Cinch It

My pants are falling down.

All day long - whether it is my jeans, my cargo pants or my black dress pants - I am hoisting them back up around my hips and bum.

This is a new phenomenon for me. Normally I'm one of those girls who have to do deep knee bends, squats and half splits when I put on a pair of just-washed pants.

You know how tight something can be when you throw it on straight out of the dryer, right?

Well, something happened, and now all my pants are probably a few pounds away from being around my ankles.

Two weeks ago, I had a significant health scare. I was preparing dinner for my dear friend Bluegrass Brit - Taco Night. I hadn't eaten anything for lunch (and the lettuce and veggie salad I did have wasn't that hearty).

There I was, buzzing around a skillet of browning beef, diced tomatoes and sliced avocado, when I started sweating. My dear friend was chatting away, but I just couldn't be bothered to engage in the conversation. I stared around at all the fixings and was overwhelmed to even assemble my own tacos.

That last one was a significant sign, considering I'm a girl who has never turned down a scrap of food.

A trip to the doctor revealed that I may be on my way to developing diabetes.

the doctor put me on a prescription for Metformin and ordered me to test my glucose twice a day for a month.

Apparently, pre-diabetes is completely reversible - once you get the Big D, it's not.

On my own, I started pursuing a healthier diet. No hard and fast rules, other than I insist on eating breakfast every morning. Normally a bowl of Special K with skim milk (the only kind of milk I've ever preferred), I know this little step helps me fire up the metabolism while I'm watching Good Morning America before heading to work.

I'm paying more attention to portion control and the number of fruits and vegetables I'm eating. Like I said, I'm not following any official "diet," and I'm allowing myself to fulfill the occasional craving when they strike. Just yesterday, my busy schedule got in the way of my eating at "regularly scheduled" meal times, and I drove by a Burger King.

The thought of a charbroiled Whopper with cheese made my head spin.

A trip through the drive-thru satisfied a craving that had the potential to snowball into an unpredictable moment down the road. Ever had one of those moments where you've scarfed down an entire frozen pizza on your own? Me, too.

I'm trying to avoid those moments, and that's why it's okay in my book to thwart diet tragedy with a Whopper now and then.

The rest of the time, it's skim milk, cereal, plentiful fruits and veggies, low-fat yogurt and other healthy choices.

And as much as I love a good cocktail/glass of wine/pint of beer, I'm trying to curtail my imbibing, knowing only too well how much those drinks add up to massive calories.

I've got an appointment in the weeks ahead with a dietitian who will provide me with a more concrete plan to drop weight (I need to lose AT LEAST 40 pounds to be back in a place where I can wear all my cute clothes).

A hesitant exerciser - I plan on hammering out a regular walking routine once Cincinnati's wacky weather settles down to something decidedly spring-like.

My pants are falling down.

And I don't mind a bit.

Michelle: Oops!

With the exception of Amy and Shannan, we're slackers here at Cincinnati Losers, aren't we?

Since I've last posted, I've traveled to California twice for a week each, to Bourbon country for a day, and judged a wine competition in Columbus. This weekend I'm heading to Tennessee to judge a wine competition and then following weekend - Thanksgiving - I'll be in rural Indiana with my grandmother.

What does all this mean? I don't know how to diet and travel.

First off, having spent an inordinate amount of time in airports lately, I can tell you than when you have very little time between flights and not that much money, it's insanely hard to eat healthy in an airport. Lots of Burger King, very little Doc Green's. Truthfully, I don't even remember seeing anything other than fast food in the San Jose or Salt Lake City airports.

Road travel? Well, so far there's Applebee's, Wendy's, and Cracker Barrel.

I've destroyed any progress I've made so far on the diet. 8 lbs? Right back on.

Oh, and I spend a good deal of December baking - cookie swaps, potlucks for my husband's office, baked goods I give as gifts ... the list is endless. And baking tends to lead to my gaining weight.

So I officially admit I'm weak-willed. I cave to my schedule. My plan for the next 6 weeks is to not gain any weight and not go out and gorge myself on cookies or candy. I'm going to make an effort to work out. But I'm probably not going to go out of my way to "diet" either.
I know, I suck.

I'm going to "reboot" the diet in January.

I am weak willed and fluffy.

