Check Your Body

The Thanksgiving Day boot camp at the Carondelt Rec Plex was packed but, by the end of the class, at least 20 people had dropped out.

Check your body. I didn't really hear why we were checking our bodies because the music was kind of loud but I assumed that the instructor meant it in the mind/body connection way and not check your body because San just wrecked it way.

Oh my, San was all about the jumping jacks and squats. I think we did 100 plus jacks and just as many squats. We also did burpees and I'm going to go ahead and say that burpees are not my favorite form of calisthenics.

The 50 minutes of San's boot camp seemed to last forever and the camp class was the last one to leave the Y. It was weird to see all of the cardio equipment at rest.


I swung by Jay International because I had everything that I needed for sweet potato puree except for a lime. I used olive oil instead of butter and agave nectar instead of honey. Calories-wise, agave and honey are alike but, supposedly, agave's glycemic index is lower than honey's.

Love this little two pound bag of sweet potatoes that I got from Trader Joe's -- not too big and not too small.






I oogled the gingerbread cookies at Jay International because it doesn't hurt to look.

Eating Well

Some article pulled me into requesting EatingWell: Introducing The University-Tested VTrim Weight Loss Program Diet with its long and lofty title.

I think that I initially read about the book over at Prior Fat Girl's blog.

Diet books start to sound the same after awhile. Still, I found a lot of good reminders and advice to takeaway. In fact, I was literally taking away pages because the book was not put together well. I barely touched the book and the first 30 pages came undone. I'm going to have to explain this to my friendly neighborhood librarian.

Dr. Harvey-Berino talks about how we got to have such a problem with weight in this country:

A lot has to do with our highly industrialized society. In the past 50 years there has been an unprecedented transformation to new technologies designed to save us time and energy. We have garage door openers, electric clothes dryers, power toothbrushes, even gizmos that warm up our cars in winter so we don't have to go outside and scrape off the ice. If there are ways to save steps, avoid lifting, stretching, bending or moving, inventors have been there, done that or are fixing things as we speak. There are remote controls for everything, and computers do almost all the legwork for us. I don't even have to flip the light switch in my office when I enter or leave; it's done automatically with a sensing device.

She does concede that an industrialized society, of course, is not the sole reason for the obesity epidemic.

Other takeaways include self-tracking -- essentially keeping track of one's eating and exercise practices.

I liked her advice to trade up by eating brown rice instead of white rice etc.

The Measuring With Your Eyes segment was particularly helpful.

Measuring With Your Eyes

1 teaspoon:

About the size of your fingertips (tip to middle joint); fits into the screwcap of a water bottle

3 ounces meat:

About the size of a deck of cards or a cassette audiotape

There are other measurement examples but I won't list them all.

The author covers a lot in a small space including an explanation of the glycemic index, how to shop in the grocery store (it's all about the periphery)and the importance of exercise.

Some of the information is far from new but the delivery is good.

Another truism that Dr. Harvey-Berino touches on is the importance of exercise:

I don't believe in "magic bullets," but when it comes to making a weight-loss program more effective, regular physical activity comes pretty close.

I liked the servings quiz as well as the recipes with pictures that were apart of The EatingWell Diet book. I'm still not sure if I correctly identified grains, starchy vegetables and the protein group etc. Guess I'll go take the quiz again...