The Numb3rs Game

As Frosty the Snowman says when he is awakened,
"Happy Birthday"!

Yes, today is my birthday. Number 58! I can hardly believe I am that old. I can hardly believe I am this young! I realized that my Mom was only five years older than I am today, when she passed away. My baby sister who passed away a few years ago last week, would have turned 50 this year. My oldest son will turn 30 in a few weeks and my youngest son will turn 12, a few weeks later.

What a life I have lead! What an adventure! What a thrill to contemplate all the curiosities the future will bring! And I have a much brighter future with a lot better quality of life ahead because of all the changes I've made over the past 24 months.

Let's do the boring stuff now, to see what has changed:

Year               2010            2012
Weight            291              188          
Cholesterol     225              177          
Waist              51"               36"          
BP                  159/89         113/70
BMI                43                 27
Body Fat        42%              27%
Size                28                16

One of my old goals was to be at 175 by today. I missed that. Will I ever be at that weight? Maybe. I am not as concerned as I was just a few months ago, about reaching that goal weight. I am still learning how to live life in this new body. I am still learning how to accept that I am looking like a normal person. I still have a body image problem in that I still often see a fat woman in the mirror.

For 2012 I made the One-derland goal in January and the 100 pound total loss goal in April.
I've  stalled out since then. However, I find it very easy to maintain where I am at. I still count calories because I still struggle with knowing if I have eaten too much or more often now, if I have eaten too little! I cannot believe I just typed that!!!

MY NEW GOALS for 2013:

1. To continue to eat healthy and to live an active and FUN life!
2. To continue to work on believing in myself that I CAN keep this life style going and that I WON'T gain back the weight.
3. To continue to educate myself and others about living a better life.
4. To continue finding new and fun activities to spice up my activity levels. (I am going to check out martial arts in November!)

Notice that there are no numbers in the goals I have set. I am enjoying where I am at right now. If more weight comes off later, that would be terrific. As long as more weight doesn't come back on, I think I will work more on just learning how to live this way for now. I have to learn how to buy the right clothes that flatter me. I want them to be comfortable too, but I want them to actually enhance these new parts that are looking pretty good for an old lady.

  

Happy Birthday to me! Walk-on friends of my blog! See you around the bend.

The Blame Game

We can't help what was done to us as children. We can help what we do to ourselves as adults.

We can't help how our parents raised us. If you want to blame your parents for not teaching you how to eat a healthy diet, go ahead. Then get on with your life and teach yourself how to do it right!

Do not let your past be your excuse to stay fat!  

The "Un-Meal"

I am often asked about what I eat on a day to day basis. I really don't eat too many odd things....at least not every day. You'll always find my Fage - 0% fat - Greek yogurt in my fridge. Most of the time you'll find eggs, baby organic spinach, and a variety of veggies. More than 50% of the time you will find some form of chicken, cooked, and ready to add to salad, sandwich, or soup. Pre-cooked oatmeal will be in the fridge or freezer in single serving containers.

Today has been an odd day...an "un-meal" day. Breakfast had sauteed onions and mushrooms, wilted spinach, two poached eggs, a fresh orange, and an English muffin. That isn't too radical, but it isn't oatmeal either. I used to eat 99% of my breakfasts as oatmeal.

Not strange enough for you? I made up for it at lunch time. I had an organic apple, a half cup of 'diet' trail mix, and ten pickled herring pieces. The Norwegian is coming out of me with that herring. YUM!!!



Supper will be much more traditional. I am fixing pork loin roast, red potatoes, and steamed veggies.

I have been enjoying lots of food experiments. Some work out and many do not! I like making food more fun. I love not having food as 'the enemy'!

A few tips regarding yogurt. I really am loyal to my Fage Greek yogurt. If I want a tangy flavor or want a substitute for sour cream, I use the fat free style. If I need something sweeter and more dessert like, I use the 2% style. I sometimes use a very good quality jam (not jelly) to add my fruit to the yogurt. I will not buy the yogurt with their own added fruit on the bottom, or even on the side. I sometimes use sugar free, fat free instant pudding mix with my yogurt. A teaspoon or more, to taste, can truly turn simple yogurt into a very satisfying treat! Plus, yogurt is good for you!

And yes, I know that instant pudding is not the best thing. I make exceptions for some things. I also have discovered lemon and lime curd. I will add one or the other to yogurt as well. Curd has a LOT more sugar in it though. It comes down to the lessor of two evils I guess. Chemicals or sugars. More important to me is being satisfied from a craving that could have soooooo many more calories. I like these concoctions that keep guilt out of the ingredient list.

