Sunday, January 31, 2010

Welp...

I caved. I had a bowl of cereal and a glass of wine today. Not at the same time, mind you, 'cause...eww.

So, yeah, I have been doing really well on the South Beach Diet, but it has been getting harder to stick to Phase 1 each day. I have just been soo hungry and veggies, tuna, chicken, and eggs were just not cutting it. I have been SUPER irritable and stabby towards Mike. I have been weak and sooper hungry. I don't know how I did this before. I must have been really motivated to be beyootiful at my wedding. I have a lot of motivation now, but it just seems SO hard. I am cranky and sad right now about it. I don't know what to do at this point. I just find it hard to have all of the fresh foods prepped and ready to go all of the time. And I'm really sick of just having veggies and protein. I don't like cheese nor can I digest it easily so that isn't an option even though the SBD relies heavily on it. I do like to be told what to eat and follow a plan, but this one is just so *#@*# hard.

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I have the number for a UPMC health coach that will work with me to reach my goals. I put it off since I got the number, but I'm going to call tomorrow. It's covered by my insurance so that's a plus. Maybe she can help me figure this out. And make me unstabby. Maybe I can go back to South Beach if I can figure out what else I can eat or what I'm doing wrong, but for now...

...grumble grumble sigh.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Today's FAIL!

Haven't had one of these in a while. This was said by a work study student while she was reading up about strep throat on the web.

"Did you know that a symptom of strep is white pus on the toenails?!"
...pause...
"Oh wait, that says tonsils."

LOVE it.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Day 2

Day 2 of the South Beach Diet is proving to be soooo hard! I am cranky and tired and want to just eat something simple like a bowl of cereal. Or oh I don't know... a king sized Snickers or three. I know it'll get easier. I've done this before, but man this part is haaaard.

Waah.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Saath Beach


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Tomorrow I start Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. Even though it is as much fun as eating paper for 14 days, I'm excited to get going with it. I know that it works since it helped me to lose 20 lbs before the wedding. I am definitely NOT at my fighting weight right now. Unless I'm going to fight Snooki. Fist pump! I'm uncomfortable with the extra lbs and sure that it is causing a lot of my back pain and carpal tunnel issues. Not ok.

So, two weeks with nothing but basically eggs, fat free dairy, low fat lunch meat, and loads of veggies. Oh, and I can have some nuts everyday. (twss) Worst of all though...no wine. Siiiigh. Everyone say a prayer for Mike that he can deal with me for these next two weeks. Luckily he has his dude room to which he can retreat when I start wanting to fight someone. Unconditional love test... take one. Well, or two or three, I guess. :P But I'll be in a great mood once I look cute in jeans again. I'll make it up to him then.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Health mag experiment: Jan/Feb


So, I'm ready to move forward with my Health magazine experiment. I was going to do it for one month, but since January is already almost over (wha?!) and I need to see how it goes for the first experiment, I'm giving myself a little over one month.

I also spent some time looking through different issues of Health magazine and found the most do-able things in the Nov. 2009 issue, so that's what I'm going to use. Again, these will involve exercises, recipes, products, self improvement tips, and -um - other. (Although the recipes part may have to wait because I'm going to be doing a 'session' of South Beach to kickstart my metabolism.) So, by February 28th, I will try the following:

1) ...protect myself from sneaky germs: I'm waging war on germs, y'all! I will:
- turn the pockets of my jeans inside out before washing in hot water so as to kill germs that are on things that get lodged in my pockets.
- buy wireless phone wipes and wipe down my phone each day.
- gently clean my debit card with a bleach-based disinfecting cleaner since I hand it over to lots of people to swipe through the card reader.

2) ...be loading up on anything anti-oxidant related:
- Get as much pomegranate as I can to fight free radicals. This will involve drinking pomegranate juice and also trying this product:

http://usa.weleda.com/our-products/shop/7270.aspx

- Eat as much fish as possible.

3) ...be eating lots of eggs. Health says that people who eat eggs every day for breakfast whittle their waists down more than those who get their calories from AM foods like bagels. Luckily the South Beach Diet is all about eggs.

4) ...practice one yoga pose every day to relieve stress and become more (um, maybe not more, but just) graceful. The tree pose is supposed to improve my balance and "make you feel more lovely." I like lovely.

5) ... be taking Health's advice for my diet plan. They recommend that people who like to be told what to eat, need coffee, and don't always want to cook from scratch to try the South Beach Diet.

6) ...compliment someone as often as possible. It "gives them and you a lift." I'll blog about this. I wonder how many women will say something to negate the compliment. I hate when we do that!

7) ...try to erase some of these dang-blasted wrinkles by smoothing a little grapeseed oil onto said wrinkles each night before bed. Grapeseed oil is rich in antioxidants and fatty acids.

8) ..blast fat by using a kettlebell. I need to find one, but when I do I can burn tons of calories. It "incorporates explosive movements. ...uses multiple muscle groups simultaneously, which burns more calories."

9) ... "shake up date night." Health suggested going to a comedy club so we're going to go see Brian Bosehn next month. Fun! Consider us shaken! :P

10) ...melt away stress with Johnson's Body Care Lavender & Chamomile Body Wash. You don't have to tell me twice to try an affordable body wash/lotion that gets rid of stress. I'm in!

