I knew I hadn’t been on here in awhile, but I hadn’t realized how long. Everytime I get involved with a new project it’s like I have tunnel-vision until I get it down. Unfortunately some projects take longer and more efforts than others. LOL.

It never ceases to amaze me how the medical community at just the drop of a hat, can turn everything you learned upside down. Of course everything we’ve learned is from the last time they turned things upside down! It’s sort of like nursing a baby. They have flip-flopped on that subject so many times, it’s no wonder new mothers don’t know which way to go.

The latest craze in exercise seems to be interval training. You can see how easily accepted it has been by just seeing how “Curves” took off. To me it makes a lot of sense, plus I’m into anything that purposes to work faster with less effort. Since coming across the “Couch to 5k” workout, I’ve been doing a little more research on some of this stuff. I’m reading an ebook right now from a doctor that came up with a workout that has the same basic idea. He says what the medical community is teaching about cardio is actually detrimental to our heart and lungs. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but a lot of doctors are proposing that we actually need 60 minutes now of cardio vs. 30 min. that it has advised for years. According to this doctor all that is doing is putting undo stress on our hearts and lungs. When he gives examples of people in perfectly good health keeling over after a long run, it makes his argument a little more plausible.

Another new finding is that our muscles actually need lactic acid. For so many years we were taught to work out under our “lactic threshold”. Now it turns out our muscles actually need to produce more lactic acid as we work out because our muscles use it for fuel. I don’t know how much of the Olympics you’ve been watching, but I like everyone else have been watching all the info coming out about Mark Phelps. One of the things I thought was interesting is they prick his earlobe to test for lactic acid after each one of his swims. They do that supposedly to tell how fatigued he is. What they’re having a hard time understanding is why his levels are lower than most athletes. It would make sense if his muscles are using the lactic acid in his muscle to fuel and energize him, that they would be depleted after a competition.

So, because it makes sense to me, because for me it seems to work fast, I will probably stick to this interval training for awhile. It also seems to provide for a longer “afterburn”. I know walking alone for me went rather slow and now that I’m heavier than I was before, I need to start out easy in whatever I do.

Brain Fitness

Somehow, starting Saturday morning while I was working at my computer, I got stuck on PBS television. The woman who was presenting caught my attention because she was talking about menopause and life after. For as intelligent as I feel I am when it comes to health and wellness issues, this is one area I know hardly anything about. Oh I know the typical stuff that every woman knows (myths and all), but I really don’t know too much about the physiology of it all. Having gone through menopause, I knew what worked for me, but the information I put to use on my own body was more accidental than scientific. She gave a lot of helpful information, a lot of warm fuzzies regarding menopause, and what I thought to be a little “way out there” stuff. One of the things that especially caught my attention was what she had to say about weightloss and exercise. It was all stuff I had sort of figured out for myself the hard way, but it was encouraging to have an authority figure back what I generally thought.

Right after her was Dr. Roizen, Oprah Winfrey’s new guru of medicine. As definitely “geeky” as this guy seems to be, I do feel like he truly loves medicine and has a lot of cutting edge info. He also has a pretty good sense of humor which makes the dry subject of health a little more enjoyable. He is really good about suggesting a lot of things can be fixed by diet and exercise. Since I don’t trust doctors at all when it comes to pills, I am glad to see this.

Between these two, I had learned a couple of good effects exercise has on us that I didn’t realize, and then came the icing on the cake. A brain doctor who believes you can “change your brain and change your life”. Most of the stuff I had ever heard was that as we age our brain cell productivity is pretty much non-existent. The best we could hope for was to just keep what we have from dieing out. According to him and the latest findings with all the new technology we have, growing our brain cells and exercising our brain is a never ending process.

I thought all I had to do to protect myself from Alzheimer’s and Dementia was to keep learning new things. I never realized what a profound effect physical exercise (or the lack there of) had on our brain activity. It was phenomenal to see the examples he had. This was enough to make me sit up and take notice. I am one of those that is always going to start my exercise program “tomorrow”.

On top of that I went shopping that nite and there in the middle at the back of my grocery store was a self help blood pressure machine. For some reason I had been wondering about my blood pressure the last few days and was actually looking for my BF’s home monitor, but hadn’t found it yet. I sat down and let the machine do it’s thing. My blood pressure has risen soooo much between the weight I’ve gained and the sedentary lifestyle that I’ve been leading for the last year, I took it twice because I couldn’t believe the numbers! My blood pressure was always around 110/64 which is excellent for my age. Now I’m walking around like a stroke waiting to happen.

