The long and winding road to fitness, day 81

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Wow..this was a long day.  We went in to work at 5 am to try to get some work done before it got too busy.  Oh, did I mention, this was my day off?  But I told my boss I’d come in for a few hours.  I had to cancel my hair appointment that I had scheduled for 10 this morning, but I was able to do some of the things I needed to do this afternoon.  I left work at around 11:30, so it still felt like I had the day off…well, except for that getting up in the middle of the night thing…  I was able to finish what I went in to do though, so one task complete, a million more to go…

I managed to eat pretty well today and walked, biked, did lower body strength training and stretching.  I stopped at the grocery store after I finished everything else and picked up some healthy food…spinach, peaches, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese (I think I’m on a cottage cheese kick right now), skim milk, whole wheat bagel thins, popcorn, turkey chili (with the cooler temps, I thought chili sounded good) and some Crystal Light raspberry green tea on the go things…little individual packets that you mix with water…pretty good.  I thought that would be a good alternative to diet Pepsi or other drinks at work.

I couldn’t believe it, today it only got up to about 64 degrees after nearly 100 on Saturday…crazy!  One thing about colder weather, I like making soup.  I make a pretty good vegetable soup in the crock pot…oh, and a minestrone that is delish.  Something to think about in the next few days.

Do you change how you eat when fall arrives?

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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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How to avoid buying junk food at the grocery store

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Okay, everyone knows you should always shop with a list…and stick to it…no impulse purchases.  Plan your meals and snacks for the week, then make sure you buy everything you need for them so you’re not tempted when you have to stop at the store to pick up that jar of cumin that you need.  

Never, ever shop when you’re hungry.  Same goes for when you’re exhausted.  Shopping when you’re either hungry or tired (or even worse, when you’re both)  will cause you to pick up whatever looks good, whether or not it’s good for you. 

Don’t cut out coupons for junk food.  If you have coupons, you’ll be more tempted to buy it because, well…because it’s such a great deal.  And who among us can resist a good deal?

Try a new fruit or veggie every week.  Or a new, healthy recipe.  The more healthy food you have on hand, the less likely you are to reach for the junk.

Buy whole foods…food your grandmother would recognize.  Chances are, if you can’t pronounce the ingredients in a product, it’s not something your grandmother would have eaten.  I do make exceptions to this rule.  My grandma never ate yogurt or soy or Mexican or Italian food…but I think she would have at least been familiar with the ingredients used in them.

Plan to do some cooking.  You know, real meals.  Not stand at the kitchen counter and eat meals, but the sit down at the table with silverware and napkins meals.

Shopping the perimeter of the store is always recommended by experts.  That’s pretty good advice.  Usually your produce, meat, and dairy are on the perimeter of the store.  But the freezer section is also a great place to find some healthy choices..just avert your eyes from the ice cream and pizza when you walk by…quickly walk by.

Do some of your shopping at health food stores where you can purchase a lot of your staples in bulk.  That can save you money and help you avoid temptation by allowing you to make fewer trips to traditional grocery stores.  And these staples are great to have on hand when you decide to create your healthy go-to meals.

And my number one most effective way to avoid buying junk food at the grocery store is to simply not go to the grocery store.  Yes, I’ve discovered that I often go to the grocery store just because it’s Saturday (or whatever day is grocery shopping day for you), not necessarily because I need anything.  I was planning to go to the grocery store today and looked at what I actually needed (nothing).  Then I questioned myself about why I needed to go to the store if I didn’t need anything and wouldn’t need anything for several days.  I realized I was thinking about buying pizza and ice cream, neither of which do I need from a health stand point.  So not going to the grocery store today kept me from buying any kind of junk food at all…and saved me some money on top of that.  Not bad, huh?

What are your tips for avoiding junk food purchases?

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 68

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Oh, I felt so much better today…wasn’t in all that pain like I was yesterday, so right there my day was better…I worked just my regular 9.5 hours today…can’t remember the last time I’ve gone in at 7:30…what a treat!

Tomorrow, at work, we’re having a combination birthday celebration/farewell party.  I don’t know what everyone is bringing, but I do know that Donna is bringing her world-famous cookies…everyone loves those cookies!!  I stopped at Kroger after work and bought bread and buns for sandwiches (I couldn’t believe one of the guys is baking a ham), Coke, root beer and vanilla ice cream for floats.  I’ve been meaning to do that all summer and decided tomorrow would be the perfect day to finally get it done.  You do realize that summer is almost over, right?  Anyhow, I’m figuring my food intake for tomorrow will very likely not be the healthiest…I’m going to try to only have a little of just the things that I really love…kind of like Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep my calories under 2000 for the day.

