Feeling Good Friday-Don't Get Discouraged Edition

Lilacs are all gone now, so one last picture for Friday.

 Thank you to those that read and read and commented yesterday. I wasn't necessarily thinking I would have everyone agreeing with me and my point of view, but I was surprised that the turn went from me sharing my work and concerns about the effect of homelessness on school success to a discussion about bad decisions people make in becoming parents and expectations of society. I'm going to start my Feeling Good Friday there. 

1. I feel good that I can have conversations with people that both agree and disagree with me, with respect. I've been fortunate that even when I've touched on what may be controversial, I've not been criticized or attacked, yet those that disagree or have a different thought, felt comfortable commenting. When we stop talking, things really are not going to turn out well-even through discourse, I am encouraged. 

2. My shoes DD1 gave me at Christmas have officially been converted to walking and they are so nice on my feet. While taking pup for a walk is not much of a work out for me,(sniff and whiz at every tree and corner) when I can slip away and leave him behind (I make him sound like a two year old child), I can get some serious miles out of these shoes as they have just the right support, but are not heavy and clunky like other shoes I've used for walking.  Thanks again, kid! I just updated to add these are the Nike Flex Exepreince RN5 in blue and pink. I had a question.

NYtimes.com

3. Cherries are in the grocery store now! I don't know how often you can get cherries where you live, but in Minnesota late May, to about mid June seems to be the only time we get decent and somewhat affordable cherries in the stores. These are my absolute, ultimate, favorites, probably because I only get them one time a year. I can pass by any chocolate for a nice bowl of cherries. OK. Dip a few in dark chocolate and I truly will be in heaven. 

4. DD2 had her last choir concert of the season and again, did not disappoint. As she gets older, I know more of the graduating seniors so it was a bit bitter sweet during the slide show to see so many of her friends that will graduate. I buy the recording or DVD's of the concerts. Not frugal, but supports the school, plus I can enjoy in the moment rather than try and record.

5 And last, bummer to report, but I actually put back on a .8 of a pound in the last week. I know it was bound to happen, have a weight loss set back, so I truly am not surprised. I'm not going to get discouraged this time. I'm still at a 1.8 average loss per week, 8.2 pounds total; my original goal was 1.5 per week. I review in my head and can pinpoint where my stumbles were-too many evening calories, more simple carbs than I want, and a few sneaky nibbles. In the past, I would pretend in my head I did everything "right" so take on a why bother attitude. 

I'll try and jump start my plan again today. I may not use the daily weigh in for this week. I might be getting discouraged and instead, wait to see all my progress all on one day. I think I'll try at least for the week. And with that, I'll close my Friday update. Please share your successes, and as always, ideas that might help me and others on our getting healthy journey. 

Feeling Good Friday-4 Day Weekend Edition

My Friday off and Monday a holiday. I'm breaking the weekend into three segments. Today will be focused on the mundane housework, laundry, meal planning and prep for the weekend, and baking. Early tomorrow through Sunday night DD2 and I are heading to the lake place to continue putting it to rights so the family can enjoy the rest of summer. I'll probably indulge in a glass of wine or two and a cold beer perhaps. DH went up yesterday to take care of a few things and check on some poured cement. He stayed over but has to work today, Saturday, and Monday so no extra time for him, but will come up Saturday night again. Monday, memorial day, I'll spend a bit of time in the morning in memorial. No doubt I'll still have some remaining housework and laundry from the weekend, but I like to take at least half of the Monday holidays for self down time, with no list. 

This week was pretty successful on the weight part, blah, but not terrible on mental well being, and poor on physical exercise. I had a boost this morning through a Caring Bridge update. Here's a few highlights of the week.

