Basic Advice for Weight Loss Beginners

As an educator, every summer is a great opportunity for reevaluation. Weather is great (unless you're here in Arizona), attitudes are more positive, and you can be more active on a daily basis. For myself and other professionals in education, it's time to start gearing up for the new school year. I really enjoy assessing where I am at both emotionally and physically, and I use this time to create a plan of action, and better educate myself in areas where I am lacking. This is something that regularly needs to happen, and it should be a habit. Even though I don't have kids of my own, I am still responsible for 160 children on a daily basis. I still work from 5:45 am until 5 pm nearly every day. The pieces of advice below have saved me. I am tired of people telling me I'm skinny because of my genes, or that I have a faster metabolism (big misconceptions about weight...see my blurb below). It's called planning, knowledge, and self-control.

My blurb: My boyfriend has an AMAZING blog that's going to debut next month....It is blunt as hell at times, but very helpful for people who are serious about losing weight, and contains very helpful information to educate you about health and nutrition topics--not the mass misconceptions that are being portrayed all over the internet. Stay tuned for that. :) Nothing is live yet, but it can be found at weightequation.com. So go bookmark it. :)

Anywho....Prior to creating goals....a few pieces of advice.

1.) Stop kidding yourself. Think about the reality of the situation. Are you at a healthy weight? Are you participating in behaviors that keep you from reaching goals? Knock it off!

2.) Once you have a plan, actually do it. Don't say you'll do it and then don't.....don't lie about how much your doing....don't make excuses as to why you can't do it as much as you want to. If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.

3.) Plan, plan, plan. It's in those busy or spontaneous moments that people tend to lose control. You're starving after a long day at work and you don't have anything quick to eat except potato chips and granola. NO!


What to do?
1- Evaluate yourself. You need to know your starting point to go anywhere from there. Determine your primary goal -- weight loss you say? Then go figure out what your daily calorie burn is (by identifying your basal metabolic rate + activity level), and then don't eat as much as that number says. Fact of the matter is, you need to be BELOW that number by the end of the day. The easiest calculator of them all is bmrcalculator.org. But don't lie about how active you are. Most people fall into the low category. Even when I'm on my feet 8 hours a day I categorize myself as being in the "light" category. The number provided will be for weight maintenance. If you want to lose, you need to cut calories. 3500 calories is 1 pounds. Therefore, if you cut 500 calories a day, you will lose one pound a week (500x7=3500).

You could eat pure acai, kale, quinoa, and coconut oil (supposed superfoods)... but if you eat too much...you're done for. Diets that say "you can eat as much as you want" are full of shit. They claim that because they recommend you eat low calorie foods, so therefore it is possible that you are under your calorie goal in order to lose weight. Well, that's not the case for every person, and you will be robbing yourself of a well balanced diet.

2- Track your calories. Stop making excuses. Don't be lazy about it. Until you have a well developed habit and knowledge about portion sizes and calorie contents (and you're at your goal weight), you can't afford to guess. Download Myfitnesspal on your phone, and start measuring your food. Hell, get a food scale. You might be surprised at how off you are. The calorie content is more important than what you're eating right now. I do have viewpoints on better eating habits, but that's for later.

3- Start planning. Get on pinterest, make a plan. Food prep ahead of time. It will be extremely overwhelming to do this on a daily basis. Sitting down on a weekend to plan out the week, go grocery shopping, and make your meals for 4 hours for the entire week is way easier than dealing with it every day after work when you're tired and hungry. Or when you're in a hurry running late for work in the morning.



Now, I'm off to take my body fat measurement, and make a meal plan for the next week. Ta-ta for now.

Elimination Diet: Day 4 - Bored but Still Alive

The first day was absolutely the worst. I not only received 0 real food (everything was pureed), I also had one of the worst headaches in my entire life. Words do not express.

Day 2 was a tad better...I ended up switching to phase 2 then based off how poorly I was doing from phase 1 (note: they say to stay on it 2 days...I'm a big, bad rebel). I got a little bit of protein in that I was desperately craving (from chicken), but still not horrible satisfying.

It is now day 4....The one thing I have noticed is that I'm not quite as tired when I get home from work. I am unsure as to if this is due to removing something in my diet that I was intolerant to, or because I'm eating less carbs than I was (I'm hypoglycemic...so carbs are bad for me..a rollercoaster ride). Regardless, even if I don't discover a food intolerance, at least I have gotten back on track for better eating for my hypoglycemia.

