TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS™ IN 30 DAYS OR LESS!

Top Tips on Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! CUTTING OUT EXTRA CALORIES!

2010-09-22T09:33:00.000-04:00

I would love to say that I am one of those RARE people who know how to maintain their weight perfectly who never, ever go over their five pound cushioned area on the scale. Everyone of us knows that type of person. You've never seen an extra pound of fat on them in your life! If you're one of them, I applaud you!

I'm not one of them but I am in awe of their commitment and control over their eating patterns. I do strive to become one of them but I seem to miss the "mark" on occasion.

I am happy to say that I have been successful in maintaining my weight in a healthy area for over two years now but I still have to "tweak" my eating pattern if I go off course. I would like to get to the point where I don't have to do much "tweaking" and I'm able to eliminate the little extra calories that creep on over time.

I've recently mentioned that I was in the process of taking off a few pounds added from back to back "special occasions" in my life. I'm happy to say that those three to four pounds are gone! Sure, I realize it doesn't sound like much but it is if you stop and think about it for a moment. That's almost the weight of a five pound bag of sugar!

That's why I make it a point now to STOP and get rid of a few extra pounds before it becomes a problem.

That's why it's important to "tweak" your eating pattern in order to eliminate extra calories to get the extra unwanted pounds off so that you can return to the safe cushioned area on the scale where you maintain your desired weight.

It feels good to take off those 3-4 pounds but I'm going to continue on this path and take off a few more. The holidays are right around the corner and I want to be in a comfortable place before they hit.

Wish me luck because I'm going to need it!

Top Tips on Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! TAKING OFF A FEW POUNDS!

2010-09-16T10:31:00.000-04:00

It's not fun realizing you need to lose a few extra pounds. It's far better to be able to shake them off right after they begin to accumulate but sometimes that's not possible.   Sometimes, special occasions fall back to back. This summer we went on a summer vacation, had family visit from Louisiana capped off with two birthday celebrations. This created several back to back situations of eating "off track".

I had to "STOP" and face the fact that I was five pounds over my safety cushion on the scale!  Yikes! I also realized that very soon the holidays would be approaching. That's when I knew it was time to get serious and create a deficit of calories in order to get rid of the few extra pounds. I'm happy to say I've already had great results and I've lost three pounds. I'm going to continue until I get to the low part of my cushion so that I can be ahead of the game once the holidays arrive. I have no plans to go "hog wild" but let's face it, I want to enjoy Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day without restricting my calories to any great degree. These are special times in our lives that we want to enjoy.

It's been a week and half and as I go through this process flashes from the past have re-surfaced. I'm remembering how hard it was at first to break all of my old bad habits in order to lose all of the weight in the first place.   It makes me thankful that the healthy eating pattern I set up over two years ago has made it possible for me to maintain my weight in a good area.

It also makes me realize why it's difficult for so many of us to lose weight in the first place. People overeat for a multitude of reasons. Here are just a few that I have observed and experienced.

Boredom
Stress
Depression
Happiness
Comfort

I've noticed, once again, since I've restricted my intake that there is a tremendous degree of focus on food in our everyday lives. Everywhere I look I see advertisements, magazines and restaurants that call out for the average person to focus on food.

There's little doubt that one could be labeled as slightly "abnormal" if they are able to stick to a healthy pattern of eating in order to maintain their weight for an extended period of time.

I'm convinced one of the main reasons that 68% of our nation is overweight or obese is because we simply have too many options.

Think about that for a second. There was a time when man had only the barest of choices.

Realistically, do you think a "caveman" would be able to pass up a slice of Key Lime Pie? I think not!

Top Tips on Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! Do Thin People Actually Eat?

2010-09-13T12:15:00.000-04:00

What is it about those naturally thin people? From recent statistics there are only approximately 32% of Americans that fall into this category. The other 68% falls into the category of being overweight or obese. Not good.

What traits do these thin people have in common? Why do they seem to always have their eating habits under control? It seems they have the ability to maintain their weight effortlessly. Are they strongly intuitive and simply know when to stop eating or walk away from items many of us can't seem to resist?

I would venture to guess it's a combination of many of these things. I, like many, used to believe they simply didn't eat and perhaps they were simply starving themselves in order to stay slim. That can't be true because many of them would have passed away by now.

I looked up to them as if they were a "freak" of nature. I told myself that because I couldn't imagine I would ever be able to maintain my desired weight without denying myself of great foods for eternity (that's a long time!)

I now realize they've figured out a pattern of eating that works for them. I had a father and mother-in-law who knew when to quit and how to eat in a healthful manner all throughout their lives. I think most everyone has someone they know that falls into this description.

It's not a bad thing to observe their great habits and try to mimic them in order to set up your own healthy eating pattern for life.

I continually work to improve my daily eating habits. I must; I know the consequences if I don't!

Have a great day!

Top Tips on Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! Taking off the dreaded "CREEPERS!"

2010-09-09T10:26:00.000-04:00

Most of us experience putting on a couple of extra pounds after "special occasions" in our lives. I call them the dreaded "creepers" because they're the 3-5 pounds that seem to creep on without us realizing when or how it happened!

Maintaining control over the foods we eat each day is not always easy but it's the "key" in keeping weight off. Some people do it effortlessly. That amazes me! It must be awesome to be able to instinctively know when to quit eating. I had to set up a "go to" healthy pattern of eating in order to lose weight and maintain my weight. I couldn't simply wing it and hope for the best.

I am in awe of thin people who aren't even tempted to overeat or eat things that they know will add pounds! It makes me wonder if their taste buds are working properly or if they simply possess some type of "supernatural" control. I have to admit, I'm not one of them! I have to stay away from foods like that and not bring them into my home on a daily basis. I have to make sure there aren't too many "special occasions" of off track eating in a row so that I can rid myself of any unwanted pounds before there's another holiday or "special occasion" in my life.

I know these things now because I failed at doing them for close to two decades. That's why I am always questioning and "tweaking" my eating patterns. I have to admit it's been a learning process since I've lost the weight two years ago and I find I'm still experimenting here or there. That's a good thing because there is no "one" perfect way to maintain your weight. You have to find your own way of doing it and do what works for you! Like I've read recently: It's OK to always be working on losing the last 3 pounds because it keeps you from gaining more!

I've made efforts to watch when a few pounds show up on my body. Here's my latest observation. Most of the time, it's not one single thing that we do but a culmination of "special occasions" that set up a pattern where we continue to eat off track here or there. I'm not talking about binge eating; I'm talking about simply adding a couple of a 100 or more calories here or there on a daily basis. It all adds up and it's easy to do, even when you're eating low fat and sugar free items. It takes approximately 3,500 extra calories in order to put on a pound, so it has to be a culmination of all the things we do both big and small to put on extra pounds over a period of time.

That's what happened to me this summer. It's no big deal. I still fit in all my clothes but they're now a little snug. I don't like snug. Snug can turn real fast into not being able to button your pants. You all know what I'm talking about.

I know how these "creepers" came back on and it's a good thing to know because it's a lot better than being in a state of denial! Here's the list of how they came back on:

We went on vacation (I ate many things I don't normally eat)
Right when we came back I made a big "feast" for family members visiting from Louisiana
I did it again the next day because I was on a roll and had an excuse to eat "off track" again
We had a family birthday and I made another "feast" with pumpkin cake and Blue Bell ice cream
On an everyday basis I started to slip here or there with my light snacks; I ate more than usual

All of the above caused me to gain 5 additional pounds that I don't normally carry. I've noticed I haven't been able to shake off those pounds as fast as I normally do for the following reasons:

On an everyday basis I started to slip here or there with my light snacks; I ate more than usual

That's the one reason I haven't been able to shake off those few extras pounds. I haven't changed a thing about my daily exercise, so that hasn't been the issue. This proves that exercise alone does not equal weight loss if you're eating more than you normal eat to maintain your weight. I quickly realized I am not about to workout consistently and work against the grain of maintaining my weight by eating too much. That's totally frustrating! That's why I am always experimenting. I have to if I wish to maintain my desired weight. I'm happy that I take the time to STOP to figure out where I've messed up and why I can't shake off undesired weight. Here's my plan and it's already working.

Since I couldn't shake off the weight, I had to get serious and cut back like I did when I lost all of the weight and drop my daily caloric intake to @ 1,200 calories (no lower for a woman). A younger woman may choose to stay in the 1,400-1,600 range for weight loss.
I upped my exercise routine by changing things up and increasing my cardio here or there.
I added swimming back into my routine. I now realize it was a big factor last year in keeping weight off when it became so hot outside that I couldn't walk in the morning as usual. I could only walk at night but even then, there's always an occasional rained out evening.

I've already lost 2 lbs. but more than that, I feel like I am in control, sort of like one of those "skinny" people who seem to possess "supernatural" powers. I'm far from feeling hungry so that means the great foods that I've chosen, my basics, allow me to feel satisfied.

I guess I'll always be experimenting and that's a good thing because it means I have finally realized that I am the only person who is in control of my eating patterns when it pertains to maintaining my desired weight.

Do you have your own method of losing a few extra pounds?

Best Wishes!

Top Tips on Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! The Importance of Tweaking Your Workouts!

2010-09-07T11:14:00.000-04:00

Let's face it, if you're like me, every now and then you become bored with your workouts. Sometimes we don't even realize we're bored until we "tweak" our routines. I workout consistently (thank goodness because I like to eat). Even though I workout almost every single day (that's a good thing), I knew I was bored with my same routines. In fact, I was becoming increasingly bored with my exercise routines. I needed to do something fast before I began to dread working out out in general.

I kept remembering how much I enjoyed swimming laps last summer. I reminded my husband how much we enjoyed it and I continued to mention that we needed to get back out there and test the waters (pun intended) again. He happens to have a foot problem that has been interfering with his tennis and walking routines, and I knew this would be a good thing for him also. We both enjoyed lap swimming years ago, when our children were younger and swam competitively. We knew it would be a good thing to do.

Wow, I have to admit, it was an awesome idea! There's nothing like getting into a 25 yard Olympic sized pool, where others are swimming laps right next to you. Everyone is encouraging and it's plain fun to be out there with the sun shining brightly and you're so close to nature. I love the way swimming allows you to work out every part of your body and relaxes you at the same time. I'm glad we decided to get back in the water. It's so beautiful being outside. Sometimes, during cool down, I'll turn on my back and look up at the gorgeous blue sky and I'll see the tips of the Palm trees swaying in the breeze. I forgot how relaxing swimming can be. It's also a wonderful place to meditate. It's just you, the pool and your thoughts.

There's little doubt that it can be difficult to get a walk/jog in with the summer heat. I've done it but I have to admit it's been difficult at times this summer. I imagine it's like that for everyone during the summer in most areas. I'm glad I still managed to do it but in the future, I don't think I'll forget to add a swimming routine during the summer.

I've learned a huge lesson. I've learned the importance of "tweaking" my exercise routines and not allowing myself to get in a rut! I think it would be a great thing to switch things up each season or at the very least take a long look at your workout routines. Maybe take some routines out and add new things in and bring them back later during another season. That way you'll never allow yourself to get bored because you'll soon be changing things up!

I need to work on that and while I'm doing that, I'm long over due in deleting all of my songs off my I-Pod. Maybe that's what's been boring the heck out of me. If I hear "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson one more time, I may begin to weep. I don't care if I only add in 10 new songs, I can't bear to listen to the same songs that I've been listening to for the past two years! Isn't it amazing how easy it is to stay in the same old rut? Sometimes you don't even realize you're in one. I guess we all have to remember to "tweak" different areas of our lives.

Have a great day!

Top Tips on Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! Do We Over-Glorify Food in America?

2010-09-01T10:28:00.000-04:00

Before I lost the extra pounds I had accumulated over the course of a near two decades, I found myself continually glorifying many of the foods I chose to prepare and eat. Take Key Lime Pie, it's one of my favorites as everyone who reads my posts knows by now. It would be easy for me and I've done it, to over-glorify this dessert. Here, let me give you an example of what I'm talking about with this picture of a slice of Key Lime Pie:

The crust is a rich golden brown shell made with crushed graham cracker crumbs and rich creamy butter. The filling melts in your mouth, it is to die for as it contains two cans of luscious condensed milk, not one, and 1/2 cup of authentic Key Lime Juice from Key West. The topping is real whipped cream that can be made into lovely miniature rosettes to adorn the edge of this creation.

That is an example of how people tend to over-glorify food. Of course, I still enjoy things like Key Lime Pie, pecan pralines and peanut butter fudge but thank goodness, I am no longer "foaming at the mouth" in anticipation of preparing or eating these special delights. Simply put, I had to stop OVER-GLORIFYING food and think more about getting the best fuel into my body in the proper amounts on a daily basis.

It doesn't even have to be a dessert, it could be lasagna from a special restaurant. Just last night one of my daughters was asking me if I had eaten lasagna from a great local restaurant. We both went on describing how it melted in your mouth. I mentioned that the pasta had to be made from scratch because you can't get pasta like that from a box. I will spare you the full description! In the back of mind, I was thinking the entire time, that I was once again, over-glorifying food! At least I am now aware of the problem.

It's OK to enjoy special desserts and special meals for special occasions in life. We all know it's important to enjoy these times in life. It's not a good thing, at least it wasn't for me, to eat these type foods on a daily basis and expect to maintain a proper healthy weight.

That's when we get into trouble. We get into trouble when we over-glorify everything we eat and when we choose to eat this way on a daily or weekly basis. If we do this, most of us cannot expect to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I sure couldn't!

I had to form a new relationship with food. I realized that right from the start. I was way too involved in an emotional way with the preparation and enjoyment of food, especially foods that I should not have been eating on a daily or even weekly basis. I had to learn real quick to think of food as great fuel for my body. In my mind I have only a certain amount of fuel my body requires each day in order to operate well and maintain my weight. I had to LEARN to respect food and choose wisely.

I find it funny now because I am easily able to notice people who over-glorify food. Last week I noticed someone famous on TV over-glorifying a high fat dish that was being prepared on the show. This person is my age and has struggled with weight for decades. I wanted to tell her all that I had learned. I wanted to say, "Yes, it's a great dish but it's only food and we can't over-glorify these type foods. We have to save them only for special occasions in our life! Don't over-glorify these type foods or you will continue to struggle to lose and maintain your weight! I was just like you until I formed a new relationship with food."

No, I didn't talk to the TV set but I wanted to! I realize all I can do is put it in a book and write it on my blog, so that I can continue to reach out to others to discuss the importance of enjoying these type foods on special occasions in our lives and eating in a healthful pattern 95% of the time. I'm far from perfect but that's what I try to do on a daily basis.

Have a great day!

Top Tips for Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! Losing the Last Five Pounds!

2010-08-30T10:08:00.000-04:00

Most of us have experienced the difficulty of losing the last five pounds. Why is it so difficult? One of the main reasons is because there’s less room for error in the area of cutting calories. Many of us have felt the great rush of the first few pounds slipping off at a swift rate when we first cut back on calories. Not long after, we realize the scale seems to move at a much slower rate. In fact, many of us feel like there's a great deal of time in between dropped pounds where we begin to question if our scale is working properly. Trust me, it’s fine, it simply takes time and patience to lose weight. It will move again. The experts continually remind us that it’s best to lose weight in a healthful manner and at the rate of 1-2 pounds per week.

Once we get down to the last five or ten pounds patience while remaining consistent in our eating and exercise patterns comes into play in a big way.

It’s OK to always feel like we’re working on losing the last five pounds because it keeps us from gaining an additional five pounds. That’s why it is important to check the scale every couple of days. It’s a reminder of how well we’re doing at maintaining our weight. If we’re over the five-pound mark, it’s a big “red” flag that says, “You better watch your eating habits before the scale continues to move in the wrong direction.”

Most of us have said or heard others state the following: “I don’t know why I’m not losing weight; I’ve cut back on calories for several days; this is not working!” That’s what’s called being totally unrealistic. If you’ve cut back calories in weight loss mode to the area of around 1,400 daily for the average woman, you’re right on track to lose the extra pounds you wish to lose. All that’s required now is a great amount of PATIENCE. What’s most important to remember is that the process of losing weight whether it’s over a 100 pounds or the last 5 is the fact that it boils down to four steps:

1. Cutting back on calories in a healthful manner and sticking to your eating plan until you lose the extra weight

2. Exercise (aim for everyday, this way you’re covered if you have to miss a day or two)

3. Patience

4. Consistency

It may take a couple of weeks or more to lose five pounds at a rate of 1-2 pounds a week. It make take several months to lose 50-100 pounds or more but it’s going to happen if we do all four of the above steps.

It will happen; we simply have to possess the right mindset! We need to visualize how we want to look and feel from the moment we wake up, all throughout the day and until our head hits the pillow each night.

It’s not a matter of if; it’s only a matter of when. It will happen.

Have a great day!

Top Tips on Weight Loss from TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! 5 Tops Reasons We Overeat!

2010-07-26T10:01:00.000-04:00

If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ve heard me repeat many times over that our bodies only need a certain amount of food each day to operate efficiently. If we eat more than our bodies require, it is stored as extra fat. Experts have stated that the average woman needs around 1,800 calories per day. It’s as simple as that in the average case.

If we stop and think about it, we might all agree that it would be awesome if we learned how to put the correct amount of food into our body each day. We might further agree it would be great if we chose the healthiest foods and spaced them out over the course of the day so that we could set up a healthy eating pattern for life. It would wonderful it we learned to eat this way 95% of the time.

This all sounds so simple but the fact remains that the majority of our nation continues to struggle with overeating. Why do so many millions among us still operate as if overeating is not that big a deal? There are several reasons and here are my top five.

1) Eating without accountability is fun. We don’t want to count calories and learn how many calories we’re actually eating each day. It would take the fun out of anticipating what we were going to eat next. We like that element of surprise. If we took the time to count calories and learn how many calories we’re eating, we would realize we’d have to become accountable in order to lose weight and keep it off on a permanent basis. If we don’t know how many calories we're eating and never take the time to find out, we can continue to throw complete abandon and know that we’re with the majority of the approximate 68% of our nation that is either overweight or obese.

2) Eating without accountability fills voids that we wish to ignore or don’t wish to face. Eating takes our mind off of the voids in our lives.

3) Eating without accountability temporarily relieves our everyday stresses in life. Many times, we eat for comfort.

4) Eating without accountability can make us feel as though we’re temporarily lifting our spirits when we’re depressed.

5) Eating without accountability is a habit that we have ingrained into our systems over the course of many years. In many cases, it is a part of our culture. Food is almost everywhere we look throughout the course of the day!

These are my five top reasons why many of us overeat in America. I say this because I personally experienced each and every one of them before I set up a healthy eating pattern and learned how many calories I actually needed to eat each day. Please realize, once I learned this, I did not have to continue to count calories on a daily basis. I did it all while I was in weight loss mode and shortly thereafter in order to learn to maintain my proper weight.

We have the power within us to take the time and ask ourselves one important question each time we pick up a piece of food: What is the true reason I am considering eating this at this moment?

If it's for any of the top reasons above, put the food down and make the choice to distract yourself in another area. Remember, you're breaking a habit. When I first learned to do this, I had to actually take food away from my mouth, put it down and walk away.

