What makes you eat more

I haven’t had any time to post lately.  It has been crazy at work.

 I found this photo essay interesting from CNN\TIME.
What Makes You Eat More Food

Late night snacking

I have been in a habit the last few years of eating a snack before bed every night.  This is my “treat” at the end of the day that I always look forward to.  I am pretty sure it is related to my emotional eating issues by thinking a deserve it after a long hard day. 

One of the first objectives in phase one of The Best Life Diet is to not eat anything within 2 hours of going to bed.  He acknowledges that a calorie is a calorie no matter what time of day it is eaten.  This is supposed to make you want to eat breakfast first thing in the morning to get your metabolism running right away.  Makes sense to me.  Last night, once I finished dinner at 6:30 I didn’t eat anything else. 

The problem?  I was extremely hungry when I got up.  I have a ton of things to do in my weekday morning routine:  Workout, shower and get myself ready for work, make sure the kiddos are up and dressed, get the girl’s breakfast, pack lunches for myself and the little one, unload the dishwasher if necessary, put a load of laundry in, and make sure all the bags are packed for the day.  Only after all this is finished do I allow myself to eat breakfast at home.  If I run out of time, I take my breakfast to-go. 

I usually don’t eat anything before my morning workouts since I basically crawl out of bed, put on my shoes and go outside.  If I decide to cut out late night snacking this will have to change.  I really don’t want to eat much right before I work out.  Maybe just half of a banana will be enough. 

Morning exercisers, what do you do?  Do you eat breakfast before your workouts?  What do you eat?

Weight update: 184

I haven’t weighed myself in over a month.  Mostly because my jeans were getting tight again and I knew it would depress me.  My pants were starting to fit almost normal again so I thought I would step on and face the music.  I was down to 184 which is actually a few lbs less than the last time I weighed in.  What a relief. 

According to Bob Green’s book The Best Life Diet, in the first phase (which I will talk about later) you should weigh yourself at the beginning and then not get back on the scale for at least 4 weeks.  This will prevent you from being discouraged when your weight fluctuates up and down during the first few weeks of the diet.   Sounds like a good plan to me.  I put my scale away and will now get back until July13th (if not later).  A part of me would like to go the whole summer, but I am not sure if I can make it that long. 

Emotional Eating

I have just started reading The Best Life by Bob Green.  I have only had time to read a few pages a night, so I am still reading the introduction.  However he talks about emotional eating in the introduction and a light bulb finally went off in my head. 

I never considered myself an emotional eater.  I am not a very emotional person and I never thought stress really affected me much.  However yesterday it finally came together for me.  I was extremely stressed out at work.  I have deadlines coming up at the end of the month and I am just getting further and further behind.    While sitting at my desk the following is going through my head:

Why is there no chocolate in my area of the office?
Is there any cookie dough in the fridge in the break room?
Maybe I should just get a Coke from the pop machine in back.
Do we have any dessert in the house for tonight?

My entire afternoon and evening is totally obsessed with these thoughts.   

According to the book, you are not going to lose weight until you figure out what is making you run to the refrigerator.  Take time to think about YOU.  When life gets busy we end up operating on auto-pilot and we don’t think about what we truly need in life.  We don’t think about our choices and challenges and end up taking the easy route.  Ask yourself these questions:

Why are you overweight? Don’t accept excuses (“I don’t have time” “I sit at a desk all day”) when you answer this question.  I personally have a million excuses why I am overweight so this question will be tough. 

Why do you want to lose weight. Try not to give appearance reasons (“I want to look good”).

Why have you not been able to maintain weight loss in the past?

I am going to give myself some time in the next few days to really search for answers.  I will post them here when I do.

How about you?  Answer the questions here or leave a link to your blog.  I think it is very motivating to hear others stories. 

Simple Granola

I made a very simple granola last night that was super-cheap. 

 3 cups oatmeal

1 cup Grape Nuts (purchased on sale of course)

Any kind of nuts (I didn’t use any nuts)

1/4 c water

3/4 c brown sugar

dash vanilla

dash salt

1 tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl combine the two cereals.  Mix water and brown sugar in a small microwavable save bowl.  Microwave on high 2-3 minutes until sugar is completely dissolved.  Stir in vanilla, salt and cinnamon.  Pour over the cereal mixture and stir to coat.  Spread on a foil-lined baking pan.  Cook at 275 for 40 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool completely and store in an airtight container.  Serving size is 1/2 cup.

Optionally add dried fruits after mixture has cooled. 

DH ate it this morning mixed with yogurt.  I had mine with milk and half a banana.  YUM!

My favorite salad

Yes I am still alive – I just have been too busy at work to blog 🙂

Grape tomatoes are on sale at my local store this week so I picked up a container to make my favorite salad.

No real recipe here – I just throw everything in a bowl and mix.

Base ingredients I always add:
Grape tomatoes (halved if you prefer)
Cucumber – sliced and cut in fourths
Canned garbanzo beans – drained and rinsed
Feta cheese – I love the peppercorn flavored feta
Black olives – sliced or left whole
Bottled Greek vinaigrette dressing (or Italian – whatever I have on hand)

Other ingredients I occasionally add
Whole wheat pasta
celery
red/green bell peppers
Mix all together and let sit for at least an hour.  YUM!