1. My friend A posted her own Caring Bridge update. To remind you, my friend A found out she had a cancerous brain tumor after traveling in late March on college tour trips with her daughter. After a successful surgery to remove it, she is now halfway through radiation, finding some improved strength to take short unassisted walks. She is fighting a head ache all the time, but feels her walks outdoors are helping. Her spirit of fight motivates me.  
2. I went ahead and threw my hat into the ring for another position, a sizable promotion, at the organization that a few weeks back hired my friend for the job which we had both applied. I don't feel positive or negative about my chances, but when I got the "rejection" call, this position was specifically mentioned as being posted soon and that she hoped I might consider applying. 
3. On my own job, I was added to a leadership team that if the work is clear and sustaining, will add a lot personal fulfillment to me in my job. Of course, unlike the other, no pay increase, no benefit increase, but with the climate in the office right now, this is a good thing.
4. The weather was Minnesota chaos this week as well, finally getting nominally nicer yesterday. Poor pup hasn't even wanted to be outside unless with DD2, bundled up to try and do her homework on the porch or deck. My walking has suffered. But, a new week and I will be sure to burn a lot of calories working this weekend. I'm hoping to reengage a former walking buddy next week.
5. And finally, on the scales, I was rewarded for my planned eating and avoiding junk with another 2 pound weight loss. Total four weeks loss is 9 pounds, and still on track to my original 20 pound loss goal by July 28th. Dare I push a new goal, 25 pound loss? Best not to get ahead of myself as there is a lot of challenging events ahead to derail me.

 Congrats to my cyber buddies on losing and maintaining their weight loss goals. Let's all remember though, no matter where we are in the process, we are lovely at the size we are now. I keep telling myself that as the move to bare skin clothing is imminent. Enjoy your weekend. 

Me and pup, two summers ago, 4th of July.

 

Rut-terless Meals While Trying to Drop a Few Pounds

The portion I should have stopped at.

Let's face it. Dieting healthy eating, can be tedious. I struggle with meal planning in general, but add that a) my go to meals have historically been carb and fat laden comfort foods, and b) I don't want to make separate meals for myself and the other members of my family, and I can easily get in a low cal rut. I've partially combatted this by starting my meal first with the bulk of the meal being steamed vegetables, and filling in the sides with the main meal. But that has me feeling unfulfilled. 

I've been scoping my recipe's and trying to reinvent them as healthier options. Last night's option was my mom's Rice Hotdish. This is a simple dish of just rice, water, soy sauce, hamburger, and onion baked in the oven. I decreased the soy by 1/2 to just 1/4 cup, added ginger and garlic, used a whole large, onion, four carrots, three stocks of celery, and only 1/2 pound of hamburger. I had a zucchini lurking in the crisper so that went in as well. With this, I've cut the sodium, cut the fat, and upped the vegetables. It has sort of a stir fry taste. I ate too much though and the scale showed it this morning-comfort food after a tedious, but stressful day. I might have been the extra snack last night of hummus on bread with cheese, again, when not hungry. I guess that's the point of daily weigh ins.

My go to lunch last week was a big batch of black bean, corn,and tomato salad. I had bell peppers and onion left from the pizza so those went in as well. It made a big batch, and by Friday, I was at my last bowlful. To help with the boredom, I ate it slightly different each of the four days, adding the last of a jar of green olives one day, broken multi grain chips (left in the bottom of the bag) another, and served with a side of cottage cheese on the other two days. I'll take a break but will revisit it in another week as I have all the ingredients on hand.. 

I love steamed vegetables, but even something I enjoy gets dull. I've tried to perk them up with using different herbs and spices. Oregano, basil an parsley  elevated the simple California blend a couple times last week. A little ginger with some steamed carrots I did to go with the rice hot dish boosted the flavor a touch. 

I've been having a bit of peanut butter with banana slices or a clementine with a eight almonds (a mere 50 calories) for an afternoon snack. The nuttiness, even though I'm using a small amount of PB, helps my snack feel more substantial. Friday on a work break, I sliced an apple with an ounce of sharp cheddar cheese-just about an ounce. 

