Help.......I've fallen

And can't stop eating! How many times have we felt this way? Part of the weight watcher's program is attending meeting and finding your support network. This week I have been looking for my support in all the wrong places....like the ice cream container, baked potato with butter, pasta bowl.

At home I am OK while I am alone. I am not usually a closet eater. I have gotten over that! Living alone who am I hiding from? Me? I don't think so. At work I have an OK support system. They don't ask when I make a poor choice on Friday when I choose to eat out with them. I try to make good choices but obviously the BEST choice would be to bring my lunch!

I have a couple of girlfriends that I know I can call on anytime to talk me out of the tree but how do we handle the ones that drive us UP the tree??

It has been a long time since I have not journaled, exercised and followed the plan. I mean, generally I do these things without thought. It started last weekend with a sour stomach...just rather queasy. Well, plain vanilla ice cream sat pretty well. I tried to exercise and got more nauseous so I stopped. I had a headache and sour stomach all week........no exercise, only eating some things (most good old fashioned comfort food) and whined. It got easier as the week went on to not be on plan. It may have gotten easier but I feel so sluggish.....and can't seem to string a day together.

I have been preached to my whole life that any thing worth having is worth working for AND who said life is fair?! With those 2 thoughts in my head I need to move forward. Today would have been weigh in day. I slept in and missed the meeting.....but have my blog and my friends to hold me up. This is the start of a new day, new week.......a weaker but new me. The best part is, even though I have fallen and could not get up.....I found my little button to push for help. I asked for help and support. And in the acronym of my best internet friends...NGAMO (and for those like me who could not figure it out.....no guilt and move on).

Memorial Day.......

What does Memorial day mean to you? To me, it is a time to honor all our men and women who have given their lives to provide us the freedoms we enjoy each and every day. I also acknowledge all our active and reserve soldiers.......you are the most awesome people to put your country before yourself and your family. It has to be a difficult choice.......why would I want to be thousands of miles away in a hot, unfriendly country when I could be in my own comfortable bed at night?

My blog is normally about what I do to stay healthy and living a good life. This one is a bit different. It is the first Memorial day I am spending without my dad. He passed away in March after a very long struggle with diabetes, kidney disease and a laundry list of other ailments. The picture of him above, with my Aunt Marie, is the last time I saw him in person. Forever proud of my dad, I am reminded today that he was a vet. He served during the Korean conflict and was a member of the Coast Guards out of RI. No snickering here but protecting the shores of RI? Seriously?

After my dad's passing, I took a long look at my family. I guess I forgot how many members of my family (both maternal and paternal) have served this great country of ours. My godfather also served during the Korean conflict. My maternal grandfather, Alexander Poissant, is resting in the veterans cemetery in RI. I can't even recount the number of tours he did and conflicts he participated in. His brothers also proudly served our great country.

I am honored to say I have a glorious family history in protecting our great country and what it stands for. I am honored to say that I am active with Operation Baking Gals, a wonderful group of women who send homemade goods to our soldiers far from home to make their day a little brighter when a package arrives. I am proud of our country and what it stands for.

I end this post with thoughts of one of my favorite songs......Lee Greenwood says it best.

I am proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me.....
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today...
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless The USA...

Love you dad...

Is there such a thing as bad foods?

Or is it more poor choices? I am a faithful weight watchers member. I weigh in every week whether I think the scale is going to be friendly or not. One might as how do you know if the scale is going to be friendly? Does it say 'Hello my friend!'? Not at my meeting! A friendly scale is one that shows off your hard work, exercise and good food choices. Now wait, there are those words .....good vs bad.


I know I can be a slow learner, but why are some foods better choices? If I look at one more piece of chicken I might cluck! Broil vs fried, baked vs breaded, the comparisons never seem to
end.


So tonight I finally saw the movie 'Julie and Julia'. You might be thinking, has she lost her focus? What does that movie have to do with good health and fitness? More than you might think. Yes Julia Child was a master of French cooking and good cooking in general. She used the best ingredients she could find and afford. She did not skimp BUT did explain what the correct portion size was. I had a friend who lived outside of Paris. He and his wife would shop daily for the food for the evening meal. They did not have a big fridge like we tend to have here in the states.....so the freshest and best items are purchased.


Now that does have everything to do with a healthy lifestyle and fitness. I have been reading a lot lately about organic foods. Yes they are more expensive but IF WE EAT A NORMAL HEALTHY PORTION the food is not any more expensive. Whooda thunk??


