Half Size Me

A program of one. Supported by many.

Guest Post

How to Keep Distractions Out of Your Weight Loss Plan

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Guest Post By LaToya Gay

Whether you’re getting started with a new weight loss plan or you’re nearly to your goal, distractions can easily derail your hard-earned progress in no time at all. Luckily, there are a lot of ways you can manage and minimize distractions to help you stay focused on your goals.

Distractions can come in many guises. For example, taking on an extra project at work, coaching your kids’ soccer team or simple boredom with your current weight loss plan can all distract you from your goal of losing weight. Unfortunately, some distractions seem unavoidable, and so we tend to use them as excuses to ditch our fitness plans.

As we all know, it’s much harder to get back into a routine you’ve abandoned than it is to stay the course and keep moving toward your goal. Here are some great tips for keeping distractions from tempting you out of your weight loss program.

Get a Buddy

As you progress through your fitness plan, it can get easier and easier to talk yourself into cheating a little bit here and there. You tell yourself you’re too tired to hit the gym after work, or you can skip your morning run “just this once,” or it’s okay to ditch your diet for the day because you did so well all week.

Skipping out on workouts and creating unplanned cheat days are the easiest ways to let your weight loss program drift off track. Before you know it, every day will become a cheat day, and you won’t remember the last time you worked out.

One great way to stick with your plan, even in difficult times, is to get an accountability buddy for your fitness plan. Your fitness buddy can be anyone. You can hire a trainer at the gym to help you increase your fitness level, or ask a friend to run with you a few times per week. Either way, it’s much harder to ditch your plan when you know someone else is waiting for you to show up.

If you don’t know anyone you can ask to be your fitness buddy, you can try an app such as FitCliq. It helps to match you with other people looking for a workout partner.

Track Your Progress

If you’re in the middle of a weight loss plan and you’re finding it harder and harder to stay motivated as you move forward, it can be helpful to stay aware of exactly how far you’ve come.

Tracking the changes in your health and fitness can be highly motivating. Try using a program such as My Medical to track all of your health records. Then, at a glance, you can check your medical history and test results and remember how far you’ve come toward your fitness goals.

If you’re nervous about accessing your medical records through an on online app, you can protect your information by using a Virtual Private Network to encrypt your data and ensure it is safe from anyone else who might try to access the information without your consent.

Say “No” More Often

If you’re a person who is constantly volunteering or being asked to help out with things, you probably often find yourself running from one activity to the next, without any “me” time in sight.

All too often when we realize we’ve overcommitted ourselves and find time running short, our health and fitness plans are the first thing to get cut from the schedule. To find success with your weight loss plan, you need to make your fitness commitments to yourself a higher priority than other invitations that come along.

Remember, the word “no” is a complete sentence. If someone asks you to do something, you can say no without offering a lengthy explanation. Your commitment to improving your health is one of the most important commitments in your life. Honor it as such, and don’t allow requests from other people to derail your plan. You deserve to be healthy, and you deserve whatever time you’ve decided to commit to your goal.

Make It Fun

Doing the same workout over and over, similar to eating the same foods repeatedly, can get extremely boring quickly. When you don’t feel motivated to do your normal workout, it’s probably time to try something new. Check out a new workout on a popularYouTube fitness channel. Or drop in on a local fitness class such as Zumba or Pilates. Many places offer a free trial class to new students.

If you’ve fallen into a meal planning rut and you’re tired of eating the same baked chicken and steamed vegetables, consider testing out a meal delivery service. Even if you don’t decide to stick with it long-term, it can provide excellent variety in the short-term and give you some new recipes for your healthy cooking arsenal. Getting your meals delivered can also provide an extra treat that makes cooking something you can look forward to.

Life has a way of creating roadblocks for any goal you set for yourself. The question is, how committed are you to losing the weight and changing your life? If you make the commitment to real change, then no distraction will be able to slow you down.

Leave a reply in the comments to tell us your favorite method of eliminating distractions and staying focused on your goal.

Guest Author Bio: LaToya Gay is a health and fitness enthusiast.

She knows how difficult it is to stay committed to a weight loss plan from personal experience, so she hopes to help those in similar situations with her writing.

You can find more from LaToya at ehealthinformer.com

Meal Planning Can Help You Win the Weight Loss Battle

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“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” —Alan Lakein

During my weight loss journey I have come to learn that meal planning has been the deciding factor on whether I succeeded or failed.

