Tag Archives: deep thoughts

My 100 pound lose-aversary

Over the weekend, I celebrated another year of maintaining my 100 pound weight loss.   My yellow sunsprite rose came back again this year along with me.

For those that don’t know, the yellow rose bush is one I bought for myself as a gift for losing 100 pounds 3 years ago.  It was kind of a straggler bush and on the discount section at the garden center.  Like me, the rose bush just needed some love, attention, proper care and nutrition to bloom.

As is always fun, some comp pics.

Big smile in this picture because I had lost 20 pounds in 2004

Love Disney!  From 2004 I will *not* be looking like this in January when we go again!

At the gym in February 2011

In 2011 at the Tulip Festival in May

I need more full body shots.  I had almost none in my photo albums for the past year!  All of me taking my own picture LOL!

This past year has been an interesting one.  I have to say that I don’t know exactly what I weight right now.  This is my scale.

No numbers!  It’s a MaryLou’s Weigh scale which I got to review a couple years ago.  Once you set a starting weight, the scale just tells you (by way Mary Lou’s perky voice) whether you are above or below your starting weight.  I just got on it arbitrarily earlier this year and set it as a start point, so I really don’t know what the official number is.  I am guessing about 5 pounds heavier than last year.  That makes me a little nervous, I will admit.  You just never know how slick the slippery slope can be.

I do feel good about my strength and have pretty good control of my eating most times.  I am more relaxed about food as time goes by and feel fairly normal with it most times.  I do get the occasional binges here and there, and I have spent some time this past year trying to correlate binges with the types of food I am eating and what is going on in my life to see if there is any connection.  I think I might have found a wheat/binge correlation.  I tend have trouble with snacking on days where I have wheat.  Not all the time, but enough that I think that could be a contributing factor.

My exercise front has changed some in the past year as well.  The biggie is a lot less running and  heck of a lot more biking!

So onward another year, with some extra concentration to keep the weight off as I get older (eeek!).

I do have to say that I am about as happy and content as I have ever been in my whole life right now.

I will nurture this rose bush and myself and hopefully next year at this time we will still both be flourishing!

So why run at all?

I cannot believe it is Thursday already.  Gorgeous day on tap around here as well.  I took a rest day for the most part today.  I have put 200 miles on my bike since June 1st.  It’s making lifting hard to do.

Breakfast was a cooler weather classic – pumpkin cream of wheat!

Mornings in the 50s will make you want the warm stuff.  This was topped with some honey and toasted pecans.  Tasty!

So busy with work.  I think they are close to losing my primary account because it has been so behind.  I really hope not as I love this account and would have to be placed on another one – and who knows if I could be as productive.  I can only do as much as I can and hope some other people step up to the plate like they have been asking.  It does make it a little stressful.

That did make the morning go fast and I had a porch lunch and talked with John for the first time of the day (I was already working when he got up).

Don’t you love these outdoor lunches?  I would eat dinner out here, except the sun is blazing on the porch at that time of day thanks to the city cutting down our big tree when they redid the road.

So, I thought I would talk a little more about running.  I keep going back and forth as to whether I should continue to pursue it or not.  Unless you are a new reader, you know that my back has caused leg problems for running.  For a while, I thought I could run again and kind of had my mojo back, but then the pain became worse.  So I stopped.

For me, running was something that was a *huge* obstacle for me.  It was that one thing I could never do as an overweight child/adult and running always symbolized fitness and health.  I thought if I could conquer that giant mountain it would kind of close that old “fat book” so to speak.  So I trained.  And I started running 5K races.  And I began running some longer distances (the longest being 8 miles). I did a triathlon and duathlon.  I was running!  I could run!

Then I herniated the disk in my back and just being able to walk without pain again was enough let alone running.  I never was quite the same again after that.

It is almost like admitting defeat to not run.  Like I am less of an athlete.  Like I have let something get the best of me – which is probably the worst part of it.  That I am somehow taking the easy way out by not pushing through and doing it anyway.  I know that isn’t true.  I know that pushing through pain and doing something despite injury is not what you are supposed to do, and yet the thought is there.

