Cherish Your Friends; They are Precious Commodities

I've been wanting to write an article about how important it is to be there for your friends. In this time of transition, my friends have been invaluable to me, and I have realized how much I appreciate those who have reached out to me, and been there. So much so that I have noticed when my friends have really needed me in return. We are all dealing with so much in our lives; kids, parents, college, marriages, death. Need I go on. I think you get the message. The important thing is that we must continue to be there for each other, for support when that tragedy comes along, whether it be the death of a spouse, the loss of a relationship, or the loss of a job. I know it's hard to compare one to the other, but for the person going thru the so-called tragedy, or the actual  tragedy, the sense of loss is very much the same. Being there and showing your support can be as little as just a phone call or a text, or as big as taking the time to just be with that person for a while so they don't have to be alone, and listen to whatever they want to talk about even if you've heard it over and over again. Everyone heals and deals in their own way, and on their own time schedule. Personally, I have had to realize that everyone is busy with their own stuff, and when they find the time to respond they will. Because I have so much free time these days, I take for granted that just because I call or text doesn't mean that the receiver can respond immediately, even though that's what I want. That's what we all want; INSTANT GRATIFICATION. Eventually they do respond, and if they don't and the message was really important, just send it again, as it may have gotten lost or forgotten, depending on what is going on at the moment with the other party. Remember, EVERYONE IS BUSY with something, and it's not all about you.

Part of being there for your friends is making sure they are taking care of themselves by eating right and exercising. I know some of my friends might think to themselves; "oh no here she goes again, preaching about food and exercise". Well, that's my thing. It's hard to keep my mouth shut when I see that my friends are not eating enough because they got busy, or just didn't feel hungry. We need to remember that in order to feel hungry, you must eat. Eating is what makes the body work and gets that metabolism moving. I know when I started writing about changing my eating habits I mentioned that I had to get used to eating every couple of hours even though I wasn't hungry. It took about two weeks but once my body got used to eating every couple of hours, I was quickly reminded by my stomach, it was time to eat. Try and keep snacks in your car such as nuts, and water, and grab a piece of fruit to take with you when you are leaving the house. You never know when you will need it because you got to BUSY, and forgot to eat. It's happened to me as well when I get caught up in whatever I am doing and before you know it 4-5 hours have gone by and you haven't eaten anything. Normally my stomach will tell me, and I know that is the natural progression for most of us, but if you jump start  your body with a good, healthy breakfast in the morning, and keep up with those snacks between lunch and dinner, you will feel so much better. Your body will thank you and you will want to eat. Also try and keep up with your exercise, by walking at least 30 minutes a day, and getting that heavier cardio workout a couple of times a week, to keep your heart healthy. I remember a phrase from a movie, " exercise produces endorphins, and endorphins make you happy". Just another reason to exercise when you are down in the dumps. I can't tell you how many times I was down and out and didn't want to go to the gym for any reason. I try to remember how good it felt at the end of those nights when I was coming home and thinking to myself how glad I was that I made myself go, and how much better I felt because I played some great racquetball and got to hang out with my friends at the Y. Most of the time I forgot why I was down in the first place. I would like to also stress how important it is to eat something before and after your workouts, to have fuel to burn, and replenish when you're done. Feeling light headed is a sign you have not eaten enough, and avoiding food due to a workout is not the healthy way to go, especially in the heat. One more tip is to always drink water throughout the day, to keep yourself hydrated, and once again, make that body work.

So enough healthy tips for one day. The point once again is that we all need to take care of each other and be there for one another in our times of need and just because. Be honest with each other, but try to realize when to back off due to timing, and the severity of the situation. Put yourself in your friends position and try and realize what they are feeling before you react strongly, or negatively. I have had most of my friends for a very long time and have come to value them so much more thru the years. Friends are precious commodities, not to be taken advantage of, or taken for granted. I dedicate this article to all of my friends, and you know who you are. I love you all very much!!

Living and Loving My Friends

Out With The Old; In With The New

I just came back from visiting my Aunt in Maryland for the weekend. I thought it was going to be easy and relaxing, but she definitely had other ideas. I think we hit every shopping area within a 50 mile radius between Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Thank god the weather was good. Not only did we hit all the shopping centers in the area, we also hit all the eating establishments as well. We did try to keep it as healthy as we could, but we did enjoy our favorites to. We ordered different items and shared so we could have the best of both worlds, and in between we walked, and walked, and walked. They have so much ethnic food everywhere and each restaurant is better than the next. I had greek food at Columbia Mall, Indian food at a great restaurant in Silver Spring, brunch  (eggs benedict) at Mon Ami Gabi, and caribbean chicken at Pollo Loco. Oh, I forgot to mention that my aunt did cook the last night, and we had meatloaf, spaghetti, salad, and leftover Indian food. Sounds like another food fest, right?

The best part of the weekend was that in between all the eating we were constantly on the go; picking up furniture she ordered, carpets from IKEA, and some much needed shopping for me. Now, a bit of history about my aunt. She is my mom’s youngest sister, and the one I am closest to in age. She is single, and her kids are grown with their own kids. She is always rearranging her house, and she loves to pick up old furniture, and paint or change it in some way. She makes her curtains, paints rooms funky colors, and has wonderfully different peices of art, all over the house. Everytime I visit her something has changed. She has recently retired, and is now trying to scale down, in anticipation for the future.  I was so impressed with her motivation to change, clean out, and update everything.  I forgot to mention that she also had me moving furniture up and down stairs, including taking peices apart in order to get them up or down, whichever the case was. It had a huge effect on me. We started discussing what I needed to do with my house as far as cleaning out, and thinking about what I may want to have in Florida. I have earth tones in my house now, and I need to look at brighter colors for my future Florida beach house. I came home and immediately started cleaning out the garage, and the bathroom cabinets, which have not been cleaned out since I moved here about 15 years ago. It felt great just to get started, and I now have a better idea of what my everyday tasks need to be, in order to move within my alloted timeline.

