I LOVE peanut butter--and, it's at least one of the good fats. However, I have never been able to justify the huge amount of calories for a small serving size, so I don't really eat it normally--until NOW.
Hubby (BobP56) saw an interesting ad in a magazine at the doctor's office the other day, (by the way, he had a GREAT check up again. His blood sugar and blood pressure were all in the normal ranges!!! and he had lost a good amount of weight since his last visit as well. In 3 more months he'll get another A1C test which we are anticipating being as good or even better than his last NORMAL reading!). Anyway, the ad was for powdered peanut butter. At first it doesn't sound that appealing, but it advertised the powdered version as having 75% less fat and 70% less calories, so it was worth checking out.
When he got home he told me about it and he looked it up on the computer. Sure enough, there it was, PB2-Powdered Peanut Butter... all the numbers were there too. Yeah it has a little less protein than full peanut butter, but only a gram or so difference, still has plenty. It does have a little of the good fat, but not the saturated fat, and even the good fats are a little less, but the big kick 'for me' was the 45, yes you read that right FORTYFIVE calories per 2 tbsp serving.
45 as opposed to 188 -- That's amazing.
Okay, we were a little skeptical about how good it would be, and it is a tad bit expensive, but you get a huge jar for the price so we decided to try it.
We got it yesterday and I quickly made a serving for each of us to have along with our nightly apple.
OMG IT'S GOOD.
It's easy to prepare, just measure out 2 tbsp of the powder and add 1 to 1.5 tbsp of water and mix. It mixes easily and is delightfully creamy.
I love it. It's worth a try if you are looking to conserve on calories but love peanut butter.
Nutritional info:
Roasted peanuts, sugar, and salt. Nutrition facts: Calories 45"Calories From Fat 13"Total Fat 1.5 g 2%"Saturated Fat 0 g 0%"Trans Fat 0.01 g"Polyunsaturated Fat"Monounsaturated Fat"Cholesterol 0.01 mg 0%"Sodium 94 mg 4%"Total Carbohydrates 5 g 2%"Dietary Fiber 2 g 8%"Sugars 1 g"Protein 5 g"Vitamin A 1%"Vitamin C 0%"Calcium 1%"Iron 0% Nutrition notes: *Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Here's a link in case you are interested in checking it out amzn.to/2inKTy5
Edited to add: Just tried IMAWRKNPROGRESS's (a friend from SparkPeople) suggestion on combining the pb2 with yogurt. AWESOME!
Friday, December 23, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
I'm Still Standing!
Hi All!
No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth! I have been so busy. I'm sorry I haven't blogged here in so long, but trust that I am ON POINT, and really kickin' it in the healthy lifestyle arena. I haven't wavered once, which is REALLY unusual for me. However, I think I know why.
In the past, I've tried to be 'moderate' with certain foods that, while not technically 'bad' like cake or anything, they are on the trigger list for me. I am addicted to starchy carbs like rice and potatoes, and also of course, to the sugary carbs like cakes, cookies, and definitely to ice cream as well.
A lot of conventional wisdom says you shouldn't 'deprive' yourself of foods you love, but for some people (and anyone who has not had success losing substantial amounts of weight over the years very likely falls into this category) certain foods are like a drug. There is a FABULOUS article about this, one of the best I've ever read that really explains the chemical reactions and reasonings behind the addiction phenomenon. Here it is: Food Addiction is Real
So, one of the biggest problems I've had in the past is that I kept triggering myself. I'd lose a lot of weight, then try and have a reasonable amount of a desert, or even something that might otherwise be considered 'healthy' in small amounts, and go totally off the reserve. When the addiction cravings kick back in, it can take years-literally-to regain control. So, suffice it to say, that this time I haven't allowed any temptations to derail me, and unlike in the past, I've had no stalls, no ups and downs, and no complete lapse.
I'm going to update the weeks on the sidebar for weight loss and exercise. Looking at the last weigh-in entry though really highlights how far I've come in just a few weeks. My last addition was on September 29th, and I was 354.8, and as of yesterday I weighed in at 325.5!
No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth! I have been so busy. I'm sorry I haven't blogged here in so long, but trust that I am ON POINT, and really kickin' it in the healthy lifestyle arena. I haven't wavered once, which is REALLY unusual for me. However, I think I know why.
In the past, I've tried to be 'moderate' with certain foods that, while not technically 'bad' like cake or anything, they are on the trigger list for me. I am addicted to starchy carbs like rice and potatoes, and also of course, to the sugary carbs like cakes, cookies, and definitely to ice cream as well.
