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Nothing New...We always Knew

Study Shows Drinking Water Increases Weight Loss

From: www.healthcentral.com

According to Health Monitor , a study presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society  showed that dieters who drank two cups of water before meals lost 5 lbs. more than dieters who did not increase their water intake. If you are a bariatric surgery patient like me, you doubtlessly already know the best practice of "water loading" -- drinking as much water as fast as possible 15-min before your meals. 

The concept is simple: Filling your stomach quickly with water creates a feeling of fullness that lasts for 15-25 minutes . In doing so, you eat less at your meal and this results in weight loss (and prevention of weight regain). What's more, you can water load to create this feeling of fullness whenever suddenly hungry before mealtime, thereby curbing your snacking and grazing habits. This, too, will result in weight loss.

Here's a tip: For maximum calorie burn, make sure the water you drink is ice cold . Your body will have to burn calories (or fat) to heat the ice cold water up to your body's temperature.

My Favorite Flavored Water Recipes

What's that you say? Water is boring to drink and prefer something with a little flavor? On the contrary -- there many ways to add flavor to your water! And none of them involves a plastic packet of sugar-free flavor crystals.Here are 5 ways to naturally flavor your water making it even more nutritious and delicious! My theory is that if you like the taste, then you will drink more. And that will put you well on your way to losing weight.

• "Fruitify" your water. It only takes a few minutes to make a pitcher of fruit-infused water. Simply throw a handful of ice and a cup or two of watermelon, or cantaloupe, or honeydew melon into a blender, fill with water, and pulse. Or, mash fresh hulled strawberries or raspberries with a fork and stir into a pitcher of ice water. Or quarter a seedless orange, squeeze the juice into the pitcher of ice water, and throw in the quarters for extra color and flavor.
• Flavor your water with veggies and herbs; it is unbelievably good! Scrunch a handful of fresh mint to release the flavor, and add it with a handful of fresh cucumber slices to a pitcher of ice water. If you're feeling adventurous add a few lemon slices, too.
• Try coconut water! Coconut water is the clear liquid inside a young coconut. Nowadays it is commercially available with brands such as Vita Coco and Zico. 

• Make frozen fruit ice cubes to dress up your sparkling water. Simply plop any one of the following ripe fruits into your blender and puree, then freeze in ice cub trays: mangoes, strawberries, kiwi, watermelon, blackberries, raspberries, papaya, peaches, or pitted black cherries.

21 MOST DANGEROUS CANDIES

21. PayDay

This is a contest where you want to come in last place. While a PayDay is packed with 240 calories — not all of them are bad. The candy bar contains 7 grams of protein, which is as much as some protein bars. And while most candy lists sugar as its primary ingredient, PayDay is loaded with peanuts, meaning most of its fat is a healthier variety. However, PayDay is considered candy for a reason: It’s packed with 21 grams of sugar.

1. Oh Henry!

When a small candy bar has more calories than a Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich from Chick-fil-A, you know you have a problem. But that’s exactly what happens with this 330 calorie treat, which is loaded with 31 grams of sugar and 17 grams of fat.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/slideshow/550388-21-most-dangerous-candies/#ixzz25cDYbYTO


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/slideshow/550388-21-most-dangerous-candies/#ixzz25cD6MsqN

Week-ends `r tough!

The Weekend Diet

1. 
   

Your days off don't have to be your dietary downfall.

By Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, LD
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic - Expert Column

Monday through Friday, we juggle work obligations and family activities, and rush to get dinner on the table. Then when the weekend finally comes, we kick up our heels, shift into relaxation mode -- and enter a dietary danger zone, where healthy eating and fitness routines may get cast to the wind.

Whenever I analyze someone's dietary intake, I look at two weekdays and one weekend day because people eat very differently on weekends. Our more relaxed weekend schedules leave time for frequent trips to the kitchen for snacks, restaurant meals, parties featuring high-calorie hors d'ouevres and alcohol, and the list goes on.

