughout the day.  I walk from the parking lot to the train, from the train to the job, on my lunch breaks, on building tours, to meetings, up stairs, and back to the train.  My walking between the hours of 9 to 5 has increased by 45 min/day minimum.   Hello semi-active lifestyle. Workout summary:  Sept:  Week #1 = 4 workouts; Sept. Week #2  = 2 workouts

This past weekend was super fabulous.  I was runner #1200 in my second Chicago Lung Run.  Lots of supporters of lung cancer research came out to run in the rainy weather...including my science lab partner from junior high.   It was wet and cloudy morning, and I'm not sure how fast we ran exactly, but we ran the entire thing! And we met a nice lady who's Mom was recently diagnosed with Lung Cancer.  She was super supportive of the Lung Run and shared all her life ups/downs with us.   We also learned of a super cool Barefoot running shoe that we now want!

Fleet Feet Sports showed us their running gear at the Lung Run.

Our next feat is to run another 5k in November, complete Saturday morning runs and a half-marathon in March.

Sunday was also excellent.   Had Sunday brunch at Ruby Tuesday.  It was my only big meal of the day so I splurged and got their new crabacado omelet with portebella mushrooms, a side of potatoes, yogurt and granola in a martini glass and a peach/orange/mango/pineapple/grenadine fruit blend.  Super super super calorie explosion, which is why I only ate half of my food, and took the other half home.  Thank the Lord for doggie bags!

On Sunday I also started volunteer training at the Humane Society and wanted to bring every cat I saw home.  Some looked so sad locked up in their cages.  The dogs, too.  As a volunteer I get to "socialize" with the shelter cats and show them off to potential adopting parents.  Don't mind if I do.

Here's to shedding some more pounds this month!

True Blood Diet

I love love love True Blood.  It's amazing.  I was there for season one.  I was there for season two.  And now, in season 3, unfortunately I'm a no show because I don't have access to HBO at the moment.  Regardless, I still watch show snippets via Hulu.com, got super excited by news of the True Blood comic book, follow up the actors/actresses lives and cannot wait until Season 3 is on DVD!  Recently, fitness trainer Josh Hillis wrote of Anna Paquin, aka Sookie on True Blood, and her "Bikini ready" diet via his Fat Loss & Fitness Blog. Read it here.  Anna says her diet is simply a, ""Well-what-would-you-eat-if-you-were-being-photographed-in-a-bikini-tomorrow?" diet... I mean, it's not anything wildly specific. I eat a lot of vegetables. I eat a lot fruit. I don't eat fast food ever. I don't eat a lot of dessert. I don't eat a lot of crap." I guess that means she and I don't share a love for M&M McFlurries from McDonald's.

The Summertime Salad at Egg Harbor in Lombard, IL:
Lotsa fruits, greens, avocado and lean chicken salad

How Sookie inspired me
So today, when I went out for my first "going out to a restaurant meal" for September, I decided to try her "diet" and I pretended like I was going to be photographed in a bikini tomorrow (false).  At the restaurant, I looked over the menu and really really wanted the Mexican egg scramble with chorizo and sour cream and chedda.  So not a "bikini ready" meal...unless I wanted to look like Britney Spears circa 2008, or whenever Britney did her infamous performance of "Gimme More" on MTV.  Instead, I opted for a lighter Tomato soup & Summertime Salad combo.  It felt real good to eat that fresh goodness.  It was tasty and would make Anna proud.   Since she has done me good so far today, I will also think of her tonight as I power thru my Turbo Jam one-hour workout at the gym...thinking of her in a non-creepy way, in the same way it's not creepy to be married to a man who plays a vampire on tv...opposite of you.

Other healthy things I've eaten over the past month that would probably make Anna proud:

Breakfast of zuccini & egg scramble, veggie snausage and a little bit of french bread with oj

Baked chicken with a lil bit of BBQ sauce, corn on the cob, green beans and low fat Jimbalaya

Veggie soup from Icosium Kafe in Chicago.

A Veggie Crepe from Icosium Kafe, garnished with fruit and sunflower seeds.

Baked chicken, green beans with tri-colored peppers and corn on the cob
(ok this one is a throw back from July 2010 but was still pretty fresh and healthy)

Fully-cooked & salted Edamame from Trader Joe's.  Super protein/fiber snack!

Blackberries.  The blacker the berry...

More Sookie-licious meals to come this September, fo sho.