Turkey Day Survival Guide and More Good Stuff! (not stuffing!)

Okay, tomorrow biggest eating day ever, right? The holiday most centered around eating is here, but it's all in the planning. You can make it a fun day, have all your favorite foods, and skip the regret and bloat!

It seems everywhere today there were tips on how not to go overboard. Here are mine:

I think the number one rule is this: THIS IS NOT THE ONE DAY WHERE YOU ARE "ALLOWING YOURSELF TO EAT ANYTHING YOU WANT CAUSE ITS A HOLIDAY AND YOU DESERVE IT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS!" (HAVE YOU NOTICED MANY OF THE "EVERYONE ELSES" ARE OVERWEIGHT AND UNHEALTHY?) What i am saying is yes, you can eat what you want today, but in MODERATION. I also think it is extremely important to know that if the next day comes and you want a slice of pecan pie, you can have it. DO NOT GO INTO IT THINKING YOU WILL EAT WHAT YOU WANT ON THANKSGIVING AND YOU WILL DEPRIVE YOURSELF THE NEXT DAY. That thinking will most certainly lead to overeating.

HERE IS A QUOTE FOR YOU BEFORE WE MOVE ON: "When i exercise, eat well and get enough rest, I thrive. Repeating those things every day is how i show myself love." Now that is something to think about.

So because you do care about yourself, here are some guidelines for tomorrow:

Eat normally before the party starts. Do not save all your calories for the big meal or you will binge for sure, you will be so hungry. Eat a great breakfast with protein, complex carbs...have a protein rich lunch and even a snack before the party. You will be amazed at your will power when you're not starving.

If you plan on drinking, between each drink have a full glass of water or sparkling water. It will keep you hydrated and slow you down. Again, if there are to die for cocktails, have one, but red wine the rest of the time and if you need to have bailey's then no pie...i would rather have the pie personally. ok maybe small slice of pie.

Desserts: Have ONE...if you need to try two, go ahead, but half slices of each, and truly savor each bite, then be done...a nice cup of herbal tea afterwards will fill and warm you up.

Get active: with all this snow, why not get on your snowpants and play with the kids a bit, or do some snow shoeing...fun and the fresh air will do you good!

Your main meal should have the largest portion of a healthy veg, then the turkey of course, then the starch the smallest...if multigrain or wheat breads are being offered have a slice with no butter. Eat slowly...Here is the main tip: DO NOT GO FOR SECONDS for at least 15 min if at all....i find that when i am getting up to go for seconds i know that i am really not HUNGRY anymore, but i just want to eat again cause it tastes good. Maybe we can all avoid that this year. I think that wil be my goal! One plate, done...

Cocktail Hour: Make yourself a plate of mostly the healthiest offerings..if you are going to be a guest, bring something healthy you can enjoy. If you are the hostess, you are lucky to be in charge of what will be served.

Try to focus on the people at the party and maybe learn something new about them and recent news or things you never asked about before..focus on friends and family, not the food. Maybe even think up a fun game to play after dinner (charades can burn LOTs of calories and is FUN!)

So, i was very well behaved today food wise. I stuck to a great healthy eating plan in anticipation of tomororw. I was busy all day cleaning, so that kept me active too. I hope i can follow my own advice, we'll see!!

YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY!

I try to anyway...Did you know there are two kinds of fat in our body (great news, right?) Brown and White? (so, i thought is it like food the brown stuff is the good fat, the white the bad?) Most of your fat stores is the white fat, which serves mainly as stored energy. brown fat makes up only 1% or so of your fat. The book i am getting this info from, called The No-Nonsense Guide to Diet, Exercise and Disease Prevention, says that if your body overheats (like in exercise, like if you overdress for exercise, you decrease your brown fat activity thus lessening the buring of the white fat. It goes on to say that brown fat is stimulated by cold, and that by cooling your brown fat areas (underarms, around the shoulder, at the nape of the neck, between the ribs,you will stimulat more white fat burnig...the book suggests ending each hot shower with aminute of cool water...does this mean after a winter zumba class when we head outside into the frigid air, we are burning more white fat?? I hope so!!

