We all know that a high-fat diet isn't good for us if we're trying to lose weight or trying to avoid serious issues like heart disease and obesity, but according to a study at Oxford University those high-fat diets may also affect not only our physical abilities but our mental ones as well. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't need what I'm consuming to slow down my brain. I need all those brain cells firing to be able to write and create, thanks. You can read the article in Science Daily...
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Expectations I Really Struggle With
By Michelle ButlerLast week, the extremely enthusiastic, very chatty, 100-pound, perky, blonde body pump (weight lifting) instructor called out halfway through the class, “Yell if body pump has changed your life!” My first thought was, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” but it was quickly followed by, “Well, I have gone down a size since I started taking this class.” I didn’t think that was the dramatic impact she was looking for and kept my mouth shut. A few people halfheartedly shouted when she...
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Supercook
So, hair is still on fire with deadline. I promise to be way more inspirational after Monday, 'kay? :)Anyway, I went through some of the links I've been saving, and while this site isn't specifically targeted toward healthy recipes, I still think it's cool. Have you ever looked in your cupboards and seen all the various ingredients you have on hand but not had any idea what to do with them? Well, with Supercook's site, you can enter your list of ingredients and it gives you a list of dishes to make...
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Little Tweaks
I'm going crazy as my deadline approaches (book due Monday), so it's a quickie post tonight, but it's a link to an article I saw yesterday about some little tweaks that yield very nice results. I'm living proof that the food diary thing works. Check out the article by Lucy Danziger, editor-in-chief of SELF magazine, here.Two other tidbits from yesterday:1. I had to go do a bit of shopping at several stores, and let's just say all those mall walkers are smart. Shopping really increases my step total,...
Clothes Make the Diet
By Tawny WeberI’m always all about “once I lose this weight, I’ll dress like ‘this’ and wear ‘that’.” I’m also super stubborn, so I refuse to buy new clothes in a bigger size, so when I gained weight, my wardrobe possibilities went from walk-in closet range to these-three-outfits-fit range. And since I work from home, and writer-dress seems to lend itself to baggy sweats and big tee-shirts anyway, I found that along with the weight gain I’ve become a hermity ragmuffin, more often than not.What...
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Fruits and Veggies
I was busy finishing up the first draft of my book that's due, oh, next Monday, last night and totally forgot to update this blog for yesterday. But I do want to share with you another Web site I stumbled upon called HealthyDiningFinder.com. You are able to do searches in your area for restaurants that have healthy dining options as determined by the nutritionists employed by this site. I don't think it's comprehensive, but it might give you some ideas if you've got the hankering to go out to dinner...
Monday, August 24, 2009
News about Fast Food Lunches
I've been doing a lot more looking at restaurant Web sites lately for the nutritional information. I was pleasantly surprised by how many have this information available, but I wish it was universal. For instance, Cracker Barrel doesn't have one, and other restaurants (like Famous Dave's BBQ, from which we got takeout tonight) only has a partial listing. When the official lists aren't available, it takes a bit more investigation and sometimes estimating. I estimate on the high side when I'm not...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Healthy Expectations
By Michelle ButlerYou have probably heard the advice of using a favorite piece of clothing from thinner days as a source of inspiration as you try to lose weight. For years, the piece of clothing I longed to get back in was at the back of my closet. It was a very smart looking, grey and white pencil skirt with a big black belt. I even tried it on during past, semi-successful attempts to lose weight. I had last worn it when I weighed around 115 pounds, and it was a size 5 or 7. No, I don’t...
Bad, Bad, Bad
Bad. That's what I was today. We went to some friends' house for their three boys' combined birthday party. I did pretty good considering the offerings were pizza and cake mainly. I only had 2 1/2 of those very small squares of thin-crust Domino's pizza and a small piece of chocolate cake. But I totally lost my mind when we got back to town and went out to eat. I love Mexican food, and I just checked my willpower at the door. Okay, not totally. I did just eat half of the chimichanga and brought...
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Resisting Temptation
I had a long and tiring day, seven hours of which were in the car going to pick up my mom, take her to the kidney specialist, taking her home and then driving back home myself. By the time I pulled off my interstate exit, I was craving a DQ Blizzard like crazy. But I remembered that it had 660 calories and resisted the mighty temptation. That's my triumph of the day.Anyone else have a triumph of resisting temptation this week? How is everyone doing on their healthy eating/exercise goals? What do...
