I've been "away" from my blog for well over a week. I've managed to read a few posts and even comment a time or two, but there is little time for posting. This is a fly by post so I don't have to put a lot of thought into it. Even though my blog could qualify as very casual or nonchalant, I do put some time into each post.
I have a lot of things on my plate right now and I'm not talking about a lot of food. The weight loss maintenance is going well. I'm hovering around 130 pounds, and I'm getting minimal exercise with three workouts a week ranging from 30 to 40 minutes each.
I'm not sure when or if I'll write again. I seem to be in that place where I keep saying the same things over and over. I'm also still having eye problems. Time on the computer makes it much worse. I need to be on the computer quite a bit for a variety of reasons. Taking a break from my blog will be less stress on my eyes.
Good luck to all of you who read my blog and encourage me. I'll be lurking on the sidelines and occasionally commenting on your blogs. I am inspired by so many of you, and because of that I have changed a lot of things for the better.
Thank you.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
The Best Laid Plans...
The Zumba classes I found had a coupon for a free first class so I printed that off to take with me. Then I went to the lady's website to be sure it was 9:30 and not 9:00 and she had changed all morning classes to evening. I cannot go to classes at 8:15 at night. It's too close to bedtime.
Plan B was to go ahead and check out the Anytime Fitness so I grabbed the Silver Sneakers card that United Healthcare had sent me and headed over there to sign up with them. Well, I'm halfway signed up it seems. The gal in the office said she needed to see the letter that came with my card. I have it, but it will be another day before I get back over there. They gave me a schedule and I was glad to see they have morning Zumba classes.
As I was leaving this morning, my daughter told me to call if I got lost. Pffffft! I did just fine, thank you very much. That does not mean that I won't get lost the next time I venture out to find something.
This is a picture of my dinner last night. I usually use a green bell pepper but red was what I had and it made it really pretty as well as tasty. I split this with my daughter. She doesn't eat a lot of vegetables, but she likes this particular dish. I also had some celery and a small amount of hummus on my plate.
Plan B was to go ahead and check out the Anytime Fitness so I grabbed the Silver Sneakers card that United Healthcare had sent me and headed over there to sign up with them. Well, I'm halfway signed up it seems. The gal in the office said she needed to see the letter that came with my card. I have it, but it will be another day before I get back over there. They gave me a schedule and I was glad to see they have morning Zumba classes.
As I was leaving this morning, my daughter told me to call if I got lost. Pffffft! I did just fine, thank you very much. That does not mean that I won't get lost the next time I venture out to find something.
This is a picture of my dinner last night. I usually use a green bell pepper but red was what I had and it made it really pretty as well as tasty. I split this with my daughter. She doesn't eat a lot of vegetables, but she likes this particular dish. I also had some celery and a small amount of hummus on my plate.
Monday, April 29, 2013
It's HOT Again
The temperature hit 103 here today. I'm not quite ready for that, but it's not like I get my choice of temperatures. Yes indeed, from now till next November, we will be roasty toasty. It really makes us appreciate the 78 degrees we have inside our house.
Several days ago, I took inventory of the vegetables in my fridge and the first order of business was to cook the small head of cauliflower. I cut up the cauliflower along with two small red skinned potatoes and half an onion and tossed all that with some olive oil. I roasted this for about 40 minutes and ate half of it along with the last of the rotisserie chicken. It took me several days to finish that chicken but I did it.
Tonight I'm going to cook some green beans along with a chopped red pepper and some fresh mushrooms and onions. I add a can of tuna and some Worcestershire sauce for a tasty meal. I sometimes put this over rice but I will skip the rice this evening.
Yesterday I made yogurt for the first time in over two months. I like the process of changing milk into yogurt. It makes me feel creative.
I'm going to my first Zumba class in many months tomorrow morning. I hope I like it because I do so much better in a group class than I do alone at home.
Medicare sent me a card for something called Silver Sneakers. Apparently, I can join the Anytime Fitness gym here for free using that card. My daughter says she will go with me so we'll only have to pay for one. Maybe we can check that out later in the week.
