One of the big keys to my success has been eating what I like.  If I’m eating something light, or diet, or reduced fat, it’s because I really like the way it tastes.  I love 2% cheddar, part-skim mozzarella,  and reduced-fat cream cheese.  I don’t miss the calories and fat at all (except in string cheese; I don’t know why but those have to be full fat).  But fat-free cheese?   You won’t catch me eating it.  Anything that doesn’t melt should not be called cheese.  I also don’t enjoy munching on carrots and celery unless they’re being dipped in something.  I actually love all of the baked snacks – Doritos, Ruffles, Lay’s, etc. – and don’t consider eating them a sacrifice at all.

I start just about every day with either Morningstar bacon or sausage (both vegetarian, in case you think I’ve lost my non-meat-eating mind) – a great, low-calorie start before exercising when I really don’t want to eat an entire breakfast and then work out.  For me it’s been all about finding foods that I love, that happen to also be a bit lower in calories, so that I can have enough left at the end of the day for a big plate of pasta, or some Kit Kats.  It works for me.

Any good recipes I can find that aren’t calorie bombs are a treat.  Katie Brown has been working with Splenda on some healthier recipes.  I’ve been a fan of Katie’s for a long time, since seeing her on Oprah years ago talking about how to throw a great party.  In this interview with me she gives some great advice about eating fresh for spring, treating yourself without overdoing it, and yes, throwing a great party.

I’m also hypoglycemic, so whenever I can successfully use a sugar-substitute, that’s a win.  I’ve been using Splenda for years, sprinkling it on strawberries or cereal, but I’ve never baked with it – I have to admit I was a little scared.  I haven’t tried any of these Splenda recipes, but if I do I will report back.  And I’d love to hear if you try them!  There are tons more on their site, these are just a few that I’d like to try.

Classic Creamy Cheesecake

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Cups

Island-Lover’s Coconut Cream Pie

No-Sugar Sugar Cookies

Strawberries and Cream Cake Roll

Sweet and Spicy Snack Mix

Hearty Corn Cakes

Banana Strawberry Shake

Kool-Aid Invisible Kool Pops

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and the NYC Moms Blog.

And when you start talking about BMI for kids, it gets more complicated, because a BMI that’s considered OK for a ten-year-old is obese for a seven-year-old.  I don’t think using BMI to track kids’ health is a good idea at all.  (However, unlike most of the commenters on the ABC piece, I don’t think trying to improve kids’ health is a commie-liberal-big brother idea either – those commenters get paranoid and nutty pretty fast.)  [Please note: the comments link has been working on and off all day; the link is correct, it's a problem with ABCNews.com.]  Whether a kid is healthy or not is complicated.  My son was in the top 5% on the BMI charts for a seven-year-old when he was seven, which is what triggered the note home.  The problem is that the kids’ charts compare kids by age.  My son was towering over the other kids in his class, so the comparison was completely out of whack.  The charts allow for the fact the older kids are supposed to have a higher BMI, but not for kids who are very tall for their age.

It’s just one of those things where a number or a label without information is useless.  I knew the assessment was ridiculous, but had to actually look up the info and explain the BMI-by-age concept to The Ass to talk him down after he saw the letter.  He’s not a stupid guy.  He’s actually quite smart, smarter than me in many ways.  But the government told him his son was obese and he took them at their word.  That’s a problem on many levels.

What’s the answer?  I have no clue.  I’m lucky that I have one kid who chooses to eat like a health nut and another who is active enough that he burns off the huge amount of carbs that he consumes.  If one of them had a health problem I would expect my doctor to talk to me about it.  He’s got all of my kids’ information right there in front of him, and even more important, he’s got my kids right in front of him.  Does he need the government’s guidance talking to me about my kids’ weights?  I don’t think so, but if they’re going to tell him anything, I’d rather it be something useful, like whether or not my kids can run and play with their classmates and how they do on fitness tests.  What their blood tests should look like.  And yes, whether their measurements are in a safe range, based on many factors.  Using one number to target kids will include kids who don’t need the intervention and exclude kids who actually need the help.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted.  Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

