Checking in

Still here - still losing it, in one way or another. ;)  Swamped with starting a new job and buying a new house, so that's why I've been slacking on posting.  I have so many things I want to post about, too!  I am so freakin' addicted to popchips these days (barbeque, or the plain with a wedge of Laughing Cow), and my beloved Alternative Bagels are also keeping me going.  Been eating a lot of plain old-fashioned Quaker oatmeal, with fresh cranberries mixed in - SO TASTY!  Playing a bit of Wii, including the Your Shape workout game with the camera and also just got the new Just Dance game but haven't cracked into it yet.

More to come in the new year!  Here's to a happy and healthy 2010 for us all! :)

Post-surgery

Surgery itself went okay, but the recovery is not so smooth - I can't walk without pain, so no more steps right now for me.  And I'm woozy and/or nauseated often, so I've spent most of the past week laying down, and eating anything that actually sounds good.  I'm super-disappointed that I've gained weight through this, but if everything heals up correctly, it'll be worth it.  Surgery wasn't optional, so you've got to do what you have to do here, I suppose.  I definitely won't hit that 4 million step goal, and I'm likely not going to hit my -100 pound goal this year either, but hopefully I can stay in good health and appreciate all the blessings that I do have in my life.

Walking Goal Met!

As of this afternoon, I have walked 3,652,100 steps this year - meeting my goal of 10,000 steps a day (3,650,000).  WOOHOO!!! :)

I'm having surgery on Tuesday, so I expect my steps will drop for a little while, but I'd love to hit 4 million by the end of the year.  We'll see how it goes!

Also due to the surgery, I didn't start a 6 week challenge on the EA Sports Active game since I know I'd have to miss a bunch.  I'd love to start one soon though! :)

About this blog

Hi there. :)

I've had this blog for over two years now but a good post on Food Blog Alliance made me realize that I never got around to making a proper "About" page here.

Hi, my name is Shannon, and I'm losing it. ;) "It" is 125 pounds. I've been overweight my entire life, and I'm so done with it. I started with Weight Watchers at Work in late 2006, and lost 14 pounds that year. In 2007, I lost 66 more pounds - 80 pounds total. Awesome! Then 2008 rolled around - the day I hit my lowest weight in a decade, my grandfather passed away after a long and slow decline. While I went out to be with my family, my husband's mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Right after I return home, we find out it's stage four. She fought hard, but less than four months later, cancer took her. I got laid off from a company I adored in November. I ended 2008 just a couple pounds down. My doctor put an interesting spin on - she said most people would've gained 20 pounds given all that happened that year, so I should think of myself as amazing for maintaining that weight loss throughout. I'm not sure if I believe her. ;)

As I write this on November 16, 2009, I'm down a little more than 10 pounds for the year. I have about 35 pounds to go. It's been so slow and so frustrating, but I know I need to lose more weight and hopefully hard work will make it happen.

On January 1, 2008, I set a goal for the year to walk 10,000 steps a day - or 3.66 million steps for the year. I finished my 3.66 million steps on December 18.

I set the same goal in 2009, and was off to a rockin' start but things have slowed down recently. I should hit my goal this week though, if all goes well. ;)

I tend to post about my walking, plus foods and other healthy-living products that I like (and don't like). I don't get paid for anything I post here, and you will always get my honest opinion.

Here's to healthy living for us all.
shannon -at- shannonislosingit -dot- com

More on EA Sports Active More Workouts

A week ago, I got to try a preview of EA Sports Active More Workout (and you can read my initial reaction) at a mall demo, and this weekend I ended up with a copy of the game, courtesy of EA Sports for helping out with the 5k challenge online event last month. (Disclaimer: EA Sports didn't pay me for this review nor did they require I post about it.) So I cracked into it this morning and here's some additional feedback on it.

First, it imports your profile from the original EA Sports Active game, and I was surprised by the stats it showed me. In that original game, I completed 94 workouts for a total time of 19 hours and 47 minutes, burning a total of 12,900 calories. Pretty interesting! And it looks like it'll keep track of these stats in the new game as well, but separately. You can import from the old game again, it looks like, so you can update the stats if you go back to play the old game. You'd think this would be automatic, but ah well. ;)

Speaking of stats, I do like that this game seems to be more forthcoming with them. I had a big complaint with the original that I couldn't figure out how to go back and see how many calories I burned on previous days - it looks like they've fixed that in this game. And added some cute graphs to show you calories and minutes and such per day. Should be a nice added motivator. I am a fan of this "Weekly Fitness Tracker" feature! Another minor thing - you can now weigh yourself with the Wii Balance Board for the game (I prefer to just enter my true weight from my scale, but it's nice to have that option).

Onto the game! I only did one workout this morning - I wasted too much time setting up my character and poking around the new features (I still hate the face and hairstyle options, by the way, and don't get me started on the body shape one!). I jumped into one of the built-in workouts, "Island Cardio Blast (Low Impact)". It said it would be 24 minutes and I'd burn 172 calories. When I finished, it told me I spent 28 minutes and burned 188 calories.

This workout, like all of the built-in workouts, starts with a warm-up segment and ends with a cool-down stretching segment. I do appreciate that the clock and calorie counter keep running during these segments, which helps motivate you to actually do these segments instead of skipping them. ;)

The warm-up clearly was a good thing, as I heard many cracks and pops in my shoulders and knees! Apparently I'm getting old. ;) After the warm-up, jumped into a squat and reach combo exercise (which was fine), and then a balance board exercise with punching, kicking and kneeing - a better boxing-style exercise than in the original game. "Follow the Leader" followed that exercise, where I had to do what my trainer did, which were the same running exercises from the first game - run, high knees and kick-ups. I fail at kick-ups, by the way. ;) After that, more squats - this time with a knee raise after each one. Then another balance board game - water skiing, which was more squats and leaning (reminiscent of the roller skating event in the previous game). More squat and reach and the boxing event again. Then "Island Outrun", which has you light jogging until you come up to another runner, and then you need to sprint to pass them. A cute way to get in some intervals! Back to squats (with knee raise), and then another balance board game, paddle surfing. It basically alternated lunges (with your arms doing the paddling) with more squats. Not too bad. Then the water skiing event, follow the leader and squat to knee raises. And then the cool down segment. The stretches were nice - just wish I had more room to work out at home so I could've really stretched well!

I didn't set up a challenge yet (this game has a 6 week challenge instead of the 30 day challenge in the original) because the folks on twitter are starting it on the 20th.

I really, really miss the tennis and baseball events from the original game. Squash is part of the new one, so hopefully it will be good. I also enjoyed the basketball and tennis, and those are all gone too. This new one comes with four ab exercises, and more step aerobics too. All things to explore in the coming weeks! ;)

Overall... I'm intrigued. ;) The name and price I think are what threw me off at first. This isn't really a "more workouts" game - with that name, I compare it to the "Wii Fit Plus", which incorporates all the original exercises and adds new events too. And it's only $20. EA Sports Active More Workouts really should be called "EA Sports Active Personal Trainer 2010" - it's a new game, stand-alone, and you don't get to incorporate those past exercises. I don't like that it's so close to the cost of the original game, either - $40 compared to $60. The original comes with the resistance band and leg strap (which cost $20 to buy separately).

I'll post another update after I've played this game more - but so far, it's definitely intriguing - and of course it kicks my butt! My thighs are sore from the squats and I worked up quite a sweat!