I drove around Maricopa for the first time on Sunday. It's not that hard to get around because it is a smallish town of about 45,000 people. My problem is no sense of direction and trying to remember if I turn left or right when I get to the main drag. I'll figure it out. It's not like I need a GPS to get around such a small place.
Several days ago, I took inventory of the vegetables in my fridge and the first order of business was to cook the small head of cauliflower. I cut up the cauliflower along with two small red skinned potatoes and half an onion and tossed all that with some olive oil. I roasted this for about 40 minutes and ate half of it along with the last of the rotisserie chicken. It took me several days to finish that chicken but I did it.
Tonight I'm going to cook some green beans along with a chopped red pepper and some fresh mushrooms and onions. I add a can of tuna and some Worcestershire sauce for a tasty meal. I sometimes put this over rice but I will skip the rice this evening.
Yesterday I made yogurt for the first time in over two months. I like the process of changing milk into yogurt. It makes me feel creative.
I'm going to my first Zumba class in many months tomorrow morning. I hope I like it because I do so much better in a group class than I do alone at home.
Medicare sent me a card for something called Silver Sneakers. Apparently, I can join the Anytime Fitness gym here for free using that card. My daughter says she will go with me so we'll only have to pay for one. Maybe we can check that out later in the week.
I drove around Maricopa for the first time on Sunday. It's not that hard to get around because it is a smallish town of about 45,000 people. My problem is no sense of direction and trying to remember if I turn left or right when I get to the main drag. I'll figure it out. It's not like I need a GPS to get around such a small place.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Practicing What I Preach
There are many great bloggers out there who inspire me at different times and who help me get back on track when I'm wavering. I won't mention them all, but if they are listed under my "Blogs I Read", they are probably doing very well with their healthy living.
I will admit that I have little patience for the ones who write, have contests and giveaways and talk a lot about losing weight but nothing happens. Some have lost a significant amount of weight in the past, but never reach their goals. There are things they are not willing to give up to do it. I don't want to be judgmental, but continuously reading about failure is not helpful to me. So, they quietly disappear from my list. I wish them well and would like to help, but I comment for a while and then give up and stop reading.
Recently, I read a "new to me" blog and the person said (I am paraphrasing) that they found the maintainers to be quite boring. I find the people who are actively maintaining to be very interesting. It's not like we get to goal and stop working. I'm always trying something new either in food or exercise so I won't get bored and turn back to food.
Yesterday I was whining about not doing any exercise and just at the best time, I read David's blog and it was exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks, David.
This morning I was also inspired by Marc's most recent blog and especially the last two paragraphs about living life where you are and not waiting for things to happen before you begin.
So, I "talk about" eating right and exercising and getting right back up after you have a bad day or a bad incident and today is the day I begin to put it all back into practice. I got up this morning and had my black coffee and some yogurt. Then I put in an exercise DVD and did a two mile walk which took 30 minutes and also a short routine for arms. Things are looking up.
I will admit that I have little patience for the ones who write, have contests and giveaways and talk a lot about losing weight but nothing happens. Some have lost a significant amount of weight in the past, but never reach their goals. There are things they are not willing to give up to do it. I don't want to be judgmental, but continuously reading about failure is not helpful to me. So, they quietly disappear from my list. I wish them well and would like to help, but I comment for a while and then give up and stop reading.
Recently, I read a "new to me" blog and the person said (I am paraphrasing) that they found the maintainers to be quite boring. I find the people who are actively maintaining to be very interesting. It's not like we get to goal and stop working. I'm always trying something new either in food or exercise so I won't get bored and turn back to food.
Yesterday I was whining about not doing any exercise and just at the best time, I read David's blog and it was exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks, David.
This morning I was also inspired by Marc's most recent blog and especially the last two paragraphs about living life where you are and not waiting for things to happen before you begin.
So, I "talk about" eating right and exercising and getting right back up after you have a bad day or a bad incident and today is the day I begin to put it all back into practice. I got up this morning and had my black coffee and some yogurt. Then I put in an exercise DVD and did a two mile walk which took 30 minutes and also a short routine for arms. Things are looking up.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Excuses and Other Things
The move is done and the house is in pretty good shape. My food is good and my weight this morning is 129.8. I seriously think my weight is down partly because I am not getting any "real" exercise.
