But I didn't use every part?! :/

Hello world!

Tonight world, I have tried something new… I have eaten Bison.  Whenever we’re browsing the meat section at the supermarket my husband suggests we should make Bison burgers and I ususally defer… no, no, no, we shouldn’t have Bison, why should we?  But tonight the pickings were a bit slimmer then normal… I was frustrated by the lack of skinless boneless chicken breast… so finally said sure, lets try the Bison.  I guess it was well if I can’t get what I want, might as well finally make husband happy.

When we got home I began counting my points before cooking because even though I had planned out my full day I had forgotten to take my simple but balanced lunch to work.  So I had to improvise… I realized going out wouldn’t do, I wasn’t ready for the temptation of resturant portions, even lunch portions… so I chanced the work cafeteria…Well, how about a sandwich.. wait they put like a pound of meat on it, no matter what you ask.  Then I thought, oh, how about egg salad, egg is good.  Well, I didn’t really think that all the way through… egg is good but egg mashed with mayo and other items on thick slices of bread, is not quite as good. 

So when I got home I realized not only had I spent more points on lunch then I calculated I had barely eaten anything I should that day.  I was eating my first vegetable while I did my calculations.  Knowing I didn’t have the energy to combine what left I needed to eat into a nice meal, when my husband offered to make me a bison burger, I accepted… after realizing a bison patty was essentially equivalent to a lean hamburger, and if I skipped the bun, I wouldn’t be in too bad shape.  So while he started cook I started planning the rest of my food…

The burger was done first, so as I sat that this computer I poked a fork into my patty, carefully separating a bite sized piece, I admit in retrospect, I was not savoring this correctly… but then the taste hit my mouth… and it was good!  This was delicious!  I could taste the spice my husband used on it, but I still was able to distinguish the difference between this bison and beef… the Chicago Steak Seasoning actually seemed to compliment the Bison better then beef ever had.  Part of me thought, as I continued to work my way through this patty (much slower then when I started), that we should do this more often… who needs beef burgers….

… and then, it hits me, why I think I didn’t want to try Bison.  Images from stories in gradeschool, explaining the overhunting of the buffalo… flashed before my eyes… what made it funnier was some of the flashing was scenes from the Oregan Trail video game of my youth, hunting mode (one of the most fun parts of the game aside from naming characters after people you don’t like and watching them die of dysentary).  But, this thought is silly, right?  The bison I was eating was specifically raised to be eaten… so its ok… wait, or is it?  Thats not very humane growing living food to eat… well, at least it wasn’t young Bison, like veal.  Or was it?  What do I know about Bison?  On the other hand growing things to eat, we grow plants to eat to, its living too… but I guess a plants life is much more passive…

Wow, was I a vegetarian for 10 seconds? or was I a meatatarian for 5?  All I definitely knew was that was much more thought provacative meat then I had imagined…

… and unfortunatly after my Bison meat relevations I had to finsih up planning the rest of my food.  Eating can be exhausting when you’re trying to be so precise about it.  But as of now all vegatbles, fruts and dairy have been consumed…more observations on food balance later..

Good night world!

}

[Via http://mytastingroom.wordpress.com]

Weekly Summary 01/03/10

Weekly Summary 01/03/10

This week

-4.0 Lb.

-14000 Calories

Since the beginning

-27.8 Lb.

-97,300 Calories

Goal Date 11/11/11

To meet goal.

Weight loss a week 0.92 lb.

