A novel idea…I’m using the treadmill for walking

Yes, I know, I originally bought the treadmill to walk/run on.  However, lately it’s been more of a storage area…before Christmas, I put all of the gifts that I was taking to family, friends and co-workers on the treadmill, hoping Spook would leave them alone (she did…I think…).  I also used the handrails as kind of a hanger for light jackets when I knew I’d be going right back out.  Not exactly my intent when I purchased the treadmill and it was a pretty expensive way to store things.

That all ended today.  I dusted it off, tried to get all of the glitter off the belt (I think glitter has a mind of its own…it’s not going anywhere it doesn’t want to go…), plugged it in, turned it on and stepped on it for the first time in several months.  Whew…I am beginning to realize just how much I allowed my level of fitness to decline.  But I did it and that’s the important thing.  And tomorrow I’ll get on the exercise bike again…I’ll just keep on doing the exercise and eventually will regain that fitness.  It won’t happen overnight (wouldn’t that be something?), but it will happen!

I also did lower body strength training today.  I was watching last week’s episodes of Days Of Our Lives online and may have overdone the strength training today, but hey…that’s better than overdoing the candy, right?

The long and winding road to fitness, day 101

Image via Wikipedia

I woke up this morning after being sick all night, crawled out of bed and got ready for work.  After throwing up three times in less than an hour, I just gave up and took the day off work.  I hated to do that to everyone since we had a big old truck delivery today, but I think they’d rather I not give them whatever it is I have…feels a lot like the flu, maybe a mild case…hopefully I’ll feel better in the morning. 

One positive about being sick is the calorie intake certainly plummets!!  All I really tried to do today was drink, was hospitalized once years ago with dehydration and don’t want a repeat of that.  I’m still feeling a little icky (yes, that’s a medical term, ask any doctor), but I hope I’m on the mend.

Now on to the negative part of being sick, beyond the obvious ickiness of it, no exercise.  Just a lot of sleeping and trips back and forth to the bathroom.  Blah.  Felt so bad for most of the day that I didn’t even log on to the computer…now you know that’s some kind of sick!

Spooky enjoyed the day though.  She slept cuddled up to me all day.  Then I came downstairs to watch Days of Our Lives and she came down to sit on my lap as I’m sitting on the stability ball.  She kind of watches television, or at least the fast movements.  See, I think she actually sees what’s on the tv because she loves to watch the bird shows on Animal Planet or PBS.  Hmm…should I leave the tv on for her when I go to work?  Nah…I think she spends most of her day under the comforter on my bed.

So I got a flu shot a week ago, do you think there’s any possibility that I’m feeling sick because of that?  I’ve always poopood that, and still don’t really think you can get the flu from a flu shot.   What do you think?

Related articles

• Best Place to Get Flu Shots (bargaineering.com)
• Body Blog: Should You Get a Flu Shot? (collegecandy.com)

The long and winding road to fitness, day 95

Image via Wikipedia

I must say today was a much better day for me than yesterday was.  No corporate people showed up at my house to give me a hard time…ha!  I slept in until…oh…5:30 or so…got up, fed the cats, put the tea kettle on, fixed breakfast and sat down at the computer for an hour or thereabouts.  Quite peaceful.

I made a small pot of turkey chili…probably four servings altogether.  It was really easy to throw together.  I had some turkey in the freezer that I’d shaped into patties when I bought it, so I pulled out a couple of those, threw them in the pot with some diced onion.  Once that was all good and browned, I opened a can of chili beans and a can of tomato sauce, mixed all of that together, added a little water and some chili powder.  Cooked for a while, then added some pasta (now don’t go crazy here, I’m from southern Indiana, not Texas…we always put pasta in our chili and I’m not changing that…I like it that way).

Okay, so I didn’t really make this like my mom used to…she always used elbow macaroni.  I didn’t happen to have any elbow macaroni, but I had some whole wheat pasta and figured it would serve the same purpose.  And it did…this was pretty good and I was able to make a small enough amount of it so that I’m not going to have to eat it for the next 30 days…just kidding…more like 2 weeks, but you get what I’m trying to say, right?  So, I also didn’t have any saltine crackers in my house (I’m going to remedy that tomorrow) so I subbed flaxseed crackers…hmm…not such a great substitute…not terrible, but it definitely didn’t evoke memories of my childhood down on the farm…wonder if Grandma even knew what flaxseed was?!

As I was sitting here writing this, I realized I haven’t eaten anything since that bowl of chili while watching Days Of Our Lives (holy moly, did you see that Jack is coming back?!)…could be why I’m hungry.  I’m thinking a bowl of cereal and a banana sounds pretty good.

I didn’t do a lot of anything today…a couple loads of laundry, vacuumed the whole house, changed sheets on the bed,  and made that pot of chili…a nice, fairly lazy day after that corporate fiasco yesterday…forget about it, Patti…I’m sure they’ve forgotten all about you~

Related articles

• I’m Not a Foodie (antosdoeslife.wordpress.com)
• My Mama’s Makin’ Chili (jacqui722.wordpress.com)

The long and winding road to fitness, day 90

Image by craig1black via Flickr

I had the day off work today, well except for the conference call I had to be on this afternoon…but still…to be able to sit in bed and take part in a conference call is not a bad thing.  And it was a very informative call, I heard some useful info, so I’m not complaining.

