Weightloss update!

Today I weighed in at 165.6, for a total weight loss of 12.4 lbs since July 2nd. :) So that's happy.

There is a dress that I bought when I weighted 150 lbs that does not fit me now. Even when I was 150, the dress was tight. When I reach 145 lbs, I plan to wear this dress out and post pictures of me in it here. 20 more lbs until dress time....!!!!

Belly Aches

I've had some really bad stomach aches the last few days. I'm not sure what is going on. I'm eating what I believe to be healthy - lots of fruits and veggies, and cutting back on simple carbs. Today I feel a lot better so I'm hoping that my bellyaches are just be my body's temporary reaction to this recent heat wave.

Yesterday's food diary. I ate 1,070 calories.

Yesterday I ate 1070 calories, which is 300 calories below my target calorie range. I just wasn't feeling up to eating. Today, I'm back on track. Also, my current weight as of this morning is 169.6 lbs (8.4 lb loss to date). I know I know, I count every tenth of a pound.

I just made the most amazing dessert

Sugar-free,.....vegan,...., flour-free fruit cobbler. It's so amazingly delicious and of course I didn't add any sugar to it. I used oatmeal instead of flour.

I will have a post later on about this with details on the ingredients I used, how I made it, and the nutritional content.

3 Favorite On-The-Go Snacks

Nuts and Chocolate

In my frigerator I have small tupperware containers filled with nuts and chocolate portioned out for the week so I can grab it on the way out to school every morning. I measure out 1 oz of nuts, usually walnuts, and one square of dark (≥90%) chocolate. This snack comes out to 245 calories, which may seem high, but it's extremely filling.

What does 2% Milk Actually Mean?

Photo used under Creative Commons 

from NickPiggott

There are many misconceptions about what the different terms for milk mean. For example, some may believe that 2% milk means that the manufacturers took out all but 2% of the fat. This is not true. The 2% means that 2% of the weight is milk fat. For example, a cup of 2% milk weighs 224 grams. Of that, 5 grams are fat. Five dived by 224 is 2.23%.

• Myth: 2% of the calories come from fat

One cup of 2% milk has 124 calories. There are 5 grams of fat in a cup of milk and each gram has 9 calories. Therefore there are 45 calories of fat in a cup of milk, which makes up 36.29% of the calories. In other words, 36.29% of the calories in 2% milk come from the fat.  This is because the amount calories per gram of fat (9) is greater the amount of calories per gram of protein and carbohydrates (4).

My Plan

Monitor Eating

I am logging everything I eat using MyFitnessPal, which has both phone and web interfaces. MyFitnessPal recommends that I eat 1370 calories a day if I don't exercise. When I do any sort of exercise, I log it and my calorie allowance increases for the day. For example, today I spent 40 minutes walking my neighbor's dog, which burned 172 calories. That made my calorie allowance increase to 1542 for today. I have several friends on this site. We're able to monitor each others' progress and look at each others' food diaries.

Even though I haven't restricted what I'm eating (besides my no sweets rule), I am eating pretty healthily - fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, etc. I'm eating these out of necessity because otherwise I'd be too hungry all the time - healthy foods tend to have higher satiety to calorie ratios.

Example of my food diary that I logged on MyFitnessPal

4 Best Dark Chocolate Steals

I'm a chocoholic and could eat chocolate all day long. Unfortunately, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, and chocolate candies cause weight gain. Also, I gave up sweets 3 weeks ago.

I do, however, eat one square (10 - 12 grams) of dark chocolate (≥90% cocoa) every day. It's good for me and helps curb my chocolate craving. And because I eat small amounts, less than 62 calories of chocolate a day, I'm not too worried.

Many of my friends think that 90+% is too bitter to eat. I used to think this, but I've found that with tenacity and patience, it can be easy to enjoy extremely dark chocolate. Eating the highest percentage you're able to handle and working up seems to be a good way to get to 90+%. Seventy percent used to be the highest I could enjoy. This is no longer the case. Also, it's really easy to binge on 70%, but nearly impossible to binge on extremely dark chocolate, which is another good reason to go dark.

I've comprised the following list of my top dark chocolates based on price, quality, availability, taste, and nutrition.