I went to the Wonderful Weekend for Women Christian ladies conference and went to a couple of workshops on being fit. The lady who did the "Fit for the Kingdom" workshop shared this on her Facebook page and I wanted to share it with you.  All of these options are hard, so every day wake up and choose your hard!

Go Light - Light Margarine

I am going to start a series of posts about some changes I have made since losing the weight 2 years ago.  I have found that choosing the light option of most foods has not only helped me lose the weight but has been beneficial in helping me maintain a healthy weight as well.  This week I want to talk about margarine. 

When I tried (but failed) to lose weight in the past I would do things like eat the heart healthy butter spreads that were only 5 calories a serving.  While that was doable for a short amount of time for me it wasn't something I could stick to because 1) it wasn't all that tasty and 2) it didn't work well in recipes or even as a base to cook things in.  Basically the flavor and the texture were just lacking, so for me that wasn't something that would be a long term solution.

So instead of going from full calorie margarine to practically no calorie flavorless stuff, I tried the middle of the road solution and went with light margarine. (I use Blue Bonnet but most brands have a light version.) I actually haven't really noticed much of a difference between it and it's full calorie version.  Even my husband has not minded the change and so this actually became a staple that all of our home has adopted.  No more his and hers margarine taking up space in our fridge!  See, this was the type of change that could become part of my permanent lifestyle because it wasn't so drastic that no one could stand it.  We've never had company complain about it either and believe me, I have some people who will balk at anything I try to serve them that is healthy.  If they haven't noticed this change your family might not either!

Exchanging light margarine for regular margarine will save you about 20 calories for every tablespoon you eat.  While that my not sound significant, if you start to tabulate how much you actually use margarine in cooking, baking, and to garnish your food it really adds up.  Going light on margarine is one change we made that not only helped me lose weight, it's helped me keep it off too!

Water retention...really?

I just had to share this one, it really made laugh..and think. How many times have we made that excuse? No more excuses people!

Source: Uploaded by user via Lori on Pinterest

Now, I am not saying it never happens, but it sure does seem to be the first excuse we think of when the scale doesn't meet our expectations.   It's funny because this follows a week where I truly had a slight gain due to water retention. Hey, it was the day before my cycle, it happens!  However, the scale today should reflect that by having a slight loss. But those things do not happen all the time. If it is really water the scale will reflect that very soon. Otherwise, it's just like the cartoon says, you are retaining food!

You know it's good to laugh at our mistakes, as long as we learn from them too! Here's to hoping you all meet whatever healthy / weight control goal you set this week!

Teaching Kids to Eat Healthy, NOT to Diet

As a homeschooling mom I spend most of my online time blogging about that at Special Connection Homeschool.  Well, we recently had some issues where my daughter was wanting to copy some of my calorie counting activities.  Knowing that it is important not to let children get obsessed about their weight, I decided to try to find some ways to get her involved while keeping it positive and focused on the right things.  Below is the blog I posted about some of the ideas we came up with.

Healthy Choices: Eating Right and Exercise

I am one of those moms who has struggled with her weight most of the time.  Before Gess was born I had actually lost weight and kept it off for 5 years.  Then I got pregnant again.  It's a story many mothers are familiar with.  It took me 9 years to get the weight off, but 2 years ago I did it!   I actually blogged about my journey and shared some tips at Lori's Say on Weight Loss, but I got too busy to keep up with it.

I am still in a weight loss club.  It's called TOPS which stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly.  I think having that scale to be accountable to every week has helped me maintain the weight loss these last 2 years.  While in maintenance mode I don't always have to track what I eat, but I try to do so whenever I find myself struggling to stay withing my goal.  I also do it when we have contests or programs at TOPS that require it.  It's good to check yourself from time to time.

Anyway, so what does this have to do with homeschooling Gess? Well, the other day I found her with a notebook and pencil and she said was writing down her "calories."  I also noted that she had written her name at the top of my food journal page and checked off a box.  It was cute, but it also got me thinking that it was important to address this topic with her for a couple of reasons.

1.  Gess is at a healthy weight and I don't want her to be obsessed with counting calories or watching what she eats, especially at a young age.  Even when a child is overweight they need to focus on making healthier food choices rather than "losing weight."  You never want to encourage a child to "diet" but you do want them to eat healthier and become more active. 

