Freaking Fabulous: Choco-Banana Smoothie

Feeling Frosty?

I know, I know.  I've been terribly slacking on the blogging.  I realized today as I made my Fireball Chili, that it's been a really long time since I've posted anything.  I've been busy.  And by busy, I mean not just with work and kids and summer and life in general.. but busy as in too busy to track my food and assume that because I ran a half marathon I can eat what I want when I want.  My point is, I'd have been a hypocrite if I had been posting healthy lifestyle tips to the interwebs while slacking on the healthy eating.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way...

Have you noticed that Facebook has become the Pinterest and Instagram of the 'older' crowd? Most of what I see posted is recipes, photos of our kids, shared photos of pins from Pinterest, and memes?  I can't tell you how many times a day someone I know will fall for a like-phishing post and share something in the hopes that they'll get a free iPad or Disney vacation.  One of these annoying recipe shares I keeps seeing is a skinny version of the Wendy's Frosty.  I gotta say, I love me a Frosty.  What I don't love is the ridiculous amount of fat/calories/WW Points Plus in said Frosty.  So, I tend to avoid Frosties at all costs.  Tonight, however, I decided to make my own version of the 'skinny' internet version floating around.

Here's what I used:

• 3/4 cup original Silk Almond Milk (1 WW PP)
• 1 frozen banana (I have some on hand for smoothies and other things - I freeze the last couple in a bunch as they're about to get too spotty for my family to like) (0 WW PP)
• 2 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder (1 WW PP)
• 1 packet of Weight Watchers vanilla smoothie mix (2 WW PP)
• a boat load of ice cubes (like 15-20, depending on how thick you want it.. I lost count)

I tossed all of that into my Ninja blender and I have to say.. it's no Frosty, but it IS delicious.  It's a nice alternative to a thick ice cream shake or something.  The Points Plus value was a little hard to determine.  If you add up the WW PP values of the ingredients, you're looking at 4 PP for the whole thing.  If you use the WW e-tools recipe builder, it says 7 PP because it will take the nutritional value of the banana into account despite all fruit being free.  I counted it in my tracker for the day as 2/3 of a serving when I created the recipe so that it was only 4 PP taken out of my day.

So, if you're feeling like you neeeeeeeeed some ice cream, I'd say you're safe with this versus going to Wendy's and getting a 20 point version that you don't need.  Tomorrow I might try the WW Mint Cookie smoothie mix with the frozen banana, almond milk, and some chocolate chips, since my ice cream of choice is Mint Choco chip.  And yes, before you ask, I DO have a Yonanas maker, but I cannot typically stand bananas, and the Yonanas starts to just be semi-cold, mushy bananas after a couple of minutes, so no, that's not going to cut it for me.

Enjoy!

Confession Time: I'm a Total Hypocrite Lately

Ok you guys, it's time to confess. I've become a total hypocrite. In case you haven't noticed, BH and BH have been eerily quiet with the blog lately. Granted, we've both been insanely busy, which is about 90% of the reason why we haven't been writing. But for me, the other 10% has been because I've been straight up lazy. As I worked at WW yesterday and weighed people in, I cheered on their successes, I coached them through their weight gains.. All while full well knowing I have been eating total garbage like Easter candy and pizza, I have not been tracking anything I've been eating, and the whole time telling myself it's ok because I'm training for some events.
One of these events happened this morning. It was an indoor triathlon, which meant I had to don a swim suit. I just wore this suit a month and a half ago.. And even though it fits just fine, I was shocked to notice it looked like I was totally like 4 months pregnant - except instead of a real baby, it's a food baby. And in reality, I was NOT shocked. I know I've been eating total crap, and I have not been exercising daily - using the excuses I don't want to burn out before my half marathon in June or that I should not lift weights more than once a week because I will weigh too much to work at WW.
My results this morning show that I beat my distances from last year (Yay me!) but I struggled with every event because I'm not as 'fit' as I was a year ago. I haven't been mindful of what I've been eating. Yesterday's Mexican fiesta for lunch, caramel cinnamon bars for snacks, and Thai takeout for dinner weren't exactly fueling my body for an intense 75 minute workout today. Just because I run 12-17 miles a week right now does not make me fit - Active, yes, but not physically feeling awesomely fit and healthy like I did a year ago. My pants still fit, but they don't quite look the same.
So, my friends, I am totally publicly shaming myself to you, telling you that I am a total Weight Watching slacker. I promise to you that I will get un-lazy, and I invite you to call me out on it if you see me eating a mountain of chocolate or 5 cookies worth of cookie dough. I am committing to fight my unhealthy genetics, to regain my health, and to give that food baby up for adoption.