Needless to say “tomorrow” has arrived and given me a swift kick in the butt. I started my exercise program Sat. nite while cooking dinner, with weight training. Yesterday I did the “couch to 5K” training in the morning, and weight training last nite. I can already feel the difference in my body. If I get to the point of needing new motivation, I’ll be looking for reruns on PBS or YouTube. LOL.

Have I told you I have practically a whole home gym set up in my kitchen made from all the exercise equipment I’ve gathered over the years? Have I told you about the great Pilates program I bought that I’ve never seen the videos for, or taken the bands out of their original wrappers? Of course all this stuff works just like they say it does on TV. Problem is you have to use it! Unfortunately there is always one reason or another for not using my exercise equipment.

1. I don’t have a routine to follow
2. I don’t have the room
3. I don’t have a VHS/DVD hooked up to the TV in the kitchen for routines

And the list of excuses goes on and on. I found the site “From Couch to 5k” which is a great way to start walking/jogging. Easy start for a sedentary person like me. I’ve done it twice since finding the site right after the AIDS WALK and I was so sore I couldn’t lift my feet. Haven’t been back since.

But now I think I’ve found my magic “exercise” bullet. I have known about Kettlebells for sometime now, but was not that impressed. They didn’t seem much better than “freeweights” and they can be pretty expensive. The other day while skipping thru channels, I fell upon an infomercial for Michelle Khai and “Kettlnetics“. It looks so fluid, fun and possible, I almost bit. “But wait, there’s more. We’ll pay your first pmt of $29.95 making all this available to you if you call right now (credit card in hand) for just 2 pmts. of $29.95 each.”

They almost had me. It looked like an exercise I might finally stick with and do. I caught myself just in time. Looking at the clips of her routine I got to thinking. I should be able to do that with my “freeweights” and try it out before spending one more dime on exercise stuff I don’t use. I still have to come up with some music (currently on CMT) and make up a routine, but I have the basics down I think. I’ll let you know if it works. God knows I need to do something to get this body going. Diet alone just isn’t cutting it!

UPDATE: I thought I would put up a picture of my weights so you can see why I thought I might be able to do this. They are really pretty easy to handle.

I found a really neat site yesterday while screwing around with something else and I just love it! We all know how important it is to set goals, whether it be weightloss, life or whatever. The only problem with that is once I write them down, they’re kinda like resolutions. They’re there, but I don’t really revisit them as often as I should.  This site has fixed that for me. It’s called “My Visionboard” and it is soooo cool.

You can upload your picture, which goes in the middle, and then you pick pictures and write your goals on “petals” that go around your picture. It looks like a flower when you get done, with you in the middle. You can set goals in either every area of your life, or just for weightloss. You can change it any time you want. You can make a screensaver out of it, which I did, so your goals are in front of you every day (it’s really nice). You can print it out and post around you house, and you can email it if you want to share with loved ones or friends. It does cost $29 a yr. (about 8 cents a day) but they have a 14 day free trial, so you can try it out first and see what you think.

I think the site is well worth it. If you take  a look, let me know what you think. Have fun!

Am I the only one who feels 18 years old on the inside while being old on the outside? Or am I the only one dumb enough to act on it? LOL.

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Aids walk was in San Francisco yesterday. My oldest daughter Tania has raised donations and walked in it for the last 11 yrs. Trust me, raising money for this still very controversial issue is not easy. (It’s not too late to donate https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=268684&lis=1&kntae268684=631A181295BC445B81869726D87167E4&supId=809591 )

Every year she usually manages to get someone to walk with her. I forgot all about it being yesterday and when she called yesterday morning I could tell she was calling from the car, but I thought she was on her way to work. She mentioned the Aids Walk and that she was walking alone. I very stupidly say “Why didn’t you tell me? I tell you every year I would walk with you.”

Next thing I hear is “Great. I’m only in Salinas right now. I’ll swing by and pick you up!” I could not get out the excuses fast enough. Next thing I know she’s here.

Now, I have not been working in the bar or getting any other kind of exercise for over a year (which explains why my ass has grown to twice it’s normal size) and I think I am going to go walk this 10k’er. (Six miles). I must have either still been high from the couple of glasses of wine the night before or traveling under the terrible misconception that I was still in decent shape. LOL.