Not sure if any of that makes sense or not.  It is so very hard to close a book on something permanently.

Let’s move on to less serious stuff, shall we?  Like latte time!  This is an iced almond milk latte with some chocolate chips.

Pixie is snoring away in the background there.

I had a real craving for pizza for dinner, but John suggested a froyo ride, which also sounded good to me on a hot day!  So, I just did my old go-to dinner of an omelet.

Broccoli outside of it tonight, feta cheese tucked inside.

It was a very nice night for a ride.

I snuck John into my yogurt picture 😈  My yogurt was honey almond flavor.  No topping tonight since it wasn’t a long ride and I had the chocolate earlier in the day.  One of the things I have to take in account when I am in weight loss mode.

And guess what?  No flat tire!  Yay!  We have to buy new tubes before our next long ride.  We have bought 5 tubes and gone through them all!  I am shopping for a new tire as well, but that might have to wait for next paycheck.

So much for a real rest day, but it was only 12 miles and we weren’t biking too fast.  Guess that is 212 miles this month so far 😀

Random acts of blogness

I thought I would just answer some random questions I have been getting recently in comments or emails. just for fun.

1.  Do you really photograph everything you eat? Pretty much.  Ask my family LOL! I don’t always take pictures of nibbles, although I usually mention that.

I am certainly not a ‘perfect eater’ – not by a long shot.  I do try to be honest.  Many times my evening snack isn’t pictured just because I blog before I have that.  And also my pre strength protein drink.  I don’t photo that very often anymore.

2. Do your legs hurt after a long bike ride? Not really – and neither does my butt LOL.


I have been distance biking for a couple years now and it takes an awful lot of miles for me to really feel it the next day. Like after last Saturday’s 50 mile ride, I was a little tired for the evening and felt it most with going up stairs or rising from a squatted position.  The next day I was pretty much back to normal.  Actually, when I say my legs are tired, what I really mean is my left thigh is tired – from the herniated disk. That muscle never regained all of it’s strength and it tires out with a lot of biking or heavy lifting.  It’s just easier to say my legs are tired.

3. Do you get lonely working at home? No.  I am actually a fairly solitary person and quite enjoy time by myself.  That said, John also works at home, so it isn’t like I am alone, although we don’t talk much when I am steady working just for productivity reasons.  And there is always the internet if I feel the need for instant people gratification! I also email and text my sister during the day (and my mom, although not quite as much).

4. How do you calculate your calories burned on a long bike ride? I have a bike computer that I use.

There are all kinds of computers with bells and whistles and can tell you all kinds of data.  I got mine at either Target or Kmart and it was around $20.  There is a sensor that clips on the spokes of the front wheel and the computer sits on my handlebars.  I have input my age, height, and weight and it spits out calories burned.  Of course, the computer doesn’t know if I rode 40 miles of hills or flats.  I only use it as a ballpark, not a set in stone number.

4.  Do you have children? Lots of variants on that question, usually by email.  No, I am not hiding any children from the internet!  John and I chose to be childless.  And to answer the followup question, no we don’t regret that.

5. Do you think the bagels keep you from getting to your dream weight? Again, this question comes up in so many variant forms of questions or statements as to why I haven’t gotten to my dream weight.  I suppose it could, but 2 bagels a week are so small in the whole scheme of a week’s worth of food.  I could be anything (like said unpictured nibbles, perhaps??).  While I am working on another push to see where I get on the scale, there are certain facts I am aware of.  I lost 1oo pounds while eating bagels, so I doubt that is the sole cause.  ’nuff said.

6.  How did you learn to garden? I read a lot. Actually – for almost everything I do, I read voraciously. Whether that is roasting coffee, learning about nutrition, flipping houses, gardening.  The library and the internet have been my friends for doing that.  I also learn a lot by trial and error.

