Which Diet Tools are Worth Your Money?

I spend a lot of time whining about not having enough money for things and I know there are ton of people out there who make the excuse that weight loss and eating healthy is too expensive. I won't lie to you and say that it's completely free (it hasn't been for me), but you can make well-informed decisions on what products are worth your hard earned cash. 

As someone who would rather spend her tax return on funding her cosplay adventures for the year than on practical household goods, here are the products I have discovered are "must haves" for those interested in doing more cooking and getting healthy. I'm started researching this article from the perspective of someone preparing to eat Primal but I've included recommendations from others who have succeeded in the areas of healthy weight loss and fitness.

Primal Pacs

I live in NYC. I'm on the go and when I'm at work I have to carry food in my pocket and get it down my gullet when I get a spare moment because I don't always get a break. One of my Nerd Fitness Rebel pals suggested Primal Pacs when I asked for jerky recommendations. This product not cheap, but the quality is high and it's perfect for being on the go and without a refrigerator. You can order the grass fed jerky or snack packs with a mixture of jerky, nuts, and dried fruit in large or small bags depending on your needs! You can check out the prices and more information on their website.

Weight Watchers 

I have friends that swear by their online program. They've lost the weight and kept it off. Similar to how I love to use Fitbit to count calories and make sure I'm staying in my deficit zone, the Weight Watchers app offers great on-the-go support to keep you on track and flexible in the real world. Plus if you hate calorie counting, then this could be a great way to stay accountable without the pressure of having to look up estimates constantly. The program accounts for any activity and exercise you log by rewarding you extra points to spend on food. It costs  $48 per month or $65 for 3 months. You can find more information on their site.

Fitbit

This device has changed my life and my diet plan. While I feel way more in control, I also feel a greater sense of freedom. I can monitor my statistics as they happen, I can log food and activity, and be flexible when I need to. Plus, there's no subscription fees for the online program and app. You buy the device for between $45 and $100+ depending on the model you select, and voila! You're ready to roll. I could spend all day espousing the benefits of Fitbit, but I already did that in my review so if you're interested in learning more, you can check it out.

Fit & Fresh 

When it comes to your health, fresh is always better! Primal and Paleo eaters swear by this Fit & Fresh lunch container set when it comes to bringing their meats, veggies, salads, etc to work. This set includes multiple high quality containers to keep everything separate and organized in bento box style plus a cold pack that will keep your food from wilting or going bad if you don't have access to a fridge. You can get it all for $9.09 on Target's website. The price is certainly right!

Dressing-2-Go

I love salads and the only reason I don't take them on the go is wilting (which I addressed with the previous item!) and the fact that I can't portion out my dressing and easily keep it separate. Well, with these little 2 tbs squeeze bottles, I can put my dressings in the bottle and pop them into my Fit & Fresh set so that they will stay cool until I'm ready to use them on my salad! Problem solved for just $7.38 by ordering from this website. 

Food Scale 

It's more important than people realize to measure food when you're on a diet. Learning correct portion sizes is instrumental in discovering how to get the most use out of the calories you have to spend for the day and when you start cooking for yourself, a food scale can help you ensure that when you say you're eating 2 oz of chicken, you actually are. I found I was so afraid of "over" feeding myself that I severely underestimated when it came to weight/portions of solid food and veggies which means I went into starvation mode and my weight loss slowed for months because I wasn't getting enough food. There's a lot of estimating when it comes to calorie counts and you can reduce the guess work exponentially by putting your money where your mouth is, literally. Measuring cups and spoons will only get you so far because measuring liquids is different than measuring solid food. You can pick up a good, affordable food scale from Amazon for just $25.

Paleo Central 

If you are considering a switch to Paleo or Primal, then this app is absolutely essential. You can enter any food or components of a recipe and it will tell you whether it's Paleo or not. It tells you what you can or can't eat in the most simple ways and will give you insight into borderline foods all for $.99 on the iTunes store. There's an Android app available as well.

If you have any recommendations for our fellow Slayers here at Project Reroll, please leave them in the comments!

Fitbit Review

Nutrisystem catalyzed a giant change for the better in my life. After committing to start that program about 10 months ago, it's been a while  a new product came along that has changed the way I look at my every day actions in such an intensely rigorous, fascinating, and encouraging way- Until NOW! 

Fitbit is changing my life step by step and meal by meal. I've never had more energy, more awareness of my physical activity, or been more at peace with my diet.