I made it 4 miles. I might have made it the whole six, but Tania led me to believe we only had  about a mile to go when the sideline cheerleaders hollared out there was still 2.2. That was it. My feet and legs rebelled and would not move another inch until there was a shuttlebus in sight. Thank God they have those for those of us who would otherwise have to be carried out of Golden Gate Park. By the time I was home for an hour, I could not hardly move. You would have thought I was 190. Talk about a reality check. I didn’t have any business doing a “k” anything!

So, in preparation for next year, today is kicking off my “couch to 5k exercise program”. It’s a great training program online for the San Jose 5k they have in October. As long as I got a kick start yesterday, I might as well keep it up. After all, at least I lived long enough to talk about it! (wasn’t expected. LOL)

It’s so nice this time of year when there are so many good things to choose from! I do my part to buy local (easy with Farmer’s Markets everywhere). I do my part to cut down on …

Sorry, I just got sidetracked by “The View”. I usually just ignore the TV as noise in the background, but this morning was a “Cheesecake Throwdown” where Joy baked her Aunt Rose’s (shouldn’t everyone have an Aunt Rose?) recipe, and Bobby from “The Next Great FoodNetwork Chef” baked his favorite recipe. Oh my gosh, only God himself knows how much I truly love cheesecake, so naturally it caught my attention.  I really need to come up with a good lowfat cheesecake recipe I can put under all these fresh blueberries and strawberries that are in season now!

Anyway, as I was saying. This season helps me wear so many different hats to be the “good girl” for a change. (A little old to be “girl” anything, but you get my drift). I’m environmentally more friendly as I cook more fresh food instead of processed and packaged. I’m a better “dieter” because I find it easier to find so many fresh fresh fruits and veggies to snack on instead of just grabbing something out of the cupboard. I’m doing more for my good health because it’s so easy and doesn’t require a lot of work.

How’s that for a summary of why summer foods are great?!

Just a few other quick tips as reminders.

Don’t forget to journal or track your food. I just read a new study out about how people who track the food they eat actually lose twice the weight of those who don’t just by doing that one thing. (I think we all know that if you’ve dieted for any length of time, but a reminder never hurts).

If you’re looking for motivation, just look around you. It’s easy to see what we don’t want to look like. Just kidding (partly). Really tho, take a look at the message boards on WeightWatchers.com, ediets.com, and SparkPeople.com. They are very encouraging and it does help to be in the middle of a group of people going thru the same struggles we do and know you have company.

That’s about it for the pep talk from me today. Just writing about this has almost given me enough motivation to exercise! LOL

When I go to the grocery store, I can’t hardly help but walk thru the bakery. One store I go to actually has it set up where you can’t hardly avoid it. (Obviously that’s not the “good habit” part. LOL). I do this even tho I know it’s rather masochistic, sort of a self-torture-type activity.  The part I pat myself on the back for and is a good habit is that I never buy anything out of there. I used to buy the Jalapeno Cheese Bread, but I usually just grab a hunk out of it when it’s fresh and throw the rest away. I have finally resolved to myself that that’s rather a stupid waste of money, so I don’t do it any more.

The reason I manage to be able to do this is that if there is really anything I want that bad, I just tell myself I can make it at home for about half the calories and fat that they have in the bakery. If I make it at home I can control what goes into it. Such was the case for the Coconut Cream Pie I’ve been wanting for a couple of weeks or more. I bought a reduced fat grahm cracker crust, the sugar free, fat free instant pudding, use skim milk, and voila, the easiest, tastiest, lowfat cream pie that would rival any bakery. A dollop of fatfree CoolWhip and I was in hog heaven. LOL.

Yes I still have to do portion control, but I don’t have to feel so guilty. When I make brownies, I use eggbeaters and SheddSpread for the oil. This cuts the fat from 28 grams of fat to 10, just in the oil! For 1/2 cup of eggbeaters it’s 105 calories and 4 grams of fat vs. 2 whole eggs which is 148 calories and 10 grams of fat. When I make quiche I use eggbeaters, fatfree Land O’ Lakes half and half and 2% cheese. I use these tricks when I make my pumpkin and pecan pies for the holidays and they come out delicious! No one can tell the difference. There isn’t much I haven’t been able to substitute that hasn’t worked and hasn’t cut a substantial amount of calories and fat, and I can still have what I want.