The Challenges

So I completely killed the week five challenge for the Your Shape challenge that I’m participating in.  The ten participants get weekly challenges, like drink more water (which I did OK at, not great) or walk 10,000 steps a day (which was easy when I was at home, not so much when I was sitting my ass in sessions at the Blissdom conference).  But week five I was awesome on.  OK, I really didn’t do anything special at all, it’s just that the challenge was to get outside every day, getting some kind of exercise, even if it was only for ten minutes.  And it was the week that I was at Disney World.  I walked miles and miles around the parks every day.  If that challenge had happened last week, though, I would have totally lost.  My family was out of town and I didn’t leave my house for four solid days.  I would make an awesome hermit.  That is, as long as I had access to the internet and could have things delivered to me.

Anyway, the week six challenge was to be innovative with healthy snacking.  Each participant was given a Wal-Mart gift certificate to buy food to make the snacks.  Only problem was, there’s no Wal-Mart anywhere near me, and they don’t sell food online.  So, instead, I tried to stick to the spirit of the challenge, and I bought a few things that would help me to eat at home more.  When I go out to eat, I tend to go a little crazy.  It’s not that the food I’m eating is necessarily all that terrible, it’s just that I have no way of knowing the calorie content.  So, I usually say “screw it” and eat whatever.  Therefore, the more I eat at home, the more likely I am to eat less and better.  So, I bought three things to help me cook at home more, stuff that I love to get at restaurants.  That way, I can control what goes into it and know exactly how many calories I’m eating.

I love getting sandwiches in restaurants, they’re just fancier than what I make.  So I bought a cast-iron panini press.  I love getting nice, creamy soups in restaurants, and I like to make homemade soup but I hate cleaning my blender, so I bought an immersion blender.  And last, my kids – Jake especially – are always dragging me to the coffee shop for Belgian waffles, so I bought a waffle iron.  Besides eating better, I’m hoping I’ll save a little money too!

The Giveaway

What I love about the Your Shape Challenge is that it involves more than just the game.  Drinking more water, walking more, these things all contribute to healthy living and weight loss.  But the heart of the challenge, of course, is the Your Shape game for the Wii.  And I get to give one away! (Sorry, Wii not included.)

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment stating what you weight loss or health goal is: lose ten pounds, be able to do a pull-up, walk up stairs without getting winded, etc.  For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:

Win a #YourShape exercise game for Wii from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/9se1iF

So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Friday, February 26th and random.org will draw the winner. Contest open to residents of the U.S., and shipping is available in the continental U.S. only. Entrants must be 18 years or older.  For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page.

Good luck!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 and 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

I just got back from a couple of rather decadent trips.  They were both conferences, and I’ve found over the last couple of years that conferences feed you very well.  The food is plentiful and usually very good, and at these two the food was particularly fantastic.  So, it’s time to get back on that weight loss wagon.  Or perhaps jog behind it.

Last night I was in Orlando International Airport, kidless, with two hours to kill.  I headed straight for McDonald’s.  I know most vegetarians don’t usually make a bee-line for Mickey-D’s, but I love their French fries.  And since I was alone, I was able to really savor them.  And I wasn’t breaking any kind of weight-loss rule either.  It’s all about balance, so today’s job is to make up for the French Fries.

I started with a yummy egg-and-cheese sandwich for breakfast, which at 326 calories wasn’t terrible, but also not making up any ground from the fries.  So for lunch I just reached for a can of Progresso Soup.  Progresso was nice enough to send me more than a dozen cans of soup along with a nice mug and a jumprope, although I’m honestly not sure if the soup I ate was from them or already in my pantry – I always keep Progresso Light Soup around.  This particular one, Zesty Southwestern-Style Vegetable, is probably my favorite.  I can eat the whole big can and it’s only 120 calories!

The Contest

Progresso is hosting a fantastic “Souper You” contest (that I’m totally entering) where three people will win a make-over in NYC!  And while I won’t have much use for the airfare, I’m salivating over the rest of the prize: two nights in a luxurious hotel, a make-over, and a $1,000 shopping spree!  This is what I need, because it falls right in line with my theory that you can’t wait until you lose weight to love yourself and how you look – loving your look NOW will help motivate you to lose weight!  And a thousand dollar shopping spree would be a crap-load of motivation.  So go here and enter. Maybe you’ll get one of the other two spots.   And whether you enter or not, you can download Progresso Soup coupons.

