Tag Archives: weight watchers

7 Reasons to Read The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl

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I just finished reading a book called The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl.dietgirl-us-cover

The book is written about Shauna Reid, who chronicles her weight loss journey over the course of several years.

In the beginning of the book, Shauna is extremely self-conscious, depressed, and frustrated. Her sister convinces her to go to a Weight Watchers meeting, where Shauna faces the grim reality that at just 23 years old she is just over 350 pounds. From there, she becomes a “dieting super hero” and starts a blog so that she can share her experience with others. I think it was also a forum for venting ;)

I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down. Here’s why I loved this book:

  1. Shauna Reid uses humor throughout her process. Even though at times she obviously wasn’t feeling humorous, she managed to bring lightness into her writings. As a result the book is a real joy to read.
  2. Shauna shows just how difficult losing weight can be. I think a lot of us think it should be easy (wasn’t it easy to put the weight on?), and so we get discouraged when the weight doesn’t peel off at our slightest effort. Shauna’s book shows us just how much effort it really is to lose weight and keep it off.
  3. I loved seeing how Shauna transforms during her process. In the beginning of The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl, she was very focused on the number on the scale. I also felt she was very focused on herself – worrying about what everyone was thinking about her,  how she looked, her failures in the workplace. And as she lost the weight this really didn’t change at first. It wasn’t until she started really living her life that she began to look around her and see that there are other things in this world besides her. She shifted her focus to being happy and sharing that happiness with others. As she focused less on her self, she started to go on adventures and take risks – to enjoy her life.
  4. The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl is overall a happy book. It felt good to read it. There aren’t any murders or tragedies. Although she has her moments, Shauna is constantly picking her self up and striving for a happier life.
  5. The book is inspiring. I don’t need to lose 150+ pounds – I’m more in “maintenance” mode -  but seeing Shauna struggle with her weight issues – both physical and mental – enabled me to take a step back and see my own thought processes about weight. I feel inspired to “stay on track” without getting “neurotic” about it.
  6. There is a clear message to parents about how to communicate with your children about weight issues. I don’t know if Shauna intended this or not in The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl, but I thought the connection between parental criticism about weight and future weight issues was crystal clear. I hope parents will read this and consider how they talk to their children.
  7. Finally, the best part is that this book lives on after you’ve read it! You know how you read a good book and you don’t want it to be over? Well, in this case it’s not because you can keep up with Shauna on her blog. How cool is that?

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Running for Cake

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cakeLast summer I started doing Weight Watchers because I wanted to lose weight. At the time, I was exercising and watching what I ate – thinking that I was eating really well – and completely befuddled as to why I wasn’t losing weight. A friend of mine was doing WW and suggested I give it a try.

WOW WAS IT EVER EYE OPENING!!!

I used to think that if I ran 3 miles, I could then eat whatever I wanted. I mean, I just ran three miles! So after my run I would duck into Giant and grab a huge cinnamon chip muffin. YUM! I deserved this muffin.

What I learned from WW is that the calories burned in a three mile run is equal to just ONE slice of bread! To compensate for my cinnamon chip muffin, I’d need to run 10 miles!

A few other eye openers:

  • My scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach + 2 pieces of toast with a tad of butter equals 12 miles of running.
  • A 2 mile walk equals just ONE small banana!
  • Thirty minutes on the elliptical machine equals 1/2 cup of marinara sauce (and that’s not including the pasta!).
  • To work off ONE tablespoon of peanut butter, you’d need to run 2 miles.
  • Ate a slice of carrot cake? That’s SIXTEEN miles of running for you!

So maybe this info will help if you are trying to lose weight and can’t figure out why it’s not peeling off. In general if you want to lose weight you need to exercise more than you think, and you need to eat less than you think. It’s not that you can’t eat things like muffins and carrot cake, but just know how eating those kinds of foods will impact your efforts. Writing down what you are eating and how much you are exercising or joining a program like WW can really help you build awareness around your habits.

(By the way, I have to confess that as I wrote this I ate several handfuls of peanut butter m&ms. Guess I’ll be running 10 miles tomorrow! :)

Don't Forget the Edy's!

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Over the winter I gained about 5 pounds and I’ve been trying to get rid of them but they are sticking to me like glue!  I swear it gets harder the older you get. So I decided to go back on Weight Watchers, which is how I lost all my weight in the first place. I get a whopping 19 points a day! In case you don’t know, that’s not very much. So here’s what I had today:

Breakfast

Smoothie made with Spirutein vanilla protein powder, vanilla hemp milk, banana, lotsa spinach, cinnamon, and a dollop of Better N Peanut Butter*

Lunch

1/2 of a Trader Joe’s muffin. I was totally schnookered by the package that said “120 calories per serving” (see it? It’s on the right side). I LOVE muffins so I was pretty excited except when I got them home I realized that a serving is HALF a muffin! What a joke! So I had half a muffin today :)

Organic Moral Fiber

A huge salad with cucumbers, chickpeas, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, radishes, and baby greens

Saladwith my homemade oil-free dressing

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And finished with an Edy’s Orange & Cream Fruit Bar (I love these)

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I felt pretty satisfied with my lunch. After a little time to digest, I headed out for a 6 mile run that felt AWESOME. I used my new Phillips headphones and they worked really well and didn’t slide off my head like other headphones have in the past.

So…dinner.

We made personal pizzas with Boboli crusts. Doug piled his high with cheese but I used less than 1/4 cup on mine and instead piled it with spinach and sauteed mushrooms. I’m trying to get cheese out of my diet all together but when it comes to pizza…

pizza

(The spinach puree is hidden under the sauce :)   (Sorry for the bad photo!)

I was surprised how good it was because I always thought you had to have a ton of cheese on your pizza. I think next time I’ll skip the cheese altogether and see how it goes.

I had a few other snacks today but I thought I was within my points. Then I realized that I forgot to figure in the Edy’s! So I was over by one point – but I figure that’s ok since I did run today! I’m trying not to get too hung up on the points thing anyway – it’s just a guideline :)

Time for beddie-by!

*Better N Peanut Butter is AWESOME! You have to try it if you haven’t already. It has half the calories of regular PB and 85% less fat than regular peanut butter. I use it in smoothies mostly – I haven’t yet baked with it but the BNPB website has some recipe ideas.