Equivalents

On the subject of cravings I thought I would make this handy list. Here are some healthy equivalents to craving foods, for me at least.


Fries: baked potato loaded with fat free sour cream
Hamburger: chicken sausage and rice, or chili
Ice Cream: I freeze yogurt and then put fat free whipped cream on it
Chocolate: Special K chocolate cereal
Pizza: melted string cheese on soy crackers
Cookies: fat free fig newtons


I've found that when I'm craving something really savory forcing myself to eat vegetables doesn't do it. For me it's better to find a healthier version that has the same kind of food feeling. Any other ideas?

Desk Candy

Emma here...

Does anyone have any good suggestions for satisfying snacks to take to work? My office keeps a giant bowl of candy (Milky ways and Snickers, not the gross Jolly Rancher kind) on my desk and I end up picking at it all day. I probably eat about 3-5 mini candies a day- so bad. I figure that if I could go a whole week without candy that would probably be about a pound of weight loss and a whole lot less sugar. Any ideas of something I could take with me to work? I've tried baby carrots and prunes, but when I get a candy craving those things usually don't cut it.

Help!

Shop the Perimeter

I was listening to Mark Bittman on NPR a while back, and he was talking about how when we grocery shop our goal should be to shop the perimeter. The perimeter of the grocery store is where you find fruits, veggies, dairy products, meat and poultry and fish; it's where the unprocessed stuff lives. I really like this approach. I am in this because I want to fundamentally change the way I nourish my body, so I've got to adjust the way I shop and prepare foods.

I am lucky in that I work from home, and during the summer I have a lighter schedule. This means I am only going to eat what is in my house (no free cookies at the office, no lunches out with co-workers). So I make a point to buy only foods that are healthy and then, for me, that's the only option.

With this approach in mind, here is a list of foods I always have in my fridge/cabinets these days:

• veggies, veggies, veggies
• fruit (my favs are apples & bananas)
• hummus (oh, the hummus!)
• black beans
• whole wheat wraps
• almonds
• cottage cheese
• yogurt (low in sugar, and not filled with that fake sugar crap. i end up with slightly more expensive yogurt from whole foods but it is worth it.)
• brown rice
• chicken breasts (grilled with my trusty george forman)
• cheerios and other similar cereals (except for special k. that stuff is cardboard if you ask me.)
  
• eggs (i make scrambled eggs with one yolk and two whites)
• seltzer water (I have a sweet tooth like nobody's business, so I'm trying to reduce it's hold over me. Turns out juice has lots and lots of sugar.)

My basic approach is as follows: Surround myself with really good, healthy food. I aim for three meals a day, with two snacks. This part was a hard adjustment for me, because I was more used to three big meals, but now my meals are smaller and I snack throughout the day. As much as this was an adjustment, I really like it because the focus is on nourishing your body. Also, it keeps your metabolism up.

What do you stock your fridge with? I'm afraid that my list of fall-back foods is small and I might start getting a little bored, so I welcome your suggestions!

work out

Anyone have suggestions for gym motivation? I get so excited about it while I'm at work- then by the end of the day I'm just desperate to go home and veg. Once I walk in my door there's no hope for getting me back out again.

Some Suggestions

Things I eat when I cannot eat cheese:

Ground turkey. Comes very in handy. I cook up pounds of it every Sunday, put it in serving size baggies and defrost them one at a time as needed. Great plain, in burritos, with rice, with beans...

Fruit popsicles from Trader Joes: 1 point each!

Sandwich baggies: I am a horrible picker. I'll pick and pick at food until I've eaten an entire box of crackers. Now whenever I buy a box of something I'll split it into serving size baggies so I know exactly how much I'm eating.

No Pudge Brownies: enough said.

Fiber One bars: so good! 2 points!

Puffins Cereal: Really really good cereal for very low points.

Homemade veggie burgers: mashed beans, bread crumbs, and one egg yolk, plus whatever frozen veggies you have. It's a good way to get in a ton of vegetables without really noticing.

The Lady Diet

Kyley here.

Yesterday I had an appointment with my trainer, Nicole, at the gym. She's totally wonderful and I wish I could got to work out with her every single day. It was also my first workout after about three weeks of traveling for work and vacation, and let me tell you I am SORE today.

I'd really like to break into a regular routine of exercise for health and anxiety reasons, but I'm so wary of falling into the traps of cultural diet and body image pressures.

Sometimes I want to totally pig out as a mini form of rebellion. Additionally, if I'm out to dinner I desperately don't want to be *that girl* who orders a salad to everyone's cheese burger. I'm learning to order the salad and not feel bad about it (I genuinely like fruits and veggies.) but it's a strange struggle for me.

Food and diet is such a difficult issue to navigate for women (and men). I'm trying to develop healthy habits AND a healthy self esteem about my body.

What do you think? How do you navigate the world of diet and weightloss? Do you worry about all those cultural pressures, or have you managed to drown the noise out?

And, for no reason other than love, I leave you with this:

ill miss you cheese

I don't have any embarrassing sports stories like Kyley but I WAS asked by a T worker once if I was having a girl or a boy. Instead of telling her "I'm sorry, I'm not pregnant, rather I'm just unable to say no to cheese products" I told her it was a girl, that I was 5 months along, and then promptly started taking a different train to work.
I am now back to my high school weight, after managing to lose 30 pounds during college, and I have hit my "oh crap, not again" point. I have rejoined weight watchers and I'm hoping that that support of other night-cheesers will help keep me on track!

And so it begins

Hindered by our love of Night Cheese, we are plunging head first into the world of dieting and blogging.



I've never been a particularly active or athletic person. During my brief stint on a HS sports team, I once tried to rescue a basketball from going out of bounds only to bounce it off my own forehead. I did, however, receive a varsity letter for participating on Math Team. You get the picture.

Anyway, about two years about I started gaining weight, eventually adding on 30 pounds. I recently joined an embarrassingly expensive gym where I get a personal trainer, and started losing some weight. I went on vacation, and promptly regained it and then some. Who knew so much deep dish pizza was bad for you? I have three weeks left at my super-gym, so I've got to make the most of it.

My long-term goals are as follows:
1. To incorporate healthy eating and exercise into my life so that is the norm, not the exception to my regular routine.
2. To increase core strength, because I am a busty girl and I don't want back problems.
3. To lose 30 pounds. Current weight: 185 lbs.

Here we go!