June Reflections

Here we are, at approximately halfway through the year, and surprisingly, I’m still doing Weight Watchers. Not only am I still doing it, I’m SUCCEEDING at losing weight. Tomorrow is my official weigh in day, but I took a quick peak at the scale this morning, and if all holds through today, I will have lost a little more than 32 pounds since January 21^st.

At the end of last year, I wasn’t happy with the way I looked. Not only was I fat and weighing in at 277 pounds, I was puffy. I looked old. OK, I guess maybe I am old, but I felt matronly. I don’t know any woman, whether she’s 20, 50 or 70, who wants to look matronly. But even worse, I didn’t feel good. I was always tired, and my body ached constantly. I knew that if I could just lose a little weight, I’d start to feel better.

Now, having lost more than 10% of my body weight (TEN PERCENT Y’ALL!!), I do feel a little better. I don’t look so puffy anymore, and my body doesn’t hurt quite like it did. But I still have a ways to go. More than 80 pounds left that I want to lose, actually. It sounds daunting, and I guess it is when I think about it that way. But right now, I’m just focusing on the overall downward trend. I try not to think about how much is left, because that’s really demoralizing. I just keep telling myself that I need to keep going.

The best part is, I DO keep going. I get up every morning and I pack my breakfast and lunch for work. When I don’t bring lunch to work, it’s a conscious decision, either because there’s something the food service is offering that I really want. There are days when Chick Fil A comes in, and I rarely turn that down, and there days when I grab something out of the freezer because I didn’t prep anything. But I always bring breakfast with me. My breakfast is pretty much the same thing every day.

• ¾ cup Cheerios Honey Nut Medley Crunch
• 2 Jimmy Dean Heat & Serve Turkey Sausage Patties
• 1 Weight Watchers String Cheese
• 1 Fruit (usually a banana)
• Diet Coke

Depending on the sausage – sometimes it’s patties, sometimes it’s links – and the fruit, this breakfast runs me 260-325 calories (8 WW SP). I eat it most weekdays because it’s simple, filling and doesn’t make me feel uncomfortably full. A lot of days, I spread the food out over a few hours because I get busy, or because I’m just not super hungry.

If I didn’t bring breakfast, I would be eating donuts at 200+ calories each, or 8 – 10 SP. Or maybe I would grab a kolache at 325 calories or 10 SP. I was also quite fond of McDonald’s Sausage & Biscuit, but it weighs in at a hefty 440 calories, or 17 SP. It isn’t that I never eat that stuff anymore, because let’s face it. Kolaches are their own food group here in the Great State of Texas. But I might have one every couple of months instead of every few days. I ate a donut a couple of weeks ago. It was good, and it satisfied the craving I had. But honestly, I’m ok with having those things every once in a while instead of all the time.

If you follow my Facebook page, you see the types of lunches I have. Most often I post salads, but there’s a lot of variety in them. I also enjoy lunches that include homemade soups, sandwiches, tacos, pasta … It’s all about moderation for me, and substitutions. For example, I may have a sandwich for lunch. Before I started losing weight, I would also have a pile of chips and maybe a cookie or something sweet to go with the sandwich. Now, however, I substitute Quaker Popped Rice crisps for the chips and fruit for the something sweet.

I never use the phrase, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” because to me, well … it’s a lie. LOL There are a LOT of things that taste as good as skinny feels. It’s taken me almost six months to get to the point where having an order of waffle fries at Chick Fil A makes me feel a little off, so I don’t understand these people who are on WW for like, two weeks, and then claim that fast food makes them “sooo sick.” I had grilled nuggets and a medium order of waffle fries at Chick Fil A last night and the fries made me gassy, but they tasted amazing. Will I have them again? Probably. Do I want to go back to eating them a couple times a week? Nope. That gas was so painful, I sort of regretted the fries. These days when I want fries, I cook them in the air fryer instead of in a pan of oil. Little changes make big differences.

The biggest change I have noticed is this – I tend to make better choices when it comes to food. In the past, portion control was a foreign concept. Eating a salad instead of fries? Having the grilled chicken instead of fried? Crazy ideas to me, once upon a time. Now they’re just automatic. I mean … Who have I become?!? Weight Watchers ice cream bar instead of Blue Bell?!? Yeah, I do that now. Way more often than I ever though possible.

The most mind blowing thing for me is this: I haven’t given up. I haven’t thought, this is too hard; I can’t do it. I don’t think about stopping. I just keep going. Of course I get discouraged sometimes. Who wouldn’t, with more than 100 pounds to lose? I know it isn’t a race, but sometimes I see people who are losing weight faster than me and I wonder what I’m doing wrong. I wonder why they’ve lost 50 pounds since March and I’ve only lost 32 since January. Then I think of the quote, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I’ve seen it attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, and maybe he did say it, maybe he didn’t.

Regardless of who said it first, the saying rings true and gets right to the heart of my current situation. I recently printed it out and posted it on my cubicle wall because it speaks to me so deeply. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m doing well with my weight loss, and I’ve come a long way already. If I were to focus on other people’s progress, I would become discouraged and quit. I’ve come too far at this point to quit!

