Shrinking Sisters

I yam what I yam: An ode to my 'muskles'

Yes, it has come to this.

Past couple of weeks, the scale hasn't moved so I decided to stay on the scale a little longer and see what was up.

Holy muskles, Popeye!

Last time I checked, my muscle percentage was around 33 percent. This morning it was right around 37 percent. 

So I decided to check my waist circumference and darned if it wasn't down 2 inches from January. 

Yet still ...

I want to see that main number go down on the scale. I have to; I weigh too much. 

And I'm perfectly happy setting my goal weight at 199.9 pounds. While that may sound like a lot, I've been that weight before and that's a size 12 to 14 for me. I'm a large-framed, huge-footed Eastern European chick who can put on some serious muscle. 

Waif is not in my vocabulary. Or my genetics.

I need to set a hotter fire in my metabolism. Most of the time I walk around with freezing feet. My body temperature is actually lower than 98.6.

So I'm reading a book I got a couple years ago on the "metabolic effect." (It's called "The New ME Diet.") It focuses on fat loss while preserving muscle, and that is exactly what I need. I haven't read too much of the book yet so I can't really speak to what the the eating plan involves, but it mentions protein and fiber frequently. 

It also focuses on interval training, which increases the body's EPOC -- excess post-exercise oxygen consumption -- or the "afterburn."

And this all still fits in with me following Weight Watchers -- I absolutely have to journal my foods so meals don't get away from me. Something I've discovered since Weight Watchers changed from Points to PointsPlus is you get more bang for your buck from foods like lean proteins and produce (obviously -- fruits and non-starchy vegetables are 0 Points). Calories don't even fit into the equation for calculating Points -- it's protein, fiber, fat and carbs. 

It's kinda (OK, really) annoying feeling that you're at war with the scale but that's where my head is right now. But the muscle gain and waist shrinkage has tempered the annoyance somewhat.

Onward and downward. 

Disclosure: Weight Watchers is providing me three months' online membership, but really, I've been an online member for the past few months, so bonus!

What we're reading (and loving): 'The Willpower Instinct'

Brains!

No, I’m not a zombie – I just love everything about the human brain. They are fascinating skull fillers. That’s why I jumped at the chance to review the book “The Willpower Instinct” (Avery, $26) for the BlogHer Book Club.

The book, subtitled “How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It,” is written by Kelly McGonigall, Ph.D, a psychologist who teaches a Stanford University titled “The Science of Willpower.”

Sign me up!

Everyone says they have no willpower and that they need to improve it, but how? This book outlines the “workout” that you need to do to exercise the part of your brain responsible for willpower – the prefrontal cortex, right behind your forehead.

Just like your abs and glutes, your brain can improve with exercise, becoming stronger and more able to flex its “pass up the cookie” muscle.

As I was reading the book, I stuck little hot pink Post-Its on passages that resonated with me.

The book looks like it was attacked by a flock of flamingos.

In addition, I probably yelled out “Oh my God!” about a thousand times.

But it’s not just me – many people have issues with self-control, procrastination, self-awareness,

Having a stronger prefrontal cortex helps you push out the “go shopping/stay up late/destroy the Doritos/screw around on Facebook” urges and allows you to do “the harder thing,” the book says.

And in the past, when I referred to my nighttime eating urges as feeling like a hungry polar bear was inhabiting my being, I wasn’t too far off. That’s just my “primitive brain” fighting the prefrontal cortex for the upper hand.

According to the book, some neuroscientists say that we have two minds or even two people living inside our mind. Remember that Steve Martin movie “All of Me”? There was a fantastic scene where Martin was attempting to walk down the street but his mind and the spirit of Lily Tomlin were pulling him in opposite directions.

That can be what it feels like when you strengthen your willpower muscle (at least that’s my fun visual).

Man, I’ve got some work to do, and it’s not just at the gym.

What are your willpower challenges? Mine are staying up too late (FULLY addressed in the book by the way), procrastinating and, of course, after-dinner foraging. Feel free to join the discussion on this topic at the link HERE at BlogHer.com.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club, but the opinions expressed are completely my own.

A dose of super-tough love from Steve Siebold

In Steve Siebold's world, there are no Halloween leftovers.

I love getting press releases from Steve Siebold's publicist. If you're not familar with Siebold, he wrote a book a few years ago called Die Fat or Get Tough: 101 Differences in Thinking Between Fat People and Fit People.

 

There's no other way to say it: He's a weight-loss hard ass.

In his world, there is no slippage, corner cutting, no "just this once." And that's hard and it sucks.

That's why I love the press releases. They're like a bucket of cold water, a smack upside the head.

Today, I'm offering his tips for avoiding holiday weight gain. You may not agree with his all-or-nothing methodology, but he offers a no-nonsense approach to just getting it done.