Update

So, my steps-per-day goal has slipped tremendously - in mid-October I started having a womanly health issue, and my walking energy slipped away.  I'm massively determined to hit my 3,650,000 step goal this month though - and I would really love to hit 4 million steps for the year.  As of this morning, I only have 132,300 steps to go for my original goal, and then 482,300 to hit that 4 million - averaging 9,457 steps a day for the rest of the year.  With how early it gets dark outside, I know this is going to be hard.  I've been having trouble sleeping too, so waking up early to work out before work is hard now too.  But I can see that 4 million, and I would so love to hit it. ;)

EA Sports Active - More Workouts preview

I got to try out the new EA Sports Active "More Workouts" game yesterday - EA was doing a mall event that we stumbled upon, and I noticed that this game was pictures on the banners. It wasn't being demonstrated though, so I asked one of the guys working the booth if they had it so I could try it. It took awhile for him to find it - and he ended up ripping into a new sealed package to get the game out.

The package is a wider box, but it comes only with the game and some little pamphlet of some sort. No additional leg strap or plastic band or anything.

Anyway, he pops the game in and I started poking around. Now instead of a 30 day challenge, there's a 45 day version. And there are a bunch of new exercises - but sadly, all of your old favorites from the original game are *not* included here. This is a HUGE oversight that I'll talk about later on.

I noticed a variety of step aerobics exercises in here - a couple different 10 minute routines. I didn't get to try them out (they didn't have a balance board), but I like this idea. ;)

I did try several of the new exercises. I don't remember the exact titles, but I tried a new boxing one where you're working out with a trainer instead of just a punching bag. New to this game is a "hook" punch instead of just the straight-forward punches in the original. I liked having this variety. You also need to "duck" in this one too in order to avoid getting punched. ;) And yes, my arms are sore in a new place after trying this one out yesterday! Woo!

I also tried a water-skiing game, which seems a lot like the roller-blading-with-jumps from the original game - squat and jump! It was okay.

I did an obstacle course event as well, where you run a short distance and then do a mini-exercise, etc. Interesting. It seemed like a bunch of the mini-exercises were jumping-based, and I have to limit jumping around due to an ol' neck issue.

The last thing I tried was one of the abdominal exercises - it involved doing a crunch and then punching across your waist. I couldn't lay on the floor to do this, but it was interesting to see one of these new abs exercises.

So... when we left, I was thinking, "wow, I will totally pick this up!", but then I got home and checked out the price (the people at the booth didn't know the exact price or release date! I don't understand who they hire to work these things, but most of the staffers hadn't even tried out the game themselves and were watching me and commenting about it the whole time).... anyway, so the price. It's $40. And it doesn't give you access to the full set of exercises from the original game. So if you like those, you'll need to switch out games (and I don't know if they will talk to each other so my efforts in one game count for the goals in both). This is a huge flaw.

I picked up the Wii Fit Plus - and it's only $20 - and it does give me access to everything from the original.

I'm really torn here. I like some of those new exercises, but $40 to not be able to use 'em all, and the hassle of having to switch games all the time... I doubt I'll be racing out to buy this one when it comes out next week. Very sad. :(

October Walking Update

Updated!

month	total steps	average steps per day	number of steps ahead of pace for the year
January	454200	14,652	144,200
February	353400	12,621	217,600
March	382500	12,339	290,100
April	313900	10,463	304,000
May	339100	10,939	333,100
June	336800	11,227	369,900
July	332600	10,729	392,500
August	374900	12,094	457,400
September	337900	11,263	495,300
October	211200	7,040	213,500

Wow, so... October bit it when it comes to steps. I've been having some womanly health issues and haven't been walking anywhere nearly as much as I should. Things will get better in November, I hope!

Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Vitatops

The final new-to-me vitatop review for now. ;) I've written about their banana fudge vitatops and vitabrownies (both of which I wouldn't buy again), and their triple chocolate chunk vitatops and their chocolate mint vitatops (both recommended!). They're pricey, but given the 100 calories and all the vitamins in there, it's a much better snack than my usual 100-calorie cookies from Keebler/Nabisco ;)

I took this one out from the freezer in the morning and put it in my lunch bag to go to work. I ate it about 3 1/2 hours later, and it was definitely room temperature by then. (They supposedly thaw in 30 minutes but I've never checked.)

This is a good one. I don't know if I really tasted much pomegranate flavor - I got some sort of a fruity undertone, but it wasn't much. It was fine though. The dark chocolate flavor was good, and the chips were tasty. I wouldn't tell a friend who loves pomegranates that this is a MUST BUY for them, but for me, who likes poms but isn't a fanatic, it's fine. This is definitely a tasty treat (and probably rocks even more when warmed!).

Nutrition Facts
Calories 100
Total Fat 1.5g
Saturated Fat 0.5g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 140mg
Total Carbohydrates 21g
Dietary Fiber 6g
Sugars 11g
Protein 3g

Chocolate Mint Vitatops

Now, this is a flavor I've been looking forward to trying - I LOVE mint! I've written about their banana fudge vitatops and vitabrownies (both of which I wouldn't buy again), and their triple chocolate chunk vitatop (which I would buy again - and in fact did order in this latest round!). Keep in mind that the main drawback here is the price - but you buy 'em online in a 24 pack and chuck 'em in the freezer. It's just hard to keep that much space open in the freezer ;) (It's not a huge box but my freezer space is very limited!)

I tried this one at room temperature over the weekend, and I declare it a success. I cannot wait to try it heated - this flavor with melty action is going to be great!

It's got a good amount of mint kick to it, but it's not overwhelming at all. Nice little chunks of chocolate (they're never as big as they look in the pictures, sadly).

These may be my new favorite flavor. ;)

Nutrition Facts
Calories 100
Total Fat 2.5g
Saturated Fat 1.5g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 150mg
Total Carbohydrates 26g
Dietary Fiber 6g
Sugars 13g
Protein 4g

Banana Fudge VitaTops

I've written about other VitaMuffin products in the past - their vitabrownies (not recommended) and their triple chocolate chunk vitatops (recommended). I haven't ordered any in awhile since they're really pricey and I haven't seen any good specials in ages.

Last week they ran a free shipping offer with a Halloween pack where you could choose four chocolate flavors to make your own pack. I ordered on Monday morning, which their web site said would have the products arriving to my door on Thursday. They didn't even ship my package until Wednesday, and it came on Friday (which was nervewracking because we were heading out of town for a long weekend and I didn't want these to stay outside that whole time!). I chucked one of the banana fudge and one of the chocolate mint into my bag and took 'em with us on our trip.

I tried the banana fudge a day later, at room temperature. I almost always eat vitatops from the freezer, popping them in the microwave for 30 seconds so they get warm and melty. Since this one was room temperature, it wasn't warm or melty, but it was still okay. I did not get much of a banana taste in this product, which was very disappointing. I am a huge fan of bananas and was really looking forward to this item! I've had their banana nut vitatops in the past, and they're tasty (would be even better without the nuts!).

Overall, I guess I can't really recommend these? It's a hard call. I've now tried all four of the flavors I bought, and this one is just okay. I wouldn't throw them out, but I wouldn't order them again. There are better flavors.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 100
Total Fat 2g
Saturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 220mg
Total Carbohydrates 24g
Dietary Fiber 5g
Sugars 8g
Protein 4g

Fruit 2Day Mango Peach

Fruit 2Day's web site says "It's not a juice. It's a snack."

No, it's not a snack either. It's a very frustrating waste of 120 calories.

It's a fruit juice blend with small bits of fruit in it. The Mango Peach flavor I bought contains:

"White grape juice from concentrate, mango puree, peach pieces, orange juice from concentrate, pineapple puree and pieces, acerola cherry juice from concentrate, lemon juice from concentrate, pear pieces, carrot juice from concentrate, natural flavor."

