Guest Post: Popcorn Perils

Let's all send Tammy our hellos and love across cyberspace!

Tammy asked me to guest post for her tonight - she's got some things going can't get on to post this evening, and since she didn't post last night, she didn't want to go two days during the week without a post, so here I am!

I was planning on talking about this on my own blog, so I'll just hijack my own post....

On both The Today show and The CBS Early Show this morning, they touched on a new report on a not so new subject of the perils of popcorn, more specifically, movie theater popcorn.

I can easily remember in my younger, more "I don't give a care what I am shoving into my body" days, walking into a theater and plopping down with a big ol bag of popcorn, a big, sweet soda and clutching a beautiful box of candy in my other hand, all ready to enjoy whatever I came to see. Of course, before the lights went dim for the previews, I had already inhaled my bounty, and usually had a little soda left to sip on throughout the show.

Of course, over the last few years, we have heard about the unbelievable caloric totals that the popcorn at most theaters, but a new study went a little more in depth.

Here are a few excerpts from The Today Show Article:

New laboratory tests conducted by the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest reveal that a $12 medium-popcorn-and-soda combo sold at Regal, the country’s largest movie-theater chain, contains 1,610 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat — the equivalent of three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with 12 pats of butter.

At AMC theaters, serving sizes are smaller but can still pack a wallop. A large popcorn has 1,030 calories and 57 grams of saturated fat — the equivalent of a pound of baby back ribs topped with a scoop of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, but with more fat.

At Cinemark, which pops its popcorn in heart-healthy canola oil, a large popcorn has 910 calories with 4 grams of saturated fat. “Though popping in canola gives this chain’s popcorn far less saturated fat than its competitors, it’s almost as high in calories and has the most sodium — about twice as much as Regal or AMC,” the Center for Science in the Public Interest said in a statement.

The giant sodas served at the movies also take a toll, the study said. To name just one example, a 54-ounce large soda at Regal has 33 teaspoons of sugar and 500 empty calories.

And don’t forget about the candy: A 5-ounce bag of Twizzlers contains 15 teaspoons of sugar. A 7-ounce box of Nerds contains 46 teaspoons of sugar. And an 8-ounce bag of Reese’s Pieces contains 1,160 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat.

I think back at how I used to eat so haphazardly and am surprised I was able to make it to 38. It also makes me very aware of the perils that are still out there, and how so many people choose to ignore them. The article also mentioned how some theaters tried to offer more healthy options a few years ago (1994), and they all flopped significantly.

One point, however, is that none of the theaters offer nutritional information to their patrons, and while in general, the "people just have no idea what they are eating" excuse is a dumb one, I do think seeing this information could possibly deter a few individuals from making these choices.

I know that a movie is a special treat that most of us do not have as a frequent occurrence in our day to day activities, so special treats seem to deserve allowances for extra indulgences, don't you agree? But, when you consider a drink, a popcorn and a box of candy combined has potentially 3,270 calories, and copious grams of saturated fats, sugars and sodium, is a movie really worth it?

I say smuggle in your own air popped popcorn, a bottle of water and enjoy the show!

Thanks Tammy! Its been fun!

Pam: Journey To The Healthier Side of Life

A Little Tweak This Week

First of all, a great big THANK YOU to my bestest friend for guest posting for me last night. She did an excellent job and I'm quite sure I'll be asking for her services again in the future. :)

Now...here's the deal. I wrote last week that I was definitely, without a doubt, going to have a loss this week. I wrote about my "scale confidence" because I know what it takes to get the weight off. First, the decision...the absolute hardest part. That's been done. Secondly, the old tried and true philosophy of "eat less, move more"...and that's EXACTLY what I've done all week.

So...I hop on the scale yesterday morning to see what kind of glorious loss I'm working towards for Friday's weigh-in and guess what I see? I GAINED A POUND since last Friday. WHAT THE HECK??? My language was actually a little stronger than that, but I'll spare you the four-letter words.

Time to analyze. Have I eaten within my calorie limit since Friday? Absolutely, every single day. Have I done at least 20 mins of cardio every single day? Definitely, yes indeedy. Have I had any binges? Nope. Have I cheated at all on the calories? Nope. Am I lying to myself? No ma'am....absolutely not. Everything is above board and every calorie has been tracked and reported. Am I positive? Is it possible I've been lax at all? Hmmmmm......

Suddenly little mishaps started creeping back into my memory. First off, I keep a dry measuring cup, a liquid measuring cup, a set of measuring spoons, and a food scale on my kitchen counter at all times. I use them every day. Well....ALMOST all of them. There is one thing I haven't been using lately and that's the measuring spoons. I use sugar-free creamer in my coffee and it's 15 calories for 1 tbsp. I usually have 2 cups of coffee when I drink it, so that's 30 calories.

