Phit-N-Phat...Making Fitness and Weightloss a Lifestyle

Vegetables for Weightloss

My most successful weightloss clients find creative ways to add vegetables to their day. It's critical to our weightloss but it's ESSENTIAL for our long term health. Remember, it's all fine and good to lose your weight but if you do it in a way that doesn't put you on the earth looking HAWT a long time...well, what's the point?

I work hard at making sure that veggies get into not only my menu, but also Chris and Logan's menu. Too often I read where my clients work hard at eating right and then forget to start changing some of the habits of those around them.  No wonder so many people have a hard time staying on the weightloss wagon. You eat super healthy while everyone around you continues to live it up on sugar bombs and fried pies. By slowly changing the habits of your loved ones you make their health better and you rid yourself of tempting no-no's.

Today I want to focus on ways to get those vegetables in your daily diet. I routinely eat my 5-9 servings a day. It's much easier than you think if you get creative about adding them to your day.

Adding Vegetables Is EASY!

• Start your day with a vegetable omelet.
• Drink V8 with your oatmeal.
• Eat a huge salad with loads of mixed vegetables every night with dinner.
• Do like Mammy! Eat veggie soup with your dinner if you don't like salads.
• Buy spaghetti sauce and add in stir fried peppers, spinach and broccoli. Serve on top of a potato, whole grain pasta, or quinoa.

This is Asian Weight Watcher Veggie Soup. It looks delicious and you can easily pair this with some grilled chicken or a veggie burger.

This website, A Veggie Venture, actually has several wonderful recipes for soups and vegetable dishes.

One of my own favorites is Roasted Brocolli.

Simply take one bag of broccoli. It needs to be dry. Using a spritzer, spray the broccoli a couple of times with EVOO. Use salt, pepper, and diced garlic and mix the broccoli. Place in shallow cooking dish and cook for 15-20 min. at 425 degrees. Toss one time in middle of cooking. When it comes out, spray a little lemon juice on top. DELICIOUS.

Anyone have good ideas or recipes for incorporating more vegetables into your day?

One Week Post Plastic Surgery

I went to the doctor today and got a great check up. They were impressed that I had my hair done, make up on, a little dress, and good spirits. Hell, this is the most inactivity I've had in years so a trip to get drains pulled was an event for me.

I have a total of five drains: Back, Lt Abs, Rt Abs, Lt Thigh, Rt Thigh. They pulled both of the thigh drains and I can go back on Friday to see if the rest or more can be pulled. I totally expect to be driving by Monday at the latest. I have a few pictures now and should be ready to blog some that don't quite show the world my wahoo early next week. Today is the first day I'm wearing my regular underwear so I'll get some blog worthy pics this weekend.

Pain wise I am only taking meds at night. That's more to get comfortable than anything else. My new booty swells up and is hard as a rock by the end of the day so it helps take some pressure off to fall asleep.

One of the things I have noticed with surgery is how important plenty of water has become. I've always been a huge water drinker but with all this body trauma I can tell within an hour when I'm getting behind. I get slightly nauseated, a mild headache, I'm quick to be sharp tongued, etc.

It makes me think about all of us when we have bad eating days. Often you read articles about how important water is to weightloss and yet so many of us just dismiss it or let it go easily. How many times have you...

• had a day where stressors seems to get under you skin more than usual?
• had a mild headache and blamed it on low carbs or other food related issues?
• been slightly constipated and that made you ill as a hornet?

There are so many ways that simple, mild dehydration can rear it's ugly head. When you are in general good health you might not even realize how many parts of life are being effected. I see it clear now!

I get the least bit behind on the water and I'm suddenly...

• swelling up
• irritable
• got a headache
• bowels start immediately locking up
• crave strange water-based foods
• lethargic
• more sore all over
• unable to focus

Now, I'm in trauma mode in my body so the signs are like freaking in my face right now. The lesson for me is to be aware that mild dehydration when I'm healthy could be causing me to eat off plan or over indulge when I just need to keep chugging.

