Food journal yesterday - retrospectively speaking...

Early a.m. - before leaving the house at 7.00 a.m. for some medical tests
1 banana

Breakfast
scrambled eggs
english muffin, no butter
decaf coffee, skim milk
Mid morning
Coffee
Lunch
Grilled chicken/salad sandwich, no mayo or dressing
low fat ice cream bar
Coffee

Very late dinner ( after work and then a meeting at church)
low fat chicken breast and vegetable curry, basmati rice, 2 microwaved pappadums
bunch grapes

Before bed
low fat hot chocolate
1 Hershey kiss

Other
Lots of water!

Prayers
From book of prayers to St Anthony of Padua.
Rosary in Latin
Prayers to Our Lady and St Pius V re tests :-)

Workout
FIRM Upper Body Sculpt ( not allowed to do a vigorous wokout after medical tests - but I felt it in my shoulders, triceps and chest!)

What I'm Eating

Breakfast
1/2 cinnamon raisin bagel
1 Tbsp regular cream cheese
1/2 milk
1 Tbsp sugar
2 cups of coffee

Lunch
banana
1 whole wheat pita
1/2 C hummus
20 cheese curls
La Croix water

Snack
1/2 small bag Skittles
water

Dinner
McDonald's cheeseburger Happy Meal with Coke
slice of cinnamon bread
water

Water intake: approx 60 oz
Fruit and veg count: 3 (I'm not very scientific about this. It's loosely based on WW servings.)

Exercise
approx 3hrs walking pushing a stroller (approx 50lbs resistance, LOL) at the zoo

Prayer
Breastplate of St. P
scattered Hail Mary's
Many "Thank God's"
Evening prayers and mass readings with Bill

Summary: I lost the 2 lbs, but I'm not doing well in the fruit and veggie or prayer categories. Patience and Perseverance!

Inspiration

Here is a link to an article from the June (!) http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-369-374--11837-0,00.html Runner's World. Ceci St. Geme is a runner, a mother of 6 and an assistant track coach at the high school where I learned to drive. Look at those abs!

The issue has some short articles on kids and running. Each discusses kids in a different age group and talks a little bit about what level of running is appopriate at that age. I think for me the most helpful was the article that discussed when you need to buy little kids real running shoes (5 or 6). I think they mostly target parents who love to run and might be inclined to push their kids too much.

Food Journal

I've decided to do a one week food journal this week starting Sat. Does anyone want to join me? I'm not thinking of posting everything I eat, but I can see my downward slide with healthy choices and it's effects on my body.

I'm gaining weight (2lbs so far) and crashing at night because there have been too many carbs in my diet, not enough water, sporadic exercise, forgetting to take my multivitamin etc. Yesterday, I hit a big time low; I ate a dozen cookies. I woke up this morning with a carb headache and feeling queasy. Since I know I can't be pregnant yet, I gave myself a stern lecture about food and my body. I tend toward hypoglycemia and when I eat this way, I can't see in the afternoons because my blood sugars effect my vision. Something's got to give!

I don't want to be all obsessive, just get back on track. This morning we made a healthful weekly menu, Bill's off at the commissary buying yummy nutricious food for us. And starting Sat I'm going to write down everything I eat, portion sizes included. I'd like to do food journaling at least once a month just as a focus point. And Leonie has a good point that prayer needs to be a part of this too so I'm going to get back to saying the Breastplate of St. Patrick at breakfast which is my current favorite prayer to start the day.

The Slow Burn

We've been hit with erratic schedules and chicken pox, and now I have a horrible case of allergies!

Not including today, we've been riding bikes lots - yesterday 12 miles, the day before 6, playing outside - basketball...

Slowly but surely....

We keep trying...

New workouts and new eating...

Since Easter I have been eating a lot of rubbish- really! Leftover "treats" from Easter .

And succumbing to stress related eating. :(

I gave myself a good talking to on Thursday. Didn't help.

But something helped on the weekend.

What? Prayer.

And, well, I decided to plan my eating , to think ahead, to give myself healthy options, to be well prepared.

Working okay for now.

I have been really into my Turbo Jam workouts these last two weeks. A mix of dnace and kickboxing with some great music and a whole lot of fun. The cardio is interval training with one or more "turbos" - a short blast where you get your heart rate really high.

The strength has some traditional moves and some functional fitness - and some grooving to the music. lol!

I managed to buy another Turbo Jam workout on ebay. So, I only need three more workouts in order to compete my set. I'll keep checking ebay now and then...

I also purchased Hip Hop Abs on ebay and am waiting its arrival. The Beachbody company produces both Turbo Jam and HHA ( and other programmes). Hip Hop Abs looks like fun ( hey ,Maria - dance!) - cardio, sculpting and what look to be effective standing ab routines. I've heard that the workouts are not very hard so would probably make good add on workouts. Or I can combine several workouts from the set.

And that is my check in!