Setting up a structured healthy eating pattern throughout the course of the day at scheduled times can prevent overeating. It can become your daily "go to plan". It can become how you choose to eat in a healthful manner on a daily basis 95% of the time. Choosing the best foods possible to eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner each day is a great way to break unhealthy habits. Eating healthy mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks can prevent us from becoming overly hungry before our scheduled times of eating.

Learning how many calories we need to eat in weight loss mode and maintenance is a great basis for losing and maintaining weight permanently. The knowledge we gain can prove invaluable for life.

We can do it; we simply have to face the facts and create new habits for life!

Have a great day!

Tops Tips From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! Key Lime Pie Recipe!

2010-07-12T10:46:00.000-04:00

We've just returned from our annual vacation to Key West. If you remember, I've recently discussed that Key West is known for its great Key Lime Pie. They even have a Key Lime Pie Contest. Since I apparently have some sort of fascination with Key Lime Pie, I thought it would be wonderful to take the time to share the best Key Lime Pie recipe I've been able to put together.

Of course we all know by now that this blog, for the most part, focuses on eating in a healthful manner. That's a fact but there are times in our lives where we go on vacation or eat "off track" for special occasions in our lives.

In the past week, our family has had two of these occasions and they were back to back. Our vacation was great and right after we returned we had relatives from Louisiana visit for a few days. It was wonderful and I had two occasions and excuses to eat Key Lime Pie!

Now it's back to my everyday eating "on track" pattern. I've already steamed broccoli and cauliflower. I've made a big batch of split pea soup. I love having a healthy eating pattern in place. It's made a huge difference in my life. Just this past week it dawned on me that I once had an out of control eating pattern where everyday seemed to be a "special occasion" to eat "off track". I don't live that way any longer. That's why I've been able to stay in shape for over two years now. That's why I thoroughly enjoy the special occasions where I do eat "off track" in my life.

Now, let's get back to the great recipe for Key Lime Pie! It's wonderful to have around for "special occasions" in your life. I hope you enjoy it also. If you have any questions just write me back and I'll fill you in! Please note, I will be including recipes in the future in my blog posts. I will also be sharing a new great recipe for pulled pork! Make sure you subscribe to my posts and have your friends and family hop on board also. Some great things are coming!

Key Lime Pie

Crust
1 1/4 cup of graham crackers crumbs
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter

Filling
2-14 ounce cans of condensed milk
6 egg yolks only
1/2 cup of Kermit's Key Lime Juice or the juice of around 20 little key limes (I suggest you order the key lime juice on line at www.keylimeshop.com) You can make four pies from one bottle. It's called Kermit's Key West Key Lime Juice.

Topping (optional)
1/2 cup heaving whipping cram
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

Use a 9" pie pan only.

Make the crust and press it into the pie pan on bottom and up all sides. You don't have to make it go over the top perfectly. Take a large spoon and press it firmly into the pan. I then bake the crust for 10 minutes at 350. This makes it harden slightly and it firms it up.

Take the crust out and set it aside. Lower the temperature of the oven to 300.

Begin to beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer with the whisk attachment until pale and fluffy. About three minutes. Slowly blend in the condensed milk and beat until you have a light and fluffy mixture for a couple of minutes also. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the key lime juice.

Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 15 minutes at 300. The pie should be firm after this amount of time.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once it has been cooled you can cover it loosely and store in the refrigerator to chill. You can serve it after it has chilled. It can be made a day or two before.

I like to make small rosettes with the whipping cream. Just beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add in the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. You can purchase the little tips made by Betty Crocker in the decorating section of the grocery store. You can make your own decorating sleeve by snipping a small hole out of the tip of a small plastic sandwich bag. Insert the small rosette tip and simply fill the plastic bag with the whipping cream. You can proceed to make the small rosettes all around the top edge of the key lime pie. Truthfully, I tried this method once and it works but it was sort of a mess. I know it will be easier next time but it was a heck of a lot of fun and it came out so pretty! I'm considering upgrading to a professional type tip/bag for the future.

Have a great day! You have to make this pie! Everyone will absolutely love it! Trust me!

Tops Tips For Weight Loss From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! First Five Steps to Permanent Weight Loss...

2010-06-24T12:00:00.000-04:00

These are great top tips for the first five steps to permanent weight loss while setting up a healthy eating pattern for life.

1) Create the right "Mindset". It is best not to think of this is as a "diet". It is best to realize from the onset that you are setting up a healthy eating pattern for life. This will be a lifestyle change. This eating pattern will be your "go to" plan of eating on a daily basis 95% of the time. This does not mean you will never eat another "brownie" in your life. It simply means you know it would be hard to eat them everyday of your life and expect to reach and maintain your goal weight. Realize, if you wish to lose weight, you will need to create a deficit of eating fewer calories each day. Many experts suggest that the average woman requires approximately 1,800 calories a day. If you are overweight, you are probably eating more than that each day in order to maintain your weight. This is where the deficit of calories comes in. Many experts suggest creating a deficit of 500 calories each day in order to lose one pound by the end of a week. It takes approximately 3,500 fewer calories in order to lose one pound.

Sure, you can simply trim off 400-500 calories and set up a 1,400 calorie per day plan of eating. That's a nice spot. You can do this by eating 400-500 calories less each day or by a mix of exercising off 200-250 and eating 200-250 less. It's all up to you. All that really matters is that your cutback or deficit equals 3,500 calories by the end of the week. Remember, if you're eating way more than 1,800 calories like I was before I created a deficit to lose weight, you'll probably lose more weight initially. It's widely known that there's no fast way to lose weight properly. That's why 1,400 is a nice spot to start for the average woman, you can even go up slightly higher to 1,500 or 1,600. It may take a little longer but it's all up to you. It's good to note that experts do not recommend women go lower than eating 1,200 calories per day. One of the reasons is that your body could think that it's in some type of "starvation mode" and hold onto to fat for protection. This is what happens at times when people hit a plateau. Sometimes they are too low and don't know it because they don't know how many calories they are actually eating. Eating way too few calories can work against your goals in weight loss. That's why counting calories is an awesome way to know in your mind that you're doing all you can do in the correct manner in order to achieve your goals. You don't have to do this for life but the information you get from learning what 1,800 calories looks like is invaluable for success in maintaining your weight for life. You will no longer be searching for the latest or greatest diet; you'll know how to take off a large amount of weight or the last five pounds you've always wanted to lose.

2) Get rid of the junk food in your home or hide it away and out of your sight until you are strong enough to resist and after you've become comfortable with your new healthy way of eating. This may take up to a month or two.

3) Compile a list of healthy foods you enjoy from the basic food pyramid, located at www.mypyramid.gov. This site spells out what your body needs each day in order to form a healthy balanced diet. This is a great place to pull from while creating your healthy grocery list. It's awesome, you can see what your entire family requires based on their gender and age! Go to the grocery store and purchase all of the healthy foods you enjoy eating on a weekly basis. Realize this list will grow over time and it is perfectly fine to eat the same things over and over but always in the correct proportions in order to stay within the deficit you've created in order to lose weight while in weight loss mode. You can find out how many calories are in the food you eat by purchasing a book or looking on the web at sites like caloriecount@about.com. Remember, to always write down what you eat throughout the day on a tablet or in a composition book. This is a way of making yourself accountable for every article of food that you choose to put into your mouth! This one habit in weight loss mode has been greatly proven to assist you in losing every last pound you've ever wished to lose. Trust me! I did this and it works!

4) Eat at the right times and in the right amounts. If you know you have only a certain amount of calories you can eat each day in order to stay on course so that you will continue to lose weight until every last pound you've wish to lose is gone, make sure you eat at regular times throughout each and every day. This is the key in preventing yourself from overeating by not allowing yourself to get to the stage of becoming famished. Here's a sample guideline to follow.

Breakfast Between 7:00 and 8:00 am
Mid morning snack 10:00 to 11:00 pm
Lunch 12:30 to 1:30 pm
Mid afternoon snack 3:00 to 4:00 pm
Dinner 6:00 to 6:30 pm

5) Exercise. Week by week the weight will continue to drip off of you. It only helps the situation if you can begin to walk or do some condition type exercises on a daily basis. You don't have to join a gym; you can slip in a 20 minute yoga or Pilates DVD and/or begin walking by opening your front door each day. It's all good and it all works towards reaching your goal. Remember to stick with your healthy eating plan and look for new ways to introduce more healthy items into your daily eating pattern by adding them to your healthy grocery food list each week.

Do these top five things while in weight loss mode. It's best to stay away from special "eating occasions" when you're in weight loss mode. It's best to stay away from eating out often. If you must, then choose widely. Ask for your fish to be prepared with a small amount of oil. Order two sides of healthy vegetables or salad. Skip the rolls, desserts and appetizers. It's all good if it all works in your favor and it will over time.

If there is a get-together that you feel you can't or don't wish to miss, make sure to bring your own healthy foods or eat before you and make small healthy choices once you get there. This way you don't have to miss these special occasions; you can enjoy them without focusing on food items that work against achieving your desired healthy goal weight.

Later, we'll discuss how to incorporate "off track" eating into your healthy eating pattern.

Always remember it is widely recommend to consult with your Dr. before beginning a new diet or exercise program if you have any concerns.

Have a great day!

I Had Another Run-In With Key Lime Pie!

2010-06-21T12:36:00.000-04:00

OK, I guess it's obvious, I happen to like Key Lime Pie! This is the second post I've written on the subject. I ate "off track" slightly Saturday. It was a "special occasion" because a relative came into town and we took her out to eat.

It was lunch and I knew we would be eating "off track" Sunday due to it being Father's Day, so I didn't go overboard and I ordered a cup of soup and a half sandwich. Trust me, there was nothing low cal about my meal but it was better than a burger with fries. My husband ordered that; it's one of his safe favorites.

At the end of the meal, I asked, OK, I pleaded with everyone to have a dessert that we could all share at the table. No one bit, so I did the next best thing and ordered it "to go" for myself. Yes, it was the slice of Key Lime Pie again. I took it home and I asked my husband to share it with me. It always makes me feel better to split something when I know it's not in my best interest to eat it alone. It's sort of like having a partner in crime and my husband is always up for a challenge of this type.

I discovered that this particular version of Key Lime Pie tasted more like a light cheesecake. In fact I had to take a couple of bites before I found the little key lime distinctive taste.

My husband agreed. I pondered a bit and realized that I need to be very selective about what "off track" type "high caloric" item I'm going to purchase.

I've decided, from now on, it's going to have to be worth it or it's simply not worth eating. Who needs to eat an extra, not particularly healthy item for 400 calories or more and have it not be worth it? Not I, said the pig...

I didn't finish off this slice of pie. I passed it on to my husband.

I did learn a valuable lesson. Make "Key Lime Pie" yourself or go to where you know you can get a great piece of Key Lime Pie that's worth eating "off track" for in life. I have an awesome recipe by the way but it takes FOREVER to squeeze 20 of those little key lime suckers!

I also have an upcoming trip to "Key West" planned. If my memory serves me correctly I think Key West is known as the home of the "Key Lime Pie". I saw a special on TV about it. They even have a contest for the best Key Lime Pie where people compete from all over the place.

I'm going to the same restaurant I went to last year where I know they serve an awesome piece of Key Lime Pie.

As far as today. I'm going to exercise and get right back to my 95% way of eating healthy on a daily basis.

But somewhere, in the deep recesses of my mind, I'll be dreaming of my next "off track", special occasion (vacation) type eating, where I will once again partake in the eating of a slice of Key Lime Pie!

Have a great day!

Top Tips From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! Eating Doesn't Have to be an Event; Keep It Simple Most Days.

2010-06-11T08:28:00.003-04:00

One way to lose weight and keep it off permanently is to de-emphasize food on an everyday basis. Food is basically fuel for our body and we only need a certain amount of it each day. If we eat more than our body burns off it shows up as excess fat on our body. It's as simple as that in most cases.

It goes back to "Eating to Live" versus "Living to Eat". Yikes! That's a mouthful if you stop and think about it. I can still hear myself saying the following: "I'm starving! Let's go get something "good" to eat. Where do you want to go?" Let me tell you one thing, ultimately the place I chose was not a place where I ate a simple, healthy, and in the right proportioned meal.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying food. I love to eat but I realized over two years ago that my thoughts cannot be centered around what I am going to eat next throughout the course of a day. I have to always have my basic plan in place. Food used to control me; now I control what I eat. I now realize why I gained 40 pounds of excess weight in the first place. I now have the knowledge of how to keep the extra weight off and under control. I know food is important in my life but I acknowledge that I must always aim to keep it "simple" most everyday of the week. I call that my "on track" daily eating habits. I try to go straight through the weekend eating this way. Guess what, keeping it simple and eating many of the same foods each week but in a slightly different manner at times is perfectly fine because it works and if it works, keep doing it!

It's OK to stick to meal plans that work for both you and your family. It's OK not to bring foods into your home that are known to be high in sugar and fats. This way, no one will be tempted to eat them because they won't be hanging around staring at you in the face each day. It's great to continually be working on healthy "replacements" for the high fat and sugary items in your life.

There's nothing wrong with eating "off track" every now and then. My gosh, we have enough birthdays, holiday celebrations, or special occasions all throughout the year to eat "off track".

It's best not to treat each day as if it were a holiday or special occasion in our lives when it pertains to what we choose to eat. We can't continually be rewarding ourselves with foods we know prevent us from losing weight or maintaining our "ideal" weight.

It's best to keep it simple, eat in a healthful manner and aim to eat what our body is capable of burning off each day. Doesn't that make great sense for all of us?

Have a great day!

Top Weight Loss Tips From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! It's Best NOT to Eat Off Track on the Weekends!

2010-06-04T09:52:00.005-04:00

Hey, let's be realistic here! We've all celebrated the feeling of eating well all during the week and thinking it's OK if we eat "off track" all throughout the weekend. If you stop and think about it, it doesn't make great sense to nullify what we do all week long and simply blow it over the weekend. We end up being right back where we started on Monday if we "choose" that type of mentality.

Why not take on the "mentality" that we're going to attempt to stick to a plan throughout the weekend just like we do during the week? We're all constantly bombarded with new opportunities to "eat" for various reasons. At some point, we need to re-focus our energy on making the best "choices" so that we can always be in a great position to achieve the goals we wish to reach in this area of our lives.

We want to be in control of the "choices" we make as they pertain to the foods we "choose" to put into our mouths. We don't want to live the life of the "grabby Octopus" that shovels food into its mouth at any point in time throughout the day or course of the week.

We can do it! We can learn to eat well and accomplish our goals throughout the entire week!

That includes the weekends too!

Have a great day! Have a great weekend!

Aim to Walk for 30 Minutes Each Day!

2010-05-12T08:57:00.007-04:00

Walking for 30 minutes a day sounds too easy. The truth is, it is easy and it's something you can easily fit into your daily routine. You can break it into two 15 minute outings. You don't have to hop in a car and go to a gym. You don't have to schedule it at any certain time. You can simply grab your I-Pod and walk out the door whenever you find that window of time. It's like anything else that's important in our lives, it needs to become a PRIORITY!

That's what's so great about always having your workout clothes on throughout the day or right after you return home from work. You're always ready to walk out the door to get your walk in for the day. Simply choose your own pace. Some people are brisk walkers. Some people walk so fast they end up jogging at times. All of this OK and it's something you can work up to over time.

It's a great feeling to get your 30 minute walk in each day. It revs up your metabolism, produces endorphins that make you feel great! You also burn calories while observing nature, getting fresh air and clearing your mind.

That's hard to beat and it's free!

Top Tips From Tame Your Inner Octopus! Wear Your Workout Clothes Every Chance You Get!

2010-05-04T08:39:00.002-04:00

Make it a goal to slip into your workout clothes first thing in the morning or as soon as you arrive home after work. I know this tip sounds simple but this single tip automatically puts you in the best position possible in order to get your workout in on a daily basis. You don't have to stop to change your clothes; you're ready to go whenever you create or find that window of time!

Trust me, this works beautifully! When I first began to incorporate daily exercise into my life I quickly realized that I did not like the idea of having to stop what I was doing in order to change my clothes for a workout. I wanted to fit my exercise routine in when I felt like it and when I felt I had a window of opportunity.

It didn't take me long to figure out that I would always be in a great position whether I was ready to in pop in an exercise DVD or take it outside to get my 30 minute walk/run in. One thing's for sure, I'm dressed to go!

If you take the time to stop and look around while you're out doing errands, you'll notice that there are many people who are dressed to workout. In most cases these people are in great shape because they have made exercise a daily priority in their lives.

Dressing to workout not only provides you with comfort but most of all it puts you in a great position to fit exercise in as a priority. You're always ready to go! All you have to do is pop in a 20-30 minute Pilates or conditioning DVD or step outside to get your walk or run in for the day!

It's true! "Dressing to Workout" can assist you greatly in making exercise a priority in your everyday life!

Top Tips on Weight Loss From Tame Your Inner Octopus! Eat to Live! Aim to Get The Best Fuel Into Your Body Each and Every Day!

2010-04-27T09:58:00.003-04:00

I was the type person who "lived to eat" each and every day! I ate when I was stressed. I ate when I was bored. I ate when I was happy. Truthfully, most of the time I ate for no reason at all! I didn't have to have a reason because food is everywhere we look! Yes, I did look just like the grabby Octopus, without the hat of course! To me, eating was one of my hobbies, and I had become an expert at it over the years.

I now realize that I allowed food to control me. I'm the type person who does not like feeling controlled by anything! I finally realized that one simple fact before I set up my healthy eating pattern for life. I also realized I was far from alone, approximately 68% of our nation is either overweight or obese. For some reason, that made me feel better. I guess I realized that food controlled millions of people's lives and it wasn't just my problem. Do you ever feel controlled by food or are you able to stay on course and eat in a healthful manner and in the proper amounts throughout the day?

I made the decision to let go of the guilt and set up a healthy eating pattern for life. I made sure not to mention the word "diet". To me, the word "diet" describes a temporary change. I knew what I was about to do had to be way more than the latest or greatest diet on the market. This was to be an incredible major change in my life. I realized I had already spent 18 years of my life eating out of control with no established healthy eating pattern in place. In most cases, I was eating based on my emotions and that is never a good thing. I made up my mind that I had to once and for all put the time and research in so that I could set up a healthy eating pattern for life.

I now control what I eat each and every day. I have learned how to put the best fuel into my body each and every day and I try to stay within my required daily caloric count in order to maintain my weight. If and when I "choose" to eat off track, it is a conscious decision that I make and I take responsibility for that "choice".

My goal has been to get the best fuel into my body in order to lose weight or maintain my weight on a daily basis.

I feel great every day and food no longer controls me. I no longer "live to eat".

I now "eat to live" and I love my healthy eating pattern.

Most anyone can do it!

Top Tips for Weight Loss at Tame Your Inner Octopus! Don't go on a diet; set up a healthy eating pattern for life!

