Keeping a Food Diary

So in the past few posts, I have gone on and on and on about the importance of keeping a food diary.  Keeping a food diary was imperative to my weight loss.  The key with keeping a food diary is to keep it simple, but use enough detail that it becomes useful.

It took me a while to find a system that worked for me.  A sample day of my food diary looks something like this:

3:45pm: woke up, weigh-in: ___lbs, 8 oz water
4pm: five strawberries, 1 apple, 1 hard-boiled egg, iced coffee
4:36pm: 24 oz water
5:30pm: 3 chicken tenders, honey mustard, 1c steamed broccoli
7:30pm: salad w/ greens, 1/2 can tuna, diced onion, banana pepper rings, 2 Tbsp vidalia onion dressing, 24 oz water
9:30pm: 24oz green smoothie w/ spinach, strawberries, blueberries, 1/2c greek yogurt
10pm: 24oz water
12am: 24oz water
2am: 1 1/2 c 3-bean salad, salad w/ greens, onions, cucumbers, pepproncinis, parmesan cheese, & 2 Tbsp caesar dressing, 1 oz bag of doritos, 2 oreos, 12 oz diet coke
3am: 24 oz water
5am: 24 oz water
7am: pedometer check: 12,743 steps
730am: 2 slices toast w/ nutella & blueberries, grapes, 10 oz earl grey tea

This is just a sample.  I don't eat like this every day. Some days I eat more at meals and less in-between, other days I eat smaller portions every 3 hours on the dot nearly.  I found that what worked well for me because my days and nights are backwards was to label with the date when I woke up, and to use what time I ate, rather than to label everything as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  Whatever works for you is what you should do!

Do you see what I meant by using enough detail to make a food diary useful, but not to get crazy?  I like to measure out things that are calorie-dense, such as condiments and junk foods.  If I'm going to eat chips, I like to get a pre-portioned bag or buy a big bag but separate them myself into 1-oz portions.  The tumbler I drink out of most often is 24 ounces, so everything I put in it I know is 24 ounces.  I tend not to measure out things like salad greens, how much diced onion I use, things that are better options. In the beginning, you may want to measure it out so that you know what 2 cups of salad mix looks like, but I don't personally stress over it.  When I make a salad, it's usually at least 2 servings of vegetables, and I can eyeball it pretty well by now.

One last thing you may want to write down: your exercise.  When I work (this was a sample from a night I worked), I consider working my exercise because I have a very active job.  As you can see, at 7am, I checked my pedometer and wrote down the steps.  After I leave work, by the time I get home, I've probably only gotten in another 100 steps or so, which is why I check it after work.  I don't stress over that extra 100 steps.  However, if I do an actual workout, I like to write it down before I do it, so I don't get started and not know what to do next.  When I have it written down, it's kind of like having my own personal trainer telling me what to do.

I hope this helps!  I cannot stress enough that keeping a food diary was what really kick-started my weight loss after a 3-month plateau.  I wish I had started it back in August!  Even if you're not trying to lose weight, it still is a good idea to keep yourself in check.  As Bethenny Frankel said (she wrote an entire book about weight loss, called Naturally Thin, which I highly recommend), your diet is a bank account.  If you splurge on a heavy meal out, you need to cut back somewhere else.  Just as if you would splurge on a $300 pair of pumps, you should try to save other places.

Do you keep a food diary? Are you going to start? Let me know down below!

xoxo,

Rachel

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Snack Time!

I don't know about you, but I almost live for snacks.  Seriously, on my days off from work, my bedtime snack is a bit of a production.  Matching plate and mug?  Check.  Comfy pajamas?  Check.  Warm beverage?  Check.

One of my friends actually asked me about snacking as I was writing this post.  She said that it was one of her biggest downfalls while trying to lose weight.  In the weight loss world, there are 2 people: snackers, and the anti-snacker.  In case you haven't realized it already, I fall in the former category.  If you don't want to snack, by all means nobody is going to force you.  However, if you do, there are some tips to keep it from totally derailing all of your efforts.