How do I know when I can make time for my workouts if I don’t work out my calendar?

How do I assure I have good food in my house without a grocery list?

What happens if I come home starving and nothing is made, but McDonalds is across the street ready to eat?

Planning ahead is a vital weapon in this weight loss battle.

As a chef cooking and meal planning is my forte.  I thought I would share some of my tips that have been helpful for me to assure that I always have healthy options available at all times.

1. First you need a list to know what to get. I am horrible at remembering paper lists so I have an app and I add things during the week as I think of it. Add staple items first: things you know you will need during the week.  Milk, eggs, vegetables, fruit etc. Are there items you are craving or recipes you have been wanting to try out? Add it!  It is so important to make your list and stick to it.

2. Adding to the list step I have to add to make sure you get things you like!  I felt this was so important it had to be its own step. Pack delicious snacks and meals that you will be happy to eat.  When you go to work and are faced with cupcakes, candy and donuts what is in your arsenal to knock out that temptation? I bet most cases a baggy of carrot sticks will not make you feel happy about saying no to those sweets.  Make sure you have items available you truly like to eat. Don’t get things just because you feel it’s what you should be eating.

3. Now the fun part – shopping!  Do your best to stick to your list! Of course some items may have a great sale and it may not be on your list but if it is in your plan then sure, go ahead! I am notorious for buying certain meats/fish because they are on sale even if they aren’t on my list.  Now if chips ahoy is buy one get one free..you may want to skip it.

4. Once you have all your fresh and healthy items home it’s time to decide what to do with it all.  I normally shop on Saturdays and prep everything I need on Sundays. Anything you can possibly chop, portion, cook, prep – do it!  Your future self with thank you.  Just like the quote above –“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” 

We have all had those days that when we get home from work or have been home all day tending to children, pets, spouses etc. the last thing on our mind is having to also cook dinner. Some days it seems so much easier to go get whatever take-out is closest.  Imagine if all that was done for you. You have a hot meal in a crock pot, an already prepped casserole ready to be baked.  It makes life so much easier!  It stops a bad choice in its tracks before it even has time to gain leverage against us.

Here is an example of what my prep looks like

  • Chopping all fruits that can be cut ahead of time without losing quality
  • Pre-cook my proteins (grilling chicken, searing off beef)
  • Cook pastas, rice, grains etc
  • Boil eggs for snacks & salads
  • Pre-portion any snacks to avoid over indulgence (chips, popcorn, pretzels etc)
  • Prep casseroles to be baked later in the week

Cutting vegetables and pre-portioning vegetable dips

5. Now that you have all these meals prepped and snacks packed means that your week should be full of good choices!  When heading off to work pack for your day.  Packing a sandwich and an apple isn’t going to be enough fuel for a 9 hour day. Pack your lunch and snacks to get you through the day (or even to get you through your evening traffic jam).  Having everything at your fingertips makes temptations during your day less tempting.  Assure that any crock pot meals are ready before you walk out the door!

6. Come home after a long day of work and throw in your casserole or serve up a delicious meal waiting in your crock pot.  Now you don’t come home ready to eat everything within your reach.  There is now time for a workout or relaxing family time!

7. Lastly, eating out.  Yep..plan for that too!  Have you been craving pizza?  Or maybe a burger? Plan for it!  I do not feel anything is off limits in moderation.  I am not saying starve yourself to assure you can eat pizza later but certainly count your points or calories for the day and work your day around enjoying what you want to eat, not regretting it tomorrow.

Planning does take some of time out of my weekend and it certainly isn’t easy at first.  Once you make it part of your routine it does get easier and I cannot stress how important planning is for successful weight loss.

For the few hours is takes out of the weekend it makes up for the time gained during the week and takes the guess work out of your daily meals.

 

Five tips for navigating a weight loss plateau

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Photo credit: William Warby, http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/9638435181; under CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Most of us don’t need to be convinced. The Weight Watchers Points Plus System works. A healthy method to lose weight without losing our sanity is the reason we signed up. At the start of the plan, the numbers dropping on the scale were all the motivation we needed. As your goal weight nears, results inevitably slow.