My garden is always a work in progress and there just is so much to learn and know.  Luckily, in all my cross country moves (Colorado, Illinois, NY), I have been in the same growing zone (zone 5).  That makes things easier LOL!  My dream house some day will have a large yard that I can convert to gardens and maybe even a produce garden.  I would like to do some of that, but our property is too small and I need to save what space there is for flowers since they are my favorite.

7.  Have you ever thought about being a personal trainer? Nope.  Not interested.  I would hate having to find clients and then try to keep them motivated.  Plus I think I would need to live in a bigger area than this one to do that.  Now being a nutrition coach, that certainly is interesting to me.

8.  Do you miss running? I don’t know. Maybe a little, but the way it was making me feel was not making me love it.  I have thought about trying again and seeing what my leg/back does now that I have stopped running for a few months.  I really would like to do a 5K at the end of July which I have done every year since 2008, but will have to see.

9.  How much loose skin do you have?  Does it bother you? Will you get surgery? This perhaps needs a long thoughtful post.  This is probably the #1 question via email.  Yes, I have some.  Sometimes it bothers me. Unlikely I will ever have surgery for multiple reasons.  One thing – don’t let the fear of loose skin keep you from losing weight.  Loose skin is much, much better than having tight skin full of fat.  Besides, if you find you don’t like  the loose skin, just gain the weight back and problem solved 😉

That’s about all I can think of right now.  Hope you enjoyed!

Why is sucralose in everything?

Warning – rant ahead.  Let me preface this that I cannot abide the taste of Splenda/sucralose.  It is super bitter to me.  I know a lot of people think it tastes like sugar, but it is awful on my tastebuds.  Life would be easier if it was not that way.

I avoid products with sucralose in them like the plague, and I read labels on things to make sure it isn’t hidden there (like in the old Arnold Sandwich thins).  You know it is going to be in ‘diet’ products like lite yogurt, diet sodas, etc – so that is easy because I don’t eat those things.

But can someone *please* explain to me what sucralose is doing in foods/products that it really is unnecessary to be in?  I think to check things like cereals, breads, nut butters, etc.  However, what the hell is it doing in my mouthwash??

And why, why, why did it make an appearance in a side item I had with dinner tonight?

Brussel sprouts!  Seriously.  I thought I would try something different, so I bought these.  Normally I just get fresh brussels, but they looked anemic.  So this sounded fun with a little sauce.  Only 80 calories per serving.  Then I taste the sauce and it tastes really weird and sweet (not expecting that for butter sauce, let me tell you).  I look at label – sucralose! 👿

I do not get it.

Hello my name is Lori and I love food!

Haha – that title almost sounds like a 12 step admission, doesn’t it? While a big part of my blog has been about losing weight, it also is about food.

(Tonight’s dinner with the new Sea Pak popcorn fish!)

I am in a good place now as far as my relationship with food goes, but that was not always the case.

I used to categorize food as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – meaning good for me and bad for me. So, I was either eating good or eating bad, depending on what point I was in as far as dieting went. I was either on or off a diet. The problem was, I loved to eat (still do). I felt guilty for wanting to eat food. I felt guilty for loving food. Like there was some kind of shame to be had for enjoying it.  I thought I had to eat a certain way to get the weight off, which was not a way of eating that I enjoyed.

This really was exemplified for me when I went on Weight Watchers on the early Points system. Please note, I am not knocking WW, but this was just my experience when I was on it. I began to value foods based on their points value rather than their nutritional value.

I developed some rather weird habits. I didn’t want to eat bananas because they were 2 points, so I ate other fruit and didn’t have bananas for a really long time. I would try to compose point values for meals that were my ceiling. Like I didn’t want a dinner that was more than 8 points, and I wouldn’t think of having 8 points for breakfast!

I would never have eaten this for breakfast:

I was still feeling guilt about eating certain foods and then I would have days where I just didn’t count points because it was too hard to figure out and it was depressing at how they added up to a lot! So there was a lot of moving of foods around to fit into this. Then I was  starting to eat the sugar-free, fat-free stuff with little nutritional value (frankenfoods).

