July/August - Weight Loss Challenge

[teigyr]

As for combining that with exercise, we'll see what happens. After Phase I, I can re-introduce "good carbs" (e.g., high-fiber breads and pastas) into my diet. I am probably going to "cheat" this coming weekend and have some high-fiber bread before I go out on any rides, and I'll be drinking cytomax which technically isn't allowed but hopefully it'll balance out.

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I love your blog name

I'd like to know how it goes with the exercise. I use Cytomax on my long days and I know it's not good to deprive yourself when you're exercising a lot.

The South Beach Diet makes a lot of sense but I recall it being a lot of work. How much time is it taking you to prepare food? I'm one of those who has three days off a week but the days I work are really really really busy. Really

[jobob]

The South Beach Diet makes a lot of sense but I recall it being a lot of work. How much time is it taking you to prepare food?

Errr ... I'm not a good one to ask that, because I have a husband who is currently semi-unemployed and really likes to cook. And he's very enthusiastic about trying this out. So, he prepares our dinners. I've made breakfast, since I can scramble eggs. Which is pretty much the extent of my cooking ability.

But that aside, I don't see why preparing food for the SB diet would take that much longer. What am I overlooking?

Granted, you can't rely on microwaved potatoes or quick pasta meals (the other major components of my considerable cooking repertoire ) but in general SB relys on normal foods - lean meats, fish, most veggies - so in theory I would think it shouldn't take all that long to prepare simple meals.

[ibcycling]

I don't think it takes any longer to prepare SB meals than any other meals unless you currently exist on prepared stuff. If you're looking for some quick and easy recipes I can't recommend www.savindinner.com enough. The Body Clutter menu works well with SB and nearly all of the recipes can be made in 30min or less. Her soups are great too and she includes one in every menu.

I'll be going back to SB after I'm done with the Detox Diet. 4 days down and 3 to go! I haven't cheated either!

Love the blog BTW!

Lora

[bethanymarie]

Just a quick post to keep involved and motivated...
Ive been doing well with my eating habits. It is amazing to me.. if I only eat when I am actually hungry, I eat a lot less than I was before. I am an emotional eater and always feel the need to stuff myself.. a lot of psychological stuff here, but it boils down to serious emotional eating.. so ive been trying real hard to listen to my body.. i love hearing my stomach growl, because i know it is time to eat and i feel in touch with my self.
Im biking as much as I can.. for some reason I keep getting flats. ive had this bike not even 1 week... front tire went flat on sunday... now back one, last night..
so ive got to get some more inner tubes.. the roads here really suck!!!
im staying foccused and excited for weigh in on fri!

[Tabby]

First weigh in - 135.6. Goal is 129 this time. I can't remember the last time I saw 120-anything on the scale. I've been stuck at 134-136 forever.

Hey, Five One,
135-ish has been my sticking point for a few months now . I just want to break into the 20s ....129 3/4 would be success! Let's push this one together.
PJ

[Tabby]

So if it isn't too late, I am at 186.5. I'd LIKE to be back at my 130 lb days (hah!) but for this challenge, I'd like to get down to 175. My ultimate goal is to run the Portland Marathon in October and I know it'd be easier on my body if I was lighter.

Teigyr,

You can do this! Though my don't choose to run a marathon, our weight and weight goal are the same. January 1, 2006 I was 187.5. I worked out 3-4 times a week but paid no attention to my foods. I piddled around by dropping 10 pounds. January 1, 2007, at 177, I got a bit more serious ... dropped 25 pounds by August, maintained that thru the holidays. January 1, 2008 got serious even more dropping 20 pounds and have been bouncing 135 since end of March. Now I am more serious and started mountain biking ... long term goal in the 20s. I guess what I'm saying is for me, my body, my lifestyle, knowing I love to eat, I set small goals for myself so I could make my new food choices and exercise routines permanent fits to my lifestyle.

I didn't mean to go and on, just attempting to be a cheerleader here and have way to much time on my hands this morning!!!

