Category Archives: AIM

AIM: Changing the Plan

Ch-ch-ch-changes. Life is full of them, yes? Maintenance is no exception to change. I think people assume that once you get to maintenance that you just do the same thing forever, but that is not the case. Maintenance ebbs and flows. Some days are easier than others and some periods of time are easier than others.

Maintenance has felt a little strange to me this year because so much of my life has been up in the air with the endless waiting to close on the new house, strange things happening with my job and a feeling of being unsettled and restless. Regular readers know that I am a stress snacker and there has been no shortage of stress for quite a while now, so there has been a fair share of food overconsumption.

I have been concentrating more on trying to lose some weight, the interesting result of which is usually just maintaining – which is a good thing, even though not quite the result I was looking for. 😀 This, too, shall pass, though. I know that.

AIM is also changing a bit. First off, Shelley has decided to focus on other things and won’t be blogging as part of AIM any longer, but we still consider her an integral part of AIM. Not to mention the door is always open if she wants to jump in on a topic again!

Since we have already posted monthly for over a year now, we have hit a lot of the common topics, so we are going to transition to quarterly posting instead of monthly. Of course, we all still have our individual posts on the blog and maintenance topics will come up as a matter of course, but the formal AIM postings will now be quarterly (resuming in November) – and let us know if there is something you want us to discuss!

Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, and Cammy, former weight-loss bloggers who now write about life in maintenance. We formed AIM to work together to turn up the volume on the issues facing people in weight maintenance. We publish a post on the same topic quarterly. Let us know if there is a topic you would like us to address!

AIM Food: It’s All in a Day!

This month, we are doing a virtual progressive food day with each of us giving a staple recipe for a meal. If you want to follow in order, start with Breakfast at Shelley’s :D, then Cammy’s for lunch, Lynn’s for appetizer/main dish #1, me for main dish #2 and Debby’s for dessert!

Welcome to Casa Radiance on the next stop of our progressive meal day! I am taking care of the ominvores for dinner. I am a protein lover and include protein in all my meals and snacks as much as possible. This is a recipe that is easy to make, tastes good and really is good enough to serve company! It’s Chicken with Balsamic Tomatoes:

Based on a recipe from Ready, Set, Eat

2 tablespoons oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (4 oz each)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup diced onion
1 can (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water

Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and pepper; cook chicken 5 minutes or until browned, turning once. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Add the onion to skillet; cook 1 to 2 minutes over medium heat or until crisp-tender.

Add undrained tomatoes and vinegar to skillet along with the oregano; bring to a simmer. Return chicken to skillet; cook 10 to 12 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink in center.

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and cold water and stir into the skillet. Let this come back to a simmer to thicken up the sauce a bit. If you have really watery tomatoes, you might need 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.

Serve! You can do a nice presentation where you slice each chicken breast and serve the sauce on top as in the picture above or just do the whole chicken breast. This goes great with pasta, spaghetti squash, rice, zuchini noodles – the sky is the limit! You can also just make the tomato topping without the chicken and have it on various different foods.

Serves 4

Calories: 226

Fat: 9.3 g

Protein: 23.2 g

Carbs: 12.4 g

For the next course, head on down to Debby’s blog for dessert!

Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, Shelley, and Cammy, former weight-loss bloggers who now write about life in maintenance. We formed AIM to work together to turn up the volume on the issues facing people in weight maintenance. We publish a post on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. Let us know if there is a topic you would like us to address!

AIM – The Organized (Or Not) Approach

Organization. This is one of those traits that I really wish I had. I think I can best be summed up as semi organized. My sock drawer? Totally unorganized. My lifting program? Totally organized. Employment? Totally organized. Keeping track of my keys? So not organized.

There are definitely times when organization is a must to help keep you sane. With weight loss and maintenance, organization can be the difference between it being a real struggle and much easier.

I try to stay organized by tracking my food and also by rotating in usual meals. I do like variety, but just have go-to meals and the ingredients on hand to make life easier. When I am really on point, I actually will take about 5 or 10 minutes the day before and put the next day’s food in my tracker. Then I just have to look at it and eat what it says. I am more likely to stay on track that way, although there are some days if it has been a particular bear at work (which was pretty much all of May, blergh) – I will ignore the tracker and go for pizza. I think if the majority of time you stay at least partly organized, the better chance of success you will have.