I had that really long plateau and some regain, which was then the point I did Nutrisystem to stop thinking about food and sort of regroup.

A few years ago, I tapered off that and was thinking about how to eat on my own and, more importantly, what I really enjoyed eating that was also nourishing to my body.  Light bulb moment – They didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

I have done a ton of reading over the last few years on nutrition and kind of experimenting as I have been much more active.  Here I am expressing my new found love of coconut water:

I realized that I could experiment and it wouldn’t ‘ruin’ anything I was doing weight wise.

If it didn’t work, I could just go back to what did until I tried something new.

After I got rid of processed foods and realized how real food actually tastes good and eating healthy didn’t mean cardboard, I began to experiment with more new foods and recipes.  Something I never would have made, let alone eaten in my former life:

Palak chole. Who knew how good this was?

Of course, not everything I tried was something I would ever want to eat again.  Like Shiratake noodles.

But I pressed onwards. :mrgreen:  I love to play around with recipes and to play around with ways of eating.  As many of you know, I have been experimenting with a few lower carb days each week.  I have eaten new foods as a result of this and enjoyed them!

Food is fuel, but food also is one of life’s great enjoyments!  It’s okay to love food, and to especially love the food that loves you back.  You all know I love to have the good stuff:

But always balanced with the other  good stuff:

Maybe this moderation thing isn’t so bad after all.

Eating what you want versus what you need

Monday Monday!  Hello to all the new people visiting after the Woman’s Day article was picked up on yahoo.com!  Ya’ll almost exploded my blog 😀  Welcome!

It was so weird having a whole weekend off where I wasn’t traveling somewhere.  I just relaxed and did fun stuff, which was nice.  Watched a lot of football and saw my fantasy picks just go out the window.  I owe someone dinner this week.

I am changing up my workout routine a little bit now.  Dropping down to 2 lifting days each week just to give my body a bit of a break.  My thighs were actually a bit tight from the squats I did on Friday, so I decided this week will be a Tuesday/Friday schedule.  That meant today was a run day!  I grabbed some dates to fuel up pre-run.

Then I did 3 miles at a nice easy 11:00 minute pace.  It felt good.  Just sweaty enough (okay, I still get really sweaty).  I came home to find John already up and making coffee.  Sweet!  Then it was time to play for breakfast.  I made some peanut flour waffles!

These turned out good, so I will be posting them as a recipe tomorrow.  Topped with banana/maple topping.

Deep thoughts ahead!!

I had a couple more thoughts on the issue of intuitive eating and the statement to eat what you want.  When I was talking about the WFG book yesterday, I referenced that I think there is a difference between eating what your body wants and what it needs.  This is where I think the true difference lies between mindful eating and intuitive eating.

Your body really wants to work on simple terms.  The body understands carbs, protein, and fat, with other essential vitamins and minerals.  Your body will take stock and say “Gee, we are low on amino acids after that strength workout – send up the request to the brain for more protein.”  So you body sends a hunger signal.   Now your brain says, “It’s time for lunch!” and you eat.  The body receives what you put in it and picks through what it needs.  I have this vision in my head that it sorts through all the things you eat to get what it wants.  Sometimes the foods you eat do not give the body enough of what it wants.  Like say the body wanted protein and you just ate a 100-calorie snack pack.  So your body will tell you to eat again.

Or an example of if you are stressed.  Your body understands the use of the adrenaline and cortisol response, just not necessarily why you have that response.  That is the brain’s job.  The body thinks you need quick energy, so sends out a request for glucose, which could be any simple carb, fruit, etc.  Your brain says “I am having a hard day, I’ll have some chocolate”.  See the difference?

Taking example of eating what your body wants and someone will say “I want a giant sundae.”  Honestly, your body does not *want* to have a decadent chocolate sundae.  It just wants nutrients.  It will take what it can from that sundae and dispose or store the rest (hello hips).   I think that is the sticking point people have with intuitive eating.  Okay, it is the issue I have with it.  My mind will say I want to eat a ton of chocolate or have that slice of coffee cake with my latte.  But I also have to acknowledge that my body itself does not need it.  Sure, having it on occasion is fine, but it’s also knowing how to properly feed my body (which includes indulgences and treats).  Trying to temper the need and want is the real trick.  Eating should always be enjoyable and purposeful.