On another note, I have discovered some interesting foods, as I have to read nutrition labels for hours upon end in order to find something without added sugar and soybean oil in it (or gluten, or nuts, or dairy...etc).  I've also cooked some fairly interesting things....

Today-

I made turkey sausage with some spices and a tiny drop of honey (can only do honey or maple syrup pretty much...no sugar), then diced up some avocado. --> breakfast 1 (I have to eat a lot)

A smoothie with a few strawberries, half a banana, a cup of unsweetened coconut milk, and vegan protein powder. --> breakfast 2

Apricot for a snack or two

Salad with turkey, avocado, and apple cider vinegar

Lentil Chips for another snack.

Dinner was mahi mahi with some garlic seasoning, and then I made rice noodles and tossed it with olive oil, garlic, and sauteed mushrooms.

Sweet tooth dessert was homemade warm apple sauce with cinnamon.



Granted, this diet doesn't have much variety so I go towards my love of fruit...which is not good for me...but oh well! I am over the daily sugar amount...up to like 50 gram today...shame on me. But! I also hit my minimum protein (80 gram).

And, I have consistently had 10-12 cups of water every day!! :)

All in all, I miss variety in my food, and I have to bring food with me to places so that I can eat...but it's going all right now! 

Elimination Diet - Detox Stage (aka hell)

What can I say...my head is pounding....I'm beyond tired, my concentration level has flatlined.

I asked for it.

If I didn't know any better I'd think I had the flu.

The detox stage of this diet is absolutely horrid. Way worse than any symptoms before. I woke up this morning, made my usual cup of coffee, put my creamer in it....

Crap.

I can't have coffee.

I can't have the creamer either.

Soybean oil, corn syrup, sugar. Nope. Not happening.

I for a second thought my headache may be from my coffee withdrawal. I guess it's possible, but I only have one cup a day, and it took 7 hours past my usual coffee time for this headache to set in. I've felt progressively worse throughout the day actually. Let me tell you the two reasons this detox stage sucks: there's practically no protein consumption, since everything is on the "no foods" list, and it's actually fairly hard to get your calorie goal without getting incredibly bored from the few foods you can eat. And the foods allowed (fruit) have a lot of simple sugars. Bad idea. So I guess that's three. But, I must continue, I have an end goal in mind.

I woke up, and got my mason jars ready. On the right, my usual water, this time with strawberries and mint. Then the hell sits in.

Green smoothie of death. Everything that makes a smoothie delicious (milk, juice, almond milk, yogurt) is not allowed during this diet. Sooooo, that blows. I opted for strawberries and spinach, with some flax seed and coconut. Not horrible, but definitely not tasty.

And then, on the left is a variation on my soup I've made before. It has sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, apple. Cook it with some olive oil, and purée, and tada! The whole "everything needs to be puréed" thing about this diet is just nonsense. I get the reasoning, but I like eating!

So, I ate/drank what you see for the day, and then some coconut water, and here I am, feeling absolutely horrible. 

Phase two includes solid foods and chicken/turkey/fish. No products with gluten, dairy, nuts, sugars, corn, soy. But I get quinoa and oatmeal! For the sake of my survival, phase two has now begun. If you have serious symptoms, or do not have hypoglycemia, try and do phase 1 for up to 3-4 days (book recommends two). If that's your thing!

More updates mañana! Time for food prepping! Steel cut oats for breakfast!

The Elimination Diet - Determine Your Food Intolerances

If only I had stuck to my water...

Right before I sat down to type this entry, I was sticking my fingers into a cake my students had given me last week. So I'm a little uncivilized, but as I was cleaning out my fridge and kitchen to start my next journey, the craving hit...I couldn't let good cake go to waste! And in I dove, white frosting, moist gooey cake. All over. Yum.

(The cake....now cleaned up):

Not smart, Jennifer.
And then the nausea and weakness hit.

My body doesn't appear to like me much. I am sick often, to the extent where friends and family members find it hard to believe. I don't have a visible injury--you can't tell that I'm feeling weak and nauseated. But it's a legitimate thing, that plagues my life. So apart from my poor self control, it's clear that it's time for something new. Something, with my decreased work schedule over the summer, that actually might be able to manage....The elimination diet.

