Monthly Archives: February 2012

Foodie Penpal Reveal: February!

Posted on February 28, 2012 | 2 Comments

It’s time for another installment of Foodie Penpals! This month my package was from Ashley who blogs over at Simple Food Healthy Life! Go check out the yummy recipes she is cooking up over there!

Ashley sent me some goodies from a natural foods store she just found. The dried mango is tasty and B-Fry has been munching away at it. My favorite has definitely been the raspberry licorice! They’re exactly like Nibs (one of my fave candies), but without all the nasty chemicals! The granola is delicious too!

As usual my Foodie Penpal ROCKED! If you wanna join, the details are below! Also head over to Rachel’s blog to see what I sent her!

And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals. In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for March, please send an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
-WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. - this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!

You must submit your information by March 4th as pairings will be emailed on March 5th!

***PLEASE NOTE: if you send an email, you WILL GET A RESPONSE within 48 hours. If you don”t….please re-send your email or contact Lindsay via Twitter (@LeanGrnBeanBlog). Last month we had a few emails get lost as spam so we’re trying to avoid that!

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Posted in Food

5 Tips On How To Get Out of a Rut

Posted on February 21, 2012 | 7 Comments

(source)

I was on Facebook the other day (imagine that) when I stumbled upon someone’s post regarding being stuck in a weight loss rut. You know those moments, when you feel like you’re doing everything right, but the pounds still aren’t shedding. Those moments suck because you just feel like you want to give up.

After reading the post and responding with some tips, I decided that a post regarding the topic would be helpful to my readers. Because I’m sure at one time or another we have all gotten stuck in a rut. They happened and they’re no fun!

So here are my tips on how to get unstuck!

Track

We all know that tracking what we eat is very important when trying to lose weight. It gives us an idea on how many calories or PointsPlus we are consuming each day. And also gives us an idea if we are eating the right foods (i.e.: fruits, veggies, lean proteins) or just eating foods that aren’t going to benefit us (i.e.: candy bars, pizza, chips)

Now I have really awesome weeks where I track every single thing that enters my mouth, but there are also times where I slack off and don’t track everything. Those weeks where I slack on tracking, my weight loss is never great. But those weeks where I track everything, it’s usually better.

So, if you’re not losing weight, start with tracking. I suggest starting out tracking at least 3 days of the week, and work your way up. Set a goal for yourself to track a certain number of days and reward yourself when you meet that goal.

I think you’ll be surprised how much better your weight loss can be if you just start actually tracking. My Weight Watchers leader always says: Only track on the days you want to lose weight!

Measuring

Portions matter in weight loss, and they are something that tends to get bigger when we become ‘comfortable’ in our weight loss journey. After doing this for a while you become confident and think you know exactly the correct size of a portion. And maybe you do, but I bet a lot of the time you are eating more than you realize.

I know my portions get bigger when I’m not being diligent about measuring out my food. My ¾ cup of Cheerios can quickly become 1 ½ cups of Cheerios. (Always happens with my cereal!) Bigger portions equal more calories or PointsPlus consumed. But I’m sure that none of us are taking that bit extra into consideration. Which can equal being stuck or even gaining weight.

When you stop measuring, that is the time to pull out your food scale, measuring cups, and measuring spoons. Start getting your portion sizes correct, so you can correctly track.

Reassess The Situation

It may be time to re-figure some things out, especially if you have been doing this a while. The more weight you lose, the less you need to eat. In Weight Watchers when you lose weight, you also lose the amount of daily PointsPlus allowance you get.

I would suggest re-calculating your calories or your PointsPlus counts if it is something you haven’t done in a while. You may be eating more than you’re supposed to, which will in turn put a damper on your weight loss.

(source)

Change It Up

We tend to be creatures of habit and become stuck in food or exercise ruts. We know what works and we keep doing it because it is easy. We know exactly how many PointsPlus our lunch is or the amount of Activity PointsPlus we earn on our 3-mile run.

I’m definitely in a food rut most of the time. Lately I’ve been eating oatmeal every morning for breakfast and usually some type of salad for lunch. I do it because I know that my oatmeal is 7 PointsPlus and my salad won’t be many PointsPlus and keep me full until dinnertime.

Our bodies get used to these things and get comfortable, which can cause the weight loss to slow. Our bodies need change to keep changing. So switch up a meal, try eggs for breakfast or something new for lunch. Try a new activity, if you’re used to going on long runs, sign up for a Zumba class.

This will also help you not get bored. Bored is never good because if you’re bored, you’re more likely to give it up. Which leads me to my next tip…

DON’T GIVE UP!

No matter how frustrated you become with your weight loss, don’t give up. Giving up will get you nowhere and surely won’t bring on weight loss.

Try some of these things if you need to get out of a rut. And if you have any other tips, leave them in the comments!

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Posted in Tips, Weight Loss

30 Day Shred Level 2 Update

Posted on February 18, 2012 | 2 Comments

Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred

I’m still going strong on my 30 Day Shred Challenge! I haven’t skipped at workout at all! In fact, I finished Level 2 this morning!!

Can I just say that I haven’t been this excited to be done with something in quite a while! Level 2 was a bitch!! It was filled with several plank exercises and much more tough moves than Level 1! Honestly, my favorite part of the level was when it was over. Lol.

The strength exercises in this level were a lot more intense, which I expected. I did plank pushups this time, which started off with me standing, then moving down to a plank position, doing a pushup, and standing back up. The first few times I did the video, I couldn’t do the pushup part, but towards the end I could do it every time! The hardest strength move was the last one, which was chair squats with a v-raise. Oh baby did those burn! Especially since the strength move before was a military press with a leg lift. My shoulders were definitely burning!

Cardio was also tougher this time around. There were squat thrusts and plank jacks, which were both done in the plank position. They both sucked, but I’m proud to say after the first day I never used the modified version! (The only reason I did on the first day was because I didn’t wear shoes and my feet kept slipping.) My favorite cardio move was when I did skaters. It’s always been one of my faves and this time was no different.

Ab work was basic and not too tough except the last move. I do find it much easier to do crunches now, so that’s pretty awesome. The last move was a killer for sure. I can’t remember exactly what they were called, but you’re in plank position (seeing a pattern here?) and you pull one knee in and twist to the side. You wouldn’t think a simple move would be so hard, but man my arms hurt from being in plank and my abs really felt the move.

All in all Level 2 was much more difficult than Level 1, which I of course expected. I absolutely hated it, there were days that I didn’t want to get out of bed to do it. But I did and I’m super proud of myself for completing Level 2! I’m also beginning to notice more changes in my body, which is awesome. My calf and thigh muscles are getting firmer and looking great. Oh and I’m totally starting to get a booty! Which is pretty awesome considering I do suffer from nonbootyitis!

Monday starts Level 3 and the final level of the 30 Day Shred! I’m pretty excited to see with challenges and changes Level 3 will bring. I’m also pretty pumped to complete this challenge and say “I Did It!”

Oh side note: I weighed in at 195.6lbs at my meeting on Thursday, which means I am NO LONGER OBESE!! My BMI is now 29.7, which is in the overweight category! Not going this lie, this is a bit bigger to me than hitting 130 lost.

What non scale victory have you had lately?

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Posted in 30 Day Shred, Challenge