Change... 1200 Calories at a Time

What I *should* be doing is studying for my impending German test tomorrow, but I have too much in my brain to study right now.  The one thing that I can at least get off my mind by blogging about it is the recent change to my diet that I made two days ago: eating only 1200 calories a day.  I make a solemn vow now that I will keep this up until Thanksgiving.  I'm really done with faltering on the eating front.  I really do want to lose 30 pounds, so no more excuses.  With the help and support of my "dieting expert" (ooooo, I really don't like that word "dieting" but don't know what else to call it) partner and husband, Dana, I am going to get it done.  A lot of you have seen Dana, so it's a pretty safe bet to call him an expert at this point.

What does 1200 calories look like?  It's rather shocking and kind of sad really.  Unless you are a rabbit, 1200 calories doesn't look like a lot.  For me, it's making better choices that satisfy longer.  This means lean protein.  My favorite go-to food is low-fat cottage cheese.  Damn, that stuff is tasty.  Luckily, I've always loved it plain, so I don't even need a delivery system to go with it.  With that being said, and I digress here, the best delivery system of cottage cheese in my book is potato chips.  Don't knock it until you try it!!!  It's soooooooooo good.  Needless to say, I am NOT eating potato chips right now.  I want to make my calories count!  Other than that, my diet consists of: lettuce (all types), vegetables (mostly non-starchy ones), fruit, lean meats, beans, very few grains (even whole ones are being limited for the next few weeks), a teensy-weensy bit of nuts, and the occasional whole-grain Ak-Mak cracker (blessed be the mighty Ak-Mak!).  I'm hungry a lot of the time, but I'm eating more consistently to keep my metabolism going.  Here's the breakdown:

250 calories for breakfast
300 calories for lunch
75 calories for afternoon snack
500 calories for dinner
75 calories for after-dinner snack

Sometimes I have spare calories from lunch so I add it to my snack in the evening.  I write my calories down, I weigh my food, and consult a calorie counter religiously.

So far, so good, although I have been a bit cranky about being hungry the past couple of days.  This is mainly due to the fact that (close your eyes men out there who don't want to read it) my monthly visitor is here.  Generally, I want to devour lots of things I shouldn't this time of month, and I'm not, so my mood isn't the best, but I'll live.

If anyone has some great tips of how to curb hunger and/or stay satisfied longer with fewer calories I would love to hear about them.  Leave me a comment here or on Facebook.

Until next post...

Nothin' but a Running VFF Woman

I just returned from what was supposed to be a walk, but it turned into a run.  I guess you could say that I'm really a runner now.  However, I made the error of strapping on my old Nike running shoes to walk in since while walking our heels usually make contact with the ground first - I wanted the extra padding.

Big mistake.

First off, my feet felt like they were suffocating.  My toes don't like to be crammed all together unless they're in some super hot three to four inch pointy-toed or peep-toed heels; yes, yes I'm a walking (or running?) contradiction.  Second, I couldn't feel the ground.  I walked for a while, but then I decided to run because I was sick of walking.  I got up to my regular gait and realized how different it felt.  My feet were not really feeling the ground.  Barefoot purists would say that even with VFF I'm not *really* feeling the ground, either, but I felt it a lot more than in these stupid Nikes.  I don't like the way my feet feel when I can't touch the ground and am being blocked by padded soles.  And, finally, I actually felt weighted down.  This may be completely psychological, but I felt like it took more effort to run with these shoes on.

Needless to say, I took them off as soon as I got on my porch.  I walked into my bedroom and said to my husband (who is sick with some stomach bug, poor guy), "I'm never wearing these again.  I'm a Vibram woman all the way.  I hike and run in them, so I'm going to walk in them, too."  He then made a crude comment about not taking them off for other activities and I'll let you guess what that comment was - ha!

Yep.  I'm a total minimalist footwear convert AND a real runner to boot.  Who woulda thunk it?

Unsolicited Advice from Strangers

Sigh.  The strangest thing happened to me today as I was just one block into my run this morning.  A lady in her Toyota Corolla stopped me and told me that I really should be walking rather than running because of damage to my joints.  Wha????????  I have never seen this person before, she's not a neighbor, and even so, WTF?  Who gives advice to people running down the street? And stops them in mid-run?  So bizarre.  When she stopped me, I had to take my ear bud out and keep my feet moving.  At first I thought she was lost since she had passed me earlier.  I'm friendly and my father-in-law calls me a homing pigeon since you could basically drop me anywhere and I'd find my way home.  So expecting a "hey, could you tell me where such and such place is," I stopped.  But noooooooooo.... it was "don't you think you'd get the same health benefit by walking at the same speed because, you know, the damage to your joints from running?!"  Instead of politely saying, "Thanks for your concern, but I don't see how this is any of your business," I stood there dumbfounded explaining my minimalist footwear and how I no longer have joint pain and that I'd been running this way for six months.  I'm still shaking my head at myself.  It was single-handedly the strangest exchange I've had with another human being in a long time.

What it ended up doing for most of my run was that it made me mad.  I was just getting started and usually my first 1/2 mile or so I'm getting in my groove.  It took me most of my route to get in a groove today.  Thanks, Ms. Probably-Never-Have-Run-In-My-LIfe-Driving-Around-In-My-Car-Giving-Random-Runners-Unsolicited-Advice-About-Their-Joints, for being a total groove killer.  Whatevs.

The positive things going on today, however, are 1) eating better and lighter - time to be a weight shedding machine and 2) I went a full 2.5 miles, running about 1.75 miles of it.  I'm sore as all get out because of weight training on Saturday, but at least I know I did something. And like I said before, running is good for what ails ya and today it helped make my muscles a little less sore.

And as a salute to more healthful eating, I'm posting a quick recipe for a Greek-yogurt based dressing on The Domestic Goddess.  Check it out and enjoy!