This is How We Do It: Part 3 – You are what you eat.

My sincere apologies for the dire lack of posts recently! The first couple weeks of 2012 have been interesting.  Aside from life throwing me a few quite unpleasant curveballs, it’s also been a time of my body getting back to normal after the holidays.  Don’t get me wrong – I thoroughly enjoyed many wonderful things over the holidays!  Peanut butter balls, puppy chow, prime rib, candy, potatoes, wine, beer, cookies, cheeses…  These are just a few of the things I indulged in.  And, boy, could I tell. 

Holiday treats, you slay me!

It turns out that the holidays proved to be the perfect catalyst in showing me just how much my habits have changed, and how much better it makes me feel!  You really are what you eat. 

When I began the weight loss process, I really didn’t give much thought to what I ate. 

It’s there.

I’m hungry.

It’s yummy.

I ate it.

Now I’m not hungry. 

That was really yummy…

I’ll have some more, please.

That’s about it.  There really wasn’t much purpose or thought behind it.  If I was hungry, I ate.  Sometimes I ate things because I was in the mood for them and they’re super yummy.  Sometimes I ate things because they were just there and required no effort.  Sometimes I ate when I was bored and fidgety and didn’t even really realize. 

Well, try losing weight behaving like that.

A typical day for the old Sarah probably would have consisted of no breakfast, sometimes no lunch or whatever was quick and easy, snacking like crazy while preparing dinner because of being so hungry from not eating all day, then dinner.  My meals weren’t terrible all the time, but I do realize how a lot of my bad choices were from lack of preparation and convenience.  Hot dog & fries from next door?  Sure!  Burger from a few storefronts down?  Fine.  I didn’t realize until I started tracking things that even the salads I’d create at the market down the street were easily 500 calories.   I once unknowingly put almost 200 calories worth of sunflower seeds on my salad.  Granted, it was about a ¼ cup, but I just figured, “Hey – it’s healthy, right?”  Too much of a good thing is still too much, it would appear.

What changed? 

I was driving home one day after having had my oil changed.  I spend a little extra on my oil changes because I’ve got leaky gaskets, but spending a little extra on really thick oil and some other oily thingamajiggy sealy treatment thingy keeps me from having to spend $1000 on huge, bad things.  I got to thinking about it all, especially the oily thingamajiggy sealy treatment thingy, and then wondered, “Holy cow…  If my car will die on me without doing something as simple as getting the oil changed regularly, then what on earth am I doing to my body?!  What on earth could possibly go wrong inside of me simply because I’m not doing routine maintenance?”  I guess I realized that I was pretty much slowly, irresponsibly setting my body up to just quit on me.   And I didn’t want that to happen.

Now?

BREAKFAST!  Chobani (anything but Greek yogurt just leaves me hungry), Special K, Bagel Thin, banana...

Snack – string cheese, fruit, vegetables, hummus, pretzels, try to keep under 100 calories

Quinoa, cherry tomatoes, 1/2 an avocado, basil, 
and sliced garlic.

Lunch – Lean Cuisine, Top Chef Healthy Choice, sandwiches, salads

Snack – same idea as above…

Dinner – usually around 300 calories, varies from 200-400ish.  Veggies and fish are my favorite!  Usually meat, vegetables, grains like quinoa or cous cous, etc.  If I've got calories leftover, sometimes I'll have a low calorie dessert like sugar free instant pudding!

I know we’ve all heard it before, but it’s so right…  Eating breakfast every day and eating a little something every couple of hours has undoubtedly made a huge, huge difference.  The interesting things will come, like getting better at cooking and having your new go-to/on-the-go products…  It’s not just about what you eat, but how you eat.  The combination of those two things is powerful!  

Our bodies are worthy of good fuel!  Cars?  Maybe they die, but there are plenty to go around.  We’ve only got this one life to live, and my life is certainly worth a little bit of healthy, routine maintenance. 

I'm Dreaming of an Embroidered Denim Christmas

...Just like the vests I used to know.

Last year, my roommate and I donned bad Christmas vests and created an album called "Christmas Vesticles." This year, we opted for a classier, more put together look with embroidered denim Christmas shirts and turtlenecks in our latest collection, "Oh, Holy... Night..."

Enjoy these before & afters bad-Christmas style, and laugh to your heart's content.  The old ones are just so much funnier with all my extra fluff!  My, what a difference a year makes!

Here's to happy holidays, and me wishing your Christmas was as wonderfully awkward as this.

Holiday Test-Drive - Fail.

"That time of year..." has begun with Halloween.  The holidays bring along so many lovely little anomalies, lots of last-minute-fun-things, and - well, yes...  Basically a great big barrel of really fun inconsistencies.  Inconsistencies that apparently aided in me gaining 1lb this week. I've shared my successes with you, so it'd be remiss of me not to share in my stumbles as well.  I haven't been awful this week, but I haven't been as diligent as I should.  And I can tell I consumed too much sodium yesterday (puffy hands & feet...), but I'm not giving myself a pass.  It's funny though, because I feel smaller, and seem to look smaller as well.  All's I know is that it is not a case of a plateau, it is a case of "Sort it OUT, Sarah!"

I was really hoping that all of the dancing on Halloween would do the trick!  Some of my girlfriends and I dressed up and went to my favorite dance party around here done by my favorite local DJ's, Bat Guano and Richard Bowser. Our adorable little group consisted of Wonder Woman (me...), Twister (she made a dress out of the game!), Brigitte Bardot, a Hot Mummy, and the Infamous Honey Badger.  And we danced - BOY, did we dance.  ELO, David Bowie, Devo, Michael Jackson, Arthur Brown's Fire, great old school R&B - it is impossible to have a bad time with those guys at the wheel.

My hair was so much better approximately 2 hours earlier...  My
Wonder Woman costume was awesome.  Photos will surface soon.

I've got to figure out how to get a good balance of all of this, because this last week was not my most successful!  I was very busy.  I tried to work out, but I only did "proper" workouts about three times and did not log my food as dutifully as I usually do.  In retrospect, I have not logged my food as well as I should for a few weeks.

A few things I've noticed since beginning this process:

1.  I cannot lose weight without regularly exercising at least 4 times a week.  

2.  I have to log every little thing I consume.

3.  I do better when I plan for my grab & go lifestyle by having pre-made foods, snacks, etc. around the house that allow me to eat a little bit several times during the day.  

4.  I have had several times where I've maintained, but only two when I've gained, and the reason for this has never been my body playing tricks on me despite my hard work; it has always been a case of user error.  So far.

So if Halloween were to have served as my pre-test for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, it taught me that I need to have a game plan.  I need to come up with a structure for the unstructured - decide how I'm going to attack all the unforeseeable wonderfulness that will undoubtedly come my way in the coming months!  And I need to remind myself that it is perfectly acceptable to just say no.

The Wonder Woman in me is on a mission to lose four pounds this week to make up for gaining a pound, and then some! Wish me luck, and I hope you all had a very fun Halloween.