How do you like your juice?

I never really gave my morning juice much thought until I bought a juicer and started experimenting.  I downloaded a couple of ebooks for my kindle and have browsed through the recipes at SparkRecipes.com.  That gave me a lot of ideas about what to try.  My first attempt was…well…not something I’ll be trying again any time soon (or ever).

Green juice

 

I used a couple of apples, 2 carrots, 1 stalk of celery, and a couple handfuls of spinach…yeah, not all that tasty.  I think the celery did it for me…I know it’s supposed to be good for you, but…uh…not really doing a lot for my taste buds.

Yesterday I juiced a couple of apples, two carrots, and 12 cherries…much better!  Tonight I juiced some oranges…for, you know, orange juice!!  My favorite so far…surprise, surprise!  I also juiced an apple and 12 cherries…tasty and such a pretty color…sorry, no picture of that…maybe later.

One thing I’ve quickly realized is that I’m going to have to figure out something to do with the pulp…I feel so wasteful just throwing it away.  I’ve read that some people use it in smoothies or soup…might be worth a try, you think?

If you have some suggestions for combinations that would make a tasty juice (or if you have any ideas about what to do with the pulp), let me know.

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Ch-ch-ch-chia

Dole Chia Clusters (Photo credit: theimpulsivebuy)

And I’m not talking about the chia pet, although I’ve always thought they were kind of cool…looked at the chia cat grass thing that was in stores before Christmas…was secretly hoping someone would buy one for me for a gift…but I guess it was not to be…anyhow, I’m getting off topic here.  What I’m talking about is chia seeds…one of the latest healthy food trends.

I read several healthy eating blogs and kept reading about using chia seeds in smoothies, in oatmeal, in baking…I even went so far as to look at them in the store.  That’s when I noticed how expensive they were.  Now anyone who knows me knows that I can be a little cheap  frugal and don’t like to pay a lot of money for something that I probably will end up not really liking anyhow.  So I passed on the chia seeds.

The other day I was looking at dried fruit and noticed the Dole chia & fruit clusters.  Hmm…let’s read the label…12 clusters per serving at 120 calories…okay, that’s not bad.  Ounce for ounce, chia seeds provide 2 times more omega-3 than walnuts, 3 times more fiber than oatmeal, 5 times more calcium than whole milk, 26% more protein than an egg…sounds good, huh?

So I made the plunge…made the purchase…jumped on the chia bandwagon…well…it’s okay, only okay, not awful, not gross, just okay…maybe I’ll like them more once I’ve stopped eating refined sugar for a month or so…maybe then I’ll come back and say they’re better than candy.  Oh, who am I kidding?  They’ll still be okay…but they are good for you so that has to count for something, right?  Right?

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Carrots instead of chips

That may not sound like a big deal to most folks, but it was a huge step in the right direction for me.  I just decided I need to start eating healthier again…I’ve been way too lax with my diet of late…like for the past several months.  Crazy!  So tonight, for dinner, I made a grilled cheese sandwich and was walking to the pantry to get the Doritos…U turned and walked to the fridge instead.  Pulled out the carrots.  Then decided to go for strawberries and angel food cake for dessert…not totally healthy, but so much healthier than I’ve been eating.

Why is this so difficult?  I know I feel better when I eat right.  I know I feel better when I exercise.  So why do I continue to do things that I know aren’t in my best interest and that will ultimately make me unhealthy, sick, or less fit?  I guess if I could figure this out, deal with the issues, and solve the problem I’d be writing best-selling weight loss/health and fitness books, right?

But today I feel like I was able to overcome temptation and do what I know I need to do…now to tackle tomorrow!

What’s in your grocery cart?

I finally gave in and made a trip to Kroger this morning.  I ran out of bread a couple of days ago, but didn’t want to stop at the grocery store after work that day because it was snowing. The snow itself didn’t keep me from shopping that evening.  I just didn’t want to deal with all of the crazy people who hear the word “snow” and decide they need to go out and buy enough food for a month.  So I did without…no big deal…

I’ve got plenty of oatmeal so I took some to work and had that for breakfast.  I had soup and salad for lunch for a couple of days.  I had a baked potato and cottage cheese for dinner.  I’m really making the effort to eat the food I buy and not throw things away just because I was too lazy or too tired or too whatever to prepare something.

This was the second week in a row where I bought only healthy foods…no frozen pizza, no chips, no candy, no cookies…wow!!  Now I’m not saying I’m not eating the occasional piece of candy.  I have some candy left over from Christmas and I’m allowing myself to have a piece if I’m still within my calorie range at the end of the day.  But the funny thing is, I don’t always want a piece.  How cool is that?

I came close to staying within my $50 a week food budget…spent $53, so not bad.  I did buy a couple of things that weren’t on my list when I saw them on sale.  I try to stock up on things that won’t go bad when I find them on sale for a good price.  One of the crackers I really, really like is this flaxseed cracker by Back To Nature…

Then, in the dairy case, I  came across these Laughing Cow spreads that go perfectly with the crackers for a healthy, fairly low-cal snack…

So those were my two purchases that put me over my budgeted amount for the week…hey, I figure it could have been worse!!

