Secrets to Being Your Perfect Weight

I love reading about nutritional research, fitness research and how to stay healthy.   It fun, finding new sites and resources that help you live a healthy life.  I recently stumbled upon a site that said this was the diet that works best...and I laughed reading it, because unfortunately, it is so true!

Eat 1500 Calories a Day

Example Schedule:

Breakfast: Eat 400 calories (When you wake up)

Lunch: Eat 500 calories (During your lunch break)

Dinner: Eat 600 calories (At least 3 hours before bedtime)

Results: About 1 lb per week...or about 50 lbs per year

What do you do if you eat more than this each day?

Exercise. Get on the treadmill and work off the extra calories.

And remember...if this were easy, there wouldn't be so many fake diets out there.

Sometimes it is so hard to not overeat.  Especially when you vacation, or go to events or even just going out to eat.  But it's not those times that matter.  I've actually read on a health website and found from personal experience, that sometimes when you are at an ideal weight, it is okay to indulge and have blue cheese dressing on a salad instead of a vinaigrette or having some sour cream on a burrito, because when you don't add some extra calories at least once a week, you will stop burning calories at a higher rate.

There are 4 things that I have found that have made the biggest impact in my goals to being healthy and staying at my perfect weight.  (Perfect weight being when what I see in the mirror and what I see on the scale both make me happy...lol). 

1.  Be Happy.  I will admit that being happy in life makes it so much easier to not over eat.  I think almost everyone finds that food is a comfort when we are trying to deal with other things.  And because, as a society, we have so much processed and unhealthy food so readily available, people don't over eat raw almonds (a fabulous and healthy snack) or broccoli but over eat processed crackers, cookies, etc.  Life is not perfect, but it's your attitude that makes all the difference.  Being around other people who are happy with life also makes such a big difference. 

2.  Exercise.  When I started getting back into working out a minimum of 5 days a week, I really looked forward to going to the gym and had so much fun catching up on my reading while I worked out.  I enjoyed the elliptical, the stair climber and the stationary bike.  It only took me about a month to realize that even though I was exercising, I was not really pushing myself.  I started pushing myself in Group Ride and found that my muscle tone in my legs became even more defined.  I started running hard on the treadmill and found that not only did my endorphins start flowing but I felt amazing (and happy) when I was done. 

3.  Get rid of processed foods, trans fats and white flour and watch the weight disappear.  Again, just like the diet listed above, this is not easy, but it works.  Our body's are not designed to know how to process these foods, so they store them.  Really not excited to think that my body wants to hold onto that cookie I decided to eat.

4.  AGELESS!  Univera is one of the greatest companies I have found.  I started taking Ageless, now called Xperia about 6 years ago and I love it.  It keeps me healthy, it keeps me young and it keeps me from overeating.  The first time I was given Ageless, I had a horrible cold and was losing my voice.  I took one ounce before my class started, and by the end of the class, I felt amazing.  It has made all the difference for both Scott and I in staying healthy and both of us staying happy and fit.  It replaces drinking coffee and it replaces feelings of hunger.  Could not ask for a better product. 

 



Little, Tiny, Red Haired Lisbeth

I'm almost finished with the series of books by Stieg Larsson, starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.  I read the 1st book months and months ago and decided to skip the next two books.  I wasn't sure why everyone seemed to love the book so much.  It seemed dark and dreary and "The Girl" was hard to relate to and get to know much.  Of course I did love the fact that she was tiny and red haired.  Made me feel a little kinship...but other than that, it just didn't seem like that amazing of a book...except that the story line kept you hooked until the end, I may have even given up at some point.

