What you eat

I treated myself to some fruit slices last week; they were quite delicious! Then I made the mistake of reading the ingredients: corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch (corn), natural and artificial flavors, artificial colors (red 40, yellow 6, yellow 5, red 3, blue 1). Let’s break down this list…it has corn syrup which is sugar, more sugar, a corn derivative, flavors and colors….so where exactly is the fruit?

I can't talk about putting the right things into our bodies without addressing what those things are.

I bought ice cream a few weeks ago - a specific
brand that promises ingredients I can read, you know, milk, sugar, cream, etc.  Upon closer examination, I realized that I had bought a “frozen dairy dessert”. So wait, I bought a dessert that has milk and is kept in a freezer, but it's not ice cream? So what exactly is in it? As the list reads, I had bought a concoction of milk, sugar, more sugar, more milk, cheese by-product, fatty acids, a thickener, another thickener, yet another thickener, natural flavor (what does that mean?), vitamin A, a thickener, and fudge twirl sauce which contains milk, sugar, sugar, cocoa, cheese by-product, cream, a thickener and salt. Not quite what I had in mind when I wanted ice cream! 

www.kraftrecipes.com

There have been several other foods that I've learned have a bit more than I expected. For example, the cheese slices I had come to love after moving to the U.S were actually a "pasteurized prepared cheese product"....so wait, is it cheese or not?

Ahh bread, a staple in most of our homes has quite some ingredients including hydrogenated soybean oil, sodium stearoyl, lactylate, datem, defatted soy flour, extract of malted barley, dextrose, calcium propionate. Goodness, what happened to flour, water, salt and yeast?!   

And don't get me started on peanuts...why does my dry roasted peanuts have sugar, gelatin, torula yeast, cornstarch, dried corn syrup, and maltodextrin?

Our food is slowly morphing into science experiments and projects. And unfortunately this trend is expanding worldwide. I was quite dismayed to see that the fast food, pre-packaged food lifestyle has seeped into the Ghanaian life and is slowly taking over.

We have created a world in which every moment of our day has been filled with something to do. This often means that good food is the last thing on our minds. But we cannot survive and thrive without making the investment of healthy living.

So this week, I challenge you to read more food labels; see what you're actually putting into your body. Show your body love, and make an effort to eat more whole foods...your investment will certainly pay off!  

Happy eating real food!
Half-stepping diva

 

A sugar-free challenge



"I will NEVER eat chocolate again! OMG! What? Why? And who made that decision?! Seriously? Are you mad?!" -This is what was floating through my mind when I determined that a sugar-free lifestyle was more suitable for me.

The thought of never eating another piece of chocolate completely overwhelmed me, stressed me out and well, as you can imagine, I ended the day indulging in at least a bag of chocolate. Take that, sugarless lifestyle! 

It has definitely been a challenge working sugar out of my system and a bigger challenge convincing myself to sustain it. The forever aspect of it still overwhelms me...so you mean I will not eat cake at my wedding? (Oooh the brain travels far and fast, eh?) And how does it work with my family? Will others understand this lifestyle that I clearly do not understand myself? Will they support me? Will they sabotage and give me sugar whenever they can? Can I really stick to this? Do I want to do this? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Ok, let's pause and get a hold of ourselves a bit. A sugar-free lifestyle is not much of a stretch for me, I mean I'm already vegetarian and have a highly restricted palate. In fact, my mom’s desire for me as a child was to live life without added sugar. She specifically fed me all the fruits and veggies she could so that I would develop a taste for them. When we moved in with my grandmother, she was instructed not to give me any candy as grandparents usually do, and as grandparents usually do, she went firmly against it and voila! the sweet tooth monster was unleashed! My mother herself at some point gave up sugar. For all my childhood, I never saw her eat candy or any of the delicious cake with lots of icing that she made. She didn't even add sugar to the foods that usually called for sugar. So why can't I imagine doing the same in my life?

Well, sugar has become such an integral part of our palate. Think of what you have eaten so far today or recently? How many of the foods contained sugar? Eating sugar really has become such a no-brainer for all of us. From breakfast to dinner, we have several opportunities to load up on it and we usually don't let the opportunity pass by. Even those who do not have much "taste for sugar" (what does that even mean?!) and prefer savory/salty foods still consume sugar in large quantities.

