Life Without The Scale…

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have been living the last couple of months without a bathroom scale. My curiosity is killing me. I’m to the point that when I take my laundry into be done, maybe I’ll just jump on the scale they have for weighing my clothes to see if I’ve gained or lost. (I’m pretty sure without my own kitchen either, it’s probably a gain).

For me, the scale and I have never been “friends” but it did help me at least keep track of things. While it didn’t stop me from gaining the 50 pounds I did, it did help prevent me from getting worse. I just refused to go over that 200 lbs. marker. LOL. I know some advocate only weighing yourself once a week, and others say to throw the scale away, that your body image etc. shouldn’t be tied to that, but alas, I cannot let go.

Due to being out of my house for the last month and a half I’ve been eating my share of fastfood. This is not normally my choice. Up until recently I hadn’t had a fastfood burger in months. I usually think about something, decide I can make it cheaper and healthier at home, and pass it by.

I have picked up some good habits though which is why I’m so curious about the number on the scale. I now eat breakfast every morning about 8:30. Before I would be working and lucky if I had a piece of toast before noon. I know that’s not good for the metabolism.

The other good thing that’s happened is I’m not drinking nearly as much. I may have one or two in the evening or maybe not. Compared to the 5 glasses of wine I was putting down every nite, that’s a 500 calorie drop right there. So I’m hoping that has helped balance out the calories from the fastfood. (Who am I trying to kid, right?) But I’m getting tired of burgers, etc. and have been expanding into TV dinners that are microwavable. Now, if I just start buying nothing but SmartOnes and Lean Cuisine, I could conceivably start losing. This all could turn out to be a good thing after all. LOL.

Exercise? My oldest daughter reminded me the Aids Walk is only a month away. If this tells you how good I’ve been doing on my walking, I tried to talk my way out of it. She wasn’t having any. I guess I better get on it. At least being right downtown, they’re long blocks to walk around.

The Importance of Walking

I received this in my email and since diet and exercise go hand in hand, I thought I would share. LOL.

Importance of Walking

Walking 20 minutes can add to your life.
>  This enables you at 85 years old
>  to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing
>  home at $7000 per month.
>
>  My grandpa started walking
>  five miles a day when he was 60..
>  Now he’s 97 years old
>  and we don’t know where he is.
>
>  I like long walks,
>  especially when they are taken
>  by people who annoy me.
>
>  The only reason I would take up walking
>  is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
>
>  I have to walk early in the morning,
>  before my brain figures out what I’m doing..
>
>  I joined a health club last year,
>  spent about 400 bucks.
>  Haven’t lost a pound.
>  Apparently you have to go there.
>
>  Every time I hear the dirty word ‘exercise’,
>  I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
>
>  I do have flabby thighs,
>  but fortunately my stomach covers them.
>
>  The advantage of exercising every day
>  is so when you die, they’ll say,
>  ‘Well, he looks good doesn’t he.’
>
>  If you are going to try cross-country skiing,
>  start with a small country.
>
>  I know I got a lot of exercise
>  the last few years,……
>  just getting over the hill.
>
>  We all get heavier as we get older,
>  because there’s a lot more information in our heads.
>  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
>
>  AND
>
>  Every time I start thinking too much
>  about how I look,
>  I just find a Happy Hour
>  and by the time I leave,
>  I look just fine.
>
>  You could run this over to your friends
>  But just e-mail it to them!

Am I My Mother?

My mother is 78 yrs. old and her favorite forms of exercise are eating and watching TV. She gave up on herself years ago, has gone through some pretty unhealthy times, and is ready to go home to the Lord anytime he’s willing to take her. Like me she has no desire to exercise, although at least I realize some movement is necessary. If she had her way she would never move at all. I quit taking her in her meals etc. as going to the kitchen was the only exercise she got. It wasn’t far from her chair to the kitchen, but she made the trip several times so at least she was doing something.

