What food is good for what.

I received this in my inbox today. The music is beautiful and the comparisons are uncanny! enjoy =)

Nothing makes a fat girl say “shoulda, woulda, coulda” like really hot weather.

I “shoulda” stuck to eating right and exercising.

I “woulda” been small enough to fit into some bitchin’ summer clothes.

I “coulda” been there by now.

I had pretty much forgotten how much I hate hot (90 to 100 degrees) weather when I’m overweight. I’ve gotten old enough that I tend to run on the “cooler” side most of the time, so the hot weather when I’m thinner, doesn’t seem so bad. This year I remembered when the temps reached 102, why I usually diet in the fall or winter to be thinner by spring and summer.

One thing the hot weather has done for me is make my attraction to the fruits and vegetables in season much stronger. It must be working, because I’ve actually lost about 5 lbs. in the last week or so. Cookies, etc. just don’t have the same appeal when I’m sweating to death, looking for a way to cool off.  So it’s obviously not due to being post-menopausal, but my crummy eating habits that are keeping me fat. Hate facing that one! LOL

The strawberries have been just beautiful by me this year. They’re huge and so sweet and juicy. Usually at least one store by me (I’m lucky enough to have about 5 different grocery stores all in a circle close to where I live) has a 4lb. clamshell on sale at a really reasonable price. The blueberries not such a great bargain, but I love them in my yogurt and even tho the containers are small, I can still usually find them on sale. I bought a beautiful pineapple the other day, and I’ll probably cut that up for snacking today. To me, the can will never have anything on fresh when it comes to pineapple. When I went to Hawaii, my late husband couldn’t sit me at the bar next to a waitress station because I couldn’t keep my hands out of the pineapple. LOL.

The truly great thing about all this is that it is such a healthy way to eat. I’ve always said “if I truly ate everything they want you to eat when you’re on WeightWatchers, I would never be able to snack on anything else!”

Thank goodness for the hot weather to reteach me how to eat right. I’m drinking a lot more water also, of course, which I’m sure has helped with dropping a little of this excess weight. See, you just never know where help is going to come from. LOL 

I picked this up from LadyShanny and Blogher and decided to give it a try. Until I did this, I didn’t realize how resentful and angry I was at the physical me. Hopefully, now that I got it out and examined it, I can get rid of it.

                               A Letter To My Body

Here we are after spending a half a century together, and I figure I know you pretty well. We’ve pretty much come full circle, the baby with her belly hanging out over her diaper, the little girl who was taller than almost everyone in her class, the blossoming young woman who quickly turned into “full figured”, and the older woman who has once again turned into a body with her belly hanging over her underwear. You’ve taken me from being a kid to having 3, and I must say we got along pretty well thru all of them. We’ve gone thru menopause together and it was easy. No matter what I’ve done to you, you have always bounced back and been strong and reliable.

I would love to say I don’t blame you for the shape I’m in now, but to a certain extent, I do. In fact, to be totally honest, I’ve been angry with you since I was 12. We had two parents. Mom, who fought being overweight all her life, and Dad, who was skinny as a rail all his life, right into middle age. You took on all of Dad’s mannerisms, gave me his face, but took on Mom’s fat cells. I have her shape and took on her lifetime of fighting my weight. I do resent you to a certain extent. I resent fighting with you about what I eat all my life. You’ve never given me a chance to relax. It’s always been a battle.

Now that we’re older, things haven’t changed much. I do realize as we’ve gotten older, you are more in need than ever before of the proper fuel for you to carry me the rest of the way. I don’t want to suffer and be limited in my mobility as the days and years pass, and I realize that you can turn on me at any time. You have won the war. Now the tables have turned and I shall be your servant. I am heeding your warnings, the stiffness in the joints, the pain in my hips when I lay too long on my side. My heart says I want to be around to see my youngest child thru life and see my Grandchildren graduate from high school. The Bible says you are a temple. I have never quite figured that and have not exactly brought “presents” in thru your door, but I am starting to see that now. I shall look at you thru new eyes with a new appreciation for what you can do. Hopefully, from this point forward you can accept my apologies and we will get along much better in the future. As the old joke goes, “if I would have known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of you”.

Creation This is my little fun thing for today.  Please don’t be offended. I can’t take credit for the making, but I couldn’t resist sharing. It seems appropriate here.

First I want to say that my trip to the City the other day was a bust. It turned out they only appraise the stuff they are interested in selling. I didn’t want to sell anything, I was just curious how much some stuff was worth. Oh well. What I found funny was any other time that I have gone to the San Francisco, you can never park close to where you are actually going. You always walk at least a couple of blocks. I was counting on that. Since I mentioned that little fact in my blog the other day, not only did we get up there later than I intended, but I got parking right at the edge of the building! They had their own little parking lot (free) for their visitors and I only walked maybe 1/2 block at best. So much for using that as a way of getting my exercise.

Now for the fun. I thought this was really cute. I stole it from Janice (Our Lady of Weight loss) over at Beliefnet.com. Hope you enjoy.