Since I've been working on this new lifestyle, there have been many opportunites to try again. I

usually set time periods for my goal that allowed me to focus and stay disciplined. After the time period, I would "briefly" pause to savor some of the foods that I had been avoiding. This would usually stretch out into a few days (or weeks!) after which I would recommit myself to my cause. At some point, I decided I had been off sugar enough not to crave it and could just have "a little here and there"...alas, no. Soon as I worked in back in my diet it was like we had never been separated! Come to mama!

So now what? I am currently working on a body sculpting goal that requires the utmost discipline, which means, no added sugar until the goal is met (however long I decide to stretch out getting there!) There will be some birthday celebrations in between, and I plan on celebrating however it comes - I won't go out of my way to pursue sugar. For other times, I will politely decline and if necessary explain.

And for the rest of my life?! Well it's still an overwhelming thought. Some of my favorite foods require, yes, require sugar. I bake quite often and though I can sweeten my pastries with fruit, sometimes a girl needs cookies that taste like cookies! And my chocolate -well, dark chocolate is very good for your heart. In fact, 1.6 oz/daily has been shown to improve heart health (but who can eat only 1.6 oz!) Everything in moderation, right? The bottom line, good health!

I am more aware of my triggers to binge (stress, boredom, emotions, just because, self-sabotage/ reward for doing well) and I will continue to avoid having chocolate at home. I know sugar is not THE enemy and avoiding it is only one part of the solution to good health, so I will not villainize or obsess about it.

I challenge you to work sugar completely out of your diet or at least reduce it. Can you imagine your world without sugar? Can you go a week, 3 weeks, forever without it? Do you already lead a sugarfree lifestyle -how do you do it?


P.S. In case you missed it, I discussed my love of sugar and our break-up in this post, and why we had to break up here.

Sweetly yours
Half-stepping diva

My Sugar love

One of the ladies in my class hadn’t seen me in a bit, and asked yesterday if I was off sugar again. I had to admit to her that yes I was generally off sugar except for the half tub of ice-cream I had over the weekend along with the little cones that I demolished the day before and on my way to class. Why do you ask, I say… She says she could see it….and I was looking good! Oh right! My efforts do show, even when I don’t see it! I guess I’m back off sugar.

 

Saying I have a sweet tooth is an understatement. I truly believe that whatever sensor in our brain that tells it to shut off eating sugar, because our blood glucose has risen too fast, often takes a nap -and for long periods. My shut-off mechanism kicks in only because we have made it to the bottom of the bag and there’s no more. I often tell folks I eat chocolate by the bar or box or whatever container it comes in. As a child, my mother would bring home treats for the whole family…I would eat mine and everyone else’s. There was no stopping. I got sick right after my birthday EVERY YEAR…I would indulge in my birthday cake which my mother lovingly adorned with Smarties (like M&M’s but wayyyyyyyyy better, I have some at home if you would like to try it!) along with all the other sugary foods allowed.  As an adult it got worse because I could simply purchase as much as I wanted. Indeed I regularly keep a few pounds of chocolate at home. I love traveling to new places, usually because I can sample their chocolate. I can’t admit how much I spent on chocolate last year in London…even I was horrified when the lady told me my total….say what?

And I’m not the only one in my family.  My family’s request when I travel…chocolate. Years ago, my brother won a 5 pound Hershey bar…it didn’t take long for me, my father and him to blow through it. Though, my father was recently amazed at how much chocolate I quickly ingested…I guess I take the cake for the sweet tooth of the family….oooh cake! Yum! Ok, ok, I’m back.

So imagine my surprise when for 2014 I successfully gave up added sugar, which of course includes my beloved chocolate! In the past, I have gone for months banning chocolate from touching my lips. This usually happened after an especially punishing binge (2/3 bags or bars in a sitting) after which I talked myself into giving up the chocolate. At the beginning of the year we have a corporate fast at church; I usually do a full Daniel’s fast and eliminate sugar etc (Daniel’s fast eliminates meat among other foods, which I already do, so my focus is on the other parts of the fast). So I’ve done that successfully for a few years now, and had drastically cut down my sugar intake in the process. But in 2014 I decided to make it a lifestyle change and removed added sugar from my diet.

