Friday, April 6, 2012

SATW Q&A

I've seen other bloggers do some Q&A's and I really like those posts so I thought I might do some from time to time.  I don't know how many people actually have questions that aren't already answered in the FAQ (but I'm willing to go into more detail if you're wondering about something specific lifestyle wise).  Here are a few questions I've gotten:


I lust for your fruit salads, especially when you have fresh pineapple but I find when I am buying produce I am completely unable to pick a ripe one. How about tips and tricks for selecting top notch produce??




I love my fruit salad baby!  I eat it 5 days a week and I especially love it when I have pineapple as well.  When you've been to Hawaii as many times as we have, you pick up tips and tricks on how to select the perfect pineapple.  Biggest tip?  The whole pulling a leaf out of the crown to see if it's ripe is a myth!  If you can easily pull the leaf out, it's rotten.  You don't want a green pineapple, you want one that is more golden in color but little evidence of light green still left on it is fine.  If you smell it and it smells sweet, get it.  If it has no smell, it's still got some ripening to do which is fine if you don't need it in the next few days. If you have some time to let it ripen at home, store it upside down (maybe in an empty round oatmeal container) so the sugars distribute evenly in the fruit.  If it smells like it's fermenting or like vinegar, bring it to the attention of the produce manager that it's rotten.  It shouldn't be rock hard either.  There should be an ever so slight give to the rind and if you can push it in and its soft or the scales come off, it's rotten.

As far, as other fruit, same goes with the smell.  If you can smell the fruit through the rind slightly and it doesn't have a funky or pungent fruit smell then it should be safe to buy.  For me, it's when fruit is out of season that's the biggest crap shoot.  I love cantaloupe and the best chance I have of getting a sweeter one is going for one that looks a little lumpy and has some decent give to it.  (Not mushy though)  I've still gotten a few hard ones inside despite that but its the only technique that gets me the best results in the off season.  I also suggest keeping your receipt for as long as you have fresh fruit.  We bought strawberries one night and the next night they were completely moldy.  Those puppies went back.  I've bought apples before that have been completely rotten inside after I cut them and I bagged them up and they went back.  We pay far too much for produce to accept rotten or sub par produce and throw our money away.  I hope some of that helped!

How do you find the motivation to keep going? Did you ever get to the point where you were like "I'm ok at xxx pounds. I'll stay here for a while." 

I wish I could say "oh it's easy and I'm motivated and gung ho all the time!"  Oh man that's just so not how it is!  *laughing*  We're kind of on auto pilot right now.  We're on year 4 and we really feel like our bodies are trying to "settle" here.  We've been at these weights before, we've been comfortable here but we're not in this to settle.  I'm tired of getting to this weight range or within 30 lbs of it and the body wants to hang out in the range and I want to get complacent due to lack of results.  I've been there, done that and thats just not my goal.  I want to know what it's like to be at a healthy BMI to not be in double digits size wise and to feel truly normal for my height.  I suppose I could say that's my motivation but it's just so engrained in us right now that the Mr comes home, we workout, we eat healthy (except high cal day) and that's our life now.  I don't know if that is the glamorous answer but it's the honest one.  :-)


What is the single most shocking change you've made to your habits. Something you swore you'd never change but then you just sort of did.


I don't know that this is 'shocking' as much as it is "oh...interesting."  We used to drink a 2 liter over the weekends.  We never set to cut that out but it somehow just happened.  I thought I would always need to have a soda with my burger or pizza on a high cal day but honestly, I don't miss it.  Now maybe twice a year or so we might indulge but I can never finish anything higher than 12 ounces.  The Mr used to get a 12 pack of vanilla soda about 4 or 5x over the summer when it was released but the past 3 years he's made a 12 pack stretch for a year and most of the time it's shared a time or two with friends who like it too.  We never set out to cut soda out but at an average of 150 cals for high octane (we don't like "diet" soda), I'm not going to drink my calories.

I hope that you liked this little feature.  I've got some more questions so I'll be answering those in the coming weeks but if you have any questions you'd like to ask you can either leave them in the comments or you can contact me at mrs{at}successalongtheweigh{dot}com


Hope everyone has a great weekend!


