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 don’t care what we are doing to lose weight, you have to admit that we all still keep looking for that “something magic” that will make it disappear faster and easier. I for one cannot help but notice the ads, etc. even when I know most of them are bunk, and some I even go for.

I ran across a magazine while in line at the grocery store a couple of days ago, (exactly why they put them there), and the main story on the front was “Walk Off 96% More Fat” “Lose 43 lbs. by Memorial Day”. This is the walking plan used by Kim, the fitness guru from the “Biggest Loser”. I have tried just about everything when it comes to exercise, but I really didn’t have a workout plan, so I end up not doing much. This has a definate 3wk plan, and it includes weight or circuit training, so I am giving it a shot. After the first day of walking 30 min. with “steam engines” in between, I could definately feel it where I was supposed to the next day. Here’s hoping this is one I can stick to, at least for the 3wks. and then decide what to do from there.

My next “new thing” is, I am not one for “cleanses” even tho I am so toxic I could be the next waste dump. I smoke (damn it), I drink a bit of wine, I have mercury in my teeth, and I’m obese. There’s probably more, these are just off the top of my head. I could never stand the thought of going without food for 2 days, having only water or fruitjuice or whatever liquid. I also didn’t like the idea that when my body flushed all these toxins, more than likely it would be at a very inopportune time when I was miles from the nearest bathroom, so I just didn’t really consider it.

Lately I have been reading so much about the benefits of hydrogen peroxide. It does everything! From killing mold and mildew in my shower, to killing all the bacteria in my kitchen, to lightening my hair, it does it all plus some. What I’ve been reading more of lately is the benefits of ingesting it. They make a food grade hydrogen peroxide which when heavily diluted, adds oxygen to your bloodstream, cleanses out toxins, and returns your whole system to a ph balance. (Disclaimer: This is not to be misconstrued as medical advice. Speak to your personal physician before doing anything).

I have been taking it for 3 days now, starting at 3 drops 3 times a day and building up 1 drop every time each day from there. Today is my 3rd day, I’m up to 6 drops in 5 ozs. of water 3 times a day, and already I am sleeping better and my joints aren’t nearly as sore as they have been. This whole thing ends up being quite a process, but if I’m seeing results already, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll have to let you know how it goes as I progress, but I am very concious of when I eat due to how you have to space this out between food, which has also made me more concious of what I eat.

I think 2 new things are enough for one day. LOL.

Anyone see the “World News With Katie Couric” night before last? Yep, tore apart another widely held belief in our self-help healthcare. I’m talking about the fact that we really don’t need 8- 8oz glasses of water a day after all. This news spread almost as fast as “Mammograms Don’t Save Women’s Lives”.  What’s funny is one of the newsletters I get from a doctor who believes regular medicine is just for getting regular doctors more money, and regular doctors say he’s a Quack, has been saying this for ages. He too, says it’s really only neccessary to drink when you’re thirsty, or doing some kind of exercise where you are excreting water. He also says you can tell if you’re getting enough by the color of your urine.

The thing we need to remember, those of us on the weightloss trail, is that we don’t drink water just for hydration. We drink it to help flush the fat from our bodies. Obviously that wouldn’t work if we didn’t drink. Water like many other things, is a tool for us to use.

The other thing I wanted to bring up is the “Sutter Health TV” website. They had an excellent special on the other night about Women’s Health that I thought was excellent. They are a great resource, but I was especially interested because it had a lot of interesting info concerning exercise for women in their 20’s thru 60’s. Which kinds of exercise were most important based on age, etc. If you’re interested at all, you can visit their site at http://www.sutterhealthtv.com.

Have a great weekend everybody!

#1. I am so happy! I have always loved english muffins, and on Weight Watchers, they are definitely an alternative bread choice, but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice 2pts. where I could have 2 pieces of light bread toast for 1pt. I don’t know how long they’ve been out, but now Thomas’s (the english muffin people) have come out with a “light” english muffin. It’s terrific! Each muffin is 100 calories, only 1 gm of fat, and 8gm. of fiber. On the WeightWatchers point scale, that is only 1. Not only that, but evidently at one time they used high fructose corn-syrup, which they don’t do anymore. It just brought back a little bit of deliciousness for me. (It’s amazing how excited you can get about something so little, aye?).

The other thing I wanted to talk about is putting lemon in your water when you’re out. I think this is an old dieting trick for adding a little bit of acid hoping to burn just a few more calories. After watching this, I will never do that again!

If I was writing a newspaper article in a “good news” paper, that would be my headline. I am getting so much more concious of my need for exercise, that rather than driving home from the bar (yeah, a saloon), I walked.

The other day I needed to stop by the neighborhood bar to see the owner, who is a friend of mine. Since I was in the bar business for the last 10 yrs. most my more recent friends are bar people. The bartender on duty was the same one who has been there working days for at least the last 15 yrs. and we’ve always been pretty good friends. I hadn’t had much to eat and the first drink he poured was pretty strong. (Skyy vodka and water= 2pts). The second one I had to be polite because I had cashed a check (good an excuse as any) and told him to pour it light. It was still pretty good. My friend that I was there to talk to came in while I was having that drink, so I stuck around for another. By the time I was ready to go (3 drinks= 6pts.) I could really feel them. What a sissy since I don’t drink much anymore!  Instead of getting behind the wheel of my car, (last thing I need right now is a DUI) or calling someone to come get me, I decided to use that opportunity to get my exercise in for the day. It’s probably a mile to a mile and a half from home. I sped up, slowed down, sped up, slowed down, trying to make the most out of what I was doing. It was great! I felt better when I got home, I stopped and saw a neighbor that lives just a couple of doors down that I hadn’t seen in awhile, and managed to get some worthwhile cardio in. Plus I was carrying a carton of cigs, a 32oz. bottle of water, and my purse, so essentially I was walking with weight. LOL.

