#171 Excellent Fairly Low Calorie Desert (01/30/13)

I originally found this pin on Pinterest late yesterday.  I’ve added the original blog link here.  It  It seemed too easy to be good, but seeing I love pineapple and angel food cake is the lesser of evils when dessert is concerned, I wanted to try it.  We made it last night as a quick dessert and was very worth learning it.   Here are the Ingredients/Instructions from Tammilee Tips

Ingredients
1 package Angel Food Cake Mix
1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple

Directions
Combine Angel Food Cake Mix and crushed pineapple in a Mixing Bowl  by hand. Make sure and mix thoroughly so everything is combined

Pour into a 13 x 9 Baking Pan

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees

Once made we cut the cake into 12 squares, which is a fairly decent size piece and here are the nutrition values after calculating with My Fitness Pal.

Total Calories  166 per 1/12 recipe

Total Fat                                           0 g

    Saturated                                     0 g

    Polyunsaturated                         0g

    Monounsaturated                       0g

    Trans                                              0g

Cholesterol                                       0g

Sodium                                     189 mg

Potassium                               52.2 mg

Total Carbs                                38.8 g

Dietary Fiber                                0.4 g

Sugars                                             28 g

Protein                                           3.4 g

Vitamin A                                        0%

Vitamin C                                     7.5%

Calcium                                           6%

Iron                                                0.8%

The slight downside to this recipe, you really want a second piece.  But we did manage to resist and save the rest for another day.

#158 Christmas Baking & Diets (12/20/12)

My willpower over Christmas baking is almost nil.  We are trying to be good and do up lower calorie jams, candied ginger (high sugar, but you only eat one or two), etc for our general baking.  But then there is the stuff out of the daily recipe book that we are trying.  December seems to be mostly deserts.  We have skipped a bunch for caloric reasons, but some are just too tempting to skip. 

Then a co worker of mine gave me some homemade fudge and a marshmallow chocolate log slices.  My wife and I have been sharing them.  However on the day that I received them and they were sitting on my desk, they were calling my name and I couldn’t resist trying some of them. 

The other day, my wife’s desk was the hub of activity so all of the boxes Christmas chocolates that customers were leaving for the office sat on her desk.  She had greater will power than I would have; she just tried two of the truffles and skipped the Pot of Gold.  I would have tried some of each I’m sure.

Our MIL brought over some Christmas baking too.  Some cakes and something else that is perfectly dangerous.  Popcorn Twists Caramel Corn.  We have been pacing ourselves on eating that, and we are probably thankful that she only gave a small container.  This is a recipe that would be diet derailment to make I’m sure, because I wouldn’t stop eating until it’s gone. 

At Christmas there is just a myriad of things to try and most of which are delicious.  It has been a lifetime habit to try at LEAST one of everything offered.  It is a very difficult habit to break.  At this point I guess the compromise is not to try everything on the same day.  Try one or two things today, another tomorrow etc, instead of trying everything now, and seconds on things tomorrow, with new options as well. 

The other hard thing is, with most items being other peoples homemade baking; it is very difficult to log it on MFP.  I am trying to log with best intentions, but finding it frustrating and a little annoying to see my calories be over most days this past little while.  But I am trying to log to be true to the system, and that is helping keeping me from grabbing another nibble in the late evening.  

I guess this is Excuse #10 – Holiday Cheat/Treats.  There really isn’t a rebuttal for this.  It is just that, an excuse.  Just break the habit and remember moderation is the best I can do.  I’m working on curbing that habit, but I don’t think I will have that licked this holiday.  The goal is to not gain weight though, so let’s see how I do.  We are also keeping priority on making some time to work out so maybe, just maybe there will be a loss in the next two weeks. 

#155 Losing my Groove (11/26/12)

This past weigh in was bad.  It really shouldn’t have.  I had finally gotten into working out in the evenings, walking on the treadmill for 30-45 minutes, drinking more water and what not, keeping tabs on what I ate again.  Then, the scales give me a horrible number of gaining two pounds.  That was not expected, nor appreciated. 

