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A Love Affair with Diet Soda

Angela C. — Sat, 15 May 2010 09:53:28 +0000

I fell for you again, Mr. Diet Soda.

You, with your promises of zero calories. I could commit to you without guilt.

Even though I promised to give you up, I went right back to you. But I knew my friends wouldn’t judge me if they saw us together.

I should have known better when I first started hanging out with you again, seeing as I needed to take a shot (or two) with you. My judgment was impaired.

After a while, I started bringing you everywhere. To work. Hanging out with my guy friends. I even snuck you with me on a girl’s night out!

I just love your bubbly coolness and the way you make me feel refreshed after some time together. You mix well with my favorite vices. I mean, I can’t imagine spiced rum without you… or movie popcorn, for that matter.

And your caffeine, ooh, your caffeine. In the middle of an especially horrible work week, just hearing the swish-crack of a can being opened in the office promises me a moment of deliverance. After I’m finished with you, I can face the challenges of another long afternoon.

At the end of the night, as I lie awake, indigestion bubbling to the surface, I wonder if it was all worth it.

In the morning, I do the walk of shame, away from my button down dress shirts hanging lonely in my closet, and towards my roomier peasant blouses. After all these days with you, I feel bloated, but empty; I’m awake, but unclear. I never should have left water for you.

Oh, Mr. Diet Soda! Curse you, and shame on me!

Foods that Lose, Strategies that Win

Angela C. — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:38:40 +0000

I’ve been on a quest to use kettlebells to lose weight and document it on this blog since April 2009. In 12 months, I’ve maintained 25 pounds lost, and have gone from a XXL in my pants to a size 14. (I’m still 5′ 4″, that hasn’t changed.)

Although I still have a way to go before I reach my goal (size 8, somewhere around 132 pounds), I do know when I’m off track, and more importantly, when I am in my personal zone.

Here’s ten brief tips that I found to make a difference when I implement them:

10. I have three words for you. H 2 O.
Drink eight glasses a day, straight. This doesn’t include diet soda or juice.

9. A salad a day.
When I eat a salad made with lettuce or spinach as its base every day with a tablespoon of dressing, I find that I feel fuller and manage the other foods I eat.

8. Beans, beans are good for your heart.
Okay, I don’t have the scientific evidence stating that legumes are good for your heart. They are good for my waistline, though. I try to eat meals a couple times a week with beans making up over 50% of the meal.

7. Go nuts.
Almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts and even peanuts have become a staple for me. A large handful satisfies my afternoon hunger pangs.

6. Have Chocolate.
I never pass up an opportunity to have good chocolate. The key word is “good.” I look for dark chocolate made with 60% or higher cacao content. This means there is less sugar as an overall percentage of the entire treat.

5. Cardio? Yes!
Yes, I heart kettlebells and the practice sessions I have with my trainer predominantly focus on kettlebells. If you watch any of my videos, you’ll see that interspersed into our kettlebell exercises are 30 to 60 seconds of jump rope with a weighted rope.

I also take after-dinner walks with my son in a pack on my back. It’s good bonding time, clears my mind and isn’t too difficult. I also find that my core muscles work more than pushing him in a stroller.

4. Keep it simple.
I get stressed out if I think I’ll need an hour to work out, and then I won’t do it at all. But I can find 20 – 30 minutes. My trainer has us complete one exercise for 1 minute, then transition for 10 seconds, then jump rope for another minute, then transition for 10 seconds… until I’ve completed 20+ minutes of heart pounding work.

This routine is so simple- all I need is a timer (I prefer Gymboss‘ interval timer), two 8kg kettlebells, one 16kg kettlebell, and I’m off! I don’t even need to look at a program to see what comes next. I just try to alternate between upper and lower body (thrusters for one minute, jump for one minute, swing for one minute).

3. When in doubt, just swing the kettlebell.
Sometimes I want to get technical. The clean and jerk is quite a technical move, and I’m only now understanding how to do it (yeah, 8 months later)! If I don’t even want to think, I can just start with two handed swings with the 16kg. I can do one handed swings with the 12kg. I can swing two 8kgs at the same time. Just swing it!

2. Keep your mind right.
The biggest enemy to my success is not a person, place or thing. My largest obstacle is my own pattern of thinking.

For me to be successful, I need to have enough rest; not just in terms of nightly sleep, but also in terms of rest from mental or emotional stressors. Instead of turning to food or drink, lately I’ve been contacting friends. It’s helpful for me to revisit “good times,” especially during difficult ones.

1. “It’s better to do a little bit of something than a whole lot of nothing!”
I just thought of another one: It’s better to start small than not at all.