The Ten Commandments of Permanent Fat Removal

1. Thou shalt honor and believe in thyself.
2. Thou shalt move thy booty. Move it and move it some more.
3. Thou shalt never go hungry again. Eat small meals and healthy snacks throughout the day.
4. Thou shalt stock the fridge with the right stuff - the fruits and vegetables of the earth, the melba toast of men who walked before us.
5. Thou shalt honestly write it down. If you bite it, you must write it.
6. Thou shalt weigh and measure thyself and thy food.
7. Thou shalt drink enough Holy Water to frighten Noah and map out all the restrooms in thy village.
8. Thou shalt not deny thyself a treat or two now and then.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s plate.
10. Thou shalt not eat out of misery, boredom, anxiety … but should thee over-indulge, forgive thyself immediately. All Is Forgiven, Move On!

My oldest daughter, 26 yrs. old, has informed me she is going “Vegan”. Since she doesn’t live with me this does not pose any kind of problem for me as I don’t have to cook for her. She, like me, even in her short life has yo-yo’d up and down the scale. She too has lost a lot of weight on Weight Watchers a couple of times, and like me is self sabotaging, and put it, plus some, back on. In an earlier post I had written how I had gone to visit her to set up her kitchen w/gadgets and food for her to get started back on WW, and make it possible for her to cook with minimal effort for her busy lifestyle. She is a manager for one of the big chain restaurants and I figured that would help her also, as she could just have the cooks “whip her up” whatever she wanted. Evidently a lot of the food they get is already prepared, so she has no control as to what goes into it, so it really wasn’t very helpful at all.

The reason I am writing about this, is that her diet had actually gotten extremely bad, even since I had been down there. She woke up with coke or pepsi much the same way I wake up with coffee. After work at nite instead of either having a salad or something at work, or even cooking at home, she would go thru the drive-throughs. As you would guess, the scale has gone up and up, and it’s quite apparent that her self-esteem has gone down and down (no makeup, sloppy dress, slouching). After reading this new book, “Skinny Bitchs”, reading all it has to say about how certain foods affect our body, and coming up with a plan, she has decided to make this very definite “lifestyle” change. (I should note here also that this basically started with a PETA film on slaughterhouses). I for one think this is terrific. She has always had digestive problems. Her weight has been out of control. She generally feels awful all of the time. She was worried about her thyroid (once again looking for the “quick fix”) and I had told her about food allergies. (I have really learned quite a bit on these blogs, thank you everybody).

What she hadn’t counted on was the lack of support from her co-worker and currently closest friend. Her friend has laughed at her, been very condescending to her, and generally mean about this new change. Her co-worker also could stand to lose several pounds and is not really in any way someone you would want to emulate. Once again I explained to my daughter that “misery loves company”. Unfortunately no matter what kind of change we make to make ourselves better, there are going to be those that want us to stay stuck as we are. My daughter’s friend right now has in my daughter, someone she can eat junk food with, who shares the same problems finding things to wear, and who is basically “obese”, so she’s not alone. We all need to remember most people have their own agenda, whether conscious or not, and it may not always be for our good. Remember this when you find it hard to “swim against the tide”. If you’re feeling good about what you’re doing and it’s working for you, there may be people who are not happy with you. Just remember in the end, it’s you that has to live with you, and it’s your psyche and physical health that are important. People don’t always want you to show them change is possible.

In the meantime, I’m b-b-quing steaks for dinner tonite. LOL.

I am becoming completely obsessed with exercise. Obsessed with studying it and putting a workout together, but unfortunately still not doing it.  I would say I am “gearing up”, but I realize as much as I look at it, it still requires ACTION. LOL.

My latest inspiration comes from a couple of articles read, one of which is titled “9 Reasons to Start a Fitness Plan” published in AARP mag. Aug. of 2006. (Yes, damn it, I am old enough to enjoy an AARP membership). Their magazines actually have a lot of good articles that are not necessarily just geared for old people. Some of their advice I wish I had taken up years ago, as with this particular article.

First reason: To live longer. Actually, I’m not always sure this is a benefit. Until recently, I basically only wanted to live long enough to actually get my house clean, empty of clutter, have my kids all out on their own, and have one time I could say “I’m bored”. Since gaining 2 new grand-nephews last year, it has occurred to me that I actually may want to live long enough to see my grandchildren become young adults. I have that figured at at least another 20 yrs. and that would be if I had grandchildren. As of yet, I don’t even see any on the horizons, so that timeline looks to be extended.

2) Improve memory. Now that’s something I can use. I remember the day I was at work, 23 yrs. young, and declared the senility was already starting to seep in. Here I am many years later and can use all the help I can get in stalling this as much as possible.

3) Heal faster. As I am a prime candidate for Osteoporosis, I find this to be of great importance. What I don’t understand is the group in the study of the connection between exercise and healing letting themselves be wounded in order to find out which group healed faster. I would personally like to thank them, as I for one have a low threshold of pain and certainly would not have been able to do anything in this way to further the advance of medical science.

