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Kim,
You make things difficult for me *grin*. The raw foods/veggies and fruit thing is great. The more fruits and veggies, the better. In fact, it’s best to consider veggies a “free” food, pretty much eat as much as you want when you want-within limits, of course. I’m also a very simple eater and can’t stand it when meals take longer than 30 minutes to cook (sometimes even cooking an egg is too long). You don’t mention anything about an afternoon or morning snack, which may be a sticking point since blood glucose tends to severely dip in the afternoons for many people. I do best when I’m eating 6 small meals per day; some people do best with one meal. However, I almost always recommend to try eating at least 4 times per day if not 5-6. It doesn’t have to be much; a glass of milk counts, or a palmful of almonds- something with protein and carbs in it.
If I were to plot your calories from standard serving sizes, I may even guess that you may be eating only 1400 calories a day (excepting snacks and splurges), but may be eating up to 2000 calories on the weekend. With a sedentary lifestyle (which you admitted earlier was definitely your job), your body is currently not using its energy very effectively. Try giving more veggies a try and make exercise a priority. So long as there isn’t something like sodapop that wasn’t included in the above, your body should start turning itself around very quickly, and you may soon find that you need to bump up your calories a bit with the quality whole foods options. Also, since you do have a sedentary job, start getting up once an hour and walk around for 5 minutes or so. You may find that helps some energy return and you’ll get more accomplished at work. If your boss asks/complains about it, just let him/her know that you’re investing in your productivity! :D
Stand up, take a step and repeat, strange how simple it is, huh?
Oh, by the way, Blue Bunny is my favoritist dairy food company ever (I grew up half an hour from LeMars, the birthplace of BB). I live off its yogurt and milk, and when I’m on an ice cream bender, that, too. :D
You can also use frozen bananas. If you have an overripe banana, just put it in the freezer. The skin will turn brown but the banana is fine. Take it out when you need it and let it thaw for a few minutes. With a knife, cut of the ends and make a length cut through the skin. This will make the skin easier to peel off. You may also want to cut it in chunks to make blending easier.
You can also buy the bananas in bulk when the store is trying to get rid of their overripe ones if you have enough freezer space for them.
You can also use frozen bananas. If you have an overripe banana, just put it in the freezer. The skin will turn brown but the banana is fine. Take it out when you need it and let it thaw for a few minutes. With a knife, cut of the ends and make a length cut through the skin. This will make the skin easier to peel off. You may also want to cut it in chunks to make blending easier.
You can also buy the bananas in bulk when the store is trying to get rid of their overripe ones if you have enough freezer space for them.
M,
Are you a closet EFLer? *grin* (Eating for Life by Bill Phillips). I ask because so few people actually know that they can freeze bananas, and if they’re brown in the freezer, they’re still okay. If I’m going to freeze a banana, I split it into chunks and throw them in a baggie, which works great for blending too. And doing that is so much healthier than making banana bread with the overripe ones (yum...)
I learned it at a cooking class years ago. The instructor mentioned it along with the fact that you need to tell other household members that they aren’t bad and should stay in the freezer. If I remember correctly, her hubby was being nice and cleaned out the freezer, throwing all her bananas away.
Thanks for the information about the banana smoothies. I learned that banana trick years ago from my mother, who is a big banana bread fan. Brown bananas still sit with me funny though. It’s tough to get past the color sometimes. I use the same trick, Carrie. I take mine out of the skin before freezing. I’ve always thought it saved time a trouble.
My freezer is also full of bananas, I thought I was just odd. Good to know I’m in such wonderful company. I love bananas, but there’s always one that goes before it gets eaten, so we freeze it for banana bread. Yum.
Okay, Carrie, I took your advice and started tracking my calories this past week (no guarantees on how long that will last, but hey, I’m trying ). And you’re pretty close to right. My calories are all over the board, my lowest being 1293 and my highest being 2058 (ouch!). My average being in the mid-1600’s.
I generally only get soda when we eat out. We don’t keep any in the house and it’s too expensive to buy at work ($1.25 for a bottle!) so I usually drink water or Crystal Light that I have brought from home. I’m not terribly good about the water thing, unfortunately, so I am lucky to go through 4-5 glasses a day. The veggies and apples are my snacks most of the time. I’m a bit of a grazer, so I’ll munch throughout the day if something is available. I try and stay out of the junk food, but my boyfriend doesn’t make that easy. He has a tendency to step up his eating habits when he knows that I’m trying to back off on mine. Sabatoges me every time!