In June, I decided to try a different eating style on WW. I explained it here, so I won’t go in to detail about it now. I stuck with it for the entire month, and the results were astounding. I lost 7.4 pounds doing #sprenglestyle and I’m very happy with that. I ate almost all my weeklies every week and I lost more than I have in any other month except January when I first started. I’ll be sticking with it a while longer because I think it made a huge difference.

The other thing I did in June was to cut back drastically on sodas. This one has been really hard for me, because I was a Diet Coke and Diet Root Beer addict. I cut back to one Diet Coke in the morning (16 ounce bottle) and one diet root beer (12 ounce can) in the evening. Some days I have a second Diet Coke in the evening instead of the root beer, but I’m trying to stop that because it’s getting to the point where the caffeine keeps me awake at night. Some evenings I don’t have any kind of soda, but I will have a sparkling water for variety every once in a while. I saw big changes on the scale when I stopped drinking so many sodas. And it’s better for the bank account!

Again, for me, small changes make big differences. If you’re on the fence about starting a weight loss program, I encourage you to take the very first step. Do something small that will get you moving in the right direction, because all those small things add up eventually, and become big changes in your mood, your life and your journey.

In July, I want to focus on exercise. It’s going to be difficult, and it’s not the first time I said that, but … I really need to focus on this part of my journey. I’m losing weight, but I don’t feel like I’m losing the inches I need to lose. It’s time to get serious about it and stop screwing around.

When You Think You’re Making Good Choices …

One night last week, Chris and I went to MOD Pizza for dinner. I love going to MOD because I can get whatever I want on my pizza, eat half and stay within my points. My current favorite is an 11” MOD crust, light sauce, grilled chicken, as many zero point veggies as they can fit on it, and a few pepperonis for flavor. Add some oregano and fresh garlic and I’m a happy girl. I eat half the pizza, which is about 10 points, or around 430 calories. Both could be lower if I skipped the pepperoni but hey … I really love pepperoni.

I noticed as we were standing in line, they now offer a cauliflower crust. I debated getting it, but I couldn’t at the time find the nutrition information. But it’s cauliflower, so it should be healthier, right? Ultimately, I decided to go with my usual MOD crust, and then I sort of forgot about the cauliflower crust. At least, I forgot about it until yesterday, when my daughter texted me to tell me about her excitement at finding the cauliflower crust at MOD.

I decided to take another look for the nutrition info, and finally found it right on their website. And WOW … I am so glad I didn’t get that cauliflower crust!

Taken from the MOD Pizza website

This is why I don’t get anything I can’t verify first when I go out. That cauliflower crust has 100 more calories, but more importantly 8 grams more fat (all of which are saturated fat) than their regular crust. It even has 6 grams of sugar instead of the 0 grams for the MOD crust. I mean, this might be a great choice if you’re doing KETO, but for WW, this crust is 19 points as opposed to the regular 11 point crust.

Moral of this story is, be sure that when you’re making choices based on what you think is the healthier option, that it actually fits with your eating plan. I’m honestly not sure what eating plan would make the cauliflower crust at MOD Pizza the better choice …

Pity Party, Table For One

This post is not easy to write, because it’s going to be about things that I don’t want to admit to you, my readers, or myself. I’m having a bit of a pity party this morning, and it’s not going well, let me tell you. I’m super frustrated right now, primarily with myself, because I feel like this is something completely within my control and I’m not controlling it. Not even a little bit.

If you’ve followed my journey at all, you know that I have struggled with my weight pretty much my entire adult life. I’ve gained and lost, and gained and lost, and gained. This year, I decided I really need to do something about it. I’m way too heavy, and ignoring the problem isn’t going to fix it. I began WW in January. I’ve had a decent amount of success – I’ve lost nearly 29 pounds since January 11. And it isn’t that I’m not happy with that, because I am. But I’ve stalled out over the last month and I’m frustrated. I think it’s really just a plateau, but that doesn’t make it better.

I’m not giving up. I’m just looking for ways to bust through the plateau. On the first of June, I started what’s called #ssprenglestyle on WW. It’s called that after the guy who decided to use most, if not all, of his weekly points over two or three days in the middle of his week. He had success with it, losing weight each week. It’s not really a revolutionary idea; I ran in to the same idea many years ago when I was calorie counting. The basic theory is that if you eat close to the same number of calories each day, your body becomes accustomed to it and it slows down your metabolism. Whether or not it’s true is anyone’s guess, but many people have noticed a difference in their weight loss when they have a “cheat day.”

This isn’t really a cheat day, per se, because you’re still tracking everything, and you’re not actually going outside your allotted points for the week. It’s just in the way you choose to eat them that varies. You are supposed to use most of your weekly points over a three day period, and stick to, or close to, your daily points for the other four days of your week. Realize that in the case of WW, “week” means the seven day period in between your weigh ins. The first day of my WW week is Thursday, because that’s when I decided to set my weigh in day. My three day period for eating most of my weeklies starts on Friday and ends on Sunday night. Well, that’s the way I thought it would work. And for the most part, for the first two weeks, it has. This week, I didn’t hit my goal of eating 10 extra points on Friday, but I made up for it on Saturday. Based on my evaluation below, I didn’t even really come close to doing it the right way.