With workouts, particularly strength workouts, being organized is really a must. Otherwise you end up at the gym, do a few biceps curls, look around, do a couple squats and then get on the elliptical because you can’t think of anything to do. Now, I like following lifting programs (NROL, FBB, ect), but if I am not doing that – I will write out a lifting schedule so that I make sure I am hitting all the muscle groups – I do full body workouts – and how many sets and reps I want to do. That saves me time at the gym and is much more effective.

On the flip side, I do think you have to be careful not to become so organized that you let it rule your life. When a friend calls for a last minute get together and you decline because you had a workout scheduled or it wouldn’t fit into your eating plan, not so good. Organization is great, but you also have to let life happen. It seems like it always comes down to balance – in all aspects of life.

Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Is Vanity Fair?

Vanity. How much of a role does this play in weight loss and maintenance. And is it needed?

A definition of vanity is this from Dictionary.com:

Excessive pride in one’s appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements, etc.

Vanity really has a negative connotation now, although it didn’t always used to be the case. Now we think of vanity pretty much as one of the 7 deadly sins, as in pride. When you lose weight or maintain, is there any shame in feeling pride for your accomplishments? Does pride itself help keep you on track? And where does pride cross the line to vanity? I don’t know any answers to these questions. These are what I was asking myself when doing this post. I don’t even know if I have a cohesive opinion on it LOL!

Let’s face it, most of us start our weight loss journeys with the hope of looking good at the end. It’s human to want that. However, we don’t always have a realistic vision of what we will look like, particularly after losing a very large amount of weight. You just aren’t going to look like a size 0 model that never had a weight problem. Sometimes I think that makes people give up after a while. They figure if you aren’t going to look spectacular and head turning when you are finished, why bother doing all that hard work (because it is really hard work). Is that vanity getting in the way of the goal? Probably. While I was losing, I was thrilled at how I was looking and fitting into regular clothes rather than plus size clothes made me feel proud and vain, I am sure. That does drive the motivation to keep going. I find after staying the same size for a couple of years now that the excitement of all that has worn off and as I settled into a body that hasn’t changed much in a couple years it doesn’t feel like something prideful anymore.

Is it fair to judge someone who is vain about their appearance even though being vain actually gives them the ability to stay that way? I don’t think so.

Vanity doesn’t have to be just about looks, either. I take a lot of pride in being strong. I am strong and I love it. I love being at the gym and pushing a new lifting goal and it makes me want to strut around. It’s powerful, prideful and something I work hard on achieving. It’s funny, though – I’ll be feeling that and then a young tiny thing will come bopping through the gym in front of me and I can feel that pride deflate like an old balloon. Then I just get back to lifting because I know how much better life I will be as I age strong. Reality checks -they sure are good for you sometimes.

**I also noted the other definitions of vanity when I checked the dictionary and noted this: Vanity is also: “Something worthless, trivial, or pointless.” Hmmm… interesting, no?

Ask us anything!

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Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, Shelley, and Cammy, former weight-loss bloggers who now write about life in maintenance. We formed AIM to work together to turn up the volume on the issues facing people in weight maintenance. We publish a post on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. Let us know if there is a topic you would like us to address!

AIM: Are We There Yet?

This month’s topic came from the “Ask Us Anything” files. The question is:

How did you know when to transition to maintenance from loss mode? Was it a number or a size or something else? Did you struggle to not want to lose a little more?

Well, the short answer is that I never really transitioned from loss to maintenance on purpose. It just happened.

My end goal was kind of nebulous. I sure had a number goal in my head that I wanted to get to, but I honestly had no idea of what I would look like at that number on the scale. I kind of decided on it arbitrarily based on a range of what I was supposed to weigh. However, I never got there. I just stopped losing. (And I gained back 15 pounds.) I consider myself to be an accidental maintainer. My body seems to be comfortable, even though *I* am not comfortable right now. Of course, I feel a under some stress right now between the house and my job, which for whatever reason makes me focus more on not having gotten to goal yet. Not necessarily a good combination. But I digress…

I think you just have to decide where you are comfortable being and living in a way that doesn’t drive you crazy to keep up. Do I struggle with wanting to lose more? Yes. Could I eat 1200 calories a day and exercise for 2 hours? Of course I could. Do I want to do that forever? No, I don’t. I think for me maintenance is a constant thought process of what I am willing to to do versus how happy that makes me. Even if I lose more weight – it really means nothing in terms of the kind of person I am. Yes, I have lost a lot of weight, but it doesn’t define me.

Every person is different. Everyone’s maintenance is different. The only way you really know when you are done is when your body tells you it’s done. It may not be where you want it to be – or it could be right where you planned. The tough part is accepting it.