That’s  enough deep thoughts for a Monday. Anyone still here? :cricket:

Speaking of eating mindfully…. Here was lunch for today!  I had sort of a desire just to eat a bunch of cereal.  However, I know that isn’t really what my body needed for lunch.  I made a wrap with chicken, laughing cow and hot sauce!

Tasty and satisfying!

Work actually was very busy from the start today, which is a bit unusual, but I  was quite happy because it meant a full day of work was available to me!  I think I might just make it with this other job alone and get pretty much full time until I start the cupcake, bagel, coffee, soap business decide what to do.  They can’t give me an extra account, but I am welcome to do as much as is available  with the one I have.  Thank you!

John set me up with my latte, which I paired with a mint chocolate cup:

Calcium, protein, and carbs for the body, chocolate for the soul…

At the store yesterday, red pears were on sale!  I got a whole bunch so maybe John might be able to have one before I eat them all.  Included in dinner:

And gotta love breakfast for dinner with egg/feta scramble.

Is anyone else up for more snow?  We are predicted around 7 more inches by tomorrow night!  Eeeep!  I hope I can make it to the gym for lifting tomorrow morning since I didn’t do it today.

So that means we are also going out to the cafe  for coffee and chitchat tonight.  Gotta prevent the cabin fever. :mrgreen:

Question:  Do you distinguish between needs and wants when eating?

Review of Women, Food and God

I finally finished Women Food and God by Geneen Roth.

I was not exactly sure what to expect with this book, but I have to say that it wasn’t really what I expected.  Does that make sense?  First off, I was put off by the title, hence the reason I waited so long to read it.  I was concerned that it might be a religious approach, which I was not interested in.  However, Ms. Roth uses the word god as more of an abstract concept, but the continuous use of the term got in the way  at first.  I think people looking for some sort of spiritual guide would be pretty disappointed in this book.

The majority of this book just seemed to be case studies from her seminars and flashbacks to her life, which led it to seem somewhat disjointed to me.

Here were the positives and negatives I found with the book:

Positives:

– Recognizing the inner voice.  This is, to me, the best advice in the book.  To stop letting that inside voice speak to you negatively.  This was key for me in my journey and I think is really step 1 for any serious life changes.

– One of the best sentences in the book?  On page 199 – “Since the relationship with food is only a microcosm for your relationship to the rest of your life… any attempts to change the food part without also engaging in the beliefs it represents will end in disappointment 100 percent of the time.”

Makes such a great point that food often times is not the issue.  So many times people think, if I can eat right, the rest of my world will fall into place.  It gives food too much power.

– The 7 eating guidelines  (although this is also a negative as outlined below), which could be very helpful if you have never heard of them before.

My favorite guideline?  #7 – Eat with enjoyment.

Negatives:

– No practical advice.  Really, she just says “once you do X, then you will see clearly about Y.”  However, she gives no real steps about how to achieve this.  Even with the meditation (which she calls ‘inquiry’), it is just “notice the tingle in your arm and reflect on that.”  Well – I don’t feel any body tingles when I meditate.  The book “Savor” is one that explains this concept much better.

– Profanity.  Okay, I have to admit that I curse like a sailor, but I certainly don’t put it in my blog.  I don’t have a problem with profanity, but I don’t know as the f bombs really had a real place in this book.  It seemed gratuitous.

– The eating guidelines at the end in an appendix.  She kept referencing the rules, but never actually stated them in the book.  You had to go to the very end of the book for the bulleted list – in fact, the very last page of the book.  And then there was no explanation on how to actually achieve the rules.  Eat when you are hungry? Fine.  But how does one recognize stomach hunger versus head hunger?  Eat what your body wants? Okay, but isn’t there a difference between what it wants and what it needs?