I peaked at the scale this morning, and I am down almost a pound, from last Thursday, but I’ve already been here before. I started the month at 248.2, and that’s where I am right now. I ended May at 250, though. I think the problem is … I’m weighing myself too much. I get discouraged when I see normal weight fluctuations from day to day. If I stuck to weighing myself once a week, I would have seen 251.2 on May 30^th, 249 on June 6^th, and hopefully at least 248.2 on June 13. That would be a nearly 3 pound loss in two weeks.

Wow … it just occurred to me that weighing myself every day is actually hindering my progress and excitement in this journey. Granted, I was at 249 back in mid-May, but I had a bit of a gain at the end of May that put me back to the 251.2 I was on May 30^th. I just went back to my spreadsheet where I track calories, WW points and weight (I know, I have issues) and removed all the extraneous weigh ins and I’ve found that there were a few weeks where I stayed even and didn’t lose or gain anything, and a few times I’ve weighed in and gained, but overall, I’ve been fairly consistent in my losses. I didn’t start the “gain and lose” cycle until May, which isn’t nearly as long as I thought it had been (I thought it had started back in April).

Now that I’ve got that worked out, and looking back at June, I haven’t really been following the #ssprenglestyle format. My high points days aren’t really all that high, though they are higher than other days, except last Wednesday. Not sure what happened there, but … sure. Even so, I did see a loss of 2.2 pounds last week, so I’m hoping to see at least a one pound loss this week. We went out for Mexican food last night, and even though I stuck to chicken, it wasn’t exactly healthy chicken, and there is a fair amount of sodium in anything you eat out. I’ll be pushing water today to try to move some of that out of my system and hope for a good weigh in tomorrow.

Once I’ve weighed in tomorrow, I’m going to do something with my scales to keep me from stepping on them every single morning. I’m wearing myself out worrying about daily weight fluctuations, and it’s skewing my view of what’s actually happening.

The other thing I’m going to do is get better at prepping meals for work. Breakfast is pretty easy for me – turkey sausage, fruit, a fairly low point cereal. Lunch is the pain. I need to get better at prepping lunches so I don’t get tired of salads. I have been eating a LOT of salads the last six months. I need to cook some chicken and some vegetables, and/or buy some sandwich fixings and pack those. I need to get better about having a plan for dinner each night (the last two nights, we’ve eaten out because we’ve been washed out at night). And I really need to get back in to the habit of walking and working out. It got hot and I stopped walking in the garage at lunch time.

This week’s plan:

• Meal prep
• No weighing in daily
• Exercise three times, minimum

Baby Frog Quilt

There are days when my eating is great, and I feel in complete control. Then there are days when I feel like I could (and maybe am) eat the contents of the entire kitchen. In an effort to distract myself from eating the entire kitchen, I have decided to focus on things in my quilt studio. I just finished the baby quilt we gifted to one of Chris’s co-workers. Yes, we gave it to her at her baby shower a few weeks ago, even though it wasn’t finished, so we brought it back home so I could get it done. We delivered it just as she was going in to the hospital to have the baby. Talk about perfect timing. LOL

Ignore the goofy husband and the dog LOL

I tried a slightly new way of making and attaching the binding, and I had mixed results with it, as you can see. I’m not displeased with it, per se, but I have lost some skill in straight stitching. When you don’t use something, you lose it. And I haven’t been sewing nearly enough lately to be “good” at things like this.  

Binding done using bias tape maker

Still, you don’t improve if you don’t practice, and I’ve come to realize that a) I’m way harder on myself than others are, and b) when I wash the quilt once it’s done, the wavy stitching likely will be a bit less noticeable.  

The technique I used for this is to make double fold “bias” tape. It isn’t really bias tape, because it wasn’t cut on the bias. I just didn’t have enough fabric to cut it that way, so I cut on the grain. It still works, but since it doesn’t have that ability to curve like bias tape does, I bound each side independently.  

After the quilting was completed

I don’t really ever do hand sewing for binding anymore, because I had some issues with people complaining that would come apart. I’m not sure how that happens, because I have some quilts I hand bound and years later, they are still in fine condition. But for a baby quilt, I machine stitch regardless. Baby quilts get washed a lot, they get dragged around by children as they grow, and it doesn’t leave spots for baby to get fingers or toes caught like hand sewing sometimes can.  

The double fold bias tape is sort of narrow, frankly. I used a 25 mm bias tape maker to make it, which means I started with 2” strips of fabric. But after all the folding, the strip is about half an inch. It can be challenging to pin that to the quilt, sew it, flip and sew again. Alternatively, you can pin it and just sew both sides at once.  

Through all my lurking on various sewing and quilting boards, I learned about the magic of Elmer’s Washable School Glue. I use a washable glue stick to secure the binding before sewing. 

I used Elmer’s School Glue Sticks to hold the binding in place

I first glue down one side of the binding, then the other, trying to keep them as even as possible so I catch both sides when I sew the binding down. Before sewing, though, let the glue dry. It doesn’t hurt your machine, and I haven’t personally had any issues with gumming the needle, but I change the needle after each project, and since binding is the last step for me, it may explain the lack of gumming.  

I’ve been using this method of attaching the binding for a couple of years now, and for me, it works quite well.  