Next post, an awesome granola recipe made with egg whites as the binding agent, not oil!! Talk about protein! Happy Thanksgiving...

Decisions, Decisions ...

Okay, as usual the buffet at the Toole house was open today: Will you be having Chocolate Chip or Plain Fluffy Pancakes? How about a cinnamon roll or a really cute Turkey Sugar Cookie to go with that? NOT!!!!

Really, i am no decision maker. For example, i have been looking at paint chips for months now trying to figure out the perfect shade of green for my kitchen and chocolate brown for an accent wall. do i go with the brown that has gold hues, red tints or just a milk chocolate. What about the other walls? A lighter color but should it be more mauvy, or taupy or golden??????? YIKES. With all of this oscillating, it is a wonder i get anything done (paint not bought yet, and the sale is over :(

But when it comes to breakfast it is pretty easy for me to make THE RIGHT choice: This morning i had non-fat greek yogurt with strawberries, blueberries, ground flaxseed, a dash of agave nectar, and a handfull of kashi go lean. IT WAS AWESOME and the best part, i got a lot of bang for my calorie expenditure: A FULL CUP OF FAGE NON FAT GREEK YOGURT IS ONLY 130 CALORIES AND OF COURSE NO FAT AND SUGAR. best part is the 23!!!G of protein. wow, awesome. I am still feeling satisfied and i ate that 1.5 hours ago, and usually i would be hungry again cause i am always hungry. So when i tweak the menu for January (so looking forward to that) it will include some natural sweetners and might include a conveinence food or two that has an artificial sweetner, but for the most part, i would like us all to stay away from those. I have totally given up diet soda and i am not really missing it. So i think that will stick. I have seltzer now with a bit of cranberry and lemon if i want something sparkling, usually without the cranberry and it is very refreshing and takes care of my carbonated beverage craving. So, yes,i added a bit of agave nectar, but i figured a bit of sweetness to make me feel totally satisfied with my meal and not craving a dark chocolate acai "berry"!!
It worked, let me tell you.

Now if i only could be so smart at dinner time....

I was last night. Had chicken with spinach and some salmon canapes with capers (no bread on that, just rolled up salmon with a bit of cream cheese...only 80 calories for 3, i had 5...yum. they are little by the way!

Tomorrow i will try to give you some guidelines for getting through Thanksgiving...Heres a funny little thing i saw in a store the other day: One of the mysteries of life: Why is it that 2lbs of chocolate can make a woman gain 5 lbs!!! Ha ha...

More S Words: Sugar and Stress

Yes, i had more sugar this weekend... Not happy about it, oh well, new day today. I bought these delicious dark chocolate covered acai and pomegranate "berries" to mix with almonds and dried fruit to sell for catering. Great right, not really. The acai and pomegranate were actually made (aka highly processes) from the juices of these berries and molded into what looked like a chocolate covered berry. And while they did not have high fructose corn syrup, they had evaporated cane juice and another "natural" form of sugar, aka sugar. I was popping those little babies like and addict with pills! They were good, yes full of antioxidants, but when it all boils down to it, SUGAR! 25 G per 1/4 cup. And yes, i had definitley more than a 1/4 cup of each. Then i had chocolate coverd pretzels, a big no no...my excuse: PMS

My saving Grace: zumba on sat, great dvd workout sunday, new day today, zumba tonight.


What was i so stressed out about this weekend: my ipod was WASHED IN THE LAUNDRY. Interesting news: IT STILL WORKS (MINUS THE LIGHT if you squint you can see what songs there are...i put it in rice overnight.) WOW. bad news i am nervous now and will probably go get a new one. Worse news, i already ruined the one i had, so this was my daughters!

Other stresses include people who you are desperatley trying to coordinate with and they ignore all communication attempts and they play it off like nothing went wrong...very frustrating.

I am talking about more than one person which you can imagine makes you seek solace in chocolate.

Free Radicals: So what happened to my body after i ate all that chocolate this weekend (and white flour in the pretzels): My blood sugar spiked. When that happens your cells do not respond well and the inflamation that the blood spike created wreaks havoc in the cells fostering any free radicals you may have in there already (and i think creates them too, not sure). Point is the mutation of the cells is what causes a HOST OF disease, namely cancer, but many more. The antioxidants we hear so much about fight free radicals and help cells back to their natural state.

