Diet Renegade

Follow me as I eat real food, stop binge eating, and lose 100 pounds

Archive for March, 2009

4 Fun and Free Resources for Weight Loss Support

Mar 27

Posted by Gina in Links I Love | 1 Comment

Losing weight and staying motivated is so darn hard! That’s why its critical that you are surrounded by people who can support you every step of the way.

I’ve found that using online weight loss support sites have helped me immensely.  You can instantly connect with others who are going through the same struggles and who actually understand what its like!

Once you find a place that you really like, its a total blast to swap tips, share recipe ideas, find exercise buddies, and give and receive encouragement with others in the group/community.

There are a ton of support resources for you online, but I’ve picked out my favorite 4 that I frequently visit – if not totally obsess over.

1. Twitter
Here you can find members who are losing weight too and share little snippets of info with each other. (Warning: Twitter is highly addictive!)

Some great people to follow on Twitter:
@dietrenegade (me of course!)
@ronisweigh
@ohtolose
@formerfatguy
@NutritiousFeast
@weight_control
@EatWithoutGuilt
@losingmythighs
@GinasWWrecipes
@weightlossgirl
@zentofitness
@mattcharlton
@craigballantyne
@ChosingLosing
@BradPilon
@donedieting
@pastaqueen
@TheWeighWeWere

2. SparkPeople
This enormous community lets you do tons of stuff, like track your calories and exercise, get recipe ideas, join groups, earn points, or chat with others in the forum.

3. HealthDiscovery
This forum is mainly for Weight Watchers followers so its a great place to exchange ideas related to points and WW meetings.

4. BlogToLose
This site is a super fun place to hang out, chat, start a blog, add photos, or join groups. Its a really tight community run by Roni from Roni’s Weigh. Friend me at my BlogToLose Profile Page.

Do you have a favorite free weight loss or fitness resource?

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7 Weight Loss Tips from the Devil

Mar 24

Posted by Gina in Off Topic | 2 Comments

1. At every meal, eat so much that you have to unzip your pants, even if you’re in a restaurant.

2. Buy candy bars in bulk.

3. Put on your jogging suit, pull your hair up in a ponytail, and go sit on the couch.

4. Fruit only belongs in a bowl on your counter, perferably in wax form.

5. Water should never be used to drink, its really only good for your toilet.

6. If your fast food burger doesn’t have at least 2 patties, 2 slices of cheese and 4 strips of bacon, then you’re a total wimp.

7. Don’t stop counting calories until you’ve reached 5,000.

Ok, ok…joke’s over!  Hopefully now you don’t think I’m totally crazy. I was just having a little fun.

Were you actually looking for real weight loss tips? Cool, then check out the rest of my blog.

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Losing Weight in Spite of Myself

Mar 22

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Emotional Eating, Food Obsession, Motivation | 2 Comments

These past few weeks have been strange for me.

On one hand I’ve accomplished so much by losing 40 pounds, but on the other hand I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything at all.

What do I mean?

Well I honestly don’t know how I’ve managed to lose so much.  I still battle every day with severe urges to binge and compulsively eat everything in site.

I feel like my core issues are still there, I’ve just buried them for a bit instead of fully dealing with them.

So I feel like I’ve gone through the motions of a weight loss program – eating healthy, counting calories, exercising – but I haven’t made that crucial shift yet.

That crucial shift to me is that ‘ah-ha’ moment of ‘Yes, I can seriously do this for the rest of my life.’

I’ve certainly felt that from time to time, but it hasn’t stuck. So I still worry that every day I’ll lose control and slip back into my old ways.

But perhaps I’m just being too hard on myself? I know that everyone who struggles with weight loss goes through these same issues as well.

It may be just part of the process.

Or perhaps I’m just scared?

Scared of being a different person or scared of my emotions?

I do know though that I can not give in to these doubts and fears as I’ve done in the past.  My whole life I’ve let them control me, and I certainly deserve better than that.

So where do I go from here?

I keep doing what I’m doing but I step it up several notches.  I’m going to keep focusing on my original weight loss plan and be more strict with myself.

My attitude and resolve must be air-tight to continue my journey to lasting weight loss and health.

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Woohoo…I’ve lost 40 pounds!

Mar 19

Posted by Gina in Reasons to Celebrate | No Comments

Time to celebrate…I had my weekly weigh-in and I did it!  I’ve actually lost 40 freakn’ pounds!

It feels so good and yet so unbelievable at the same time.  Several months ago when I started down this path I never would have believed that I could actually have accomplished such a goal.

I’m so pround of myself I could cry.

I can’t wait to get to my next goal of minus 50 pounds.

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Links I’m Lovin this Week

Mar 13

Posted by Gina in Links I Love | No Comments

I always stumble across so many fantastic articles on the web and its so hard to pick out the best! Here’s what I found that I really enjoyed this week…

Woman loses half her body weight: A real weight loss story from Diets in Review

Are you really ready? Ask yourself these questions from Roni’s Weigh

Why diet so frequently fail from Medical News Today

And some great recipe finds…

Stir-fried spicy chicken tenders from Eating Well

Roasted chickpea snack from Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes

Loaded spinach salad from Eating Well

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I Love Starbucks Iced Berry Chai Infusion

Mar 10

Posted by Gina in What I Eat | No Comments

Ok, love is not the right word.  Hmmm…..obsessed, yes that’s about right! I’m totally obsessed with the new Iced Berry Chai Infusion drink from Starbucks ™.