I would've thought - hey, how about just mango and peach in there. But they throw in no actual mango pieces - but pineapple pieces and SIX other juices. What the heck?

I didn't like the flavor and I didn't care for the texture. Yes, it's juice with little bits of peaches and PINEAPPLE (no mango pieces in here) - and the bottle design, though they think it's cute, means you can't actually get all of the fruit pieces out of the bottle. Their web site brags about how this product helps your "on-the-go lifestyle" - but not if you are going to be trying to get this product into your mouth while driving or anything. Sheesh. And it's expensive too - two bottles (one serving each) for $4.

So very not recommended.

Too lazy to type all the nutrition info, but it's 120 calories, 0g fat, 28g carb, 2g fiber, less than a gram protein.

Wii Fit Plus

You know me and my Wii games ;)  Tonight I picked up the brand new Wii Fit Plus game. It's an expansion of the original Wii Fit game that came out last year, using the fun Wii Balance Board.  It looks like the folks at Nintendo listened to all the feedback on the original game.

So, the handy thing is that it has all of the original games and exercises, and it imports all of your data from the original game.  Handy!  

Amongst the bonuses of this expansion:

-- a bunch more games, including some insane balance-oriented games that kicked my butt

-- a handful extra yoga and strength moves

-- the ability to string together a bunch of yoga and strength moves - you can tell it how much time you have and it will put a workout together for you, or you can build your own

-- along the workout route, there are also more built-in workouts, based on what your goals are - things like form or lifestyle.  Work on your arms, or your shoulders, or relax.  Interesting!

-- it counts calories!  A nice move here, but done a little oddly - you can set a calorie goal, but it's based on food.  So, burn off a cup of whole milk, or a bag of chips or a chocolate bar (with calories displayed).  I'd prefer to just say I'd like to burn 200 calories and not equate it with food.  Silly.

More feedback to come, but so far, it's *definitely* worth the $20 for the expansion!

Popchips - Cheddar Potato and Barbeque Potato

The kind folks over at Popchips sent me a box with six single serve bags - and here's my review of the last two. Thanks again, Popchips!

Cheddar is okay.  Definitely get a cheesy taste, but it's not hardcore cheddar action. I *love* cheddar cheese, so these are a bit of a letdown to me.  But the big bonus here is that it is all natural, so no fake day-glo cheesy fingers after eating.

The barbeque chips are where it's at though.  These are definitely my favorite.  They've got a good zing to them, and I really, really enjoyed them.  I haven't had barbeque chips in a long time, but I recall the baked Lays barbeque chips not being nearly as tasty (and of course they have that odd texture).

Nutrition Facts (for one ounce, about 20/19 chips) - cheddar / barbeque
Calories 120 / 120
Total Fat 4g / 4g
Saturated Fat 0.5g / 0g
Trans Fat 0g / 0g
Cholesterol 0mg / 0mg
Sodium 290mg / 250mg
Total Carbohydrates 20g / 20g
Dietary Fiber 1g / 1g
Sugars 1g / 2g
Protein 2g / 1g

September weight loss - neglible

Looking at the straight numbers, I weighed exactly one pound more on 9/30 than I did on 9/1. Throughout the month, my weight ranged almost five pounds - two pounds higher than I ended to three pounds lower than I ended. Why? Stupid eating on a Wednesday night, followed by a weekend party and then my body just went kaput for a bit there on the weight. I had exactly the same weight for six days in a row, not varying with the amount of food or exercise those days. Weird.

My physicsdiet average *is* less than it was at the start of the month, by a whopping 0.5 pounds. ;)

I have re-calculated the number I need to hit to be at my goal weight by my birthday, and it's now 0.23 pounds a day - 1.6 pounds a week. Totally achievable, but I've got our anniversary coming up this month and we're going to get away for that weekend. Would love, LOVE love, to actually see the 180s at some point this year. If I can hit that 0.23 pounds a day, I'd hit 189.8 on Halloween.

September Walking Update

Updated!

month	total steps	average steps per day	number of steps ahead of pace for the year
January	454200	14,652	144,200
February	353400	12,621	217,600
March	382500	12,339	290,100
April	313900	10,463	304,000
May	339100	10,939	333,100
June	336800	11,227	369,900
July	332600	10,729	392,500
August	374900	12,094	457,400
September	337900	11,263	495,300

Slowly plugging ahead to hitting my goal way early this year - might even make it by the end of the month, with some serious walking in there. I'm at 3,225,300 steps for the year. OK, it would take a *massive* amount of walking to get it done in October, but definitely by mid-November at the latest. ;)

Popchips - Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato and Salt & Pepper Potato

The kind folks over at Popchips sent me a box with six single serve bags - and here's my review of two of them. Thanks again, Popchips!

Today we dove into the two salt varieties - sea salt & vinegar and salt & pepper.  The vinegar definitely has that kick, which I enjoy.  And the portion is just right, because too many more of them would burn my tongue right off.  I enjoyed that flavor a lot. 

The salt & pepper is just as advertised - lots of big flecks of pepper in there.  I liked it, but I was just eating these plain - this flavor would've kicked butt if I was eating it with a hamburger.  Definitely needed something meaty to cut it.  

I think the sour cream and onion is still my favorite at this point, but I wouldn't throw out any of these. ;)

Nutrition Facts (for one ounce, about 20 chips) - sea salt & vinegar / salt & pepper
Calories 120 / 120
Total Fat 4g / 4g
Saturated Fat 0g / 0g
Trans Fat 0g / 0g
Cholesterol 0mg / 0mg
Sodium 260mg / 290mg
Total Carbohydrates 20g / 20g
Dietary Fiber 1g / 1g
Sugars 1g / 1g
Protein 1g / 1g

Popchips - Original Potato and Sour Cream & Onion Potato

While sitting at home this afternoon, feeling bummed that I couldn't score a ticket to Blogher Food in SF, I got a knock on my door.  The kind folks over at Popchips sent me a box with six single serve bags - awesome! My first ever item from a manufacturer to review on my blog. ;)  Thanks, Popchips!

I've liked Popchips for awhile - they've just been a bit hard to find.  I remember trying some cool flavors in the past - a corn chip in particular, but it looks like now they're only selling these potato chips.  These single serve bags are perfect to toss into my bag to take to work (though I must admit, we dove into two of them within minutes of opening the box today!) :D

So my first two flavors - original potato and sour cream & onion potato.  Without sounding like a commercial, the cool thing about Popchips is that they're all natural and low fat.  And of course, not fried. ;)  They're not greasy either.  Dig it.

The original potato chips are a bit boring - but c'mon, any plain potato chip is boring to me.  I need a dip. ;)  I should've grabbed a wedge of Laughing Cow to go along with it.  These original chips would be great for a party situation if there are multiple dips going on. ;)

The sour cream and onion potato chips had more flavor.  I *love* sour cream and onion.  I am addicted to that flavor of Pringles - and I can't buy 'em because I'll eat the whole can. ;)  The nice bonus with the Popchips version is that it's all natural and of course, much less bad for you. ;)  I would've liked a little more of the seasoning on the chips for a few more calories though. ;)

I look forward to trying out the other flavors later this week! :)

Nutrition Facts (for one ounce, about 22/20 chips) - original / sour cream & onion
Calories 120 / 120
Total Fat 4g / 4g
Saturated Fat 0g / 0.5g
Trans Fat 0g / 0g
Cholesterol 0mg / 0mg
Sodium 280mg / 290mg
Total Carbohydrates 20g / 20g
Dietary Fiber 1g / 1g
Sugars 0g / 2g
Protein 1g / 2g

Fiber One Nonfat Yogurt, Strawberry

I'm a big yogurt fan. I've been eating yogurt every weekday now for a couple months, and have taken lately to throwing a cup of it in the freezer after lunch so it's nice and frozen (but not frozen solid!) in time for my afternoon snack.

