A Time For Everything

Last Wednesday I talked about fasting and the number of calories in a pound and what that meant to me...

So here we are a week later and despite two very calorie and carb-laden days (Sat & Sun), I have dropped 2-ish pounds. I promise I'm being safe in my choices. I'm eating enough calories for my body to exist and then some--did you know it takes everyone 1200 to 1600 calories a day just for basic body functions to keep you alive??--and drinking *plenty* of water during these dog days of summer.

What I did do was increase the length of time I go without eating. I've been waiting to 11 am to consume my first meal of the day to maximize my body's fat-burning mode. I do give it some easily accessible carbs right after going to the gym for a recovery boost in the form of my cinnamon/honey elixir I take for arthritis.

It's not always fun or easy waiting until 11 and, starting tomorrow, I will go back to a more normal schedule. I'd been in a pretty static eating mode and I think the increased fasting shook my body up a little bit. Made it adjust and pay attention.

I'm getting closer to my goal, which, after probably three years of being stuck with ten pounds to go, pleases me greatly. Once I get there, then it's muscle-building time. Not super huge ones, just nicely rounded muscles appropriate for my age.

Happy Hump Day...

Catch you Friday.

Last Saturday was writers group. The official meeting is at one restaurant and our critique group confab takes place at another. The first place jacked up their prices and I refused to order anything. And I resisted the chips and salsa.

By the time, we arrived at the second place, I was very very hungry...

The temptation to order something sweet and delicious and fast was very great...


The Dr. Pepper Cake and ice cream was really calling my name. But I resisted and settled for something not as healthy as I should have had, but certainly not the very worst thing either.

A burger! Granted it came on a bun and with fries, but it also had avocado on it.


Weight-wise I'm doing okay...I'm up a normal and acceptable amount considering I did really bad on Friday and ate fast food for lunch. And drank a very large soda!

With the work week, comes the regular healthy snacks and meals and my regular exercise, so I'm happy with where I'm at right now. Whew!

Let the temptation begin!

I'll be spending the whole day with my writer friends, but that also means being tantalized by the delicious smells of the two restaurants we hang out at.

Wish me luck at resisting the really bad things...

Hope your weekend will be just as fun but without the temptations. :)

And happy birthday to my mother-in-law!

Some time in January, I talked about buying better quality meat. I didn't follow through at the time, but a few weeks ago, I was caught with my office door unlocked and in came the guy from Grillmasters. They have a base of operations here in the business park.

So long story short, I bought meat from them. It'll take me five or six weeks of short-buying my weekly groceries to pay for it. I'm three weeks in. Not terribly awful and the meat should last for four to six months--supposedly. We'll see.  And I do still have some cheap meat products floating around my freezer.

The steaks are all delicious. The burger patties, not so great. The one variety of chicken we've tried I wasn't impressed with. The sausage was pretty good. And we haven't tried any of the other pork items.

But these are all premium cuts and while that's not a bad thing, I don't really need premium cuts for all of my meat needs.

I don't think I'm going to go with Grillmasters again. I think next time or perhaps when I need other things, like stew meat or ground beef, I'm gonna try the meat market.

If only I could everyone to eat more vegetarian fare, like veggie soup rather than needing to always put beef or chicken it.

Well, maybe once the kids are all gone, which might not be as far in the future as I once thought, I'll convince DH.

If you've got an easy recipe to share, meat based or not, I'd love to try something new!

One of my favorite morning snacks for quite some time now has been a fiber bar in a coconut almond flavor (I could pretend it was an Almond Joy!).

A few months ago, it was brought to my attention that most kinds of "bars," granola and otherwise have a certain chemical that is not very good for you. Don't ask me what it is. I can't remember what it is except that it starts with an M. So I've been considering giving up those fiber bars since I came across that info. Aside from that M chemical, they have all kinds of other things that can't be that great for you either, right?

I just haven't known what to replace it with.

The other day, I was reading one of my latest free reads, How to Kick Your Fat in the Nuts by T.C. (Tony) Hale and something he said sorta hit me upside the head. He was talking about counting calories and he said, "...try eating 2200 calories per day of just chicken, eggs and green vegetables for two weeks.  For the following two weeks, try eating 2200 calories per day of Twix bars and let me know which two week period you had better weight loss results."

And I thought, "Huh."

I mean that makes a lot of sense to me.

