9 Tips to Keep Holiday Weight Away

In most every survey, losing weight and getting fit is at the top of the list of New Year’s resolutions. For thirty years, it was number one on mine until I decided to make a change. In my book, Finished being Fat, I went on a journey to lose seventy-five pounds and learned to finish what I started. The first year after the weight-loss, it felt like the holiday season was out get me: the feasts, the parties, and the endless parade of neighborly homemade fudge and treats. But I was determined to never make that weighty New Year’s resolution again. Here are a few tricks I've found that help me survive the holidays -- with both my buttons and my sanity intact.





Stick to the Budget
The secret to weight loss is not so secret. Take in less calories that the body is using. That’s how I lost the weight and that’s how I've have kept it off. My budget doesn't take a holiday vacation. If I have an important party or dinner to go to, I make sure to save most of my calories for that.


BYOB
This stands for bring your own bananas. It doesn't really have to be bananas, but if I’m going to a party where I knew there will be lots of fattening finger foods, I bring something a little healthier. So I’m a good guest and bring a veggie or fruit tray. The party host is usually grateful for the extra offering and I’m not stuck with an empty plate.


Daily Present
It’s the holidays, so I give myself a present everyday. In my daily budget, I make sure to save room for a little piece of one of my favorite indulgences. I'll feel less like a miser when I satisfy my cravings. And since it’s in my budget, I don’t even have to feel guilty about it.


Pretty Plates
I eat with my eyes first. At big family dinners with lots of food, I focus on making a pretty plate. In the case of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, I put the food with color on first -- the leafy greens, the vibrant orange carrots or some sweet potato. Then I’ll add the protein onto the plate. That only leaves a small portion of my plate for the beige stuff like mashed potatoes and gravy.


Float Away
Wherever I am, there’s plenty of water nearby. I try to drink a full glass before every meal. It serves two purposes: First, I feel fuller and I’m less likely to overeat. And second, it helps my digestion to flush the fat.


Earn More
When I've already spent my calories for the day, but that pumpkin pie is calling my name, I earn more calories for the budget. I go for a run, hike, or walk. Sometimes I’ll play in the snow with the kids. With an hour of exercise, I can earn an extra 400-600 calories for the day.


Deck the Halls
I try to stay busy and off the couch. Boredom snacking doesn't add to my enjoyment of the holiday, but it does add to my waistline. I plan activities for me and my family that aren't centered around food. Like going caroling or making holiday cards. It keeps my hands and mouth occupied with something other than eating.


Peace on Earth
The holidays can get crazy. I de-stress and avoid emotional eating through meditation. Every time I want to reach for the tub of ice cream to soothe my frayed nerves, I take a few minutes to breath and meditate instead. I prefer a couple of yoga boxed breaths. Inhale for four counts. Hold for four counts. Exhale for four counts. Then hold again for four counts. Works like a charm to focus my brain on what I really want, rather than the momentary satisfaction of what I think I do.


Forgive and Forget
Everybody has bad days. After I've had one, I look at what went wrong and why I went over the budget. Then I commit to myself to do better -- then let it go. It doesn't help to beat myself up over past mistakes. That’s one of the tricks that has led me to lasting weight-loss -- banishing the Ghosts of Fat Past.

Fitness Tip: Don't Overlook Yoga

In an effort to burn the most calories in our workouts, yoga and other stretching often gets overlooked. It's true, that unless you do hot yoga, or power yoga, you won't burn a lot of calories in an hour. But physical fitness needs to go beyond the calorie count. Yoga is great for body and mind. It improves flexibility and aids in injury prevention.

One thing I hear a lot of is, "I can't do yoga. I'm just not very flexible." Well, duh. That's why you go to yoga. It's not about putting your feet behind your ears. It's about being in tune with your muscles and making progress. Egos get left at the door. I teach yoga and I can't reach my toes in forward fold with a flat back. It's all about the process.

So keep in mind that while yoga is low calorie burn, it creates those long and lean beautiful muscles we all want.

The Plight of the Scale

The weight was dropping off. I had just dipped below the 148 mark. Then the scale read 160 the next day. Then 5 minutes later 135. then 170 on the third try. Finally it gave up the ghost and read Err.

I was freaking out. Which number was right? I was hoping it was closer to the second try, but I knew that couldn't be right. The scale was busted, I mean how you feel if someone stood on you day in and day out, asking if they were fat.  The poor scale. It has deserved its rest.

