Dear Shell,
Well I started the Alternate Day Diet last week. I have to say, I don't think I like it. We don't have a lot of low-calorie foods in the house (i.e. carrots, celery, etc) to snack on, so the Down Days have been very hard. I've been lightheaded, woozy, getting headaches. And then when the Up Day hits the next day, I'm so hungry that I'm eating more than I should. My calories on the Up Days have been way too high, and I'm having trouble staying in the low calorie range for the Down Days without feeling the symptoms above. The result: Since Wednesday last week I've GAINED weight.
I need to get to the grocery store and pick up some vegetables that I can snack on during Down Days, and some of the 5 calorie Jello cups as a sweet. Plus air-popped popcorn is supposed to be filling for not a lot of calories for a Down Day, so I need to pick up some popcorn to pop.
I'm still drinking a lot of water (which reminds me, I need to make another gallon of lemonade). So that's a good thing at least.
I'm thinking just plain old counting calories is what works best for me. That's always been the only 'method' that's worked for me in the long run. But I'm going to give this Alternate Day Diet a little more time (once i get more prepared for the Down Days) before I decide if it's for me or not.
Shell
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Alternate Day Dieting
Dear Shell,
Recently I read an article in Woman's World Magazine about the Alternate Day Diet, also known as the Johnson Up Day, Down Day Diet. My friend Melissa and I have been researching the diet for the past two days (yesterday and today) and discussing trying it out ourselves. We've read articles on the pros of the diet and how to do the diet, blogs and message boards of people trying it, articles on the cons of the diet, and watched Youtube videos of shows discussing the diet. One article promoting the cons of the diet, the author decided to try the diet but she went to the extremes, rather than eat like she normally would on Up Days which is the recommended way to do it, she gorged herself to the point of being sick every Up Day, eating stuff she normally wouldnt have and overdoing it. IMO, she lost a lot of credibility doing that, because she purposely went to the extremes to try to prove it as a bad diet, instead of actually following the diet as recommended.
The basics of the diet: You only diet every other day. The days you are dieting are called Down Days. The days you are not dieting are called Up Days.
On Down Days, you keep your caloric intake low. They recommend 500 calories on Down Days, but you can go up to 40% of your normal intake and still lose weight, it'll just be at a slower rate. (for example, for my height, weight and age, my normal caloric intake should be 2042 calories (which i've been below this amount while counting calories so I'm already doing good on that). So for a down day I would need to eat 817 calories or less to stick with the program and lose weight. That may not seem like a lot, and some experts say you miss out on nutrition on those days, but... you can have a LOT of veggies on a Down Day and still stay in your calorie range. Veggies are a great source of nutrition. Add in a little protein for energy.
I've actually had a few days while counting calories that are close to Down Day calories anyway and still felt fine throughout the whole day. I just wasnt that hungry and I made good choices on what I did eat. Such as: Last night for dinner I baked up chicken breasts, then I chopped it up into small chunks (ended up being 12 ounces of chicken = 560 calories) and put it in a large skillet pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil (120 cal). Cooked rice (1 cup dry = 2 cups cooked = 400 calories) added to the pan along with 1 bag of steamed SteamFresh Broccoli and Califlower (105 calories for full bag). The total calories for the WHOLE pan was 1185 calories. I had about 1/3 of the pan, which equaled 395 calories. And I was full before finishing my bowl of food. So I could have had less for dinner, still been full, and had even less calories going to dinner. So you can easily eat healthy and low-cal at the same time. We even had leftovers!
On Up Days, you can eat whatever you want. Note: This is NOT a license to eat everything and anything in sight, gorging yourself on food to the point of making yourself sick. What it means is, I can eat like I normally would. And if I want pizza for dinner, I can have pizza for dinner. My normal amount of pizza though, not the whole large pie! If I'm craving chocolate? I can have some chocolate. This does not mean run out and eat a whole box of chocolates. But a candy bar? No problem. 10 candy bars? Get serious, don't be stupid.
