Naturally Slim…week 2

SparkPeople.com Featured Motivator, December 21, 2008 (Photo credit: zorbs)

I’m pretty excited about the success I had during week 1 of the program…ended up losing 6 pounds in the first week.  Yes, that sounds like  lot, but anyone who has battled a weight problem knows that you usually drop quite a few pounds during the first week.  Yikes!  Does that mean I’m normal???

Anyhow, altogether I’ve now lost 8 pounds and have been exercising almost every day.  I walk on the days I have to work and dance on my days off.  Walking is easier on my joints, but dancing is way more fun and burns a lot more calories.  I’ve got a long way to go to get to where I was two years ago when I ran my first 5K, but I’m working at it.

Today I dug out my SparkPeople cookbook to look for something to cook that would be good to take to work for my lunch for the rest of the week.  I decided to try one of the most popular recipes at SparkPeople…slow cooker salsa chicken.  Holy moly!  That stuff is delicious (go to SparkRecipes.com and do a search for it..you won’t regret it).

One of the things I’ve noticed in the past week is that, by eating slowly (and I do mean slowly…you know, putting your fork down between every bite and really taking the time to taste your food) I’m eating a lot less food.  Most days I’m struggling to eat over 1200 calories…not a bad problem to have in my situation.  By eating at such a slow pace, I find myself satisfied much sooner.  Now how many times over the course of my life have I heard that and just dismissed it?  Now I know it’s true…just got to do it…every meal…every day…

During the online course work I did today, they mentioned that usually, when a person loses quite a bit of weight during the first week, they lose none or very little the second week…hmm…can I prove them wrong?  We shall see.

My goals for this week…exercise 6 days, follow the NS principles, visit SparkPeople.com every day to track food intake and exercise.  I can do it!

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 106

Image by Bill.Roehl via Flickr

Ahh…a day off work.  I actually slept in until around 7 am!!  That felt good.  I ran a few errands this morning and still made it home before noon.  I had to go to my insurance agent’s office so she could do an inspection on my car.  That didn’t take long, I was in and out in less than 15 minutes.  I was going to stop at Goodwill, but when I saw how full their parking lot was, I just kept on driving.  I wasn’t in the mood to deal with a lot of people in a small space.  However, I did go to WalMart…yikes!  Not my favorite place to go, but I knew I needed to get a scraper for my windshield since it’s the time of the year when we’ll start having frost.  I also bought this handy-dandy faux shearling seat belt cover to keep the darn thing from irritating my neck.  I knew they made them, but I’d never bought one.  Never had a seat belt hit me right where this one does.  It certainly does the trick…instant relief.

I’m still not feeling all that good…I thought I was feeling better, but today I had issues again.  I even took a nap this afternoon and that helped a bit.  Not sure what it is, but I just don’t feel right…not totally sick to my stomach, but I feel like it could happen…blah!

I did some strength training and range of motion exercises this morning before heading out.  Then I walked for about 25 minutes this afternoon.  I also did a little dancing while I was cleaning the kitchen…not all that much exercise in that, but it sure was fun!

I didn’t eat all that much today, my stomach just didn’t feel up to a lot of food.  I did buy some V8 fusion to take to work, a serving of veggies and a serving of fruit in each can.  I bought the pomegranate blueberry…very tasty.  So tomorrow’s meals and snacks are planned, I’m going to try to get a decent amount of sleep tonight.

Oh, I just finished reading Bad Blood by John Sandford…great series…I’m always disappointed when I finish one of his books because then I have to wait for the next one.  What’s the deal with these writers, can’t they write any faster?  What are we supposed to do between books?!

Have you read any good books lately?  Anything by your favorite author?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 75

What a really nice day this turned out to be.  It was so pretty this morning.  Of course, it warmed right up quickly and got up in the 90s again. I am so ready for fall…please, please come soon.  I’m done with the heat and humidity.

I did finally make it to the grocery store.  I don’t usually buy lunch meat, but today I bought turkey breast to take to work on whole wheat sub rolls.  The one for tomorrow has some of my pickled peppers and a tomato on it.  Then I’ll have cole slaw on the side…using my all time favorite Hendrickson’s dressing…it kind of reminds me of this sweet and sour cole slaw my grandma made, but I’m sure mine is a lot easier.  Let’s see, I didn’t shred the cabbage and carrots (thank you, Dole) and I didn’t make up my own dressing…sorry, Grandma.

Then I read Nikianne’s blog about how she doesn’t like cottage cheese and that made me think about taking cottage cheese instead of yogurt for a few days.  So I bought some low-fat cottage cheese and a cantaloupe…I really like that combo!  Then I’m taking popcorn for my afternoon snack.  I’ve got everything prepared, ready to toss in my lunch bag in the morning.

I walked for 30 minutes this morning and danced this afternoon (already getting excited about Dancing With The Stars, I should just watch that all the time if it’s going to get me back to dancing).  I didn’t lift weights at all today.  But an hour of cardio is pretty decent.  Then tomorrow is truck day at work, so a day full of exercise for me.

