The Sunny Side of Life

I just have to say that I feel awesome!  Sure, I’ve only lost 6.5 lbs.  (although that’s been in only 10 days, so that IS something great, too!)….but I just feel BETTER!  Lighter, and just healthier.  I KNOW this combination of diet theories is right for me.  It’s a good mix of the Mediterranean plan, Preventation Magazine’s Flat Belly Diet, and South Beach.  (yes, they are all pretty similar.)  Eating much, much less carbs and keeping the proteins low in bad fat is DEFINITELY good for me.  My mental outlook, on Day Eleven, is awesome, too.  I haven’t even been tempted to “cheat.”  I KNOW what I’m doing is right, I can feel the change, and I guess I’m just in the right place (emotionally) at the right time to finally do this and get my life straight.   Yesterday morning was UBER stressful at work, and I just popped 2 cashews at what would’ve been the “lose it” point, refilled my water glass, then mentally smiled and patted myself on the back and forged on.  YAY me!    I know there will be REALLY crappy days ahead.  Life’s like that.  I know there will be uber temptations.  Life’s like that, too.  But I have so much drive and determination right now, it feels like enough for an army of people, let alone just lil’ ole me.  (in the figurative sense.  LOL)

And the mental game (with myself) of meeting the challenges continues on.  I’m leaving for Vegas tonight.  Won’t come back until late Friday.  But I’m not worried.  I’m already mentally planning what I will and won’t be eating.  It doesn’t feel like deprivation.  It feels like honoring my body and my goals and what I deserve to do to continue feeling so great, if not even better!  I’ve even packed a swimsuit, and plan to use it!  Heart be still, I haven’t done that on a trip for over 5 years!!! 

cya guys on Saturday! 

~ Sunnie

You probably are asking yourself, “what the heck is she talking about?”  What I’m talking about is THE NECK should be our guide.  When we are wanting to snack, we need to check in with our neck.  Something along the lines of “Dear neck, is the hunger below you, or above you?”  If the hunger is below the neck-in the belly-feed it.  If the hunger is above the neck-in the brain….it’s an emotional need, not actual body hunger.  (this insight compliments of The Flat Belly Diet.)  ALL of us who are overweight are emotional eaters.  To solve the problem, we need to find / develop other coping strategies.  And I don’t just mean a distraction (like cleaning out the closet.)  Too often, we fail to take the very important  steps of first identifying the emotions we are experiencing, and then FEELING them.  If you are feeling sad, watch a tearjerker and let yourself have a good cry.  Addressing the emotion instead of trying to mask it is the best way to release ourselves from the emotional desire to eat.

So, I want to thank my neck for being there.  I want to start paying more attention to it.  I want to stop mindless eating, and start paying attention to what’s really hungry, and why.

p.s.  I did 50 min. of exercise yesterday!  20 min. walking after lunch at work and 30 min. of dancing last night.  Won’t be able today because I was uber busy at work and packing/getting ready for our trip to Vegas tonight (and watching Biggest Loser.)  Been great with the diet, too.  Feeling good about this, and KNOW I will be good in Vegas!

It’s the day I start exercising!  LOL  Well, I’m going to start at lunch.  After lunch, I’m going to walk at least 15 minutes around the area where I work.  I want to build this to 30 min. a day.  NEED to do this because my first challenge (May) is starting Friday.  I do have my iPod with my “music to work out to” playlist (all my favorite dance tunes) and my Supah Dupah™ Bose headphones with me.  I’ll be the old chick outside rawked out as she bee-bopps to dance tunes!  Tonight, after work, but before I start dinner, I will get back to my dancing.  Basically doing the same thing (iPod playlist), but this time attached to the TV’s sound system for maximum effect.   LOL

The GOAL is to do this 5-6 days out of the week.  I MUST build up to 1 hrs. exercise a day.  Must, must, MUST.  The problem in the past 6 months is I’ll start, then one or the other of my knees starts to ache, and I stop for days and days.  It’s a vicious cycle; I’m sure the knees hurt because I’m carrying too much frickin’ weight, but I need to exercise to lose the weight.    So, if the knees start hurting again, unless it’s SHARP pain, I’m just gonna try to ignore it.  Maybe scale back the intensity, but NOT STOP.  Make sure that I stretch good before I start, too.  That’s key.