In the meantime, I have an opportunity to gain perspective. How easy is it to depend, even obsess on those little blinking numbers? It is a decent way to track your weight, but it can't tell us how we feel. Have you ever woken, feeling great in you skinny jeans, ready to conquer the world. Then you hop on the scale and find out that you have an extra pound or two of water weight today. Suddenly, you feel like a schlump.

The scale is a tool to be used sparingly. Not five times a day, or even once every day. Today, say thank you for your scale's service and give it a vacation. Focus on getting more in tune with how your body is feeling so you can let that be your barometer.

Long Run and Fitness Tip: Cheerleaders

This weekend I did my longest run before the marathon in 3 weeks. 20 freaking miles.  I ran around my neighborhood, but I'm pretty sure if I'd been smart I could have run to the ice cream shop and back. Anyway, afterwards I had the energy of a slug so the weekend post never happened. So here's the weekend post with the fitness tip folded in. Like a candy with a gooey center.

I've decided that the biggest run before a marathon is just bad juju. Last year it was just after my longest run that I injured my hamstring, making my first marathon a speed walkathon. Two weeks ago I had a great 19 mile run. I wasn't tired or sore or anything. I could've run the marathon that day for sure. This 20 miles kicked my butt. It wasn't the extra mile that pushed me over, I hit the wall all the way back at mile 5.

It started in the ball of my foot then shot up the shin, through the knee and then up the hamstring finally zapping my lower back. My right leg was stiff and tight and begging to be amputated. So choices. Run through it or go home. I'm too darn stubborn to go home, so I ran through it. Then next 10 miles sucked. Really bad. I wasn't in extreme pain, maybe a 5 on the pain scale. I had to pull through all my bags of tricks to get through it. Music, singing, visualizing the finish line, self talk... everything. I finally went with "This sucks" over and over to the beat of my feet. Then changed it to "Just one more lap until Chrisy comes". Yep, I had reinforcements coming.

The last five miles of my long runs, my friend Chrisy Ross joins me. If I could just make it long enough for her to come, then I knew she'd drag my butt those last five miles. Sure enough, rounding the park I saw my salvation. I nearly started crying. My knee by this point felt completely rusted over. She started running in step with me encouraging me, "You're running strong. Good girl." I stood a little taller, my stride a little more confident.

For the next fifty minutes or so we kept the pace and she kept my mind off how much I wanted to be home, in bed, with the biggest bag of ice I could find. The last five miles ended up just as easy as the first five. My knee still killed me by the end, but I had made it. And I'm not sure I would have without my friend being my cheerleader.

Everybody needs a cheerleader in life. They don't need to have pom poms or wear a short skirt, but they do need to push you back onto the field even when your down by five goals. When you have a workout buddy, you seem to stand a little taller, push a little harder, and stay a little longer.  I'm not sure if it's the mechanics of healthy competition, or pride, or the warm fuzzy feeling of encouragement- but I always do better with a friend at my side.

So that's the fitness tip, get a cheerleader. Somebody that holds you accountable for your progress and pushes you to go even though you feel like giving up.

The Long Run: Emotional hoarding

Something I've noticed recently is that I hold on to stuff way past their expiration date. And I'm not just talking about the milk from the freezer. I hang on to emotions and feelings way past when I should let them go.

I mean should I still be pissed at those kids from high school that moo'ed at me in the hallway?

I have to learn to let it go because it's taking up valuable space in my life. Do I really need to keep an emotional tally of all the times my family has supported me, and more importantly, the times they have not.

Why am I still hanging onto feelings that don't matter? Am I using it as fuel to propel me forward? No. It's just dragging me down into old patterns of feeling inadequate.

So yesterday my post was all about cleaning my room, well today I need to clean out my feelings drawer. I might try the whole get it out into a letter and burn it idea. But I have to get all the negative hurts out before they poison me and halt my success and happiness.

Do you have problems letting it go? Better yet, do you have good tips on how to let it go? Are you an emotional hoarder too?

Mirror Image

I decided to hijack my own blog. I'm taking over Dress for Success. Why? Because it's my blog and I can do what I want.

Really though, its because sometimes I want to share more of me and less of the how to. Sometimes I just want to have an honest discussion about something. And today's discussion would be what I see when I stand in front of the mirror.

I see lumps and bumps and flaps of skin. Sags here, old stretch marks there. I see flaws that can be tucked, squished, or camouflaged by a well made pair of jeans. I'm absolutely positive that if anyone saw me in the buff, they would run screaming.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who's the fairest of them all? I can say unequivocally that I have never once thought it was me. Not when I was fat, not now that I'm un-fat.