Now that this quilt is completed, I’m going to finish off my $5 quilt blocks for this year, because we start a new year this month! I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we started this one! But it’s been tons of fun to make. My plan for it is to set the squares with binding and finish it for a Christmas gift for someone this year. I’m just not sure who yet.  

After that, I plan to get back to the quilt I’m making for my granddaughter, and the quilt I want to finish to give my grandson for Christmas. Really, I shouldn’t start another project until I get some of the ones I’ve got underway completed.  

Then again, there IS this new technique I’ve been wanting to try …  

Choose Your Hard

Lately, I keep seeing these memes. 

I know they are meant to encourage people to get in shape. I know it’s supposed to be motivational. And I guess, in it’s own way, it is motivational and encouraging. But it’s also not entirely accurate.  

Being fat – just the act of being fat – is not hard. The consequences of being fat – those are hard. The damage that being fat does to your joints, heart, circulatory system, endocrine system, self esteem – those are hard. The damage that being fat does to your furniture (it’s a real thing – we’ve had to purchase more furniture in the last ten years than I had purchased in the 20+ years prior to that), your vehicles, your ability to buy clothing – those are all real consequences, and hard to deal with. But being fat, in and of itself, is easy.  

Losing weight isn’t all that hard, either. It takes dedication and commitment, but it’s not hard to cut back on what you’re eating. It’s not difficult to take a walk every evening instead of sitting on your butt on the couch. Maintaining weight loss isn’t all that difficult, either, if you maintain that dedication and commitment. Maybe it isn’t easy, but it’s not the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  

Getting up every morning, making the decision not to go back to old habits, and making myself make better choices at each meal – now THAT is hard. Getting back on the horse after a weekend of not so great food choices – that’s hard, too. Commitment to your goals, whether to lose weight, save money to buy a car or house, finish that college degree – commitment is hard. In fact, it may be the hardest thing we do on a daily basis.  

My point here, if I actually have one, is that I think this meme simplifies a complex problem. Most people aren’t fat by choice, despite what society thinks. A while back, I read about a study done on obesity and the way people were taught about food as children.  

“All those starving children in Africa would love to have the food you won’t eat.”  

“Food is love.” 

“Clean your plate or you won’t get anything else tonight.” 

“You will sit there until you eat those vegetables!” 

“If you don’t eat it tonight, you will get it for breakfast tomorrow. And if you don’t eat it then, you’ll get it for lunch. And I will continue to serve it to you until you eat it. You will eat when you’re hungry!” 

Do you see your childhood in any of that? I personally do not. My mother never made us eat anything we really didn’t want to eat. She also made sure that there was at least one item on the table each day that we would eat. And if we really didn’t like something she served, we could make ourselves a sandwich, a can of soup, or a frozen meal that could be heated up in the microwave. She never forced us to eat anything.  

As a child, I despised vegetables. HATED them. Now I love them, and eat a lot of them. I found the way I like to eat them, which isn’t the way my mother cooked them. On the other hand, I would eat meatloaf as a child, even though it was never my favorite. Now, you couldn’t force me to eat it, no matter how hungry I may be.  

I never forced my children to eat anything they didn’t like, either, though my former in-laws did. And I think that forcing or guilting children in to eating foods they don’t like or aren’t hungry enough to eat leads to a plethora of eating disorders. I never wanted my kids to have that sort of issue, and fortunately, they don’t seem to have eating disorders as adults. I don’t always agree with my son’s choices, but they are HIS choices.  

I have hope that some day, my son will change the way he eats, and before he has a weight problem, but that’s his choice to make.  

April Update

Sorry I haven’t been around much lately; it’s just been crazy lately. Good news: I have not given up on losing weight. I am now down about 25 pounds since mid-January. Bad news: the weight loss has slowed down, primarily due to my own inability to stay focused on tracking my food. That means I’ve been eating more than I should be eating, and not necessarily making the best choices.  

Here’s a quick summary of my weight loss chart: 

January– 9.6 lbs 

February– 2.0 lbs 

March– 7.0 lbs 

April– 6.0 lbs 

Total-24.4 lbs 

Overall, I’m not sad about that. In fact, I’m pretty happy with my weight loss so far. It averages out to 1.6 pounds per week, which is right in the middle of the one to two pounds per week average that WW says its members can lose.  

Last week, though, I sort of fell off the wagon. Easter sort of got me, but it was our tenth wedding anniversary that really did me in. And a baby shower over the weekend did not help at all. But I got back on track on Monday, even though our dinner was a bit high in points. Damn you, Chappell Hill Garlic Sausage! Even yesterday, when I went out with co-workers to celebrate a work victory, then was dealt a crushing blow in another work arena, I didn’t go over my points. Chris offered to take me to get Tex Mex last night AND I DECLINED. This is HUGE for me, because Tex Mex is my favorite comfort food when I have a bad day. Instead, we went to Firehouse Subs, where I got a smoked turkey chopped salad with light Italian dressing. No chips, no cookie. Later, when I wanted a snack, I had the points for a small serving of Quaker Popped Cheddar Rice Cakes and a couple of WW snack bars. And that was it. I was satisfied and went to bed happy I didn’t go over on points.  

