You know its been a good day when...

You know its been a good day when... 

You had a really filling breakfast.
You decided to drink more coffee instead of eat more coffee cake when the morning craving hit.
You took a long walk and burned major calories.
You went to an Arts Festival and did not eat a pound of kettle corn.
You went to an Arts Festival and did not eat fried food.
You went to an Arts Festival and only had 2 free samples at the cracker and mustard table.
You ate a good dinner and passed up ice cream for dessert.
You drank at least 64 ounces of water throughout the day.
You went to bed feeling good about the coming day.

I had a great day today. :-) 

And a good hair day, to boot. 

Cheesecake Factory and other travesties

The DelVillano family is back home, and here to stay for at least couple of weeks.  Traveling so much has been really draining for all of us in our own special ways.  For me, it has been hard to stick to my caloric goals, even when I try.  During our last weekend get-away I actually REALLY tried to make good choices, but our food industry, as I found out, makes it so hard...

Serving sizes in our country are astronomical, and the hidden fat, preservatives and obscene amount of calories are just staggering.  Take my dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on Sunday night, for example.  According to "My Fitness Pal," I should be consuming about 1530 calories a day if I want to lose 1.5 pounds a week.  (As a nursing Mama I usually eat closer to 1800.)  I knew that I wouldn't be able to find something totally healthy going out to dinner, but I thought I should be able to pick something somewhat reasonable and stay within my caloric goal for the day.  I chose a simple pasta dish that had minimal ingredients (or so I thought.)  I ate the dish, thought it was delicious, and was thoroughly proud of myself for passing up Chicken Alfredo or the Bistro Shrimp and Pasta Plate.  When I got home I sat down with my Kindle to log my calories for the evening.  I looked up the nutrition facts for the tomato basil pasta I ate, and just about died when I discovered that my meal was over 1600 calories!!!!  For a simple pasta dish! Good thing I didn't order the Bistro Shrimp and Pasta Plate - 2285 calories!!! 

1,600 calories.   

I know that restaurants have really gone over the top these days when it comes to portion sizes, but COME ON!  If I had eaten that tomato basil pasta dish and NOTHING ELSE for the entire day, I would STILL be over my calorie goal.  No wonder so many people in our country have trouble maintaining a healthy weight. 

How can the Cheesecake Factory sell someone a plate of food and market it as a normal dinner portion when it packs over 2,000 calories?  I feel like that should be a crime.  I realize that it is not their prerogative to serve healthy or diet food.  It is only their prerogative to make money and run a successful business, which they do fantastically.  However, I feel completely and utterly deceived and tricked, and that is just not nice.  Not nice at all. 

Now, I do have to admit that after further investigation, I found out that the Cheesecake Factory offers other dishes that are, in fact, lower in calories.  (Like thier "Skinnylicious Pasta” that has just over 500.)  But it still seems crazy to me that they fell they need to label a food as "skinny" or "diet" if it has a reasonable amount of calories.  What has happened to our perception of food consumption, and how can we turn it around?  Where can a fat girl turn when she wants to have a normal, enjoyable meal out without ordering foods labeled as "weight watchers meals?"  Why does it seem that NO ONE in the food industry values moderation anymore? 

All else aside, I've had a good week back at home and I'm still loving "My Fitness Pal."  I am actually looking forward to the weigh in on Saturday and I'm hoping to enter "One-derland."  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.......

Weekly Weigh In

I am posting very quickly tonight from my Kindle Fire. I weighed in this morning at 200 pounds.So I did not lose any weight BUT I didn't gain any either. I am dissapointed, honestly, but I am happy that my weight is at least steady. I think maybe one more week of using my Fitness Pal religiously will be beneficial. Also more exercising. Probably will not post again until I get back home on Tuesday. Until then, my fitness friends. PEACE.

LOL Cat hating on lettuce

I can haz lettuce???

Nothing much to say today.  Just a silly picture of a cat hating on salad to brighten your day.  ;-)

I'm doing my weigh in a day early this week because I will be out of town yet again on Saturday.  So weigh in will be on Friday morning, and I'll post the results late in the evening.  That's all for now.

Home Made Lara Bars!