Gotta take advantage of opportunities when they strike!

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!

After writing the post on the “9 Reasons To Start A Fitness Plan”, it actually did motivate me to start using some of the equipment in my “kitchen gym”. I have discovered 2 new things.

1) I need to do my exercise as soon as I get up in the morning (well, after 2 cups of coffee and 2 cigs. I don’t advocate the cigs). When I think back on when I was so successful walking every day, that was the routine. I had a walking buddy and I would either try to wake up early enough to get in the coffee, or if I was late I just woke up, got clothes on and we left. Yesterday and this morning that is my routine. Already today I was ready to flake on myself, but with the exercise equipment right there, I have no more excuses. No matter what time I get up (I get up at 0 dark 30, much too dangerous for walking by myself) I can exercise. I also found myself exercising for a fast 10 minutes last nite while baking biscuits for dinner. While I realize not everyone has a huge kitchen (kitchen, dining room combined) if you get imaginative enough, it’s amazing what you might come up with. My stepper and ball fit easily under the dining room table out of sight and out of the way. My abdoer is placed like a chair at the kitchen table. My weights, exercise bands, and bars sit on the window sill around the dining area where they are easily accessible. The only thing I have left is to bring the exercise bike in and I will be ready for circuit training! Obviously, if I’m having a formal dinner I wouldn’t want that stuff sitting all over the window sills, but this way I can gather it all up in just a few minutes and put it out of sight. In the meantime, I have it ready to go any time I am in the kitchen. According to the exercise gurus, exercising 10 to 15 min. at a time, 3 times a day can be just as effective as working out for 30 min. straight. This works well for me right now as I have been pretty sedentary for several months now.

2). The other thing brought to the forefront of my consciousness this morning as I was roaming thru blogs and message boards is the fact that when we drink water, we should be drinking ice water. I’m not sure if I knew this or not. I do remember reading about drinking ice water when you first get up in the morning, but never gave it much thought after that. Every one just harps on how important it is to have the water. If you make it ice water it works even harder for you as it takes extra calories for your body to warm the water to your inside body temperature. While this is a very small change, when you figure you’re drinking 8 to 10 cups a day, it could add up. Anything I can do that’s this relatively easy to squeeze burning even a few more calories out of every day is a ”do” for me! 

I weighed in yesterday, but it wasn’t good. Oh, I went down, but not much for as good as I’ve been.  I know a lot of it is lack of exercise, but I’m not eating anything like I used to, and, I was so good all last week. It’s so frustrating! I’m thinking our bodies change all the time and maybe I need a change in diet. I really am thinking about switching to core, just to shake things up a bit. It is kind of nice to have a definite list of what you can eat and if it’s not on the list, don’t eat it. I just worry about doing that this time of year as the flex points gives me a way to have unusual things over the holidays.

Thanks to Hueyea for mentioning the satisfaction “sigh”. I had never heard that before and then they mentioned it in the meeting yesterday. Last night was the first time I had paid attention to it, and I quit eating right then (which is supposed to be the idea).

I really thought once I reached menopause, losing weight would actually be a little easier because of not dealing with water weight, etc. anymore. I didn’t realize while I sing praises for that, everything else has slowed down. My exercise, metabolism, etc. It really  isn’t fair!

For a little longer I will probably stay on flex, work harder on exercise and my water. I have decided to do a little more research on women postmenopausal to get more of an idea how things work. Just a word of advice to you younger ladies, it’s good you’re working on it now. Get rid of it young and keep it off while it is so much better insurance for your old age, and while it’s still relatively easier than later. (Altho it’s never easy. I’ve dieted all my life, I understand)

I didn’t gain any weight over the weekend (Thurs-Sun) but I haven’t lost either. I’ve been playing around with this one pound. What that says to me is I am not paying as much attention to my point-count as I should be. It’s very easy to slide back into old habits. Being an ‘older woman’ who’s natural inclination is to gain weight by osmosis, I have to be especially vigilant about watching how many points are in what, and making myself move, as in exercise. I have been also sloppy about my water intake, which we all know how important that is. I am making a point of filling my WW mug now when I go out (instead of drinking a small bottle of water) hoping that will help. I’ve done real well on not drinking sodas, but it’s like I went from sodas to some water to nothing.

One way I plan on getting my water tonite is by adding it to vodka. I know, I know, alcohol doesn’t help lose weight. It’s approx. 2pts. a cocktail so I will be drinking approx. 10 of my points tonite to avoid the terrible pain associated with my Dolphins getting anialated by the Pittsburg Steelers on Monday Nite football. Have a good day all. LOL

Not too much to say this AM. Always keeping my eye open for new tricks to losing weight. One I do naturally, but don’t know how much it has helped. They say, if upon waking you drink ice cold water, your body burns extra calories trying to bring that water up to your body temp. I personally sleep with a huge cup of water on my nitestand, so I’m hoping this trick works a few times a nite! LOL. By the time I wake in the morning, I have usually drank a 32 oz. glass of water thru the nite. It gives me 1) a little extra exercise getting up and down to go to the bathroom 2) burns calories because I use ice, so it’s cold all nite long 3) I have a headstart on the day to drink my 8 glasses of water.

I don’t neccessarily advocate drinking a lot of water thru the nite due to the fact that you are up and down a lot, which is not very restfull, but I am up and down anyway, so I might as well take advantage of it. LOL.