Core WW Cherry Cheesecake Smoothie

I switched to the Weight Watchers Core program over a week ago and lost 4.6 pounds my first week. I continued to do it this week, and am guessing I will have another loss, although I won’t find out until Wednesday morning.

 No counting points, I just eat as much as I want from the Core food list until I feel satisfied. Plus I still can earn and eat my activity points and eat 35 points for my weekly allowance. It’s much easier, plus I’m paying more attention to my body, hunger and fullness signals.

Here is one of my new Core dessert recipes.

Cherry Cheesecake Smoothie

1 cup skim milk
1 cup frozen cherries
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tsp sugar free fat free cheesecake instant Jello pudding
1/2 cup of ice

Add to a blender and mix until smooth. Delicious!

I love my heart rate monitor

 

My Polar F11 arrived in the mail last Tuesday night, and I took it for a test drive starting Wednesday at my one hour spin class. I ordered it from http://www.heartratemonitorsusa.com/ which was recommended by community members on the Weight Watchers website.

It comes with 3 pieces, a wrist watch unit, a chest strap with electrodes, and a transmitter that snaps onto the chest strap.

I picked this particular model because it works with my Virgin HealthMiles, plus the reviews said the strap was more comfortable than the F4 or F6, and the transmitter had a changeable battery unlike the other models. I choose the pretty blue color too.

The set up was super easy; I just entered the date, time, my weight, age and a few other key pieces of information. I also had to take a Fitness Level test which is similar to the VO2max test and scored a “Good”.

I then figured out how to start recording my workouts and was impressed with the amount of calories I was burning. I think it also made me work out extra hard, plus I kept looking at my wrist to see what my number my heart rate was at.

After the workout, I needed to figure out how to download my info to the computer and put it on Polar Personal Trainer. I’m used to downloading my steps on the pedometer with a USB cable, but this little sucker was different. I got the software, and just hold up the wrist watch to my microphone, and it chirps, beeps and hums the info across the net.

Polar Personal Trainer keeps track of all my info including my time, calories burned, percent of fat burned and heart rate zones. Here are my results from a week’s worth of workouts:

Day	Activity	Time	Calories	% Fat Burned
Wednesday	Spin	1:03	655	45%
Thursday	Step	1:00	515	55%
Friday	Body Pump & Elliptical	1:12	595	55%
Saturday	Boot Camp	1:01	720	40%
Monday	Boot Camp & Treadmill 2 mile walk	1:36	811	55%
Tuesday	Cardio	1:00	363	60%

I then learned how to calculate my calories burned and turn them into Activity Points (AP) so I can eat extra points on WW. It’s not official, but some WW members told me 100 calories = 1 activity point. They also said I must eat my AP’s the same day I earn them.

I’m in love with my monitor. It even gave me a trophy at the end of the week. I’m not sure why, but hey, I rocked on my workouts last week!

Holiday parties are all about the food

It’s a miracle. I just completed three days of holiday parties without gaining more than a pound. I don’t know how I did it, but I’m not going to argue with the scale.

Wednesday kicked off the start with a little “sweet” holiday soiree by a department at work other than my own. It was held in the afternoon and only had desserts and sweets which included cake, chocolate crème puffs, cinnamon sugar covered walnuts, cookies, fruit, ice cream and Ghirardelli chocolates. If you know me at all, I have a rather large sweet tooth, so I indulged in most of the goodies, and even included some fruit on my plate.

Thursday was my husband’s holiday party during the work day at his place of employment. Spouses were not technically invited, but I snuck in. Their spread of dishes included many healthy options like salad, sandwiches, vegetarian dishes, and of course the dessert tray with an assortment of lemon bars, cheesecake bars, cookies and other treats. For beverages they had smoothies, and for dessert they had sorbet! The main dishes were too delicious for me to know it was healthy for me.

Friday night was our company’s party, held at the Signature Theatre in Shirlington, where spouses were invited. Timed from 4-8pm, we got my sister to be our sitter, and arrived a little before 5pm. We each got two drink tickets, and beer and wine was served until 5, and then after the full bar opened.

Dinner was more of an appetizer/buffet style with two tables of food. It wasn’t ready until about 5pm either. One table had an Asian food theme going on with spring rolls. They were being hand rolled and the line was enormous.

