Impossible is a typo

Get Fat Girl Out of Your Love Life

Amy — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:19:43 +0000

You should love your inner crazy Fat Girl, but when she stops you from living your life, time to take action! And once Fat Girl is out of you dating life, get INto an outfit that will sweep him off his feet AND revamp your dating profile!

Here’s a Valentine’s Offer that with have your love life hopping!

Ginger Snap Works rocks Valentine's Day

Fat Girls Can’t Date

Amy — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:38:20 +0000

FatGirl and FabGirl have tea before a night on the town.

FabGirl: So, we’re going out tonight, black jeans or a skirt and tights?

FatGril: No no, I’m staying in. I have a lot to do. {emergency cheesecake stands by}

FabGirl: Don’t be silly, of course we’re going out. It’s Valentine’s Day, we’re going to celebrate love… {wistful sighs and naughty eye sparkles}

FatGirl: No really. I have to update the virus protection on my computer and I have 134 videos in my Hulu queue, really I have too much to do {nervously eyes cheesecake, fingers twitch towards the fork}

FabGirl: We haven’t been out forever. Our friends miss us, and you never know, Dreamy McDreamy might just waltz into our lives tonight.

FatGirl: Yeah, whatever, that’s great but these pins will not just pin themselves on to Pintrest, you know. I’ve got stuff to do, going out is too much work.

FabGirl: Stop being silly, we’re going to see our friends, have a fruity cocktail, dance a little…

FatGirl: DANCE?? DANCE?? You’re a freakin’ lunatic. Fat Girls don’t dance. Everyone will point and laugh. “Oh look at that fat girl. Get out of the way, she might squish you and can you believe she wore that? Fat AND trampy”. Look, I don’t want to have a boyfriend, I’m perfectly fine on my own. If I had a boyfriend, I’d have to lose like 50lbs before he’d love me anyway. He’d constantly be commenting on what I was eating when we went out to dinner and at some point, we’d have to NAKED together and who in their right freakin’ minds wants to be naked with me. No one wants to date a fat girl. Fat girls don’t date. When I lose the 50lbs then I’ll be happy and sexy and someone will want to date me. We’re just going to stay home and watch Once Upon a Time and it will be fine {forgets the fork, dives face first into the cheesecake}

To say that relationships have been an issue for me is kind of an understatement. I made some bad choices. No, that’s not really true. I made the only choice I could make at that exact point in my life with all the information that I had. I fell in love with a guy who, somewhere in him, was a nice person, but was wrapped up in his own pain that he couldn’t deal with his own emotions. No, that’s not really true either. I fell in love with the idea of the person I wanted him to be, thinking that I would then be the person I wanted to be.

And then that ended. Badly. And I gained 50lbs.

For a long time this is how I thought dating worked – be skinny, then you’ll be happy, then you’ll have a fun, sexy loving relationship.

But what if I could be happy RIGHT NOW. Right this second. Wouldn’t the result then be skinny and in love? I mean, after all who wants to be in love with a grumpy person who is also fat?

I had this revelation the other day. I keep throwing up reasons why I can’t date:

I’m not at my goal weight.
I don’t have the right clothes.
I don’t have time.
I just started a business, that’s more important right now.
I really don’t feel great about how I look and don’t want to get naked with someone.

Then I was asked a very simple question: What are you concerns about being in a relationship? The answer is two fold. 1) Obviously I’m scared of getting hurt. 2) I’m scared that I could actually get exactly what I want and then I have to deal with that.

Whoa.

What if Mr. McDreamy were to enter my life today? What if I had to actually walk the talk and be a responsible adult and make room in my life for someone? What if there was another person on this earth who accepted me for what I was and what I wasn’t? What if there was someone who loved me for me? Crap. I’d then have to love me for me.

I started looking at the reality of my dating life. I get several offers a week from online dating sites from men who want to meet me. I don’t have a fake picture up there, and I think I actually have my true weight listed on one of them (none of that “I’m curvy” stuff). There are actually quite a few people taking the effort to email me with interest. And I’m shunning all that with a story about “I don’t have time” which is actually hiding “I feel fat” which is actually hiding “I don’t know that I can love myself enough”

Whoa.