The additional down side, I made it worse, by having a gluttonous weekend.  We had poutine fries for dinner, followed by corn fritters.  We had cookies and milk and baileys for desert.  Sunday we ate till we were stuffed on a good dinner of chicken, pumpkin/apple soup, homemade butter pan buns, stuffing, homemade spinach dip and then a slice of homemade apple pie for desert. 

These filling meals were only the beginning.  Cookies, creamfilled cookies.  Not just Girl Guide cookies at 80 calories each, the generic ones, that I’m sure are about 100 calories each.  Falling in love with them again, dipping them into my coffee.  This was an old time habit that I had, every day, I would have one or two or three or so cookies dipped with my morning and/or afternoon coffee.  Sometime they would be biscuits, or digestive type cookies, but the cream filled ones were the best.  This habit had been kicked for a long time, I think the last time I did that on a regular basics, I was still living with my husband at the time.  I do believe this was one of the large reasons I gained 100 pounds while married to my husband, over about 8 years. 

At this point, I realize I have fallen off the path of weight loss a while ago, and I was trying to get things back together.  This weekend was a complete reversal of everything I have been trying to accomplish since starting this revolutionary change to my lifestyle.  The problem right now, I don’t have the motivation to get back on track.  The two pound gain was the last kick that killed my motivation.  Yes, I may walk in the evenings, but I feel I would be doing so, so I can eat more food, than lose weight. 

My wife and I are looking into buying a recumbent bike in order to both be able to do cardio at the same time; one biking and one on the treadmill, and watch TV while doing.  Will I be able to get my groove back once we do get the bike?  I don’t know, thus should we buy it at all? 

Deb has long since stopped logging on MFP and I don’t think she will start again.  I have definitely been lacking in this lately too.  She hasn’t been working out with me because she gets a LOT more steps during the day at work.  With getting the recumbent, which will be better on her bad knees, she will exercise with me, even for a bit.  I’m hoping the buddy system will get my groove back.  

My craving for sugar and sweets, and greasy foods seems to be back, unto my own undoing.  This is the time to start the trials, all over again, after this long slow relapse that seemed to start on the cruise.  That is a three month detour of trying to lose weight and losing focus on the goals.  It is so easy to give in to temptation, when the rewards seem to be so much work. 

Let’s see if I can find my groove.  

#153 Update in General (11/08/12)

Well, I was right, I didn’t get in and out of IM appointment as quickly as last time.  I got in to see the nurse right away, but then was waiting for the doctor for two hours.  Apparently the doctor I was supposed to see got snowed in, so he was filling in.  He said I was a low risk patient for surgery next week.  That is good news, nothing I didn’t know though.  As a precaution he might order a nebulizer before surgery to make sure my asthma is calm.  Not a bad idea, so that at least made it a little worthwhile for an appointment. 

While I had someone, I asked him about weight loss and nutrition.  He in general said to go to a nutritionist, as he didn’t want to give me bad advice.  So I did say what we were doing for Carb/Protien/Fat proportions, and asked where squashes fell in the vegetable category ie potatoes > broccoli.  It is somewhere in the middle, which is what I had figured.  Overall, our diet plan is pretty good, from what he was saying.  The problem is sticking to the plan. 

As far as our “diet” is going, the past few months have been a valley of denial.  Not going completely off the rail, but we’re not really making progress either.  My wife stopped logging onto MFP a while ago now.  Without her doing it along side, I’ve been lazy with my logging, and not doing it to the extent it should be done, as well as missing days entirely. 

I’ve stopped walking at lunch, even before the snow arrived.  The main reason was sweat.  The more I walked, the more I wanted to walk.  That is great in theory.  The downside to this is; it is a break at work, and the first place I sweat is my head.  My hair was beginning to look pretty slick in the afternoons.  Yuck.  The doctor gave me an idea though.  Nearing the end of the day, go up and down the flight of stairs in our building a few times.  It is only a few minutes of workout, but it is more calories burned than walking, and it is at the end of the day, so I wouldn’t need to worry as much about the sweat in my hair.  So I’m hoping to get that into action, maybe even today.  I say this as I snack on Kellogg’s Krave cereal, with 0 nutritional value, other than “fortified vitamins” I’m sure, as an after lunch snack.  It is a good think I only have a measured portion of this, as this cereal is a very moreish item.  If left unchecked I’m sure I would eat the entire box.  Alas, I think we will buy these anymore once the box is done. 

