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!!

Embracing The Next Phase

I was recently let go from my job after 10 and a half years. I have not been happy there for the last 3 years and have constantly talked about moving to Florida and changing careers.  I now have the time, and some income for a while, to pack up my house and move. It’s all very exciting and new, however, I am a creature of habit, as most of us are, and it’s also scary, stressful, and mind boggling.  I know in the long run that everything will work out, but changing my very longstanding routine is so much harder than I thought. I don’t know whether to put myself on a schedule everyday so I don’t waste time, or just go with the flow and let things happen.  The stress of these decisions, and my emotional ups and downs everyday, is getting in the way of my motivation to eat healthy and properly everyday. I am still exercising as much as I can, playing racquetball 3 times a week, and walking in between, as well as getting a few Ab workouts in per week. I am motivated to exercise as it helps relieve the stress. I haven’t had this big of a change in my life for a very long time.

So it’s time to get back on track. I have floundered around with this long enough and I need to develop a routine, but I will call it a flex routine. What this means is I will set a general plan for my day, but if things change, or stuff comes up, I will just go with the flow, and not stress out that I did not stick to the plan. I have been watching Dr. Oz everyday for health tips and info. One of his tips was to exercise in the morning before you eat breakfast, and then have a good protein rich breakfast: Cereal, milk and greek yogurt with blueberries, 3 egg omelet with veggies, turkey sausage, and wheat toast, etc. The key is to get around 30 grams of protein at breakfast.  My plan is to exercise by 9am each morning (trusty ab workout), eat that big breakfast, and start my day. I am really enjoying writing so I have decided to pursue it further and try some freelance writing. I will write in the morning, and work on cleaning out the house in the afternoon. That is my general flex routine, and I will not stress out if other things come up such as playing racquetball during the day, or having lunch with a friend, or just a change in plans. I have already started getting back to my healthy eating habits; 3 meals a day, 2 snacks, and plenty of water. I feel better just knowing that I have a plan and I have started making it happen. This is something I have always wanted; to work from home on my own time, and enjoy my life.

I am finally getting excited about this additional lifestyle change. The last couple of weeks have been eye opening for me, but like all new things, it is an adventure that I am really looking forward to, and I will be so much better for it. I used to tease my aunt that we needed to start the last phase of our lives. She thought it sounded a little morbid. What I realize is that this is the NEXT phase of my life, but definitely not the last.

Living and Loving Change

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”.