2010-04-21T15:22:00.000-04:00

It's important to realize that the words we choose to use in life are many times directly related to the goals we wish to achieve. Right from the start of my weight loss journey I knew what I was about to do would have nothing to do with the latest or greatest "diet" that was currently on the market. I knew my short and long term goals had to be much more than a temporary "diet" in order to lose weight and keep the weight off on a permanent basis. I strongly felt that diets don't usually work for long term success in establishing permanent weight loss.

That's why, right from the start, I decided that I was going to set up a healthy eating pattern for life. To me, telling myself I was on a "diet" would have made me feel like I was continually depriving myself of so many of the foods I loved. I didn't look at it that way. I made the choice to tell myself that I was going to once and for all learn the correct way to eat on a daily basis for life. Words are important so we must choose them wisely. They frame our mental state and help set up our overall goals.

I didn't broadcast what I was doing because I wanted this commitment to be on a personal level. Of course, friends and family continually asked if I was on a "diet". It was so funny; they were amazed! It was like I was doing something so unnatural and going totally against the grain. Sadly, with approximately 68% of our nation either overweight or obese, I was going against the grain when I was setting up my healthy eating pattern. It's totally understandable why so many people asked but my answer was always the same and it was truthful. I simply stated, "I'm setting up a healthy eating pattern for life." To me, that's a profound statement.

It sounds simple doesn't it? It was a simple statement but that simple statement was loaded with conviction and determination. I was tired of carrying around the burden of the extra weight and I felt like I was stuck with my unhealthy daily eating patterns. To me, I felt like I was in the movie "Ground Hog's Day" where each day I would set out to eat in healthful manner but before I knew it I was stuck right back where I started the day before. I think many people feel the same way most days but I wanted out. I wanted to eat in a healthy fashion 95% of the time. That was my goal. I knew I had to take the time, once and for all to heavily research what I needed to do to make these permanent changes.

First I found out how many calories I should be eating on a daily basis. It's funny but many times people embark on a diet because they want to follow an eating schedule that's already set up. They want a fool proof method to lose the weight. Sure, it may work temporarily but usually when people get off the diet, they fall right back into their former eating pattern. That's why the basic eating pattern of a person or family must change if there is to be long term success. That's why we all continually hear, it has to be a lifestyle change. Many people don't know how many calories their body requires on a daily basis. I now know the average woman requires approximately 1,800 calories a day.

It's important to know that number. From that point I knew I had to create a deficit of calories in order to lose the 40 pounds I had put on over many years. That's right, I called it a "deficit" of calories instead of saying I was on a "diet".

I then created a healthy eating plan derived from the basic food pyramid. Many experts suggest the area of 1,400 calories when creating a daily deficit for women. I think it's a great spot. It's important to go no lower than 1,200 because your body may think it's in a starvation mode and then you may plateau or not lose weight.

I eventually lost all of the weight in a matter of 5 months. To me, that was such a short amount of time when compared to the 18 years that it took me to put the extra weight on.

That's how important my healthy eating plan is in my life. I started out in the right place by eating healthy foods at scheduled times throughout the day. In weight loss mode I stayed within the deficit level I had created. Thereafter, in maintenance, once I reached my goal weight, I simply added in a few hundred calories in order to maintain my goal weight. It's great because I started the basic healthy eating pattern in weight loss mode and I didn't have to change any of the foods I was eating once I reached my goal weight. I simply added in a few hundred calories from the same healthy items.

If you wish to lose weight and keep it off permanently, take the time to Tame Your Inner Octopus and set up your own personal healthy eating pattern for life!

Best Wishes!

Top Tips for Weight Loss at Tame Your Inner Octopus! Don't Put Junk in Your Trunk! Purchase Healthy Items Each Week at the Grocery Store!

2010-03-22T15:14:00.012-04:00

My new Twitter account is called inneroctopus.

Please follow me! One of the best and easiest ways to eliminate junk food from your daily eating pattern is to not purchase it or bring it into your home in the first place! Remember, we do not want to look, think or behave like the grabby Octopus!

I know, this sounds so darn simple but trust me, this is one of the very first things I did when I was in weight loss mode over two years ago. Think about that fact for one moment, if the unhealthy, high caloric items are not in your home, you can't eat them, so why purchase them in the first place! This one tip is extremely important both in weight loss mode and thereafter in maintenance once reached.

Think of it this way. When mothers are ready to wean their babies from the bottle, they don't put the bottle on the counter to remind the baby of the habit they wish for them to break. It would be sort of cruel to do so.

This is why it is extremely important not to purchase and bring these foods into your home or workplace in the first place. There's no need for them to be hanging around when you're in the process of getting extra weight off or when you're continuing to maintain your weight for life. Some experts state that it takes approximately 30 days to break a habit. It makes a great deal of sense to me not to have items in our home that work against what we are trying to achieve, especially when we are weaning ourselves from unhealthy habits.

From the very first week I made up mind to set up a healthy eating pattern in weight loss mode, I made sure that no foods of this nature were purchased or brought into my home on a weekly basis. I did it and it worked beautifully. If foods gifts from special occasions did come into my home, they were put out of sight very quickly, eaten by other family members or thrown away.

Remember, there's a difference between going on a temporary "diet" in order to lose weight and making a permanent lifestyle change and setting up a healthy eating pattern for life.

There's no room for unhealthy high caloric foods in life on a daily basis if we wish to be successful for life.

Try not to purchase them in the first place and save them for "special occasions" only in your life.

Have a great day!

Oprah! You Are Not Alone!

2010-03-03T11:36:00.012-05:00

A few months ago, I, like many, witnessed "Oprah" expressing her long term struggle with weight loss. Tears came to her eyes, and I found myself cringing because I too have been there and like many, I have felt her pain. I wanted to say, "Hey Oprah, I know exactly what you're feeling! I've been there; I was just like you, minus the billion and I found a clear way to lose the weight; I can help you!" That's how life is for the most part, when we find a "solution" to anything we struggle with in life, we want to share it with those who may still be searching for answers.

Actually, I have a lot in common with Oprah. Please, refrain from laughing. We are approximately the same age at 55. We were both born in the month of January. We both have struggled with weight loss. We were both born in the deep south in states right next to each other, she in Mississippi and I, in Louisiana. Yes, unfortunately, I am not a billionaire like Oprah but fortunately I am no longer overweight.

I feel one of the reasons Oprah is so successful is due to the fact that she is a down-to-earth, open and honest person. She makes people feel like she's just like one of them and most people would would welcome the opportunity to get to know her better. Oprah is the real thing!

I admire the fact that during that small interview she had the courage to declare out loud, to the world that even with all of the avenues of help she has had in this area of her life, she still struggles with the issues of being overweight.

Oprah is one of the approximate 68% of people in our nation who is either overweight or obese. She's in the majority because there are only 32% of us that are not overweight or obese. Now that's a staggering statistic, isn't it? This is what I quickly came to realize at the start of my research at the beginning of my personal weight loss journey two years ago. After researching the statistics, right off the bat, I felt a sense of relief. I was not alone, this was not merely about me and my overall failed attempts at weight loss. Being overweight or obese in our country is close to a darn near national epidemic!

My next step was figuring out how and why becoming overweight or obese happens to so many of us. Then I had to delve much deeper to learn how to turn it all around.

I did, along with my co-author, and that's why we felt the great need to write the book, "Tame Your Inner Octopus!" in 30 Days or Less! We know for a fact that it is never too early or too late to make these type changes in your life.

It's real simple once you come to certain realizations and set up a healthy eating and exercise plan.

We did it; you can do it too!

Have a great day!

I Ordered a Slice of Key Lime Pie...

2010-02-24T08:59:00.004-05:00

No, it's not a big deal if you choose to order Key Lime Pie. Unfortunately for me, at this particular time, it was not the smartest move I could have made. Allow me to set the stage.

My husband and I traveled to a nearby city so that he could play tennis with our eldest daughter. It was a beautiful day and I had been ahead of the game all week with my eating well and exercising routines. I was feeling pretty good while still trying to shed a couple of pounds I had put on over the course of the holidays, a cold weather snap, a brief unexpected medical problem, a four day mini trip and my recent birthday celebration. I was well on my way towards accomplishing the goal of losing the weight and feeling good. My plan was to stay away from reasons to celebrate where food was involved. Now we all know this is quite hard to do in America.

I had a great workout the day before and my plan was to sit on the sidelines, enjoy the beautiful weather and finish a book I had been reading. Not long after, during a court switch, my daughter casually asked if we would like to go out to eat after the tennis match. If you know me, I don't need to be persuaded in the least when the subject of food or eating out comes into play. I was like, "Yeah, I'm in!" Truthfully, I almost fell off the bench in anticipation.

So much for control, not even a moment's hesitation. After the match, we piled into our cars and proceeded to drive to a quaint little seafood/burger type restaurant on the beach. I ordered the peel & eat shrimp for an appetizer.

By the way, peel and eat shrimp is always a great choice! We split it three ways and I had five shrimp.

Here's the aha moment that I apparently missed. I didn't stop to think about the best choices I could have made for my main meal, in fact, I felt entitled to eat a hamburger because I rarely eat one out anymore and I rarely eat fries. Forget about the things I sometimes do eat that I shouldn't, these two things I rarely eat and that's a fact if anyone cares.

That's when my husband and eldest daughter's mouths dropped open and their faces immediately expressed great concern. You see, it's like my little family unit has this fear that I'll turn back into the grabby Octopus and start treating myself like a human version of a garbage disposal. Hey, guys, I got rid of my GDS or Garbage Disposal Syndrome two years ago! Give me a break!

Then it came down to another big decision. Do I order a burger and fries for myself or should my husband who can finish a half burger in two bites in less than minute and I share one order? I don't trust him. I know the pattern. He eats his and then starts in on mine. I have a problem with anyone touching the food on my plate. It is my domain and everyone who knows me knows this. I wasn't about to let that happen and again, I had done so well all week long, this was my REWARD! Yikes, food can't be a reward, I know that, it's in our book, "Tame Your Inner Octopus!" Yes, I knew all of this but when the waiter came over I promptly blurted out. "I'll take a hamburger medium well with FRIES!" I could see the fear in my husband and daughter's faces. It was like they were thinking, "Wow, she's going for it; I hope she's not reverting to her old pattern of eating."

I ate only a half of that burger and of course, I didn't eat all of the fries, my husband and daughter took a few and there were a few left over. I was TEMPORARILY happy but then I had another dilemma, was I to "choose" to order dessert?

Well, remember I had done well with my eating and exercising all week long, why not I told myself. My daughter sort of looked at me like, "You're not going to order dessert Mom?" In fact, I don't think she thought it, I think she said it out loud, "You're not going to order dessert Mom?" I've always been the rebellious type and I quickly stated, "Yes, I am."

I did it and I ordered coffee too. In my mind I was celebrating the beautiful day, the quaint little beach side restaurant and the opportunity to be with my husband and eldest child. In my mind I was creating a beautiful memory.

The truth is, I have a lot of beautiful memories and I really did not enjoy that Key Lime Pie, it wasn't the greatest I had ever eaten. I only ate about four small bites of it and it wasn't worth ordering. I wasted money and it simply wasn't necessary. Another valuable lesson learned and at least I am now able to assess the situation after the wrong choices are made.

In the past, when I was overweight, I wouldn't have cared or have been aware because I was the grabby Octopus who ate mindlessly throughout the day and I did treat my body on a daily basis like a human garbage disposal.

The moral of this story is to know when not to order Key Lime Pie!

Have a great day!

Here's What 1,400 Calories A Day Looks Like!

2010-02-22T10:29:00.003-05:00

As a woman, my goal in weight loss mode is to modify what the food pyramid says I normally need to eat on a daily basis so that I can lose unwanted pounds. I do this by simply creating a deficit from what I should eat to what I need to eat in order to create a deficit of around 400 calories each day.

I will first list an example of how I modify my calories in weight loss mode at approximately 1,400 calories. My goal has always been to set up the best balanced healthy eating pattern while in weight loss mode. Once I reach my "ideal" or "preferred" goal weight, I simply add in around 400 healthy calories from the same food basic food groups in the food pyramid in order to maintain my weight. This comes out to around 1,800 calories a day.

Here's An Example of 1,400 calories a day in Weight Loss mode:

Breakfast (Around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.)

1/2 of a Whole Wheat English Muffin 62

1 teaspoon of peanut butter (Smucker's All Natural) 33

1/2 of a sliced banana 55

1 teaspoon of honey 20

6 oz. of Plain Non Fat Yogurt (I mix in Splenda) 80

25 blueberries (mixed in the yogurt) 20

4 teaspoons of lite or fat free Coffee Mate creamer 40

Breakfast Total: 310

Mid morning snack (around 10:30)
1 cup or @ 37 seedless red grapes 110

Lunch (around 12:30)
1 slice of whole wheat toast 110
2 oz. of Boar's Head sliced turkey breast 70
1 teaspoon of Kraft Olive Oil Mayonnaise 15
1 cup of steamed Broccoli 52
1 tablespoon of Ken's Lite (on top of steamed broc) 40
1 cup of split pea soup without ham 150

Lunch Total: 437

Afternoon Snack (around 4:00 p.m.)
1 Yoplait Yogurt Lite Strawberry 100
2 teaspoons of lite coffee creamer for afternoon coffee 20

Dinner (around 6:00 p.m.)
3 oz. skinless chicken breast 83
1 Tablespoon of ketchup 20
1 medium sweet potato 103
1 teaspoon of lite butter 17
1 teaspoon of brown sugar 19
1 cup of green beans with onions and 1 teaspoon 60
lite butter

Dinner Total: 302

Dessert or snack
Edy's Frozen Strawberry All Fruit Bar 80
1/2 banana 55

Daily Total: 1,410

Please note, I use Crystal Lite or assorted green teas at different times throughout the day most days. I also try to get the recommended amount of water in each day.

In my next post, I will discuss what mypyramid.gov lists as a recommended daily intake for women according to age when not in weight loss mode.

Have a great day!

Let's Begin to Set Up a Healthy Eating Pattern Today!

2010-02-16T13:51:00.003-05:00

Are you ready! Let's begin to set up a healthy eating pattern. The first thing we may wish to consider is whether we want to set up our eating plan in order to lose weight or maintain our current weight.

Remember, the average woman requires an intake of approximately 1,800 calories daily. At this intake most of us would be able to maintain our proper weight, along with exercise.

If we are overweight or obese we can assume that we have been eating more than the 1,800 calories our body requires each day. If we wish to take off the extra weight, we're going to have to create a deficit in order to gain control over our eating habits in order to lose all of the extra weight we have put on over time.

There are different spots we can choose when creating a deficit. I chose the 1,200 calorie area. In hindsight, although this area worked well for me, I would recommend dropping to an intake of around 1,400. I think that's a great spot. This way, you're creating a deficit of 400 a day just from what your normal intake should be and you can also burn off 100 calories through walking which would result in a total reduction of 500 calories a day overall.

Remember, a reduction of 500 calories a day is equal to a 3,500 reduction at the end of 7 days. It takes a reduction of 3,500 in order to equal a one pound loss. This also explains why we drop more pounds in the beginning of starting a weight loss program. If we are way over our daily intake at 2,400, we will lose considerably more when we drop back to 1,400 a day. That would suddenly become a 1,000 calorie reduction per day. See, right there would account for a possible loss of 2 pounds a week.

It's all about the numbers, when you get down to it. Learning what 1,400 calories looks and feels like is extremely important towards achieving success in weight loss.

Sure, we could follow the latest or great diet and we could also look for a magic pill to solve our problems in these areas. The one sure way to reach our goals and preserve them for life, is to set up a healthy eating pattern based on staying within your numbers.

Do you know your body may not allow you to lose weight if you go too low? That's right and that's another reason to realize the importance of knowing your count. Many times people want to wing it and do it on their own by simply guessing. Many times, in their excitement to do something quickly, they eat too little. It's quite easy to do and most of us have done it that way.

What usually happens is that we quit early because we're not eating enough. Our body has a self preservation mode it goes into when it thinks it might be starving. It will not allow us to shed pounds and it will hold onto to the extra pounds.

Many times this is what happens when we plateau. It's like our body says, "I better start conserving so she won't starve to death!"

That's why we need to know what 1,400 looks like when we're trying to lose weight. Many experts agree that women should go no lower than 1,200 calories a day. We also need to know how to pack in the best foods we can throughout the day in order to provide great fuel for our body. It's that simple.

So, where do we start? To me, it came down to common sense. I didn't look for a special diet. My thought was how do I go about setting up a great healthy eating pattern for life. I knew it couldn't be a "diet". It had to be something I could understand and learn to live with for life. It had to be based on all of the foods I like not foods someone else chose for me. Doesn't that make great sense?

That's when I turned to the best source I could think of and that was our Basic Food Pyramid. Think about it. All of the great foods we know are in that pyramid and everything there is healthful.

I found a site that our government and our taxes probably pay for, so I decided to make the most of this great information. I've noticed lately, this site now has awesome commercials, advertising all the great things it's set up to do for everyone of us in our nation.

You can check it out for yourself! Here's the site, take a little time to study it. It's great for your entire family! www.mypyramid.gov

On my next post I will explain how I discovered what the food pyramid states my body requires on a daily basis. I will then show you how I modified that area in order to create a deficit to at first lose all of the extra weight I had put on over time. You see, early on I realized that I wanted to start at the right place and finish at the right place. That's exactly what I did and I know it can work in the same way for anyone who takes the time to check it out!

Have a great day!

Oh! Oh! Valentine's Day Is Right Around the Corner!

2010-02-11T08:55:00.004-05:00

Yes, Valentine's Day is coming up next! It's our next "special occasion". It's seems like we just celebrated the New Year, my birthday, a family marriage and let's not forget the "Super Bowl"! It's always something; isn't it? It's just another day in our lives that is celebrated or centered around food! I'm not trying to be negative; I am simply stating facts. I happen to love food and I adore candy but common sense tells us we have to become accountable at some point or we'll look just like our grabby Octopus with no control over our eating habits. Our eating habits will control us if we allow them to and if we "choose" to not become accountable.

When I had my "Aha! Moment" a couple of years ago, I soon thereafter began to set up my healthy eating pattern in order to lose weight. I knew it couldn't be a "diet", so I didn't go out looking for the latest or greatest "diet". I knew it couldn't be a pill; it had to be a transformation, a way of life. It had to be "profound", I love that word! I also instinctively knew I had to create my own healthy way of eating.

It was then that I began to immediately notice all of the "special occasions" where high fat or sugary food items came into my life. I was amazed! I had to put my foot down and not allow these things into my home or at the very least keep them out of sight while I was setting up my healthy pattern of eating. Let me tell you, it was not an easy thing to do but boy, was it enlightening.

Before, I looked just like that grabby Octopus! If food was in sight, you had better get out of my way and clear a path. I was like a football player going in for the recovery of a fumble at the Super Bowl!

