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Computer Scientist, Data Munger, Doctor (PhD), Math Geek, Bargain Hunter, Baker, Budding Photographer, Crafter, Domestic Diva Wannabe and 
Archive for the ‘Healthy Living’ Category
June 14, 2018
Project Sarah
I’m back to my prepregnancy weight which is a bad thing when I was 10 lbs under 2 weeks postpartum.
I could tell I was gaining weight. I couldn’t (and still can’t) stop eating. I crave sugar, which I’ve read is a sign that I’m not sleeping enough. (Not like I needed a sign.) I’m embarrassed to admit that on at least one occasion I chose to eat when I knew I was thirsty, not hungry. This is a problem of my own making.
I have to be realistic. As much as I may want to, exercise is not going to happen. Not while Dana is home with me. There just isn’t the time. I need to prioritize my business right now, so even if I could free up a spare block of time here or there, exercising is pretty low on the priority list. Calorie restriction is also not something I think is a good idea as a nursing mom. My body needs fuel so I can feed Dana.
Eating healthier is my best bet. Swapping out empty carbs for healthy alternatives. More protein. More fiber. Less carbs. Improving diet may not lead to weight loss, but it can hopefully stem the weight gain.
One of the benefits of the gestational diabetes diet is I have a better understanding of nutrition and what works for me. I now know not all fruit is created equal, and berries contain the most fiber. We got in the habit during pregnancy of keeping quick to warm up protein sources in the refrigerator. Our go-tos were tacos, meatloaf and garlic chicken. We’d make a big batch of it on Sunday and I’d have leftovers the rest of the week. For snacks I would do a spoonful of peanut butter or slice of cheese.
It’s a little harder to manage these days. A handful of chips is easier to grab while carrying a baby around the house than warming up left over dinner. Hard or not, I have to try.
The other thing I’m trying to do is drink more water. I started about a month ago. I found an online calculator that said I should strive for 110oz a day. As a side benefit to all that water, I’m down to one diet soda every couple of days. Last time I nearly kicked the soda habit was before becoming pregnant with Nicole.
While I can’t say I’ve noticed any differences either on the scale or otherwise after making these changes, I can tell they’re starting to have an effect. I used to really dislike drinking plain water, but I’ve gotten used to it over the last month. Drinking 110oz is becoming second nature. I could do another 15-20 without much effort. It’s funny, I used to hate substituting a peanut butter sandwich on wheat for my usual morning cereal when pregnant, but I’m so used to it now it’s no big deal.
Good habits develop slowly, I guess.
Posted in Healthy Living
January 20, 2016
Body Rider
The Body Rider Elliptical
It took about two hours to get the machine together. I was impressed by how sturdy and heavy duty it is, even though it was only $105 at the time of purchase. I couldn’t help but compare it to the Suncast Deck Storage Box
Aside, now I have a new trick to save money. Whenever I’m considering a purchase I’ll ask myself if it’s worth as much as a comparable sized purchase I’ve already made. That over priced deck box would not have passed that test!
The machine is compact, light weight and still super sturdy and super quite. I love that it doesn’t take up space and that it’s easy to move it around. One of the reasons we opted not to go for a more expensive unit is they can be close to 200 lbs! This one is only 56, but when you’re on it it doesn’t feel that way. We also needed a machine that Domingo could use when the kids were asleep and we wouldn’t be worried about waking them up. This is definitely that machine. I wouldn’t use it with someone sleeping in the same room, but it’s quite enough that you can’t hear it with the door shut.
The biggest con for this device it that the display sucks. It’s attached to the base near the front wheel and not back lit which makes it hard to read when you’re on it. It doesn’t always reset when you tell it too. And, most importantly, I question it’s accuracy. I have been on the machine for an hour and it says I’ve gone 10 miles and only burned 200 calories. At that distance and speed every online calculator I try says I should burn at least twice that if not more.
I don’t care that much about the poor display. I keep the machine close to the window and my phone on the window sill. I use my phone for timing since I can read it better. I don’t sweat the calorie count since it doesn’t matter what the machine (or the internet) says. I’m feeling better about myself, and that’s the important thing. I would have preferred a machine with an easier to read display, sure, but not enough to pay and extra couple of hundred dollars for it.
After a couple weeks of gang buster weight loss, the weight loss has stalled a bit. I’m sure it’s partially the new muscle mass. I no longer feel like my legs have turned to jello when I finish exercising.
