Diet and Exercise

Lose Weight! Win a Free Cookbook!

17 Comments / cookbooks, Daily Dose, Diet and Exercise /

Y’all know Carmen, right? Of course you do, everyone knows Carmen.

Since you know her, you know she lost a whole lot of weight and is doing a fantastic job of keeping it off. (That whole keeping it off thing is a lot harder than losing it sometimes.) How did she do it? The smart way. The only way I encourage people to do it. She ate less fatty food.

That’s it, that’s her secret. It isn’t much of a secret but often it takes someone like Carmen to show you the way. Luckily, she’s up for the job and she’s launched a brand new blog called The ELFF Diet.

I don’t like to recommend diets or dieting or anything like that on my blog. In fact I really try to avoid it. But in this case I’m going to do more than recommend her blog and her ideas, I’m going to entice you to go over there and learn from her by offering a prize. One for you and one for Carmen. But you have to work for this prize. (Carmen doesn’t, she’s already done the work and is continuing to do the work by maintaining and by helping others.)

In order to win the prize (and help Carmen also win the prize) you need to go to The ELFF Diet blog and comment on one of her blog posts and be sure to say “Denise said you were smart when it comes to dieting.” That is it, that’s what you have to do. I’ll be checking her comments and she’ll be glad to tell me if you followed directions. Or you can come back here and post a comment to me telling me that you did it.

In two weeks I’ll put all of the names into an empty Cheese Straw box and Michelle Belle will pick one. We’ll post the video of the drawing of the winner ’cause that will be fun, won’t it?

Oh I should tell you what you’ll win, right? You’re going to win a cookbook. A cookbook by a dietitian I have no qualms about recommending any time, The Recipe Doctor, Elaine Magee. It will be your choice – you can either have Fry Right, Fry Light or Comfort Food Makeovers. The one that you do not choose I’ll give to Carmen!

The reason I have selected this prize is because Elaine also believes you can lose weight and be healthier by eating less fatty food. Her recipes help you do just that. She lightens our favorite recipes without losing any of the great taste. She’s a foodie, you can trust her.

What are you waiting for, go check out The ELFF Diet and tell Carmen that I think she’s smart when it comes to dieting!

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Walking! For Fun and Exercise!

9 Comments / Day to Day, Diet and Exercise /

TW finally did it and I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t teased her into doing it.  Let this be a lesson to you people, teasing your partner can lead to serious consequences.  You’re wondering what I teased her into doing, aren’t you?  It’s the 101 things in 1001 days list.  She made one.  Finally.  And no you can’t see it because it’s private.  Well it isn’t really private it just isn’t completely public.  If you are dying to know what’s on her 101 things list, then I’ll tell you in private because like I said, it isn’t completely public.  (Hell would you make your list public if it had stuff on it like "brush my hair before work everyday for 2 weeks"?)

Anyway, she made her damn list and besides that brushing hair thing and some really frightening items related to cosmetics and giving up coke, she put walking on her list.  Walking everyday.  For a month.  Around the block.  Twice a day.  Everyday.  For. A. Month.  She’s been talking about this whole walking everyday thing for an entire freaking year.  I have just smiled and nodded my head, knowing she would never actually do this because, well, she doesn’t exercise.  It isn’t her thing.

Apparently hell froze over yesterday because I joined her on the first walk.  I strapped on (get your mind out of the gutter, people!) the pedometer and joined her like a good and dutiful girlfriend.  I complained the entire .21 miles and 10 minutes.  I felt like Prince J, I complained so much! 

Five minutes after finishing a very large dinner of hoppin john and greens, she started putting on her sneakers again.  What! We have to walk again? Tonight? In the dark?  Damn, she’s serious about this list.  So I make her wait til I finish my chapter and I join her with the pedometer and again, I complained.  All of the way.

  She tried to reassure me that this would get "easier" – umm easier? It’s already easy, that’s the problem.  There is no challenge.  It is boring and a waste of time.  If it gets any easier …  Then she tried to say it would get more relaxing.  Huh? Walking is relaxing?  Oooooooook, I would like to know what drugs Dr W slipped her that I don’t know about.  Because walking isn’t relaxing.  It’s just plain boring. 