I’ll admit, this was not easy at all. I mean, at all. Sugar cravings will make you forget everything including the fact that you're avoiding sugar! But the reward has been amazing. The first thing I noticed was that contrary to what I thought, my energy levels stayed the same and possibly higher. I am high strung and overly energetic which I had attributed to my sugar intake, but alas, it's all natural baby.  I also noticed that I was not overeating as much. My stop eating mechanism seemed to be functioning a lot more and quicker. And of course my favorite change was my weight adjustment. The scale went below 150 lbs, something I'd been struggling to accomplish - and my midsection got trimmer. I noticed my skin was smoother, probably from losing the fatty tissue accustomed to sitting right underneath it. And the ladies in my class noticed...only after about a week!

So why is sugar the bad guy.
Well this article explains that eating too much added sugar increases the risk of dying with heart disease (even if you're not overweight).

CNN reports here that excessive added sugar consumption can cause fat buildup in the liver which can attribute to obesity, Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease

And this article from SFGate discusses similar trends including an impaired immune system which prevents your body from fighting viruses, bacteria and other guys bad for our health.

Oh yeah and it contributes to dementia and aging too!

I started the elimination as a part of a 3 week commitment and decided to extend it out. This allowed me to be really focused and work at keeping my commitment. There have certainly been slip ups and oopsies, but my newly adopted lifestyle has shown me that even I, the queen of the sugar world, can put my mind to something and accomplish it. I'll talk more about how I stayed on track and the challenges of a sugar-free world in the next blog entries! Stay tuned.  

Happy living!
 
Half-stepping diva

 

Loving You

Oh lawdie! I don fell off the bandwagon...and it backed up and rolled over me! over and over again! Ok, dramatics, but I did fall off and have lost my consistency in my dietary choices and it shows!

Since I have gotten to a more manageable weight, I decided to keep going and made a goal of discovering/building some ab muscles. You know, I purport to still carrying around some baby fat...no, not from having a baby...from when I was a baby 30 something years ago! And since I have been lackadaisical about my eating habits and my efforts in the gym, my potential for a 6 pack has expanded into the potential for a keg. Ok, still a bit dramatic, but my magic number of 35 inches around my mid section is slowly becoming a thing of the past. And this sister is not happy whatsoever about that!

As a 30 something year old woman I am definitely aware of how my appearance affects my daily interactions. I have used my perception of my body and/ or how it looks in clothes as a block to some things that I have wanted to do. Sometimes while getting ready to go out, I'd get so frustrated with my appearance that I simply would not go. Or decide against making plans in the first place because I didn't want to face the lying 3 way mirror in the dressing room, which has a sole purpose of seeking rolls of fat and putting it on magnified display. Though sometimes trivial, our appearance can be a stumbling block in our confidence and how we portray ourselves. And women are not the only ones who do not always feel confident about our appearance...it's a human thing that also affects our 30 something year old brothers as well...some of them are just better at not caring as much!

So once again, I'm resolving to consistency in my eating. I had cut out all added sugar (blog entry about how I finally lost the weight is coming soon!) but have slowly worked it back in my diet. So, back to what has worked, and focus on sculpting the muscles that I see trying to take shape. But above all those things, I am resolving to love my body no matter what she looks like!

I've recently been reminded of life's realities and with that, the importance of love, starting with love for all of me..including the silver hairs forming at my temples, my "athletic" build, my interestingly shaped toes and all those fat rolls that seem to only appear when I need to feel my best. I must love all of it. We often find faults with our body and harp on it, whether it's the acne that make us look 12 rather than 30 something, the extra body hairs that make us think of our Auntie Sally's mustache, premature graying, skinny legs, baldness, man boobs, a crooked smile or whatever we think should look better in order for us to feel great. But these are all the things that make us who we are and we often do not have control over them - no matter how hard I try, I will not grow past the 5'7" at which I currently stand (in fact, I might shrink as I get older!)