In the rational part of my head I know that I'm ok being exactly who I am. But the emotional part of my head feels differently. I've lost 75 pounds. My pant size has shrunk from 16/18 to 4/6. The evidence all points to the fact that I should be happy and ecstatic with how I look. And maybe half the time I am. But the other half, including in front of the mirror, I still wish I was different. There will always be something that can be smaller, tighter, and um... higher.

The problem is absolutely not with my body, it's in my brain. And even though I have made great strides in my life, it takes a long time to overcome 30 years of bad self-imagery.  I always had a number in my head. And if only I could reach that number on the scale, then I would be happy. Pretty.

In case you haven't guessed, there is no magic number. How often have we heard celebrity stories of plastic surgery gone awry? They had something nipped or sculpted, hoping to feel better, but they are still the same person underneath. If we feel unworthy, it has a lot less to do with the outside, than what we are feeling on the inside. Even supermodels look in the mirror and cringe.

I don't have the answer. I just wanted to share, because this is something that I still struggle with. And you know what, it's ok to struggle. The word indicates a fight. I'm fighting to feel better about my body and myself as a person. It's not a fight I'm going to win in the gym by toning up to 2% body fat. It will be a battle of wills to retrain the way I think about beauty and worth.

Today it starts with looking in the mirror and finding one thing I absolutely love. It's my collarbone. I'm not going to let my eyes or thoughts wander any further down.

Baby steps. It's a process.

The Long Run: Pace yourself

Ok, I know. I'm late. I meant to post yesterday, but life got away from me. Which kind of inspired this post anyway. So serendipitous.

This morning I had a great run with Chrisy Ross, an author and running bud of mine. It was 19 miles. Unlike the last race, I did take it nice and slow. Averaging about 11:00 minute mile. By the end I wasn't all that tired. My leg kids hurt, but not too bad.

I learned with my running what I'm having trouble doing in my life. Pace myself.
If only life came with one of those spiffy Garmin watches that I use in running. Then just like I can tell when I am going too fast, I could see when I am doing too much.

I have a lot on my plate right now. And sadly it doesn't contain enough dessert in my opinion.
I'm training for the Utah Valley marathon. I'm working on becoming a Certified Yoga instructor. I go back to University this semester. I am trying to finish a new book. I am doing editorial revisions for the two books I've already sold to the publisher. And those are the big things. There's also two little kids that like to be fed from time to time and a house that might get buried under laundry if I don't act fast.

Point is, I am trying to go faster than my feet can carry me- to use a running metaphor. So what to do? RUN SLOWER!

Did every mile still get run today? Yup. Was it a little slower than normal? Yup. Do I feel a lot better than if I'd run it top speed? Big Yup.

So can I get everything on my to-do list done? Yup. Will it take a little longer than I want? Yup. Will I feel better if I'm not running (sorry for the pun) myself ragged everyday with no break? Big Yup.

Now I just need to reread this post everyday as a reminder :)

Dress for Success: Comfortable blues

This is a piece of advice I have just started implementing in my own life. Lately I have been busy certifying as a Sport Yoga trainer. My wardrobe has been 24/7 yoga pants and clothes. They're comfortable and loose, and I like the fit. However, I do look a bit schlubby.

When we feel a little down about our size or shape, we tend to reach for comfort things. Comfort food and comfort clothes. If I feel a little bloated, I avoid jeans like the plague. I want my nice capri yoga pants. Sure I'm comfortable, but in my scrubbies I only feel worse about myself.

So starting today, when I feel a bit frumpy, I am going to get dolled up. Even if it's just to sit in front of my computer. I'm not dressing up for anyone else, I'm doing it for me. If I feel crappy, that's probably when I need to pull out those jeans that I know make my butt look great. I may not feel like it, but I bet I will feel better when I look in the mirror and see a put together woman instead of the bed headed schlub.


Not my kid, but I saw this on the web and it was too cute not to use. So thank you anonymous kid for showing exactly how I feel some days.

Snack Smart: Whole wheat pitas and Smoky Hummus

Here's another yummy recipe. I had it on my other blog, but thought I would share it here as well. Plus a new Smoky Hummus. Both are the brain child of my husband. I take no credit other than the fact that they're yummy

Recipe for: Whole Wheat Pita Bread

To prepare: Bake in oven on pizza stone at 450° F.

