Miami Momma » Self-improvement

Leukemia fundraiser

admin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:14:45 +0000

Hey guys, here I am again, raising funds for Leukemia and lymphoma Society. Last time, we raised over $3,500 in donations and I competed in my first Olympic Triathlon. This year, my commitment is to run a Disney Princess half marathon in February in Orlando.
Please donate generously.

Sometimes we all need a meal plan

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:44:00 +0000

So I am back to my weight loss battle, or more like a will battle. I went back to my true and tried Shape Diet Plan. Back in 2003 or so, I signed up for it for the first time. You had to pay then, it wasn’t free as it is today. After following the meal and exercise plans, I managed to loose weight, tone up and get in perfect shape. I was ecstatic!

So last week, I decided to reach out to iShape again. Well, now it is called Shape Diet Plan and it is a free subscription. It looked the same as few years ago, although the exercise plan was removed. I found it separated on their web site, but you cannot integrate two together. On the meal plan, I chose a vegetarian option. It calculated that I will loose 32 pounds of fat in 6-9 months. That’s a nice steady loss that is recommended by doctors and nutritionists.

I got ready, printed my shopping list and ran to Wholefoods to load up on missing items. A few days later, I was loosing weight, going to the gym (yes, I am back!) and motivated. Second week into the plan I started doubting it. All I kept seeing were bagels for breakfast, pita pockets for lunch, etc. I am not used to eating so many refined carbs anymore. My breakfast previously would consist of oatmeal and berries or egg-white omelet with tons of greens and toast; lunch would be a veggie soup, brown rice, steamed veggies and tofu. And now, it’s bread bread and bread. All my veggies and fruit are waiting for their turn.

After realising that Shape Diet Plan is still stuck in the area of refined carbs ( I don’t care that they write whole wheat - to me it’s same crap) I decided to dump it and return to my own pastures, that are greener, fresher and cleaner.

I will put my own menu together – I will keep you posted!

Why vegetarian diet won’t work for weight loss

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:31:30 +0000

Really? All of that?

Apparently, my battle with baby fat has reached it’s plato. Well, to tell you honestly, the battle itself has not began yet beyond the scull of my brain. Somewhere there is my wish to be thinner and prettier- buried, deep inside. It has hit a permanent firewall between my brain and my actions.

The only way to find if you are on the right track is to actually track your progress. Weighing in every week or daily is step one. Scaling your portions is another. Choosing right ingredients is third and then logging everything in a daily journal is four.

I have won the battle with scale long time ago. Somehow, miraculously I have accepted the ups and celebrated the downs. Portion control has begone long time ago, when I actually started measuring all ingredients on the scale. I did stop using the scale when I became pregnant. Now, I have reintroduced it back into my daily routine just to find that my pregnancy portions have tripled.

And then the third part of choosing the right ingredients, well.. that part needs a lot of work now. I had issues gaining weight during my pregnancy so I added lots of fat and protein to my daily consumption. It worked for then but now it is adding tires around my waist line.

And four, well, sometimes things get logged in and sometimes I get too busy. Plus, when you start logging meals and drinks in, you realise that you vegetarian diet is that off a carnivore in calories.

How do they add up? Well, my main culprits are:

1. wide use of olive oil: sauteing, salad dressings, etc;

2. alcohol;

3. cheese.

Now think, which step are you on? Which products are your main culprits?

My Food philosophy

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:32:53 +0000

I lost count of diets I have tried. First one beginning around middle school, maybe grade 6. I remember few of my classmates commenting on my tummy. I can still see the picture of it in my mind. In those days I thought, I was above fat jokes. Most of “funny” tummy comments were met with a smile and a brushed of with a joke. Looking back, I can see that my relationship with food started that early, when I tried to eat crackers for a day. Needless to say, that didn’t work. With all my GERD problems, dieting wasn’t for me.
Only twenty some years later did I realize that everything that was making me sick, was actually bad for me. And the minute that I gave up occasional fried foods, meat, milk, juice, white bread and bleached flour, I felt amazing. Not preaching vegetarianism here, but if you have sensitive stomach like me, try it.