My excuse(s) for not exercising are pretty flimsy:
I was all ready to do a workout but my daughter got up and we got to talking
I was going to my first Zumba class yesterday but the trip to Chandler was postponed from Thursday to Friday so I didn't have time
The trip we made to Chandler was to get our old Buick appraised for a trade in on a new car and working with car dealers is so stressful!
As I type, I know that my excuses are hogwash. I am seriously not motivated to start exercising, but I also know it is so very important for my health.
Today I am going to assess the fresh vegetable situation in my refrigerator. Everything is stuffed into two bins at the bottom and I've forgotten what we bought. I know I have celery, cauliflower and some tomatoes. I'm pretty sure there is a cucumber and a zucchini in there too along with a few mushrooms. I just remembered there is also a head of cabbage.
I plan to pull it all out and come up with a way to be sure that none of it is lost because I didn't get around to eating it. I'll probably be cooking a lot of it today.
I was going to buy some chicken at the grocery store, but there was something that smelled rotten in the chicken area and we decided to pass on that. Today we can go to another grocery store to get chicken, plus I need more Vitamin D3 gel caps. Lucky me that Fry's is having a buy one, get one sale.
I'd better get started.
My excuse(s) for not exercising are pretty flimsy:
I was all ready to do a workout but my daughter got up and we got to talking
I was going to my first Zumba class yesterday but the trip to Chandler was postponed from Thursday to Friday so I didn't have time
The trip we made to Chandler was to get our old Buick appraised for a trade in on a new car and working with car dealers is so stressful!
As I type, I know that my excuses are hogwash. I am seriously not motivated to start exercising, but I also know it is so very important for my health.
Today I am going to assess the fresh vegetable situation in my refrigerator. Everything is stuffed into two bins at the bottom and I've forgotten what we bought. I know I have celery, cauliflower and some tomatoes. I'm pretty sure there is a cucumber and a zucchini in there too along with a few mushrooms. I just remembered there is also a head of cabbage.
I plan to pull it all out and come up with a way to be sure that none of it is lost because I didn't get around to eating it. I'll probably be cooking a lot of it today.
I was going to buy some chicken at the grocery store, but there was something that smelled rotten in the chicken area and we decided to pass on that. Today we can go to another grocery store to get chicken, plus I need more Vitamin D3 gel caps. Lucky me that Fry's is having a buy one, get one sale.
I'd better get started.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
That Wasn't So Bad
Yesterday, we retrieved my bathroom scale from a moving box. This morning, I weighed in at 131.2. I didn't expect to be up very much, if any, because my clothes were fitting just fine. I kind of went through the past ten days in my mind and what I had eaten to see why I had not gained. I'll admit I did not track my food for the past two weeks.
At first we were eating things that we could not transport and did not want to toss into the garbage. These were mostly frozen foods. After that, we were eating a lot of sandwiches and restaurant food. I realized that the choices and the portions I'd had were mostly okay. There were two occasions that I ate too much and was actually uncomfortable. I hate it when I do that. I've tried so hard to unsubscribe from the "clean plate club" but I still have problems with stopping when there is food on my plate. Sigh.
I rarely take food pictures and am not going to make a habit of it but I wanted to share a salad that I made for lunch. I got the recipe from Gina at Skinny Taste. I made a few changes like using three quarters of a cup of quinoa instead of a cup. I substituted green olives stuffed with pimentos for the kalamata olives, chopped up a roma tomato instead of cherry tomatoes and only used one tablespoon of olive oil. I knew I would like the salad because I liked everything in it but it was even better than I'd hoped.
Here is a picture of my lunch which was three quarters of a cup of the salad over a bed of chopped romaine and I had about three ounces of roasted chicken on the side. Delicious!
At first we were eating things that we could not transport and did not want to toss into the garbage. These were mostly frozen foods. After that, we were eating a lot of sandwiches and restaurant food. I realized that the choices and the portions I'd had were mostly okay. There were two occasions that I ate too much and was actually uncomfortable. I hate it when I do that. I've tried so hard to unsubscribe from the "clean plate club" but I still have problems with stopping when there is food on my plate. Sigh.
