Hello all. It’s been too long, has it not?

I’m proud to say I haven’t gained anymore weight. Good for me. However, I haven’t lost anymore either. The last several weeks, (no exaggeration) have been filled with doctor’s visits, an inordinate amount of medications and very little relief for this cold/cough/SARS/ear infection/Bird Flu/Plague I have. The last two days, I have finally felt better rather than worse. My lungs and the “productive” cough aren’t really ready for the gym again quite yet, but I have been taking note of my caloric intake and trying to off-set my cough-syrup-induced lethargy.

Still at 140 even, I am just trying to be patient for when I can hit the stepper again. I’ve been sticking to tilapia, baked chicken and the like, and trying to stay away from simple carbs as much as possible. And of course, they suggest drinking a lot of fluids for upper respiratory shenanigans, so I’ve been guzzling water like I’ve been alone in the desert on a horse with no name. For real.

Winter can always bring the common cold and other infections into your household…and unfortunately can derail your gym practices. Just keep in mind that if you’re being less active, maybe there can be a few places you can trim some of your intake. Maybe you can muster up some sit-ups before bed at night. Maybe you just do some simple yoga moves instead of blowing through 30 minutes on the treadmill at full bore. Just know your limits and do what you can to stay in the right mindset. I know it’s tough for all of us, but even just conscientious eating can help keep us on the same path.

Okay – not really – I’m still doing really well, given that we just completed the worst time of the year to be on a diet.  I have lost an additional 4 lbs over the Christmas/New Years break.  Granted, I’ve also had a heck of a head cold to make food taste like cardboard, and have no smell whatsoever, so that did have a lot to do with it. 

This particular season gets on my nerves.  This being the post-holiday, resolution season.  I can’t get the machines I enjoy at the gym because every other middle-aged, over-weight, fad diet lover is pouring sweat and whatever other bodily fluids they can all over them.  I can’t work the treadmill because Suzy Homemaker who has lost the allure her hubby loves so much is busy jogging herself into a heart attack on every last one of them.

SERIOUSLY – why do people think that the passing of another year is what’s going to save their arteries and cholesterol against their own bad eating habits and workout routines?  This is an ongoing thing.  Every year, without fail, millions of people resolve to lose weight, eat right, get in shape, etc, etc….  I’m no amazing person myself, but I don’t wait til January 1st rolls around to realize that I need to take action and get my ass to work in order to live a longer life.

These fad diets, Sugar Busters, Nutrasystem, Atkins, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Hollywood - may work for some, and have on many occassions, but if people don’t actually take the time to learn about nutrition and that magical mathematical equation that results in more calories burned than consumed, they are never gonna get it off and keep it off.  It’s a sad state of affairs. 

We are so incredibly stupid sometimes.  A pill is not gonna make me Pamela Anderson.  It’s just not.  And why would I want to be?  Why are we so caught up with being SKINNY?  Can’t we just be healthy?  There’s nothing wrong with a little meat on your bones – as long as you are healthy.  Go to the doctor – see what they say.  How’z your blood work?  How’z your cholesterol?  Seriously – most of what we see on the television is severely under-nourished.  I don’t want my daughter to emulate those idiots. 

Be yourself, be healthy, enjoy life and don’t freakin’ starve yourself.  If I catch you with a diet pill and not doing any freakin’ work, I’m talking big shit, and I hope you throw them out.  Just sayin’.  Love ya!!! 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh…………..

Seriously – it’s quite aggravating and I mentally understand it but cannot emotionally detach myself.  I just love Coke.  Original Coke, no diet, no zero, no caffeine free.  Good, old fashioned, original Coke – okay, minus the actual cocaine, but with 100% calories, sugar and caffeine. 

This is not helping my diet efforts.  However, since I don’t really eat a LOT of junk, I allow myself this indiscretion.  Yesterday, twice.  I’ve begun keeping a food diary so I can review my intake and compare it with what I should be eating.  YES, I understand that this is pretty much a trial run and that I don’t eat enough of the good stuff and too much of the bad stuff. 

For instance:  yesterday’s total intake was this – 6 fig newtons, 1 blueberry Activia yogurt, 2 – 20oz bottles of water, tuna salad in a spinach wrap, 20 oz Coke, 1 small biscuit, 2/3 of a chicken breast, 1& 1/2 cups of spaghetti with alfredo sauce, 20 oz Coke, and another 12 oz of water. 

