Our attempts at weight loss....

NEW GOAL - LOSE 36 POUNDS IN 365 DAYS

Its always something!!

R/W 3.6m in 51 min. But the shin splints in the lower legs! they killed me today. Why, why after 1 year of running I still get these shin splints. Absolutely horrible. Came back and iced and stretched but am dreading running again on thursday. 4m Walk tomorrow, Dec goal is to build upto 8 mile LSD.

I love this season, the cold air, the lights, the warm clothes, the hot food and drinks. But I hate the fact that I have to be on the lookout for things which make me slip on the diet track. Today someone left a box of chocolates in the office. Designer chocolates, the ones with swirls of pink and white on them, 170 cal apiece. And all that I had read and written about in the past one month flew out of the window! Ate TWO of those!! But atleast I am feeling guilty for eating two , previously I would eat 3 and wonder why i hadnt taken a fourth! To salvage I had zucchini for dinner. Surprise, even my finicky 7yo ate it up.

So its started, the next 29 days I will be facing temptations everywhere. After the 2nd chocolate I have decided that I dont particularly care for that taste- it felt chalky, so I dont think I will be succumbing to its lure again. Yeah, I can say that today, but get a box in front of me when I am stressing out over some point and see me hog the whole thing.

Later on I did read the nutrition label on the box and it broke every rule I had mentioned yesterday- more than 5 ingrediants, with unfamiliar, unpronounceable names, not belonging in the outside periphery of the store and my grandma would absolutely not think that it is edible food- she would put them on the shelf as decoration!

Now if only I can remember all this the next time!

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Finished the book. Its a good book, he goes over all the types of food available and it gets a bit technical , however I liked the last 1/3rd of the book in which he has suggestions on how to have a healthy approach to food and eating. He has quoted Wansink(Mindless Eating) and I liked both their suggestions.
Its basically all the points which we are aware of but dont take into consideration in actual life.

- Eat food which your grandmother or great grandmother would recognise as food. That automatically takes out all the packaged chips, yogurts, meats, flavored drinks, sodas etc, which means less sodium and less high fructose corn syrup(HFCS) which is considered to be the main culprit in making one fat because apparently it creates a craving for more sugar laden and high calorie foods.

- Avoid foods with more than 5 ingrediants, unfamiliar or unpronounceable names or again HFCS- so again all those above foods are out.

- Shop the periphery of the grocery store and if possible stay out of it and instead go to the farmers market.

- Eat mostly plants esp the leaves.

- Eat meals, eat at the table and not on the dashboard

- Eat slowly

- Cook, and if u can, plant a garden

There are other , very valid points but I am starting with these as they seem slightly more easy to follow. However, believe me when I say that it is very difficult to find foods with less than 5 ingrediants on their list. And HCFS is everywhere!! Take the healthiest bread in the store and see.
I cook but its mostly meat/fish/lentils. Green veggies maybe once in 2 weeks, I used to more before but lately have stopped due to some reason, so have to get back in to that habit again.
I would love to have a veggie garden if I could have a gardener with it, the idea of growing veggies is lovely but actually toiling in the garden- not yet, maybe when the kids are a bit more grown.

Overall, the book is definately worth a read, if you are interested in re-learning about food. Maybe I will pick up The Omnivores Dilemma again- I had dropped it because it was really detailed, with lots of information.

Rest day today, 4 miles tomorrow. Had stopped running last week because of pain in the right calf, will try again tomorrow.