TINAJANE76's SparkPeople Blog

Two for One Recipe Review

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:37:48 EST

Life's been a bit hectic lately, so I've fallen behind on my recipe reviews for my maintenance team. I'm going to review two new dishes I've tried recently here, Chicken Saté Wraps:

www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-sat
-wraps-10000000686192/

and Cauliflower Crust Pizza:

greatist.com/health/recipe-cauliflow
er-crust-pizza

The chicken wraps pretty quick and easy to put together. I didn't have any broccoli slaw...

Huffington Post Healthy Living Article

Mon, 13 May 2013 05:20:49 EST

I hurt myself at work on Saturday and spent Saturday and Sunday in the hospital and last night in bed away from my computer. That means I haven't checked my email or logged into SparkPeople since Friday. Imagine my surprise when I got an email about this article on the Huffington Post site:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/i-
lost-weight-kristina-davis_n_3139651.html

I knew that my story was going to be featured there, but I didn't know when. Since ...

The Spark Community and that Pesky Pressure to be Perfect

Wed, 8 May 2013 09:16:08 EST

I've been thinking a lot about the blog I wrote yesterday about mourning the loss of SparkFriends and want to add a few other thoughts to it. I know that people leave SparkPeople for different reasons and sometimes they're very valid ones. I also know that not everyone is comfortable putting themselves out there in an environment like this and that silently lurking works much better for them. In my last blog, I said that I've sometimes pulled away from my support networks and I think there ar...

Mourning the Loss of a SparkFriend

Tue, 7 May 2013 07:45:24 EST

One of the best things about SparkPeople is its wonderful sense of community. I've received some fantastic encouragement and support from the people on this site in the 3+ years I've been active here and feel like I've really formed a strong bond with many of my SparkFriends.

Every once in a while, however, I'm reminded of the fact that this is a virtual community and that our relative anonymity, while often comfortable, makes it easier for people to just fade away when times get ...

Chicken Molé Recipe Review

Sun, 5 May 2013 10:10:47 EST

Here's my latest entry for my maintenance team's What's Cookin', Good Lookin'? recipe challenge:

Until a few years ago, my idea of Mexican food was tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas and nachos. Then I went to out to a nice Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn with my husband and was introduced to the wide world of molés. If you're not familiar with these, they're mildly spicy stews that can be made with chicken, shrimp or sometimes beef that have a rich, complex and distinctive flavor due t...

Unpacking My Baggage

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:33:47 EST

Being a yo-yo dieter takes a toll on you in so many ways. Not only can it be harmful to your physical health, but it can also cause lasting damage to your self-esteem and confidence in your ability to lose weight and keep it off. I had suffered from that self-doubt for many years and not without reason--until very recently I had always regained any weight I had lost in the past.

When I got started on my most recent effort to lose weight in early 2010, this baggage weighed heavily ...

The Sultan Was Enchanted Recipe Review

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 15:57:52 EST

Here's my review of a dish called "The Sultan Was Enchanted" (great name, right?) I made for my maintenance team's latest recipe challenge. I made this dish based on the following recipe:

www.flickr.com/photos/63861396@N00/2
429007909/in/set-72157601806011904

but made so many changes that I'm going to repost what I did below.

This was a fantastic recipe and really tasted much richer and more decadent than the numbers suggest. I had a lot o...

I Don't Think It Will Ever Be Easy for Me

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 08:43:35 EST

Every once in a while, I come across a comment from someone who says that they find weight loss and maintenance easy and I have to admit, it shocks me a bit. I can find lots of positive adjectives to describe this process and how it's changed me, but easy definitely wouldn't be one of them. I also feel a bit jealous of people who find maintenance easy--if others find it easy to maintain their losses, why can't I? I've developed lots of great strategies to deal with the temptation to binge, I ...

My Plan for Year Two of Maintenance

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:12:19 EST

Moderation has never been my strong suit and I've often operated at one end of the spectrum or the other. I've frequently joked that I'm both an extreme Type A and an extreme Type B wrapped up into one person. Part of my process of successful weight management has been learning to moderate both of those tendencies to finally arrive at a happy medium that, until the past few years, had always eluded me. I've been successful to a large degree, but am also cognizant of where my weaknesses lie an...

Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe Review

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 18:20:06 EST

I had never been a huge fan of Chicken Cordon Bleu as a kid, but now that I've got more grown-up tastes, I thought I'd take a stab at it. I love the recipes on skinnytaste.com and decided to use this one:

www.skinnytaste.com/2009/03/chicken-
cordon-bleu.html?showComment=136355788
3654#c4214314681618238359

This was really easy to put together--quite a bit simpler than the other stuffed chicken recipes I've used from the site because the two stuffin...

Chicken and Black Bean Stuffed Pepper Review

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:10:59 EST

I made the following recipe for the latest round of the "What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?" recipe challenge on my maintenance team:

www.skinnytaste.com/2010/08/chicken-
and-white-bean-stuffed-peppers.html

Since I have a whole sack of black beans and I just love them, I cooked some of those up and used them instead of the suggested white beans. I also used my Latino/Cajun spice mix instead of the Adobo and used red peppers instead of green, but otherwise...

This is THE Place for Long-Term Weight Loss Support

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:08:28 EST

Like many people out here on SparkPeople.com, I've lost and regained large amounts of weight over the course of my life. I went on my first diet at the age of eight when my concerned mom signed me up for Weight Watchers. But as much as I learned about how to lose weight over the subsequent years, I had never taken the time to learn about what was needed for me to make my losses permanent. My yo-yo pattern was a constant throughout the rest of my childhood and well into my adult life. In my mi...

A Celebration of my Maintenance Victories

Wed, 6 Mar 2013 06:14:42 EST

Tomorrow I'll celebrate a major personal milestone--one year of successful maintenance! After nearly 30 years as a yo-yo dieter, I feel as though I've finally discovered the keys to lasting success. To celebrate this feat, I've compiled a list of the things I'm happiest about achieving.

1. Truly stabilizing my weight
In the past, I'd lose large amounts of weight in short periods of time only to gain it all back (and often more) just as quickly. This time, I was determined to r...

Shrimp with Garlic and Olive Oil Recipe Review

Mon, 4 Mar 2013 04:29:41 EST

I made this for Round Four of the At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance team's What's Cookin', Good Lookin'? recipe challenge:

www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-with
-garlic-olive-oil-10000001168096/

The theme for this round is fish and seafood and I wanted something that was simple, yet full of flavor. My husband and I both prefer our seafood without too many bells and whistles and this recipe definitely fit the bill. The only change I made...

A Summary of the Lessons I've Learned in my First Year of Maintenance

Sat, 2 Mar 2013 03:59:43 EST

On Thursday, I'll reach my one-year maintenance anniversary. Over the course of the past year, I've learned a lot about myself and the strategies that are important for me to use to stabilize my weight. I'm quite fortunate that I haven't experienced any major life challenges to seriously throw me off track in the past year, so I feel like I've established a strong foundation to deal with with those when they do come down the road.

I've summarized a lot of the things I've learned i...

Pollo Guisado Recipe Review

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:28:05 EST

I made this last night for dinner as part of the What's Cookin', Good Lookin'? recipe challenge on my maintenance team:

www.food.com/recipe/dominican-pollo-
guisado-stewed-chicken-261430

I made a few changes to lighten things up and due to lack of availability of certain things here in Italy. Firstly, I only used chicken thighs, took the skin off and cut off the visible fat (a good thing to do with any stew, in my opinion, otherwise the fat totally ov...

(Don't) Keep on Playing those Mind Games

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:37:13 EST

As I've mentioned in some of my previous blogs, I'm a big fan of regular weigh-ins because they keep me honest and they keep me on track. However, there is a darker side of frequent weigh-ins that I feel also needs to be addressed: when weigh-ins become obsessive and unproductive towards helping us meet our goals.

I once lurked on that dark side. I'd play tricks to see how I could get the numbers on the scale to go down, some of which were outright unhealthy, and was guilty of jum...

Taking the Emotion out of my Weigh-ins

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:37:51 EST

One of the topics that I touched upon in my last blog was how taking the emotion out of my weigh-ins has proven to be a useful tool for me not only in terms of weight loss, but also as part of my continued efforts in maintenance. One of my SparkFriends, who admits she is still struggling with this issue even after several successful years on maintenance, suggested I write a blog outlining how I was able to do that, so I thought I'd share my experiences and offer up some food for thought on th...

Top Ten Things I Didn't Expect in My First Year of Maintenance

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:09:02 EST

I'll reach my one-year maintenance anniversary the beginning of March and have been thinking a lot about the past year and what it's taken me to stay successful on maintenance. In the past, I'd lose weight very quickly and gain it all back just as quickly. This time, I took a more conscious approach to really implementing lifestyle changes and continuing to keep them up once I reached my weight goal. Although I was much more prepared for maintenance than in the past, the last year has definit...