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Hungry Girl
I got caught at Target today during a huge thunderstorm, so I did more wandering around as usual (good for Target's bottom line, not so much for my credit card). Among the things I picked up, however, were two pocket guide calorie counters -- one from The Biggest Loser and one from the Calorie King -- so I can look up calorie counts easily while traveling or when I don't have my computer on.The other...
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Proper Posture & a Request
I've had terrible sitting posture for as long as I can remember. I'm a slumper. That's probably one of the reasons I have backaches so often. Since I'm not yet in the league with J.K. Rowling, Nora Roberts and J.R. Ward, I'm not going to be able to go get a professional massage as often as I'd like. But I could improve things by being conscious of my posture and trying to improve it, particularly during all those hours at the computer. I found this site that has some good information on posture...
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Racing Against the Clock
In the midst of doing revisions on one of my books today, I needed to get up and move around and let my eyes focus on something besides typewritten words. Conscious that I hadn't gotten my 10,000 steps in the past several days, I decided to see how much housework I could do in 30 minutes. I was going to race against the clock, keeping track of everything I got accomplished. I ended up going 35 because I was in the middle of a task at the 30-minute mark, but here's the list:1. Washed the dishes2....
Monday, August 17, 2009
Tuesday Tidbits
I haven't had much time to read health-related material lately because of the pressing deadlines, but I took about 15 minutes tonight to read a bit of the fitness magazine I have on hand. A couple of interesting tidbits hit me.1. It's summer, and to me that means ice cream. Lately, I've been going for the Skinny Cow and Weight Watchers fudge bars, which run 100-110 calories each. And it's a good thing. There are 273 calories in one cup of vanilla ice cream, 380 in one cup of cookie dough ice cream....
Sunday, August 16, 2009
How to Lose Weight and Keep It Off
And now for our second installment of Michelle Monday by Michelle Butler. Michelle is traveling for work and might not be able to respond to comments until Tuesday, but keep them coming anyway.As many of my friends know, I’m a news nerd. A few years ago, I saw a CNN documentary entitled Fat Chance that was all about losing weight. One segment focused on the National Weight Control Registry that investigates long-term, successful weight-loss maintenance.According to the documentary, this study...
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Why I Need a New Phone
You might be scratching your head about the title of the post and what it has to do with being healthy, but here's the sitch. Today I went to my RWA chapter meeting. We always eat lunch afterward, but we don't decide where until after the meeting. We ended up at O'Charley's, and I thought, after looking over the menu, "I'll be good and have a salad." If I'd only had a phone with Internet capabilities, I would have looked up the nutritional info online and known that the Tortilla Salad was NOT a...
Friday, August 14, 2009
Forgiving Yourself Without Forming Bad Habits
Ever had one of those days where you were a total schlub? Where you couldn't muster the energy or gumption to do anything productive? Well, that was me today. I managed to do some e-mail, prepare a blog post for tomorrow, go to the eye doctor and write maybe 2-3 pages. But there was no exercise and I should have written 20 pages today. I don't know why I just couldn't get going today. Granted, at least for a few hours, I couldn't see well enough to work because my eyes were dilated, but even when...
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Eye Health
I've worn glasses for my nearsightedness since 5th grade, and I have the ugly glasses photos to prove it. All kidding aside, however, I take eye health very seriously. One of my worst fears is going blind. Not only do I hate the idea of being dependent on others for anything, so much of what I do depends on sight. So I'm off to the eye doctor tomorrow for a checkup. I've been getting some headaches and squinting more, so it's time. I haven't had new lenses for awhile because I haven't needed them,...
Are You a Stress Eater?
Sorry about the late post. I didn't get home until after 9 last night, and I was complete toast. But I'm so glad to present our next regular blogger, Tawny Weber, who writes for Harlequin Blaze. She's going to be blogging twice a month on Thursdays -- thus, Tawny Thursdays. Yes, I like alliteration. :) Take it away, Tawny!Like most women, and especially most writers I know, I seem to live in a constant state of stress. Deadlines, sagging middles (of the story, although now that I think about it...),...