A plateau period frustrates the heck out of a dieter. Nothing has changed in adherence to the program! Consistency is precisely the problem. Here are five tips to recalibrate your metabolic engine and restart weight loss:

1. Take a break. Congratulations! You wear a smaller jean size. Unfortunately, you need less food to function at this weight. Your body is more efficient with its calories. Think about taking a break.

First, let me define a break. A break is not implementing your pre-weight loss eating patterns. A break is consuming the caloric intake of maintenance mode, not weight loss mode.

Leigh Peele’s article, Managing The Diet Break, will guide you through the appropriate break method for you. It answers the fundamental break questions: Who is it for? What should you do? For how long?  

2. Cycle between low and high point days. What about adding some variety within the non-break periods of weight loss mode? Variations in points will surprise your body.

Cycling your points also fits nicely into real life. We all have an ever changing schedule of holidays, birthdays, work dinners, and times when a stressful day warrants an indulgence. What you eat on a single day doesn’t determine the success of a weight loss plan. Rather, the calories in and out over a longer period of time settle the score.

Points that are consistently too high will obviously backfire. Now, consider the impact of points that are too low. Besides leaving us susceptible to binges, low points leave the metabolism sluggish. A high point day will strength your willpower, increase your energy, and revive your metabolism. The heightened metabolic rate will carry over to your low point days and help you break through a plateau.

To determine the high and low point amounts right for you check out this calculator.

3. Consider the thermic impact of food. Points are an excellent tracking tool. But they are not a complete ledger in the entire equation of weight loss. Thermogenesis is influenced by meal composition. Certain macronutrients award us a greater calorie burn in processing and digestion.

The body burns as high as 30% of the calories in protein to digest it. In contrast, the body burns only about 5% of the calories in fat and carbohydrates to process them.

Suddenly, a point is not black and white. Consuming points of higher quality with greater amounts of protein is a tool to beat a plateau.

3 oz grilled chicken breast = 1 light English muffin = 3 points = 100 calories.

The body burns 30 calories digesting the protein rich chicken but only 5 calories digesting the carbohydrate rich muffin. The net calorie consumption is 25 calories less by opting for chicken.

4. Limit fruit to 2-3 servings per day. Of course, all macronutrients have a place in a healthy and satisfying diet including carbohydrates. Carbohydrates just have a place that must be monitored during a plateau.

One carbohydrate to watch is fruit. The antioxidants and fiber it awards us are virtuous. The sugar is not. Try limiting fruit and keeping vegetables as “free” foods. See if this simple step jump starts weight loss again.   

5. Try a new plan. The Simply Filling technique is a break from the tracking of Weight Watchers points. It requires you to eat from a more restrictive foods list and be smart about portion sizes. The shift in plan may be just the motivation your body needs to keep moving forward.

Consider that while you are not losing, you are also not gaining weight during a plateau. Trying one or more of these five strategies will keep you progressing toward your goal. 

Bianca’s Recipe Makeover: CHICKEN POTPIE EMPANADAS

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Bianca Samsby Bianca Sams​

Bianca is an actress, writer, and an amazing chef who blogs about other delicious and healthy recipes at her blog, Finger Lickin’ Kitchen. You can also check out her ‘Finger Lickin’ Kitchen’ web series on YouTube.

Oh the cold weather has really hit us here in Ohio. We have had a couple of weeks of snow, below freezing temps, and lots of days bundled up in multiple layers. When it’s this bad out all I want is comfort food. Hot, spicy, comfort food! [Read more…] about Bianca’s Recipe Makeover: CHICKEN POTPIE EMPANADAS

Eating Healthy with Bianca: Sweet Potato Whip

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Whipped Sweet Potatoes by Marisa-Food in Jars - on Flickr - Creative Commons Licenseby Bianca Sams (from Finger Lickin’ Kitchen)

Are you staring at those Sweet Potatoes/Yams you bought for Turkey Day? Are you thinking they have to be laden with butter, sugar, and marshmallows to be good?

Well, I want to give a quick alternative called Sweet Potato Whip. It is truly a luscious side dish or dessert much lighter but so tasty.

Sweet Potatoes are naturally well sweet. You don’t need to cover them with ten pounds of butter and sugar to enhance that.

Try these simple switches to lower the calories while maintaining that luscious taste.

