Looking Good (for a mom)

You may have been wondering where I’ve been, given the lack of posts lately. Well, like many other people, I recently took a vacation. We went back to the lake, and I learned from my experience traveling there in July that I needed to bring a cooler of my usual foods with me, as the Oakland (Maryland) SuperWalmart doesn’t have the best selection of whole and organic foods... Read More

There was a time in my life when my family knew me as “the starch queen,” due to my frequent consumption of pasta (and rice, and potatoes… you get the idea). Now, however, I get the vast majority of my carbs from fruits and vegetables, and rarely, if ever, eat pasta... Read More

Being a part of the Twitter community has exposed me to dozens of other health and fitness bloggers. Many of them are simply amazing people. I’ve added many of their blogs to my blogroll, but I thought I’d occasionally give you links to relevant and interesting articles I’ve enjoyed reading from their blogs... Read More

Last week I talked about how much red meat is too much, and I promised I’d track my meat intake over the course of the week. So now it’s time to share the results. I had a grass-fed steak (Delmonico cut) one day, and a cup of chili another day. I estimate that I hit just about 1.5 servings, maybe just a bit more. It was good to be mindful of my red meat intake, and substitute in chicken or fish (or beans) when I could... Read More

Years ago, when I was a teenager, I stopped eating meat. I didn’t become a vegetarian, per se, but I stopped eating red meat and pork, continuing to eat poultry and fish. I actually ate this way for many years, but partway through college I added red meat back to my diet. During the time red meat was off the menu, I focused my diet primarily on starchy carbs – pasta, potatoes, etc., and very few green vegetables, however, so I wasn’t eating very healthy!.. Read More

I’ve just returned from a trip away from home with my family from the Washington D.C. area (more on that later). It was a lovely weekend up in the mountains at our family cabin, devoid of T.V. (there is one, but we don’t use it), Internet access, and all of the modern conveniences that keep us occupied here at home... Read More

After posting my pics from a year ago, I wanted to go back and compare some specific things, to see not just how my body has transformed, but also how my LIFE has transformed. I’m starting with diet... Read More

A few weeks back, I did a post where I explained that it’s often possible to take a food that is traditionally unhealthy and/or fattening, and make a homemade version that is healthier and has reduced fat or saturated content. In my first post, I made a low fat and healthy chicken salad, saving hundreds of calories over a comparable sandwich from the local store. I thought now might be a good time to share another meal conversion I enjoy making, this time for a bit more of a decadent item – pizza!.. Read More

Using USDA values for the whole foods, and the package information for the cottage cheese, this meal should be 349 calories, with 24g of protein, 11g of fat, and 42g of carbs.

• Half a mango, sliced – I thought this was one serving of 165g, but it was actually a whopping 250g! I suppose a typical mango is much smaller than the ones I bought at the store.
• 6 blackberries – These fit in a 1/4 cup, but by weight were 1/3 of a (one cup) serving
• 3/4 C lowfat no salt added cottage cheese – 3/4 Cup should equal about 170g. However, depending on how I pack the measuring cup, I found I could put up to 200g in the measuring cup. That’s another 25% of a serving.
• 7 walnuts – My walnuts must be larger than normal, because it turns out I had half an ounce at only 6 walnuts

So, by using USDA reference statistics (such as 14 walnuts to a serving) and measuring cups, I ended up with a breakfast that was 100 calories (nearly 30%) higher than I thought – and that was with doing careful measuring and tracking of what I was eating! Once I weighed my food, I realized that the portion sizes I thought were accurate were actually far from it. Why did I try weighing my food to begin with? I did so after watching this video:

Can you imagine what would happen if you underestimated your calories by 30% at EVERY meal? Let’s say you needed 2000 calories a day to maintain your current weight, and you thought you were eating 1500 calories per day – a deficit of 500 calories per day. However, if you underestimated your calories by 30%, you’d actually be eating 1950 calories per day. You could do this for weeks and you wouldn’t lose any weight at all, getting more and more frustrated as each day went on.