The Things You See

Walking 5 miles a day means you come across all sorts of interesting sights, like this "Bubble Blast" machine that brightened our day by scattering bubbles across our path.  Our walks at night usually result in some animal sightings.  Raccoons almost every night, an occasional possum, and one night we even had a skunk cross our path, but thankfully it didn't cross it too close.  Wondering what we'll see around the corner helps keep us walking 10,000 steps a day.

Today I sat down to see how long it will take me to reach my weight loss goal.  It is a little difficult because I don't know what my ideal weight is.  I have a picture in my head of what I will look like when I reach my ideal weight.  So when the image in my mirror matches the image in my head I'll be at my ideal weight.  I weighed 125lbs before I got married.  But I wasn't fit.  Just skinny, probably a bit too skinny for a woman who is 5'8".  I plan on building a strong body and muscles weighs more so I don't plan on getting back down to 125lbs.

With all that in mind I decided to set my goal at 145lbs.  When I gained 20lbs and was at 145lbs the first time I was mortified because it was all fat.  According to a fitness tracking spreadsheet my sister found 145lbs would take me down to an athletic 20% body fat.  Checking out the Wolfram Alpha data crunching site reveals my ideal body weight to be 145lbs.  This leads me to think that it would be a good goal to aim for.  If I continue to average a loss of 1lb every week I will reach my goal of 145lbs by March 19th, 2013.  That's pretty exciting to consider and another thought I'll hold in mind to keep me motivated.

July 24: 12,392 steps 
July 25: 16,216 steps  + kbells 15 mins 
July 26: 14,869 steps
July 27: 11,081 steps  + kbells 20 mins

Six Weeks In

I started walking 10,000 steps a day about 6 weeks ago, about that same time I started swinging my kettlebell for 15 minutes a day.  In those 6 weeks I have lost 10 lbs!  Every week when Tuesday rolls around I am almost convinced that I will step on the scale and see there has been no loss.  After all, I am not eating on a diet.  Everything always tells you that you have to go on a diet to lose weight, no only a diet but their diet.  I don’t know if it is the walking or the kettlebells or the fact that I really am trying to eat whole foods but whatever I am doing is working so I don’t plan on changing it.

Not having any foods off limits is probably a big part of how I have stuck with this for the last month and a half.  There is no stress over food.  Admittedly I do try to eat whole foods but I have not completely cut out processed foods.  I think I am probably working at around 50%.  If I started snapping pictures of my food again I would know exactly where I was.  Maybe I’ll start doing that again in a few weeks.  It would be good to do when we are visiting family and on vacation at the end of next month. 

Here are my stats for the week:

Weight: 179 lbs down 2 lb
Total inches: 202 up 1 (measured 7 spots)

July 17: 10,865 steps 
July 18: 21,354 steps  + kbells 15 mins 
July 19: 10,258 steps
July 20: 10,267 steps  + kbells 15 mins
July 21: 10,120 steps
July 22: 11,596 steps

July 23: 12,103 steps + kbells 20 mins 

My waist is actually up 2 inches this morning, but I'm blaming that on the hotdogs I ate last night.  They have made me all bloated and I didn't even enjoy the first bite, let alone the last.  It seems to be hard to measure in the same spots on my biceps and thighs so I'm not quite sure if those measurements are accurate.  I feel tighter and firmer almost everywhere, I'm thanking the kettlebells for that, so even without losing lots of inches this week I'm still pretty pleased with my success. 

Crunchy Cabbage Salad

Lunch has always been a challenge for me.  It often ends up that I don't actually pack a lunch but instead go out and buy something.  Which is a bad idea since it usually has to be fast and cheap and that usually means it is terrible for your health and figure.  But since we started budgeting and trying to eat better our lunches have improved.

Salads have never been my strong point.  Not that I don't enjoy eating them, I just don't enjoy making them so much.  Other people make amazing salads that I could eat everyday.  When I read "The Swing" by Tracy Reifkind I noticed her Basic Cabbage Salad Mix.  I especially liked the fact that you prep it one day and then eat from it all week.  It lasts and lasts and lasts.  Brilliant.  And it's crunchy.  I loves me some crunchy food.

Basic Cabbage Salad Mix:

1 head green cabbage, shredded
1 head red cabbage, shredded (she uses half a head, but I thought while I'm shredding...)
4 carrots, shredded (she only uses 2, but I thought while I'm shredding...)
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1-2 fresh jalapenos, diced small (you can also substitute radishes, shredded)
Cilantro or any other fresh herb of your choice (optional, only use cilantro if you love it, I do)

I toss all the ingredients into a couple big fresh produce saver bags that I buy at Dollarama.  Before I leave for the day I scoop a couple cups worth into a tupperware.  Then I take a little container of dressing.  I generally add chicken, or tuna, or salmon patties (recipe to come) or beans with corn to the salad for my protein.

