Protein,protein,protein.

Since starting the FOODLOVERSFATLOSS system, I have been ingesting alternate sources of protein in my daily diet through the use of Protein powder recommended by the program. Lately, I have noticed several changes in my skin, nails and hair that I think are directly related to increasing my protein. For several weeks, I have had to cut my nails at least two times a week, where as just a few months ago I could go for over a month and never even see a white line on them. In the past two weeks, several people have commented on how "good and healthy" my hair is looking,not to mention how long it has gotten in a relatively fast amt of time. I even had a patient ask me if I got hair extensions!! As for my skin, it just looks good. Enouch said.

This got me wondering. I didn't think I was a protein slacker before starting this program, but I probably didn't take in nearly the amt I needed each day.

The Harvard School of Public Health published a paper that says adults should get a minimum of 0.8 grams of protein per kilo of body mass, so roughly 65 grams for a 160 pound person. In the Us, the article states, we get about 15 percent of calories thru protein each day. If you take in 2000 cals a day, that's 75 grams of protein. Not bad.

Believe me, I know I got nowhere that amount before this!

All protein is not the same I learned too. A 6 oz porterhouse has 38 grams of protein and 44 grams of fat. Six ounces of salmon has 34 grams of protein and 18 grams of fat. Less than Half! That's quite a savings in the calorie dept. So even tho I love steak, I realize fish and beans are better, calorically, for me.

Veges and beans are a great source of protein for low calories, so I'm still waiting for those vege recipes from people!!

Try and figure out how many grams of protein you take in in a day and see if you make the basic requirements. If not, an alternate source might help.

WHo knows. Maybe you'll get compliments on your hair and skin, too!

Back to basics

Remember when your Mom told you to eat your vegeatables because there were starving people in 1. Boliva, 2. Asia, 3. Africa, 4. Haiti ( take your pick) and you said, "well, send them this stuff ( !) just so you wouldn't have to eat them??
I heard this refrain nightly growing up and still didn't eat my veges because they justed tasted lousy. Now granted, my mother was possibly the world's worst cook. Nothing was ever seasoned and she considered boiled carrots a delicacy, so my choices growing up to eat well and healthily were few and far between.
But even as an adult, I still have trouble choaking down some veges, broccoli being the most difficult. The only part of a salad I like is the lettuce or spinach used as a base. FOrget peppers, onions, tomatoes, and anything else you can add to it. I just eat the lettuce. Plain. No dressing.
I know, pathetic.
So I've really made a conscious effort to try to incorporate more veges into my diet. The easiest way to do it for me is to mask them. For instance, last night I made a quiche. It had spinach, and green and red peppers in it in addition to the eggs/egg whites and cheese.
Delicious. I've also included asparagus at times.
The idea of eating a carrot in its entirety gags me, but I like them finely shredded on and in salad at times. Yes, I will eat a salad with more than just lettuce!
Omelets are great for hiding veges, too. Vegetable lasagne is downright tasty!
One dinner favorite is baked eggplant on flat bread. Slice the eggplant really thin and lay it out on flat bread dough or even pillsbury rolled out crescents. Season with garlic/herb salt and baked until crispy. Love this!!
I know people have recipes they like that hide or - to use a better word "incorporate" -veges into them. Send some to me and I'll try them and post them here.
We all need to eat more veges. I never have a problem with fruit - but the vegggie eating is tough.
Help me!

Detoxing, Day 2

SO I did really good for 3/4 of the day yesterday. Stuck to all the liquid stuff, wrapped my head around the no reall food issues I wa shaving.
And then we went out to dinner after Church.
But it was okay because I had a spinach salad so no real diet blaster there.
Today, back on track.
I had my breakfast smoothie, substituting the vanilla protein powder with chocolate protein powder. Hey, if I have to fast, I'm incorporating as much chocolate as I can into the plan!
We'll be home today so I can be rally strict with this. No outside influences.
Detox/fasting is something that has become somewhat popular among the diet-illuminati of late. Taking food completely out of the equation and just sticking to a most liquid regimine - from a psychological viewpoint - is a pretty good thing. Without choice, I feel that I do better sometimes. Being told exactly what to eat(drink!), what time to do it, and in what quantity kinds of puts my in another plane headwise. I can follow any plan if it tells me those factors. I get into trouble when I have to choose from a myriad of possible food combinations. That's the biggest reason I think Weight Watchers finally started to fail for me. DOn't get me wrong - it's a great program, I was just at a level where it really wasn't getting me any results anymore. I had to many points to count, and combinations to come up with. I was always sweating either being over or under count and then thinking I had somehow failed.
It's funny that I like the stictness of a detox/fast, with no real substitutions or choices, when I'm the first person to say we should all have choices in life.
Go figure.