Julia Child may not have used a boneless skinless chicken breast on a regular basis. She may not have tried to make a marinade with raspberry vinegar and a chipotle sauce....but she did know how to make vegetables look and taste divine. I chose to blanche some green beans and then finish cooking them in a pan that I had carmelized some chipolini onions and garlic. Julia Child loved butter......we do have that in common but I have to learn to use it judiciously. I want the full flavor but don't want to clog my arteries.....so I will use just a small pat of butter for the beautiful sheen and lovely flavor. The carmelizing of the onions was done with grapeseed oil which does not have a lot of flavor but a high heat point so it won't smoke.


Try eating what is in season. The flavors are phenomenal. I got an organic canteloupe earlier in the week. First it did not have the rough skin, second it was organic, and third it was ocally grown. How much better does it get than that? The flavor was so sweet....it was the perfect shade of orange inside and it was not loaded with seeds. The apples I got this week were also organic and local (I believe the place I buy from considers 100 miles to be local). Such a nice crunch when it was bitten into yet the flesh inside was crip....I had to fight with Sassy, my beautiful Boston Terrier, to get 'my share'!!


So to answer my own question, I do not believe there are bad foods. I believe any food in moderation is fine. It is a matter of making the meal or snack something that your body can readily use for fuel and not fat. Make sense??


To that end, I will take time to learn some deserts that are also full of flavor but also healthy. Let's face it, we all deserve a little sweet!!

Doing the same thing......expecting different results

Are we Pavlov's dog? Have we answered the bell so often we don't know hot to change the behavior? Dieting sucks.......I have been trained to diet my whole life. What have I learned? Not much I guess if I am still trying! Let's see.....this morning I did not bring my breakfast. I forgot it on my counter......good thing the dog can't reach it! Friday is bagel day in the office and it is a high point item. Is an Asiago cheese bagel with a schmere of low fat cream cheese really worth 9 or 10 points? I guess it might as for sometime I have been eating it every week. We order out on Friday for lunch....it is supposed to be my treat of the week. Oh, and then there is the occasional dinner out on Friday with the girls. How many times can I eat out in one day and stay within my 34 points? Not many is the real answer.

In the same vein, I have trained myself to get up and 'answer the bell' to go to Jazzercise in the early morning. So I guess I have learned something there. Exercise is good.

Well, I may have answered the bell to the bagel today. I have promised myself not to do that very often. It does not satisfy me as well as an english muffin with a smattering of butter and a fresh banana. It might be about the same point intake but it is volume AND it is healthier. That is what this journey is all about.......getting healthy, eating better and moving more.

On that note, like my dear friends Bruce and Shelby......time to get moving!

Aches and Pains

Not a day goes by when I don't feel one of my aches. Now for being 50 it might not be a surprise... but for me it is! The last year or so I have been how tight my muscles are. This has nothing to do with muscle tone......my muscles are rebelling on being used. I heard that your body will tell you NO at least 5 times before it will do what you want. We have to be persistent AND be the boss. I am experimenting with this. This week, due to the fact my jazzercise o'dark hundred cohort is on vacation, I have worked out every day. I have been telling people that 'I could not do that with my knee. I need to give it rest'. HA! I guess I have been lying....or has my body been lying to me?

In defining some of my aches, I am taking advantage of a great massage therapist. No, this is not the kind of massage where you get in the zone and fall asleep. This is a massage where if he pushes too hard you yell OUCH. I find each time I visit Brian (Relaxation Restoration in Wheaton.....he really is a muscle mechanic!) he gives me a new stretch to try. His goal is to get me to a point where I can continue to move without pain. I had my left knee scoped a few years ago and have some arthritis along with bone on bone. The surgeon was looking for repeat business.......when I left there he told me 'even if I lose all my weight I will be a skinny person needing a knee replacement'. What the heck?! Let's start with losing the negative talk bud.....I plan to lose all my weight and maintain it for a good long time. I really may have to address this someday but not today.

As much as my knee hurts and my feet scream at me I don't give in. Ok, most days I don't give in. I am now very glad when my jazzercise instructor encouraged me to get back to class. I don't jump like I used to and some moves will hurt but I love the music and the exercise. I have been doing it since 1996...it is in my blood! I have hobnobbed with the Jazzer-big cheese (Judi Sheppard Missett) and her family. I have been all over the US for conventions and have met the most wonderful people. Why? We all love the exercise.

The second best thing about having a dog is being able to go out on long walks. Walking is the most simple exercise. We can listen to our music, watch ball games, meet other people walking their dogs.....nice and social. If I go out alone, I can take a shopping bag with me and run errands at the same time.

When I walked into my first exercise class I never thought I would say that I could not live without moving. Isn't that grand?! And now that I know my body was lying to me about exercise, what else is it lying to me about??!!

I'm just sayin'......