ONLY TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL VEGAS, BABY!!!!

~ Sunnie

Well, today I’m cooking a 21 lb. + turkey!  I was given a turkey, last minute, as a Christmas gift by a customer at work (nice gift!), and Christmas was going to be at my younger daughter’s and she had already bought her bird, so this was extra.  It’s been taking up way too much of my freezer space, so I decided to cook the darned thing.  LOL  But the white turkey meat is going to be GREAT for me, so it’s all good.  What isn’t so good is the homemade dressing, and (dearly departed) Dad’s special turkey gravy recipe.  Oh, don’t get me wrong; they are both DELICIOUS.  But ‘not so good’, obviously, for someone who is choosing to eat healthy and low-cal.  I can make the dressing easily without “taste testing.”  The gravy, not so much.  It’s a very non-scientific blend of seasonings, that really can only be perfectly achieved by taste-testing.  I simply must use itsy-bitsy, tip-of-the-spoon only taste tests.  I can’t rely on Mr. Sunnie for this; he’s a typical ‘guy’, not a chef.  (not that I am either, but I digress.  )  And I mean the TINIEST tip of the spoon.  The good news, we’ve invited my mom to come join us for this meal, so she’ll be here.  I KNOW, I’ll have HER do the bulk of the taste testing!  Problem virtually solved!  I’m going to make a giant Romaine-lettuce salad, and NOT make our family-famous green bean dish (not the well known one, this one is completely different and fabulous, but very high-fat with lots of margerine and worse yet heavy whipping cream, but I digress again)….  I’ll make rolls for them.  Rolls have been a huge part of my weight issues, but I seem to be as able to cold-turkey quit them as I was with alcohol almost ten months ago, so THAT’S been probably the most pleasant surprise of this new journey.  ANYHOW, if I can just stick, during the dinner, to eating the turkey and the salad, with a tiny dollop of dressing with NO gravy (which is uber bad for my kidney stone situation as well as my weight), I’ll be doing great.  Then we’ll have all of that leftover turkey to get me through now and Wednesday.  At that point, I’ll freeze what’s left, since we are going to Vegas and won’t be back until probably late on Friday.  And my freezer is FREE FREE FREE.  woohoo!

Also, we always have a big breakfast one of the two days of the weekend, and today’s the day.  But I’m just having the egg, a small amount of the hashed browns, and only 1 strip of bacon.  MUCH better than how I normally load up the entire plate, including normally FOUR strips of bacon.  THAT kind of (stupid) eating is what got me here.  Is what made me use to say, without fail, “I am SO full.  I’m gonna need to wait 10-15 minutes before we can shower.”  Geesh!  (and, erm, yes, on weekends we shower together.  TMI, probably….LOL)  But no more!  No more mindless eating with no regard to my body or my health.  My friends, those days are OVER.  As I’ve said before, I’m just too old and my life is just too valuable for that crap anymore!

Have a BEAUTIFUL Sunday! 

~ Sunnie

Not going to do a new post for each day’s meal.  Will take it in weekly junks, and keep updating.  I KNOW this isn’t a week….but I leave for Vegas after work on Wed., so I’m just going to do this because I’m not going to keep track for posting what I eat there.  Although I fully intend to be good. 

Saturday 4/25:

Breakfast:  1 Thomas’ whole wheat English muffin, 1 tbsp. I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter Light, and about a dozen whole, unsalted almonds (MUFA!).

Lunch:  1 grilled beef hamburger patty, with skim milk cheddar melted on top, 1 tbsp guacamole (MUFA!), and some grilled onions.

Snack:  1 tsp. peanut butter (MUFA) and 3 low fat Wheat thins.

Dinner:  1 steak (guess about 6 oz.),  a romaine salad with a few dried cranberries & lite tortilla strips,  and low fat Blue Cheese dressing.

Drank all my water (80 oz. plus) for the day, throughout.

Sunday 4/26:

Breakfast:  2 slices bacon, about 1/2 C. potatoes O’Brien, and 1 egg, scrambled.  1 tsp. of non-fat sour cream on potatoes.  Potatoes cooked in extra light olive oil.  (MUFA!)

No lunch.

Dinner:  1 slice turkey, 2 C. romaine with a few dried cranberries, and some tortilla strips, and 2 tbsp. low fat Blue Cheese dressing, with 2 tbsp. dressing, and 1 tsp. of gravy.