I also like fiber, as you may have noticed from my previous posts. ;) So I thought I'd give this Fiber One Nonfat Yogurt a try.

It's small - 4 ounce cups, available in a four pack. I tried the strawberry flavor. For your four ounce cup, you get only 50 calories, no fat and five grams of fiber - a "miracle" 0-point food for those Weight Watchers in the crowd. And Fiber One/Yoplait got Hungry Girl to endorse it, so it's got everything going for it. But... it's way too small. Seriously, four ounces is nothing. (My usual yogurt is 6 ounces, and I sometimes go for the 8 ounce cups instead.) It's got a few pieces of strawberry in each cup to add to the flavor and texture.

Speaking of texture, you know the old joke about how eating fiber is like eating cardboard? Well... I got a bite of something that was very cardboard-esque. I spit it out and it's a brown fiber of some sort - could be cardboard for all I know. It was gross (it's about a centimeter long by half a centimeter wide, and flat). Totally lost my appetite - except I didn't, because this silly four ounce cup did nothing to satisfy me.

Overall, pass on this - it's too small, too expensive, and too cardboardy. ;)

Nutrition facts
Calories: 50
Total Fat: 0 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 5 mg
Sodium:55 mg
Total Carbohydrates:13 g
Dietary Fiber: 5 g
Sugars: 4 g
Protein: 3 g

Kashi Lemon Rosemary Chicken

I wanted to try something more healthy for lunch than my usual SmartOnes or Lean Cuisine, so I picked up this Kashi item a few months ago - and forgot about it until this morning. ;)

It's... ok. There were only three pieces of snow peas, and the chicken was finely minced (not in strips like in the photo). A good amount of mushrooms. However, I got none of the lemon or rosemary flavor. A lot of garlic, yes, but sadly no lemon (and lemon with chicken is one of my most favorite combinations in the world!). It was also really watery, which of course is not appetizing. ;) The whole thing was kinda soggy and didn't look good at all. The taste was okay, but I definitely wasn't full after eating this for my lunch (along with some baby carrots). Fooey.

I wouldn't buy this again as it was pretty unappetizing, not at all lemony, and more expensive than my usual lunch.

Nutrition Facts
Calories: 330
Total Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 1.5 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 15 mg
Sodium: 640 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 45 g
Dietary Fiber: 5 g
Sugars: 1 g
Protein: 17 g

Omron Pedometer HJ-303

I recently switched pedometers, from my trusty Accusplit pedometer to a new Omron "GOsmart™ Pocket Pedometer with Superior 3D Smart Sensor Technology HJ-303". It's miles more advanced than the Accusplit, but I'm not 100% sold on it, to be honest with you.

Advantages:
- you can throw it in your pocket and it works. Supposedly you can put it in your purse or even wear it around your neck, but I haven't tried those. It's nice to not have to put it on your belt, though it does come with a little case so you can do that if you'd like.
- it saves 7 days of steps for you, resetting at midnight each night

- it also has a "trip counter", which I've used to keep track of steps each month

- enter your weight and it calculates calories burned, and also keeps track of "moderate" steps when you're walking at a certain speed

- it has a clock, and it displays the time and total steps for the day by default

Disadvantages:

- it's a bit big :/

- today it got screwy on me - I noticed around noon that it said "9:49pm" and had about 7k extra steps.  Grrrr.  So I call Omron, and the customer service girl tells me I need to replace the battery.  I've had this for less than two months - and the low battery icon isn't displayed.  WTF?  I ended up manually resetting the device, which lost my steps for the day and the "trip" counter and all that, and we'll see if it stays accurate for now.

- battery is expected to last six months, but they ship it with a "trial" battery?  Very, very lame.

- it's silent.  For me, I was so used to the quiet clicking of my Accusplit, it's taken me a long time to get used to not hearing any confirmation that the pedometer is actually working. ;)

The Omron is $45, more than $20 higher than the Accusplit.  Accusplit customer support was much more friendly - and it has their insane warranty policy printed on the device itself so if there is a problem, there is no problem. ;)

Oroweat Sandwich Thins

More bread! These are adorable. Cute little sandwich buns - they're the perfect size for my salmon or turkey burgers. And yes, they're quite thin, but I enjoy them. They are not as thick as my burgers actually, now that I think about it, but hey, they give me the bread taste and texture and they don't add a ton of calories or fat or whatever. I've tried both flavors but tend to stick with the multi-grain now for no particular reason (it's what was in stock when I went shopping this weekend).

Nutrition Facts
Calories 100
Total Fat 1g
Saturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 230mg
Total Carbohydrates 22g
Dietary Fiber 5g
Sugars 2g
Protein 5g

Food regret

I was tired and lazy on Sunday, and next to the grocery store is a take-out Chinese food place. So we stopped in and got a plate of food to go (and shared it) - brown rice, sesame chicken for him and black pepper chicken for me. The black pepper chicken looked sauteed, which is why I chose it. Well, we get home and it's fried. UGH! Big white meat pieces, but fried. I didn't add any soy or anything, but the cup of brown rice and cup of fried chicken caused a lovely 1.6 pound gain overnight. UGH again. And of course, it will take me awhile to lose that back. Glargh.

I should've been stronger and just made something to eat when we got home. Or not eaten it once I saw that it was fried. But I just am not that strong. And it didn't taste good either. I hate that food regret - it's not worth the calories or fat or sodium or whatever when it just doesn't taste good. UGH.

Tomorrow night is a food thing, and then the weekend at a friend's house for a long birthday party celebration. Food dangers lurking everywhere. What do you do to help prepare for such a no-win situation? I'm thinking I'll bring some of my trust English muffins, but I need protein that doesn't need to be refrigerated. Suggestions?

Oroweat Double Fiber English Muffins

Yes, more English Muffins! These are my second favorite English Muffins. ;) However, unlike the Thomas' English Muffins, these taste okay when not toasted. I don't have access to a toaster at work, but I've been enjoying a Oroweat Double Fiber English Muffin as a late afternoon snack. They're a bit sweeter than the Thomas' muffins, and of course, there are no nooks nor crannies. ;) Good nutrition stats here too (and no high-fructose corn syrup) - more sugar, less protein, 10 more calories.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 110
Total Fat 1g
Saturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 280mg
Total Carbohydrates 27g
Dietary Fiber 8g
Sugars 5g
Protein 4g

Thomas' Light Multi Grain English Muffin

I love these.  The nutrition stats are amazing - 100 calories, 8 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein.  No trans fat of course.  Only 1.5 grams fat.  No high-fructose corn syrup.  TASTY.

These are awesome when toasted - gotta love those nooks and crannies.  They last a long time past their date on the bag - I buy 'em on sale and throw them in the fridge.  I have frozen some in the past, but they are icky once they get frost-bitten.  

I really enjoy these with a bit of no sugar fruit preserves, or a spray or two of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and then a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.  A great way to start off my morning.  I am definitely addicted. :D

Nutrition Facts
Calories 100
Total Fat 1.5g
Saturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol less than 5mg 0%
Sodium 170mg
Total Carbohydrates 24g
Dietary Fiber 8g
Sugars less than 1g
Protein 6g

Jillian Michaels weight loss pills

I respect Jillian for the accomplishments she's helped folks achieve on the Biggest Loser - and I hear that her workout DVDs are killer good. I bought her Wii game the day it came out and absolutely hated it. Hated. It. Ugh.