The other spread was more American style with mini grilled cheese sandwiches that had salmon or ham inside. They also had glasses with chicken and a whole grain we couldn’t figure out at the bottom, followed by grilled meat of some sort and grilled mushrooms. This was the shorter line, so I started here first.

My main complaint, no dessert table to begin with. From 5pm – 7pm, it was drinks, and two tables of food. At 7, they brought out the dessert.

Now if I’m planning what I want to eat, I want to see all of my options in front of me! I didn’t know if the dessert would be fabulous or just average, and if I should hold back on my dinner choices.

In the end, the dessert was just slightly above average. They had fruit on kabobs, some mini spice cake/brownie things, but the best part was the servers who went around carrying trays of chocolates. My husband spotted them first, brought me two, brought me another one, and on my way out I grabbed two more. They were a variety of dark and milk chocolate on the outside and different crèmes on the inside. The only one I didn’t care for was the coffee flavored one.

Sure there were drinks and dancing, but for me it’s all about the food.

My two highlights of the evening, the chocolates and taking a snap shot of our VP doing the DJ Casper Cha Cha Slide dance.

Turning walking into jogging

I watched the PBS special Marathon Challenge a few weeks ago, and it inspired me to try to run. Not a marathon mind you, but just start running. Vera was cool; she had lost over 85 pounds before starting the program. Betsy wanted to loose weight, so that’s why she started training.

I learned during the program that man could outrun his meals way back in the day, but if I had to outlast my next meal, I don’t think I’d be eating very much.

One of my friends, B, downloaded a spreadsheet and passed it along to me to begin a running program by alternating walking with running. It has a plan where you run for 2 minutes, walk for 4 minutes, and gradually increase your running over 9 weeks till you can run for 30 minutes straight.

I finished my master’s program, so need a new challenge. I bought a sport watch, a Timex, and bought a few pairs of running shorts on clearance. These are my first, and I found them interesting to try on. I ran in a pair yesterday, with no underwear, since they have ones built in. The little pocket inside for your key was cool too. 

I came home yesterday evening, and the temp on the local sign said 64 degrees. It was nice, so I decided to take a walk/jog! I put on my shorts, sports bra, t-shirt, pedometer, placed my keys in my underwear and hit the pavement before 5:30 p.m.

This was my second attempt at the walk/jog thing. My last one was over a week ago, last Monday, but then I got busy with my classes at the gym. I got home before 5pm, so it was still light out then, but yesterday it was already dark.

I started out with a walk down my street, heading towards the main road. When I reached our tennis courts, I started jogging. I did not bring my watch. I huffed and puffed till I got too tired and then walked. I alternated this walking and jogging thing for what seemed to take forever. I headed out of my sub division, on the main road, down another side road, turned around and heading back home.

I arrived home sweaty, at about 6 p.m.; imagine my surprise when I thought I had been gone for nearly an hour, and it was only 30 minutes. That’s after I had stretched too.

I logged about 4,000 steps on my pedometer, so about 2 miles. On my way home tonight, I drove and restarted my odometer to estimate how much I had done. It was exactly 2 miles.

The running shorts did not perform as good as I expected. The underwear part was nice, but I still had the riding up the fat thighs thing going on, but luckily it was dark so no one could see. My sports bra however, did perform very well.

So I did it again tonight, but this time in pants. It was much colder and windy out. My hips hurt, my shins hurt, but I’ll try to increase my running till I can run the whole two miles. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it by the end of January.

Thankfully my pants did not ride up. I much prefer running in them over shorts.

Maybe I’ll try a 5K in 2008?

I better wait and see if I can make it to January first.

Culture Jam book review

Culture Jam

I started this book, Culture Jam How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – And Why We Must, towards the end of grad school, and just picked it up again and finished it this past week. I’ve wanted to read it for a few years now, and finally got around to it. It’s authored by the founder of Adbusters Magazine, Kalle Lasn.

A few points I found particularly interesting and relevant to food, fat and consumerism. In the chapter, The End of the American Dream, Lasn writes about postwar America and says “People gobbled takeout and started getting fat.” He concludes the chapter with a story of Elvis getting fat, and his death “Elvis devoured pills and fried-banana-and-peanut-butter sandwiches, suppressing the pain of being Elvis and seemingly trying to lose himself inside his own expanding girth.”

He likens the Elvis story to the old American Dream. “Our bodies, minds, families, communities, the environment – all are consumed.”

