The Nifty Foodie's Life

I usually don’t have guest posts on my blog, but my little sister has inspired the something out of me. My youngest sister, Rachel, is a freshman at LSU. You know how the freshman 15 is usually a given? Well, she hasn’t gained a pound. In fact, she’s LOST nearly 30 pounds. She’s made a complete lifestyle change, and I asked her if she’d mind taking some time out of her busy college schedule to write a guest post on here. She has a ton of great tips for college students, as well as pretty much any person.

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Hello Everyone! I am Amy’s sister, Rachel, and she has asked me to do a guest post for her blog! I couldn’t be more excited to share some weight loss tips with you all! But first, I thought I’d share some of my background story.

I was always a chubby kid. I got bullied and made fun of a lot because of it. I remember one time in particular when we had to share our weight to the entire class for some math activity, and it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life seeing the other kids just stare at me. I also remember not being able to fit into the cute clothes at Limited Too (now called Justice). I was also a shy kid. It was a bad combination in school because I couldn’t stand up to the bullies until I was older. But, thanks to getting into musical theatre (as well as my loving family), I got a lot more confidence. I felt better about myself, but my weight was always a nagging thing in my life.

Once I got to high school, the bullying pretty much stopped, but I was gradually gaining more and more weight. At my highest weight (which you’ll see a picture of below), I weighed about 220 lbs., maybe a little higher. This was around the time I was auditioning for college musical theatre programs. One audition in particular was a huge wake up call for me. I was auditioning for Penn State’s program, and after I sang and did my monologue, they sat me down. They basically told me that I couldn’t succeed in musical theatre being so overweight. Not only were they extremely rude about it, they also proceeded to tell me that it would be different had I been black (um, excuse me, but did they look at my resume? I have done a lot of lead roles before, so obviously my weight hasn’t gotten in my way so far!). So, in the end I didn’t get into any of the musical theatre programs I applied to mainly because of my weight. I decided to go to LSU for vocal performance and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I have no regrets.

Fast forward to January of this year. I had already done little things to lose a little bit of weight the previous semester, but I’m pretty sure I gained all that weight back during the holidays. So once I got back to school, I decided to make a lifestyle change, not go on a diet, and lost 25 lbs.!! I dropped a full dress size (maybe a little more) and lost almost 15% of my body weight! This was also very gradual (took about 2 months) so no one really noticed until I either told them or showed them the two pictures below.

The first is of me at my first LSU football game last semester and the second is of me right before doing a 5k a couple of weeks ago. Isn’t the difference crazy? It’s made such a huge difference in how I dance and exercise (it’s so much easier!) and I just feel ten times better about myself. Now who said you can’t LOSE weight while in college?

So here are some amazing tips that helped me lose the weight and can help you too!