And then I see an ad in one of my fitness magazines - she's now shilling for GNC with a weight loss pill. Uhm, hello, don't you scream at people on your show about there being no quick fix and that you need to work to lose weight? I looked online at the pill details (who wouldn't want a miracle pill?) - the "Jillian Michaels EXTREME Maximum Strength Calorie Control™" pill is a metric ton of caffeine. WTF, lady? I personally ended up in a hospital in college due to a weight loss pill, and found out the hard way that it was a ton of caffeine and my body did not react well.

I'm disappointed that Jillian is now pushing a miracle pill - and yes, the irony is not lost on me that I wish that there really was a miracle pill I could take to lose the rest of the weight. ;)

Back on track!

Awesome, I'm back on pace for that lovely 0.183 pounds a day! Yay! Now, I just need to keep on that pace. ;) I'm such a spreadsheet dork, so I know that I spent the past 10 days behind pace, so hopefully that won't happen again. I don't have any big food problem days coming up until next weekend, and I'm sure I'll get all worked up about that soon enough. ;)

I've finally started feeling better too, so I got back into the swing of things with an EA Sports Active workout this morning. Also pondering going and walking around our parking garage at work because it's shaded and should be a good source of steps. (The floor I work on is pretty small - a loop around the office is about 150 steps at most!) I was able to go for a walk last night and sadly I don't see time to do one tonight but hopefully tomorrow.

August weight loss - 3.0 pounds

Let's look at the numbers. I had hoped to lose 0.183 pounds a day - this will get my to my goal weight on my birthday in February. I started off well - was even ahead of pace by two pounds a couple of times. But then real life happened. ;) Went for a really strenuous hike but then had pizza and gained two pounds overnight, which took me a week to lose. Walked 10 miles in a day but went to an ice cream social fundraiser, and put those two pounds right back on. Finally took them off again, but didn't walk on Saturday and nibbled my way through Sunday and gained a pound - so my weight for August 31 kinda sucked, but what can you do?

Overall for August, looking at straight numbers, I lost 3.0 pounds. Looking at physicsdiet.com's "average weight", I lost 1.54 pounds - and myweightracker.com's "true weight" I lost 2.5 pounds. Both of those sites are based on "the Hacker's Diet" but they each use different calculations to come up with trends instead of focusing on the individual day's weight. Through August, I was up 2.6 pounds from my start and ended 3 pounds down from the start, so overall I'll take that as a successful month.

As far as my weight loss goal pace of 0.183 pounds, I am 1.33 pounds behind right now. But I am not going to throw in the towel just yet. I'm not re-calculating any goals or anything right now. I can do this. I really want to finally, FINALLY lose this weight.

I'm making sacrifices, which of course sucks, but needs to be done. Bailed on a BBQ on Saturday, drove by countless restaurants where I could've grabbed something quick and delicious when I was really hungry that afternoon, but instead waited until I got home to eat something healthier. I'm really trying to be smart about this. In retrospect, that pizza dinner after hiking was a total let-down (heck, there's no retrospect there - I knew while eating it that the pizza was meh, but I kept on eating because I was hungry and I had bought it already), and that ice cream social was absolutely not worth it. I dragged some friends out hiking one day the day after that ice cream social and it turned out to be a really short hike, but then we all ended up at a pricey restaurant afterward (I thought we were going to go grab coffee somewhere but that didn't happen). I was hungry (and cheap as always), but didn't jump in on the food there. There wasn't really anything healthy to choose from, and I just plain didn't want to eat empty calories. Sure, the chips & dip and mac & cheese and burger and salmon and all that looked great, but I just couldn't do it - I didn't want to see yet another weight gain the next day. I felt like a total party-pooper, but I need to be strict when it's just not worth it. Because there are so many other times when I really do want to take part and I know it's tasty. ;)

Yesterday was a weird day for me. My body is definitely unsettled right now. I had been walking a lot during August, but on Saturday, it was too hot to move, let alone try to walk in that miserable heat. Sunday, I spent the whole day in the kitchen making jam. My typical weekend step counts had been over 30,000 - and instead those two days, I hit 7,000 total. Doh. When I woke up yesterday morning, my body just didn't feel right. Stomach issues I guess, but I wasn't hungry and didn't have the energy to work out in the morning. I did drag myself out for a walk last night, but my stomach got its revenge around 2am. Glargh. This morning, I slept in an hour instead of working out, and I'm still pretty darned tired. I do need to go for a walk when I get home today, but I vow to be in bed early tonight. :)

August walking update

Updated!

month	total steps	average steps per day	number of steps ahead of pace for the year
January	454200	14,652	144,200
February	353400	12,621	217,600
March	382500	12,339	290,100
April	313900	10,463	304,000
May	339100	10,939	333,100
June	336800	11,227	369,900
July	332600	10,729	392,500
August	374900	12,094	457,400

Now we're talking! Some serious steps in there, despite not getting much walking in during the last few days. As of tonight, I only have 762,600 steps to go until I hit my 3,650,000 steps for the year! Clearly, I need to start figuring out what my average needs to be in order to hit 4 million steps for the year :D

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

This past weekend was, weight-wise, a repeat of the weekend before it. Saturday, I went to an "ice cream social" benefit and of course, had some ice cream. I knew this was going to happen, so I went for a 4 mile walk in the morning, and then after the benefit, went for another 6 mile walk. I had maybe two scoops of ice cream (it wasn't all that good and it was very soft - almost soupy - so I didn't eat very much of it), and a number of toppings. I indulged, and hoped that my exercise for the day would help. But it didn't. 2.2 pound gain the next morning.

I wish I understood how my body works. I can't live a life without good food on occasion - it's part of what I enjoy in life. ;) So by preparing, you'd think I could not have a stupid massive gain, eh? Had a healthy breakfast, went for the 4 mile walk, had a healthy lunch, ate the ice cream, went for a 6 mile walk, and then had a small dinner. WTF, body?

I meant to write this post on Sunday but didn't get a chance - I don't like blogging from work, and I kept just forgetting about it by the time I got home. Since Sunday's big gain, I lost 0.2 pounds on Monday, 0.2 pounds on Tuesday, and then 1.4 pounds this morning (odd). So that puts me still 0.4 pounds over where I was on Saturday morning, pre-ice-cream.

Thankfully, it does put me 1.2 pounds down for the week, and I'm still 0.42 pounds behind pace. I'm way, way ahead of step pace (468,000 right now), but my weight... c'mon.

Wii: EA Sports Active

I love my Wii, I really do. I ran out and bought Wii Fit the day it came out (and yes, I did go into work late that morning because I *had* to set it up and play it once first!). Wii Fit is a cute game, but it's more about the stretching and not enough about the cardio for me. It's got some strength building in there too, but after over a year of it, I've gotten tired of it.

I bought that Jillian Michaels' game for the Wii Balance Board the day it came out, too - and it was horrible. Awful. I was elated when someone agreed to swap for it on swaptree.com and finally got it out of my house. Ugh.

So when EA Sports announced their new Active game, I was a little hesitant until I saw the trailers online. Woo, adding a thigh strap to attach the nunchuk and also resistance bands? Cool. So again, bought it the day it came out (but this time I was sensible and waited until after work to set it up).