• Treat everything you eat as a mini-meal.  If you know that in 3-4 hours you're going to be eating again, there isn't much need to eat huge meals.  Have some of your main course and a couple of sides, then leave it at that.  The next time you're hungry, eat again guilt-free.  For example, last night for supper (around 5pm) I had part of a pork chop and some green beans.  That was all I really wanted because I had snacked just a few hours earlier.  Later, around 8pm or so, I was hungry again, so I had a green salad with a bit of chicken and just enough leftover pasta salad that I made a few days ago to satisfy me.  Around 11:30 I was ready for my bedtime snack, which was a handful of grapes, a few almonds, and 2 graham crackers spread with a thin layer of nutella and fresh blueberries with earl grey tea.  Every time I ate, I never ate a lot, but I had enough that I was satisfied, not stuffed.  Portion control is of the utmost importance if you're choosing the mini-meal route.  Eating a full 3 course meal every 3-4 hours isn't going to help you lose any weight.  Listen to your body and eat when you're hungry, but don't stuff yourself.  You will get to eat again soon!

• Spoil your appetite.  I know, I know.  Your mother probably told you the opposite of what I just said, not to spoil your appetite.  However, most of my readers are adults who make their own eating schedules and/or buy their own groceries.  Spoiling your appetite, so to say, will help keep you from overdoing it when mealtime comes.  Getting too hungry is one of the quickest ways to overeat and throw off your whole day of eating well.  Going to a party tonight?  Eat something before you go.  It doesn't have to be huge.  Just a small snack with some protein and complex carbs will help you avoid overdoing it when you're faced with the vast array of options most parties present to you.

• Make sure every mini-meal involves something fresh, something with protein, and a bit of fat.  Get in that produce!!  In my Top 10 Tips (which has the most views to date), I advised those trying to lose weight to get no less than 5, and to shoot for 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.  If you eat every 3 waking hours, and you're up for 16 hours, that is 5 eating opportunities.  If you have one serving of fruit or vegetables every time you eat, there's your 5 for the day.  Double that, and you've hit 10 servings!  A serving of fruit isn't nearly as big as you think.  If for breakfast you have an apple, a banana, and an egg, there's your two servings.  For snack, you have some celery with nut butter, there's a third.  Have a big green salad for lunch and you can easily get 2-3 more servings.  Keep track of what you're eating in your food diary, and you'll see how simple it is to get your 5-9 servings a day.  The protein and fat in your meals are crucial for keeping you feeling full and satisfied.  You can eat 10 fat-free cookies and never feel as satisfied as 2 regular cookies will make you feel.  Fat is important for your body.  So many people are afraid of eating fat.  It isn't fat that makes you fat, it's overeating that makes you fat.

• Remember: a calorie is a calorie no matter what time you eat it.  A lot of people follow the old advice to never eat past 6pm.  Well, what if you're up until 2 in the morning?  What if you work the graveyard shift like I do?  Blanket advice doesn't work for everyone.  All of my tips are what work for my body.  You need to find what works for you.  Granted, the later you eat, the less time you have to work off what you're eating.  Let's just say, though, that you ate lightly all day and had a rigorous workout in the evening.  You will  be hungry, and you'll have probably burned off most of what you ate that day.  If you're hungry, eat.

• Get your water in!  Going along with the whole eating five times a day business, if you drink 16 ounces of water (the size of the average water bottle) every time you eat, there's 80 ounces of water you've had.  For someone who weighs 160 pounds, you've reached the amount of water you should be drinking each day!  It's the little steps, people.

There you have it.  Here are 5 of my tips to help you snack and still lose weight!  Do you have any other tips you swear by?  Leave them in the comments below!!

xoxo,

Rachel

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Why I Blog

I hear countless times after I tell someone that I blog, "Oh, I'd love to start a blog! I just don't think anybody would read it."

Good.  That is one of the best reasons to start a blog.