Heck, my kids used to say things like, "If you want some of the bread pudding Mom just made, you better get it now before she wolfs it down!" I laugh, because my children have a warped sense of humor and I don't know where they get it from! Wolfs it down is something my eldest daughter made up and she still jokes about it even now after I've lost the weight and become fit. I have to admit, it is quite funny but sadly most of all it was factual. I did "wolf down" pretty much anything I wanted for a period of 18 years! I wolfed down the peanut butter fudge that I said I made for my children as a treat but I ate half the plate before they had arrived home from school. I wolfed down this special ice cream that I love whenever it was in the house. I can go on and on, I was pretty good at wolfing things down, let me tell you!

Yes, I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. That's why it was at first difficult for me to attempt to set up a healthy eating pattern. I had to work against the grain in order to break the cycle of eating that had been a part of my life for almost two decades! As I state in our book "Tame Your Inner Octopus", I can best compare to it to taking away a bottle from a baby. For many people, food represents "comfort". We reach for it, all throughout the day, without a thought, out of habit and it soothes us temporarily. Going over our proper intake for the day on a continual basis also makes us pile on extra fat and this makes us overweight or obese and that's far from being comforting or soothing if you stop and think about it.

It didn't take me long to realize how many "special occasions" or reasons I had for eating things I shouldn't have been eating. I was shocked to tell you the truth because I had never realized how many obstacles are in the path of trying to eat in a proper manner. It's no wonder why approximately 68% of our nation is overweight or obese. It's the reason why so many people can't stick to a diet or the proper way of eating. There are too many "special occasions" right around the corner!

Let's take a time out, no pun intended and realize that the average woman is supposed to ingest around 1,800 calories each day while exercising on an almost daily basis. We can't afford to go "off track" on every single occasion that high fat foods or celebrations come into our lives. We have to be choosy; we must be accountable and we have to aim to eat within that 1,800 count each day. If we're trying to lose weight we need to be in the area of 1,400 calories and no lower than 1,200 as a woman.

The healthy pattern of eating that I set up close to two years ago has been my salvation. It's my day to day game plan. It's the healthy eating pattern that I revert to after eating "off track" for special occasions in my life.

Right now, when you get a chance, please take the time to get a clear picture of how many times "food" comes into play in your life on a daily basis. It could be an advertisement on TV, in a magazine, or on a billboard. It's downright shocking that so much emphasis is put on food on a daily basis. You too will be amazed if you do this for a week or a month.

This realization was one of my biggest "Aha! Moments".

We simply cannot eat like the grabby Octopus and expect to lose weight or maintain our ideal weight for life.

Have a great day!

FOOD KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

2010-02-10T09:56:00.003-05:00

The following is a great quote:

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows."

Epictetus

Let's stop an apply this quote to losing weight or maintaining a goal weight for life. Approximately 68% of our nation is presently either overweight or obese. If you ask many of these people if they know how to lose weight and keep it off permanently, many would probably emphatically answer "yes".

This would mean one of two things:

1) They really do know but don't want to lose weight and keep it off permanently.

2) They really don't possess the key knowledge in order to take the weight off and keep it off permanently.

I happen to feel most of us fall into the area of not having the right type of knowledge to lose weight in the most effective manner in order to keep it off for life.

I know because I was one of those people who felt they knew but really didn't know how to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together in order to lose weight and keep it off permanently for life. I only began to be able to put the puzzle together through a great deal of research. I then implemented all that I had learned into my lifestyle and only then did I meet great success through personal experience. Trust me, you can do this too.

Knowledge is power. I know that more than ever now that I have gained the knowledge I needed to make these tremendous changes in my lifestyle as it pertained to my eating and overall fitness patterns.

Realizing that I didn't know what I needed to know in order to reach success was the first issue I had to grasp. For 18 years I was in "limbo land". This is an area where I too thought I knew everything but really didn't know most of the basic numbers that I needed to know. Looking back I now realize I, like many, knew bits and pieces but I had no idea of how to go about setting up a healthy eating and fitness pattern for life.

Knowledge is power and food knowledge is critical when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off permanently yet so many of us want the quick or easy way out. Losing weight and keeping it off permanently is not about searching for the latest or greatest diet. It's not about taking a "magic" pill.

It's about coming to the realization that we must take "time out" in order to make it a "priority" in our lives to reach the weight and fitness levels that we wish for on a permanent basis.

If you've been reading my blog, as a woman, you will know the answers to the following four questions.

1) How many calories does the average woman need to ingest each day?

2) How many calories should the average woman consider cutting back to each day in order to create a deficit.

3) How many calories does it take to lose one pound?

4) How many pounds do most experts suggest we aim to lose on a weekly basis?

The answers to these questions are four of the most critical parts of losing weight and keeping it off permanently. This is the starting point. This is where the first areas of the "key" knowledge comes into play. Here are the answers.

1) Approximately 1,800 calories.

2) Around 1,400 but no lower than 1,200.

3) A deficit of 3,500 calories.

4) 1/4 to 2 pounds weekly.

Sounds simple doesn't it? It is, but the next step and we'll discuss this in depth, is learning how to parse out 1,400 calories throughout the course of a day in order to lose the extra weight while fueling our bodies with the best foods possible. Once we reach our goal weight, we can then up our intake to the area of 1,800 calories in order to maintain.

We'll discuss ways to incorporate great foods and exercising into your daily life in upcoming posts.

Of course, always check with your Dr. before starting any new eating or exercising program.

Have a great day!

Lose Weight and Get Fit for Life! Welcome to "Tame Your Inner Octopus Boot Camp!"

2010-02-01T09:27:00.008-05:00

Welcome to "Tame Your Inner Octopus Boot Camp!"TM We're going to get down to the nitty gritty over the course of the next few weeks and months! You've heard me repeatedly mention the importance of having the right "Mindset" in regards to losing weight and getting fit. Let's take the time now to discuss why it is critical to overall success.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the single most important realization you must have in order to lose weight and get fit permanently or maintain your ideal weight for life is to realize that this is not a diet; it has to become a way of life in order for this to work on a permanent basis. It is not hard and once explained, it can be quite easy to implement into your lifestyle.

Let's take it from the top with this new "Mindset" in place. Here's what you need to know.

The average woman's body needs approximately 1,800 calories a day. This excludes pregnant or nursing women or women with special dietary needs.

The average man's body needs approximately 2,000 calories a day.

Let's stop and think about these estimations. Realistically, if we eat more than our required 1,800 or 2,000 calories that our body needs as fuel on a daily basis, for the most part we can be assured that these extras will be stored as excess fat on our body. Now, doesn't that make perfect sense? Ladies and gentlemen, so much of this is about the numbers. The rest is about incorporating the best foods into this equation.

Please realize, each day, just like a bank account, your starting balance is around 1,800 for a woman or around 2,000 calories for a man. Now you can choose to purchase and eat the healthiest foods in the right amounts or you can eat junk and eat mindlessly like the grabby octopus. It's all up to you and the food choices you make on a daily basis 95% of the time. Just as we value making quality purchases in life with regard to our hard earned money, we can easily make these same type choices in the quality of foods we eat on a daily basis. It's all in how we choose to spend those calories!

It came down to common sense for Sharon, the co-author of Tame Your Inner Octopus and I because we quickly realized that we wanted the biggest bang for our bucks or should I say calories!

We wanted quality over quantity. We wanted to ingest great fuel for our bodies on a 95% basis. Our goal was to set up a healthy eating pattern while sticking to a certain amount of calories each day in weight loss mode and thereafter, once we reached our "goal" weight for life.

It is extremely important, from the beginning, that we take time out to realize how and why we gained 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50+ pounds over time. This happens because we are continually going over our daily 1,800 or 2,000 calorie budget!

We're grabbing from all over the place and throughout the day like the grabby Octopus! We need to Tame Our Inner Octopus, stop grabbing, pull in our tentacles and start becoming accountable for everything we put into our mouths! Trust me, it can be an enlightening experience.

This is how we start the process. We begin to write down everything we eat each day as we set up a healthy eating pattern for life. We will get into this further in the next post but for now, you can look up the counts online at any calorie counting website or you can purchase a calorie count book if you don't have one you've purchased in the past.

This way of eating is not a diet! Diets don't work and if they do work, we're doing it with a temporary attitude from the start. That's where the wrong mindset comes in and why diets continually fail us throughout life.

Tame Your Inner Octopus is here to stop that way of thinking and we are here to assist you in setting up a permanent healthy eating and fitness pattern for life. Our goal is as simple as that and we'll provide the necessary tools for you to do so.

So, let's get started. There is no magic way to take weight off but there is a guaranteed way to do so. There's a smart way to lose weight and it comes down to basic facts. Please realize the following:

1) In order to lose weight, you need to create a deficit of calories.

2) It takes 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound.

3) Experts recommend losing between 1 to 2 pounds on a weekly basis.

These facts tell us that we should aim to cut back on our daily intake from the start. We can assume that women who consume approximately 1,800 calories or less a day are not experiencing a continual weight gain over the years. Same scenario for men who stay in the area of 2,000. This tells us that we who have gained excess weight over time, have consumed more calories than our bodies needed. We can also assume that we ate more than our body burned off or needed as fuel. This means that we could simply cut back to 1,800 calories a day and we would probably lose weight over a significant amount of time.

But a guaranteed and faster method would be to simply cut back from our required intake of 1,800 calories for a woman and 2,000 calories daily for a man by creating a deficit of a few hundred calories. If we know what our average daily count should be as a man or woman, then we should simply cut back 400 or 500 a day. This would mean that the average woman could drop from 1,800 calories to 1,300 or 1,400 calories. Experts recommend going no lower than 1,200 calories because the body could think it is in a starvation mode and hold onto the calories as fuel for storage. No lower than 1,500 for a man and please check with your Dr. before starting out on any new fitness or eating pattern if you have concerns. At the end of the week you should see a weekly weight loss most weeks between 1 to 2 pounds as recommended. Now isn't that awesome!

Please realize as you embark on these changes in your eating pattern, you will experience slight discomfort due to the reduced calorie intake. This will subside after a couple of weeks as your stomach shrinks.

A wonderful part of this process is realizing that you have taken control of this area of your life, once and for all. You can now relax and watch week after week as the pounds steadily and slowly slip off your body. We will also be discussing ways to slowly add in exercise if you do not have an exercise pattern in place. We strongly feel that it is extremely important to work first on setting up a sensible eating pattern so that you do not feel overwhelmed by adding in exercise at the same time.

Now doesn't this make sense? You can do it and you can do it for life!

New Statistics State that 68% Of Our Nation Is Overweight Or Obese!

2010-01-19T11:02:00.000-05:00

Of course most of us are not surprised by this statistic and it's great to realize that January presents a wonderful opportunity to take the time to set up a healthy eating and fitness pattern once and for all! It's hard for me to believe that it was two years ago at this very same time in January at the age of 53 that I began my personal weight loss journey. Trust me, I had no idea in the world that I could turn this thing around by losing weight and getting fit at this stage of my life. I thought is was pretty much impossible.

Truthfully, looking back at my mid to late 30's and early 40's when I began to put the weight on, I didn't believe it was possible back then to find a way to take the weight off permanently. My eating was based on my emotions and many outside influences, like most of the 68% of our nation that is either overweight or obese. It took me this long to put together the tools I needed to be able to see the entire picture and take the weight off once and for all! I also realize that some people never do figure it out. We wrote the book, "It's Never Too Early or Too Late to Lose Weight, TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! In 30 Days or Less!" for people like us, who wish to make these type lifestyle changes. We felt the need to share with everyone both young and old the simple fact that it is never too early or too late to lose weight and set up a healthy eating and fitness pattern for life!

Now we all know that it is not impossible and I'm solid proof. No, I'm not perfect but just this past Sunday, while celebrating my birthday, I realized at 55 years young I am in the same area of weight and fitness levels as I was when I was in my 20's! Even after close to two years, I still feel like I have to pinch myself every now and then to see if this is all real and not a dream!

I can assure you I enjoy great foods and there was no way in the world I was going to give up eating great foods just to be thin. It was not going to happen, so I did the next best thing. I got smart through research. I read everything I could get my hands on and I sat back and used my common sense. I discovered a way to lose the weight by setting up a healthy eating pattern in order to lose the weight I had put on over the course of two decades. After I had lost the weight I added on a few hundred calories in order to maintain my goal weight once reached. I stay on this healthy pattern of eating great foods 95% of the time. It's called "eating on track". That's what the co-author of "Tame Your Inner Octopus" and I named our healthy pattern of eating. We refer to "off track" eating anytime there is a special event or occasion where we make the "choice" to eat off track. That's how we learned to incorporate foods we don't normally eat into our overall pattern of eating. We don't forbid ourselves from eating these items; we simply realize we can't eat them on a daily or weekly basis and expect to maintain our weight for a lifetime. You can learn to do it too!

It's really not that complicated but there are some critical elements that have to be addressed in order to make these type changes in life. Here are "My Top 12 Tips" . I will discuss these tips in upcoming posts in depth. Remember to always talk to your Dr. before starting any new diet or exercising program.

1) We must possess the proper "Mindset". This is not a diet; we are setting up a healthy pattern of eating for life. We must realize that we will temporarily feel a few growing pains as we work against our former pattern of eating in order to set up a new healthy pattern of eating. This will only take a few weeks before it begins to feel like second nature.

2) We need to know and keep in mind always that the average woman's body requires approximately 1,800 calories on a daily basis.

3) We need to remove unhealthy items from our home or place them out of sight so that they won't be within sight while we are setting up our overall healthy eating pattern. It would be best to simply not have them in your home.

4) We need to make a list and concentrate on purchasing healthy items on a weekly basis. We need to always have these items available in order to pull from during the week. We need to work on preparing these items ahead of time or as needed.

5) We need to decide what type of deficit of calories we wish to create. It takes 3,500 calories to lose one pound. If the average woman requires approximately 1,800 calories each day, you can drop back to the 1,400 or 1,600 area in order to create a deficit.

6) Experts suggest losing no more than 1-2 pounds per week. This is a "slow and steady" process that works and that's all that matters in the long run.

7) Study the guidelines at http://www.mypyramid.gov/ in order to set up a healthy balanced eating pattern. All the information is set up for you to study and there are tools to help you create your own pattern while in weight loss mode and maintenance.

8) Make every attempt to eat breakfast, a mid morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner at approximately the same time each day.

9) Weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you eat without clothes.

10) When you have the eating pattern in place, however long it takes you, slowly begin to exercise, unless you're exercising already, by walking, popping in a great exercise DVD or going to the gym. It does not matter just move and get going. This works hand in hand with the healthy eating pattern and keeps you motivated and feeling awesome and productive.

11) We need to document and look up the caloric content of everything we eat. You can go to the web at caloriecount@about.com, buy a book or purchase a calorie counting calculator at http://www.amazon.com/. Write down your intake throughout the course of the day and add it up at the end of each day. This way you become aware and totally accountable for the choices you make in weight loss mode and thereafter in maintenance. You also learn to structure your intake out over the course of a day.

12) After you've lost the weight and learned to maintain your weight, you will no longer need to rely on writing your intake down. You'll have the tools and knowledge in your mind in order to maintain your goal weight.

Once you make these changes, you can relax knowing you're going to lose every last pound you've ever dreamed of losing and you're going to know how to keep the weight off and stay fit permanently!

Take it from me; this works!

I will discuss each area in depth in the upcoming weeks.

We Don't Have to Wait Until New Year's To Get Back on Track!

2009-12-28T09:18:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah! There's little doubt that most of us are looking just like the grabby Octopus at certain times during the holiday season. For the most part, there's no way of getting around that fact during this time of the year. We also know that there are times we can make every effort to get back on track as soon as possible.

It's a heck of a lot better than chalking it up and waiting until the first of the year to go on a the latest or greatest "diet". We don't have to wait. There are measures we can take right now. We can begin to try to work off some of the extra calories each day. We can rid our home of the high fat items that are leftover from the holiday meals. We can freeze them or give them away. As I've stated before, it's not the one day holiday itself that presents a major problem, it's the days after where we repeat eating the rich leftover foods! Yikes!

It was great to see so many people jogging the day after Christmas. People of all sizes were making great attempts at working off the extras they had eaten the previous day.

Most of us know that we're not going to work off all of the extra calories in one day but heck, it's a start and it doesn't take long at all to take off a little weight over a couple of week's time.

I'm going to do my best to return to my normal healthy eating pattern until the first of the new year. At the start of the new year, I will create a small deficit in order to take off a few extra pounds I've put on over the holidays.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Are You Ready For the Upcoming Holidays?

2009-12-09T09:28:00.000-05:00

At this point the holidays are coming whether we are ready or not. The rush is just starting to kick in for me. It's so funny but I find myself thinking back to my past old eating habits over the course of the previous three decades before I had lost the weight.

In the past this was a free for all time for me. It was like someone gave me the green light to eat anything in sight, afterall, it was the holiday season. I can remember gathering up the candy making and baking items way ahead of time. Like I've mentioned before, I can remember purchasing the brightly colored foiled candies, just to have around the house. Of course, I now realize, as I did then, I was the one who mainly ate most of these items. I can't imagine how many calories I consumed just tasting as I went along! Of course, as I've mentioned before, ignorance is bliss, and I didn't want to know because I did not want to be held accountable. Food was a comfort for me. I used food to deal with happy, stressful, sad or boring times in my life. Food was my pacifer before I formed a new relationship with food back in January of 2008.

I think differently now during the holiday season. I will make these special items right before the holiday itself but I won't be making these items over and over for weeks ahead and afterwards into the new year.

I've learned how to put the BRAKES ON! This means that I realize I am no longer the grabby octopus we highlight on the blog. I'm not first in line to grab a candy or a high caloric treat. I've learned to think first. I've learned not to make these things ahead of time. I now make them for a special occasion and then I enjoy a serving, not multiple servings.

I have the brakes on and there is nothing in my home at this point to grab throughout the day that is not a part of our daily healthy eating pattern. We all know that in the days ahead there will be family gatherings where we can slack up a bit and eat things we don't normally eat in a moderate fashion.

So, for now and up until the family gathering, I'm staying within my 1,800 normal daily intake to the best degree possible. I'm exercising daily with at least 20 minutes of Pilates and on most all days, 30 minutes of my run/walk.

I check almost daily and my weight is still being maintained. I feel if I keep at it, like I did last year at this same time, I won't have any additional weight gain by January 1, 2010. That's my goal. I don't mind taking off a two pound gain over the course of a couple of weeks but I sure and heck see no reason to pack on an additional 5-10 pounds just because it is the holiday season!

For me, so much of the holiday season is about the love I feel for my family and friends. I am thankful to God for all that I have been given in life.

Still I am saving some room for a couple of my pecan tarts!

Have a great day!

It's a Big Back on Track Monday!

2009-11-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I really enjoyed Thanksgiving. It's funny but the day after I realized what I loved most about that day. I enjoyed being with my family and friends. Sure, like everyone, I loved the food but what I loved most was being with my family and friends. I think most everyone feels that way. Since I have lost the weight and set up my healthy eating and exercise patterns, I can now see a huge difference in the way I celebrate the holiday season.