So as I chase the appearance for which I've been working so hard, I will continue to love me and not be so quick to criticize and demean myself. All of me is perfect. Period.

Half-stepping Diva

The Dreadmill

In my Getting Started  post, I talked about being on the treadmill and how I started slowly and then built it up and was finally able to run for 5 miles. What a successful story of triumph over the treadmill and the gym....And flowers and rainbows and unicorns and yeaaaa, if only it were that simple.

Oh the treadmill, how I love/detest thee! I decided to use the treadmill as my starting point at the gym. It was an old and familiar friend that had gotten me to my weight loss goals in the past so it was easy to hop on and run walk.

At the beginning, I didn't think it would be very difficult. Though I wasn't in shape, it was something that I had done before. How out of shape could I really be?! Well I soon found out that I couldn't pass a high school PE class! Initially, this didn't bother me very  much, until I spotted all the forty, fifty, sixty and seventy year olds going at a faster pace. Goodness gracious, how embarrassing!

I started paying attention to my fellow competitors, I mean gym members. There was a huge variety of them and many like myself, favored the treadmill. I observed that some of them would cover the display screen with a magazine or towel, some would read the entire time (how could they do that and run?!), others would get on the treadmill and simply run, while others came with their gym buddies and spent  more time talking than walking. One guy in particular would come in, hop on the treadmill and run at a dizzying speed for about 30 to 45 min and then leave. Oh how I wanted to have that talent!

It's a Mental Thang
Armed with my observations, I put together my own version of my treadmill experience. I would usually start with a 2 minute walk to warm up. The first few minutes of running after that were the most difficult. If I could get my mind to push through, it was easy enough to complete the workout. I also started to understand why folks covered the display screen. I would be huffing and puffing on the treadmill, having beaten the first few minutes and convinced myself to stay on, only to look down and find out that I had only be on there for a total of 6 minutes and still had about 24 whole long minutes to go! My feet would feel like bricks and I would instantly feel completely tired!

Running on a motorized platform that was not going anywhere soon got old and required major mental muscle to stay on. I found distractions that kept me running. I had noticed a sign that was posted in front of my machine of choice (yes by this time I had a specific machine that I preferred and would wander around the gym until it became available).  The sign was simple enough: it alerted gym members that there was  time limit for treadmill use and referred members to a wait list at the front desk if all treadmills were in use. I noticed that the second treadmill in the sign had 3 L's instead of 2 and this became my focus to get through my runs. I would start running and immediately want to quit and look at the sign, chuckle a bit to myself and then stare it down for the remainder of the time, willing the 3rd L to disappear.


When this technique would not work, I would stare out the window in front of me and count the number of cars that went by. Or if there were children playing basketball, I would keep score for them or cheer for them as they developed their skills on the court. I also learned to trick my brain by convincing myself that once I had completed 50% or 60% or 75% of the workout, I could walk. Once I got to the agreed upon point, I would talk myself into finishing it. 

Once I became comfortable with the treadmill, I started competitive running. Well, ok, I competed with whomever was on the treadmill to them, unknown to them of course. I would slyly glance over to see their speed and at least match it, often times cranking mine up towards the end to beat them. That attempt to keep up would spur me on and I would often hit faster speeds than I intended just so that I can "beat" them!


Endurance
As I kept challenging my heart on the treadmill, I started noticing that it would take me a bit longer to get it racing. I also noticed that I didn't wear out as quickly doing other exercises.

 

HIIT

Since then I've learned how to be more efficient on the treadmill. I added a burst at the end of each run to challenge my heart: I started around 7.0 mph and have gone up to 9.5 mph. I also use the High Intensity Interval Training technique to burn maximum fat in the shortest period of time.  I start with a 2-3 minute warm up (walk), followed by 2 minutes at 6.7 mph, 40 sec at 7.5 mph and 20 sec at 9.0 mph and then 2 min rest at 3.0-4.0 mph and then repeat it. I do about 3-5 sets of this for a total of 15-25 minutes. This technique can be done at any level; the key is to find a goal speed and work towards it.   

