Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Have a Good Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  It's important to fuel your body up for the long day ahead.  You gas up your car before you head off on vacation right?  Same theory applies here, your body is about to embark on a long possibly stressful day so why not fuel it up before things get crazy?

This is a lifestyle change you have to get used to. Eating breakfast is part of the routine.

Remember how to start a lifestyle change?  If not: here's a reminder:

First and foremost you have to decide you want to change.  YOU HAVE TO WANT IT FOR YOURSELF.

Second you have to state your goal.  Make it simple. Something easy to do.

Third: Have an idea of how you plan to reach your goal.  No plan. No success.

Fourth: Keep on planning your "And then what" goal.  After I reach this goal using this plan what is my next step? How do I get there?  Once I get there, then what is my next step, my next goal, my next step?  It never stops until you stop.  Once you stop it's your game do you continue making yourself better, do you maintain? If you maintain them you go back to making plans of how you intend to maintain.  Or do you give up?

I'm still in the process of 'getting there.'

Part of your new healthy lifestyle should include diet. Especialy Breakfast.

I dont' do this exact routine/diet every day, week in, week out, sometimes you have to have a break from the low fat, low carb, low salt, low sugar, low everything else routine.  Not everything here is low calorie or low anything except on salt.  I try not to use salt at all. There's enough added salt in every day ingredients to more than make up for what I don't use here.

Upon rising:
 8-10 oz warm lemon water made with fresh squeezed lemon juice.  Why warm?  The warm water along with the lemon has a mild laxative effect. It's good for your arteries.  The vitamin C is good for your skin, and bones.  It's just plain good for you.  Concentrate lemon juice will wok, just go extremely easy on it as it tends to be stronger because it's concentrated.  The more concentrated the juice the harder it is on the enamel of your teeth and the lining of your stomach.  I usually use (1) 1/2 inch thick lemon slice lightly squeezed then dropped into the bottom of my cup and pour the warm water over it.  Let it sit for a minute then drink up.

You can have as much unsweet tea, coffee, or low calorie soy/almond milk, 0 Calorie lifewater as you like with your breakfast. Use stevia to sweeten things up if you need to.  No Diet sodas allowed.

Breakfast:  Choose one daily
1 cup steel cut oatmeal prepared according to directions (fiber)
2 tablespoons plain greek yogurt (protein)
1 tablespoon wheat germ (fiber)
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed (fiber/Omega's)
A handful (enough to cover your palm) of raw slice almonds (protein)
1 cup of sliced strawberries or blueberries

Mix gently and enjoy.  You can use stevia if you need a little sweet taste to your oatmeal

2 Eggs (protein/Omegas if you're using my favorite eggs)
2 tablespoons Herbed Feta cheese. (protein)
1tablespoon GrapeOla (Omegas)
6 torn up leaves fresh baby spinach
1/2 tofuyan everything bagel (only 50 calories and full of fiber!)

Heat grapeola in frying pan, whisk eggs, spinach and feta together pour into pan and scramble over heat til done the way you like 'em, enjoy on your bagel.

This next one is a favorite PMS solution of mine.
1 Tofuyan Plain Bagel
1 tablespoon Simply More Peanut Butter
2 Squares Lindt Chili Chocolate.

Spread pnut butter on each half of bagel.  One square of chocolate on each half of bagel.  Put in oven on broil for about 2 minutes or until chocolate is just on the melty but not burnt side.  There is nothing better than warm chocolate and Pnut butter with a carb fix on the day before or the first day of your period.  Sorry guys, us ladies just have to have something warm and gooey and chocolatey because if 'honey' ain't happy ain't nobody happy.

Quick Breakfast chocolate Fix #2

2 cups Chocolate Almod/Soy/Rice milk
1 cup Ice
1 cup frozen Blueberries or Strawberries
1/2 cup cold STRONG coffee (I have been known to freeze coffee in the ice tray for this. Use 4 coffee cubes for this recipe (more or less or not at all according to your taste)

Place ingredients in blender, on high until nice and smooth, enjoy!  There's usually enough for 2 servings so share or put leftovers in freezer to take for lunch or for a quick yummy snack.  Yopu can make this up in batches before hand and just grab it from the freezer on your way out the door. Give one to the hubby and or  kids too!

Everyone wins when they have breakfast.  You concentrate better.  You have a bit more energy.

Try it for week.  If you decide it's too much trouble, fine, go hungry or eat a donut.  See how you feel then =)

Have a great Tuesday!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

About that cake

I tried the cake recipe and I'll be honest.  It looked pretty, tasted NASTY!  There is no rescuing that particular recipe so I won't even suggest it or give the recipe.  It was that bad.  My advice?  Stick with organic and add the flaxseed, oats, and wheat germ yourself.

