It's just a number.......

How many times do we hear that.....it's just a number.  What do all these numbers mean?  Is it good if it goes up?  Down?  Sideways (just kidding!)

Let's start with weight......wow, that is a number!!  As a weight watcher's member it is a very important number that I track weekly.  I really like when I see it move down.  It is then an indication that I have done it right.......more fruits/vegetables; less bread, pasta.  More water, less wine (ok that is a stretch.....I don't drink that much) but I have followed the program as dictated....and there is a smile on my face!

Along with the weight going down, blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol all will follow in a downward spiral.  All of that is good!  One goal this year is to get off the little blood pressure pill I take.  All of these numbers can be critical for a person......especially if you have family history of heart disease, diabetes and the like.

Then there are numbers, healthy numbers, that going up are good.  I see you scratching your head but give me a minute to explain.  Stamina, steps, exercise...these are all numbers I like seeing go up.  I have a fitbit, a type of pedometer, and I wear it faithfully.  For several months I have not been able to exercise at Jazzercise or take Sassy for the walks she became accustomed to. Since New Year's eve I have been trying to go back to the 10,000 steps per day.  I have found that the days I do go to Jazzercise it is easy to hit that mark.  The other days I really strive for 7,000 steps.  With time and persistence I will get back to where I was.  I don't like the feeling of exhaustion walking up the stairs with a full laundry basket.  It has been a long time since that was a problem for me.  I am not taking this lying down.....I am on my feet moving!!

Other numbers we track.......age.  I am not getting any younger but refuse to be labeled old.  I will keep moving and looking great.  Money.....well we can all use more and I hope that I am investing well.  Blessings........boy I count those daily.  My friends and family are high on the list of blessings I have.

On that note, I need to go do some homework.....another number I track.....my grades.  I never thought going back for masters #2 would be so hard but if it is worth doing it better be done well.

until next time......

And so it goes.....

Yum.....I love guacamole!  I love avocados in general.  I have been experimenting with a panini maker I received for Christmas.  Last night it was a tuna melt with avocado.  Very thin slices of avocado......it was decadent.  I can't say it was point friendly but I had planned for the sandwich for dinner and it was ok.  It was so ok that I saw a 1.4 lb loss on the scale this week.

At my meeting this morning we talked about our successes and how we achieved them; also talked about how we would sustain the momentum this week.  I thought about that.

The last few weeks I have been cleaning my spaces (fridge, pantry, house in general) and most everything is point friendly.  This includes the glass of wine I might choose with dinner or a splurge of ice cream after dinner.  Did you know the beauty of Weight Watchers is that there are no forbidden foods?!  Seriously!  I love ice cream.....skinny cows, dairy queen, you name it.....I like it!!

What is even nicer is that if I choose to exercise, I can have more points to eat!  I try not to use my activity points because I have the extra 49 per week.  I NEVER use both the extra and activity points.  That shows a lack of self control!  This is a healthy journey and there is nothing healthy about being glutenous in any area of life.  Everything should be in moderation.

So, to celebrate my success this week, I will take the dog for a walk before dinner and maybe indulge in a cup of hot cocoa as a treat.  I really don't want to give myself food as a reward for success.........isn't that how I got in this mess??!

Seriously, I am saving my rewards that I am earning for my cruise.  Maybe I will get a new pair of shoes or a new swim suit....something that will reflect the hard work I am putting forth to be a healthier (and sassier) me!

Movement......is it all it is cracked up to be?

To me, the answer is a resounding YES!  Try spending a very extended period of time in a boot to keep your foot mobilized.  Try having 3 foot procedures keeping you on crutches (and begging the doc to let me just walk...no depth perception makes crutches harder).  Try having an infection wreaking havoc with the healing process......and lastly being forced NOT to participate in my beloved Jazzercise for virtually 9 months.