Ingredients

Directions

3 cups whole wheat flour 1½ Tbs sugar 1½ tsp salt 2 pkg (1½ Tbs) active dry yeast 2 Tbs olive oil 1¼ cups warm water

Mix all ingredients and knead for about 10 min. Let dough raise in an oiled bowl until doubled, 1-1½ hours. Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450° F. Punch down dough and divide into 8 equal pieces (divide again into 4 for mini-pitas) and roll into balls. Roll out balls on lightly floured surface into thin, 8” rounds (2” for mini-pitas). Place rounds on pizza stone and bake until they puff up, then about 30 seconds more (about 3½ minutes total). Note: instead of a pizza stone, you can use a baking sheet. Just make sure to preheat it in the oven.

Recipe for: Smoky Hummus

Ingredients	Directions
1 can (16 oz) chickpeas (garbanzo beans) ¼ cup lemon juice 3 Tbs tahini (sesame paste) 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp smoked paprika ½ tsp salt	Drain and rinse chickpeas. Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender. Puree until smooth, adding a small amount of water to thin if necessary. Garnish with olive oil.

No picture for the hummus. I ate it too fast :)

Fitness Tip: Abs part 1

I didn't even know I had abs before I started going to the gym. I just figured I had a donut gut. Then after one week of cardio blast, my body let me know, even under layers of fat, I indeed had abs... and they hurt! Like I said last week, you don't need 500 crunches a day. A 5 min alternating every other day routine, should be plenty. Unless you want a 6 pack abs-- if I ever manage to get one of those, I'll let you know how.

In the meantime, here is my Zumba instructors ab workout that she alternates with.  It's only one song, but it WILL kick your butt. Stick with it, and see results. I'll try and get the other song for next week

Thank you Jessica for letting me post this.

Dress for Success: If the Shoe Fits

 

Coolest shoes ever right? They look cool, but they'd be hell to run it.

Take it from somebody who knows, exercise wear starts with your feet. I've made ever mistake you can think of when it comes to shoes. I've bought clearance shoes that didn't really fit, but they were cheap. I've bought the cutest shoes that didn't have the right motion control. I've worn my shape-ups to run - never, ever, ever do this one!! 

Do yourself and your feet a favor. Go to a real running shoe store, not walmart, and get fitted for shoes. Here's an excerpt about my first running shoes from my book Finished Being Fat: An accidental adventure in losing weight and learning to finish coming to a bookshelf near you in January 2013.

            According to all the experts, when you started running, the first thing you had to do was buy a good pair of running shoes.  That couldn’t be too hard right? Go to the store get a cute size seven that’s cheap and be done with it.  When I got the running store I found out how wrong I was. First question the clerk asked me was if I was an under or over pronater? I didn’t think that was any of his business. Then he guided me to the never ending wall of shoes. Apparently there was more to picking a shoe than just color choices. Each pair of shoes had a different purpose - ones for stability, motion control, extra cushion, racing flats, those barefoot thingies that look like socks.  He explained the grave consequences of choosing the wrong shoe; arch problems, IT band problems, planter fasciitis, losing toenails, knee replacements. 

            It should be noted that I have a giant phobia of being wrong. It colors everything I do.  I have trouble picking the restaurant because I’m afraid I’ll pick the wrong one and no one else will like it, or someone will get food poisoning and then it will be my fault because I picked the restaurant. I had been ok with choosing my own shoes when I only had to worry about matching my new running outfit. Now this guy was telling me that my choice had bigger consequences than just a fashion faux pas. That freaked me out! What if I made the wrong choice and crippled myself?

             So as usual, I didn’t make a choice at all. I walked out of the store and started to run in my well loved, worn out hiking shoes. Turns out not making a decision was probably the worse decision I could make. Within a week my left knee hurt if I even thought about running. I had blisters on my heels, between my toes, and I think a blister might have started forming under my toenail if that was possible. Who knew hiking shoes did not make good running shoes?  Aside from you and probably ninety percent of the population, my husband did. That’s why the next Saturday Jarom packed kids in the car and marched me back into the running center.

            Of course the same clerk was there with a huge “I knew you’d be back” grin on his face. If he said I told you so, he could kiss his commission goodbye. Since I still had no idea what kind of shoe I needed, he had me try on a variety in the size sevens I requested.  When I didn’t like the feel of any of those, he wisely decided to measure my feet and then disappeared in the back room.  My best friend Misty had been preaching the religion of shoe shopping for years, but personally I thought this was more like purgatory than heaven. I looked over at Jarom, who was too busy taking a sports bra off my daughter Lily’s head to be of any help. 