So don't do as i do, do as i say. Learn from my mistakes as i am trying to, okay?

The "Science of the PLAN" and my Sugar Laden Day

I will start with the sugar. Of course, i will also start by saying i was running around as usual and failed to plan.

So, i found myself at Reny's at lunchtime with a few other important things i needed to do before i could go home. Hmmm what should i eat? Well i got some nutrition bars (two) that had all the elements of our plan (protein, complex carbs, even flax!) but TOO MUCH SUGAR even though it wasn't added in at least one of them. The one that did have added sugars were at least the all natural kinds, but nonetheless blood sugar spiking, fat storing MESS! (will explain more below). So, the sugared bar was a kashi go lean peanut butter granola bar with no high fructose corn syrup, said so right on the label! Big deal, still had evaporated cane juice and brown rice syrup, which are not processed and nutritionally stripped forms of sugar so are minorly more healthy, but still have the negative effects of sugar we are all trying to avoid: Raising your blood sugar so you use up that energy first rather than your body needing to go into your fat reserves for energy and whatever you don't use gets stored as FAT! So the kashi go lean had 11 G of sugar. Now the bad news: the first bar i had was a larabar and the flavor was jocalat a chocolate cherry flavor. This bar was impressive in many ways: all organic, free of added sugars, gluten free, dairy and soy free, 4 G protein, full of antioxidants. Ingredients were dates, almonds, unsweetend cherries, cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate. Sounds great, right? WRONG and for one reason: 22 GRAMS OF SUGAR. yIKES THAT WILL SPIKE!!!

So, that of course wasn't enough. No lunch will do that to you. So i had 3/4 cup approximately of this granola i bought (again great ingredients, probably too much sugar) this was all in the car!!!

So then i go home and there was a quarter of a power bar (26 g of sugar for the whole bar, so divide by 4ish, so roughly 6 g more of sugar cause i had to eat that too. When i got home from zumba i chilled out, and had my 4 oz of grilled chicken, some cous cous and boiled carrots. and a glass of wine. i know...and i can tell you this. I am NOT at my destination due to my foibles with the diet, cause i am keeping up with workouts mostly, but i consider this THE HALF WAY POINT, LEARNING CURVE IF YOU WILL. I know i have time to do better, and i will not give up. I am more aware, not mindlessly putting things in my mouth, (i think good and hard about what eating all that sugar will do, but sometimes the stomach prevail!) So with the tweaks i have in mind, i think next session we will see even more success.

Now to the science of it: As i mentioned above, eating sugar OR White Carbs (flour, white rice, white pasta) creates a spike in blood sugar, which if you don't use it up gets stored to fat. Now who wants that, really? Eating a complex carb with a protein stabilizes your blood sugar and provides more nutrients so you are not on that hypoglycemic roller coaster where you are craving more bad carbs. Eating more meals with this combo speeds your metabolism and helps prevent bingeing.

The water you need to drink flushes out toxins, fat, extra salt, you name it. Also speeds up metabolism, especially if you drink it hot or cold. On the videos i recommended via my email (you tube, type in Food Doctor Diet Plan eating protein with complex carbs)they recommend making a vat of fruit teas (unsweetened of course) maybe add some lemon or seltzer and drink that all day. No calories, more flavor, might help you get the necessary water down.

Have a great day. I am trying to eat less calories than normal all day because i know i will be off the plan tonight. I don't mind going off on a scheduled indulgence, as long as i don't go TOO overboard, cause no one feels good after that.

What is your....

Trigger: When is it easy for you to stick to the plan, what is the hardest part of the day to stick to it? What are easy foods to avoid, which are the most difficult. It is good to write this info down in your journal. Awareness is the first step.

I have become sorely aware of when my triggers are and what triggers me. Countless times throughout the day I am tempted to mindlessly pop something in my mouth. No, i am not hungry, but perhaps tired, or perplexed as to what my priorities are, what i NEED TO GET DONE. This notion of never enough time in the day stressed me out to the max. Thus a peice of chocolate sure does help (FOR A NANO SECOND) and then i am back to square one.

