2011 Resolutions

For 2011 I have some things I want to focus on, some are continuations from 2010, some are new.

Get healthy/healthier. This includes reapplying myself to weight loss, among other things. I want to make exercise a daily occurrence, even if it’s just 30 minutes. I’ve just started studying herbal medicine and I’m working on doing a year (or more) long “house cleaning” of my body. The first step is making fresh garlic and apple cider vinegar consumption a daily habit. I have started this but only sporadically. Next I plan a parasite cleanse, followed by a detox cleanse. The next steps are still to be determined. I plan to document each stage, to keep track of how I feel and what differences I see and I will probably be sharing some of these results here.

Learn Spanish. I’m still working on my action plan on this one but I’ve been wanting to learn Spanish for a while.

Cultivate my femininity. This was inspired by “The Tourist” starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie (you can read more about this in my post of the same title). Basically, I am endeavoring to take more care with my appearance.

Read. Last year I started reading 20 pages a day (besides Bible reading) but I fell off toward the end of the year. I can easily read 20 pages a day and if you do this consistently, you can get a lot of reading in. Of course, I have a long list of books to read, so, I have my work cut out for me.

I have already started reading the Bible through again, this will be something I do every year.

Get alone. I was recently reminded of Jesus, and the importance He placed on getting alone and spending time with His Father. This was lacking last year, especially toward the end and it is really the most important thing.

Change is good

This is just a quick post to let you know about some changes that I am making. I haven’t done well with the whole blogging thing and part of my problem has been trying to do too many different blogs. As you may have noticed I have changed the name of my blog to accommodate more topics than just weight loss, though I will still be talking about weight loss. Bear with me as I figure out what I’m doing and the best way to do it. What I am trying out now, is rather than having different blogs, just having different categories in one blog. We’ll see how it works.

On the weight loss front, I’m stuck right now, not gaining but not losing. Eating pretty good but not exercising much, so I know what needs to be fixed it’s just a matter of making the time and actually using said “made time” for what I made it for. I do have stuff to share and plan to be back soon to share it.

See ya!

Long time, no write

After a rather extended absence (longer than intended), I am back. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years celebration; I certainly did. As is my tradition, Christmas was spent with my family and New Years with friends.

New in 2010!

First things first, after Christmas I managed to lose 4 new pounds (plus 2 old ones that I had lost and gained back) making my new total weight loss 41 pounds! This was unexpected and a great boost to start the new year off on the the right foot.

I have fine tuned my daily diet a bit and will say more on that in an upcoming post.

Getting enough physical activity in each day was really whipping me, I was looking for an extra hour or half hour laying around unused (ludicrous, I know) and it hit me – break it up in smaller segments! Aha! Now my fitness is broken down into planned 10 minute segments that I spread throughout my day. I have illustrated a typical day below.

10 minutes – mild toning warm up (before work)

10 minutes – cardio, alternate between the bike or going up and down the stairs (before work)

10 minutes – 10-15 minute walk (at work, great to get away from the desk and get my blood flowing)

10 minutes – 10-15 minute walk (just before I leave work)

10 minutes – targeted toning (at home, after work)

10 minutes – targeted toning (at home, after work)

The last two are planned out on a rotating system so I’m not working the same areas back to back. I keep it pretty flexible, aiming for at least 40 minutes a day, working toward all 60 minutes. So far it seems to be helping me a lot.

My “resolutions” for 2010: have a glass of wine every day (inspired by my favorite french lady), have a piece of chocolate (the dark, good stuff) every day (also inspired by my favorite french lady) and to make time for reading. I really enjoy reading but it’s easy to let other things crowd in.

Till next time…

Changing things up

I hope you are all doing well. The past few weeks have been crazy busy, but really good. I love Christmas but I will be glad when I’m done with shopping and parties and the “extra” hustle and bustle.

I took my measurements a couple of weeks ago and found out that I’ve lost 5 inches since April 28, 2009. Yay!

The article I shared in my last post along with some other articles I’ve read recently, sparked a new train of thought for me and I am working to get my adjusted plan in writing and fully put into motion. I look forward to being able to share my “revelation” with you all; meanwhile I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

One big thing I’m thankful for

So, yesterday was Thanksgiving, which always makes me think about the blessings in my life. Well today, I was looking through pictures of me from a year ago and I was HUGE. I don’t think I realized how heavy I was. A little over a year ago, a very special person came into my life and changed a lot of things, her name is Jennie and she’s one of my best friends now. I have so much to thank her for. If she hadn’t come into my life when she did I would not be where I am now. I was way overweight and somehow didn’t think I could ever be any different so I didn’t really try. Jennie believed in me and pushed me and encouraged me. Not only am I almost 40 lbs. thinner now but I believe in myself a lot more. I try things and do things that I may never have done without her influence. Like Kate Winslet’s character in “The Holiday”, I’m becoming the heroine in the story of my life rather than a supporting character and I want to thank Jennie for that gift.