I don't have 100 pageviews every time I make a blog post.  Actually, in total, I have 565 pageviews.  I was tickled to death when I noticed that my post on nail polish was my most-read blog post.  It has 57 page views.  I don't make one single dime from somebody reading my blog.  While it is nice to think that someday maybe I could make money from blogging, part of me even has no desire to do that.  Blogging isn't my job.  My job is stocking cheese and yogurt (literally).  Blogging is my creative outlet, where first and foremost, I collect my thoughts for me.  This is essentially my online journal.  I feel like every time I make a blog post, however, that I am welcoming you all into my home. I generally have between 30 and 40 pageviews per post I make.  It's almost like having all 40 of you over for tea and a chat without having to clean and without the anxiety of being in a room full of 40 people.  I might blog about that another day.

Whenever I hear of someone starting a blog just to make some money, it almost makes me sad.  To be very honest, unless you know some pretty awesome people to get you set up, you aren't going to make money from the start.  When you start a blog with the main focus of making money, that blog becomes your job.  If you decide later on that you aren't into it anymore, it will feel like a job if you've made it into your job.  Personally, this blog is my hobby.  I'm not the most frequent poster (more on that in a minute).  Sometimes I'm uninspired for a few months weeks (if you've stuck around since the second 3-month hiatus, I love you).  Sometimes I get caught up in living my life, rather than focusing on my blog.  As I said, this blog is my hobby.  I love this hobby, but as most of you probably understand, sometimes things get in the way to where we can't get around to our hobbies as much as we'd like.

As I said, this blog is for me.  I don't post as frequently as I would like to.  So, I have complied a list of around 60 or so topics that I would like to touch upon as a blogger.  I also post this online to talk with my readers.  Most of them, I know in real life.  But with the online community as big as it is, why keep it to people I can go visit on a Sunday?  I want to communicate with people who are interested in me and my hobbies from Zimbabwe! Timbuktu! New Delhi!  I'm simply a 22 year old woman with an interest in treating my body right and seeing how much nail polish I can collect.

So, this is why I blog.  This isn't one of my usual blog posts, but with so many people in it for the money, I just needed to get this off my chest.  It is my online diary, after all.

I hope you all have a beautiful day, and hey! I've never made 3 blog posts in one day (even though this one was started in May...#oops).

xoxo,

Rachel

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My Top 10 Tips for Weight Loss

Hello!

I have had an outpouring of people asking how I lost weight.  Did I use a certain diet plan?  Did I cut something out?  Do I eat?  The answer is no, no, and YES!  I feel like I'm constantly filling my mouth!  I wanted to do a post of my top tips for what helped me lose and keep off over 50 pounds.  None of these tips will get you skinny quick, but that's okay.  The little changes really do add up.  Trust me on that one.  It took me a year to lose 50 pounds, and there were months that went by when I didn't lose a single pound.  However, during those stagnant months, I didn't gain any weight either.  I thought about how I was going to do this post, because I didn't think 3 or 5 would be quite enough, but I didn't want to commit to 10 because I want my advice to be sound, quality, and tried-and-true by yours truly.  I just started writing, and I ended up getting 10 tips in no time!  Trust me, these are quality tips that I actually used.  No fluff was necessary!

Okay, you didn't stumble upon this to read my rants, so let's get the show on the road!!

1.) If you bite it, write it.  If you sip it, bic it.

          Writing down everything that goes in your mouth isn't new advice.  However, the reason it has stuck around so long is because IT WORKS.  After my most stagnant months, writing down what I ate really accelerated my weight loss.  I found that I didn't want to eat candy or another slice of pizza, because I didn't want to have to write it down.  There's nothing at all wrong with eating candy or pizza, but the extra accountability to yourself means you won't forget that it happened.  I recommend writing it down right after you eat it so that everything is still fresh in your mind.  If you wait until the end of the day, for one, you may not remember that handful of almonds or those couple of chips, and those calories still count!  For two, waiting until the end of the day to write everything down means that you can't make some adjustments to account for the extras you indulged in.  If you write it down right after you eat that ice cream sundae, you can add an extra 10 or 20 minutes to your workout to help compensate for the extra empty calories.

