Did you forget to put on a bra today?

Ladies I was SHOCKED this week when a very petite woman with HUGE boobs and lots of junk in the trunk walked into the gym. The shocking part was that she had on a white spaghetti strapped shirt with no bra to strap in her at least DDs. I have no idea how she got in a workout and managed to keep in the half of her boobs that was actually covered up.

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The other offense I have seen lately at the gym is ladies with sugary drinks doing cardio.

My favorite one was seeing one of the trainers we have nicknamed "stupid trainer girl" drinking a frapaccino while she was on one of the spinning bikes.

She really has earned the name, we don't just make fun of perfect strangers. If I mention her to anyone else who attends the same gym they know exactly who I am talking about.

My husband once witnessed her instructing a client to throw dumbbells across the gym as far as they could as part of her work out. She also takes up multiple pieces of equipment at one time and refuses to let anyone work in. I really have no idea how she still works there.

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I also watched a woman walking on the treadmill while drinking a Dr Pepper. No, not a diet one either. These are so amusing to me because drink like these give you a quick jolt then drop your blood sugar super fast. One of the best things you can do for yourself is properly fuel your body before and after a workout. Carbs and natural sugar (fruit) are a much better prework out fuel. Protein is also most effective for building muscle if eaten right after a workout. I usually stick a ww string cheese in my gym bag so that I can snack on it on my drive home.

Results are in...

The results are in from my little informal survey...

It is exactly tied at this time. Twenty votes for the 1st girl and twenty votes for the second. I can't tell you how shocked I was by that. I figured that most of you would vote for the sound girl since she is the clear winner in my book. It is funny though how some of you equated the muscle with being the skinnier of the two. They are not the same girl I just cut out the top part because I didn't want you to be distracted by other factors. I was hoping that I would leave you conventing muscle so that you would be motivated to hit up the gym.

Here is my original post though.

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I will be spending a week at Young Life camp this summer in a swimsuit in front of tons of skinny teenagers. Silly, I know but it still makes you self conscience, especially when you have to wear the dreaded one piece while the kids get to wear what they want.
Since it has been so long since I have been to the gym I am losing the muscle definition that I was gaining. I am confident that I didn't gain as much weight as I would have in the past because I had built up the extra muscle. Remember that muscle burns more calories than fat even when just sitting still.
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You may think scary steroid girl when I talk about building muscle but think Jessica Simpson when she looks skinny rather than Jessica Simpson currently.
You may look at celebrities and dream of looking like them but what you are really coveting is their muscle definition. Jessica Simpson looked amazing when she filmed Dukes of Hazard but recently we are all aware of the bad press she has received. If you remember the press around her "Dukes body" she constantly talked about how she got that body. She talked a lot about weight lifting and actually loving going to the gym. She also mentioned how amazing it was to see her body transform, she loved her legs and her butt.
She may have only gained 5-10 lbs but she had lost that muscle definition that gave her an amazing trim figure. The results make it look like she has gained 20 or more lbs.
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Another way to think about your body is as if it were a present, bare with me for a minute...
If you are giving someone a sweater do you just wrap the sweater up with paper or do you put it in a gift box before you wrap it? Think about how much easier it is to wrap when it is in a box.
If you put it in a box it gives you hard surfaces to work with rather than a shapeless form.
Muscle acts the same way, our bodies are going to look much better with a hard surface below our skin, especially our stomachs.
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Look at these pictures I pulled off Victoria's Secret yesterday. The left model is skinny and looks good but I think the right model looks better and even skinnier. The left model in my opinion was just born skinny and happens to be one of the lucky few. How easy is it to over eat one day though and look pudgier because of a little rounder stomach. I would rather have a stomach that was held in by muscle and wasn't so easy to have an off day with. I would also rather have a workout that is still burning calories when I have left the gym instead of stopping as soon as I stop moving.

Let me know your opinion

I have a post for later today but first I want your opinion...

If you could have either body which you would rather have?

The first one or the second?

Don't think about which underwear you would rather have. The second picture is a swimsuit.

Please leave me a comment with your answer and I will post the reason behind the question later today!

Dieting Depression

Ladies don't give up on me and my new series of what different foods do for our bodies. It takes a lot to do one of those posts and I want them to be accurate and well researched.