I really love Mediterranean flavors – fresh tomatoes, olives, feta.  I think I could be really successful doing the Mediterranean Diet if I liked to eat seafood. 

Top 5 reasons why I should exercise in the morning.

5.  Exercising early in the morning jump starts your metabolism.  I will end up burning more calories during the day.

4.  When I work out in the morning I tend to make healthier choices during the day.  I don’t want to ‘waste’ my workout by eating crap.   

3.  I don’t have time to make excuses.  If I work out first thing, I am finished.  No excuses when life gets busy later in the day.

2.  Studies have shown that people to workout in the a.m. have a more consistent fitness routine. 

1.  It makes me more energized at work.  I can concentrate better and be more productive.

And… the only reason why I don’t exercise in the morning.

I can’t get my butt out of bed!

I have set my alarm for 5:30 for the past three weeks and I have only actually gotten up to work out ONCE.    I was able to workout in the a.m. last summer pretty regularly.  I know once I get a routine going it will get easier.  I just need to start…

My fitness-filled weekend

I had a great weekend as far as exercise goes.  On Saturday I participated in the Christopher and Banks MS Walk and walked the 4 mile route.  Most of the walk, with the exception of the very beginning was at a pretty fast pace since I was trying to keep up with my teammates that were 10 years younger.  Plus I was pushing a double stroller with both of my kids.

Sunday for Mother’s Day we went for a bike ride around town with the girls in the bike buggy.  We stopped at a park and enjoyed the wonderful spring weather.  We didn’t bike at a fast pace, but we ending up going about 12.5 miles total. 

Then Sunday afternoon I took off on my bike again and went to the library.  It was kind of nice to have some alone time in the library where I wasn’t confined to the kid’s books area.  I pushed myself to go a little faster on this ride for about 10 miles total (5 miles each way).  I will admit – my legs were a little exhausted by the end of the ride. 

Unfortunately, I am sure the crap that I ate Sunday (Starbuck’s latte and donut holes for breakfast, grilled steak with baked potato and sauteed mushrooms for dinner, and don’t forget the rice crispy treats that I munched on all day) erased all the exercise I did that day. 

So I decided that this would be a great opportunity to start another exercise streak since I have been such a slacker in this area.  I set my alarm early this morning and went for a 30 minute walk.  I am sure I should be doing more, but I need to conquer my first battle of a.m. exercise – just getting myself out of bed…

Magic Milkshakes… YUM!

I think I am in love with the Hillbilly Housewife.   I made her Magic Milkshakes last night for the first time.  All 4 of us were slurping with our straws to get the last bit out of our glasses.   Milk shakes for about a quarter a serving – it doesn’t get much better than that.  I think we could have milkshakes every night of the week for what it would cost us for one trip to the Dairy Queen for small ice cream cones.  My mind was spinning last night about all the different flavors to try.  Chocolate-Banana, Strawberry-Banana, Banana, Blueberry,  Chocolate-Marshmallow, Chocolate-peanutbutter, Chocolate-Mint, Chocolate-Mocha.  I can’t wait to try them all!

My hubby asked how healthy they were.  I haven’t taken the time to figure out the calorie content, but i assume they are not real good, but probably better than real milk shakes made with full-fat ice cream.  I may try playing around with the recipe the next few times by using 1/2 the oil to see if we are still as exicited about the results. 

Get the recipe here!

Enjoy!

Frugal Challenge: Meals under $10

Kelly at Thrifty Mommy threw out a challenge to make a meal for your entire family for under $10. 

Here is a meal we had often when I was growing up.  I recently fixed it for the first time for my DH and he is hooked – we have had this twice in the last week.  It is great for any meal during the day – breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Denver Sandwiches
Crack open 2 eggs per person and whip with a splash of milk.  Salt and pepper to taste.
Saute peppers, onions or any other leftover veggies you have on hand.
In a small skillet (we have one that is the size of a slice of bread), spray with non-stick spray and pour the egg mixture for 1 sandwich.  If you scrambled all your eggs at once, use about 1/2 cup of eggs.  Sprinkle with your sauteed veggies.  Cook on med-high heat until cooked on one side and then flip.  Place egg on whole wheat toast with a slice of cheese and deli ham.  Served with sliced strawberries and bananas and milk for drink. 

Cost breakdown for a family of 4 (most items were purchased on sale and rounded to my best guess):

Eggs (8 total):                     .50
Veggies:                              1.00
Deli Ham (1/2 lb):             2.00
Cheese:                               1.00
Whole Wheat Toast:            .50
Fresh Strawberries (1 lb): 1.00
Bananas (2):                          .50
Milk:                                       .75
Total:                               $7.25

In reality I would say nearly all my meals are under $10.   My ultimate goal is a total of $10 per day or a total of $70 per week.   I don’t always hit this goal, but I think my average is going down each month.