I Can Do That

So I'm thinking of a number between 8000 and 12000... can you guess what it is?

10000!

That is the number of steps per day that the CDC recommends you take to lose weight. I don't necessarily agree with them but hey, it's what they say. So we'll go with that lovely lovely number and run with it (no pun intended)

At my work last year they did this thing called the "I can do that" walking challenge in which for 10 weeks we were encouraged to walk, wear a pedometer, and log our steps in on this website. If you logged in you could win prizes, you could write an essay saying how it changed your life, etc.

They are doing it again this year abd this is the first week out of 10 for the summer course. I've gotten my pedometer and I've signed my waiver saying I won't die the company if I get hurt while walking or whatever, and I even got a pretty blue rubbery feeling bracelet that says "I can do that" on it. Twice. To be honest I'm not that thrilled about the bracelet. But the pedometer, now that's another story. This one is WAY nicer than the one I bought myself last year. It counts calories burned, distance walked, number of steps, and tells you the time. It flips upside down on the display so you can read it without taking it off your belt too. And you can run it in metric or imperial. Did I mention it was free?

So I've logged into the website and registered and I've pledged to attempt 700,000 steps over the 10 weeks. That sounds like a lot of steps but it really isn't. That's 10,000x7x10 (10,000 steps per day times 7 days in a week times 10 weeks) which isn't really a big deal. At work alone last year when I recorded steps, one day I did over 21k steps, so I don't foresee this being a terribly awful amount. Other days I logged less than 10k or some days it was right around that, but anyway, I'm going to be taking part in this challenge.

And hopefully I won't forget my pedometer today like I did yesterday -.-

A nice healthy lunch

So for my lunch break at work today I took a lunch from home. I have a serving of baby carrots, 5 strawberries cut into pieces, a sandwich with salmon, mayonnaise, mustard, white cheddar cheese, onion, and lettuce, and 2 of the cookies I mentioned in my last post.

Carrots are a really great source of vitamin A because just a 3oz (85g) serving contains OVER the recommended daily amount you need. That's about 12 carrots by my estimation of having them, and the kitchen scale. And that serving size is just a measly 35 calories so it's very nice to your waistline.

And strawberries are pretty great too. Just 1 cup has150% of your daily vitamin C needs, 3 grams of fiber, only 12 grams of sugar, and is nearly fat-free. And that's all for about 50 calories.

So there's me starting in on nutrition!

Lactation cookies recipe

Tiffany's Mommy Milk Cookies

This is a recipe I found combined with what I actually did to make the cookies. You don't have to put them in the fridge overnight, but it helped soften the steel cut oats when I did. Without doing that you will just wind up with very crunchy cookies. Note, these aren't very sweet cookies. My recipe uses about half the sugar of the original recipe because I unintentionally doubled the amount of cookies my dough would be making. I prefer them this way though. I didn't want super sweet cookies. I added extra liquids to mine while I was making it because the dough was too dry, and I made note of those in the recipe.

Ingredients (makes approx 7 dozen cookies)
* 1 cup butter softened
* 3/4 cup olive oil
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup flaxseed
* 4 large, omega 3 eggs
* 1 tbsp vanilla extract
* 1 cup applesauce
* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp salt
* 3 cups of steel cut oats
* 2 cups dark chocolate chips
* 1 cup of slivered almonds
* 10 tbsp of brewer's yeast (this is the main ingredient for milk production)

* Sift together dry ingredients and set aside
* Blend butter and sugars well
* Blend in eggs, one at a time
* Stir in vanilla and applesauce, mix well
* Add dry mixture in three equal parts
* Stir in chocolate chips and almonds
* Let sit in fridge overnight
* preheat oven to 375°F
* drop dough onto baking tray 1 inch apart
* Bake 12-15 mins, cool on rack

I have been eating these on my way to work like "breakfast"

Easy Exercises

There are a lot of easy exercises that any old Tom, Dick, or Harry could do without straining themselves and as everyone knows (or should know) every calorie burned counts. So I'll start you off with the really easy and almost silly ones and work my way up to the rest.