I want to dedicate this article to my Aunt Jackie for giving me the motivation I need, to do the things I know I need to do, in order to make things happen. Sometimes when there is big change in your life, you become obsessed with what you need to do, instead of just doing it. These past few weeks have been so up and down for me, emotionally, however, now I feel like I can do anything. Nothing and noone will get in my way of accomplishing my goals. Life goes on, and I am moving right along with it. I look forward to the day when I can look back at this time in my life and realize that this is the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

 Thank you and I love you, Jackie!!

To Eat Or Not To Eat

So I have decided to log my food into the activtrax online system.  Now the questions are;  what do I eat, how much, and how often.  I am continuously reading articles and books about food, and what benefits are derived from eating certain foods.  I’ve read diet books such as “The Abs Diet for Women”,  “Harnessing the Healing Power of Fruit”, “The South Beach Diet”, and various articles that I find online and in health magazines.  As I said in  “The Weight Gain Dilemma”; I thought I was eating healthy.  I was just not as disciplined as I needed to be.  I knew this needed to change. I really had to get serious and apply more of this knowledge to my everyday eating habits.  As I logged in my food everyday and noticed how much fat was in everything, I focused on eating basically no fat.  That’s pretty much what you have to do in order to fit into the 20% a day category. Let me backtrack on that.  I was set up on activtrax to eat 20% fat, 50% carbs, and 30% protein.  I have always tried to eat balanced at every meal; protein, carbs, and veggies. I read that half of your plate should be filled with vegetables.  Also you need at least 7 to 9 servings of fruits and veggies a day; maybe 9 to 13 by now.  My goal was to eat my 3 meals a day with a morning and afternoon snack.  I was careful to keep all  my food intake to one serving size of everything. That included sauces, condiments (butter, mayo, dressings, etc. ), EVERYTHING.  I would also concentrate on drinking as much water as possible to get to the 64 oz a day.  This is not the first time I have tried to lose weight, and I know how my body will react to drinking more water, and eating less at each sitting, but more times a day.  At first you feel hungry because you’re stomach is used to having more, and it has to shrink.  You also don’t feel like eating every time you should. You have to give your body time to adjust to this new way of eating and drinking. After a couple of weeks, I started feeling hungry when it was time to eat, and I was eating or drinking all the time.  I brought healthy snacks with me to work; fruit, nuts, hummus and crackers, or celery, protein bars, etc. I made sure that I ate enough protein before going to exercise.  My body was changing quickly due to the change in what I ate, when I ate, and how much I ate. The exercising everyday was really making a difference in how I felt, as well as reducing the inches around my hips, legs, and belly.  I ventured into my closet to see how my old clothes would fit.  The results were amazing.  I was only losing about 1 to 2 lbs a week, which is what I was told when I was setup, but where I really noticed a difference quickly was how trim I was looking and feeling.  This was my incentive and motivation to keep on going.  IT WAS WORKING!!!  

Please read on to the next article “Getting Over The Plateau”.

The Weight Gain Dilemma

So now that my hormones were somewhat on track it was time to get rid of this extra 30 pounds or so.  I really thought I was doing everything right; playing racquetball 2-3 times a week, and eating what I considered to be healthy. I had heard a couple of people talking at the Y about a new computerized system called Activtrax. Apparently you could log your food in and it would calculate how many calories, fat, carbs, and protein grams you ate. You could also get set up on the computer based on your goals for weightloss, and exercise. I had been searching for something to help me lose this god awful extra weight. I was getting ready to go up another size and I was not willing to let that happen. It was enough!!

I decided to take the plunge. What did I have to lose? Some weight, maybe? I got setup on Activtrax with a goal of exercising at least 30 minutes a day, and losing at least 30 pounds. My workout included all the weight machines, a few exercises on the mat with the ball, and the other exercise bars, belts, etc. I also warmed up on the treadmill and finished on the eliptical.  I decided that I would go to the gym on the nights that I was not playing racquetball. The computer spit out my workout everytime I came. It was great. I also started doing the 8 minute Ab workout every morning. I have been using this for many years off and on. I have to be really motivated. Anyway, there are about 12 different ab positions and with 20 reps each that comes to about 240 total crunches. I also do 20 leg lifts on each side, as well as some knee and lower back stretches. I know this sounds like alot but you can knock it out in 15 minutes or less. I do breath in between, so I am not doing the crunches continuously. Believe me, I am no great exerciser, so if I can do this, I know you can. I was really challenged by the logging in of the food. They have alot of choices with breakdowns of each item. I had my breakdown of 20% fat, 50% carbs, and 30% protein. It was very interesting seeing what I thought would fit into these categories and what I actually ended up with. This taught me alot about looking at the labels for these breakdowns. I also found out that it takes about 3-5 times more protein to get to 30%. In the beginning I measured everything to make sure I was only eating a serving size. Its important to do this. You think you are only eating a certain amount of butter, or mayo, or peanut butter until you start to measure. I became very aware of how much fat was in everything. I starting buying lite and lowfat dressings that I thought I would like as well as some bags of frozen fish, shrimp, and chicken breasts.  I like fresh vegetables, so I only bought what I thought I would eat for about a week at a time so as not to waste the food and have to throw it away. I hate throwing away food because it went bad. I was on my way and it felt good to start this new journey. I was very motivated and determined. Please continue to “The Weight Loss Success”.