(LATER THAT DAY) Ok, so that is how my day had gone until supper. I made the mistake of making brownies for my son for after supper dessert tonight. The Chocolate Demon then descended upon me, forced my mouth open and made me eat about two or three chewy oooooey gooey brownies! Bad Chocolate Demon...bad bad bad.

I have also had the "Eve Complex" today. Whole Foods has their great fall apple crops in, in all their glorious splendor!!! I've had four so far today.


I bet I have gained five pounds. Grrrrrrr......and how many thousands of extra calories have I eaten? I actually kept track and it was between two and four hundred. Big whoop-de-do! It isn't exact because I am not sure on the brownies' calorie count. I have allowed for a bunch of them, just in case. I would rather over estimate than under estimate. Too bad I can't "Un-Meal" the times I over did my caloric count. I guess I need to find a magic wand for that too!

In other news our state's fair started today. I think I will go there and have cotton candy...and a funnel cake. Actually, though I might have some of those treats, I doubt I could eat a whole funnel cake without getting sick. Even when PLANNING to be bad, I am not bad. Nope. I am LIVING life with indulgences now and then.  It is all part of living a healthy lifestyle. I have said it before and will say it again...if I can do it, so can you!


Walk-on folks! See ya next time...

Just Sayin'

On my way home from weight training class I had to slow down and brake three times for three different cars that all stopped short. All three cars turned into three different fast food joints within a few blocks of each other. See? This goes to prove that fast food can be dangerous to your health!!!

Why IS Processed Food so Bad?

I mean, doesn't processed food have lots of extra vitamins? Doesn't it have less fat and more nutrients?Aren't the pictures on the outside of the box appetizing? That food looks so good....doesn't it? AND it is SO easy to make into a meal! How can this be a bad thing?

First of all, let's define "processed food".  My definition is that processed food is any food or food-like substance that is not in its original form. Box mixes are processed foods. Pasta is a processed food. An apple is not. An apple pie is. Applesauce is a processed food. A food that has been 'worked on' is a processed food.

Where it starts to get tricky is when you start defining what type of processing has been done. To what degree has a real food been converted into a processed food?

I realize that most of our foods are processed to appeal to our modern day palates. Most folks like their peas cooked, not raw. Same goes for meats. Boiling peas is a very basic processing step. Grilling meat is pretty basic too. Peas in canned pea soup are processed more and usually have more added to it for flavor. Meat that is breaded and fried is more processed. Meat that is ground up is even more processed. Meat that is finely ground and mixed with God knows what, is slime is even MORE processed. Is it still food? Well, ya...kinda......but.......

Think about bread for a moment. On the back of most loaves of bread in the store, you'll see dozens of ingredients and additives. Most homemade breads are variations of flour, water, a bit of salt, and yeast. (mmmm YUM!!! homemade bread!!!) How long does a store-bought loaf taste fresh and soft? How long does homemade taste fresh and soft?

Take a bite of store-bought bread and it practically melts in your mouth. It will do that on day one and day two and day three and day four and day five and day six and often, even longer!

Take a bite of homemade bread and it is a bit more chewy. It tastes really good that first day, especially when still warm from the oven. Day two and it is ok. Day three it is french toast. Day four it is often bird food or frozen for stuffing in whole chickens or bread puddings. I think of the store-bought bread as pre-digested. Some of the work your gut is supposed to do, is already done by the pre-processing of the store-bought bread.

I tend to think of most foods this way...the more you don't have to do to it, the better it is for you. Remember the closer you are to picking it, plucking it, or shooting it, the more your food is not processed.

This is gross, but think of how a bird feeds its young. A bird eats a bug, processes that bug in its gut and then regurgitates pre-processed food into the baby bird's mouth. It makes it easier for the baby bird to digest. Processed foods get easier and easier to digest through our gut. The faster it breaks down, the faster it is absorbed. The faster it is absorbed, the faster it gets into our system and gets stored, often as fat. And who knows how many additives and questionable chemicals are also added in there? Is that good?

I am not a scientist but this all makes sense to me. Processed food just is not processed by our systems in the same way or in the best way for us as humans. Processed foods contribute to our weight gaining society. It may even make our systems hang on to calories from them as fat. I believe this to be true. Do you?

I try to eat the least processed foods that I can, however, I do not totally avoid processed foods. You have to choose what is best for YOU. Sometimes that might be what I do, but all the time, it should be what YOU do for YOU!

As Tim Gunn says, "Make it work!"
As Walker Lady says, "Walk-On!"