Thursday, January 06, 2011 1:44:36 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )
First of all, thank you so much to everyone who posted or emailed or FB'd me about my last post. You all brought tears to my eyes! Thank you so much!
Many people have asked me about what I eat and what else I'm doing to lose weight. So as I promised in my last post, I wanted to just describe what I've been doing. Let me just begin by saying that I'm not a dietitian nor do I have a degree in nutrition (though I don't have a degree in Photography either, haha), but I do have a basic understanding of most of the types of diets and weight loss regimes out there (South Beach, Adkins, Weight Watchers, etc.) So saying that, please note that I'm just sharing what I've done.
For starters, I know that weight loss is fairly straightforward. It's just a question of calories in versus calories out. Once you have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories, you will lose one pound of weight. What you eat can make a huge difference in your overall health, but a calorie is a calorie is a calorie despite what anyone else says. Even if you eat super healthy food, if you eat too much of it, you won't lose weight. And vice versa, you can eat a super unhealthy diet (like this guy) and still lose weight as long as you're eating fewer calories than your body burns. You won't be healthy, but you will lose weight.
So knowing this, I knew that I just needed to reduce my caloric intake. Of course, doing so isn't usually all that easy. Also, I'm not one of those people with a hyper metabolism who just massively overeats junk food. I've always had a relatively healthy diet (i.e. rarely drink soda, eat fast food maybe 4 times a year, never eat potato chips, probably haven't had a twinkie or other similar food in 20 years, etc.). I just have a slightly slower metabolism than normal which means that I fight tooth and nail for every pound that I lose. In looking at my current daily calorie intake in August (which was around 1800-2000 calories a day), I knew that I was going to have to drastically cut my calories in order to lose weight. I had cut my calories to 1400 in January 2010 and had tried to lose weight, but it just wouldn't really budge. So this time, I was determined to succeed.
So I decided to cut my calories down to 900-1000 a day. I know this seems drastic to some, but any more than that, and I just don't lose weight. My metabolism just isn't that fast. But so few calories a day just seems almost impossible to do for month after month. Here's what I know about my own body and weight loss:
1. My body will viciously hold onto weight if it feels that I am "starving."
2. I don't do well with food cravings if I'm feeling hungry.
3. I have a serious sweet tooth and love food in general. So dieting is hard if I feel that I'm "denying" myself yummy food.
What to do?
The first simple solution to problem 1 and 2 was to eat every 2 hours all day. If my body always had food to digest, then it wouldn't feel that I was starving. Also, with food always in my stomach, I wouldn't be hungry all the time. This would also help my metabolism and hopefully keep it elevated throughout the day, burning more calories.
The third problem I tackled head on. I LOVE cooking. I always have. It easily rivals photography as a passion for me. So I turned all my cooking energy into creating delicious, low calorie foods; foods that would leave me feeling like I had had a delicious treat. I also decided that NO food would be considered off limits. I could eat anything that I wanted. I just couldn't exceed 1000 calories a day. So if I wanted to blow all 1000 calories on a milk shake, I most certainly could, haha. However, if I want to have a full stomach all day and not have nasty cravings, then I need to choose low glycemic, low calorie, highly nutritious foods.
So here is a list of what I ate on Monday along with photos of the food. This is EXTREMELY typical of what I eat on a daily basis. (As a sidenote, I've also realized that I STINK at food photography . . . . definitely something to work on, haha).