THe good news is since being on the plan, i have learned to acknowledge the mindless eating and really curtail it. Plus i really am eating healthy! That is great, and i am feeling great. I think my downfall lately is just eating too much.

Case in point: Last night i was so proud of myself. My family and I went out, and afterwards to an early supper. The kids of course wanted pizza. So, i was not hungry, and i did not want to give in to pizza! So, i excused myself, and ran to Hannaford to grocery shop. I made up my mind when i got home, i would make a nice whole wheat wrap with tuna, olives (a monounsaturated fat which will be key to our next session's eating plan), celery, spinach, olive oil light hellmans mayo (probably not 100% on the plan, but close, tomato and a glass of red wine. Since i did not have my afternoon snack, thought that was okay. Only one problem: I generally cannot make yummy food ahead and save half...i made two cans of tuna and made the wrap with half of what i made....the continued to eat the rest of the made tuns sans wrap. LOSER!! i would have been fine if i just stopped at thewrap. I estimated with all the stuff in the wrap and the wine, and the extra tuna, to have eaten about 700 calories! THen the kicker: once i overeat, i want more (the wine i know makes me want to eat more) so i had a nutrigrain bar! it was great! but 120 calories more and 11 g of sugar.

so, not so good. But i stopped there. I had no exercise yesterday, but did take an hour long hike, so although it doesn't count for points, it counts for calories burned. I did do a dvd on sat upper body and this am i did my 100 sit ups and will do zumba tonight! I have to alternate the sit ups with pushups, my goal now doing one or the other every day. But i HATE pushups....i am able to do more though since i have been doing them a bit more regularly. I will perservere!!!!

The PLAN

I have been a devout follower of the plan over the past few days...i have done very well except perhap ONE glass of RED wine, or a few squares of dark chocolate, both of which are healthy anti-oxidants. I have been reading up on anti-oxidants and free radicals and what it all means. More to come definitley on this, and how this will fit into our next session beginning early January.

I have been following the plan but on my own terms. Today i had oatmeal with flax seed,unsweetened apple sauce, walnuts, and cinnamon. Then a little while later i had a brown rice cake and peanut butter. Was not in the mood for eggs,as i had an egg white and spinach omelet when i came home from zumba last night.

For lunch, i did not have anything planned, (bad plan) but i usually buy healthy foods at each shopping trip, so i had a grapefruit, spinach, avacado and buckwheat soba noodles which i got at renys. they are quick and versatile. I made a simple dressing with the grapefruit juice, lime juice, sesame oil and a bit of agave nectar. It was delish. I chopped up some scallions and tossed it all together (cooked the noodles first then ran them under cold water) YUM and talk about healthy. For dinner i plan on pork tenderloin and sweet potato with a few asparagus spears and my antioxidant fix, red wine, one glass. I just enjoy it and its good for me, so in moderation, we can do this!

Just a little tidbit for you. My well meaning husband bought me newmans vanilla almond flakes cereal. It is made with whole grain, and it is really good. but Very sweet. i wasn't going to eat it, but took a look at the sugar, and beleive it or not, Kashi go lean has more sugar (the berry kind)!!! So, i did eat it with unsweetened almond milk and i was happy. Lesson: always check the labels.

Today is my day off after two zumba classes yesterday, but i woke up and did 100 plus sit ups. I think if i want to reach my goal of a taut stomach, that has to be part of my life on off days.

Looking forward to sharing my tweaked plan with you all soon.

I have been hearing all sorts of fun stuff from the plan. Just a footnote: the plan assumes you are all doing these workouts probably 6 days a week so on your off day, eat a bit less okay?

Looking Forward to Monday?

Is this possible? Mondays are usually the most dreaded day of the week. We have to get up and get going on our schedules once again. EXACTLY. This is what i need. Structure, routine. When it comes to eating healthy and sticking to a fitness plan, Mondays are THE BEST day. Time to corrall yourself back to reality, back to following the directions (hopefully you did not get irrevocably lost over the weekend).

