Posts by nevarren

I've mentioned this in other threads, but the cheapest places to get healthy food are the farmer's market or through a CSA.  My CSA costs me about $20/wk.  We spend maybe another $50 every month or two on top of that for staples: tofu, peanut butter, pasta, rice, that sort of thing.  To give you an example of what you can get for your money at a farmer's market or CSA, my box last week included:

2 lbs squash

1 pint blueberries

1 quart plums

2 lbs peaches

1 lb homemade granola

1 lb cucumbers

1.2 lbs green beans

6 radishes

a ton of basil

a couple of onions

a half-dozen eggs

I think there was one other thing but I can't remember what it was right now.  The trick is to go with what's in season and be creative.  I've been using one of my staples--sushi rice--and making home-made tamago (sweet egg sushi) and veggie rolls (with green beans, cucumbers, radishes, and cream cheese).  I eat a plum as a pre-run snack and a peach as a post-run snack.  I make parfaits of blueberries, granola, and plain yogurt which I have for breakfast along with a glass of OJ.  I make pasta with onions, squash, and green beans and make a pesto to go with it since I've got all that basil.

All that for about $20/wk.

I personally would wait--take on a 10-miler first, do things in the right order.  That said, if you're going to do it, you should carb load the night before (runner's world suggests adding 200-300 calories worth of carbs the day before and having a light breakfast: you want extra energy, you don't want to be so stuffed that you feel sluggish) and get plenty of extra sleep.  Make sure you hydrate well the day before and morning of, but don't overhydrate (a common problem with people who run races they haven't trained properly for).  Keep it to about 8oz of water per hour of running (so, at your pace, about 20 oz through the course of the race), and drink your normal amount of water pre-race.

And, well, enjoy :)

Well, I don't know what qualifies as thin, but I think I do OK.  I'm 5'3", 124 lbs, 26" waist.  This is down from 130 & 29" waist a few years ago.  Still not overweight, but not as thin.  From my perspective as a somewhat thin person, I think it's only partly about motivation and discipline, and partly about the fact that at a certain point a lifestyle change stops requiring discipline.

Things I'm good at naturally:

• avoiding fatty foods: i'm a vegetarian and i don't like foods that are overly oily.
• controlling portions at meals: i eat foods that are high volume for low calories, like soup, oatmeal, and healthy sandwiches, and they fill me up easily.
• keeping trigger foods out of my house: my husband and i joined a CSA this year, so we get tons of fresh veggies delivered to us every week.  when we go to the store, it's pretty much only for tofu, pasta, and a few other essentials.  since joining, we've cut a lot of our snacking down just by going shopping at the store so much less (we go maybe once a month now).

Things I'm naturally bad at:

• portion control with snacks: if there's a big bag of chips and i start eating them, i'll always say "just one more" until i've eaten about 300 calories worth.  and if there's peanut butter, i'm doomed.  straight up doomed.
• snacking while bored: stick me ten feet from the kitchen in front of the TV and i'll be in there in a matter of seconds.
• getting enough protein: vegetarian diets are carb-rich.  if i'm not vigilant, i'll realize i've only had half the protein i need by the end of the day.  my options are either don't eat protein and risk muscle loss or eat over my calories.

Things I used to be bad that now come naturally:

• cutting out sugary drinks: i almost always drink only water, tea, or milk.  occasionally, i'll have a glass of wine or a margarita with dinner, but it's very rare.  now, even when i go out about 75% of the time i only drink water.  this is huge for me because my company provides free sodas at work...the only time i'm ever tempted is when i'm tired, and even then i think i've only ever had two sodas in the five months i've been working here.
• drinking lots of water: when you don't have anything else to drink, you tend to drink what you can.
• being active: i used to hate exercise, and i think a big part of it was that i was just bad at it.  i had no stamina, which made me feel like a failure.  last summer, though, i started running to lose weight.  now i can run 2 fast miles or 4-6 slower miles no problem.  working with a trainer has also helped.  i only see my trainer twice a month, but i know she'll be looking to see what i've done and i HATE feel guilty and disappointing her...so i do what i'm supposed to do, regularly.

So I guess my answer to your question is: removing temptation, finding exercise you love, and a healthy serving of guilt.  And having non-weight goals helps too--I'm more likely to run 4-5x/wk if I'm training to run a race than if I'm doing it to keep the weight off.

It might be crap (or rather, it IS crap), but "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" has me laughing at Janice Dickinson & Mrs. Blago for a full hour at the gym...which means I'm on the treadmill for a full hour.

Also, not to be a stick in the mud, but judging from prior forum discussions I'd guess a lot of those warring against reality TV watch and enjoy "The Biggest Loser" (I certainly do).

I guess for me it comes down to this: I'd rather have drama on my TV than in my life.