But your days off don't have to undo all your hard work during the week. Here's some advice to help you relax without falling off your healthy eating plan.

The 80/20 Rule

There are two basic schools of thought on handling your diet over the weekend. The first strategy is to follow your usual healthful eating plan carefully and get daily exercise during the week -- so that when the weekend comes, you can splurge a little.

This doesn't mean throwing caution to the wind and eating a whole pie in one sitting. It simply means enjoying some of the calories you've saved during the week, maybe in the form of a glass of wine or a serving of your favorite dessert. Think of it as the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time, you stick to your healthy routine; the other 20% is your flex time, to indulge in whatever suits your fancy, with sense.

Yes, you can have your cake and eat it, too, as long as the slice is small -- and you keep up your activity. You need at least 30 minutes of activity each day, whether it's walking, gardening, or doing an exercise video. Strap on a pedometer and let the steps you take while doing errands or shopping add up (strive for at least 5,000 steps). Getting some exercise almost every day just makes you feel better. As hard as it can be to get started, you never regret lacing up your sneakers.

This approach is my own weight management strategy. I find it easier to be diligent during the week knowing that I can have a reward on the weekends. It gives me the motivation and discipline I need to get to Friday.

The Weekend Warrior

The second approach is to use your extra weekend time to prepare healthy meals and catch up on the exercise that gets squeezed out of your schedule during the week.

You can spend more time at the gym or increase the intensity of your regular routine. But be warned: While it's fine to pump up your activity, tune in to how you are feeling and stop if you are overtired or in pain. Going overboard can result in injury.

With a little advance planning and a few hours to spare, you can stock your freezer with easy meals for the upcoming week. Batch cooking once a week can save you time and money. During the week, it allows you to get healthy meals on the table in minutes. And it can save you money both at the grocery store, where you can buy in bulk, and at the drive-through (which you'll have no need to visit).

Staying on Track

Weekends are supposed to be enjoyable, with free time to spend on yourself, family, and friends. And there's no reason why you can't enjoy the weekends while continuing to make progress toward your weight loss goals.

Successful losers eat breakfast every morning to help control frequent trips to the kitchen for snacks. So start your day with a healthy breakfast like a bowl of high-protein, high-fiber cereal topped with fresh fruit, and skim or low-fat milk. Feel free to enjoy eggs on the weekends; just limit the high-fat sides such as biscuits, bacon, and gravy. Replace them with lean ham, fruit salad, and whole-grain toast.

Don't let your portion sizes creep up while you're relaxing. Have a large vegetable salad with light dressing before dinner to help fill you up. If you're still hungry after your healthy meal, drink a big glass of water and wait 15 minutes. Still hungry? Eat vegetables or fruit.

Be sure to drink unsweetened beverages and water, or small portions of other beverages, to help control your liquid calorie intake. Calories from sweetened beverages, including coffee, tea, soda, juices, and alcohol, contribute as much as 20% of the calories in our diets according to a recent study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Jump on the scale one morning during the weekend to keep yourself on track. Researchers say that people who weigh themselves often do a better job of controlling their weight.

To add to your weekend fun, turn your favorite activities into a workout. Weekends are a great time to dig in the dirt, play tennis, throw the football, or take the dog for a run. Combine spending time with family or friends with a fun activity, like a long walk or bike ride.

Enjoy your weekends without letting them undermine your weekday progress. A little caution will go a long way toward keeping you fit and fabulous!

Common Weight Loss Mistakes

From: www.onlymyhealth.com

A lot of you are on a journey to lose that extra weight that’s stuck on your body: unnecessary, unwanted and despised. And although, most of you are tired of throwing the unwanted guest away from your body; no matter what you do it always seems to find its way back. This is mainly because a lot of people don’t really know what the correct procedure for losing weight is. They end up commiting a lot of silly mistakes that destroys their attempt.

