Recently in Fitness Category

Since I started reading Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution ... I can't get enough. I am so trippin' over the stuff we put in our bodies all I can think is that there is no wonder so many Americans are fat. We are seriously killing ourselves with the food we eat ... even skinny people.

Anywho ... in today's email I got a link to the 20 Worst Foods in America 2009. There are some doozies on the list. Wow.

Dairy Queen took the Worst Fast-Food Meal award with their 6-Piece Chicken Strip Basket. It has 1,270 calories and 67 g fat ... 11 of which are saturated. Outback Steakhouse got the Worst Fish Entree. Their Atlantic Salmon has 1,640 calories. That's as many calories as 35 Chicken McNuggets. Quiznos took the Worst Sandwich. The Quizno's Large Tuna Melt has 2,090 calories and 175 g fat. 31 of those grams are saturated and 2.5 is trans fats.

The Worst Food of 2009 goes to Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake. It has 2,310 calories, 108 grams of fat (64 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fats), and 266 grams of sugar. That is 66 teaspoons of sugar and you could eat 11 Heath Bars for the same amount of calories. Eleven candy bars ... and you drink this monstrosity.

Check them all out here.

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• You Need This Book

I just bought Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution and I cannot put it down! Seriously ... there are things in this book that you need to know about the food you eat and don't. Believe me when I say you will be totally shocked by some of it.

Like me ... I love Twix candybars. I have loved them ever since they hit the shelves and probably eat one to two of them a week. They are one of my rare sweet indulgences. Last night, I found out they are considered one of the worst candy bars you can buy and have the saturated fat equivalent of 11 strips of bacon. Eleven! I love bacon ... but I don't eat eleven strips of it ... ever.

Plus, I am sure you have seen those commercials about high fructose corn syrup on TV. You know ... the ones that tell you that it is made from corn, nutritionally equivalent to sugar and is fine in moderation? Yeah. What they don't tell you, but Eat This Not That! does, is that HFCS has a few advantages over sugar ... 1) it is cheaper to produce, 2) it has a longer shelf life, and 3) it is easier to incorporate into products that never received the sugar treatment before ... like pasta sauce and whole wheat bread. It is in most processed foods ... so eating it in moderation is very hard to do if you eat much food from the center aisles of your supermarket.

So far ... I have learned that a lot of my food choices are making me fat in ways I never imagined. Also there are a lot of foods that I pick thinking they are more nutritious and actually they aren't. They aren't even close ... but food companies package them to make them appear healthier. Example: Healthy Choice Sweet & Sour Chicken. It has almost as much sugar as a Snickers bar!

This book is awesome and I recommend it wholeheartedly. It covers everything from produce, meat, condiments, frozen dinners, to bread and cereals. So, far ... I haven't seen an area not covered. And, I like this book so much that I have added Eat This, Not That! Thousands of Simple Food Swaps that Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds--or More! and Eat This Not That! for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block! to my wishlist. It really is that good.

I suck at committing to things. This is something I totally recognize about myself. I can commit to God ... but let me say I am going to read the Bible every single day and I will fail. I will miss one, then I will miss another ... and then a week will go by and I will still not have read it. Same with exercise and eating right.

I have good intentions. I want to be healthier. I want to be fit. I want to be spiritually sound and know my bible from front to back and then some. And ... I can come up with a multitude of things that get in the way of my very good intentions. We have eight kids. They range from 17 years of age to nine months old. I am always busy. I always have a million things that I need to be doing and most of it is not getting done. I don't have the time to do everything I need to do ... let alone do all the things I want to do.

Plus ... it does not help that I love doing mindless things that take up far too much of my time. Blogging is one. Facebook is another. Simming is yet another. I am shameless. I really am.

Here is an interesting article on weight loss I was reading this morning ...

Five Stealth Forces In Weight Loss

A consensus is emerging that the conventional wisdom--eat less, exercise more--is inadequate at best. A quick look at our collective waistline makes it painfully clear the old equation--calories in minus calories out equals weight change--is fundamentally flawed. Research shows not every calorie is created equal, and different bodies use calories in different ways. We're programmed to hang onto the fat we have, and some people are predisposed to create and carry more fat than others. Diet and exercise help, but in the end the solution will inevitably be more complicated than pushing away the plate and going for a walk.