8:00 am: Big bowl of Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran cereal with peaches and sugar-free maple syrup (150 calories)
10:00 am: Whole medium grapefruit smothered in powdered erythritol, my fav zero calorie sweetener . . . tastes like sugar, looks like sugar and is all natural. Zsweet is the brand I prefer. (70 calories)
12:00 pm: Super yummy, hearty, homemade 13 Bean Chili (2 cups) with a clementine orange. (230 calories)
2:00 pm: My non-coffee version of an almond mocha latte with foamed milk and 1/2 of a GoLean Crunchy Caramel Chocolate bar (I mentioned I have a sweet tooth, right?). (100 calories)
4:00 pm: This is the time of day that I'm always fighting the munchies, so this day I opted for something "snacky:" a 100-calorie bag of kettle popcorn. (100 calories)
6:00 pm: Tuscan Lemon-Garlic-Rosemary chicken with fresh winter squash and peas. It all tasted soooo much better than it looks. Yum! (250 calories)
And that was my Monday. I usually don't eat after 6:00 pm as I want to sleep on an empty stomach so my body will burn fat while I sleep. Final calorie count for the day: 900 calories
The one thing you will notice lacking from my day's food here is bread or really flour of any sort. Though I say that no foods are off-limits and I do feel that I can eat anything I want, I've generally cut out all bread and flour. That's been the hardest part, because I do love bread. But I had found that highly glycemic foods, like white bread, don't make me feel full and actually spike my appetite. So 20 minutes after eating a slice of white bread (which usually has around 100 calories), I would find myself feeling even hungrier and really, really craving more white bread. That effect in itself was motivation enough to stay away from white flour in general. By moving to whole grains, beans, lean protein and fresh produce, I've really helped to remove a lot of the food cravings. I'm planning on continuing to post my menus and recipes (like the chili and chicken from this post) for people who are interested in them.
In addition to my diet, I have also added exercise. I am under strict doctor's orders to NOT do anything that will be jarring to my lower spine due to a massive birth defect of my lower back, so running and such are off limits. But I do power walk, bike and do circuit training 6 days a week.
Anyway, that's just a little of what I've been doing. . . . . more goodness is to come!
Tuesday, January 04, 2011 12:28:26 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )
So I've decided to do a little more personal blog post here about my weight loss odyssey over the last 5 months. And I couldn't seem to come up with a post title that doesn't sound like a bad infomercial for some lame weight loss product, haha, so stay with me.
I'm not a small person. I'm tall and don't have a petite bone structure. But I haven't spent that much of my life overweight. After my first two children, I was able to diet and lose the baby weight. However, with my third child, I went through so many hormone treatments and miscarriages to finally be able to have him and all of it just wreaked havoc on my body, my hormones and my weight. I lost 50 pounds in the months after having him, but I still had another 50 pounds to lose before reaching a healthy BMI.
So fast forward two years to last August. After 2 years of just coasting along, I decided to do something about my extra weight. I was tired of being tired all the time. I still was suffering lingering effects from the pregnancy (elevated blood pressure, sleeping issues) and I hoped that maybe losing some weight would help. Basically, at 37, I felt that I was too young to feel so old. I have young children and I wanted to have the energy to play and hike and explore the world with them. So I decided to lose the weight and gain the energy and strength I felt I lacked. And thankfully, my husband decided to join me, so I wouldn't be doing it alone.
I had three goals for my weight loss:
1. Lose the weight and reach a healthy BMI
2. Tone and strengthen my body so I could do the outdoor activities I love
3. Be able to fit into premium jeans and shop at stores I love, like Anthropologie and Banana Republic.
Now, let me say, I'm not a fan of fad diets. In order for weight loss to be permanent, you have to make a lifestyle change. If you go onto Nutrisystem or use a supplement like HCG or something, you will lose the weight. But the second you go back to your old eating habits or go off the supplement, the weight will come right back. I wanted to make a change for life; not just for a period of time. I wanted to lose the weight and keep it off permanently.
So as a family, we cut our calories, changed our eating habits and started an exercise program. No other gimmicks. Just losing weight the old-fashioned way. And as of this morning, I had lost 49 pounds . . . . soooo close to my goal, haha.
So here are some photos. I had really avoided the camera when being so heavy, obviously, but here is a still from some video we shot in July, right before I started dieting. The photo quality isn't the greatest, but you get the idea.