1. Drink water. This is pretty basic, but this also means to completely cut sodas out of your life. It was actually a lot easier than I thought. I used to hate drinking plain old water, but now I crave it. I try to drink about 4-6 glasses a day, and it has helped so much! If you get tired of water, I suggest drinking crystal light or some tea! I also drink a glass of milk every once in a while for some much needed calcium.
2. Simple carbs are the enemy. Basically, I just try my best to avoid simple carbs, such as white bread, rice, pasta, corn, and potatoes (sweet potatoes are great though!). Sometimes it’s unavoidable in the dining hall at school, but otherwise it’s very do-able. Simple carbs basically turn into sugar once inside of the body, and you want to avoid sugar as much as possible if you want to effectively lose weight. I learned all about this in the book The Dorm Room Diet by Daphne Oz, a wonderful source for those of us in college. It’s also very do-able to avoid these when going out to eat. Just substitute the potatoes or rice in a dish for more veggies!
3. Veggies and fruits, please! These will be your best friends when trying to lose weight. They are very nutritious and can surprisingly fill you up when paired with a source of protein, such as chicken or steak. I used to only like certain veggies, like broccoli, but you will eventually get used to eating veggies for every meal, so I promise you’ll love them as much as I do. I’ve always loved fruits, so this was never a challenge for me. What was a challenge was substituting delicious ice cream and cakes for dessert in the dining halls for fruit. But now that I’ve pretty much overcome that, it’s really easy.
4. Have a Support System. I started going to LSU’s gym more and more since I got back to school from winter break. What really helped me out was that I had a couple of close friends who loved exercising and would be willing to go to the workout classes with me, and it made it ten times more fun to go to the gym every day! Also, one of my friends eats really healthy like I try to do, so when in doubt, I always copy what she’s eating. Having the support system will really motivate you to keep going.
5. Get moving, and make sure it’s FUN! I can’t say enough how important it is to work out at least 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes. Thanks to the LSU UREC, I work out 5 times a week taking many different classes including Zumba, yoga, and cycling. These classes are an hour and I’m always sweating so much by the end of them, so I know I’m really doing something good for my body every time I leave the gym. I know this isn’t everyone’s situation, but this is where your support system can come in. Try to get a small group of friends together to go running or even join a gym, and your body will love you for it. Make sure it’s fun, so you’ll want to keep doing it. That’s why I love Zumba so much, it just feels like a dance party! Even if you don’t have much time to get moving, remember that diet alone is 80% of losing weight, so no worries!
6. It’s OK to splurge sometimes! Always remember that if you do go off of your “diet” one day, it’s really no big deal. Maybe one day you decide to get a frappuccino or a small scoop of ice cream. It’s OK. We would all go crazy if we didn’t splurge sometimes. Just remember to splurge in moderation, and you’re good. Just don’t make splurging a habit!
7. Rewarding yourself is essential. I love that my sister has goals and once she meets those goals, she will reward herself in some way. This is yet another way to keep yourself motivated. My reward was usually a frappuccino one week or some ice cream another week. But a really satisfying reward is clothes shopping once you’ve lost a good amount of weight. I can’t tell you how good I felt about myself when I went shopping this past weekend. Before I lost the weight, I was a size 16, sometimes 18 or 16W. Now I’m a solid 14 and it feels great. I no longer fit into Lane Bryant clothes, which is wonderful! I know I still have some weight to lose, but fitting into everything I tried on was just great motivation to keep going. I ended up getting a lot of cute things, and I couldn’t be more excited!!

Sorry for making this post so long, but I had so much to say! Some people may think these guidelines are a little strict, but they really do help. I hope at least some of you got something from this. Thank you Amy for letting me write this post! If you want to read more from me, feel free to follow my Happiness Project blog as well as my life blog!

http://rachelshappinessproject.blogspot.com/

http://rachelslifeasofnow.blogspot.com/

XOXO
Rachel

 The past two weekends have consisted of hardware stores, dirt, flowers, sore legs and smashing tons of bugs that would attempt to crawl on me. It has been tiring, for sure, but when Spring hits, I just get an itch to beautify everything outside.

Last weekend, we noticed our neighbors were fixing up their front beds, and we thought it would probably be best to start with that, since that’s what everyone sees when they drive by the house, and that would take the least amount of time.

2 azaleas and a bunch of begonias/petunias/zinnias later? I think our front yard garden is pretty fantastic looking, if I do say so myself! (We already had a ton of iris/amaryllis bulbs in the garden, as well as 2 indian hawthorne bushes we bought last Fall.)

The rest of the weekend, we cleared some old bushes in the backyard and also built a small shed (from a kit) in the back (that was mostly H, actually). It came out pretty cute, actually.

This past weekend, my big project was finally installing our square foot gardens. I purchased 2 of these kits at our local Sam’s Club, because the kits had raving reviews and for $40 (in store price) for a double raised garden? It wasn’t too shabby!

The only bummer about those kits is the double garden size is 3.5 ft. x 7 ft. So, two 3.5 ft. x 3.5 ft. gardens. Not an exact foot measurement, but eh, I think I made it work. I do love that these kits assembled super easily (no screws, nails or anything) and the materials are pretty darn heavy (sturdy).