Well guess what.  This morning at 7am, we were out there again.  Walking.  In the dark.  In the cold (it was only 58 degrees!)  And apparently we are going to walk again this evening.  Can you believe it?  The woman who never follows through and really doesn’t DO exercise is going to walk again.  Geez.  Can’t she follow through on spraying febreeze and scratching that off the chore chart everyday instead? 

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Daily Dose of Weight – GAIN

12 Comments / Diet and Exercise /

I hope I’m not jinxing myself here but I’m sort of happy about this and feeling confident about it so I’m going to share it… I. have. gained. weight.   And it appears as though the. weight. is. sticking. 

It’s relatively normal for me to gain a bit of weight, enough so my pants aren’t falling off and enough so TW doesn’t have to ask "when was the last time you ate" every darn day but  it is sort of rare for me to keep that weight for more than a couple of weeks at a time.

At first I thought this was a fluke related to item number 25 on my 101 things list.  Then I thought it was related to my menstrual cycle.  But no, I think this might be real honest to goodness weight gain that might just stick if I don’t forget to eat for awhile. 

Do me a favor, don’t comment about how you wish you had this problem because you don’t.  Just be happy for me and think good food thoughts for the next month or so.  I really dislike having to hold my jeans up when I walk and I also dislike hearing TW ask me when I last ate.  And I really, really dislike Michelle growling over my falling down jeans.

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Daily Dose of Diet – Pet Peeves

6 Comments / Diet and Exercise, Pet Peeves /

A recent blog entry on Blogher titled Bathing Suit Season is Coming Ladies, Start Your Diets made me shudder.  Thankfully it bugged Liz and it bugged Skye and it bugged Candace so I got to sit on my hands for a bit and hope the shuddering passed.  It didn’t, so here I am.  Why, why, WHY do we do this?  I say WE because I do it too, at work.  It’s a quick and easy way to pull women into a discussion about diet but it’s wrong, wrong, WRONG and I am vowing never to do it again.  Not for any reason.  EVER.

Have you ever seen an article about diet, about bathing suits or about warm weather that is titled "Bathing Suit Season is Coming, Men, Start Your Diets"?  No, you haven’t and I assume you never will.  In fact I hope you never see that article because it’s still wrong.

Diet should not ever be about fitting into a bathing suit.  It should not ever be about having fun in warm weather or going swimming.  Diet should be about overall health and not going to the beach, the lake or the pool.  Enjoying the beach or the lake or the pool or any other activity should not ever be dependent on how you look in your bathing suit or any other item of clothing. 

And while I’m ranting, weight loss or maintenance should not be a tool for empowerment or something that reminds you that you are "being all that you can be".   If so, those anorexics and bulimics are soooo  all they can be, aren’t they?  Controlling that food intake and managing the laxatives is certainly empowering.  Go eating-disordered people!  And those folks with metabolic disorders and hormone related weight problems or who are just plain happy in a size 14 or size 20 certainly shouldn’t feel empowered and aren’t being all that they can be, either – who cares if they are perfectly HEALTHY at such a weight? 

As long as we give food and diet that sort of "power" we are at risk of disordered eating patterns of some type.  If you only feel emotionally strong or empowered  when you are controlling your weight then you are risking your emotional well-being everytime you sit down with a bag of chips or order a nice dessert at a restaurant.   I’ve eaten an entire bag of chips in one sitting and I liked it!  And it does not cause me any emotional harm nor does it make me feel less powerful.  FOOD does not OWN me.  My WEIGHT does not CONTROL me.

Looking beyond the initial post, at the comments, Kalyn did talk about how important it is to lose weight and eat properly for better health.  But those comments were only in response to women who found the initial post troubling.  And she returned quickly to the topic of looks and appearance and what other people might think of us if we are overweight.   The idea behind the first post was dieting in order to look good  this summer and at no time did Kalyn manage to turn that around to anything healthy – either emotionally or physically.

Why do women continue to perpetuate the dieting for bathing suit beauty myth?  Why do we continue to use the phrase "thin is always better than fat"?  Why do we encourage each other to believe that we can’t enjoy a happy, physical life unless we look GOOD in our bathing suits?  Is it any wonder anorexia and bulimia are on the rise?  Is it any wonder our daughters grow up thinking they are ugly and hating their bodies?  I don’t think we can blame "the media" or "hollywood" or even "men".  I think the blame lies squarely with us. 

