Stop with the Diet Coke already!

Not just your Diet Coke...your artificial sweetener in general.

As a former Diet Cokaholic (I quit cold turkey 2 weeks ago), I understand the love of things bubbly, I know the addiction to the caffeine, and I know enjoying the feeling of getting away with drinking soda calorie free. No calories, no guilt right?

Well, even though its calorie free, it turns out artificial sweeteners may actually destroy your metabolism more than high fructose corn syrup. Say wha? Well, think of the many of the Diet Cokaholics that you know, are they real slim and trim? Usually the answer is no. So why is artificial sweetener so bad?

1. Artificial sweetener causes you to actually crave more calories. Especially sweet things. Your body thinks it needs to consume more calories to satisfy the sweet tooth. Zero calorie sweetener is bad news folks.
2. You trick your body into thinking it doesn't have to work hard to burn off sweet things. (Your body recognizes "sweet", then when it doesn't come along with calories, it thinks "We don't have to work hard to burn this off". So when you actually eat a doughnut, or that birthday cake at the office, it thinks "oh, sweet! we don't have to work hard to burn this off either". Scary, right?
3. Can you pronounce what you're drinking, Diet Cokaholics? Drink things that you don't have to read a chemistry book to understand.

In my two weeks of kicking the artificial sweeteners, I have not craved something sweet after every meal. I honestly have not caught myself wishing I could indulge in something sweet. And that is amazing! After every meal, I want chocolate. Bad. Or I want ice cream, usually at night. But in these past two weeks, I have not really even wanted it. I have had sugar, REAL organic sugar in small doses (not high fructose corn syrup) (which was hard for me mentally to consume...ahh! eating REAL sugar!) but in eating that real sugar, I have tasted and had my fill and moved on. The yourning for something sweet has not lingered. This is a BREAKTHROUGH.

And, *BONUS*, in kicking the diet coke, I am kicking my caffeine habit (it can be done people), and I am drinking SO much more water. And guess what, my complexion looks so much better (I haven't had a pimple in 2 weeks!), and water just makes you feel GOOD! Not to mention it flushes your body of fat and other toxins.

Can't get over the bubbles? I know, I love carbinaton too. Try my favorite drink: Perrier. Squeeze a lime in it. It's delicioius, it's bubbly, and it's 100% WATER.

Oh, and to the reader who is thinking "oh, but I don't drink diet soda or use artificial sweetner". Your day will come. Soon I will be writing about the wiles of the evil high fructose corn syrup, almost equally as dangerous.

It's just color theory

In subtractive color, like in print, white is the result of no color, and black is the result of all colors.

In additive color, as on the computer or in any form of light, black is the absence of color, and white is a combination of all colors.

That's what I learned in school.

What they don't teach in school, but all girls know very well is that black is slimming, and white does exactly the opposite... So now I have a brand new reason to stay on track at the gym...

because Bryan proposed Thursday and I'm ENGAGED and my white wedding will be in November. AHHH! :D I must work hard to look good in that white dress (and out of it)!

A Capitalistic Garden

I'm currently reading Master your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels, the well known trainer from The Biggest Loser. The book IS about "mastering" your metabolism, but it seems your metabolism isn't quite what you thought it was.

When I think of metabolism, I imagine a furnace in my tummy, burning up my daily calories for energy. Well, that's part true, but really your metabolism is your biochemistry. It consists of all your hormones, and it is the hormones that are responsible for taking care of the calories you ingest.

As I quoted her earlier in my blog, the exciting news is that you're not just stuck with a "bad metabolism", your biochemistry is what is bad. And we are making it that way. But if its biochemistry, it can be changed. How can you change your biochemistry? Well, there are a few things that must be changed. 1. The types of food we eat in general (real, natural, God-made-it kind of food) and 2. The hormones, pesticides and antibiotics in all of our food is royally screwing us up and have got to go. Here's a quote from Jillian, can't you just hear her voice now:

"Take a power nutrient food, tomatoes. God created tomatoes and they have all the cancer-fighting health benefits mentioned above—the best form of medicine with no harmful side effects. Now let's take our little tomato and see what happens to it in the name of capitalism. The tomato is grown conventionally, and sprayed with up to seven kinds of pesticides. Then it is picked too early because it must make the long journey across the country—or across the world—from its original location to your supermarket. Yes, you are now polluting the environment with all the gas used to transport the tomato. But there's more. The tomato is still green because it was picked too early, so now it is sprayed with argon gas (also used to euthanize dogs) to make it turn red prematurely. WOW! We have just taken God's natural medicine and turned it into poison—for us and our environment." Jillian Michales, p.151 Master Your Metabolism

EEK!