By now you're probably wondering, well where's the benefit in this diet? First off, you only have to diet every other day. Second, you can still have the foods you love and crave, just have them on your Up days. Third, because you're not putting your body into starvation mode by restricting caloric intake daily, you keep your metabolism high instead of it slowing down and getting sluggish because your body is trying to store fat. Fourth, health benefits of reduced asthma, more energy, lower cholesterol, and its been linked to longer life.
So today marks day one of the diet. Today for me is an Up Day. Melissa is starting today as well but hers is a Down Day. This should help us with encouragement, if one of us is having a bad Down Day, the other can say "I made it through mine yesterday, I'm still here, you can do it!"
The reason I decided to start today with an Up Day is because I looked at the calendar and the next few weeks are rather busy with birthdays and vacations, so I tried to find the best way to have Up Days on the special occasions, that way I'm not sitting there chowing on a carrot stick while everyone around me is eating cake, etc and tempting me to attack the table of food.
We'll see how this goes. My biggest concern is my blood sugar level and the Down Days. I'm not diabetic, but I am hypoglycemic. So I will keep a good eye on how my body feels on the Down Days to make sure I'm not risking more than I'm gaining.
Looking forward to seeing results,
Shell
Recently I read an article in Woman's World Magazine about the Alternate Day Diet, also known as the Johnson Up Day, Down Day Diet. My friend Melissa and I have been researching the diet for the past two days (yesterday and today) and discussing trying it out ourselves. We've read articles on the pros of the diet and how to do the diet, blogs and message boards of people trying it, articles on the cons of the diet, and watched Youtube videos of shows discussing the diet. One article promoting the cons of the diet, the author decided to try the diet but she went to the extremes, rather than eat like she normally would on Up Days which is the recommended way to do it, she gorged herself to the point of being sick every Up Day, eating stuff she normally wouldnt have and overdoing it. IMO, she lost a lot of credibility doing that, because she purposely went to the extremes to try to prove it as a bad diet, instead of actually following the diet as recommended.
The basics of the diet: You only diet every other day. The days you are dieting are called Down Days. The days you are not dieting are called Up Days.
On Down Days, you keep your caloric intake low. They recommend 500 calories on Down Days, but you can go up to 40% of your normal intake and still lose weight, it'll just be at a slower rate. (for example, for my height, weight and age, my normal caloric intake should be 2042 calories (which i've been below this amount while counting calories so I'm already doing good on that). So for a down day I would need to eat 817 calories or less to stick with the program and lose weight. That may not seem like a lot, and some experts say you miss out on nutrition on those days, but... you can have a LOT of veggies on a Down Day and still stay in your calorie range. Veggies are a great source of nutrition. Add in a little protein for energy.
I've actually had a few days while counting calories that are close to Down Day calories anyway and still felt fine throughout the whole day. I just wasnt that hungry and I made good choices on what I did eat. Such as: Last night for dinner I baked up chicken breasts, then I chopped it up into small chunks (ended up being 12 ounces of chicken = 560 calories) and put it in a large skillet pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil (120 cal). Cooked rice (1 cup dry = 2 cups cooked = 400 calories) added to the pan along with 1 bag of steamed SteamFresh Broccoli and Califlower (105 calories for full bag). The total calories for the WHOLE pan was 1185 calories. I had about 1/3 of the pan, which equaled 395 calories. And I was full before finishing my bowl of food. So I could have had less for dinner, still been full, and had even less calories going to dinner. So you can easily eat healthy and low-cal at the same time. We even had leftovers!
On Up Days, you can eat whatever you want. Note: This is NOT a license to eat everything and anything in sight, gorging yourself on food to the point of making yourself sick. What it means is, I can eat like I normally would. And if I want pizza for dinner, I can have pizza for dinner. My normal amount of pizza though, not the whole large pie! If I'm craving chocolate? I can have some chocolate. This does not mean run out and eat a whole box of chocolates. But a candy bar? No problem. 10 candy bars? Get serious, don't be stupid.
By now you're probably wondering, well where's the benefit in this diet? First off, you only have to diet every other day. Second, you can still have the foods you love and crave, just have them on your Up days. Third, because you're not putting your body into starvation mode by restricting caloric intake daily, you keep your metabolism high instead of it slowing down and getting sluggish because your body is trying to store fat. Fourth, health benefits of reduced asthma, more energy, lower cholesterol, and its been linked to longer life.