Drank about 60 oz. of water today.

Monday, 4/27:

Breakfast:  12 whole, raw, unsalted almonds (MUFA!), 12 cashews (MUFA!), and about 25 low-fat cheesits.  16 oz. water.

Lunch:  1 piece of real turkey breast, and a romaine salad (about a cup, or 1.5 C of the romaine) with 10-12 dried cranberries, about 1/4 C. skim milk grated cheese , 1/4 C. lightly salt tortilla strips, and 2 tbsp. dressing that is half guac and half low fat Blue Cheese dressing. 16 oz water.

Snack:  about 6 fresh strawberries and they were SO sweet!!!!  Or is it me, just having lost the taste for sweet?  hehe

Dinner:  2 pieces of sliced turkey breast, 1 tbsp. of dressing, and about a half cup of the salad above, but without the tortilla strips, and the dressing was only the low fat Blue Cheese.  16 oz. water

Had more water throughout the day to push past my 80 oz.  :)  Another pretty good day! 

Tuesday, April 28th:

Breakfast:  12 almonds (MUFA!), 8 cashews (MUFA!), and a whole wheat muffin with 1 tbsp. of ICBINB-lite.  Plus 16 oz. water.

Lunch:  1.5 slices turkey, 1 tbsp. peanut butter (MUFA!), and 1 non-fat Yoplait.  Plus 16 oz. water.

Dinner:  1.5 slices turkey, 1 tbsp. dressing, and about 8 mini (baby) carrots.  16 oz. of water.

Drank an additional 40 oz. of water throughout the day and night, AND danced through EVERY commercial break of Biggest Loser!  WOOHOO

Well, I’ll be wearing my Chargers powder blue jersey today, but that’s about all that’s going to be the same.  I will NOT be over-eating or drinking wine….nope.  Those days are over.  Mr. Sunnie IS going to grill, but whatever it is (at the time of this writing, he hadn’t decided LOL)…I won’t be having the bun.  I’ll have him grill up some onions to go with whatever, add about a quarter cup of 2% skim grated cheese to it, a dollop of guacamole (MUFA!)….and call it a afternoon.  Although I do have fresh strawberries and pineapple to snack on, instead of chips and dip.  yummmmm   I think I’ll add one or two fresh strawberries to my chilled water, in a beautiful goblet.  Who needs wine when you can pretty up water and lose weight, I say?  

Before that, going to run to one of the local Pier One Import’s that is, sadly, going out of business.  Hope to pick up a few things at a discount, even though I’ll feel like a shark circling its prey…..

ONLY FIVE DAYS UNTIL VEGAS! 

On 4/18/09 I started Prevention Magazine’s Flat Belly Diet plan.  (on 5/8, I modified it to align with South Beach.  See that editing further below.)  Basically, it’s the very healthy Mediterrean Diet, with a side of MUFA magic tossed as the dressing.  :)  MUFA’s are mono-unsaturated fatty acids:  the GOOD fats/oils.  The ones that are great for your heart.  Well, it ends up that recent studies have proven that MUFA’s also attack the visceral fat around your belly.  Although you have to eat them carefully, if you eat a small portion of any one of the many MUFA’s at each meal, it WILL increase your belly fat loss.

MUFA’s are:

• Nuts and Seeds:
  • almonds / almond butter
  • brazil nuts
  • cashews
  • hazelnuts
  • macadamia nuts
  • pecans
  • peanuts
  • pine nuts
  • pumpkin seeds
  • sunflower seeds (eat ‘em without salt)
  • walnuts
• Oils
  • canola
  • flaxseed
  • olive
  • peanut
  • pesto sauce
  • safflower
  • soybean
  • sunflower
  • sesame
  • walnut
• Avocados
• Chocolate (yes, chocolate!!!  :)  )
  • but it has to be semi-sweet or dark chocolate.  None of that fattier milk chocolate. 

Anyhow, that’s the FBD in a nutshell (no pun intended….much.  LOL)  Keep it low fat and as salt free as possible.  Lots of fruits and veggies and small amounts of MUFA’s 3 meals a day.  They want you to eat every 4 hours, 400 calories each time, but that’s too much.  (until I get faithful to 1 hour of exercise a day.)  I try to stay at 1200 calories a day.  Anything less and the body goes into metabolic starvation and sabotages you.