 

Though I found the treadmill to be a dread, it became the starting point for my come back into fitness. With the newfound endurance I'm able to push myself in all my workouts. The weight loss I experienced as a result of the treadmill helped build my confidence to keep working on my fitness and weight loss goals.

 

Lessons learned

1. Just run: whether it's on the treadmill or out in the open, just run (jog) or walk if that's what works

2. It takes a time and consistent effort to build endurance. Lack of consistency will require restarting each time. 

3. Like anything in life, if you believe it, you can make great friends with the treadmill

4. Distracting yourself on the treadmill can allow you to push through an especially tough workout

5. A little friendly competition is good for your heart

6. HIIT is an efficient way to maximize your workout, it can be done on the treadmill or really with any cardio workout.

7. The treadmill is a good starting point, as well as a great part of a workout at any level.

 

Did you see what this guy does on the treadmill?! Anything to keep you going!

 

 

Half-stepping diva

Getting started

The last time I was in Ghana, everyone commented on how much weight I had gained. Most people hadn't seen me in years and immediately noticed that I was carrying some extra...ahem.."curves". I took this in stride though I had myself been having internal battles about my weight and resolved that something had to be done pronto.

My first time on the treadmill, I started a brisk walk at 3.5 mph; shortly after I had to take that down to 2.0 mph. I breathlessly stayed on there for about 15 minutes before giving up. A friend had started instructing a class called Zumba Fitness and had asked me to come to the class to support her. I had never heard of it but was delighted to be there at her debut. After the warm up song, I thought my heart was going to beat itself out of my chest and plop onto the floor. I hung in there, completely convinced that it would just take the next song to get me closer to my demise. It was a wonderful experience that had me wishing I could come back the next day for more!  I took my first yoga class shortly after Zumba. I was amazed that the instructor's gut stretched out further past mine; how could she be the instructor. I had to pick my face off the floor when she folded herself into a nice pretzel shortly afterwards...I had clearly misjudged that book by the cover! I struggled through the poses and noticed that I was the youngest in the class and the least flexible!

It took a few false starts for me to get to working out. Other than Zumba, I had a hard time getting to the gym. I would get home from work "exhausted", eat and sit in front of the TV for a few minutes which would quickly stretch into an hour and then two and then wow, the gym is closing in 30 minutes, I'll just have to wake up really early tomorrow so that I can go before work. Or other times I'll get home, change and eat something and then "let the food digest a bit". This digestion process would generally take about 2 hours and by the time I realized it was too late. Or sometimes it would rain...who wants to walk 20 brief seconds in the rain, drive 5 minutes and then take another brief 20 second walk in the rain, anyhow.

Many other times I would actually get into the gym, start working out only to experience a cramp, or my chest might start to hurt, or shin hurt or something else would flare up, like the heartburn that only showed up when I was working out...and well  I couldn't work out through any of that, so my run would slow into a walk and I would abandon the workout all together.

I soon realized that I wasn't going to get anywhere with this inconsistency at the gym. I was able to figure out all the self-placed obstacles/ excusese and worked on removing them. I prepped my food for the day to include a snack that I could eat shortly before my workout. I can't quite remember what I would eat during that beginning stage, but my pre-workout snacks have included a banana and peanuts/peanut butter, 8 oz chocolate milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, yogurt with pineapple, cereal with milk, trail mix, and a granola bar. I also started watching my spicy food intake: I realized that I could eat spicy foods until about 1pm after which I would need some kind of antacid to combat the heartburn. I learned breathing exercises that would help me through the side cramps and learned to ignore the pain anywhere else. I also organized my workout clothes separately so that I didn't have to spend time digging through to find something decent to wear.


As my workouts increased I subscribed to anything that had to do with weight loss. I read all those articles, you know which ones...10 things you must do at the gym, 10 other things you should be doing, Are you sabotaging your workout, 50 ways to eat fruit, 50 more ways to eat fruit, 10 superfoods of 2009, new superfoods of 2010, the superfoods of the future you should be eating now! Supplements, are they for you? Your 21 day workout plan, Your 21 day total body work plan, Your 21 day abs workout plan, Did you stretch your booty today?
What? Ok, i'm making them up, but I have read a lot of articles about health and fitness since 2009. I also signed up for various online journal sources, or health vaults and trackers and food diaries etc.

