Flannel Bikinis and Snow Blowers...

Well hello again old friends...

I know, it's been a while...a long while.  Since September 2013, in fact.  I've been meaning to get back on the blogosphere since January, but have been suffering from a serious lack of motivation after the trying fall/winter I've had.  Additionally, Michigan has been doing its best to kill my soul, one snowflake, one degree under 0' at a time.  She is a cruel weather mistress and even today as I type this, we are expecting everything she's got--snow, rain, sleet, and temps into the 40s before dipping to the freezing point again.  What a fashion dilemma--flannel bikini or rain galoshes for today's wardrobe choice?

However, after reading my friend Andrea's post about her weight loss frustration, I decided it was high time to get back to it and lend motivation where I could--as we appear to still be basking in the afterglow of New Year's Resolutions and I can feel the tension mounting in workout facilities across the area--the breaking point between the regular gym nuts and the resolution crowd--just one cookie away from falling off the wagon.

So, I'll start out by sharing my own story of winter woes along with offering some sage advice...

For those of you who don't follow me on Facebook, this last fall and winter has been an extremely difficult one.  Already bogged down by a busy semester, I found out at the beginning of September that my mom had been diagnosed with a mysterious cancer, already at Stage 4,basically untreatable and terminal.  A month of tests later, and doctors still weren't sure just what type of cancer--but the end result would be the same no matter.  Given six months to a year to live, mom unfortunately had to say her goodbyes much sooner, and we lost her at the beginning of November...

Needless to say, everything else in life, got put on hold.  Daily life continued, a shadow of what it had been.  Things got done, but lacked the usual enthusiasm, desire replaced by necessity.  We schlogged through the holidays--mom's favorite time of the year--and her absence was all too noticeable.  Making it through, my brothers, father, and I, came out a little stronger on the other side, but a whole lot sadder.  For me, the baby of the family, the hardest part was and is, the thought of all the things mom won't be there for--buying our first house, having kids, etc.  All the things she would have relished being a part of.  

Despite all this, life must go on for the living.  After spending nearly a solid week in a germ-infested hospital--a nightmare for germophobes like me--along with surviving primarily on vending machine chips and cookies from the nurses, I came down with a vicious cold that refused to die.  I think I was sick for a solid month, at least.  Getting well and surviving the holidays became the primary objective of December...and my regular healthy habits suffered.

From fall to winter, I gained about ten pounds.  Not a substantial amount by most people's standards, especially considering that I had been well under my goal weight at the end of summer's running season--but enough to make me paranoid.  Depressed, sick, sleeping more, and running less, I monitored my weight daily per usual, but found it difficult to bring down--or the numbers seemed to go up and down on a daily basis.

Holidays behind me and feeling a little better each day, I was ready to hit the pavement again!  Signing up for a full marathon in May, I began my training at the beginning of the year--the same time everyone else decided they were going to lose weight.  Unfortunately, Michigan had other plans...the Polar Vortex--a term we've come to despise here in the Mitten--entered our lexicon for the first time, bringing with it a barrage of sub-zero temperatures and even lower wind chills.  Cold, I can handle.  Snow, I can handle.  -25', two feet of snow, and 40 mph winds, I cannot handle.  I turned to the exercise bike, treadmill, and gym--which do the job as far as burning calories, but are not the same as logging miles and far more difficult to do for any length of time. An hour, tops!

My story...so here I am, February, back to slowing losing those winter pounds, running when I can and hoping to just make it through that marathon come May, all previous time goals aside...

Sage advice...don't sign up for a marathon! No, just kidding.  My advice is the same as it has been since starting this journey--count calories, eat sensibly, and exercise vigorously for at least 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week.  

In recent months, people have talked to me and acted like "you became a runner, that's how you lost weight--that won't work for me, I can't run!"  People!  My weight loss journey started out, just as yours did--and as you can tell by recent months, has still not been an easy one--I started out simply walking quickly after dinner (the goal is to sweat!) and counting calories on the app on my phone/computer.  It took months and months, and forty pounds of weight gone before I even gave the idea of running a second thought.  

Some real advice for people out there--avoid the fad diets.  This is a warning to be heeded

especially at this time of year when they run rampant in advertisements all across America's televisions.  While you may lose weight drinking shakes, eating pre-boxed, pre-portioned meals, cutting out flour, cutting out sugar, or drinking nothing but grapefruit juice while spinning counter-clockwise, you will never be able to keep this type of diet up in the long run, and never be able to keep the weight off.  

Diets are fads...a healthy eating plan is a lifestyle change that requires a great deal of effort to implement.  You can't just go to a store and pick up a box of "get healthy" and pull it out every night for dinner--you have to think about what you're putting into your body and what you want to get out of it.  Read the labels, count the calories, watch portion size, and buy from the perimeter of the store (fresh produce, lean meats, and lean dairy).  It may seem easier to just buy prepackaged meals--but they won't change the way you *think* about eating, which is really the key to living a healthy lifestyle.  Once you stop eating them, you'll return to your old ways.

Likewise, beware friends who preach to simply "eat better."  Yes, you'll no doubt lose weight by cutting out fast food, beer, or pop/soda, but it won't be much--unless it was a staple of your diet--in which case, you may want to contact a support group while you're at it!  Most Americans have no concept of how many calories are in something.  Just telling someone to eat more veggies, fruit, etc. can be  step in the right direction, but these foods still contain calories and lack the balance of protein with carbohydrates that your body needs to function successfully each day.  Stop, look, and Google.  Pineapple is healthy!  Yes, but high in sugar--how about a cup of strawberries instead?  Green beans on the buffet are a good choice!  Yes, but are they drenched in butter?  One tablespoon of fat = 100 extra calories.  A chicken sandwich is a smarter option than a hamburger--maybe...is it deep fried?  Is there mayonnaise on it? Is it on a larger bun than a burger would be? Get the hamburger.

Spoken like a true academic, knowledge, is power.  The effort you put in, will equal the effort you get out, even if it seems to take a bit longer than a crash diet, and you'll start to replace that fat with muscle, which will make you stronger and leaner in the long run...so you'll look great in that flannel bikini!

 

The Healthy Historian's Healthier Hummus from the Bean & Beet Symposium

Who doesn't love hummus? And it's already awesome for you...but this version, slightly altered from a recipe I recently acquired at the Michigan Bean & Beet Symposium, is about ten calories less per serving than the store bought version, cheap and easy to make, and makes about 2lbs of hummus.

1 lb. dry white beans, rinsed, & soaked

1 head garlic, roasted with olive oil until soft

32 oz vegetable broth

2 1/2 t. cumin

2 1/2 T olive oil

2 1/2 T Tahini

Juice from 1 large lemon

Cook the pre-soaked beans in the vegetable broth by bringing all to a boil in a large pot, then reducing to a simmer for 1 hour until much of the liquid has been reduced and the beans are mushy.  

Drain the beans, reserving the remaining broth.  Remove garlic cloves from head of roasted garlic and add to beans in the bowl of a food processor.  Add cumin, Tahini, olive oil, and lemon juice to food processor.  (I used any pooled oil leftover from roasting the garlic first, then filled in the remaining amount of olive oil with extra-virgin).

Process bean mixture until smooth or desired consistency, adding reserved vegetable broth as needed.  Enjoy on low-calorie pretzels, pita chips, veggies, etc.

59 calories per 2T serving compared to store bought 70 calories per 2T.