In the past, there were few limits and I really couldn't tell when the holiday season began or ended. Actually, it was a huge blur. That's because I made it that way. Let me provide you with some examples. I would start cooking and baking things early and snack all the way throughout the process. I would eat the day of Thanksgiving and the days before and after. Very soon after Thanksgiving, I would begin to buy Christmas colored treats in the store such as Peppermint Bark and chocolate Kisses. Yes, I would have those treats in my home for everyone to eat any time they wished. Of course, who I am I fooling, I was the one who ended up eating most of these treats! Yikes! A week before Christmas I would start making fudge, pecan tarts and pralines. I would eat them all along the way and right up to New Year's Day!

I'm far from perfect but I have now found a great balance. There is no such thing as perfect in life anyway. There is a place where we can aim to find a balance in our lives. That's my overall goal and it is the goal I strive for each day in order to maintain my weight or balance out the special eating occasions in my life.

If you stop and think about it, we are now less than a month away from Christmas Day or the holiday season. There are many things we can do right now to prevent any additional extra weight gain. Sure, some of us may be waiting for the New Year to begin watching our weight but why wait?

The truth is, we don't have to wait, we can start right now by not gaining any extra during the holidays. This way we have less to take off in January!

Here are a few reminders of how to prepare for the holiday itself way ahead of time.

1) Look forward to eating "off track" on that one particular day with family and friends. That's the day where we can moderately eat "off track".

2) Limit what you bring into your home over the course of the next few weeks and before and after that one special day.

3) Limit what you eat at any holiday party you will be invited to during the season. If you have an opportunity, take a couple of your own healthy dishes. That's what I did when I was in weight loss mode.

4) Have a plan in place before you attend these parties. Eat before so that you will not be starving. Taste and take small amounts of only the items you truly wish to eat. Stay away from the areas where food is served. Keep reminding yourself, "I'm here to mix and enjoy the people at this party." Make a mental note of the weight goals or fitness goals you want to reach in the near future and start trying to get that image in your mind now.

5) Oh yes, this is a biggie, because it has helped me more than ever. Get your basic cardio in each day. It does not have to be anything big. You can walk out your door and walk 30 minutes a day. Build up to it if you're not ready to go for the full 30 minutes. Believe it or not, this one thing, helps keep the weight off and makes you keenly aware that you are doing what you need to do each and every day to form an everyday balance. This also gets rid of a lot of the mental stress associated with the holidays and it improves your mood overall.

Remember to always check with your Dr. before you begin to establish an exercise pattern.

I love the holiday season but I'm not about to let the holiday season control my eating patterns for a solid month. I'm going to control what I choose to eat every step of the way throughout the holiday season.

I'm going to keep up with my exercise more than ever.

I'm going to remember what the holiday season is truly all about.

Have a great "Back on Track Monday!"

Are You Ready for the Holiday Festivities!

2009-11-23T14:38:00.000-05:00

Are you ready for the holidays to begin? Whether we're ready or not, they're about to begin starting off this week with Thanksgiving. As I mentioned in my last post, I love Thanksgiving!

There's no doubt that all of us already know we will soon be bombarded by foods during the holiday season that we do not normally eat on a daily or weekly basis. It's the holiday season for goodness sake; we're supposed to enjoy them but remember, we can also choose to enjoy them within reason.

Just because it is a holiday does not mean we have to stuff ourselves like we would stuff our own turkey! We can pick and choose what we truly wish to eat and stay away from the things that we really don't love.

It doesn't have to be an all or nothing type day. Moderation, even on a holiday is extremely important. There's a way to eat many healthy items that are often a part of the holiday season. We know turkey is a healthy choice but so are green beans and other side dishes. We can remember to taste smaller portions of the high fat dishes that we enjoy. It's also important to eat slowly and enjoy the conversation surrounding the dinner table.

It took me a long time to learn that celebrations such as Thanksgiving Day need not be so greatly focused on the food and eating. It's so wonderful when we can begin to focus on how great it is to be together and share such a beautiful meaningful day with family and friends.

Of course I am also looking forward to eating special things that I don't eat on a normal basis. These are the times I look forward to these special dishes. Right now I am making sure that I am sticking to my normal pattern of eating even more closely. I am doing this because I know ahead of time this will help me minimize the effects of my "off track" eating for Thanksgiving Day.

My plan is to enjoy myself that day and eat a regular breakfast beforehand. I now know the importance of not being famished at any point in my daily pattern of eating. This also works fantastic for "off track" eating events and special holiday occasions in our lives. I will make sure to eat a healthy midmorning snack so that I am not overly hungry before the Thanksgiving meal. These little things make a big difference in the long run. My goal will be to pick and choose what I really want to eat. I am taking two dishes to the get-together, so I won't have a lot of leftovers to deal with afterwards. That's a big plus!

Since I have lost and maintained my weight for close to two years now, I realize the importance of limiting my "off track" eating or special occasion eating to that one day. This means that I don't start eating "off track" several days before and I don't eat "off track" the day after.

This is where I got into a lot of trouble in the years I was 40 pounds overweight. I am continually trying to improve here or there in maintenance, so that I can be better prepared or incorporate new ideas along the way.

Once again, have a great Thanksgiving!

Best Wishes!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

2009-11-18T09:56:00.000-05:00

I, like many people, love Thanksgiving Day! It is one of my favorite holidays because it is a day to celebrate all that we have to be thankful for without a lot of fuss. I think it's safe to assume that Thanksgiving Day will be an "off track" day of eating for the majority of us. It should be if you stop and think about it. These are special times in our lives where memories are created. This day should be different from how we normally eat on the regular days of our lives.

Although these things make sense. It also makes sense to keep a few things in mind along the way. This does not mean we have to eat everything in sight. This does not mean we have to sample everything on the table. This does not mean we have to stuff ourselves to the point of feeling sick. It simply means that we can make great choices and eat foods that we mostly choose to eat only on very special occasions. Eating off track whether you're in weight loss mode or maintenance is not going to set you back in a major fashion at all. If you limit your eating "off track" to just one day, you'll simply have a small hiccup in the area of weight loss or maintenance that you can easily correct within a few days.

Here are a few hints or examples of ways to keep it all in check on Thanksgiving Day.

1) Eat your normal healthy breakfast. This will prevent you from becoming overly hungry. Try not to "pick" at anything.

2) Hopefully there will be great healthy choices at your Thanksgiving meal so take advantage of choosing these foods first and foremost. Sample the rich dishes and desserts in a small to moderate fashion.

3) Limit your "off track" eating of the rich foods and desserts to this day only. Enjoy the other healthy dishes for the next couple of days. Give the rich desserts and dishes away or simply freeze them if possible.

Now that I have lost all of the weight I had put on for close to two decades, I can easily look back to see how I accumulated all of those extra unwanted pounds. I am astounded at how easy it has been to keep them off now that I have gained knowledge in the areas of setting up a healthy eating and fitness pattern for life. Wow, I wish I would have simply taken the time to educate myself properly and make myself a priority back then. I can't believe at times that I carried that weight for close to two decades when I never had to at any point. I know I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving in many areas of my life.

I can now look back and realize that I treated most everyday like a holiday feast. There never had to be a reason for me to eat high fat foods and desserts. I now reflect on how I used to eat throughout the day on Thanksgiving Day and how I continued to eat 3 or 4 days afterwards in regards to the leftovers.

Therefore, it is not the holiday itself that presents a problem. It is all the days before and after a special holiday that matter in the long run.

I, for one, cannot wait for Thanksgiving. My first important goal is remember what the day is all about and for me, that is being thankful to God for all of my family and friends. I can't wait to see everyone and I want the emphasis to be on that area and creating another beautiful memory in all of our lives.

I will also attempt to choose only the foods I really want to eat and I will eat them in a moderate fashion. I will enjoy the desserts but I have no plans of eating to the point of feeling like my stomach could burst at any moment. Those days are over for me and have been for a long time.

I have no intention of feeling guilt over the choices I make for special occasions because I realize this is not the way I eat on the regular days of my life.

That's why I can't wait for Thanksgiving Day!

Have a great day everyone!

Why Do We Need to Count Calories To Lose Weight or Maintain Our Weight?"

2009-11-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

Counting calories is an almost surefire guarantee that you will eventually lose every last pound you've ever wanted to lose while keeping it off for a lifetime. It takes the guessing and all the "drama" surrounding weight loss and maintenance out of the overall picture. Once we reach our goal weight we will have the information we need for life from the knowledge we gained from becoming accountable for the amount of calories we eat each day. This knowledge will be ours for a lifetime!

We talk in depth about the importance of knowing your count or daily intake of calories in weight loss mode in our book "Tame Your Inner Octopus!" We feel it is the single most important skill we acquired in order to lose all of the unwanted weight. Knowing your count is extremely important once you reach your goal weight also. Yes, we all know that we can follow a particular "diet" or we can simply take a guess at our daily intake. We wanted results; we didn't want to guess. We wanted the facts. We felt it was extremely important to see what our intake added up to each day in weight loss mode and thereafter in maintenance. Research confirms knowing our count and writing it down daily makes us become accountable. This leads to overall success on a weight loss and maintenance journey.

This puts the power in your hands when it comes to determining how many calories you choose to eat each day! You can look up the calories for a particular item on the Internet, from a calorie counting book or simply purchase a calorie counting device if you're short on time. Then, you simply jot down what you eat throughout the day and add it up at the end of the day. The facts are there staring at you straight in the face; there is no guessing and you are educating yourself for a lifetime each time you do it. It is then, you will be able to see what 1,400 calories looks like in weight loss mode or what 1,800 calories looks like in maintenance for an average woman.

That's why people who keep a journal of their intake in weight loss mode are so successful. They instantly become accountable and it keeps them on track each and every day. They simply know they are doing everything possible, along with exercising, to reach success. There is no guessing involved.

Once you have this valuable information; you will have it for a lifetime. There will be no need to search for a new "diet"; there will be no guessing; you will have the knowledge you need to maintain your weight for life!

Of course, you will need to set up a balanced healthy eating pattern both in weight loss mode and afterwards in maintenance. This can be achieved by following the healthy guidelines at http://www.mypyramid.gov/. All of these suggestions and many examples are in our forthcoming book "Tame Your Inner Octopus!"

Maybe the question should be: "Why wouldn't we want to count calories in order to educate ourselves so that we can lose weight and maintain our goal weight for a lifetime?"

Have a great day!

Do We Have To Give Up Our Favorite Foods Permanently To Lose Weight and Get Fit?

2009-11-09T11:59:00.000-05:00

No way! Who would do it? If you stop and think about it, who actually wants to be thin and fit by staying away from all of the foods they love permanently? Certainly not me or anyone I know.

But if we are not happy about being overweight or if we find ourselves struggling to maintain our weight, we may wish to form a new relationship with our not so healthy favorites.

Realistically, I think most of us would agree that we simply cannot eat cupcakes, ice cream, creamed sauces or most high fat or sugary foods on a daily basis. It's common sense or we will struggle every day to lose unwanted pounds or maintain our desired weight.

In our minds we need to realize that our bodies only require a certain amount of calories each day. We need to know that number. Many experts state the approximate number of calories an average woman needs each day is in the area of 1,800. Of course, this may be different for pregnant or nursing women or women who have a more active or less active lifestyles. Always check with your Dr. when in doubt.

For the most part, if we wish to maintain our goal weight, we would need to stick to that number on a daily basis. The problem of gaining weight occurs when we continually go beyond our everyday suggested intake. This is where the pounds come on and stay on over the course of time.

So, we do not have to give up our favorite foods permanently but common sense tells us that we certainly don't need them hanging around the house while we are in weight loss mode. We also don't need to have them within our eyesight on a daily basis if we know that we should not be eating them on a daily or weekly basis. There are many healthy new favorites we can add to our daily pattern of eating which can replace these not so healthy favorites.

Many people have had to form new healthy relationships with their favorite foods in order to shed extra pounds or maintain their desired weight once reached. This is one of the single most important goals to accomplish in order to lose excess weight and to maintain it for life. I have had to form this new relationship with many of my not so healthy favorite foods. I have also formed a healthy relationship with the great foods that I eat on a daily and weekly basis. I now realize that I don't have to banish my not so healthy favorite foods from my life permanently; I can choose to eat them in a moderate fashion on special occasions or events in my life. Trust me, there is always a special occasion or event right around the corner!

To sum it up, we can still enjoy our high fat and high sugared favorites. We simply have to make sure we limit them for special occasions or events in our lives and eat them in a moderate fashion.

Anyone can do it!

What Is a Healthy Lifestyle Change?

2009-11-03T10:38:00.000-05:00

When it comes to losing weight or getting fit, most of us have all heard the following: "It simply has to be a lifestyle change." I'm sure we would all agree that this sounds great but exactly what does it mean and how do you create a "healthy lifestyle change" after years of doing your own thing?

Some of you reading this blog may already have a healthy eating and exercise pattern in place. You may be reading this blog simply to add on new ideas or re-enforce the great habits you've already incorporated into your life. Good for you; that is awesome! You fall into the approximate 33% of our nation that is not overweight or obese. Sharon, the co-author of "Tame Your Inner Octopus" and I clearly did not fall into that category. We were in the category of you better do something quickly to reverse the bad habits you've created over decades or you're going to stay fat and unfit for the remainder of your life! We were in trouble but we are proof, that no matter what age you are in life, whether you are younger or older, you can most certainly accomplish your goals when it pertains to eating correctly or setting up a healthy fitness pattern for life.

Yes, we were with the approximate 67% of our nation that is either overweight or obese. We were among the millions who evidently didn't have a healthy eating or fitness pattern in place. We both had our "That's It - Enough is Enough!" moment. We both knew it was a now or never situation.

We simply knew we had to create a personal LIFESTYLE CHANGE. What we didn't know was how we were going to go about setting one up. There was no such book that we could find that spelled it out in an easy to understand manner on a level that reached us personally with all of the information we greatly needed.

Here are a few of the feelings we had when we had our "That's It - Enough is Enough!" moment.

I cannot continue to eat in this manner.
I'm tired of carrying the guilt and the burden of all of the extra pounds.
I'm tired of having no control over when and what I eat each day.
I have to make a lifestyle change in order to overcome the unhealthy habits I now have in place.
I realize it may at first seem extremely difficult to turn this around but I'll get past that and accomplish my goals.

How did we incorporate a new healthy lifestyle change into our lives?

We changed our eating habits and began to slowly incorporate exercise on an almost daily basis.
We became accountable for how many calories we ate each day. We created a deficit in order to lose the weight and we stuck to that intake until every pound we wanted to lose was gone.
We replaced feelings of guilt with feelings of control and elation as the pounds dripped off week after week.
We removed unhealthy items from the house immediately and we wrote down everything we ate daily so that we would stay on track and meet our personal goals as we began to educate ourselves.
We researched the food pyramid at http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and set up our own healthy eating pattern based on our own personal favorite foods.

Of course, there is so much more and all of it will be within the pages of our forthcoming book, It's Never Too Early or Too Late to Lose Weight - Tame Your Inner Octopus! In 30 days or Less!

Have a great day everyone!

Check Out These Three Awesome Exercise DVD's!

2009-10-27T12:40:00.000-04:00

I have learned the hard way that when it comes to choosing exercise DVD's it is best to ask for recommendations from friends, family or co-workers. I've bought a few that I wish I had not purchased but these three are the absolute best that I've come across! I wanted to share them with you. I'm going to break down why I like them and why I still use one or two of them on a daily basis. I ordered all of them from Amazon.com at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/

Winsor Pilates - Basic 3 DVD Workout Set was the very first exercise DVD I purchased close to two years ago when I first made major lifestyle changes in my eating and exercising patterns. It is absolutely awesome for several reasons.

Mari Winsor is a top instructor and has been in the business for over two decades. She is highly professional and knows her stuff. She has worked with many movie and TV stars. She has three DVD's in this set. One is a 20 minute overall body routine. This 20 minute routine is great to start off with when you're getting back into conditioning after a layoff or when you simply want a great, short overall workout. I started off with this 20 minute version because it allowed me to slowly build up strength. It took me a month or so to get down the moves and I became stronger over time. This 20 minute version of Pilates was my main DVD that I used for months and I used it almost daily. There is also an instructional DVD that breaks down the moves and there is an awesome accelerated 50 minute version of Pilates that I now use once or twice a week. It is awesome!

I love this DVD by Denise Austin. It was recommended to me by a young woman who loved her workouts. It is awesome for the following reasons:

It is divided into 10 minute mini routines that focus on the core, abs, hip, thighs and buns individually.
There are different levels of intensity you can choose from and you can start out low and work your way up.
You can put together your own custom routine. My favorite routine on this one is the abs & waist, hips and buns. I do this one at least two days a week.

Of course, you can switch this workout any way you like and you can make the workout as long or as short as you like. I go for 30 minutes on this one as I've stated and I hit the abs & waist, hips and buns sections. It is awesome! I love the tropical scenery. She is motivating!

Denise Austin's Personal Training System is off the charts! It was recommended to me by the same young woman. I use this one 3-4 times a week because it works your body in a totally different way than Pilates. It is more like strength training that you can do in your own home.

This DVD centers on your upper and lower body areas. She provides three different intensity levels which are low, medium and high. It is awesome!
The mini individual workouts are each only 10 minutes long.
There is an upper body dumbbell routine. I gradually built up to using five pounds and eight pounds weights for this routine and I mostly stick with the low intensity area because the medium and high level incorporate pushups. This is awesome for people who like pushups but I stay with the low intensity in the upper body area on this one. Believe me, it gets results and it is challenging.
The lower body workout is incredible. I started at the medium intensity on this one and I now stick to the high intensity. It is so great because it has built up the areas that surround my knees. I had problems in my knee areas when I first started walking briskly consistently. Do you know once I added on this workout with all the squats and lunges I no longer have any sort of knee pain? I am amazed. I look at this DVD as a big bonus because it's sort of like a weight routine for me where I don't have to go to a gym.

I also love Exercise TV and during the week on the days where I am doing the dumbbell/squat routine, I do 20 minutes of Nicole Stewart or Elizabeth Garcia's Pilates. They are awesome and it's good to mix things up.

I am always looking to add in great DVD's as I go along but these are the main great ones that I love and they provide great results if used consistently. This may sound like an awful lot of exericising but it's not. I only do 20 minutes of Pilates on the day I do my squat/dumbell routine which is also 20 minutes. On the days that I don't do the squat/dumbell routine I do 30 minutes of Pilates. I do my cardio of walking/running for 30 minutes six days a week. So, I'm basically working out around an hour a day and at my convenience from my own home and surrounding area. I've learned the hard way about finally making myself a priority.

I wanted to share this information with you, so that you know these DVD's come highly recommended.

Have a great day!

Is There Way Too Much "Drama" Associated With Food In America?

2009-10-15T10:49:00.000-04:00

If you stop and take the time to notice, there's a tremendous amount of "drama" associated with discussions about the foods we eat throughout the course of any given day or week. Whether it pertains to a "diet" or food in general, many of us talk about food as if it were human and possessed some sort of supernatural powers! In fact, we give food way too much power, which diminishes our own self control over what we "choose" to eat at times. It's time to take the "drama" out of our daily pattern of eating and put the emphasis on setting up an overall healthy eating pattern for life. Realistically, we can and should enjoy great healthy foods every day of our lives but it's time to put food in its proper place in America. There's far too much emphasis on eating the wrong types of food for all sorts of reasons. We're way out of control with approximately 67% of our nation presently overweight or obese.