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10 comments:

  1. Great post. It's nice to see what others like to know about you. It also helps to write about things like this so that others who come here can see that they are not alone in the journey.

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  2. I tried to leave this before, but I don't know that it worked...

    I appreciate that you answered about motivation, and I like knowing that it's not really a question of motivation for you any longer. You and the Mr. insprire me to keep going when I want to just give up. I think, "If they can do it..." Now if I can just get to the point where it's what I do without really thinking about it too much!

    Thanks for sharing your story!

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  3. Mine didn't work either, the first time. Drat!

    I haven't had a regular soda in years. I have been drinking diet soda since I was a teenager. But I have cut back on that habit as well. After drinking all the water, I usually don't even think about drinking soda. It is usually just a treat every so often.

    I have to say that I envy you the Mr. My husband needs to lose a few pounds - not nearly as much as me - but he always says he wants to get back in shape. Except he never does anything about it. He keeps saying he wants to create a workout room but he never does anything about it.

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  4. Loved the question and answer blog. I had a question about your fruit salad--it always looks so great, do you buy the pre-mixed stuff from the deli, or do you buy the fruit and cut and mix it yourself? I always end up with too much fruit when I do that, and it goes to waste. The same thing with the mixed veggies you eat for lunch everyday. Just curious.

    I HATE drinking calories, (I would much prefer to EAT my calories) but I AM addicted to Diet Squirt soda. I used to HATE diet pop. I can even drink Squirt when it's not ice cold--and Diet Coke, unless it's ICE cold, is awful. I'm a slow drinker so that's an important factor for me--is the drink still good after the ice melts??!!

    The other day I took g-daughter to the grocery store with me and they were handing out little sample plastic glasses full of some new sports drink. I took a cup of the RED stuff thinking g-daughter would enjoy it. Then she wouldn't drink it. What was I to do with this full glass of HIGH-caloried SWEET sports drink? She did finally take a couple of drinks, but wouldn't finish it. I just hated to swig it (I could have easily--even though it was super sweet I'm sure), but I couldn't make myself drink those empty calories, so finally I just set it on the shelf by the yogurt. At least it was in the cooler section!

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  5. Mr- Absolutely!! :)


    Hope- Thanks so much for the sweet comment! So glad I could shed a little light on how we approach that side of things. I'd kill for some motivation! Auto pilot makes things feel like it's dragging out!

    Debbie- Isn't it weird how some things just tend to get cut out without even trying really? Trust me, the Mr needed some nudging that first year. He acknowledged it was on me to get him downstairs to workout and he still needs good kick where tracking is concerned.

    Dupster- We buy the fruit and veggies fresh and cut them up. It's in containers all ready to be mixed and matched to my moods each day. There were many times we bought "well intentioned" fruits and veggies and they never got cut up and would rot. A good $20-30 down the drain!

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  6. I never thought I'd be able to give up soda either. I grew up drinking it--I don't think I even had a glass of water until I was 25! Now I drink it once or twice a month, on Saturdays. The rest of the time, it's water or a water/juice mix (about 25% juice, 75% water--just enough to give it flavor).

    Thanks for the tips on pineapple. My husband and I were just wondering how to pick a ripe pineapple a few weeks ago!

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  7. Thanks for answering my Q Mrs! I guess I've become complacent with all of this. I don't ever remember being this small, and it's all new and exciting. I just have to remember I'm fighting for a single digit size pair of pants = )

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  8. I have a problem with overbuying produce too. I've gotten better, but it still seems like way too often I end up not using all of something.

    For cantaloupes - press on the center (where the stem came off) if it gives a little and smells like a cantaloupe should it's ready to go home with you. If it doesn't have any give or smell it's not ripe. This is the recommendation of growers in my area and it hasn't failed me yet.

    Then again this time of year sometimes any cantaloupe is better than no cantaloupe.

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  9. Hi! Ran across your blog from CCK. I LOVE your CAN DO/DON'T GIVE A RIP WHAT YOU THINK attitude! I think your efforts and your accomplishments are incredibly impressive, and I respect you for standing up for yourself and your way of doing things. My brother started his own weight loss journey (he's 85+ lbs down) and he inspired my hubs and I to do the same thing. We have changed our eating habits and our exercise routines and are loving every minute of it! I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts!

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