The book should not have been called "Master Your Metabolism". It should have been called "This is all the scary information I've compiled for the past 10 years, but don't worry, there's a very doable and affordable solution", by Jillian Michaels. Everyone read it. Buy one for your mom, your dad, have them read it. Regardless of whether you struggle with your weight or not, this book discusses lots of cancer prevention, along with how to lower your cholesterol and blood pressure naturally, deal with menopause and PMS, and much much more. And it's not just for girls. Everyone read it. It is a scary book, but she doesn't send you off in a storm of doom and gloom. She opens your eyes, then gives you very doable ways to change your life for good. And I'm telling you right now, I'm not going back.


and p.s. not trying to advertise for them, but it's half price at amazon.com :)

Running in the rain, what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again...

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Last night, for the first time in my life, I enjoyed running. Enjoyed, was filled with joy because of, took joy in.....running? I hate running. It's easy to hate running when you're on the verge of your lungs collapsing, you've got an aching stitch in your side, and your 195 heart rate has caused you to see spots, not to mention everything is jiggling and bouncing (sorry for the illusion). Trust me, I've hated running.

Last night, I had to jump rope until I reached 500 calories to complete a "challenge" at the gym. When I first joined the gym, I would jump the rope maybe 25 times and have to stop because my heart rate had skyrocketed. Last night I would jump for a minute straight and look down to see my heart rate had only reached 170 or 175. I'm VERY happy that I have conditioned myself and am actually more "fit" now, but it did take me a little bit longer than it would have originally to reach 500 calories!

That being said, after my jumping rope, Jenn and I went out to run, but it was pouring down rain. Instead of yogging (jogging) we picked up the pace because we wanted to avoid being drenched and I had an absolute blast. I felt like a child again, like a little kid playing with friends. It seemed effortless, refreshing, and amazing. For the first time in my life, I had a glimpse into why people even like to run in the first place. Big step for me. Maybe one day I'll run?

Conclusion: I should go run everytime it rains.

A shareable blog

I have a fitness blog elsewhere, but I'm not willing to share with the world (lots of numbers only a handful of people know). That being said, I DID want to have a blog about weightloss and fitness that I could share with everyone, in an effort to encourage and be encouraged.

I've struggled with my weight since I was about 6 years old, I was the chunky kid for pretty much all my life. In college I gained a whole bunch of weight, sadly, but from Summer 2007 to Summer 2008 I was able to lose 90 lbs total. Not shockingly, since then, I have put on about 35 of it back. EWW.

In February I reached a low point and decided it HAD TO GO, once and for all. I joined 4 Balance Fitness, a local gym of the boot camp variety, and have already seen results. Since the end of February, I have lost 6% body fat and considerable inches.

So I am on a quest to not be "thin" or "skinny" but be HEALTHY and FIT. I will use this blog for a variety of things, I hope it won't be too boring. Below I have copied and pasted some of my postable resent entries from my other blog. Everyone loves comments, so comments are welcome :)

May 4, 2009 • This weeks Food Log Link
May 4 - May 10

p.s. that Jillian Michaels book is scaring the crap out of me. Will update soon if I am not destroyed by neurotoxins and xetrogens before.

x

May 2, 2009 • New Book
I can't put down Jillian Michael's "Mastering your Metabolism"...so good, so much information on our biochemistry and why its such a struggle for me to keep the pounds off.

After a decade of treating my body like I'm a lab rat, I have hope in hearing Jillian say "if metabolism is your biochemistry, then it is dynamic, not static, and can be changed". I can't blame mom and dad and grandma and papa anymore. I can help change it.

I may post a summary of the book for those that don't want to read all 277 pages of it.

That is all. Also, I bought Bride Wars on DVD...another constant reminder that I better get my act together before I have to appear in front of everyone I know in a strapless white dress. Makes me want to do push ups. Right now.

<3

Food log: May 1-3

May 1, 2009 • If You Were Ever Curious About What I am Eating...
Food log: May 1-3

My gym monitors my food intake (which is an awesome bonus!) They are constantly making suggestions and trying to improve my eating habits. They sent a new excel document for us to use this morning, it was ugly as sin. I've revamped it with girl colors. This is a live google document, so feel free to click and see what I'm eating daily, it updates every 5 minutes (See link above). If you want a copy of the excel file to use yourself, send me a PM with your email address and I can send it to you.

In other news, my new obsession is:

THE GEORGE FOREMAN WITH REMOVABLE PLATES

I already have a George Foreman grill, but I HATE it because it is so hard to clean. When I found this on sale at Target, I had to buy. I have been cooking on it every night. It is SO easy to clean. Seriously. You could almost just run it under water. It grills meat and vegetables effortlessly, and they are delicious! (And it's amazing how much fat rolls off of it!) I've pretty much been eating grilled asparagus every night. Mmmm. I'm already ready for dinner!