Hi! If you're living in the northeast right now I'll imagine that you're either crazily digging yourself out for work or still in your pj's when you read this. Hopefully like me, you're the latter. I should turn this into the Virginia Snow of 2010 blog because I just can't stop talking about it! We are expecting MORE snow tomorrow and even more this weekend. What's that?

I can sense spring is coming, far off in the distance. I have a weird habit of being able to smell and sense the coming seasons and then craving them. I do this a lot with fall and now I can feel spring. It's coming. Maybe not till May, but it's coming!

I'm hoping that Michael Pollan's new book Food Rules arrives in the mail today (along with season 3,4,5,6 of Lost) so that I can get ready for Lent! Fatbridesmaid got me in the mood to participate in Lent this year. What am I giving up? Processed/convenience foods. This means, buying food without packaging and labels. Making my own bread, eating only local or organic meat/produce/dairy. Basically making everything from scratch. And only eating sweats if they are made by a real person (not in a factory), on the weekends or on special occasions.

Which leads me to the No S Diet. That sounds gimmicky. While reading the reviews of Food Rules on Amazon, I saw mention of something called the No S Diet which piqued my curiosity. After a quick google search I came to the official No S Diet website. And holy moly, I loved every word! This couldn't be more anti-diet, dieting if it tried.

I read and reread, I emailed, I read the discussion boards and thought "I'll try that!" because you know me, I'll pretty much try anything once. What is the no S diet? Easy...

No sweets

No Snacks

No Seconds

Except for days that start with S or special occasions.

I had a lot of questions at first like- how big should my plate be? What should be on my plate? And then I realized that my brain was asking all of the confusing yet obviously answerable questons from my dieting past.

No sweets. What does that mean? Anything that gets most of it's calories from sugar. Anything that is obviously dessert. This doesn't mean NO SUGAR it means...no desserts. Sugar in oatmeal, coffee etc. is fine. Save desserts for the weekend or special occasion and preferably ones that are not processed.

No snacks. This means eating three meals a day. When I first read this I thought "well I don't snack". And then I really thought about it and yes, indeed I do snack. I just never think of it as snacking. A snack is anything you eat outside of a meal.

No seconds. Eat what is on your plate and that's it. He mentioned at first people tend to put way too much on their plate or too little until they realize that A) this meal needs to tide me over until the next one and B) this meal is not for stuffing myself. If you think about eating in front of other people and putting all of the food on your plate the first time, chances are you would realize this is a lot of food. But, instead we go back and it looks like less for to us and everyone else.

There are no other rules. No food rules, no nutrtion rules, no counting calories. I think this is scary for people (myself included) we like structure, we like being told what is "bad" and "good". We are scared to trust ourselves, our hunger or knowing what we even want to eat. Do any of us really know what we like to eat anymore?

My favorite quotes from the website?

make you sick.

Most diets today can be divided into two categories:

1. Pseudoscientific forbidden foods diets that pretend that you can go on being a glutton as long as you confine your gluttony to a particular class of foods while completely excluding others (no agreement on what these particular kinds of foods are, of course).
2. Diets that require you to be a full time calorie accountant.

The forbidden foods diets are patent nonsense. They contradict one another, go in and out of fashion every ten years, and never seem to gather any serious scientific support. You won't stick with one of these because not being able to eat whole categories of food is a real drag. At the outset, it might seem worth it to trade pasta for unlimited steaks (or vice versa), but it gets old fast. And it might even

not any delicious thing. No pleasure is denied, just unobtrusively delayed and contained. Served up on the platter of limited opportunity, each pleasure becomes even more enjoyable than it was before.

Because it is simple, sustainable, and you aren't really depriving yourself of anything. You don't have to sacrifice anything -- not time, not health, not

There are no magic potions and there are no poisons. You are targeting just the culprit, just the bad habit of overeating itself.

Ask yourself if you can imagine staying on a particular diet for the rest of your life. If not, don't bother starting, it's a waste of time and will.

It's not the carrots, it's the carrot cake (etc.). More to the point, it's youeating so damn much of the carrot cake. People refuse to look at the obvious suspects because the implications are so unflattering to themselves -- that they simply eat too much and that there is no "stab in the back" substance to blame. The forbidden food diets pander to this suicidal vanity. They are not just harmless (if unmaintainable) games. They are dangerous distractions. They are blinkers. They keep you from seeing and confronting the real problem. This isn't "murder she wrote." It's not the mousy schoolmarm whom no one suspected who winds up having "dunnit." It's a brazen attack in broad daylight. Take a look in the mirror. The guilty party is staring right at you.