1)      Steam the Sweet Potato instead of boiling to preserve nutrients

2)      Try some natural sweets like honey, dates or try using something like blackstrap molasses and Grade B maple syrup. I have also cooked mine down with pineapple juice which also brings out their natural sweetness.

3)      To achieve that oh so creamy taste that we crave without all that butter try fat free Greek Style yogurt or hemp/soy milk. 

4)      To boost flavor without the marshmallows, add real Vanilla extract, Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and a pinch of salt to bring out the sweetness already there.

5)      If no one is allergic to nuts… chop some walnuts or pecans (my favorite). Throw them into the mix. It will help slow down the absorption of the sugar.

6)      If you want a more savory rather than sweet side dish. Pair Sweet Potato with Butter nut squash. Cut into medium sized chunks. Add lots of parsley, garlic, onions, and sprinkle some salt & olive oil on them. Roast them in the oven until soft and Voila a savory sweet potato side dish.

Sweet Potatoes are packed with vitamin A, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, not to mention they have a positive affect on your blood sugar. WHO KNEW? Many people think that starchy root vegetables are a food group that could not possibly be helpful for controlling their blood sugar.

The fear is normal because we now know that food starches can be converted by our digestive tract into simple sugars. If foods are especially concentrated in starch, there can often be a risk of too much simple sugar release in our digestive tract and thus too much pressure upon body to deal with more sugar.

What’s amazing about sweet potatoes is their ability to actually improve blood sugar regulation—even in persons with type 2 diabetes. Sweet potatoes contain a valuable amount of dietary fiber (just over 3 grams per medium sweet potato) and if boiled or steamed can carry a very reasonable glycemic index (GI) rating of approximately 50. Add the wonderful insulin regulating cinnamon to the mix and this seems like a wonderful and healthy option for a side dish.

I LOVE sweet potatoes in general but, especially during the holidays! And what’s not to love about these delicious morsels? But, making them healthy doesn’t mean you have to make them tasteless. Just make some tweeks and Viola…great taste that won’t expand your waistline or kill your blood sugar.

Gooble Gooble Everyone~

Bianca

Nutrition Tidbits

Sweet Potato: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Manganese, Copper, Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6, Potassium, and Iron.  These root vegetables are often over looked as healthy treats but the Sweet Potato possesses powerful phytonutrients and pigments, anti-inflammatory vitamins and minerals, and help control blood sugar controlling.  Vitamin A: preserves and improves eye sight and helps immune system fight off viral infections. Potassium:  helps muscles and nerves function, keeps your electrolytes and acids in the body balanced, lowers risk of high blood pressure, and helps fight fatigue. Potassium, sodium and chloride comprise the electrolyte family of minerals. Called electrolytes because they conduct electricity when dissolved in water, these minerals work together closely.

Cinnamon: Manganese, Iron, Dietary Fiber, Calcium. Yes, it’s a spice but, did you also know it can help control blood sugar, may help improve brain function, keeps your heart and colon healthy, and is useful as an anti-inflammatory and has anti-microbial ability? Cinnamon slows the rate at which your stomach empties (slowing the rate in which sugars go into the blood stream and maintaining a steadier blood sugar level) and also stimulates your bodies insulin receptors (making it more efficient at utilizing the insulin in the body and therefore metabolize sugar better).

Cloves: Manganese, Omega 3, Vitamin K, Dietary fiber, Vitamin C, Magnesium, Calcium. Manganese is a little known trace mineral that does A LOT to keep us healty. It is vital to absorption of key nutrients (biotin, thiamin, ascorbic acid, and choline), keeps your bones strong, helps body utilize fatty acids and cholesterol, helps maintain healthy blood sugar, helps keep thyroid gland functioning properly, protects cells from free-radical damage, and helps keep our nerves healthy.

Nutmeg: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Choline, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin,  Vitamin B6, folate and selenium. Nutmeg cures stomach aches, diarrhea and helps to detoxify the body, reduces blood pressure and increases blood circulation. It is also good for digestion, reducing acidity, relieving vomiting,  flatulence and is used as a medicine for respiratory problems.  Choline: keeps cell membranes (the walls that allow nutrients into cells and waste to leave cells) functioning normally, helps nerves and muscles communicate properly, keeps homocysteine levels from building up in blood stream (high levels linked to cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis ), reduces chronic inflammation. Thiamin/ B1: helps maintain energy, coordinates activity between nerves and muscles, supports heart function.