Diagnosing our Diets

So being a nosy Nelli, and nearing my typical plateau, I was wondering what dieting methods and ideas everyone out there is ascribing to at this time...

So I devised a few questions that I was hoping you could all answer for me, since I can always use inspiration to break through the 180's...I don't care how brief or wordy you are, say as much as you like, but it would be great if you could answer!

1.  Briefly what kind of diet are you using right now, and what supplements (if any) do you take while dieting?

2.  Approximately how many calories do you feel you need to consume to lose weight effectively, without being a zombie?

3.  When/if you have reached your goal, what maintenance plans will you use?

4.  How often do you exercise, and what kinds do you do?

5.  Pre-diet, what foods were your weakness, and how do you avoid them now?

6.  If you yo-yo dieted in the past, what do you plan to do to try to keep the weight off for good this time?

7.  How do you reward yourself for losing weight, if at all?

8.  What is your plateau-busting secret?

9.  Do you feel that the dieting process has increased or decreased your self-confidence/self-worth?

10.  How do you stay honest in your dieting?

I thank you all in advance for any help you can provide!

Happy Holidays from Doogs the 140 lb lapdog

So here is Doogs (aka Duggan), trying to climb on Tim's lap, and Tim trying to protect his family jewels from being nutcrackered...

"I'm right HERE and much more interesting than that bitch on TV!"

You see, Doogs is what one would call a 'velcro Dane'....meaning that he LOVES his people-meaning us-and wants to be near, on, snuggling us all the time...even when I am laying on the floor trying to do sit ups...

"Ok, if you're gonna die, please open my foodbag first..."

 He is a fantastic exercise trainer though, as I spend half my energy trying to keep him from biting my bouncing butt while I am doing Jillian Michael's 30 day shred...and he reminds me that I do not need to eat crap, as he stands and lays his head on my chest looking up at the morsels I am cramming into my mouth as I forage in the kitchen...

"Gimme that fucking cupcake or I'll rip out your jugular when you're asleep..."

 And no one can make sleep look as good as him, though I will never be as flexible to ball myself up or pull my legs above my head (as my husband would like I'm sure)

Doogie ball

Rubber doogie

Fighting sleep...

 But he really is a little kid, above trying to NOT fall asleep, head resting on his chest (just checking out the back of his eyelids, as my husband would say)...but he has his moments when he can't resist sleep no matter what position he is in...

Yes, he is sleeping head down somehow...

See, he is terrified we will leave him, as his original owners did, chained in the backyard to a tree, because they didn't realize he was deaf.  He has separation anxiety for everything, apparently...

Doogs fell asleep while chewing Kong bone

But what a mushy-faced lovebug, never have I felt such appreciation from a rescue dog...granted they haven't all had such dependency issues!

In fact he is so tolerant, and will let us do anything, which is both a good thing and why he got rescued from the shelter after being dumped, and bad because he dealt with way much more than he should have...but he is a smart cookie, after all he chose us!  

 

 

 

 

He looks better in my glasses than I do!

So here's to our 140 pound lapdog, the best Christmas present we could ask for-I know Polar and Pearl would really love him-what's not to love with those mushy cheeks???

My Present to You this Christmas!

Since the holidays are tough on all of us (who are trying to keep from stuffing ourselves into a sugar cookie coma), I decided to try to inspire the healthy chefs in all of us (read: me especially!)...

So I challenge all of you to post your original, healthy, home-cooked holiday recipes...paste the address of your recipe post on your page into my comments section on this post...all posts before this Wednesday at midnight will be considered...

The winner will receive a package at their door filled with their favorite products from Netrition.com!  This is a fantastic website with specialty food items and supplements for EVERY diet...just in time for renewing your commitment to weight loss in the new year!

Caveats:  Recipes MUST be original or your novel spin on an old favorite, and holiday related-entrees, appetizers, desserts are all welcome are all are equal-opportunity winners!  One entry per person, please.
Good luck to everyone!

Saving a life besides your own

We all know how wonderful it is to lose weight in order to become healthier...in fact obesity is the cornerstone risk factor for almost all really serious, common diseases...cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and strokes, diabetes, cancer, even Alzheimer's...