This is from Steve:

• 99% compliance on a diet is failure, even at the holidays! Sounds harsh, but if you’re going to get fit, it’s all or nothing. If you are in a committed relationship you wouldn’t cheat on your significant other just one time, so why would you cheat on something as important as your diet?
• Before you put anything in your mouth, always ask yourself, “How is this food going to impact my health?”
• If you’re on a diet during the holidays, don’t look at dieting as drudgery, but see it as a strategy for a lifetime to keep you healthy, looking good and feeling great.
• Expect challenges such as cravings, and when this happens, have a plan in place to push forward and stay compliant.
• Find happiness in the holidays not from food, but in time spent with friends and family creating a lifetime of memories and new traditions.
• Realize that ultimately being fit and healthy is completely your responsibility, and blaming the holidays for your weight gain is just as bad as blaming other outside factors the rest of the year such as restaurants, the food manufacturers and portion sizes.

Wordless Wednesday: The second wave of fitness media has arrived

Someone's a little backed up on the new book and DVD reviews -- just sayin'.

Let's 'Eat' with Dr. Ian Smith (video interview)

No cutting out entire food groups! No mind-boggling rules! No "all or nothing" attitude! I am really looking forward to reading Dr. Ian Smith's new "non-diet diet" book Eat (St. Martins Press, $24.99).

I talked with him last week and he gave me some details on the book:

Live today, diet for the next two weeks

For real, my dieting experience is extremely limited. Sounds like a joke, when every woman out there has at least tried their hand at diets touting MUFAs or grapefruit or protein shakes.

Nope to all the above.

I did a 100 percent amazing job eating a diabetes diet for my entire second pregnancy. (No sugar for six months, and people were raving about my skin tone.) I made a good effort at Weight Watchers for a time (so sensible! so annoying to have to keep paying them!). And then, at the Sun Sentinel newspaper, I embarked on a nutty yet fun journey of 52 Diets in 52 Weeks for our blog, The Skinny. It was a blast, sampling varied diet and exercise philosophies and documenting my successes (a few) and failures (don't ask me to even look at a mung bean).

So, with two books in hand from my DBB (dear blogging buddy) Gail, I'll dabble in that fun again. Albeit, as an unemployed journalist: More time on my hands for effort and less cash in my wallet for expensive or exotic food ingredients.

First up, the book that sounds like less work: "2-Week Total Body Turnaround: The 14-day plan that jumpstarts weight loss, maximizes fat burn, and makes over your fitness mindset forever" by Chris Freytag (2009 Rodale), with help from the editors of Prevention magazine.

The title seems pretty low effort: "Hey! Let's toss in every diet buzzword we've heard in the last five years!" And the book's look is 1980s high school textbook (is that some retro thing or just bad design?). But lest we judge any book by it's cover, I will now embark on making this tome's credo my own for the next two weeks. And then write about it. But not til after lunch ... gotta have my ketchup-slathered Bubba burger while I read.

Words for the Weekend: Advice to chew on

"When I buy cookies I eat just four and throw the rest away.  But first I spray them with Raid so I won't dig them out of the garbage later.  Be careful, though, because that Raid really doesn't taste that bad."

Janette Barber, author of Embracing Your Big Fat A** (Atria)

Finding my inner athlete (she's in here somewhere)

I've been reading Dara Torres' latest book Gold Medal Fitness: A Revolutionary 5-Week Program, which outlines a 5-week program to get in better shape.

OK, perhaps not Olympian shape but there are some great workouts, menus and strategies. The chapter that interested me most was Your Inner Athlete.

Shrinking Sisters is one of the stops on her blog tour to promote the book, and I was sent a copy of the book to check out (and I have two for you all as well).

I've always wanted to be somewhat of a jock. In high school I did join the swim team but I was woefully behind the rest of the team in skill. I aced the workout stuff but when we hit the pool I looked like a fool, so I removed myself from the team.

In college I was really into weight training, even taking a college class that met in the Florida Gator training room. We had a leg-press contest and I won. In my foggy memory I remember it being 300 pounds but I could be wrong. Hey, I definitely have the quads to do it.

I revisited my -- cough, cough -- athletic tendencies a couple weeks ago when I completed the Weight Watchers Walk It Day 5K. I finished in less than an hour, which felt great. And boy, was I competitive. Every time I'd see a walker larger than me, my goal was to outpace them. In my brain, that was showing the other walkers that "Hey, that fat chick can hustle!"

OK, so back to the book. I liked Dara's 10 tips for mental strength:

1. Keep your focus
2. Stick to your routine
3. Practice
4. Do your best
5. Manage the pressure
6. Develop a strategy
7. Be efficient with your energy
8. If you feel tired, ill or injured, back off
9. Create your own support team
10. Relax and have fun

I did all of these while training for the 5K and during it. I hit the neighborhood track a few times a week and walked for an hour (at least until the weather got too oppressive), keeping it fun with good podcasts on the iPod (Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy!), and while I didn't have much of a support team per se, I did blog about getting ready for the race, and on the day of the race I buddied up with two women who I met up with at the end.