As far as how much you need it's variable. If you follow any of my diet and exercise plans I suggest you drink one gallon a day. I drink at least 1.5 in normal times and trying to get in 1-2 right now.

Water. I know it's playing a huge role in my recovery and can play a big role in your own weightloss efforts.

The Gift of Fat

The King (Chris) and I have a running joke called, "Don't be that person that gives the gift of fat to people." Nothing gets my new butt all swelled up more than The Gift of Fat.

What is The Gift of Fat? It's easy.

• At Christmas we get loads of cookie tins, popcorns, and other gifts of fat delivered to us that are loaded with junk.
• On your birthday someone always feels honor bound to give an ADULT a cake.
• You show up in the break room and someone has brought in all the leftover cookies and goodies from their kids' party this weekend because their wife doesn't want it in the house.
• At Halloween you get loads of candy dumped on every corner of the office because the kids got too much.

These are all simple examples of how as a society we celebrate every single week of our lives away with gifts of fat. Call me crazy but on my birthday let me leave work an hour early and save the $20 on a cake.

Today one of my clients, April, received a gift of fat in email and posted in our PNP forums what to do - throw away a free Blizzard from DQ or use it as a special treat? Sounds innocent, right? I mean I'm not such a hard ankle that I don't want you to ever have something good.

But see, April wouldn't have a Blizzard and feel special. She would feel bad and it would be one more day she didn't get control of her decisions.  

April, just got back from my own women's retreat here in Nashville where I challenged her personally in our one on one to simply ask herself, "what would old April do," when she is confronted with eating decisions. Her goal is to get to Onederland and a free Blizzard ate in her car isn't what I call the fire in the belly needed to change her life.

So, she deleted it AND she even emailed DQ to get her off their mailing list! Hoorah for her! You see, if April ate that Blizzard in a year from now she wouldn't remember it. I bet you anything that taking control over another avenue of sabotage and doing what NEW APRIL does is something she will hold onto for the rest of her life. This decision made another huge impact on her future success.

You know, April, I'm so proud of you. This last year you have grown with PNP in ways the scale can never measure. You think before you eat, you make plans, you are quick to ask for help when things are out of control, you offer sweet advice to other girls, AND you are now so active and strong that I can't remember the last time you couldn't workout because of you back. Yep, I note and remember every little sign of progress.

Happy Birthday Girl. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will read this blog you inspired and think twice the next time they get a Gift of Fat. Love ya!

Tummy Tuck, Butt Lift, and Thigh Lift...Oh My!

Well, I am on the other side of this huge undertaking and I'm pleased. Not ready to post many pics yet since my hubby has control over the camera. I promise I will have some pictures and I will also have a video message or two.

For now, let me catch you up on the story.

July 1, 2009 I went in for surgery. The surgery I remember nothing. I wasn't nervous but I'm not the type to get nervous about stuff. It was more like a feeling of just wanting to get started so I could quit worrying about things that would never change.

The first day I was pretty doped up on a morphine pump. I don't remember hurting but I do remember being sore and struggling to find ways to stay still. I unfortunately understood the instructions on the pump to hit the button EVERY ten minutes instead of you CAN hit the button every ten minutes. The whole day and evening I was in a total drug fog. I kept trying to talk and not making sense. One time I even asked my mother was I talking outloud or in my head because I just couldn't decide.

Day two I was walking. They took out the catheter and I wanted to walk down the hall. By noon I had hit the hall up and down four times. The goal was four times for the whole day. Things were GREAT. I was ready to go home so we started up the discharge papers.

The nurses went ahead and took out my fluids to prep me for going home. They also gave me a dose of strong narcotic for the car ride home. By the time it was close to actually leaving I was about an hour before needing another dose so they went ahead and gave me another wad of this stuff. Mix a day of too much morphine, anesthesia still working it's way out of you, a double dose of strong pain killers, no fluids for three hours, and a girl who runs very low blood pressure...and well, you have the next part of the story.

