Please support my Rock & Run campaign
 | |
| Dear Friends and Family, Click here to visit my personal page. Click here to view the team page for The Huxtables | |
|
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Please support my Rock & Run campaign
| |
| Dear Friends and Family, Click here to visit my personal page. Click here to view the team page for The Huxtables | |
|
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Sorry folks...
This blog is now at losingweightinthecity.tumblr.com. I realized quickly Blogger's shortcomings. Please follow me there.
My day in food: lunch
onions and some low fat cheese. I didn't have time to make lunch this
am!
Those are sweet potato chips in the background. I'm going to try them
when its time for an afternoon snack later.
Flexitarianism
I love my red meat just as much as the next omnivore. I also love my poultry and my fish. But sometimes, I also like things like tofu. (Which I think my Italian and Irish parents still don't understand. But that's okay.) In fact, it's actually pretty healthy for your body to have some days when you don't have meat. Even Women's Health (my favorite healthy mag) says so.
My Day in Food: Dinner (Last night)
Update on temptation:
Attended Junior League meeting, was steadfast in declining pizza. I was walking home from the subway, and my stomach started GRUMBLING. I think other people were actually looking at me, it was growling so loudly. I walked past a few more pizza parlors (this is NYC, after all, and there are as many pizza parlors as people) and had an inner debate: "Would it REALLY be SO bad if I had a slice of pizza?" My trainer (who's now reading this, I think) would be glad to know that the angel in my head told the devil in my head "YES! It would be so bad to have it."
So, I stopped and picked up some sushi because, in retrospect, my "dinner" was too small. It was even too small to post a photo of. It was the leftovers of the balsamic chicken from the night before on some more lettuce. So, I had two sushi rolls. I wish they had brown rice, and I wish there hadn't been tempura flakes in the sweet potato one (have you noticed I love sweet potatoes?), but I think it was still a better choice than the pizza.
I got on the scale this am and weighed two pounds less than I did yesterday, so I guess it was an okay choice! That's still one pound more than I weighed when I woke up Friday. No more overindulging weekends for a while for me!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Temptation
NYC is an amazing city to live in and even diet in! When I first moved
here, I took advantage of the great restaurants, the 24-hour
neighborhood grocery stores and--my favorite--SeamlessWeb.
For those not in the know, seamlessweb.com is a Web site where you can
order food to be delivered without ever speaking to the kindly souls
answering the phone that don't have a damn clue what you're saying. It
shows you what restaurants are available at the time you're placing
your order, and it even stores your credit card.
Needless to say, the Thai and Italian places were excited to have me
move in. But even now that I'm eating healthy, SeamlessWeb is still my
friend. I can order from Energy Kitchen, a healthy place with lots of
lean protein and veggies, or from the sushi place if I go easy (or
brown) on the rice. There's also Pump, where I went yesterday, which
is also amazing
You're thinking, okay, I can handle myself at home, but what about
when I go out?
Tonight I have a Junior League meeting at someone's apartment, so I
plan on grabbing a bite first so that I'm not tempted to eat the pizza
that I know she'll order.
What if you're going out a restaurant? I guarantee almost anywhere has a
salad or some kind of protein you can get. If not, make a concious
effort to eat as small a portion as possible and have something
healthier when you get home. I'm sure you know this, but try to get
any and all sauces on the side.
How do you resist temptation? Drop me an e-mail at theodora dot blanchfield at gmail dot com or let me know in the comments!
I'm judging you.
I'm not gonna lie, sometimes it's helpful to look at someone eating McDonald's (like someone at my office was as I was walking out) and think, "I am so much healthier. In a few months, I'm going to look way hotter than you."
Don't tell me you've never thought that! But in situations like work, it helps to maintain that stubbornness that no matter what yumminess you smell, you're just not going to give in.
My day in food: Lunch
Lunch today is a Boca tomato-and-basil burger on a bed of spinach with some tomatoes and sundried tomatoes. I microwaved the burger, so this lunch took about a minute to make. I'm eating at home because I work walking distance from my apartment and my little dog needs a walk, but this is something you could make at work, too, as long as your office has a microwave.