Overall, I really like the game. It's made up of a ton of segments, most about 1-3 minutes long. There's cardio segments, strength segments, upper body/lower body, etc. They've set up a "30 day challenge" that guides you through 20 days of pre-set exercises (with rest days built in every third day). You can choose easy, medium or hard intensity, and you can use the balance board some days if you'd like. You can completely do this game without it as well. The difference in the intensities seems to be the number of reps/laps that you have to do for each exercise.

I was really psyched about these 30 day challenges, because the ads made it sound like they were customized to you and would be all personal and stuff. Well, they're not. They're set up ahead of time, and they don't change based on how well or how poorly you do with a particular exercise. The good news is that at the beginning of a workout, it displays the exercises that you're going to do, and you can un-check any that you hate. I really can't do high-impact things, so I bail on a few of these (jump squats, fast kick-ups). It gives you the total time for the workout and an estimate of calories burned.

Speaking of calories, I do like that it shows you a running total of the calories you've burned during that workout. It does not appear to allow you to go back and see how many calories you've burned on previous days though, and that's an oversight. There's also no weight loss component here - even though you can use the balance board, the game asks you to enter in your weight manually (to do the calorie calculations).

The "trainer" that does each workout with you can get annoying, but luckily you can turn off that audio pretty easily (he/she does still introduce each exercise to you though). You can also customize the music that plays during the workout.

The resistence band that comes with the game is pretty light, and I wish they included a second heavier band with it. I have other bands, but none with handles, which really come in handy when trying to hold both the band and the Wiimote/nunchuk.

And that nunchuk... I need to get a wireless one. I am constantly smacking myself in the head/belly/thigh when using this game. Ow. I was causing serious pain when doing volleyball before I learned to wrap all of the excess cord into my hand before trying to bump. Ow again. This game is designed for right-handed folks, but you can do almost everything left-handed, even if your virtual you doesn't do it that way. I tend to switch hands while playing tennis and basketball to keep things interesting.

According to the game, I've burned over 10,000 calories while playing it. (You can earn trophies for various accomplishments, and that's the highest calorie trophy on there.) I wish it had a bit more trophies to help keep you motivated for longer. ;)

Overall, I recommend this game. It's got some faults, but every day, I can work up a sweat in the game. I'm near the end of my 3rd 30 day challenge (on hard this time) and I've got a bunch of custom workouts that I've saved as well. I look forward to the expansion game that's coming out this winter (and would love to beta test it if you're looking for help, EA!) :)

Changes!

Howdy!

Changed my domain name (no longer losingweightfeelinggreat.blogspot.com), my Twitter username (now I'm shannonlosingit), and also the layout here. I'm hoping something will be a catalyst. ;)

For the week, I'm up 0.4 pounds, which puts me 0.35 pounds behind my pace. I'm hoping to see nothing but lower numbers for the rest of the month!

Let me know what you think of the changes :)

Big gain overnight

Trying my best here to not obsess, but man...

Yesterday, had a healthy and nutritious breakfast, and then went out hiking. Spent about three hours in the mountains (and drank my 24 ounces of water while out there), and then had a very late lunch at a local pizza place. Split a salad (no dressing for me) and a cup of chili, and then had two slices of pizza, and two chocolate chip cookies. No soda, tons of water. Didn't really feel very hungry later on, so I had a 100 calorie pack and some nuts.

And this morning, stepped on the scale for a 1.8 pound weight gain overnight.

Nothing like wiping out about 10 days worth of work with one meal. WTF, body? I know I did not over-eat 7000 calories yesterday. I'm sure there was a good amount of sodium in that meal, so hopefully we'll see a big drop tomorrow but I know I'll be lucky if it's a pound drop. I never lose weight as fast as I gain it.

So today, started off with my high-fiber english muffin (topped with one tablespoon of peanut butter, trying to get in that healthy fat) and my whey protein drink, for a total of 270 calories. Lunch will be a Weight Watchers Smart Ones meal because I didn't get a chance to cook (and sent the leftover pizza with the husband for his lunch - did I mention he lost weight overnight, too?). I might try a salmon burger for dinner (bought 'em in the freezer section at Costco last week and haven't tried one yet). Trying to stay near the low end of my calorie range today, and low sodium as much as I can.

I hate Mondays. ;)

Not enough fat?

I think I'm not eating enough fat. Looking back at my sparkpeople.com logs lately, I'm rarely ever in their ideal range for fat: 37 - 64 grams a day. Yesterday, 9 grams total. It looks like I'm averaging 10-20 grams. My breakfast has zero grams (and I'm always hungry an hour later, hrm). I do admit anxiety about just throwing a bunch of fat in there - fat has more calories and I'm really trying to focus on the calories.

A tablespoon of Skippy regular crunchy peanut butter would add 95 calories, 8 grams of fat (including 1.5 grams of saturated fat), 1 gram of fiber and 3.5 grams of protein. Going for the reduced fat version, it brings the calories to 90, 6 grams of at (1 gram saturated), 1 gram fiber and 3.5 grams protein. I really should go get some good dark chocolate and have a half ounce of that a day - but that's a ton more saturated fat (80 calories, 5.5 grams fat - including 3.5 grams saturated, .5 grams fiber, 1.5 grams protein).

What's your favorite way to make sure you get enough (healthy) fat into your diet?

DIY Frozen Yogurt

Keepin' it simple at work, I've been bringing a container of yogurt with me each day and throwing it into the freezer in the early afternoon. I eat it two hours later, when it's mostly frozen through. It takes awhile to eat and I find it really refreshing.

I've been eating the Dannon Light and Fit yogurts, 80 calories per container, but I'm getting annoyed by the Splenda aftertaste. So yesterday and today, I put a half-cup of Trader Joe's Greek-style Nonfat yogurt into a cup-sized Gladware, and mixed in a tablespoon of homemade low-sugar strawberry preserves. It was quite tasty! The TJ's Greek-style is really, really thick. I think another tablespoon of the preserves would help perk up the flavor (or maybe use my peach preserves instead). It's a lot less calories and a ton more protein than the artificially-flavored Dannon action.

2.6 pounds - almost double pace

It's odd - I've been on this "weight loss journey" for a long time (it's week 141 in my spreadsheet). But I feel like I'm almost starting over, since I've been stuck in this plateau for so long. So I'm going to start doing weekly weigh-in posts to hold myself accountable here (and hopefully actually *do* them for more than a week or two!).

As I mentioned last week, I'm aiming for 0.183 pounds lost a day. My scale only goes to .2 pounds, but we're looking at the long-term here. ;) If I can keep up with this pace, I will hit -100 pounds by mid-October. I'll be at my goal by my birthday in mid-February.

So here we are at the end of the first week of this new tracking, and I'm down 2.0 pounds. Hooray! A little bit ahead of pace. After seven days, I should be down 1.281 pounds, and instead I'm down 2.6. But to be fair, I had gained a bit before starting this (too many parties!), so I'm happy my body corrected. I'm nervous with the county fair coming up this weekend, along with a special dinner. I could just stay the same weight this week and still be on pace, but I'd really, really like to stay ahead this much. 1.281 pounds should be achievable! :)

Walk Away The Pounds

Responding to a question from Merry - what are the Walk Away The Pounds videos like? I found a clip of the one I've been doing most often on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04SJjRVFgXw

Alas, none of these are like walking through beautiful scenery or anything like that. ;) It's watching Leslie Sansone and her "friends" walk in place for an hour or so. There's a variety of steps, and some of the videos include some little bursts of jogging, and others use resistance bands or weighted balls or other fun things.