I can honestly say, in the 17 years I have been jazzercising I have never missed more than a week due to a cold, vacation, or some malady.  This has been excruciating.  For most of this time an exercise bike was the only activity that the doc would allow but I am not a big fan, so I opted to do it very infrequently.  I could have been doing some weight work or ab work on my own, but that is why I joined Jazzercise.......I do not do well on my own!

Walking was a challenge after getting the release from the boot.  My foot did not have a lot of feeling and the muscles were tight.  I was given a stretching routine that I do use.  It does make things feel a bit less weird.  Right now, about 1/3 of my foot is still numb.  Not unexpected but still is weird.  Even the dog has been missing her long walks through the park and around the neighborhood.

I finally got off the pity pot the other day when I realized I needed to move.  I am recommitting myself to a healthy lifestyle and that most definitely includes exercise.  New Year's eve I took my first jazzercise class in months.  It hurt and I felt like a new student as most of the music I had not danced to this year but it was good.  Yes, my foot was swollen at the end of the class but a little ice and I was golden.

Sassy has been getting mini walks through the complex here.  She is finding all the old smells as new and having a blast......and most important I am wearing my pedometer (a fitbit ultra to be exact).  I have gone from getting maybe 500 steps in per day to closer to 7000 steps per day.......all without indulging in jazzercise.  I am moving toward my old goal of 10,000 steps per day and I can see it in the horizon.  

So if you are in the hood and see us meandering about the place, wave hi!  We will smile and continue down the road with a smile because we can move and choose to enjoy it all!

Tracking, Spaces, Routines

If it has not been obvious, I am a Weight Watchers member.  I have been for many years.....more off than on but that is a story for another day.  I even have the first cookbook the Jean N (can't spell her last name.....but the founder of WW).  My grandmother, God love her, thought her chubby granddaughter needed the help.

For the most part I am a faithful tracker........well, I did take a couple of months off.  I had my pity party that if I could not exercise, why track what I eat.  Did it matter?  I know it did matter but could not wrap my head around it.  What is crazy is I have been watching people around me losing like crazy.....why?  Let's say it together......TRACKING!  One high school friend has almost lost half his starting body weight.  How did he do it?  I eats the same thing every day for breakfast, snack, lunch and snack.  Dinner he varies as I am sure his family would get bored with eating the same boring chicken every night.

Tracking is not hard.  Is it necessary?  I really do think so.  Our mindless eating (one cookie won't kill me) will get us into trouble.  An extra point here, two there, no enough activity will help the pounds creep back.  Shoot, WW has apps of every kind, paper trackers, books....all sorts of tools to help us be successful.

In the new version of Weight Watchers 360, there are even more tools.  They are my title today.  I have recommitted to tracking.  I can do it on my computer, my phone, my iPad....they have made it very easy for me.....I can't screw it up!  Well.......you understand what I mean.

Spaces is one of my prides today (yesterday too) as I took the time to clean the fridge.  OMG the stuff that was in there that was old.  Some looked like a science experiment and other things just looked wilted and beyond their time.  I was sad for the money I was throwing out and have made a promise to myself that I will not let that happen anymore.  Food is too expensive to be lackadaisical with what I have purchased and not use it.  Once it was clean, I started cooking!  I looked up recipes (split pea soup....Emeril has a great one) and made 2 pots of soup.  Good old chicken soup and Split Pea (no ham).  I had purchased some chicken breasts and was afraid they might be bad.....luck was on my side and they were fine.  I stuffed them with low fat ricotta cheese and spinach, topped them with salsa and added a little white wine to it for added moisture.  All point friendly.  I went to the grocery and got fruit, frozen veggies and am good to go for the week.  My space in my kitchen is a good place for me.  Everything there is friendly and I don't have to worry about whether something will sabotage my journey.

Another friendly space is my bedroom AKA the cave!  No food is allowed in the cave, liquid beverage only.  There has to be a place where I don't have to worry about food.  The dog and I have our safe haven......and all is good there.