And here I am today in a top from Banana Republic (man, I kept them in business last month, haha) and my new pair of True Religion jeans:
And here I am today in the same pants I am wearing in the image from July. It was so cathartic to put these on and really see how much weight I had lost:
And my husband has lost about 30 pounds (and at a very trim 149 pounds, he is FORBIDDEN to lose any more weight). And even better, all of my health issues with my blood pressure and sleeping, etc. have gone away. I have had a lot of people ask me about what we're eating and such. So I'm planning on doing some blog posts with recipes and some of the little tricks I've adopted. But there is nothing revolutionary or gimmicky in it all. It's not based on someone's theory or a set of ratios. And that's what I love. Because that's what makes this sustainable and what has enabled me to stick to my "diet" even when it hasn't been easy. I'm still eating all the time, any and all kinds of food, and eating tasty, delicious, wholesome food. Sigh. See, it still sounds like too much of a commercial . . . . but seriously. I'm planning on listing daily menus and you'll see. So stay tuned . . . . more to come . . . .
Saturday, January 01, 2011 7:36:47 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )
Thank you so much for your holiday greetings. I've savored every card I've received and I also appreciate your comments on my card. And I wish everyone a happy, joyful 2011.
I have gotten a lot of questions about the dress my daughter is wearing in the photos on my holiday card (Where I got it from, etc.). So I thought that I would do a little blog post about it. It's this dress here, just in case you were wondering:
Talk about motivation. This dress took work and planning, but I love how it turned out in the end. So here's the story.
I knew that I wanted to do a photosession in this ghost town with my kiddies. But I also knew that it meant styling my kids. And I wanted them to be wearing sort of vintagey clothing, but nothing trendy or too recognizable as being this "brand" or from that boutique. I also wanted some nice drama in a dress for my daughter. But I honestly couldn't justify spending $500+ on a true child's couture dress for her. Then a client put an idea into my head.
This particular client showed up at a session with her kids styled amazingly . . . . unbelievably cute clothing and nothing like anything I had seen this year for kids clothing. She had two girls (ages 6 and 10) and she had actually purchased them women's size extra-small clothing and then taken it in here and there to make it fit. Sheer genius! So a super-short, ruffled skirt on a woman became a knee length adorable skirt on a 6-year-old. Perfect! I could shop adult's clothing for my daughter. She's really thin but extremely tall for her age, so I thought it might work.
So I hit the mall and dug through ebay and found some great stuff (fantastic idea, seriously love it) but nothing that would work for my photosession. Then it hit me. In early 2009, I had purchased a 1940's vintage wedding dress off of ebay. I had wanted to use it for client sessions, but the dress was super tiny; far too small for any woman I know today. And the lace on the fabric was falling apart, so I had just put the dress aside kinda bummed. But now I thought about retooling it as a party-style dress for my daughter.
So here are some images of the dress before I tore it apart. This was the front:
Note the lovely ruffled lace collar, haha. The dress just had two ruffled tiers of lace that came to a point in the front. The back was just a sheer train and some pretty buttons:
Now I'm no seamstress and not too terribly handy with a sewing machine, but I did take Home Economics in 9th grade, so I know something, right? My first thought was to remove all of the lace and sheer sleeves from the bodice, leaving just a tank-top like shell. I also detached the bodice from the dress and took the darts in to fit my daughter. I then flipped the bodice (making the back the front of my new dress) and added some ruffled sage ribbon trim to the neckline and also made little cap sleeves out of it too. I then tackled the skirt. I started by cutting off the train and stabilizing the poor fragile lace. I then kept the length of the skirt and gathered it up into "rouged" puckers accented with sage ribbon flowers. In particular, I pulled the ruffles from the front around to the back of the dress to create a kind of cascade look to the back. In the end, it didn't take too long to alter the entire dress (about 5 hours) and I was pretty proud of myself, haha, given my general lack of sewing skills.
So here are some more details of the final result. Here you can see how I pulled up and puckered the fabric:
And here's a shot of the back, so you can see how all the ruffles kind of come together.
In the end it was SUCH a fun project. Of course, now I find myself spending even more time on ebay hunting for the perfect vintage dress, haha. But it is so fun to take something that seems like it is ready for the trash can and give it a new life.