My own food philosophy

To succeed with my health and to end the fight with my body, I had to find my own nutrition philosophy. I began LONG time ago by reading nutritional books (to the point where I wanted to become an R.D.), fitness magazines, searching through the web and trying every subscription diet possible. Along the way, my food philosophy has formed and morphed into different levels every day. New studies and research comes out monthly. Just take coffee for example. Few years ago it was enemy number one: was thought to dehydrate you, causing ulcers, etc. Then we hear that 3 cups per day may dwarf off certain cancers, that it doesn’t dehydrate you and you could even drink one or two cups when pregnant. Hellooo? Didn’t we just hear the opposite a year ago? All these changing things can make a person crazy. It is important to analyze the news, making sure it makes sense to me. I am smart and logical being.
And when medics said stay away from coffee, I trimmed it down. When they allowed three cups daily, I allowed myself two (not every day.)
Trends will come and go; fads will die and my food philosophy will always be changing. It lives with me and it allows me to experience life at its fullest. I really believe that when everything I put inside my mouth is healing and nutritional, my day will be better and my mind will be ready for any life challenge.

My Idea about Eating

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:18:39 +0000

So after reading the Skinny Bitch, I became a vegan. Literally, after reading the first chapter.
However, after I became pregnant, everything with the name tofu was making me crazy, so I had to give up tofu sour cream and cheese. And thus, a vegetarian was born.
I thought, if I am vegetarian, that will automatically make me thinner. Alas, something did happen, but not the change in my weight. All my health issues disapeared. Like GERD, stomach pains, etc.
And now, that I am battling the worst weight gain ever (all the fat left over from the twins), I decided that drastic measures are in order.
I am going out all public in my journey of loosing weight and getting my pre-preggo body back.

The Beginning

I begin with a whopping weight of 154 lbs. My height is 5’2″, which makes my BMI at 28.2 in an OVERWEIGHT category. This is 9 months after Twin’s birth.
I wasn’t all that skinny before preggo – at 135 (BMI 24.7 – just at the end of normal range). And before I quite my corporate job, I was a nice 125 lbs.

Where I want to be

I will take back 135 lbs in a heart beat. But, as we are all told, weight is only a number. What I want is to get into the jeans at a department store that zip up! Preferably size 4. I want my arms to stop flopping around like a Thanksgiving turkey. I want my belly to look more like a nicely polished Miami beach than a mountain of glob.

How Am I going to get there?

First of all, I am going back to the Pre-Pregnancy portions. It took me 7 months to realize, that I kept eating as I was still pregnant with twins. Mind you, breast feeding burns calories too, but it should not be an excuse to keep piling up those plates fully. Beyond the portion sizes, it was time to say good buy to ice cream, sour cream, cheeses and all other other goodies that us (vegetarians) pig out on.
Second, time to exercise. And not those little misery 15 minute walks they tell you in all “after-pregnancy” magazines to do. It’s something, but most definately not enough. You got to blast it, and blast it good.
Third, is a habit to be friendly with alcohol. Not an alcoholic. But for someone with so little exercise and so many reasons to slip up in the food department, every extra 150 calories will add another 150. Then the next morning, I feel like I haven’t slept more than 2 hours. Translation? Alcohol makes you tired. Tired bodies bring tired minds. And tired minds breed laziness and resistance to exercise and nutritious healing.

How long will it take?

No idea. The reason I am here, is because 9 months of trying took me nowhere. Still fat and ugly, still in pregnancy cloathes and still avoiding department store fitting rooms.

Exercise and teething

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:10:44 +0000

Enter the teething period.
If my will power has been extinct prior to today, now it’s not even a memory. It lives only in my blog. Show me a mom that can survive 3, 4 and 5 AM screaming contest between twins, then manages to wake in the morning refreshed, ready for a spinning class.
Not me. I down 2 cups of coffee int he row, bite on cheese crumbs falling of the high chairs and decide to cry to my blog on how my eyes hurt.
I challenge thee to a match – spinning class!

Welcome!

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:21:38 +0000

The idea of the blog came to me while suffering on a spinning bike at the gym. I couldn’t get rid of the thought that there have to be more women punishing themselves with diets and exercise just to feel better.
I couldn’t stop thinking of how hard it is to fight oneself to get going to the gym. How hard it is to put down the second glass of wine or leave champagne bottle alone.
I figured that by writing and sharing, perhaps my self control will miraculously appear and pat me on the back.
So join me on my journey to getting my body back, my self esteem in check, and my life organized.