PJ

[han-grrl]

as someone who has worked hard on eating - i have to say it is a bit of work - but now i am in "maintenance, and it isn't that bad.

the things to remember is to limit processed foods as much as possible. i hear a lot of excuses from people, only one bar, only a little of this, and the excuses seem to be adding ALOT of calories over time.

Other tips -

try for other types of grains
experiment with reducing typical intolerances - sugar, corn, dairy, soy - weight gain is a symptom of an intolerance to those foods

avoid high fructose corn syrup as much as possible. - that includes your power bars and gels.

drink water - dehydration can stagnate weight loss...

stay the course and ride the wave - you will need to adjust eating, because i also ate whenever...think twice before grabbing a snack - i usually will drink a tea or broth if i feel i am about to munch and that usually kills the munchies...

and sleep - and rest and reduce stress...the usual

keep smiling

XO

[CarbonCandy]

But I just saw this and if I could still join that would be amazing
Having a pushing hand is really helpful. As for a weigh in, I've been consistently at 181 for the past forever. And my goal is 174.

Good luck ladies! Finish this summer off with a bang!

[Tabby]

}.. so ive been trying real hard to listen to my body.. i love hearing my stomach growl, because i know it is time to eat and i feel in touch with my self.

BethanyMarie,

Hard lesson to learn, but it is amazing, how eating only when hungry is a good thing and stopping when my stomach is satisified. I, too, learned to love hearing my stomach growl...it feels successful as a small goal knowing that I didn't eat just cuz, but I need to eat because my body says it's time. I grew up as a member of the "clean plate club". As a star member, it's hard to learn to leave food on your plate when your body says it is satisfied, again, I feel successful when I do.

PJ

[five one]

Hey, Five One,
135-ish has been my sticking point for a few months now . I just want to break into the 20s ....129 3/4 would be success! Let's push this one together.
PJ

Hey, you bet! I know I can do it if I can just get past my "bad" time of day. That time is when I get home from work and head to the kitchen for dinner prep. I have a healthy snack in the late afternoon at work, so I know I'm not hungry, but I will start grazing anyway. It's not unhealthy food, but it's calories I don't need to consume right before dinner. I'm trying to drink a big glass of iced tea while in the kitchen hoping that will keep me from eating while cooking.

On the plus side, There are home-made chocolate chip cookies in the house and I have not eaten a single one. Yay me.

Jobob, your blog is great. I have the SB book, but never jumped on the bandwagon - yet. I'll be watching your progress and cheering your success.

Good luck to everyone in this challenge.

[teigyr]

Tabby, way to go with the weight loss I do think the small and gradual changes are best so there's time to get used to each step instead of being inundated all at once.

ibcycling, I did look at the Savingdinner site. I signed up for the free recipes and it looks pretty good.

jobob, it's great that your husband cooks. Mine does too...he tends to add cheese and butter though he's really trying to watch to curtail that. As far as South Beach taking more time, I know my mother said that it tended to take fresh ingredients (meaning more trips to the store) and cooking.

I'm not an emotional eater. I DO tend to eat what's convenient and fast. I tend to get overwhelmed by the various types of carbs and what's needed. I tend to eat whole grain over white, low fat over fat, and while we've been known to cook rib eye steaks, we eat more chicken or fish than red meat.

Here's my challenge though. I am busy. Just as an example, last night I got home at 3am (home from work), unwound and went to bed and woke up at 11:30am. I ate a bowl of cereal (bad, I know, but fast) and went to the gym to swim for an hour. I got home and rode my bike for 1/2 hour, got home and had to be in the shower in minus 20 minutes. I grabbed a handful of pistachios because I was starving. I brought a frozen low fat burrito and a frozen low fat chicken/veggie bowl to work. I do things like this four times a week. During my work week, I have little time to do much beyond exercise, sleep, and go to work. I do have more time on the weekend but with us, fresh food tends to go bad. If we can freeze it, it's all good. I also have little time to do frequent trips to the store.