I got tired of the tediousness of measuring out little bits of creamer, so I stopped. I got irritated and I got lazy. I'm thinking I may have thrown an extra 15-30 calories here and there w/o realizing....and those things add up so fast. If I have 2 c. in the morning w/ breakfast, and 2 c. at night when I sit down to do my post...I might be intaking a good bit more calories just in stupid creamer than I was tracking on my nutrition website. So, in light of this error, I started using the measuring spoons again today.

Next in line....potato chips. No, I have not eaten half a bag of chips and not logged it. I DO do my best to be honest about my calories. I want the weight to come off, and as soon as possible, so no sense in purposely not writing something down. Just because you didn't log it, doesn't mean you didn't eat it. I saw something in Amy's post tonight at "Not So Secret Life..." that made me chuckle. Her sister is her personal trainer and she's training Amy to write down every morsel of food. She said, "If you bite it...you write it." I totally agree. However, I did remember that 2 different times yesterday I wanted to snack and I grabbed Dwayne's potato chips and had 2 chips each time....knowing not to eat a whole handful because that would just be stupid. Besides, I'm not a big chip person to start with. Definitely not a trigger food for me. I went back and read the calories on the bag tonight. 7 chips is 70 calories....so the 4 chips I ate and forgot to log was 40 calories!! Doh!

I've also done this with sesame crackers. Again, 7 crackers is 70 calories. Sometimes I'll pop 2 in my mouth when it's too late at night to eat much, and I usually don't have enough calories left anyway. It's a not a huge amount...20 calories...but add that to the chips and the creamer and I'm probably over 100 calories in a day w/o even realizing it. And that's EVERY day in some form or fashion. I've gotten a little soft on the calories apparently and I stopped it today.

Also, this Friday will be the last week for my 2 month/8 week weigh-in and last chance to hit my 10 lb. goal for the month. I've lost 8 lbs....gotta' have 2 more. Of course, I lost 12 last month, so if I don't get the other 2 gone this week, it's still 20 lbs lost in 2 months when you average it out, so technically, I guess the goal is still met. However, that's not how I want to think of it. I want those other 2 lbs gone THIS MONTH. So I decided to tweak things a little bit for today, Wed and Thur to see if it will produce a loss this Friday.

I've cut my calories down to 1400, which is still WELL within the range of calories my nutrition website gives me. They give me a range of 1200-1550. I'm hoping getting more dilligent with counting, and shaving off a few will give me a little boost. Also, I got on the treadmill and did 2 miles again in 30 mins...WOO HOO!! And then I decided this evening to go back down and do 2 MORE MILES/30 mins....for a grand total of 4 MILES today...GO SKINNY TAMMY!!

I'm hoping with this little tweak in my week (I love rhyming phrases :)) that I will see a loss on Friday...one that I can be proud of.

I've picked up some new followers this week....WELCOME!!! I also found some new totally awesome blogs this week...some of them newbies and to me that is just incredibly exciting....I couldn't help myself...I ran over to their blogs with the glorious news that THEY CAN DO IT!!!! I want everyone to know that this is the LAST time they ever have to lose weight. This is it. The grand finale...and the new beginning for them in so many other ways. Every time I read where someone says they're just not sure if they've got it in them to go another round...to try and lose the weight AGAIN...if they're really able to make the change for the better and make it stick this time.....oh my goodness. I start typing so fast there's smoke coming off my keyboard! I know I've only been in it for 7 weeks, but oh my the mental changes I'm making...the 72 lbs or so I've still got to lose doesn't intimidate me at all...not one tiny bit. I run over to their blogs and tell them YES, YOU CAN DO IT!! WITHOUT A DOUBT!! YOU KNOW YOU'VE GOT IT IN YOU OR YOU WOULDN'T BE HERE BLOGGING ABOUT IT. WE'LL DO IT TOGETHER!! I'M MENTIONING YOU IN MY BLOG!! LET'S ALL BEAT THIS THING TOGETHER!! LET'S SLAY OBESITY ONCE AND FOR ALL!! ONWARD, SOLDIERS!!

Yes, I know I'm a bit of a dork, lol, but when you finally get the mindset that I've got...the one where you know in your heart of hearts that you've finally got a grip....that you've found that intoxicating power to say "NO" to food...that yes, you really are worth it, when all these fat years you thought you weren't....you just can't help but reach out and grab someone's hand and pull them into the Happy Boat with you. Changing your life is hard....it's a hard, hard road...a lot of days are rough...and some may be stronger than others...or have been in the groove longer. I know on my weak days I go running to the blogs on my blogroll for inspiration, and I always, always find it. Undoubtedly, every time, someone says just what I need to hear....and it strengthens my resolve. It lifts me up when I'm too tired to pick myself up. We're all in this battle together. No one is alone.