First of all, right on to all the other introverts--huggitbear, you hit the nail on the head.  My social battery just runs out sometimes.

Secondly, I just have to share this story as it's relevant to the thread, and as I was thinking about this discussion the whole time!  Earlier today I was at the gym, and after my shower I hit the sauna for a few so my hair would stop being quite so drippy.  There was a completely buck-naked woman in the sauna, and she started talking to me.  Not just "nice weather we're having" either, but full-on "I've been going through menopause LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT FOR TWENTY MINUTES" talking to me.  While naked.  And she kept flashing me her crotch.

So, while I get frustrated with people trying to talk to me on the machines, it is NOTHING compared to slightly manic naked ladies with no sense of modesty who start telling me about their bodily functions in the sauna. *BLINK*

Not to be all uppity about it, but we're not all extraverts.  I'm an introvert, and find being social taxing unless I know someone really well.  My close friends are wonderful, but they got to be such good friends precisely because they're aware of and sensitive to my introverted nature.  They know that I need lots of alone time, respect that, and don't take it personally.

Maybe it's a generalization, but I imagine that people who insist on talking to me at the gym (or insist that being social at the gym is necessary) are advertising the fact that they lack those sensitivities.  All the more if they're judgmental about my "antisocial" (I'm not antisocial, I'm just quiet) nature.  I'm sure they'd be a good friend for someone, but probably not for me.

When I'm running, I'm thinking about the next hill--I could care less about the other folks running on the road with me :)  I felt awkward, too, when I first started, but the lesson I learned from my first race is this: everyone loves a new runner :)

You know, I've wondered about this, too, and my conclusion goes something like this:

Maybe.  It depends on a) your starting weight b) your diet and c) your fitness level at start.

The AHA minimum exercise for a health adult is 30 minutes walking (or equivalent) per day.  That's the minimum, and that's to maintain a healthy weight.  So, if you're overweight and sedentary to start and you begin a walking regimen without changing your diet, you're still bound to see *some* result merely by virtue of the fact that you've added exercise of any kind.

For me, walking doesn't come close to cutting it.  I was a student when I started trying to lose weight last year, and I was already walking about an hour a day between my apartment and campus, not to mention walking between classes.  Diet was probably the biggest issue, but I also wasn't overweight to start, just more than I wanted to be (I was 5'3"/130lbs trying to lose 15 lbs).  That meant I had to do more to lose than someone who was less fit, and that more of it had to come from my diet.

So, can you lose weight with just walking?  It depends.  That's my take, anyway.

About a year after college, when I had my first sit-in-an-office-all-day job.

I'm 5'3".  I made it through to the end of college at 117.  That was up from the 102 I was through most of high school, but it was mainly muscle and I was still eating healthy, so it wasn't a problem.  Every summer, I worked jobs that had me walking 5-10 miles/day, so even if I ate junk I was usually fine, and I took yoga during the school year.

When I first got out of college, I had film internships, which meant a lot of running around and--even when in the office--very little time spent not on your feet.  It wasn't until a year later, when I decided I didn't want to work in film anymore, that I started gaining.  There I was, sitting in an office all day long, not getting any real exercise (I always hated going to the gym--have only started to enjoy it in the last year, when I picked up running as a sport), and eating the same old crap.  I went up to 135 at my highest.

I know it doesn't seem like much, and even then I was within a healthy BMI, but for someone who was a size 2 most of her life, the prospect of buying a size 8 or 10 was upsetting.  Now I just have to keep up the healthy lifestyle I've developed, and add to my regular 30-60 mins exercise/day if I want to get from the 124 I am now to the 115 I want to be and stay there.

Sorry, what do you mean by "exercising in constant pain" and "starving"?  Maybe you're rushing too much.  Proper exercise shouldn't be constant pain.  You should build endurance and mix things up so that it's enjoyable.  My body aches sometimes after a particularly long run or a crazy yoga class (I fell over while doing a headstand the other day!  everyone was worried, but I was fine and laughing my tokhes off), but on a daily basis it feels way better than it ever did before I started exercising regularly.  I rarely have back pain anymore, I have more energy, more muscle, and I'm not sad as often as I used to be.  But, that said, I started out really slowly.  When I first began running, I couldn't run half a mile without getting out of breath.  Now I run 3 miles easily, and can get to 5 or 6.  And a 3 mile run for me, at a weight of 124 lbs, burns around 270 calories.  A 5 miler burns 450 calories.  Both take less than an hour.

I WISH I could lose weight on 1800 calories a day, but that's above my maintenance, even at my activity level.  I'm short and I'm in a healthy weight range and trying to lose, which means pushing myself constantly and eating 1500 calories/day to lose half a pound a week.  But...I don't feel like I'm starving.  Damn if I didn't wish I could have dessert sometimes, but I eat when I'm hungry and try to eat healthy and it works.  When I want chocolate, I swap it for something else.