Chili Cornbread Casserole Recipe Review

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 05:16:10 EST

I love chili and decided to make this chili cornbread casserole for dinner last night for this week's entry in the "What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?" challenge on my maintenance team:

www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chili_cor
nbread_casserole.html

I followed the recipe reasonably closely but added a jalapeño and bit more salt in the cornbread mixture (I have low blood pressure and 1/4 teaspoon seemed stingy), threw in a second pepper and used my own chili se...

Let the Countdown to One Year of Maintenance Begin!

Thu, 7 Feb 2013 17:39:09 EST

Today I'm exactly one month away from my first anniversary as a successful maintainer. Although I won't be reaching one of the coveted maintenance milestones just yet (two years when your likelihood of regain drops to 50% and five years when it drops to 27%, according to the National Weight Control Registry), this is a huge accomplishment for me and represents by far the longest period of time I've ever maintained my losses.

When I started my journey back in 2010 at 240 pounds (th...

Red Beans, Sausage and Quinoa Review

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 16:58:51 EST

Here's my next review for the "What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?" recipe challenge for the At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance team. I made the following Red Beans, Sausage and Quinoa recipe in celebration of Carnival, which has kicked off here in Venice:

www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/
archives/10725/

I only made two changes to the original recipe: I used two cans of red beans to save time and 10 ounces of pork sausage instead of the t...

Rant Alert! Downplaying the Obesity Epidemic

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 04:50:15 EST

I've just read Becky Hand's article in Huff Post's Healthy Living section and, wow, did it touch a nerve with me:

www.huffingtonpost.com/becky-hand/we
ight-and-health_b_2528194.html

I couldn't agree with her more and excuse me if I go off on a bit of a rant.

If you've been SparkFriends with me for a while, you may already know my story. I lost more than 90 pounds through sensible changes to my diet and exercise routine following many years ...

Sweet Potato Turkey Shepherd's Pie Recipe Review

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:08:03 EST

I made skinnytaste.com's Sweet Potato Turkey Shepherd's Pie for lunch today and it was absolutely THE BOMB! I made enough changes to it to warrant a redo of my version of the recipe. Sorry that some of the measurements are in grams, but that's how I have to buy stuff here in Italy.

This was so good I had to tear myself away from the pan and was incredibly tempted to have another portion. My husband loved it too and said he never would have guessed this was a "diet recipe". Can't w...

The Many Measures of Good Health

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:18:46 EST

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the many measures of good health with jabs at using the BMI or scale as a primary indicator. Although I agree that a person's weight or BMI alone are not the best measures of health, I'd like to offer myself up as a guinea pig to show how I've used a number of different measures to gauge my success. Here are my stats:

Sex: Female
Age: 36
Weight: 148
Height: 5'7"
BMI: 23.2
Chest: 38"
Waist: 29"
Hips: 39...

Carne Guisada Recipe Review

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 09:33:04 EST

I made the following recipe Friday night for me and my husband and we enjoyed the leftovers for lunch yesterday:

www.skinnytaste.com/2011/11/carne-gu
isada-latin-beef-stew.html

I made it with rice and stewed black beans as well as the Aji Picante sauce suggested in the recipe.

So, here's my review for the At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance team's "What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?" recipe challenge:

I followed the reci...

Bouncing Back: How Developing Resiliency Can Help with Weight Management

Thu, 3 Jan 2013 16:17:06 EST

Nearly 15 years ago, when I still lived in New York and was doing PR, I interviewed a high school social worker about a unique program she had implemented at her school called Resiliency Training. At first, the idea of training yourself to become more resilient seemed a bit odd to me--I had always thought that resiliency was something that people either had or didn't have. But after speaking with her, I learned that resiliency is actually a skill that can be learned.

I've been giv...

A Year in Review: Looking Back on 2012

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 07:48:44 EST

Looking back on 2012, now that the year is almost over, I can honestly say that this has been the year that I really came into my own as a person who feels empowered and in control of my health and weight management.

I started off the year about 20 pounds heavier than where I am now, lost the last bit of my weight and reached my initial goal in March. I spent the next few months settling into maintenance and have been within range since then. In addition to reaching my personal he...