Matt, the winner of The Biggest Loser Season II, just proposed to Suzy on the Today Show!!! I cried. It was so sweet! I am so happy for them and pray they have many, many wonderful years together.

Semi-related thought: I so need to get back on my exercise program! I am slowly gaining my weight back. And, now that I think about it, it looks like Matt is too. :(

Matt won The Biggest Loser! He looked so handsome! I knew he would win, but I was really rooting for Suzy. She is just so sweet and she looked absolutely fabulous!!! And, so did Andrea. Her and Suzy looked like they would be blown away by a mere wisp of a breeze. Seth looked awesome too and is so good looking now. And, Pete ... I was so happy to see him get the $100,000. He was muscular and looked so amazing! I cried. LM even cried! We were just so happy for them! :)

I can't wait until next season!

You should try some of the tips/tricks from the show. The deserts are da bomb! Really. I have also started eating Quaker Instant Oatmeal Weight Control (Banana Bread) and it rocks! I have always hated oatmeal. The only hot cereal I have ever liked was Malt-o-Meal. But, I am here to tell you that this oatmeal is great! It tastes just like banana bread and you don't have to add anything to it. And, it does what it claims. It fills you up. I don't even think about food until about noon or a little after and I eat before 8 AM.

Oh ... and I so want The Biggest Loser: The Workout Volume One DVD! If I can't get someone to get it for me for Christmas, it will be the first thing I buy come January. :) I want the book too. And, since I am mentioning it ... I want all of Jillian Michaels DVDs while I am at it. This one. That one. And, this one too. I would like her book as well.

I don't want much. I just know what I want. ;)

Update 2/7/06: If the item is striked out, I now have it.

I finally made it through the plateau I had going on and have lost a pound and a half this week. I am so happy! This was the second plateau I had hit and it had set in hard for three weeks. That can be quite discouraging, especially when you get on the scale after all the hard work you put in just to find out the scale has not moved at all.

I finally received the FIRM Step to go with my FIRM DVDs! I cannot wait to give it a try too. I have to wait until I get to feeling better and I hate that, but I understand why. The last thing I want to do is crack my skull from getting too dizzy or something, especially trying something new. For the last few days I have had to take it easy as it is and that has been a pain in the butt.

This illness has kept me so fatiqued and feeling all funny. The doctor says it is a sinus infection. I don't know about that but it is responding slowly to the antibiotics he put me on. I can't wait to feel like my old self again so I can get back on the ball. My goal has been to lose one to two pounds a week. I won't be able to do that if I have to keep slacking off due to illness.

Is at hand. Oh, yes it is. I jogged. And, I didn't die.

That is all.

I so love The Biggest Loser! It is one of my favorite shows and I hope they continue to keep doing them. Not only are they inspirational to me in my own quest to lose weight and get fit, but I find myself cheering them on and hoping that they succeed in their weight loss goals.

They are also much braver than I am, believe me. I don't think I could put myself out there for the whole world to see and wear what they have to wear. I don't do skin-tight clothes. :)

In the last couple of weeks I have let my workouts become a bit rote. I haven't been as interested in working out as normal and have just been going through the paces. I think I have had too many other things on my mind to concentrate on it.

Today, I decided that I was going to really concentrate and focus myself during my workout. I did my strength training this morning and focussed on my legs. This afternoon I did a 2 mile walk aerobics session. A little later, I decided to add a 100 crunches for good measure. And, I feel so good right now.

I forgot how much enjoyment I actually get from working out. I love to sweat. I love feeling my abdominal muscles contracting, becoming stronger and more defined. I love feeling the the fat melt off my body and that is what I visualize as I workout. I imagine the fat literally turning to liquid and sweating out of my body.

It feels good to be strong. It feels good to know that I am making myself stronger, fitter, and healthier everyday. It feels good to know that when I am 50 years old, I won't act like I am 70. At least not willingly. I am so about feeling younger than my age, not older. :)

I figured it was time to give y'all an update on my weight loss/exercise journey. As of today, I have lost 15 lbs, over 17 inches, and 2.6 points off my BMI. Whoo hoo for me!

I am finishing my twelth week of my new diet and exercise program. I have lost twelve pounds and sixteen inches. I have lost four and a half inches from my waist alone! My BMI has went from 31.5 to 29.4 and I couldn't be happier.

Well, maybe I could. I am sure I will when I hit my target. :)