I spent the weekend simply observing my husband and his eating/exercise habits.  He worries me but I refuse to give in to the temptation to tell him the harsh words he told me even if I think he needs to hear them.  Only I wouldn't be harsh about it.  I'm not exactly that kind of person,but he worries me nonetheless.

My youngest son turned 13 on the 21st.  He's around 6ft 3 and weighs about 203 lbs. That's down from 225 pounds a few months ago.  He's watching me and everything I do.  He's been using my weights and actually pulled off 30 push ups on his last pft with the young marines.  I can't do 30.  Of course Grant, my 15 year old, showed off and did 65 push ups and did his very best to discourage Caleb's success, however, Caleb more than doubled his push ups over the last 6 weeks, Grant did not and that was pointed out to him.  I try to encourage competition and good eating habits for my sons but I want to discourage the trashing of their accomplishments.  That is the one thing I consider unfair, not the competition itself, but the goading that ensues.

School is out for the summer, technically.  They are more or less home schooled,well, co-operative educated, so school is never really out for them.  They have plenty of schoolwork to do this summer as well as Young Marines Camp in Pensacola, and possibly Junior Leadership school in July also with the Young Marines.  We have a lot of stuff to be repaired this summer so I think they'll be very occupied.

I have several friends who are having heart issues, I think it's largely weather related.  It's warmer outside so it's time to get active and get over that winter battle of the bulge but the battle has taken its toll on their hearts and now they're paying for it.

I do have suggestions for them, but this is the one instance where I insist that they talk to their doctors first because I don't want to tell them to do something that might interfere with medications or treatments in progress.

Diet: Oats, leafy greens, berries, salmon, boneless skinless chicken breast, all the fresh vegetables and fruits you can stand.  I dont' know about you, but I can stand a lot of fresh veggies and fruits!  If you absolutely must have pasta go with Shiratake Noodles, look for them at Trader Joe's or EarthFare or in the refrigerated organics section of your grocery store.  Same with bread.  If you have to have bread look for the Healthy Life brand.  WalMart Carries it. Make certain it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it.  I usually get the kind with added Omegas and ground flaxseed.

Eggs: be extremely careful here. Eggs are very good for you.  Find Organic, free range, Omega enriched eggs.  Just because it says free range doesn't mean they were outside their entire lives it may mean they were allowed to go outside for 5 minutes with 5000 other chickens so read the label very carefully.

Stay away from caffeine, sugar, ABSOLUTELY NO PASTA or BREAD (see the exceptions above)

Supplements: CoQ10 30mg to start, EPA/DHA180/320, Acai Berry 500mg, Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc/D-3, ALA, if you can't sleep at night Melatonin 3mg.

Exercise:  WALK. Not a fast walk or even a long one, something you can handle.  Take a friend with you.  Get one of those watches that has a built in heart rate monitor, it costs a bit more but may warn you when you arent' paying close enough attention to what you're doing.  If you need to walk alone to work things out in your mind then tell someone where you're going, what you're doing and when you expect to be back just so they know.  If they want to know why tell them the truth that you need to think and to work it out yourself maybe even think aloud without interference. You'd be amazed how much clearer things are when you say your thoughts out loud.  Sometimes I even sing out loud with my mp3  player.  I get odd looks but that's okay.

STRESS RELIEF:
I love blogging to get my troubled thoughts out of my head and in front of me where they're easier to deal with because I have them in some kind of jumbled order where they can be sorted according to importance.

Massage therapy: OMG!  If I could afford a massage every day I would be in the therapists office every single day!  My husband's idea of massage frustrates me, he's afraid if he presses too hard he'll hurt me. Sigh.

Shower or long hot bath, ALONE.  Tell the members of your family that the first person who knocks on your door while you're de-stressing will be the first person in the line of fire from your ensuing temper tantrum.  "If you knock on the door or interrupt me in any way shape form or fashion I will not be responsible for any violence that follows."  That threat has worked many a time for me.

De-stressing or comfort eating is not allowed.

Unless you want to try the cake recipe I did.  I'll promise you that after one taste of that nasty stuff you'll never comfort eat again!

Have a great Tuesday!

Friday, May 20, 2011

You Have To Want YOUR LIFE Back

Well, its that time of month.  I've gained my usual 5 pounds putting me back at 203.  Grrrr!  Interestingly enough, my clothes are loose?  Maybe some fo that weight gain is muslce mass because I do have some muscles that can be felt when I flex my arms and legs!

I'm going to experiment with a cake recipe that doesn't use any flour, eggs, oil, salt, or sugar.  Seriously!
The 'cake' is made from soy or whey protein instead of flour (add cocoa or carob powder if you want chocolate), stevia instead of sugar, plain greek yogurt, unsweetened applesauce, water, wheat germ, ground flaxseed, and oats,  It's frosting is made of lite coolwhip.  I'll take a picture and let you know what I think of it probably on Tuesday of next week.