As far as keeping the spinach from going soggy from the dressing, The Container store has these awesome Salad Blaster Bowls, which my former (amazing!) boss turned me onto a few years ago. I wasn't really eating much salad then, so I bought one and promptly lost it in my next move. But I'm going to order another one, and you can do so too, here.
Tuesday in Food: Breakfast
Turkey bacon
Coffee (obviously)
There's a lot of brouhaha about whether you should drink coffee if
you're trying to lose weight. I say that if you can avoid it, you
probably should. However, I only drink one cup in the am and consume
no other caffeine the rest of the day.
But I'm starting to prefer my exercise high!
Monday night in food
Nutritionista, but I think it's a great idea.
Last night: chicken and tomatoes and spinach sauteed in balsamic
vinegar with sweet potato "fries." who says eating well can't also be
yummy?
Other fitness blogs -- and a shoutout from Mary Rambin!
Last August, I got my Wired magazine and was surprised there was a pretty, 20-something woman on the cover. The story was about Julia Allison, a blogger living in NYC -- where I was about to move. She's apparently one of the most hated people on the Internet, but, hey, that also means she's one of the most known people on the Internet. Anyway, I started reading her blog and have been hooked ever since. I also started reading her cobloggers' blogs, Mary and Meghan.
Mary may be a god-awful speller, which, sometimes makes her posts a bit hard to read for this grammar nazi, but her blog's gotten better and better. She also teaches occasional spin classes and is really into fitness. To that end, she's been devoting posts on Mondays for the past to weeks to fitness tips and secrets -- including how to set up your spin bike! Now, I've been taking spin classes for the past year and a half, but I never, never knew the handlebars were supposed to be below the saddle. I could feel if the seat was too high or too low, but that was the extent of setting up my bike correctly.
Yesterday, she asked for readers' favorite fitness blogs, so, learning from her coblogger, I took the liberty to do a little self-promotion and sent her a link to this here little blog, which she linked to! Hello NonSociety readers and thanks for visiting. Hope you like what you see, and feel free to let me know if you don't. (Which I'm sure you will.) I'm a professional writer, but still trying to get my blogging sea legs.
And thanks for the shout-out, Mary!
Monday, April 6, 2009
My day in food: Lunch
lunches. It's sort of like Chipotle in that you get to watch them make
it and every meal is based on a wrap, salad or "plate," which is a
fancy way of saying rice bowl.
Then you add protein, veggies and a "bold flavor," which is something
like onions and peppers or tomatoes and basil.
I like it here because it's easy and healthy.
Today I got:
A little bit of brown rice - my stomach has been a little rumbly
lately, so hopefully this will settle it a bit.
Tofu
Chili
Peppers and onions
A wee bit o cheese
And some Guac. I'll check calories after I get back to work and let
y'all know later!
How to set up your spin bike
How To Set Up Your Spin Bike from Mary Rambin on Vimeo.
Courtesy of one of my favorite bloggers, Mary Rambin of NonSociety.
Let loose, but not too loose!
My last post talked about how to be hungover healthily. This weekend, I also over-indulged. I've been staying on track all week, but by the time the weekend comes, I want to let loose a bit. I think it's possible to do that healthily, but one needs to remember "everything in moderation." I sort of remembered that this weekend :)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
How to be hungover...healthily
Not an oxymoron, I swear.
I went out for a few cocktails last night after a long week (some old habits die hard, but hey, at least I went for the lower-calorie version - vodka soda!) and I'm definitely dragging ass a little this morning. Instead of getting some greasy-ass food (mmmm), I just googled "healthy food hangover." This is what came up. Enjoy on your Saturday!
10 Healthy Hangover Cures
If you don't want to spend the Holiday season walking around with a headache and an upset stomach among other hangover symptoms, you can simply avoid drinking alcohol but for those of you who find it easier to socialize while being a bit tipsy, here are a few hangover tips:
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/485561/10_healthy_hangover_cures.html
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
On getting distracted.
I did, this weekend.