The Giveaway

Progresso is also giving one of my readers a cute little prize pack, including two cans of Progresso soup, a soup mug, and a digital jump rope.  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment with one of the following: either saying that you entered the awesome “Super You” contest, or what your favorite flavor of Progresso soup is (you can see the full Progresso Soup line here).   For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:

Win a Progresso Soup prize pack from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/9otphh

So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Friday, February 19th and random.org will draw the winner. Shipping available in the continental U.S. only. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page. Good luck!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

I’ll be out of town for most of the next two weeks. That’s a little scary for me right now. I panic when I’m in situations where I can’t count calories, say “screw it” and go crazy. I also have a hard time passing up free food and buffets, and the next two weeks will be filled with both. But I’ve laid a good foundation over the past few weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to stay on track. I have no illusions about losing weight with all this travel though – if I come out even I’ll call it a win and be thrilled. I lost less than a pound this week, but I’m not surprised. It’s that time of the month, you know what I’m talking about. I’m only not naming it so as not to attract weird googlers.

So this past week, the third week of the Your Shape Challenge, has been really good. I did manage to get in three 30-minute Your Shape workouts, which was my goal. I also went ice skating last week, which worked some leg muscles that hadn’t been worked in a while.   However, I’m going to be without my Wii for five out of the next seven days. If I can get in two 30-minute Your Shape workouts in the next week, I think that will be an accomplishment. I’m going to try to get in a little exercise on the road, but it’s never happened before so I’m trying to manage my expectations rather than set myself up for failure.  In other words, I’m setting the bar low in the hope that I can leap over it with ease.

I made my water goal three days this week, and not coincidentally it was the same three days that I worked out. I need to stop thinking about drinking water (and yes, by that I mean Crystal Light) only when working out. I feel better when I drink more water. It’s such a no-brainer I don’t know why I struggle with it. But I’m going to bring my little “On the Go” packets of Crystal Light with me. Don’t worry, I won’t take them in my carry-on. I don’t want to be arrested at the airport for carrying a suspicious red powder.

This week’s challenge: step to it

The Your Shape challengers have a new challenge this week, and that’s to walk as many steps as possible each day. To help us keep track we were each sent a pedometer, and I’ve been wearing mine faithfully for the past two days, despite a few close calls where I almost dropped it in the toilet. It’s going to happen eventually. Whether or not I rescue it depends on what it lands in. Yesterday I walked just a few hundred steps shy of 10,000 steps, which is the magic number that’s always thrown around about how active a person should be. I almost got there even though the only time I left the house yesterday was walking the kids to school and picking them up. At home, I’m always going up and down the stairs and all over the place, so it was pretty easy. Today was even easier. I went into the city with the kids, and we did a good deal of walking. I’m over 14,600 steps right now and not quite done yet – hoping to hit 15,000 before I fall into bed.

So, things have been going well. Pretty easy. I’m really glad that this all started during a really busy, crazy time for me. If I had more time to pay attention to the challenge, I’d probably over-do it in the beginning and then flame out. Instead I took things slow, and I’m still going strong. At the end of the day My Food Diary tells me when I will reach my goal if I ate the same way every day. Today it told me that I would reach my goal on my birthday, which is in October. Far off, yes, but I really feel like I could keep this up until then. What a great birthday gift that would be.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

As for water, after drinking practically no water, at all, for a very long time, I had two days where I drank 64 ounces and one day where I drank 32 ounces.  OK, it wasn’t water.  It was watered-down Crystal Light (Fruit Punch flavor, if you’re interested – it’s the only one I like).  But I hate water.  Hate.  And don’t try to tell me I would like it with a twist of lemon or a splash of juice.  I would not.  But I drank the watery Crystal Light and will continue to do so until I find a nutritionist who tells me that fizzy drinks filled with caffeine count as water.

So, improvement.  I’m not going to beat myself up about not meeting last week’s goals, I’m just going to be happy that I did a little better.

My two-week weight loss is very encouraging.  As of this morning I’ve lost seven pounds!  Yay me!  Yes, I know the first couple of weeks you always lose a lot, but still, it’s a nice way to start.

