Weighty Wednesday -- Everything is Cyclic

Today's blog will be a mish-mash of observations concerning weight loss.

The good news -- I'm down a pound. Yay!

The bad news -- I ate really, really poorly after my weigh-in.

Which led to a hot flash last night, and made me think, "Huh, I haven't had a hot flash since we came home from skiing."

And then I put two-and-two together and actually got four.

Okay, here's the dealio:

These next few comments are simply my observations of the last eight months or so. There are no scientific facts to support my observations. And if there are are scientific facts, then I didn't use them to come to these observations.

• Last night I ate poorly: 1/2 of an A-1 Thick-n-Hearty Whataburger and fries, chocked full of fat, salt, and probably a ton of preservatives. I had a hot flash. 
• I had been interested in the concept of the Paleo diet, which led me to look up the idea of Paleo diet on Wikipedia--because you can find everything on Wiki. 
• Paleo diet concept is very, very similar to WW Simply Filling concept, which is basically . . .
• Food in its natural state is better for you
• Raw fruits and veggies are better because your body has to work internally harder to break the product down into micro-nutrients to be utilized for energy. 
• I had been having off-and-on hot flashes since last September, when I started gaining weight again, but didn't seem to care.
• The previous week, I had been following WW Simply Filling technique. The interesting part about this is that it allows an unlimited amount of certain types of food: lean meats, fat-free dairy, fruits and most vegetables. No hot flash.
• Processed or refined food is easier to eat and digest, which makes you 1) eat more of it to become satisfied, 2) is usually filled with preservatives, fat, sugar or salt, which in turn, 3) causes you to eat more of it. Therefore . . . 

• Eating healthy for me foods will decrease my hot flashes

I think I'm onto something, what do you think?

Later, Peeps!

Smile for Me

My hubby thinks I'm weird--okay, there's no need to go into detail here, but he married me, therefore he is stuck with me!

Back on topic: When I go on my 4.25 mile daily walk, I tend to greet the people on the walking path: walkers, joggers, and bikers. Usually I give a small wave--raising my hand-- and a 'good morning' said with a smile. I don't want to interrupt their workout, but I want there to be an awareness and an acknowledgment that I saw them, therefore they saw me.

My theory is that if my cold, dead body is found, they will think, "Hey, that's that weird lady who wears a red sweatshirt and insists upon intruding into my la-la world by being cheerful."

Then again, there are theories that people who are targeted are those who won't make eye contact, or are so into their tunes they don't know what the heck is going on around them.

I'm aware. I see them.

In other words--I could identify them in a line-up. :-) **bwahahaha**

Anyway, I've been doing this for a couple of years now. Sometimes people glare at me. Sometimes they smile. Sometimes they lift their hand in greeting, but they catch themselves wondering why their hand was up. And, of course, many times I'm ignored . . . especially by women when they travel in pairs.

Go figure. Like I'm a threat to their womanhood. *sheesh*

Every now and again, I hit gold.

One was an older gentleman by the name of Ron. I usually see him walking M-F on the trail, and mainly in passing as we are headed different directions. Sometimes, if he's ahead of me, I'll play catch-up to push myself harder to see if I can make up the distance to chat with him.

Another gentleman was Kenyon who I passed as he jogged. He's a slow jogger and I'm a quick walker. I haven't seen him in awhile, but his workout hours might not be the same as mine.

Then there is the lady jogger who stopped to alert me to a bobcat in the area . . . she didn't alert the next two walkers as I followed her along the path, just me. I don't know her name, but she recognized me as I greeted her numerous times while we worked out.

And just this last Saturday, I met Jacob.

Jacob is a serious biker--he wears the spandex bike clothes and he's riding seven days a week. Usually all I have time for is "Morni--" and a hand wave before he zooms away. As I said, I don't want to interrupt anyone's workout, but I do want to greet them.

But this Saturday was different when Jacob stopped his bike to introduce himself.

I'm still smiling about it.

I'm not doing much, just greeting the people I meet along the way. And I like to think that my greeting makes them smile just a little and approach their day a little differently.

Over the years, I've noticed that nastiness is contagious. But then again, so is cheerfulness. Why not spread a little joy along the way?

Later, Peeps!

I Got a Rock

I got a rock this weekend. It's slightly over a foot wide and two and a half feet long. This type of rock is called Cathedral rock, due to the holes in it . . . I think.

The smaller hole near the top is the drilled hole, but we discovered a couple other natural holes which might be fun. The front left one cascades like a waterfall.