So that is what i did, once again. The weekend could have been a lot worse in terms of damage done. I worked a lot, so no time for a workout on Friday or Sat, but Sunday i was determined. Only i feel like i sort of cheated: rather than do a dvd in the comfort of my own home, i opted for my preferred workout: of course, ZUMBA! I drove half an hour to do a 1.5 hour class, and i really don't have too many regrets. I do know that my body would have been more challenged doing something different, something other that what i regularly do. But THAT IS WHY I REGULARLY DO ZUMBA, BECAUSE I LIKE IT, AND THAT EQUATES TO REGULAR EXERCISE WHICH IS WHAT WE ALL STRIVE FOR, RIGHT?

YES, MUSCLE CONFUSION...i know and i will get back to it. I will do a different strenght exercise each a.m. just to confuse myself! sit ups, push ups, inner thigh lifts, tri-cep dips...i want to be sore at least once a week. That is progress. I get great cardio from zumba, but i need more targeted weight training types of exercise too.

Back on track. Much looser with the diet now, but generally following the rules. I eat less on the days i won't work out (except the weekends :( ! but still mix the protein and complex carb. Just bought evaporated cane juice crystals and am using one teaspoon per large cup of coffee as i just really enjoy a bit of sugar in my coffee, and i don't think that is what is keeping me from my ideal body! Its all the other sweets i might sneak in or eating way too much. Not the lousy teaspoon of natural cane juice sugar!And i have decided i need dark chocolate in my life, so i eat 4 squares of it each day (unsweetened that i got from trader joes, it is great and curbs my cravings for the rest of the day!!! It is a great antioxidant so i am ALL ABOUT IT.

Still eating healthy and exercising, although i am sure the scale won't be where i want it for a couple of days after the weekend, even though i wasn't as bad as i could have been, i was bad enough!

So yes, this Monday was a great day for me. Ate healthily all day. Zumba class was great. I am happy. Word to the wise: Instead of putting yourself down for the weekend antics, look forward to Monday, knowing it will be a great day cause you will make it that way!

Good night!

Anti Aging Tips

SO, anti aging. We hear about it everywhere. What's so bad about getting older? You know more, are generally earning more, have more experience to draw on for those tough times and situations. No, i don't think growing older is a bad thing, but i do think LOOKING OLDER IS. Feeling older, also on the no-no list.

As I think you all have gathered about me at this point: I beleive exercise and keeping active are the most important tools in the quest for youth and vitality. The list is endless in terms of the benenfits of using your body daily. I think the best evidence is how we all feel after a great zumba class. I feel elated, hopeful. I have been to an facial lady (sorry don't know how to spell that big A word that they formally are)and she said i have great skin and my pores are as unclogged as she has seen. Both of us attribute this to the thrice weekly sweat fest i go through with zumba. NOTE: when i was younger, my diet was awful, my exersise inconsistent, thus my skin broke out regularly. i have marks on my face that are irreversible. SInce i have adapted a way healthier lifestyle full of antioxidants and blood pumping, circulation improving exercise, and plenty of water, and lots of products with antioxidants in them, etc. i feel my skin is the best it can be for my age. See what age brings? WISDOM. do the right thing and you shall be rewarded.

Of course, what you eat, we know, effects everything. How you feel, how you look. Stock up on the blueberries, pomegranate, green tea, avacados, tomatoes...the ANTIOXIDANT list goes on. CLEAN EATING IS THE KEY. The antioxidants fight the free radicals from the sun, pollution, basically anything that is detrimental to your normal cell function. Also staying away from foods high in saturated fat (burgers, fries, cheesy stuff) will help you avoid dementia and help you better remember and concentrate. But don't avoid fat altogether. Avacados, olive oil, and fatty fish with omega threes like salmon of course, all great and help you attain a youthful appearance. One fear i have is if i get too lean i will have that sinewy facial look. You need some good fat to fill out your face or you will look gaunt, especially as you age.