2. I like that Gess sees me using tools to help me make wise decisions about what and how much I eat as well as how much I exercise, so I do want her to be a part of what I am doing.  I just want to be sure she does it in a healthy and responsible way.  So to do that I came up with the following chart:

Instead of checking off a box for every 100 calories she eats (like I do) I am going to have her check off when she has had a serving of healthy foods.  I want her to aim for 2 fruits, 2 vegetables, 2 protein and 2 dairy per day.  This morning she checked off her dairy and fruit after eating a yogurt parfait she made for breakfast.

You might notice that I also made a check box for each 30 minutes of exercise she does.  Of course she's a kid so by that I do not mean a workout video (though she actually enjoys those) or "exercise" but rather, active play.  Swimming, gymnastics, playing ball, any sport, going for a walk, dancing, or just some time at the play ground.  (Bike riding is great too, but Gess still doesn't do that very well.)  You get the idea.  Something to make sure that she hasn't spent her day do nothing but sitting indoors on the computer (which she loves) or watching TV (which she doesn't really do that much).

Gess is actually a very active girl and this box wasn't necessary to encourage her to exercise but I want her to see now that it is something she should always strive to do, even when she is older.  I am hoping this will make her see that exercise means just having active fun, rather than thinking of it as hard work.  Maybe then, even as an adult she will be mindful to get out and enjoy the outdoors in an active way.

Gess is also a fairly healthy eater.  She still remembers the Food Guide Pyramid study we did a few years ago (before it changed to ChooseMyPlate) and will still randomly talk about the category of a food while she is eating it.  She is not a big fan of vegetables though, so I am hoping this will help her to eat more of those.  Maybe by saying, "but you have to check off that you ate your healthy vegetables" will help her get through the serving.

Speaking of ChooseMyPlate.gov, it is a good resource to go if you want to try to do something similar to this with your kids.  They have different serving suggestions for kids based upon gender and ages.  I don't think my chart follows their exact pattern, but as I said, Gess is already eating fairly healthy and maintaining a good weight and BMI so we are just focusing on keeping that up.  If you have a child who is really struggling with weight, they have some good tools to use and will give you ideas on where to start.

So, while Gess might not be ready to make choices like this:

She does make choices like this:

And while I once caught her doing this (that's a treadmill she is laying on).

I'm not worried because she does plenty of this.

Journal: Happy New Year 2012

Well, I have maintained my weight loss for another year. I did, however, weigh in over my leeway 4 times, but I always got it back off by the next week. I have to admit my exercise really hit a low this year. It's hard to find ways to stay motivated when you don't have to exercise.

I started back on my Couch 2 5K regiment last week. I have tried it a couple of times and by the 4th week or so my knees start to kill me. I am going to move up slower this time. I am going to try to do one set of regiments for an entire month instead of just a week. Maybe my body just needs more time to adjust.

I also ate horribly over the holidays, but I am already back on that track too. I am back to making sure I have a "free" vegetable every day with my meal and am choosing the healthier snack options for my sweet tooth.

I also gave up eating chocolate. It's not even for health reasons. It's because I found out that chocolate tends to come from cocoa farms that use child slavery. I looked and looked for a good fair trade chocolate option and couldn't find one, so instead, I gave up my most beloved food! I haven't gone without it completely, I will have an occasional chocolate treat if a friend makes one or it's at a fellowship dinner or something, but I won't buy it and don't eat it on a what used to be a daily basis. I had to say goodbye to the chocolate fat free pudding cups I loved so much, but it's been fun (though somewhat hard) to find a good alternative.

For now I get my sweet fix with fig bars. They are fat free and only 60 calories. That's a pretty sweet deal and cures my craving. If only didn't have to have something sweet with every meal!

I also DO eat breakfast now. My entire schedule has changed and I get up very early in the morning so waiting to eat until lunch was not very practical. I am glad to have found that I have incorporated it in without putting on the weight. Again, it's making healthy choices and giving up some of the evening snacking I always looked forward to. I haven't really missed those though because I adjusted the time of my other meals which means I eat dinner later and having gotten up early I am off to bed sooner so I don't need as many snacks late at night.

Well, that is my year in summary and my plan for now is to keep on exercising and keep this weight off for yet another year. I hope your weight loss, exercise and healthy living goals were met last year as well, and if they weren't, may they be this year! You can do it!