Small, smart changes will make a difference. Picking one thing and focusing on it for 7 days straight, or until it becomes a habit, will make a huge difference.

Sometimes just keeping track of yourself will help provide the insight you need to push through whatever is stopping you. This could be keeping a food journal, or putting a happy face on your calendar on the days you took that walk instead of watching TV, or asking a friend to check in with you every afternoon instead of heading for the refrigerator.

Start now. Do something. Stay focused.

Positive transformation is on its way!

Isagenix Cleanse Day #1: Doubts and Challenges

Angela C. — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:33:54 +0000

Have you ever noticed that as soon as you set an ambitious goal, obstacles appear?

My hurdle occurred on Day #1 of my Isagenix cleanse this month, in the form of a kid’s bean burrito.

You may be thinking to yourself, “That’s not that hard to say ‘no’ to!” Unless you’re me and you haven’t eaten solid food in 2 days.

Add to that the challenge of living in a household where you come home to dessert baking in the oven or delivered to the door from a loving friend, and you’ve just entered a minefield. Anywhere I step, I’m running into something that could blow this cleanse out of the water: fresh baked banana mufffins, Hawaiian food, a bean burrito. Check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAeGIb4xirA

Well, at least I stuck with the original plan, avoided the kalua pig (my downfall last time), had a laugh with my sister about all the food in the house, and moved on.

Sometimes, I just need a minute to review, renegotiate and recommit to my goal.

How about you? What are you taking on and what’s been challenging you? Leave me a reply below!

Sunday Stats – The Holidays are Here!

Angela C. — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:09:30 +0000

Aloha, kettlecousins!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a 20+ person party at our house – and that was just the immediate family! I hope that this past weekend was joyous for you as well, and that you embraced the spirit of gratitude, whether you are in the United States or not.

I definitely indulged in family, fun and food. I had stopped counting calories along the way, and unfortunately, it shows:

In this month that I haven’t been training at FitPro, I steadily lost the gains (or gained back the losses?) I had over a month ago! Talk about disappointing.

I can’t give up– I just can’t!

I’ve found a new training partner, and also renewed my joy for walking up mountains.

I also got a kelty carrier for my toddler to join me and see the world from outside of a stroller.

My holiday job has me on my feet for 6 – 8 hours a day, away from the computer, cell phone and other time wasters. This holiday season, I’ve also decided to give up diet soda, and drink plain, refreshing H2O.

My workout partner challenged me to hit 179.0 pounds by Christmas. It’s an ambitious goal. I started to reaffirm myself, and the latest quote I have posted in my room is:

“179 pounds tastes better than any dessert!”

I don’t think dessert in general is horrible, and I’m not a fan of deprivation (obviously).

Since I love desserts so much, including a recent affair with pumpkin-themed sweets, I decided that I will focus on making a clear choice to eat dessert, or any other sugary food choice.

I can allow myself to consciously choose to eat a sweet, rather than having it and pretending I didn’t by not counting it. I just need to factor it in with the other food I’ve eaten, and weigh it out.

If I’m just having a craving (or an emotional desire to eat a particular thing rather than a physical need for it) I can focus on the success I will achieve by working through it. If I just can’t pass on the dessert, I’ll have a small amount, and count it.

Each food choice, big and small, has affected my weight. Combine that with a total lack of kettlebell training in the four weeks preceding this one, and I’m disheartened, but not surprised at the results.

I could go on and on about what I haven’t done that’s led me to this point, but instead, I’ll make a list of what I can do now that will propel me towards my goal:

Kettlebell training, minimum 20 minutes, five times a week before work
Cardio with Kai in the kelty carrier, five times a week when I get home from work
A salad a day (or other mix of healthful vegetables)
Daily multivitamin
8 glasses of water a day
Pause and think before I choose to eat a sweet
Track everything on the blackberry

That about covers it. If I can manage to do even 70% of what’s on this list, I’ll see good results. If I do everything on this list– consistently– I’ll see great results.

Who else is with me? Leave me a comment! Mahalo!

How I lost 2 pounds in 1 day!

Angela C. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:24:24 +0000

Before you start asking questions, like, “What product did you use?” or “You’re not anorexic, are you?,” let me clean the slate. I had the stomach flu.*

Okay, according to a friend of mine, there’s no such thing as the “stomach flu.” Whatever it was, late Monday night / Tuesday morning, there I was hunched over the bathroom sink.

You know how I’ve been counting calories, both taken in and burned? Well, on Monday, I probably expended about 3,000 calories. I worked about 8 hours moving some pretty heavy stuff.