Food is not human, we all know this yet how many times have you heard the following type comments?

Myth: I couldn't resist that cupcake; it was calling my name and I simply had to eat it!

Fact: Cupcakes can't talk; they're not human; we make "choices".

Myth: I feel like I'm in a "battle" or a "tug of war" with weight loss; it's an ongoing struggle.

Fact: Food is not human, we shouldn't feel like we're in a battle or tug of war, we make "choices". We're giving way too much power to food if we talk in this manner. It mentally puts us in an inferior position and we're not inferior, we're intelligent humans who take responsibility for the foods we "choose" to eat.

Sharon and I wrote about this topic extensively in our forthcoming book, "Tame Your Inner Octopus!" We felt that we needed to first understand how we became overweight before we set out on our own personal weight loss journey. We felt we needed to see the entire picture.

We quickly realized there was far too much "drama" and emphasis on food in general in our own lives and we knew it was an overall problem in our nation. We saw the staggering statistics of being overweight and obese in our nation and we immediately knew we wanted to be on the lower side of the equation. We wanted to be with the approximate 33% of our nation that was not overweight or obese.

We achieved our goal and it was not difficult. One of the main reasons we were able to reach success came with the realization that there was way too much emphasis on food in our personal lives. We realized very early on that we must take responsibility for the foods we choose to eat if we are to be successful for the remainder of our lives.

There's no doubt in our minds that thousands of others can do the same.

Have a great day!

Lordy Be! Study Shows Fatty Foods Head Straight for the Brain First!

2009-10-14T09:52:00.000-04:00

A recent study by the UT Southwestern Medical Center, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that foods high in certain fats may head straight to the brain. From that point the fat molecules encourage the brain to send messages to the body's cells to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin which are two important hormones involved in food intake and body-weight regulation. Worse yet, our bodies may be tricked into eating more and the effect may last up to three days!

Wow! Although this study was conducted on mice and rats, researchers feel this strengthens existing dietary recommendations to limit saturated fat intake.

This study explains a lot if you stop and think about it. How many times have most of us woken up the morning after a huge holiday meal or special occasion feeling like we wanted to eat anything within sight? Many times we haven't been able to pinpoint exactly why we have felt this way. I strongly feel that most of us can also relate to the urge to continue eating that way for several days afterwards.

In fact, here's a short story. Our absolute favorite ice cream brand from back home branched out into the south florida area this past year. Needless to say, we ran to the store and bought some! Seriously, we could have easily chosen to clear the shelf. Heck, I had lost all of the weight I wanted to lose and surely I could eat my most favorite ice cream in the entire world! Hmm...my husband and my son gobbled it up with me. Actually, one half gallon didn't last for more than two days. After a month or two of eating it for one reason or another my son made this statement: "I feel I have no control over eating this ice cream; I feel like I have to keep eating it for days until it is gone." Do any of you notice his comments substantiate this recent research in rodents? Granted he's not a rat nor is he a top researcher but I feel he did say something quite profound. My husband and I felt the same way but like most people we really didn't understand why we felt this way.

Now, we have studies, such as this latest study that suggest there may be solid reasons to back our lack of control over our urges to eat certain foods day after day.

To me, this is yet another great reason why we should try to eat in a healthful manner 95% of the time.

I'm just like most people. I enjoy eating high saturated fats but I have also learned that I can no longer allow them to rule my patterns of eating. There's a time and a place to eat them and I'm in charge of when and if I choose to do so. I don't believe in labeling certain foods as "bad". When I do eat these type foods, I have learned the importance of limiting my intake. I know I may temporarily enjoy them but I also realize overall, they are not in my best interest to eat on any type of consistent basis.

I am finally learning to limit these type foods for special occasions and trust me, there are always special occasions around almost every corner if you stop and think about it. I can't eat these foods everyday because I don't wish to struggle or battle out the repercussions of trying to get my body back on track. I know that fatty foods work against me being able to control my intake of calories and regulate my body weight.

Yes, I must admit I feel a great deal of compassion towards the rodents in this research. It was only a couple of years ago when I was in the same predicament!

Have a great day everyone!

Part II of The Not So Sweet Side of Sugars!

2009-10-08T11:47:00.000-04:00

Part I of The Not So Sweet Side of Sugars centered on the American Heart Association's recent recommendations of added sugars. The guideline suggested that women consume no more than 6 teaspoons (about 25 grams) of added sugars a day and no more than 9 teaspoons (about 37.5 grams) of added sugars daily for men.

I also posted a video clip from the Dr. Oz show on my previous post. Since I would like to stay in that recommended guideline, I have begun to look at the labels on the products I consume on a daily or weekly basis. You may wish to do the same when you have the time. I no longer use white sugar but I do sprinkle brown sugar about a teaspoon or less on my sweet potato. I use one teaspoon of honey on my half English Muffin. I would like to use more honey in items where I use artificial sweetners. I want to look into the new product "Stevia". These are two areas that I can work on in the future. There is so much to be said about "substitution" in the quest of building a healthy overall eating plan. We just have to keep working on it little by little. Small changes here or there add up to huge differences over time. It's the same with exercise.

Here's why eating too much sugar matters and why we must pay attention. The American Heart Association says that a high intake of added sugars is implicated in numerous poor health conditions, including
obesity, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

They further state that added sugars and solid fats in food, as well as alcoholic beverages are categorized as "discretionary calories" and should be eaten sparingly.  Soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages are the number one source of added sugars in the American diet.

I went grocery shopping yesterday and our store, like many, has certain items upfront on sale as you walk in just to make you stop and check them out. I'm a sucker of course and I stopped, as always, to check out some of the items. I picked up an innocent looking six pack of apple sauce with cinnamon. I thought that would be a great addition to my area of healthy snacks.  Since I had the recent recommendations concerning the added sugars from the American Heart Association on my mind, I decided to check out the sugar content on the label. You are not going to believe what it was for one serving of that apple sauce. Remember, as women, we're supposed to have 6 teaspoons or 25 grams of added sugar a day. This one small serving contained 26 grams of sugar! That's why "Ignorance is Bliss." If you don't educate yourself, you have no idea what could hurt you in the long run. I know this, because this is exactly how I got fat and stayed fat over the course of two decades. I do want this knowledge now and I want to take responsibility for knowing my overall limits because I never want to be in that seemingly helpless situation again. I now have the knowledge and you do too!

Can you believe 26 grams! I couldn't. That one little container of hidden sugars was already over my suggested daily limit.

So, this made me want to check out other areas of hidden sugars in many of the items I eat on a daily or weekly basis.  Check out these everyday seemingly low sugared items. Some of them are fairly low but in some cases, you wouldn't even think that sugar would be in the item. That's the tricky part for most of us.

Barbecue Sauce: 2 Tablespoons = 12 grams
Reduced Wheat Thins: 16 crackers = 4 grams
Ketuchup: 1 Tablespoon = 4 grams
Healthy Bran Cereal: 3/4 of a cup - 5 grams
Pork & Beans: 1/2 cup = 12 grams
Organic Animal Crackers: 13 crackers - 6 grams
Ken's Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette: 2 Tablespoons = 7 grams
Edy's Fruit Bars (Splenda added) (no sugar added) 1single type bar = 1 gram
Edy's All Natural Fruit Bar (double the size of single bar) = 20 grams
Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter Creamy: 2 Tablespoons = 1 gram

Remember what many experts state about low fat products? They said to watch out for them because they may lower the fat but they may also up the sugar to make it palatable. Check out the low content of sugar in Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter; that's a great example of a low amount of sugar in a natural product.

I don't believe in an all or nothing attitude. I like sugar. I don't wish to banish any one thing from my eating pattern since I do eat healthfully 95% of the time. I do believe in possessing the knowledge and taking responsibility for staying within my limits as recommended by highly regarded associations such as the American Heart Association.

Most of us know all of these things are true. Sharon and I wrote "Tame Your Inner Octopus" after we, as baby boomers lost every pound we had put on over the course of a few decades. We wrote the book so that people our age as well as people younger or older could benefit from a book based on knowledge, experience, compassion and understanding that takes you by the hand and shows you exactly how to set up a healthy eating and exercise patterns for life.

We couldn't find one such book with all of the information we so greatly needed. After we achieved our goals, we took all of our research and experience and wrote it down to benefit millions of others who greatly wish to do the same.

It is never too early or too late to set up a healthy eating pattern for life. Sharon and I are proof that you can turn your life around at any time and construct a healthy eating and fitness pattern for life. It is all in our forthcoming book, It's Never Too Early or Too Late to Lose Weight and Get Fit! "Tame Your Inner Octopus!" In 30 days or Less!

Have a great day!

The Not So Sweet Side of Sugar!

2009-10-06T11:53:00.000-04:00

In a recent statement the American Heart Association has issued specific advice regarding our daily intake of added sugar. It seems that many Americans eat 22 teaspoons of sugar a day! It is recommended that women should consume no more than 100 calories (about 25 grams) of added sugar a day. They also recommend that men consume no more than 150 calories (about 37.5 grams) of added sugar each day. This comes out to about 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day for women and 9 teaspoons of added sugar a day for men. This is a recent statement from the American Heart Association that provides us with a more detailed guideline. These are added sugars, not sugars found in natural foods like the fruits we choose to eat in a healthy balanced diet. This does include the hidden sugars in many of the items we eat.

I'm one of the last people to be surprised by these recent high sugar consumption findings. I am a former sugar fiend. I never realized how much I loved sugar until I removed refined sugar from my daily eating pattern in order to lose the 40 pounds I had accumulated over the course of a near two decades. Trust me, I love all the sugary items our grabby octopus is holding to the right. I can vividly remember the withdrawal and frustration I felt when I could no longer grab any type of sugary item within sight. That's a hard habit to break if you stop and think about it. They say it takes 30 days to break a habit and that's about how long it took. No one dared bring any type of sugary item into the house during that time period. If they did, they received a look that was sort of between scary and pitiful. Truthfully, I needed all the help I could get at that time and everyone was supportive. I had to break that cycle or dependence. We can call it anything we like but we all know the point I am trying to make. I guess after decades all of my family had witnessed my weakness with sugar. I like the word weakness better than the word addiction!

I know I am one of millions of people who love sugary items! Just recently I was watching Dr. Oz's new show that comes on right before Oprah each day. Here's a woman, who was just like me at one time. He had some great advice for her and I've already made these changes in my life close to two years ago. If you have a chance, check it out; it's awesome! Here's a video from that show where he is talking about sugar.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/break-your-sugar-addiction

There are some great tips on this clip. We'll talk about additional new research on the effects of sugar on our bodies this week on our blog, Tame Your Inner Octopus.

Have you incorporated ways to cut back on sugary items in your daily pattern of eating?

Have a great day and please check this great video out!

Do You Eat at Scheduled Times Throughout the Day?

2009-10-01T11:02:00.001-04:00

Truthfully, I didn't eat anything on any type of schedule for a period of close to two decades. There were so many times where I skipped breakfast! Trust me, because I grazed or "snitched" I got more than my fair share of calories in throughout the course of a day. Oh yeah, and I had plenty of extra fat on my body to show for it.

Now, I do eat pretty much on schedule throughout the course of a day. I have to for many reasons. This is one of the single main reasons why I have been successful in losing the extra weight I had put on over the course of two decades. It is also the reason why I have been able to maintain my ideal weight for over a year and a half. I stick to a balanced schedule of eating and exercising. It is that important.

If you think of your day as the face of a clock, you can imagine a time schedule where you could easily spread out your caloric intake over the course of a day. This is greatly beneficial whether you are in weight loss mode or maintaining your ideal weight once reached.

Of course it doesn't have to be perfect or look like this:

7:30 am Breakfast
10:00 am Morning Snack
12:30 pm Lunch
Etc.

It can look more like this:

Around 7:30-8:00 am Breakfast
Around 10:00-10:30 am Snack
Around 12:00-12:30 pm Lunch
Etc.

There are so many solid reasons why this sort of eating schedule is important.

1) Breakfast provides you with fuel after your body has fasted all throughout the night. You need to get your system fueled up for the day.
2) Eating breakfast starts the spreading out of calories throughout the day in a balanced fashion.
3) Eating healthy snacks between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner prevents you from becoming famished.
4) Eating within a certain time period for each meal or snack prevents you from becoming famished or overeating due to a delay.

Here's an example of why I adhere to this type of schedule. Just last night my husband and I went to visit our eldest daughter. She was in the process of purchasing a car with her sister, my second daughter. We were taking her puppy for a walk and waiting around until she returned.

Of course it took a long time and supper had long past. My husband and I are used to eating on schedule around 6:00 p.m. or so. My daughter was going to order a pizza on the way home from the dealership.

Here's what happened. We were hungry so we began to eat snacks. Most all of the snacks were healthy choices but still, they were snacks. By the time she did return home, thank goodness the pizza guy wasn't far behind!

I'm sure you all can figure out what happened next. The pizza came and we were so hungry that I ate more than usual. Not a great amount but most certainly more than I normally do with my healthy eating patterns now in place. Of course, I felt no guilt or remorse because I stick to a healthy eating plan 95% of the time and when I do choose to eat something off track, I do it intentionally and I enjoy it because I made a "choice" to do so. It just made me realize how I used to eat like that most everyday! I was so much like the grabby octopus!

Now I know more than ever the importance of staying on schedule with my eating. This type situation confirms it all over again. It most certainly does matter. It is not a great thing to put yourself in a situation where you are overly hungry at any point during the day.

I am happy to say that I have finally learned these important facts and I'm happy to realize that I no longer allow this to be a frequent occurrence in my life.

For the most part, do you stick to a scheduled eating pattern throughout the day?

Have a great day everyone!

Have You Made Exercise a Priority in Your Life?

2009-09-23T15:06:00.000-04:00

Truthfully there were times in my life where I stopped making exercise a priority and I paid a very high price. I stayed fat for two decades. Yikes! Most of us know that exercise is not going to solve all of our issues with weight loss but I think we all would agree, exercise benefits us in numerous ways. We know we can't eat a huge piece of cake for 500 calories and expect to burn it off by walking very briskly for an hour at a 4.0 pace. A 150 pound person would only burn off 340 calories for a full hour! That's still approximately 150 calories in the hole! That's why exercise can't wipe out what we choose to overeat beyond our proper daily intake.

There's no doubt moderate exercise works off a couple of hundred calories, which assists in our weight loss goals or maintaining our desired weight. Let's take a look at all of the additional great reasons why we need to make exercising a priority in our lives.

Exercise makes us feel productive
We feel like we're going the extra step in taking care of our body.
Exercise simply makes us feel great from a mental standpoint.
Exercise creates endorphins that are uplifting.
We release tension and unwanted stress when we exercise.

So how do we fit exercising into our daily routine? We simply must make it a PRIORITY in our lives. It's not being selfish, in fact, it's quite the opposite. By taking care of yourself from both a physical and mental standpoint, you become your best for everyone else in your life but most of all you!

Here's a tip on being prepared to exercise: Make sure your at home attire consists of workout clothes. Yes, that right there is a biggie. Purchase workout shorts or clothing that you can throw on the minute you get home or at the start of your day if you work from home. Remember to dress like this on the weekends also. This makes it much easier to transition to exercise at any point of your day or night that you can fit it in. You're already dressed and ready to go!

Exercise doesn't have to be a full hour at a time and you don't need to go anywhere special to do it. In fact, many studies suggest that it is better to get your exercising in at different times and for shorter periods. I exercise three times a day on most days. I take a 15 minute minute brisk walk for a mile in the morning.

At some point during the day I do 20-30 minutes of an exercise DVD of Pilates or a dumbbell/squat routine. In the early evening I walk/jog for 30 full minutes for 2 miles plus. I slowly built up to the 30 minutes of walking/jogging. I have an established routine of moderate exercise that works great when you're in the weight loss mode or when you achieve your goal weight in maintenance.

Many DVD's can be purchased that have 10 minute lower and upper body routines with low, medium and high intensity levels. This way, you can easily get a full body workout out in during a 20 minute time period. Many experts suggest building up to 30 minutes a day of cardio most days of the week. If you're dressed and ready to go, there's no need to change clothing if you want to grab a 15-30 minute brisk walk.

Exercise clothing can be worn to run all of your errands throughout the day. It sure works for me. I don't have to stop at any point when I'm home to change into workout clothing. I'm ready to put on one of my favorite 20 minute Pilate or conditioning DVD'S at my convenience day or night. I can also walk right out my front door for my 15 or 30 minute walk.

Everybody is different but for me, nothing beats being ready to go and having the convenience of getting all my workouts in from my own home at my convenience. That's what has led me to be successful in making exercise a priority in life.

I hope some of these tips will help you in making exercise a priority in your life!

How Many Servings of Grains Do You Eat Each Day?

2009-09-21T10:23:00.005-04:00

On the site http://www.pyramid.gov/ you can research your age group and activity level in order to find out how many grains it suggests you incorporate into your daily eating plan. The site states that based on my age bracket, gender and activity level I should be eating 6 servings of grains each day. That's great but I strongly feel this is the area I had to watch closely when I was in weight loss mode. This is also the area I cut back on if I want to drop a couple of pounds in maintenance. Here's why. The site at http://www.pyramid.gov/ states that a woman my age should eat the following intake of foods each day.

Grains 6 servings. (1/2 cup of rice or pasta, 1 piece of toast)

Dairy 3 cups

Vegetables 2.5 cups

Fruits 1.5 cups

Oil 6 teaspoons

Meat & Beans 5 oz.

Plus a certain amount of discretionary calories

It's pretty obvious that the first place I am going to cut would be the grains, dairy and discretionary calorie areas. Vegetables are low cal and are great fillers. The fruit area creates a balance and also provides me with something sweet yet natural. I must restrict my oils which include my all natural peanut butter, whipped butter and olive oil. I don't reduce much from 6 teaspoons because I know these measly 6 teaspoons are a fraction of what I ate when I wasn't eating in a healthful manner and I don't believe it has to be an all or nothing type change. I did measure consistently in weight loss mode in order to stay on track and remain accountable within my daily intake. This is an easy area in which to overestimate.

I take supplements for the calcium and I do eat yogurt, cottage cheese and skim milk but not always three cups. I like to eat 5 oz. of meat or beans because of the protein but I can also cut back there if need be.

Still, in my opinion the area of grains would be a great area to cut back on in order to lose weight. The site tells me that with my established exercise patterns I should be eating up to six ounces of grains each day. Without exercising I should be at five. The site also tells me that I need a minimum of three each day.

I like to cut back to three servings of grains in order to balance out my intake when I want to lose weight. Since I set up my healthy eating pattern I have switched over to whole wheat products and brown rice. It's funny but now my entire family loves whole wheat breads, pastas and brown rice.

Please take a look at what your body requires based on your age and activity level:

http://www.pyramid.gov/pyramid/grains.html

Here are some of the whole wheat products and grains I buy and have on hand in my home to pull from on a daily basis.