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Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: The Last Straw

Ahhh…. the famous “What was your last straw”. Otherwise known as “The AHA! Moment”. You know that trigger or switch that makes you finally do something?

I had gotten up to 250 pounds. How I hated that number. 250 was such a round number. A big number. I number that I could see double to 500 pounds and then what? Would it stop? I sort of felt like Wile E Coyote with a giant weight over his head that said 250 pounds:

The interesting thing is, while that was sort of the AHA! moment, I didn’t do anything about it right away because I knew nothing I had done in the past worked. Then in early 2003, I read a book by Kathleen DesMaisons called The Sugar Addict’s Recovery Program. I started to wean myself off of sugars and white stuff. This was my first foray into eating unprocessed foods. I had to change my entire way of eating. Of course, we have already talked about what’s different now (discussed here), so I don’t need to rehash that.

I have really been thinking about the AHA! moment, the last straw, the ‘click’ – whatever you want to call it – and what it means. I have to say that I don’t really know if that is so important because you have these moments constantly in your life in so many situations and they don’t always result in a final change. I have read some books out there from people who have lost a lot of weight and talked about the click, but then today these same people have gained back quite a bit of weight. I don’t think the AHA! moment means anything in the long run. You can always find a motivation to start any kind of program, be it a diet, quitting smoking, learning a new skill, etc., but it is the dedication to the goal that will get you there. The AHA! moment only gets you started. You have to find the determination and dedication early after the AHA! to keep going. That’s what gets you the results.

I’ve said this before, but I get asked the question fairly often about “How did you know this was the last time?” To be completely honest, I don’t know if this is the last time. There were other times where I was sure it was going to be the last time down the scale – and it wasn’t. I had AHA! moments all those times as well. I know I am not the only one this has happened to.

And if you haven’t had an AHA! moment – just start anyway. Just do it. You don’t need an epiphany. It’s more important what you do after that moment for the long haul than anything else.

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Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: What’s In My Cart.

Thank you for all the “Ask Us Anything” suggestions on future topics that you want us to talk about! We will be addressing some of the topics as a group and some separately after we sift through them. This month, we chose the request on what a typical shopping trip looks like.

I took pictures on 2 different weeks. There are just 2 of us in the household and we spend an average of $100 a week. We pretty much buy the same stuff each week – I guess like most people…

John and I actually shop together on Sundays after we go out for breakfast (unless he is out of town). The above is a little less than normal because this was the week John went to Vegas and I didn’t need to buy as much. We always buy yogurt, I get the Fage and John gets the Cabot. We are very brand specific on our yogurts LOL!

John eats a lot of protein bars, so those are on the list every week. I have them occasionally, but not as often as I used to. There are some ‘trouble’ foods for me that we buy because John enjoys them and he puts those high up to keep them out of my mind. Those would be the chocolate nuggets, cereal and pretzels (which are sometimes potato chips).

Canned staples that we buy frequently would be pumpkin, diced tomatoes, peanut/almond butter (not really canned, but similar), evaporated milk (for mac and cheese) and baked beans (for John – I don’t eat those… ick).

I drink almond milk in the mornings with my coffee to cut calories, but drink 1% with my lattes.

Not sure why in this photo I included Pixie’s canned food, since we obviously don’t eat it!

This trip was last week. A little larger and more typical.

I eat a lot of fruit. John eats mostly apples and sometimes clementines or strawberries, but I eat usually at least 3 servings of fruit a day. You can’t see the bag of frozen broccoli florets, but they are behind the 4# bag of Wymann’s blueberries.

Lots of protein choices today. Chicken for me. John eats more fish/shrimp and less chicken. As you can see, we do enjoy our dairy products. Usually not fat free dairy. Sometimes I get 0% Fage, which is the only fat-free yogurt I like. Normally I get the 2%.

There are no oats or oat bran in either picture, but these are always in my cupboard. I just don’t need to buy them as often because of the large container.

Something that we do get every week is also a gallon of 1% milk, which for some reason did not make it into the pictures. I must have put it away since I see the refrigerator door open in this picture…oops.

So, pretty average. We don’t have any specialty grocery shops up here in Tiny Town like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. I think our local stores (Hannaford) do a good job at stocking pretty much everything I care to get.

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Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Winter Maintenance

The holidays have passed and all of the excitement is winding down and now we settle in to that endless stretch of winter.

I don’t know about anybody else, but even though it is a fresh new year, winter is still a difficult time for me. All I want to do is burrow under a blanket and hibernate until March. If you need to lose weight, it can be hard to cut calories at a time when your body is wanting to get fed to stay warm. Maintaining can be just as hard.

