Weight Loss Journey

Part III - The Unfortunate Reality and How it Pertains to Me

Over a decade ago, soon after an immediate family member was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, I attended a Type II Diabetes lecture. There, I learned that the disease is very heredity. Soon after the lecture, I schedule an appointment with a nutritionist. I knew I could greatly reduce my risk of developing the disease by keeping my weight at a healthy level. At the time, I was a very healthy 119-lb college student who ate whatever and however much she wanted and had been her entire life. I knew this wasn't going to last because I had put on several pounds in just a few months time. I knew my ability to overeat, without paying a price, was coming to an end. I needed to get the specifics of how I should be eating, how much I could eat for my height, age, sex, etc. I wanted it spelled out for me. I wanted the facts.

I will never forget her or her office. In fact, I'm still reeling from the cold hard facts she spoke and then handed to me, printed out in black, on paper. Her office was cool, small, filled with books and dark. My mood soon become as dark as that office. We sat down to go over my family medical history, current eating and exercise habits. I swallowed hard and just told it how it was at the time, "I eat what I want, whenever I want and I haven't had time to exercise in months. I know this will all catch up to me eventually and I want to know how much I can eat, what I should be avoiding and so on. I want to know, specifically, how to maintain my weight."

She gave me a disapproving stare, turned to a file cabinet, reached in, her fingers quickly sliding to the appropriate folder and grabbed a few handouts from it. I glanced quickly at one of them. It was a weekly menu planner with suggestions. There wasn't much of what I would consider meals on there. At the bottom, I gasped. "1,200 calories? That's it? I thought I could eat 2,000 calories daily in order to maintain my weight."

She pressed her lips together and smiled tightly, "If you want to eat, you have to move. None of us really have the liberty of eating much if we're not going to exercise. And, you're not exercising. So you have no real liberties to eat more than three meals a day, with one or two very small snacks. If you start to exercise, you can add 300-500 hundred more calories to your total, depending on your intensity and length of time. Eating healthy and exercising is a lifestyle. You need to change your lifestyle. Fad diets don't work. Eat healthy foods, in moderation, splurge on a gooey treat only once a week and exercise consistently. Work up a sweat and don't think that a hard workout three times a week justifies overeating. It doesn't. Remember that."

I tried to argue with her. I remember even using the word, "unreasonable." But, she stood her ground. I left that office hating her. Hating her spoken and written truth. For a while, I hung onto those sheets of paper and tried to follow her meal plan (What college student is interested in a meal of chicken breast, steamed veggies and skinny mashed potatoes?). Eventually, I threw them out and began to eat what I wanted once again.

Last summer, when I decided I need to lose weight, her words came to mind again. Now, I linger on them, think about them when I eye a second helping or think about making a batch of cookies. My new motto, "I have every day of the rest of my life to eat." I tell myself, for instance, that there will be another piece of chocolate cake, perhaps even better, another time. It helps to repeat that over and over again to myself when I feel like baking cookies, brownies or even some favorite meals that I love so much, I know I won't be able to have just one helping.

1,200 calories is about where I'm still at. Due to the lack of childcare and DH's job, I can only hit the gym twice a week. I have seen a remarkable difference because, for me, weight training boosts my metabolism. Add a little cardio to that, keep my gym time consistent, throw in a walk along the beach, pushing Lila, once or twice more a week and, so far, I've been able to maintain the 20lb weight loss - though, I'd like to lose an additional five to seven pounds. I doubt it will happen until I can get in more cardio and weight-training time. I'm happy with where I am at now, however.

The reality of knowing how much I can and can't eat is still very difficult to deal with. Trying new foods, cooking, baking and socializing with friends in a food environment are my favorite things to do! I'm being honest with you when I say that food is on my mind all day. From the moment I wake up, until I go to bed, I think about food - upwards to every 15-minutes. It goes something like this in my mind:

What will I make next? If I make that (whatever it may be), will I be able to have only one helping? No, I won't. So, what can I make that I'd be less likely to over-indulge on? I'm hungry. I want a snack. Will a cup a tea fill me up and help me make it through until dinner? I really want that apple. That'd be a good snack. Yeah, with a bit of peanut butter. But, I'm allergic to apples. Well, those fresh, local strawberries look good too. But, I'm allergic to those too. What can I have? I should give up now and just make those damn cookies. No, I can't do that because we have that Hail and Farewell on Sunday and the host makes the best desserts - I'll save my weekly indulgence until then. Tea with honey and milk will do...