We’re listing a few commonly made mistakes while attempting to lose weight:

Making food a reward – You know that brownie or the blueberry cheese cake that you share with your friend? Well, that is what is killing your attempts. After abstaining from a fat-filled dinner, you tend to think that you have achieved a lot and then go and treat yourself with some other fattening food. No, that is not the way to do it. After a good work out or after a week of healthy eating, you should not treat yourself with food. Instead get a massage done and feel rejuvenated!

Unrealistic Expectation – Most people expect a very miraculous result from their weight loss regime. If you do an intensive work out and eat well, do not get impatient for a fast result. The result will show in a few months or probably a year’s time. All you have to do is keep faith. Moreover, do not lose your sleep, it’s very important to get good sleep!

Depriving yourself  – Don’t just do a mindless diet in order to lose weight. You will just end up getting weak and probably bed ridden! Do not fear that you will over eat, just place a small amount of food in your plate so that you eat the amount required for you. This is important because most people end up eating way more calories that they burn.

Skipping meals  – Skipping meals is one of the worst things that you can do. Skipping meals mean you will get extra hungry and so will tend to eat more when you do eat your next meal. Also when you do not eat, your body releases the calories that were stored and so it backfires! Try and eat small meals throughout the day, six meals per day would be good and a healthy option.

Losing weight is a very difficult task that needs patience and hard work. Try and see a dietician so that he or she can guide you to achieve what you start. Do not ever give up.

If you do not eat for more than three hours, it will cause hunger earlier and make you overeat in your next meal.

By having smaller meals, you can reduce your stomach size over a period of time. This makes the stomach feel full sooner. It also helps to stabilise your blood sugar and insulin.

Having more calories in one meal, i.e. 1000 calories in one meal rather than 500 calories, you are going to be lethargic. Smaller meals give you better focus resulting in more energy.

If you always have in your mind that there is a healthy meal coming within 3 hours, you are less inclined to feel indulgent towards any in-between snack.

Obstacles

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Wrap sweet potato in wet paper towel,

Place in microwave on "baked potato" setting,

Set Accordingly to the number of potatoes you're cooking.

Once done, blend potatoes in a mixing bowl with 1/4 c. vanilla silk almond milk .

I have sweet potatoes planted and can't wait until September to see if they made.

Hope

Draxe - Great Info

http://www.draxe.com/healing-diet/

This is a lot of good information about healthy foods!

Great TIP

• Take all foods that temp you out of your home. 
• When you go out to eat don’t be afraid to ask the server not to bring bread or chips.  Also ask them to steam your veggies or to grill your meat/fish and put dressing on the side. 
• When you go to an all day event like a sports game or amusement park if they tell you that you cannot bring in food, you can say that you are on a special diet and they have to allow you to bring in your food.

From a AdvoCare Site  http://www.advocarepierce.com/

Portion Distortion

Trying not the Fall off the Wagon!

McDonalds

It has been a fun day! Billy and I have Jacob. We went to Meridian and he wanted McDonald's, I proved to myself I could eat under 400 calories even at McDonald's. I will not say what their grilled chicken did to my system, but it was the best choice I could make at the moment.

Lifestyle

Eating with Joy

Not Guilty! Eating with Joy

Eat too much Halloween candy? Already sampling Thanksgiving Dinner? Can't keep your fingers out of the cookie jar? Well, you are not alone. And you are not alone in the guilt that you feel during and afterwards either.

The thing is, thin people eat Halloween candy, they enjoy every bite and don't spend days in depressed guilt. They get on with it. They ate it, it was good, carry on! This is an attitude that most is beneficial to adopt and emulate. Think like a thin person, become it now!

If you are going to eat something, eat it with JOY, not guilt as guilt carries a lot of calories and emotional baggage. If we tell ourselves we can't eat it, it's bad for us, it will make us fat and then eat it anyway, that is the worst thing you can do for you and your body physically and emotionally. It's an emotional tug o' war and because we eat it with guilt, our bodies hear the message "bad for you, fattening" and therefore process it that way, causing you to gain weight quicker.