 

On the hopefully up side of our diet, we have purchased a book; A Year Full of Recipes.   So far this is inspiring us to cook from scratch, thus having less processed foods.  With some modifications to reduce oil used and various spices we don’t care for, these recipes have been a hit, and most meals being between 300-500 calories with sides on the recipe.  My wife has been doing the cooking so far, which is a lovely thing for her to do.  They are very filling dinners that are fairly nutritionally balanced, without overdoing it on the calories.  Yes they have some deserts, and we will probably make them, but the idea is only have deserts once/twice a week, instead of every day, which is a routine we have fallen into, even if they are small desserts.

 

I hope this meeting with the doctor is enough to help get me started again, be more focused on losing weight, while I have the time, before I try to get pregnant.  In the past year, since we bought the Wii Fit, I have lost about 12 pounds.  That is one pound a month.  This is not a large progress, but it is solid progress in my eyes.  We’ve made small changes here and there, but seem to lack the combination of using the small changes together to make a larger difference.  Hopefully over the next year we can work on that.  The one thing is though, we have been at this a year.  We haven’t been 100% goal oriented, but have majority kept going, kept plugging away.  I think this is the longest period of time where weight management has been at least remotely on my mind.  Some things have taken the focus off, Deb quitting smoking, going on a vacation, clearing a hoarder house, and a cruise full of buffets, but we have kept going and kept most of the weight loss off, so now is a time to start going down again. 

Everything in life has peaks and valleys, but at least life isn’t flat and boring.  

Sorry for the long winded post, just a lot to say today I guess.

#119 Too Much (08/21/12)

Do you ever feel like there is just too much going on?  Like you are juggling and you start with one ball, then add another, and anther.  Three balls not too bad, but then more keep coming, you keep adding to the circle of balls you are juggling until you feel if anything else comes at you everything will come crashing down. 

Crohn’s is somewhat new to my life.  My mom lived with it from her 20’s and in the end died from a spinoff of the disease.  It is funny though, it never seemed to be a topic of discussion in our house growing up.  I knew she didn’t eat green vegetables as they hurt her stomach, and a few other things here and there.  She occasionally had to have Boost meal drinks on top of her meals to help boost her calories.  Over the years she had multiple surgeries to remove pieces of her intestine.  I’m pretty sure she was on prentizone to help manage the crohn’s.  Even though I lived with someone majorly affected by crohn’s all of my juvenile life, I don’t know much about the disease, probably more than the general population, but not much.  Now that I have it, (one juggle), my Virgo self needs to research it (two juggle). 

In the attempt to lose weight (three juggle) in order to get pregnant (four juggle) my wife and I are eating healthy, which is helping for the diet requirement for Crohn’s which was suggested, basically eat from the Canada Food Guide, and minimize animal fats. Originally I didn’t think that was much of an issue, but my wife brought up the question “Does that include dairy and eggs?”  In our house that is a major source of protein. Thus we may have possible major changes in diet (five juggle), but at the very lease tracking my diet through My Fitness Pal back to a higher degree of accuracy to get a better view of my macros, including the vitamins I take to make sure I’m getting the nutrients I need, especially for when I’m pregnant.

Also along the trying to get pregnant list, the polyp is the next issue (six juggle). Not a major thing (hopefully), but still something bugging my noodle. 

Then we have the general living category, learning to can fruit and deal with a mass harvest (seven juggle).  My job, thankfully isn’t that stressful, but does occupy a fair amount of my day (eight juggle), preparing the house for before I get pregnant (pre nesting), like personalizing the master bedroom (nine) organizing our storage (ten), clearing out non essentials to make room for baby stuff (eleven), preparing for the cruise (twelve).  That is a dozen things up in the air right now, some more stressful than others; the last one a good one, but we’ve never been on a cruise so I don’t know what to prep for. This is all stuff that is either a have to deal with or really want to deal with but I’m feeling very overwhelmed.  I just feel I could sleep for a week to let things settle in my head then have a game plan.  But for the most part, everything is happening as it happens.  As long as the dozen juggles doesn’t turn into a baker’s dozen before the cruise, I think the cruise will give me the much needed rest from the regular day to day to come back with Vim and Vigor to attack the next thing that needs to be dealt with.