1. Tapping your fingers or toes. Yes, this burns calories.
2. Chewing sugar free gum. I wouldn't make a workout of it, but you burn most of the calories you consumed when freshening your breath with this treat within an hour of chewing. Chew it two hours? Double burned.
3. Rolling your head back and forth. Yes, I'm getting silly now.

For the real exercises...
1. Walking. As simple as it sounds to do, not enough people do it. You can burn 60 calories per 100 lbs of body weight per mile walked, according to one site i visited a long time ago that i don't remember the name of...
2. Walking up and down the stairs. Just 10 minutes can burn like 100 calories. Again, I'm not sure the exact place i saw that at. Burn more by sprinting up and walking down.
3. Dancing. Doesn't matter if you're not very good. Just swaying to the music burns some calories. Move your body, arms, legs, you'll burn more.

That's my happy thoughts for the night.

USDA Supertracker Information

I went to look up some information to share with you guys about something nutritional that was recommended for breastfeeding dietary needs and found the USDA site had something on it that let's you enter your details and it gives you a plan based on your age, height, weight, gender, whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding, how old the child you are breastfeeding is, etc.

I thought this sounded great and proceeded to create an account and enter my details only to be told that because I was overweight they were providing me with a plan based on a healthy weight for my height. So not a plan based on my actual weight, but one based on the weight that they thought I should be, and not even one that would be to healthily get me to that weight. They gave me a 2000 calorie diet plan that i can only assume was based on a weight at least 60 lbs lighter than my current weight. Not to mention the site wouldn't let me enter that I am 61.5 inches, nor a decimal on weight so I was forced to go with 62 and 194. When I went to the goal setting area of the site and entered in a goal weight of 120 lbs it said it would adjust my plan to a 2400 calorie diet and then when i viewed my plan again it still said 2000.

Needless to say I am less than impressed with this website. It's a great IDEA but it doesn't really seem to represent an accurate expected diet for someone of my size who is breastfeeding. Maybe you'll have better luck with it though?

www.supertracker.usda.gov/CreateProfile.aspx

Hello!

So yes, I've started a new blog and hopefully this one I'll keep to updating and keep centralized onto a topic. And the topic of the blog is....

Losing weight!

So I am 25 years old, soon to be 26, and at just shy of 200 and 5 foot 1.5 inches that makes me OBESE! Ew? Yeah... Ok, so I've popped out 2 kids now and I'm breastfeeding at the moment but everyone around me is dieting and losing weight with all these fancy diet workouts and shakes and wraps and stuff.

I want to do this right. No fancy diets, no pills, no shakes, nothing but me, my fat ass, and my blog. And maybe some supportive friends. My doctor just gave me the all clear for going back to work and starting to exercise to lose some weight. In the in between time of working out, taking measurements, and weigh in checks, I'm going to focus my blog on nutritional value of food products and what portion sizes really are. I'll continue that through the blog.

For the record i am not a nutritionist nor a doctor. Nothing i say here should be taken as medical advice. You should never start dieting or exercising prior to consulting your personal Dr. Your dietary needs and physical ability may differ from mine.

So for my introduction i will let you know that I am 61.5 inches tall or 156cm and I -just- weighed myself at 193.8 lbs or 88.1 kg. That puts me at a bmi of 36.2 so just barely above moderate obese and upwards into severe. 18-25 is the normal healthy range we would like to see. :-)

In addition, these are my measurements:
Neck - 15"(38cm)
Bust - 45.5"(115.5cm)
Chest (bottom of bra) - 40"(101.5cm)
Waist (at slimmest point) - 37"(94cm)
Tummy (at bellybutton) - 43"(109.5cm)
Hips - 46"(117cm)
Wrists - R 6.25"(16cm) L 6.125"(15.5cm)
Forearms - R 10.75"(27.5cm) L 10.5"(26.75cm)
Upper arms - R 15"(38cm) L 15"(38cm)
Thighs - R 27"(68.5cm) L 28"(71cm)
Calves - R 16"(41cm) L 17"(43cm)
Ankle - R 9"(23cm) L 9"(23cm)

So welcome to my journey!