I was watching some talk show today, The Doctors, I think, and there was a 700 pound woman on there who was bawling her eyes out because she had failed at losing weight adn the docotor was telling her how disappointed he was that she hadn't lost more than she had.

It irritated me.  She doesnt' want to lose the weight, not really.  It's her crutch.  It's her attention getting device.  It has made her famous, even if it's just 15 minutes of fame, it still got her on t.v. Why would she want to give all that up? 

You have to want your life back, as the doctor put it.  He's right.  You have to want it bad enough to change your habits, change what you eat, change the way you look at things.  She doesn't want it.  Not yet.  I think he knows that  or he wouldn't have told her he won't have her back until she has lost 100 pounds.  I think he should have set the goal higher.  She'll weigh 600 pounds.  I think with a proper diet and exercise routine she'll lose een more.  She's young.  She didn't appear to be too terribly unhealthy besides the big bunch of belly hanging over the sides of the sofa. I came in on the tail end of the interview so maybe I missed something. 

I set out to lose weight to show my husband that I wasn't third rate on a good day.  In the process I learned I really am not 3rd rate on a good day no matter how much I weigh, no matter how old I am.  It's my mind set and how much I'm willing to do to be a better person.  There's an uber sexy bikini calling my name in August.  The scale this morning startled me, but that's okay, I need to be startled.  You do too.

Do somethingto startle yourself.  Try on that bathing suit from last year or estimate what you think you weigh then step on the scale or keep a list of what you eat today, maybe all three, you'll be surprised one way or another.  Then decide what you're going to do about it.

 I"m going to a family reunion tomorrow so I won't be online til Monday, so have a FANTASTIC happy healthy weekend.  Seee ya Monday.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Interesting

I was reading Fast Track Detox by Anne Louise Gittleman and stumbled across something I think I'll do a little more research on.  The way your body uses food is determined by your blood type.  She made some very good points and observations and I'm intrigued by the idea that my blood type determines my metabolic rate. 

Since I'm very limited by time, I'll have to do it tomorrow.

Have a good and healthy Tuesday.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Good rainy Monday Morning

My computer is still down and likely out for the count.  So it's the library comp until I figure out a way to purchase a new computer.  I don't get how some people can just shrug then go out and buy a new computer.  My husband and I work our backsides off and still can't manage to cover anything more than basic needs, and that's iffy most of the time. 

That's all I have to say on that subject.  Frustration gets the better of me sometimes.

I am covered head to toe in poison ivy.  About the time I get one area of break out cleared up a new one crops up.  I think I'm in Poison Ivy HELL!

I'm a coupon-a-holic these days.  I'm learning the ropes, if you havent' scrolled back far enough into this blog, perhaps you should just to find some links to organics sites who offer coupons for their goods. 
Last week I took $77 off my grocery bill at Bi-Lo using coupons.  Then I went to Wal-Mart with my coupons that Bi-Lo wouldn't double and my freebie coupons,and I had several. my subtotal was $35 plus change before coupons, my total after coupons but before tax was $10 plus change.  This makes me very happy!

I have a new coupon source for you.  Mizkan.  Register for their Spalsh Recipe Club.  It's free.  They produce the cooking wines, vinegars, and other liquid flavorings that I use on this webpage.  I've received coupons for one of each of their product lines every couple of months and they aren't wimpy coupons either.  $1 off a $2-$3 product is nothing to sniff at.  I also have received recipe booklets from them.  You can never have too many recipes to try out.  Most of the recipes contain nutritional information such as calorie, sugar salt, and fat counts in the recipes.

I don't pay a lot of attention to any of the counts except salt because I am frequently shocked by the sodium content of every day food items we consume.  Take a look at the information labels on your foods, especially the diet foods, you'll be startled into looking at everything.  Become a label reader if for nothing other than self-defense.  You and your family are worth the extra 10 seconds it takes to look at what you are about to put in your mouth and theirs.

I'm off to order vitamins at Swanson Vitamins .  Hope everyone has a good for you, healthy day!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Shin Braces and stick-to-it'iveness

Shin splints officially suck!  It's going to take at least 6 weeks or more to get them healed up.  In the meantime I have a few choices for cardio (thankfully it's almost warm enough for one of them)  Swimming or power walking.  Power walking really? Is that a slow jog? a fast walk? What?  I think I'll opt for swimming.

I can purchase some kind of brace thing to wear while I walk until I've healed up.  How attractive will that me?  The brace fits from just below the knee to just above the ankle.  So much for being a fashionista on the running trail. Wonder if I can attach sequins to it????

I've graduated to the Intermediate Beginner Pilates stage.  The true beginners stage is too easy and boring to me so now I've moved on to Theresa Borgren's video series Pilastes for ANYBody and Yoga/Pilates for ANYBody.  and Jennifer Kries Pilates.  Good lord they kick butt!  I was worn out and thouroughly challenged about halfway through the first video.  So much so that I want to do it again!  Never thought I'd say that about wearing my self out with exercise!