2.) The "small" size is more than plenty.

          American portion sizes are huge.  If you want to indulge in a treat, by all means, go for it!!  However, do you really want or need those extra few ounces of ice cream?  The difference between a Dairy Queen hot fudge sundae's small and medium is 140 calories...and there's only a 2.5 ounce difference in volume after you add the toppings.  That's an additional 56 calories per ounce.  With a small sundae already weighing in at 300 calories, you really don't need the medium.  Nobody is saying that you can't have it if you really, really want it (and sometimes you do).  However, if this is a regular treat, getting the small will save you those 140 calories that you could either use for something good for your body, or account for as a deficit and watch the weight come off just a little quicker.

3.) Drink water, more water, and then some more water.

          Another not-so-secret tidbit when it comes to losing weight is to drink plenty of water.  I'm sure you've heard that drinking 8 8-oz glasses of water a day is what you need to drink.  However, not every body is made equally.  That may be too much for you, or, most likely, it isn't nearly enough.  To get the right amount of water for your body, take your weight (in pounds), divide it by 2, and that's how many ounces of water your body needs for optimal performance.  Also, take a look at your pee.  If it looks like apple juice, you aren't adequately hydrated.  If it looks like lime (not lemon!) juice, you're probably drinking enough.  If you drink your water and eat lots of water-rich produce, you'll also fill up faster on less of the more "dense" foods, such as pasta and lean meats.  The more volume your food has, the more it will fill you up.  That's why 3 ounces of grapes will fill you up faster and contain less calories than 3 ounces of raisins.  Yes, raisins are good for you, but the water has all been taken out.  What's left is essentially sugar.  You're better filling up on the grapes.

4.) "Treats" are called treats for a reason.

          There is no problem having the occasional treat.  It may even help with your weight loss success.  If you really want a couple of cookies, pick a day each week where you'll have an indulgence or two (that's the key, don't turn it into one big treat day).  When you decide on Tuesday that you want a cheeseburger, knowing on Saturday that you can have one may keep you from going crazy, thinking you can never eat another one...which then will lead to a binge of 6 cheeseburgers.  On the other hand, putting off your cheeseburger until Saturday may make you forget completely about it by the time Saturday comes.  However, life is much more than what you do and don't eat.  If your treat day is Saturday and on Thursday you go out to dinner, eat everything the server brings, and then have dessert, chalk it up to life and move on.  There is no need to beat yourself up for living.  Should that be an every day thing? Absolutely not.  However, if you want it to be an every day thing, that's your right.  Food is just food.  There are no hard and fast rules, and the sun will still come up tomorrow no matter what happened today.

5.) Get moving!

          Seriously, get some sort of exercise.  Do a 20 minute workout DVD.  Youtube a Blogilates video and try to keep up with Cassey (I happen to adore her).  Take the stairs, park a little bit further away from the mall, you see where I'm going with this.  Weight loss is 90% in the kitchen, but that 10% extra effort will help you.  When I went from standing around cashiering to stocking the shelves at my job, I lost my first 20 pounds in my first month.  Yes, my first month.  That's never going to happen to me again, because my body is used to my work, and I eat according to what my body needs.  It was a nice incentive, though, when I first started on my journey.  It is also proof that moving more really works.

6.)  Up your protein.

          If I had to say I did some sort of "diet" plan, I suppose I did.  I started replacing some carb-y options with more protein.  Instead of regular yogurt, I switched to greek yogurt.  Every morning, instead of fruit in cereal, I eat fruit with a couple of eggs.  Carbs are your body's main source of energy, so cutting them out completely isn't going to help you any in the long term.  However, protein is what your body uses to build muscle, and it helps keep you full and reduces blood sugar spikes.  It isn't hard upping your protein, and you don't have to chug protein powder shakes like a body builder.  Toss some egg whites in a salad, have a grilled chicken sandwich, or use zucchini or spaghetti squash with your meat sauce instead of regular spaghetti.  These are little differences you probably won't even notice until you're zipping up a pair of jeans the next size down.