Leslie kinda gets annoying sometimes (especially when you've done the videos a lot!) - I *REALLY* wish there was a music-only option on these DVDs. It's nothing personal - I've shut up the extra talking on the EA Sports Active game as well. Leslie's a very proud Christian, and sometimes refers to that in the walks (and has a line of religious-inspired walks), but it doesn't seem preachy to me.

The 4 mile DVD I do most often has a 15 minute mile, followed by a 12 minute mile, 10 minute mile and I think the last one is about 15 minutes too. Stretching afterwards.

I'm a fan of using Netflix or your library to try out any fitness DVD before purchasing it. :)

Body corrections

So after my last post, I dropped weight quickly the next two days - and then gained 0.2 the next day, and then a full pound the next. (And I walked 16000 steps each of those days!) I know slow and steady wins this race, so I know I need to be careful about not under-eating. Looking at my sparkpeople.com logs, I typically don't get their recommended amount of fat. Ironic, since I adore chocolate - but I tend to not eat it when I'm in diet-mode. I need to get out of diet-mode. ;) I should bring small amounts of chocolate to work so I can enjoy it and also make sure to stay in a healthy range.

I'm still on pace (actually 0.9 pounds ahead) and hope to keep chugging along at a respectable speed. Having one dinner out a week will hopefully keep this pace going (that was the 1 pound gain Sunday). Little miss slow and steady. ;)

0.6

OK, I need to get my head on straight about this. Yesterday I weighed in at x.8 pounds, and this morning when I got on the scale, I was thinking I really wanted to see the next full digit now, and then I was disappointed when I weighed x.2 pounds. Um, hello, that's still a 0.6 pound weight loss in one day. I know I'm still detoxing after a weekend of bad eating and obviously I'm not going to lose a half pound a day, but still... I was let down when I didn't see a lower number. Ugh. I need to get past that mentality, because clearly that hasn't gotten me far lately. 0.187 a day - or 0.2 since that's what my scale shows ;) - that's all I need to hit my goals. I should be elated if I see a loss larger than that, not beat myself up because it wasn't a full pound. Sheesh.

Instead of my usual EA Sports Active this morning, I threw in a Leslie Sansone Walking Away the Pounds DVD (a 4 mile walk, don't remember the name). I didn't have enough time to do the whole thing, but did three miles and was sweatin' almost the whole time. I think this is a good plan - 2 days EA then one day a DVD (EA tries to get you to take a "rest" day every third day anyway). We'll see how it goes!

0.183

That's my daily number now. 0.183 pounds a day. If I can manage that, I will hit -100 pounds by mid-October. I'll be at my goal by my birthday in mid-February.

0.183 pounds a day is a 640 calorie deficit. This should be achievable.

I'm so tired of being stalled in this plateau-from-hell for over a year and a half. It's time to lose the rest of this weight.

Every morning, I've been doing the EA Sports Active game on the Wii. I just started my third "30 day challenge" on it, this time at "hard" intensity. I definitely sweat a lot while doing this workout (and it takes about 30-40 minutes), but perhaps I should start alternating with other workout DVDs that are going to burn more calories. I do like the little goals and trophies in the game though. ;)

To quote Bluto from Animal House at the end of his touching inspirational speech - "Let's DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!" ;)

July walking update

Updated!

month	total steps	average steps per day	number of steps ahead of pace for the year
January	454200	14,652	144,200
February	353400	12,621	217,600
March	382500	12,339	290,100
April	313900	10,463	304,000
May	339100	10,939	333,100
June	336800	11,227	369,900
July	332600	10,729	392,500

Didn't get as much walking in during the month of July, but at least I'm staying above my 10k-a-day pace!

Catching up...

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted... doh. Here's the steps stats for the year so far:

month	total steps	average steps per day	number of steps ahead of pace for the year
January	454200	14,652	144,200
February	353400	12,621	217,600
March	382500	12,339	290,100
April	313900	10,463	304,000
May	339100	10,939	333,100
June	336800	11,227	369,900

Beyond that, my weight is just a few pounds less than when I last posted. In the past four months, I started working again (hooray), stopped going to the gym (meh) and started working out every morning at home with EA Sports Active on my Wii (woo). Details on that will be coming soon. I went on vacation last month so that threw off my exercise numbers (walking for 20,000 steps a day - how many exercise minutes is that?!), but I need to sort that all out. I like trying to keep track of the minutes as well as the steps.

I'll try to not let four more months lapse between posts. ;)

Trader Joe's Tart Frozen Yogurt

(photo swiped from the lovely Fro-Yo Girl's blog - love her site!!)

I am a total tart frozen yogurt junkie - I am so delighted by all the shops opening up these days (but sadly none within walking distance of my house). I saw Ms. Fro-Yo Girl post about this new option at Trader Joe's, and I had to go pick it up today. LOVE IT! It's huge - a quart! - for $3.49! It's much cheaper than the Haagen-Dazs and I like Trader Joe's more as a company than H-D (where a "pint" no longer is a pint). Anyway, I tried some for dessert tonight and I'm very happy. It's a bit hard - or maybe that's just my freezer - but it's got a nice zip to it. I added some dark chocolate shavings to my glass and it was quite the tasty treat. I will definitely be stocking this baby in my freezer from now on! Thanks, TJ (and Fro-Yo Girl for the heads-up!)

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/2 cup
Calories 110
Total Fat 0g
Saturated Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 5mg
Sodium 25mg
Total Carbohydrate 20g
Dietary Fiber 0g
Protein 1g

February stats

- 10,000 steps a day.
- 20,000 minutes of exercise throughout the year.

Steps pace: 280,000
Steps taken: 353,400
overall I'm 217,600 ahead of pace. In February, I was 126.21% of pace. Woo!

Minutes pace: 1540
Minutes exercised: 1878
overall I'm 1,018 minutes ahead of pace. I was 121.95% of pace in February.

My weight sucks though. Exact same weight February 1 as March 1. Physicsdiet.com's average weight trend shows a whopping loss of 0.2 pounds. To say I'm frustrated is an incredible understatement.

Sonoma All Natural Carb Cutting Tortillas

I'm not usually one to look for "carb cutting" items, but I was craving soft tacos so I looked around Trader Joe's tonight. Found these "carb cutting" tortillas so I looked at the nutrition info and was blown away - 60 calories each, with 7g of fiber and 5g of protein. Insane!! They're "taco" size, so not the huge burrito size, but that's fine. They're kinda pricey (I think it was around $2.50 for 6 tortillas), but I appreciated the small number of tortillas. We ate all six tonight, and I enjoyed it. My husband wasn't a huge fan, but they're not your typical fat-laden flour tortillas. These are oodles of fiber and whole wheat and such, and frankly, I'll take the flavor hit to get the nutrition here. These are also made with no additives or preservatives, which I appreciated. I will buy these again when that taco craving calls to me...

Note: this picture is incorrect - it's a similar item but not exactly what I tried. I couldn't find a photo of the exact item, so I posted this so you can tell roughly what the packaging looks like to find in store.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 Tortilla
Calories 60
Total Fat 1.5g
Saturated Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 1g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 150mg
Total Carbohydrate 11g
Dietary Fiber 7g
Sugars 0g
Protein 5g 10%

Orville Redenbacher's Natural Buttery Garlic Popcorn Mini Bags

Received a sample of this and just tried it - very very disappointing. I am kicking myself for not looking at the nutrition info first (5.5 grams of saturated fat?!!?).

The flavor just wasn't here - no garlic at all, and it just tasted oily. I didn't get any butter flavor here. I enjoy other Orville products, but this was a huge letdown.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 bag (5.5 cups popped)
Calories 165
Total Fat 11g
Saturated Fat 5.5g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 412.5mg
Total Carbohydrate 16.5g
Dietary Fiber 1g
Protein 0g

January stats

- 10,000 steps a day.
- 20,000 minutes of exercise throughout the year.