My Success Story

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:39:49 EST

I was recently contacted by shapefit.com and asked if I'd like to be featured on their site as a success story. If you're interested in checking it out, you can find it in the two links below. It's pretty cool to see my story up there and I hope that my success can inspire other people to find their way in their journeys to better health as well.

www.shapefit.com/success/success-sto
ries-weight-loss-kristina.html

www.shapefit.com/success-stori...

What I've Lost in Pounds I've Acquired in Wisdom

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:48:40 EST

Part of my daily routine often involves cruising the blogs and SparkPages of my fellow maintainers on the 'At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance' team, where I'm one of the leaders. In addition to keeping an eye out for blogs that I can recommend to the other members of the team, I really enjoy reading the about the thoughts and experiences of other people who are finding their way in maintenance. One of the things that I've come to realize is that many maintainers seem to possess...

Have You Had Your "Aha!" Moment?

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:54:04 EST

This is a question I recently put out to the members of the 'At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance' team. What I was hoping to find in response to this question was if other successful maintainers had a particular moment where all of the pieces of their healthy lifestyle came together and the process just started to feel natural and intuitive or if it was something that evolved gradually over time.

Not surprisingly, the responses were quite varied. For some, the key to...

The Difference Those Last Pounds Make

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 10:28:34 EST

Back when I restarted my journey in February 2010, I decided that I wanted to settle on a weight that I felt I could sustain even if that meant I was a little bit heavier than where I would ideally like to be. I thought it would be better for me to find a place I could stay rather than focusing on a specific number that might not be realistic for me given my past history of losses and regains.

Back in September 2011, I got down to a weight where I finally started feeling normal ag...

Moroccan Beef Stew

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 17:31:51 EST

I made this for dinner this evening and it was absolutely amazing! It was originally a Chef Meg recipe but I made a few changes to suit my personal preferences. The original recipe used a slow cooker, but since I don't have one, I made it on my stovetop and it still turned out great. Don't leave out a thing--the way the flavors harmonize is amazing and you'll be licking your plate clean!

Moroccan Beef Stew (8 servings)

Ingredients

2 pounds lean beef, cut into ...

Stop the (Weight Loss and Regain) Insanity!

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 20:52:02 EST

Albert Einstein once defined "insanity" as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Using that definition, you could have undoubtedly classified me as certifiable up until very recently.

One of the most maddening things that I've experienced in my life has been my ongoing cycle of losses and regains. Friends and family had often commented on how admirable it was that I was able to be so disciplined in losing weight--the trouble was that I was never...

Don't Pull Away When You Need Support the Most

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:02:40 EST

You start your diet and exercise plan motivated and ready to kick some butt. You have great losses the first few weeks and you feel even better. You continue losing at a steady pace and maybe you even get down to goal. And all along the way, you have lots of buddies cheering you on. Maybe they're at your Weight Watchers meeting, maybe they're here on SparkPeople, maybe they're at your gym--but there are lots of them and you love the encouragement and kudos you get from them as your weight goe...

What's Achievable Isn't Always Sustainable

Fri, 9 Nov 2012 06:04:02 EST

As I'm sure many people can relate, the holidays have always been a particularly challenging time for me in terms of weight management. Part of my vicious circle of yo-yo dieting has typically sprung from the weight I began to pile on during the holidays, which I often continued to let spiral out of control once January rolled around. Last year, for the first time in my life, I finally felt in control during the holidays. I went in with the realistic expectation that I would gain a few pounds...

How Dieting Turned Me Into a Binge Eater

Wed, 7 Nov 2012 05:21:45 EST

You're doing great all week, staying at the low end of your calorie range and hitting the gym almost daily when, BAM!, you go totally off the rails and binge. And it's no ordinary binge. It's a big one. One thousand, two thousand calories or more in one sitting. Then you're filled with guilt, sadness and remorse knowing that you've just undone all of your hard work in one sitting with food that you don't even really like all that much and definitely weren't savoring when you were in the throe...

A Girl, a Book and Eight Months of Maintenance

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:04:28 EST

I got some great news today. About a month ago, I was contacted by the editor of dailySpark and SparkRecipes asking if she could use parts of a blog I had written in an upcoming Spark book. Well, not only are they using that, but they're also going to use some other quotes from me based on some of the email conversations we had. I think it's pretty cool that the lessons I've learned in maintenance will potentially be able to help lots of other people at various points in their weight loss and...

Maintenance: There's A Lot to Love!