While this combination of food was yummy to my tummy, it was not nutritionally balanced.  While I may have consumed enough protein, there is a severe lack of fruits and vegetables….. 

TIP – it can be especially helpful to keep a food diary and track your food intake.  It allows for a comparison to nutritional guidelines and lets you know just how bad your diet may be for your efforts to lose, and can enable you to make adjustments where necessary to maximize your intake.

It’s almost Thanksgiving folks, and I’m flat lined right now.  I’m not mad, and I’m certainly going to eat me some turkey and all the fixin’s with the Pash clan, but I will definitely be hitting the gymand getting some great day-after exercise.  Enjoy yourselves, try not to over-indulge, and if your family’s making you crazy, leave.  Hard enough to do, but honestly, it’s possible.  Traditionally, I check out a movie or something.

Ciao!! 

The holidays are coming. Thanksgiving and Christmas (Hanukah, Kwanzaa, whatever you’re into) both are huge invitations to take those extra trips up to the buffet-style set-up your mom and aunt have in the kitchen. It’s a time where we all mix up the egg nog, sit around watching football and catching up with relatives we haven’t seen in far too long.

What can we do to stop, or at least minimize, the inevitable holiday weight-gain? How can we nip the tryptophan comas in the bud? One thing my mom and I do is put on the tennies and go for a walk in the morning or after our food has settled. Its a nice time to catch up with her, since she lives 1100 miles away in another time zone, and its a great way to not sit on the couch.

Another good tip is to think about all the ingredients that are going into your meals. If your stuffing requires canned creamed soups, consider low-sodium, low-fat versions. Try a little Splenda, vanilla and cinnamon in your sweet potatoes instead of all sugar.

Don’t forget your water either! Keep on chugging water while you’re cooking, while you’re sitting watching the game, and even have a bottle with you while you walk the mall for Black Friday deals.

what other ideas do you guys have about watching your holiday weight? Leave your ideas after the jump!

Well, don’t weigh me right now, because, as you can see from the title, I’ve flat lined.  It’s time to step it up.  I’ve been building on my consistency and retraining my intake, but that’s not enough at this point.  SO, this morning, I introduced my body to just a little bit more: 3 sets of 30 sit ups after my traditional morning walk.  Twist that walk a bit with some intermittent jogging and we’ve got increased caloric output.  That was just this morning.

My uber-intelligent 7th grader informed me that there is such a thing as the Fit channel on Time Warner Cable, and that we could DVR some of the workouts and see which ones we like.  If we find one we particularly enjoy, we can just save it and use it at our own convenience.  Now, I don’t want to brag, but she’s a freakin’ genius… yeah – she gets it from her mom….just sayin’.

This is my plan.  I’m still working on the food part – as you well know, but I’m thinking that an increased exercise plan, and incorporating good portions of my life into them (i.e. my new puppy – taking walks, utilizing my DVR, actually visiting the workout facilities at my complex) will actually help me with my goal.

Anyone want to chime in on this one???

I find Halloween to be all about the candy.  I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never been big on all the dressing up so much as counting the loot when we got it back to the house and then making trades with my brother to get as much chocolate and candy bars as possible.  It was always a score when we hit the rich neighborhoods up to get the BIG candy bars……

This year, I’m abstaining from the holiday.  My office has gone nuts with a football theme and a “tailgate” potluck.  It should be great, calorie-filled fun for them, and I think it’s great.  It builds the team atmosphere and people are able to put aside their differences for just one day and focus on creativity.

I am contemplating a juicy, cheesy hamburger for dinner, and possibly some french fries.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you when the last time I partook of such a delicacy, but I’m craving one like I don’t know what.  AND – if I don’t indulge myself now, I don’t know what I’m liable to do later, like steal my daughter’s candy-loot and shovel the sugary-sweetness into my face, but I will make an effort to refrain.

ACTUALLY, I probably will behave myself food-wise, but I AM considering heading out to party it up with my fav’s, Ash & Pash – so stay tuned for whatever alcoholic binge tonight may bring.  NO, I’m not going to count calories, and I probably won’t count drinks, though I DID have a 2-drink maximum, I have waived the limit for the evening.