There we go. This is more like it. It would have been about half if I hadn’t binged on Christmas. But back on track. More like ahead of the curve. Depending on what start date you  look at. If you figure from 1/7/09 then I’m 12 lb or so off the pace. But if you figure from 12/06/09 then I’m about 10 lb ahead of the curve. I think that I’ll use the 12/6/09 numbers. Since using the other give me a negative to consider every day and I don’t want that. So the newer numbers it is. I also did the monthly measuring this past week. Those numbers are going to be from the beginning since they change much more slowly than the others. So far I’ve lost 13 inches since 4/5/09. Half from my waist. I’m still in the 270’s this week and have been all week. No points change this week then. No worries. I haven’t been doing the Wii Fit Plus as much this week. I need to get on track to get back to work tomorrow. Vacation is over. I have to step up the pace. Doing the Wii in the morning is not practical. So I will do it later in the evening. Likely after the kids are in bed so I don’t have to listen to their comments and have them bouncing all over the place. My spreadsheet is approaching a meg in size. I am a detail and analysis person so I am tracking everything I can think of. From both starting dates too.

Here are the column headings I have on the main sheet at the moment: Date, Weight, BMI, Fat%, Fat lb., Curve, New Curve, Calories, Weight Class, Total, Ave, Week, Cal/Lb, Off Curve, Off new Curve

The reason the sheet is so large is that is goes all to my goal date of 11/11/11.

All for now. Later!

[Via http://1pinkmonkey.wordpress.com]

Second day of the New Year

This morning I found some yoga videos on YouTube and tried them out. I know part of my high blood pressure issue is the stress and anxiety I feel constantly. There’s nothing really triggering it, except possibly my fears about not having a job and money, but I need to find a way to calm myself down. I did some breathing exercises and a few blood pressure lowering poses (or so they say) while listening to classical music and I did end up feeling much more relaxed.

Food-wise, well, I ate just fine but I barely reached 1000 calories for the day…so maybe I thought that gave me a reason to binge on some cookies? I don’t know. I was baking some cookies for the BF’s co-workers but then he found out he doesn’t have to go back into work until Wednesday! Now I have several dozen M&M cookies sitting around and I just had to eat a few. Luckily they were small and I only ate 3, but I just worry about the next few days and how I’ll do with them. It’s so ridiculous when you can’t control yourself and you have to keep coming back for more. At least it didn’t put me too far over my limit  that Spark People sets. I’m going to try and spend as much time away from my house tomorrow as possible and also see if some neighbors want these amazingly delicious cookies, haha.

The BF and I did not go to the gym today as planned! He got home from work later than expected and we had to go to the store and get a bunch of stuff and by the time we got back it was time for dinner and now it’s suddenly 9:30! So tomorrow, I’m going with or without him.

Hope you all are having a fabulous first week of the year!

[Via http://fattylovescake.wordpress.com]

Eat Healthy And Stay Fit For Life

A balanced diet and regular physical activity are the building blocks of good health. Poor eating habits and too little physical activity can lead to a jelly-belly and related health problems. By eating right and being active, you can stay at or reach a healthy weight.

The basis of a healthy diet is eating a wide variety of foods. Every day, you should try to eat:

*6 to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, or pasta. One serving equals one slice of bread, about 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, or 1/2 cup cooked cereal, rice, or pasta.

*3 to 5 servings of vegetables. One serving equals 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables, or 1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw.

*2 to 4 servings of fruit. One serving equals one medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped, cooked, or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice.

*2 to 3 servings of milk, yogurt, or cheese. One serving equals 1 cup of milk or yogurt, 1 1/2 ounces of natural cheese (such as Cheddar), or 2 ounces of processed cheese. Choose low-fat or fat-free products most often.

*2 to 3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, or nuts. One serving equals 2 to 3 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry without skin, or fish. You should eat no more than 5 to 7 ounces per day. One half cup of cooked dry beans, one egg, or 1/2 cup of tofu counts as 1 ounce of meat. Two tablespoons of peanut butter or 1/3 cup of nuts counts as 1 ounce of lean meat.

The larger number of servings is for active men. Eat a smaller number of servings if you are a woman, inactive, or trying to lose weight.