Saturday, December 18, 2010 7:13:20 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )
Well, I didn't want to keep anyone in suspense anymore about the contest to win a spot in any 2011 {life as art} Workshop. We counted through all the entries and pulled everything into a spreadsheet. We then generated a random number from random.org and the lucky winner is . . . . . .
Angela of www.angelamildonphotography.com
Woohoo!! Congrats to Angela and thanks to everyone else who entered! Remember the discount and offers for purchasing a {life as art} Workshop in a Box are good until December 20th, so don't miss out on this chance to get my Beginner's Manual, a 30-minute mentoring session and $50 off your purchase all at the same time!! You can see all the details here.
Thanks again and hope you're having a fabulous holiday season!
Thursday, December 09, 2010 11:09:47 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )
Whew! I finally ordered my holiday cards this morning and have actually started thinking about buying presents for my family, which means that it's got to be December. So if you're feeling a little overwhelmed like me here are some goodies to help you out this holiday season.
First of all, how's about a sale at Flourish Emporium?! Between now and December 25th, go to shop.nicholeV.com and enter this coupon code and receive 15% off your entire purchase:
holiday122510
And even better, receive a FREE $20 GIFT CERTIFICATE with a purchase of $75 or more. Just make a purchase of $75 or more at Flourish Emporium between now and December 25th and we'll give you a $20 Flourish gift certificate that can be used on any future purchase. When you check out, just enter "Gift Certificate Please" in the "How did you hear about us?" box and we'll email a gift certificate code to you!
Continuing with the goodness, if you're like me, you may still be working on your holiday cards. So to help out, I have created a FREE CARD TEMPLATE. 
Just go to the Freebie section on Flourish Emporium to download it, insert your own photo and voila! Off to the printer!
And
don't forget about the sale we are currently running on all [life as
art] Workshops and Workshops in a Box. Now's your chance to purchase a
workshop in a box and receive my Beginner's Manual and a 30-minute
mentoring session for FREE! Also, don't forget to enter to win a spot in your
choice of any 2011 [life as art] Workshop. You can see all the details
and get the coupon code here.
Whew! That is a lot of holiday cheer! I hope you're having a fabulous holiday season!
Saturday, November 27, 2010 11:06:51 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )
Well, the holiday season is upon us and that means incredible holiday deals just in time for Cyber Monday! So read on for some amazing holiday goodness!
As a little extra bit of holiday goodness, we are also offering amazing deals for the {life as art} Professional and Lighting Workshops in a Box. Between now and December 20th, if you order either workshop in a box, we will include our Beginner Manual (a $50 value) and a 30-minute one-on-one phone mentoring session with me (a $125 value) for FREE!! This is $175 in wonderful products in addition to all the other incredible items included in the workshops. To receive the Beginner Manual, please just put the text "BEGINNER MANUAL" in the notes (not the coupon code box, the notes box, haha) when you checkout with your workshop in a box. If you purchase either box during the time indicated, you will receive the mentoring session. The mentoring will take place in late January/early February once you've had a chance to review the workshop materials. This will enable to ask any questions you may have and clarify any questions.
And to sweeten the deal, shop at http://workshops.nicholeV.com and enter this coupon code at checkout and receive $50 off your {life as art} Workshop in a Box purchase:
HolidayBox2010
Also note that if you have purchased a workshop in a box but would really love to attend a workshop in person, please contact us. We will apply most of the cost of your box purchase towards the in-person workshop.
And finally, best of all as a little holiday boost, I'm giving away a {life as art} Workshop of your choice for FREE. That's right, we are giving away a 2011 {life as art} Workshop to one lucky winner. You can choose to have a workshop in a box of your choice OR to attend an in-person workshop of your choice. This is an incredible value of up to $1300, so don't miss out. This contest will run until December 15th, so enter while you can!
So how to enter?
- To receive 1 entry into the contest, just leave a comment to this blog post.
- For 2 more entries, become a fan of my Flourish Emporium Facebook page (if you aren't already). Come back here and leave a comment to this post with your Facebook name so I can find you (yay!).
- To receive 5 entries, post a link back to a nicholeV website on your blog or other page (i.e. http://shop.nicholeV.com or http://workshops.nicholeV.com) and come back here and leave a comment with a link to your link.