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Today I want to talk about the depression that comes along with dieting and losing weight.

We all think that if I lost _ more lbs everything will just magically fall into place and life will be perfect. Once we get there though we realize life just doesn't work like that. Wearing a size smaller won't change anything else in your life. We run into people that are not happy that we are succeeding and try and sabotage our weight loss. We also have a closet full of clothes that are too big and now look funny. This may sounds like a silly problem to have but really it is oddly depressing. I find that when I just make do with what I have, even though it is way too big, I lose my motivation. If I find a few things that fit me but get them for a great deal I am more likely to keep counting my points because I feel so much better about myself.

I try and buy skirts and dresses because they are so much more flexible with your changing body. When you lose weight the skirt just moves down your hips a little.

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Remind yourself that it is ok to take some time off every now and then. Sometimes for me it is a day and at times it is a week. I know that Weight Watcher will be there again when I am ready for it and I love that I don't have to start again from the beginning like some programs. I may gain back a pound or so but usually it is just water weight and falls off fast. The key to remind yourself when you do take a break is to know it is just temporary and that you WILL gain if you don't eat less calories than you burn a day. Don't just throw everything you have learned out the window. Remember that the longer your take off the harder it is to start back again.

I find that if I make sure that I have groceries at home that I love and I am looking forward to it keeps me on track so much better. I also love looking at before pictures so that I can really see how far I have come.

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I would love to hear what you do when you find yourself in these ruts?

Does it help you when you buy a few things?

Eating Fat DOESN'T Make You Fat

I figured that today I would talk about fat since it is the other factor that Weight Watchers uses to calculate points. The first thing we need to mentally do is separate the meaning of the word fat and our preconceived notions about eating fat. This is important to do because

EATING FAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU FAT

I was able to find this great article that really summed up what I wanted to share with you and truly how important fat is for our bodies.

"One of the other huge myths is that fat makes you fat. It doesn't. When you eat fat, your body has to break it down into its little building blocks and then absorb the pieces. The fat you have in your body is not the same as the fat you eat. In fact, the fat naturally found in whole foods is fat you actually need for your body to function properly.
Essential Fatty Acids are the name given to the types of fat that you need to eat. This is why they are called essential. Your body cannot make them, you must eat them. And these essential fatty acids are only found with fat that naturally occurs in whole food. What are these essential fatty acids used for in your body? Well, literally everything.

Every cell in your body is partly made up of these essential fatty acids. To breathe, to have your heart beat, to run, walk, think, to make hormones, to remember anything, you need essential fatty acids for all of these and basically, to live. And if you don't eat them in the food you eat, your body will not function properly. And the only place you can find essential fatty acids is in food that has naturally occurring fat in them. So if you try and cut fat out of your body, you will actually be causing harm and not really be doing anything to get rid of the fat already in your body."

It is so tempting not to want to eat the daily recommended healthy fats because they may have seem like wasted points. Hopefully after reading this you realize that is one of the most counterproductive things we can do for our bodies and weight loss.

Olive oil, eggs, salmon and nuts are great places to find these fats. My favorite is to add a teaspoon of olive oil to veggies. Remember though that eating the fat off a steak isn't the same thing as getting your fat from an egg or olive oil.

You may ask after reading all of this why ww seems to encourage low fat or fat free foods?

Fat is twice as calorie dense as carbohydrates or protein so it is very easy to go overboard if not limited. We need to make sure that we are getting the essential fats and limiting unhealthy fats such as grease. Deep fried foods aren't going to give you the same results you read about as essential fats.

Why we need fiber and why it lowers points

I figured that I would start my first post about fiber since it is so important to Weight Watchers!

Before I start though I want to let you know that I am giving you this information so that you will see food differently not so that you will have another things to stress or worry about.

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What is fiber?

Fiber is a virtually indigestible substance that is found mainly in the outer layers of plants. Fiber is a special type of carbohydrate that passes through the human digestive system virtually unchanged, without being broken down into nutrients.

You'd assume it was a vital nutrient. You'd be wrong. Although classified as a carbohydrate, fiber supplies no vitamins, minerals or even calories.

Why do we need it?