After the next dose I wanted to get up and go potty so I wouldn't have to worry about it on the way home. I stood up and immediately got sick to my stomach and broke out in a cold sweat. I couldn't stand and my breathing got shallow. I sat down and tried again in another thirty minutes. By that time my mom was there and couldn't believe how my condition had changed since she left me. She called a nurse and my blood pressure had severely dropped. I was dehydrated and over medicated.

We decided immediately I couldn't go home and needed to stay. It took a whole night to get me "right" again and by the next day I was ready to go home. I made the trip fine and had a decent night. The next day I drank some water but had to start taking copious amounts of laxatives and such because the doctors office really needed to have me wake up the colon. It's the last thing to come "online" after surgery.

Well, all night I had terrible pain. I was impacted. At one point I almost passed out on the toilet because my body was trying to "push" but I didn't have the abs to make any "magic". My blood pressure again was going crazy, cold sweats, and I couldn't support my body weight.

We tried everything and eventually my poor mom had to give me a Fleet's enema at 5am. To describe my desperateness, I asked her to pray out loud when she gave it to me because the next stop was the emergency room. Everything came back to life and I was resting comfortably by 8am.

I tell all this mess only because I didn't think these were the things to worry about. Body wise I'm doing fine. The surgery is uncomfortable and the pain is VERY TOLERABLE. It's the side crap that has driven me crazy.

Looks wise? Well, my tummy is FLAT. I mean FLAT. I can only eat about a 1/3 of what I could before. With the tight abs and such a little goes a long way. I'm actually making a conscious choice to eat less volume because it is not comfortable at all to get over full.

My thighs look 100% better. They won't be perfect but I knew that going in. I love the new shape though. It will be neat to actually get some of the drains out so I can just try on a pair of pants to see how my body shape looks different.

My butt. LOL. I have a big ole booty now. I mean a badunkadunk type booty. My doctor suggested building one since I would lose most of it and it would be super flat. Dear Lord! The toughest thing about the actual surgery is getting used to all this ass I am sitting on. It's sore too! But I think it will be well worth it.

I will be posting more as I recover because I've learned a lot of valuable lessons just in the past few days. But, as I sit on the other side, I'm glad I took this step. I was never going to let go of my old body image until I did this. Now I look at myself and think about things I can realistically do once cleared to exercise. I feel that I can start truly leading a healthy and fit lifestyle because I focus on my health and not my loose skin. I was tired of loose skin driving my whole journey. No more.

Advice on Staying In Shape to Have a Baby

A reader recently wrote to me...

Hi I am an avid follower of Phit-N-Phat. I truly enjoy reading your blog. My question for you is this...if you could give advice to a woman embarking on pregnancy and wanted to keep in shape and not blow up like a balloon (keep healthy weight gain) what would the advice/blog be? I am a active adult women with two prior pregnancies (two active children now) and would like to have a 3rd. I lost 30 pounds last year however, I am not at my goal weight (still want to loose about 15 pounds) and want to get it off quick after. So Im looking at how many calories would be good and any other advice you may have =)Thanks from a big fan!

I typically take 10 times your current bodyweight as the amount you eat on days you exercise less than 45 min. If you train for more than 45 min. bump it to 11 or 12. Keep the foods as healthy as possible like fruits, veggies, lean proteins, healthy fats, and unprocessed carbs.

 

The key is to train your body for a baby. For a healthy pregnancy you need to train your taste buds, cravings, heart, and muscles to cope with nine months. The healthier those nine months are the easier it is to lose the weight. We all gain weight and you are going to gain what you gain. It's the kind of fat and type of habits you develop that make all the difference in the world.

 

Think of it this way: burgers and fries are harder to burn off because once the baby comes you still want burger and fries. Fruits and veggies burn off fast post-baby because you are conditioned to eat foods that give healthy energy.

 

The first four months are HARD. No one wants to go into diet mode when they are sleep deprived and stressed out. You will continue the habits you establish while pregnant. If Blizzards and cheeseburgers are your habit then they will be when the baby arrives. If healthy foods and an occassional treat is the norm, weight will come off so much easier.

