Sunday, March 26, 2006

Exercise Opportunist

In the book that I am reading Super Foods there is a section about exercise. It was an interesting read because it gave me the idea to be an exercise opportunist! In addition to trying to work exercise into your life, look for daily opportunities that arise naturally and exercise then. For instance, when we get home from school, my girls always want to go out to play, to take a walk, to go to the playground. I have been dropping everything to go outside and play with them. They like to get on their bikes, and I put the baby in the stroller and we all head out. When we do go to the playground, I like to zip around on the equipment as well.
My dog ligitimately also needs exercise. I have been getting into the habit of popping on my iPod, grabbing the dog and walking the bike path up to my school and walking around the school a few times. Daisy gets out, I get exercise.
I live pretty close to the school where I work. I would also like to make walking to and from work part of my day on nice days. Warm weather is about here, the walk is a brisk 10 min uphill, it would benefit me and the environment.
I even got my bike out, filled the tires with air and got it ready for Spring. When Miranda wants to go on a ride, I go to. We usually only take a short spin around the block, but I have been teaching her bike safety as we go. This again kind of fills double duty. I get exercise, she gets time with Mom. And she thinks it's so cool that I like to bike. We haven't seen any other mom's on bikes here.
In the end, I have decided instead of trying to get on my treadmill at 8pm everynight ( some nights I make it, some I am just too tired by 8) to find opportunities that arise each day that can be turned into exercise. It really makes sense. I can't possible say "I don't have time to play with my kids" I am looking forward to a Spring and Summer filled with opportunities to get out and get healthy. Ride on little girls, and wait for me!

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Hooked on a Feeling

My quest for health has taken on a life of it's own. I had no idea it would be so easy. I am hooked on this feeling that I have right now. I feel satisfied. I have this feeling everyday and I think it's because I restructured my entire eating plan and now only eat food that has nutritional value. I have not had a slice of bread in a month, or potatoes, or pasta. I have also not had carb cravings in a month. I knew I had willpower, but even following weight watchers I was eating carbs and not learning how to deal with the cravings. I have replaced my old white starches with grains. I have Thomas Whole Grain English Muffins. 8 grams of fiber. I eat one at 6:30am, and an not hungry until my 11:30 salad. I have also added wheat germ to my life, in smoothies and on my whole grain cereal in the am. I even perfer soy milk now on my cereal.
I am mostly excited because I know I can keep going with this way of eating because it just makes sense to me and my body feels satisfied, healthy, and strong. Additionaly, the scale reads 10 pounds less now in a month. And did I mention that my hair, skin, and nails have never looked better? I wasn't planning on that.

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Adventures in Biology

Friday we had an extreme sub shortage at my school. So extreme the principal came in and told the counselors we were the biology teacher for the day. We looked at each other and burst out laughing. I think there are reasons we are all counselors. We love working with kids, but had no intent of ever teaching a class, but what can you do? We were short staff, so time to rally!
I only wound up with 8th period, and didn't realize when I walked down to the room that it was AP Biology. Keep in mind the actual last time I set foot in a bio classroom was 10 grade. I was 15. I am 30something. That was actually 19 years ago. All I really remember was fiddling with Mr. Sos's computer and having network people have to come and fix it ( sorry) and the fetal pigs. Ours was fondly named stubby the pig and thank GOD for Steph. She had the cohonies to do the cut work. No way was I cutting into that pig.
Thankfully, the teacher left a quiz and lab work for the students to finish up on and the students I had were really good kids. Seniors taking the class because they wanted to. They were working with specimine jars identifying class, genomes, and genesis classifications. When one kid asked about a Genesis, I sais " Hey, I know this! It's a rock group and their front man was Phil Collins." Now it was their turn to laugh. I was amazed at the content they were studying and I had a lot of respect for them. I am a smart girl, I read a lot, and I know a lot about a lot of things, but the complexities that is Biology is foreign to me. And to the kid that opened the specimine jar with the frog in it to see how it smelled, well, whatever works for you. Keep that thing away from me.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Superlative!