Thank you!

Happy Orange Friday!

It’s not black Friday for me, I slept in and don’t plan to leave the house at all today.

So, it appears that I will not be posting everyday. Since my last post I’ve maintained pretty much the same diet. Daily exercise other than regular walking hasn’t really happened but I have been hiking once a week so that’s something. Yesterday, of course, was Thanksgiving and I ate a lot of yummy things but didn’t get too stuffed. Today I plan to clean the house so that will get in a good bit of activity for the day.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

A New Approach

Two posts in one day! After some rethinking, I’ve decided to change the direction and format just a bit. I think it may be helpful for myself and others if I did a daily recap of what I’ve eaten and how much activity I’ve gotten in. We’ll see how it goes.

For breakfast today I had the oats mentioned earlier with walnuts, brown sugar, blueberries and milk; lunch was a Lean Cuisine Tuscan Chicken sandwich. For dinner I had four slices of sharp cheddar cheese, two string cheeses, about eight whole wheat crackers and half an apple. After work I went to Starbucks and had a grande Peppermint Mocha; when I got home from bible study I had about half a cup of plain (full fat) greek yogurt with honey and blueberries. I did not workout today because I was lazy this morning and didn’t get up when my alarm first went off but I’ll do better tomorrow.

Good night!

Progress Report

I have been a total slacker this week, I will get back on track with posting. This was a tough week but it’s over now and things are looking up again. On Monday I made the short journey to my parent’s house to weigh and discovered I have lost 4 pounds since the last time I weighed (when I started this blog). Yay! This brings my total weight loss up to 37 pounds. Since last October I’ve lost 37 pounds, I am definitely more active but certainly not a faithful exerciser; I do eat smaller portions but I eat a lot more food over all and better tasting food; I don’t eat low fat, fat free or low carb; I drink regular beer and have dessert on occasion. Except for my summer slackerness I lost weight steadily. This has really been a lifestyle change for me.

I’ve added another goal to my list, by next year (if not sooner) I plan to be able to go down all the stairs (425) at Amicalola Falls and come back up, without dying. To train for this Jennie and I are going to try to hike up Kennesaw Mountain once a week. This will also be a great workout!

Walking to just about anything isn’t really an option for me, I live too far from everything. So, in order to work in the “French Woman” way, I have begun parking really far from the entrance of any business I go to. That way I’m working in more activity in my daily routine.

Get Creative, Be Flexible

The key to my success so far has been creativity and flexibility. Being extremely busy, I sometimes have to think outside the box when it comes to diet and exercise. I love beer, but beer can have a lot of calories, so if I know I want to drink I’ll eat really light that day to balance out the calories and carbs in the beer. This same principle can be applied to other things as well. Maybe your weakness isn’t IPA but a warm brownie or chips and queso. Balance out something more fattening that you really love with lighter eating before or after. There are several nights a week that I don’t get home until after 9 or 10 pm so I have to work a little harder to fit in exercise. One trick is to do at least 30 minutes on my stationary bike while watching my latest DVD from Netflix; that way I’m getting exercise and entertainment at the same time. At the concert I attended last night, I got in a pretty good workout just going crazy for the music I love.

This week I switched over to a tomato and goat cheese fritatta for breakfast, it is even better than the peppers and onions fritatta, if you can believe it. For dinner this week I’m doing a green salad with mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon and goat cheese. Quick money saving tip if you’re going to use crumbled goat cheese: the goat cheese that is not crumbled is a lot of times cheaper than the goat cheese that is crumbled. I bought the un-crumbled and saved a good deal of money by doing the work myself, and it didn’t take that long. A time saving tip that I’ve employed is to go ahead and chop my parsley and garlic and grate my parmesan in advance, saving time when actually making the fritatta. Some things don’t keep well once you’ve cut them though so you can’t always use this method. Every bit of time saved helps though, especially in the morning.

Baby Steps

My singles pastor talked one night about making a two degree shift; rather than try to tackle a huge change make one or two small two degree shifts and the further you get from your starting point the bigger difference you’ll see. This idea has really helped me a lot and not just in the area of weight loss. Rather than make lofty goals to thouroughly clean the house every week, I decided to keep the dishes done, daily as much as reasonably possible. Not only is it an acheivable goal but the dishes being done encourages me to do more. Instead of attempting some huge, life overhaul to get organized, I bought a planner and started using it. Instead of making unattainable goals of reading 10 chapters of the Bible a day, I can plan on a few chapters a day plus my morning dose of 5 Psalms and a Proverb.  It only makes sense to apply this idea to eating and exercising as well. Rather than try some extreme, strict diet, just shift to eating more fruits and vegatables and less processed food. Instead of trying to maintain a rigorous exercise regimen, just try to get more activity in each day than I did before. Something is better than nothing and I find that once I start it’s much easier to add more. I have let perfectionism and extremism trip me up too many times but now that I know their game I have a much better chance of winning.