That said, I find that having a limited number of limited quantity meals makes me take them more seriously, both from a gastronomic and a nutritional point of view. Pretty much every meal I eat is delicious or healthy or both.

The no S diet isn't for overthinking, and he suggests taking 21 days to get accustom to eating this way. I like that this plan eliminates everything that makes me obese. The option to overeat.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not fat from the meals I choose to eat. I'm not fat from a nice plate of really delicious food. I'm fat because I eat too many seconds. I'm fat from eating too much in private (snacking) and I'm fat from too many calorie dense sweets.

I'm giving it a try! I have a really hard time tracking what I eat and posting it, mostly because I'm lazy, and I won't require that I do this unless I want to. I do know that this helps me to stay accountable, but also know that I sometimes get drained from dieting advice. Either way, I'll keep you posted!

Oh and this is coming in the mail too...more on that later.

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Tuesday I went into work with a gut feeling that I should have just stayed home. The weather forecast was ice, sleet and snow and barely two hours into the work day I decided to make it home before the storm hit.

Instead of retelling the story, I figured that my GoWear Fit activity log could do that for me:

See that chunk of activity in my otherwise sedentary day? That's when the car got stuck. About two and a half miles from home. I was halfway up the hill and I just started sliding back down. My actions before deciding to walk home were as follows: get out of car (that is in the middle of the road) and try to push it up or down the hill. That was stupid. Start walking up the hill assuming people could get around. Realizing (again) that wasn't smart. Walking back down, getting back in the car and somehow reversing the car so it was not in the ditch, but not in the road. That worked and I tried not to freak out too much when I realized that I was in full reverse mode in 2nd gear. Nice. So I started walking.

And you know what? I didn't even care. I wasn't mad, hopeless, or frustrated. I just walked home in the snow. I looked at it as an adventure. I didn't have my cell phone with me (which is a very bad habit, I'll admit) but I would have had to walk either way. I got cardio in, and by the time I made it home I felt really good from the exercise. Go figure. The car was towed home for free thanks to our car insurance and within 30 minutes it was as though nothing ever happened.

I realized that I'm capable of pushing myself even when I think I can't. I was fighting a cold and my left leg was bothering me. And both perceived ailments were much better after this walk.

As you can see, I set my calorie burn target really high! I love challenging myself to get in the 3,000 range. A normal day without exercise is in the low 2,000's.

I haven't forgotten!

Two pounds away from my monthly goal! I started at 290 on January 1st and now I'm back down to a more familiar weight pre-holiday 2009. I'm looking forward to a new weight for this blog in the spring. 250's will be new.

I cannot believe this month is already over! Where did it go? That's what you say when you get old "where did the time go?".  I'm looking back on the past month and see changes that I put into action. One of them is going to the store alone and not buying "trigger" foods. Items that I tend to overeat or eat when no one is around. I've been here before, I've been to the store many times and sticking with what I needed and leaving. It became a habit, that I allowed. And it is a habit that can be undone. It is our choice.

Another thing that I will note is keeping a constant reminder of my goals handy. I bought a large moleskin with blank pages for writing in. On the first page you will find a  list of my goals, on the following pages you will find to-do lists, weekly goals and little reminders. I found that working in this book daily reminded me of my goals instead of forgetting where I wanted to be.

I also realized that I needed to take personal responsibility for myself. It is so EASY to fall back, to sabotage, to forget and ignore my body. But, I found with gentle reminders I was able to stay on track most of the time. I confirmed that I will be healthy this year.

I want to do better in February. One with exercise and two with more planning and organization with my food. I am as anti-schedule as they get, but I found that having food ready to prepare, having the dishes cleaned helped me to stick with my cooking at home plans. I want to get better at that.

My goal for March 1st is 270.

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Remember the jewelry I showed you last week? Well, I finally got around to taking photographs and posting them in my shop!

You can find my jewelry  here.

It's been an off week for me, and I'm okay with that. It started with a trip to the dentist on monday where I sat in the chair for over an hour to have three fillings put in right in a row. Pretty thankful for that, but when did tooth colored fillings get so expensive? Almost $300 for three. I need to take better care of my teeth. That's not to say that I don't brush, I just don't really think about it after my morning brush. That's an expensive habit not to have.

They questioned what I drink, soda? sweet tea? no and no. A good habit I'm actually consistent about: drinking water all the time.