What did you do?

Hubs has been pestering me to let him put a rock bubbler in the backyard. I finally gave in, especially when I might be able to raise some bog plants, namely Venus Fly Traps. I need to get rid of those pesky 'squitos, don't I? I haven't had much luck attracting bats, so I'll go the carnivorous plant route now.

As it's springtime and my roses are just starting to grow, I need to get them transferred soon, which is why we bought the rock.

This is the location. It runs along the edge of the pool.

It's no hardship relocating my roses since I've lost about six minis over the last few years. And I have six to move.

I'll post a picture when the rock is in place and ready to bubble. It might be a couple weeks since we need to wait on the basin to arrive.

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- It's hard, but worth it

If you saw my Monday blog post, you'll realize that I went skiing last week. I had really good intentions of staying on the weight loss track. I . . .

• packed healthy snacks for the car (sliced apples, baby carrots and cheese sticks)
• packed a tortilla roll-up for lunch in the car, instead of a hamburger and fries along the way
• planned all our dinner meals, which included salads
• planned healthy, protein-filled breakfasts
• planned to eat salads for lunch up on the mountain

I did great on the drive and the first night. But things fell apart when I ate salad on the mountain on Monday . . . I had a very, very unpleasant Tuesday. 

I tried to eat well. Really, I did.

But it didn't happen as I envisioned it. 

We got home on Friday night and I weighed myself of Saturday AM. 

I do believe the words, "Holy Moly!" erupted from my mouth . . . or it could have been some other words that aren't PG rated, but who am I to say??

So, I focused. I planned to eat as many unprocessed foods as possible. I did cut most carbs out of my diet. 

*on a side note: Carbs are not evil. In fact, WW stresses the need for whole grains in one's diet. But carbs don't like me--I retain water when I eat them, plus they tend to make me feel dumpy/frumpy and all around blimpy, so I try to stay away from them. 

And I started my two-a-day walks. These double walks don't happen every day, but if I can get three a week, then I'm good.

And on Tuesday, I had weigh-in.

I LOST 1.8 pounds from the previous week's weigh-in, prior to the skiing debacle.

But if you count the weight I was the day AFTER vacation, then I lost 4 pounds.

Look, I hit my goal before, but as I've mentioned, life doesn't stop when you hit your goal weight. It's a constant challenge to maintain the correct weight for you.

And I had let myself go.

It happens. I have a long way to go to get back to my goal weight (16 pounds), but I'm on the right track.

If you've hit a bump, or mountain, on your weight loss road don't give up. Giving up will just make matters worse.

It's time to fight.

It's time to get back to basics.

If I can do it, YOU can do it.

Later, Peeps!

Silent Blog, Skiing Blog

Sorry about that.

Usually when I go out of town I pre-post some blogs, but I didn't have any blogs ready to go. *sad face*

On Frenchman run

Of course, on the drive HOME I thought I should have posted the work we had done on our house since I forgot to post it after they were finished. I posted on Facebook, but not the blog.

Oh, well. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, right?

Last week was spring break for the kidlet and we went skiing in Keystone, CO. It was a good drive--no snow only strong winds--and Kansas had raised their speed limit to 75 mph, which made the drive only 12 hours long, instead of the normal 13-14 hours.

My only problem was altitude sickness--I had a headache the entire time in Colorado, along with insomnia, and a bloody nose (TMI??). Oh, and the shortness of breath was killer. As an asthmatic, it added to my stress level just a touch. If you forgot to breath, then you had to gasp like a fish out of water to oxygenate your blood!

It wasn't your typical spring skiing, when you can shuck your neck gator, hat, gloves and ski with an open coat and actually get a suntan, though we did see one couple skiing one run in their skivvies on day four. . .

Day one, it was cold and windy. Day two, it was snowy and windy. Days three and four were wonderful--I skied with sunglasses instead of goggles!

And I have windburn on a narrow portion of my face that was even allowed out in the cold, namely my nose and a narrow strip of skin on my cheekbones and forehead. You be the judge. . .

Kidlet and me after a hot cocoa break

As I might have mentioned before, I'm not a fan of moguls--those bumps on a ski run, for those of you who haven't skied before. I don't willingly go down any runs that have them, BUT I do like steeps--steep, groomed slopes. 