And as for my two Your Shape workouts?  Yelling at Jenny McCarthy is fun.  And helps keep me motivated.  I’m experimenting with the sound features on the game.  I don’t want to hear Jenny correct my form every five seconds, but I do want to hear the other things she says – when she names an exercise, for example, or says we’re almost done.  But while there’s a volume control specific to her voice, there’s no way to turn off the critiques but keep the other chatter.  So I’ve just turned her down most of the way.  And that’s my big suggestion for Ubisoft if they do another version of the game: let players choose which parts of Jenny they want to hear.

Everything else with the game is going really well.  Granted I’ve only done three workouts so far, but they’ve all been interesting.  Yesterday I had done a core strengthening workout and woke up with sore abs, so today I added my 3lb hand weights and did an upper body strength workout.  I like that I don’t know which exercise is going to come next.  With DVDs I always knew what was coming and got  bored easily.  Jenny keeps me on my toes.

***

I just picked a winner for the EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale, and it’s Lydia!  Thanks so much for entering, and thank you to EatSmart for providing the great prize!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 & 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

This morning I was doing my Your Shape workout, and I couldn’t help but notice how crappy I looked.  You can’t hide from yourself with the Your Shape workout, because you’re right there on the TV, next to a buff, made-up, fashionably-dressed Jenny McCarthy avatar.  And there I was, wearing black track pants that were too big six month ago, and now magically fitting again (sigh), and completely worn out.  And I have a matching pair in gray, just as worn out.

On top I was wearing a green workout shirt that supposedly has a built-in “shelf” bra.  I don’t know why I fall for that time and time again.  I’m a 36D.  There is no built-in shelf bra that will work for me.  But I keep buying them anyway, and my boobs keep flopping around as I work out.

But, I had convinced myself that these things didn’t matter, that I was exercising privately so who cares what I look like?

Only, it does matter.  Nobody needs to put on make-up and a $300 Juicy Couture track suit to work out, but when I look shlubby I feel shlubby.  And when I feel shlubby I want to sit on the couch and eat potato chips and watch Cops.

This afternoon I received a very generous gift card to Lady Foot Locker for my participation in the Your Shape challenge, and I got myself two complete outfits – track pants, shirts, and sports bras (good ones, underwire).  The pants are plain but the shirts are bright colors.  I hate to admit that I’m affected by such silly things, it seems weak and shallow.  But when I go to an event dressed in something I know I look good in, I feel more confident.  Perhaps the first new work-out clothes I’ve bought in six or seven years will make me feel strong.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

I had people in my house all week installing things, and the Wii is right next to the kitchen.  After doing the Your Shape exercises the first time I swore that I could never EVER do them in front of other people.  Not even my kids.  I always suspected that I looked like a dork while exercising, but with the Your Shape thing I actually get to see myself on camera and confirm my dorkness.  And it’s way worse than I thought.  So all week I used the installation guys as an excuse why I couldn’t do it, and then on the weekend my family was home the whole time.  I told myself whatever I had to tell myself to get out of exercising.

So this morning, I told myself that I couldn’t write my Weight Loss Tuesday post until I had some good exercise news to report.  I was home alone all day.  There was no excuse not to do it.  But I still didn’t do it.

There is some good news.  My eating was great all week, and I lost over four pounds.  I’m guessing most of it was water weight – that always happens the first week I start eating less – but still, it felt good to step on the scale.  That’s even more amazing considering I can’t really cook without a kitchen sink to wash pots and pans in.  I’ve eaten a lot of frozen and take out, but logged all of it in My Food Diary and stuck to 1,500 calories every day but yesterday, when I had a huge diner lunch, but that was practically the only thing I ate all day, so I still stayed reasonably withing my calories.  Good week for eating.  Bad week for exercise.  Better than bad for both.

But, history has shown me that I need to do both.  So, this is a new week and I’ll take things one day at a time.

I’ve also been given a challenge by the people behind the Your Shape Challenge, to drink more water.  Well, in my case, that would be to drink water, period.  I hate drinking water.  Pretty much the only time I drink it voluntarily is after I exercise, and well, see the above paragraphs.  But I’ve been assured that adding some Crystal Light powder to my water counts, so that will help me get through.