So today marks day one of the diet. Today for me is an Up Day. Melissa is starting today as well but hers is a Down Day. This should help us with encouragement, if one of us is having a bad Down Day, the other can say "I made it through mine yesterday, I'm still here, you can do it!"
The reason I decided to start today with an Up Day is because I looked at the calendar and the next few weeks are rather busy with birthdays and vacations, so I tried to find the best way to have Up Days on the special occasions, that way I'm not sitting there chowing on a carrot stick while everyone around me is eating cake, etc and tempting me to attack the table of food.
We'll see how this goes. My biggest concern is my blood sugar level and the Down Days. I'm not diabetic, but I am hypoglycemic. So I will keep a good eye on how my body feels on the Down Days to make sure I'm not risking more than I'm gaining.
Looking forward to seeing results,
Shell
Monday, August 17, 2009
Description
Dear Shell,
Time for another writing assignment. Today's assignment: Take a random word and write two pages about that word. Random Word is: Description (found through a random word generator).
The word description means painting a picture for your readers with your words. While too much description can be boring, not enough description can leave your readers wanting more. You want to include enough information for the reader to picture the object or scene but still leave room for their imagination to fill in minor details that will enhance the story for them.
When showing your reader about the house your character is entering, if you describe it as an 1880's Queen Anne Victorian complete with turrets, towers and a wrap-around porch, painted in a pale lavender with russet-colored trim, the reader's mind will most likely fill in the minor details about the design of the gingerbread trim or shape of the windows, based on what they know about Victorian period homes. Unless the gingerbread trim and windows are vital to the story and characters, you do not need to spend three, four, ten pages describing each twist and turn. Your character could idly glance at the trim, maybe have a random thought about how beautiful it is, but they don't need to expound on the details of that trim.
Knowing what to describe and what to leave to the reader's imagination is important. How you describe an object or scene can set the tone for your story as well and let the reader know more about your characters.
Example: If you describe your exercise equipment as the "torture device with cables designed to strangle the first person to come near", you give the impression of a character that hates exercise and views the exercise equipment as a death trap.
I'm personally bad about writing descriptions. I have to keep reminding myself to go back and add in descriptions that I completely skipped over or didn't think about. I know what it looks like in my mind...I just forget that my reader can't see into my mind to see the same thing!
Thinking of ways to describe items better,
Shell
Time for another writing assignment. Today's assignment: Take a random word and write two pages about that word. Random Word is: Description (found through a random word generator).
The word description means painting a picture for your readers with your words. While too much description can be boring, not enough description can leave your readers wanting more. You want to include enough information for the reader to picture the object or scene but still leave room for their imagination to fill in minor details that will enhance the story for them.
When showing your reader about the house your character is entering, if you describe it as an 1880's Queen Anne Victorian complete with turrets, towers and a wrap-around porch, painted in a pale lavender with russet-colored trim, the reader's mind will most likely fill in the minor details about the design of the gingerbread trim or shape of the windows, based on what they know about Victorian period homes. Unless the gingerbread trim and windows are vital to the story and characters, you do not need to spend three, four, ten pages describing each twist and turn. Your character could idly glance at the trim, maybe have a random thought about how beautiful it is, but they don't need to expound on the details of that trim.
Knowing what to describe and what to leave to the reader's imagination is important. How you describe an object or scene can set the tone for your story as well and let the reader know more about your characters.
Example: If you describe your exercise equipment as the "torture device with cables designed to strangle the first person to come near", you give the impression of a character that hates exercise and views the exercise equipment as a death trap.
I'm personally bad about writing descriptions. I have to keep reminding myself to go back and add in descriptions that I completely skipped over or didn't think about. I know what it looks like in my mind...I just forget that my reader can't see into my mind to see the same thing!
Thinking of ways to describe items better,
Shell
Sunday, August 9, 2009
My Apologies
Dear Shell,
I must apologize for my lack of correspondence lately. I do not have any excuse other than, I let Facebook and Farmtown sway me away from my blog. A recent personal message on the Writer's Digest forums that I have a new follower has reminded me that, maybe I should get back into blogging again!
