The Blonde Diaries

Holiday Season Reminder

The holidays are here which means lots of baking and yummy food all around us. I know because I just baked Mike some cookies (I haven’t had a one yet!!) to put in my festive cookie jar. It is really hard to manage to be good and stay on track during the holiday season if on a diet. I am trying to surround myself with healthy treats and try new recipes like the famous diet coke cake and will limit my indulgences for the most part. That said, remember the holidays are not the best time to try new diets and diet pills such as alli as they can reek havoc on your digestive system and can also lead to sabotaging your weight loss goals. So try to limit your intake this holiday and start anew January 1 with your diet plans.

Think Thin Thursday - Week 1

I was hoping to get started last week with Think Thin Thursdays but you know how my internet connection at home is going.  The latest prediction is that I should have it up and running tomorrow.  We’ll see about that one.  But nonetheless, I am ready to start Thinking Thin and am super glad Bridgette at The Not-So-Blog Blog has started this weekly check-in and goal setting blog posting.  I am going to write down my weight right now so that I have something to remember my starting point.  Right now I am at 156 which is down from my all-time high of 161 in September (bad vacation eating!).  Writing or blogging your weight is not a requirement to participate in Think Thin Thursdays.

This week’s question we are to answer and blog about is:

Tell us one temptation that you were faced with this week.

How did you overcome it?

Do you think it is appropriate to advertise diet pills in health magazines?

This morning I was flipping through an old edition of Shape magazine looking for some new health tips to include in my blog. I was flipping towards the back and started to hit the advertisement section right before the closing article. You know what I’m talking about because most magazines have this same layout. Anyways I started looking at the ads more closely and noticed there were a lot for diet pills. I thought it was strange that a magazine that prided themselves on healthy lifestyles, healthy diets, and healthy exercises would allow ads for diet pills especially when most if not all are worthless when it comes to losing weight. How many Hydroxycut reviews have you read lately to learn that it is just a waste of money? I know I have come across a few which have been disheartening since I bought the stuff to try.

So what do you think? Should fitness magazines allow diet pills and the likes to advertise or no because most are proven ineffective?

The key to successful weight loss revealed??

Visualizing your weight loss is one thing but actually making it happen is another and guess what? That visual you have of yourself in the smaller size/special dress/special jeans may not be enough motivation for you to lose the weight. In fact the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has found through a study the cold, hard cash is actually one of the best motivators. I can attest to that with the program my company is running now.

The study found that employees who were promised $14 for every 1 percentage drop in body weight shed about a third more pounds than those who received just $7 and more than double those not given any cash at all.

Makes sense doesn’t it? When you have a financial motivator you usually do things you hadn’t thought or wanted to before (as long as they aren’t illegal and immoral in most cases). So how can you transfer that to affect you? Well you can check with your company to see if they have any programs to help motivate you to lose weight and get in shape and join them. You can also start a drive with your friends/coworkers/loved ones where you set some criteria like $1 each time you hit the gym or $5 each time you skip the gym and at the end of a time period that you all set you can split the pot between all participants with the person who did the best or lost the most getting the largest percentage and have it trickle down so everyone gets something for trying.

Fun in the Kitchen!

I have had some fun in the kitchen lately. It seems like a while since I have posted anything food related but I have been pretty hard at work looking for some new recipes to make to keep me on the track to weight loss and not weight gain. Last week, Mike and I were in a rut and I was tired of eating beef products. It seems like we are in a rut and only eating beef and that is not too healthy. So I bought some chicken but wasn’t sure what to do with it that would be quick and easy. Well, I saw that we had spaghetti sauce, shake and bake, spaghetti noodles, and laughing cow cheese. hmm…

How about Moc Chicken Parmigiana? Talk about an excellent meal and very little prep work. I had Mike coat the chicken with shake and bake and we tossed it into the oven. While the chicken was baking I started boiling the water for the noodles. When the noodles went in, I poured the sauce on the chicken and continued cooking. Once everything was done I cut up the laughing cow cheese into chunks and put on the spaghetti/chicken mixture till they turned a very light golden color (this cheese does not melt). A very tasty twist on an Italian favorite without all the fat and calories! You could even make it healthier by substituting white pasta noodles for whole grain noodles. I am going to try that next time for me at least. This recipe I made up on the fly will be making it into our permanent rotation. Give it a try next time you are stumped.