We’ve been staying in a hotel recently and the ice machine and dining area are both quite a little distance away. We walk over to the dining area every morning for breakfast, me walking slightly ahead leading the way, her in her walker. She quit putting ice in her water. Too far to walk. Finally yesterday I saw her heading for ice and followed behind her. She did just fine. Coming back however, knowing I was there, she’d pause for a moment and then made a point of letting me know her legs get tired. I don’t know why after all these years she hasn’t gotten it that something like that is just an invitation for me to tell her she needs to move more.

All my life my mother has said she didn’t want to be like my grandmother, who used to sit by the broadband radio listening to police calls all the time, rarely venturing out of her apartment. Now she admits that although she said that, she has actually gotten worse than her mother was. Now as I look at my mother I find myself thinking the same thing. I don’t want to be like her, lazy, fat, no life. I want to “live ’till I die”.

I either fractured my back or tore some muscles in it when we were moving. Oh my gosh, such pain. It’s starting to feel much better after almost 2 weeks, but I realize the most painful time is when I get up out of bed. While I realize many of us get stiff as we get older, making the onset of movement a bit painful, I don’t think that is the problem I’m having. The problem I’m having is the extra weight in my tummy pulling on my back as I lay on my side to sleep.

I’ve heard it said of men that have large stomachs when they see a doctor about lower back pain. Many are told most of the pain would go away if they just lost their tummies. I have no reason to think my tummy is any different. So, while I have always said that I wanted to be a “sexy” senior, for health concerns hitting home it’s about time I decided if I want to be like my mother and miserable, or more like a ‘cougar’, you know, one of those older women that look so good and are so active they go with younger men just to have someone who can keep up. LOL. I think right now I’m heading in the wrong direction.

So Much For Points or the Scale

I don’t remember how much I’ve written here about our landlord losing our house in foreclosure, but we’re pretty much living day to day in a hotel eating fast food. While at first I relished the fattening hamburgers and used moving as an excuse for exercise, I think I’m reaching my “fill”.

I’m starting to look around for things that are not so “fast food fattening”. Last nite I went to a Long John Silvers  to get fish for dinner and they have a few beautiful platters of salmon, tilapia, etc. just for people who want to eat fast food, but still want to at least seem like they care about what they are eating. They come complete with a small nutritional chart and as I read it over, the dishes would easily fit into someone’s dietary menu. I’ve eaten at Long John’s twice now and have had very good luck with their food, so I would have to figure that these would be tasty also. The one thing I didn’t pay attention to was the sodium, which I just realized, but I generally don’t eat salt on anything so for me it’s probably within reason on occassion.

My scale is packed, so I basically have no idea where I am weight-wise, accept the pants I’m wearing slide a bit and they look like riding pants at the thighs. LOL. I hope that’s a good sign.

A Reality Check

I went to lunch with a very dear friend of mine yesterday. He’s great because even though he talks way to much, he’s encouraging to me and interested in how I’m doing as well as letting me know how he’s doing. When I’m down I can call him and even when he’s complaing he’s full of energy, enthusiasm, and very uplifting.

For lunch I had a chinese chicken salad with the dressing on the side, and a piece of flatbread ( the new rage). Whenever I eat with him he takes 1/2 of what ever it is he ordered home with him. This has taught me to do the same even tho I have known for a long time that particular diet trick. I just never could bring myself to actually do it.

Yesterday after lunch he tricked me. He knew I had to run by Target to get a couple of things and he said he needed to also, so could we go together. The next thing I know, we are walking to and from Target. Not what I had intended. I had told him last month I was going to be walking, etc. to train to walk the Aids walk with my oldest daughter this year. I suppose he thought he was helping my train.

He forgets that altho I’ve been more active lately, I’ve been pretty sedentary for 2 yrs. He goes to the gym every day or nite, which ever the case may be. Needless to say that although he’s fairly short in stature, I trailed behind him most of the way. Reality lesson? I’ve got a lot to do before the walk in July. LOL

Out of Adversity Comes Better Habits

I’m out of my comfort zone these days and in a lot of ways, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’re in a motel temporarily in between homes which is not might favorite way to live, but I find myself starting over at the basics of some good habits I seemed to have lost.

