September 2006 Archives
Recipezaar is a community recipe site that has a massive database of recipes spanning countless cuisines and diets. That's not really all that unique on the internet these days. What is unique and very impressive is that nutritional information is shown for all (at least all that I've looked at) the recipes. This is a huge help to anyone paying more attention to what exactly they are eating. It's a god-send for those doing Weight Watchers since you can simply plug the relevant nutritional information into your points counter and know how many points per serving each recipe is. Really brilliant and helpful.
E-Diets has an article titled Restaurant Shockers: 7 Ways Chefs Sabotage Your Diet. There is some fascinating information about how much butter and oil restaurants seem to soak everything in.
When I decided to change my life and health for the better one of the first difficult tasks I had to take on was breaking my love affair (some might say addiction) with Coca-Cola. For all my life I've loved the full sugar, full calorie, full wonderfulness of Coca-Cola. At 155 calories per can (a recent study says that an extra can of soda per day can lead to 15 gained pounds in a year) with absolutely no redeeming nutritional qualities it of course had to go when I started aggressively pursuing health. Let me just tell you that giving up regular Coke is easier said than done. I have now beaten my regular Coke addiction but easy it was not.
The key for me was to transition from regular Coke to an acceptable diet soda. Through the years I have tried a few diet sodas here and there and without fail found them to be absolutely disgusting. But since I was serious about developing healthy eating and drinking habits finding a diet soda I didn't hate was a must do. Sidebar, yes I probably should give up soda altogether but I drink 2 liters of water a day and sometimes a girl needs something bubbly and caffenaited. If in your quest to be healthier you can give up soda altogether I sincerely applaud you but I don't have any guilt for drinking a can or so of diet soda every day.
One of the things that makes it so hard for fat women to start exercising is the fact that there are very, very few exercise clothes made for them. Women need strong sports bras, fabrics that breathe, aren't too baggy, don't cling. We need shorts and sweat pants, tshirts and tank tops, running pants and sweatshirts. Do you know how hard it is too find all those things in sizes that will fit large women? It's not easy. Even companies you think would have an interest in making customers of fat people who want to exercise, say athletic companies, don't make clothes for that demographic. Maybe they'll come around with Americans getting bigger and bigger but I'm not holding my breath. That's why I completely understand Laura's frustration with Nike.
Laura is a great fan of the Nike+ iPod running system. Based on that love she wanted to buy some Nike running clothes. She was horrified that Nike's idea of an XL sized shirt seemed more like a small and wouldn't fit her. She's lost 50 pounds (from 235), runs and practices a healthy lifestyle. Nike lost her sale with their skewed sizing and utter disregard for potential larger customers.
It's a classic Catch-22. You have to exercise to be fit and be smaller. But you have to be fit and smaller to fit into exercise clothes.
Luckily there are a few options for fat people in the market for exercise clothes. Sadly I really do mean few options, particularly if you want anything remotely fashionable.
Champion : Sports bras, sports tops, tshirts, pants and shorts. Champion is one athletic company that seems to "get it" and actually makes exercise clothes for plus sized women. Thank goodness for Champion. The clothes actually look, fit and feel like exercise clothes should.
Title Nine: Not an extensive collection for very large women but several sports bras will fit larger women. Excellent quality clothes.
Junonia: Made specifically for large women, Junonia is an entire store filled with the kind of clothes active plus size women need. Bras, tops, pants, shorts, tshirts, even bathing suits!