I don't need to tout this over and over, because we all hear it everyday, as we strive to put ourselves first in the race to be healthy...but yesterday I got a chance to save another life.

I work with a couple Great Dane rescues in our area, and one shelter has a 'dane' boy who my rescue wanted me to check out.  So I drove up there, an anxious knot in my belly...just the thought that I would be responsible for a dog living or not made me feel sick to my stomach, but so excited that he would be appropriate for us to pull into rescue.

After arriving, my hubs and I were brought back, past a long row of big dogs in other kennels to a large black happy boy in the end kennel.

 The staff let us take him into a room and interact with him.  He passed a variety of tasks...he does not appear to be dog aggressive at all, if anything he is submissive...he approached and was happy to see both of us as complete strangers...he was happy and excited but not destructive or out of control...we poked, prodded, looked at his teeth (and junk underneath), and he didn't flinch or budge like he was not ok with us doing that...

So one reason I had to go see him was because we were all wondering if he was a purebred Dane, and at ~75 pounds he is definitely a mix, most likely lab...

But what a wonderful dog, and we are definitely going to try to pull him into our rescue and get him a home.

What makes me sad is that there were at least 5-6 other dogs in the shelter that were very place-able into homes.  That and the fact that stray dogs are only held for 6 days, and those relinquished by owners are only held for 24.  24 hours that is...

So if you are reaching for gifts for that special animal lover in your life this season, I ask that you research shelters in your area, not to get a dog as a gift for someone, but because many have a special program that can help save a bunch of lives...these programs allow people to pay the small adoption fee for an animal at the shelter, then the animal will be held forever until someone is interested in adopting, and then the animal will be placed free of charge to that special home.


This is a great way to help save animals without bringing them all home and becoming a hoarder...tis the season to give, and not much is better than giving an animal it's life.  Happy Holidays everyone!

Best and Worst Vacations for losing weight

So most of your know that I am a vacation junkie...often planning one after coming back from another.  In reality, planning (and going on) vacations is my therapy.

They REALLY give me something to look forward to...if money were no object, I would probably go on about 5 nice vacations a year, now we are able to go on 1 (well and a half if you count a weekend in Vegas).

Knowing that many of us, me being the biggest offender, like to eat and eat well on vacations, I decided to really think about options that would be more conducive to losing, or even just maintaining weight...without feeling like I'm in a jail cell.  So here is what I came up with, but please add your own suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them!
  
Great options:
1.  Health spa-If all the skinny, beautiful employees doesn't make you feel guilty enough for eating that cracker, then the healthy focus and activities will...often these places have extremely healthy, yet delicious and exotic, menu options, in addition to lots of fun things to do ALL day long.  Heck even getting massages, wraps, mud baths and not moving is better than eating all day!

2.  Dude ranch-This is my personal favorite.  I once spoke to a doctor friend who mentioned she and her family went to the same dude ranch in Colorado every year for 20+ years.  There horses where assigned just for you for your entire trip, that you could take out and ride anywhere, anytime.  There were also scheduled hearty, but not greasy, meals everyday-and everyone dined together.  I don't know about you, but I always eat better when I am amongst strangers.  There are also hiking, skiing, and biking options, and many places also have spa options.

3.  Snow Skiing-This is pretty self explanatory. ;-)  I used to love to go skiing, the day would literally fly by when I was on the slopes all day. I often forgot to eat, which of course is not great, but it is high activity, great fun, and I found I could eat just about anything without losing weight...probably because I would fall asleep pretty early from being so exhausted.


4.  Eco trip-There are many places that you can travel to-in the middle of the jungle, mountains, tropics-far away from restaurants.  These places often cook meals for you, like a bed and breakfast, and there is little room for cheating.  Plus, with such interesting places to explore, hours often fly buy without thinking about that cheeseburger.


5.  Beach getaways-Ok these can go on both lists, depending on the resort and where they are...less touristy places are likely to have less fast food options, and more natural, cultural cooking.  All inclusive resorts can be as bad as cruises...


Not great options:
1.  Beach getaways: At all inclusives, food is often at your beck and call, is pretty processed, and is free-which would be a nightmare...

