Showing posts with label portion control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portion control. Show all posts

Monday, December 16, 2013

Tip Tuesday

The holidays are fast approaching and the holiday eating has already started for me. If you have fallen off the wagon, don't beat yourself up and don't wallow in the past.


Look to the future! Starting right now, you can be healthier. Truthfully, if you can learn portion control, the treats won't over take you this year.


If you have overdone it eating find time for a walk and load up on water. The exercise will help to burn off the calories and the water will flush your system. Saturday, I walked for 8.5 miles in 2 hours and 17 minutes. I think its time for new shoes though because my knee has been hurting since. I discovered some of the pain can be eased through stretching and I'll be stretching my knee back to normal in no time.


Please come back for more healthy living tips and weight loss encouragement. If you need someone to help you reach your goals, let me know! I'd love to help you!





Sunday, November 24, 2013

Confessions



 


 
I still struggle with food, portion control, and basic nutrition. Yesterday, I walked 7 miles, the longest I've walked ever. Later that night, I had two little plates of food plus uncounted nibbles. In hindsight, if I had stuck with the one plate, I'd feel fine today. I am not feeling great and it's because I didn't stop eating. After falling off the wagon, I am crawling back on with my head focused on healthy eating. 


Video about understanding weight loss

I watched this video yesterday during my walk and I'll probably watch it again. It's almost as if our unconscious brain is trying to get anyone who's lost weight back to being overweight. This battle will never end and its a tough pill to swallow sometimes.  



 


 


 


 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Tip Tuesday

The holidays are just around the corner and it is time to be thinking of healthy eating strategies. I will be sharing tips to help you avoid the usual ten pound gain each year. I have typically gained ten pounds and had to lose it in January and that takes months to accomplish! Please tell me, I am not the only one to experience this problem.

In honor of Thanksgiving, just around the corner, today's tip is to help you avoid eating too many calories at the dinner table (or the snack table). Select the smallest plate or cup available. This is more of a mind trick, which tricks your mind into thinking you have loaded your plate, which you can do when the plate is smaller. When there's not enough space to fill it past your usual daily caloric intake, you won't have over eaten. You can enjoy everything that is offered but enjoy it in smaller portions.

Truthfully, I am horrible at portion control. I never stop when I know I should or sometimes I just don't know when to stop. Having a smaller plate in hand will help me and you keep away the calories we don't need. It will essentially force us to use better portion control.

Go ahead and give it a try. Tell me how it worked or didn't work for you. If you are looking for a coach to help you meet your weight loss goals, email me or leave a comment below. I would love to encourage you to stay healthy this holiday season.

I had wanted this post to be filled with random photos but got rather impatient with my computer. Hence the lack of pictures.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Weight Loss Wednesday



 Dear friends,
Welcome to weight loss Wednesday. This is where I share my struggles and success along my journey. In the past two weeks, I had to evacuate my home and then move. Getting to the gym was impossible. I focused on portion control and nutrition. My reward was to fit into the gray pants. The very same pants that did not fit in January. While I have not stepped on the scale, I am confident good choices are being made. Good choices like last night, I was offered a beer but turned it down because I knew that would put me over on my calories. My next concern is to find a new gym. I have many choices and I'm sure it will take time to find the right one. I am a gym rat and I love to work out all the time. I can't wait to get into a new routine. 
I am linking up with Heather for Weigh In Wednesday. 
Pretty Strong Medicine


 

 

 

 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Weight Loss Wednesday


Dear Friends,
I am excited to invite Jamie back from Bugs Beans! We are currently co-hosting a $40 Target gift card giveaway here.

Thank you Esther for inviting me to guest post on my fitness journey!

 I started a journey, a journey that I've never done before. My Portion Control Challenge is over and I must say I enjoyed it very much! I was allowed 1600 calories thru My Fitness Pal. I always told myself "I could never watch or count my calories," well, I'm that person now! I found in order to get some sort of idea about how many calories I was putting in your mouth, I MUST write them down! My Fitness Pal was my (and still is my) best friend when it comes to this. 

Now, my goal was to photograph my food portions everyday and share them with you...well...that didn't happen. I started off strong until day 11, although I was not sharing my photos with you I was still on track with my goals. I think out of the 21 Days, two of those days I went over my 1600 calorie goal. I don't think that was bad at all considering one of those days was a chinese buffet and the other was a family gathering.

So all in all I am VERY pleased with myself in sticking with my goal of watching my portions! The best part is I feel I was not deprived at all of anything, I just ate smaller portions.

Now I must admit this is VERY hard for me to show you my before and after photos. So here goes!

My Dreaded Before Photo:
                           

My After Photo:
AFTER

So there you have it! I lost a total of 10 pounds! I went from 176 to 166! I think my side view you can see a definite change. My front although there is a change I'm still not happy with how I look...but nothing exercise can't change!

Speaking of exercise, I did not do any of it during this challenge. For me I wanted to focus on portion control. I do and will always believe exercise is important in all over health and weight loss. Again the reason I chose 21 days is due to habit. It takes 21 days to form a habit, and I feel I have formed this habit that was definitely needed in my life.