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:39:20 EST

In the past month, I've slipped into a noticeably different stage of maintenance than I've experienced in the nearly eight months since I reached goal. I'm actually starting to feel relaxed about maintaining and my confidence that I can do this for the long haul has soared. In celebration of this wonderful new stage I've entered, I though it would be a nice idea to sum up the things I like best about maintaining a healthy weight.

1. I've reduced my risk of preventable disease to v...

Overcoming Obstacles and Exorcising my Demons

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 07:48:13 EST

It's taken me six attempts over the course of my life to finally reach a place where I'm beginning to enjoy lasting weight loss success. As a chubby kid, I probably went on my first diet when I was six years old and joined Weight Watchers for the first time at eight. Over the subsequent 30 years, I've learned a lot about my weight management and style and personality, but had never quite pulled everything together until now. I had typically been very good at summoning up the discipline to buc...

In Defense of the Scale

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:16:23 EST

There's a lot of debate as to how often people who are working to manage their weight should step on the scale and I'd like to, ahem, weigh-in on the subject and offer my defense of using the scale as a tool.

The primary reason why I think regularly weighing yourself is a good idea is that it forces you to face the truth and let's face it, most of us did not get heavy by confronting reality as we were gaining weight. As I was losing weight, I put a lot of stock in other factors th...

The Beauty (and the Beast) of Maintenance

Fri, 5 Oct 2012 06:04:48 EST

I'm a girl who likes to have a plan. Tell me what to do to reach my goals and I'll do it. I'm a good worker bee and I've often applied that work ethic to my weight loss efforts. So why is it that until now, I've never been successful on maintenance? That's something I've given a lot of thought to these past seven months and I think part of the reason is that I never really made maintenance my own--until now.

There are so many different weight loss plans and philosophies about what...

How Being a Good Loser Has Helped Me to be a Successful Maintainer

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 16:17:59 EST

I've spent the bulk of my life as a serial yo-yo dieter, once losing and regaining almost all of a 115-pound loss. The losing part was never a huge problem for me--I could follow a weight loss plan to a tee--but once I reached goal I was at a total loss as to what I should do next and the regain came on quickly. This time around, I took many of the lessons I learned during weight loss process with me to my transition to maintenance. Because I had already laid the groundwork for my maintenance...

The Top Ten Things I Wish I Had Known about Being a Maintainer Before I Became One

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:55:17 EST

10. Maintenance is HARD!
I've accomplished a lot of things in my life. I earned a scholarship to a private college my family never would have been able to afford otherwise, got my degree, built up a successful career and worked my way up to partner of a PR firm by the time I was 28. I then gave that all up to move to another country, learn a new language, go back to school and start a new career and a new life with my husband. NONE of that was as hard as losing weight and keeping it off ...

Another Year Older but Oh So Much Wiser

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 10:24:21 EST

Milestones always give me pause to reflect on my accomplishments and an opportunity to think about the direction I want to head in the future. Since I'll be celebrating my 36th birthday tomorrow I thought it would be a nice idea to look at what I've done in the past year and think about what I'd like to do in the coming year.

This year, I:

-Lost my last 30 pounds and reached goal in March
-Have stayed within my range every day since settling on exactly what it wou...

Thank You Bruce Corwin and Melinda Hershey!

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:25:56 EST

I'd like to give a big thank you to Bruce Corwin for helping to shine the spotlight on several of SparkPeople's successful maintainers and the 'At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance' team in his dailySpark blog today.

A bunch of our maintainers, including me, were quoted in Bruce's article, which focused on the idea that although maintenance is tough, it can be done. Take a look at the article if you have a chance!

www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=how...

30 Day Blog Challenge, 1-10

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:50:12 EST

I’ve seen lots of people doing blogs based on TANYAP71’s 30 Day Blog Challenge:

www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=5051162

but didn't join in because I thought I couldn't commit to daily blogging. Then I saw 4A-HEALTHY-BMI post a blog with multiple questions at once and thought that would be a more manageable way for me to do it, so here goes!

1: Your stats. Starting stats, current stats, goal stats. Ar...

Demystifying Maintenance

Sun, 9 Sep 2012 13:20:59 EST

Here’s me three years ago when I weighed about 240 pounds. I'm on the right:

I like to occasionally post new ‘before’ pictures of myself because they remind me of where I came from and how much progress I’ve made.

And here I am now at 148, well under my initial goal of 158, which I reevaluated during my transition into maintenance: