Fast Food

This picture has been spreading around Facebook and for most of you, it probably isn’t new.  Both the picture itself, and the fact that fast food isn’t good for you, are pretty well-known.  And yet, most of us, at least periodically, still go.  It’s quick, easy and relatively cheap.  That’s why pictures like this are so good to keep in front of us.  For those of you who have never seen the above before, it is a picture of various fast food products two years after they were purchased. There has been no spoilage or mold in that time. We need to keep reminding ourselves that that quick, easy, cheap food, is questionably really even “food”!  The amount of preservatives and additives you would need to keep the “food” pictured above from spoiling after two years is nauseating.  What are we putting in our bodies?  And what are the long-term effects?  No one denies the negative long-term health consequences to eating fast food.

But…

I can already hear half my friends starting in with the “buts”.  There is a convenience to fast-food that cannot be denied.  And for all those soccer moms (or baseball moms, or volleyball moms, or ballet moms, or whatever), there are some days when you leave in the morning and don’t get back home until well past dinner.  Fast food is a necessary evil to get through those days.

Really?

I am the first to acknowledge that the various tasks we moms are called to perform in a given day can be somewhat daunting.  In one day, we’re supposed to keep up with laundry needs, keep the house picked up and clean (or at least sanitary!), cook three meals a day, be the taxi driver, keep up with our personal quiet times and exercise, and for those of us homeschooling, add a day’s worth of school for multi-grades into the mix.  The question isn’t, “How on earth am I supposed to find time today to do all that?”  The question is, “How am I going to prioritize what I need to do today to get as much of it done as possible?”  Okay, but how does this relate to fast food? 

I think one of the problems is the priority we give the “cook three meals a day” task, to other tasks.  “We have to have fast food on volleyball nights because there is just isn’t time to make and eat dinner.”  (I’m cringing because I’m totally guilty of this one.)  The priority that statement implies is very clear:  volleyball before food/health.  Are we really going to put a sport/activity that our kids are going to participate in through high school, maybe even college, before the very thing that is going to impact the rest of their lives?  And the solution is so simple:  PLAN AHEAD.

All it would take is looking at your schedule every night to see what the food plan needs to be for the following day.  If you are going to be out a lot, plan to get up a half hour earlier than usual and make something to keep in the cooler.  30 minutes.  That’s it.  If you have younger kids that look forward to getting their usual Happy Meal, you are likely to get some complaints.  After all, everyone knows Happy Meals aren’t about the food, but about the toy.  The cheap, plastic toy that will break in a week or so or be left in the car, or stepped on when they leave it out in the middle of the living room, or tossed in the already way too full toy box never to be played with again.  (Yeah, I have no experience with this whatsoever.)  Here’s an idea:  go to the Dollar Store and buy $20 worth of cheap, plastic toys (or maybe even throw in some actually useful items like crayons, pencils, notepads, etc.) and keep them hidden.  Every time you pack an “on-the-go” meal, put theirs in a lunch bag (could even get colored so it’s different) and add one of the toys to their meal.  It might help in getting rid of the complaints.  You could call it an Ecstatic Meal, because it’s that much better than a Happy Meal.  Okay, maybe not….

The point is, with a little prep and perhaps getting up a tad earlier than usual on some days, eating healthy on the go IS doable.  Look at the above picture again. Now look at your kids.  Back at the picture, back at your kids. 

Make the Ecstatic Meal.

Recipes

Here are two recipes , the first of which I just tried this morning and will definitely be repeating!

Peanut Butter Protein Pancake
1 scoop Whey Peanut Butter protein powder
2 egg whites
2 tble unsweetened almond milk
½ cup mashed banana

Mix the first three ingredients together with a wire whisk.  Add the mashed banana.  The riper the banana, the sweeter the pancake.  Spray pan very well a cooking spray (I use Pam Olive Oil).  It will be hard to turn if you didn’t spray well.  It’s a good size pancake so plan accordingly! 

Top with 1 tble peanut butter (which just slides right on since the pancake is warm) and then drizzle 1 tble Pure Maple Syrup.    YUM! 

Total calories is 457.  That’s a bit higher than I usually go, but I will only have this on “run” days.  It’s worth it!

Chicken with Sprouts
Actually, this is chicken with just about anything.  This is my “fast food” or “food on the go” meal.  Today I was out most the day, so I made it in the morning, put in Tupperware and had it for lunch.  It doesn’t take long to throw together and is filling.