I think telling myself that I was going to exercise six days a week was just setting myself up for failure.  This week, I’m going to shoot for three.  Baby steps.

The Giveaway

So, when I stepped on that scale last week for my initial weigh-in and yesterday for my one-week check, it was a beautiful new scale, the EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale.  It has a really elegant design that makes me want to leave it in the middle of the living room, not hide it away in the bathroom.  But since I weigh myself naked, that’s probably not a good idea.

It has a large, back-lit display and turns off automatically to save batteries.  I tested it out against my old ugly warhorse of a scale, and it weighs very accurately.  Did I mention how pretty it is?

I’m enjoying using mine, and one of you will get one for yourself.  To enter to win, all you have to do is go to the EatSmart site and take a look at their products, then come back here and leave a comment stating what you think is the most useful feature on any of their products.

For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:

Win an EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale from @SelfishMom http://bit.ly/8FJTbx

So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Monday, January 25th and random.org will draw the winner. Shipping available in the continental U.S. only. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page. Good luck!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 (Your Shape game) and 10 (Eat Smart Scale). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Shop Amazon

I agreed to do a three-month weight loss/fitness challenge with nine other women.  The great folks at Nintendo recently sent me a Wii, so I jumped at the chance to use it to get fit when the “Your Shape” opportunity came along.  I could have gone out and bought the game myself, but it’s about more than that: it’s about motivation.  I’ve been in a slump for the past few months, weight-loss wise.  So I thought that maybe some friendly competition would help.  We’ll see.

Today was the official start of the challenge, and I spent the whole day avoiding it.  I had a couple of guys in my house installing a kitchen for most of the day, then the kids were home and it was time to do homework and go to Tae Kwon Do and out to dinner at Subway (we have no kitchen right now, and really won’t for at least a couple of weeks).  Then it was bedtime for the kids, and time to work out.  So what did I do?  I caulked the front door. Then I cleaned up the living room.  That delay was excusable, because I knew that I’d need room to exercise – the kitchen stuff was encroaching on the living room, not to mention the fact that my bags from the Vegas trip were still sitting in the middle of the floor.  But by the time I was done tidying up the room, it was almost midnight and I knew that if I didn’t do the workout then, it wouldn’t happen and I’d have messed up on the very first day.

The game comes with a camera, and it captures your moves as you work out.  There’s a little Jenny McCarthy avatar on the left side of the screen, and then you’re on the right side.  And Jenny talks to you.  A lot.  I would have been happy with less of Jenny talking.  I’ll have to experiment with the game and see if that’s possible.  I want the feedback – the whole selling point of the game is that it tells you whether or not you’re doing the workout moves right, and motivates you along the way.  But I don’t need a constant flow of chatter.

Or do I?  Trying to do better when Jenny told me I wasn’t raising my arms high enough or squatting low enough not only kept me motivated, but it helped pass the time quicker.  What I look for in a workout is something that distracts me from the fact that I’m working out.  Often this means TV or music, but with this game it means yelling at the TV and trying to match exactly what the avatar is doing.  Whatever works.

I was surprised at how well the camera picked up my movements.  There’s actually a visual lag between what I’m doing and what shows up on the screen, but that doesn’t seem to be affecting the game – the game is “seeing” what I’m doing more accurately than what I’m seeing on the screen, so I just look at Jenny instead of myself, only glancing at my side of the screen every now and then to make sure I’m in the frame.

The game shows you the number of calories you’re burning as you go along, but I think the count is a bit high.  While I would love to burn 200 calories in fifteen minutes, I’m guessing it was closer to 100.  But I did get a good workout.  My heart rate was up, I was sweating, and now I have that “heavy” feeling in my arms and legs that I know will translate to some soreness tomorrow.  While I’m fairly active in my daily life – lots of walking and stair climbing – this was using different muscles, muscles that have been taking it easy for a while.  Time to wake up.

The real test will be if I keep doing it.  Since I started the actual workout part after midnight, the workout was counted for Wednesday on the game’s calendar.  I think I’m going to take advantage of that and take tomorrow off, and let my muscles rest.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.