And this all has comes about because that’s exactly what may be happening. A guy, we’ll call him The Frenchman, contacted me via a dating site. I made him jump through hoops to schedule a time for drinks. I was like a freakin’ Nay-saying Ninja throwing out all these impossible limitations. He deflected them all and made it work and we had a lovely night together. If I could create the perfect man for myself, the Frenchman comes pretty darn close. And it scares the pants off me.

I don’t know where this is going, but I’m ready to find out.

Paula Deen, Diabetes and PR

Amy — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:39:35 +0000

Paula Dean is making me fat?

So, Paula Deen, FoodTV’s Grand Dame Southern Bell of the Fried Butter Ball fame, announced last week that she has Type 2 Diabetes. “Oh and hey by the way, I’m endorsing this spiffy Diabetes drug, ya’ll!” As you can imagine, the health and fitness blogging community has been in a tizzy over it ranging from “how dare she continue to put mayo in everything” to “the poor lady” to “she’s responsible for why America is fat”.

I really only have two responses to this:

1) Who the heck on her PR team thought it would be a good idea to make these announcements back-to-back especially considering that she was diagnosed three years ago? Can we say epic PR Fail? Effective publicity is all about building trust and today, that means transparency. What this did was to create the impression that she hid her health concerns until there was a big enough offer on the table to make her wallet happy. I’d fire that PR team and not for transparency transgressions but for thinking too small. Think about it, she could have announced the diabetes thing, then rolled out a line of health food cook books, products, heck even a “Shape up with Paula” DVD series, not to mention the tell-all TV appearances, gear, and what not. Her PR team could have created a mini industry around Paula being a stand for having your Butter Balls AND being healthy. But no, they went the cheap and easy old-school route. This ain’t the Mad Men era anymore, people. You don’t control your image and your brand anymore, you can only influence it and act in accordance. Think bigger, think smarter.

2) Prepare for a rant. Just because some broad on a TV show puts mayo in her chocolate cake and starts off pork chops in a half pound of butter to sautee, does not, I repeat, does not mean you have to eat it. Look, Paula Deen’s show is basically food porn. It’s all the bad stuff you know you shouldn’t’t eat all dressed up to look pretty, so you can drool and plan out your Fantasy Food Menus, “OMG I’m totally making that for my birthday!”. It’s Food-tainment, food as entertainment. You cannot be alive and consuming any sort of media today without knowing that eating pounds of butter is bad for you. Does Paul Deen have a responsibility to show healthy recipes on her show and be responsible for the caloric and nutrition content of her dishes? ABSOLUTELY NOT. It is your responsibility as a viewer and a consumer of food to decide what is best for you. Not Paula Deen. She’s not putting Crisco and 5lb bag of sugar in your cart. You are. She’s not loading up your fork with pork rinds and potato chips with a drizzle of caramel syrup. You are. YOU are responsible for your own health and well-being, not some crazy-eyed southern gal with a drawl. We’re talking about view responsibility here. Paula Deen is not making us fat, we are.

So Paula, bring on the mayo based dips and the butter sauces! And I will continue to choose not to eat your food.

Guest Post – Cara sweet talks us

Amy — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:28:31 +0000

I’ve been all over the diet world in my life — from Atkins to Vegan. One of the ideas that I’m playing with right now is the concept of “Clean Eating”. Well, what the heck is that? Instead of me filling your head with nonsense and half formed ideas, I thought I’d bring in an expert. Cara, of Cara’s Cravings, is a recipe contributer to Clean Eating Magazine. If you’re not following her, you’re missing out on some tasty treats. Make sure you’re getting her pins on Pinterest! One of the things I love about Cara’s Craving’s are some of the sweet treats she develops and shares. I’m constantly in this battle with myself over sugar — Do I take the calorie hit for natural sugar or do I go the chemical route to get artificial sweetness for zero calories. It’s a tough call sometimes and I feel limited because I really don’t know what natural sweetening options are out there.