SLEEP. It seems many of us at our age (the dreaded middle) have trouble getting a full night's sleep. The onset of darkness triggers your pineal gland to release melatonin into the bloodstream, inducing sleepiness. As we age melatonin production decreases. Since we have stopped growing, we don't need as much sleep. I have been taking melatonin, a naturally occuring hormone in the body, to help me on those really awful nights. Turns out melatonin is an antioxidant and can help slow down aging! It makes sense that if melatonin helps us sleep, we will look and feel younger, more energetic. BUT what i did not know is "the master hormone modulating molecule" and it regulates the circadian cycles. Aging is a degenerative condition of the body, not just the passing of years. Melatonin sends a message of "youth" throughout the body keeping the body healthy and strong. It also may stimuatle the immune system for better overall health, including fending off certain diseases of old age. Studies have also shown that melatonin can diminish the effects of hormones that trigger certain cancers, including breast and prostate cancer. More great news about melatonin is that it is readily available at any pharmacy, cheap, and is a very low toxic hazard. (Above info courtesy of an article in My Generation from the Lakes Region Weekly.)

Anyone want to meet at Rite Aid? :)

As for the plan and my progress, great day yesterday. I use the plan as a guide for food combinations, portion size, but i am not exact. The scale puts me at my maximum weight which i allow myself, which is okay, but i don't have the buffer now, so maybe i will decrease the amounts of food today, listen to my internal cues a bit more, and eat when i am hungry. Of course, only foods in sync with the plan.

When In Doubt, WORKOUT

We are approaching week 5 if you can belIEve it. It going quickly in a way, but each day is a mini hurdle. Several times through out the day i am confronted with a challenge to my diet. Every morning in my house the sausage patties and bacon are being fried up, egg sandwiches perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper on an english muffin, chocolate chip pancakes! It is enough to make you mad. Breakfast alone could ruin the whole day for me. BUT, I AM PROUD TO SAY I HAVE NOT GIVEN IN. The mornings are the easiest because i like what is on the plan anyway, and a long time ago i decided that those traditional breakfast foods were not the best choice of fuel for my body to get me through my busy day. So for years, i have not been indulging, although i used to occasionally.

Everyone has their trigger times of day/foods/etc. Breakfast is not mine. I would have to say dinner is because that is the time when it is getting dark, and i am preparing a meal for the family i like to listen to the news, have a glass of wine...and honestly i think the wine makes me hungrier so i tend to eat more than i should.

So on to how i did over the weekend. I did pretty good for a weekend filled with a party, a snow storm and finished off by Halloween!

Friday that party i catered. I did good, not great, but good for me. I think i already talked about that last time.

Saturday I was tired, so i skipped the workout, but ate well all day.

Sunday I was back in full form, i did the Tabata Inferno workout because one participant said it was THE hardest and i was ready for it. I did find it challenging, but not the hardest for me. I was kind of bummed on Sunday because i am thinking, OK i have almost 5 weeks in and what do i have to show for it? Well i don't think i have been true enough to the diet to see real great transformation, but its that time of the month )sorry tmi) so i am bloated like nobody's business. I was doubting everything, and then i DID THAT WORKOUT AND FELT INSPIRED ONCE AGAIN.
i LOVE these workouts because they really work your body in ways you never have, such creative moves and that will get you results. Throughout my workout i kept thinking that and i wanted to do the moves and i challenged myself to keep up as best i could (although i didn't but did feel stronger, especially with pushups. I am such a wimp when it comes to push ups)

On Monday knowing it was Halloween i was determined to squeeze in a workout, so i did the core definition or whatever that one is called. That one is my favorite. Great creative moves, and you don't have to repeat them 3 o4 sets. You do a set of 4 exercises then you move onto the next set of 4 new ones. And i think the hard part of the workout was only 30 min. It went so fast. There was only one exercise i wasn't even going to try. The plank where he is on his forearms and he does a scissor type motion with the forearms and the legs! YIKES. whatever. I just did the legs.

The point is i felt great knowing that i got stronger with each of those workouts. I knew next time it would be a little easier. WHEN YOU DOUBT YOURSELF, WORKOUT. YOU WILL NEVER REGRET IT, NEVER HEAR YOURSELF SAY "WHY DID I DO THAT? I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT! YOU WILL ONLY FEEL HAPPINESS AND SATISFACTION. EVERY TIME. JUST MAKE SURE TO CHALLENGE YOURSELF, BUT DON'T HURT YOURSELF.