If there is something you truly want to eat, then stop tormenting yourself and eat it with JOY. Allow yourself to eat it without guilt and you will probably find that you will eat less anyway because it is no longer a "forbidden" food, and that takes away half the seduction and temptation. Try guiltless eating and see how much better you feel emotionally and your body feels physically.

Let go of the guilt. Think like a thin person. Today is truly a new day, ready for you to create the new YOU!

Not an average Thursday!

Today may seem like an average Thursday but to me today means more than that.  It means first of all that God allowed me to awaken to my family.  He gave me another day, even with the trials a day can bring, each day is new and should be considered a gift. 
Second, it means that today is my last day in my forties.
On Friday I will be the big 50.  I am praying hard to make 50 the best year of my life.  I think I can do it. 
Having had really bad eating habits for years, I am mostly composed of butter, sugar, and carbs.  This is such a simple thought with such a simple solution, but for some reason it is very dificult for many people. 
My goal today is to be able to say to whomever is present when the time comes for me to spend time on myself, "I WILL BE OUT OF POCKET FOR A LITTLE WHILE...GOING FOR A WALK OR DOING ZUMBA".  Or better yet I will invite them to go along:)

ZUMBA today!!!

New EXERCISE invented. It is called the Shannon jumping Zumba  Although Shannon is still alive, Zumba made her legs feel jiggly and we both had lots of sweat!  I think the only reason she is still alive is because I put her shoes in the freezer before we started because they had been in her hot car and I just could not see having hot feet during Zumba.  No really, it was fun and I am so fortunate to have someone to do this weight loss thing with.  I love my sister.

Sunshine Doing Zumba - Video

Inspiring Video

Emotional Eating Info

EMOTIONAL Eating

• by Toby Amidor in Diets & Weight Loss, Healthy Tips

We eat when we’re happy, upset, stressed, bored — you get the picture. Oftentimes, these emotional indulgences become a more frequent event leading to weight gain. Use these 5 tactics to gain control.

#1: Recognize Hunger
Do you find yourself having an overwhelming desire to munch even when you’re not truly hungry? It could be that you’re bored or stressed—this type of emotional eating is a behavior we teach ourselves over many years— it takes time and effort to really gain control of it.  The next time you get the urge to dig in, ask yourself “What I am really feeling”?

#2: Keep a Food Journal
Many people plop down after a long day and become a couch potato for the rest of the night. Munchies soon follow—an endless bag of chips or pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Being able to pinpoint the exact times you indulge and what you indulge in is imperative. Keep a food journal for several weeks and you’ll realize your patterns. Take it a step further and rate your hunger from 1-10 (10 being extremely hungry)—and you’ll get an even better picture of when you’re mindlessly munching.

#3: Distract Yourself
Oftentimes we use food to provide comfort after a fight with your spouse or deal with a crabby boss. You may also find yourself so elated about your new promotion, that you “deserve” a huge slice of chocolate cake a la mode. Curb emotional cravings by finding a non-food related distraction instead. Take a warm bubble bath, call a friend, read a magazine or take up knitting. A 2009 study in the Journal of Eating and Weight Disorders found knitting helped participants lower their anxiety when it came to food.

#4: Get Your Zzz’s
Lack of sleep increases your cortisol levels, a hormone that goes up when you’re stressed or anxious. Once your emotions are in full swing, mindless emotional eating won’t be far behind. A recent study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that folks who slept between 6 to 8 hours had lower stress levels and were more likely to achieve their weight loss goal. So turn off your favorite TV program (DVR it!) and step away from all electronic devices— they’ll all be there in the morning.

#5: Exercise Regularly
A 2012 study in the journal Appetite found that folks who exercised while at work (i.e. took a brisk 15 minute walk during a break) ate less chocolate than those who didn’t exercise at all. Regular exercise has been found to help decrease stress and put you in a good frame of mind. A positive attitude is sometimes all you need to help make healthier decisions.

TELL US: How do you overcome emotional eating?