Finally, there is something about her delivery that really bothers me and I can’t quite put my finger on it.   She is never surprised by anything her seminar people say, like she can predict their thoughts.  She talks about how these really emotionally disturbed women are practically emotionally healed after a week at her seminar.  Some of the things these women say about themselves is really heartbreaking and really need something more in depth than a week-long seminar.  Is this egomania?  Someone help me out here.

I really did want to like this book more since so many people seem to.  I think this book is probably more of a background book to further study in the field than anything else.  I really don’t see why Opera thought it was so life changing when there really isn’t anything groundbreaking or new in it.  Or maybe it is just me.  Personally – I got way more out of Savor or The Beck Diet than I did WFG.  A lot more.

Question:  Those of you who have read WFG, what good and bad points did you take from the book?

The calorie conundrum

Complete rest day for me today!  I took a Tylenonl PM last night and slept for about 8 hours.  Really needed that.   I was craving peanut butter, probably for fat reasons, so I knew that was what I wanted on my cream of wheat this morning!  I made them banana custard style:

1 tablespoon of PB (1/2 serving), 2 tsbp of fluff (1 serving).  Funny how volume works, isn’t it?

I made my cafe au lait this morning with Pumpkin Spice coffee that arrived in the box from Alissa for the Thanksgiving 5K.  This box was chocked full of goodies!  Check it out:

I am going to host a virtual run for Valentine’s Day, I think.  A heart healthy kind of thing.  Any interest?

So here is the scoop on what I am really doing this week.  Back in the day on this blog, I used to have my calorie counts on there for each meal and such.  As I began maintaining, I stopped doing that more for the fact that I was a little afraid people would just copy what I do and not think about whether it was right for them.   I actually used to do lower calories, but again, I was not exercising as I do now.

I used to think there was not much difference between losing and maintaining, but the further out I get, the more I think that is not true, at least for me.  With maintaining, I have more leeway.  One day I will eat more, then the next day I eat a little less just naturally.  The scale will wiggle up and down accordingly.  See and saw.  To be in actively losing mode, I have to string multiple “less” days together.  That is a very strange concept to me right now.  It feels different for sure.  I had gotten pretty comfortable the last couple of years with what I was doing (even though I said I wanted to shed 10 more pounds).

While I could eat the same and just exercise more, I chose not to do that because I didn’t want exercise to become a chore.  You all know how much I enjoy what I do.  The other thing is that adding exercise takes extra time out of the day.  Cutting calories does not take time from the day.  In December, time can be at a premium.

I decided on 1500 calories for a couple reasons.  First off, I am 42 (only in age, not in spirit), so things definitely have slowed down a bit.   I am also 5 feet 2 inches, and shorties just need less calories to begin with.  I also have an extremely sedentary job.  I mean slug like.  You cannot transcribe and move around at all – it just doesn’t work.  As soon as my hands lift off the keyboard, I stop making money.  That’s incentive to keep them on there.

Another factor is the fact that I have lost 100 pounds.  That in itself will slow your metabolism by 10% or more.   So, to lose weight, I need lower calories.  With that said, the interesting thing is that I can lose on 1500, whereas I couldn’t before I built this muscle mass the last couple of years thanks to lifting.  More muscle = eat more. Love!

Calories  are pretty arbitrary anyway.  What I am really doing is keeping more strict portions.  I don’t really care if I hit exactly 1500 calories.  You just can’t be that accurate.  I don’t care if my banana is a 6 or 7 inch banana.  I don’t care if my pear weighs 60 grams or 90 grams.  It’s just a piece of fruit.  If I am weighing out my oatmeal, I am not going to pick flakes out if I weigh out 41 grams instead of 40…. although I will add them to get up to 40… 😉

What I am hoping is that when this 1500 week is done, I will have really solidified portion control for myself again.   It’s just spending some time being mindful and aware of how much I am eating and shaking a few bad habits that crept in.  So, there’s that.  Guess I should have mentioned this when I issued the challenge to myself LOL!