11) ..."work the bicycle crunch." My PT wants me to work my core more so as to stabilize my back so this should help.

I said that I'd do 12 'experiments', but with the South Beach being a HUGE challenge, I'm going to shorten that by one this time.

I'll update when things are worth mentioning. This should be fun!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Makes Me Think


While I'm getting my back in order so that I can start my Health challenge, I wanted to post about a site that a friend recommended. It made me think and smile.

http://makesmethink.com/

How sweet is this? "Today, I was getting some work done at a local coffee house when I saw a cute elderly couple sipping extra large cappuccinos. The woman was reading the newspaper aloud softly for her husband who was blind. He smiled and made the most expressive facial expressions every time she read something new. MMT"

I try to be an observant person, but sometimes I get so caught up in where I'm walking or what I hav eto do next that I forget to look around and observe the world. This makes me think that I should do more of that.

(The site isn't all happy observations and thoughts, but the happy ones are really good.)

Picture from www.thatschurch.com

I'm thinking about the people in Haiti, that's for sure. I am having a hard time watching the coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake. My mind can't take in what it means for that many buildings and towns to be destroyed, for thousands of people to be dead and buried in the rubble. But there are heartwarming stories to be found... Like the one about the orphanage run by the two women from Ben Avon, PA. As a result of communications via social networking sites, the women and the orphans (who are living in the front yard of the orphanage right now) are cleared to come to the U.S. There needs to be a plane found that can bring them all back, but I'm confident that will happen somehow soon. People care. The thing that makes me get a huge lump in my throat over this story is that the women who run the orphanage weren't willing to take the free ride back to the States that was offered to them because they didn't want to leave the children. These aren't their children. They have their own families back in the States. But they feel such love and devotion to the children of Haiti that they were willing topossibly die with them rather than abandon them. I hope that there is a way for people to help them when they get back to the States (specifically, hopefully Pittsburgh.) I'll be the first in line.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Postponed

My Health challenge has been postponed because I somehow hurt my tailbone. I didn't fall or knock it on anything, so all I can think is that God is just having fun with me because he likes to hear people say coccyx.

I have some things figured out that I want to do, but need to be able to move my rearside, so it has to wait a bit. Stay tuned...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Health Challenge


I was watching TV yesterday (unlike my brave friend Dori, who gave it up for a week) and I saw a commercial about an upcoming news story. It was about a woman who followed Oprah's advice for one full year. Whu?! I was instantly intrigued. How in the world could she do that? Is she the most self-actualized woman in the world now? In any case, it inspired me to try something. In an effort to get healthy, I'm going to take one issue of Health magazine and do, for one month, at least 12 things that the magazine advises. I haven't looked through the magazine yet, but this mission will include taking advice on beauty products, exercise tips, eating tips, or anything else that I can do without breaking the bank or challenging my lactose intolerance. I'm excited. I can handle a month of doing something out of my usual routine. Plus it's winter and cold and boring... I need a project. So, stay tuned. I'll update my blog with my 12 chosen challenges soon.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Buh Bye 2009

2009 wasn't my favorite. While it brought some great things like my first wedding anniversary and resurrected & new friendships for which I'm incredibly thankful, it also brought a broken foot that tested my patience and almost ruined a vacation, cruddy hardships in my sister's life, the passing of my beautiful Aunt, more minor illnesses than I knew what to do with, and 25 unwanted pounds. So, I say adios 2009.

I do love a new year. It looks different, feels different. It brings a new page to fill with experiences and memories. It brings a renewed energy to do something good for yourself and/or for others. Resolutions aren't something that I usually even think about. I can't even stick with a book most of the time so I don't usually resolve to do anything. But I'm feeling a little wacky this year and am going to commit to try to attempt to maybe do some things this year. I'm putting these resolutions out there - on blast as the kids say - so that I can look back and hopefully not sigh and wonder when I'm going to stick with one thing that I commit to (even if it is just to put change in a change jar instead of the bottom of my sock drawer). Mike recently told me that it seems like I am real good at choosing things to stick to, but not so much on the follow through. Oh no he dihn't! But ya know, it's true, so I can't fault my loving husband for his tough love.

I've been hearing and reading a lot recently about not setting big ol' lofty resolutions along the lines of "Be happy." and "Lose 25 pounds.", so I'm going to make my resolutions nice and specific.



So, without further ado... My resolutions for 2010:

1) Do the Wii Fit Plus every day for at least 30 minutes. And don't just do the Hula Hoop game the whole time even if it is super duper fun.

2) Wear flat shoes as much as possible since they clearly make my back feel better. Dang my physical therapist and her bright ideas. Flats do help dramatically. I need the added height brought by a good pair of chunky Clarks, but I'm going to attempt to do what she suggested and "Embrace my shortness."

3) Count to ten and take a deep breath before speaking when I'm not sure what to say or when I'm peeved. A novel idea. Think before you speak. Gonna try that out and see what all the fuss is about.

4) Cut internet use down at home. No specific time amount here. Just need to spend more time talking and listening to Mike. He is feeling a bit like an internet widow.

I just got itchy typing those four out, so I'm going to stop there and move forward into 2010 with a fighting chance.

What are your realistic resolutions?

Happy New Year!

P.S. Can we please get rid of the phrase "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" now that it's 2010?