For a snack, I'll tend to do things like eat a whole wheat english muffin with honey and cinnamon. I have chocolate milk after exercise, usually. My workouts are 6 times a week and range from about 45 minutes to several hours. Some of them are fairly high intensity so "dieting" worries me because my calorie expenditure is fairly high.

My long winded question is....what is fast, good for you, and doesn't go bad quickly? There are days I don't even have time to make scrambled eggs (go figure!) so those are cereal days. I don't like skimping on sleep either.

I try to stock our kitchen with things that aren't bad for you but then again I tend to get a lot of processed things just due to time constraints.

Whew, that was long-winded

[jobob]

As far as South Beach taking more time, I know my mother said that it tended to take fresh ingredients (meaning more trips to the store) and cooking.

I see what you mean. There's definitely more advance planning needed than for our normal way of eating - we'd have meals like soup & tuna sandwiches, chili and rice, or pasta fairly regularly since it involved zero planning and we could get the ingredients out of our cupboard.

I'm trying to find items that can be made ahead of time & frozen, & popped into the microwave.

My long winded question is....what is fast, good for you, and doesn't go bad quickly? There are days I don't even have time to make scrambled eggs (go figure!) so those are cereal days. I don't like skimping on sleep either.

Here's something that I plan to try - mini vegetable quiches that can be frozen & reheated in the microwave. They'd work well at any meal or as a snack. The recipe is in the SB Diet book, and I also found it in this journal:

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Vegetable Quiche Cups

Need: Foil baking cups, muffin tin, cooking spray, oven

Ingredients:
3/4 cup liquid egg substitute - I used Nulaid ReddiEgg real egg product which is produced with egg whites and is pasteurized so there is no salmonella risk. It is cholesterol and fat free. You could also use 3 large whole eggs or 3/4 cup egg whites.
1 package frozen chopped spinach (10 oz.)
3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheese - any kind of your choice. I used some cheddar and some mozzerella.
1/4 cup diced red or green peppers or mixture of both
1/4 cup diced onions
A couple shots of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce, if desired, to taste.
Salt to taste - with the cheese, these don't need much added salt, but I like things salty and so I added a half teaspoon of salt.

Heat oven to 350F
Line 12 cup muffin pan with foil baking cups, spray the cups with the cooking spray.
Thaw and drain spinach - I wring it out well in my hand.
Mix the spinach, egg substitute, cheese, peppers, onions, hot pepper sauce, salt in a bowl.
Fill the foil cups with the mixture.
Bake at 350F or 20 minutes, testing so that a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from cups to serve.

Nutrition:
77 calories
5 grams fat - which includes 2 g. saturated, 3 g mono
10 mg cholesterol
3 grams carbohydrate
9 grams protein
2 grams fiber
160 mg sodium (more if you add salt as I did)

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HTH, - Jo.

[teigyr]

The quiche cups looks fantastic Thank you so much and I even have the ingredients. I guess I'm not the only one with time management problems.

I was looking through the journal and some of the food looked really good. I will have to read up on this a bit more.

I think maybe I'll make a double batch of the quiche cups this weekend. We always keep frozen spinach around, I tend to throw it into my scrambled eggs.

[jobob]

Excellent! I'm not fond of peppers so I'm going to use mushrooms or sundried tomatoes (or both!) instead.

[Possegal]

oh, thanks for that recipe, that would be a nice thing to make ahead and have for breakfast. i'm soooo not a morning person and so i find it hard to eat things, even though i know i need to.

i do fairly well with lunch provided i take the time the night before to make things to take to work. a nice salad with a little chicken that you buy already cooked, and a light dressing. then lots of fruit.

my dinners right now i'm doing well with, i have been going to one of those make your own prepared meals places, let's dish. i make sure to make the ones lower in calories/fat. but they really help with the whole portion control issue, which is always a big one.