It’s also a little hard getting out of the holiday food mentality. I don’t turn a switch on and off very well. I kind of have to ease my way back in. Part of that is that there were cookies in the house and I sort of just ate fewer of them as time went by. Now they are gone and I kind of still crave them and the urge to bake more is there, but I have not done that.

This is the time of year where I really miss outdoor biking. The indoor trainer is okay, but it’s like the treadmill. Not as fun as being on the open road. I just kind of have to suck it up and do indoor workouts for a while. I try to think of it as more cross training and something different. Another thing that seems to have been par for the course the last few years is doing some home improvement project in the winter. Not only does this keep me from snacking, it keeps me moving and burning calories. Plus using all those muscles that I work hard at building up get put to use! 😀

I think smaller, more maneagable goals help me as well. Regular readers know I love to do the monthly goals. It’s helps keep me accountable, but it also adds some variety and challenges because, let’s face it, maintaining is not nearly as exciting as losing.

Do you have any winter strategies you use to keep on course?

On another note, we are putting a little anonymous box here to help us answer the questions that you might have or issues you want to address in future AIM posts. So, please feel free to fill in the little survey below. Please be clean 😉

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Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Letter to Santa

Dear Santa:

I know you are pretty busy with checking your naughty and nice list for the kids, but if I could sneak this list in at the end for you to review, I would appreciate it!

I wish for women to be happy with their bodies as they are. That doesn’t mean I don’t want then to try to be healthy, but I want them to realize that they are wonderful people in this very moment (myself included).

How about a magic cupcake that has no calories? I don’t want to pig out on them, but it would be nice to eat them without having to ride 30+ miles 😀

Maybe you could step into Washington and give our politicians some smarts or, seeing as how that might be too hard even for you, how about erasing partisan lines?

I know that I was gifted with night sweats and insomnia for perimenopause, but I am sure that was a mistake, so I would like to return that gift for a good night’s sleep.

I want the media to stop pushing unrealistic body images on to people. Can Photoshop be uninvented?

I would love a nice treadmill for those cold winter days when I want something different than the bike trainer.

How about standard sizing for clothing? I really don’t like having pants in 3 different sizes and never knowing which size to pick up when trying on jeans.

I really appreciate you looking at my list, Santa. There are a lot of things on there; however, they really will make the world a better place, don’t you think?

Love,

Lori

P.S. Oh, and I know you usually don’t deal in this department, but a Superbowl win for the Broncos would be pretty sweet.

source

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Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: A Thankful Buffet

Buffet time! Well, not really that kind of buffet. When we were kicking around topics for this month, it seemed to come pretty quickly to think of being thankful this month and how much we have to be thankful for. A bounty of things to be thankful for…or a buffet 😀

There are a lot of directions one could go in with this post, but I will sort of keep it in line with weight loss and health or else this post would go on for days. These are things I am thankful for:

– Wearing normal clothes. I don’t think this ever gets old. To be able to go into pretty much any store and find clothes is still weird to me, even after all these years. Of course – most of that comes from consignment or the sale rack, but who cares??

– Being much more comfortable in my own skin. Yes, I have loose skin and flab and cellulite. That doesn’t make me less of a person and it doesn’t mean I should be hiding my light under a bushel – or over-sized clothes.

– Blending in with the crowd. Doesn’t this seem like something funny to be thankful for? When you spend so much of your life being the biggest one in the room and feeling judged or the target of bullies, it is so nice just to walk in a public place and not feel like you stick out. I can glide in and out and not be noticed if I chose not to be.

– I am so thankful that I can move. I chose to move now. I want to be strong as I age and not weak. I can’t do all the things I used to do, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do new things. I have back and leg problems, but I don’t use that as an excuse not to be active. There are many people that can’t even walk and I am so thankful for what I have.

– All of my internet friends. I have met so many wonderful virtual friends. Some I have actually met in ‘real life’, too, which is neat. Then there are some that I can’t believe I have not met because it sure feels like we have! Thanks to everyone who has come into my life 😀

– I am thankful that I am willing to try new foods now. I was a very picky eater growing up. Mexican food to me meant Ortega, so I have come a long way. Now I will try new foods and cuisines and can’t believe what I have been missing out on!

– I think the very biggest thing I am thankful for is John. I am lucky to have a partner in life that is so supportive of me and my health. His unconditional love for me has helped me to see myself that way and I am forever grateful for that.

I hope that all of you in the US have a wonderful Thanksgiving this month and just have a great month in general to everyone! Thanks for reading my little corner of the internets.

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Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet