Healthy Substitution:

How are you doing? What was your healthy substitution of the day? And if you had more than one Good for You!! Keep it up. Thanksgiving is almost here and we need to save all the calories we can so we don't have to feel guilty about eating a little bit of everything, right?

For a great list of healthy substitutions go here.

New Challenge: Healthy Substitutions

To build on Chelsi's last challenge, and with the Holidays quickly approaching, I decided to focus on Healthy Substitutions these next two weeks. I've been eating terribly lately. I'm talking homemade gooey caramel corn, peach crisp, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and that was just on Saturday! Kidding....well, partly. I have, however, been thinking more about healthy substitutions. Instead of oil for the pumpkin cookies, I substituted applesauce. Instead of candy as a treat at the play tonight I popped in a 5 calorie piece of gum.

I'd love to hear your favorite healthy substitutions. How you lighten a rich recipe, or the snacks that you crave but are able to curb by picking something healthier.

But first, I'll start by sharing a few of my favorites:

*Instead of butter and syrup on pancakes I put applesauce with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Yum! And I get full faster and only eat one or two pancakes.

*Instead of ritz crackers with cream cheese (my Dad ruined me on this yummy snack) I eat tortilla chips with hummus.

*Instead of ground beef we use turkey for a leaner meal.

*Snacks that take a little more time to eat seem to make me feel more satisfied when done. Like eating a whole apple, instead of slices. Or eating edamame with a little sea salt. It must be all mental but the extra effort it takes to eat these kind of snacks seem to help.

So there you have it. Make good food choices this week, and please share what has worked for you. We'd love to hear it!

Tip for the Day: Full Factor

Now that keeping the food diary is becoming more of a habit, I've been looking for ways to better what and when I'm eating. One thing that I'm going to be focusing on is my full factor. Before eating I mentally ask myself, "How hungry do I feel right now?" Then as I'm eating, about half way through the meal I'll put my utensils down, take a breath and ask myself, "How full do I fell right now?" Now remember it take around 20 minutes for your stomach to register what you've eaten so when for me, if I feel semi full I try to say enough is enough and be done with it. If I'm still feeling somewhat hungry then I'll eat more.

The goal here, my friends, is not to finish still feeling hungry or feeling stuffed to the gills. The goal is to feel satisfied. Part of that also comes from what you're eating, but we'll talk about that on another day, ok? Then throughout the day I keep asking myself how hungry I am. Can you tell I think about food a lot? If I'm feeling hungry I reach for a few mini rice cakes n cottage cheese or something equally delicious. (I know, I know. I just heard a few of you gag, but I like rice cakes!)

As you're going through your day and while you're eating think about your Full Factor and try to respond accordingly. Are there any other little tips that help you think about your full factor?

~Chellor

What's that bug?

Remember how I told you all that if you fall off the wagon to jump right back on immediately? Don't wait for next week or even for tomorrow. Guess who got the "I'll do better tomorrow" bug this past weekend?! Yours truly! Bleh. I hate when I don't practice what I preach.

But I have had a great long weekend and have been able to do a lot of thinking and planning. The first thing I thought about is,
"Holy Crap! I only have a 6 1/2 months until the big guy n I get married!" The second thought I had was,
"Holy Crapoly! I only have 5 months until I have to be engagement picture ready!"
See where I'm going with this? I need to be on major food slash workout lock down to get back into hot mama shape. Today is the day I'm going to map out the next 6 1/2 months. I'm always better with time lines and goals so I'm going to think of something that will help me. The whole reward system never seems to really motivate me. Ya know, loose 10 LB's then I can buy myself a new pair of shoes. I just feel like I'm wasting money and what do shoes have to do with losing weight. (I can't believe I just said I don't want another reason to buy new shoes!)

Anyway, I don't have a solid plan yet, but that is what I'll be doing today. If anyone sees me in church today writing furiously in my notebook just pretend it's those spiritual thoughts comin' through and not my new weight loss plan/goals!

~Chellor

One more week

The sis n I thought it would be a good idea to carry on our challenges for more than just one week. We though two weeks would be good, but what do you all think? Also we would like to provide little tips of encouragement or status updates where you all can update on how you are doing! I can't promise I will change and magically be that amazing once a day blog poster, but I sure will try. We started this little blog to motivate and encourage each other and are thrilled that other people are joining in.

So here we go. One more week with Dear Diary and your chance keep up your amazing work of faithfully logging or to redeem yourself. And check back here for more tips, advice, or just me ranting about how I'm doing. Then post how you are doing too! We want to hear it. I for one need your help and encouragement too.

Tip for the day:
Don't give up. If you forgot to write down yesterday's food and can't remember if you had one truffle or seven, don't give up. Just pick up the pen and do better today. If you're inclined to run an extra 30 mins because of your absentmindedness, fine. If it was one meal or one week that you forgot to log you haven't gotten too far to keep on going. And don't think that because you forgot to write down yesterdays you should just start again tomorrow. Start again now. You'll feel better and more motivated to keep going!

Don't give up.

Ok Fitsters. How have you been doing this past week? Be honest. :)

~Chellor

Dear Diary: You Bite It You Write It

Challenge for the week:

Food Diary, Food Log, Food Journal, call it what you will, but I've noticed that throughout my *almost* 27 years of life I'm the most healthy and lose the most weight or maintain the best when I'm keeping a food diary! Like with the water challenge, I often think I'm doing great with what I'm consuming until I really pay attention and write it down. What better way to see that you've actually consumed 2,000 calories rather than 1,200 calories than to have a sheet of paper with all the grub 'o the day staring right back at cha babe? Now I will be the first to admit there are time that I have actually chosen not to write down that mini (or king sized) candy bar because I really thought that would make me feel better not having to see those extra cals listed. WHO ARE WE KIDDING? No one ever has to know but the person consuming the item and will it really do anything to help that sagging butt to "pretend" we didn't eat it? No Way! I've heard people say, "Well I just chewed the chocolate to curb the craving then spit it out." Nope, that doesn't count on the no calorie food items list. Did you know you still consume calories that way? Yep, it's true! Google it.

*SHEESH*

Where was I? Ah, yes. You Bite It, You Write It sistah! If it so much as enters your mouth you write it down. And please don't wait until the end of the day to do so. By then you've chanced either forgetting what you've eaten or already going over you calories and feeling like you have to starve yourself for the rest of the night even though you haven't had dinner yet! Not good.

Here's the skinny on the Diary:

Find the tool that works best for you

Paper and pen, posting on your blog, or the latest app on your iPhone, there is just no wrong way to go about this! There are so many great ways you can log information now-a-days that there's almost no excuse NOT to do it! Here are a couple tools I've found:

http://befitandstrong.com/free-printable-food-diary/
This little website is a pretty good one for your basic info and they have a free printable food diary. Also note the section at the bottom of each page to check off how many glasses of water you drank each day. Saweet!
*Notice this is the website I borrowed the pic from* :)

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
There are so many website you can go to log your food intake that help you find the calories, but I choose this one because I really like their app for the iPhone. I never actually log onto the website because the app is so easy. After a simple *free* sign up process and entering in my info I can search food quickly, track my progress, and see how many calories, fat grams, protein and fiber I have left for the day!

Log what works for you

Some people work best just focusing on calories. Others like to know Calories, Fat, Protien, Fiber, Sugar, the works, and some of you may be counting weight watchers points. The fact is this: you won't do what doesn't work for you. Maybe this is your first time starting a Food Diary so you just want to keep it simple and write down the calories. GREAT! The point is that you're writing it down and holding yourself accountable.


Size Matters
One word here: PORTIONS
Have you ever eaten something and thought, "Sweet! Only 50 calories!" Then you look a little closer and find that there are 4 servings in that cute little pack that you just snarfed? (Yes, I said snarfed.) Please be cautious here. Label makers know this is a common mistake and are more and more clever with the packaging. Also if you're cooking, it's pretty easy to over eat if you're not careful. I tend to cook enough food so I have some to take with me for lunch the next day and I may or may not have eaten the entirety of what I made when I sat down for dinner! We can talk more about portion control at a later date, but please pay attention.

Make measurable changes each day

I get that this part seems like more challenges, but what's the good of a food diary if we aren't learning and changing from it? Also you can take the first week to simply commit to log everything down just to get in the habit. Then the next week look at what you ate from that week and commit you are going to do better or continue to eat healthy the next day/week. Maybe it's as simple as increase your water intake by one glass or extreme as no candy the next day. *GASP!* Remember, this is your Diary so you need to do what will work for you.


Celebrate your Success
Give yourself the pat on the back you deserve for your success that day. Again you determine what that success is. For me, if I can go all day without a diet coke I'm pretty freakin' stoked! Maybe you're hard core like my sis and your good day is no candy, 8 glasses of water, and all your fruits and veggies. YOU GO GIRL! (Love you sis!) :) You must reward yourself. Even if it's just acknowledging the fact that you did good or telling someone else that you did good, it's going to boost your confidence and determination to do good again the next day. If you're constantly hard on yourself you'll find success is harder to come by. Let's face it, being happy makes you feel better!

Well all you Fitsters out there: GOOD LUCK! I bid you all good luck and I know that if you commit to YOURSELF to do this, you can!


Now, let's see if I can practice what I preach! :)

~Chellor