#99 New month, new motivation (07/30/12)

Well, August is almost here and I’m trying to get my motivation back.  July was a wash for losing weight.  End result was I lost .5 pounds.  Better than up I guess.  Now my mouth is back to normal, I’m less cranky, and not looking for softer foods for less chewing, I’m hoping my body starts to shift the weight.  I think there is still a little cleansing required from the T3’s. 

In order for my body to shift the weight, I need to get the bounce back in my bum. (Quote from Netty Mac, a Calgary local singer)  Starting a bit early (last couple days in July) I went for my lunch time walk again.  It was nice.  My head did sweat a bit more that it should have, due to the fact I am at work, but it was nice to get back on the walking moment.  With the possible new vigor, I’m hoping once home, I am able to get my chores done, PLUS a little bit of Wii workout or walking on the treadmill.  Both of which haven’t happened in a while. 

Top Five things I want to have done tonight

1.      Wash dishes

2.      Organize my pantry

3.      Wash the hot tub filters

4.      Put away laundry

5.      Work out

I think it is time to make working out a priority.  Over the past month, it has shown that general activity won’t work unless I’m also putting as much energy into eating healthy.  But it seems that if I am not concentrating on working out, my healthy eating also goes by the wayside.  One or the other may be ok for maintaining weight, but for losing it, I need both. 

Unfortunately I will be on MFP alone, as my wife’s logging has been lax.  However her weight loss has been progressive.  She is very close to 280’s which is great for her.  What she is doing is working; we eat relatively the same, so I’m not too worried about it at this point. 

Next week is my fertility follow up appointment, so I’m hoping I can lose a bit more that where I was at the previous appointment.  But that is still two-three pounds.  Based on digestion back up, and not drinking enough water recently, hopefully I can shift that much this week.  It is all a process so I just need to get the bounce back in my bum. 

#79 Skinny Nose? (06/20/12)

Today I looked in the mirror and saw my face without glasses.  I looked at my nose and specifically thought my nose looks smaller.  Is it possible to lose weight on your nose?  Or is it just because I don’t have my glasses on? 

At lunch I have been taking walks, but today I just didn’t want to go.  The start of cramps and bloat weren’t helping.  On MFP, I posted a status about needing some oomff getting going, and a couple of my pals egged me on (thank you). So I went.  And I’m glad I did.  I ended up walking a few minutes longer than usual and getting over the mile finally, to 1.19 mile walk.  Instead of going around the parking lot at the beginning/end of the walk, I just started walking.  I got to the bottle depot down the road and around the corner, then headed back, and the rain held off once again for the walk.  YAY.  I think the divine entities of this world are helping me with that.  Thank you. 

#68 Writing....To save my life? (06/06/12)

The past couple days I’ve been wondering if I should bother writing my blog.  Due to the lack of progress in weight loss I’ve been in a slight funk.  The fact that I only have three people reading, I was almost saying why bother writing.  An email from Dharma (thanks Dharma for the encouragement) kept me coming back, but I was lacking the passion to write.  I had hit a dead zone kind of. 

However, on the flip side of things; I have three people (usually) reading my blog myself, Dharma and Partschick (my wife).  That is more than the one person and doing it just for me.  The email from Dharma was a nice reminder that it isn’t just me going through these things. 

Now that I’m slightly coming out of that funk, I realize how much the blog helps me, the most important reason I am doing this.  If I wasn’t writing and logging my food with some encouragement from my MFP pals I truly believe I would have quit ages ago.  Having a record of my thoughts is important to me, to keep me going, through the good moments, and especially the bad.  There are many ups and a lot of downs.  This isn’t a journey that promises smooth sailing. 

My weight loss is a journey to save my life.  Being morbidly obese is not healthy and will take me to an early grave.  It is not a might, it is a fact.  In order to avoid this early trip to bed with the worms I have to change my life. 