I'm a competitive gamer. I love to see my "stats." Setting goals and tracking my progress are huge motivators in-game and in life. It should come as no surprise that I discovered this device/program while making friends on the Nerd Fitness forums! With Fitbit, I get to go through that process every single day. You can set a stride goal, a calorie burn goal, a specific diet plan with a daily deficit to match the intensity of your desired diet or simply plan for maintenance, and you can follow along as you work towards those benchmarks every day. You can enter your measurements, your weight, and your stride length for increased accuracy from your activity readings. You can sync the device to a online dashboard which you can view and make changes to both on your computer, a tablet, or on the fly if you use your smart phone app. Not only is it an incredibly dynamic system, but if you use the phone app, it will send you notifications if you are particularly close to your goal or if you need to step it up in order to meet your daily goals. 

There can be a competitive aspect to using Fitbit. You can use social media to connect with your friends, see how they're doing, and cheer/taunt/comment on their achievements. You also get badges for lifetime achievements like your first 50 miles walked, or your first time taking 20,000 steps in a day. This encourages friendly competition between you and your comrades, and of course it encourages you to compete against yourself! You can see stats on your best day or your lifetime miles walked while wearing the device. I encourage my whole family to get them and their awareness and activity level has increased exponentially over the last three weeks. 

Sometimes it's hard to pair weight loss programs. In my opinion (and you're welcome to disagree and discuss in the comments!) you can't do Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem, or successfully gain the benefits of Paleo while sticking to the raw food movement. Usually you have to pick one thing that works for you and stick with it for long enough that you can sustain success and encourage the results you're looking for. I previously wrote about wanting to transition to Weight Watchers when I got to maintenance because you can easily track your food whether you make it yourself or purchase it from a chain restaurant. Plus (unlike Nutrisystem), Weight Watchers takes exercise into account and allows you extra points to spend on food based on how much energy you expend. 

Fitbit allows me to do that all right now, without joining another program that I have to pay for. There's just a one time expenditure to buy your device and the online tracking dashboard is available to your at no charge. In addition, I don't have to wait until I'm in maintenance to begin learning how to plan my diet around my actual activity. It seems silly to say that, but before I started using Fitbit, I'd just pick out my Nutrisystem entrees for the day based on what I wanted or what I "thought" I'd be physically doing, since the requirement was simply to eat all the fresh add ins and land between 1250 and 1350 calories each day. Now with Fitbit, I can make more educated choices about which entrees I should eat on which days AND I can more easily flex the plan when I need to go out to dinner for a special occasion. I can base those choices off of my actual activity rather than an arbitrary number. I'm a huge fan and it has left me feeling way more energized from day to day. It totally broke me out of the plateau I was in. Their database holds nutritional data for all sorts of food, both from groceries and chains. You can adjust the portions based on what you actually eat and if it doesn't have the nutritional data for an item that you have (like a Nutrisystem entree or a salad dressing you bought at the store), you can simply add a new food to the database and enter all the relevant information.

You should eat for the life you're living. Fitbit helps me do that in a fuel efficient and dynamic way!

Bonus? If you're someone who uses Weight Watchers and loves it, then you can just pass on the food logging and continue to use your other program while still getting your calorie burn, strides, distance, and your activity score. If you already use a log like MyFitnessPal, you can link it with your Fitbit account so that you can integrate them with each other. 

My only concerns are making sure that I have a store of batteries for when my Zip needs a new one so I don't miss a day of tracking (mine hasn't shown signs of wearing out after three weeks), making sure I get in the habit of religiously putting it on every morning, and making sure I remember to log activities that aren't measured as accurately (aka yoga, long boarding, or cycling) so that I can get proper credit for the calories burned.

Fitbit offers a variety of different devices at varying levels of expense (from $45 for the Zip on Amazon to $100+ for the other models). Personally, I use the Fitbit Zip (the cheapest option) but you should check out all three devices they have available because each one has varying benefits and you may have different priorities than I do. Keep in mind, they're sometimes available for less money on Amazon, so definitely check out whatever deals they have.

I simply can't recommend this product enough. Go get one! You won't regret it!

My Big Damn Hero Challenge

It's Monday April 15th and that means it's the beginning of a new Nerd Fitness 6 Week Challenge! After the success I had with the last one, I'm ready to attack a new set of goals head on and continue to level up my life! You have until Wednesday April 17th to create your goals and post them in the guild thread you want to participate in for the challenge, so I highly recommend biting the bullet and joining the rebellion if you're not already a part of it! 

Last challenge, I gave my challenge a Rainbow Dash theme because I was preparing cosplay as her for PAX East. This time, I'll be using the ladies from Joss Whedon's Firefly to inspire my goals! Note: All artwork by Megan Lara.