Inner Strength

Today I took the kids on a muddy 1.5 mile walk (it took 1 1/2 hours) to see the Virginia bluebells at Bull Run...and I wore my pink hat. We did a lot of walking this week while my sister's family visited. At Mount Vernon, at the Jefferson Memorial, in and out of the Fort Hunt bunkers, I wore the pink hat and carried the 20 lb. baby in a backpack or pushed a double stroller or both.

Bill calls my pink hat my mojo because I wear it to make myself feel strong. I have a friend who tatooed a small dragon on her hipbone to do the same thing, but I need something external to pump me up. Bright pink, like a cherry blossom in a good year, with a Nike logo which is so so swooshy (swooshie?) it makes me feel tough and girlie, sort of like that ad from What Women Want. When I have the hat on, I'm "No games. Just sports." When I have the hat on, I want to do great things. When I have the hat on, I don't want to walk; I want to run.

My pink hat is not my first mojo...which brings me back to the bluebells. The original mojo was a shirt which said, "How can there be too many children? That's like saying there are too many flowers."
I couldn't agree more Mother Theresa.





Do you guys have a mojo?

Blood Type Diet

Looking over at Marie's blog I saw her note about getting off her blood type eating... I had heard of this before, but didn't go far with it. Got distracted. But she said she got off her O-type eating and things went downhill. Here is a blurb from the site
she referenced.

Type O-People with type O blood fare best on intense physical exercise and animal proteins and less well on dairy products and grains, says Dr. D'Adamo. The leading reason for weight gain among Type O's is the gluten found in wheat products and, to a lesser extent, lentils, corn, kidney beans, and cabbage, Dr. D'Adamo explains. Ideal exercises for Type O's include aerobics, martial arts, contact sports, and running.

Guest Expert?

You all have heard me talk about Diane.. she is an aerobics instructor and also personal trainer. She is working on her certification.

I wonder if you all would be interested if I invited her here to field our questions? She is very knowledgable. I am not sure she has time, but let me know if you are interested and I will ask!

She is especially good on weights, training, and form etc.

Just an idea... for fun!

Houston Checking In

Well, I have not posted in a while.

Here is the short version:

Still working out 4-5 times a week.
Still eating enough to make up for the workouts and more. lol

Ok, a bit more detail.

I am back on program with my small Personal Training class, with Madame Diane as our drill sergeant, I mean instrcutor. I fell off the wagon and all that strenght I built up last year started to waver. When I went back to PT I felt like this elephant seal I just saw in a nature DVD. Big and no strength!

But, I have kept at it. I have been doing PT 2 times a week again and just making it work in my schedule. Plus, my Lighthouse work has slowed so that helps. Last week I turned a corner. Today I felt STRONG.

Do you all know what planking is? I could only do it for 10-15 seconds at a time when I started with Diane.

Today she us doing full minute planks and I was ready for more!

I am also totally burned out on the Jazzercise format. I love the people. I love the PT (which is not Jazzercise, but a full hour of non-choreographed strength training). So, after PT today I scooted over to the Y for a low impact class. I purposely chose the 'small' room.. (as the attitude in the big one was rather snobby last time..?) And I loved the class. I worked so hard, and their AC worked really great (a big priority for pre-menopausal me) and at the end she did toning exercises.

She had us plank... for 10 seconds at a time! Other women were moaning and griping, but after Diane's planking all these months, it was a piece of cake.

That does not happen often, but is fun when it does. A great workout day.

So, I think for a while I will do PT on M/F and do the Y class aerobics for my other workouts, until I am not so tired of the Jazzercise format. I feel really loyal to Jz because you really get to know the people there. But I realized you GOTTA have vareity or you will burnout.

Ok.. end of my post. I found some interested articles on eating and addiction I will post if I can find them again on our Wonderful Wide Web... :)

Hope you all are doing well!

Thoughts on Balance

Back in 1997 when I started Weight Watchers, I had a job that was a split shift. After rolling out of bed and doing 2 hours of work, I was off for most of the day, and I started each day at the gym. Some days I would do some of the circuit machines and a 20 minute walk on the treadmill, but often after I had started my walk, I would choose to keep walking for another 40 minutes so I could have a cookie.

At that time Weight Watchers made one cookie and a 1 hour workout equivalent, but now it isn't as easy to figure out the exercise to food conversion for WW in a general way. However, April's Runners World has an article about a book called The Diet Detective's Countdown by Charles Stuart Platkin which gives those sorts of conversions. RW warns about post exercise treats and rationalizations ("Hey, I ran so I can eat this extra piece of pizza") by showing some of them. To work off the calories in the following foods, here is how long a 155 pound person who can run 12 minute miles would have to run (that would be a 74.45 kilo perso who can run a km in 7.5 minutes):

One large banana = 13 minutes

One cinnamon-raisin bagel with 2 Tbsp (30 grams) of peanut-butter = 41 minutes

Two slices of Pizza Hut cheese pan pizza = 58 minutes

and a cheeseburger with large french fries = 117 minutes

YIKES!