What I need to do to get my weight loss really going again, is to get back to an eating plan with more vegetables. I haven’t been as good the last couple of weeks with the veggies as I was at first, and I’m noticing a difference in how full I feel and how long I stay satisfied. This weekend, I plan to do some meal prep and get everything to the point where, for breakfast and lunch, I need only to grab my items and toss them in my lunch bag, and for dinner, I can either eat & serve or throw a few prepped ingredients together and have dinner in minutes.  

The biggest challenge I face during the week isn’t breakfast or lunch, though. It’s dinner. Chris gets home an hour before I do, and he often starts dinner so it’s ready by the time I walk in the door. Or he doesn’t start it at all and we end up grabbing something out. The latter is an obvious challenge, but when he cooks before I get home, he doesn’t always think about vegetables or sides that are WW friendly. So I want to prep some things he can just pull out of the fridge and cook without having to put too much thought in to it. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a wonderful cook, but he just doesn’t think like I do. I want to make it easy enough for him that all he has to do is cook it – all the slicing and dicing is done, and I can just ask him to cook the broccoli, or green beans, or whatever vegetable I want that evening. Or he can surprise me by choosing something, but all he has to do is cook it. It isn’t that he can’t or won’t do the prep work. Like I said, he just doesn’t think about it. He will cook burgers, but no sides. I love burgers, but I don’t do buns anymore, so I need a vegetable to fill that gap. And I don’t want to replace it with chips or fries, which he WILL think about.  

Also, I really need to start adding in some weight lifting. I have noticed that I’m starting to get some pretty heinous bat wings, and Lord knows, I don’t want that. Also, the work outs will be a good way to burn more calories. I know it might be strange, but I’d rather lift weights than walk on the treadmill. I know both are good for me, and I should do both, but I really do despise walking. Oh well, time to suck it up and get my butt in gear.  

I’m hoping that with a few more pounds lost, I will be able to find that almost mythical energy everyone claims to find as they lose weight. So far, I haven’t found it, but here’s hoping it will happen soon. It would be so nice to want to get in the studio and work on a project during the week after work, but right now all I want to do when I get home from work is collapse on the couch. Ugh! 

Anyway, onwards and downwards! 😉  

No, Muscle Does NOT Weigh More Than Fat, and Other Weight Loss (and Gain) Myths

I’ve been hanging around diet boards of one sort or another for the past 20 years, off and on. They can be powerful motivators, and they can provide a lot of information. The problem is, some of it just is not true. And depending on the type of diet the board is geared toward, some of that information can be downright dangerous. I’m amazed at what people will believe, and then parrot, when it comes to weight loss. I’ve known for quite some time that there are people who either don’t or can’t employ critical thinking skills, and it becomes quite evident just how common that is when you read diet forums.  

Muscle Weighs More Than Fat 

I think the myth, if you will, that makes me most nuts is “muscle weighs more than fat.” No, actually, it doesn’t. Say it with me – Muscle. Does NOT. Weigh More. Than FAT.  

What people actually mean is that muscle is more dense than fat, and when you’re trying to gain muscle, your body holds on to certain things to help in that process. Things like water, protein and – gasp! – carbs. But a pound of fat is the same weight as a pound of muscle. They both weigh a POUND. Muscle, though, is leaner and takes up less space. That’s why a 300 pound athlete looks lean and trim, despite his weight. And that’s why a 300 pound couch potato looks like he does – NOT lean and trim. He looks more … well, fluffy.  

You Can Gain Muscle And Lose Weight 

This one isn’t true, either. I mean, to a degree I guess it is, but you’re not building a lot of muscle if you’re in a calorie deficit. You have to eat more to gain the muscle. If you’re losing weight and finding muscle, it’s muscle you already had, but it either wasn’t noticeable under layers of fat, or it wasn’t defined enough for you to see it. Most RD’s I’ve spoken to agree that if you are 30 pounds or more overweight, you want to focus on weight loss while maintaining your current muscle mass. That’s why we see all the advice to work out while losing weight. And those workouts do help burn fat. But you’re not gaining muscle when you’re in a calorie deficit. You have to choose either to gain muscle or to lose weight, but you can’t do both at once because the process to do each are truly at odds with each other.  

I’m Skinny Fat 

Ugh! If ever I wanted to deliver a beatdown to anyone, it’s the ignorant person who came up with that ridiculous term. Skinny Fat. What the hell does that mean, anyway?? It means people are stupid, if you ask me. But I think what they actually mean is that they are thin, but not in shape. You can be thin and not be in shape. You can also be overweight (or even obese) and be in shape. Don’t believe me? Look at Shaq, or JJ Watt, and tell me those men aren’t in shape. They are in phenomenal shape, but according to every weight chart in the world, they are obese. Ha! As if.  

If  you’re thin and not in shape physically, then just say that you’re out of shape. Why do we need this stupid made up term – Skinny Fat. Insert mind numbing eye roll right here.  

Fats are Bad For You 

No. Fats are NOT bad for you. Granted, trans fats aren’t good for you. But there are other fats that ARE good for you – like those found in avocado, nuts and olive oil. Without healthy fats in your diet, you risk losing your hair, trouble with your nails, and believe it or not, cholesterol problems. I’m not a RD, but I do now that there is a certain amount of fat everyone needs in their diets – and most sources say that’s about 30% of your calorie intake. Remember, if you’re buying low fat everything, and seriously reducing the amount of fat in your diet, you’re probably falling victim to unintended consequences such as increased insulin levels. That’s because manufacturers remove the fat but replace it with high carb substitutes like sugar and other highly refined carbohydrates. Those things play havoc with blood sugar and can cause people to gain weight instead of lose it. Fats help increase your feeling of satiation and can help you avoid overeating, too.  