For dressing I like to make something up myself since I don't trust all the mystery ingredients in the store bought stuff.  I've become especially wary of preservatives.  How can that be good for you?  Food is supposed to rot.  


Dressing it up (I usually make enough dressing for 2 servings, but you can make it for more or less):


When I'm in a rush I just mix balsamic vinegar and olive oil 50/50 in my little Starbucks frappachino bottle and shake it up before pouring it on the salad at lunch time.  


Getting fancier I add frozen or fresh blueberries (or any other berry) and a whopping tablespoon of blackstrap molasses to the balasamic & olive oil mix.


If I want something spicy I use rice wine vinegar, a scant teaspoon of chili garlic paste, frozen mango chunks, and honey.  Sometimes I give it a squeeze of lime juice too.

When it has to be more substantial I use a peanut satay dressing, which tastes great with chicken.  This looks more like a recipe:

• 1/4 cup firmly packed crunchy peanut butter ( I only use all natural peanut butter, which I now store upside down since that stops the oil from pooling on the top)

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame oil and peanut oil in a microwave-safe jug. Microwave on high (100%) for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.  Toss on salad at lunch time.

I think the salad would also be nice with just a big dollop of salsa on the top.  Maybe with a couple little black bean burger patties tossed on top.

Another option I haven't tried yet is a tzatziki style dressing.

There are so many ways to eat this salad.  I am hoping that variety will be the key to this salad being a regular part of our diet.

Why I Walk 10,000 Steps A Day

Walking behind this woman (who I get the feeling is trying to walk herself back into shape too) on my way home from work I realized that if I don't keep on track I will end up wearing the same size as she is now.  Checking back on my Wii Fit profile I see that each year my weight has gone up 10 lbs and settled there.  Each increase seems to coincide with our visiting back home, not a coincidence since everyone seems set on feeding us the best of the best when we visit.  It is a fairly safe conclusion that by the next visit home I could have pushed my weight over 200 lbs if I hadn't started walking and swinging my kettlebell.  Seeing as the next visit home is next month that is a very, very scary thought.

Now my scale weight is going down 1 lb/week and since I'm putting on muscle too with my kettlebell workouts I know this means I am actually burning more than 1 lb of fat every week.  Then the muscle I put on will increase my resting metabolism so even just sitting on my butt will burn more calories than it did before I started working out, which means the more muscle I put on the easier it will be to burn off fat.  Just the thought makes me want to grab my kettlebell and start swinging it some more.

Cautiously Optimistic

I am beginning to feel cautiously optimistic that I just might have figured out this path to good health stuff.  So many programs want me to become a completely different person from day one.  If that worked I would have been many different people by now.  As it is I have decided to just make small sustainable changes and add to them as they become natural.

Once again I crashed and burned on the flash diet business.  Why is it so hard to remember to snap a picture of my food?  Since it wasn't happening naturally I decided to shelf it for now.  Maybe if my weight loss plateaus I'll start taking pictures of my food again.

Meanwhile I continue to meet my goal of losing 1 lb every week.  This week I doubled that and lost 2 lbs.  Not too bad considering one night we had beer and pizza for supper (although I stuck to 2 slices of a medium pizza) with chocolate cake for dessert.  Most of the time we are eating pretty clean, but I still refuse to try to pressure myself into eating "perfect".  We mostly eat salads for lunch with fruit on the side and I really enjoy that.  I'm trying to make sure we get enough veggies with our supper too.  My eating is to be based on healthy principles instead of restrictive laws.  Generally I try to stick to whole foods, if I buy processed anything I try to make sure I can pronounce the names of all the ingredients and that there are not much more than 5 ingredients.

My dream is to never eat junk food again but instead to enjoy only the highest quality of treats.  Like this chocolate tart I made one time...  It was so much beyond anything I've ever bought or eaten at a restaurant.  Heaven in a pastry.  I want my standards to be so high that I will never get fat again because I just can't afford it.