Cara to the rescue!

Cara graciously agreed to a little guest post on clean eating and the sweet stuff!

No Sugar, No Problem

So I hear your favorite Fit/FatGirl is in the process of a little detox. Are you following along too? Well, good! I don’t mean that in a “Yay for you! You’re going to be drinking nothing but lemon and chili pepper spiked water for three days!” (I’m no detox expert but I really hope that’s not the one you’re referring to.) I mean that in a “Awesome! We could all stand to clean up our diets” sort of way.

Who am I and why do I want to talk about clean eating? My name is Cara and I write a food blog called Cara’s Cravings. So what? Everyone and their mother has a food blog these days. I’ll tell you what. Cara’s Cravings is healthy living food blog where I share delicious recipes perfect for any food lover trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I do this because I *love* food and my weight used to show it. Losing weight didn’t make me lose my love of food and eating; rather, it made me realize there was even more food to love. Now my meals are chock full of good-for-you-stuff yet I still feel like I’m indulging every day because the food is that good. I have found that there is so much more food in this world that I *can* eat freely than those I try to avoid.

What exactly is clean eating? One might consider it a detox for life. Cleaning up your diet from processed, unhealthy foods to heal your body and your mind. Focusing on colorful veggies, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats to satisfy your cravings and fuel your daily activities. Trying to eat more ingredients instead of things that have ingredients.

Clean eating is not eating sugar. Specifically, refined sugar (common granulated white sugar and brown sugar) is a big no-no. The problem is that these are often hidden everywhere – even in foods we might think are healthier choices, such as bottled sauces and dressings, “healthy” granola bars and crackers, and flavored yogurts. Of course, you’re probably aware of many “sugar free” varieties of these foods, but the problem with these is that they pretty much all contain artificial sweeteners (think: the stuff commonly known as the yellow packets, pink packets, and blue packets.) Clean eating is also not eating artificial ingredients. So what’s a gal with a sweet tooth on a clean eating diet to do?

I already alluded to the fact that there are tons more foods we can eat than the number of foods we cannot. Easy-to-find, more nutritious and all-natural sweeteners include honey, maple syrup, and molasses. Other options becoming increasingly more mainstream are succanat (also referred to as evaporated cane juice) and coconut palm sugar. These sweeteners all have caloric value comparable to “regular” sugar but are less processed and retain higher nutritional value.

Each has its pros and cons, including flavor and ease of use, which will help determine which one should be used in place of sugar in a specific recipe. Also becoming increasingly popular is stevia, a zero-calorie all-natural sweetener derived from the stevia plant. In it’s pure form stevia is many times sweeter than sugar (1 teaspoon is equivalent to 1 cup of sugar in terms of sweetness) which makes it difficult to use a direct replacement in baking. One would need to make up the bulk that sugar would comprise with another ingredient. However, stevia is sold in various forms, including concentrated liquid drops (great for sweetening coffee and tea) and bulkier mixes (easier to use in baking or for measuring small amounts.)

Over the past year I’ve been experimenting with these various sweeteners and put them to use in many recipes. I’ve found that I rarely use just one kind of sweetener.

Dairy-Free, Refined Sugar-Free Gingerbread Ice Cream

In this Gingerbread Ice Cream, I started with molasses to provide the rich color and characteristic dark gingerbread flavor. I could have used all molasses to sweeten the ice cream, but to shave some calories, I opted to use about half of what I would have needed to create an adequately sweet ice cream, and added liquid vanilla stevia to provide the rest. (If you just clicked that link and dropped your jaw at the price of a 2oz bottle, relax. It seems like a lot of money but I promise it lasts forever. This stuff is highly concentrated and you only need a few drops to sweeten a cup of coffee or tea.)

cookie dough truffles, vegan, chia seeds, guten-free, cacao nibs

Similarly, in these Mint-Cacao Cookie Dough Truffles, I used a combination of powdered stevia along with maple syrup. In no-bake recipe, the maple syrup is desirable because it helps to bind the dry ingredients. But just like with the gingerbread ice cream recipe, I opted to lighten the caloric load by using some stevia in addition. (The additional liquid needed to hold the cookie dough truffles together was provided from unsweetened almond milk.)