I suppose that's when you know you're doing something good for yourself and enjoying it while youre at it.  That's what it's all about.  If you don't like what you're doing then you won't stick with it.  I'm a stick withit kind of girl or I would have given this up a long time ago.

Bikin body here I come!  Running or not =)

Ohhh I found my ultimate revenge bikini!

Thank you Nanas deals for hositng a contest for a chance to win an awesome bikini from Voda Swimwear..  I may order it even if I don't win it!

Best ultimate incentive to lose the rest of my weight. 

Go to Voda Swim Wear  click on shopping then styles then monokini.  Three pictures will pop up.  I am in love withthe Midnight Envy Bikini in the middle of them.  For soem reason I can't get the actual URL to paste into this webpage.

I'm thinking that middle piece will hide some of the stretch marks.  Pilates and Yoga will sculpt the rest of me while running will take off the middle rest of me.  =)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Two More Followers Please =) Minor updates.

Thirty eight followers of my little 'ol blog!  YAY!  I'd love to have 2 more!  Any takers?

I am frustrated at the moment as to where 10 pounds suddenly appeared from?  I only ate bad stuff 2 days last week.  I walked roughly10 miles between Thursday and Saturday afternoon last week 3 of those being the 5k race so what gives!?!?!?  I'm still walking up to 4 miles a day and this is the thanks I get.  Hmpf.

Part of it may be constipation.  I'm not sure what's up with that either?  2 waffles, just 2 last Thursday evening and I'm stopped up for a week really?  This is with ground flaxseed, lots of fruits and veggies, and 3 whole avacados added into my daily regimen over the last week.  Sigh.  Looks like M.O.M time, yuck!

We're pretty much recovered from mild tornado damage.  It mostly ripped the tops out of a few trees and toppled a tree at my mother in law's house.  Others weren't quite so lucky.  You're in my prayers.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Finding your breaking point

At what point do you decide that a job, no matter how long you've been with the company, isn't worth dying for?

At what point do you decide that stress at home isn't worth dying for?

At what point do you decide to turn that all around?  Tell stress and stress eating to go take a hike, better yet, join you on that hike?  Everyone needs a little exercise, right?  But where is your breaking point?

I was insulted into taking action.  I was hurt beyond words into taking action.  I decided enough was enough.  It was my life, my appearance, and my body.  No one and I do me NO ONE had the right to do and sya the things that were done and said.  No one had the right to push me so past my breaking point that I could do nothing more than let them?

Would the real Melissa please stand up, put the cookies down and stand up!

Where are you in your weightloss goal?  Have you found your breaking point yet?

Are you pre-diabetic? Ladies, are your hormones out of control?  Can you sleep at night without medicating?  Are you stress eating?  Are people commenting on how much weight you've gained?  Making fun of you yet?  Heart attack?  Stroke? Diabetic? hiding out and eating? Do you still have some pride and self esteem left?

What do you plan to do about it?

Getting outside helped me immensely.  Wide open space with room to roam and run (I do love to run), sunny beaches, quiet lakes, walking trails...You have time to let your thoughts wander, to play out scenarios in your head to help you deal with life's stressful moments, perhaps even figure them out or at least how to deal with them.  But you have to make that time.  Take a walk on your lunch break, take your sheos and a change of clothes if you have to.  I've been known to wear my walking clothes under my work clothes.  The key is in moving, fresh air and sunshine.  Deliberately leave your cellphone in your car.  There's no point in trying to relax if the office is calling you repeatedly while you're out. Break means that, break, time to yourself and time to say (to yourself anyway) go soak your head in a bucket!

I keep a stress ball in my car to carry with me while I walk, poor ball.  It gets squished a lot.  But it helps when my hands are swelling up from all the walking I've done.

Once you've found your breaking point, what do you intend to do about it?  always always have a plan.  Write it down, it isn't in stone so it's flexible, changeable, re-workable, but at least have a good idea of what you intend to do then how you plan to get there and have a 'then what' plan. What is a 'then what?' plan?

Let me explain it like this.  My son caleb has always annoyed the living hell  snail snot out of me with the following conversation "Mom what you're plan for the day?" Insert my reply to which he nods and asks "And Then what?"  It's an endless vicious cycle.  He keeps asking 'and then what' until I finally say out of frustration "I don't know...I haven't planned that far ahead?"  And most annoying of all after that he'll ask "Why not?"

So that's the 'then what' plan.  You keep planning far enough ahead so that you have good long range idea fo what you want to do and where you want to go.  Then you plan some more.

Once you hit your breaking point, and you will eventually get there, Give 'and then what' a try for a day or two.  It's worth it.