Today I ended up with a little over 1650 calories for the day.  I didn’t eat breakfast because I kind of slept a little later than I should have.  I just had oj and vitamins.  The thing is, I know all the experts say you should always eat breakfast, but I seem to get hungrier when I do eat breakfast…am I just weird or is this something others experience too?  Hmm…additional research may be necessary in this area…and maybe I’ll be the lab rat.  Ooh…that reminds me, I took college classes where we had to do experiments on lab animals…I hated that…really, is this something that is vital to learning?  We take a lot of what we study in school at face value, why do we have to conduct experiments on innocent animals to learn what’s already in the textbooks?  Just sayin’…

I walked for 35 minutes today, that’s it on cardio.  I’ve still got to do some lower body strength training after I finish here and do the dishes…I’ve always liked doing strength training and never liked doing dishes…so I reward myself with the one for doing the other…does that make any kind of sense at all?

What exercise do you like/enjoy?  Is there any that you just hate and force yourself to do anyhow?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 65

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Well, today was weigh in day…no weight loss this week…darn it.  Of course, I pretty well knew that in advance.  But I’m really going for it this week…extra cardio workouts on at least four days and lots of fruits and veggies every day.  That’s my goal for the week…and I’m going to do it!

I did get in a 40 minute walk today.  I’ve just been so tired from working like a crazy person the past few days.  What was it my grandma used to say?  “No rest for the wicked?”  Isn’t it really supposed to be “No rest for the weary.”?  That would apply too, in my case.

I really, really hope I can get some sleep tonight.  I’m so tired and aching, but still can’t seem to sleep the night through.  Hmm…this might be a night to take some Tylenol PM…that just might help with both issues.  And I know not getting enough sleep hurts with the weight loss…I think I just eat more when I don’t get enough sleep…kind of my body’s way of trying to get the energy to keep going.  Do you find the same thing to be true for yourself?

So have you set any goals for the week?  Do you have any exciting plans?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 63

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Oh, I was in a much better mood today…I got in an adequate amount of sleep last night…and I didn’t let myself get overly hungry either…plus I only had to work part of the day since I went in and worked on my Sunday off.  Combine all of those elements and you’ve got a happy girl on your hands!!

When I left work today, I stopped at Kroger for a few groceries.  You will not believe this (I can hardly believe it myself), but I bought diet Pepsi today.  What?  I’d gone how long without it only to cave and buy it today? But I did, and you know what?  It still tastes just as good as it ever did.  Do they put something in those things that make them addictive?  Don’t say it’s the caffeine…there’s plenty of caffeine in coffee and tea, but coffee and tea don’t call out to me like a diet Pepsi does.  One of these days…I swear, one of these days I will succeed in giving it up for good.  Someday but not today.

I rode the exercise bike this evening…the nice thing about an exercise bike is I can read from my stack of magazines while I get in a cardio workout.  I’ve got to do something to reduce that pile of magazines, guess I better put in a lot of miles on that bike, huh? 

My eating was so so today…I know I didn’t have enough veggies once again.  But I made up my cucumber, tomato and onion salad to take to work tomorrow…so I’ll be sure to get in a couple more servings tomorrow.  I bought an Asian pear at the grocery store today.  I don’t think I’ve ever had one of these, not being the biggest of pear fans.  But they looked interesting, so I said, “why not?”.  I’ll let you know if that goes on my like list of freggies.

It looks kind of like an apple, doesn’t it?

I also bought a box of the Fiber One brownies…this time I thought I’d try the peanut butter ones.

If these can keep me from buying  something sweet from the vending machine at work, it’ll save me about 250 calories a day…I can go for that!

Now I’m ready to make some salsa…I’ve got a few tomatoes that will be ripe in another day or two…then watch out!  Salsa!!  Was it on the Seinfeld show where they kept saying “salsa” over and over again?  I can’t help myself…there are just some words that I enjoy saying repeatedly, and salsa is one of them…along with origami…okay, now you’re getting a clue into how crazy I really am…not serial killer crazy, just crazy in a weird way…

Do you have any quirky little mannerisms you’d like to share with the rest of us?  Come on, don’t leave me hanging here by myself.

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 52

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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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Kicking addictions to the curb

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I’ve been pretty fortunate in my life as far as addictions are concerned.  I’ve never been addicted to alcohol or drugs (legal or illegal).  I’ve never smoked cigarettes (unless you count the one puff I took when I was a little kid…just about made me sick).  I have, however, been addicted to caffeine, particularly in the form of diet Pepsi.  See, I don’t really consider a moderate intake of caffeine to necessarily be a bad thing.  What is problematic is ingesting large amounts of diet Pepsi, which has no nutritive value at all and contains chemicals that can actually be detrimental to your health.  I have given up diet Pepsi twice in probably the past two years and eventually went back to it just like so many of us women keep returning to the bad boys…we know they’re not good for us, but the attraction is there and hard to resist.