So with my new found dedication, my new knowledge about how to lose weight, I plowed ahead expecting pounds to fall off as easily as I'd gained them. After about a month of getting into my groove, I stepped on the scale to find that I had lost 0 pounds! I was completely shattered. It didn't work! I was eating like they said, I was working out....I was in the gym as much as those working there for goodness sakes!

Once I calmed down, well after I binged on some chocolate in response, I pulled out one of those articles...it promised that I would "Lose 10 pounds in 6 weeks". What? Sign me up! The program would meet me at whatever speed I could run, which by this time had climbed up to about 4.0mph or a 15 min mile pace on the treadmill. I started the 6 week challenge and by the end of the year run for 5 miles at 5.0mph or a 12 min mile. And the scale, she moved! Not quite 10 pounds, but I saw my first significant change.

Lessons learned.
1. Start where you are most comfortable; the beginning of your new lifestyle should not be when you try something new.
2. If you're not enjoying your workout, you will not be consistent
3. Spending time working out does not automatically result in change; effort is just as important as showing up
4. It's easy to make excuses as to why we don't do something, and it's easy to talk ourselves into believing the excuse
5. Some of us need a program to stay on course: for me the running program allowed me to try harder each day
6. Motivation is important and oftentimes in life, we have to learn how to motivate ourselves.

In the first few months of starting my new lifestyle, I learned that there was much work to be done. It wasn't as easy as it had been in the past and I had a lot to learn about myself and my body. I truly thought at the time that it wouldn't take me very long to get the weight off, but have since learned that like many other aspects of our life, weight loss requires finding the right formula for our individual situation. It has taken me about 4 years to find that formula and I certainly hope it takes you much less time than that.

Half-stepping diva

Bulge be gone

And it finally happened!

I have had my weight loss goals on my mind for quite a while. It turns out as you get older, things like a slower metabolism, lack of activity, and emotional eating become a big part of our lives. And I've been no exception. For the last 6 years I have had a love hate relationship;  with my scale, with the line that pops up in my midsection and the beautiful clothes that only look flattering on a mannequin. It's really been a battle for me and in learning how to get rid of my excess baggage, I've come out with a wealth of information and made a few friends along the way.

I've actually analyzed my weight issues. Now to most I don't have a weight issue. One of the things I've learned is that weight is really a subjective matter and it's an issue that comes from our perception of what it should be, what others tell us it should be or a combination of those two. For me, I had gained more weight than my frame could handle and I needed it gone to really experience the confidence that I was faking. I remember a birthday when I looked into my closet and had a complete meltdown because my birthday outfit seemed to seek out my fat pockets and put them on display. Or the times when I would wear an outfit, feeling great only to see pictures and see my belly sticking out. This went on for years... and though I haven't made a fuss about it, most people around me became aware that I desperately wanted to lose the extra fat I was carrying around. I've had a few friends scoff at me when I've talked about my weight, especially about the extra fat I carry in my midsection. Their disbelief/disdain is actually acceptable because I have generally done a good job hiding how big my belly really is.

Belly
I think it was in 5th grade. A few of us had formed a dance group and were performing for the class. Afterwards a couple of friends noted that while I was dancing, my belly was doing it's own dance and that when I walked into a room my belly walked in first. I was so crushed and that was the end of my dancing. I tearfully talked to my mother about it; up to this time she'd been reassuring me that it was just baby fat and would disappear as I got older. Clearly that hadn't happened so we had to go to plan b. She taught me how to hold my stomach in and as I'm sitting typing this, that's exactly what I am doing.
The extra fat around my belly has especially been bothersome to me because several studies have shown the danger of carrying extra weight around the midsection (vs. around hips, thighs, etc). The amount of visceral fat (midsection fat) determines how much fat surrounds the organs in our abdominal section and a higher amount of visceral fat has been directly linked to chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension etc. I've read many studies that suggest that a woman whose midsection measures more than 35 inches was carrying excess visceral fat. Until about a few months ago the biggest point of my midsection measured around 38 inches (for perspective, my hips measure no more than 42 inches). I definitely wanted this number to be much lower, if not for aesthetics, at least for my health.

