So I was delighted to find out the evil Easter Bunny isn’t all that bad. According to a recent study, he’s got our hearts in mind when he fills our baskets with bon bons.

German researchers have found that a bit of chocolate every day may lower your risk of having a heart attack or stroke by 40%. They believe flavonols in the chocolate help the muscles in blood vessels widen, which lowers blood pressure.

The key here is “a bit” of chocolate – 6 grams to be exact.

How many grams are in a Cadbury Creme Egg? Or three. Just asking. Not for myself, or anything.

But thankfully these “experts” have also warned us that eating large amounts of chocolate could lead to weight gain.*

"This is not a prescription to eat more chocolate," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado. Bugger. Eckel knows me too well.

Labels: chocolate, Easter, Easter bunny, health

OK. It's weigh in day. Hopefully you woke up, went to the bathroom, removed every article of clothing along with watches and wedding bands, and hopped on the scale. Whatever the results are, send them my way. I'll confess I didn't do so well this week. I celebrated last week's weight loss a bit too much. But this morning got me back on track. So join the Weigh In challenge if you haven't already. Weigh yourself, and send the results to WeighIn@captivate.com. Track everything you eat , pick a plan that's right for you and be slimmer by summer.*



The other night I put spinach in my smoothie. No. I was not heavily medicated. I decided to walk on the wild side, throw caution to the wind, and turn the food pyramid on its head! (I don’t get out much.)

I’ve read a lot about putting odd things in your smoothie – avocado, kale, spinach.

So I was tempted.

I thought, “How cool would it be if this spinach smoothie turns out to be delicious! I’d share the recipe with the Weigh In world, we’d all go on spinach smoothie diets, loose fabulous amounts of weight, and never crave another doughnut again!”

And then I tasted the smoothie.**

And … it wasn’t … horrible. But it definitely tasted like I had just put a bunch of spinach in my fruit smoothie. And it didn’t dull my craving for doughnuts at all.

Had I been a little more patient, there probably wouldn’t have been any green gritty bits in there, either.

I haven't completely given up on my plan to trick myself into eating healthy food. But, I think I’ll try something else next time.

In the meantime, here’s my own fruit smoothie recipe (sans spinach).

½ cup mixed frozen berries***
½ cup fat free greek yogurt or plain yogurt****
½ cup Light Silk Vanilla soymilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. agave*****
2 T protein powder

Put everything in a blender and mix. For a special treat, top your smoothie with a dollop of Lite Cool Whip.

Any suggestions for my next smoothie?





*Forget bikini season. That's just not going to happen for me. So short sleeve season here I come!

* *The things I do for you guys.

***I love frozen berries because the fresh stuff spoils before I can eat it all. And I’ve banned bananas from my home, ever since I was invaded by an army of kamikaze fruit flies. Yes. The fruit flies have won.

****I used to get fat free vanilla yogurt, but I didn’t like all the added ingredients. Now I just add vanilla extract to plain yogurt and it tastes the same!

*****If you don’t have agave, throw in some honey instead.

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Labels: diet, health, smoothie, spinach

I wasn’t always overweight. I was completely within the normal range when I was born. But as I grew up, I also grew out.

Last night, I rummaged through my old photos to find a “before” picture to show you, but as any pleasantly plump person will tell you, photos are your enemy when you’re horizontally inclined. So it was difficult to find any photo of me before I ended my love affair with lard.

I found something, though. It’s not necessarily me at my heaviest, but it’s pretty darn close. Just like ripping off a band aid, I guess I’m going to have to show you this as quickly as possible and hope it hurts less.

So here goes:

Before – I know it was a bad hair cut. Leave me alone. I thought I was stylin'.

When I was rocking size 24 jeans and shopping at Lane Bryant I remember dreaming about being a size 18. That’s right. I thought everything would be right in the world if I could just shrink down to a slim size 18.

I’ve always wanted to lose weight* – I was a huge fan of Richard Simmons in his shorty shorts and Oprah in her skinny jeans. And I couldn’t tell you exactly when things clicked for me, but I finally started seeing results in college. That’s right. When girls were gaining their Freshman 15s, I was giving mine away. I guess I'm a little backwards that way.

The weight came off slowly … sometimes too slowly. And now, 10 years later, I’m here to report I’ve lost 100 pounds and still haven’t reached my goal weight. I know. I’m slow.

After

Sure, I’m damn close. But those last 10 or 15 pounds are so much harder to ditch than the first 15 or 20.