I went to D.C. to see some old friends and fell back into some old habits. I had more wine than I've had in the past few weeks. I had tacos (mmmm). I had cheese. And no, they weren't really worth it.
I did, however, bring some of my new habits to D.C. I ordered salads with most meals, or I ordered vegetables. I drank lots of water with the wine. I EVEN DID THE STAIRMASTER SATURDAY. Sunday, I slept in and just couldn't do it. But I'm trying to get back on track, and I'm proud I didn't get that off-track.
But, for some reason, going to the gym has been just that much harder this week. Good thing I have my trainer tomorrow. And good thing I took a kickboxing class tonight, just to mix things up.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
What keeps me going?
Jeans.
I went to my folks' house in NJ this weekend for a baby shower yesterday and a golf lesson with my dad today. I hadn't been feeling so hot at the end of last week -- I don't know if my stomach got totally overwhelmed from all the veggies/fiber I've added to my diet or what, but I was glad to catch up on some sleep and lay low in the big NJ. I might also add I managed to make it to NYSC (in NJ) yesterday and go swimming this morning at the gym!
I'm lucky that my parents have a lovely-sized house and that my closet there is roughly half the size of my apartment. Which means I can keep the clothes that don't always fit there and not have to further overstuff my closet. Preparing to return to NYC this afternoon, I decided to visit the land of jeans-that-used-to-fit in my closet. Aside from a rogue pair of Sevens, I can now fit into quite a few pairs of jeans that didn't fit just a month or so ago. Including the Citizens for Humanity ones I'm wearing right now (not pictured; my ass doesn't look that good yet!)
Sure, I had to do the squat-and-wiggle to get into them, but I'm in them and I've even worn them all day. And I can still breathe! My trainer promises I can see the return of other clothes that didn't fit soon.
He also promises a free session if I can lose more than two pounds this week. Whaddya think?
What this week looks like for me
And how I plan to get my exercise in.
Monday: cardio before work; 1:30pm 30-minute trainer session (yes, mid-workday)
Tuesday: 7:30am 30-minute trainer session; cardio immediately following
Wednesday: OH DEAR GOD. 6am trainer session. If I can make it through the work day, I'll do some cardio after work. If I die, however, I won't have to do cardio!!
Thursday: 8am regular one-hour training session; bringing Bailey to NJ at night. No extra cardio that day. But if I'm still standing after four trainer sessions and three other days of cardio, I think I've earned it.
Friday: Will be commuting in from NJ; will try for cardio...at some point. Flying to DC at night!
Some nutrition guidelines
So here's some guidelines my trainer gave me. I follow this probably about 90 percent. The no dairy is pretty tough.
1. I don't listen to anything the news or anything I see advertised has to say about food/nutrition. You hear/see catch phrases like fat-free, sugar-free, antioxidants, low carbs, blah, etc. Oprah does this or eats that......All designed to make you buy something, NOT designed to make you healthy.
2. Variety, variety, VaRiEtY. Eat nuts, but not just Almonds every day, eat fruit, but not just oranges. I once listed everything I ate in a day and it had 30 something ingredients. So try EVERYTHING that is natural often. And this will also help you eat everything in moderation.
3. Fats are good for you and will not make you fat. Our body needs dietary fat to metabolize food properly and make hormones(which control all cell function). Upon further research, I have also learned that even saturated fats are needed by the body for very complex metabolic system pathways. Once thought to be evil, cholesterol is needed to make testosterone. This helps to explain why increased exercise lowers cholesterol and raises testosterone. So eat the whole egg!! Use olive oil and use nuts as a great snack. Vitamin d is also made by our body with sunlight and cholesterol as a precursor.