1 chicken breast, cut into strips
frozen brussel sprouts (or broccoli, or whatever)
mushrooms
seasonings (I used garlic powder, sea salt, parsley)

Stir fry the above together until done.  Spices, for the most part are free, so spice it up however you want.  I had this with ½ (cooked) of Quinoa (pictured below).  Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is sometimes called a whole grain, but is actually the seed of green plant in South America.  It is gluten-free, high in fiber and manganese, and is a complete protein, containing all nine essential amino acids.  You cook it like rice (I cooked mine in the rice cooker), doubling the liquid with the dry amount used.  I made mine with Organic Chicken stock instead of water. 

I went back through all my prior posts and added a “recipes” label to every post that included a recipe.  So you should be able to just click “recipes” now on the left and get to just those posts.

Mental Obstacles

While the bulk of most diets can be summarized as “eat less, move more”, there is another aspect to dieting that is often overlooked; the mind.  I’ve had to overcome several mental obstacles so far in this journey, and am still trying to get my head around others.  It’s amazing how many pre-conceived ideas I had about what’s “normal” or “right” as it relates to food, and how those ideas have contributed to my inability to lose weight in the past.  So the below are my top 5 Mental Obstacles to Overcome.  Maybe you can relate to some of these.

1.  If I eat less, I'll lose more

Not necessarily true.  Once you find your healthy calorie goal (if using Myfitnesspal, this is calculated for you), it is important to eat all those calories.  Going under your calories on a regular basis will cause your metabolism to slow way down, conserving the energy it gets from the reduced calories you are giving it.  While there is much controversy in nutritional circles about the validity of Starvation Mode (and about every other topic that has to do with diet and nutrition), it is agreed on both sides that by eating too few calories, your body will start to store the fat because it doesn't  think you are going to give it anything.  In short, it’s counterproductive. 

2.  As long as I don't exceed my calories, it doesn't matter what I eat

Definitely not true.  I’ve talked about this under the post “About Percentages” (http://busymomofnine.blogspot.com/2012/04/about-percentages.html).  In summary, no 1200 calories are alike.  If you aren’t watching the protein/carb/fat numbers as well, you will likely not lose much weight.

3.  Certain foods are only consumed for certain meals or at certain times

Okay, this one is tough for me.  Especially when it comes to snacks.  To me, a snack is a small, relatively tasty treat.  “Tasty” being defined as sweet or salty.  However in order to get the amount of protein I need, and not exceed my carbs, my snacks have taken on a radical transformation.  On some days, a stir-fried chicken breast, cut into strips, is my “snack”.  At first it seemed as though I were violating some sort of written code on the integrity of snack foods.  A chicken breast was a “meal”, not a “snack”.   Here is where I’ve had to re-look at the purpose of the food I eat.  It’s fuel, not comfort.  So the question changes from, “What sounds good?” to, “What does my body need?”  Depending on how my food diary looks for that day, my body may need a big boost of protein, with no carbs.  A chicken breast is a quick and easy solution.  For me, replacing the word “snack” with “mid-morning food” and “afternoon food” helps in the mental game.    

However, this also extends to other meals.  Eggs, for example, to me, are a breakfast food.  And you eat them with things like sausage, or bacon, or toast, or in a scramble with some veggies thrown in.  So on one day when I was low on carbs, partially because I didn’t have any with breakfast, Rachel suggested I have oatmeal with them.  I thought she was nuts.  “I can’t have oatmeal with eggs.  That’s like two completely different meals.  You have oatmeal on oatmeal days, and eggs on egg days.  Having them together is just weird.”  Sigh.  Another mental obstacle.  Go back to the relevant question:  What does my body need?  Pick a food that fills that need.  There’s no “right” food for the time of day.

4.  If I cheat, I might as well blow off that day and start fresh tomorrow

Cheats happen.  Move on.  Right then, move on.  You ate it, you shouldn’t have.  Cut something from lunch or dinner to compensate a bit, but keep going.  One cheat is bad enough.  Don’t add multiple cheats to it and make it even worse. 

5.  I can never cheat, or I'll never get back on track

The reality is there will be some times in life when you will eat things you normally would not eat.  Many factors are at play here.  Some of them are just plain courtesy.  If you are invited to somebody’s house for dinner, don’t panic and bring your own food.  Just eat what they have graciously prepared for you, in moderation of course.  When you are out and about and aren’t able to get home as planned to make whatever you are scheduled to eat, just do your best.   You can fix it later.  It’s not the end of the world.  While you are on a diet, life is still moving forward.  Everything and everyone doesn’t cater to you and your diet.  Don’t think of these times as “cheats” as much as times you are being “flexible”.   Conversely, don’t look at them as times to just go for it and blow it big!  Flexibility and moderation are the key.

