20 September 2008
Come Saturday morning.....
Last night I was exhausted. Just completely and totally drained. I literally fell into bed and was sound asleep within minutes. I did not wake all night. When Hubby got up this morning I just rolled over and went right back to sleep again. It felt wonderful. I finally got up at 6:30 when the birds started screaming for their breakfast. I'm still tired and could easily have slept a couple more hours. As a result I didn't workout this morning, but I'm hoping to do it later tonight.
I think I'm going to take it kind of easy today. I have some reading and report writing for school to do but I think I'm going to nap, drink lots of water, and generally take care of myself. I've got about 10 more weeks of this, I need to pace myself.
Right now though, I need to get my butt off to WW. I considered not going but that is something that is help hold it all together for me. It's definitely worth the hour I spend on it every week.
19 September 2008
Is it December yet???
Due to my crazy schedule workouts have been sporadic. I really want to but the sometimes sleep wins out. I'm hoping I'll adjust. I have Thursdays off now so that may make it a little easier.
I just need to be left alone to sleep through the night. Nala has been having seizures, so any little noise she makes wakes me up. I am sitting here typing this and I am soooooo tired. You have no idea.
The good part is, my food has been very good. I have no time to eat junk so that's definitely good. I don't think I'll be needing diet pills anytime soon.
Well, I'm off to bed early. I want to do my strength training in the morning. I need to get a workable routine going.
17 September 2008
Funny
Bread Is Bad
Found here:
1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called “dough.” It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average North American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
8. Bread is often a “gateway” food item, leading the user to “harder” items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 240 degrees Celsius! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
12. Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:
1. No sale of bread to minors
2. A nationwide “Just Say No To Toast” campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
5. The establishment of “bread-free” zones around schools.
– Author unknown.
General grumbling.....
I ran across this article yesterday on Starling Fitness. Seems that vegans and vegetarians have to be careful to get enough B12 or their brain will shrink. I've always found the arguments for vegetarianism interesting. It's one thing if you don't like meat, I know a few people like that. But to actively avoid it for supposed health reasons just cracks me up. First off if you look at our teeth you will quickly realize we were made to eat meat and veggies. We have the front teeth that rip and the rear teeth that grind. That allows us to eat both meat and veggies.
JERK!!!! People who go around doing this better be sure their term life insurance is paid up. If I met one of these folks in person they would need it.
Alright, that feels better but that's not why I came here :) I was going to write about something profound but it's slipped my mind. I guess all my ranting got me sidetracked. Let's see what was I thinking about this morning; school, Nala, breakfast. Oh yeah, breakfast. I've been eating Special K Protein for a while now and I really like it. But the other day in the store I was feeling like something different. I ended up getting Shredded Mini-Wheats Unfrosted. Yuck!! After eating Special K these taste like cardboard. Too bad because I used to really love them. Bleh!!
I guess I'll stop here for now. I can't remember exactly what I wanted to say so I'll go now. I'm going to go grumble in the corner over spammers......
15 September 2008
Good reads, good TV, generally interesting stuff
First, I ran across this article yesterday on Starling Fitness. Seems that vegans and vegetarians have to be careful to get enough B12 or their brain will shrink. I've always found the arguments for vegetarianism interesting. It's one thing if you don't like meat, I know a few people like that. But to actively avoid it for supposed health reasons just cracks me up. First off if you look at our teeth you will quickly realize we were made to eat meat and veggies. We have the front teeth that rip and the rear teeth that grind. That allows us to eat both meat and veggies. Secondly, look at our intestines. Cows, who eat only veggies, have very long intestines while dogs, who eat mostly meat, have short intestines. Humans have mid-length intestines because we are made to eat both meat and veggies. Finally, humans as a species made the leap from animals to humans when we started eating protein, namely meat. Protein allowed our brains to grow and our intellectual and cognitive abilities to develop. This never would have happened without us consuming meat. Anyway, I just found this study interesting.
Then this morning I read the post by Michele on a scale rant. She makes some very good points and it's very well written. I myself have a pretty good relationship with the scale now, though I didn't used to. I have a Tanita at home but I rarely use it. I tend to rely on the WW weigh-in. But there was a time when I weighed myself every single day. I did it specifically to get over my obsession with the scale. I found myself checking my weight at 2-3 day intervals and getting crazy over what the numbers said. So for about 30-60 days I weighed myself every day at the same time and charted the numbers I got. I found that my weight can fluctuate as much as 4 lbs for no apparent reason. By weighing everyday I could see the pattern and it really did break me of my obsession. Now I don't put a lot of weight in what the numbers say, I really do rely more on other factors. It's a good post and you all should read it.
Last night I was watching TV, for the first time all weekend, and I saw a commercial for high fructose corn syrup. It was saying how HFCS is made from corn and has the same amount of calories as sugar. It's natural and not bad at all in moderation. I nearly fell off the couch. Talk about a publicity campaign to make a sow's ear into a silk purse. I quickly made a note to myself that I would have to post about this, it was too good to let it just go by. So as I'm reading blogs this morning I discover that The Diet Blog has beat me to the punch. Since they quote studies and cite references, I decided you should just read them. It's a great post and they're right, I'm pretty sure moderation isn't 78 lbs a year.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago I caught the end of a story on 20/20. It was about people obsessed with eating healthy and tracking their food and such. It really peaked my interest as I'm kind of into that right now. Since I missed most of the story I've been meaning to look it up and just haven't gotten around to it. Well, I just went over and read the story on the 20/20 website. Turns out I don't have anything to worry about as these folks were obsessed with eating healthy food. I'm not that obsessed. I will eat junk just not so much of it. Anyway, it's interesting and it just goes to show that anything, good or bad, can be taken too far.
Okay, I've now caught up on all the stuff I wanted to say. It's amazing the information that is out there and how it all relates. Good stuff this Internet thingee......
14 September 2008
Changess
When I began this journey many, many moons ago, I knew lots of things about my life had to change. I also knew that it wouldn't be easy and it would take time. I set out first to change my activity. As a child I was incredibly active and I felt that would be the easiest to change significantly. I was right. It took me time but I've really gotten to the point where I prefer to be active than inactive. Given some time to kill I would prefer to do something even if it's just clean something or go for a short walk. I'm still not as active as I'd like to be, but I work to be as active as I can.
I also knew I had to change my food. What I ate. How much I ate. When I ate. All of it needed to be overhauled. I knew I couldn't change it all at once and fell on my face a number of times when I tried to change too many things at once. But gradually over time I changed things. I started on how much I ate. This is where the points system at WW helped so much. Cutting my portion sizes helped a lot. Then I went on a campaign to change what I ate. I worked on dropping processed foods and eating only whole, natural foods. That made a huge difference and really helped a lot. This is where the Core program from WW helped me a lot.
But in spite of all these changes I was making it was still a struggle. I would struggle to get up in the mornings and workout. I would wrestle with making the right food choices. The demon of junk food would grab me and not let me go. It was hard. Really hard. I kept at it but wasn't sure I would ever win the battle. It made it a lot harder when I would hear or read of people who would say they changed something and made it sound like it was so easy and simple. 'I started working out more' and poof I lost 800 lbs. Well, I started working out more but I struggled with it every single day. It wasn't just a change I made, it was a battle I fought and had to keep fighting. Many, many times I felt like I was a huge failure because I couldn't make a change stick immediately.
Then something happened. I don't know exactly when or how, but it happened. I suddenly started picking healthy food over junk food without really thinking about it. I found myself getting out of bed before I was awake enough to realize what I was doing :) I found myself being the person and doing the things that I always wanted to do, easily. I wish I could pinpoint exactly when the change occurred but there is no one point. There are a thousand little battles that were fought along the way. Some were won, some were lost, but all were incredibly important.
I realized this only yesterday. I went to WW and after missing for 2 weeks was afraid what the scale would say. I was down 4 lbs. I hadn't done a whole lot of tracking during those 2 weeks. I just ate when I was hungry and didn't eat when I wasn't. I worked out every possible chance, though there were mornings it just wasn't in the cards. I had started grad school and the nights I was in school till 8:30 I didn't eat dinner. Not as a conscious choice, but because I would eat a little bit bigger lunch and not be hungry at night. My one hard and fast rule was, if I wasn't hungry I didn't eat. When I was hungry I craved healthy foods. I never once considered stopping at a fast food place when hungry. I didn't eat much junk at all. I wanted good, healthy, whole food and that's what I sought out. Even if I was hungry and needed to wait a little while to get something healthy. That's what I wanted and it was worth the wait.
So, while I was busy fighting all those little battles the changes happened. I'm not a failure at all. In fact, I'm willing to bet I'll be more successful in the long run then those who made the changes quickly. I battled my demons along the way and while they are not all slayed, I have complete confidence I can slay the rest.
It's a quiet morning
I want to workout this morning but I can't seem to get my butt of this chair. I was going to do a strength session but I like to do those on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. Don't ask me why, I sure don't know. I was going to go hiking this morning but it rained most of yesterday. I don't feel like hiking in mud. Well, I'm going to go do something. Sitting here is not getting anything I have to do or want to do done. So now I'm going to move.......
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