Historically, my weight loss down fall is over eating and eating too much of the wrong kinds of food. While I am feeling more successful, hitting the three week mark, I am worried about my boredom level and getting in a rut, that then gets me mindless eating.(second portions when I'm not even still hungry.) If you have hints that work well for you, please share. If there are any good healthy food bloggers, real people with crazy busy lives, please recommend them in the comments.

Weight Loss Companionship

While I've kept the 7 pounds that became my real total weight loss in 2016, nothing has budged since.  I don't understand it when my diet has consisted of over eating leftover shower foods, birthday party cake, and clearanced priced Russel Stover caramel eggs. I wish I was joking. Avoid the candy aisle after holidays.Trust me on this.Two bloggers I read, Rachel at Living Better One Day at a Time and TraceeBee at Just Keep Swimming Mama Fish! know the same struggle, and have been writing, and boldly posting their progress and laments. Brave women, but I'm not there in terms of declaring publicly my actual weight. I just can't type those three numbers with a decimal point and another number. But on this last Friday of April, in a weekend that other than my nephews birthday dinner tonight, I have nothing on the calendar, and a full three months before my nieces wedding, and family pictures, I'm waging war on my scale. I am dubbing Rachel and TraceeBee my cyber Weight Loss Companions.

The snow flakes, that got quite blustery for a few moments on my commute in, really jaded me last night. I ate a full dinner, then snacked later at the computer, staying up too late watching crap on television. Since DH was off, he took pup for his walk, and I didn't even get that brief amount of exercise in. Today, I woke up feeling stiff, gurgly, and with a junk food hang over, almost, not quite, as bad as an alcohol one. No more as my body does not recover from either type of over indulgence anymore.

My weight loss target for 13 weeks from today, the morning we will leave for the wedding weekend is to have lost 20 pounds and one and 1/2 dress sizes.  I add the 1/2 because I'm currently squeezing into a size that is not comfortable in some styles, so the 1/2 is to first have my clothes fit well again, and second to decrease by a size. I will full on admit this timeline is vanity. Twenty pounds on my smallish frame will greatly improve how I feel I look in pictures. It also is a significant amount off my joints, which then in turn will help promote me walking an extra 1/2 mile or more each night. This comes down to a measly 1 1/2 pound weight loss a week, decreasing/burning 5,250 calories more than my body needs to maintain my current weight. Yikes, that is 750 per day. I'll add I've been cleared for this weight loss rate with my doctor.

On my new Feeling Good Friday posts (trying to frame in the positive), I will be brave like my cyber companions and record the highs, the lows, the success, and challenges of this latest attempt to bring myself to a place of health. I'll boldly admit to eating two Russel Stover caramel Easter eggs within two hours of eating a burger and French fry supper, and my shameless binge watching the last season posted on Netflix of Death in Paradise instead of walking pup or doing strength exercises. Hopefully though, I'll be able to record miles walked, rounds of cardio and strength circuits, and efforts in the pool. With DD2 not playing soccer, we have a huge windfall. I'm hoping the YMCA runs their summer special where for under $300, our whole family can have a summer pass. This will give DD2 something to replace soccer to keep fit, and give me access to an early morning pool and group classes. 

Feeling Good Friday Log, April 28, 2017

Challenges
Ate too much discount candy
Lack of exercise

Successes
Packed healthy lunch with minimum of two fruit veg all week
Committed to a healthy spring and summer
Set Weight loss goal that is realistic (?)

It's Not Just Roots and Berries

Expand my horizons, eat healthier, get physically active. These three areas have been part of my mantra for my personal growth for a while. I'm a fickle kind of person though. I jump on a bandwagon for a really short amount of time, learning about something, diving in for weeks, perhaps months, but eventually slip back in my old ways and habits. However, little bits and bobs of knowledge or curtailed behaviors stay behind. I guess I am like most people trying out things that sound like they make sense, seeing how they fit in my life and rejecting, or ignoring what doesn't. Last night I tried expanding my horizon and attended a lecture at a co-op in a transitional neighborhood in Minneapolis. I've learned over the last few decades that transitional means the neighborhood used to be really sketchy and now is just sort of sketchy, but becoming more an more populated by hipster people and hipster shops and restaurants. This particular coop is a smaller sister of a larger grocery store style one a few blocks over, but features a cafe and deli with sit down tables, plus a large community room that hosts lectures like the one I attended and of course, yoga classes. 