Steps pace: 310,000
Steps taken: 454,200
(over 140,000 - or 14 days - ahead of pace!!)

Minutes pace: 1705
Minutes exercised: 2385
(over 12 days ahead of pace)

Weight-wise, I'm down a few pounds (six according to the scale, but 2.5 when you look at the "average weight" trend in physicsdiet.com - I had spiked on Jan 1). Made it to the gym every day in January, except for the 1st when they were closed (so I went on a really long walk instead). Would like to say that I'm feeling better, but... ;) Hopefully we'll see the weight loss trend continue.

Kitchen scale

One of the things I've used countless times over this 'journey' is my trusty kitchen scale. Mine is the "Escali Primo Digital Multifunctional Scale". It's small, easy to use and pretty. ;) It comes in oodles of colors, but I went with silver (shinee!). I tare out the plate or bowl I'm using to eat with, and then add an item, tare it out, and go on my way. I can add in everything easily and it's quick to use. It uses AA batteries, which is handy so you don't need to buy any funky watch batteries or whatever to replace 'em (I haven't had to replace batteries yet and I've had it for at least two years).

So, about that weight loss...

OK, I've been working my butt off this month (not literally, unfortunately). 364,900 steps (152% of pace), 31.83 hours of exercise (145% of pace)... and I'm down about two pounds. I had been down another pound and half at one point, but sticking around the same pound now. I'm watching what I eat - hitting my range in SparkPeople.com more or less, adjusted for the amount of exercise I'm doing each day. I'm really hoping to see at least a drop in body fat - I use a machine at my gym to measure it two weeks ago, and I'm thinking of asking if I can use it tomorrow - I really want to see *something* move in the right direction, you know? If I could lose a pound a week, I'd hit my goal by our anniversary in October. A pound and a half a week would have me there by my husband's birthday in late July. Four pounds a week and I'd hit 100 down by my birthday next month! ;) (Don't worry, I'm not aiming for that at all, it's just sad because I've been eyeing that milestone for well over a year now.

Come to me, weight loss!

Goals progress and more

First, the goals update:

- 10,000 steps a day again.
- 20,000 minutes of exercise throughout the year.

Steps pace: 180,000
Steps taken: 281,100
(over 100,000 - or 10 days - ahead of pace!!)

Minutes pace: 990
Minutes exercised: 1485
(about 150% of pace!)

and my weight? Well, yeah. I'm so frustrated, I am doing all this exercise and it's not paying off yet with the scale. I really want to see things fall into place but they're not yet and I don't get it. I'm still out of work (and no job nibbles lately), and I'm frustrated that I can't seem to accomplish the weight loss with nothing standing in my way. I'm enjoying the pilates classes at the gym, and just trying to keep hope that the weight will drop eventually.

Goals check-in

Yes, it's not too far into 2009, but wanted to check in on my two measurable goals for 2009:

- 10,000 steps a day again.
- 20,000 minutes of exercise throughout the year.

So far... frankly, I'm hauling butt here.  

Steps pace: 110,000

Steps taken: 169,000

Minutes pace: 605

Minutes exercised: 909

The job search is really difficult right now, but I am trying to make the most of my time.  I've hit the gym every day this year (except the 1st when the gym was closed).  Even today, I went for an almost-three-hour-walk to do various errands, and then later on went to the gym and did a half-hour on the bike.  

I think I had been under-eating last week, as my weight was dropping dramatically - and then shot up like crazy when I went out for dinner later in the week.  So I've adjusted things in my sparkpeople.com settings and I'm making sure to eat the minimum calories it suggests each day, taking my exercise into account.  

Here's to hitting all my goals (including that elusive weight loss goal too!) in 2009. :)

Weight Watchers Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling

Twinkies, these ain't, but they're not too bad. They're about half the calories (and half the size/weight) of a Twinkie - and frankly, they're not very fulfilling. I'd rather have a Zinger and enjoy the double-calories. But given that this is a little sweet treat, I'm surprised that it's only 80 calories - and 3 grams of fiber! Wha? However, I didn't feel sated on any level after eating one of these. Bummer!

Nutrition Facts
Calories 80
Total Fat 3.0 g
Cholesterol 15.0 mg
Sodium 80.0 mg
Total Carbohydrate 15.0 g
Dietary Fiber 3.0 g
Sugars 7.0 g
Protein 1.0 g

Progresso Light Beef Pot Roast

Beefy!  This was *much* better than that Campbell's Chunky Healthy Request Sirloin Burger soup I previously wrote about. The beef in here was not dry or overcooked. The broth itself was rather tasty, and there was a decent amount of veggies. Given the nutrition details, this is another soup that will be purchased again.

Nutrition Facts (per cup, about two cups per can)
Calories 80
Total Fat 1g
Saturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 15mg
Sodium 690mg
Potassium 410mg
Total Carbohydrate 12g
Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 4g
Protein 6g

Progresso Light Santa Fe Chicken soup

One of my favorite soups (I don't think I've posted about it yet though) is Campbell's chicken tortilla soup. But it's 130 calories per serving. So I spied this "spicy" soup in the grocery today and it had chicken, rice, corn and beans - my favorite components in the other soup - and it's a lot less calories than the other soup. How do they do it? Well, it's all in the broth - there's a *lot* more of it in this soup compared to the Campbell's version. However, it's still quite tasty and I will definitely be picking up more of this soup in a future visit.

Nutrition Facts (per cup, about two cups per can)
Calories 80
Total Fat 1g
Saturated Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 10mg
Sodium 680mg
Total Carbohydrate 10g
Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 1g
Protein 6g

two hundred sit ups

I'm excited to see this site pop up: http://www.twohundredsitups.com. I did 40 situps as my baseline test tonight and look forward to seeing how I improve over the next six weeks! (Perhaps I should've done this yesterday, before a pilates class this morning!).

This guy also has a neato push-ups challenge, but I need to work up to that (and I really want to focus on my core right now).

Handy web sites!

To kick off the new year, thought I'd post some of my favorite web sites in this delightful journey to lose weight... ;)

My latest handy site is walkertracker.com - it's a free site for walkers to track their steps. All kinds of geeky graphs and other tools in there too. Neat-o!

I've posted before about these other two, but I still love 'em. physicsdiet.com is *the* site for tracking your weight. It's extra-uber-geeky with the trends and statistics, and really helps show you that one day's weight isn't the end of the world. It's all about the trends, baby.

And of course, can't post this without including sparkpeople.com - I use it daily to track my food intake and also my exercise.

I haven't gotten into the "community" aspects of any of these sites, but just for sheer functionality, they're all at the top of my list.

Goals for 2009

Two measurable goals for 2009:
- 10,000 steps a day again. I'm going to focus on hitting more of these as "aerobic" steps.
- 20,000 minutes of exercise throughout the year. That averages out to about 55 minutes a day. Clearly, if I do this, and watch what I eat, I should see some numbers move in my direction, eh? ;)

I'm doing a free trial at a local gym and pondering joining (really expensive though, but I'm worth it, right?). Started on Monday - did 60 minutes on the elliptical then. Tuesday, did 45 minutes on the elliptical and about 10 minutes on various weight machines. Yesterday, took a circuit class and totally got my butt kicked. Literally - it hurts like heck today! They're closed for the holiday, so I plan on going for a long walk after the hockey game is over (woo winter classic!)

Here's to a happy and healthy 2009 for us all!