Starting Stats:

Hearthsinger the Wandering Bard

Level 2 Halfling Ranger

STR 4 | DEX 3 | STA 7 | CON 5 | WIS 6 | CHA 4

Starting Photos:

Starting Weight: 151.4 lbs.
Starting Measurements:

Bust: 36.25"
Waist: 36.5"
Hips: 42"
Thigh: 20.75"
Calves: 15.5"
Bicep: 12.25"

Fitness/Diet goals:

• "I need you up in the engine room figurin' out what caused this." ~Malcolm Reynolds 
• I'll use all the tech at my disposal to maximize the efficiency of my workouts and the effectiveness of my diet plan. 
• I'll log every meal I eat on Fitbit.
• I must meet my -1000 calorie deficit at least 6/7 days a week while still eating EVERYTHING I'm supposed to on my diet plan so I can stay on track with my weight loss. 
• No more starving myself to meet the deficit is allowed. I must consume at least 1100 calories every "day of rest." On active/working days, I must consume 1250-1350. 
• Reward: CON +4

• "You ever been with a warrior woman?" ~Wash
• Time to get more serious about my strength training with. Daily Yoga! 
• 20-30 minutes/day including vinyasa series and warrior dance to warm up the body, followed by focused work on the following three poses. 
• Hold crow for 10 seconds (right now I can just barely get both feet off the floor for a few seconds)
• Wheel for 10 seconds (I've gotten up into it one time, but mostly only make it to the top of my head)
• Hold shoulder stand for 10 minutes by the end of the challenge (right now my PR is four minutes). 
• Reward: STR +3, DEX +2

• "No power in the 'verse can stop me." ~River Tam
• I have graduated from the Zombies, Run 5K Training app so it's time to start doing 3 missions a week with the regular Zombies, Run app. 
• By the end of the challenge, I'd like to go from my 5k PR of: 33 min down to 30 min. 
• Reward: STA +3

Life Goal:

• "Should I start with the part where you're stranded in the middle of nowhere or the part where you have no clothes?" ~Inara Serra
• I'm running out of clothes that fit properly again and I don't have a lot of money, so it's time to get resourceful and list all my old designer clothes, shoes, and sundry items that no longer fit or are no longer wanted for sale on ebay. 
• They do not have to be sold by the end of the challenge, but all of the items have to be collected, organized, photographed, and listed by the end of six weeks. 
• I can use the proceeds to replenish my dwindling wardrobe! 
• Reward: CHA +3

So there you have it! In six weeks, I'll post a follow up on the blog to let you know how I did!

In the Game of Fat, You Lose or You Cry

Today was weigh-in day and I finally saw a number I could be proud of on the scale after conquering a few weeks of weight loss agony, plateaus, and starvation mode woes. I lost 5.6 lbs this week and I'm officially down 95 lbs overall! This is a very special victory for me for multiple reasons.

Reason the first! At PAX East, I went off the deep end a little bit. I spent the week prior to the convention reintroducing all the foods I'd been leaving out of my diet, as well as trying to get myself back on track and out of starvation mode. I was also trying not to obsess as much about things and therefor I wasn't planning on looking at the scale till the Monday after PAX. Then came the actual convention. Sure, I did everything right leading up to it. I packed most of my food ahead of time and I only planned to eat out for dinners and for coffee during the day. Then I realized all too late that I would need fresh veggies and I would have to get salads at the con where I wouldn't have as much control over portions or content. This threw off my budgeting both for cash and calories. I also planned to enjoy a meal at Fire + Ice in Boston on Thursday night and even though I loaded up my stir fry with a ton of veggies, I still went to the ice cream bar for desert and DESTROYED the most overindulgent delicious sundae ever complete with mint chocolate marshmallow fudge. My lack of gallbladder screamed in protest. I told it to SHUT IT. It was cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria. Once I had that sundae, my sugar addiction kicked into high gear. My boyfriend got mint chocolate cookies and I had to have one because my costume was "getting uncomfortable and eating cookies=relief." Really? What kind of an excuse was THAT? I had a brownie one night. I ate a whole chicken caesar wrap the size of a baby arm another night. It was out of control. I felt out of control and I didn't like it.

When I came back home on Sunday night I said, "That's it. You've had your fun. You need to get your head on straight now that you're home. No excuses." It was a struggle, but I persevered. I ate all the food on the plan just like I'd been doing prior to leaving. I can now say I've made it through the whole week without depriving myself of anything I was supposed to eat which is huge for me. I also resisted SEVERAL temptations along the way since did end up going out to dinner two nights in a row! However, I didn't stray. I made a plan and I stuck to it. It was agonizing and willpower draining, but I feel like I finally exorcised all the sugar and chemicals from my system and I have my eyes on the prize again.