4. When you eat matters. I choose to have 6-8 meals a day. Why give your "Engine" it's largest meal at night?...So the energy can be stored for later..as fat?? The body uses energy only when it needs it. Lets say you eat an egg, some mixed greens w/olive oil, an orange, and mixed fruit blended in a shake for breakfast. The total energy from this meal is probably around 400 calories. Most of these ingredients are "slow burning" (low glycemic index)and will be used by your body as they are being digested which will take maybe 3-4 hours. Chances are you will need the 400 calories over that period of time. Now lets say you drank a coffee w/sugar and milk, and had a bagel with cream cheese. Ok, roughly 400 calories as well. The sugar enters the body immediately and the white-bread bagel is turned into sugar almost as quickly and placed into the blood stream. But, your body doesn't need 400 calories that fast. So, what does the body do with excess calories? The answer is NOT leave the sugar in the blood stream. The answer is store it for later...as glycogen or in most cases..as fat.
5. I only use natural, whole, organic food. Period. Natural to me means unprocessed. I don't need my food to be put in a can and heated or to be dried and cooked in some factory. Our bodies were not meant to digest chemicals and preservatives. Cherries are good, canned cherries are useless. Green beans are great, canned ones are not. Whole means the entire thing (within reason). Some exceptions apply..an example is olive oil. An orange is good, just it's juice is not. Wheat is not that bad, just it's flour, is. Organic is the only catch phrase I hear a lot that I do agree with. If it is truly organic that means the farmers didn't use pesticides or fertilizers.
6. I don't consume milk/dairy. This would take a colloquium for me to explain fully, just go to www.notmilk.com
7. I eat as many vegetables as possible. Again, too many reasons why.. Consult an oncologist or someone who studies centenarian diets for all the reasons. Frozen, fresh, steamed, un-steamed, sauteed in olive oil..whatever.
8. I try to stay away from most grains. They just have an abundance of energy with little nutrition...something I don't need.
9. I like lentils, beans, and legumes.
10. Soy is not that great. It has become an adulterated unnatural replacement protein that is found in everything. Google it.
11. Red meat makes me tired and I find I am hungry shortly after eating it. I love how it tastes, but gave it up and never felt better.
12. I have found that eating too little makes me store fat easier. Yes, when I was trying to lose the last 5 pounds of body fat on my stomach I noticed it wasn't until I ate more that it started to go away. The answer is survival. When you don't eat enough calories the body slows metabolic function to as low as possible, and will do everything in it's power to conserve energy, especially the energy stored as fat and glycogen. Then, when you try to jog 5 miles to burn it off, the body just responds by slowing the BMR (basil metabolic rate). Causing further frustration and causing one to "crash" or become hungry. This is why you can see overweight people who spend hours on a treadmill tell you, "but I hardly eat anything!" Why would your body use up energy it has stored when it knows it can just make you tired, lower the heat, or make you eat something?? It wasn't until I ate more and more often with the right amount of exercise that my body realized the energy was going to be replaced and my six-pack started showing.
13. Finally, if one were to insist on drinking coffee or soda, just use real sugar. Aspartame and the like are poisons and will increase insulin resistance and make you hungrier, sicker, and tired. Google it, go to www.mercola.com and read through his site, or go strait to, www.mercola.com/article/
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Why I'm here/doing this
I'm 26 years old, and I've struggled with my weight to some degree or another since high school. I played tennis and did gymnastics, so I was pretty athletic, just not as thin as I wanted to be. When I went off to college, I gained the Freshman 15 and then some. I still didn't consider myself all that big, just more than I wanted to weigh. Since I've graduated college almost 4 years ago, I've been pretty unhappy with how I've looked, and a lot of that has to do with how much I weighed.
I've watched my friends successfully lose weight in the past year or so and realized it's totally possible. To that end, I started with a trainer on February 18, and I've already lost eight pounds. I still have 41 pounds to go to get to my goal weight, but I'm hopeful.
I'm achieving this by working with a trainer (Joel, who's amazing!) twice a week and trying to do cardio at least five times a week other than my workouts with him.
As far as diet, he's advised me to cut out grains (bread, pasta, rice) and dairy, and eat protein, veggies and fruit. For the most part it's going pretty well, and I don't often crave sugar and carbs any more.
This blog is meant for you to follow along with my weight loss journey and hopefully learn a few things along the way and keep me motivated.
Some notes on transparency: I will try to share my weight/what I've eaten as often as I can and will definitely share with you my workouts.
