The lunch war

I packed the oddest lunch today....my cooler included a banana for mid-morning, an apple and string cheese for afternoon snack and lunch was a baked sweet potato with cinnamon, a hard boiled egg and an orange. Anyway, my co-workers decided to order Jimmy Johns...which just happens to have the greatest sandwiches in the world and the delivery is freaky fast. I love, I mean LOVE, the gourmet veggie on 7 grain bread. However, it is most certainly not healthy. The gourmet veggie has 898.45 calories, 50.78 g. of fat and 15.37 g. of saturated fat. Without cheese and mayo it weighs in with 426.99 calories, 6.21 g. of fat, and 1.01 g. of saturated fat. So obviously it can be made "healthier" but still is a pretty large sandwich for lunch. All of the will power I had in me came screaming out as I went back and forth on if I should eat the lunch I brought or go for the Jimmy Johns. Well, I am proud to say that my baked sweet potato, hard boiled egg and orange were very good. I was very satisfied both in my tummy and in myself! Yeah!!!

The Journey

A friend of mine is going through a trying time in her marriage that will probably end in divorce. As I sympathized with her and offered a listening ear it dawned on me that sometimes weight loss or lifestyle change can be a form of "divorce" or loss. Each time we go through a loss, we need to mourn. The person I was 50 lbs. ago is different than the person I am today. But I never ever want to forget that person because she is the one that showed strength in the time of life changing events that led to my weight loss. Whether we are leaving an unhealthy relationship or changing our lifestyle to be healthier, we are experiencing a loss or significant change. We go through all the same stages: anger, denial, sadness, and hopefully, peace. I was almost married to that 50 lbs. I lost. Heck, I ate through happiness, sadness, celebrations, during times of great joy and great mourning….and all of that defined me. So when the time came to take care of myself, I had to acknowledge the loss of my unhealthy relationship with food and inactivity. It didn’t happen overnight just like I didn’t gain the weight over night. Sometimes I think I am still working on it and will forever. But, I have come to love the healthy person I am and respect the journey I am on. So as I told my friend, we have to look at this time of change as one where we acknowledge where we were, mourn if needed, and look forward to our next journey! It reminds me of the holly berries that grow out of a branch that is covered with heavy snow. We all have our "heavy snow" that has helped to define who we are and where we came from. But the bright red berries show us that growth is possible and will happen no matter how heavy the snow gets.

Exercise: 20 minutes on the treadmill- 113 calories burned

The scale is taking a much needed break

Today I got a much needed push to remove the scale from my bathroom. The first sign came when I read this post on http://www.sisterskinny.com/. The second came from a high school friend that I haven't seen in years (who has successfully lost weight and gained the fitness bug) writing to me about her weight loss and her use of measurement as a determinant of success. Both brought me back to the importance of this journey I'm on. It isn't about the number of pounds I lost or gained last week. It's about the way I feel, my hip-to-waist ratio that helps determine my cardiovascular risk factors.....it's about how clothes fit. Heck, it's about looking smokin' hot in my goal jeans!

Exercise:
20 minutes on the treadmill-101 calories burned

What to do with leftover turkey???

Today makes day 4 of Thanksgiving turkey leftovers.....so what did I do??? Turkey tacos and they were great!!!! What a great source of protein and nice change from taco meat. But....I'm saying good bye to the rest of our turkey. The food safety person in me says it's time to quit with the leftovers. So tomorrow will be a turkey free day. I'm sure my husband will be thrilled!!!

And Just Where Have You Been Young Lady!?!

Wow...has over a month passed since I wrote??? I love the John Lennon line from the song Beautiful Boy, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." This has certainly been my life lately. Though excuses are like....belly buttons, everyone has one. Therefore, I am not going to give any excuses other than that time has gotten away from me.

So what has been happening? I have joined the PHP crew and love it! I am almost a month in and have learned so much from just the forum posts not to mention the exercise routines Corinne has developed. I have not been as dedicated as I need to be...but that is coming. I am going to start the Couch to 5K program. A co-worker wants to run a 1/2 marathon eventually and asked me to join her. At this point we are focusing on training for a 5k in the spring.

Grad school started last month also. Two more weeks and my first class is done! It hasn't been too painful other than cutting into my exercise a little.

We had our first Thanksgiving without my mom. My aunt and uncle came to help us make new traditions and memories. My first turkey came out awesome! We had a relatively healthy meal and great conversations. Now we focus on the Christmas holiday. This will be a difficult month...we lost my mom last Christmas Day. But she would have wanted us to move on and celebrate the day Jesus was born and the day she went to be with our creator. So we will do so.

I am going to make a new commitment to posting every single day between now and January 1st. They may be short posts but by January 1st it should also be a habit!!!!