So we convinced the kidlet to ski down a long groomed black diamond run called Diamondback. That was the her last run on day three. :-) Well, except for the runs that got us to the front of the mountain and down to the bottom. She complained her feet hurt, and I mentioned it was because she had her toes clenched down the entire slope. 

Yeah, been there, done that before. 

On days three and four she pooped out early and the hubs and I skied about another hour before calling it quits for the day. 

On the gondola

And remember . . . Trees hurt, slow down. 

Top of  Dercum mountain

 Later, Peeps!

WW -- Back on the Weight Loss Wagon

Yesterday was my first day back on the weight loss wagon.

As I mentioned in my Weighty Wednesday post, I had a harsh reality check when my shorts didn't fit.

Well, they fit, but I couldn't go out in public in them!

So I tracked my food. And I measured. And I counted my points.

I also drank water and exercised, but I do that normally, so it really wasn't a change.

And I had cravings, lots and lots of cravings.

Look, it's going to happen. Get real about it. For months now I've been shoving high sodium, high fat, and high sugar products into the great maw that I call a mouth.

My body has gotten used to it's infusion of "bad-for-me, but yummy-on-my-tummy" food. It will take a little time to remove the cravings.

It's helpful that I gave up peanut butter for Lent. If you know me at all, this is my 'go-to' food, usually with a big spoon.

One of the reasons I needed to really go back to basics--this time, I really, really went back to basics--was because I had lost all ability to deal with portion control.

Plus I needed to count points to realize how much I was eating that I shouldn't have been.

Here are a few eye-opening examples:

1)  I had a small can of mixed nuts that I had been eating off of by the handfuls. No measuring involved. 
I weighed them into the serving size on the box of 28 grams per serving . . . which is less than 1/4 cup, but more than an 1/8th of a cup. This small amount of nuts was 5 points. 

5 points?  I only get 26 points in a day. Do I really want to eat them when I could have an apple, banana and a Clementine (called halos this year) for 0 points?

Or two hard boiled eggs for 4 points?

Or huge Chick-fil-A salad for 4 points? And I didn't even add the small packages of granola or nuts to my salad.

Okay the dressing was a little costly at 7 points for the entire package. I dripped Apple Cider vinaigrette on my salad, using 1/2 of the package. I'll call that 4 points.

2) Last night I made homemade marinara. I know exactly what goes into it since I make it and it isn't a prepackages pasta sauce. I'll call it 0 points. 

It was the frozen ravioli that was the reality check. 

One serving of frozen ravioli (2-inch round cheese raviolis) was 4 raviolis worth 7 points.

Yikes! 7 points for only four raviolis?? Do you realize how many I had been eating???

As I mentioned numerous times. I don't like tracking my food, but tracking is the only way you will find out what you do eat. Many times just the idea of having to put the food down on paper is what stops me from eating it.

Summer is coming.

Are you shorts ready?

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- Reality Check Time

I missed my Weight Watcher's meeting last week because of car issues--the motorized driver's seat stopped moving. This is a huge problem since my hubby is over 6 feet tall and I'm slightly over 5 feet tall, which means when we share a car the seat is moved a lot. It had to be fixed.

This week was a slap-in-the-face reality check time at my WW meeting.

I'll admit that I've been lazy with my weight, not really caring about the consequences of my eating habits.

Yesterday was different.

Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees and I wanted to wear shorts.

I couldn't fit into my shorts.

Yeah, the shorts that had been so baggy on me the previous two summers, didn't fit.

REALITY CHECK

The weather this winter has made me supremely lazy. . . and I have to get out of my funk now!

Again, it's time to go back to the basics. 

• weigh and measure everything
• track my food--I don't care if it's a single peanut. Twenty single peanuts eaten throughout the day make an impact. You don't know what to cut back if you aren't aware of what you're eating
• drink water--yes, water, not sweetened whatever or diet soda--WATER
• Fruits and veggies-- if you have to snack pick these. Yes, you can fill up on them
• Exercise-- I've been slacking in this department, too. The weather has been a good excuse. Not any longer. Time to buck up and work out. 

I notice that mid-afternoon is my rough time. I want to graze before dinner. I have to prevent this from happening. I might start taking an additional walk, or drink a huge glass of water, or change my space--go upstairs to write or watch TV, anything as long as it's away from the temptations of the kitchen. 

I'll do anything to fit in those shorts like I did last summer and the summer before. 

Now, I have a reason to focus.

Now, I have a reason to fight. 

Summer is just around the corner. It's time to come out of our winter hibernation.

Later, Peeps!