 

Start baby Bootcamp before baby is made!!! If you need help with a menu or easy plan to follow with kids, try my Treadmill Bootcamp. It's loaded with great routines that combine strength and cardio for a busy mom. It also has a good, solid menu that builds healthy habits.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

PNP...It's a Lifestyle

We just wrapped up our first retreat and it was AMAZING. I sit here in astonishment at what wonderful women find their way to me, join our site, and then come together to make ourselves stronger and healthier. Trust me, it's a true measure of the quality of people you have in your life when you can get 30 women together and all they do is get along, laugh, cry, and celebrate having the chance to grow themselves.

Pictures will be coming soon but today I wanted to blog some of my thoughts from camp to help all my readers who love to learn through the PNP girls experiences.

Lesson One: PNP, losing weight, and getting fit really is about a lifestyle.
Getting healthy is not a program or today's hottest eating plan. It's about finding how you can be the healthiest person you can be while juggling family, friends, work, hobbies, and a world of other commitments. Sometimes that is eating clean and other days it means having two slices of pizza versus a whole. Basically - being the healthiest person you can be is not black and white and limited to what some trainer or nutritionist said to eat. It is evaluating and making honest choices given each time you go to the gym and put a piece of food in your mouth.

Lesson Two: It takes work.
Life isn't easy. It takes planning, prepping, scheduling, moving around, juggling, and doing things VERY OFTEN that you need to do versus you want to do. The same goes for you health. Eating better and moving more often takes a little planning, prepping, thinking, and juggling to get it done.

I have saying, "If you are out of shape it's because you are taking the easy way out somewhere." Find out where that is and get to work.

Lesson Three: Lifestyle means being mindful of what you do.
I talked all weekend about two ideas: work to YOUR OWN potential and make the best choice you can. Do you know which girls I worry about the most on my site? It's the ones who don't think before they skip exercise or shove a big mac in their mouth. Those girls have no awareness, they have no chance to do a little better, and they go to bed each night feeling guilty and ashamed of their choices.

If I could offer one piece of advice to anyone who wants to lose weight and be a healthier person it is to simply make a choice every time you exercise and eat. Some days a walk is all you got in you. That's fine. It's better than doing nothing because what you know you can do isn't on the "schedule". Other days, life is coming at you like a hail storm. Your old self would just go to the local pizza buffet for dinner and eat until happy. What if you decided ordering pizza, thin crust, and just enough for the family? Having pizza isn't the best choice but it damn sure is the BETTER choice.

And, that is the lesson in the end. We all have to strive to be BETTER than we were yesterday. Some days you will be on fire and other days a slow burn is better than fizzling out.

I am having surgery tomorrow and you will see some surgery blogs coming up as I intend to chronicle the journey. I hope you all enjoy it and thanks for being such a supporter of PNP.

Mammy Goes Out of Town

Mammy went to Louisville this weekend to pick up my niece from some summer vacation. She stayed at a hotel and did a great job. She's lost 37 lbs now and is going to my women's retreat and fitness camp this weekend. We've worked HARD getting her ready and making exercises she can do to work around her shoulder and ankle injuries. I'm so excited to be able to show off my mom at camp as my next big success story. If Mammy can do it....SO CAN YOU!

Click here to see a message from Mammy!

Here's what Mammy had to say about her weekend.

I did well on the weekend.  On the way, we stopped at Arby's and I just ate a snack that I brought in my purse (no sugar applesauce with a handful of walnuts).  We got to the hotel, and there was a Subway within walking distance.  I unpacked, and walked to Subway. I got a chicken sandwich with no mayo or cheese, but all the veggies I like (lettuce, tomato, onion, bell pepper, cucumber, and pickles) with spicy mustard, oregano,  and black pepper. 

The convenience store next to Subway I decided to pick up some Slim Fast, water, pretzels.  I ate 1/2 of the sandwich for supper and the other half for lunch on Saturday.  I drank the Slim Fast after my workout in their gym.  I actually got on a treadmill and walked 30 minutes.  I could have gone longer but it was so hot in there.  The AC was set and locked on 85 degrees.  I was sweating like no other. 