Let's face it, we are all creatures of habit.  Routine can be our friend.  I love knowing that I have my pedometer on and can challenge myself to move a little more today than yesterday.  I like knowing that I have a few things readily available for breakfast so no thought process needed there.  I have snacks to grab with no thought of failure. 

I need to work on my exercise routine.  More like get back to it.  As I said the other day I took my first class and although I did plan tomorrow to be number 2 it might have to wait for the weekend.  I say that as being an accountant, year end is surrounding me and those deadlines don't care if I want to work out.  I will get out and take Sassy for a walk.  She will love it.  She loves the cold weather and running around like a fool (a fool on a leash!)

I did have my first weigh in for 2013 this morning (ww at the office......greatest thing I did for me and my work buddies) and had a success on the scale.  That made my day!  I will allow the momentum and joy of that feeling today carry me through the week.  There is no such thing as failure UNLESS I say it is failure.  I make choices all day long.  If my choice is to indulge in a piece of chocolate, good for me.  If I bite it, I write it.  The word 'bad' is banned from my vocabulary unless I am talking about something spoiled.  I am not bad for making a choice......I am a human making a choice.  If I choose to have something NOT point friendly I have to give something up to accommodate it.

This is my year for success.  I know it.....I feel it....I will achieve it and unlike the celebrities who endorse WW, I don't have chefs, trainers and the like in my corner.  I do, however, have all my friends who cheer me on and for that I am the luckiest girl in the world!

See you soon!

New Year's Eve......

I wanted to finish the new year out on a high note.......I took my first jazzercise class since March!  It hurt...and I was leery of the movements but I moved and it felt good!  I remember now what it is like to be a new person taking class for the first time.  It is the first time in 17 years that I have taken time off for such a long period of time.  Sweating felt grand!  

I know I will be cautious over the next weeks as I take more classes but I am also now not afraid to try some things at the gym.  I have been the worlds greatest scardy cat.  Afraid I would re-injure the ankle; afraid that I would not be able to do my favorite Jazzercise...funny how fear is so paralyzing.

I had a wonderful dinner with family and now I am ready to call it a night.  I reflect on all the people who have passed in this last year......you will be remembered fondly; reflecting on all the new experiences and people I have been blessed to meet......I hope you are all still in my life but if by chance you are not, there will be sunshine filled memories to carry you with me.

Happy New Year everyone.....let's make it grand!

The year is coming to an end.....

I have been doing a lot of reflecting over the last few weeks.  So many changes in life that we have to roll with the flow.

Just before Christmas, I lost one of my uncles.  It was unexpected, shocking and brought back all the memories and feelings of my dad's passing.  Uncle Paul was 75.  My mom called to remind me she was turning 75 (yesterday) and that I better be extra good to her!  Gotta love it......I am the good one!

It also reminded me of all the people we have lost in the last year.....family, friends, celebrities.  My niece and nephew have no idea who Charles Durning was, Elizabeth Taylor, Chad Everett....these people were icons.  Their films and acting were grand.  They are more aware of the rappers or sports figures who lost their lives to stupidity playing with guns and drugs.  (I wonder who their icons will be ......if they are not all dead in their prime)  I was also reminded that the man who founded the company I work for passed.  It was the first year when profit sharing was distributed there were no jokes about peoples initials, the laughter when he put a check for a missing employee in his pants 'because he got to keep it!'.  Even as I write this I feel tears coming......but now they are happy tears with the memories and smiles in my heart.

I also reflect on all the changes to weight watchers over the years.  We now focus on portion control.......even on the items that have 0 points.  I recall one meeting I used to go to where the leader told us she brought the biggest Tupperware of salad she could manage every day AND ATE IT ALL.  I know salad is filling but was it necessary to put that idea in my head (yes I tried it!).  Now I am trying to really work the program and understand that even good food can't be consumed to the point of being uncomfortably full.  I want to try to eat to live not live to eat.  I know, a novel concept!  I have a great leader in our WW at work.  Deb is great and the guys are also a great inspiration.  Shoot, the guys have lost so much and I can't say I have added much to the mix except I do know how to persevere.  Ergo, I am tracking.......the good, the bad and the ugly!  Being aware and accountable are so important.  This I will continue to do.......tracking is key and being true to me will help me reach my goals.