7.) Say it with me. Produce, Produce, PRODUCE.

          The FDA tells you to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.  If you want to do some serious damage to your fat cells, I recommend upping that up to about 9 servings.  They are full of vitamins and trace minerals, have fiber and protein (see #6), and can be eaten a million ways.  I had nutella toast as a snack one night, and when I would usually top that with strawberry preserves, I sliced some fresh strawberries and put it on top.  Bam, I snuck in an extra serving of produce, didn't sacrifice any taste, and it took maybe an extra minute of my life.  That minute was well spent.  I already mentioned that I eat fruit and some form of egg every morning.  One of my favorite tips I figured out one day out of the blue was that if I was really craving something, to turn it into a salad.  I thought I was going to die one day if I didn't eat a cheeseburger, but I didn't want the empty calories from the bread.  So I warmed up a leftover hamburger patty, chopped it up, and added it to a salad with greens, tomatoes, onions, a dab of cheddar cheese, and honey mustard dressing.  Is it the same thing as a hamburger?  Well, no.  Did I particularly mind that the bun was missing?  Honestly, not at all.  I still got the meat, and the taste I was craving, but I got in a few more servings of vegetables.  Another day, I wanted pizza. I NEEDED pizza.  It was intense.  Well, we didn't have any pizza, and I was virtually broke.  That's when another idea hit me:  pizza soup!  I had the pepperoni and the cheese, and a can of tomato soup.  I made the soup, tossed in some oregano and italian seasoning, and added the cheese and pepperoni.  I now find myself craving that soup, rather than actual pizza.

8.) Brown-bag your lunch.

          I work in a grocery store.  Every option I could possibly want is at my disposal for lunch.  However, every single night, I bring my lunch.  Why?  Because it's no secret that you don't shop hungry.  Come lunch time, I am STARVING.  Also, I tend to spend money too quickly.  Packing my lunch is cheap, and I am in complete control of what goes into my food.  It is far too easy to piddle away your money going out for lunch every day.  Also, in the midst of the moment, it's too easy to give into that chip/chocolate/pizza craving all at once (I know I've done it!).  I pack things like fruit, salads, half-sandwiches, etc.  It keeps my tummy and my wallet full, and the scale goes in the direction I want it.

9.) Skip the coffee shops and make your own flavored coffee drinks.

          Starbucks gets pricey.  I worked for a coffee shop (not the bux) and I know how much syrups and sugars go into those lattes.  It isn't hard to easily rack up 300 calories on your iced mocha with a flavor shot.  If you needed another reason to buy a Keurig, I'm about to give you one.  There are a million flavors of K Cup coffees.  Pick your flavor (I love using the Coconut Mocha or the Mocha Nut Fudge for this one), brew it over ice on the small setting, and add 2 of your favorite sweeteners, then a dash of milk.  You've got a delicious iced coffee for a fraction of the calories that you'll get from Starbucks.  No Keurig?  No problem.  There are plenty of flavored coffees on the market now that can be brewed in a conventional coffee pot.  Seriously, I'm going to go make one of these now.  They are SO good.

10.) Measure, measure, measure!

          In conjunction with Tip #1, measure your food.  Get some cheap measuring cups, spoons, and a kitchen scale.  You don't have to get fancy, you don't need anything digital.  I believe my kitchen scale was somewhere between ten and fifteen bucks.  I use it to measure serving sizes that come in grams, rather than ounces or cups.  That way, you really know how much 1 cup of cereal is, or 2 ounces of dry pasta.  Not only will your calorie counts be more accurate, but you will really get an idea of what an actual serving looks like.  Don't be fooled, because what seems like a cup is probably very different from an actual cup.  Measure it out.  You don't have to do it forever, because eventually you really will be able to eyeball your servings.  Even then, it doesn't hurt to break out the measuring cups every so often just to make sure you haven't gone astray from your serving sizes.

