By Jody WallaceRecently, I kicked the lardy butt of a healthy writer milestone. Last year, to my great surprise, I reached my goal weight in Weight Watchers after a year of trying, and as of this week I've successfully hovered there for ten consecutive months. Booyah! My Weight Watchers clerk happily awarded me a wee gold key with the promise of more to come if I continue to work the program. Because you know the reason I did this was for the dangly bits to load onto my already gargantuan keychain.Total...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Portion Size
Since Tawny has her nose to the grindstone trying to meet a book deadline, I'm filling in on her Tawny Thursday today. Hope you all don't mind. :)If you're like me, you're not exactly sure what a portion size actually is for most foods. So I found this article on WebMD's site very useful. I particularly liked how they used common items such as a baseball, four dice and a CD to illustrate correct portion sizes for specific types of foods. There's also a section of the site that has many more items...
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Biggest Loser, Week 7
Rudy is the man! With another fabulous one-week loss in the double digits, Rudy broke the record for fastest loss of 100 pounds in show history, hitting the mark in Week 7, one week sooner than last season's Dane -- who made an appearance on tonight's show to congratulate Rudy.This week's episode was about one-on-one faceoffs. The blue team won the first challenge, which required them to hit two discs on opposite sides of a horizontal pole. Unlike some of the other challenges (like last week's digging...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Fast Food Tips
I was on the road again this past weekend, and that always gets me to thinking about the eating choices at fast food restaurants. We all know that fast food can torpedo a daily calorie count faster than just about anything, but it is possible to make some choices that don't involve consuming your entire daily calorie allowance in one meal. Luckily, most fast food restaurants have their nutritional information available online, and they're often included in calorie count books you can keep in your...
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Holiday Season and Your Health Goals
Today is one of the busiest and most important work days of the whole year for me as the annual conference for the association I work for has just begun, and tonight is the awards ceremony for a program I manage. To say that the stress of getting ready for this has posed challenges to my journey to becoming a healthy writer would be an understatement. While I will work to make sure I enjoy as much of this week in Denver as possible, part of me looks forward to returning to a normal pace and the...
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Experiment with Eggplant - Part 2
Right after I graduated from college, I spent a lot of time in New York City interviewing for various jobs. I stayed with Rory, a college friend of mine, and her aunt many nights. I was jobless and broke, but I wanted to pay back their hospitality. I often cooked dinner for them, and my friend was going through a vegetarian stage. The following recipe was a favorite of hers. Eggplant Florentine 1 large eggplant, cut into 8 diagonal slices ¾ cup dried bread crumbs 1...
Friday, October 23, 2009
Finding Your Muse (Exercise Muse, that is!)
By Kirsten ScottI am a reluctant exerciser. However, I am also exceedingly vain AND have a horrible sweet tooth, so I have a long history of torturing myself with everything from aerobics to running to biking. Over the years I have been a dedicated gym rat, spending hours in agony on machines to make myself sweat and, hopefully, lose some pounds. I even went through a period in college where I was what you might call an exercise bulimic. I would work out for two hours at a time, just so I could...
Thursday, October 22, 2009
It Really Is A Merry-Go-Round
By Tawny WeberThis weight thing isn’t easy. And it's not like I expect easy, you know? After all, writing can be termed a pretty tough career, right? Between the creative struggles, the rejections and bad reviews, the stress and ups and downs, this isn’t a job for wimps! And so much of its completely out of our control, yet we keep on trying, focusing, working until we achieve the goal.So I keep telling myself if I can jump into the deep end of the writing gig, I can handle something that’s...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Biggest Loser, Week 6
Okay, I know I picked on Tracey in last week's post, but the first thing that hit me in tonight's episode was how emotional she got when she said she hated going into the elimination room. I honestly can't decide if she's being honest or a very good actress. It seems so at odds with the little outtakes they film with each individual and pepper throughout the show. Like tonight, when talking about the black team being at home and hoping they ate cake and drank sodas. That just seemed mean-spirited....
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Energy Zappers
When I signed onto Yahoo yesterday to check my e-mail, I noticed one of the headlines said, "Bad Habits That Leave You Exhausted." Always looking for ways to improve my productivity and to feel rested, I clicked on it. The article talked about 9 habits that affect our productivity in negative ways and tactics for eliminating or lessening these habits.As a big multitasker, I wasn't happy to see that doing more than one thing at the same time depletes our energy. The article specifically mentioned...
Monday, October 19, 2009
Let Nature Comfort You
One of my biggest challenges on my journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer is conquering my emotional eating – or at least developing ways to keep it under control. To do this, I have to find other, healthier methods that comfort and soothe myself so that I don’t turn to food and overeat. This may surprise some folks, but I’ve realized that one of my healthy ways to comfort myself when...
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Health Recipes at Your Fingertips
There is no telling how many times I've wondered how I ever got by without Google and the vast expanse of knowledge housed on the Internet. Everything from the name of who sang that one-hit wonder song from high school to what the weather is going to be like for the next 10 days. This awesomeness extends to healthy recipes. Prior to my new commitment to counting calories, I often looked up recipes on AllRecipes.com, with good results. So I was happy to see that when I Googled "low-cal recipes",...
Friday, October 16, 2009
I'm Not a Runner!