I have to admit though, Farmtown was fairly amusing for quite awhile. I started out with just a couple plots of potatoes. Now, my farm is at the max size, I have a farmhouse and a small house, a barn, silo, windmill. A river going through the farm. Flowers, lots of flowers. Also quite a few orchards, oranges, apples, coconuts, pears, mangos, etc. Currently I am a blueberry farmer, as I went through and figured out the best profit per hour for every crop that is available to me, and at level 28, blueberries have the best profit (not counting the 2-4 hour fast crops that you need to harvest every few hours in order to make money). I have enough neighbors that I qualify for hiring my neighbors or strangers to harvest crops and plow fields.
Okay, okay, now you're probably sitting there asking," well what about your writing, did you neglect that too?" Rest assured, I am still writing. Is it good writing, I hope so, or at least i hope i can make it good after revisions. I'm still working on editing Dragon Eye. Boy does it need a lot of work! It's scary how much work it needs. But when you consider I wrote the majority of that novel in a month's time, and it was my first time writing a full-length novel, it's understandable why it's not quite that great right now. Crystalvein, my second novel, is going much smoother. Although I'm still not 100% sure if I want to keep it in third person or not. I've re-written the first chapter three different ways to test out different POV (point of view) and a different storyline. I've decided to stick with the original storyline with one small change, and most likely it will stay third person limited for point of view.
Well I'm starting to hear thunder outside, and if it's anything like last night, we're in for a hell of a storm again. And I have to admit, that does worry me because we're already flooded pretty bad as it is. Every park in town is flooded, some are waist deep or deeper. A few roads are blocked off because the river is over the road now. And our backyard is a lake because the river broke over both banks. Too much more rain and I'm going to start worrying about the house floating away! Although then we wouldnt have to worry any longer about the leak in the roof that showed up pretty bad last night.
I will do my best to blog more often,
Shell
I must apologize for my lack of correspondence lately. I do not have any excuse other than, I let Facebook and Farmtown sway me away from my blog. A recent personal message on the Writer's Digest forums that I have a new follower has reminded me that, maybe I should get back into blogging again!
I have to admit though, Farmtown was fairly amusing for quite awhile. I started out with just a couple plots of potatoes. Now, my farm is at the max size, I have a farmhouse and a small house, a barn, silo, windmill. A river going through the farm. Flowers, lots of flowers. Also quite a few orchards, oranges, apples, coconuts, pears, mangos, etc. Currently I am a blueberry farmer, as I went through and figured out the best profit per hour for every crop that is available to me, and at level 28, blueberries have the best profit (not counting the 2-4 hour fast crops that you need to harvest every few hours in order to make money). I have enough neighbors that I qualify for hiring my neighbors or strangers to harvest crops and plow fields.
Okay, okay, now you're probably sitting there asking," well what about your writing, did you neglect that too?" Rest assured, I am still writing. Is it good writing, I hope so, or at least i hope i can make it good after revisions. I'm still working on editing Dragon Eye. Boy does it need a lot of work! It's scary how much work it needs. But when you consider I wrote the majority of that novel in a month's time, and it was my first time writing a full-length novel, it's understandable why it's not quite that great right now. Crystalvein, my second novel, is going much smoother. Although I'm still not 100% sure if I want to keep it in third person or not. I've re-written the first chapter three different ways to test out different POV (point of view) and a different storyline. I've decided to stick with the original storyline with one small change, and most likely it will stay third person limited for point of view.
Well I'm starting to hear thunder outside, and if it's anything like last night, we're in for a hell of a storm again. And I have to admit, that does worry me because we're already flooded pretty bad as it is. Every park in town is flooded, some are waist deep or deeper. A few roads are blocked off because the river is over the road now. And our backyard is a lake because the river broke over both banks. Too much more rain and I'm going to start worrying about the house floating away! Although then we wouldnt have to worry any longer about the leak in the roof that showed up pretty bad last night.
I will do my best to blog more often,
Shell
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