My weight loss is also a journey to create another life.  Being morbidly obese makes getting pregnant more difficult.  So the more weight I lose before going to the clinic the better.  Unfortunately my wife and I won’t have an OOP’s we got pregnant, we are having to work on it, so I’m hoping to lose as much as I can before I get my first appointment. 

By having a blog to record small steps and remember them is what is keeping me going.  I realized today how when I’m not in a funk, when I’m writing, it is like it has to come out of me.  Maybe it is a way for my body to communicate with me without my brain distorting the truth.  Then I can reflect on what I have written and see where I am, and where I have been, and where I need to go.  My voice seems to come out of my finger tips a lot better than in real life.

Many small steps will get us to our long term goals.  This journey will not be one gigantic leap.  Having the patience to last through all the small steps, even the ones going backwards, is a virtue we all need to learn. 

So in a way writing this blog is saving my life.  It keeps me going, it acts as a reminder, and it is a record of where I was, and what I was thinking.  So when I get to the end of my journey at a healthy weight, whatever that magic number is, however many years it takes, I will be able to go back to what I wrote to keep me from going back to where I was, where I am now.  I just have to remember this journey is measured in years, not days or months.  It is years now to lose the weight, and years will be added to my life, both measured in experiences because I am healthy enough to do things I want to do, and the longevity of my lifetime. 

#42 Double check your facts (05/04/12)

There are a lot of resources on MFP.  Some of which may not be necessarily of reputable sources.  Most information starts with a grain of truth though, but then through the “telephone game” of he said, then she said, then so and so said facts can get a little twisted. 

Yesterday my mother in law commented on where we got the fact of carb, protein, fat percentages that should make up a daily allowance.  For the most part because that is part of the software I assumed it was correct.  However I couldn’t back up the source other than the software says so.  Note though, I have seen this before, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen it with conviction to say so.  Today I looked at a few other websites and confirmed the default percentages on MFP are average.  My main reference is from the Mayo clinic.  Of course there is always a variable percent, but what our goals are, are part of a balanced diet.

Another thing that I have found on here that I had to confirm was my BMR and knowing what that means. From some slight additional research the BMR is what this body needs to keep organs, etc, functioning, if I were to stay in bed all day. There is debate on how to calculate that though, because of two used formulas.  I have decided to follow using the Katch-McArdle formula, but that is my choice on this diet adventure. 

Sometimes, just because so and so said this is true, you might want to look it up to double check.  Think about what you read and if it is something you want to follow then double check the information.  This is your health you are playing with.  Make sure what you are doing to/with your body is healthy.  When in serious doubt, consult your doctor, or maybe a dietitian.  I think my knowledge of why I am doing what I am doing will help me stay on track.  Hopefully it will help you too. 

#36 Worried about tomorrow (04/27/12)

I have now been logging my food for 40 days; the last 32 being serious about calories.  Tomorrow is the next weigh in.  In my head I have been at this for a month now, doing radical changes to my previous lifestyle.  So far only 4 pounds and that I see as the usually toxin waste leaving the body so to speak, excess water, waste etc.  Tomorrow will I see results for my efforts, or will it be in vain.  I don’t want to get to tomorrow and feel like giving up.  They say it takes 28 days to make something a habit, but me going back to old ways would be too easy.  I fear tomorrow I won’t see the results I’ve been hoping for and mentally have a snap and say “never mind”. 

The upside is, my wife has also started logging. Tomorrow will be after her first full week of logging.  The same fear for her is there.  If she doesn’t see results, will she also abandon new practices and give up? 

We are also waiting for our Fitbits to get here.  I don’t want to wipe out all progress by falling off the wagon before they get here.  Will we be each other’s motivation, or partners in falling?  Let’s hope for a loss tomorrow for the both of us. 

