whatever...let's get healthy!

Possibilities

2012-03-01T11:48:00.002-08:00

Today I spent some time moving my exercise bike into my bedroom. I have an extra room that we designate as the "exercise room" but I can't really watch tv in there, just dvds. So I figured I would use my bike more if I move it into the space where I pre-record all of my favorite shows. Hmm, then there's my cushy recliner in the corner with my basket of books. Ride or recline? Ride or recline? RIDE!

These are my exercise dvds. I finally got rid of years worth of vhs tapes and this is my new collection. For those of you who don't really know me, I used to teach aerobics back in the day (maybe 80s?) when the aerobics crazy first started. I collected and collected and then I finally start using them. You should see how long I collected art related stuff until I actually started painting!
I need to start doing one of these videos every day. I've used a few stretching and basic dvds but it needs to be more regular.

My exercise room. I think rebounding on a trampoline is so good for you. Also good for the knees. The ab lounger thingy is something my husband wanted. We rarely use it - it's a pretty good drying stand for wet clothes.

This is my plan for dinner tonight. I found some delicious baby bella mushrooms and I want to use them right away. They're so much better than the regular white ones you find in stores. They're firmer and have a better flavor. So I'm making spinach linguine with a mushroom pasta sauce. I'm adding ground beef and lots of vegetables, including the roasted red peppers you see here. I also bought some clearance sourdough little rounds and am going to roast those babies in the oven with a little buttery spread and fresh garlic. I'll take photos and post!

Just Do It

2012-02-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

JUST DO IT

I planned to start eating and following a healthy lifestyle yesterday. But we ended up running to Taos, NM, for a quick two day trip to look at some property and my eating got out of balance. We ate sandwiches, chips, and an orange for dinner. I ate two pieces of toast with some cheese and tomato for breakfast. Some lemon drops and grapes on the road. No lunch. Then when we got home I didn't want to cook, plus I had a meeting to go to so I picked up chicken enchiladas (at least I split it with my husband) from my local Mexican food restaurant. And I didn't eat my sopaipilla. But I did eat some of the huge cinnamon roll my husband picked up at Michael's Kitchen in Taos. Do not leave sweets sitting around in my presence.

My goals for the rest of this week are to cook at home, write everything down, and move every day. I have an online friend, Michelle, who has joined my cause to get healthy and she is following her own plan. You go, Michelle!

Tonight my plan is to make caldito papas, which is stewed potatoes, browned lean ground beef with onion and spices, and green chile. It really is a great potato soup. We eat it with crackers or tortillas. It's kind of cold and really windy outside today, so it will be perfect.

On another point, I always thought there would come a time in my life when I would get tired of being fat and I think I've reached it. I'm tired and I'm ready.

This is what I'm tired of:

~not being flexible and graceful
~not wanting to EVER wear a dress
~not being able to feel the bones under my skin
~not being able to see my cheekbones. I know they're under there.
~not having to try to stuff myself into the clothes I have
~wearing black pants
~having to watch where I park at the store so I don't have to walk so far because it hurts
~missing out on all the things I could be doing with my husband
~not having my usual joy and feeling down about never doing anything for myself

This is what I want:

~to feel my bones: cheekbones, collarbone, wrist bones, elbows, shin bones
~to be able to do yoga and not have to drastically modify
~to be able to get up and down off the floor without having it be a workout
~to be able to wear that slinky little black dress
~to wear a swimsuit in front of my husband and not feel embarrassed or self conscious.
~for my children to see me lean and healthy
~to walk for miles without getting winded
~to run again

Tomorrow I'll show you the app I am using to track food on the go and a pic of my closet and exercise room. They hold the dvds I'm using exercise equipment. Oh, and I did meditate for thirty minutes this morning BUT my thoughts were so hard to control between the wheels turning in my mind and the phone ringing three times. At least I got it done.

A Contract

2012-02-23T21:36:00.001-08:00

This was my dinner a few nights ago - Chicken and Black Bean Nachos.

Get these Garden of Eatin' chips if you can, they're fantastic.

Saute a couple of organic chicken breasts and cut in small pieces.

Warm your black beans and corn. Warm up some canned tomato and green chile mixture. Warm your nacho sauce. Warm your chips (lots of warming going on).

Layer everything, starting with chips. then chicken, beans, nacho sauce, corn, onion, lettuce, tomato, avocado. Enjoy!

Okay, on to more serious things. My daughter is going to acunpuncture college and will soon become a Doctor of Oriental Medicine.