To Lose Weight, You Need a Serious Calorie Reduction 

I have seen people who weigh 250+ pounds suddenly try to go from the 2500-3000-ish calories they were probably eating each day to 1200. They last for about a week and then they wash out. They can’t understand why they’re always so hungry! But unless you only have a few pounds to lose, there’s no reason to drop your calorie count so much. Everyone needs to eat at least 1200 calories just to maintain bodily functions, but I regularly see people eating around 1000 calories a day to lose weight. In fact, dropping below 1200 for an extended period can put a person in to a yo-yo dieting situation. It’s unlikely that most people will be able to maintain such low calorie counts, and after a few days or a couple of weeks, many people go on a binge. All that does is completely derail the progress that’s already been made.  

Instead of dropping to a very low calorie count, try logging your food for a week and see where you are without changing your eating plan. This is what I did before I started losing weight. I found that I was eating, on average, about 2200-2500 calories a day. And that was WAY too much, obviously, because I just kept gaining weight. I dropped back to eating around 1500 calories a day, and while I don’t see as big a loss each week as you’d think, I have been averaging about 1.5 pounds a week. That’s not to say I lose every week – there are weeks when I don’t lose anything. But then there are weeks where I’ll drop four pounds. The key to weight loss, I’m learning, is consistency. There are a lot of factors that affect day to day weight. Things like the foods you eat, sodium intake, medications, and exercise all play a part in what the scale says from one day to the next.  

I have a bad habit of stepping on the scale daily, but I’m trying to break it. When I see a gain, I get discouraged, but it could just be because my popcorn was too salty the night before, or my body is holding on to water due to my last workout. One of the pieces of advice I’ve seen recently is to put away the scale and get on it no more than once a month. I think that’s great advice, but I’m not sure I can do it. I’m trying to just get down to once a week at this point. Still, I understand that a modest calorie reduction of about 500-800 calories a day for most people will cause them to lose weight. The basic idea is that if you cut your calorie intake and do a little exercise at least three to four times a week, you will be able to lose one to two pounds a week. And let me assure you – two pounds a week is often more difficult than you’d think.  

The Latest Diet Has All the Answers 

No. No no no no no no no. No.  

I see people on WW who are looking to combine WW with Keto. Or intermittent fasting. Or maybe it’s some other fad diet they’ve recently read about. But the reality is, diets that restrict what or when you can eat are probably just setting you up for failure.  

There are tons more of these myths flying around on dieting boards across the internet. I beg you to please do your research and make sure that what you’re reading is true. Don’t take someone else’s word for it; do your own homework and make sure you’re following the best path.

And if you’re losing weight, or trying to, rock on. Do what works for you, so long as it isn’t putting your health in danger. 🙂

Calories and Macros

WARNING! GEEK POST TO FOLLOW!! 

Don’t you just love how everyone becomes an expert when they start to lose a little weight? We’ve all experienced it, haven’t we. A friend makes a New Year’s Resolution, or decides they need to get in shape, and all of a sudden, their social media lights up with all their newly found knowledge. The thing is, it seems like most of what those friends spew on social media isn’t knowledge at all. It’s a few platitudes, some basic science, and a whole lot of fads. Very little is useful, meaningful information. 

I especially cringe when I see others start to give “advice” on the “right” way to eat. The basic problem I have with that advice is this – most of it is just dead wrong. I will see someone (almost always a woman) talking about how she’s working out “like a fiend” and eating 1200 calories a day. And then she claims she’s gaining a lot of muscle. But the reality is, you’re not going to gain muscle if you’re in a calorie deficit. It just isn’t how our bodies work. Further, if you really are working out like a fiend, then you probably need more calories just to keep yourself going, not fewer.  

I have done a lot of research in to weight loss, and exercise, and I am by no means an expert. I use what I read in an attempt to improve my journey. I share a lot of that here, but I’m not trying to tell others how or what they should do to lose weight. To me, the main thing to remember is that the only way you’re going to lose weight is by consuming fewer, and/or burning more calories than your body needs to maintain function. But I had some concerns about my weight loss journey and why I don’t seem to be losing the two pounds a week I’ve set in my weight loss app. I’m staying within my calorie budget, so what’s the issue? I set out to figure out what’s going on.  

Most people don’t understand two basic weight loss terms – calorie and macronutrient. Calorie is simply the measure of how much energy is in food. A calorie measures the amount of heat needed to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, either. The important thing to know about a calorie, though, is that it is a measure of how much energy is in food. Too many calories and you gain weight, too few calories and you lose weight. Simple, right?  

Ahhh … not so fast, grasshopper! Now comes the macronutrient. These days, you can’t swing a dead cat on a weight loss/fitness board without someone talking about macronutrients. I’ve found, though, most people have no clue what that actually means. So I set out to find out what a macronutrient is, and I found that the term macronutrient simply refers to the three components of the human diet: Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins. We need large quantities of these things to survive, hence the “macro” part of the name. Some people consider water to be the fourth macro, but for our purposes, we’re only looking at the three.  