Zu Uh Zumba

Edited: 2:27 PM

Be prepared, ETA: 2:50 PM.

JUST TRYING IS FOR
LITTLE GIRLS!
WE ARE BIG GIRLS!

I DO NOT FEEL LIKE THIS AS MUCH AS I USE TOO!

This nap image came from: My Journey To Fit

Found something I love the taste of when I have to have bread! HUNGRY GIRL!

I want it!

I think I am the only one blogging. 

Hope you all have a great day! 

Last night I cooked:

• Brown Rice
• Green Beans
• Baked Flounder

Dorothy made a great low cal broccoli salad.

For the rice I added a drop of olive oil and lemon pepper to the water, it was great.

In the green beans I added chopped onions.

The flounder was baked in the oven with olive oil spray on the pan, lemon pepper, chopped tomatoes, onions, banana peppers, & sweet peppers.

Hardee's Biscuit

I know that often I eat because I am stressed or sometimes when I am sad. But it seems the more I am changing my lifestyle and habits the better I am doing. This morning was a hard morning, I wanted to go to Quitman and get a Hardee's biscuit so very bad. But, I prayed for strength, because God knows food is one of my weaknesses and kept saying to myself " I want to change". Still would like a taste, but I can deal with that.   Some people are looking down on me because I have chosen to use the AdvoCare products instead of just doing this by eating right and exercise. That makes me feel very discouraged. I am now trying to teach myself to eat right and I am adding exercise to my life, but for me, I need more.  I did cheat last night, there was shrimp and crab bisque that had been made at home. I got home around 10:00 p.m or so. I had to try it, so I had a teaspoon and it satisfied my taste from seeing it and smelling it. Dear God, Where Are You? By: Lysa TerKeurst

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1 (NIV)

."He is the One who can use my tears to water the soil of my heart so that it can one day be a harvest of joy: "Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy." Psalm 126:5 (NIV)

Sometimes God's power is shown as much in preventing things as it is in making them happen. We may never know the why. But we can always know and trust the Who.

Dear Lord, thank You for knowing what I need and what I don't—even when I don't agree. Teach me to trust You and look for Your hand in every situation. Help me see Your 'yes' and 'no' as protection and guidance. Today, I choose to trust You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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12:27 p.m. LUNCH! 

Old World Kitchen Spinach & Feta Cheese Chicken - 
IT IS AWESOME!

Lunch Today & Dinner

Today I have had 1/2 of a banana for breakfast along with Spark. Just finished my second bottle of 20 ounce water. Also have had a few almonds for a mid morning snack. This afternoon I will have more raw veggies or a fruit for a snack. If I am hungry tonight for supper, I may do a meal replacement shake.

I also used my Advocare supplements along with the day as I have done since July 13. 

Gotta get some exercise sometime today.

10:35 PM  and still not really tired, but I need to go to sleep! Tonight was going to Meridian with Samantha for newborn class. I really enjoyed it and the time together. I did not remember to bring a shake, so we had Chick-fil-A. This was the kids grilled chicken, instead of fries I had fruit.

Funny for the day...

This is for your amusement purposes only...at my expense! 

Monday Mornings

Every Monday Morning I decide I must try to be healthier in the coming week.  I usually do well te first day but then after things speed up during the week I do like lots of other people and grab whatever food and drink is fast and helps me to move on keeping my schedule on track.  Then toward the end of the week, I feel bloated, tired and discouraged.  It is this pattern that I HAVE to change. 
I am making a commitment to exercise at least 30 minutes on at least 3 days this week!  I mean it!!!

Phone Calls:

This is how many of our calls go:

Hey, I’m fat.

Yep, I am fatter and can’t wait till bed time.

I know, me too.  I’m tired and sick. My knees hurt and my back.

I know, my feet are really hurting today.

Well I gotta cook, Love you..you too.

Hello All: From Shannon

Maybe I will add a few photos from the past up to today. I do not have many because I have always hated my photo taken.