We decided to fill the gardens with Mel’s Mix, which we made on our own. We purchased the vermiculite at a local nursery ($29 /4 cu. feet, which beat the heck out of $20/2 cu. feet at Home Depot) and the compost/peat moss at Lowes (compost was $3/2 cu. feet and peat moss was $10/3 cu. feet).  We mixed everything in a wheelbarrow a few cu. feet at a time, and it really didn’t take too long to mix it that way. It ended up costing us $110 to fill up 2 kits with the soil mix, which really wasn’t that shabby!

Here’s one bed filled. You might notice the cardboard below the kit. That’s not only to prevent weeds/grass from growing in the bed, but also to provide the drainage the garden needs (since paper is porous). Coincidentally, we were able to use the box from the shed kit. The front and back of the box were the perfect size to place the garden kits on top of.

Once that was done, I placed the veggies in the garden to get the spacing right. Then, I just dug holes with my hands (yeah, no hand shovel needed…this soil mix is SUPER light and easy to dig into) and placed the veggies in the garden! Here’s the first kit done…

And…here’s the second kit done! After everything was planted, I gave the garden a good soaking with the sprinkler.

 I’m way excited to see what our garden produces this year. I’m hoping we have better luck with the square foot garden vs. just planting veggies in the ground.

Here’s what’s in our garden (so far…we still have some room to plant a few more things):

• creole tomatoes
• cherry tomatoes
• heirloom tomatoes
• sweet basil (and also a purple basil, which should make for a really cool pesto)
• green, yellow and purple bell peppers
• bush pickle cucumbers
• jalapeno peppers
• poblano peppers
• cucumbers
• chives
• dill

Have you started on the ol’ Spring yard work yet? What are you up to in your gardens this year?

Last month, I reached out to the folks at BodyMedia, and asked them if I could review one of their armbands. I have to admit, I was pretty ecstatic that someone in their PR got back to me and told me they would send me one for review!

The product I’ve been using is the BodyMedia Link armband. ($199) I chose to review this one, because it’s bluetooth enabled to give you real time results on your phone through their BodyMedia app. It’s perfect for me since I’m all about using my smart phone!

They also offer the Core armband ($179), which is 1/3 smaller, but is not bluetooth enabled so you can either see your results on your computer or through their optional display.

I’ve been using this armband for about 3 weeks now, and I can tell y’all that this little armband is definitely helping me stay motivated to do better on this diet. I’m down 24 lbs. as of this morning, which is 6 measly pounds away from 10%. 10%…that’s another reward, y’all!

As far as wearability, I have no problems wearing this to work or out at night. You really can’t tell that I’m wearing it when I’m wearing a cardigan or a shirt with longer sleeves.

I also have no issues wearing this in my sleep. It’s not bulky at all, so I can sleep right on the armband without any discomfort.

The app displays the following on a daily basis:

• calories burned
• calories consumed
• the total calorie deficit (calories burned – calories consumed = ….)
• minutes of moderate activity (which for me has been like taking a walk or fairly heavy cleaning)
• minutes of vigorous activity (which for me has been jogging/workout videos)
• amount of steps taken
• duration of sleep

(This is an example of a typical rest day for me. Crazy how much your body burns on its own!)

When you plug the armband into your computer, though, you get more details like when you were active/how long and when/how much you slept vs. lying down. I found this to be pretty neat to look over.

After using this product for a couple of weeks, I figured the best way to review this is to write about the pros and cons of the product.

Pros:

• The armband isn’t really a bother. After a couple of days, it feels weird when I’m NOT wearing it.
• I found this armband is very simple to use and set-up. You just set-up your account (which it will guide you through doing that online), install the software for syncing the band to your computer, and enable the bluetooth on your phone to connect the armband. Then, let the system charge fully, put it on, and you’re good to go!
• I love that I can see the calories my body is burning in real time on my phone. It really motivates me to push for a certain calorie deficit in a day.
• I really like the goal-making feature for workouts on the app. I especially love the calories burned goal. Regret eating that chocolate bar? Well, this will show you just how much work it takes to burn that chocolate off!
• The sleep feature. I really like seeing how much I’m sleeping through the night, and it’s cool to see my sleep efficiency too (you can see that via the website). I kind of had a hunch that once I’m out, I’m out, and I’m right…my sleep efficiency is almost always over 90%!