Like most things in nature, the biggest macronutrient wins when it comes to classification of foods. For example, avocados are about 70% fat, which is why they are classified as a fat. Potatoes are mostly carbohydrates, so they are classified as a carb. And so forth and so on.  

Why is this important, you may ask. Well, it’s because we need to eat each of these macros in a balance that suits our physical needs, lifestyle, and activity level. You always see these ranges listed as percentages. On average, the macro ranges are … 

10-35% Protein 

45-65% Carbohydrate 

20-35% Fat 

Different meal plans have different macro ranges. For example, the Keto diet relies on fat (70-75%) as its primary macro. So, if your caloric needs are about 1800 a day, you would aim for about 1300 of those calories in fat. I’m not sure about you, but I can’t do that. If you can, and the Keto diet works for you, then rock on. I’m not here to say that one plan is better than the other. I just know that when I tried Keto, it was an utter failure in almost no time. However, I have a cousin who has been on a Keto lifestyle for a few years now, and she and her husband have lost a lot of weight on it.  

How do you know where you should be calorie and macro wise? Well, for the calorie thing, you can rely on programs like Lose It! or My Fitness Pal to figure it out for you. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if you want to understand the underlying issues of why you may be in a plateau, or why you aren’t losing all that quickly, or why you’re losing too quickly … that requires some math. Luckily for us, we still don’t have to do that work on our own.  

The first step in true understanding of your caloric needs is to find your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. Now, I’m going to be honest here. Almost all of the online calculators I’ve tried in the past vary slightly from one another on my BMR, because they employ different formulae developed by different scientists. But at my current weight and age, along with my female-ness, my BMR is about 1800 calories a day. That’s the number of calories I would need if all I did was lie in bed each day and do nothing else at all, to maintain my current weight. Think of it as your car idling in park in a parking lot. This is what I need to keep the engine running and the lights on while maintaining my current weight.  

Most BMR calculators will ask if you’re sedentary, moderately active, or active. Based on your answer, and you need to be honest with that, the calories you need to maintain your current weight will be calculated. For me, being an office worker and not all that active when I get off work, this number is somewhere between 2150 and 2300 calories a day, depending on the model. The different models explain why one person using Lose It! has a calorie budget of 1500 calories, while someone who is the same weight, height and activity level using a program like My Fitness Pal gets 1600 calories. 

Now that I know how many calories I need to maintain my current weight of 249, I can determine how many calories I need to cut in order to lose weight. To lose one pound of weight, we have to cut out 3500 calories. That’s about 500 calories a day I need to cut out of my diet to lose one pound a week. If you take a look at the numbers above, for me that would mean that I should consume no more than 1150 to 1300 calories a day to lose two pounds a week. There are a couple of problems with this, though. It’s generally accepted in the medical world that one should not consume fewer than 1200 calories a day. Also, how many 250 pound people do you know that have the will power to cut back so much on what they’re eating? There’s a reason why 250 pound people weight that much.  

Someone who’s 300 pounds seems to lose weight so much faster in the beginning than someone who just needs to lose 15 or 20 pounds. That 300 pound person may have been consuming 3000 calories a day or more, so when they cut back to 1800 calories or so, the initial results are quick. For someone who’s 175 pounds looking to lose 15, it’s much more difficult to cut out calories and not want to attack a bakery on a Wednesday afternoon in search of yummy snacks. Mmmm cupcakes. But I digress.  

Experts agree (and by experts I mean registered dieticians) – a calorie is a calorie. If you eat fewer calories than you need, you WILL lose weight. And while it is possible to lose weight eating cupcakes, ice cream and hot dogs, the problem is that you’re not going to feel very full. Basically, you’re not getting the biggest bang for your buck. That’s where macronutrients come in.  

Macronutrients are also a measure of energy. Per gram, the macronutrient calories for fat is 9 calories per gram. That means for every gram of fat, there are 9 calories. That’s why high fat foods have so many more calories than lower fat foods. An eight ounce rib eye steak has 469 calories and 24 grams of fat, whereas an eight ounce chicken breast has 374 calories and 8 grams of fat. And the chicken has more protein at 70 grams than the 63 grams for the rib eye.  

Both carbs and protein have 4 macronutrient calories per gram. That’s about half the calories of fat per gram. But that doesn’t mean you should bypass fats in your diets. To the contrary, that’s actually far more detrimental than you would expect. Healthy fats, such as those found in avocados and nuts, help increase our satisfaction, fill us up, and provide nutrients that are needed for healthy hair and nails, among other things.  

By now, if you’ve been trying to lose weight, you’ve heard about empty calories. That’s just the term used to describe calories that don’t have a lot of nutritional value, like refined sugars and the like. Cookies are empty calories, as are sugary sodas and most sugary fruit juices. High in sugar, low in other things that our bodies need to function.  

So, how does all this translate in to my own plan?  

Well, I use Lose It! to track my foods, and I am on WW as well. I’m working to lose more than 100 pounds total, but my next goal is to get down to 225. Ultimately, I want to get to 160. For the purposes of this exercise, I’m focusing only on calories, not the WW point system.  