She knows everything about diseases and disorders now, much to my dismay.

Well, she came home a few weeks ago and gave my husband a hard time about eating eggs, bacon, and watching his cholesterol. So today she comes home and tells me that she had a class on sleep apnea and she thinks I have it. Even though I sleep like a log, and the only time I'm tired during the day is if I EVER sit down in the recliner to relax, which might or might not happen once a day. I don't get sleepy and I never take naps.

But I am overweight and I do snore. SO....

I am heeding her advice. She and I have written out (okay, she wrote it out) a contract that says I will lose 75 pounds by October, which is the month of Balloon Fiesta.

If I don't do this, she says she will go into a deep depression. Then she looks at me and says, "Mom, you know I can do it too." What's a mother to do? Damn.

Another Day

2012-02-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

Another Day

Today is Monday. The most popular day to begin dieting. I am no different I guess. To me, Monday always seems like the day to make a fresh start. To begin. Again.
So, I am beginning again. This is my plan for this week:

ONE DAY AT A TIME

This morning I woke up and the first thing I thought to myself was, "What can I do today that will make myself healthy?" So I meditated for 30 minutes and boy, did my thoughts wander! But it will get better with time. With meditation, like a lot of other things, the more you do it, the better you get and the faster you get into a state of just being.
Now, I'm going to have breakfast and go work out at Curves. I'm not going to my usual Curves today. At our regular Curves, we have a key tag that we use that is kind of like a personal trainer. It tracks your progress from workout to workout, and makes you work harder or slow down, according to what you did in the previous session. I go to this other Curves NOT to use my key tag sometimes. I just go. They have a loud stereo and I just let myself get lost in the beat and still get a great workout. They also have a fantastic stretching machine. I've already turned on the heater in my art studio so it will be warm for me when I get back.

Okay, I'm back and it was good! The music was blasting with a heavy backbeat and I danced around the circuit and stretched a good long while. I started using my new phone app, Weight Watchers Diary, which I set up to use the old point system, mainly because I don't really care for the new one. Too complicated and I think WW changes everything each year just to make more money. Anyway, this app is cool and even tracks my exercise. So I get about 26-29 points to use everyday, plus an extra 35 each week. I use those 35 on Saturday, which is my day to eat whatever strikes my fancy. 30 minutes of exercise adds two extra points to my total which means I really have 29 -31. The app also has a little calculator that figures out the points for you as long as you know how many calories, fat, fiber, etc.

Hmm, I'm making chicken black bean nachos for dinner, how do I figure out the points in THAT?

Anyway, I plan to stretch today too. I was going to go for a short walk (like 5 minutes) but it so windy and cold outside - I don't know if that's gonna happen. Maybe I'll just bounce on the rebounder instead.

I'll take photos of my dinner tonight and maybe I will eat a light lunch, no snacks, and "guestimate" my points for tonight. I'm not aiming for perfection here, just some boundaries. Happy eating!

Afraid to Give It Up

2012-02-18T13:28:00.000-08:00

Afraid to Give It Up

I will admit it, I know I need to lose weight. A lot of weight. Over 100 pounds of weight.
I have my favorite trigger foods. My addiction foods. The foods I turn to all of the time for excuse under the sun.

My current excuse goes something like this (this is my thought process):
I'll be working, or tired, or bored, or passive-aggressively angry, and I will think to myself that I need food NOW. It's an unconscious thought. And it's rolls over me like a steamroller. I can't stop it. At the time, I don't WANT to stop it And I will go to lengths to get it. I'll drive to the store. I'll make it. I'll sneak it. And I will have a feeling of euphoria when it's finally in my hands. Whatever "it" happens to be at the time. For a minute. Then I will not even like the taste of it after the first few bites. But I will keep on eating it. Until it's gone. Sometimes I will throw the rest of it away, but not often.

And if I decide I'm going to start eating healthy - what's the first thing that happens? Oh, the planning, the deciding, the "getting excited about it," the shopping, the journaling, etc. And then what do I do? I start to panic. I feel anxious because I know I'm going to have to give up eating as much as I want of whatever my addiction food at the moment happens to be. So I start to stock up. I start to stuff myself to get rid of the feeling of deprivation I know I'm going to experience once I am not eating that food. I don't know how to just have a little portion of it, and then put it away for later. Why do I feel like it's an all or nothing situation?
What is wrong with me? Do other people feel like that? Do they do the things I do? Am I the only weirdo in the world who relates to food this way?