The last time I was at the grocery store, I made a conscious decision not to buy diet Pepsi.  Today I drank the last one in the house.  I figure this is as good a time as any to give it up for good.  I made tea to take to work tomorrow in place of the diet Pepsi.  Yes, tea has caffeine, but it also has antioxidants so is somewhat better for you than a beverage that is nothing but chemicals mixed with water.

I think I realized many years ago that I had an addiction to diet Pepsi.  I drank a lot of it every day, couldn’t wait to get home from work and feel myself relax as soon as I pulled that tab and heard that beautiful fizzy sound.  Kind of sounds like an alcoholic, doesn’t it?  I knew there was an addiction, but I didn’t make the choice to do something about it until much later.  Reading about the chemicals in diet soft drinks (and in soft drinks in general) opened my eyes to what I was putting into my body every day.  It doesn’t do a lot of good to try to eat clean if I continue to drink diet soft drinks. 

So, this is the next step in my quest for a healthy lifestyle.  It may not seem like a big step to a lot of people, but it’s huge to me.  Like they say, third time’s a charm…I’m going to succeed!

Do you have (or have you had) any addictions?  How do you deal with them?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 37

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Well….not such a great day of eating today.  I was so tired after working open to close yesterday, that I couldn’t drag myself out of bed in time to make anything to take to work today.  I ended up eating from the stupid, evil vending machine.  I had a bag of Cheez-Its for what I guess you’d say was my lunch today.  Unfortunately, breakfast was no better.  I ate a SuziQ…you know, those chocolate cakey things with the cream filling…not a lot of nutritional value in either of those choices, I’m afraid.

After work, I stopped at the grocery store, despite my vow not to go grocery shopping when I’m hungry or tired (and I was both today).  I walked down the cookie aisle, looked at the Fig Newtons (which really wouldn’t have been a terrible choice), then walked away.  When I walked by the deli, I looked at the BBQ wings, then walked away.  In the freezer section, I looked at the ice cream.  Then I looked at it some more.  Then I reminded myself that just a few days ago, I said I wasn’t going to buy ice cream.  I ended up buying a box of strawberry fruit bars…80 calories apiece…I think that was a better choice than the ice cream that I’ve been eating.  I ended up buying all healthy food and no diet Pepsi.  I think I’m getting closer to giving it up (again).  Anyhow, I’m feeling pretty good about my shopping trip…oh yeah, and that I have tomorrow off work!

Do you struggle to purchase healthier food and beverage choices?  How do you cope?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 32

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Oh my goodness, this heat is crazy!  I felt like my lungs seized up as soon as I walked out the door this morning.  Because of that,  I didn’t do much walking outside today.  I have friends who actually run in this kind of weather.  I’m not sure how they do it, but I admire their tenacity!!  And I’ll be there for them with a bottle of water and a cold towel when they collapse from heat exhaustion.

I had to venture out to the eye doctor for a follow-up visit this morning.  I’ve always worn only one contact and that enabled me to see at a distance as well as read close up.  However, what I discovered over the past week, was that  it didn’t allow me to clearly view the computer monitor at work.  Since that’s a fairly important aspect of my job, we decided to use a contact in my left eye to correct that.  Then I guess I’ll have to wear reading glasses for paperwork…I really was trying to avoid that, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do…So now I have to go in for a follow-up follow-up visit next week.

I didn’t get a lot of exercise in today.  I did walk for about 15 minutes in the mall before my appointment…the nice air-conditioned mall.  I hate to admit this, but that’s all the exercise I did today.  What a slacker!!  I’m sure I’ll make up for it tomorrow.  It’s truck day.  We’ll be outside unloading a truck, then working it all day.  Yikes, I better remember to bring a water bottle, I think I’ll be needing that!

I ate well for the day.  Plenty of fruits and veggies…BUT, I did eat ice cream…and that put me over my upper calorie range for the day.  I finished the day with 1760 calories.  The good news is, I don’t have any ice cream left in the house and I’m not planning to buy any more.  I’ll substitute either frozen bananas or smoothies.  They take a little more effort to prepare, but they are so much better for me.

I also had to make a stop at the grocery store.  I bought blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe (oh, how I hope this one is as good as the one I just finished), broccoli slaw mix, bananas, Hendrickson’s salad dressing (can’t run out of that stuff), yogurt, rye bread, milk, more of the chai latte creamer, tea, oj, popcorn, tortilla chips (does anyone know, are they no longer making the baked tortilla chips…I think they’re by Tostitos), black beans, mozzarella cheese (if it ever cools off, I’m going to make a veggie pizza), Fiber One brownies, and, of course, a book.  I’ve got to stop doing that…our library is so nice, so convenient and so free!!  After shopping, I came home and stayed inside in the nice, air-conditioned house for most of the day.  I did go outside and feed the birds, fill the bird bath and water plants.  Whew!  That little bit of activity had me sweating~

How are you beating the heat?  Do you remember the days before air conditioning?

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