Quinoa is very high-cal: good for you, but high-cal.  1 cup, cooked, is over 600 calories, and that's without anything else in it.  Pasta and bread both have fewer calories for the same volume.  I agree with what others have said: you HAVE to keep track of what you're eating or you'll almost invariably put more in your body than you intend or imagine.

I don't know about which promotes more fat loss, but I do know that I HIIT has done wonders for a) my metabolism b) my running times and c) my endurance.  That said, HIIT shouldn't be something you do every day, so why not mix them up?  My exercise scheduler for this past week looks like this:

M: 3-5 mile run

T: 1 circuit HIIT (takes about an hour, actually ended up doing a 1 1/2 hr yoga class instead)

W: Rest day (though I ran a mile in honor of national running day)

R: Strength training, mixed upper & lower

F: Run 3-5 miles

S: 1 circuit HIIT

Su: Strength training, mixed upper & lower

I often switch things up, and find that having many different routines is a good way to ensure that I stick with it regularly...that and the $42 that comes out of my bank account every month for my gym membership!  When I get my endurance up and can run 5 miles at a time easily, this will be a daily burn of 400-600 calories (right now, it's 300-400 most days).  That's 2400-3600 calories per week that I can put toward faster weight loss or tasty treats.  There's enough strength training that I can maintain and even build some muscle (with commensurate diet), enough HIIT to improve my run times and endurance, and enough variety to ensure that these habits last my lifetime.  Mixing it up also helps you to avoid plateaux.

You need to establish trust with your child, and that needs to go both ways.  Your child shouldn't get to go to a dance until he's shown you that he's trustworthy on his own.  At the same time, when he HAS demonstrated that maturity, you should let him go on his own and truly trust him to act how you know him to act.  There shouldn't be that weird middle area where you're letting him go, but making it clear that you still don't really trust him, as that just breeds resentment.  My parents made it very clear that I had to earn their trust.  If I let my parents know where I was and followed the house rules, I was allowed more responsibility.  If I went out and didn't call, or let my grades slip in favor of having a social life, etc., my activities were limited.  As a result, I grew up as a very responsible kid.  I never drank or did drugs, and didn't have an intimate relationship until my senior year, at which point I went to my parents and talked to them about what responsibilities that entailed.

Children can't develop a strong sense of responsibility if they aren't entrusted with some, and they can't become independent if you're always acting as their safety net.  Trust your son, assuming he's earned it, until he gives you a reason to rescind that trust.

Congratulations!  I remember that feeling of finishing your first race.  I always used to hate running and, truth be told, I don't always love doing it now, but that feeling of finishing a run and--even better--a race is AMAZING and it just keeps getting better :)

In my drawer at work, you'll find:

Organic Apricot Ginger Black Tea

Agave Nectar (for the tea)

Balance Bars (cookie dough and chocolate raspberry fudge)

The balance bars are a staple wherever I go: 200 calories and 15-16g protein, which for a pescatarian who rarely gets to eat fish is pretty great.  I eat very light and very early breakfasts (100-200 calories), and I commute an hour to work, so I tend to get hungry mid-morning, and the bars do a good job of satisfying my hunger while still being pretty healthy.

I drink the tea in the morning (it has caffeine), and in the afternoon switch to herbal tea.  Agave nectar is pretty sweet, so it only takes about 1/4 of a tablespoon to sweeten 8-12 oz of tea, and the tea itself is delicious and keeps me awake.  Between the taste and the fact that tea is always oddly filling, drinking tea keeps me from noshing all day long.

Hi Hajab,

I think it's worth thinking of the process as "getting fit" and not just losing weight.  When I started working toward getting fit two years ago, I started with a single change: cutting high-calorie, low-nutrition drinks out of my diet.  I went from a juice and soda hound to now drinking pretty much just water, milk, and the occasional high-protein, low-sugar smoothie.  Last summer, I started running 4-5x/week and counting calories, and this spring I joined a CSA (short for community supported agriculture--a subscription produce coop), and now about 80% of my diet comes from fresh, local fruits and veggies.  In the last month, I joined a proper gym and began lifting weights to build muscle with the help of a personal trainer.  I didn't make all the changes at once, but I did find that one change led pretty naturally to another.  I found that drinking more water and less soda made me less bloated, and less inclined to eat other super-sugary foods.  Running gave me more energy, and made me less interested in throwing crap in my body, and once I was eating really well, I realized that I didn't want to just lose weight, I wanted to gain strength.  I don't think my experience is abnormal, either.

Good luck to you in your long-term goals, but remember to set short-term ones, too.  Achieving those will help you feel accomplished.  And take a before photo, because when you feel like you look exactly the same and nothing's changing, it'll be good to compare :)