Stress Eating... Nom Nom Nom



The scene at the hospital cafeteria.  This was for FOUR of us.



Recently, my dad underwent an emergency surgery. He's had a myriad of health issues over the last three decades, so it was nothing new for my mom, my sister, and me. What should be new, however, is how we handle the stress of these situations.

Many of us overeat in times of stress as a means of coping with the crappy times we are facing. As my dad was being wheeled off to the operating room, we passed many signs for the cafeteria and we realized we hadn't had dinner. So we went and got dinner... Enough dinner for 8... But there were only 4 of us there. I tried to be good and counted all of my points and tried to steer clear of the fried, greasy comfort foods the cafeteria had available. Despite my salad from the salad bar, I still ended up with a few not so healthy choices on my tray, and a few more in my purse for the long night I knew we were in for.



The next day, my dad was out of imminent danger, but I had eaten way too much that night and I was feeling gross. I went to the gym and literally ran the fastest 5 miles I've ever done. I realized that the stress (and my disgust with my overindulgence) was amping up my run. The next day I ran my fastest treadmill 5k ever and I felt great afterward. My weigh in today was surprisingly good, which I attribute to luck and my turbo speedy runs.

I don't know why we turn to food in times of crisis. It's comforting, sure, but we end up so much more upset after stress eating because we are disgusted with ourselves. What I should have done in that cafeteria was stop and assess what I was doing. I should have walked around the halls of the hospital or played a game on my phone or pulled out my weight tracker or done anything else that would have helped me clear my mind without snacking. I ran the stress off over the next couple of days and felt infinitely better. We need to remind ourselves that food will not solve our problems. Food fuels our bodies, it should not be used as a temporary solution for our problems. Next time I'm faced with a crisis, I'm grabbing my running shoes, not a bag of popcorn.

Perceived Failure Vs. Real Failure

First of all, I've said it before, but I should say again: NONE of our views or opinions are those of WW.  Well, they might agree with me on stuff, but I am not speaking on behalf of WW ever.  So just know that.  Anyway, with that being said... I started working for the big W last week.  I've had a particularly stressful few weeks recently both with work and life in general, and I'll admit, I've been sort of stress eating.  I'm still tracking my food and activity, BH is still tracking, but we are pretty sucktastic when it comes to being 'Viva'.  And we know we aren't alone in our perceived failures.

Today, As I was checking in members for our meeting, almost every single person that stepped on the scale said something along the lines of "I've had a horrible week," or "I know I'm up this week."  And you know what? ALL of them, except ONE person were down.  Some of them were down 2-3 pounds when they thought they had been terrible.  What impressed me more than their successes was that despite their perceived failures, they came in and faced the scale.  This is what I've found to be the key to my hitting goal this time compared to all of my failed attempts at WW in the past - just keep going.  No matter how I think I did in a week, I did not miss a weigh in.  I didn't skip a week because I didn't want to see a gain - that's a slippery slope and usually the beginning of the end.  I needed to know what I was facing in the next week and I either wanted to celebrate my success of a loss, or get smacked in the face with a gain if I had been slipping so I could pick myself up and do better the next week. 