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Now take a look at my Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Swirl Brownies (that are not only refined sugar-free, but vegan and gluten-free too!) Here I used a combination of maple syrup and another sweetener I didn’t even mention above: dates! Date puree (made from soaking dates in hot water and then pureeing in a food processor) provide not only sweetness and obvious nutrition, but contribute to the soft, chewy texture desirable in brownies and cookies. Also note that instead of oil, I used a combination of applesauce and pumpkin to provide the necessary moisture. These natural fruit and vegetable options provide some sweetness too. Decadently rich and fudgey, these brownies are some of my favorite baked goods to date (no pun intended.)

Chocolate Raspberry Macaroon Tart For Clean Eating Magazine by Cara Lyons

Lastly, here is an example where stevia did work perfectly well on its own. That chocolate-covered dream you see is a a Chocolate Raspberry Macaroon Tart I created for Clean Eating Magazine. There you have it. Another resource to support your new clean eating lifestyle, and one I’m proud to be a regular contributor to. I served this tart at a big family party last spring, and the only complaint was that I didn’t bring a second one as well.

I hope that with these ideas, you’re even more excited to kick your healthy lifestyle into gear. But please remember, even though these are all better choices, it’s important to note that one should still try to exercise the principal of moderation and maintain a balanced diet. Lastly, don’t stress about excursions from the “rules” here and there. Remember that your good habits over the course of time will ultimately determine your progress. And once you realize all the quality, wholesome food out there, you’ll want to get right back to it after that once-in-a-while “cheat.”

Cara Lyons is the author of Cara’s Cravings, a food blog dedicated to delicious recipes for healthy living and a regular contributor to Clean Eating Magazine. A self-taught photographer, she will be teaching a beginners’ seminar on food photography at Nourished, a conference geared towards special diet food bloggers, on April 13th, 2012.

SOPA Strike

Amy — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:18:00 +0000

SOPA should not pass through Congress.

Piracy is bad, censorship is worse.

So no blogging today, and I’ve got good content!

Call your Representatives. SOPA should not pass.

Detox Begins! (Coffee? What? No I’m not drinking coffee)

Amy — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:30:27 +0000

I love coffee. I really really do. And I’m not talking the dessert coffee drinks of the mocha-choca latte variety. Just give me a plain cup ‘o Joe, with milk and sugar. NEVER skim milk!

OK, fine, I was completely unsuccessful in eliminating coffee from my diet. I’m weak OK! Coffee is stronger than I am!

I’m following the 7 day detox plan laid out in Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraSimple Diet. I’ve been following Mark Hyman for years after reading UltraPrevention. The UltraSimple plan is designed to reset your metabolism and get your body digesting food properly. It’s pretty simple to follow, as the name suggests, and I can fit it in my life. I did other detoxes that involved juicing and I’m just not interested in buying more kitchen equipment right now.

So, the UltraSimple Diet and his follow up book, UltraMetabolism point to two main causes of excess weight (besides the obvious eating too much and not exercising) - Inflammation and toxicity. Basically, Hyman believe that our modern diets with all the chemicals and possible allergens make our bodies crazy and it hold on to weight. Eliminate these causes of inflammation and toxicity and your body will release the weight. Sounds simple right?

So the diet has you strip out basically all food but veggies, some fruit, rice and a bit of protein. It’s a really manageable plan and exactly the way I like to eat if it wasn’t for you this whole nonsense I have around my life being too busy to eat well. But THAT is another blog post.

So, I’m starting off the program today (and yes, I’m still drinking coffee, that’s right, I’m a rebel). I’ve got a whole pot of veggie broth bubbling on the stove, brown rice cooking and man, I can’t wait for lunch.