What else did I buy?  Let’s see…grapes, green onions, bananas, Greek yogurt, skim milk, coffee creamer, cottage cheese, whole wheat sandwich thins, tuna, diet Pepsi (uh..yeah…I’m still drinking it…one thing at a time…get the eating under control, then think about kicking the diet Pepsi habit), eggs (wow, has the price of eggs gone up?!), a couple of boxes of Morningstar Farms products (I tried the bacon for the first time last week and I am hooked!)…and my Saturday off indulgence…a newspaper.  I used to subscribe, but ended up not reading more than half of the papers that were delivered to my house…I decided that was a waste of my money and a waste of some perfectly good trees.  So, on my weekend off, I treat myself to the newspaper…not such a terrible indulgence, is it?

I’m feeling pretty good about making healthier choices..oh, and have I mentioned that I’ve lost 8 pounds since the first of the year?!

So what was in your shopping cart?

How can I be this tired?

sometimes you just need a cozy place to curl up

Okay, granted I did work over 11 hours today.  And yes, I had to be at work at 5 am which meant I didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep.  Of course I was on my feet all day, running around, climbing ladders, going up and down stairs.  And I waited much too long to eat today, so I ended up with a headache to accompany my tired body.

But still, this is ridiculous!  My legs hurt, my back hurts, my head still hurts.  I know, as well as I know anything, that a lot of the pain will diminish as I continue to lose weight, but I’m not sure it’ll ever disappear completely…don’t remind me, I know I’m not a young whippersnapper any more.

At least I have tomorrow off work (I hope…hopefully I won’t get any phone calls asking me to come in because our zone vice president is on his way).  I have a few errands to run in the morning,some cooking to do in the afternoon, and I’m thinking sleeping in without an alarm clock forcing me to get up will be a treat!

A couple of good things about today…one, even though I was feeling so tired (a big trigger for me) and dealing with a lot of stress, I still ate healthy today, totally stayed within my calorie range (on the low end of it…woohoo) and still got in some core exercises before work and rode the exercise bike for a little while this evening.  High fives all around!

The long and winding road to fitness, day 168

 

What a dreary, rain-soaked, nasty day this was.  But people still have to shop and that’s just what they were doing.  I thought about doing some shopping after work, but felt so sick that I decided to just go straight home and climb into bed and pull the covers up to my head.  I slept for quite a while which is probably a good thing as far as battling this cold goes.  But when I woke up, I looked at the clock and saw 6:03…thought I’d forgotten to set the alarm and overslept. Then I realized I didn’t have to work on Tuesday.  Then it finally occurred to me that this was today, not tomorrow…don’t you hate that fuzzy thinking when you wake up from a long nap?  Or it could have been the DayQuil messing with my head.  Or maybe the onset of dementia…yikes!

Anyhow, pretty good day of eating…or drinking…drank some V8 Fusion, some oj, some more V8 Fusion.  Early in the day, I was planning to go over to Subway for lunch.  When the time came, I just couldn’t force myself out in the rain once again.  So I dug into my stash of frozen dinners.  I’m kind of getting tired of them though.  After a while, they all start to taste the same.  I think I’m going to have to come up with something different to bring to work for the next week.  Maybe a simple sandwich and salad. (Hmm…I could even bring lunch for Chris too.  He told me he didn’t eat a meal at all yesterday, just snacks…good way to get sick.  Oh wait, he’s already sick.)  I’ve got some cheesecake pudding mix that might go well with frozen blueberries…Anybody got any other suggestions?  I don’t want to have to spend time on my day off cooking.  Heck, I’ve got to get out and do a little Christmas shopping (Nooooooooo……..).

Exercise?  Mmm…just the usual running around at work, did quite a bit of ladder climbing early in the morning…that has to count for something.  I’m so ready to get back to a regular workout routine.  I’m thinking about taking off the first week of January, well, most of it…after I work the New Years Day weekend (my regular weekend to work) and that Monday…then take off  Tuesday through Sunday…that would be the perfect time to get right back into the daily exercise habit.  It’s hard to believe that this is something I’m looking forward to.  I guess, after being in good shape, and allowing myself to slip back into some bad habits and gain a lot of weight, I remember how good I felt when I was exercising daily and eating right…and I want that feeling back!  Great gift to give to myself…well, that and that Kindle that I’m coveting…

The long and winding road to fitness, day 147

Oh my goodness…could work get any more stressful?  Why, yes…yes, it could.  The auditor was in our district today, at the store closest to us.  So, of course, my thought was she’s headed our way.  Fortunately she headed north after leaving the other store.  But that’s not to say she couldn’t swing down our way tomorrow.  I’m feeling a little bit better about it now after spending most of the day checking things, fixing what could be fixed, talking with the manager at the other store to see exactly what the auditor was looking at (thanks, Kelly) and getting everyone involved.  Honestly, in my opinion (which doesn’t count for much), it’s kind of counter productive to have the auditor out in the stores at this time of the year…we all are super stressed and have so much work to get done in the next few days, and then to have to put it all on the back burner and focus on the audit…well…of course, we should always be following all of the policies and procedures, but man, do we have a lot of work to get done.  Anyhow, I think we’re in good enough shape to pass it now, so that’s at least something…