Then I got sick. It kind of snuck up on me Tuesday. I was feeling fatigue and my throat was scratchy. By the time I made it home, I just holed up on the couch  while a fever took it's course. This has gone from my throat to my head and now I'm still fighting a cold and fatigue.

I was supposed to go to WV this weekend for a jewelry open house, but with being sick and the 10+ inches of snow that came down Friday night, that did not happen.

And finally put our first bid on a house. Truth be told, the most exciting part of this house for us is the extra studio space we would each have. His a 20x30 steal building for his recording studio and mine a converted garage with a sink and lots of light. It even has a front door with a doorbell to the "studio". As for the rest of the house, it needs work. It was built in '74 by the same guy living in it now. If I met this guy randomly I'd give him an old issue of Domino just as an FYI that people aren't putting moss green carpet in their homes anymore. Or those creepy craft-show faceless children that some people were putting in the corner of their porches in the 80's.

He doesn't understand that while yes people are moving to Floyd, rich people seems to be the rumor, we are not them or that desperate. His asking price would be a huge ripoff for us considering the work, yet he is not coming down on his asking price by more than a couple of inches. What's wrong with people?

If I met him I'd say "hey mister Q, do you think that if you, oh I don't know, cleaned your SHOWER, and picked up all your crap (there are clown masks on the wall, i wish i were joking) and maybe put in new carpet, and a stove, and a new roof then yes ask what you are asking minus 10k would be reasonable, anything else is an insult to basic real estate intelligence." But, that won't happen so I say it here.

And that is the current status of our home buying. Unless his realtor knocks sense into him, it's time to start looking again. It's slim pickings in these parts.

I am 3 lbs. away from this months goal and have not had the energy to exercise all week. My little GoWear Fit armband tally looks like someone who hardly ever moved this week. Small activity spikes to the bathroom or getting dressed. I've not had the energy to cook so I've been eating little more than frozen pizza, albeit not overeating...silver lining!

So this post isn't to complain, just to reflect how sometimes things don't happen the way we plan and that's okay. The truth is, I needed to slow down this week. To do nothing and be okay with that. I'm ready to get in the shower today, put on clean clothes and keep going.

I have so many posts coming:

1. My goal for Lent

2. My two week GoWear Fit Review

3. A ton of product reviews

4. My end of the month weigh-in

And just getting back in the swing of blogging daily again. So here we go...

Oh! For those who have been asking I will be debuting my jewelry online tomorrow at 8am I will put a link here and on twitter (@thetokenfatgirl or @lorriebee). Thank you for your kind words about my necklaces!

I'm here! Sorta. I'm taking a small break this week from blogging to get caught up on some pending tasks.
Making jewelry, cleaning/organizing the house, working on freelance stuff, oh and (hopefully, fingers crossed!) moving into our first home!

As far as weight loss, food, exercise: every thing's fine. I haven't had much of an appetite this week so meals have been pretty sparse. As in oatmeal for breakfast and then some sort of dinner. Which to me isn't very blog worthy. Except for the loaded oatmeal that leaves me full for hours. I love that.

Exercise has been hit or miss. What does that even mean? I don't know I've been using my GoWear Fit daily. On days that I am very sedentary I burn a little over 2,000 calories, on days when I clean, but don't partake in formal exercise I burn about 2,500, and on days when I do exercise I get well over 3,000 calories. Which is my daily goal: over 3,000. Which probably sounds like a lot, but I'm fat.

Thank you for all of your kind words about my necklaces in the last post. Making jewelry is something I randomly started doing this past fall and it's been a full-on obsession ever since. I'm still nervous about moving into the world of metalsmithing, but it's coming! In the mean-time, after the open house this weekend I'm going to start selling online in between craft shows.

I'll be back tomorrow, see you then!

We have officially entered day two of ice world here in Floyd. Ice is weird, unlike snow, you have absolutely no choice but to stay inside. With snow and a lot of determination you can at least go outside or plow your way out, but with ice simply stepping out on your welcome mat requires ice skates.

I'd be lying if I said I was upset about any of this. I'm a homebody through and through and have hours of projects to work on to occupy my time. As long as I have josh, food and the internet, I'm set. Yesterday I spent most of the morning making jewelry! I have a jewelry open house the weekend after next, hosted by my mom (yay!) and I've been busy trying to prepare for that. Want to see?

I love these necklaces so much! I really want to keep the green one.

Later on in the afternoon I started working on some freelance projects as well as a portfolio site. I feel good when I'm productive even though I ended up watching four episodes of LOST last night. That show is addictive! I curse the day I ever started watching it.