Before I got sick, I ingested about 2,600 calories, mostly carbs. So, all in all, not a bad day. Until around 12:30am. When I got rid of probably about 900 calories.

Let me just say, I’ve developed a food aversion to caesar salad now. Throwing up romaine lettuce is not fun. (That may have been a little bit too much information.)

Just want to keep you posted on what is definitely an adventure — thanks for joining me! Please comment below. I look forward to hearing your horror stories, too!

* kettletell.com does not promote getting the stomach flu, or regurgitating food, as a means of losing weight.

Calorie Counting and Kettlebells

Angela C. — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:35:45 +0000

Folks, I’m on a quest. I’m looking for the magic balance between food taken in and energy expended that will equal pounds and inches shed.

If you recall, last week Tuesdaay my trainer challenged me to lose a minimum of one pound every week. (I’m assuming, that is, until I hit one of my goals!) He’s threatened — I mean, motivated — us with an extra dollar added permanently to our session rate. I don’t like paying late fees, bank fees and parking tickets, so this is actually a good technique!

I started using a food diary and have meticulously entered everything in into it. This weekend, I’m looking up my favorite places, such as Yogurtland, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and, yes, McDonald’s grilled chipotle bbq snack wrap (no cheese) and entering all of the nutritional info.

According to the website, at a sedentary level of activity, my calorie intake should be 1900 kcals per day in order to lose one pound a week. At a moderate level of activity, my calorie intake should be 2200 kcals a day to lose one pound a week.

There’s also an “exercise diary,” where I can log in my activity and number of minutes. Unfortunately, there’s no “kettlebells” in the options. Kettlebell workouts are part weight lifting, but not 100%.

To solve this problem, I’m just using the “weight lifting” category and foregoing any rewards from the extra work done in my kettlebell workouts.

The same issue is occurring in my food diary. What if, for example, I put a cup of food down but don’t end up finishing it? Or I share with my son? Oh well. Again, it’s better to over-estimate my consumption and under-estimate my activity at this point in the game.

Here’s how everything’s looking so far (Tuesday and Wednesday were erased):

I have tracked my food issues down to the snacks I’m choosing. Yesterday, I went to a potluck, and tried to pick the healthiest options… which still left me feeling hungry and over in calories. The solution? Bring my own healthy food with me!

I’ve been staying up pretty late, too! What does that mean? I’m hungry at, oh, midnight. I’ve never been a midnight snacker, but lately, I’ve been dipping into these World Gourmet Veggie Garden Straws, 2 servings at a time. Sabotage!

I guess a trip to the store and pre-packing my snacks in appropriate portions will help.

Here are my actual stats for the week:

I’ve never been happier to weigh 191.2 pounds! Wheeeeeeee!

Thanks for visiting!

More video blogs will be posted here, and on you tube soon. Leave me a comment. : )

A Pound A Week… Or Else!

Angela C. — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:15:51 +0000

I’ve been politely questioned, rudely asked, and even teased about my weight. None of that really made a difference in terms of motivating me to get healthy, in fact, it may have had the opposite effect.

My trainer is taking a different approach — a financial consequence.

Liz and I have agreed. If we don’t come in weighing one pound less consistently every week, our hourly rate will increase by a dollar… permanently!

A pound is a comfortable goal. I’m confident I won’t go into the poor house, and can maintain weight loss of a pound a week. Two pounds a week, however, is my actual goal.

My exercise plan can certainly be improved since I have not been consistent in that regard. Some weeks I’ve had 5 workouts, and most weeks, just three. So, that can be easily fixed.

Healthy eating has not been a priority for me in weeks. Now, this is a touchy area for me. In my word, I say I want to eat healthy, but in deed, I’m not. My healthy integrity has gone out the door!

I’ve recommitted to eating well, one day at a time. I like my food journal on my phone, even if I don’t like its name. I’m always going to be a nerd, so I like seeing the calculations.

Here’s the part that takes real commitment, though– measuring everything– and I mean EVERYTHING I put in my mouth!

Here’s a few examples:

Coffee with 1 tbsp creamer

Examining the Nutrition Facts on Every Single Item

Note to self: a cup of spaghetti is not enough for a cup of sauce

Once I have everything entered in my journal, I’ll be able to recall it without trouble. This week, I find myself spending a lot of time looking up and then entering stats for things like “Organic Veggie Straws” and “BBQ Chicken.”

I’m also keeping track of my workouts on the exercise journal. Does anyone out there know how many kcals are burned in a 30 minute kettlebell workout? I don’t want to use the “weight lifting” stats, because that just doesn’t seem to capture the entire workout.