Here are my stats for the week:

Weight: 181 lbs down 2 lb
Total inches: 201 down 3 (measured 7 spots)

July 10: 19,736 steps 
July 11: 10,571 steps  + kbells 15 mins 
July 12: 11,227 steps
July 13: 10,361 steps  + kbells 15 mins
July 14: 10,227 steps
July 15: 10,696 steps
July 16: 10,681 steps + kbells 15 mins

What I Ate June 10

Steel cut oats with milk & brown sugar

BBQ salmon with roasted veggies & quinoa

 3 in 1 instant coffee

 half a big bag of skittles

 chocolate bar

Deviled egg. Only added dijon mustard, salt, and pepper to the yolk

Another Week, Another Pound

I woke up this morning feeling all bloated and scared of what the scale would tell me.  Despite my fears it told me exactly what I wanted to hear.  I am down another pound.  Also down a few more inches.  Up an inch around my hips but think that is the bloat and nothing I'm going to worry about.

Knowing that I fell off the wagon of a diet that included no changes in my eating is a little sad.  I think I will start today to get back into the flash diet.  I was enjoying it.  Also think it did make me more accountable for my food choices.  But I just got lazy and started missing pics of my meals then decided to stop for a week and see how it went.  Now I would like to get back into it and see if this will lead me to better food choices as I believe it will.


Weight: 183 lbs down 1 lb
Total inches: 204 down 3.75 (measured 7 spots)
My waist was 45.5 inches when I started measuring it 2 weeks ago and this week I am at 41 inches.  If I keep moving at this rate by the time we get to California I will be looking much, much trimmer.

July 4: 15,758 steps 
July 5: 13,411 steps  + kbells 15 mins 
July 6: 10,620 steps
July 7: 10,194 steps  + kbells 15 mins
July 8: 10.391 steps
July 9: 10,133 steps + kbells 15 mins

Feeling Good

A great side benefit to all this walking and swinging around a kettlebell has been how much my mood has improved.  Life is beautiful!  I am happy and energetic and want to do more things for other people.  This alone is a good enough reason to push on with walking and being more aware of what I eat.

My goal of losing 50 lbs is a big one but I am determined to be patient.  Just losing 1 lb/week is enough for me.  That means in 1 year I will be at my lowest weight since shortly after my marriage 14 years ago.  The most mortifying moment of my life, related to weight, was when I tried on a size zero dress not long after our wedding.  It didn't fit.  If only I had taken these same steps towards getting in shape then, these last 14 years would have been way less painful.  But I am telling myself that it will be even more painful if I don't keep on right now.  I am so close to 200 lbs that it wouldn't take much to push me over the edge.  How much worse would that be than no longer fitting a size zero?

Last week I started tracking my measurements.  This week was my second measurement/weigh in session.  Here are the results:

Weight: 184 lbs down 1 lb
Total inches: 207.75 down 5.75 (measured 7 spots)
Exciting that my waist is down 1.5 inches and hips are down 2.5 inches, these are my biggest problem area.

July 1: 20,301 steps 
July 2: 10,442 steps  + kbells 15 mins
July 3:  10,562 steps


My back was killing me on Tuesday, July 3rd.  Not sure if I was swinging the kettlebell wrong or if it was from painting at work.  Took it fairly easy that day and by today, Wednesday, it feels fine.  I'll be back to kettlebells tonight, but with a greater attention to my form.  Maybe just air swings if I feel any twinges.  It is too early to hurt myself and set back the little progress I've made with an injury.

Flash Diet Day 16

 Pudding cake with coffee

Salad with tuna








Missing pic: Banana on white toast with peanut butter

Flash Diet Day 15

Pudding cake with coffee

Missing picture of 2 boiled eggs on white toast

 Roast chicken with salad, garlic toast and olives

 Pudding cake with ice cream

Half a bowl of cherries

Doritos

Flash Diet Day 14

 Shortbread with coffee

 McD snack wrap

Pot roast dinner from Montana's

Portion Control

This little coffee cup cracked me right up when they gave it to me.  But it reminded me that portion control is a huge part of eating right.  I'm trying to pay more attention to the size of my portions, especially of the sweet things.  I don't eat a huge amount of food to start with but I do eat way too much sugar.  This didn't matter so much when I was a teenager with a Ferrari metabolism, but now that it has slowed to a tortoise speed I have to pick and choose how I want to spend my calories.

Happily I am burning a better amount of calories now that I have been walking regularly.

June 28: 10,234 steps
June 29: 10,951 steps + kbells 15 mins
June 30:  10,447 steps

Flash Diet Day 13

 Brownie with cream cheese

 3 in 1 instant coffee with brownie & cream cheese

 McD Mediteranian snack wrap with grilled chicken

Shared this jumbo slush with D

Barley with fish and broccoli

 Pudding cake with ice cream

Wiskey