Cons:

• Logging my food. When I started this diet, I was logging my food on the MyFitnessPal app. I love that app, because the food diary is very extensive. However, I’ve noticed quite a few times where BodyMedia’s app (and website) don’t have some of the foods I’m looking to log on there. However, you can manually enter your nutritional information on the app when you find that out.
• The BodyMedia Fit armbands do have a membership fee after the first 3 months of membership ($6.95/month), which kind of stinks. However, if you think about it, it’s the cost of a coffee and pastry at a coffee shop. I’d rather spend $6.95 on my health, personally.
• It can take some time to charge the armband on my computer, so I just try to charge it while I know I’ll be on the computer for a while.

Even though I didn’t pay for this product, I have to admit that this thing is completely worth the $199. I know that’s easy to say, but I can’t really put a price on how motivating this product is for me. I’ve lost a steady amount of weight, and I honestly think that the weight loss has a lot to do with using this tool.

Do any of y’all own/use the BodyMedia Fit armbands? What do you think of yours?

Disclosure: I was sent this product at no cost to me, as well as three months of free membership for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed about this product are my own.

I feel like the past couple of months have been just flying by. It’s cool to watch the scale numbers constantly drop, but last week reminded me more than anything that life can throw some unexpected obstacles your way.

I caught a cold.

Now, I know that sounds like barely a big deal, but y’all, I assure you, this cold knocked me off of my feet. I haven’t had a really good night’s sleep since almost two weeks ago, and I could barely do 15 minutes of housework at a time until this past weekend. I haven’t done a C25K workout (or really any workout, except for moderate paced walking) since Week 2 Day 1′s workout either, so I just feel like a weight loss bum.

Just to note, I haven’t even gotten my 5% pedicure yet. It was that miserable to leave the house!

Now, weight-loss wise at first, the scale was dropping like crazy. When your throat is so sore, you can barely sip down a bowl of soup, of course the weight was going to drop. Even MyFitnessPal warned me that I was putting my body in starvation mode when counting calories. (about 700 cals/day at my worst!) So, once I introduced real food back into my diet, of course the weight jumped up again (sigh). However, I’m happy to say as of this morning, I’m back to my lowest weight on the diet so far. I’m barely in the 270s, but that’s a new weight decade for me! Whee!

I had huge plans to hit 10% by my birthday, but at this point, I’m sure that won’t happen. I’m 16 lbs. away from that and I only have 16 days until my birthday. Ha! I’ll try, but I know it’s just not going to happen.

I’m so motivated at this point, though. I need to find my belt for my pants, because I’m constantly pulling them up, which makes me SO happy! I never thought my work pants would be loose! I keep staring at my size 20 shorts from the honeymoon, hoping that sometime this Summer, I might be able to wear them again. That would be way awesome, because I loved those dang shorts!

Before: 298.5
This morning: 283.6 (close enough, darnit)

Y’all. 15 lbs. is the most weight I’ve lost since trying to lose weight for the wedding. I know 15 lbs. isn’t a lot when you have 105 more to lose, but to me, I no longer have 120 lbs. to lose. I have 105 lbs. to lose, and that’s exciting stuff to me!

Back at my highest weight, my husband took “before” pics of me. I wanted to curiously take a picture of myself today to compare, and whoa…there’s results y’all.

To note: both of these are XL shirts and 18/20 workout pants at Lane Bryant. I’m not sucking in for either one, I swear.

In the before, my XL shirt was super tight. I would be embarrassed to wear an XL unless I or my H pulled my shirt to stretch it out. Now, it’s getting loose, and no longer riding up because it is too tight to wear. (Sorry XL shirts for the months of torture.)

You guys, I know this isn’t much weight, but look at the difference. I didn’t take my before measurements until last week (stupid, I know), so right now, this is what is driving me to that 10% of your weight lost. The benefits of losing just 10% of your weight is completely worth it. Google what losing 10% does, y’all. You’ll see.

So, since I reached my first goal, it’s time for a pedicure. YAY! I can’t wait to make that appointment.