Posted in Healthy Living | Tags: Exercise
December 31, 2015
A New Me in the New Year
I’ve not been happy with my weight in a long time. I was at my peek about four or five years ago before we started our family. Surprisingly, pregnancy has been good to my figure. It’s the side benefit to pregnancy migraines which leave you too nauseous to eat, I guess. In the in between times my weight has started to creep back up again. Christmas Eve I got on the scale again and was so sad at how quickly it was coming back.
So I’m making a change.
I decided to start watching what I eat. I downloaded the LoseIt app for my phone. On Christmas Eve. The day after making cinnamon rolls for the first time in five years, and the evening after baking cookies with Nicole. It was nearly impossible to stick to my calorie cap on Christmas. I felt impossibly hungry and cranky all day, and still ended up over by about 500 calories! Since then I’ve been better able to stick close to my calorie cap, and even been able to eat a few Cinnamon rolls.
The biggest discovery I’ve found with a calorie counter is that I’m incredibly bad at guessing which foods are “good”. Often the snack I’d reach for when trying to be good was worse than the sweet treat I actually wanted! A serving of pretzels can be over a 100 calories, whereas a candy cane is just 50. I was shocked I could still have my candies (or a cinnamon roll or even two on occasion!)
I also really like the gamification aspect the usage of a mobile app brings. I have a ton of fun adding and subtracting foods to my daily log, planning out my day and making sure I have enough wiggle room to satisfy my sweet tooth. It also gives me that little motivational push I need to hold off when hunger pangs strike an hour or so before meal time.
The last time I (intentionally) lost a bit of weight it was through exercise, not diet. I’ve never been one for the stationary bike or tread mill, but I can (or at least could) do an hour on the elliptical easy. Domingo and I had been considering purchasing an elliptical for the home for a while. My unhappiness in my weight was the final motivational push we needed. I found a basic one on Amazon and made the purchase. It’s out of stock now, but will hopefully arrive soon.
I’m six days in on this journey to a new me. Accounting for normal weight fluctuations, it appears that I may have already loss a lb and a half. LoseIt predicts I’ll reach my goal by summer. Here’s hoping!
Posted in Healthy Living
May 27, 2014
A Prescription for Chocolate
These days I’m averaging about 3 migraines a week, but have the near constant pre-migraine headache that makes me fearful the next big one is always just around the corner. I do have prescription medication to treat migraines but I don’t like how strongly it affects me. While considered pregnancy safe, it’s also not 100% risk free to the baby. Thus I’m reluctant to take it on such a regular basis. So at my last OB appointment we discussed prevention. Her main suggestion was a magnesium supplement.
Since the appointment I’ve been reading about magnesium and migraines online, and the verdict (at least to this lay person) seems mixed. What doesn’t appear to be in question is that migraine suffers tend to have lower levels of magnesium. One study found magnesium supplements reduced the number of migraines patients above and beyond the placebo affect, another study showed no difference. Alas, I haven’t found the actual papers, but here’s a summary. I did find a pubmed article entailed “Why all migraine patients should be treated with magnesium” and another “Should magnesium be given to every migraineur? No.” Alas, I lack the background knowledge to properly interpret the findings.
The good news is magnesium oxide, the typical supplement form, is pregnancy safe, and a category B. In contrast my prescription is a category C.
Under the “it most likely can’t hurt” philosophy, Domingo and I picked up some supplements. I also started reading about foods with naturally occurring magnesium since getting vitamins from natural sources are almost always better than supplements. In that list? Dark chocolate. The darker the better. I can now say there is a medical reason why I should eat chocolate. We picked up some of that too.
I’m not sure whether magnesium will actually help in my case. Many of the foods high in magnesium (aside from chocolate) I actually do eat on a fairly regular basis, including avocado, banana, black beans and spinach.
Here’s hoping, if nothing else, the supplement (and the chocolates!) can serve as a good placebo for me.
Posted in Healthy Living
February 18, 2012
Not So Grainy After All
You remember how I was all excited that we were eating healthier? We were reducing sugar, and eating more whole grain? Yeah, apparently I was falling for market hype. And now the FDA is upset with misleading labels. Part of the problem is there hasn’t been a standard for what a “good†or “excellent†source of whole grain is. The new rules will require manufactures list a gram or oz count, to avoid consumer confusion.
Remember those Eggo Waffles I thought were so good for us? They’re more white flower than whole wheat. There’s even an accusation of companies using food coloring to make products appear more like whole grain. It’s sneaky, to say the least. I’m sure this is part of the reason the FDA is getting involved. I’m not saying we would have avoided waffles had we realized the whole grain claim was misleading, but I certainly wouldn’t have paid a premium for them.
