Spaghetti Squash, You FAKE!

Maybe it’s not really Spaghetti Squash’s fault. We don’t normally give ourselves our own name. But to whoever gave Spaghetti Squash it’s name has misled an army of dieters.

I dare you to go on a diet forum and make a post that says something like “I know I could do a better job sticking to my diet if I could just eat more pasta!” You will, I can almost guarantee it, bring out some well-meaning but misinformed person who will happily give you this golden piece of advice “Have you tried Spaghetti Squash!” 😀

I have desperately tried to embrace Spaghetti Squash, and I have desperately tried to fool myself into believing that it could replace spaghetti, and coming to the cold hard conclusion that no matter how hard I try – Spaghetti Squash is as far from it’s pasta namesake as green beans is from chocolate. Really. When someone pipes in and says “Have you tried Spaghetti Squash?!” I feel like responding “No. I haven’t eaten poop yet either, but I’m pretty sure it’s not spaghetti either!” (No, I don’t say that but I think it really loud)

Maybe it’s my fault too. I’m such a horrible cook. If I could make delicious homemade healthy dinners, deiting and healthy living would be so much easier. Instead, I grab a recipe for Spaghetti Squash off the internet. And I dress up the VEGETABLE (It IS a vegetable. Vegetable != Pasta!!!! M’kay?) like it’s a drag queen pasta dish, and it tastes simply awful.

So my final conclusion. Spaghetti Squash: You only vaguely resemble spaghetti in shape, but you are nothing like the goodness that is carb-filled pasta. You don’t taste like spaghetti. You don’t smell like spaghetti. If you cook just a minute too long you become a mushy mess and then you don’t even come close to looking like spaghetti. YOU, my fine veggie friend, are an imposter of the worst kind. You make people think they can eat a spaghetti dish that has next to no calories. You fill my dinner with dreams and promises and then you don’t deliver. You are a charlatan. A fraud!!

I dare any of you to come up with a recipe using spaghetti squash that 1) I can make without screwing up, 2) I can make quickly because not only do I suck at cooking, I hate doing it too, so the sooner I’m out of the kitchen and into the dinning room the better, and 3) that doesn’t taste like poo. I dare you. Because I know it can’t be done. HA!

Home so soon?

Forget what I said about the diet vacation. UGH. I mean, I know it was labor day weekend and all, but all the food from the BBQ, takeout because we wanted a break from cooking, and I am sick. I’m going to keep trying to get back into the swing of logging what I eat. After eating healthy for a few months, I’m quickly reminded how I used to feel. This feeling of food just sitting like a rock at the bottom of my stomach, even hours and hours later. I used to think this was “normal” because I would feel like this all the time. But now it’s so different. You’re not supposed to feel gross after dinner, or still “full” even the next morning! YUCK.

Diet Vacation (of sorts)

I officially hit 130lbs a few weeks ago. That’s 30lbs down from when I initially started trying to lose weight last year. Half of that I lost since April. I’m definitely hitting a point right now where I’m getting a little tired of logging what I eat. Every meal is becoming a chore because eating healthy takes a lot of time to do. A few weeks ago, we started shooting for having breakfast dinners partially because breakfast tends to be the lowest calorie and healthier meal of the day. It is also pretty quick and easy to whip up a breakfast dinner. Oatmeal. Cereal.

In any case. I’m tired. For the next week or two, I’m still going to try and eat healthy. But if I’m hungry, I’m going to eat. I’ll pick something healthy to snack on, and I’ll try to watch how much of it I have, but I’m going to cut back on how intensely I count every calorie. I’m going to watch my weight very carefully while I do this so it’s not like I’m going to allow myself to balloon up a few pounds. And the instant I see it starting to catch up with me, I will start being more religious about logging every calorie. I’m still going to do the workouts I’ve been doing. Hip Hop Hustle and running (and maybe Zumba – we lost our original instructor for this class, and it’s just not the same without her). But I just need a break.

My guess is that the “break” will be good. When I’m ready to start losing the last 5lbs, I bet it will be easier then if I had tried to push through right now. I think my body needs get used to being this weight. And then I can trick it down to going just a little bit more. We’ll see how it goes.

Running Equipment

Managed to get two runs in this week, so I’m slowly working back up to where I was before I got sick. Earlier this week, I hopped on the treadmill and ran a mile right away without stopping again. I couldn’t do it again after that, only a half or 3/4’s of a mile – but I was really happy that I hadn’t completely gotten out of shape in the week+ I took off for being sick. Yesterday I wanted to run again, but I really didn’t want to go back to the gym. I missed being able to run outside, and my silly issue of not being able to get a drink while running was seriously bugging me. So I ran out and made yet another exercise purchase. Here’s what I’ve gotten to date:

Polar F7 Heart Rate Monitor
This has been instrumental in my being able to understand exactly how many calories I’m burning when I’m working out and how my body is reacting to the exercise. I can see when my heart rate is going too high and I need to pull back a bit, and I can see when it’s gone too low and I need to step it up a bit. My major complaint with it is that I’ve not been able to get it to work in the water. No matter how tight I make the chest band, no matter what I do. It thinks I’m dead in the water and gives me a heart rate of 0. Heh. Otherwise, love it.

iPod/iPhone Armband Holder
Obviously this is very handy. I keep my iphone in it, even though it has the plastic shield, it still registers when I use the touch screen.