I rarely take food pictures and am not going to make a habit of it but I wanted to share a salad that I made for lunch. I got the recipe from Gina at Skinny Taste. I made a few changes like using three quarters of a cup of quinoa instead of a cup. I substituted green olives stuffed with pimentos for the kalamata olives, chopped up a roma tomato instead of cherry tomatoes and only used one tablespoon of olive oil. I knew I would like the salad because I liked everything in it but it was even better than I'd hoped.
Here is a picture of my lunch which was three quarters of a cup of the salad over a bed of chopped romaine and I had about three ounces of roasted chicken on the side. Delicious!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Odds and Ends
My food was good yesterday. Breakfast was Greek yogurt with chia seeds, cinnamon and strawberries. We went grocery shopping and it was lunchtime before we left the store. My daughter got McDonald's since it was right in the store where we shopped, and I grabbed a rotisserie chicken because I needed something to eat as soon as I got home. I ate both of the chicken legs without the skin and one piece of Ezekiel bread. This held me until dinner. For dinner, I had a salad of romaine, tomatoes, onions, a half ounce of feta, one tablespoon of a light Caesar dressing and three ounces of chicken. Later in the evening I had an orange.
Although food was good, but I did no planned exercise. I've found some Zumba classes I can afford, but need to find the actual building where they are held. How is it that Google has so many people riding around all day, every day mapping out the roads and yet they get it so wrong so often?
I pulled weeds this morning in the back yard for about 30 minutes, and called it "A celebration of being able to bend over for long periods of time."
Did anyone else see the story about the 14 year old McDonald's hamburger? It looks like it might have been purchased a week or so ago but has no mold or anything gross. I know their french fries are practically indestructible as I've seen the eight week experiment where they sit in a glass jar and do not change at all. Our Boston terrier used to find one occasionally in the back floorboard of the car which we estimated was three or more months old and which she ate with relish. Actually, even a dog should probably not eat those things.
Another story I saw yesterday said that some dog foods have dog meat in them. That is appalling, but then so is our food. In the frozen food department yesterday, I picked up a frozen dinner that I've had before. It is a Healthy Choice dinner called turkey medallions and "appears" to be a few slices of turkey with gravy, a scoop of mashed potatoes and a side of butternut squash mixed with apples and cranberries. It looks and tastes so innocent and healthy. For the first time, I actually looked at the ingredients yesterday. Why am I surprised that it is definitely not very healthy?
This is the ingredient list I found when I went to Google:
Mashed Red Skinned Potatoes (Potatoes, Cream Cheese [Pasteurized Milk and Cream, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Stabilizers {Carob Bean and/or Guar and/or Xanthan Gum}], Water, Canola Oil, Whole Milk, Maltodextrin, Garlic [Garlic, High Maltose Corn Syrup], Salt, Creamer [Whey, Whole Milk, Milk Protein Concentrate and/or Nonfat Dry Milk, Sorbitol], Onion Powder [Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate], Garlic Powder, Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate), Gravy (Water, Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Chicken Fat, Salt, Turkey Type Flavor [Turkey Broth, Salt, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Autolyzed Yeast Extract Turkey Fat Modified Corn Starch, Carrot Juice Concentrate, Grill Flavor, Disodium Inosinate & Guanylate], Artificial Chicken Drippings Flavor [Hydrolyzed Soy and Corn Protein, Natural Flavor {Sugar, Salt, Autolyzed Yeast Extract}, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed and Soybean Oil, Maltodextrin, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Tricalcium Phosphate, Artificial Flavor], Mirepoix [Whey, Vegetable Flavor {Maltodextrin, Vegetable Concentrates [Cabbage, Cauliflower])} Salt, Natural Flavor, Onion Powder, Yeast Extract, Garlic Powder], Pepper, Mono-Diglycerides and DATEM, Thyme, Sage, Caramel Color), Turkey Breast Medallions (Turkey Breast Water, Contains 2% or Less of Isolated Soy Protein [Isolated Soy Protein, Modified Food Starch, Starch, Carrageen, Soy Lecithin], Chicken Broth Powder [Maltodextrin, Chicken Broth, Salt, Flavors], Salt, Olive Oil, Potassium Chloride, Potassium and Sodium Phosphates, Dextrose, Spice Extractives [Spice Extractives with Polysorbate 80, Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Flavor]), Butternut Squash, Cinnamon Apples (Apples, Dry Mix [Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Margarine {Soybean Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Water, Salt, Vegetable Mono- Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Sodium Benzoate, Calcium Disodium EDTA and Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Beta Carotene, Vitamin A Palmitate}, Cinnamon, Lemon Powder]), Sweetened Dried Cranberries (Sugar, Dried Cranberries, Citric Acid, Elderberry Juice, Sunflower Oil).