As far as exercise, I'm so excited about my GoWear fit. I'm not even kidding. I had to perform surgery on the arm band at the beginning of the week to make it bigger. I left the original band intact for future smaller arms, but needed to extend it by about two inches. Now, I never take it off except for showering. I will post a picture of my funny little extender in case anyone else is having the same issue.

We went for a walk in the woods behind our house on Tuesday and found a pond, a little waterfalls. It's like a  whole other world back there. I tracked my calories on the trip and noticed that the walk back up burned major calories. I set a target calorie burn and it's fun to push myself to match the calories.

I also tried out Dancing with the Stars workout DVD. I don't watch the show, but the DVD was a great workout although very hard to keep up with dance moves. Have you guys tried it? I was very sore!

Also, my February 1st weigh-in is approaching! My start weight for January was 290 and my goal for the end of the month is 278. I am over half-way there.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Progresso Soup contest, I really enjoyed and related to all of your soup memories. Soup is so comforting!

I had 23 comments and used random.org to help me find the winner. 6 was the magic number, making Erin our winner! yay!

Tyler from 344pounds.com graciously agreed to do an interview with me!

TFG: Hi Tyler! Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for me to share on my blog. I stopped by your blog in March of 2009 two months into your lifestyle change and then stopped by again this week via your famous CNN interview (congrats by the way!) can you describe where you were mentally in January of 2009 and what made you decide to embark your weight loss journey?

Tyler: Mentally in 2009 - Losing weight wasn't a New Years resolution for me as most people think, it was simply a coincidence I started my weight loss journey in the month of January.  I actually started losing weight one random morning in mid-January.  I had just completed a 1,000+ calorie fast food breakfast (the usual) and I had to use the restroom.  On the way out, I decided to stop and take a look at myself.  While I typically avoided mirrors (and cameras), I just couldn't stop staring. I was disgusted.  And I was scared.  I went back to my desk and started by throwing away the rest of my breakfast.
 
TFG: You mentioned trying many fad diets through the years, what do you think prevented you from being successful in the past compared to your success in 2009?

Tyler: I wasn't successful in the past because I couldn't enjoy the foods I loved.  You can't tell me, or most other people for that matter, that they can no longer enjoy the foods and drinks they have become accustomed to for decades. I like sweet tea, hot wings, and buffalo chips -- they still have a place in my life with my new healthy lifestyle, just in moderation.
 
TFG: You consistently lost weight counting calories eating the foods that you enjoy rather than the traditional "diet" fare. How has this helped you? I frequently get comments when I post food that isn't as you call "rabbit food" with advice about how I should eat/shouldn't eat. Do you get these comments? How do you deal with diet advice or negativity towards what you choose to eat?

Tyler: I got a lot of those comments when I posted the foods I ate (still eat).  I haven't posted calories in a while and the negative comments are part of the reason.  I just ignored them, I only have one mother and she doesn't comment.
 
TFG: You've obviously scaled down your restaurant portions over the past year to incorporate them into your healthier lifestyle, how to you prevent yourself from overeating some of your favorite foods? Do you have any tips for eating out?

Tyler: Dine out less, it's as simple as that.  When I'm at a restaurant, temptations are almost unbearable.  If I do go to a restaurant and I manage to be good, I'll order a water and get no appetizer/dessert.  While the entree portion sizes are obviously massive at restaurants, the damage is at least limited. As far as overeating is concerned, I definitely don't have an answer for that.  I don't think anybody does.  On occasion, I still go to my favorite chinese (buffet) and get about a dozen sushi rolls.  I love sushi too much and can't stop eating once I get started.
 

 TFG: You've lost over 125 lbs. now (congratulations again!) is there a difference in the way people treat you now compared to when you were much heavier?

Tyler: They definitely do.  It's sad, but it's very real.

TFG: As someone who has lost and gained the same weight over the past few years, I've gotten to the point where I wonder if I will ever lose weight. Do you have any advice for those  who are still struggling to lose weight? Did you worry about others taking you seriously?

Tyler:  Just believe the next effort is the time you lose the weight for good.  You have to have faith.  I have had countless weight loss attempts, just like most people, before this time was the time I hit the "jackpot."  I had faith to try losing weight one more time and you have to have the faith to try again as well.
 
TFG: How do your friends and family respond to your new habits? Have you lost or gained any new friends in this process?

Tyler: My friends and family have supported my healthy lifestyle changes and a couple have started going to the gym to lose a few pounds themselves (debatable whether it was because of me). 
 
TFG: In 5 words, can you tell us what are the most important factors when losing weight?