That just about sums it up. (Get it? SUMS it up? Aw, forget it.) Of course, I’d love to hear from you… it keeps me motivated! Please leave a comment below in the “reply” box. I look forward to reading it!

Mahalo!

Excuses

Angela C. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:50:50 +0000

Hey folks! Here’s my stats for the last couple of weeks. As you can see, starting in mid-September, my weight and measurements have gone up slightly:

For the last few weeks, I’ve been working out on average 3 times a week, and I’ve been eating a lot of sugary foods. Moreover, this past week, I’ve been at the coffee house again, sitting and working on my laptop.

It’s no wonder that my weight — and my waist line– have gone up!

This begs the question, “WHY?” I have a goal, and I have the desire. I have some mechanisms in place to reach that goal. What’s my excuse?

I saw a great quote today by Art Turock:

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”

I’m blessed to have another day on this earth, and about 5 weeks until I turn 36. I need to stop squandering my time here and commit to the things that matter today and in the long run.

Any thoughts?

Sunday Stats: I'm bringing nerdy back

Angela C. — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:01:51 +0000

Nothing to see here, folks, keep on moving!

Okay, you’re still reading, so I’ll share my latest progress (or lack thereof) with you:

Here’s what that looks like as a line graph:

Since I’m a nerd, I thought to look at the data and see if I could find any trends. Do you see anything?

The only correlation I could see clearly is… higher weight, wider measurements. Usually, when I increase in weight, even slightly, one of my measurements increases.

The other factor that is making this unclear for me is that I did a 9-day cleanse with a 2-day pre-cleanse in the middle of July. If you recall, I lost about 6 pounds, endured some serious caffeine withdrawals and had all kinds of interesting things happen, like breakouts, hair loss and moss (okay, not moss, but some white substance that looked gross) on my tongue.

Hypothesis #1
The “cleanse days” aside, I think that the difference in my weight and measurements is directly linked to the other major cycle. You know what I’m talking about.

I haven’t collected data on that, specifically, but I do know that my eating is impacted because my cravings are pretty intense, which I am almost 100% sure is due to hormonal changes.

Hypothesis #2
Then there’s the other hypothesis: I gain weight and my measurements go up when I don’t work out regularly and I’m not counting fat, calories and fiber.

Hm. What do you think?

Please leave me a comment- especially if you have tracked or are tracking your stats, and have some light to shine on this!

Have a great Labor Day, America!

Stressful Snacking?

Angela C. — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:38:40 +0000

Hey kettlefolks!

For the past week, I’ve been in various coffee houses around Honolulu, working to a deadline. One of the joys of working for yourself is that you get to work anywhere! (Conversely, you don’t have an office or regular workspace.)

Lately, I’ve been looking at this: And this has been looking at me:

What’s that in your hand, Angela?

I’m glad you asked!

It’s an Ice blended mocha, no sugar added, extreme.

What does extreme mean?

More coffee.

I’m running on less sleep than usual, my eyes are tired and bloodshot, and I just want to complete this project so that I can move on to the next. (Not that I’m complaining– I do love working in the field of education– albeit, independently!)

In the past few days, I had not worked out, had not eaten healthy and nutritious meals, and for a second I thought I was back in finals week during my undergraduate college career.

As I’m sitting here sipping this bittersweet drink, I started to review the other things I’ve been putting into my system. Everything that I’ve had a craving for falls into one of four categories: salty or sweet, crunchy or creamy. Sometimes, it’s two of the four, like crunchy and salty — popcorn, or those veggie tubes we got at COSTCO. But usually, I have a very clear idea of what I want, and I when I’m working up to the last minute, like now, I’ll go and get it.

I think this is stressful snacking; an insidious form of emotional eating. It’s insidious because I almost don’t realize I’m doing it.

For example, the graham cracker I was snacking on with my son. (Sweet and crunchy.) I didn’t have a whole cracker… or wait, did I? I can’t remember, because I wasn’t paying attention. What about the salty barbecue chicken I had for lunch? I usually can’t finish the mini-plate. Today, I ate the whole thing.

About the only thing saving me so far this week is the fact that I did get into the FitPro Hawaii gym today. After swings and suitcase squats with the 16kg kettlebells, Bill busted out the benches. Liz and I did presses and various weight bearing activities with two 12kgs. I’ve been typing all week– my shoulders are taut and my wrists are thrashed! I’m so glad I got in there!

We also got homework for the next four days– complete a total of 200 clean and presses (the long cycle) with two 8 kgs. I can do 100 over two days (yeah, right) or 50 each day. We also have to continue our cardio on our own.

I’ll keep in touch! In the meantime, can you please let me know what kind of healthy snacks you eat that are satisfying?