Image Credit

Laura: A Quick Check-in

I lost a pound this week. I've been pretty disciplined during the last week -- cooking, bringing my lunch, even hitting up a spin class. I think it may have been possible for me to lose 2 this week, but I weighed in right after spending an evening having multiple beers and eating chicken dip. Overall, I feel like I'm on track. I just have to keep it up!

5 pounds to go!

Laura: I'm baaaaaaack!

So, guess what guys? I'm married. I'm married and I only have one mortgage. Last time I posted I had reached the pinnacle of lifetime stress with a home sale in jeopardy because of title issues and because I was just a week away from my wedding. In the end, I didn't lose 10 pounds. I think on the big day I was only down 2 pounds, but I found a really great fat sucker in thing at Victoria's Secret that made it look like I lost 5 more pounds, so life was good.

After the wedding, I fell off the dieting wagon. Wait -- who am I kidding? I jumped off the wagon, did a couple cartwheels and then mooned the wagon. I ate like a king who loves cheese, meat, and ice cream for a couple weeks solid until I decided it was time to regroup.

For the last week I've been trying to reform. I started with an attempt to start cooking healthier foods instead of the comfort foods I was raised with and can cook with my eyes closed. I tried a few recipes from my most recent Fitness Magazine, which surprisingly has a lot of great food ideas. Here are two recipes I thought were particularly good.

Whole Wheat Linguine with Green Olives (serves 2)

• Whole wheat pasta
• 1/2 cup halved red or yellow grape tomatoes
• 3 tbs sliced green olives
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• Grated Romano cheese

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Saute tomatoes, olives and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add white wine; let simmer 3 minutes. Stir in rosemary; toss with cooked pasta. Top with grate Romano cheese.

Sauteed Baja Fish

• 2 6-ounce white fish fillets, such as tilapia, halibut or flounder
• 1 1/2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Snipped fresh cilantro

Lightly rub fillets with 1 tbs olive oil and season with chili powder. Rub remaining 1/2 tbs oil in a heavy skillet. Heat skillet over high heat. Saute fillets for 3 minutes per side, or until fish just flakes easily with a fork. Serve with lime wedges and snipped cilantro.

Now that I'm starting to get a hang of this light cooking thing, I need to work on getting to the gym. Now that it's getting colder and I can't go out on my bike, motivating to workout will be very difficult. But, where there's a will there's a way. Let's just hope I can find the will.

Still got 6 pounds to go.

Michelle: Ups and Downs

It's been a week or two of ups and downs. I gained back one pound that I've lost, now putting me at -7 instead of -8. I've behaved poorly as far as the diet goes, but some good things happened as well. Let's review, and we'll start with the not-so-good:

Downs

• Threw out my back. I had back surgery a few years back and I never really returned to normal. Occasionally I do stupid things that remind me of this.
  Case in point, I worked my butt off at the Bacchanalian wine tasting event last Thursday night. But I should have had a job that required sitting down, but I was embarrassed to admit why I wanted one. Instead, I was standing up, in heels, head down and hunched over, for several hours as I uncorked and bagged over 300 bottles of wine. Sometimes I wouldn't even look up for an hour. It seems I compressed some things in my spine that really shouldn't be compressed. This seems to happen if I stand up for over 30 minutes anyway, but I really pushed it this time. Lessons learned: fight for sitting down job and don't wear really awesome heels. I spent most of the last few days flat on my back or hobbling around like I'm 80. I live in fear of another surgery, so I should really be more careful. Part of my working out is building up the weak muscles around my spine.

• Took lots of painkillers. Thanks to the aforementioned issue, I succumbed and took a fair amount of Vicodan, among other things, this weekend. My back hurts on a regular basis, but I tend to work through it. It takes a lot of pain for me to break out the Vicodan, as I hate painkillers. The real downside to the painkillers? They make me hungry!
  
  
• Ate too much. I was hungry. Painkillers or not, I was starving. I started out by eating 100-calorie snacks, but after 3 little bags, I'm sort of defeating the point. Diet? What diet? We ate at Otto's in Covington on Friday night. Have you eaten there? The pork I had was beautiful and delicious. (Julie, you would have loved it.) I ate it all. Thank goodness my back hurt too much to wander around Oktoberfest, or who knows how many cream puffs I would have devoured!
  