For those of you that know me personally, you know I have struggled with some health issues over the years, mainly this recurring nausea and weakness I was just mentioning that seems to haunt me at random moments. While hypoglycemia (my diagnosis) probably plays into this, I continue to think something else has got to be off. I'm exhausted, I have lingering anxiety that doesn't go away, I'm shaky, weak, have stomach cramps. But my blood tests always come back normal. So what gives.

Upon searching for my summer reading in Barnes and Noble the other day, I stumbled across the food and diet section. I was hoping for a sign--something to help me with these mystery conditions. Nothing popped out at me. It wasn't until my good friend amazon.com had some recommended titles for me that I caught wind of my must-read for the summer (apparently they know I'm a basket case). One of those being, "The Elimination Diet."

The principal of this diet is based off removing any possible triggers from your diet to determine what may be causing unwanted symptoms-- fatigue, nausea, cramping, headaches, etc. It has used scientific studies to determine the foods that most commonly cause people to have allergic reactions or intolerances, and then takes those away.  This is not a diet in which you strive to lose weight and watch calories. This is a diet where you watch your food consumption and are consciously aware of what your body is doing and how it feels.

It is a process to identify the triggers for the unwanted symptoms and feelings that have gone undiagnosed for years.

I invite you to follow along in my journey, and even participate in your own journey as well. I bought the book on my kindle app for iPad for $12.99, or you could get it shipped to you. I don't typically like digital versions of books, but I felt like this was an urgent matter that I couldn't spend any more time waiting to begin. I would love to hear your own situations as well...does anyone else have nagging symptoms they can't seem to figure out?

Tomorrow, I begin step 1 - The detox.

Essentially, they want me to starve and whither away first. Okay, that might not be entirely true, but that is probably how I will feel by the end of day 2. It is based off of soups and smoothies. No solid food. Hmm. I'm not typically a "fasting" or juice cleanse endorser-- explicitly opposed actually. But, for the sake of my case study, I'm going to give it a go. Veggies all ready in the fridge!

(Unfortunately I don't get to drink the wine during this journey....)

Until tomorrow....

Inspiration for the Week: Mason Jars and Cod

When it comes to weekly meal planning, there are often 2 choices: take the longer, tedious route and enjoy variety throughout the week, or go for the quick method which involves a lot of meal repetition. I think I found the best of both worlds this week with my mason jar inspiration.

These jars could contain virtually anything. They're sturdy, and they're easy to transport. This week, I will be packing them with a variety of shaker salads. Remember the shaker salad McDonald's used to have like ten years ago in the plastic cups? Yes, that's what we're going for....just a bit classier.

As for the dinners, they are not quite as varied, but I usually will flex a bit from my plan based off how I feel. I always keep ground turkey on hand to mix up some quick shell-less tacos, lettuce wraps, or taco soup, depending on my mood. But I had extra cod on hand, and it's a great source of lean protein.

Here is my weekly meal plan. Pictures to follow.

After following my plans more consistently, it's amazing the change in my overall well being. If I do have the occasional fall-off the wagon (like yesterday), usually it's not enough to crash me as long as I'm doing well throughout the rest of the week.

Keep it clean. Raw when possible. Low glycemic. Supplement with probiotics, omegas, and B-vitamins. Live well.

Food Prep is Key for Consistent Eating

The past month I have devoted myself to my eating and health. Bumps in the road have definitely occurred, but as time continues to pass, new habits have evolved and become easier to follow. For example,

1.) I enjoy having a few drinks when I go out (and I go out a few times a week). Before, I would occasionally go over that. Now, I always stop at 2 drinks, and always always ALWAYS eat something with a considerable amount of protein (and fat) in it to help with the blood sugar, and drink plenty for water (1 qt per drink!). I realized this after two instance in the past month where I thought I was invincible (alcohol tends to do that, haha), and did not feel well for days afterwards. Oh. My. Goodness. You don't have to be hypoglycemic to heed that advice, it is beneficial for everyone.

2.) Consistency is key. Just one bender day will set me off on a negative course, sometimes affecting me for 4-5 days afterwards (such as one of the days mentioned above).


It is time consuming, but taking the time to prepare meals every Sunday for the week ahead has proven very beneficial for my health, and my stress levels. The last thing I want to do at the end of a long day (dealing with 175 hormonal middle schoolers) is come home, try and figure out what I want for dinner, and then cook it for an hour. The same goes for the next morning, when I can hardly crawl out of bed. Just get up, grab and go my breakfast and lunch, and I can be out the door.

The trick is go grocery shopping once a week (Sundays are best for me), and then immediately cut up your food for all quick-to-prepare dinners throughout the week, and then bulk cook a few meals that you would like to eat throughout the week. I will tend to have one meal a few times a week, to cut down on food prep, but you can do as much as you feel is reasonable. I will usually get some inspiration on pinterest to create a meal plan, plan my shopping list, and then go grocery shopping (about 1 1/2 for all that). Then I'll take about 1-2 hours to prepare all my food for the week. Here is the meal plan I originally came up with last week. I did end up switching a few things around for lunch, but they were all already prepared.

If you are aiming for low-glycemic like myself to stabilize mood and blood sugars, be sure to limit your fruit intake to only 1 piece of lower-glycemic fruit a day (pairs better with a meal to balance it out). Look up the glycemic index for a list of fruits that are best for this.

Additionally, I am taking a few supplements to help with mood stabilization and overall health, stress, + energy levels. These are : a probiotic (refrigerated section), an Omega-complex (I have the Udo brand, also refrigerated), a B complex vitamin, and a homeopathic remedy called ignatia amara, recommended by my doctor (ask them for recommendations, these can be quite potent).

Food prep begins tomorrow, and I'll be sure to post the next week plan then! Until then, please ask if you have any questions. You can find my recipes + pictures of many of these foods on my instagram page:

#healthyteachergirl

Rollercoasters, the Glycemic Index, and Health Pacts. Enter: Healthyteachergirl

Find #healthyteachergirl on Instagram.

Many of us are often silently suffering through health problems. Many of these problems may be significant concerns to us, such as arthritis and diabetes, but others are small, nagging problems--a variety of symptoms with unknown causes, that we just wish to be over. I myself have been suffering through a hodgepodge of symptoms for about 3-4 years now. These range from stomach cramps and shaking of the hands (with a weak feeling attached), to nausea, vomiting, and an inability to walk some mornings. It. is. terrifying. In recent months I have been experiencing severe anxiety and depression as well that only contributed to my overall feeling of misery. While I have known how to eat, and what to be eating, I just wasn't being strict enough, mainly due to peer pressures and wanting to fit in, and I was therefore on a sickening roller coaster.

There are a large variety of fad diets out there, or "lifestyles," such as vegan, raw, South Beach, or Atkins. But ultimately, most of these diets have one thing in common: your body consuming natural, unprocessed goods, that are low on the glycemic index.

All foods have a ranking on the glycemic index. This scale ranges from 0-100, and the lower the score, the better. Lower scores indicate that that particular food causes your blood sugar levels to spike less than other foods might. Less of a spike, means less of a crash. And the majority of our ills are due to unregulated blood sugar, or the crashing of the blood sugar.

There is obviously more science to this, but when it comes down to it, a low glycemic diet is best. No person benefits from huge spikes and then drops in their blood sugar. By focusing on a low glycemic diet, you naturally begin to eat less refined and processed foods (as they are all higher on the G.I.), more protein, and more fibrous vegetables. The one thing you might think you need, fruit, is actually not very good for you. Fruit contains high levels of sugar, natural or not, that lead to blood sugar spikes and weight gain. I do have some fruit in my diet, but they are on the lower side of the G.I.. Trust me, it's hard. I love fruit. Love, love, love.

So enter healthyteachergirl. This is my new persona, to motivate myself to stick with my eating style, and hopefully encourage and educate some of you on healthy ways to eat.

Through my Instagram page, I hope to provide you with meal ideas, important supplements that need to be included in your diet, and general encouragement on your path to living a healthy lifestyle. Let's make a pact. Comment on this blog if you are ready to make that commitment to yourself, and the public universe to live your best life. Hopefully through persistence, dedication, and this new community I hope to find, we can all find peace and comfort within ourselves.

Please follow me on Instagram, username healthyteachergirl.

Find #healthyteachergirl on Instagram