Hold Your Horses!

Whoa, horsey!

Eating too fast is a habit that many people have problems with.

You just might be eating too fast when...
*Your family hasn't even sat down at the table and you've already consumed your entire meal.
*When you go for the next bite before you realize it is all gone.
*When in your haste you bite off part of a plastic fork and don't notice it
*When the gravy/sauce/topping is passed around and you're halfway done
*You're scooping up the next forkful with your left hand, before you've put the forkful from your right in your mouth.
*You dreamt about marshmallows and in the morning your pillow was gone!
*You set your hot dog bun on the table, grab the mustard, and 3 minutes later Fido is missing!!

(Taken from the GOAD message board)

I am guilty of eating too fast. I have eaten a whole box of Fiber One Bars on several occasions before considering the consequences. Unfortunately, this has not kept me from buying them. In fact, this week they were on sale once again "10 for $20.00." I hate sales like that. Do I really have to buy 10? Well, if I don't buy 10, I'm not saving nearly as much. I decided to try the kind that has not been available before: Strawberry with Almonds. Of course, I bought another box too.

I bought these Fiber One Bars on Thursday and it is Saturday evening and I have only eaten three. This is a huge improvement over the previous times I have purchased them. In the past, the box has not made it through the first evening. I have savored my "1 a night" and so far, so good. And on top of savoring my Fiber One Bars, I am also practicing my "Don't eat so Fast!" methods.

Some approaches to eating slower that have never worked for me:
Take a sip of water between eat forkful...
Chew your food 20 times before swallowing...
Eat a bite of eat variety of food, instead of inhaling each individual item all at once...
Be mindful of eating slowly...

Anyone else have ways to eat slowly?

I'm Lazy

Tuesday Tip of the Day:

More snow means, TB is in a foul mood!

Today, I did something I have never done before. Looking at the silverware drawer this morning, which my wife has not touched since I blogged about it, I could not find a spoon. Well, I couldn't find a teaspoon or a tablespoon. I did find several "baby" spoons. I decided to take one and use it to eat my yogurt. I never knew exactly how small those baby spoons were until it took me close to 15 minutes to finish eating a 6 oz. yogurt. So my tip today came from my laziness. I haven't done the dishes since Saturday and all the full-size spoons were dirty.

Use a "baby" spoon to go along with your smaller dishes. It will definitely force you to eat slower and you will realize that you are not as hungry as you thought. I finally did give up and found the "serving" spoon, which is huge. Used it for one last swipe of the yogurt container.

Did you ever notice yourself trying to scrape every last ounce of yogurt out of the container? I never ate much yogurt in the past, but now I realize how much I hate the "lips" on certain brands.

Daily Exercise

This has really become an important part of my day. I never would have dreamed 9 months ago that I would look forward to walking 10,000 steps a day. I never would have dreamed that I would ride an elliptical daily. Even more, I never would have dreamed that I would OWN my own elliptical. This is part of my way of life now. It has become a habit and I look forward to my exercise daily. Tonight, I rode my elliptical while watching "The Biggest Loser." Normally, Tuesday night is a choir night, but it was cancelled tonight due to bad weather. I have been trying to wake up early to do my exercise, but if I fail to do so, I have been diligently getting my exercise in during the evening.

Daily exercise will need to continue to be a part of my journey if I want to remain successful.

Tuesday Tip of the Day
Something I am not good about is portion control. One trick that I have been trying to do is to put food on everyone's plates and leave the leftover food in the kitchen. I know a good tip at a restaurant is to get a leftover tray before even starting your meal, why not do the same at home. One helping and if the kids want more, it's available, but we need to get up and walk to the kitchen to get the second helping. I'm still working at this one, but I feel it will help with my portion control as well.

Video Games and Losing Weight

Found an interesting article entitled Can Video Games Improve Your Health?. I hate video games, always have. My wife, on the other hand, could sit her Nintendo DS all day without giving the rest of the family the time of day. In fact, she has on occasion been so lost in her game that she has not been able to answer simple questions while playing. Even the game system, Wii, does not appeal to me personally. A lot of guys on the WW message boards have been asking about getting "activity points" for playing the Wii. I just have to think if you're playing in your living room, there can't be much physical activity going on. I have heard that when you play boxing, you do work up quite a sweat. I'll keep exercising the way I have and let others continue having the fun and trying to exercise with a video game.

Has anyone ever tried the Wii gaming system? Would you consider it a good form of exercise?

Tuesday Tip of the Day
Check out a restaurant's website/menu before going and place an order in your head before you even get there.

This has saved me the frustration at the restaurant of looking through the menu. I don't even open the menu anymore for fear of unneeded temptations.

How the Heck do you Eat this Stuff?

Edamame is a veggie I had never tried before finding it at Sam's Club this past weekend. It was frozen and came in 8 ready to eat containers, frozen and ready to be microwaved. I had no idea how to eat the stuff however. I microwaved it and put on the sea salt as the package suggested and attempted to eat the whole pod. Well, I ate a few until realizing that the pod was rather stringy and did not taste good at all. I put the pack in the refrigerator and waited till this evening to try it again. Well, tonight I squeezed the soybeans out of the pod and they tasted so much better. No stingy pods.

It sure is interesting trying new foods that I've never had before. Glad no one was around to see me try to eat the whole pod, it was a rather amusing site.

Now I'll have to keep on the outlook for Quinoa so I can add that cool looking badge to my sidebar!


Tuesday Tip of the Day:
Measure salad dressing and put it on the side and dip your salad. You will use much less dressing than you thought if you use it this way.

At Work Weight Loss Challenge #2

Today, I joined the second at-work weight loss challenge for the new year. The first weight loss challenge was a big success. I won and took home almost $50.00.

It's too bad I wasn't thinking way ahead before I weighed in because if I was, I would have worn two sweaters, two pairs of socks, the heaviest shoes possible, etc. Instead, I took it look a man and drink 40oz. of water, stuffed tons of pencils and pens in my pockets, and ate about 10 minutes before being weighed. My starting weight for the at-work challenge 194lbs. I made a goal of 6lbs. in 8 weeks. Should be doable and if there are as many people in it as last time, it should make for a good little payday come March 4.

Thought I'd try to think writing a few handy tips down for a few weeks on Tuesdays. We'll see how long it lasts.

Tuesday Tip of the Day:
Use a measuring cup as a serving spoon. Helps you keep your portions under control. Sadly, I don't do this often enough.

No Excuses

It's been hard to go for a walk lately in Wisconsin. It's been cold, snowy, icy, dark, etc. So instead of getting down and out, I bought a new pair of country walking shoes to help me keep walking during the winter months. Since the snow came in early December, I have walked to church and back, but that's about it. I have continued to walk at work during lunch, but those walks have moved inside for the most part as well. Yesterday was the first time in a while that I got to go for a walk outside. The snow has mostly melted off the sidewalks and I was able to get around the block at work a few times during lunch.

I also bought a new Columbia Hat. I wanted one that went well over my ears, so I can keep the winter wind from howling too much. My daughters went shopping with me last night and they were really troopers as we made four stops and got home about 9:30pm. Considering they usually go to bed by 8:00, it was a late evening for them.

Now I have no excuse not to get out and walk, except for the fact that I fell down the steps inside our home on Christmas Eve and clonked the back of my head. I've been taking Ibuprofen regularly and I think I'm back to normal, but don't tell my wife. I'm milking this for as long as I can!