Then I start to beat up on myself. I have no willpower. I don't take care of myself. I don't really care about myself. I obviously don't care about my family, who loves me and only wants me to be healthy.

I started eating this way at an early age and I just don't know how to break the habit and change my brain to make it think differently.

I love healthy food. I buy it all the time. Fruits and vegetables. Nuts, beans, grains. It's strange, but sometimes I will buy great, gorgeous, healthy food and just let it rot in the fridge or go to waste and eat junk instead. Why do I do that? Why do I feel not worthy of eating healthy?

Does anyone else out there have this problem?

I love healthy food. Don't all of these tomatoes and eggplant look gorgeous? Especially with the sun shining on them?

2012-02-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, you guys, I really have to start taking photos of healthy food. I just haven't had time yet.

I spent all day organizing ALL of my painting reference photos, and let me tell you, it was a lot. I went through seven boxes of photos, threw a bunch of stuff away, and organized everything that was left alphabetically. So I have places like Abiquiu, Jemez, Taos, and things like Churches, Flowers, and Trees. I will post a photo of the boxes tomorrow.

Anyway, the photo above is a dessert from the now defunct Casa Viega, a really beautiful old restaurant in Corrales. All the food prepared was locally grown and delicious. The photo you see above is a doughnut plate dessert with some kind of cream. We got it a while back and split it four ways. Then the restairant was closed because an old adobe wall was falling down. Now I hear that it has become a historical landmark and they are going to bring it back to its former glory. Yay!

So, hopefully you will see photos of the "real" food I'm eating tomorrow. This morning I rushed out of the house to go to the bank and to Curves for a really short workout because my husband needed to use the car. I grabbed a whole grain piece of bread and a string cheese and headed out the door. When I came home, I ate a Lean Cuisine for lunch. I threw some organic tomatoes and some chef-style black pepper on it and a little Green Goddess dressing. Then a couple of hours later I was still hungry, so I had a bowl full of rice with vegetables that I made the other night. This is a dish that I make more for me than anyone else in the family. They sort of groan under their breath when they hear it's on the menu, but they eat it anyway. It's two seared organic chicken breasts, brown and wild rice, onion, carrots, mushrooms, celery, cabbages, spinach, swiss chard, zuchinni, yellow squash, butternut squash cubes, bell pepper, and red and yellow peppers. Everything is cut up in bite size pieces. I cook the chicken with a little olve oil, and add pepper and just a little salt. I remove it from the pan, add some more olive oil, and throw all the veggies in. Then I cook the rice in another pan. When it's done, I just add some seasoning, throw it all together, and voila, your quota of daily vegetables above and beyond!

My plan tomorrow is to get up and meditate, work on a painting that is due Friday, go to lunch with my son, come back home, do some more work, and go to the gym in the evening. I'm not swimming as much or biking as much, since my hubby and I are car-sharing right now - so I really need to do better planning and get back in the groove.

Anyway, my new mantra is "tomorrow's another day." See you tomorrow...

2012-02-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

DAY TWO

Well, Day Two was actually supposed to be yesterday, but I had to make a mad morning dash in the studio to get my paintings varnished around the sides, hooked, wired, titled, inventoried, and loaded in the car. Then I had to drop my husband at the gym, take the paintings to the gallery, enter them into the books and price them. The show is going to be fantastic, by the way. It opens this Saturday at Weems Uptown at 10am.

Anyway, I grabbed a string cheese and a piece of whole grain bread for breakfast, so when I got done at the gallery I was starving! I thought about what I was really hungry for, and I ended up having a Schlotsky's sandwich, which is probably calorie heavy, but oh so good. I got an "original", which is ham, salami (which I don't care for), turkey (I think), cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard, olives, and maybe onion. With Schlotsky's, it's not so much about what's inside the sandwich, it's about the BREAD. I got mine on sourdough, and it was so good. Hot and warm, handmade every day, and unique to any other sandwich bread I've seen. I also got a pickle, some baked chips, and a courtesy water.

I ate in the car ( not recommended), then decided to head out to look for books. I went to my favorite used book store and bought four escape novels and a couple of non-fiction books. Then the lady at the counter says, "Oh, and look at the bookcase by the door, you can choose 16 free books." WHAT? 16? They were mostly romance novels, but I did find four others that had promise. Then I headed to Barnes and Noble and got three magazines, and a few books. I got one art mag American Artist, one magazine called Artful Blogging, which comes out every three months and is full of beautiful photos and stories about people who blog. The other mag was called Where Women Create and always has great pics and stories about artist and crafter's studios and creative spaces. I don't really think they should call these things magazines, because they are $14.99 each!