Can’t tell you more; you’ll have to buy the book like I did. 

Edited to Add:

About 3 weeks into this, I decided to incorporate the Flat Belly Diet into the South Beach Diet.  That means restricted carbohydrates.  And virtually none of the ‘white carbs”  (’white’ starches like bread, crackers, rolls, cookies, etc….even white potatoes…)  Lots of protein, but very low fat/low calorie protein.  The overall plan is what is considered a “Mediterranean diet”….an emphasis on fresh vegetables and fruit, high in the MUFA’s and low on the bad fats….calorie conscious.  Things that are good for the heart, not just for reducing weight.  :)  AND/but, restricting as best I can ALL sugar and even sugar substitutes.  I find ( / agree with the research) that sugar subtitutes keep the sugar cravings alive.  If I have sugar subtitutes, it takes 3-4 days to re-lose the sugar cravings all over again.  So I rarely, rarely even use sugar subtitutes. 

Breakfast:

12 raw almonds (MUFA!), 10 cashews (MUFA!), 29 low-fat Cheesits, 1/2 banana (worse inside than it looked from the front), 1 16 oz. glass of water

Lunch:

One cheese (monterey jack) quesadilla with 2 tbsp. guacamole (MUFA!) and 1/2 tbsp. sour cream.  1 16 oz. bottle of water.

Dinner:

1/2 C. cooked ground turkey breast, using Penzey’s no-salt Italian Seasoning, 1 tbsp. non-fat refried beans, 2 tbsp. guacamole (MUFA!), and 1/4 C 2% skim milk grated mexican cheese.  20 oz. bottled water.

Not bad! 

How many times have we fatties* said, “It’s the weekend!  I’m not eating this every day!” or “I’m really stressed out!  I’m not eating this all the time!”  or “I’m bored, so just this tiny bit” or “It’s so delicious!  I don’t get to have this every day so I’m going to enjoy it!”  or “I don’t get to this restaurant very often (or eat out very often), so I’m going to enjoy myself!” and then, before we know it, you add up all the little excuses and reasons for eating what we KNOW we shouldn’t…and suddenly we are dozens and dozens of pounds over weight.   IT HAS TO STOP.  Seriously.  Literally.  IT HAS TO STOP.

I’m discovering that it’s becoming fun to quietly, inwardly challenge myself in those times now.  Instead of giving in to the easy fall-back/eat it mode, I’m challenging myself to eat during those times healthy and within the caloric framework I know I need to continue at to lose all of the weight I need to lose.  Can I go to any restaurant and personalize a meal enough to meet my new dietary standards?  I’ve just made it a game.  Prove to myself with a little forethought, I can pick a meal I like, have the kitchen sparse out the naughty elements of it, and end up eating a healthy meal that I still enjoy.  I’m competitive by nature, so it was just a matter of finding a way to challenge myself (and restaurant kitchens), to do it my new way.  So far, it’s working.  and I feel GREAT for pulling it off, each time that I do.  The self pats-on-the-back last far, far longer than the taste of the old food would’ve.  i.e., the rewards are better and longer lasting.  Isn’t that cool?!

*  I am what I am.  I am going to stop denying it….because it’s not going to last anyhow.  LOL 

A new “buddy” from a dieting online community told me today in a private message that she was going away for the weekend with her husband for wine-tasting.  She was afraid she might “blow” her diet for the weekend.  Here’s what I wrote her:

Just remember:  FAILURE IS NO LONGER AN OPTION.  There is NOTHING that tastes as good as being thin looks and feels.  Take charge of your dietary choices, don’t be a victim to them!  Come back feeling proud of your choices, not depressed and guilty!  I find making it a CHALLENGE to yourself to stay within your eating guidelines makes it fun!  Dare yourself to eat correctly!  Don’t succumb!  As far as the wine tasting goes, true wine tasting is a sip, a swirl in the mouth, and then SPITTING IT OUT.  I know.  I worked for the largest wine company in the USA for 7 years.  You have to just make the mental commitment to just no longer be a food victim, and take charge of your health.  Remember to do what’s best for you long term, not just for some moment’s that soon disappear, and then leave you with nothing but regret!  I’m banking on you!  Have fun…but the fun that comes from no regrets!