Curbing my Sweet Tooth...

It's finals week for me and that only means one thing....snack cravings! When I'm studying I get stressed, and when I get stressed, I eat. There's no way around it. I've been trying to come up with some alternatives to end my bad snacking ways; No one wants to only snack on carrot sticks when they're stressed. I want more. I want sweet. I want it now!

Going by what my Jenny Craig guides say, there are sweet alternatives I can choose to eat to curb those snack cravings I dread while I study. Fruit and non-starchy veggies are the obvious, but what other snacks and goodies can I consume?

• Sugar Free Candies. Not only does this satisfy the sweet side of things, but they last awhile too (as long as you don't crunch on them). My favorites have been the Crystal Light Candies. They are really flavorful and don't taste like sugar free at all!


• Sugar Free Hot Chocolate. I love hot chocolate and was bummed when I thought I couldn't have it while dieting. Apparently I was wrong. I was a little skeptical of a sugar free variety but it's pretty good. Definitely better than going without chocolate at all! So far I've tried the one by Swiss Miss. It's only 25 calories!


• Sugar Free Popsicles. Perfect for studying outside in the heat! Cold and full of flavor.

I can also always choose one of my Jenny snacks/desserts. Those are always great. My favorite is the chocolate brownie. It looks small, but it's really satisfying. Hopefully I will be able to curb my cravings and lose more weight this week! Wish me luck!

Tea to lose?

If you’ve been following me, you know that I’m trying the best I can to shed the 50 pounds that I’ve put on over the last few years. I’ve tried a multitude of efforts to achieve my goal from Weight Watchers to Jenny Craig, to joining a gym; but it wasn’t until a shopping trip this past weekend that I realized my love for tea could help!

I stopped in the mall at my favorite place to get tea, Teavana, just to get a glass of iced tea; much better and more satisfying than a soda from the food court. On the counter they had a canister of diet blend tea. Curious, I asked about it and why it was considered “diet” since to me, diet simply meant without sugar. Here’s a bit of what I learned.

All types of tea have their own health benefits and most teas promote well-being and a less caffeinated option to coffee or soda. There are three different types of tea that can help you with weight loss specifically:

• Maté is an Argentinean tea that has the equivalent caffeine to coffee, but has added health benefits. It can act as an appetite suppressant. It’s great to have in the morning instead of coffee and it can help keep your snacking to a minimum before lunch. I chose to try the Raspberry Riot Lemon Maté because I like fruit flavored teas.

• Oolong teas are typically fragrant and have fruit. They help with weight loss because they help to burn fat. I chose to try the Kamiya Papaya Oolong Tea because I thought the tropical fruit flavors would be complimentary to summer.

• Pu-Erh is a type of black tea that can help with dieting by breaking down fat and oils in the body. I chose to try Strawberry Slender Pu-Erh because I love anything with strawberries!

When I got home and tried the Raspberry Riot Lemon Maté and not only was it delicious, but I really did feel full. The best part was that I didn’t even have to add sugar. The natural flavors made the tea sweet enough. I was even able to forgo the sugar substitute that I typically use. Hopefully by drinking tea to curb my appetite and burn excess fat, I can make it further toward my weight loss goal.

Happy tea drinking!

If at first you don’t succeed, try again

After my battle with the scale last week, and not losing even a fraction of a pound, I was dreading this morning’s weigh-in. As I stepped onto my scale I cringed and was afraid to look at the number that was displayed. When I finally got up the guts to look, I was beyond pleasantly surprised; I even did a double, make that triple take. As of this morning I had officially lost 3.4 pounds this past week! All my hard work and discipline this week paid off; what a relief. I was afraid of what another unsuccessful week would do for my motivation. This is a huge deal as this means I am only 3.8 pounds away from my vacation goal and only 38.8 pounds from my overall goal! Okay, that overall goal still seems far away, but 3.8 pounds before June 26, that I confidently think I can do. After all of the support I've been receiving from friends and family, I have to! I've had friends offer motivation whom I haven't spoken to in years. It's amazing how making a life change like this can affect friendships.

This morning was a tough one for me. I had to wake up extra early to be at an event for work at 7:30am. I'm NOT a morning person. I proudly popped my Jenny Craig breakfast in the microwave (I had the stuffed breakfast sandwich), grabbed it, and ran out the door. The event was at a technical school and they had the culinary students cook both breakfast AND lunch for their visitors. Though I felt bad not accepting their food, I stuck to my plan; even though that meant eating fruit and my Jenny Craig lunch instead of a homemade meal that smelled AMAZING. I just kept telling myself that my weight loss was bigger and way more important than that one piece of chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrot cake. I'm proud of my accomplishment today. I knew my willpower was hanging out inside me somewhere, I'm just glad I finally found it.