[Via http://fromflabstoabs.wordpress.com]

Today's the first day of the rest of the Year

OK, now that all of the revelry is over, I have to buckle down and get with it on the resolution front.  My resolution this year, like many other millions of Americans is to lose weight.  We all have parts of our bodies that we are not thrilled with, but for me I put on 25 pounds in the last year due to various medical reasons.  I am hoping that this does not mean that taking it off is going to be impossible, but I am going to give it the old college try.

A) The French cookbooks need to put away for a month or so, unless I can find some recipes that are diet friendly

B) Start cooking more out of Dean Ornish’s cookbooks and the South Beach cookbooks, both of which I have a copy of

C) Start getting more aerobic exercise.  My anemic attempts at using the Wii and taking a walk are not cutting it

D) Track my progress and track everything that I put into my mouth.  This is a page out of the Weight Watchers program.

E) Take it one day at a time, and it I fall off one day, get back on the horse the next.

That in a nutshull is my plan to lose weight.  I know it is not some kind of supercharged program, but I don’t know if I would do well on one of those.  It seems very complicated and intimidating to me with lots of restritions. 

I also don’t know how well I would do by eliminating carbs, like a lot of the popular diet programs do.  Don’t get me wrong, I am going to try to work in more complex carbs when I eat them, but I think some carbs are necessary for sustaining my energy and my mood.  I find that when my blood sugar gets too low, my mood goes into the toilet, which is something I want to avoid.  Talk about negative reinforcement!

Wish me luck!

[Via http://woaca.wordpress.com]

Think outside the bun

Jennie!

I just saw this new ad for Taco Bell… this woman lost 54pounds eating Taco Bell. 

http://www.drivethrudiet.com/christinesstory

She said she wanted to lose weight, but not cut out fast food out of her life.  The last time I was on a diet of Taco Bell, it fought me on the way out. 

Kind of seems like a good idea though.  Although there’s probably some give and take.  I get the feeling I could lose weight but I’d gain teenage acne.  Can’t have everything I guess.  What do you think?  What about an In n’ Out diet?  You could be the face of In n’ Out.  Picture it now! 

Sandy

[Via http://wuchanclan.wordpress.com]

365 Days

As of today, I have 365 more days of 2010 to take care of some things:

365 days to create the life that I want.

366 days to shape the foundation of how I will spend the rest of my twenties.

I turn 21 in exactly a month tomorrow.

Officially no longer a teenager.

A woman…  FOR REAL!

But what kind of woman do I want to be?