  
• Lack of working out. I haven't been to the gym in a week and 1/2 now and I've only had 1-1/2 dance classes. I had to stop in the middle of Monday's quickstep class because the pain was just too much. Talk about frustrating. I've got to get myself back to the gym, but now I'm afraid I'll hurt myself again.

Ups

• The week was not a complete loss. Not at all. Despite all the downs, I only gained back one pound. I'm okay with this. Forgive my french, but shit happens. Setbacks happen. One can only accept it and move forward.
  
  
• My jeans fit and fit well. I hate shopping for jeans. I find it almost as painful as shopping for swimsuits. I pulled out my last year's jeans, all size 8s that were too tight by the time I shelved them for summer and discovered, to my absolute joy, that they fit. In fact, some are slightly too big and others fit absolutely perfectly. In particular, my 7 for All Mankind super-pricey designer jeans fit like they were meant just for me. Hooray!
  
  
• My ribbon theory is working. Remember at the beginning I said I'd measured my inches by using ribbons instead of measuring tape? Well, the bust ribbon hasn't changed (of course not), but the waist ribbon is now too big by at least an inch! Yay! This makes me really happy. In fact, I felt thinner and hotter all weekend (even if I was hobbling). Feeling good is a big part of all this, right?
  
  
• Hollywood is catching on. This made my week. First, The CW has come down on several of its new 90210 stars for being TOO thin and is encouraging them to eat. I love that there is now recognition of too thin. Have you seen these girls? They're such sticks I wonder how their legs can hold them up! Then on Dancing with the Stars (my favorite show), Carrie Ann Inaba told Susan Lucci to bulk up and gain some weight. Susan Lucci, the indomitable Erica Kane, looked too frail. If these folks look so small on camera, how tiny are they off? In addition, my favorite new professional dancer on the show, Lacey Schwimmer (from So You Think You Can Dance), has a bust and hips. I love Lacey - she's got a lot of muscle, but she's got a lot of curves. As a ballroom dancer myself, I aspire to Lacey.

So the week wasn't a wash, and I don't feel too bad about the bonus pound. I'm not back up to 100% yet with my back and my movement, but my dance instructor gave me some yoga moves that are helping. Hopefully I can be off the Vicodan by the weekend and back on track with the diet and healthy lifestyle.

Laura: Two weeks to go and heading backward

It's been a stressful week, and much like Julie, I'm a stress eater. I'm a stress eater deluxe. Shannan totally busted me with a buffalo chicken burrito on Friday -- which was amazingly delicious -- and it helped me forget for a brief moment that my wedding dress is missing! That's right, missing.

And it's not like the alterations people have it -- no, it's two weeks until the wedding and it hasn't even arrived from the dressmaker yet. They keep telling me they will call when it arrives, and they'll check on where it is -- but now that it's more than a week late and I'm getting few answers, I'm starting to get worried. When I get worried, I eat.

I gained a pound this week -- so I have to find some way to deal with the stress of the wedding other than eating burritos and burgers. Ugh.

Oh, and have I mentioned I'm going to have to have this thing altered for sure? How I'm going to do that in two weeks or less is going to be interesting. My waist is two sizes bigger than my bust and hips (not gifted with the curves, this one). And, since my fiance and I are close in height, I'll be wearing flats so I won't be taller -- meaning length must come off.

Somebody, get me a burrito!

Photo Courtesy of Stock.xchng

Laura: The mother of all colds (week 3)

After spending last week working out daily, I spent the first half of this week in bed nursing the worst head/chest cold I've had in about a year. I felt it coming on last Friday, and by Sunday, it was a challenge to drag myself out of bed to do anything, let alone work out. I was pretty much confined to the house when not working through Tuesday, and even as the cold started to die down at the end of the week, my lungs were sore and my schedule was busy.

I guess it's fortunate that the cold wrecked my appetite for a few days, because despite the lack of physical activity, I managed to lose half a pound this week.

I'm definitely starting to feel a lot better, so it's time to get back on the exercise horse. I've only got three weeks left until the wedding, and losing that extra 7.5 pounds is starting to seem impossible. Time to remind myself that it's not about the number, it's about how exercise and eating make me feel.

