August 31st, 2010

Yup, the big day is approaching, laydeez, so GET IN THAT GYM!

Fifty [50] days until the final weigh-in.

It's coming! And I'm afraid.

Personally, I've been suffering a little bit of a "spell" lately. I seem to be stuck. So once again, I'm trying to "up" my exercise and "down" my snacking.

But Patrice had an even BETTER idea, which is that on the final weigh-in day, we could show up in swimsuits. This would have multiple beneficial effects, i.e.,: increased motivation to actually diet more effectively so as to look good in a suit; and swimsuits weigh less than tennis clothes so you might get the odd half-pound off your total. I'll bring my camera, and once again we'll be famous.

Think about it. My Borat suit weighs hardly anything. Score!

I know this is going to totally motivate ME, so whether you all go for the idea or not, I'm entirely in. It'll encourage me to work harder in Pilates sessions to tone my core, and I might persuade myself to leave the roasted cashews alone after 5pm (world's biggest temptation!) Not to mention the Stoli in the freezer.

Where were we? Of course, snacking on cashews. The Daily Herald today had some good snack suggestions on page 2 of the Health and Fitness section. Joshua Steckler and Mark Trapp, two robust and hunky fitness trainers from Schaumburg suggest the following:

• 1 apple and 1 tablespoon natural almond butter
• protein smoothie -- 1 scoop whey or egg protein (ewwww, gross!), 1 cup frozen fruit, 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter, 8 oz of water
• 1 hard-boiled egg and 1 half cup blueberries (I guess these things go together because they're both ovoid shaped?)
• 2 celery sticks and 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
• greek yogurt and one half cup raspberries
• 1 oz almonds and 2 oz grapes
• 1 half-cup cottage cheese with a sliced peach

These boys look like they're eating a bit more than the above, but then they're men and they're fitness trainers, so they probably get a few bonus calories. How much is 2 oz of grapes? My scale doesn't go that low.

In other news from this morning's Herald, "Skinny Tips" include:

• cut out soft drinks;
• sleep more (ha! you can't eat while asleep, or some of us can't anyway);
• have 3 servings of vegetables with dinner rather than just one (so exhausting to cook three: this will make you sleep even more! especially since you cut out soft drinks at the beginning of this paragraph, so no Diet Coke! No caffeine! My goodness, things are just going from bad to worse to flippin' terrible here, all in the space of one long run-on sentence!)

And that's just about it. All these diet tips are thanks to someone who said to me today, "What is that blog about?"

And I was like, "Weight loss, and fitness, I guess. Except I haven't posted a diet tip for ages and all I do is run on and on about handsome men and bulging quadriceps!" Whoops, reality check.

But you don't come here for the diet and weight loss tips, do you now? You're here for the visuals. And so here you go.



Eating fruit is good for you.


Vegetables are sexy.



And you should definitely have 6 a day. Just like the sign says.