No More Fat Dad

My wife made a box of Rice-a-Roni Nature’s Way Parmesan & Romano Cheese Rice for a side dish tonight. Being the good health nut that I’m becoming, I checked out the nutrition facts to figure out the calories, fat, carbs, etc and what a serving was. Well, here is the nutrition facts label for the box…

Can someone please read over that and tell me exactly how much a PREPARED serving of this stuff would be? I think it’s supposed to be 1 cup prepared for a serving, but I’m not quite sure.

Why can’t they make it clear? Are they trying to make making healthy choices more difficult?

In just one day of using FitDay to track my calories, I’ve discovered I’m not taking in close to enough calories in a day. Using a formula I used from Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, I determined my daily calorie requirements (for my age, height, weight and activity level) should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2400 calories. On Monday, I took in only ~1700 and that’s not taking into account my interval training. So I’d say my calorie total for yesterday was closer to 1400 and that is WAY too low.

Continue reading ‘I can eat more!!!’

Here we are, at the end of Week 6 with just two more weeks to go. The Belly Off! program has been great and I’m very happy with my results. Not only physical, but the mental results as well. Even when I had a seemingly rough week this week, I’m still motivated to keep moving forward and am not really discouraged at all. I really believe that I now posses the tools needed to continue living a healthy lifestyle.

Continue reading ‘Weekly Review - Week 6′

I just came across this good article that discusses the benefits of my favorite nut, the almond (no, not Almond M&M’s!!!) and thought I’d share it with everyone.

A new study from Purdue University has come up with some interesting results of tests on artificial sweeteners. I’ve seen some of this info around the web before, but this is the most recent study and seems to confirm what other studies have found.

I’ve tried to remove all artificial sweeteners from my diet since the beginning of the year. I have noticed a huge change in my cravings and health. Looking back on it now, I can say with 100% confidence, there was definitely a link between me drinking Diet Pepsi and my junk food cravings.

I stumbled across this bread the other day while wandering around the local grocery store. This stuff is awesome! All natural ingredients, no trans-fats, quite a few have a lot of fiber, all an all it’s a great bread.

Here is a great article by Matthew McNutt from Season 3 of The Biggest Loser. Just a refresher, Matthew was one of the contestants who lost his weight at home, not on the Ranch. He lost a total of 176 pounds from start to finish (8 months). His blog has tons of great information, I recommend you check it out (linked in my blog roll).

Today is the start of the Lenten season and is Ash Wednesday. This is one of two days in the Catholic church where parishioners are required to fast (the other being Good Friday). Now the definition of a fast isn’t as extreme as it used to be. In today’s RC Church, fasting just means one normal meal, two smaller meals and no snacking in-between meals. For someone on a 5-6 meal a day schedule, this is messing me up just a bit.

Continue reading ‘Forced zig-zag’

Here is a good site that helps you visualize what 200 calories looks like in different foods. It’s a pretty good reminder of why we should be eating more fruits and veggies. Thanks to Stanimal’s site for this link.

Here’s another Hipster guide for you. This time, I’ve taken the ethnic food guide I linked to earlier and put it on 3×5 cards so you can carry the guide with you wherever you go. You could always print on the front and back of some cards, so it would only be 3 cards total (or 5 cards total if you just print on one side each)

NMFD Hipster Ethnic Food Guide

I love going out to eat, and I really love going out to ethnic restaurants to eat. Indian, Chinese and Thai are my favorites. I like to try different items on the menus, I don’t like to just get one thing over and over again. The only problem with my approach is, it’s easy to chose something that sounds good without realizing what it can do to your diet (as much as I hate that word, that’s all I can call it right now). So, I found these great “Ethnic restaurant quick guides” over at About.com and thought I’d share. They’re just quick lists of what to stick to and what to avoid for different ethnic foods.

Here is something we all should know. I easily get confused on which fats are healthier than the others. Maybe it’s just easier to remember what food contain healthy fats (nuts, cold water fish, flax seed) but I guess if you read labels (which I should learn how to understand a bit better), this will help.

There is an interesting article over at the Biosingularity blog.

Here is an excerpt from the post.

“A new scientific review of the most current research shows the link between eating oatmeal and cholesterol reduction to be stronger than when the FDA initially approved the health claim’s appearance on food labels in 1997.”

Just a few more reasons to include oatmeal in your Belly Off! diet. I like mine with cinnamon and blueberries in low-fat milk.

Goodbye pepperoni & sausage pizza…

Goodbye boxes of Little Debbie cakes…

Goodbye McDonald’s fish sandwiches with chocolate shakes.

Unlike most of my relationships, I get to end my relationship with bad food on my terms and how I want. There is sorrow but also excitement for what new foods I’ll discover (there are a few analogies I could make, but my wife will probably read this some day so I wont</smile>). I’ll cover new foods I’m enjoying in another post.

Continue reading ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’