The lecture was given by Jordan Ruben, author of Patient Heal Thyself and his newest book, which we received a copy of, Planet Heal Thyself. In Patient, Mr. Rubin wrote about how he was able to transform his sickly 19 year old body that was plagued by  a host of illness and digestive disorders by overhauling everything he ate and put in his body. With Planet, he wants to go further and implore all of us to do the same, while also taking steps that will regenerate the planet. The first book is the one that got my friend V going going grain and sugar free and she insists she is a new person inside and out from her changes. Planet, at least from the lecture I take it, will go deeper into how to be part of a revolution that moves food growers, distributors and sellers into providing more readily accessible and affordable foods free from  additives, herbicides, and other toxins that are killing our body and our worlds soil. This, Rubin says, is done through changes each of us make in what we choose to buy and consume-change though our dollars. 

He was a slick speaker, obviously on the lecture circuit for decades honing his presentations. Much of what he said has become basic knowledge. Eat real food as close to the natural state as possible. Eat artisanally-meaning how our ancestors ate, without added chemicals and preservatives. He talked about the GMO debate, and super foods, and the miraculous properties in plants as the main source of vitamins and minerals as opposed to popping tablets. Most made sense, and I was feeling a stirring of wanting to tear apart my kitchen pantry and start over again. 

Then the lecture turned from a presentation on his book and sharing of what he has learned into an infomercial for his new line of health products Get Real Nutrition. It was a 180 degree shift. In all honesty, I lost retention of 50% of what he said as he moved from all the points about saving ourselves and the world to touting these powder to mix into your smoothies and hummus. I guess I should have expected it. He was doing a free lecture, and the book was part of the evening. There had to be a marketing catch, and sure enough there was. We all received the book, a cloth bag, a magazine from his company, and three coupons for $4,00 off each box of Get Real  we wanted to purchase. I didn't buy any as I feel like I need to read more to understand what the heck he is peddling, and why, if I followed the 10 points he was trying to convey in his speech, would I need his super food powders? He lost a bit of street cred there with me.

Still, I think it is important to learn new things, challenge our status quo, even if we decide reverting back to said quo is best. I certainly agree with increasing the vegetarian meals in our diet and staying away from additives and chemical preservatives is a good thing. I was excited to hear and want to know more, about the power, not just in flavor of herbs and spices, but in their support of healthy immune and digestive system. On the other hand, removing the 8 allergens he sites, such as tree nuts, dairy, and eggs is not a change I want to take on right now. Who else has attended a lecture on a topic that is trending that you've been curious to know more about? Have a great weekend. I may be off to forage roots and berries.

As part of the free lecture, everyone got a copy of the book.
This was not an endorsement for any book or product, but
 merely my opinions and experience. 

Go To Breakfast Update

Thank you for the suggestions via the comments or by e-mail for quick grab and go breakfasts with staying power. I feel fuller already! I hard boiled eggs yesterday, portioned out peanut butter for apples or bananas, and made a batch of breakfast bars.The recipe I linked to on Sunday of course as I always do, was modified to what I had on hand, and to my own taste preferences. I wouldn't say the bars are delicious, but they are as good, if not better than store bought breakfast biscuits, and even passed the teenager test-in small amounts. My version has no protein powder, wheat germ, or flax seed, but I will give the pure recipe a try after I next go to the coop and purchase bulk of these items. I compensated with an extra 1/2 cup of oats. They were on the dry side, so suggest a beverage be handy. 