Today I was feeling kind of, oh I don’t know, not good enough, I guess.  I know I shouldn’t ever compare myself with anyone else.  Seriously, what good does that do?  But I caught myself doing just that while I was at the grocery store.  I saw a woman in her twenties, young, fit, cute and I imagined she was looking at me in disgust.  I’m sure it was just my imagination.  I doubt that she paid any attention to me at all.  Why do we think people are thinking negative things about us?  Hmm…because we’re thinking negative things about ourselves?  Hey, at least I did catch myself and talk myself out of feeling that way.  In the past, I would have allowed that to ruin my day.   I’m doing a pretty good job of realizing what I’m saying to myself and making myself stop it.  Now my goal is to just stop the negative talking and thinking  altogether.  That’s a tough one, but I know it’s doable.

Do you have trouble with negative thoughts?  How do you combat it?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 52

Image via Wikipedia

My first day of vacation was pleasant.  I had to run across town to go pick up my contacts and decided to head into Target while I was in the neighborhood.  I picked up a few things that were on sale, then came back home.  I didn’t do a lot at home today.  I figured I’d give myself one day of doing whatever, then tackle some chores tomorrow.  I don’t really like doing house work, but I sure do like having a clean house.  Since I can’t afford a maid and the little house cleaning fairies have left town, I guess I’ll just have to do my own cleaning.  It’ll be worth it once I’m finished.  Don’t you find that you are able to relax more when your house is clean and organized?

I did do two cardio workouts today…walked for 35 minutes this morning and danced for 20 minutes this afternoon.  I did a little core work…only four different exercises today…I kind of forgot about it while I was watching Days of Our Lives (what?  has Maggie died?  say it ain’t so), so hurried and did a little just a few minutes ago.  Tomorrow is supposed to be much cooler so I’m thinking I’ll go out for a nice long walk complete with pictures…you can never have too many pictures, although I do need to organize mine somehow…what do you all do with your digital photos to organize them so you don’t have to search for that one particular picture? I’m at a loss on this one.

I baked a homemade pizza today…lots of mushrooms, onion and turkey bacon…I know I just posted a blog about bacon not that long ago and how I’m not a huge fan of it…but I had to use this up because it was getting close to the use by date…guess I could have stuck it in the freezer so that I could find it next year…anyhow, the pizza was decent…not my best by any stretch of the imagination, but still pretty good. 

I also made up a batch of frozen banana pops…yum…I don’t know how I ever lived without these things…I can do without ice cream if I have these available.  I had some of the chocolate/peanut butter mixture left over and didn’t want to throw it out…what to do? what to do?  Oh wait, I have dried cherries in the pantry…no, no, took those to work…what do I have?  Hmm…dried apples?  No…dried pineapple…I don’t think so…dried plums (or prunes before the marketing whiz kids decided to come up with something more appealing to the masses)?  Hmm…how would that taste?  Tried it…not bad…the prunes are small ones so I ended up with about a dozen of them…Figure that could be a good candy substitute when I get a craving.  What do you think?

I’ve got to do something with zucchini tomorrow…I’ve got several I need to pick and, who knows, by tomorrow morning they may be the size of a baseball bat…so, do I make zucchini lasagna?  I already have enough pizza to last me for the next three days, so don’t really need another Italian style entree…zucchini bread or muffins?  That’s definitely an option…if I make muffins, I can put most of them in the freezer and take them to work for a snack when I go back next week.  Maybe grill some zucchini and other veggies?  I’d have to run to the grocery store tomorrow to buy more mushrooms since I used all of them on today’s pizza.  I could always shred the zucchini and put it in the freezer…decisions, decisions…what would you do?

So, all in all, a good first day of vacation…what did you do today?

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Saving and losing

Ahh…looks like we may have a day without rain..hard to believe, I know, but that’s what they’re saying about tomorrow.  The clouds actually disappeared and the sun finally reappeared this afternoon.

I managed to get in quite a bit of exercise today…exercise bike and lower body strength training this morning, walking on the treadmill this afternoon, some silly dancing this evening…that silly dancing sure put a smile on my face.  How could I have forgotten how much I enjoy music and dancing? 

Prepared a pasta/veggie dish to take to work for the rest of the week..not the best thing I’ve ever made, but certainly not the worst either.  I had some fresh veggies I wanted to use before they went bad (broccoli and mushrooms), so I added them to veggie pasta with some sauce, onion, garlic and mozzarella cheese.  I probably would like it more if I hadn’t put the broccoli in it.  I don’t really know why I continue to buy broccoli when I don’t particularly like it…because it’s supposed to be so good for you?  Guess I need to find another veggie that is just as good for me but that I like a lot more…

I got some fun stuff in my mailbox the past couple of days

A sizeable sample of Tide stain release, a Salonpas pain patch, a coupon for a free package of Uncle Ben’s rice, and a Physician’s Formula 2-in-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner and Serum.  Not a bad couple of days, huh?  I also got in on a giveaway on facebook today for a free Pilates dvd and found out I was the winner of a giveaway on The Prudent Patron.  I won the Charmies online giveaway…very cute jewelry charms…looking forward to doing some shopping at Charmies!!

I’m excited to report that I’m finally gaining some control over my eating.  I  thought about preparing pizza today, but quickly opted for the pasta dish instead.  I was able to eat just one serving of that whereas I might have eaten a couple of servings of the pizza.  I think that’s a certain amount of progress, to know that I would be tempted to eat more than I should and avoid the situation.

So…a nice day of sunshine, saving money, losing weight, and gaining fitness…a pretty good Tuesday!

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