Tyler: Keep eating foods you enjoy. 

TFG: Tyler, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! You truly are an inspiration.

Last week a heavy box was waiting on me when I got home and it was soup! The folks from Progresso contacted me about promoting their new line of soups (most under 100 calories) along with their "Souper You Debut". I am really excited about the Progresso mug, which is not plastic (yay) and trying out their new, no MSG soups.

I'll admit that most canned soups hold no interest to me. Growing up I remember telling my mom we had nothing to eat in the house and she'd always respond "there's always peanut butter and jelly and SOUP". Bah. I like homemade soups, chili, stews etc. but sometimes in a pinch it's nice to just open a can. You know what the calories are, you know the ingredients, and you know they lack  MSG.

So far, I've had the minstrone and it's quite good!

Interested in winning your own mug, jump rope (which tracks jumps/calories) and a couple of cans of soup? I believe this contest is limited to the US, so please keep that in mind. All you have to do is leave a comment with your favorite soup memories growing up, or even your favorite soup. I will pick a comment at random and Progresso will get your package out. Note: Linking to this blog entry (and then showing me your blog entry with link in the comments) will grant you another entry into the contest. Please make sure to include your email address so that I can easily contact you. Contest ends January 19th 6pm EST, I will announce the winners on January 20th. Good luck!

Now, if you'd like to win a trip to NYC (who wouldn't?) Progresso is holding a “Souper You Debut” contest for the chance to win a full makeover in New York City.

Three grand prize winners will be awarded a trip for two to New York City from May 21st-23rd. The prize includes round trip airfare, a two-night stay in a NYC hotel, a full makeover, a $1,000 wardrobe shopping spree and personal consultation at a New York department store.

To enter, you’ll need to do the following:
· Go to http://www.progressosoup.com/souperyou/to learn more and enter the contest
· Submit your essay (200 characters or less) telling Progresso why you love Progresso Light or 100 Calorie Soups and why you would like a makeover
· In addition, please submit a photo of yourself that visually reinforces the theme of your essay

NYC here  I you come!

What was I so excited to share yesterday? My GoWear fit arrived in the mail yesterday! I considered purchasing one for a very long time and Monday afternoon I got a wild hair and bought it. And just as an FYI, I bought this myself and was not contacted by the folks at GoWear fit to promote their product, although I would have gladly accepted!

This is what it looks like:

What does it do?
Simply wear it during the course of your regular day, then plug it into your computer and upload your data to your personal GoWear fit Online Activity Manager. The Manager will help you establish your goals, track your progress, and give you tools to help you know how many calories you're eating, on average, per day.

Multi-Sensor Armband
Your armband is a small computer that measures a variety of physical characteristics, including motion, steps, galvanic skin response, skin temperature, and heat flux. It's the only multi-sensor monitor that can accurately track:
Calorie burn
Physical activity
Steps taken
Sleep duration
Sleep efficiency

I've always been curious to know how many calories my body at my current weight burns in an average day. Today I decided to wear it without exercise just to gage where I'm currently at. I read the reviews on amazon.com and they were very good. It is exactly like the bodybugg (used on the biggest loser) but more affordable and tracks sleeping patterns.

I took it off during my shower and so far it feels pretty comfortable. I have really big arms, which makes it slightly more uncomfortable for me and more noticeable that I'm wearing it than someone else with smaller arms. But, it is not painful or circulation inhibiting, you'd be hard pressed to know I'm even wearing it under my cardigan.

From the reviews a lot of people mentioned how the GoWear fit device has helped motivate them to burn more calories during the day. The online tracker gives you target caloric goals for the day as well as a place to track the calories you are consuming. This tool is definitely not  needed for weight loss, but it is a nice to know where you stand with daily activity, something I struggle with.

I put it on as soon as I got up around 5:30am this morning, took it off for my shower, and then put it back on. I plugged it into my computer around 7:30 because I was curious to see what my calories burned were while getting ready for work. 922. This includes any huffing and puffing while put on hose which it no easy feat.

Tomorrow morning I will log how many calories I burned today and compare them with my calories tomorrow when I resume exercise. I'll keep you posted!!

Food for yesterday:

organic blueberry greek yogurt w/ 1T chocolate chia goodness, 1T carob chips, and a few frozen blueberries: 225 calories

chicken fajitas (grilled chicken, onions, green peppers, lettuce, 1 T sour cream, 1/2 C pinto beans) approx. 650-700 calories

1 serving pizza ( 410 calories)

1/4 C pistachios: 170 calories

Total: 1,480