By Anna SugdenReally! I’m not very sporty, if truth be told. I love watching sport (hockey and football/soccer, etc.) and have played sport (I was good, but not great), but I’m not a devoted athlete. I have always enjoyed keeping fit, but I’ve always found it easier to keep up a regular routine if I do it with a friend. Whether it’s going to aerobics classes or swimming or going to the gym, I’m one...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Writer De Stress
By Tawny WeberI thought I’d discuss a health issue we writers face today that may or may not be weight related.Stress.Yes, we definitely have stress in life, regardless of if we write or not. But writing adds is own special brand of stress to the mix.Submissions: Whether we’re published or not, we write to be read. It could be the idea of submitting to a friend, to a critique partner, to an editor or an agent. They all carry stress.Readers: This goes hand in hand with submissions. We want feedback...
The Biggest Loser, Week 5
Dude, does Tracey have a lucky charm hidden up the sleeve of her Biggest Loser T-shirt? I couldn't believe she won the "Choose Teams" challenge tonight, and I obviously wasn't the only one. I'm very conflicted about Tracey. On the one hand, I can understand her strategy of always doing what is going to get her more weeks on the show and thus more time with the trainers. After all, she's there because she needs to be, and I genuinely want her to lose weight and get healthy. But on the other hand,...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Big, Huge, Ginormous Challenge
I missed out on doing a goals post on Sunday because I was driving home from my 20-year high school reunion. But I've been thinking about a big goal I'm going to shoot for and take you all along with me.With the holidays and all their edible temptations around the corner (pumpkin pie, yeast rolls, cookies...), I need a plan of attack for the remaining weeks before Thanksgiving. So I thought, let's have a Pre-Holiday Weight Loss Challenge. Now, remember, don't do anything that's unhealthy to lose...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Enjoy the Benefits of Exercise
I’ve been an Oprah fan since she hit the national airwaves, and I’ve read almost everything she’s ever written about her weight struggles. She gets it, and I find reading about her lessons so inspiring. Ten to 15 years ago, she and her trainer Bob Greene wrote a book entitled Make the Connection. A lot of it is about the importance of regular exercise to weight loss or weight control. I’ve always believed that and often have used exercise to try to lose weight. The problem with that is weight...
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Experiment with Eggplant
We’ve discussed on this blog before how difficult many of us find it to eat 3-5 servings of vegetables a day. I too struggle with that even though I tend to lose more weight in the weeks that I eat lots and lots of vegetables. Some of the tricks I’ve found for increasing my weekly intake of veggies is to experiment with new or seldom-seen-by-me vegetables, especially when they are in season,...
Friday, October 9, 2009
Short of Breath
By Guest Blogger Jeanne AdamsEarlier this summer, I realized I was short of breath. Now before you frown too much, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t like ME either. By nature, I’m an active (verging on hyperactive), extroverted Tigger-type. Which means, I was never heavy as a kid, nor as a young adult. In fact, I’ve only been over my “typical” weight levels twice in my life. Now is the second...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
My Exercise Endeavor...Movement Motivation
By Tawny WeberIn addition to the step aerobics (haven’t managed to work the strength training in yet) I’m focusing diligently on using my pedometer and increasing my step count daily. So far, so so. But I’m working on it! One of the things I’ve found that helps a lot is relying on my iPod. I think Trish has mentioned walking to music before. I’ve tried that, and thought it’d be a solid hit for me since I write to music. But the writing to music on my iPod is so ingrained, as soon as it starts...
The Biggest Loser, Week 4
This week offered more temptation to the contestants in the form of having to order out for every meal. Gone was the safety of knowing that all the foods in the stocked Biggest Loser kitchen were healthy, fresh and organic. Everyone was faced with having to really examine restaurant menus and determining which choices were healthiest. They had to learn how to order their food prepared and be willing to resist temptations and to send food back to the kitchen if it wasn't prepared as they asked.As...
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Tips from Around the World
It's a well-known fact that Americans are some of the fattest people in the world. No wonder when we're the land of fast food, buffets, and sedentary lifestyles. We don't have the healthiest relationship with food as a country. And in the South, where I live, I think it's even worse because we haven't met a food we didn't want to roll in batter and deep fry.This outlook Americans have on food versus how the rest of the world views food is why I thought this article from Reader's Digest magazine...
Sunday, October 4, 2009
A Healthy Relationship with Food
In the second stage of guided communication on eharmony (yes, it can be complicated), one of the questions you can send is: How do you feel about food? A. I consider myself a gourmand and love to dine on elaborate meals as often as possible. B. I just eat to live, trying to be healthy and consume little. C. I like to eat and occasionally enjoy large meals.D. I eat three regular meals a day without much additional thought. I’ve never received or sent this question, but it does get me thinking....
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Healthy Cooking Tips
Since I'm away from home (and thus nowhere near my kitchen), I decided to turn to Google for today's healthy cooking post. I was curious what listings would come up if I did a search on "healthy cooking tips." Here are the top five links:1. The Top 10 healthy cooking tips from the American Heart Association -- I'd heard some of these tips before but not others.2. The Top 10 healthy cooking tips from Fitness and Freebies -- This listing makes note that it's just not the foods we eat but also how...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Feeling Virtuous
I'm out of town for the Moonlight & Magnolias Conference in Atlanta. Travel days usually end up being light on steps. Add to that the fact that I went out with friends to a favorite Mexican restaurant tonight, and it was shaping up to not be a good weight/health day. But after dinner, one of my dining companions and I hit the gym for some treadmill time. I walked for 35 minutes, even ran for a minute or two -- something that I normally don't do. I got my steps up over the 10,000 mark (10,821...
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