Two more pounds gone.  After a week of no loss, that was very exciting!   Another before/in progress picture below.  I’m trying to remember to take pictures of food to post some recipes.  Hopefully I’ll get those up later this week.

No Loss

I got on the scale yesterday morning and didn’t lose anything.  I admit I completely overreacted.  I hardly ate the rest of the day to somehow “compensate”, which of course is counter-productive and not the right way to lose weight.   It’s amazing how a number on a scale can completely change your mood and outlook for the rest of the day.  I know some people who weigh every day and I don’t know how they live with that kind of rollercoaster ride.  The reality is there are so many different factors that go into that moment on the scale that even at once a week, it’s not completely reliable.

And so I’ll continue doing exactly what I’ve been doing.  Perhaps too much sodium and not enough water the day before or some other factor caused me to hold on to some water weight, or maybe I just really didn’t lose anything last week.  Either way, what I’ve been doing has taken away 41 pounds.  One week of no weight loss is hardly enough to scare me off!

After realizing I hadn’t lost any weight yesterday, when my husband, Ron, asked if I wanted to go for a run at the lake with him, I readily agreed (even though it wasn’t one of my “run” days).  We took two of the girls, Jessica and Emily, who rode their bikes as we ran.  Ron, who is a runner and runs considerably faster than me, stayed with me for the first mile and for the first time I can say, “Ron and I ran together yesterday!”  That was really cool.  After a mile, though, I was glad to see him go!  He was great about slowing way down to stay with me, but still pushed me a bit faster than I usually run.  I slowed down after that first mile and finished my 3-mile run at my new 11.20-something pace.  The girls had a blast biking between us and it was a beautiful way to start the day. 

Below is an absolutely fantastic salmon recipe I tried out this weekend.  So easy.

Drizzle olive oil on the filets.  Add some fresh lemon juice, sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parsley.  Place in COLD oven and set temperature to 400.  Cook for 25-30 minutes, no longer.  Moist and flavorful!  Though not pictured, I also tried Rosemary Red Potatoes over the weekend, which was really good as well.  Cut red potatoes into bite sized chunks.  Mix in a bowl with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary.  Place on an aluminum foil-lined pan and bake at 425 for about 25-30 minutes, turning occasionally until softened and browned.

 Finally, another before/in progress picture.  This one is of Ron and I.  The first one was taken in November, the second was this past Sunday.  I’m having a hard time finding material for before/in progress pictures, because I was very careful to not get pictures that weren’t “from the chest up”.  I’ve cropped just about every picture of me that had my full body, so I’m going to have to keep re-using old “before” pics soon.  I had Jessica (11) take this new picture and I said, “Be sure it’s a full body shot.”  Her mouth flew open in shock and she said, “Wow, mom.  I’ve never heard you say that before.  I don’t think I’ve ever been allowed to take a picture like that!”  Too funny (in a weird-sad way). 

About Percentages

If you’ve ever been on a diet, you already know all about calorie counting.  It’s probably the oldest “diet program” in the book.  And, I’ve discovered, it doesn’t have a lot of fans.  Counting calories is a lot of work.  You have to remember to log everything that you put in your mouth, and then look up the calories (although that really should be in the reverse order), and then hope by the time dinner rolls around, you still have a calorie or two to spare to eat something. Now while it’s true I “calorie count”, the program I am on is only half about calorie counting.  The other half is about percentages.

There are many ways to eat 1200 calories.  Not all, however, will result in healthy weight loss.  Some of those ways won’t even result in any weight loss.  That’s where paying attention to your percentage goals comes into play.  When I talk about percentages, I am referring the protein/carb/fat percentages that make up the 1200 calories.

When we started, I was high in carbs, because I just couldn’t give them up.  We started with 45% of my calories in the carb category.  Last week I changed it to the more traditional 40/30/30 plan (protein/carb/fat), but had a hard time eating all that protein.  This week we changed it to 35/30/35 and we’ll see how it goes.  I'll probably experiment with the percentages from time to time to see what happens.

This is where, yet again, Myfitnesspal is so handy.  It tracks not only the calories but the percentages.  However you decide to set up the percentage goals, it’s important to make your food plan work with the percentages, not just the calories.  If you aren’t seeing weight loss and you are still within your calorie goal, you may want to consider playing around with the percentages (assuming you were faithful to them in the first place).  If you cut the carbs, even by just 5%, you will probably start losing again.

I lost two pounds last week, which was a pleasant surprise.  Here is another before/in progress picture.