I was going through some of the shows I have dvr'd over time......well over the last 3 weeks. How do I know it was 3 weeks? There were 25 Dr Oz shows waiting to be seen. The nice thing about dvr...if I don't like the topic I can delete it and not waste any time. While I was waiting for the laundry to be ready to hit the dryer I decided it was time to purge some recordings.

Now you might be thinking, what does this have to do with a healthy lifestyle? I did stop to watch some of the Dr Oz show where he had 'Colleen' on. She is the woman who is over 700 lbs. Her husband has done virtually everything for her for years. Dr Oz has given her nutritionists, trainers, psychologists.........everything she should need to start to be successful in her journey. Maybe the green monster is going to rear it's ugly head here but if I had all these people at my disposal 24/7 I would be embarrassed to come back to the show and admit in 5 months I had only lost 35 lbs. Colleen has all the right words. She is a smart girl. She swears she is committed to getting healthy. When I swore the same thing to my doc a few weeks ago and I recorded it on paper I found that my words did not mimic my actions. **GASP**

To scare her, Dr Oz brought her to an autopsy suite. She did not have to face a corpse but she had to face what killed this obese person. He showed her the fat that strangled the organs. He showed her what a liver looked like choked with fat. He showed her how an aorta can have a hole in it because the heart had to work so hard to push the blood through the body.....and all she could do was cry.

Dr Oz has Ruby (check out the style channel for her show) helping her but honestly Ruby has her own issues these days. She has gained weight back and now they are leading the audience down the road that there is a thought she may have been abused as a child and she is hiding in the fat. AREN'T WE ALL?? Are we not hiding in our fat? It protects us from unwanted attention, but in reality brings on different kinds of attention. Emotionally we can hide in the fat.......physically not so much.

I regress......in any case, Colleen is being sent away to some hospital or center in NC for at least a month and Dr Oz does not want to see her before she loses 100 lbs. He was honestly very upset with her......he felt he was only getting lip service from her. Her challenge was to live with her mom for a week. Mom has lost weight but does not exercise and still eats as she chooses. She had ice cream and pastry in the house.......and did not see it as a temptation to her daughter. HELLO?! Do you see your 700 lb daughter sitting next to you?

Anyway, after watching this episode (Dr Oz on 5/19) it did give me an education on the fat in my body. When I don't want to walk anymore to hit my goal of 10k steps per day I want to visualize the fat strangling me. I want to be healthy. I want to live. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/colleens-toughest-challenge-yet-pt-3

I got my butt up at 4 am to get ready for my workout. I love my jazzercise class early in the morning. I got a good sweat going and feel energized for the day. My metabolism will be revved for a few hours before I take my lunchtime stroll. I can move, I can dance.......I live!! I have over 5,000 steps on my pedometer today......life is good!!

Where has May gone......

I am sitting in the office wondering where the month has gone. Seriously. I spent the weekend running around with my favorite niece and nephew (OK, I only have one of each) and suddenly it occurred to me that a week from today is Memorial Day.......I get to wear white again!

I am truly working the weight watchers program. I struggled this spring when my dad passed away. I knew I needed to do something but just could not get out of my own way. Not that I have come to terms with him gone.......I miss him every day BUT I am getting to honor him in various ways. First and foremost is taking care of me. Dad and I used to LOVE to garden together. Since living in a townhouse I can't put plants in the ground, pots are the next best thing! I will post pictures of all my planting from the weekend. I did various herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, sage, oregano and chives) and some new veggies (brussel sprouts, lettuce, 2 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of peppers and bush beans).

I am taking my love of food and my love of cooking and making it work for me. Let's get healthy and not use pesticides. Eat clean. Exercise more. Lose weight and get healthy. New goal....10k steps per day. Although that has gotten a bit easier I plan to make my steps target a bit farther. Can't stand still and expect results!!

On the exercise side, I was moving til I could not anymore. I did the 5K sponsored by WW. It was a kick.....at 1pm on Sunday afternoon. Isn't that the hottest time of the day? I guess that is one way to get the fat off......burn it!! Once I got home from that (hot, sweaty, and maybe a little cranky) I planted. And I planted. I used almost 4 cu ft of potting soil. That is a lot of soil and on top of it IT IS HEAVY! Strength training for free! I still had to find the energy to walk my poor sassy girl who wanted to play outside with mom but she likes to eat the dirt. Can't do that ........I was dirty enough for both of us. We did manage to wander through the neighborhood before I wanted to collapse on the couch.

So to answer my question....I have no idea where May has gone. I have a big summer planned. There are concert galore, friends visiting, maybe even the family reunion. Lots going on but staying on track with my weight loss journey. It will be fun!!

Till next time......