Monday, July 28th, 2008

Health Group- Year 5, week 7

Well, I had two great weeks this month, and two bad weeks. I did manage to exercise with my friend Ros twice this past week. I’ve been using her elliptical, and I think we’re going to do that semi-regularly. Calorie King gives me twice as many calories burned for the elliptical as it does for walking 3 mph, so I like that.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this on Health Group yet, but it’s phenomenally helpful, so I wanted to share. No matter what I eat or how well I feed myself during the day, I turn into an entire-pantry-inhaling monster around 3:30-4:00 in the afternoon. I don’t even realize it ’til I’m done. It starts with a few bites of one thing, a few bites of another, picking and grazing through the fridge… until I’ve totally blown my diet.

SO, I tried to think of what I could do that would be simple and effective to help myself through that time of day. And I found it.

I take a glass (8 oz) of 1% milk, put in a half scoop of my WPI protein powder, unflavored, add about a Tablespoon of either Strawberry or Chocolate Hershey’s syrup, and mix it with my little hand mixer.

It’s fast, it’s simple to keep on hand, it tastes good, and it immediately satiates. Completely. Cravings and hunger gone.

On occasion, I add half of a small, frozen banana and mix it up in my blender. It’s amazingly good.

The funny thing is that sometimes, I’m a step or two into my “entire-pantry-inhaling monster” phase before I even notice what I’m doing. I then look at the clock, see that it’s that time, and stop to make my little milkshake.

It has saved me literally thousands of accumulated calories, and I was doing it during my two good weeks, when I lost inches and felt like a million bucks.

So, there’s my helpful hint. I think Hershey’s makes sugar free syrups if you need that. I, personally, am against artificial sweeteners so I don’t go that route, but thought I’d mention it for those that do.

I’m really going to try to have a good week this week. I have a “special” event of some sort or another every single night this week, so it’s going to be tough. But I’m going to try.