Detox. Cue the Horror Music.

Amy — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:43:20 +0000

And FatGirl says: NOOOOOOO! For the love of all that is good and holy, why, why dear god are you taking away my coffee?? I’ll be good. I promise. Just don’t take the coffee. Woe, woe is me!

It’s a new year and I have several pounds of Christmas cookies strapped to my butt right now and what better way of dealing with that than torturing myself by giving up coffee, sugar, white flour and dairy for a week. Yay!

Everyone and their cousin Bob has a detox program right now. Basically, the idea is to remove food science chemical additives from your diet as well as common allergens and “toxic” crap like sugar and coffee. Then you add them back into your diet in a controlled fashion to see if your body reacts to it. Keep what foods work for you, get rid of what foods don’t. I’ve done several detoxes over the course of my weight loss journey, most on my own which basically consisted of eating brown rice and veggies for a week or so. I did almost a whole year of “No Processed Foods” which was great and I’d love to do that again. I was cooking professionally at the time in a cafe that did all scratch cooking so it really wasn’t a big deal for me to whip up homemade pasta or crackers. I did an official detox with a wellness coach and bought some fancy herbal supplements that were supposed to support the detoxification process. It was alright, no complaints really

I can’t say that I lost a substantial amount of weight or felt remarkably better after a detox program, but doing a detox breaks me of some bad food habits. I really don’t need 8 cups of coffee to be productive in my day. I don’t really need Ritz crackers and butter for a snack. I don’t need a half dozen Dove chocolate squares after dinner. I’ve been pushing my schedule really hard and I’ve been pretending that it’s easier and faster to eat crap. Sure, in the moment, a slice of pepperoni pizza IS faster than eating a salad, but I totally pay for it later by feeling bloated and yuckie. And really, it’s just habit and mindset and a pattern of settling for less. And that’s what I find beneficial about a detox program – pressing the reset button on my food habits and getting back to healthy eating.

I’m going to start a detox program next week, and I have a ton of content lined up. I can hear the chant resonating through cyber space – “Next week?? Do it now!”. I may be fat but I’m not stupid. I know full well if I go cold turkey on sugar, bread, coffee and butter someone will get hurt and it won’t be me. So I’m easing out of those foods over the next few days to get myself really well set up.

Let me know your detox experiences? Do you think it’s all just marketing and nonsense? Have you detoxed and what were your results.

It’s going to be an interesting ride. Oy.

Happy New Year. Excuse me while I throw up

Amy — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:09:21 +0000

So I make the proclamation that I’m going to run every day in 2012.

And that’s an awesome idea, in theory, until New Year’s Day rolls around after a New Year’s Eve full of single malt whiskey and champagne.

I actually manage to get on running clothes and head out on the semi-rural streets near my friends house in Massachusetts. Yeah, that’s right, I’m bad. I run on New Year’s Day. Screw you hang over!

You pretty much know this isn’t going to be a happy story right?

You see that wee little hill in the distance?

Running is a metaphor for everything in my life, because, you know, I have to analyze and process everything. That’s how I roll. And this isn’t even a battle with the Crazy Fat Girl that lives in my head. I knew this run wouldn’t bust any Personal Records or anything but I didn’t actually expect to be crying and throwing up by the end of it. That wee little hill undid me. I’m pushing up the hill and struggling on this run like I haven’t struggled in a long time. I’m out of breath, I’m feeling the extra weight I’ve put on. I profoundly get connected all the things I didn’t succeed with in 2011 – Smoking, weight gain, eating McDonalds, relationships, finances, you know all that crap that you declare in the bravado of New Year’s day that you’re going to conquer and take on in those “Dear Diary” missives you pen to your self – “Ha HA! This year is going to be different and I freaking rock!”.