Food
I am one of the pickiest eaters that I know. I don't care for vegetables, I don't like trying new foods, don't like certain textures (mushroom & eggplant come to mind), don't like anything sour, or acidic (no pickles, thank you), or bitter (eek what's that bitter taste in my salad). I prefer my food fried and sweet...which means my favorite food has been and will always be fried plantain...and not just fried plantain, it has to be well seasoned, cut into the right size (not chunky) and fried to a beautiful just past golden brown color to obtain the right crunch. Yup I have a very picky palate. As a child, I didn't like my vegetables cooked, didn't really like raw vegetables, and was a vegetarian. In my ideal world, I would eat bread, rice, any baked goods, sugar and chocolate. Actually forget the bread and such, I would just eat chocolate and ice cream all day. I have a sweet tooth with matching dental cavities and dental bills to prove it. When it comes to sugar and especially chocolate, my brain only understands go...there's no stop mechanism at all. And to top it all, I have been vegetarian most of my life...which makes all this rather confusing. 

My mother is a caterer and an excellent cook. Growing up, she whipped up various foods and didn't make much of a fuss about what I didn't like. When I moved to the US. it was a completely different story. My  high school lunch consisted of cheese pizza, fries, crackers, maybe some fruit. It wasn't much better at home and slowly but surely I started gaining weight. College proved to be even more of a challenge. I had access to unlimited meals including cereal bars, French fries for days, a salad bar which I avoided, taco bars, pizza bars and all the sweet drinks I could enjoy. I also developed a habit of eating while I was studying which meant for a student that I was eating all the time. I gained 15 lbs by the end of my first quarter; 30  lbs by the end of the year. My cheeks were like balloons and nothing in my closet fit, which became problematic because there was no mall in sight in the little village of Athens. Sometime in my second year, I realized that my diet had to change and I started eating less, not necessarily healthier just less. I lost all  30lbs and finished college about the same weight I started. After college, I worked for about a year. During that time I had 3 jobs and not much time to cook. I lost weight and weighed the lowest I can remember. I was actually very unhealthy at the time, but there wasn't much I could do as I wasn't living on my own. Then came grad school and having learned from my college years watched what I ate, but still the numbers on the scale rose. Once I was done with grad school, the real world meant that I had full control of my eating, except lunching with coworkers, eating whatever was at hand because I was too tired to cook, emotional eating, and constantly snacking. The scale was a constant painful reminder of my bad eating habits.

Exercise
I wasn't too active in high school. I took PE classes during the year and realized I didn't like &/ understand the concept of running or playing sports. My hand-eye coordination was terrible so tennis, badminton, volleyball etc were all lost on me. I'd never been much of an athlete, though I was a cadet from 6th to 9th grade. In college, time at the gym was more of a social event; there really wasn't much else to do on campus, so the gym I went and did a few workouts here and there. Once I'd gained weight though, the gym became my place to de-stress, workout and to study. I found solace on the stationary bikes, rowing machines and even picked up running on the indoor track. My grad school didn't have a gym nearby so I would do various exercise DVDs  in my room but didn't get much activity in.

Motivation
I didn't really realize how much weight I was gaining until I hit some huge numbers. I made it to 180 lbs in college and that has become the absolute no-no for me since then. During grad school I made it to 170 lbs and realized I had to get a handle on it; but somehow my motivation was often missing. I really didn't like all the extra weight I was carrying around, but it wasn't so bad that I was trying very hard to do something about it.

In all of it, my weight had been another half-stepping opportunity in my world. Somehow I have finally found the right combination, and the weight has been coming off. There's still much work to be done. My ultimate goal for my weight loss has shifted from a number on the scale to sculpting muscles and discovering if I can  have a 6-pack, a 4-pack or at least something like that looks like flat abs.

I've learned from talking to my 30 something year old friends that weight loss is a vital part of our world, so I'll be sharing my winning weight loss combination over a few blog posts. I'm excited to work towards the next level and I hope you will all join me for my ride towards a 6 pack.

Half-stepping diva