So, although I’m not an expert, I’ve been there. I’m still there. And I’ll be there with you. Even if you don’t reach that magic number or fit into those skinny jeans by the first day of summer, if you make a change in your life now, you’ll feel better. You’ll feel so much better. And maybe you'll even get a better hair cut like I did. Who knows.

If you haven’t joined the Weigh In Challenge, it’s not too late. Email me at WeighIn@captivate.com.

And good luck trumping temptation this weekend!



*Things I’ve tried (Thank God I was never tempted to try that Master Cleanse diet! I'm down with the maple syrup, but cayenne pepper and lemon juice?! No thank you!):
Weight Watchers – 3 times
Cabbage Soup diet
South Beach – lost 10 pounds twice … gained 15 back both times
Slim Fast
And various low calorie, low fat, low sodium, high fiber diets

What diets have you tried?

preivous post

Labels: diet, health, weight loss

A huge part of losing weight is what you eat. And you’ll never truly realize how much you’re putting in your mouth until you track it. I know I eat better when I’m writing everything down. I may still make some bad choices, but they’re not nearly as bad as when I don’t hold myself accountable. Let me translate this for you working folk. If you know your boss (food journal) is watching you work (eat), you’ll be less likely to surf the web (fridge) and post comments (eat) on Facebook (french fries). See?

So here are a few free sites you can use to track what you’re eating.

Spark People
I have used this site to track my food intake and workouts. It’s a great, easy way to count calories and make sure you’re eating enough protein. Oh, and it’s free!

Whether you want to know the calorie count in cake or cabernet, these sites have massive food data bases, and they’re easy to use:

Calorie Count
The Daily Plate
Peer Trainer
Calorie King


Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers is a great source even if you’re not a member. It’s got recipes, dining out tips, blogs and motivating success stories.

Hungry Girl
Awesome cooking tips to concoct low-calorie cocktails, healthy junk food and tasty guilt-free meals.



If you haven't joined the challenge yet, email me at WeighIn@captivate.com.

Labels: health, tracking, weight loss

Yea .. I'm going to stick with four walls, a floor and heat.

Just call me old fashioned.

Run a marathon
I’m training for a half marathon in February. I’ve gotten in a couple of good long runs this month. One day I even ran to work (11 miles). Don’t worry, there are showers at work. I didn’t work stinky-style all day.

Be on time
I’d go with 50/50 here.**** I had considered turning all my clocks ahead, but I was afraid I’d just do the math, overcompensate and end up really late for things.

So there you have it. Some might read my progress and give me a big old F. But I like to work in baby steps. I’ve got 11 more of these months to improve.


What are your goals for 2010? Have you been keeping at it?


*A month for lovey dovey couples and oodles of chocolates
**So what if I’m making up words? I was an English major. We can do that.
***Flash back to grammar school, progress reports and gym class.
**** Which would be failing in school terms, but I think it’s pretty good!

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Labels: diet, health, New Year's Resolutions, weight loss

Are you haunted by Hersey’s? Do you have nightmares about nougat? I know. Halloween is a scary time of year. So I’ve compiled some tricks to keep your treats in check – during Halloween and after.

Wait until the night before or day of Halloween to buy candy. (This may be too late for some of you.) This way you’ll avoid the temptation of testing out the candies before the kiddos come knocking. Also – it may be on sale!

Buy candy you don’t really like. (Personally, I’ll still eat it anyway, but at least I won’t eat as much!)

Keep your inner demon in check.

Don’t just blindly tear into the candy bowl in a dark corner. Eat consciously. Take out several of your favorite and be aware of how many calories you’re consuming. Here’s a nifty candy calorie counter I found. It tells you how far you have to walk to burn off the candy you eat.

The Aftershocks
Just because you’ve made it through the night doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods. You still have to fend off sugar attacks from home and work.

Shift through your child’s loot and keep only their favorite candies. Donate the rest.

Freeze it. A frozen Snickers will thwart your plans of wolfing down gobs of candy.

According to the National Retail Federation, consumers are expected to spend an average of $56.31 on Halloween – $17.99 of which on candy. That’s down from $66.54 last year. That means less excess. Which means your work won’t be overloaded with leftovers next week. (Looks like the dreary economy is actually good for something this year.)

Ask co-workers if it’s ok to put kitchen candy in a covered container so Milky Ways aren’t looking at you longingly as you get your morning coffee.

Bring in a healthier treat like Starbursts, peppermint patties or lollipops so you don’t feel totally left out while all your coworkers leave wrapper trails around the office.

The only fool-proof plan to avoid Halloween rejects at the office is to go on vacation.

How do you survive Halloween without turning into a monster?

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Labels: candy, Halloween, health, Herseys