One of today's meeting members, despite being down .6 pounds this week was disappointed with her results.  She was saying how hard she'd been trying but that she wasn't seeing results that she wanted.  My mentor (trainer) and I both knew that she had just come in from a doctor's appointment, so we asked her how her testing had gone - cholesterol, blood sugar, etc.  She said, "well, it's all looking really good and I'm a lot healthier."  We had to remind her how fantastic that is - that the scale isn't reflecting all of her success.  We gave her some tips on how she can have a better week next week (she's not drinking enough water, just coffee!), and told her that if she is really as diligent as she'd been leading up to today and added in more water, she'd have the success on the scale that she'd been looking for.

The only way to truly fail at your weight watching endeavors is to give up.  If you are actively trying - even if you're only tracking WHAT you're eating, not the amount or PP value, that's still something.  If you just show up to weigh in, not even staying at a meeting, that's still something.  BH and I have to remind ourselves that we are still exercising, we are still tracking, we are still trying.  Sure, we might be disappointed with our lack of will power because we are eating our kids' goldfish crackers or too much pizza or drinking too much wine or whatever.. but we are still trying.  We have to remind ourselves that we can't be having real failures if we are still trying.  We have to be kinder to ourselves than we have been.  Would I tell a member that their efforts aren't good enough?  NO.  So why are BH & I being so mean to ourselves?  We are all our own worst critics.  It's time to start treating ourselves, yourselves, as you would your best friend.  Encourage yourselves like you would your best friend.  Start making a healthy lifestyle a priority, treat yourself right.  I guarantee you'll start to see results if you do.

Winter Blahs, Cabin Fever, And The Munchies

Dear Wintertime,

We are so over you. You, with your cold weather and your shitty driving conditions, and your dreary, dark, short days.... Sure, the first real snowfall of the year is pretty, but after that, you suck. We don't get to run or bike outside with the warm sun on our faces (and if we do run outside, we risk frostbite, chapped faces, and broken ankles). You force us to sit inside with food and cupboards filled with cookbooks and baking supplies, desires for comfort foods, and cabin fever. Going to the gym and running on treadmills like hamsters and riding spin bikes in classes next to grunting, sweaty guys isn't the same as a run outside on a 75 degree day. Don't tell us we should go outside to enjoy winter sports. If you've met either of us, you know we aren't coordinated to even stay upright on cross country skis, let alone risk death by skiing down a hill. The only outdoor exercise we do is shoveling, and that is NOT fun. No, even Major League Baseball players rupture their spleens shoveling that diarrhea you call snow.

No, Winter, we don't like you. You flip some sort of switch in our heads, telling us that we want to eat everything in sight, because we might have to hibernate and live off of our fat reserves for another 6 months. In the past week alone, I've baked a cake ("for my kids" with homemade frosting that was "tested repeatedly for quality"), cookies ("for my friend".. Never mind the dough I accidentally ate), pancakes, waffles, and not to mention comfort food dinners like tater tot hot dish. I've been buying snacks like the Unreal Candy and popcorn to munch on, because my favorite fruits aren't very good during this time of year.

Winter, you're lucky we have unlimited texting, because we constantly text each other with our perceived weight watching failures, since we can't stop munching on crap food because you are depressing us. If we could send you a bill for our cell phones and for therapy & anti-depressants, we would.

And the cruelest thing you do to us? After you're done with us, we feel a little chunkier. When your much nicer sisters Spring and Summer arrive, we feel too flabby to wear season appropriate clothing and we roast hiding our extra L-B's under long sleeves and pants because your bitch ass force fed us for months.

So, you evil bastard, we ask that you leave us and our weight watching efforts alone. Make way for our favorite fruits an veggies to grow and taste good and not be all smooshy and gross. Let us get back on our bikes and let us walk our kids to the park without bundling them up in 48 layers. Let us get back to craving fresh crunchy salads and not calorie laden casseroles. You're no longer welcome here.

Respectfully yours,

BH & BH