I did finally manage to get my hair cut and styled today after cancelling two appointments.  My stylist is the best…she totally understands that my schedule is hectic and can change at a moment’s notice.  Before we started, I told her I didn’t care what she did with my hair, that I wanted it to be wash and wear so it would be quick to style in the morning before work.  Fortunately for me, I have thick, curly hair that does well with just some mousse after washing, then some fluffing while it air dries.  She kind of textured it a little more than we usually do, gave my some wispy bangs…it looks so darn cute.  I couldn’t believe how much hair there was on the floor when she was finished.  But I like it, I like it a lot!

Then I had to make a grocery store run to my favorite little neighborhood Kroger store.  I bought bananas, blueberries, apples (okay… to be completely honest, they were caramel apples…three of them…but they’re still apples, right?), grapes (really, there’s nothing easier to take to work than grapes and they make a healthy snack or dessert), carrots,  a few new potatoes, and an acorn squash…I love squash and fall is the perfect time to bake squash…yum!  I also bought Greek yogurt, some low-fat granola to mix with the yogurt and blueberries, some rye bread, some Fuze and diet Pepsi (I admit, I caved on that one…but I just really, really like it)..so anyhow, some really good things to take to work…looking forward to eating a little healthier at work…this will make it a lot easier.

I didn’t do a lot of exercising today, walked for 35 minutes and that’s really it.  I woke up with a headache and my body hurting all over.  Had I not had that hair appointment, I probably would have taken some Advil and gone back to bed.  But I forced myself to get up and get moving, took care of what I needed to get done today and didn’t do much of anything else…well, except for that conference call…and dishes…and laundry….and cat litter cleaning duties…and working on my book…and watching Days of Our Lives (does that count as doing something?).  So okay, not a wasted day.

What did you do today?

Related articles

• How I feel after a haircut (tbseblog.com)
• Hair ends (confessionsofladyv69.wordpress.com)

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?

Related articles

• Zucchini Crusted Pizza (powerfulproduce.wordpress.com)
• Healthy Dessert: Banana Cranberry Zucchini Muffins (fitsugar.com)

These are (still) the days of our lives

Image via Wikipedia

Talk about a walk down memory lane…I just watched Days of Our Lives.  This is a show I watched many, many years ago with my mother.  I was never able to watch it every day, but that didn’t really matter because it takes forever for the story line to play out.  Missing a day (or two…or ten) didn’t mean you couldn’t keep up on the story.  Mom really enjoyed the show (soap opera, if you will) and we’d talk about what had happened if I had to miss it.  Good times…

I’m totally amazed at how many of the same characters, portrayed by the same actors, are still on the show.  Maybe they were smart enough to know they had a good gig…Mom would have enjoyed seeing that Bo and Hope are still in Salem.  But whatever happened to Marlena and John?  Does anyone out there know?  Oh no…am I falling back into the addiction of Days???

Related articles

• NBC daytime soap opera ‘Days of Our Lives’ casting and auditions information (castingnotices.wordpress.com)
• BULLHORN! … Resurging Television Media … These Are the Days of Our Lives (howardlindzon.com)

Wow…it’s almost Christmas

I’ve kind of missed the excitement of the holiday season, just plain working too much…but I had today off (as well as the next two days…woohoo).  Still didn’t do anything to enjoy the season…actually took a couple of long naps, ate too much, watched Days of Our Lives and cuddled with my little cat.  Kind of nice to have an entire day without having any kind of expectations.  Tomorrow I’ve got to get to the grocery store for a few last minute things…think I’ll go early (I still wake up early on my days off) and get back home before the hordes descend on the stores.  I’ve had enough of crowded stores…

Battling a little bit of depression this year.  Not getting together with my brothers and their families and not going to get to see my step sister‘s kids either…once they all grow up they have so many other obligations that I’m not always able to arrange my schedule to match theirs.  Sure not like Christmas‘s past when we all got together, the kids were little, my mom was still alive and we made Christmas a family event.  Definitely miss my mom…it’s been 20 years, but I still miss her…she was really what kept our family together.  But, I guess it’s true, the only constant thing in life is change, and we all have to do our best to adapt.

I’m looking forward to getting the junk out of my house, getting back with my fitness program and doing some serious decluttering…that’s something I really have to stay on top of and I haven’t for the past few months…looks like there will be several trips to make donations.  I find living in a less cluttered home helps me lose weight and not be depressed…some kind of connection there for sure.  I’ll plan my weekly missions later (I typically tackle one area at a time, getting rid of  a set number of things each day that I work and a different amount on the days I don’t work).  Getting back to a normal routine will help me get back to losing weight and I definitely need to get the weight lost…I’m going to do it and I’m going to keep it off!!