SO – enjoy this wonderful holiday folks, and try not to put yourself into a diabetic coma from over-sugar consumption.  It’s okay to slide here and there.  There are really no rules to eating ONLY good stuff ALL the time.  Once in a while, we have to feed our inner fattie to stay happy.  I don’t see that as something wrong.  I’m holding steady at 20lbs gone, and I plan on upping the workouts and pro-weight loss goals very soon, but for tonight, it’s game on – let’s rock this MF’er!!!

This pretty much sums up my weekend.

So…the weekend has come and gone and I am back from Myrtle Beach a little sore from the surfing we did, but a little plumper from the eating we did.

On the way down, we stopped at Hooters to kick off our trip.  We hit up a Plantation House of Pancakes for breakfast one morning.  We cooked up a whole rack of ribs, potatoes and corn on the cob.  We had our share of s’mores and cold beers by the fire.  We had fast-food chinese to save a few bucks on our ride home.  Not a stellar weekend for my hips and hynie.  But today….We are back on the boat!

I had had about 800 calories today so far.  A Smart One, an egg white omelet with some cheese and veggies and toast…not bad at all.  Definitely back on the wagon.

While I made a fat pig of myself this weekend, I realized that everyone has the same problem as me.  Keeping it real during the week is no problem. The days are so routine and regimented, packing a healthy lunch, making it to the gym and making the right decisions are a lot easier.  Maybe you go out for lunch with coworkers once a week or something, but on the whole, dieting is a piece of cake (bad analogy).

What do you do on the weekend to help with your dieting goals?  I’m always caught up in going to have a beer with friends or getting some chicken wings with the BF while we watch the game.  We’ve tried to bake wings, do light beers, etc., but in the end, we end up going through more calories than we’d want.

Why do we get lazy on the weekends?  Is it our chance to let our hair hang down in every way possible?    No work, no schedules, no diet?  I am just not sure exactly how effective we can be at losing weight if we crash and burn like I know I do on weekend days.  I’m all about a treat here and there, but can two days of completely reckless abandon be too much?

This prevention.com Health Tracker has been really helpful. Just today I figured out the ration of carbs to protein to fats to alcohol in my diet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t necessarily awesome news. This was the summation of my diet yesterday. Thankfully I made up for some bad decisions making with about two and a half hours at the gym. I ended up, all being said, eating the calories I should (1400-ish), without any exertion to lose weight, and tacking on an extra 1100 calories burned.

I am on a slightly better trajectory today with only 36 grams of fat. I can’t imagine eating another 26 before the end of the day (though I wouldn’t put anything beyond my awesome willpower). Sixty-two grams of fat yesterday. Jeez. But it says so long as I do about 1400 calories a day, I should get to my desired weight of 120 by mine and the SM’s 2 year anniversary, on St. Patrick’s Day, 2009. That’s not bad.

Point being:  Try to integrate more protein into your diet.  Its more filling and takes away time from eating carbs and fat.  Plus if you do have the time to work out, it helps with the building of muscle.  Protein is generally meat…so it makes sense to put more human meat on your bones, instead of fat, you should eat more protein.

With crazier schedules by the day, more obligations popping up by the week, it can be hard to fit in a legitimate trip to the gym. You get up, you take care of the kids and/or pets, you work, you fix dinner, you have extra-curriculars in meetings and church. You name it, and its cutting into your valuable exercise time. By the time the responsibilities are taken care of for the day, you’re drained. How are you supposed to have the energy to work out then?

Thankfully, there is good news. Every little bit counts and each effort is cumulative just like your GPA back in high school. You always hear people on TV telling you to park further away from the store you’re patronizing or taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator…and those are all great tips. Often times though, I know I find myself going to work and back and not making stops in between. Our parking lot is only so big at work and once I get home, I look for any parking spot I can find: It doesn’t provide for me the extra exercise I’d like. If there is no reason to go upstairs in my building, I usually don’t; I am busy enough at my own desk.

So to be more realistic, here are a few more ways to inject a little more health into your life.

