Picking and CALLING all Pizza Lovers

Well my picking days are over, or at least for the next five weeks.  That is, if I want to loose instead of maintain my weight.  The hand picking here and there needs to stop!  I am tempted every time I serve my kids buttery popcorn to grab a handful, or eat one Dove chocolate sitting inside our candy bowl, or simply eat the left over piece of pizza sitting in that box.  See, the thing about handpicking is it seems sinless.  Now if you sit there and down a whole box of pizza maybe you should feel a little guilty and shameful.  But who feels guilty eating one piece?  Hence that is why it seems so harmless.

Some people would agree to say, maybe that will backfire.  If you withhold yourself from those foods then you might gorge and eat it all uncontrollably and go nuts.  My answer to that is we have to do what works best for ourselves.  So far this has proven to work well for me.  I can go back to hand picking treats when I want to maintain my weight.  This is only temporary.  Now if I decided to do the latter then it would just take me a lot longer to achieve my goal. 

I try my best to keep an open mind and will be posting other methods for nutrition restriction/healthy ways to loose weight because like I said, different things work better for other people.

SPEAKING OF PIZZA... you all know it is just a weakness of mine.  Hot bread out of the oven crusted with veggies and lots of stringy cheese on top.  Or how ever you like it, meat lovers, anchovies, you name your poison.

Yesterday I mentioned I got a magazine called Cooking Light.  So here is are a few tips from an article for Navigating a Pizza Menu - by Marge Perry.
(my comments are in quotes)

Choose with care at your local pizza shop, or it might be your waistline that is doughy. (don't you just love blunt honesty? no!)  Two slices easily cost you 500 calories.  Perhaps the most pressing concern is that you can consume more than a days worth of sodium from just two slices. (ouch!)  But fear not- it is possible to eat Pizza without undoing a healthy diet.  When it comes to calories, there are smart choices and indulgent ones.  Avoiding sodium is nearly impossible though.  Your best strategy is planning around it.  Proceed or follow Pizza night with a day of lower sodium foods.  And size does matter: Order a large instead of a medium, and you end up consuming 40 percent more pizza per slice.  The numbers below are for two slices in different varieties.  Nutrition numbers are estimates.

Thin Crust Cheese -  Healthiest Choice
388 Calories
You save 50 Calories and 200mg of sodium opting for
the thin crust-without sacrificing flavor.  Choosing this
option is a no brainer, no matter what the topping.   

Thin Crust Mixed Vegetable
466 calories
1,020 milligrams of sodium

Hand Tossed Pepperoni
514 calories
Peperoni is one of the highest meat toppings in fat, calories
and sodium.  If you simply must have it, remove half of the
pepperonis.

Hand Tossed Hawaiian
520 calories
Don't think fruit makes this a healthy choice.  The pineapple
is typical sweetened and the ham ratchets up the sodium
nearly 1,300 milligrams per serving.

Deep Dish Cheese (AKA Splurging)
640 calories 
Two slices from a 12 inch deep dish pizza have more than
twice the calories, fat and sodium you would get with a
regular crust!  (think twice about this pizza ladies)

The Works Supreme Hand Tossed
606 calories
We bet you knew it was bad-but did you know it would
be this bad?  If you must have meat on your pizza, choose
one kind.  This meat fest contains 12 grams of saturated
fat and almost 1,400 milligrams of sodium in just two slices.

(Now that I may have possibly scared you from touching pizza, or not.. a few facts learned about pizza is embedded in the back of your brain.)

I LOST my PASSWORD and Our very own Biggest Loser Houstonion

What goofy person looses their password to their blog?  ME!  I was not able to post anything right when turning 30, which was a bummer.  So many thoughts... but let us put that aside and do a little catching up.  Starting at 176, just this morning broke my 140 barrier.  I was stuck there for a good little while but stayed stationary by my own doing.  Noticing one permanent change throughout the course of the past month, I am not finding myself eating to get full anymore.  That is probably why I did not gain any weight back.  I could throw a pity party for myself and whine and give you all my excuses for not getting my butt in the weight room, but I'll pass this one time.   

Now it is time to kick but again!  Pumped and ready to go, the sky is the limit.  Let me tell you I have seen some amazing changes in the women close to me.  They are an absolute encouragement and inspiration to me.  Loosing 20, 30, 40 and yes... more than 50 pounds!  The most amazing change is the way they feel inside.  They shine!

Maybe taking a month break was a good thing.  Awhile back my favorite healthy meals grossed me out.  If I looked at chicken I would get nauseated and Greek yogurt, gross!  So retrying and introducing all of those foods once again was not so bad.  The key is to keep trying new healthy recipes.  So I buckled in and bought a magazine called 'Cooking Light.'  Skimming through it I am loving what I see.  It has 147 quick and easy recipes and nutrition tips.  Although next time I will not be spending a crazy $4.99 on one magazine.  I will order a years worth through the mail for ten times cheaper.  So you will see more recipes on my blog soon.  They also have a wonderful website to browse through.  http://www.cookinglight.com/

Not only am I soaking in all this inspiration by all my friends and a new magazine, one of my most favored shows to watch is coming back in less than two weeks!  The Biggest Looser starts September 21st Tuesday at 7pm.

Now here is the exciting news.  We have a Houstonion who is in the Biggest Looser for this season.  I was surprised to discover that one of the trainers at our Y has been helping her reach her goal during her off time from the show.  The Y announced who she was on September 1st.  Guessing it was hard to hold back when her face was all over the TV and The Biggest Loser website.

Of course the majority of the show is already taped but they will go back to the Finale for their finale weigh in, sometime in December.   So she is working her butt off and looks fabulous!  I will tell you it is just another inspiration to see her face to face.   Click here to view Montina's Biggest Loser profile .

Who is up for a personal challenge?  What is yours?  What motivates you?  My next goal is 10 pounds in 5 weeks, which is totally attainable with dedication and focus. Start date: Monday 13th September
End date: Monday the 18th October.

130 here we go... hold me accountable!