100 % Whole Wheat Bread by Arnold (Pepperidge Farms is another)

100 % Whole Wheat English Muffins by Thomas

100% Whole Wheat Hot Dog Buns by Natures Own

100% Pepperidge Farms Hamburger Buns

Whole Wheat Blend Spaghetti by Ronzoni Healthy Harvest

Whole Wheat Blend Linguine by Ronzoni Healthy Harvest

Whole Wheat Blend Rotini by Ronzoni Healthy Harvest

Mahatma Brown Rice Natural Whole Grain

Instant Brown Rice by Mahatma

All Bran Complete Wheat Flakes Cereal

Of course, there are many other whole wheat products that are of equal values. It's a matter of choice. These are products I am most familiar with and products that I use on a daily and weekly basis.

When I first set up a healthy eating plan, I went to this site and wrote down the products from each part of the food pyramid. If you're interested in setting up a healthy pattern this is a great way to create a shopping list while pulling from each category. This way you are choosing the foods you like from each category in order to set up your overall healthy eating plan for life. I will present each category of the food pyramid on my blog so that you can see how you can check out your areas of interests.

Have a great day!

Have You Checked Out www.mypyramid.gov? It is Awesome!

2009-09-16T13:55:00.012-04:00

When I first decided to lose the weight I had put on over the course of two decades, I automatically knew that I was not going to start looking for the latest or greatest diet. For the most part, I did not "diet" during those past two decades. A couple of times when I did try to "diet", I quickly went right back to all of my old past habits. I felt I was just like the grabby octopus and that I simply had no control over my eating habits for the remainder of my life. I felt burdened and powerless.

I think I always knew deep down inside that it all comes down to eating correctly. I just didn't know how to set up an eating plan properly in order to eat balanced meals in the right amounts. Sure most of us may think we know but I soon found out I didn't really know! I had to educate myself and learn!

My Dad was a great example for me in life while growing up. He mastered the art of knowing how to "eat to live." He didn't live his life in a "live to eat" manner. My mom, bless her heart, was a wonderful woman but together they were very similar to a certain childhood poem most of us know well.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.

His wife could eat no lean.

So betwixt them both, they licked the platter clean!

Yep, that pretty much sums up my parent's eating patterns throughout their lives. So, I was exposed to two extremely different eating patterns.

It's been well over a year now that I've lost the weight extra weight or fat as I prefer to call it. I am a realist and I have always called the extra weight that I carried around for two decades "extra fat". I think I realized from the start that if I was going to attempt to set up a healthy eating pattern, the first logical place to start would be from our basic food pyramid. That made a heck of a lot sense to me.

That's what I did, I went straight to that site and found out how many calories I should be eating each day and what I needed from each food group. My goal was to first set up a low calorie balanced pattern of eating in order to lose all the weight and then up my intake from the same food areas. That way I wouldn't have to get off a "diet"; I would already be eating correctly from the start. Of course I had to cut back in certain areas from what they suggested I eat daily for my particular age and activity level in order to create a deficit to lose the extra weight.

Check out this link to see what they suggest a person my height, weight and age should eat at 54 years of age on a daily basis. It's really interesting. Of course, remember I had to cut back in order to create a deficit in order to lose the weight but this is what they suggest I eat on a daily basis. I modify it and even in maintenance I eat fewer grains and dairy but this is pretty much the way I eat on any given day.

http://www.pyramid.gov/mypyramid/results.html?name=undefined&age=54&gender=female&weight=125&heightfeet=5&heightinch=5&activity=low&weightN=126&heightfeetN=5&heightinchN=5&validweight=1&validheight=1&

This site has information for everyone, no matter what age, height, weight, activity level or gender; it's awesome!

Setting up a personal healthy eating plan based on my particular likes really made the process of

losing weight and maintaining weight a wonderful experience. It is truly a method and pattern you can live with for a lifetime and you only have to learn it once. It sure beats waiting around for the next latest or greatest diet!

I think it is so important that all of us realize that we have this valuable site where we can all look up what's needed to create a healthy eating plan for life!

Have a great day everyone!

Do You Frequently Experience "Food Guilt?"

2009-09-14T09:50:00.005-04:00

From time to time many of us express feelings of "guilt or remorse" after eating some of our favorite so called "bad" foods. How many times have you heard yourself or others utter the following:

Gosh! I am so weak! I can't believe I ate that!
I couldn't help it; it seemed to be calling my name!
It's my favorite; I simply could not resist!

I could go on and on but I think most of you get my point. For me, this was a daily routine. I wasn't even conscious of what I was eating at times because I didn't want to take responsibility for anything I chose to eat or not eat for that matter. Still, on a daily basis I personally felt a tremendous burden of having so little control and repeating the same patterns over and over. Just like the grabby octopus!

There were so many times I felt like I was Bill Murray in the movie "Ground Hog Day". You know, where you get up with the best of intentions but no matter what you do, your entire day is pretty much the same as it was the day before.

I now realize that "Food Guilt" is not a good thing. If I decide to eat something "off track" or not a part of my daily or weekly pattern, it is a conscious "choice" I make. Therefore, I am taking responsibility for it because I want it and feel like I can work it into my healthy eating pattern without going overboard.

I don't like guilt. I think it is destructive and many times "guilt" keeps you in an inferior position when it comes to food choices. Many times we hear people say, "Losing weight or maintaining weight is such a struggle or tug of war."

I finally realized food is food. Food is not human; it is not a person calling your name. It doesn't have magnetic forces that force us to eat any particular item good or bad. We make choices and we take responsibility for the choices we make pertaining to food.

There is no room for guilt. The main goal we should have is to eat well 95% of the time and stay "on track" for the most part. When we do choose to eat something that may not be the most healthful choice, let's make it a "choice" and take responsibility for making that choice because we want to.

This way we are breaking any unhealthy cycle of guilt or remorse in our food choices!

Have a great day!

Do Thin People Really Eat?

2009-09-08T11:56:00.006-04:00

I used to tell myself that skinny people simply didn't eat that much. I thought for the most part they had some sort of super control that most of us don't have in life. In my mind I told myself that surely they had to be suffering to look that good or to be in that great a shape. I am a realist and of course I "realized" that I told myself these things so that I would feel better in some small way.

Well, very often we all tell ourselves little fibs in life. I have no doubt this was my way of letting myself off the hook by not taking responsibility for the "choices" I made pertaining to my food selections in my everyday life. For me, it was all or nothing. So, I took the safe comfortable side and settled for all. That resulted in me gaining 40 unwanted pounds of fat over the course of almost two decades. I pretty much ate what and when I wanted. I was just like the grabby octopus at times!

So true, I didn't deny myself of "nothing". Double negative, I know, but I have to get my point across! The truth is I didn't want to take a "time out" and educate myself in the area of setting up a healthy eating pattern. The truth is, I didn't really know how to do it! Not that many people do. It's a hit and miss sort of thing.

I realize now more than ever that there are many thin people who do not starve themselves. Many thin people simply eat properly and exercise moderately. Most of us know that what we "choose" to put into our mouths is far more important then what we can "work off" during exercise.

There's no denying that eating properly 95% of the time and exercising consistently work hand in hand from a physical standpoint as well as a mental standpoint.

Our forthcoming book "It's Never Too Late or Too Early - TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS IN 30 DAYS OR LESS! has the secrets to losing weight and keeping it off permanently!

Have a great day everyone!

It's Friday and The Start of Labor Day Weekend!

2009-09-04T09:49:00.007-04:00

Weekends are awesome for many reasons! The weekend is a time where we don't have to be as strict with our routines as we are during the weekdays. We have opportunities to catch up here or there or work on a project around the house. Heck, who knows, it can also be about getting several errands accomplished or relaxing at times. We can't forget about that either!

I like weekends because it's a time my husband and I get to do activities together. It may sound mundane to some but I prepare a grocery list during the week, that pretty much stays the same, and we replenish our staple healthy foods every weekend. This is the only way we've been able to be so successful with our healthy eating patterns in life. It is that important that we take the time to always have healthy foods to prepare and choose from to eat.

The weekends are also a time to get in extra activities that burn off calories or simply keep us in shape. Bike riding, swimming laps, walking, kayaking, it really doesn't matter there are so many ways to get extra opportunities in on the weekend.

Like I've mentioned before never underestimate gardening, washing your car or spring cleaning type activities. Those are the best, because you not only get in a great workout, you get something you've been wanting to do accomplished. That makes us feel productive and that's a great feeling for many reasons!

I've posted a picture of the breakfast I ate this morning. If you're a man, just add a hundred or more calories. You can add the other half of the English Muffin or increase the amount of grits. If you're a woman who would like to add more calories, just add the extra you feel necessary.

Here's the breakdown:

1/2 English Muffin 60

Quaker 5 minute grits 130

2 teaspoons of whipped butter 35

1 teaspoon of honey 20

2 small slices of cantaloupe 45

4 teaspoons Fat Free Coffee Creamer 40

Total Approximate Calories for Breakfast: 330

This works great for me!

Exercise: Small Efforts Do Add Up!

2009-09-02T10:14:00.010-04:00

It's great to realize that our exercise routines don't have to be set in stone or laid out in some type of regimented manner each and every day. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing type of goal each day. Exercise can be added all throughout the day and in any manner you choose. A person can get up in the morning and go outside for a simple walk at a brisk but comfortable pace of 3.5 miles and burn up to @ 133 calories in 30 minutes. Part of a lunch hour can be used for a 15 minute walk.

People who have pets can take their pets out for a walk 2 or 3 times a day and get their exercise in at the same time. All of these things count.

Exercise is not only about losing weight or burning off calories. It's great for our bodies in general. Exercise doesn't always have to be formal as in taking a specific class. Many times it's the little things like gardening, washing your own car or cleaning your own home that keeps us in shape while burning off extra calories.

Of course, it is great to have your standard routine to a certain degree. Routines like walking briskly daily for 30 minutes a day at a brisk pace are beneficial. It sounds easy and it can be but remember to build up as you go and to always listen to your body. Of course, remember to also check with your Dr. before starting any new routine when in doubt.

Walking for one hour daily at 3.5 miles can burn up to 277 calories.

These are all goals some of us may wish to keep in mind.

Never underestimate the little walks or efforts we make to stay in shape. It's all good and it all adds up over time!

Have a great day and keep moving! It all counts!

Do You Put Premium Fuel Into Your Body?

2009-08-31T09:43:00.009-04:00

This may sound like a strange question but actually it makes a lot of sense if you stop and think about it. Many people purchase top quality vehicles. Very often they spend a great deal of money for these type vehicles and wouldn't dream of using regular gas over the premium fuel that is recommended by the manufacturer.

Yet, many people don't treat their own bodies in the same manner as they do their vehicle. Hopefully, we're much more valuable to ourselves and our loved ones then a car that can be replaced.

We should also be extremely "choosy" about what we eat on a daily basis, unlike the grabby octopus! We should reach out for premium fuel for our bodies in the correct amounts whether we're in weight loss mode or whether we've already reached what we feel is our appropriate healthy weight.

This way, we are operating at our very best each and every day! Remember, to check out mypyramid.gov to see what healthy foods are recommended for your age and gender.

Here's my breakfast for today! My overall daily goal as a woman who is in maintenance is in the area of 1,600-1,800 calories.

1 slice of Pepperridge Farms Whole Wheat Bread 100

1 tsp of honey 20

1 large egg 70

20 grapes 60

2 tsp of whipped butter 35

4 tsp of Coffee Mate 40

Total approximate calories: 325

Have a great day everyone!

Is Breakfast a Part of Your Everyday Plan?

2009-08-28T09:43:00.018-04:00

Breakfast is probably the most important meal of the day for many reasons. For one thing, this is the longest time period since your body has last eaten. It is sort of like a mini fast of several hours. That's why it is extremely important that you take the time to fuel your body in order to balance out your caloric intake over the course of the day in the best manner possible. This provides your body with the energy you need to get going!

Some people feel by skipping breakfast, they are thereby saving calories for later. This usually backfires and in most cases we end up being famished by the time our next meal rolls around. That's why the balancing out of our proper intake all throughout the day, keeps us satisfied and on target for the day. Always remember to add in a 100 calorie midmorning snack around 10:30 to ward off becoming overly hungry by lunch, plus, it's great for you. Add another low calorie snack in mid to late afternoon and it provides the same result. Some examples would be cantaloupe, a few grapes, a few nuts, a pear, banana, etc. This works beautifully.

I will be posting several examples of healthy breakfasts as I blog along the road of life. Today, I took a picture of my breakfast. I had to get on a chair to do, so I hope you like it! The total for this breakfast is approximately 350 calories with my coffee creamer included.

Here's the approximate breakfast breakdown:

Half of a Whole Wheat English Muffin 60

NonFat Yogurt 3/4 cup 110

Blueberries 15

Grapes 36

Banana slices 33

Honey 20

All Natural Smucker's Peanut Butter 1 teaspoon 35

Non Fat Coffee Mate Creamer 4 teaspoons 40

Total Approximate Calories for this Breakfast = 349

Have a great day everyone and a wonderful weekend!

They say "Ignorance is Bliss"

2009-08-27T09:34:00.005-04:00

I know this is true in many cases. As I look back, I now realize that not knowing how many calories certain foods represented made it much easier for me to enjoy eating. That way I could eat what and when I wanted without being held accountable for any of my choices! Wow, what's not to like about that? Well, extra fat for one thing and forty additional pounds of fat on my body that I carried for close to two decades. At times I looked just like our grabby octopus!

When I was younger my dad would take me out to a restaurant with a friend or two and allow us to order. He would always say, like clockwork: "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach!" He was so right of course, he was always right and he would sit and wait while we finished only 1/3 to 1/2 of our food. Dad never ordered because he knew that we could never finish what we had ordered and Dad didn't like throwing money down the drain. Dad was funny like that but he was also one of those rare type people who ate properly in the correct amounts, left out the extra oils and fats and exercised before it was really popular to do so. I think Dad was way ahead of his time.

Over time I realized Dad was right about that time in my life, my eyes really were bigger than my stomach but as I grew older something eventually switched over. Somewhere along the way my stomach did become much larger than my eyes. Somewhere along the way, I wasn't leaving so much on my plate, in fact, there were many occasions where my eyes strayed to my children's plates and I managed to eat what they had not eaten. It's one thing to not order or not eat and then eat the leftovers of your children, then to eat your meal and add other's leftovers! Gee whiz! What was I thinking at times.

Many people, especially when raising a family or dealing with the stresses of everyday life, eat for emotional reasons or voids in their lives. I have no idea of what the actual percentage is but I can imagine it's a whopper. No pun intended!

Well, I sure hope Dad has been looking down on me. Maybe he's saying, "That's my girl; she has finally figured it out!" "It took her over half a century of her life but at least she did it!" I know he and my mother would be extremely proud. No one is perfect, that should never be our goal. All we can aim for is to be the best we can be each day.

It's been well over a year now that I've learned to be accountable for what I eat and I keep my intake at the proper level 95% of the time. I'm here to say that "ignorance is not bliss."

Approximately 66% of our nation is overweight or obese. The 1/3 of obese is now larger than the merely overweight. Prediction's by experts are that by the year 2015, approximately 75% of our nation may be overweight or obese.

Ignorance is not bliss. We need to know and we need to become accountable for our health and the health of our loved ones.

All of us have the ability to educate ourselves on the amount of calories our bodies need each day in order to maintain our own particular ideal or healthy weight. I pulled all of my information in order to set up my healthy eating pattern from http://www.mypyramid.gov/ it is there where you can determine what your body needs to eat from the different categories on a daily basis. It is listed for you by your particular age group. From there, you can choose where you would like to cut back in order to create a deficit in order to lose any unwanted pounds or set up a balanced healthy eating pattern if you don't need to lose weight but wish to maintain.

I'm very happy that I took a time out to learn how to set up a healthy eating and fitness pattern for my own personal use based on the foods and exercise routines that I like.

Anyone can do this and it sure makes life so much nicer.

I had a half of a toasted English Muffin today with 1 teaspoon of Smucker's All Natural Peanut Butter. I added a third of a sliced banana on top and sprinkled it with a teaspoon of honey. I had a half of a cup of 5 minute grits with about 1 teaspoon of whipped butter. The total for this breakfast was @ 300.

Please subscribe to my blog at the bottom of this page so that you can receive all future posts. Please feel free to respond to this post at the bottom of this post page.

Have a great day!

Have You Created a Standard Personal Grocery List?

2009-08-24T09:37:00.003-04:00

This may sound so simple yet many people don't have a standard weekly grocery list. Many people sort of "wing it" each time they go to the grocery store. This is not a good thing because we open ourselves up to impulse buying. If we forget to eat and we grocery shop when we're hungry, then we can really get into trouble in purchasing items we had no intentions of buying.

I'm not saying you have to plan out every meal for the week. I don't do that but I always have my staples on hand so that I can choose from those healthy items in order to create each meal, whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's there and ready for me and my family to enjoy.

Creating a standard weekly grocery list is important for many reasons. Here are but a few:

1) It displays what your standard weekly shopping items are so that you don't forget anything.

2) It helps you stick to the same healthy choices that coordinate with your healthy eating pattern for the entire week. Your foods will always be available in your home and you won't run out and be left to resort in trying to figure out what to eat at any given point.

3) It helps you to save money and shop wisely by not having to think on the go.

A great suggestion that I have enjoyed is setting up your grocery list in Word. This way, you can put it on your desktop and click on it when you're ready to modify it in order to print it out to go to the store. I keep another tablet in the kitchen so I can jot down what I run out of during the week also. Before I print out the list I go through my refrigerator, freezer and pantry to see what I need to replenish. Of course, you have to check the disposable items needed for the kitchen and bathrooms also.

Many of these items don't change, especially when you set up your healthy eating pattern. It sure makes shopping easier and it is extremely important when it comes to staying "on track" with your healthy eating pattern.

Have a great day!

Do You Know Your Daily Caloric Intake?

2009-08-20T09:16:00.005-04:00

If you don't; it's not unusual and you are in the majority. Actually, there's little doubt most people don't want to know. When I was overweight and like our grabby octopus, I sure didn't want to be held accountable. I guess it's just one of those cases, where what you don't know might hurt you. I knew that and that's why I didn't want to know.

I now know what my count should be in order to maintain my weight of 120. In fact, a recent article from yet another expert confirmed my conclusion. He stated the average adult woman should have an intake of around 1,600 calories a day. That was the approximate figure I had already figured out on my own. It's good to know. It's something I feel I have to know in order to maintain my weight for the rest of my life. Ignorance is not bliss in my opinion. It is what keeps us from being held accountable and it was what once kept me in the overweight situation I was in for a near two decade span.

Actually, this was the second article I read in the last two days that stated that figure. Another article was referencing the fact that people who maintained their weight, stayed in the area of 1,600-2,000. That makes a lot of sense and is a further confirmation. Of course there are variables to always consider.

This is all great information but it doesn't help much if people don't take the time to look up and figure out what they are eating on any given day. Once you learn these things, over a short time period, you won't need to look up the calorie counts of what you're eating. You'll automatically be able to approximate. We must be accountable for everything we "choose" to eat. If not, we're eating out of control, like the grabby octopus, or we may easily be eating many more calories each day then needed. That is what makes us fat.