So I have been adding so called "super foods" to my diet and I have to report back on this. I do actually feel super, although the intent was to be healthy not to achieve a feeling. I have been eating things like walnuts ( move over almonds, walnuts are now worthy), olives, oatmeal, cinnamon, and tomato juice daily. I have been taking a super B vitamin and Omega pill as part of my regimine, and drinking an ocean of water a day. I am moving into the 3 week zone, and there is no way I want to go back to the way I was eating. I no longer eat white bread, white potatoes, or pasta, and I have to say I thought I would be miserable, but it's not the case. My cravings for sugary, chocolately foods are gone. I find my appetite has pretty much gone south for the first time in my life. That's powerful stuff!
I have been out to dinner ( Zebbs of all places) and not tempted to deviate ( baked chicken, coleslaw, and onion soup), weathered a birthday and only had 1/2 of a small piece of cake as a 3 week reward for myself, and even had cookie dough in the house and didn't want to nosh on it. Amazing. I will continue onward with my quest for health. I know I have lost weight because pants that didn't fit after I had the baby now fit, but more importantly, I really do feel super.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Ch-Ch-ch-Changes

Visualization is a powerful tool. It's a technique I use when working with kids. If you want to make changes, if you want to things to be different, you need to be able to see it, to visualize it, if you are going to make it happen. If you can't see yourself changed, how can you even begin to think change is possible?
I myself want to make some changes this year. Last year, just about everything in my life changed and something I frequently did was to close my eyes, breath deep, palms up and visualize the change. I allowed myself to see the change in my head and to pretend I could feel the changes in my being. Deep, I know, but it worked. It was something that kept me focused on my goals and as I was interviewing for jobs, I imagined myself in those roles. So this year, I am using the same technique.
The changes I am visualizing this year are health and well being. I have struggled with my weight since I was in 8th grade. I have never been huge by any means, but the times I have been at my ideal weight I have not been able to stay there and it's not because I didn't follow a maintenance plan, it's because I never made PERMANENT changes to my eating. Lifestyle changes. I never visualized myself long term sticking to my plan and eating healthy long term.
In order to achieve my goal this year, and weightloss speaking it's only about 20-25 pounds that stands between me and my favorite weight. Nothing major, but this time, I would like to stay there, to eat healthfully long term not only for the number on the scale, but for the way I feel, for low blood pressure and low cholesterol. I have both of those things now, low blood pressure and cholesterol, but not really by anything I have done, so I would like to make changes that support this through my adult life.
Some thigs I have done to help me achieve this so far are again visualization. I can see long term health in my head, I can see myself at my favorite weight. A second thing I have done is more reading and research. I am a thinker. I like facts and I like reasons. I know I should eat fruits and veggies because they are healthy, but I needed more facts. I got a book called Super Foods that goes into detail about foods that really pack a healthy punch. I haven't gotten too far into the book, but now on a daily basis I eat a handful of walnuts, a cup of olives, and I found this greay blueberry tea at the health food store. Blueberries really pack an antioxident rich punch. Who knew? The tea I found, although not quite as good as the real deal, is almost as rich. Besides that it is delicious. I am eating salads once a day, and whole foods like chicken and tuna.
It's only been 2 weeks since I got really serious about this, and I can't say that it was too hard, because I have always been on the healthier side of life, kind of on the verge. In my two week quest, I have already dropped 6 pounds. Not the most important reason, but man does it feel good. And did I mention that I feel amazing???
So I am visualizing myself at the local beach this summer. I am not covered up with a beach cover up. I am running around with my girls, drinking water and eating fresh fruits as our beach snacks. I look good, I feel good. At the next site over is the family munching on chips and soda at the beach. They are overweight, the look tired, and sadly the children are large as well. I can visualize this because when we went to Glimmerglass last summer, quite a few families at the beach looked like this. I was appalled at the number of obese kids sitting on their beach towels eating chips. I vowed this would not be us. There were 2 French Canadian women at the beach. They looked awesome, in the mid 40's. I couldn't help but notice they were munching on grapes and had plenty of water to drink. Pass the water and pass the strawberries please. We want health, vitality, and strength. I can see it now!!!