            The clerk returned with a box that said Saucony.  Since I have really bad eyesight, I read it as Saucy, so when he opened the box I expected the shoes inside to reflect that and be cute and “saucy” -  maybe even pink. Boy was I wrong. They were ugly white sneakers with a blue slash on the side. But that was not the most offensive thing, the biggest problem was that the tag said size eight wide. Excuse me? Maybe I was being overly sensitive, but I was a little upset that this clerk thought that I had fat feet. When I pointed out that he had obviously grabbed the wrong size, he said nothing and laced them onto my feet.

            And so on my twelfth pair of shoes I had a Cinderella moment. The skies opened up, angels sang a heavenly chorus, and I knew these ugly, expensive, most comfortable shoes on the planet would take me where I needed to go. I was in love.

             I left that store two hundred dollars poor, but gained new insight. How many great things had I missed out on in life because I had been afraid of picking the wrong one? Never again would I let the fear of being wrong keep me from something I enjoyed. From then on when it was my turn to choose a place to eat, I was not going to defer to someone else and eat lukewarm Mexican. No, if I wanted sushi, then by golly we would have sushi and I would love it.

S.O.S Stuck Ostrich Syndome

  

I'm trying something new. I want to mirror my blog a little like my marathon training; one long run a week, and several short ones. So from hence forth, Monday-Friday will be filled with short blurbs with fitness tips and food for thought  Saturdays are reserved for the long posts - the long run. And just like my running, on Sunday I will rest.

Today's long run is about weight loss S.O.S - Stuck Ostrich Syndrome

Now I am not ragging on ostriches. They're pretty cool birds. They can run up to speeds of 40 MPH, their meat is super lean, and the males egg sit at night so the females can have girls night out. But I think almost everyone had heard some version of a proverb about the ostrich with it's head stuck in the sand. The idea is that the ostrich, afraid of something, buries its head in the sand so it doesn't have to see the big scary monster. Interestingly, this is a myth. The ostrich only looks like its head is buried in the sand because of its light color. Because it does lay down its head to hide, it can still see what's going on.

Now you're are probably saying, Wow that's fascinating. Thanks for the National Geographic update Betsy/ But what's this have to do with weight loss?

Well I'll tell you. In past incarnations of my attempts to lose weight, I would tell myself and anyone who would listen, that I had no idea why I wasn't dropping the pounds. I was doing all the right things: exercising, counting calories. I figured my body had some defect that demanded I be fat. My size was not in my control and I put blinders on to the prospect that I could be responsible.

But you probably guessed, I had my head buried in the sand. I didn't want to examine some of the behaviors that were keeping me fat. Sure I was exercising, but was I really putting in a full effort, or just kinda jogging in place? And when I was counting calories, did I actually measure a serving size, or did I eyeball it and estimate?  If it was a homemade meal I'm sure I drastically under estimated the calories while way overestimating what my portion size should be. Not to mention I never counted the handfuls of marshmellow cereal I would grab on the way past the pantry. There weren't enough calories in a single handful to make it worth my time to add right? Or if I finished of the kids plate? Midnight snacking?  The list goes on.

Then there's the excuses as to why I'm fat. Because my parents are fat. Because its all muscle (muscle can be really jiggly right?). Because I'm getting older and my metabolism is slowing.

It was easier not to know what exactly I was putting into my body. If I knew that each slice of banana nut bread was 200 calories, then I wouldn't be able to eat it. Easier to assume the Cafe rio salad was healthy since it was salad than to find out it was a whopping 1000 calories.

But like the ostrich (see told you I'd get back there) my head was not really buried in the sand. I may have been hiding, but I think I knew what was going on. I may have been covering my eyes, but I was peeking.  Even in my own self denial I saw the truth and that's one of the reasons I hated myself so much for it. The problem wasn't that I was fat, the problem was that I was lying to myself. And just like when you lie to someone else you feel horribly guilty (hopefully), your insides will twist up when you lie to yourself too.

So don't be an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand, or lying on top of it. Hold your head high and stay informed. If you want to lose weight, the only way you are going to do it is by knowing what your eating and how many calories your body is actually burning a day.  Be  specific, be informed. Take control. See if that cinnamon roll tastes as good now that you know its 800 calories. If it does, rock on. At least you are consciously making that choice instead of deceiving yourself.

Information is power. Get some. Like GI Joe used to say, "and knowing is half the battle"