Detoxing

So I started the detox this am and I already miss food!!! Oh well. I'll give it a day or two and see if my resistance not to eat fortifies me onward.
With the detox you have to drink EVEN more than usual, which for me is now 12 - 8 oz things a day! So you can guess where I'm spending half my day. That's right.
In nursing school, back a 150 years ago, I remember learning the reasons for different urine colors. Bright orange if you ate asparagus ( and smelly!); reddish orange for hematuria; bright yellow if you were taking Pyridium. Normal urine should be slightly strawcolored, mostly yellow.
My is crystal clear!
There is absolutely no urea in my urine at all. It looks like I poured a bottle of Perrier down the toilet.
TMI?? Probably. But you get the drift.
I keep thinking I can feel my stomach shrinking - actually shrinking -throughout the day. Hopefully that's true and tomorrow I'll wake up able to fit into fitted trousers once again.
Hope springs eternal.
Off to detox.
(SOunds like I'm going to Betty Fords'!)

Fasting and Detoxing

Part of Robert Ferguson's weightloss program has an optional 6 day detox. The detox is planned so that the colon and liver are cleansed and rehabed. Many of you may remember that after Erin was born I did a six month fast that had a detox inlcuded it in and I lost 60 pounds.
I am going to try the detox for a few days and see what happens. I have been stuck in neutral the past few weeks, exercising and eating as prescribed and I have yet to see the scale go down to were it really should be by now. If the detox works it will jumpstart my body again towards losing the rest of the weight.
I read this interesting article today and wanted to share it. Read it and see if you think this is true, a myth, or something that the future of weightloss will hold.
I'll keep you updated on the detox/fast. Wish me luck.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100305/hl_time/08599196980700

NUmbers Part II

Things to ponder:
a chocolate chip cookie at Starbucks has 540 calories. McDonald's Quarter pounder with cheese has 530
The number of teaspoons of sugar in a 20 ounce reggie soda: 13.5
The number of teaspoons of sugar in 50 jellybeans: 13.5
250 calories is the total in a 20 oz reggie soda
A serving size for one breakfast bowl of Special K is 3/4 cup and 150 calories. Most people double the serving size without realizing what an actual 3/4 of a cup looks like, volume-wise, so in truth their cereal is costing them 300 calories, not 150. And that's without the milk added.
Most weight loss programs suggest a serving size of meat or chicken to be between 3 and 5 ozs.
Most steaks in restaurants average 12-18, 4-6 times the serving size.
Grilled fish is preferable over baked because most restaurants baked their fish in oodles of melted butter. Real butter, not "I cant' beleive it's not!"
A baked potatoe with sour cream on the side averages 120-160 calories. The same potatoe with butter melted over it averages 300.
One slice of bacon has 70 calories. When was the last time you ate 1 SLICE of bacon?
Does anybody wonder why this country is fat?
Be a Lable Detective. Know what the calorie cost is to what you are eating.

My New Job: Label Detective

It's no seceret my favorite tv shows are crime shows. Criminal Intent, CSI Miami, Bones. Love them!! My secret desire in life has been to have a job as either a Police Detective or a Private Eye. And guess what? I got my wish - kind of.
Since starting this weight loss program I have become a bonefide Label Detective. Before January 1 I didn't care about the nutritional labels or the ingredients listed on food wrappers. Not so any more. I read eveyrthing now. It used to take me about 30 minutes to grocery shop from the time I went into the store until Iwas back and loaded in my car.
Now it takes anywhere between 45 and 60 minutes, depending on how much I need to read. And I read everything.
For instance, I used to buy bread ( which will remain nameless just in case the manufacturer is reading this (( in my dreams!)) ) that said right on the label "100 % whole wheat." And like most people, I believed the adveristing. The first time I went to purchase that bread after starting the program and learning the tool of reading everything, I found a HUGE discrepency in what the outside label claimed and what the ingredient list said. You would think that the claim of "100% whole wheat" would be repeated in the ingredient list by listing "whole wheat" as a first ingredient, or at least somewhere near the top. Na-ha.
THe first 4 ingredients of this bread were: Unbleached white flour, sugar, maltose and high fructose corn syrup.
Where was the whole wheat? It was down at around ingredient 15 and said "processed with refined wheat flour."
I'm not kidding.
I stopped buying that brand of bread and now buy one that has truth in advertising. It says "100% percent whole wheat," and the first ingredients are "Enriched whole wheat flour, flax seed, water and yeast."
If the first ingredients listed in any product are sugar, maltose, high fructose corn syrup, or unbleached white flour, buy something else. You will be sabatoging any weight loss by eating stuff loaded with these items. Be a Label Detective and you'll eat better.
I love my new job.