That’s what I did New Year’s Day 2011. And here I am one year later, fighting up this nothing little hill. The year’s worth of decisions I made under the guise of convenience close in on me as I hit that hill. Each foot fall sinks me further into all the bad and wrong things of 2011, it’s like running at the bottom of a ocean with a billion pounds of pressure of all my broken promises and lies to myself pushing down on me. 50 meters to the top of that little hill, I break stride and throw up when I realize I sold out on myself in 2011. Now, I didn’t exactly throw up because of this realization, it’s more like the whisky and dehydration finally decided to own the show, but hey, running is a metaphor for my life and it was just freaking perfect to be puking when I realize that if I was dating me, I’d break up with me because I can’t be trusted to follow through and fulfill upon my commitments. I sold out on myself and the promises I made. Jobs and making money, and my company and my projects and hell, stupid knitting projects came before my commitment to myself. I couldn’t find the time to run, or go to the gym or cook good food because I had to answer an email or return a phone call or damnit, I worked hard today so I deserve to kill zombies in a game for a bit.

So there I am, throwing up on the almost-top of this stupid hill realizing I didn’t do any of the things I wanted to in 2011. It then occurs to me that I now have a choice. I can choose to wallow in puke and woe-is-me, or I can literally purge all that out of my system. See that metaphor thingie there. I can choose to be my word and be my commitments. I can choose to have 2012 be exactly what I want. I can choose to walk the rest of the way up that hill, hit the reset button on my life, and I can make that choice at any moment. Commitment is nothing more than choosing what you’re committed to over and over and over.

And today I choose me

It’s beginning to look a lot like… Easter?

Amy — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:16:21 +0000

It's beginning to look a lot like Easter?

Sometimes, I run to 7-11 to get coffee. Meaning I run 2 miles or so and oops, I happen to find myself at 7-11. Oh gee, might as well get coffee.

On Christmas Eve, I took a quick sprint, you know, to be all healthy like. OK, fine. I wanted a cup of coffee. I ran for coffee. Sue me. I breeze into 7-11 all bundled up like Ralphie from the Christmas Story (my abhorrence of the cold and how that effects my running is another post alas), and my crazy inner Fat Girl damn near stampeded the poor folks getting snacks and convenience items when she spied this display.

You see, Fat Girl’s most favorite treat on this earth is Reese’s Peanut Butter holiday candies. Those magical heart and Jack-o-latnern shapes have the absolutle perfect ratio of chocolate to peanut butter. And the illusion that they are only available for a limited time makes the doubly irresistible. You must eat as many peanut butter chocolate Christmas trees as physically possible before they’re gone and you have to wait an entire year before you’ll see them again! I mean really, if you don’t get ‘em now, they’ll be GONE!

Thankfully calmer voices in my head prevailed and I was able to break Fat Girls hold on my psyche and communicate that Easter candy on Christmas Eve is… Just. Plain. WRONG.

OK, Fine. I didn’t get my absolute favorite treat on this earth because I only had $2 on me and coffee is almost always more important than chocolate.

But it is still a major WTF moment – What the hell is Easter Candy doing in 7-11 on Christmas Eve? Did I fall in a worm hole and transport myself to spring already?

Happy Holidays from Larabar!

Amy — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:00:13 +0000

I came home to a very full mail box today. The last of the holiday packages, minus a check or two that I’m waiting on, but there’s always tomorrow. All holiday gifts arrived just in time, whew. And then I discovered this little gem, that I did not order or expect.

A package from Larabar!

What on earth could Larabar be sending me?? I have to say, it’s kind of cool and startling to get mail addressed to “Fat Girls Can Run”.

Larabar - Holiday Card

There was this lovely card from Larabar… and…

How did you know I love coffee??

4 of the new Cappuccino flavored bar! Of course I ate one right away. Holy smokes, creamy and rich tasting just like a Cappuccino. The coffee flavor was actually a bit overwhelming with the first bite but by the last bite, it seemed to mellow out. I don’t know how they made it creamy and milky tasting with no milk, just coffee, dates, cashews, almonds and vanilla. And no, just in case you’re wondering, I’m not sharing!