• First and foremost, I want to be A HEALTHY WOMAN. Now, when I say “healthy”, I don’t mean this superficial “healthy” that women with weight problems say when they really mean “I want to be skinny”. I want to be HEALTHY as in: having all my whacked-out hormonal issues become as NORMAL as they can (since countless Endocrinologists have told me that they will never truly be normal again), I want my body to be in balance and I want my body to FEEL like a 20 year old’s body should feel like… because I KNOW it’s not supposed to feel like this!
• Secondly… I want to be SKINNY! Okay, okay, I know that I called the aforementioned statement “superficial” but what I meant was that saying “I want to be healthy” but really meaning “I WANT TO BE SKINNY” is superficial. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be thin, but covering it up with some sugar-coated euphemism isn’t’ fooling anyone, and I’m not trying to fool you OR myself. So yes, I would like to drop some weight. Ideally, 20 pounds (not because I’m going to be that age, but because my bod does NOT like the 170’s… the 150’s would be nice).
• I’d like to be LESS STRESSED, which (now that I think of it) is a pretty ironic feat to achieve since my Cortisol levels will probably NEVER allow my body to be technically “relaxed” thanks to CONSTANTLY elevated Cortisol levels after two brain surgeries.
• Oh… speaking of BRAIN SURGERIES: In a few weeks, I’ll be one year post-op from my SECOND pituitary surgery and in September I’ll be TWO YEARS post-op from my FIRST surgery (yes… very confusing!). It’s kind of surreal and crazy to think that I’ve gone through the same surgery twice, with pretty good results… both those operations still haven’t cured me like I’d hoped they would. So as I continue to go to (often disappointing) follow-up doctors appointments and continue to hear disheartening news that my hormone levels are either too high or too low or WHATEVER, I still THANK GOD none of the doctors have told me I need a THIRD surgery or any other major medical intervention.
• I want to be a HAPPY woman. The more I think about my life (in general) over the past few years after the whole “Cushing’s journey”, I’ve realized that all the wonderful things that came of it; finding a new life perspective, inner strength and meeting incredible people that I would have NEVER met before, It’s also impacted my life negatively in ways that are going to take some time to fix. Besides changing my insides, my outsides have suffered the consequences of weight gain and aging that has turned an energetic dancer into a slow and heavy person that just doesn’t move like she used to. I wake up most mornings dreading doing things and having to get myself into a positive mindset so that my whole day doesn’t suck. I never used to have to do that. Happiness came easy. I would like to regain my inner joy in 2010; the joy that comes from just loving life and being alive. I need to get that back.
• I also want to be an ATHLETIC woman! Of course this brings me to the exercise point of my New Year’s goals. I would *like* to run a 5k then a 10k then something longer later in the year… a 10-miler? A half-marathon? SOMETHING! I want to be able to just run on a whim and NOT pass out! I mean (random thought!) but what if somebody just started CHASING me with the intent to KILL and I couldn’t outrun them?! I’d be dead! So as you can see, regaining my physical fitness for the purpose of ensuring a long life is an important one for me this year! And besides running races or just running for health, I would also like to explore more classes and things that are fun along with consistent strength training to get me those long, lean, sexy muscles that everybody seems to want these days ;-D.
• I’d also LOVEEEE to be a BETTER BLOGGER. Okay… I won’t speak at length at how disappointed I–a pretty talented and seasoned writer–am in myself that I CAN’T SEEM TO BLOG AS OFTEN AS I’D LIKE! I know there’s no “blogger rules” or anything like that but I soooo don’t take the time to get things off my mind enough, and holding things in KILLS ME! I want to be a better blogger in 2010 because I have so much to say and if I need to get it out in the form of prose or poetry, where else would be a better place than on MY BLOG to do it! Chalk it up to laziness , but I shall overcome!
• Lastly and probably MOST important to my sanity would be to become a FEARLESS woman, and when I say fearless, I mean NOT AFRAID OF FOOD. Yeah…… food and I have a pretty jacked-up relationship at this point. Now, I don’t have an eating disorder (i.e. anorexia, bulimia, restricting, chewing and spitting) or anything severe, but I DO involve waaaaayy too many things aside from hunger into my eating. I wouldn’t officially call myself  a binge-eater either, but I could use a good lesson on when to just STOP from time to time. So I guess you could call my eating “disordered” since I spend way too much time beating myself up about what I’ve eaten and thinking about what is “good” and “bad” and feeling guilty about having “zero self-control” instead of just eating when I’m hungry, stopping when I’m satisfied (not full!) and moving on with my life. I’d like to take 2010 to explore why I always seem to sabotage my best efforts to eat like a normal person.

So those are the MAJOR changes I want to make as I enter my twenties and I’d like to ONLY take a year to get most (of not all) of them figured out. The LAST thing I want is to be this same person I am today in 10 years on the cusp of 2020 and have wasted my twenties hating myself and being out of shape. I. WILL. NOT. LET. THAT. HAPPEN.

Here’s to 365 days of 2010 to get it figured out, or at least make a considerable scratch in the surface. I know a lot of those goals will take time but I definitely know what a difference a year can make.

A year of talk will not make me a better Chanelle.

A year of ACTION will get me closer to where I want to be and farther from making these SAME resolutions on December 31, 2010.

365 more days to make a change; I guess I can only take it one day at a time.

[Via http://thisdancerslife.wordpress.com]