Weekly Meeting Topic: Snacks

Last week I never got around to writing about the weekly topic because I reached goal weight that night!!, and that post was long enough. :) But I know the topic was Snacks, so I figured I'd share my snack philosophy and favorite snacks with you.

First of all, I was always more of a snacker than a big meal eater. This isn't necessarily bad but I was eating pure garbage, so in my case, it was. These days I eat real food and wholesome snacks and it makes all the difference: I eat less snacks, I eat when I'm hungry and I give my body actual food it can use. What a concept, huh?

I've mentioned this before but it's worth repeating: Once I stopped eating fake food/artificial ingredients and chemicals, it actually changed my taste buds. It took about a month, but I realized that after detoxing from those fake chemical and fake sweet tastes, I could really *taste* real food in a way that I hadn't before.

Not only did real food suddenly taste better (the way it should, and always did, but I was too accustomed and addicted to fake food to know it) but I realized it satisfied me - as opposed to those 100 calorie packs and other crap food that just made me crave and often indulge in multiple servings. (I'd often eat several processed fake food snacks one after another, until I'd realize "I just ate 6 or 8 points worth of crap. I could have had a real meal!")

Those days of processed fake snack food are thankfully behind me, and this is what I snack on these days:

• Almonds: I eat almonds almost every day. I carry around a 100 calorie pack when I ride my bike and often have a bag in whatever pocket book I'm using. I also make sure to have them with me if I go out to a bar so I don't buy something on the way home that I might regret.
• Fruit: I love fruit so much! I eat probably 4 servings a day on average. It's delicious, sweet, healthy, natural and most of all - it is very convenient. Even if I don't carry a piece with me, I know I can easily get some at any deli or produce stand in the city, so it's widely available and there's no excuse to eat junk when I know I can get fruit.
• Baby Carrots: I eat a portion controlled amount alone or sometimes with hummus for an additional 1-2 points. Usually if I eat them it's between breakfast & lunch at work (if I'm having a late lunch), or if I've been out biking for hours and get home and am famished - I'll eat a few as I'm making a real meal.
• Popcorn: When I went vegan/natural, I realized I couldn't eat microwave packaged popcorn anymore. I bought kernels and paper bags and measure out a few tablespoons and make my own microwave popcorn now. I eat this very rarely, but it's a nice option. It's also very inexpensive! (for the record, it's also the only thing I use the microwave for these days)

Last week's accomplishments and great moments:

• I tracked all my food for the week. That made 4 weeks in a row - a huge accomplishment! Note that I even went over by nearly 40 points for the week!!! (That's after going through my daily points, weekly points and all my activity points!), but the important thing is I still tracked. Not only that, but this is the week I somehow lost 4 pounds and reached goal! (I want to do a blog post showing all of my food journals for the 4 weeks leading up to the night I hit goal, since I tracked every day. I know people are curious what I eat and I think this will be a great chance to show you.)

• I took one day off from working out because my body just felt exhausted and asked me to. I listen to my body! I still managed to burn over 6000 calories between my gym and bike workouts:
  

• After a million comments about the heaviness of my bike, I decided to weigh it - by getting on the scale alone and then with my bike and subtracting the difference. It weighs a very hefty 50 pounds. FIFTY! I always tell people that part of my workout is getting my bike in and out of my apartment and I'm not kidding. It took me a long time to be able to lift her with relative ease. But what I instantly thought of is that she weighs 50 pounds, I've lost more than than (over 70 from my all time highest). I could not imagine carrying that bike around all the time, everywhere - but I was (sort of) by being that heavy! No wonder I was always exhausted and didn't want to do anything! My next thought was I'm pushing and pulling and controlling that much more weight around when I ride her. I don't think most cyclists could ride a cruiser the amount of miles I do. It's a lot of work! She's gorgeous though, isn't she?

(photo by my cycling buddy, Mitch - taken during the World Naked Bike Ride. Thanks Mitch!)

• Fans of Sour Balls, prepare to get VERY excited... You know how one of William's dreams is for the two of us to get on The Amazing Race TV show, right? Well one of my facebook friends reminded me about the Great Urban Race in NYC - sort of a one day scavenger hunt with teams of two working to solve a dozen riddles around the city. Well, William and I are officially registered as "Team Sour Balls" and I can hardly wait to compete! I foresee myself yelling at him a lot and him getting injured. I already warned him he has to get into shape and start eating right - it's just a month away!
• Last Saturday (before reaching goal) I rode my bike 42 miles in heat that was close to and felt like 100 degrees. Amazingly, this doesn't affect me at all other than making me thirsty. But on my way home, biking down Kent, I heard someone yell "Bitch Cakes!" I didn't recognize the woman, but of course I stopped. It turned out it was a blog reader, Emma, who was visiting for the weekend from Alabama and was waiting very patiently to cross the bike lane when I came flying by. I can't believe the timing and was more than happy to talk to her for a minute and get a photo (Great meeting you, Emma!)

• My heart rate monitors have been set at 145 pounds for a while and I just reset them for my goal weight of 137 (Your calories burned decreases as your weight decreases and vice versa but this setting is annoying to change so I don't do it every week). This is significant because it means I feel comfortable at this weight - like it's 'real'.
  

Since those are my accomplishments from 2 weeks ago, I am holding off on my "what I want to accomplish this week" section since this week is over and I will include that with tonight's weekly meeting post, along with this previous week's accomplishments.

Also- I'm off today, so I'll be biking to my meeting tonight, which I'm looking forward to! And this week's meeting topic will be up later tonight too. But for now, I'm going for a run. I'll be thinking about Suzi Storm and my amazing leader Melanie -

while I do it. They are the running wind beneath my wings :) I'm curious if it will feel different since I'm about 10 pounds less than the last time I ran. Walking feels different, so I am betting running will feel different too. Wish me luck ;)

Finally, I have to apologize again. I have a MILLION freaking emails between my email accounts, facebook, flickr and twitter. With very few exceptions, I am not responding. I literally can't even respond to all the text messages I get anymore. I'm sorry, I just can't. There are too many and I have no free time. 

Later!