2 Cups Quick oats
2 tsp cinnamon (I doubled as I love cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt
3 bananas (Mine were frozen and on the small side.  I suggest using average to larger for more moistness)
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
another 1/4 peanut butter or more to taste
 Mix dry ingredients, set aside while mashing bananas then mixing in peanut butter, honey, and  vanilla.  Add to dry and mix together well.  Press in an 8" by 8" pan, lined with foil, then sprayed with baking spray, leaving foil to hang over edge. Bake 20 minutes at $375.  Take out, spread with the remaining peanut butter, and bake another 10 minutes.  Lift out with foil then cool completely.  

I cut mine in 8 bars, though the recipe I saw made 12, which in hind sight, was probably right.  They are filling. After sampling, I have four left for grab and go. These were cheap to make-my way, perhaps $1.50 for the pan. I saw Belvita soft breakfast biscuits were  $2.98 for five. Mine took less than five minutes to measure, mix, and put in the oven, and then another five perhaps to spread additional peanut butter, and then to later cut and wrap after cooling. Mine have 7 ingredients, and their label goes on and on with many ingredients I can't pronounce. I'll concede that I used Skippy peanut butter, and not an all natural because we had several jars on hand. Admittedly, Skippy has a long list of "stuff" beyond peanuts. I use Belvita as the comparison because I genuinely do like them, and have bought them to keep in my desk or in the glove box, so a realistic comparison. 

My camera was not cooperating, but they looked pretty much the same as the recipe photo, perhaps a bit darker because I doubled the cinnamon.The verdict, I would make these again. I and the girls liked them enough to include in a breakfast rotation, and they were super easy.  I'll give the real recipe a try and see if the added ingredients and expenses are worth it. 

Photo-allrecipes.com

Because Coffee Alone is Not Enough

One of my first waking thoughts is, coffee. The Tom Hanks line in You've Got Mail, describing coffee as "legally addictive stimulants" is apropo. After cutting back significantly about a year ago with my job change, and the free coffee pot always on, the morning craving, dare I even say need for a fix, has increased. Forget that decaffeinated stuff, and people should not even try to fool me. I know by taste and the lack of jolt my body experiences. As I get older though, and know my food and beverage choices need to improve, coffee is not enough to keep my energy and brain waves up until lunch time. I still struggle though with eating breakfast, unless it is a later big breakfast, eaten slow and leisurely, several hours after I am up. Those breakfasts I love-bring it on. 

I've been experimenting with different options that I can eat first thing sitting at my desk, or in the car on my commute, late enough from when I first wake up and don't feel like eating something, but early enough that I will keep my blood sugars in check. As part of my schedule, I don't take a regular lunch break so I can spend fewer hours in the office, and get my 10th day work day in the pay period off. Lunch is eaten at my desk while reviewing reports or returning e-mails, or taken along to a working lunch meeting, and can be any where from 11:30-2:30. 

A few of my standbys for a portable and speedy breakfast include peanut butter sandwich, or toast on multi grain bread, scrambled egg and cheese wrapped in a tortilla, wrapped tightly to keep warm, a couple granola bars, or dry cereal in a baggie or small container. If I think about it and we have them, I'll throw a banana in my bag as well. The worst of these options, and the easiest is the granola bar. They have low staying power, are high in calories for what you actually eat, and loaded with sugar. The cereal is second worst-lower calories and sugar, but almost no staying power. I'd like to take a stab at making my own breakfast bar,  loaded with fiber and protein and less sugar. We're braving the elements today and meeting friends for lunch and to watch the game. One friend is the not quite paleo friend, that has given up grains and sugar. I' going to pick her brain for ideas.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/231925/high-fiber-high-protein-breakfast-bars/

I came across the following web site searching for some recipes;. High Fiber High Protein Breakfast Bars. The reviews are mixed, but they look like something I would like, and while it says 12 servings at 169 calories, I think for a grown up breakfast, I'd make a bit bigger, and cut the pan into eighths, making them about 250 calories. I could freeze, and stretch to two a week for variety, only making them once a month unless the family likes them, then more frequently.  Anyone out there have a good recipe, or good ideas on grab and go breakfasts that stand up to your mornings?