There you go!  These are my Top 10 Tips for weight loss.  What is your favorite weight loss tip?  Let me know in the comments below!

xoxo,

Rachel

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"This Time Next Year, You'll Wish You'd Started Today."

Hello!

While my blogging skills have been lacking, my health journey has been going full-force.  I'm sorry for another unannounced hiatus.

August 3, 2014 will mark my one-year anniversary of my weight loss journey.  An entire year.  Time sure flies when you're having fun!  This year has had its ups and downs, and plenty of its plateaus.  It has been a time of learning what works, working with what doesn't, and a lot of self-discovery.

I initially started this blog as a bit of an online diary documenting my weight loss.  I'm SO glad I did.  I love going back and reading my old posts, and I spend a lot of my free time thinking of new blog ideas (I currently have a notebook with around 60 or so post ideas).  I hope within the next year, we can grow together as a community together.

Over the past year, I have lost 54 pounds, give or take!  With every health journey I've taken on, for some reason I always stopped after 42 pounds.  When I hit that 43rd pound, words alone cannot describe my excitement.  When I hit the 50th pound (which took every bit of 3 months to lose those last 3...which is what I mean by this year has had its plateaus!!!), I nearly cried with delight.  I'm not going to pretend that losing weight was never one of my main goals.  I just always knew that if I incorporated healthier options into my everyday lifestyle, the pounds would almost lose themselves.  Never did I ever think that I would come out with much more than a weight loss.  My confidence has sky-rocketed.  My self-esteem, which once was at rock bottom, is at its highest yet.  I'm finding that I enjoy being in the kitchen and preparing healthy meals for myself, and I'm even sneaking better options in behind my family's back!  They say it takes a village to raise a child...well, nobody ever mentions that it takes a community to lose weight.  My friends, co-workers, and family have all been such an astounding help with my journey.  Just Monday night, one of my co-workers made a comment on how "skinny" I was getting.  While I wouldn't quite take it that far, I appreciate that my hard work isn't going unnoticed!

Last August, I took a picture of an outfit that I really liked so that I would remember to wear it again.  Never did I think that I would be using one of those pictures in a #transformationtuesday post 9 months later!

(isn't that top cute?!)

I still have that top, and I'm keeping it for the end of my weight loss journey for my after picture.

Back in April, I made another collage specifically for this blog post that showed me at one of my higher weights (I was a senior in high school) and a picture from my best friend's graduation party 2 years ago.  I no longer have the dress I wore in my senior pictures, but I put on the dress I wore to the graduation party.

The top-left picture was the one I took back in April, and the bottom-left picture was taken on February 11, 2014.  Obviously, I love that picture, because it was the first time I realized that I really was starting to look good.  That "Mind Over Matter" top I bought was the first time in a long time that I walked into a regular ole store and could pick something off the racks.  The response I got on Facebook was wonderful.  I've never gotten anything less than positive responses from my Facebook community, but some of the comments, particularly one pointing out my confidence from this journey, really resonated with me.

My last picture is one that I took just about 3 weeks ago.  I had bought a tank top last year to wear for the Fourth of July, and completely forgot about it (and to wear it...but there's always next year!).

There we go! 54 pounds later, and this is what I look like now.  While my actual weight loss has been at a bit of a stand-still, I can still feel my body changing.  With every salad I eat, or walk I take, I can feel the changes in my body.  I no longer gasp for air walking up the hill to my house.  I have learned to love bell peppers (my favorite recipe for them will be featured soon).  I find myself parking a little bit further away from the mall by choice.  These little things add up.  I promise you.  And, as the title of this blog post says, "This time next year, you'll wish you had started today."  I found that quote online with no author underneath it, so if you know who it was, tell me!

Time is going to pass whether you take healthier steps or not.  I just hope you take those better steps so that you can have more time here with your loved ones!

xoxo,

Rachel

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