He also writes in the chapter Demarketing Loops about uncooling fast food, and uncooling the fashion industry. The book was published in 1999, and I had forgotten some of the advertising campaigns he mentions, but reading about them brought back memories.  He writes about the 1995 Calvin Klein campaign where young models were filmed in basements and were so offensive they were investigated by the U.S. Justice department.

Interspersed with the text are samples of his spoof ads and un-commercials including the Obsession Fetish 30 second TV spot.

I loved this paragraph,

“The first stage of demarketing our bodies involves realizing the true source of our self-esteem problems. It’s important to understand that we ourselves are not to blame. Body-image distortions, eating disorders, dieting and exercise addictions….They’re are responsibility, but they are not our fault. The issue is primarily a cultural and corporate one, and that’s the level on which it must be tackled. We must learn to direct our anger, not inwardly at ourselves, but outwardly at the beauty industry.”

The book is a little dated, but still very relevant. A lot has changed in 8 years, but we are still facing the environmental crisis that we were back then, including the assaults on our minds, bodies and the environment by corporate America. 

Shut down your computer, turn off your TV; pick up this book and read.

Fat workout clothes and sports bras

Fat fashion is kind of an oxymoron. Try finding workout clothes that look decent, fit comfortably and are affordable in plus sizes. One of many issues is that in addition to being fat, I’m also tall and frugal.

I did have some pretty comfortable Curves workout shirts from my days working out there, but don’t really like wearing them to my new gym. Also, when doing jumping jacks and arm stretches above my head, my fat belly tends to hang out and is quiet embarrassing. I needed to find some new workout shirts. I looked at the tag in one of my Curves shirts and it had the label Quail Hallow, so I did a search and found some at Care Free Casuals.

They have plain scoop necks or v-necks and are only about $4 each, so I bought three. They are cut generously and long enough to hide my gut most of the time, and come in a long sleeve version for fall and winter.

I usually wear biker shorts or comfortable pants when working out, but finding sports bras is also difficult if you are a size D. They can run pretty high too if they are good ones. The sports bra Oprah recommends, Enell, is $60 per bra.

I went to try one on this weekend at Sports Her Way (which was referenced on the Enell website), took it to the dressing room and did a little jogging in place. I wasn’t that impressed. It performed about the same as my other sports bras from Target.

I did need a new sports bra though, so I bought one on clearance for $24. Yesterday I went for a walk and alternated running in there too, and it performed pretty well.

I’ll stick to my cheap sports bras.

Love Your Body Day

It’s not always easy to love our bodies. Especially if you are overweight and the world tells you that you should lose weight.

I do not love my body when it steps on the scale and even though I’ve been working out hard and eating right, the numbers fail to go down.

But today is Love Your Body Day, so I’m going to tell you what I love about my body.

I love my womb which made and carried my daughter for over 9 months, and my breasts which fed her nearly 9 months after she entered the world. I love my arms to hold her and my hips which still carry her occasionally.

I love my long legs and feet; they took me for an 11,000 step 2 hour walk this morning, two 3 mile walks, plus three workouts at the gym this past week.

Go take the I love My Body Pledge, it’s good stuff:

I, (Name), pledge to speak kindly about my body.

I promise not to talk about how fat my thighs or stomach or butt are, or
about how I really have to lose 5 or 15 or 50 pounds. I promise not to call
myself a fat pig, gross, or any other self-loathing, trash-talking phrase.

I vow to be kind to myself and my body. I will learn to be grateful for its
strength and attractiveness, and be compassionate toward its failings.

I will remind myself that bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and that no
matter what shape and size my body is, it’s worthy of kindness, compassion, and love.

What do you love about your body?

Candy and Halloween

Only 15 more days until Halloween, but between now and then I have at least three parties to attend, two of them with my daughter. If you know anything about me, candy is a weakness of mine. Especially at this time of year.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I don’t know if that’s because of the candy or dressing up. Even before I had a kid, Halloween was my favorite. Mark down candy for me as a reason. We have a friend who is a dentist, and you can guess the holiday that she hates.

My daughter’s first Halloween she was only 6 months old, and I dressed her up as a lady bug and took her trick-or-treating. Granted only to the neighbors that knew us, but I still got candy and ate it all since she couldn’t eat it. The next year she was Minnie Mouse and I allowed her a few pieces of candy. Who ate the rest? Guess.