For one, I am walking again every morning. I’m in an old, familiar neighborhood and it’s been fun to notice the things that have changed since I’ve been away and the things which have not.

The place we’re staying serves a free breakfast 7 days a week, and a free, light dinner 4 nites a week. While some of the things I would not cook for us if I was home, it’s fine when someone else is cooking. LOL. I just don’t eat much of it. The good thing about it is I’m getting back in the habit of eating dinner at a human hour vs. 11 pm. This also has been a help with the weight. Now if I would use this time to my advantage and eat only the things that are good for me, I could probably lose weight pretty steadily, (not that I have a scale to know for sure).

I can see and feel the difference which is a help to my sorrowful self esteem as of late, so that also is a good thing. So my friends, even in adversity there are positives. All we need to do is take notice of them.

The Moving, Like “Moving Out Of My House” Is Working

Hey everyone,

I told you already how switching from wine to vodka has already worked to lose 5 lbs., but now I am getting my exercise by moving out of my house. I am getting strength training, short interval walking, and I’m sure there’s more, all at the same time. I’m pretty brain dead tonite, but I’ll write more later when I’m fresh, like in the morning.

Hope you all are losing your “other half”. Summer is definitely almost here if the recent weather is any indication. LOL

The Vodka’s Working!

Vodka Dog

I don’t know if you read the post where I said I was switching back to vodka from wine and cutting my calories by more than half, but it’s working. Between that and all the moving I’ve been doing getting ready to move, I’ve dropped over 5lbs. in the last week.

Just goes to show the old adage about “diet and exercise” is true. LOL.

Depression & Visceral Fat

Results of a new study came out April 29th of this year announcing their was a correlation between visceral fat and depression. I know my visceral fat depresses me. I wonder how much these idiots got paid for this study. LOL.

To me this is kind of like the “What came first? The chicken or the egg?” question. They studied 409 obese women, half white and half black. Like stress causes cortisol, which causes visceral fat (the bad fat the leads to heart disease, etc) they say that depression does the same thing, except they don’t know how.

Helloooo? Isn’t it possible that these women were fat first, which caused their depression? Or if they were stressed, couldn’t that cause depression and then leading to the visceral fat? For such an “earth shattering” announcement, you would think they could be a lot more informative.

Haven’t we all known depression can lead to emotional eating, which leads to FAT? Isn’t the bottom line pretty much the same? It’s unhealthy which ever kind of fat it is.

In the meantime I’ve reduced my daily calorie count by switching from wine back to vodka. I’ll just have to get my anti-oxidants some other way. LOL.

Weight Loss Tidbits

With all the news about the Swine Flu Pandemic, it’s hard to find too much about weight loss, but I found a couple of things that I thought may be of interest.

This one is a little scary. I guess now that Alli has been released for sale on the European markets, they’re having a hard time getting pharmacists and chemists to follow the rules.

In the US if you go to purchase a bottle of Alli, they are supposed to check to make sure you are over 18 yrs. old and a BMI of 28 or more. Evidently one reporter doing a story overseas is very tiny and a BMI of 18.4 and had no trouble getting Alli at all. They did not give any of the warnings of the side affects like they are supposed to, and they didn’t warn that a person who isn’t overweight taking Alli could develop eating disorders (that one I didn’t even know about).

Change of subject- I guess Lindsay Lohan seems to be going from uncontrollable drug addict and alcoholic, to anorexic. They say she’s losing all the weight to get the attention of her lesbian lover that recently left her. We all find our own motivation in our own ways. LOL.

And last but not least- I’m sure this is a shocker, Oprah.com carries a statement that neither Winfrey nor Dr. Oz has endorsed the sale of acai products for weight loss or other uses. I wonder how I knew that when I was looking at all those sites. LOL

Have a great day everyone, and stay healthy!