Lately I've been looking at getting the weight off and getting in better shape as an athletic endeavor. I'll be building my support team with the people and experts at Cleveland Clinic's Non-Surgical Weight Loss Program, which I'm starting next week (can't wait!). I'm not going to make myself nuts over the task -- I'm going to relax and have fun, by making sure that my meals are healthy and creative and my exercise is something really enjoyable (lately that's been Turbo Jam). 

The five-time Olympic swimming champion and mom outlines an eating plan with 35 days of meals and snack ideas, a great resistance stretching routine called Ki-Hara, strength exercises that can be done at the gym or at home, cardio recommendations and recovery and injury tips (hey, she's in her 40s, too!).

Interested in getting your own free copy of Gold Medal Fitness? I have two to give away.

All you need to do is leave a comment on why you want to find your inner athlete. I'll give you until the Fourth of July to comment, then we'll choose two winners.

I'm not going to use the 'middle aged' excuse

Another birthday came and went last week, shoving me officially into the late 40s. But you're only as old as you feel, right? And as long as I have a kid in elementary school, I'm going to keep up the "young" ruse.

What's acting "old" is my metabolism. Back in my 20s I lost 40 pounds and while I can't say it was effortless, it certainly was easier than it is now.

I watch those wonderful women who are my age or older on The Biggest Loser and think that if they can do it I can, too.

(That's middle-aged mom Helen Phillips, Biggest Loser season 7 winner at right. NBC photo)

Sure, they're sequestered in a weight-loss camp where they do nothing but work out and eat healthfully. But they probably had the same middle-aged metabolism as me -- they (and a fleet of experts) just figured out a successful work-around.

So where's my fleet of experts? There are some great new books that seem to be helping by emphasizing key pieces to the puzzle:

• Fiber, which is the centerpiece of The F-Factor Diet
• Antioxidants, which The O2 Diet is based on
• Balanced, non-bird-food meals, like those of The 400-Calorie Fix and The Flat Belly Diet
• Goosing your hormones with the right foods to release weight, which is the point of The Perfect 10 Diet

Right now, I'm finally getting back to reading The Instinct Diet (also known as The "I" Diet), which is based on more than 20 years of clinical research done by Tufts University nutrition researcher Susan Roberts. What I like about the book is that it explains why weight loss is so difficult and comes up with different strategies to counteract human nature. It focuses on 5 food instincts:

• Hunger
• Availability
• Calorie density
• Familiarity
• Variety

The foods in the suggested eating plans are all designed to keep you fuller, fight cravings and deprivation. My lunch today, for example, was a big salad that had in it garbanzo beans, turkey and crumbled bacon.

I like the "radical common-sense" approach of the book so far, and I'll let you know how it's working. And I'm not going to let the latest and greatest diet book deter me from getting through this one. That has been a problem -- I start reading one book, then another one shows up at my door and I get all ADD and drop the first one.

I'm going to do the Phase 1 plan up until Friday, when I head over to Fitbloggin' 10. It may be difficult to stick to the plan over the weekend, but I'll be among a whole lot of bloggers with the same healthy mindset so I'm sure we won't be wallowing in doughnuts.

What the what? Three pounds gone, and another change

Stepped on the scale this morning and was surprised that I've dropped 3 pounds since Monday.

I started keeping track of my food again but I only started doing that yesterday. I didn't really work out that much but I did restart that.

The only thing really different I did? I started applying some of the principles of The Perfect 10 Diet, a book that I've been reading.

I'm barely through it, but the diet focuses on the body's hormones and how overprocessed food and the wrong fats (margarine, soybean oil) can mess with them and create leptin resistance.

My food changes this week consisted of changing my usual cereal and milk breakfast to cottage cheese and fruit or a couple of eggs. My lunchtime sandwiches became salads. Then I worked on the fats. Instead of soy creamer in my coffee I used (gasp!) organic half and half. I even made a chicken stir-fry with coconut oil instead of the usual vegetable mystery-blend oil. I put avocado on everything and ate almonds as my afternoon snack.

Simple as that.

I still need to make my way through the rest of the book, but I like the hormonal approach to weight loss. Hell, nothing else has been working. Plus I had been reading up on leptin resistance and how many overweight people can develop it and become hungry all the time.

(Raises hand)

The first night eating this way I felt a crazy, ravenous hunger around 8 p.m. that had me going crazy. So I made a cup of tea and gradually it went away. Later in the week that bear didn't really rear its head. So maybe there is something to this.

My other change

The kid had baseball practice today at noon, and instead of planting the "sports mommy" chair in the dirt and sacking out for 2 hours, I brought my iPod and my water bottle and walked the park for 40 minutes. Then, sitting in the chair felt more like a reward.

(I took a picture giving myself a thumbs-up, but it looked like I had my thumb up my nose so I didn't post it.)

Just like I skipped the Rose Parade for a workout DVD, baseball practice will be walking workout time.

Because that is how 2010 is going to roll.