Eating Out and Calories

Eating out can be tough on a diet. Sometimes the choices we pick can actually turn out to be the one that is highest in calories. If you know where you are going out to eat, you can do your research ahead of time. With the invention of smartphone and iPhone, it is easier than ever to do research before eating out!  Most of the chain restaurants have nutritional information on their website. Some restaurants even offer a healthy choice option on their menu and may include the calorie content. Sometimes, you may find that the steak has less calories than the chicken entrees! There have been many times that I opt for steak instead of chicken because it was less calories. Pasta meals always seem to be loaded in calories. One of my favorite entrees at Applebees was Chicken Penne Alfredo. It was 1,000 plus calories! I was floored when I saw how many calories it was on their website. I have found that if I want a pasta meal, I have to cook it on my own. There is just too many calories in the pasta dishes in restaurants. If you eat out at fast food restaurants, most of the chain fast food restaurants also offer their nutritional information on their website. I can tell you the healthiest breakfast sandwiches to get at McDonald's is the Egg McMuffin.  If your restaurant carries baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, choose the sweet potato. It has beta carotene and is a healthier carb choice. There have been many times that I have eaten out, that I have had to make my own decision of what I think is the healthiest choice. Many restaurants do not offer nutritional information. This is my advice for those who have no idea the calorie count of their entree, choose wisely!

Losing Weight For the Right Reasons

As someone who has recently lost weight, I highly recommend it.  It is important to make sure you are losing weight for the right reasons. You should only lose weight for you and you alone! I was recently on a message board and one girl was talking about losing weight for her boyfriend.  I'm sure the boyfriend will appreciate it,but she needs to want to lose the weight for herself and not to get her boyfriend's approval. When you lose weight for others, sometimes it has a tendency to backfire or you find yourself going back to the same old patterns if you and that boyfriend breakup.  If your doctor is the one that recommends you lose weight, he/she is speaking out of concern for your overall health. Your doctor wouldn't recommend it, if he/she didn't think it would be a huge benefit for you. I admit, this weight loss journey started off being about just losing the weight for the doctor(my neurologist). As soon as I started to see results though, I wanted to do it for me! I recently found my blood test results in a pile of my paperwork from last year and was shocked that my glucose was at 97. I do not know why my internal medicine doctor didn't mention or warn me of this. She had sent me all the blood work results and told me everything was fine so I never looked at the test results. It is my understanding that 99 is the highest you can go and then you become pre-diabetic at 100.  Diabetes runs in my family. Both my grandmothers had it, my uncle has it and so does one of my aunts.  After seeing those glucose levels, it made me so thankful that I lost the weight when I did! If you are overweight and suffer from Type 2 Diabetes or Hypertension(high blood pressure), doctors recommend you to lose weight because it can make you healthier. There have been many cases of people who have been able to go completely off their insulin and their bp meds because they simply lost weight and reduced the sodium in their diet. 

Regular Soda vs Diet Soda

All of us has a weakness and for me, it used to be sodas. I loved my Dr. Pepper and Pepsi. I used to drink 2 or more glasses of it a day! Before I started dieting, I had finally cut it down to one can of Pepsi a day. I don't know if it was the caffeine I was addicted to, or the sugar. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I have had a regular soda. When I started my diet back in August 2011, I gave up my regular soda habit because I didn't want to waste my calories on a drink. Did you know that most sodas have 140 calories in one can?  That can add up quickly if you drink more than one a day! Now, I do have to admit that drinking water all day long can get a bit old. I have found myself ordering a Diet Pepsi on occasion when we are out at a restaurant, because they have no calories and give me something else to drink other than water. I only drink about 2 a month at the most.  I don't keep drinks around the house because it will tempt me to drink one. Dieters love diet sodas because they see that it says O calories so they may be inclined to actually drink more of them. There is some drawbacks to drinking sodas and other drinks with artificial sweeteners. Drinking diet drinks can actually lead to you gaining weight because it makes you crave sweets.Not to mention, your body can't break artificial sugar down like it can real sugar.  There are also possible side effects to drinking diet sodas. Some of the sweeteners that are put in sodas can cause neurological disorders, tumors and gastrointestinal problems. I was recently watching an episode of Dr. Oz and he was talking about Splenda. Do you know that Splenda is 600 times sweeter than sugar? I was shocked when I heard that! It's been a couple of weeks since my last diet soda. I wouldn't say I have a soda habit anymore, but my goal is to be completely soda free, including diet sodas. My Mom loved diet drinks and drink alot of them because she was worried about getting diabetes, but instead she ended up with breast cancer.I have always wondered if diet sodas were a contributing factor in her getting breast cancer ,which is one reason I want to be completely diet soda free.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

Remember how for years we have always heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Well, it is! If you skip breakfast in the morning, you slow your metabolism down. You don't have to eat a huge breakfast, but pick something that is nutritious and low in calories.  If you are looking to jump start your metabolism, eating a high protein breakfast is the way to go. Greek yogurt is a wonderful food to eat for breakfast. You get your calcium from it and you normally get about 12 grams of protein from it. When I first started my weight loss journey, I ate Greek Yogurt many mornings for breakfast and would eat a banana with it.  That is just one of many low calorie breakfast choices out there. I also recommend oatmeal for breakfast because of the high content of fiber in it. I am not a big fan of cereal because they tend to have too much sugar in them. My favorite cereal has always been Cheerios and I still eat that some mornings for breakfast. You could also make you some scrambled eggs with turkey bacon or turkey sausage. Eggs have many nutritious benefits to them and the protein will help jump start your metabolism for the day. Just beware of how much cholesterol you eat the rest of the day! If you are new to this dieting thing, start out with just changing your eating habits at breakfast! When you skip breakfast, it just encourages you to eat more at lunch time.

Body Mass Index Calculator

One of the most effective tools you can use when first getting started with your diet is a Body Mass Index Calculator. Your BMI results will give you a good idea of how much weight you need to lose in order to achieve a healthy weight.  The only thing you need to do to calculate your BMI is to put in your height & weight and the calculator will give you the results. I remember when I started my weight loss journey that my BMI said I was obese. It was so alarming to me to see that term "obese".  In an episode on the Dr. Oz Show, Dr. Oz said that if you lose just 10% of your current weight, you can change your BMI results.  There are just three categories in the BMI: Healthy, Overweight, and Obese. If your BMI results says you are obese, then your goal should be to get to the overweight category.  I reversed my "obese" status by just losing 17lbs!  I am currently still in the overweight category after losing 36lbs, but I only have just 10 lbs left to lose to be in the "healthy" category! This calculator gives you an idea of how much you need to lose, but just focus on losing 10lbs and then slowly continue until you reach your goal. In this world of everything instant, we want to see results fast! If you want to keep the weight off, you want the weight to go down gradually and not instantly! For your convenience, you will find a calculator located in the right hand side of this blog!

Weight Loss and your Mind

I would love to tell you that losing weight is easy, but that's not the case. It can be really hard. It takes determination and a different kind of mindset. If you tell yourself that you can't do it, then you won't do it. When your body hits a plateau, don't give up. You will eventually start showing results on the scale again. Don't allow yourself to give up and don't say "I can't lose anymore weight". In those times when you get frustrated, remember the story of "The Little Engine That Could". Keep reminding yourself, "I think I can, I think I can".