Chain Timer iPhone App
When I’m doing my “Run 3 mins / Walk 2 mins” rotations, this app is invaluable! You can set custom chained timers and then it buzzes or plays a sound to let you know when to switch. I play my music in the background and then run this app.

Altec Lansing Backbeat Bluetooth Headset
Originally, I had been using the wired headphones with my iPhone, but the wires bouncing around while I ran really annoyed me. If I had a call come in, I’d have to disconnect everything to take the call. And of course the volume controls were on the phone itself, so to raise or lower the volume meant again, fumbling with the phone. With this headset, all these controls are on the headset itself, and no annoying wire. Take a call, change the volume, pause music play even, all with an easy click on the headset. It also will filter the ambient sound when you have the music paused, so you don’t have to take the headphones out in order to hear when people are talking to you.

And now my most recent purchase:
a Water Bottle Belt
This has been a major issue for me running outside. I can’t run for more than 5 minutes before I need to rehydrate. Not wanting to carry a bottle around in my hand, I hadn’t been bringing any water with me, which would usually lead to me feeling sick at the end of the run. This belt is really comfortable, I actually push it around and wear it on my back. It has a little pouch too so I can put keys etc. in there. I bought this last night and then ran out of the house to try it out. Very happy with it.

I also bought a Camelbak Water Bottle Sara had recommended. Worked ok. I was going to use it with the straw – but it almost immediately fell off inside. Tried to get it to stay – wouldn’t. Not sure if that’s a problem with these bottles in general, or just mine. But I did like the bottle anyway. 😀

(Isn’t it ironic that with all my exercise/running purchases, I still haven’t gotten a fancy pair of running shoes? LOL! The ones I’m using I got from Costco – they were cheap but they seem pretty good.)

Calorie check in isle 5, please?

Before I started counting calories, I hadn’t paid much attention to nutrition labels. At least, not nearly as much as I do now. Sure, I would check fiber and protein counts occasionally. Sometimes I’d double check to make sure a product didn’t contain any trans fat. Beyond that I was in the land of ignorance-is-bliss. I figured that similar products would all be about the same calories, unless something was marked as “light” – and then I assumed the item was ok to have on a diet.

When I did start to track calories, obviously this required me to pay close attention to those labels. It was a huge eye-opener. Products that seem exactly the same – can vary in calories to a huge degree. Once I saw that, reading the labels of everything I buy has become both a necessity and an obsession. It certainly has made shopping trips take a lot longer, but the quality of food I’m buying is worth the extra time. Something that can look and taste almost the same, can differ in calories by a few hundred. And the big surprise, not all of those items labeled “light” are really lower calorie.

Just today, I was looking for some quick, easy lunches. I found some instant-noodle bowls that looked interesting. They all looked about the same, but read the label and one package was around 500 calories. Another was under 300.

Another thing to watch out with those nutrition labels, sometimes I feel like they design them to fool the consumer. Something that may look like it’s a low-calorie item, may not be at all – it all depends on the portion size too. I see this a lot in cereals. We found an awesome tasting cereal that was made to look healthy and low calorie, but the one serving the nutrition label was basing it’s numbers on was so small, there would be no way to feel satisfied with it.

Scanning the labels is pretty time consuming, and with a husband and two kids usually in tow – it’s not very practical. The first few weeks of calorie counting, I had to go shopping on my own so I could spend the time to look at all the labels on the shelf. Thankfully, now things have gotten a lot easier. I’m starting to be familiar with what to expect for calories for certain items. I’m getting to know the brands that have the lower calories so shopping trips aren’t as slow as they used to be.

It took time to make this part of our regular routine and way of eating. But it’s well worth the time we invested.

Accepting the inevitable

So… it’s August 21st. Summer is pretty much over at this point. I was on week 4 (of a 13 week training program) before I got sick last week and have not exercised so much as my little finger since then. I think it’s a safe bet the 5K will not happen this summer. And being that I am such a wimp with the cold, running a 5K in the fall or winter is not going to happen either. Spring 2010. That’s the new plan. There will be plenty of time to train. Sure I could probably half-walk/half-run one now – but since I’ve never run in a 5K – I would like to try to AIM for running more than walking.

I was so proud of being able to run that mile a little more than a week ago. But when I got sick, that was the end of that for the rest of the week. I haven’t felt “right” since then. I wasn’t able to stand for more than a minute or two before my legs started hurting and/or before I’d start to feel faint and light-headed. Today is the first day I didn’t have to sit down every 5 seconds while I got ready in the morning. So I am going to try to run again tonight. I have no idea what to expect. I was up to session 2 of week 4: (which was a recover week) – back to running two minutes walking two minutes. This is probably good that it was a “recovery week” – it will help me get back into the running grove.