Yep, shocking.
Although food was good, but I did no planned exercise. I've found some Zumba classes I can afford, but need to find the actual building where they are held. How is it that Google has so many people riding around all day, every day mapping out the roads and yet they get it so wrong so often?
I pulled weeds this morning in the back yard for about 30 minutes, and called it "A celebration of being able to bend over for long periods of time."
Did anyone else see the story about the 14 year old McDonald's hamburger? It looks like it might have been purchased a week or so ago but has no mold or anything gross. I know their french fries are practically indestructible as I've seen the eight week experiment where they sit in a glass jar and do not change at all. Our Boston terrier used to find one occasionally in the back floorboard of the car which we estimated was three or more months old and which she ate with relish. Actually, even a dog should probably not eat those things.
Another story I saw yesterday said that some dog foods have dog meat in them. That is appalling, but then so is our food. In the frozen food department yesterday, I picked up a frozen dinner that I've had before. It is a Healthy Choice dinner called turkey medallions and "appears" to be a few slices of turkey with gravy, a scoop of mashed potatoes and a side of butternut squash mixed with apples and cranberries. It looks and tastes so innocent and healthy. For the first time, I actually looked at the ingredients yesterday. Why am I surprised that it is definitely not very healthy?
This is the ingredient list I found when I went to Google:
Mashed Red Skinned Potatoes (Potatoes, Cream Cheese [Pasteurized Milk and Cream, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Stabilizers {Carob Bean and/or Guar and/or Xanthan Gum}], Water, Canola Oil, Whole Milk, Maltodextrin, Garlic [Garlic, High Maltose Corn Syrup], Salt, Creamer [Whey, Whole Milk, Milk Protein Concentrate and/or Nonfat Dry Milk, Sorbitol], Onion Powder [Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate], Garlic Powder, Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate), Gravy (Water, Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Chicken Fat, Salt, Turkey Type Flavor [Turkey Broth, Salt, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Autolyzed Yeast Extract Turkey Fat Modified Corn Starch, Carrot Juice Concentrate, Grill Flavor, Disodium Inosinate & Guanylate], Artificial Chicken Drippings Flavor [Hydrolyzed Soy and Corn Protein, Natural Flavor {Sugar, Salt, Autolyzed Yeast Extract}, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed and Soybean Oil, Maltodextrin, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Tricalcium Phosphate, Artificial Flavor], Mirepoix [Whey, Vegetable Flavor {Maltodextrin, Vegetable Concentrates [Cabbage, Cauliflower])} Salt, Natural Flavor, Onion Powder, Yeast Extract, Garlic Powder], Pepper, Mono-Diglycerides and DATEM, Thyme, Sage, Caramel Color), Turkey Breast Medallions (Turkey Breast Water, Contains 2% or Less of Isolated Soy Protein [Isolated Soy Protein, Modified Food Starch, Starch, Carrageen, Soy Lecithin], Chicken Broth Powder [Maltodextrin, Chicken Broth, Salt, Flavors], Salt, Olive Oil, Potassium Chloride, Potassium and Sodium Phosphates, Dextrose, Spice Extractives [Spice Extractives with Polysorbate 80, Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Flavor]), Butternut Squash, Cinnamon Apples (Apples, Dry Mix [Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Margarine {Soybean Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Water, Salt, Vegetable Mono- Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Sodium Benzoate, Calcium Disodium EDTA and Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Beta Carotene, Vitamin A Palmitate}, Cinnamon, Lemon Powder]), Sweetened Dried Cranberries (Sugar, Dried Cranberries, Citric Acid, Elderberry Juice, Sunflower Oil).
Yep, shocking.
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