While this revelation is a bit discouraging, at least it’s not all bad news for us. I learned you can get a sense of the truthfulness behind whole grain claims by the fiber count. Whole grains are typically high in fiber. One tortilla roll has 48% of the daily fiber recommendation! And the bread we buy lists the number of grams of whole grain (11 per slice and 22 per sandwhich!), which is nearly half of the daily recommendation.
For now, I will stick to products that list a concrete amount of whole grain instead of vague claims like “made with whole grainâ€. I’ve always preferred ingredients I recognize (‘flour’, ‘sugar’, etc). I knew I was never going to be 100% whole grain, or 100% organic food, or any other healthy category. That was never the goal. We want to continually improve our eating habits. Hopefully with the new guide lines, we will continue to do that, and not be tricked into just thinking we’re eating healthier.
Posted in Healthy Living | Tags: Whole Grain
September 25, 2011
Eating Well for Less
July 9, 2011
Sweeter Than Sugar
One of the first healthy living eating choices I made was to eliminating soda from my diet. I used to drink 2 diet sodas a day, and even though diet soda no longer has the salt content, water is still much healthier. I used to never think I could get used to the non-taste of water, but I found that keeping it properly filtered and particularly chilled helped a lot.
Our current goal is to greatly reduce the carbs, particularly high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or corn sugar – really all processed sugars, natural sugars like those from fruit is okay – and the amount of white bread we consume.
We recently switched to Welch’s reduced sugar grape jelly. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy. They’re currently the only grape jelly on the market without HFCS and less sugar. Clearly no easy feat or there would be competitors. It took some getting used to, sugar is tasty after all, but now I am quite happy with it. The only drawback is only comes in the dorky kid-centric squeeze bottle, and the squeeze bottle costs a lot more than a regular jar. The alternative is to switch to a non-grape jelly, but what can I say, I’m a traditionalist when it comes to my peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches.
We’ve also been transitioning to wheat bread. We’ve been enjoying Wonderlight Smart Wheat bread, reduce fat Ego whole wheat waffles, and whole wheat buns for hot dogs. We even get whole wheat French bread, when our grocery store has it. One could argue that these aren’t necessarily the best choices, but they are better choices than pure white bread. Just like the reduced sugar grape jelly, it takes time to transition fully to the healthy choice.
The biggest issue for me is protein. I’m not a big lunch meet person, heck I’m not a big meat person in general. (If it flies or comes from the sea, I love it, but I rarely eat land dwellers.) My primary pre-dinner protein sources come from nuts. But I’m prone to headaches, which seem to come when I don’t eat enough protein. I’ve been trying protein bars, but unfortunately those come with a lot of extra sugar.
Is it working? Well, since the reduction of sugar in take and the switch to more whole wheat and whole grains, I’ve lost another 5 lbs, brining my total just shy of 10 by only dietary changes. I’ll take that.
Posted in Healthy Living | Tags: Low Sugar, Whole Grain
April 4, 2011
Sweet Strawberry and Spinach Salad
All I can say is YUM!
To make the sweet vinaigrette dressing combine (wisk)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
(Recipe from allrecipies.com)
Drizzle over freshly cut strawberries & spinach for a wonderful spring time treat. I used an egg slicer to slice my strawberries. If you do that, don’t cut out the white core of the strawberry before slicing. The remaining berry looses all structural integrity and turns into strawberry puree.
Posted in Healthy Living | Tags: Recipes, Salad, Sweet Tooth
March 4, 2011
Jillian Michaels, you kick my butt
I just have to say – Jillian Michaels, you kick my butt! Â I bought her workout DVD ’30 day shred’ almost a year ago, but only recently got took it out of it’s shrink wrap. Â I know, I know – wasted time I could have been getting fit. Â C’est la vie. Â The important thing is I’m getting healthy now. Â I haven’t noticed much of a difference weight wise yet, but I do notice a difference in my appearance.
I’m still on workout one, largely because I’m a big fail at circuit 1.  I can do Circuits 2 and 3.  I can even do the harder versions of the exercise.  I just cannot manage a pushup for the life of me.  Even on my knees.  I’d say it’s because I have no arm strength, but I can do all the other arm exercises with the weights.  Although, to be fair, I do feel it, and one of the areas I think I see improvements is my arms.  I think I must have bad form with the pushups, and the added torque is just too much for me.
I was interested in Yoga too, so I figured I’d mix up the 30 day shred with her Yoga video.  Guess what? Chataranga pushups.  Eventually I will get stronger.  Or my arms will fall off.  One of the two.
Posted in Healthy Living | Tags: Exercise, Yoga