There was a Cracker Barrel a little further down the road. I walked to it for breakfast both mornings and had two Poached eggs, plain grits, grilled chicken, dry whole wheat toast.  The only "treat" was I got hash brown casserole.  Like you, I love the potato!  

On Saturday night we went to a Hibachi place and I got the Sirloin and Lobster entree (where the cook it in front of you) and instead of fried rice, I got the plain steamed rice and ate my veggies: mushrooms, onion, zucchini.  Orange for dessert.  After dinner, everyone wanted to go to Dairy Queen.  They all had ice cream but me. 

The other exercise I did was swimming.  I swam Friday night after supper and most of the day on Saturday. I was puffy this morning I guess from the long car ride or sodium rich foods but I still lost 0.6 lbs.  Not much but it's a loss and not a gain. 

Here's a recipe from Mammy that she included in her menu this week.

Penne Pasta with Shrimp and Asparagus

Ingredients:

3/4 Package of Whole Wheat Penne Pasta
Drizzle of olive oil
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 bunches of asparagus (cut into bite size pieces)
Fresh basil chopped
2 TB of minced garlic (more or less depending on your taste)
1/8 Teaspoon of Cayennne Pepper (more or less you decide)
1 TB of Italian seasoning
1/4 cup white white (can substitute chicken broth)
2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 pound of peeled, deveined shrimp
Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook pasta 8 to 10 minutes (al dente; drain).

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat, stir in onion, garlic, asparagus, basil, red pepper, Italian seasoning until veggies are just tender.  Mix in wine and tomatoes, and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mix shrimp into the skillet and cook 5 minutes or until shrimp is opaque.  Toss with pasta and top with Parmesan cheese.

Makes 6 servings and is about 450 calories per serving

 

I hope to have a few videos and pictures of her progress after this weekend. She's been doing an excellent job and this weekend will be a first for her. Wish her good luck!

Bill...A Real Weightloss Success Story

We often talk about all the reasons we hold ourselves back on this site. Today I want to share a few thoughts on my friend and original PNP client, Bill, who has lived a life of obesity and is now a two-time body building competitor.

This weekend he competed at the HUB City Classic in Jackson, TN. He did it this year for one reason: he wanted his two little girls see why Daddy works so hard in the gym and why he has to eat so much fish. All of it paid off because he looked fabulous.

The morning of the competition we met for his pancake with REAL syrup meal before going on stage. It was interesting because whenever I am around anyone it seems to lend itself to some pretty deep thoughts on the subject of being fat.

Both of us have this "issue" and that is we will always be a fat girl or fat boy. We believe this person never dies in you even when you don't LOOK the part any longer.

Bill likens it to an alcoholic. When you are no longer drinking it doesn't mean you are "cured." You just aren't drinking at the time but the drunk is still on the inside of you.

The same goes with people who have been overweight; particularly those who have a lifetime of significant fat to draw upon. Once you have lost the weight it doesn't mean you aren't still a "fat person". You are just an outwardly thin person with an inner fat person.

Most of us who need to lose weight, especially significant weight, do so because we really like food. We like the bad stuff A LOT. If we didn't, losing weight would be easy and we probably wouldn't be fat to begin with. I like healthy food NOW and will eat it but, seriously, if I thought I could look just as good eating pancakes and peanut butter for breakfast, a burger and fries for lunch washed down with a shake, and then go out every night to a new Mexican restaurant for margaritas and nachos I WOULD! See, I know how to roll LARGE.

What was I talking about? Oh yes, alcoholism. I will always be the fat girl just like a drunk is a drunk. Every day I have to choose to eat what is good for me versus what gives me pleasure. I have to make time to exercise when TV is tempting. I have to stop eating before I feel round and full and I have to say no to going out or parties sometimes because I just can't fit it into my weekly plan.

Do I like healthy food? Absolutely. Do I like junk food? Absolutely. I'm proud to be on the road to recovery. I call it maintenance and while I maintain I am sober. You know what? It's OK, too. I don't mind it being hard, "unfair", or anything like that. Rather than wallow in the unfairness I choose acceptance so I can be successful.