I guess I feel most of us have enough aggravations in our lives at times. The last thing we need is an extra burden of being overweight or obese. This is an area of our lives that is within our control. It is something we can tackle as we educate ourselves in the area of what we are eating versus what our bodies truly need in order to maintain our ideal healthy weight.

It sure beats waking up everyday, like the movie "Groundhog Day" and repeating the same old actions and asking yourself "Why can't I lose this weight?"

In most cases you can't, until you figure out how many calories you are eating each day and how many calories you need to lose weight or maintain.

Trust me, it is as simple as that...

Do You Eat Based On Your Emotions?

2009-08-18T09:50:00.003-04:00

Have you ever stopped to realize that many of us eat based on our emotions? Just take a glance at the following to see if you have ever eaten based on any of the following descriptions:

1) I eat in order to celebrate a particular occasion.

2) I eat when I'm sad or depressed because it makes me feel better temporarily.

3) I eat when I'm happy in order to reward myself.

4) I eat when I'm tense, worried, stressed or nervous about something.

5) I eat when I'm trying to subconsiously fill a void.

6) I eat because I can, it's there and I love food.

7) I eat because I don't have a healthy eating pattern set up on a daily basis.

8) I eat because it's fun and it provides me with a certain amount of happiness at that particular moment.

9) I eat because I have unhealthy habits that I have formed over the course of my lifetime

10) I eat because it provides me with something to do all throughout the day and I look forward to it any chance I get. If I'm not eating, I'm thinking about my next opportunity to eat.

11) I eat foods in the right amounts because I love healthy foods and I need great fuel for my body.

All of the above reasons are the reasons many people eat and overeat, except for the last one. That's the correct outlook we need to have in order to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight over the course of a lifetime.

There's not a thing wrong with loving great foods. We need food as fuel for our bodies each and every day.

We need to appreciate healthy foods by setting up a healthy eating pattern throughout the day.

We need to learn the amount of calories our body needs to lose weight in order to create a deficit and how many calories our body needs to later maintain our ideal weight.

It's important to not eat based on any particular emotion at any given point.

The goal should be to aim for three healthy, balanced meals a day, with healthy snacks if necessary in between meals while staying within our daily caloric requirements.

Have a great day everyone!

Realizing the importance of savoring your food

2009-08-12T18:25:00.006-04:00

In the past I can remember so many instances where I seemed to haphazardly shove food in my mouth while on the go. Yes, I was just like the grabby octopus! Thank goodness I've broken that bad habit and I don't miss my random eating patterns a bit.

I now take the time to savor my foods at breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with my snacks. I know I am eating the appropriate portions because I have learned the importance of measuring from the start when I first set up my healthy eating plan.

In the past, when I was overweight, I don't think I appreciated food like I do at this point in my life. I think I used food for various reasons associated with whatever particular mood I was in throughout the day. That's not a good thing! It didn't matter much whether I was in a happy, sad or anxious mood, food was always within reach to comfort me or help me celebrate whatever was happening in my life. This is not unusual but it is never a good thing to eat based on our emotions at any given time.

I'm glad I noticed that connection and I'm happy that I've learned to overcome it. I love great food. I love healthy food. I am happy that I am able to eat on track, in a healthy manner 95% of time. It's been a year or more since I've lost the weight and it has truly been an incredible year for me. What a burden to have lifted, after carrying around the extra weight for close to two decades.

Breaking unhealthy habits is never easy but putting forth the effort creates tremendous rewards when the goal weight is achieved.

So let us always remember to take the time to savor our foods!

Cross Training makes exercising fun!

2009-07-27T11:46:00.002-04:00

There's one important thing we need to remember regarding our exercise routines and that is to change them occasionally or mix in different routines. It's important for many reasons. One great reason is that it makes exercising more fun and challenging so that we don't become bored with the same routine.

It's great that we may lean towards certain areas such as yoga, Pilates or conditioning DVD's but we can easily become bored over time with the same routines. It's also true that our muscles become conditioned to the same routine over time and become less challenged. That's why it is great to look for new sources in the same areas. It could be new DVD's or simply turning into TV programs like Exercise TV on Demand.

It's great to mix things up on different days. Walking/jogging, swimming, weight lifting, tennis, etc., are great ways to get your workouts in all while presenting new challenges.

Remember staying fit and in good shape is all about creating a balance!

Key West Vacation for July 4th was incredible!

2009-07-14T10:52:00.004-04:00

Wow! Our family vacation to Key West was incredible! What a wonderful new experience for me. This was the first trip my husband and I have taken with our adult children since I lost all of the weight I had put on over the course of two decades. It was also a year from the date I had reached my goal weight.

It was so great to be able to wear the new clothes I have purchased since I lost the weight. I can remember struggling so many times to find the best clothes to camouflage my extra pounds for so many years. Not fun! This was so different. I purchased two new bathing suits before the trip, one for snorkeling and one for pool side.

The heat was intense but I was able to keep up or walk ahead of everyone at times because I'm in the best shape I've ever been since my 20's! Trust me, I could not have withstood the heat for that long a time period with the extra weight I had carried previously.

Guess what? We entered the Key West 4th of July 5k! It was so much fun; I had an awesome time. I walked/jogged 3 miles! My husband walked and everyone else jogged from our family. It meant the world to my children that I was able to do these things with them at 54, when for so long I only dreamed of participating in these type activities.

Wow, setting up a healthy eating and fitness pattern for life has been a tremendous blessing in my life and for my family. It wasn't that hard once Sharon and I came up with a plan through our research. It boiled down to common sense and it has worked beautifully. It can work for you just as easily. Both of us reached our dream goal weight of our early 20's. From a personal standpoint, I'm so happy that I've left this great example to my adult children for the remainder of their lives. It is never to late to do something you never thought once again possible. You can and it has to be the most liberating, confidence building experience I have ever had in my life. You can do it too. Our forthcoming book, "TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS!" sets out in detail how to do it in a totally easy to understand fashion!

Exercising in the Summer!

2009-06-02T08:52:00.003-04:00

It's seems like we have so many more options each year as summer rolls around. There's something great about taking in a game of tennis, swimming or long walks in the late evening or early morning.

It's also wonderful to able to enjoy the many fruits available at this time of the year such as watermelon and cantaloupe. There are many activities that we can participate in also while participating in our children's activities. We do have to remember and pay special attention at all times to our fluid levels when dealing with the heat.

Cross training provides us with opportunities to work different sets of muscles while providing us with an interesting variety of exercises to choose from in order to prevent boredom.

It's great to take advantage of the longer days of sunlight; it's always a fun time of year.

Have a great week everyone!

TAMING OUR SWEET TOOTH!

2009-05-18T10:38:00.003-04:00

Have you ever stopped to notice how often you desire something sweet? Usually it is after we eat something salty or even after a nice meal. There are additional times when we just want a quick sweet snack.

These are the times when we need to stop and realize that we have immediate choices. We can either grab something healthful or grab something without really thinking about the consequences.

That's why it's important to always have great "selections" on hand, whether at home or work when we want to satisfy our "sweet tooth".

We can purchase a few of the following on a weekly basis at the grocery store and always have them within reach whether we're at work or home.

Apples, pears, grapes, bananas, oranges, watermelon, cantaloupe, plums, peaches, raisins or any of your favorite fruits.

We can also pop a sugar free candy that we keep in a nearby jar at work or home.

All of these items are great choices in order to satisfy our "sweet tooth" without loading up on extra calories that our body doesn't require to be used as fuel.

Have a great Monday!

Controlling Our Caloric Intake over the Weekend

2009-05-15T12:08:00.014-04:00

Many people often state that it is harder to watch what they eat over the course of a weekend. Many find it much easier to stick to a healthy pattern on weekdays.

But if you think about it, it doesn't have to be one way or the other. Certainly we don't wish to use the weekend as a "free for all" when it comes to eating, especially after we've worked so hard to stay "On Track" during the week. We still have the power to make many great choices, just like we do during the week.

Our patterns don't have to change on the weekend. We can stick to the same pattern of three meals and a snack. If we go out to eat, we can certainly choose a basic fish or chicken breast accompanied with freshly steamed vegetables. We always have wonderful opportunities to consistently make healthy choices in what we "choose" to eat whether it's a weekday or a weekend situation.

In fact, for many, the weekend presents a better opportunity to get extra "exercising" in due to the increased flexibility with our time.

So, if we look at "weekends" from these points of view, it's obvious that "weekends" like "weekdays" are excellent opportunities to continue the pattern of eating healthy and exercising!

I hope you have a wonderful productive weekend!

CALORIES CONSUMED FROM BOREDOM!

2009-05-14T11:13:00.004-04:00

There's no doubt that many of us eat simply because we can! Sometimes we are not even hungry in the least but we simply need something to do with our hands! Not good and can you imagine the extra calories not needed that we have consumed over the years!

No doubt that's where many of the extra pounds first began to appear! Well, that's exactly why we chose our grabby Octopus as our logo! That's who we become when we randomly reach for food throughout the day. Food that our body doesn't require and foods that add up big time in creating extra fat on our body.

We must break the cycle of random eating and tie up a few of our tentacles! That's right, handcuff them if you have to do but we simply cannot eat everything we see throughout the day. It's not good for us and we certainly don't need the extra calories all throughout the day.

It's important to start off the day with a good balanced breakfast, all while knowing your overall caloric count for the day. This way you can mentally break up how much you're going to eat at each meal. Surely, you have to know your count or you won't be guaranteed to lose weight in most cases. We'll discuss knowing your count in another post but it is important in order to achieve weight loss and maintaining your goal weight once your goal weight is achieved.

Breakfast is important for many reasons. One simple fact is that your body has not had any fuel for several hours and you're pretty much operating on empty unless you refuel at the start of the day.

Another reason breakfast is important is due to the fact that it is the start of the balance of eating for the remainder of the day. We balance three meals out with a healthy mid-afternoon snack. Imagine a clock. 8:00 am - 12:30 pm - 6:00 pm. We can add in a mid-morning or mid-afternoon healthy snack to hold us over until our next meal time. This also prevents us from becoming FAMISHED! Eating on time regulates our body so that we are not uncomfortable in between meals. Of course, we cannot always stick to the times mentioned above but try to find your own areas as close as possible without going over 4 hours without eating throughout the day. That's why we have those little snacks!

Our grabby Octopus is not regulated when we're overweight or obese. In most cases, it eats anything in sight. Yep, when we eat like this, we are treating our body like a Human Garbage Disposal. Suffering from Human Garbage Disposal Syndrome is no fun for sure. Our bodies are simply not meant to take in all the extra calories we consume when we eat in a random manner.

That's why it is so important to set up a healthy eating and fitness pattern for life. We can most certainly "TAME OUR INNER OCTOPUS" and "CURE OUR GARBAGE DISPOSAL SYNDROME!"

We did it; you can do it too!

Are You a Priority in Your Own Life?

2009-05-13T16:47:00.000-04:00

Truthfully, most of us are not that good about making ourselves a priority in life. In many cases we put ourselves on the back burner and everyone else we love before us. This is not a good thing. It's certainly not good for us and it's not good for all the people we love who rely on us in life.

It's funny but I think we can all remember different times of our lives when we felt we were operating at our best. A time where we felt we had a great balance in our lives. Maybe it was a time where we felt we had our eating habits under control and in a healthy state. Maybe it was a time when we consistently exercised and felt great and full of energy. The truth is, we've all been there.

If you stop and think about it, from time to time and more often than we care to admit, we all get derailed in life. We're not that much different than a train at times. Yep, there we are operating at full steam and something comes up that seems to knock us off our tracks in life. Do you know what we have to do when this happens? It's simple, we have to get right back on track and continue to make ourselves a priority through it all. Yes, sometimes we may even feel like we are fighting to claim a certain time slot but do it for yourself and do it for all of your loved ones. Think of the tremendous example you will be setting! We can't afford to make up excuses and cheat ourselves from taking the best care of ourselves on a daily basis. In fact, we owe it to ourselves, don't we?

There will always be things that come up in life. That is never going to change. It could be a new job, a dog, a baby, a graduation, etc. The truth is that life is full of these type of changes and events. That's why we can't use any of these changes in life as excuses for getting and staying derailed when it pertains to healthy eating and fitness patterns.

We are all guilty of making up excuses at times. Every now and then we need to stop and re-evaluate our lives and make sure that we are a "priority" in our own lives. Sounds simple but come on, tell the truth, "Have you made yourself a top priority in your own life?"

There's nothing great about putting everyone's needs above your own. There's nothing great about making excuses for not working out or eating correctly. All of us can come up with a load of excuses in life at every stage of our lives. You have to ask yourself, "Why do we cheat ourselves by not making ourselves a priority?" This is not good for us from a mental or a physical standpoint. Please make yourself a priority! Learn how to eat well and make sure to get your physical workouts in consistently.

If you're waiting to catch up on everything else in your life and then get to a point where you'll be able to fit eating healthy or exercising in, it's not going to happen. We have to make these things happen.

We have to make ourselves a priority so that we can be our very best each day of our life and so that we can be healthy and set a good example for all whom we love.

Burning Extra Calories Throughout the Day

2009-05-12T08:58:00.000-04:00

New articles are popping up on a regular basis emphasizing better ways of burning additional calories throughout the day. Many wonder exactly how this occurs. It's simple, if you stop and think about it. It's all the little things you do throughout the day that add up to what you will end up burning off at the end of the day. It's how much you move.

It can boil down to common sense. Park farther away from places you shop. Take the stairs instead of escalators and elevators. Make many trips upstairs in your own home when you need a particular item. Get up to get the remote instead of asking someone to pass it to you. I've been guilty of that one but not anymore. Those are my calories to burn off; I'm not going to give them to someone else to burn off! They're too valuable!

It's funny but I don't want to cheat myself anymore and that's exactly what I was doing. I get up to get things more often. I look at it like I am burning additional calories that I would have not burned. Sounds silly but it's not.

I recently read that people who move more in general can burn up to 300 more calories in an average day. That's a lot of calories! You all know those type people, you may be one, the type that can't sit still, well they're burning calories all while we're sitting back trying to figure them out.

I guess I always knew that even the most simplest of tasks that we do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis all add up to a substantial amount of calories being burned. Wow, that's a biggie, right?

Think about that and start making even more of an effort in burning extra calories throughout the day. What the heck, you'll not only burn extra calories, you'll have an extremely productive day in getting things accomplished!

Have a wonderful day!

IT'S A BACK ON TRACK MONDAY!

2009-05-11T09:46:00.000-04:00

Wow, there's no doubt holidays, such as Mother's Day are wonderful days in each of our lives. Isn't it great to be able to enjoy a "special event" day and know exactly how to get right back on track to your healthy eating pattern the next day? It sure is for me. This morning I had the following for breakfast:

1/2 of a Whole Wheat English Muffin

1-2 teaspoons of Smuckers All Natural Peanut Butter

1/2 sliced banana

Sprinkle of honey

2/3 rds cup of Plain Axelrod Non Fat Yogurt with Splenda

10 blueberries mixed into yogurt

I did manage to attempt to get outside early to walk/jog but because it was already 9:00 a.m. I had to cut it short with just one lap due to the heat. I just ate breakfast and I will do my 30 minutes of Pilates this morning. I am going to try to get some extra cardio in today inside by doing about 20 minutes of cardio by Denise Austin. I'll choose two of her 10 minute routines. Later this evening when it's cooler, I will get my full 2 miles plus in with my walking/jogging routine.

I have to remember to drink water throughout the day in the proper quantities. That's an ongoing challenge!

You are so right Leslie!

2009-05-08T12:24:00.001-04:00

Physical exercise is so important for both of the reasons you mentioned. Exercise is a motivating factor each and every day. It also spikes up the metabolism and provides you with an overall feeling of productivity in that you're doing your best to maintain balance in your life.

You are so right; it certainly automatically lifts your spirits and provides you with a great overall feeling.

We simply have to remember the importance of "Taming our Inner Octopus" by not randomly eating without reason or eating based on our emotions. We must Cure Our Garbage Disposal Syndrome by treating our body properly and refusing to overload it with excess calories it can't handle or doesn't require.

I'm having a half turkey sandwich on Whole Wheat with 1 teaspoon of Olive Oil Mayonnaise. I'm also having a cup of steamed cauliflower/broccoli with a Tablespoon of Ken's Lite. I love those Bread and Butter sliced pickles, so I'm going to have a few of those also.

Hope everyone is having a great productive day!

I'll be doing my Pilates after lunch. I'm going to change it up today and do a 20 minute program off of Exercise TV. It's so important to switch things up so that we can work different muscles.

It's Been Another Great Week!

2009-05-08T10:13:00.000-04:00

Isn't it wonderful to be able to enjoy eating in the right way!

I had a half of a Whole Wheat English Muffin this morning with 1 teaspoon of Smucker's All Natural Peanut Butter. I added about 1/2 of a sliced small banana on top and then sprinkled it with honey. I had about 2/3 rds cup of Non Fat Plain yogurt with Splenda and about 10 plump blueberries. That breakfast totals out at approximately 300 calories which includes my creamer for my coffee at 10 calories a teaspoon.

It's amazing and I guess I no longer take anything for granted but it sure is a wonderful feeling to know that you can eat well and in the proper amounts while feeling totally satisfied and not hungry. I strongly feel that is why we continually read the following in so many articles: Eating the correct foods, in the correct amounts will satisfy your appetite.

I'm going to save my 2 mile walk/jog for this evening since I doubled up yesterday by going in the morning and in the evening.

Mother's Day is Sunday. Mother's Day surely falls in the category of a "Special Event's Day". These are the times where many of us choose to eat off track from our normal pattern of healthy eating 95% of the time. Surely, we all know by now that these times are not times to overeat to the point where you feel your stomach could burst. That's not a good goal at any time or for any reason.

These are the times that we do wish to enjoy with our family and friends. We can do this without going overboard and without feeling guilt of any type.

Everything in moderation holds true even on the "Special Event's Day" of our lives!

Have a great day everyone! It's Friday!

Great day of balance today!

2009-05-07T19:32:00.000-04:00

I had 2/3 rds of a cup of red beans with 1 cup of broccoli/cauliflower and a Tablespoon of Ken's Lite for supper. I had a half of a tuna fish salad sandwich on whole wheat also.

I went to the grocery and loaded up on all the healthy items we need for this next week. That's the key really, having all the healthy items in your home. It also helps if you have the things on hand so that you can bring your lunch to work.

I did my conditioning DVD this afternoon. I did Denise Austin's Personal Trainer. I did the light upper body dumbbell routine and the lower body high intensity. It is so awesome and each section only takes 10 minutes but boy does it produce tremendous results. Those squats are so awesome.

I'm going to walk/jog again tonight for 30 minutes. It's one of those rare days when I choose to do walking/jogging routines.

Maybe I'm getting ready for the extra calories I will be eating for Mother's Day. We are grilling out and preparing chicken and steak, so that will be fun.

Hope everyone is having a great day.

Remember, it's all about balance. Make yourself a priority always along with everyone else!