Oh how I missed my oatmeal pancakes!!! I can tell my body is on vacation because I slept until 7:30 this morning – with the alarm going off at 6:30 at which point I decided I should wait until the sun came up. After pittering around the house, changing all the bedding (comforter cover and all), vacuuming and doing some cleaning, we set off for the gym.
Breakfast #1
When I got up I had a cup of tea and a piece of toast to tide my hunger until after my workout. I always wake up really hungry and have to eat something first thing. Toast is my favorite 🙂 It’s just filling enough to keep my stomach from growling but just light enough to not feel like a real breakfast.
I topped it with a little jam, Smart Balance, and PB:
~150 kcal
Workout
400 kcal burned at the gym. Stairmaster, elliptical, upper body lifting. And when we emerged from the dark gym, the blue sky made an appearance! YAY!! I hate it when it’s dreary on my days off.
Breakfast #2
We got home, showered, vacuumed more and by the time I’d made an oatmeal pancake and a soy latte, it was 11:15!! The husband made his breakfast into brunch and had egg, ham, toast, and apple but I would rather have two meals, so I did a pancake and latte and will have lunch around 2 or so.
Breakfast calories: 350.
Today
I’m all dressed up today so I don’t feel like a bum. First stop is Target, but I have no afternoon plans, so I might just curl up and read my book – Losing Julia – that my mother in law gave me for Christmas. I also want to keep cleaning our house (which makes me SOOO happy when things are clean) but I need to stock up on Method supplies at Target first!
Have a wonderful day.
Cathy says
Welcome back and happy holidays! Thanks for being so dedicated to your blog and still posting everyday through a very busy holiday time! So, I finally got the food scale I wanted and am so exicted to use it, of course i opened the box and was weighing anything I could find (coasters my drink!). Just wondering what you use it for most. What kinds of things do you weigh and why? Thanks so much! Enjoy your day off….I am stuck at work wishing I could be home weighing food and reading!! Hehe!
Becky says
I also got a food scale! (Salter, like you recommended) It is wonderful! The apples that I was counting as about 80 kcal are really like 120 kcal…….Who knew! My boyfriend says that he is going to start weighing stuff too….probably not food…more like coasters like the above! Hahaha
Danielle says
Speaking of pancakes… my family got a homemade cinnamon pancake mix from friends for Christmas and decided to use it this morning. Yummy! I can't help but feel guilty though because I haven't exactly been eating as healthy as I usually like to and I wouldn't consider pancakes nutritious. How bad do you think they could've been?
Laura says
I do have a food scale as well.To monitor my portions i weight most of the stuff i eat such as fruit,rice , pasta,vegetables. measuring cup is great for liquids such as milk,juice.It really helps me to control my portions and know for example how does 2oz pasta serving looks like,so when i go out to eat i can still control my food intake.
Karen says
Hi Kath – I greatly enjoy your blog, as I can relate better to your approach to healthy eating and weight management than other similar blogs. I admire the hard work it took to lose your initial weight and the fact that you work on a daily basis, through exercise and sensible eating and good old fashioned calorie counting, as opposed to following the mypyrmiad method, which is both cumbersome and not very effective for those who are not blessed by being "naturally thin."
My question relates to the clalculation of your daily calorie quota/goal. I am small boned and on the shorter side as well, and my acitvity level is comparable to yours. It seems in reading your past posts, you aim for approximately 1700 calories/day or 1200 net. I understand that you are subtracting the 500 or so you burn through exercise, but wouldn't that create a defecit for you? Are you aiming to lose one pound per week? I am just trying to understand for myself, as it seems to me that you should be eating 1700 calories or so to maintain your current BMI. I would appreciate your guidance so that I can apply the same formula to my own situation.
Thanks so much for your insights and your generousity!
jem says
Hi Kath! I'm a new reader, and I think your have an excellent blog. I got an F4 for Christmas and I have noticed that my heart rate reading will go to 00 and stay there for 5 -10 min. Have you noticed this with your monitor? Any suggestions? I think I have it in the right spot….I'm worried that I am not getting an accurate count when this happens.
Gen says
Jem–
Your heart rate monitor is probably not able to read your heart rate from the strap around your body–my husband told me you have to run the strap under some water before you put it on so that it can read your heart rate (it works as a conductor). It works for me–you might want to try it and see whether that is the issue with yours.
Kath says
Food Scale Users,
I weight LOTS of things – because it's so easy to just push "on" and get a number right then. I tend to weigh things that are calorie dense – peanut butter, sweet potato, cereal – and often will just ballpark "2 cups of spinach" or broccoli since they are harder to weight. Becky – apples were the first thing I realized I was under counting! I had a 150-calorie apple once. It all really teaches proper portion control. Especially with sweet potatoes for me. Most nutrition books say a "medium sweet potato" is 100 calories, but the sweet potatoes I buy (and I always look for the smallest one!) are well over 300 calories when I log by ounce.
It's also much easier to use a food scale than measuring cups and spoons. 1 tbsp of mayo is hard to eyeball and when you use a measuring spoon it's hard to get out (same for things like honey, maple syrup and peanut butter!) but if you just plop down your bowl, zero the scale, and add the peanut butter, mayo, etc. then you're much more accurate.
It's also great to know how many oz a piece of salmon, pork, or chicken is. "A deck of cards" is just so hard to judge.
Some would say using a food scale is obsessive, but I think it's a great tool to increase portion awareness. Once you weigh things enough, you become much more familiar with portions. And it's not like I spend hours a day weighing things – it only adds about 10 seconds to my food prep and means that I'm eating what I think I'm eating.
Danielle,
I think the mix was probably comparable to standard pancakes, which are generally 100-150 calories each for a standard sized one. I wouldn't worry too much unless you ate 10 of them!
Karen,
I agree with you on MyPyramid – well said. It just didn't work well for me. But you are spot on about my caloric intake. I technically am trying to lose at the moment – or whenever I net 1226 calories – but my overall goal is maintenance. Check out the FAQ's page and read the question "Are you trying to maintain or lose," as I explain my wavy line concept there. Basically all the eating I did at Christmas (and I was netting about 2,000 calories those 4 days) ended up putting me in gain mode, but the week before and now the week after I'm in lose mode to ultimately maintain. If I ate 1700 net everyday, I'd surely gain on the days that I overeat, so keeping it to 1226 helps keep the balance. Also, when I net 1226, I think I'm really only "losing" 400 kcal per day, and probably closer to a pound every 2 weeks or so. I maintained my weight like this for a few months now, so if I was losing lots of pounds, I would up my net, but I think the fact that I've maintained indicates my method works. Whew! Hope that helps!
Jem,
Gen (whoa on the names!) is right. Your strap isn't getting your heart signal. I was told to wet the strap with spit (gross, but you only need a little). When I go out for runs and it's cold I sometimes get strange readings until I start to sweat a little (= moisture). Try getting it a little wet and see if that helps.
Kath
janine says
I actually posted a question regarding heart rate monitors last week or so. I looked on Amazon and Target and all of the ones I found (including the Polar F4) weren't straps that went around your middle, rather they were watches. Do they not make that kind anymore?
Thanks!
Sylvia says
Hey Kathy, what's that on your pancake? It looks good..
Kath says
Janine,
All (good) heart rate monitors have BOTH a chest strap and a watch receiver. The F4 has both. You can get some that are watches only, but I don't think they are very accurate (unless you find a really advanced, expensive one). I don't believe there are ones that are strap only because you need to be able to see your HR on your wrist!
Sylvia,
Mashed banana and walnuts!! My favorite topping. I just mash up a banana with a fork until it gets a nice sheen on it.