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Daily Dose of Diet – Lentils

6 Comments / Diet and Exercise, Foodie /

Last week TW sent me this link to Red Lentil Soup.  My reaction was YUK.  I don’t much care for lentils and I really really hate soup.  TW said, Yea I know but it’s something different.  So I saved the link.  On Monday I AIMed TW and asked her what she wanted for dinner this week, she said that "Slashfood lentil thing".  I sighed and made sure to add all of the necessary ingredients to my shopping list and made sure to include that "Slashfood Lentil thing" in the menu when Michelle and I created it.

Yesterday was suppose to be that "Slasfhood Lentil thing" but I couldn’t face it.  I’d already cooked once with Michelle, cleaned up that mess, helped her with a truly messy chemistry experiment, cleaned up that mess and dealt with Michelle and the sewing maching.  I told TW I couldn’t face the "slashfood lentil soup" and she said "Huh? I hate soup and I hate lentils! Why are we having lentil soup???" I sent her the link, sent her the AIM log where she specifically said "that lentil thing" and we argued about it a bit and laughed about it a lot more.  And then, we had avocado salad sandwiches instead (they were good but I went overboard with the jalapenos a wee bit). 

Today we had the "Slashfood Lentil thing" and even though it absorbed more of the liquid than it should have and became that "red lentil thing" and really not "red lentil soup" at all, it was good.  We wanted flatbread to go with but Publix had none so we just got pita instead.   A definite success.  Particularly because we don’t like lentils or soup.

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Daily Dose of Diet – Meatout Monday

4 Comments / Diet and Exercise /

Yea! It’s Meatout Monday!  That means spring has arrived!  It also means FREE veggie burgers at Johnny Rockets if you’re lucky enough to have a Johnny Rockets where you live.  I’m not one of those lucky people but maybe you are?  (Thanks to my partner in health, mipmup for alerting us to the freebie burgers!)

Since I don’t have a Johnny Rockets nearby I thought I’d take a minute to give you a product review courtesy of Prince J and TW who went to the grocery store unattended the weekend before last.  It’s a rare thing for them to be allowed out sans adult supervision but I was busy painting so off they went – to Home Depot and to Publix.  (If they went somewhere else, they’re both keeping mum on that but I wouldn’t put it past them, ya know?)

P_deli_cranberry
I’m not sure whose idea it was to buy Tofurky Deli Slices in the turkey, stuffing, cranberry variety but I know Prince J was sure I wouldn’t touch these with a ten foot pole and was sure I was going to make TW try them first.  Prince J, alas, was wrong.  Try them I did and they brought back the oddest of food memories. 

Did you buy lunch at school in the 70’s?  If you did then you probably had numerous plates of turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing etc… at school.  Did your mom occasionally serve frozen tv dinners in the weird metal trays?  If she did, you probably had numerous trays of the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes variety, right?

Well that’s what these deli slices reminded me off.  That processed obviously fake turkey and dressing I ate as a child at school and occasionally at home on those metal trays.  Weird and oddly pleasant in their weirdness.  In fact I enjoyed the sandwich so much that I had another one a couple of days later and today when I run out to the grocery store I plan on buying another package.  Food memories are good things and in this case, a sandwich or two made with tofurky is also a good thing.

Thanks Prince J and TW for an off the list purchase.  Normally that’s against Denise rules so don’t do it again, but in this case, it was ok.

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Daily Dose of Cookies – Binge Eating

7 Comments / Diet and Exercise /

Let’s start with a blast from my blogging past…

February 21, 2005
Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie – ADDICTION

By JustDenise

I have a problem!  I think I’ve become addicted to Nutter Butters!  I have never been faced with this type of a problem and it’s sort of scaring me!

We bought those big lunch box packages that have three different kinds of cookies – Nutter Butter, Chips Ahoy and Oreo, I believe.  These are the "mini" sized cookies so they seemed sort of harmless to me and I had a bag one day last week when I was starving but the boss had me chained to the computer.  Before I knew it, I’d eaten TWO MORE BAGS within just a few moments.

Well, ummm, same thing happened a couple of days later – three of those mini bags bit the dust before I knew what had happened.

Now today, I’m hungry, and I found myself digging through those boxes of mini, lunchbox sized bags of cookies hoping and almost praying (you know I don’t really pray) for Nutter Butters.

What is going on?  Do you think someone like spiked my package of cookies with some weird drug that is making me crave these things?  Or is it Nabisco that is adding something to cause my craving?  Is it the trans fat, or lack thereof that’s doing this?  If I opened a bag of Chips Ahoy (which I really don’t like) would I find myself eating my way through three of those mini bags?