As we’ve seen, I need to eat about 2150 calories a day to maintain my current weight and keeping my sedentary lifestyle. So in order to lose two pounds a week, I need to cut out and/or burn about 7000 calories a week, or 1000 a day. The standard wisdom is to increase my activity by 500 calories, and decrease my calories by the same amount. You’re looking for net calories here, not total. 

I should be able to increase my activity by about 500 calories a day and still be able to eat about 1600 calories and lose about two pounds a week. Or I could cut back to 1200 calories a day, maintain my current sedentary lifestyle, and lose about two pounds a day. Right now, according to my Lose It! app, which syncs with Apple Health and my Apple Watch, I’m averaging about 250 calories a day in burn. Along with a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day, that’s about right. I’m averaging about a pound and a half weight loss per week. So I think Lose It! is pretty spot on with it’s calculations.  

I currently have my desired weight loss per week set to two pounds. I could choose 1.5, 1 or even half a pound, but keeping it at two pounds per week should ensure I don’t get all crazy with my eating. I’m pretty happy right where I am.  

As for macros, for a standard diet, they should look something like this: 

Protein – 10-35%, or 160 to 560 calories  

Carbs – 45-65%, or 720 to 1040 calories 

Fat – 20-35%, or 320 to 560 calories 

I have found that I’m more satisfied and less likely to go crazy with snacking if I eat about 25-30% protein and about 25% fat, leaving me in the 45-50% range for carbs. Sometimes it’s a little more, sometimes a little less. But the more carbs I eat, the faster I get hungry. Think about when you go to eat Asian food, which is almost always very carb dense. In a couple of hours, you’re hungry again because you had a high carb, low protein and fat meal. But a meal of lean chicken breast, mixed vegetables and fruit leaves you feeling full for hours. If you miss breakfast, and grab a donut out of the breakroom, or a candy bar from the vending machine, you’re probably going to be a lot more hungry faster than if you had an omelet filled with veggies. That’s also why you need to pay attention to things like sugars and fats in protein bars! Sometimes “protein” bar is stretching it.  

All of this to say – if you’re leaving your calorie calculations to an app, and you feel like you may not be getting the results you’re expecting, this is one way to determine how accurate that app is when it comes to determining your calories. It should also help you to understand how and where to cut calories to get the results you’re looking for with weight loss.  

At some point in the future, I’ll examine how all of this can be translated in to the WW points system. 😊  

Hello everyone

Please bear with us as we move to a new host. Things are going to be sort of annoying for a little while (at least, to me), but I am working on getting things set up again.

Thanks for your support!

New Year, New Goals

Well, Christmas is over, and the new year is just around the corner. Over the next few days, I plan to get my studio back in order after the holiday rush. I have also cobbled together a few goals for the new year.

Resolutions, or Goals?

By this time, people are starting to make resolutions for the new year. But a few years ago, I realized that I don’t really care for resolutions. When they fall apart, I tend to get discouraged and then I give up, or lose sight of why I set the resolutions in the first place. That’s why I now set goals. These are the things that I want to accomplish in the months coming up. Sometimes the goals are long-term (two or more years to accomplish). Sometimes they are mid-term (up to two years). And then there are the monthly goals.

Long term goal

• Buy a long arm quilting machine set up

Mid-term goals

• Learn how to use EQ7 like a pro
• Master Embrilliance Essentials
• Understand how to digitize my own embroidery patterns using Stitch Artist (currently I own 1, but I’m not opposed to eventually upgrading to 2 & 3)

2019 Monthly Goals

OK, here’s where goals get a little tricky …

Current Projects

• Keep up with the $5 quilt blocks. I want to finish the blocks as soon as I pick them up, so they are ready to go on the designated day. It’s not nearly as much fun to wait until the last minute to make the block. In fact, it can be quite stressful. One wrong cut, or an accidental rip in the fabric would ruin the block. It is  disheartening to wait until the last minute to make the block, then ruin it.
• Sew for at least 15 minutes four days a week day. I’d love to sew every day. Realistically, I know that’s probably not possible.  Instead, I’m aiming for 15 minutes a day, four days a week. I love to sew; I find it incredibly relaxing. During the Christmas rush, I would come home and sew a little after work sometimes. Fatigue seemed to be held at bay when I was in my studio working. It didn’t completely stop me from being tired, but it did help.

Unfinished Projects

• No new projects until I have found and identified all UFOs. I have some I know are missing. They need to be found, and a special place needs to be established in the studio for them to await their finishing touches. Not only do I want to find them all, I want to finish them. So, I need to come up with a cohesive plan to finish UFOs. Maybe I can finish them and use them as Christmas gifts next year.

Sewing Education

• Take a sewing class in person. I watch classes on Bluprint like a fiend, but I haven’t ever taken one in person. I am going to take either a quilting or garment sewing class this year.

Equipment

• Consider selling Brother Persona PRS100 (may help in quest to buy a long arm).
• USE the equipment and supplies I have, not just stare at them thinking how cool it would be to make this or that, but not actually make this or that.

It’s somewhat ambitious, I know, but I’ve decided that the only way to improve is to get off my ass and get moving.

What are your sewing/quilting goals for 2019?