Exercise has been lacking in my life since I started with a foot/ankle problem.  The reason for the surgery was clear (bone pressing on a tendon) and it is healing well but there is still substantial swelling and stiffness.  I am going to take my first class in 9 months this week.  Jazzercise, how I have missed thee!!  Slow and steady will win the race......but I need to get moving again.  I have lost so much of my fitness.  Grrrr.......time to take that part of my life back!

My dog was diagnosed with diabetes.  We are still trying to control it and we will get there but until then my pooch needs me and my loving care.  2 shots per day and need to get her out walking more too!!  She misses the exercise.  God how I love my dog.

I started this out by saying the year is coming to an end.  Not the world (Mayans..you were wrong!); not my life........just this year.  I am looking forward to what it will bring.  I promise to be more active in my church (I am joining the prayer shawl group to crochet some shawls), be more active for me.  I promise to finish my second masters, get my health back in control.  I will look for my special someone (not stalk him) because I believe he is out there....he just can't find me yet.  I will continue to pay it forward and do random acts of kindness.......it fills my heart to know I have done something nice.

I also promise to blog more often.  I love writing and it helps me clear my head!

Happy New Year to all!!

Taking time for me

I learned the hard way this past weekend that me time is important.  How you wonder?  I blew up screaming at everyone in the house when my brother and niece were goofing around.  The problem was she was screeching like only a 16 year old girl can.  My nephew, sick with a cold, would not blow his nose or wear a jacket....but the night before begged me to get him sudafed PE.  My brother was complaining about my dog's toys........

Enough....all of you can use inside voices.  I don't want to hear how sick you are if you won't wear a jacket and that nose thing is making me crazy.  CAN YOU DO JUST THESE COUPLE OF THINGS FOR ME!!!

Maybe it was not appropriate to scream back but I needed to be heard.  I have been spending so much time planning stuff for the weight watcher meetings, getting to jazzercise every morning even when I can't move without pain.  Planning the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award roll out, getting the dog's pill/nails trimmed...this on top of my every day requests at the office.  I was at my max.

I love taking the dog for a walk.  We do it nightly........no matter how much pain I might be in with my plantar fasciatis.  Usually by the end of the walk my muscles are warm and not as aggravated.  Nice thing is I have a smile on my face and am ready to sit in front of the tv or veg in front of a 'words' game (words with friends, scramble with friends, hanging with friends).  I also love looking at my fitbit (pictured on the side of this blog) checking to see how many calories I have burned, steps I have taken and looking at the encouraging statements that flash across the screen!

I love making time for me and wandering the malls.  I don't have to buy anything but just going in and out of the stores to see what is out there.  If something strikes my fancy I have been known to make an impromptu purchase.

Cooking helps me relax too.  The repetition of cutting, the smells melding together and of course the end result of a (hopefully) good meal.

It seems I have a full plate but will continue to look for more.  Gardening will be on my agenda again soon.  I want to try raspberries this year.  I never plant before mother's day (isn't that an old wives tale?) but will get the pots ready for the raspberries.  According to the books I need to really fertilize the soil in the pots.  Living in a townhouse complex I can't plant in the ground but can have a crazy time with pots.  My pretty pot garden!  I have never tried them before and am always up for a challenge.

Ashton Kucher convinced me to get a Nikon 1 J1 camera this weekend too. (we are close personal friends......NOT)  I am looking forward to wandering about the Morton Arboretum snapping shots of nature.  I am excited for the fact that when I take sassy to rescue events she can be a star with her pug friends and I can capture these moments.

I am really looking to spread my wings and try new things this next season....how about you?