I’m usually hardpressed to get more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night. I’m a night owl, so even on a good night, I can’t fall asleep before midnight. Because of my later hours at work (10am - 7pm EST), I have to try and get my house chores done later in the evening. I don’t get any time to myself usually until after 11pm, so I tend to run until 1am, at which point I collapse into a ball of sludge until 3am, wake up for 15 minutes, then back to sleep, then up again at 5:30am when the rest of the household gets up and ready for their day. If I’m lucky, I can slip in one more hour between 7:15 and 8:20am. Going to bed early will not work for me. I end up staring at the ceiling all night.
Suggestions would be most appreciated from anyone who is all to familiar with this lifestyle and knows how to beat it! I’m sure this is hindering my weight loss, but I’m not sure how to get around it.
Here are a few tricks I’ve heard about, I have no idea how well they’ll work, but I’ll pass them along.
Sometimes a hard workout followed by a hot shower will help knock you out. A hot bath, with soothing music right before bed. No computer or TV 2 hours before sleep, lots of reading. Yoga. Pray. Lavandar is supposed to be a restful smell, maybe use some lavandar lotion, or bath salts. I hope you get a great night’s sleep soon.
Do you have to get up with the others, or do they just wake you with their movements?
A little bit of both, actually, Bree. Allow me to qualify that statement with the fact that I have a rather unique sleeping arrangement. My boyfriend’s snoring has become impossible for me to sleep with (he sleeps like a rock/I tend to be a light sleeper), so for the last year I’ve been sleeping on the couch in our living room. Since this is where the front door is located, everybody passes through this room on their way out the door in the morning.
Our school system lengthened our son’s school day by one hour, so he has to get up an hour earlier this year. He is a mild autistic with absolutely no sense of time, so I usually get up to make sure he gets breakfast and then out the door before the bus arrives.
Forty minutes after my son heads out, my boyfriend leaves to go to work. I will simply state that this is not a quiet process. Elephants make less noise. Therefore, I don’t bother to try and sleep during this time, knowing that it will be fruitless to do so. Once he is gone, I have about an hour or so to relax again and maybe doze for a time before the alarm finally gets me up for my trek into work.
I may try the hot shower before bed thing. Our bathtub is rather small to really relax in, even for my short stature, but a shower might work. Thanks for the tip!
This is going to sound crazy, but… bare feet. As long as I keep my exercises to those that do not involve footwear (yoga) or I can do without footwear (I do my walking video without shoes...it’s quieter and I don’t wake up the whole house). When I do go out, flats. Any of the shoes that I wear that are “supposed” to be good for my feet, I can get away with for a few days and then my heels become crippling with pain. High heels (at work) can only be worn for short periods of time (point to point, when I have to be away from my desk). Otherwise I stick to a pair of yoga sandals (sort of like flip flops, but thicker and with with toe spreaders). Excedrin Back and Body pain has been helpful as well.
Unfortunately, the yoga sandals don’t work for hiking too well (the spreaders tend to pinch after a while), so the search continues. Thanks for all of your suggestions though, they have been very helpful!
Okay, Carrie, I took your advice and started tracking my calories this past week (no guarantees on how long that will last, but hey, I’m trying ). And you’re pretty close to right. My calories are all over the board, my lowest being 1293 and my highest being 2058 (ouch!). My average being in the mid-1600’s.
Good for you! Now you have an idea of what you’re eating, and that’s always a great place to start.
I love bare feet. I wear nothing but flat shoes, and usually even I wear tennies (although my job now lets me get away with it, before I just wore flats or fancy tennies). My favorite tennis shoes are New Balance trail (473 I think) shoes because they have a minor dip at the heel, which really keeps my hips from jutting out in front.
Have you considered muscle imbalances? If you get low back pain from walking in high heels even for short periods, there may be some of that in there. A good exercise to correct that is a shoulder bridge (lay on your back, knees in the air and feet planted firmly on the floor, then raise your butt up and hold it for 1 minute). If you feel more pulling or stress on your lower back or knees than you do in your butt, take your fist and pound the butt cheeks. That will help those butt muscles activate, and getting those to work is key. Do that exercise as part of a normal routine and up to 3 times a day.
As for sleep, I have to be blunt and say you’ve got to readjust your schedule. 5-6 interrupted hours is going to get you nowhere. Don’t try to do it overnight. Take a month and adjust 10 minutes up every couple of nights. I loved Bree’s ideas too, especially the hot shower after a good relaxing workout. Use the workout* I’m emailing you to wind yourself down (it suggests using a medicine ball, but a 3-pound book-ie the latest Harry Potter- works just fine).
And of course, don’t try to do too much change at once. I throw out many things because the more I do, the more chance there is that one of them is really going to click with you. Scott does that too, have you ever noticed? :D So don’t feel the need to try everything at one time!
). And you’re pretty close to right. My calories are all over the board, my lowest being 1293 and my highest being 2058 (ouch!). My average being in the mid-1600’s.