So with that being said I am making a goal of incorporating another very important habit...that of exercise. For the next 21 Days I will be exercising everyday for at least 30 minutes. Now I know I will not be able to workout everyday forever, but again I am trying to form a habit and a good routine of exercise.

So please follow me on this journey for the next 21 days! I will have lovely before and after photos (I'm sure I will like my front view a lot better :))!

Thanks again Esther!

I am linking up with Erin at She's a Big Star and Alex at Skinny Jean Pilgrimage for weigh-in Wednesday. Come link up and be inspired by everyone's journey. I know its not perfect but we all have a journey and story to share. I am always encouraged by everyone's hard work. If you are interested in guest posting for Weight Loss Wednesday, please let me know. Thanks Jamie for visiting and I'll have you back at the end of this challenge.
Please stay tuned for Thankful Thursday!

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Weight Loss Wednesday: Guest Post Edition

Dear Friends,
Welcome to Weight Loss Wednesday! I am excited for Jamie to guest post, please be sure to check her blog out. In other weight loss news, I have not weighed in but will on Saturday. If its decent, I'll be sure to tweet about it. Finally, I will be participating in the Eat Your Heart out cleanse found here and here. Fingers crossed for a heap of pounds to melt away from those 7 days! Take it away Jamie!


Hi everyone...I'm Jamie and I blog over at Things in YOU. I want to thank Esther for allowing me to come over and share my 21 Day Portion Control Challenge.  I'm only on Day 9 of my challenge, but I would love for you all to join in, especially if anything I'm about to say sounds familiar.

I was getting to the point where every day I was feeling guilty for everything I was putting in my mouth. I had no clue on how to lose weight. Every Monday I kept telling myself "this is the day," but Monday would come and go and I still wasn't paying any attention to what I was eating. My biggest addiction I think would be fast food, eating out, and carbs. I would hardly ever eat fruits and veggies. 

I am 5'9". At the beginning of this challenge I weighed 176 pounds. My BMI was 26% and I was 30 pounds over weight. Now let me make this clear, I just started my challenge 9 days ago. Before I tell you my results thus far,  I would like to tell you a little about my strategy and tips that have helped me and will hopefully help you!

The reason this challenge is 21 days is because professionals say it takes 21 days to form a habit. So the habit I needed to form was Portion Control. In my mind, I needed extra support so I decided to post my meals, everyday on my blog, for everyone to see. Some of my "bloggy buddies" encouraged me to use My Fitness Pal. I'm so glad I did! This helpful tool keeps track of everything that's going in my mouth. I thought to myself,  "I'm not that type of person who can write everything down," then I came to the realization, I HAVE TO!! In order for me to get an idea of how many calories something was...I had to keep track of it. That's where My Fitness Pal came in. Just put in the food and amount and it tracks it for you! It couldn't be any easier!

 Important TIPS I've learned:

Portion Control Tip #1: Don't Leave Food in Sight
Portion Control Tip #2: Use Meat as a Side Dish
Portion Control Tip #3: Split a Serving(Restaurants)
Portion Control Tip #4: Learn Serving Sizes(My Fitness Pal helps with this)
Portion Control Tip #5: Eat Small Meals

These tips I have learned in just 9 short days, and I'm sure I'll learn more as time goes on. 

Now onto my results for my first 9 Days. I lost a total of 5 pounds, so that takes my weight down to 171. My BMI is down a little to 25.2%. 

I am very happy with my results thus far. Because I am MORE conscience of what I am putting in my mouth and keeping track of it, I do not feel guilty anymore. If I want a cookie and I know I can have it because I ate proper proportions for the day, then I'll have a cookie. Oh, and by the way, I am the type of person if I completely eliminate something like sweets from my diet, the next time it's in front of me I devour it. Are you like that? I am not a professional in weight loss, nor do I claim this is the best diet out there. All I know is this is working for me and I feel it is balanced and I feel great and not deprived in anyway.

I hope these tips help and are as useful to you as they were for me! 

Thanks again Jamie! These are some great tips to find balance with a healthy diet. I am not great at control when sweets are in front of me and I lose all sense of control when the food is free. (These are big reasons why I don't go to certain restaurants with all you can eat items such as chips, bread or buffets.) If you would like to guest post, please let me know! I am always encouraged by your stories. Please stay tuned for Thankful Thursday!

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Weight Loss Wednesday

Welcome to Weight Loss Wednesday. I have to report that I did gain one pound after thanksgiving. It feels as though I'm on a seesaw and I'm constantly going up and down. Frustrating since I need to be going down. I read an insightful post from Kaitlyn at Wiffessionals about portion size. 
Yup, I have that problem too. I think my portions have gotten smaller but perhaps not small enough. Here is last nights dinner:
A bed of roasted asparagus, made from scratch Mac & cheese with whole wheat noodles, and sautéed shrimp. Maybe not sautéed, I just through those sweet babies in a frying pan with Pam and roasted the asparagus with Pam. I really don't know the difference between frying, sautéing, or other forms of cooking. I can learn later. Next weigh-in is on Saturday and I'm hoping to go down 1 pound again.
Sigh.
How has your week been?
Please stay tuned for Thankful Thursday.
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