#32 Confusion setting in again (04/23/12)

I’m very happy my wife has joined me in the MFP world.  She is logging now too.  Yay.  We have adjusted our goals a little.  Originally I had entered to lose 2 pounds per week.  Not seeing much progress, so far, so I have adjusted to be 1.5 pounds per week, and my wife’s goal is 1 pound per week.  This is giving us a few more calories a day, and maybe our bodies will adjust a bit better.  She has seen no results over the past month from us overhauling our eating habits, and I’m not seeing much either.  But because we did such an overhaul, our bodies may have been in shock, and slightly gone into “starvation mode”.  I use that term lightly but something wasn’t quite working for her, and it was having bumps in the road for me.  It seems like I have been doing this forever, but it has only been a little over a month, hard to believe.  In the end though, in that month I have lost almost 4 pounds, which averages to one pound per week.  For the last weigh in, I was in PMS mode so I imagine I am retaining, which is why I I think didn’t lose more than an ounce. 

So now that my wife has joined me I’m trying to do a bit more research on the “starvation mode”.  So I’m looking into my body fat content.  Some sites are saying 29-32%.  I know that isn’t true. I think that has to do with the fact my wrists and forearms aren’t that big.  I have super size upper arms though, wings that are almost ready for takeoff.  One Fat2Fit site seems possibly a better (Or worse, depends how you look at it) rate at 67%.  I am short, I am fat.  I have a fair amount of muscle in my thighs, but I am NOT top average which most sites set me at (30%).  But that would lead to much confusion.  As bad as the second rate is, I think it is closer to real. 

Next step is calculating BMR.  Technically that is supposed to be the amount of calories to keep you alive, if you were basically in a coma doing nothing.  Once again many websites are using different formulas, hence more confusion.  Even on Fat2Fit there are two calculations.  On average it seems most websites use the one calculated in the early 1900’s, the Harris-Benedict formula.  Some say tried tested and true, but if I calculate that, I would need to be eating 2000+ calories to stay alive.  I think times (activities and diets) have changed so that formula would probably only work for the lean and fit people of the world.  Lately I’ve been consuming around 1650.  That would put my body into sever shock based on the Harris-Benedict formula.  However also on the Fat2Fit website they show the Katch-McArdle formula.  By these calculations I should be having 1352 to stay alive.  To lose weight Fat2Fit says I should eat 2010 calories per day.  However they have a warning that even this amount is below my BMR with light activity.  Your body does need fuel, the trick is figuring out how much. 

The usual hype about dieting though is calorie deficit.  The basic is 1000/day to lose 2 pounds per week.  This is a basic formula.  But the problem is figuring out where you started to create the deficit.  That then includes what your metabolism has been up or down to.  The more efficient your metabolism is the fewer calories you burn.  In the process of losing weight you don’t want to starve your body and in the process make your metabolism slow down to compensate.  Everything is a mathematical formula, but the variable is your metabolism.   

With that being said, on days I work out in the evening, I will try and eat 2000 for the day.  Then my net would be around 1800, which is around the recommended “Net” calories calculated by MFP.  Many people that are having success on losing a lot of weight on MFP, are big on the fact, you need to eat your total Net calories.  I will try this for a week or two and see how things go. 

I do recommend Fat2Fit though, to have a look.  I found it informative. 

So here are my stats as best I could find.

§  Body Fat: 67.4% (Eek),

§  BMR 1352,

§  TDEE 2559. 

§  BMI is 52.96 (I Finally reached the 52’s, still bad though.)

§  Current Weight 306

§  Goal Calories 2000/day with 200 calories of extra activity.

The biggest thing with losing weight, is figuring out what works for your body, for the long term, not short term. I guess I’m still working on that.  This weight didn’t get here over night, and won’t leave as quickly either.  I guess I’m a SAMWIP.  Sam, work in progress. 

#31 To Fitbit or Not to Fitbit (04/20/12)

That is the question.  The main reason I was attracted to this was the fact that my wife hasn’t been seeing any improvements in herself.  She is eating about the same as I have (she doesn’t log her activities/calories into MFP).  I am wondering if she needs more calories, as her job is a bit more active.  Is her body going into starvation mode?  But then pops the question, should we buy two?  It would be neat to be able to compare with each other and see how we are each doing, along with Fitbit being a motivator for us both, but is that worth the $100 each to be totalling $200, plus shipping and duty charges, if any. 

Does anyone have any input on the Fitbit?  I’ve heard rave reviews, and heard that is works “seamlessly” with MyFitnessPal.  I've also read a few reviews that it fails after a while, or right out of the box.