Today Nick and I channeled our inner hippie and made our own Lara Bars!  It was so easy... even though we burned out the motor in our blender.  Woops.  But other than that we did a great job.  Here is what we did:

1. Pitted 28 dried dates.
2. Pureed dates with stick blender. (This is when the motor burned out. I think a food processor or a VitaMix would have been more appropriate tools for this step.)
3. Ground up about half a pound of raw cashew nuts.
4. Mixed nuts and dates together with a wooden spoon, then my hands.
5. Formed bars.
6. Wrapped in plastic wrap.

 Our Lara Bars are made entirely with organic dates and organic, raw cashews.  They are about 250 calories each, which seems like a lot of a little bar, but it will be a fantastic on-the-go breakfast or a powerful snack for Nick before his softball games.

Relating to my post yesterday about fat, salt and sugar cravings, this would be an example of a very positive and wholesome way to fulfill a sugar or fat craving.

Very happy with our home made Lara Bars!

Craving Tri-fecta

 I was reading an article in my grandmother's diabetes magazine this past weekend about food cravings.  The author made a very interesting point about the types of foods we crave, and the foods that we can not "eat just one" of.  Apparently it all has to do with THREE very addictive ingredients...

FAT
SUGAR
SALT

Think about those foods we crave and cannot get enough of.  Every one I can think of has at least TWO of those three components.  And the more irresistable the food, the more of them it has.  Let's think of some examples:

Potato Chips - fat and salt
Chocoalte - sugar and fat
Popcorn - salt and fat (butter, usually)
Donuts - fat and sugar

Some snacks even include all three, like honey roasted nuts, which include fat, sugar AND salt.  Not that fat, sugar and salt are necessarily bad by themselves, but combined with processed, empty calorie snacks, they can really wreak havoc on your health. 

 It is a fact that our bodies crave certain things because we NEED them in order to survive.  Cravings are our body's way of encouraging us to eat those things which will sustain life.  However, we have strayed so far from the food chain that our bodies are thoroughly confused.  We think of M&M's when we crave sweets instead of fresh fruit, for example.  When we just want to bite into something we go for a meatball sub instead of a big juicy apple.  Sugar and salt in excess send all kinds of mixed signals to our brains, causing us to reach for the chips and dip instead of more natural alternatives. 

I do belive that its possible to reprogram outselves to crave foods that are healthy and wholesome, but its certainly not easy!  We need to be willing to say "NO" to processed, preserved, salted and overly sugared foods.  It may cost more money, and it may cause us to feel deprived and sorry for ourslves at first.  In the end, however, it is SO GOOD for our over all health.  Our weight will drop and our organs will start working more efficiently.  We will build muscle and improve our skin tone and gain our energy back.  We cannot hope to change over night, but we can make small changes over the coarse of a period of time and gain back our ability to crave the foods that will help instead of hurt us.  We can do it. 

Weekly Weigh In

I weighed myself on Saturday while on vacation in Pennsylvania, and I was surprised and relieved to see that I FINALLY lost some weight.  I lost 1 pound.  I know it really isn't much, but I was overjoyed to see the number on the scale decreasing instead of increasing or staying the same, as it has done for so many weeks.  This little bit of sucess has REALLY motivated me this week, and I have been working so hard for the past couple of days. 

I have been saying NO to foods that I shouldn't eat and saying YES to things like water and carrot sticks.  I have been staying active and keeping my mind off food.  Its been great.

Another bit of motivation that has been fantastic for me - my husband bought me a Kindle Fire for a surprise anniversary gift!  This has enabled me to start using "My Fitness Pal," an online fitness tracker.  I now bring my Kindle everywhere and log all of my food consumption as well as exercise.  Journaling my food and exercise in this way is SO motivating for me.  I feel a renewed sense of success and hope. 

You will notice that I have changed my "weight loss stats" in the upper right hand corner of the blog to a "badge" from My Fitness Pal.  Since I was already 200 lbs. when I started using the program, the badge reports that I have not lost any weight yet.  But you and I know that my journey has already begun, and to date I have lost 5 POUNDS!  Halelujia. 

5 lbs. down, 45 lbs. to go... and onward I march!