HELP!  Save me from the Nutter Butter Madness and please do NOT let me buy any Nutter Butters ever AGAIN!


Now, back to today’s regularly scheduled cookie binge.  Ok so it wasn’t scheduled and there was nothing regular about it.  When I said "I binged today" to TW I thought she was going to keel over laughing or at least pee her pants.  Binging is not something I do.  Not really.  Except when there are oatmealy peanut butter cookies around, it seems

You see today, I did in fact binge.  At least I feel like I binged.  It might not be a true binge to those who have binge eating disorder and stuff but it’s all relative, if you ask me.  I ate an entire sleeve of Do-si-dos. All by myself.  Not all at one time, just throughout the work day over about six hours.  That’s about 10 cookies, I think.  Might have been 11 but TW says there are 10 in a sleeve.  We don’t know for sure because there aren’t anymore left to count.  (If you’ve got a box with a full sleeve, could you count and let me know, please?)

Besides the fact that this binging thing is weird it bugs me that I ate 10 (or maybe 11) of those things.  I use to love them.  But now they taste funny, not as salty as they use to be.  It’s not the baker, I’m use to having the Little Brownie Bakers as our GS Cookie distributor.  It isn’t the trans fats, I don’t think, because these things still have trans fats.  (Man I think I probably had 8 grams of trans fats – do not tell Elaine!)  Why DID I eat 10 (or maybe 11) cookies that I didn’t even enjoy?  It wasn’t like the Nutter Butter binge, when I really did enjoy those suckers.  Every time I ate a Do-Si-Do I grumbled that they didn’t taste the same and didn’t taste as good – but still, I ate them. 

No more peanut butter oatmeal type cookies are coming in this house ever again.  Nutter Butters and Do-Si-Dos are BANNED from the Flamingo House foreverrrrrrrrrrrrr.
 

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Daily Dose of Diet – Size Matters

2 Comments / Diet and Exercise, Health and Wellness, News and Politics /

Diet! Diet! Exercise! Diet! DIET! I can’t tell you how often I hear those words or say those words everyday. Well I could but then you’d want to kill me. We spend an awful lot of time thinking about diets, going on diets, going off diets, complaining about exercise and worrying about what our diets are (or aren’t) doing for our bodies.



Do you think it might be time to stop worrying so much about diet, diet, diet and worry more about overall health? Do you think it might be time to give our bodies a break and start appreciating them for what they DO look like rather than what society has convinced us they SHOULD look like?



Alas, a Blog launched the first Big Fat Carnival last week (the next one isn’t scheduled til April, darn it). There are some terrific size acceptance links in the Carnival. Go read! Ponder the message! Consider your own body, your feelings about other bodies. Does size matter?



After you’ve surfed the carnival – stop by Fat Chicks Rule and be sure to consider Lara’s entry from February 13, Soon they’ll be saying a little anorexia is ok:

Moderately heavy models may actually lower women’s self-esteem

The most annoying part was near the end with the claim “These results shed light on why magazines featuring only plus-sized models don’t have the success of the magazine that feature slim models: “…campaigns featuring moderately heavy ‘real women’ might not be as inspirational (or effective) as expected,” conclude Smeesters and Mandel.”

Interesting, eh? Women often scream for advertising that includes “real women” but is that really what we want? Does size matter?

**Cross Posted @ Blogher**


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Daily Dose of Chicken – Religion

1 Comment / Diet and Exercise, Foodie, Friends & Family, Health and Wellness, Religion /

Poor Sassymonkey has a problem. Some chicken that I, vegetarian that I am, though sounded yummy gave her some tummy troubles. I can relate. When I eat meat, (yea I know, vegetarians aren’t suppose to eat meat – sue me), I have that problem too. It doesn’t usually happen with chicken though.

BK Whoppers, Big Macs, Arby’s Beef n Cheddar – bad for tummy. A bit of roasted chicken, no problem. (Yea, I know. Vegetarians aren’t suppose to eat meat. I’m sorry you’re confused – get over it. It’s my life, my stomach, my stand!)

I wonder why chicken bugs the monkey girl. It’s lean. Relatively easy on every tummy. Hmmm. Maybe God is trying to tell her she needs to find religion and do it through the chicken?


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