- To received 10 entries, if you love Nichole Van products, post a blog review of at least 50 words raving about the product that you love the most and link to it. Again, come back here and leave a comment linking to your post.
Yep, that's a total of 18 possible entries and past contests have proven that more entries do matter. Note that all online posts need to post-date this blog entry (sorry, no digging up old posts) and entries need to be visible publicly, as I do verify them. The winner will be chosen using a number generated via random.org and will be announced on December 17th.
The fine print: The winner of this contest will have the workshop fee waived for a 2011 in-person workshop of their choice OR they may opt for either the {life as art} professional workshop in a box OR lighting workshop in a box. If the winner chooses to attend an in-person workshop, the winner will be responsible for all travel and lodging expenses possibly associated with attending the workshop.
Whew! That is a lot of goodness. I hope you are having a fabulously merry holiday season!
And stay tuned next week . . . . we have even more goodies in the works!
Tuesday, November 02, 2010 8:52:56 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )
Well, it's finally here! Enrollment for my in-person [life as art] Professional and Lighting workshops is now open!
The [life as art] Workshops continue to raise the bar for photography training seminars. Attendees heap praise for our workshop materials, organization, attention to detail, and depth of knowledge taught. In fact, the only feedback we consistently receive is that we need to raise the price of the workshop, haha, as we give an astonishing amount of information and hands-on learning at a bargain price. So don't miss out! Our workshops fill fast, so enroll now and guarantee your spot in a 2011 workshop.
For 2011, we will be doing workshops in Utah, but have also added workshops in Houston, Texas and Brisbane, Australia. Go to http://workshops.nicholeV.com to see all the details!
And if you can't attend a workshop in-person, check out our workshop-in-a-box options. Our workshops-in-a-box contain hours of shooting and editing video tutorials, as well as all other workshop materials, including a 200+ page manual for each workshop. Here are just a few images from one of the video sessions on the Lighting Workshop DVD. This session was shot at about high noon with a fog machine. See how I set-up, metered, directed and shot this session:
And what's a launch
without a coupon code? Enter this code at checkout and receive $50 off
your purchase of any workshop-in-a-box or in-person workshop enrollment:
2011Launch
Also, if you or anyone you know is interested in modeling for any 2011 workshops, please just email me. We are actually doing a workshop in Orlando on Nov. 8-9 (next week) and still have room for a few models if you know anyone or would like to participate yourself. We just ask that all models be at least 12 years old.
And
if you still haven't checked out the new holiday templates at Flourish
Emporium, now might be the time! To help you with any last minute
editing needs, here is a nice coupon code. Visit Flourish (http://shop.nicholeV.com) and enter this coupon at checkout and receive 10% off your entire Flourish purchase!
2010Autumn
All coupon codes will expire on November 15th.
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Nichole Van has repeatedly been labeled as a hot, new, up and coming photographer. As a Utah wedding photographer and a Utah
portrait photographer, she specializes in turning everyday life into art. Nichole loves expressing the unique beauty of
every client, creating artistic images that make people gasp when they see them.
As an international award-winning photographer, Nichole won the prestigious International 8x10 Portrait of the Year from
Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) for 2007. Consequently, her international award winning photography
was featured in Rangefinder Magazine in June 2008. She has also taken First, Second and Third place honors from WPPI in other
international competitions for her child and family photography. Additionally, Nichole has received numerous Accolades of
Excellence and currently holds an Accolade of Photographic Mastery from WPPI.
In addition to her love for photography, Nichole loves teaching and enjoyed being English faculty at Brigham Young University
for nearly 10 years. As the best of both worlds, teaching photography to others is her passion. Nichole currently offers
international photography workshops focusing on helping others enhance creativity and artistry in their photos. Combining her
excellence in teaching with her photographic knowledge, Nichole’s Life as Art Workshops are quickly revamping industry standards
for photographic workshops.
Nichole lives in southern Utah County with her husband and three children. You can see her work at www.nicholeV.com.