What's on the menu?

Need ideas for menu items? Check out the Kraft Foods site at www.kraftfoods.com. There is a section under Healthy Living with recipe ideas and other weight loss info. The deserts look great and with a low calorie count I know what I'm eating the rest of the week! There are also a lot of great sections that can help determine how much you should weigh, how many calories you burn doing your daily activities and a meal and fitness planner section where it gives you a weekly menu based on how many calories you should be eating. Pretty fun so far.

~ Rebecca ~

What's My Problem?

So it's the start of week 2 and I currently weigh exactly the same as I did after eating a giant Easter feast. Granted, the first week I didn't eat so well, i'll blame it on Grandma visiting, and last week snacking on healthy snacks but I haven't been going to the gym. I haven't been doing so good on the chart except for that part about 7 hours of sleep............ that one's easy!

So how can I get the motivation to exercise everyday? How do you guys do it? Are you doing it? Please tell me i'm not the only one and if I am, help me get out of this rut before it all goes to my gut, or butt! :)

Kristy

Medical Advice Week 1

So you want to lose some weight? The thing that you need to realize that it is not weight you want to lose,but fat. There are a lot of diets that help you lose lots of weight but it may not be all fat, but muscle as well.

To stop from losing muscle during a diet it is important to make sure that you have enough protein in your diet. If you don't have enough protein in your diet about 50% of your weight loss will be fat and the other 50% will be muscle. By taking in enough protein you reduce that ration to about 90 fat and 10% muscle. Losing muscle makes you tired and lowers your metabolism which makes it even harder to lose weight.

So what is protein? You can get protein from meat, cheese, eggs and supplements. (You can even get it from soy if you are brave enough).

So how much protein should you take? You should be eating about 1 gram of protein for every kilogram of your ideal body weight. To find out how many kilograms you weigh, divide your ideal body weight in pounds by 2.2 and you will get the number of kilograms your ideal body weight is.

So for example, if you weight 90 kilograms you should be eating at least 90 grams of protein every day to reduce the amount of muscle you lose during your diet.

Good luck and don't be afraid to have some steak once in a while. Let me know if you have any questions.

Why did I do it? Twice?

Already one week down and 14 more to go. I thought I was doing good all week with what I was choosing to throw down my gullet. Then the weekend came! A visit to Jack in the Box was no good. I have only been there once in my entire life so why pick this weekend to try it again? Then Saturday and dad's idea of going out for a picnic. What goes hand in hand with any picnic? Not frisbee's, sun block, picnic blanket, overcrowded parks or the inevitable dog poop you're bound to step in.n It's the famous KFC! You know my standings with KFC. As a rule for myself (and Tam too) we can only eat KFC once a year because it takes that long to get out of your system. Nothing like coating your insides with greasy chicken in the first week of a weight loss challenge to get you moving. Maybe it will allow anything else I eat to slip and slide through my system a little faster. Having said that, I got to go...literally!

~ Rebecca ~

breastfeeding diet

well family- according to medical research, breastfeeding moms are advised to wait for 2 months before engaging in any sort of diet or eating regimen. Apparently I am still eating for two (two boobs that is) but I will be thinking of you fondly for the next few weeks until June 23rd when I will be down in the trenches with the rest of ya'all.

I also read that women with a thyroid problem who can sing in harmony should not be dieting.

Oh and any woman who is around large sums of money all day and who has contact with cold hard cash is also advised to increase her sweets intake.

And I think I read somewhere that balding men over the age of 60 have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than of losing any substantial amount of weight.

Oh and I know for a fact that Greek men like their women with a little meat on their bones.

Just a little food for thought.

XOXO tam

I challenge you....

So here is a blog devoted just to the Summer Slim Down 2009! This can be used as a forum for our medical advisor to post his weekly advice, a place to ask him specific questions, a place for all of us to share our feelings as we go along, a place to vent and give support, etc. That way we don't have to blog individually about it and make everyone visit every blog or to put it out there that we are on a diet for the world to see. Feel free to blog your comments and if you are new to blogging what a better way to get started. Just make sure you sign your name at the end of your post so we know who's commenting. With that said......LET THE GAMES BEGIN!