Diet food
Originally uploaded by Nicole Lee.

Generally speaking, I’m happy with how I look. But I know I looked better a few years ago and I’m feeling myself getting further into the sedentary rut. So I figure it might be time to get into the dieting habit again and see how it goes. Plus I’ll be in Hawaii next month, where people tell me there’s too much good food to be had, and I don’t want to risk ballooning up that much. Unlike other people, I find it a lot easier to start with the dieting and then moving on to the exercising — going to the gym is still one of those things that I just haven’t gotten down to a regular habit yet. Plus I’m anticipating some hiking in Hawaii, so that would help a bit.

And so it was that in mind that I went low-carb starting last Monday. Following the South Beach Diet methodology (but tweaked slightly), I cut out all carbs from my diet, while maintaining the five-vegetable-servings-a-day rule. Every once in awhile I would drink soy milk, which has some sugar in it, and sometimes I’ll give in to a few chips in a restaurant. But it was all in small enough amounts that it didn’t have a huge impact. By the end of the first week, I lost 1-2 pounds, but I’m sure that was mostly water.

Now it’s the second Tuesday and I’ve really stuck to it. After this week is over, instead of going full throttle in Phase 2 (which allows carbs but mostly in the whole grain form), I’m going to go low-carb for two meals out of three, which I’m calling Phase 1.5. This is to prolong Phase 1 just a tiny bit longer, to provide a “cushion” period before the vacation. At the same time, I’m stepping up the exercise — heading to yoga about 1-2 times a week, and sneaking in 20-30 minutes of cardio when I can.

After Hawaii is over, I’m going back to the low-carb phase, and repeating the above process. It’s strange, but after all the diets I’ve tried, this is the only one that I’ve ever stuck with. For the record, this method is the same exact method I used three years ago when I lost over 30 pounds. I know this works because I’ve been through it. The only problem was that I got too comfortable and stopped exercising.

I know, low-carb diets are a fad, but I’m trying to go about it the smart way — only doing it for short periods of time, while supplementing other parts with healthy carbs like whole grain foods and fruits.

‘Course this is all fun and games until I’ve actually stuck with it. I’ll try to give a regular progress report on how it’s going so that I can mentally psyche myself into it. Now that I’ve publicly announced it, I’ve got that much more encouragement to stick with it, right? Well, we’ll see.

Not that anyone really cares, but I just thought I’d share with you the magic voodoo I performed on Alton Brown’s granola recipe to reduce its sugar content (Yes, I went to the store earlier today to get the *correct* ingredients — see previous post). Okay it’s not really magic voodoo. In fact, it’s ridiculously easy.

The key replacements are with the brown sugar and the maple syrup. Instead of those two ingredients, I used Sugar Twin Brown Sugar Replacement and a sugar-free syrup (I used a Smuckers brand, but any kind will do). Because the brown sugar replacement is not as dense as real brown sugar, I added a touch more syrup than is called for (You’ll have to taste-test the syrup a little to judge how sweet it is, and adjust accordingly). Note that this is a reduced sugar version, not a sugar-free version. That means I still used sweetened shredded coconut, and I still added the raisins. This is because I figure the granola still needed that real sugar touch for it to taste good. Plus the sweetened coconut smells wonderful when it gets all toasty.

I just made a batch a few minutes ago, and I can tell you it smells and tastes amazing — warm, toasty, sweet.. Yum. I almost ate the whole batch. Granted, the full-on sugar version probably tastes better. But this is a great alternative if you’re trying to cut down on sugar. I also used safflower oil instead of vegetable oil because safflower oil is lower in saturated fat, but that’s just me.

PS. If you don’t want to use the Sugar Twin replacement, you could experiment with Splenda a little with the syrup (Note this “Brown sugar” Splenda recipe). You probably will need to adjust the amount of syrup etc. I just happened to have the Sugar Twin around, so I used it. Since the Sugar Twin brown sugar replacement measures the same as regular brown sugar, it’s just easier to use that instead.

Went to the gym yesterday for some cardio (30 minutes on the cross-trainer), and decided to amp up my strength-training workout (I’ve only done the leg press, the abs, the biceps, and the triceps before). The trainer walked me through all the machines, and helped me set up a workout plan for the foreseeable future. The following is my new strength-training set-up:
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Not that anyone really cares about my diet/fitness stuff, but I’ll yap about it anyway.

I recently reached my target weight on the South Beach Diet plan, and have officially moved on to Phase 3 of the diet; the healthy-diet-for-life phase. That means if I want to have some of the bad stuff, I’m free to do so, as long as I maintain a balanced diet in general. Sure, there are days when I’ve put on 2-3 pounds over the target weight (especially those “special auntie visit” days), but that’s nothing.

Thus, my clothing is in a transition phase. I’ve gone from a size 12 to a size 10. My default size is now a Medium (although I still can’t fit in those blasted baby doll things). I bought a dress recently. I don’t normally wear dresses. I’m getting a little freaked out.

Don’t let me give you the illusion that I’m now a svelte model or anything, it’s nothing like that. I’m still an “actual-size” girl (TMBG reference), and rather chunky at that (Hello tire-tummy and thunder-thighs!). But at least I now have a healthy Body Mass Index, which is something.

So, um, yay me.

Geez, that’s a cheesy title. What can I say, I’m in a rhyming mood.

Decided to share a few of the yummy healthy recipes/ideas I’ve discovered lately (South Beach Diet related mostly, but would be also good for heart-conscious folks). Hope y’all enjoy.
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