I’m still working on my cheesecake tho. The fatfree, sugarfree instant pudding didn’t quite cut it for me there. I think I’m going to have to break down and just try doing a regular cheesecake with the fatfree creamcheese and what other substitutions I can make. If anyone has a good recipe, I’d love you to post it in the comments. I’m sure I’m not the only one to miss this one when you’re trying to watch your weight. LOL

I know I’m a spoiled brat because for the most part the weather here in California is just beautiful. This week we are going thru a hot spell…again. Trust me, for the most part fat old ladies and really hot weather are not a good combo. LOL. Thank goodness for the time of year when fresh fruit is plentiful. I’ve been cutting up honeydew, watermelon, blueberries and strawberries in kind of a fruit salad and keeping it in the fridge. I love it so much mixed in my yogurt in the morning, wrapped in fat free Cool Whip in the afternoon. I just keep forgetting to add the banana. I don’t want to do them in advance in the fruitsalad because they turn a little dark, then my kids won’t eat it. So now the bananas are turning black on the kitchen table and I’m looking for lowfat banana bread, etc. recipes.

During the hotspell, I do everything I have to do in the morning. I don’t like to cook and heat up the kitchen more in the evening, so this works out pretty good. This morning on Rachel Ray, there was a lady that made a pledge to cook in a crockpot every day for a year, so she now has 365 recipes for the crockpot. That is one way I am willing to cook in the heat since it doesn’t really throw any heat off.  If you love crockpots the way I do visit her at A Year of Crockpotting.

I also don’t see why in this weather, one cannot have a banana split for dinner. I use fatfree, no sugar added Dreyers vanilla ice cream, 2 scoops. On one of the scoops on top of the banana I use Light Hershey’s syrup, and fresh fruit, blended, on the other. It’s refreshing, not fattening, and hey, I get dessert when usually I only get dinner. LOL.

What I’ve been wanting to try is one of these “cold soups”, but I’m chicken. So if anybody has a recipe for one and you’ve made it and like it, please let me know. I think part of the reason I haven’t tried them is I don’t know what to expect. I can find a recipe, but no one is there to give me a little “inside info”.

I hope everyone’s having a great summer. I know for us, it’s definitely here.

I hope everybody had a pleasant 4th and didn’t have too much trouble sticking to whatever eating program you’re on. My new thing is I came upon a “subliminal programming” tape I’ve had for forever. It’s very interesting because it changes my self talk. I know this kind of thing works as years ago when my mother and I would go shopping, if I walked too close to a candy store or donut shop etc., she used to say “fat, fat, fat”.

It got where I would hear her in my head even when she was no where around. The problem is that thru the years, that voice has turned into barely a whisper. I turn the tape on in the kitchen while I’m cooking dinner. It lasts about 15 min. a side, and I can already tell it’s taking affect. When I walk into the bakery at the grocery store, I hear “I only like health giving foods. I eat only fruits, vegetables, lean meat, and whole grains. I abhor junk food. I turn away sugary and salty snacks.”  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Now for a little fun item for today. The other day I was blogging and mentioned how what I needed was a pasta diet. Like I said “be careful what you wish for”. This is what I found in my email box this morning.

go after the obese. I’ve always said once they started putting heavy taxes on cigarettes trying to get smokers to quit, the next thing they would do is tax fattening food (snack foods specifically) to get people to eat less. It’s always cracked me up looking at the “big picture” when it comes to cigarettes because once everyone quits, they’ll and they are losing a lot of revenue. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot. LOL.

Well, so far at least in the grocery stores, the taxes on snackfoods hasn’t happened yet, at least not in California. I still say it’s only a matter of time. What really caught my attention this morning was an article about a new law in Japan that went into effect a couple of months ago.

According to an article posted on ediets.com, “Companies and local governments must measure the waists of Japanese citizens between the ages of 40 and 74 (about 44 percent of the population of Japan, or 56 million people).

If people are over the prescribed waist size — 33.5 inches for men, 35.4 for women — then they are given dietary guidance first and “re-education” after six months if the dietary guidance isn’t effective. If companies fail to have their employees meet these new weight guidelines they could face huge fines.”

Boy, talk about “big brother” taking over! Oh my gosh, and if it ends up working in Japan don’t you think they’ll be looking at something similar here? They may not be able to pull out a measuring tape, but they probably could say something like “You’re above the weight limit for your height” or “You’re too round for our health policies here”.
 

I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. Where does it stop? Is the law against discrimination going to have to say no discriminating against “fat people” as well as race, creed, color, age, or religion? I don’t know, smokers are discriminated against and that just keeps getting worse. Looks like I’m a double whammy. I smoke and I’m fat! LOL.