I picked my husband up, he dropped me at home, and while he was out running errands, I got his Valentine goodies ready. I got him a Valentine heart, some little things like a small bag of Valentine M&M's, some chocolate marshmallow hearts, and a card. He came home and we went to eat at El Pinto, a good Mexican food restaurant near our house. I ordered the cheese enchiladas, with red and green chile. It also comes with beans and rice, but I asked to skip the rice and double the beans, because they are GOOD. Well, she forgot to do the substitution, but I got my extra beans anyway, and left the rice. I had chips and salsa, and didn't even eat my sopaipilla, I was so full. We came home and we shared a few chocolates from the heart box and called it a night. I told my husband not to get me a box of chocolates, that we were going to share his! I searched the box and felt so lucky, because I found the only two with chocolate centers.

So I didn't really log what I ate yesterday because I was on the go and I'm logging it here. I also didn't have time to meditate and I didn't exercise. So, today is a new day filled with healthy possibilities.
Tomorrow I will show you the books I bought at Barnes and Noble. Have a fantastic day. Oh, and it snowed here last night....

2012-02-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Day One

As I sit here, writing this first post for my new "let's get healthy!" blog, I want to try to reach across the computer lines and gather a nice group of friends who feel the same way I do.

We are probably all accomplished in life, we have great families, good friends, a nice career, etc. We just can't lose the weight that's been on our bodies for months and most probably, years. If you're like me, it's been years.

I don't know when food became so important to me. I think it helped me block out things that were going on in my life from a young age. Food was, and is still, comfort to me. It's also a passive aggressive way to say "I will not be controlled by anyone." I will make my own way, by myself, look how I want, eat what I want, and to hell with what everyone thinks."

Of course, as Dr. Phil would ask, "And how's that working for ya?"

Well, it used to work. I think that everything in this world happens for a reason, and during a lot of times in my life, I really feel like I was exactly where I was supposed to be at the time. So I don't want to go back to those times and wish myself skinny. I needed that weight to do what I needed to do. BUT, it's not working for me anymore. I'm at a point in my life where I've accomplished a lot and now I need to accomplish getting a handle on food and how it fits into my life. I still want food to be my friend, I want to love eating and cooking, but I want it to happen in a healthier way.

I've been trying to decide on the best way to lose weight for me.

I want it to be simple, I want it to be easy (of course), and I don't want to give it up after a week when it gets hard and I start feeling deprived and go crazy again. So, I have kind of figured out what I want to do and I'm sure I'll be tweaking it as time goes on.

My plan is to do at least ONE THING different every week. Not a detox, fast-start kind of thing, but an easy "everyone can do this" kind of thing.

Here are my "things" for this week and I am hoping you will want to do some of them too:

1. BREATHE.

I'm going to meditate most days for 30 minutes in the morning.

If you want to follow along, to find a quiet place sometime throughout your day, close your eyes, and just sit quietly for a couple of minutes. Just breathe. Try to empty your mind. I have a word that I think about, something simple really, and I come back to this word whenever my mind starts to rev up, which is often!

2. ENJOY HEALTHY FOOD.

Okay, this will be harder. I LOVE healthy food. I also LOVE junk food. I use it as a medicine to stuff down feelings. So, I'm going to try to just enjoy food. All food. I'm going to try to eat healthy, cook healthy and write it all down. Food is my friend, not my enemy. And no food is a bad food. I just sometimes use them badly. Off the subject, I love to watch the food channel show "Chopped." The chefs and judges have such a healthy appreciation for good, fresh food that is cooked well and served in proper portions. I want to be a cook like that...

3. NUMBERS AND DAYS.

I weighed myself this morning. I'm not going to tell you what the scale said, but let's just say it's near 250. I'm going to weigh myself whenever I want. Could be once a week, could be once a month. I don't want the scale to become the compass as to how I live my life. I also measured what used to be my waist - 46 and a half. I will measure again in one month. I am also taking Saturday (or Sunday, but not both) as my day to eat whatever I want.

4. MOVE.

I will move in some way EVERY day of the week and I will write that down. I have seen several online and smart phone apps that I can use for tracking purposes.

Okay, that's it for Week One.

Let's make this the year we really get in shape, enjoy life, and live in the moment. I will check in on most days and let you know what's going on.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

DAY ONE starts tomorrow