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
From the Freezer
When I went shopping yesterday, I picked up four Lean Cuisine meals for my lunches. They're quick, and I like the fact that they have the number of calories and fat grams right there on the front of the box. I've had good, bad and so-so luck with boxed meals before, but the one I had today (Salisbury steak, potatoes, gravy and carrots) was actually pretty good for the world of frozen meals. A good size meal for only 270 calories. It was enough that I didn't get a big hungry spell mid-afternoon....
Put Some Extra Steps in Your Day
First, thanks to Michelle for her great first post today, and to all of you who posted comments. You rock!I had to do the grocery shopping this afternoon, and since it was right after rush hour the parking lot was fuller than when I normally go during the middle of the day. But this was actually a good thing. It forced me to walk farther. So that got me to thinking about ways we can all put extra steps in our days, getting us past that 10,000-step mark.1. When you go shopping, park at the farthest...
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Why This Year is Different
I'm happy to announce that beginning today, my good friend Michelle Butler is going to be posting her healthy observations, tips and inspiration on Mondays. Michelle Mondays, if you will. So, without further ado, here's Michelle...Throughout my adult life, I have resolved every New Year’s Eve that this was the year that I was going to get thin. At best I would lose between 10 to 17 pounds, but I’d...
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Ah, Massage
One of my favorite gifts to myself is also good for me -- a massage. I try to get one after finishing up a stressful deadline that has had be attached to my computer for days on end. When I go in, I know I'm achy, but I don't know how knotted up my shoulders and back are until the therapist starts working the muscles. And the first time I got a full-body massage, I jumped at the discomfort in the sides of my knees when the massage therapist pressed there. She knew from that tenderness that I had...
Make it go away!
While I'm happy to be losing weight, something else I'd like to get rid of is cellulite. I wasn't even sure what caused cellulite, so I did a little reading and came upon this article on Prevention's Web site. After reading this short piece, be sure to click on where the words "exercise plan" are hyperlinked. This takes you to a piece about slimming your hips and thighs, where most cellulite seems to congregate like unwanted guests. I'm going to try the exercises this article suggests.I did my first...
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Coming Additions
My good friend Michelle (who has been posting in the comments the past couple of days) and I have been talking about ideas for content for this blog. I'm thinking about adding guests on certain days, ones who'll share their own journeys to healthier living and tips for those journeys. So if you're a reader of the blog and are interested in blogging here about some aspect of your weight loss/healthier living journey, contact me at trishmilburn AT yahoo DOT com.Also, I'm going to start watching The...
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Outrageous Goals
When a person decides to make a big life change for the betterment of her health, goals are set for things like exercise per day, calorie limits, end weight goals and the like. But I want to talk about even bigger goals -- those that seem like they're a little crazy, dreams even. I've long harbored a desire to walk the Appalachian Trail. This is no small undertaking. The AT runs more than 2,100 miles through all kinds of terrain from Georgia to Maine and takes at a minimum five to six months to...
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Low-Cal Dessert Snacks
The good news is...I lost another pound. 3 down, 37 to go!Every time I've been on a diet in the past, my downfall has always been sweets. I love them. I've been doing okay so far with the sweet craving because there are some good, low-calorie options out there now. Weight Watchers Fudge Bars have 110 calories. Skinny Cow Truffle Bars have 100. I also just bought some 100-calorie Oreo Mini Cakesters packs, 100-calorie Milano cookie packs, and some Devil's Food cookies that have 60 calories per cookie...
Monday, August 3, 2009
Two in One
I got finished with my revisions that were due today at 11:12 last night, then had to do two blog posts on other blogs that were to go up just after midnight. Needless to say, my eyes were crossing by the time I finished and I didn't get over here for an update. So, lucky you, today I'm giving you two updates in one. :)Sunday progress:Calorie intake: 871.1 (Wow, that was low.)Exercise: 40 minutes mowing front yard (burned 477.2 calories)Steps: @8,200Monday progress:Calorie intake: Made up for yesterday...
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The Trouble with Salads
So, I was on the road pretty much all day today, the first real test of eating while traveling. Let me just say it's difficult. I think I need a new phone that has Internet browsing capability so I can look up Dottie's Weight Loss Zone's restaurant nutritional info while on the go. Still, I tried to do well considering my trouble with salads -- they rarely fill me up if I'm hungry. I think of salad as something you eat before or with a main course. The only exception is the chef salad at Cracker...
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