Last year she was a cowgirl, and the prettiest little cowgirl you ever saw. By this time she was a great walker, and we covered a good deal of our neighborhood taking in one pumpkin plus a bag full of candy. I helped hold her stash. That year I found out she was a chocolate freak like me.

This year, she’s 3 and a half. Since I’m trying to get serious about this weight loss thing, I have to change my strategy. I’ve decide I’m going to let her dress up and take her trick-or-treating, but only to a few neighbors houses to show off her outfit. Then we will return home to watch a movie! I guess I’m going to have to buy her a new movie to make it more appealing than trick-or-treating, but I’ll do whatever it takes to try and keep a ton of candy out of my house.

Now the other dilemma is that I have children coming to MY house to trick-or-treat.  I don’t want to be a super downer and hand out pretzels and raisins, but if I end up buying candy to give out, who ends up eating it? A strategy I deployed one year was only buying candy I didn’t like. That doesn’t leave much available, but I think I bought Almond Joys and Mounds, about the only chocolate that doesn’t really do it for me. Not chocolate related, I’m not a huge fan of Skittles, but I will eat them in small quantities.

I also don’t want to hand out those cheesy little cheap toys or non edible things. What would you recommend I dish out to all the little ghouls and goblins that come to visit?

Las Tapas for lunch

Went to lunch on Sunday afternoon with two girlfriends/past co-workers. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen them, and we decided to meet at Las Tapas on King Street in Alexandria. My friend A had been there before, but the rest of us had not.

I arrived a little early and snagged two tables outside. It was in the shade and a beautiful day.

I got an iced tea from the server and waited for the others to join me. I had already decided I wanted the calamari (fried and oh so healthy), but was trying to decide between the gambas (shrimp) or a quesadilla.

To sum it up, the food was excellent but the service stunk. We had between 2 to 3 gentlemen serving us but they would often disappear for long periods at a time.

The pub across the street was crowded and every so often we’d hear a loud roar of cheering coming from inside. I theorized that our waiters were watching the game.

Waiter didn’t get a drink for A, but did get one for J. L’s soda was flat, and she had trouble ordering a replacement due to a language barrier (a bottle of sparkling water). Our tapas and entrees came out scattered in about 3 runs, 15 minutes between the first delivery and the second. J’s salad came with no dressing. We also had trouble getting silverware.

After getting my calamari, I realized it had no sauce, and had to ask for sauce which by the time I got it, the squid was cold. It only took two hours for the whole lunch. We felt very European.

I had a nice visit with my friends, and we caught up with each other, so that was the highlight. I raved about the new show Pushing Daisies, and plan to watch the second episode tonight.

Of course, the food was really good, so maybe I’ll give them another try sometime with the husband and the kid. That will really put them to the test.

Buttermilk Biscuit memories

One of my favorite childhood memories is of Saturday morning and making buttermilk biscuits with my dad. He would make up a batch from scratch, and let us kids help roll out the dough and cut out circles. It was a ritual, and probably helped create my love of baking. I still adore hot out of the oven biscuits, drizzling honey on top of them, and eating while warm. They even taste good later in the day cold too.

I have the original recipe, which I think may be from Betty Crocker, but have lighted it up a bit and reduced the shortening and substituted some whole wheat flour for white. I learned some of the tips from the book Secrets of Fat-Free Baking, but you do really have to experiment to find the right combination of fat ingredients vs. no-to-low fat ingredients.

I use whole wheat pastry flour which results in better texture than regular whole wheat flour. I also use unbleached white flour. I stuck with the tablespoon of sugar instead of substituting Splenda, but I did reduce the shortening by half and substituted with unsweetened applesauce.

Low-Fat Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour (pastry flour)	1 cup all purpose flour (unbleached)
1 tbsp sugar	2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda	1 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening	1/8 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup fat free buttermilk

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in shortening. Stir in milk and applesauce. Place dough on floured surface. Knead lightly 10 times. Roll or pat to 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured 2 to 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter. Place on un greased cookie sheet one inch apart. Bake 10-12 minutes. Serve warm.

Each biscuit is approximately 2.5 points. Makes about 12-13 biscuits. Serve with honey, jam or other favorite topping, and let the kids help roll and cut the dough. Great memories making and baking biscuits with the family.