Here’s why…

I love chai tea – especially iced – and I love anything involving berry juice.  Mix the two together and I’m in heaven.

Its a rather simple taste, berry juice, with a twist of spicy cinnamon – that’s the chai.  This makes for an absurdly refreshing drink.

My fiance couldn’t stand it however, but he doesn’t like chai.  So if you do like chai tea or you want to try a totally new flavor, I’d definitely try it if I were you.

Please Starbucks ™ – keep this on you menu forever!

Ok, here’s the calorie breakdown courtesy of the Starbucks ™ website.  It does sting a bit because there’s a lot of sugar in it, but I will gladly save up calories and plan this in my day to have a splurge.

Tall – 190 calories

Grande – 250 calories

Venti ™- 310 calories

Enjoy!

Have you tried any of their new Chai Infusions?

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Weekly Recap: Down 2 more pounds!

Mar 8

Posted by Gina in Reasons to Celebrate, What I Eat | 2 Comments

I had a really good week.  I lost 2 pounds bringing me to a total weight loss of 39.5 pounds, yay! I can’t wait until I get to minus 40.

All week I was really diligent about tracking everything that I ate…this really does make an enormous difference.

I walked 3 nights out of the week, which is definitely lower than I’d like.  My goal is to walk at least 5 nights out of the week.  I’m going to work on that this coming week for sure.

I did eat out quite a bit this week like I usually do.  In order to incorporate eating out a lot into my ‘diet’ plan, I always plan my day around it and when I’m at the restaurant I try my best to eat the healthiest thing I can find.

For example, yesterday I knew that I was going to a Mexican restaurant with my Mom and sister.  The rest of the day I ate as little as I could and ate more fruits, veggies, and lean protein.  I chose these foods to eat at home because I knew that at the restaurant I’d probably have something very starchy (chips and tortillas) with a lot of cheese.

So I tried to just balance out my day that way.  This is what I’ve done for the past few months and it seems to be working out pretty good.

Today I’m so excited because I just started the new Weight Watchers ™ Momentum Plan ™ today.  I bought the ‘At Home’ kit and it arrived the other day.  Now I’ve been following the previous WW plan at home but I finally decided that I should check out their new material.

After skimming through it and getting started on my first day, I’m pretty impressed.  I really don’t know how WW could possibly make this healthy eating plan any better.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I’m aiming for my 40 pound milestone next week – wish me luck!

How was your week?

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But the Cookie Just Jumped in my Mouth, I Swear!

Mar 2

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Emotional Eating, Food Obsession, What I Eat | 2 Comments

Ok, so I totally had a moment of weakness today and I’m totally feeling guilty.

On my way home I decided to stop at Starbucks and get their new iced Berry Chai Infusion that I’m totally obsessed with.  I planned for the calories and everything was going to be just fine.

Then I walk in to place my order and this giant, gooey, chocolate chip cookie just starts staring at me.  I was hoping it was looking at someone else, but after I looked around the room and saw I was the only one there, I realized, yeah the cookie was eyeing me.

Well I did the math in my head and thought that I could afford this splurge since it looked so good just sitting there all alone.

So I went ahead and bought the damn cookie and ate it in the car ride home.  It was so freakin’ good!

So after I totally scarfed every last bit I totally realized that it was probably a lot more calories than I originally guessed and I started to feel majorly guilty.  Why oh why did I do this yet again?

When I got home I looked up the calories and my worst fears came true…380 calories!

I accounted for it in my daily calorie intake and I’ll just eat less the rest of the day. So lesson learned .

At least it was superbly delicious…hehehe.

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I Lost 3 Pounds this Week!

Mar 1

Posted by Gina in Motivation, Reasons to Celebrate | No Comments

The past few weeks I’ve been struggling to maintain my motivation as I saw the scale go up and down, and up again.

But I reaccessed my goals and my habits, and had a great week – yay, I lost 3 pounds!

During the week I was a little angel when it came to tracking my food and calories in my journal.  But my most important accomplishment was snapping myself back into success mode.

All of my clothes are fitting better or even too big for me now, which is so exciting.

I didn’t exercise as much as I planned, but at least I made myself go on 2 long walks this weekend.

If you’ve been following me on twitter, you might have noticed I started setting mini goals for myself.  I really like this idea and will be tweeting a new mini goal several times a week from now on.

I’m starting to feel a real sense of community on twitter.  Its so much fun to share little snippets with everyone and get support and encouragement from others who are going through the same thing as I am.

Well today I start a new week and I’m so excited to be getting closer to that  -40 pound mark.

I plan to hit it within 2 weeks – wish me luck!

Oh, and I finally ordered my Weight Watchers Momentum Program At Home kit – can’t wait.

Here’s to a wonderful week,

Gina

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