Now I just have to look forward to sharing my success with my consultant tonight. I'm sure she will be proud; though I'm also sure she will warn me about losing too much each week as we are only supposed to be losing 1-2 pounds per week to maintain healthy weight loss. In my opinion, my body was just making up for my disappointment last week!

Keepin busy...

For those of you following my blog, sorry for the lack of posts! I've been trying to keep as busy as possible to avoid the temptations of snacking and I have to say I think it's working! The busier I keep myself, the less I'm thinking about food or snacking or even the fact that I'm getting hungry. I used to count down the clock until lunchtime at work, and now it sneaks up on me! It's great to not have my life centered around food.

I haven't weighed myself this week, but I know I'm doing well. How? I went shopping with my sister for a bit on Saturday (I have to start preparing for my vacation!) and though I wasn't a size smaller (yet) my current size fit better than ever. It wasn't a guessing game of "is this a true to size or am I going to get depressed?" I even bought a pair of shorts! This may not sound all that surprising since I live in Florida, but believe me, it is. I have thicker legs; probably from a mixture of the excess weight mixed with the muscles from dancing up until I graduated high school. I'm not going to lie, they aren't as strong as they used to be, but they're still there; and kind of one thing I don't love about physique. Because of this self doubt, I've avoided wearing shorts alltogether. I've stuck to longer skirts, and capris since wearing jeans all summer is not really an option where I live. My sister convinced me to try them on and I was shocked that they fit! It definitely gave me a confidence boost for the rest of the day.

Back to keeping busy...

I've been doing a lot of work around the house lately; trying to clean it up. It's been taking awhile since my dog likes to get in the way and mess things up all over again. Between my tax return and saving money on not going out to eat (thanks Jenny Craig!) as much I've saved enough money to redo my kitchen! I've been wanting to do this since I moved in, and now I'll keep myself busy by emptying out and sorting through all of my kitchen "stuff". I have to call it stuff because I have no idea what's been pushed to the back of all of the cabinets. I've only been in this house for a year but it's already a mess. A few years ago, I worked at Williams Sonoma as a seasonal employee to save some money, but most importantly to "pimp out" my kitchen. I've always loved to cook so gadgets make me all sorts of excited. In those few months I worked there, I accumulated quite a bit and now have nowhere to put it all. I guess it's time for a cabinet clean out!

That's pretty much what's been keeping me busy; that and studying for finals this week. Hopefully between midterms and now I've curbed my appetite enough to avoid the temptations of snacking during my most vulnerable moments. Wish me luck!

My first disappointment...

I knew it was bound to happen. I have been so excited for my weigh-in day since I've started my Jenny Craig diet but today was a bit of a disappointment. When I stepped on my scale this morning I was the exact same weight as I was when I weighed myself last week. I know I shouldn't be too hard on myself because I weighed myself two days after my usual weigh-in day last time, but I was hoping for more. I know I shouldn't be too disappointed though; it could have been worse. I made it through a holiday weekend without gaining anything! I guess that's an accomplishment. It makes me optimistic that I won't fall too far off track when I go on vacation at the end of the month.

Holiday weekends are a lot of fun but temptations mount to the fullest. I was bombarded with friends wanting to go out and celebrate (for dinner of course!) and BBQs to attend, so I had to stay focused. I did eat out a lot this weekend in order to stay social and not barricade myself in my home, but I know I made wise choices; as wise as I could for food that wasn't cooked by me! I ate sushi a couple of times. One of the nights I was WAY bad! I didn't eat nearly as much as I usually do, but one of the rolls definitely had fried shrimp in it. I know I should have tried better that night. The other night I was on a date, so of course the last thing I wanted to talk about was my diet. I've found that isn't really the best way to make a first impression. We ended up sharing a sushi boat and I ate moderately...this time staying away from the bad stuff (mayo, fried, etc.). It's nice to know I can still go out and not be obvious about watching what I eat.

My biggest triumph this weekend, however, was at my best friend's family's BBQ on Sunday. Her brother had just gotten back from Afghanistan and her parents were throwing a party to celebrate. I've known the whole family for quite awhile, so I was invited and was happy to attend. What made me really proud was I avoided ALL of the BBQ food (except for a couple carrot sticks from the veggie tray and a diet coke). I had eaten a late breakfast so I wasn't really hungry and I ate a Jenny Craig meal when I returned home. As good as all of the food looked, I know it wouldn't be as good as it feels to lose weight!

I'm hoping this no loss week doesn't set me too far back from hitting my mini vacation goal. I'll just have to try even harder to keep on plan this week. Still 42.2 pounds to go! Thanks for all the support.