Julie, Week 3: Work it, baby.

It's obvious: I can only do so much to curtail my social life. I'm the friend you ask about good food, so of course I have to... I don't know, eat it? I'm finding that portion control is my key and five course meals are my downfall-- but not if they're tasting menus and I don't eat it all.

So, coming to the realization that it's fall, and I have a ton of social events starting up, I decided to exercise. Nothing has changed since last week; I still hate it and sort of dread it. However, if I get to the gym BEFORE I go to work, I have no excuse. Terry gets up at 5:45 and I see him out the door by 7. Why go back to bed?

So, this week, I have trudged before dawn to go to the gym. Monday, I went to the Hyde Park Urban Active, which was so packed I gave up-- Monday was my sole "post work" workout because I didn't have anything to do after work. I gave up and went to Bellevue! Bellevue's Urban Active is so nice-- it was crowded, but there were plenty of machines for everyone.

Tuesday, I did my first morning workout. I went back to Bellevue, and it was pretty dead-- I watched The Today Show while I used the elliptical.

Wednesday, I went to Urban Active in Hyde Park. I'm just going to skip Hyde Park and drive up to Mason next time. It's smaller, but it's nicer and the machines aren't all broken. I ended up reading a magazine on a recumbent bike because I couldn't find a working elliptical.

Today, I took a day off-- had some car trouble (silly battery) and wanted to make sure I had time to call AAA. I figure I walked 13 blocks in heels last night, so I got a little extra exercise yesterday.

Other steps I'm taking: If I drink, I limit myself to one glass of wine or one cocktail and then drink water or diet Coke the rest of the night.

I have a wine dinner coming up tomorrow night, and I'll be there with Michelle. I'm going to drink wine, but not the entire glass. I'll eat my food, but not the whole plate. Moderation, moderation.

And I'll be back at the gym in the morning. It actually feels nice getting up so early, and I'm sleeping a lot better.

I lost .5 pounds this week-- despite overindulging. Maybe it's working!

Laura: Rolling and walking along (week 2)

After breaking even last week due to an exciting weekend in Gatlinburg, I decided to get serious and really come up with a strategy I could live with as I try to get wedding dress ready. It's less than a month to go until the big day, and the pressure is certainly on.

One thing I've definitely learned about myself over the years is that my key to success is completely tied to exercise, for a couple reasons. First, I suffer from pretty severe reactive hypoglycemia that's given me problems for years. I actually have a food drawer at work to help me deal with the problem. It's best if I eat every 3 hours or so, and preferably items that are high in fiber and low in refined sugars. I'm also supposed to avoid caffeine, which I've been trying to do lately because it definitely causes my blood sugar to dive and me to snack more than I should. It's hard for me to go under my daily recommended caloric intake of 1750 calories when I'm eating so often. I can do 1500 most days, but 1200 is pretty near impossible. Exercise definitely helps with the blood sugar thing too. I don't know why, but it works.

The other reason exercise is so important to my success is that I generally eat out 3 or 4 times each week. It's completely tied to convenience most of time, but sometimes, as my fiance says, "I just need to feed my tasty."

So, here's the new strategy, and it's working so far, because I've lost 2 pounds this week:

• I'm going to exercise 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Some days it's just getting a long walk in. Sometimes it's riding my bike (my preferred form of exercise as I typically burn about 500-600 calories per hour). And, if all else fails, and the weather is miserable, I'll go to the gym.

• I'm running most of my errands on foot or by bike. This has been more interesting than expected, as I'm really having to plan out my trips so I don't have to carry too much back or so I don't forget something and have to turn around. I bet I walked 4 miles this week just running errands.

• I'm going to make smart eating choices -- salad over fries, fruit instead of chips, water instead of soda, etc -- but I'm not counting calories or measuring anything, since it makes me crazy.

So, that's the plan. Here's hoping I can stick to it. I really feel great when I exercise, but sometimes getting the motivation to get started can be tough. I just need to visualize myself putting on the wedding dress and how nice and toned I look and how much energy I have.

Photo Courtesy of Stock.Xchng

Julie: Week 2, and holding fast

I admit, I didn't have a great weekend. Labor Day weekend, having people over, a few too many appetizers, a couple of drinks I shouldn't have had-- all in all I came out? Even.