Nowadays, I'm happy to get a 13 minute run in to begin with let alone an extra 13 minutes to work off a banana (as if I would treat myself with a banana!). However, nowadays I also do not exercise for a cookie. Even way back when, it was never really about the cookie; it was about the exercise. The cookie was a way for me to set a goal for myself and build a habit; it was the proverbial carrot in front of the horse. I rarely ate the cookie I earned. I never ate it as a treat for having exercised.

I don't know that I'm really going anywhere with this beyond the idea that if you quantify the balance between food and exercise, it can sure put both into perspective.

Wanna Burn More Calories, Free of Charge?

My fav aerobic/PT instructor gave me a tip. She said for every pound of muscle you have, you burn 50 more calories. (I am guessing per day?) So, she goes on, who would NOT want to strength train!?

She has a point. I loved how I felt when I was doing PT twice a week. Then I fell off the wagon for a while and am now getting back on. It is hard, as I lost ground, but I think I am turning a corner. I just feel better, more coordinated, strong and clothes fittting better is icing on the cake.

I love challenging myself when I strength train. I have not found a way to do it without Diane, yet, though I bet I could think of something if I didn't have her. Maybe videos, weight machines, etc.

Ouch!

Yesterday, I fired up the DVD player while Bill was cooking a delicious Easter dinner. I'm pretty uncoordinated and trying to do a preview workout with a 2-, 4-, and 6-year-old did complicate things. My living room is not big. 12.5 minutes was all I had and it was great. I could tell this is a workout to really get me moving even though I have a tough time following the dance-type footwork when you are marking time between exercises. I was already sore running up and downstairs last night. I love the burn!

Today I put in a little over 19 min which was enough for me to see that the next part of the workout repeats the same moves but with resistence bands. I like that repetition so I can concentrate on doing the moves correctly and up to speed. Today since I could really give it my all I broke a sweat and was sucking air. I liked the workout although during the "stretching" I had some wistful thoughts of my old yoga class--moving slowly at your own pace. Yoga is a different challenge, though, and not a bad idea for tomorrow.

Excuses, excuses

Sadly, there was a thunderstorm on the day I wanted to restart my running. Later when it dried out, it was pretty cold out there, and I didn't have time because there was so much housework. The next day, I was tired...of hearing all the excuses! I didn't run, but I did do a nice walk with Bill and the kids to see the cherry blossoms. It was windy and in the 50s F/10 C (it was 80 F/26 C two days ago!) so no one wanted to be out there too long, but I got a couple of miles in with James on my back for added resistence. :)

This morning, mindful of the Flylady's "You can do anything in 15 minutes!" I jumped on the exercise bike. I did 15 and 15 more. AND....Billy's Backside Bootcamp came in the mail today! HOORAY!

5 Things to Eat

Diane, my pt instructor (who loves to torture us every week), was trying to take our minds off our squats Monday. She had read a new article about the five best foods for women. She made us guess what they were between plunges to the floor, our weights held on our shoulders.

After a bunch a mis-guesses, we got the scoop. The top five:

Fish

Walnuts

Cranberries

Beans

(oh.. I forgot! I will post number 5 when I remember)

We were so glad tofu was not on the list! lol

So, when I went to the grocery that day, I got some beans, tuna and dried cranberries. I had walnuts at home. I tried a new combo, a small bowl of walnuts and dried cranberries. Awesome, and my 16yos liked them too.

Funny how good habits can rub off....

Of course Diane also enforced with us that a serving of walnuts is 10-12 pieces... not the whole bag.

Shoot. There is always a catch. :0

Transitioning

The broken pool pump is forcing me to transition from my winter workout to my summer one. But really, with this sort of view, do I have an excuse not to run? Actually, yesterday I tried our new exercise bike,and I really enjoyed it. The bike is gentle on my joints (I can feel that birthday appoaching!), but I think I'll try to save it for when the weather is unbearable. In a few weeks there is a 5K road race the boys and I could do without too much trouble if I would start to run more often.

I'm also transitioning with my weight loss. The 15 pounds are gone; I didn't regain any after my stomach flu a month ago kicked the last 5 pounds. :) But soon the baby will wean so I need to keep focussed on healthy choices and lots of water. And with the weight loss behind me, I can see that I need to tone some areas. I'm really looking forward to my Taebo DVD (was it called "Billy Blanks Kicks Your Backside"?--well something similar) to work on those spots. I have this dress I want to wear to Bill's graduation.... Looks like a new goal!

Check in..

I lost 1 kg this week! Hurray! 1 kg equals 2.2 lbs.I am not really dieting but I *am* trying to be healthier - and, given my genetic health conditions, both my doctor and I think a lower BMI would be ood for me.So, I keep on eating healthy, not eating too much, having some "treats" and working out.

And its nice to feel a bit of success!