Reason the second for celebration is that my brand new Fitbit arrived on Wednesday. It's a handy little wearable gadget that tracks my steps, my distance, and my daily calorie burn (based on my height, weight, and other statistics) and uploads all the stats to a website so I can log my food and make sure I'm hitting the right calorie deficit to hopefully lose two pounds a week. It's pretty incredible! I will do a more in depth review of the product at some point, but suffice to say, this little tool gave me the kick in the pants and the extra bit of excitement I needed to push through some of the really hard days I had this week. 

Reason the third: I found out that I'm officially not obese on the BMI scale anymore, just overweight. So instead of being a fat fat fatty, I'm just a wee bit tubby. Still, it's a huge accomplishment and I wanted to relish it because I'm never going back to that old me ever again. 

So, I ask you, what better way is there to celebrate all of these accomplishments then to assume my rightful place up on the Iron Throne of Westeros in my Megan Lara Khaleesi t-shirt. I really can't think of one. 

Choose Your Own Adventure

Our newly painted miniatures for a campaign of Mage: The Awakening. Mine is second from the left!

Whenever I start a new tabletop role playing game, be it D&D, Scion, or Mage: The Awakening, I have the hardest time getting started. There are rule books jammed with so many choices that I feel completely lost until after I've narrowed down that first kernel of inspiration for the character. Does she fight with daggers? Is she from the wrong side of the tracks? Lawful good or chaotic neutral? I need to have one answer before the rest can fall into place.

Similarly, there's a boatload of advice on the internet about diet and exercise. Knowing where to start is a challenge in itself! What are credible sources? There are plans galore to tempt you; Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, My Fitness Pal, Couch to 5k, FitBit, Paleo, Primal. It's easy to get overwhelmed and even easier to discover conflicting advice. The ultimate key is finding something you think you can sustain. Whatever changes you make to your eating and physical activity should be things that you can stick with for life or you'll just end up back where you started. 

Personally, Nutrisystem has been a great gateway for me, but it's hardly the end goal. I don't intend to be on it forever and ultimately I would like to eat more whole foods than processed foods which will be easier when I'm cooking most everything from scratch. In the end, it doesn't make sense to be ordering food from across the country and carrying meals with me every time I go to parties. However, this "gateway" has taught me a lot about portions, ways to improve my metabolism by eating smaller meals/snacks a day, and how to fit more fruits/veggies/water into my diet. Some people would absolutely disagree with me, but I don't think there are "magic" foods that cause you to lose weight. A balanced diet with correct portions combined with increased physical activity will cause you lose weight and get healthy. I've worked hard to learn about nutrition while following this program because I know it's the only way I'll be able to keep the weight off once I stop placing orders with Nutrisystem.

A lot of people react to the success of those around them by wanting to get a piece of it themselves. That's certainly what got me started. Sometimes, I find that when I explain what I'm doing, people get overwhelmed. "No offense. That's great and all, but I could never do what you do," said a friend of mine. My reaction is, "That's the beauty of it! There are tons of ways to improve your current habits and you can start small and see what works for you." 

My answer doesn't have to be yours. I have a friend who murders herself in multiple boxing classes a day and lives for it. If you think I'm trying that any time soon, then you're completely insane! I have another friend who will plan her entire day of eating and exercise around what she wants for desert because treats are that important to her! I totally do that when I have something really special planned, like eating Magnolia cupcakes with my sweetie on Valentine's Day. Other people say, "You can't live for treats like a dog. You have to cut all the processed chemicals, grains, and dairy completely out of your diet." If that's what works for them, by all means live long and prosper! I'd miss carbs and dairy way too much for that to be sustainable for me. My point is that ALL of these plans work for the individuals who implement them well and execute them long enough to see result.

What absolutely doesn't work is constantly changing your plan or taking some from column A and some from column B. You need to choose your new class and stick with it for a few levels before you decide whether or not it will work for you. If you keep switching, you'll never get the full good of the game and more importantly, you won't give your body the chance take in the changes and react to them.

There's something out there for everyone so if you're interested in getting your health in order, don't let someone else's "insane" program be an excuse for you not to try. Choose your own adventure, find a "class" you love, and start playing the game. Take it level by level and if you need to play "casual," then do that. Rome wasn't built in a day and the new you won't be either.

I'm trying to keep that in mind as my weight loss slows. I had a weigh in today and I only lost .4 lbs this week. It was a let down considering how hard I've been working and all the good choices I made during the week, but at least the scale didn't go up. I just need to stay focused and try to enjoy the physical things I'm doing, like Zombies, Run! 5k training (which is so fun that I think I might cry!), Yoga, and watching my favorite season of Xena on the elliptical. The weight will come off when it's ready. Patience, young padawan.