But what could I replace my fiber bars with for the same or fewer calories? On the other hand, if you're eating real food, you could probably consume a few extra calories without too much harm. Well, I glean that from the quote above and some of Tony's other comments. What do you think?

Although, healthier and natural and real, I was leery of more fruit. I already eat a banana every day and I put honey on my oatmeal every morning, and sugar is one of those things I try to consume less rather than more of.

Well, when I was at the grocery store Sunday morning, I was perusing the produce and saw a bag of celery.

Now there's a great snack as it seems like you can burn more calories in the act of eating it than you do once you've digested it. And think about all that lovely roughage. Something else we could all use a little more of.

Of course, you can't eat celery plain, but salad dressings--specifically ranch dressings--are also full of that M chemical. But what other tasty treat is synonymous with celery?

That's right--peanut butter!


While my new snack has over twice as many calories (yikes), my quick research says that peanut butter is really very very good for you. It's low in sugar, high in fiber, and insanely high in monounsaturated fats which reduce the risk of diabetes, among other things.

So I'm going to give a try for a week or two and see how things go. And maybe, just maybe, I can convince a few other members of the family to eat it as well.

Are you a fan of the celery and peanut butter??

Now that the new year is here and life has returned to some semblance of normal, it's time to wrest back my self-control. Time to start watching what I eat, counting a few calories, and exercising again. If you remember, DH bought a treadmill several months back. Now I can walk in the comfort of my home, though it's parked in the garage and there's no heat or air in there at the moment. I'm still at the whim of the weather to a certain degree. But I have a space heater, so no excuses.

I'm eliminating as much sugar and as many carbs as I can again and going back to water and unsweet tea, hot or cold.

In addition it's time to make some other changes. I've determined to consume as little microwaved food or beverages as possible. Surely, the damage done to the food item in question by the process is not that good for the body. At the very least, damage has been done to the nutrients, they've been altered, rendered useless or possibly harmful. So I'll be brewing my tea at home and toting to work in my travel cup and two thermoses until I get my electric kettle back. And no more hot lunches, I guess. I should be getting back to salads anyway. Reheating will be done on the stove top or in the oven. I'd love to get rid of the microwaves altogether, but there'd be an outcry.


We're also switching back to real foods and condiments. So no more artificial sweeteners. I realize processed sugar's not that great either, but it's less toxic than aspartame and the like. I personally like raw sugar, when I use it. But I try not to and there's none in the house at the moment.


No more margarine either. Real butter from now on. I'm also going to start cooking with coconut oil instead of vegetable oil or margarine (not that we'll have any). My mother-in-law recommended it to me a while back and now I've just read a very short book outlining its many benefits. (Not only can you ingest it, but it has topical uses as well.)
 

The next major change is going to be to find beef that's grass/range fed so that we can benefit from healthier meat products. My husband is not a fan of Walmart meat, but I've resisted changing. Mostly because I'm lazy and don't want to have to run all over hell and half acre buying groceries. But there's a Grillmasters in the business park and a meat market a few blocks from the house. I'm guessing the meat from the meat market is better than the pre-packaged process stuff from the grocery stores even if it's not completely organic. I printed off the flyer from the meat market and will place my order today. The have a couple of different specials, so I'm going to try one. They include veggies!

And those are just some initial changes coming down the pipe...

Healthier eating and healthier living, here we come, kicking and screaming!

It appears I've reached my goal of losing three pounds. Last night, according to Wii, I've dropped another 1.3 pounds.

And all I've done is give up all cold beverages except for water, and started walking around the block with my daughter and our dogs. (We're only making one lap so far.) I gave up my M-W-F trip to McDonald's. And I've been a little active in my yard raking leaves for ten minutes or so and bagging them.

My body is a little sore and achy, but in a good way. Tomorrow, we're taking a rest from the walk around the block.

And I've realized that I slouch a lot--when I sit at my desk and when I walk. So I'm trying to be conscious about keeping my back straight. I guess if I can get through twenty-one days of remembering, I might have learned myself a new good habit.

Speaking of habits, I'm now trying to make healthier eating choices. I don't usually eat large portions, but I tend to get hungry a lot, so I snack. I'm buying more yogurt and my daughter introduced me to some Fruit Chillers--somewhere where you might find the applesauce and the jello-with-fruit cups. The peach flavor is to die for, and come summer, a great alternative to ice cream. I'm also choosing fruit, even the canned stuff in light syrup, over pretzels and goldfish.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!