A lot of conventional wisdom says you shouldn't 'deprive' yourself of foods you love, but for some people (and anyone who has not had success losing substantial amounts of weight over the years very likely falls into this category) certain foods are like a drug. There is a FABULOUS article about this, one of the best I've ever read that really explains the chemical reactions and reasonings behind the addiction phenomenon. Here it is: Food Addiction is Real
So, one of the biggest problems I've had in the past is that I kept triggering myself. I'd lose a lot of weight, then try and have a reasonable amount of a desert, or even something that might otherwise be considered 'healthy' in small amounts, and go totally off the reserve. When the addiction cravings kick back in, it can take years-literally-to regain control. So, suffice it to say, that this time I haven't allowed any temptations to derail me, and unlike in the past, I've had no stalls, no ups and downs, and no complete lapse.
I'm going to update the weeks on the sidebar for weight loss and exercise. Looking at the last weigh-in entry though really highlights how far I've come in just a few weeks. My last addition was on September 29th, and I was 354.8, and as of yesterday I weighed in at 325.5!
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Garmin Vivoactive HR Review
It's time to lay it out on the table... time to review the Garmin Vivoactive HR. It's been 7 days, and I've used it for a variety of workouts, and data gathering information. It's going to be fun, because it is a fun device. It took a few days to fully get up to speed with it. There is SO MUCH information that it is a bit overwhelming at first--exciting, but overwhelming. Also, if it is a first fitness watch, it is a tad bit confusing to set up. Not horribly so, and you can stumble through it, but it will take a bit of figuring out. It comes with very detailed instructions, but I found that in spite of that, Garmin seems to pretty much assume the user is accustomed to this type of device and how it works, and sort of skims over some of the connection details. LOL
The Vivoactive HR is a constant heart rate monitor. Unlike my old fitness watch that I had to press and hold a button to see my heart rate at the time, the Garmin VAHR (vivoactive HR) shows it in real time at all times and keeps a record of it that downloads to the mobile app and computer account when sync'd. It also comes pre-loaded with many activity trackers. One is a SWIM tracker which I love since that is what I do most often.
On the face of it: The watch itself comes with 5 preloaded choices for a watch face. 2 of them are analog, the old-fashioned clock face, and 3 of them are digital. Along with the faces, they include information on battery life and steps. There are a lot more choices though. When hooked up to the computer, or through the mobile app, users can go to the Garmin "store" and download other watch faces, so you can really customize the looks of the watch and what you want to see on it at a glance. My favorite is the Big Time download. It has large time numbers, and also shows steps, calories burned, battery life and total daily mileage. The screen is a touch screen, and you swipe up to see the detailed records of steps, heart rate, calories burned, last swim, last run, last walk, last exercise, intensity minutes. There are pages and pages of watch faces, apps and data fields to download, and they are all free for Garmin users.
I have found it is VERY accurate on step counts. It does NOT add steps just for hand movements, and records very well both inside and out. It also has a GPS link for outdoor walking so you get very accurate distance details when walking, running or biking.
I love that all of the records show up on the watch for the last 7 workouts, on the mobile app for months and on the computer account too. It is a very flexible system that you can view information on in several places which is really helpful. Unlike my LifeTrak Zone this watch does need to be charged regularly. However, it has a really good battery life considering how much it does. It seems to go through about 10% of the battery each day, so Garmin's 7 to 8 day claim of battery life is probably pretty accurate. I hook it up each morning and let it charge a little bit (not fully) while I look over the stats for sleep that night, so I haven't had to charge it up fully since I first got it. Even then, however, it didn't take too long. It came with barely enough battery life to turn it on and hook it up to the computer USB charger and it only took about an hour and a half to fully charge from empty.
On the downside: It syncs okay to Spark People, but I just today finally gave up and disconnected the sync. I'll go back to manually recording the workout info and stuff. The reason: It INSISTS on screwing up my weigh ins even though the weigh-in on the Garmin is exactly what I lost, it adds a half pound to my loss when it syncs with SparkPeople. I have NO idea why, and I tried everything to make it show right. That is an important thing though. I can deal with the fact that when it syncs exercises it does it in a lump record and doesn't detail the type of exercise, why, I don't know, because it DOES show specifics in the sync with MyFitnessPal. I don't use MFP, but I do have an old account there, and I checked it out because Garmin automatically syncs with it, and sure enough, my daily exercises are updated there and show exactly what each exercise was and how much time, calories etc. were involved with each. So it is obviously possible, but SparkPeople programming won't recognize it. SparkPeople also does not accept all of the calorie burn info from Garmin stating that some of Garmin's activity minutes include BMR calories. That may be true, but it isn't totally correct. If I log in exercises manually to SparkPeople it's own calculations give me FAR more calorie burn that Garmin does in spite of what SP claims as over calculation on Garmin's part.