It does, however, play important roles in the digestion process from start to finish:
Because it demands that food be more thoroughly chewed, fiber slows down the eating process and helps contribute to a feeling of being full, which in turn can help prevent obesity from overeating.

Fiber makes food more satisfying, probably because the contents of the stomach are bulkier and stay there longer.

Fiber slows digestion and absorption so that glucose (sugar) in food enters the bloodstream more slowly, which keeps blood sugar on a more even level.

Fiber is broken down in the colon (the main part of the large intestine) by bacteria (a process called fermentation), and the simple organic acids produced by this breakdown helps to nourish the lining of the colon. These acids also provide fuel for the rest of the body, especially the liver, and may have an important role in metabolism.

My summary of all this
Fiber makes us feel full! It reduces the bad spikes in our blood sugars (goodbye sugar crashes) and moves waste though us faster. I really think this is what makes us feel better when we follow ww. This might be TMI but I can tell such a difference in my stomach when I follow my points because I am eating more fiber, in both the way it feels and looks. I also have much better bowel movements and get more accurate weigh ins because all that extra waste is gone in the morning.

What foods contain fiber

I am guessing if you have ever calculated points for ww you have a better idea of what foods have fiber in them. Foods that are naturally found in nature are higher in fiber, think fruit and veggies! You will never find fiber in meat, eggs or milk. (They are still very important though, more on that to come. Remember we can't survive just on fiber alone.)

Take it slow

If you haven't been eating enough fiber, it's wise to increase your intake slowly. Doing so all at once can cause gas, bloating, diarrhea. It's also important to drink plenty of water when eating lots of fiber. Otherwise, you may irritate, even block your digestive tract.

Wow I may sound really smart but most of this is researched on Google. Cut & paste also help! I do run it by my hubby who has a health and exercise science degree.

Feel free to ask questions though.

Why food is not the enemy

While I was on my little hiatus from Weight Watchers I was reading what I was allowed to eat (or not eat) while pregnant and it reminded me again why we eat. That may sound basic but do we truly remember that we eat because we need the fuel for our bodies to work properly?

How can they run if they are not being given the correct nutrients?

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We all know that taking prenatal vitamins makes our hair and nails grow faster and stronger but do we know what different foods do for our bodies? When we gain weight we blame food and it becomes the natural enemy. We turn to beauty products and diet pills for answers when we really need to start looking at what we eat.

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What I would like to do in the next few posts in go over different food groups and talk about why we need them, what they do and what low point foods are great options. Hopefully it will make us look differently at food and we will begin to appreciate the benefits and what they do for our bodies!

Stay tuned, I will start later today!

Wow so hard

Yesterday was my first day in almost a month where I was fully prepared to actually follow my points. I did really well until I was sent home with some crab cakes and realized we had a few yummy beers in the fridge from having friends over the night before. Needless to say I failed miserably yesterday.

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Today is a new day though and I am so happy that I have stuck to my points! I am still a little hungry but I have some 0 pt progresso soup to keep me happy. The kind with the noodles is my favorite. I did have a 6 point coffee drink today while I was at the mall and I felt so out of it while I was there, too much caffeine I guess.

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The biggest thing that I realize is that the longer you are not following your points the harder it is to start back again. The flip side of that though is the longer you have been following the easier it gets!

I'm back for real this time

Ladies I am sorry that I have been very mia for a few weeks now. We thought that we may have been pregnant so needless to say my priorities changed and it was hard to write about weight loss. It's funny how your thoughts change when you think you may be pregnant. I realized I really couldn't eat any of the food that I currently had for ww, mostly I wanted to avoid all the fake sugars. I also had thoughts such as on I wish I would have lost more weight/build up more muscle before and now I won't be able to wear a bikini this summer. Truly silly things because I really do want a baby someday soon.

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We are not pregnant so it is back to Weight Watchers! I have only gained 2 lbs back since I stopped, it really could be soooo much higher so I am happy about that. The biggest difference that I noticed is that I am so tired now. I was so exhausted that I was taking naps everyday and now I need to get out of that habit. I know that after 2 or so days back following my points I will just feel so much better. I am also so excited to start running again, I plan on signing up for a 5k for Saint Patrick's Day.