My eating was decent today.  Ended up with four veggies and two fruits…not bad, not bad.  I had a Healthy Choice lobster ravioli for lunch.  Could someone please remind me to never buy that again?  Please!!  I always think things like that look good, then, when I eat it, I remember that I don’t like food with tomato saucy ingredients…same way with jello…I think it smells good and sounds like it would be good mixed with fruit, then I take a bite and remember why I don’t like it.  I mean, really, as an adult, could I not finally remember those things?  You’d think, right”?

I did some core exercises and walked for 15 minutes before work today.  Then who knows how much walking I did at work, quite a bit for sure. I was telling Nikkianne today that I’m just trying to maintain my fitness level through the holidays, then I can get back to spending more time at it.  I really want to get back into running next year.  I think back to when I was running and how great it made me feel, then wonder why I ever stopped…well, I stopped because of an injury, but then didn’t get back into it.  But I want those wonderful feelings back…and I’m going to do it.

How about you?  Have you given any thought to what you intend to accomplish in the next year?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 102

Well…I woke up still not feeling well, but was doing better by noon or so.  Hopefully I’m finished with being sick, not a lot of fun…

My eating was okay today…still wasn’t feeling well enough to eat a lot.  And another day of zero exercise…hopefully I can pick that back up tomorrow and get at least a little exercise in over the course of the day.

My day wasn’t a total loss though.  I’ve been in the market for a new (to me) car for quite some time and today just happened to be the day that I found one that I liked and that I could afford.   I had intended to pay cash for a car, but decided to take the plunge and get a car financed.  I needed something that was dependable, was not especially concerned about the make or model…I’m not a big car person…as long as it gets me where I need to go and has minimal problems, I’m fine with whatever.  Having said that…

I think this little car looks pretty sharp!

A gold Chevy Malibu…

Not too shabby…smooth ride, has some get up and go, and looks pretty good too!  I may not sound like it here, but I am super excited!!

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 98

Image via Wikipedia

My last day off work, darn it!  It didn’t seem like I had much of a vacation this time, between doctor’s visits and going to the bmv, working one of the days I scheduled off so I could be there for that wonderful corporate visit, then yesterday’s headache..well, I didn’t have time to do much around the house.  Oh well, why should my vacation time be any different from any other time, right?

I did walk for about 30 minutes this morning…thank goodness for my treadmill since it rained all day here.  We needed the rain, so I’m not complaining about that.   And my eating was okay today, not great, but not terrible either.  I’ve got my meals and snacks planned for tomorrow.  Guess I should go into the kitchen and get everything prepared so I don’t have lack of time as an excuse for not taking healthy food to work with me, huh?

I used my new carpet cleaner today.  When I put it together, I was a little concerned with how small the clean water tank is.  But I was able to use it today and clean up all the spots I wanted to clean and still have some cleaning fluid left in the tank.  It worked really well and was easy to clean.  I’d say I’m a satisfied customer.  Now if I can just keep Goldi from puking on the carpet…why do they always do it on the carpet anyhow?  I mean, my kitchen, bathrooms, and entry are all tile and would be much easier to clean.  But does she ever throw up in one of those rooms?  Heck no!  She’s got to do it where I have to get out the carpet cleaner.  Oh well…it can’t be deliberate, can it?  Do you think she’s mad about something?  Nah…not Goldi.  Spooky I could see doing something out of meanness…or, well, make that mischieviousness…that’s it.

I had a great day of writing on my book.  It really flowed well and rereading what I’d written made me smile.  I wish every day could be like that, but I know they won’t all be that good.  Such is life…

Well, I hope everyone had a good weekend and is ready for another fun-filled week!

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 48

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Oops…didn’t quite get to this last night…working like crazy right now trying to get ready for inventory and then my vacation starts as soon as inventory is over…don’t want work piled up BEFORE  I go on vacation, there’ll be enough of that waiting for me when I get back.  But a vacation makes everything better (at least for a few days).

Yesterday was a so-so day…in a rush so didn’t take a great lunch to work with me…had a cheese sandwich on organic whole wheat bread…it really tasted good, could have used some veggies thrown on it but just didn’t have the time.  I did remember to take a box of fruit and grain bars to keep in my desk to help me avoid the vending machine…so that’s a plus.

I walked for 50 minutes, but that was all of the exercise I managed to squeeze in.  Of course, a lot of walking at work…that’ll be the case for the next three days, I’m afraid.  During my vacation, I’m planning to do two cardio workouts a day, morning and afternoon…wow, would that be what retirement would be like for me?  Right now, retirement seems like a faraway dream…

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend…

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