Bill is like me. He has every reason to be a fat guy - bad history, genes, habits, etc. - but he chooses to accept his demons and live his life to the fullest. Enjoy this video of his competition. He worked hard and made everyone proud.

Hub City

What's So Great About Asparagus?

You see asparagus in competitor diets for several reasons: it's a mild diuretic, low in calories (24 calories per cup or raw), and provides some electrolyte balance since you sweat your tail off hours a day with cardio!

Runner's World sent an email today with even more information about asparagus...things I didn't even know. I'm definitely putting it into my post-surgery menu. Now to just teach Chris how to bake it for me. Hmmmm...does this guy look like a cook?

From Runner's World...

GOOD: As a side dish
One cup of asparagus spears supplies 115 percent of your Daily Value for vitamin K, which is vital for bone health, and 65 percent of your Daily Value for folate, a B vitamin that promotes healthy blood cells and helps prevent birth defects.
GET IT: Steam asparagus spears for about five minutes, or until tender. Drizzle with olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

BETTER: In a salad
Many runners--especially those who avoid meat--don't get enough iron; that's because nonmeat sources of the mineral, such as vegetables and grains, are not as readily absorbed. But eating foods high in vitamin C, like asparagus, increases iron absorption from nonmeat foods.
GET IT: Add raw asparagus tips to a salad of spinach, arugula, and radicchio to get the most benefit from the iron in the greens.

GREAT: With your dinner
Asparagus is loaded not only with folate but also vitamin B6. When combined with vitamin B12, this trio works together to lower circulating levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that wreaks havoc on artery walls, leading to heart disease.
GET IT: Stir-fry one-inch pieces of chicken or lean beef, which are high in vitamin B12, with 1 1/2-inch pieces of asparagus spears. Serve over brown rice for additional B vitamins.

 

I also like to to take fresh asparagus and stir fry in PAM a little bit but keep a lot of the crunchiness. I then dip it in spicy brown mustard and add salt to it. Yummy!

Workouts Aren't a Cure All

I got a newsletter today with a great quote for all of us to think about...

YOU CAN'T OUT TRAIN A BAD DIET. PERIOD.

We've talked several times about making the most out of your workouts, kicking it with intensity, and putting the time in that your body DESERVES.

Many of us, though, who find the light bulb for exercise fail to flip our diet switch. We think tough workouts, endless cardio, running marathons, and any other athletic thing you can think of is going to erase a ding-dong here, a cup cake there, and a few drinks this weekend.

It won't. Trust me. This is the voice of experience talking.

Last year I competed. I worked out less than I did earlier this year. Last year I did almost an hour of weights five days a week and anywhere from 30-60 min. of cardio a day.

This year from January to June I put a ton of time in each and every day doing weights like a figure athlete, running like a marathoner, and cardio for tris. I truly worked out 2-3 hours a day.

Last year at this time I weighed 135-138 lbs. This year I weigh 145-148 lbs while exercising double! What's the real difference? Diet.

Last year the diet was tight and on target. I didn't eat out but one meal a week and stuck religiously to 1500 calories a day of lean protein, tons of veggies, healthy fats, limited carbs.

This year I eat a well-balanced diet BUT I sneak a protein bar in here and there instead of real food, have ice cream a couple of times a week, drink on Saturday night, and eat out once or twice a week whatever I want.

Don't get me wrong. I like where I am now. 145 is still sexy. It's not hard, defined, and such. I like that 135 Corinne, too. But I like the living a little Corinne. This Corinne means she can have a meal out with Mammy, drinks with Daddy, and ice cream with Loggie without having to rearrange a week's worth of plans.

The point is that I like to eat and I enjoy having some treats. That means sacrificing some of the definition and look I love. To be able to eat, though, I can't and you can't expect to make progress - NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU EXERCISE. None of us can workout enough to erase all the food we sneak in during the week.

What I am saying is if you don't like how you look you gotta change something. Most of the time it's your food intensity; not your workout intensity. Just adding some cardio or another day of workouts isn't going to fix what ails you. Fix the problem not what's working.