This brings me to my quote for the day. I'm sure that by now most of you know about Jen from "Prior Fat Girl" and the untimely and tragic passing of her mom a few days ago. Boy has it had me torn up. I've cried every day since it's happened and prayed fervently that some peace will come to their family quickly. I had never read her blog until I saw a link on someone else's expressing their condolences....I read it on several blogs, actually. I pulled it up tonight and one of Jen's friends wrote a tribute to her mother, Kim. She put a quote in there that Kim had posted as a comment on one of her daughter Jen's posts. This woman and I could have been friends. I could feel her desire to help others....and it mirrors me completely. We have the same heart. :) I lifted it from the post so I could share it with you all tonight.

Quote For The Day:

"Now as we travel the road of life, we need to pick up others along the way as their loads may be too heavy to carry." -Kim, Jen at "Prior Fat Girl"'s mom

Pam is Guest Posting Tonight...WOO HOO!!!

I was thrilled when Tammy asked me to guest post on her blog!

She and I have known each other since we were both the fat girls in high school, and we are both working toward bettering ourselves right now. I could not be prouder of her journey so far! Tammy has come such a long way with her eating, its amazing. Once you set your mind to a goal, it becomes the focus, and not the cravings and temptations that hamper our dreams of being at a healthy weight.

She asked me to touch upon the food aspect of getting healthier, and while I am not a nutritionist or professionally trained, I will share with you what I have learned on my own personal journey and what its doing for myself and my family.

When my husband Randall and I began our journey, much like Tammy, our albatross was fast food. Every weekend, we spent much time and money at Sonic, among other fast food eateries, and had been doing so for well over a year, since I had gotten pregnant with our now two year old son. After deciding to try getting healthier for our child, I began looking up the nutritional values of what we had been consuming, and it was appalling. The sad thing is...so many restaurants offer this information now, and so many of us just turn a blind eye to it and keep filling our bodies with these toxins.

So, once the obvious is no longer a barrier, then what? A lot of people out there go very holistic, and eliminate all processed foods, caffeine, sugars, all the way down to eliminating meats from their diet. I applaud them all. Do I think its the only way to become healthy?
No, I don't. But I do think its about getting back to basics.

Eat as much fresh as you can - fresh fruits and vegetables are a huge thing you can do for yourself. Be willing to do a little work for it. No, I'm not talking farming, but prepping. So many of us use being busy as an excuse for not eating the way we should, and some of us resort to grabbing chopped veggies at the market. First off, you have no idea how long the produce has actually been cut, or what has been done to it to keep it looking fresh. Baby Carrots are a lovely example of this. First, they are not baby carrots at all - they are all of the misshapen rejects that couldn't make it to a regular bag of carrots, whittled down and made more appealing to us. The scariest part of baby carrots? They are treated with a bleaching solution to maintain freshness. If you read the bottom of this post, you will see a quote from a baby carrot producer, admitting this. Makes you wonder what is in the other pre-cut veggies and fruits, doesn't it?

While I am not pushing a sugar free lifestyle on myself or my family, I have become painfully aware of High Fructose Corn Syrup and the many horrors that accompany it, one of them being a possible link between it and levels of mercury found in nearly half of items that were tested for the metal in a study by Minneapolis-based nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). I was mortified when I realized I had been feeding several of these items to my child. It was just another step in my realizations of what needed to be trimmed from our menus as we are becoming healthier. I now seek out breads that are HFCS Free (bread is a huge market for HFCS - even when you think you are choosing healthy whole wheat bread for your family, many times, you are also feeding them HFCS, too), among other items. When we do bring an item into the house unintentionally with HFCS in it, I have the comfort in at least knowing I have definitely moderated out consumption, and isn't that what its all about - moderation.

Moderation is a huge key to controlling the portions of your proteins, as well as the occasional treat that we all want and deserve. After all, this is not a diet, its our lives we're talking about, here!

By adapting these changes to mine and my family's day to day lifestyle, it has become a way of life, one that has made us happier, more energetic, and netted us both decent losses so far - since January I have lost 67 pounds and my husband has lost 52 pounds. If you get a chance, stop by and see how we're doing. I still have a long row to hoe and Randall is getting closer to the end of his.

Thanks, again, Tammy - this was great!

Good luck to all of you losers out there!

Pam

Journey To The Healthier Side of Life