4) Boost immunity. This study found that people who lifted weights, walked or many other forms of exercise, just 3 times a week had stronger immune systems and caught less colds and flu than people who didn’t exercise. Since according to the news this year’s flu shots are only 40% effective, this seems like a viable alternative to being ill.

5) Increase sexual function. This evidently is especially true for males. Just burning 200 calories a day, helped men between the ages of 40 and 70 maintain erectile function. Of course, if everything is working fine and you’re just not getting any, this won’t help much.

6) Increase creativity. According to another study on the effects of exercise, creativity is much stronger after exercise, and up to as much as two hours after.  For me this would be a big plus. As you may have noticed I have not been as vigilant as I once was on this blog alone, not to mention my other projects. For me this should provide a great incentive. Maybe this is the natural answer to “writer’s block”?

7) Be Pain Free. While exercise is not the answer to all aches and pains as we get older, it does help. One of the things I tell my mother when she complains about “it hurts to walk, etc” is “that’s because you don’t do it enough”. She sits in her chair all day and then wonders why it’s so hard to much and she’s so stiff when she goes to get up. While I don’t advocate smoking, since she has decided to return to the ugly habit, she is moving constantly, (or at least every 2 hours) and I haven’t heard her complain in ages.

8)Be able to pick up your grandkids. As we age we lose muscle naturally. The only way to try and counteract this is to get the proper exercise. In old age, another case of “use it or lose it”. I don’t want to sit in a chair all day watching TV and not going out with my family to celebrations, etc. Keeping as much muscle as possible is a must!

Last but not least…

9) Save money. I am currently one of the many millions of Americans without health insurance. I cannot afford to be sick. People who exercise just 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week spend less per year on medical costs. That works for me, especially since without ins. the costs are absolutely crazy.

Well, I feel all inspired now that I have answered these challenges for myself. I think it’s time I got moving!

I’ve been working on my exercise room. It turns out I have more equipment than I realized when I started getting it all together. LOL. The one thing I do need to find is an exercise matt.

I don’t usually like to turn this blog into a commercial, but this slide show came out pretty cool. It’s some of the products I sell and a few of them do have to do with weightloss, so I figured what the heck!

It’s so early into the new year and I have just fallen apart! I had this great schedule worked out, all the best intentions, and then I took off for Vegas with my two daughters. I got so far behind, it’s like I’ll never catch up (more behind than I already was). I can’t believe how little it takes!

I’ve been doing okay, food wise. I haven’t lost but I haven’t gained, so that’s a wash. Unfortunately it means I haven’t accomplished much, but at least I’m not burying myself any deeper.

I’ve finally figured out my exercise dilemma. I have so little space, but I have a plan! Will be working on that today and will be putting up pics of my space before and after. I’m actually pretty excited. This will be convenient enough that I might actually use it.

That’s about it for today. I’m making this short, but wanted to check in with everyone and let you know ‘I’m back in action’. Yeah!

I think that’s the word I’m looking for to describe my birthday lunch yesterday. My middle daughter who treated me to lunch, did as she does to everyone in the family who’s birthday it is, talked me into Red Lobster for lunch. I should explain this a little.

When the kids were small we used to take the family out any time it was one of their birthdays. When they were little, it was usually Chuck-E-Cheese (Pizza and games) or while it was open, Bullwinkle’s (Pizza, chicken, and games). Once I became a single mom, we started going other places, even if it was just cheap fastfood. It was the one time all of us were together, because it usually included my sister and her kids also, and all the attention was on the ‘Birthday’ child. As the children got older, they started having their favorite places that we basically only went to on someone’s birthday. My middle daughter has never waivered in her love for Red Lobster, no matter who’s birthday it was. She would bribe her younger brother to go on his birthday, and for her Grandmother’s birthday she always got her way because Grandma’s a lobster freak. I too love seafood, so I’m fairly easy. The only one she couldn’t work her magic on was her older sister, who hates fish.

I had basically perused the menu online and decided on the “endless soup and salad bowls”. That was bad enough since New England Clam Chowder is always my soup of choice. I had the salad first, which helped calm my appetite quite a bit, but who can resist the softest, most delicious, warm cheese biscuits they bring to the table? I have tried making these at home once, so I could control what ingredients went into them, thus controlling the points. They weren’t the same. I just had to have one, or maybe it was 2 (you know it was 2, LOL). The one thing I did do right was just have a little bit of leftover soup, probably a half cup, and a couple of shrimp for dinner. Not eating much last nite was probably the only reason I didn’t gain from yesterday. My first inclination was to not eat anything last nite, but I don’t need anything else slowing down my metabolism or making my body hoard what fat it has.

I was so good for Thanksgiving, so good for Christmas dinner, but I sure made up for it for my birthday! I think a part of that is a sense of ‘entitlement’ that I really should get over, but I’m ready now to bring in the new year. I’m looking over the “core” plan again to see if I can stick to it to give me a bit of a jumpstart, plus a couple of weeks ago they handed out a “quickstart” pamphlet that I haven’t even looked at. I’m scheduling my exercise, my posting, and working my ‘weightwatchers online tools’ for everyday. My motto shall be ‘Drop all this weight in 2008!” once and for all!