In the essence of time, I will just give you thumbnails of most of the other food I ate (or will be eating) today.

Calorie tally: Breakfast: 496, Lunch:  292, Afternoon snack:  170, Dinner: 404,  Evening snack:  190.  Daily total:  1553

We are going out to hear 2 concerts tonight. The first is an African drumming concert and then a guitar ensemble.  Yay!  We will be having coffee afterward.

Holiday week thoughts

The holiday week is officially beginning!  Let’s start out with a holiday favorite of mine that is back now – the gingerbread bagel at Panera!

Yuuuummmmm!!!! Yum!

Today was a slower work day with both jobs.  It’s going to be spotty all week with the holiday, so I am going to have to flex my hours a lot to get in all my work.  It’s going to take some planning to get everything done that I need to.

After working what there was in the morning, I got busy in the kitchen making something fun that I will share for recipe Tuesday:

Then I made regular lunch.  Stocked up on groceries after bagels, so I had lettuce and pita.  The carrots are old, though LOL!

And some red grapes – on sale for $1.89 a pound!

One thing that I adore about blogging is that you can go back and read about stuff in the past in detail, not just memory stuff.  I had said this after last Thanksgiving, and I really think it says a lot about my way of life now.

I despise feeling stuffed.  I don’t like it when I am so uncomfortable after eating that I can feel my stomach bulge (something that I could not notice at 250 pounds) or that I wished I hadn’t eaten something.

That last part is so important to me.  I have made it my mission to not feel guilt or remorse over food anymore.  To do that meant to conquer the part of me that would just eat and eat because it was the holidays (or whatever occasion) and the food was there.  I don’t have to eat 5 slices of cranberry bread just because 5 slices are available to me.  I don’t believe in deprivation, but I also know that is is okay to *not* want something.  I didn’t have any pumpkin pie last night because I didn’t want any.  I certainly could have had it because it was there, right?  What I really wanted was the cheesecake.  I knew that if I had both the cheesecake and the pumpkin pie, I would have been stuffed.  So, I didn’t have the pie…

As you all know, enjoying food on a daily basis is important to me to keep the weight off.  That way I don’t feel the need to gorge on particular days of the year, especially since I don’t restrict my calories to the extent that I feel the need to do that.  That is just what works for me.  Everyone is different in how they need to approach these things.

Maybe that is what is meant by everything in moderation?  Not to say that I don’t have those binge/snack days still, but as time goes by, I am becoming more comfortable with myself.  Sometimes I wish I could go back to my 20-year-old self and hand her this post. 😉

It was cold today at 39 degrees, but we took an afternoon walk today.

All the leaves are gone except this one tree.  How odd.

Football and afternoon lattes commenced after the walk to warm up.  I just love latte time with John.  Not only is he my biking buddy, but he is my coffee buddy.  And to think 16 years ago when we met he hated coffee (can you believe I still went on a date with him??)

Pixie also likes latte and football time.  I don’t think a kitty could look any happier.

I also made dinner tonight – very productive in the kitchen lately.  I got some fresh stew beef at the smokehouse yesterday and wanted to do Alton Brown’s pressure cooker chili.  It’s so easy and so tasty!  I subbed baked tortilla chips for regular.  Actually used up the 1 beer that has been in our fridge circa 2009.  The pressure cooker is one of those kitchen things that I forget about and then wonder why after I use it.  I also managed to hit the Baked Tostitos pretty hard while cooking dinner.  🙄   What was I just writing above about not eating something just because it is there??

I must say this was so, so good.  Wow.  It is rib sticking, though!  I didn’t need any fruit with this dinner as I was quite full.

Gotta get back to checking in with work and losing the football picks again this week…

4 days until egg nog lattes!!

How do I start?

Welcome to all of the That’s Fit article readers!  I will talk about that a little bit later after I recap some of the day.

Time change actually didn’t make me get up too early this morning and I was super surprised at that.  Normally I wake up when the sun does, so I was expecting to rise early, but I did not.  Yay!  We headed on out to Panera for our Sunday bagel:

I came home and got right to work.  It actually was much busier for a Sunday than normal, but money is always good, right?