Not bad. Not totally disenchanting, but not bad.

Holidays and vacations are my total weak spots, thus no difference this week. I mean, come on-- we all know that I have a love affair with food that surpasses simple sustenance and comfort. I'm into the artistry, the history, the science-- you name it. I read Gourmet and Slashfood like some guys read porn. Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. So, taking into consideration my obsession with food, I have to combine exercise and portion control. The portion control is much easier than the exercise.

I really need to start exercising. Aside from walking around downtown, I'm not an exerciser. I never played sports. I danced until I was in my teens, but don't feel like taking dance lessons. I have a gym membership (Urban Active) that I rarely use. I have yoga mats and DVDs at home (have you tried to do yoga with cats? Difficult!). I have lots of excuses and little motivation. Exercise bores me.

I'm the kind of girl that always has a book with her. It's darn hard to read while on an elliptical, and I somehow have the mindset that a recumbent bike is lazy. Appreciate nature while biking around? Not my style. Running? Ew. As much as my friends (and boyfriend) tell me they love it, I just can't get behind it. Wii Fit? I'd have to find a Wii. It goes on and on.

So what the heck can I do besides force myself to go? Once I start doing it, will I really ever enjoy it? I never have time after work-- how freaking early do I have to get up?

What does a girl do when the last thing she wants to do is break a sweat?

(Image from V for Virtuoso through Creative Commons license.)

Michelle: Body Image and Working Out (Week 1)

I have a million thoughts to share, so hopefully I can boil these down to something mildly coherent. Like Kate and some of the other girls, I took the weekend to go out to eat a few times and rid my kitchen of Keebler Fudge Stripes and other things (pesky elves). The "lifestyle change" started in full-force on Monday.

I have a body image problem. It's a recent thing, this dislike of certain parts of my body. But it's also really hit me that my body image issues are partially brought on by our current society. I was watching Mad Men the other night. One of my favorite characters is Joan Holloway (played by Christina Hendricks). Think about how she looks, how they dress her. She's beautiful, and she's in tight clothing and is most definitely not a size 2. She's curvy, which was accepted and appreciated in the 60s.

I've always loved Marilyn Monroe. This morning, I pulled out one of my "Marilyn Encyclopedias" and looked up her measurements. She was around 38-26-37 (bust-waist-hips). 38! Today, we clamor for 34! Marilyn wore a size 12 dress and a size 8 pants. Gee, how times have changed. If this were the 60s, I wouldn't feel overweight, I'd feel curvy.

Thinking of these women that I find beautiful is helping me adjust to my own body image. I really want to drive a point home though - on this blog, we're all trying to get healthy and adjust our eating habits and exercise accordingly. It's not about "being skinny" for us. Really. However, with good health comes a lot of benefits, and we're definitely up for that. Some of us, when we hit our ideal weights, will still be curvy girls.

I've never been good with numbers. Ideally, I'll be replacing fat with muscle, which is heavier. So my weight may not go down as drastically. When I'm still weighing in the same and the other girls are shedding pounds, I need to remember that. I talked with my trainer on Tuesday, and my goal is to get leaner, and I'm targeting a couple of places. I've also found a solution to track my progress without, again, getting caught up in the numbers. I've cut two ribbons, one white and one black. The black measures my first target area and the white measures the second. The goal is to make sure those ribbons end up too big in the end.

Sunday I stopped at my local SteinMart, which is going out of business. I bought several skirts, all in size 8, with one size 6. At the beginning of summer, I was searching out size 10s. So there has definitely been a change. However, I've lost between 2-4 fluctuating pounds since the beginning of summer, so the difference is in body shape, not weight. This is pretty impressive considering I've only been working out about twice per week, and that includes dancing. Imagine the difference working out will make if I can force myself to do it more than twice per week!

I'm moving my workout ball and my little hand weights out to the middle of the family room, where I'm sure I'll trip over them repeatedly. Hopefully staring at them everyday will force me to use them, even if I don't make it to the gym.

One final thing: I have lousy posture. Whenever you see me, remind me to stand up straight. It makes a huge difference in appearance and, especially with all my back troubles, will keep me from being a hunched up little old woman when I'm 90.