The second thing I don't like about it, but it isn't a Garmin specific problem, it is problem with any tracker. The heart rate monitor does not work in the pool. My old watch didn't give accurate heart rate readings when I was in the pool (wet) either, but Garmin fully recognizes this and when you enter the swim app it actually turns off the heart rate monitor completely, then turns it back on when you exit the swim workout program. Why is this bad? You don't get any "intensity minutes" recorded and the calorie burn isn't as accurate because the calculations are based on heart rate in most activities. Again, this isn't a Garmin specific problem, it is just because the sensors can't get accurate readings when the skin is wet.
It is fully waterproof, though, and works great in the pool otherwise. It records distance in yards swam, and you can program in the length of the pool you are in. The bad: it refuses to recognize my backstroke and record those laps/lengths. It only recognizes the 4 major strokes: freestyle, backstroke (traditional), breast stroke and butterfly. It works great when I do the freestyle and breast stroke and butterfly, but when I do the backstroke it just doesn't record the lengths. I have an old shoulder injury that prevents me from doing the "windmill" like traditional backstroke, so mine is more like an upside-down breast stroke, but the muscle action is reversed in the pressure, so I like the workout. The Garmin doesn't like it though. LOL. So I have to manually calculate those lengths in my head.
One extra bonus with the Garmin watch is that it gives you pretty detailed sleep data. Not just how long you slept, but what type of sleep, waking sleep (that in-between going to sleep or waking up type sleep) light sleep or deep sleep. It's kind of interesting to see the patterns each morning. I seem to get the exact same amount of deep (REM) sleep and light sleep every night, but the pattern is always a little different. Overall, I just really love the Garmin Vivoactive HR.
On the face of it: The watch itself comes with 5 preloaded choices for a watch face. 2 of them are analog, the old-fashioned clock face, and 3 of them are digital. Along with the faces, they include information on battery life and steps. There are a lot more choices though. When hooked up to the computer, or through the mobile app, users can go to the Garmin "store" and download other watch faces, so you can really customize the looks of the watch and what you want to see on it at a glance. My favorite is the Big Time download. It has large time numbers, and also shows steps, calories burned, battery life and total daily mileage. The screen is a touch screen, and you swipe up to see the detailed records of steps, heart rate, calories burned, last swim, last run, last walk, last exercise, intensity minutes. There are pages and pages of watch faces, apps and data fields to download, and they are all free for Garmin users.
I have found it is VERY accurate on step counts. It does NOT add steps just for hand movements, and records very well both inside and out. It also has a GPS link for outdoor walking so you get very accurate distance details when walking, running or biking.
I love that all of the records show up on the watch for the last 7 workouts, on the mobile app for months and on the computer account too. It is a very flexible system that you can view information on in several places which is really helpful. Unlike my LifeTrak Zone this watch does need to be charged regularly. However, it has a really good battery life considering how much it does. It seems to go through about 10% of the battery each day, so Garmin's 7 to 8 day claim of battery life is probably pretty accurate. I hook it up each morning and let it charge a little bit (not fully) while I look over the stats for sleep that night, so I haven't had to charge it up fully since I first got it. Even then, however, it didn't take too long. It came with barely enough battery life to turn it on and hook it up to the computer USB charger and it only took about an hour and a half to fully charge from empty.
The second thing I don't like about it, but it isn't a Garmin specific problem, it is problem with any tracker. The heart rate monitor does not work in the pool. My old watch didn't give accurate heart rate readings when I was in the pool (wet) either, but Garmin fully recognizes this and when you enter the swim app it actually turns off the heart rate monitor completely, then turns it back on when you exit the swim workout program. Why is this bad? You don't get any "intensity minutes" recorded and the calorie burn isn't as accurate because the calculations are based on heart rate in most activities. Again, this isn't a Garmin specific problem, it is just because the sensors can't get accurate readings when the skin is wet.
It is fully waterproof, though, and works great in the pool otherwise. It records distance in yards swam, and you can program in the length of the pool you are in. The bad: it refuses to recognize my backstroke and record those laps/lengths. It only recognizes the 4 major strokes: freestyle, backstroke (traditional), breast stroke and butterfly. It works great when I do the freestyle and breast stroke and butterfly, but when I do the backstroke it just doesn't record the lengths. I have an old shoulder injury that prevents me from doing the "windmill" like traditional backstroke, so mine is more like an upside-down breast stroke, but the muscle action is reversed in the pressure, so I like the workout. The Garmin doesn't like it though. LOL. So I have to manually calculate those lengths in my head.
One extra bonus with the Garmin watch is that it gives you pretty detailed sleep data. Not just how long you slept, but what type of sleep, waking sleep (that in-between going to sleep or waking up type sleep) light sleep or deep sleep. It's kind of interesting to see the patterns each morning. I seem to get the exact same amount of deep (REM) sleep and light sleep every night, but the pattern is always a little different. Overall, I just really love the Garmin Vivoactive HR.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
A Scary Moment
I was just watching an episode of "Extreme Weight Loss" (guilty pleasure, I don't agree with the massive 1 year weight losses, but I do like seeing the transformations, sort of like with the Biggest Loser show), but what really hit home was something Chris said to the man starting the process who weighed in at 398 pounds at 49 years old. He said, "i don't know many people who are 50 years old and over 400 pounds, because they're simply not alive anymore!"
Sit back.
Take that in.
It kind of shook me.
I WAS 54 years old and over 400 pounds (414 at the beginning of May in 2016)!
I KNEW at the time I was cheating death. I felt it daily. It was waiting for me... and not really patiently either. To hear it though was a kick in the gut. Even though I've come so far, the knowledge that I was that close to dying still hits home. I don't know if the statement was pure sensationalism or a true statement, but I do know that it was pretty true for me. I was LUCKY to have pushed through to 54 at the weight I was, but I was feeling it badly. At the time, and having watched another one of those guilty pleasure shows (My 600-Pound Life) I felt at the time like I was heading there, but in reality, I don't think I would have gotten there (not that it's a goal to strive for, but you know what I mean, if I had kept on doing --or rather not doing-- what I was at the time, I was heading there, but the way things were physically I don't think it would have ever gone more than a year longer).
I thought, however, I was a more unhealthy statistic since it seemed like there were so many 600+ people (never seemed to be a shortage of participants on the 600-Pound Life show). Maybe, however, I wasn't. Maybe I was one of the lucky few who managed to get that heavy and lived to turn it around. And now that I do think of it, not many of those people on that 600 Pound Life show were my age. They were typically much younger.
Scary stuff. I'm so glad I'm not there anymore, and so glad I am feeling the GOOD effects of losing the weight. Now, these shows are guilty pleasures, and I don't agree with the speed of loss on any of them, BUT...
I think they have a good place. It was 600-Pound Life that made me realize (or wake up to the fact) that I was headed to that place at a fast rate, and made me talk about it to my husband, and made me want to change and start living healthier. Actually more than any of the other weight loss shows (I hadn't seen Extreme Weight Loss yet at that point, it would have been up there with 600-Pound Life as an eye-opener), these extreme ones were what really made me look at myself.
Scared straight? You bet your butt!
Sit back.
Take that in.
It kind of shook me.
I WAS 54 years old and over 400 pounds (414 at the beginning of May in 2016)!
I KNEW at the time I was cheating death. I felt it daily. It was waiting for me... and not really patiently either. To hear it though was a kick in the gut. Even though I've come so far, the knowledge that I was that close to dying still hits home. I don't know if the statement was pure sensationalism or a true statement, but I do know that it was pretty true for me. I was LUCKY to have pushed through to 54 at the weight I was, but I was feeling it badly. At the time, and having watched another one of those guilty pleasure shows (My 600-Pound Life) I felt at the time like I was heading there, but in reality, I don't think I would have gotten there (not that it's a goal to strive for, but you know what I mean, if I had kept on doing --or rather not doing-- what I was at the time, I was heading there, but the way things were physically I don't think it would have ever gone more than a year longer).
I thought, however, I was a more unhealthy statistic since it seemed like there were so many 600+ people (never seemed to be a shortage of participants on the 600-Pound Life show). Maybe, however, I wasn't. Maybe I was one of the lucky few who managed to get that heavy and lived to turn it around. And now that I do think of it, not many of those people on that 600 Pound Life show were my age. They were typically much younger.
Scary stuff. I'm so glad I'm not there anymore, and so glad I am feeling the GOOD effects of losing the weight. Now, these shows are guilty pleasures, and I don't agree with the speed of loss on any of them, BUT...
I think they have a good place. It was 600-Pound Life that made me realize (or wake up to the fact) that I was headed to that place at a fast rate, and made me talk about it to my husband, and made me want to change and start living healthier. Actually more than any of the other weight loss shows (I hadn't seen Extreme Weight Loss yet at that point, it would have been up there with 600-Pound Life as an eye-opener), these extreme ones were what really made me look at myself.
Scared straight? You bet your butt!
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