Lunch was an egg sandwich and yummy strawberries we got today.  I have missed those.

See this big smile?

This was because it was just warm enough today to take a break from work, get on the bikes, and go riding! This is my snuggly warm technical turtleneck because it was 45 degrees.

It was kind of  a chilly ride, though, because of wind.  I also had my first clip-shoe related fall today.  I haven’t ridden in about 10 days, and I was so excited to be on the bike that I wasn’t paying attention.  We stopped to get some air in our tires and I forgot to unclip and just fell over.  Ouch.  I scraped up my knee and banged my chin on the handlebars.  Hello dorkdom – population: Me.

I did take a picture of my knee, but figured you all didn’t really need to see that.  😳  Our stop was the Chocolate Mill, where I had a cup of coffee and a pumpkin cookie.

I guess this is an example of eating whatever I want, eh?  Not as much as I want, cause I could easily chow down 4 of these.

I wanted to take a moment to talk a little bit about the blog and such.  I have received an overwhelming amount of comments and emails regarding the That’s Fit article this weekend.  I am trying to respond to all of them, so if you haven’t gotten a response to a question if you emailed me, please give me a little time to get to them (Sunday is a work day for me).

I think the number 1 question I got was “How do I start?“.

You just start one step at a time.  There are so many times that we all have started a diet and jumped in with both feet with food restriction and heavy duty exercise right from day one and then tried to continue with that without an end in sight except for the magical scale number.  How did you feel after day 7?  Like crud and then you quit and go back to your old ways because it feels easier.

For me, the biggest part of the success I have had in keep this weight off is losing the all-or-nothing mentality.  Life is not all or nothing, so why should weight loss and getting healthy be that way?  I know we all want the magic pill that will remove the weight overnight and get to eat all we want (hello title of That’s Fit article? A lot misleading).  It just doesn’t happen that way.

Sure, you can go totally hardcore a la The Biggest Loser and then what?  Likely you will struggle to keep off the weight because you just cannot sustain that intensity for life.  And who wants to repeat that cycle over and over again? Not me.  It’s like you are either in reverse or overdrive.  It’s exhausting.

So, my advice on how to start is just to sit and really take a look at what you are eating and how you are moving.  Do you know if portions in your diet are too big?  Do you know what proper portion sizes are? Do you do any activity at all?  Just take notice of this stuff.  You don’t have to change all of it right away, or you will rebel.  Once you look – really and truly honestly look – at your diet and your activity, you probably notice there is too much of one and not enough of the other.  So after noting this, then the next week change something.  Maybe it will be switching your breakfast to something a little more nutritious.  Get in some fiber and some fruit and protein (custard oats?).  Just do that for a week or so until you are used to it.  Then the next week maybe look at how much activity you do.  Make a point to get in 30 minutes of exercise, even just a small walk.  No time you say? Make time.  You have 30 minutes. It doesn’t have to be all at once.  If it means walking in place while you are on the phone, or going outside for 10 minutes and walk around your work place, then do it.

If you aren’t willing to at least do this for yourself, you really aren’t ready to make the changes you need to live a healthy lifestyle.  If this sounds like tough love, it is.  Ask anyone in my family and they will all tell you I am the tough love queen.  Small changes add up over time to big results.  You need to have the patience to wait for them.  They really and truly are worth it!

Okay, I’ll put away that soapbox – for the day at any rate.  😉 Tonight’s dinner is an example of the eating in moderation.  Yes, I had the pumpkin cookie today and I did get in a bike ride.  Nice balance there.  Pretty standard dinner for me tonight seeing as it was quite an easy activity day for me.

For new readers, this is typically how I make up dinner plates by dividing into 3’s.  Protein choice, veggies, and a fruit.   And by veggies I mean broccoli 90% of the time LOL!

Football tonight (and some more work… booooo)

Question:  What would your advice to someone be on how to start living healthy?