• If you have the house to yourself, put on the radio and have a mini dance party. When the boyfriend is at work, I throw on a little Britney or Janet in the iPod and shake it while I cook dinner.
• Go out to a club with you girlfriends. You dont have to drink 10 cosmos to have a good time. Be the designated driver and sweat it out to a live DJ.
• Do a few sit ups or push-ups during commercial breaks of your favorite shows. Not as easy for the folks with DVRs, but you get the point. Drop and give me 20 right when you wake up or right before you go to bed. Do it while you’re on hold with the bank, contesting your overdraft fees. I know I spend plenty of time doing that.
• If you don’t have time to get changed, drive to the gym, work out and drive back, just walk in your neighborhood. If you only have your lunch hour to work out due to after-work commitments, make the best of your time and move quickly from machine to machine to be time-effective for the 30-45 minutes you have.
• If there isn’t a place to walk in yor neighborhood, but there is at work, bring you tennis shoes and take a brisk 20 minute walk for a break in the afternoon.
• Call somebody who you know will make you LAUGH. Not only is it good for the abs, it’s phenomenal for the soul.

Ya know, every little bit doesn’t just go in as far as physical activity either; you can practice restraint with your eating as well. Maybe you have a real craving for a 12 oz. ribeye steak, loaded baked potato and a salad with a gallon of ranch smothering and weighing down the lettuce leaves. To drink, a tall pint of ice cold beer or a few refills on Coke. In that scenario:

• Look at your portion sizes. Life is too short to never eat what you want, but can you do an 8 oz. steak instead?
• Look at compromise. OK, maybe you can’t skimp on the steak. But maybe there is a healthier side dish you could partake in. A sweet potato perhaps? Some green beans? Low-fat dressing on the salad? A lite beer or water?
• Look at what you’re craving. Salty? Try pretzels over potato chips…or even a string cheese. Sweet? Try fruit over a Snickers. Sometimes I even find myself craving dairy. Yogurt or a glass of milk is going to be better over creamy chocolate pudding or a slice of extra-cheesy pizza.
• Look at your carbs. Maybe there is a way to replace a carbohydrate with a protein or vegetable/fruit serving.
• Look at your creativity. I know that I can get in the rut of eating whatever is convenient or cheap, regardless of how healthy it is. If you take just a minute in the morning to pack salsa and tortilla chips over potato chips, you have something a little special to look forward to later. String cheese reminds me of when I was a kid so I love packing those. Make your own trail mix. Make creative, but healthy snacks and you’ll look more forward to eating them.

In the end, making the small efforts and sacrifices will add up. If you’re capable of making those small changes day to day, think of the impact they will have on your habits and waistline long term. It’s trite, but no one got this way overnight and it won’t melt off overnight either. The accumulation of little habits got us here, where we are unhappy with the state of things. Each day, if you can make one step closer to your goals, you’re doing well. Forward progress is the name of the game..and you should be proud!

What do YOU guys (y’all, youins) do to chip away at your health debt? What is your chisel of choice? Leave your thoughts after the jump!

A diet blog with pictures of Oreos? Scandalous!

Everyone knows that eating a whole package of Oreo cookies while you catch up on your DVR is probably not a good idea. You probably won’t lose a lot of weight doing that any time soon. But cutting out everything you love isn’t right either. Going cold turkey on your favorite treats makes you all the more susceptible to cheat on your diet.

The AOF tip of the day? Treat yourself on occasion. Whether you can handle six days of stringent dieting with one balls-out (or clam-out, as it may be) cheat day, or if you eat sensibly everyday but enjoy a latte or cookie once or twice a week, that is up to you. Just remember, life is too short and God did give us a whole lot of taste buds to exercise. We need to be taking care of our bodies and keeping them healthy, but you have to admit, sometimes the movies just aren’t the same without some Sour Patch Kids.

How to more easily eat treats in moderation: Going to the movies is a great example of a place where you can practice gluttony in moderation. Instead of getting the value pack large popcorn and coke with a huge box of Milk Duds (Its only 50 cents more, right?), stop at the gas station or even the bulk candy place in the mall before you go in. Get a scoop of Swedish Fish or a small bag of M&Ms, maybe a small Coke at the theatre if you *have* to, and enjoy every morsel. You deserve it!

(They make lunch-box sized Oreo packages too, so invest in one of those if you’re so inclined. Just go with skim milk, eh?)