2.  Cruises:  Stuck on a boat with lots of food options-yikers!  Sure there is lots to do, but I have never met anyone who HASN'T gained weight on a cruise.  EVER.


3.  Las Vegas:  I know this from personal experience-this place is becoming a foodie heaven.  Lots of high and low cost options that are really, really delicious.  And you can only gamble so much...then what???


You guys got ideas?

But I'm a Cheerleader!!!

So you all know that girl from high school...no THAT girl-who drinks a diet coke (and ex-lax) for lunch, blushes that she's not THAT popular, is exceedingly perky (both in spirit and boobies), guys falling all over her (to touch said boobies), grades don't matter because she is THAT gorgeous...of course she is also a cheerleader (cause what accentuates the annoyance of her being more than a tight sweater and ass-skimming skirt?).

Evil bitches

Yes, I know I am sterotyping, but guess what???  It's my blog, oh and yeah, I was a cheerleader briefly (with great boobs but with more brooding qualities and much fewer smiles and loud "tee-hee!"s across the lunchroom)

But I digress, as usual...my point being this...THAT girl was always "oh I'm SOOOO fat, I have all this flab EVERYWHERE" (said with rolling eyes and pointing to phantom fat in cute skirt/tight sweater).

Me?  I was an athlete, 138 pounds, and I thought "well if she is fat, then I must be a behemoth!"  A.K.A.-A large lake-swelling monster with enormous thighs, etc., and what must SHE think of me if she thinks her perfection is off cause she obviously has it all together?!?

This brings me to this other point...seems everywhere nowadays that people, really thin, naturally thin people are coming out of the woodwork to tell *ME* that they are getting so fat, and they need to lose weight.  Um, 'scuse me???

I realize I lost alot of weight (prior to my small regain) but to bring this up to me makes me wonder...why me?  Because I will agree and lament with you how disgustingly fat you are? (seriously???)  Because I will furiously shake my head INSISTING that no, no, no-you are perfect?  Because it is their way of negating all my hard work (making them feel better about themselves) because I will never be as thin as them?


Even lately in Blogland I have read several posts about people who have lost alot of weight now lamenting how they are so upset because they cannot lose that extra 2 pounds, and boo-fucking-hoo.


Yes, I am angry because I am struggling right now and up a few pounds, and it seems self-serving to dwell on the miniscule when the major goal had been reached (being healthier, etc.)  
Yes, I know we are our own worst critics, and we see what no one else may ever see, either due to our own delusions or because we are never naked in front of anyone else but ourselves.


But here is the thing...I cannot be upset with these peeps, because I am one of them.  Or rather I was one of them when I was 160 pounds a few months ago...I was that horrible obnoxious cheerleader shouting from the rafters "Poor me, I'm only a size 8, and I NEED to be a size 6!" 

And my lovely peeps, I am SO sorry for that.  How fucking annoying.  Hell, I am pissed at me, not only because I did not SEE how skinny I really was (the real crime), but because I drolled on and on. And on.  I did not realize I was inadvertently flashing my success in your faces, possibly unintentionally bringing you down, being THAT girl.  Yuck. I will work on that hypocrisy, I promise, and not shake my perky cheerleadery ta-tas in your face again.

So I apologize.  I cannot promise I will never cheer my future losses and lament my errors, but I will never again harangue again about not being small enough...should I ever be 160 pounds again that is, God/Goddess/Jillian Michaels willing...

Death by Cupcake(s)

Yes, that would be 6 cupcakes.

In one sitting.

Yep, it's official, I'm a pig, and quite the emotional eater, but a tough, long day at work is NO excuse-I know this lesson.  Not a bad put away for one hour.

I don't even want to think about all those empty calories.

I fell asleep at 7:30am on my couch-talk about a crash.

Goes to show I am definitely what I eat-and boy do I feel like an empty, sucked on, soggy cupcake wrapper...cause what kind of obese-brained nutbag would I be if I didn't get every cupcakey morsel off the wrapper???

Oh well, tomorrow is another day...I wish I could just memory-bank how crappy I feel after eating shit like that.  Sadly it won't be my last binge, but they are fewer and farther between these days thank goodness.

Wishing you all a binge free week, with lots of non-sugar highs.