The hardest part - not cooking brownies and cookies and such with my girls. I cannot bake often and I cannot have anything enticing in my house. I will eat it. All. When I first started this, my girls felt a little deprived, as I now don't even keep juice in the house. They begged and screamed for their normal snacks. But, you know what? They don't NEED all that stuff. My family medical history is also theirs. They may as well learn to eat healthy along with me! Within two weeks of cutting out the junk, they were eating fruit like candy and had stopped whining. They are happy as larks when we go out to eat; about once a week. Usually, a favorite Indian restaurant in which we let them indulge on juice, ice cream and sweet naan. Sometimes, we'll head to a local Portuguese restaurant and they'll share homemade vegetable soup, french fries, rice and, of course, juice. There's a time and a place for indulging and in our home, we try our best to keep it to a minimum and save it for eating out or get-togethers.

People have asked for tips on weight loss and I think my biggest tip would be this: See a nutritionist. Most insurance companies will pay for the visit. Go over your personal and family medical history, goals and concerns you have. Seeing a nutritionist, in my opinion, is the most sensible way to start a lifestyle change. You'll find out what YOUR body needs and doesn't need. Skip the fad diet. Who really can stay on the Atkin's diet forever? Fact: NO ONE. No one even wants to and when people go off that diet, they gain all their weight back anyway. You may not, like me, like what the nutritionist has to say. You may find yourself angry. The undeniable truth can really tick you off. I've been able to find support by confiding in friends and family members and also, by blogging about it a little bit. Do not despair. You can find your way.

Dusting off The Bread Machine

Several years ago, my mother bought me a bread machine. You know, around the time that they were all the rage. Everyone had one. If I remember correctly, twice I used a recipe in the manual. A generic white loaf of bread. It was good. But, nothing to write home about. After that, for whatever reason, I reached for a boxed bread mix, specifically for bread machines. Eventually, the machine got stuffed in a dusty corner of my pantry and has, pretty much, stayed there.

Recently, I read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." It's a great book, with some great recipes and pertains to subjects I'm becoming more and more passionate about (read the reviews and book description at Amazon). The subjects covered in the book are subjects I, personally, think everyone should start thinking seriously about. However, I'm not going to get into it on the blog because, you know, I tend to get to preachy and drawn out.

Anyway, the author's husband wrote a snippet in the book that got me thinking about that bread machine collecting dust in a cupboard. He suggests experimenting with different flours and recipes and make your own bread. Not only did he remind me how easy it was, he reminded me how inexpensive it is to make your own bread, compared to buying a healthy loaf of bread in the store. In fact, I was discussing, with my mom, the price of a loaf of healthy bread the other day. Bread that doesn't have HFCS, artificial flavors, colors, etc. She told me that the kind she gets is over $4 a loaf and it's not even organic!

So, I pulled out my new King Arther Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook and made whole wheat rolls and sandwich bread using the knead cycle on my bread machine. Just throw in your wet ingredients, followed by flour, salt, butter (if called for) and yeast and hit the dough option. The machine will knead it, allow it to rise in a great environment and, when done, you just have to punch it down, shape it, let it rise one final time and throw it in the oven. AHHH, the smell of fresh bread baking in my oven. Obviously, you can just push the bread cycle of choice and it'll do the whole loaf from start to finish. However, the wheat rolls required shaping. Oliva helped me punch down the dough, cut it into 16-pieces and then roll into balls. Helping me out made her very eager to see the finished product and give them a taste test (she approved).

I love that I only have to spend five-ten minutes measuring and dumping the ingredients into the machine, hitting a button and being done with it (unless I'm shaping the dough, in which I take it out after the first rise). There are bread machine recipes galore online. I've been having fun browsing.

For now, I'll probably experiment once a week or so. The bread here, in Portugal, is great and inexpensive. So, I'll mostly eat that while I can! But, when we move back to the States, I plan on buying my flour, yeast, etc., in bulk and making bread and rolls throughout the week.

I'm wondering. What do you all think of bread machines (I do make bread using the dough hook on my mixer - but, this post, in particular, is about the bread machine)? Do you use it? If not, have you thought about it lately, especially with the cost of food up? Do you have any recipes you'd like to share?

Recipe Corner: Apple Muffins

I made these muffins this morning and the girls have ate these and fruit all day. They love them! When my girls love a new, healthy recipe, I just have to post it (I love them too-possibly the best healthy apple muffin recipe I've found)! I did not use pecans and I used plain yogurt instead of the buttermilk. I made these in mini-muffin tins because the girls rarely have enough room in their bellies for a whole muffin (and I like snack-size muffins to hold them over when I'm making lunch, dinner, car rides, etc).


Apple Muffins

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk or 3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch pieces

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-capacity muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar, the pecans and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and oil until combined. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla.

Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. Gently stir in the apple chunks.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan mixture. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15-minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

219 calories - one regular-sized muffin

Please note: Direct link on blog sidebar.