Recently I've been devouring some fun, and sometimes nonfiction books and I was ready for a good, deep novel again.   So I started the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire.  And I fell in love.  It was so much better and so much more about Lisbeth and so, so, so entertaining.  Lisbeth is a strong, independent woman and is quite willing to take control of her own life.  She's a survivor and even when the unthinkable continues to happen to her, she does not give up.  She is not a victim and I respect that.  Lisbeth takes what life has given her and fights back.  I'm always impressed with characters who don't feel sorry for themselves or want anyone else to feel sorry for them.  I love it when something bad happens to a female character and instead of blaming everyone else, they figure out what is going to make them happy and do it.  Sometimes life throws you for a loop, sometimes things happen that seem out of your control, but it's all about how you react and deal with the situation, not really about what has happened. It's hard not to admire the character that holds her head high and says that what you do does not change who I am.  
Again, Larsson writes books that make you keep reading, because the mystery is only solved at the end and it's so worth it.  Especially when it had to do with Lisbeth and her life.

The third book has stayed more like the second and I am so happy for that.  It's so great to get involved with characters in novels, especially when the author does such a great job with the story line!  I now see why so many people are upset about Larsson's passing.  What a great series to read and I wish there were more of his work!

Pizza Making Party

Even when I plan ahead, I still manage to forget the squeezable pizza sauce for the kids and the extra bottle of fancy wine for the adults...because I was not going to let the kids spread on their own pizza sauce...and one does not throw a party without expensive wine (and enough of it).

Pizza For the Kids

prepackaged buttermilk biscuits

squeezable pizza sauce

pepperoni

canadian bacon

olives

pineapple

mozzarella cheese

Dessert Pizza

 (made mainly by the kids)

prepackage pizza dough

1/2 cup slivered almonds

3Tbl butter

1 sleeve graham crackers (crushed)

1/4 tsp sea salt

3 cups mini marshmallows

9 oz Hershey's chocolate bars, broken

(Original recipe called for chili powder and cayenne powder, and even though the adults loved it...the kids went thru a lot of water while eating dessert)

Bake pizza in 400 degree oven for 6 minutes.

Brown almonds.

Melt butter in skillet and cook graham crackers and salt for 2 minutes.

Top pizza with marshmallows and chocolate.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Top with almonds and graham cracker mixture.

Green Bean, Tomato & Chickpea Salad

(A little too much "fun" during the party, before I put together the salad, and I accidentally used the diced tomatoes I had chopped for the pizza in the salad...the pretty cherry tomatoes ended up on top of the pizza.  Lucky for us it all worked out!   I had to use frozen green beans because the fresh looked awful, but it worked out perfectly because the kids ate the extra 1/2 lb of green beans it made.)

1 1/2 lbs of green beans

3 Tbl lemon juice

2 Tbl EVOO

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1 can chickpeas

1/2 cup feta

2\3 cup Italian parsley

Steam green beans for 5 minutes and then rinse in cold water to stop cooking.

Whisk lemon juice and oil.

Stir in tomatoes, onion, and chickpeas.

Add feta and parsley.

Arrange green beans on serving platter and top with tomato mixture.

Grilled Rosemary Crusted Pizza

(Note to self...so much easier to just buy a ball of pizza dough...as opposed to making it yourself.  Love my kitchenaid...makes it so much easier...but why even bother with them mess!)

Dough Ball

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

Form dough into 4 9" rounds.

3/4 cup olive oil

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

1 pound Italian sausages

2 yellow or red bell peppers, cored, lengthwise

1 large red onion, cut into1/2-inch thick wedges

Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Let vinaigrette stand 15 minutes at room temperature or refrigerate up to 2 hours.

Traeger medium heat. Arrange sausages, peppers and onion on baking sheet. Brush with some of vinaigrette. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill sausages until cooked through and peppers and onion until slightly charred, about 12 minutes for sausages and 8 minutes for peppers and onion. Transfer sausages and vegetables to cutting board. Cut sausages into 1/2-inch pieces and peppers into thin strips.

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups crumbled goat cheese

4 plum tomatoes, chopped

3/4 cup chopped green onion tops

Place 2 dough rounds on grill. Grill over medium heat until top of dough puffs and underside is crisp, about 3 minutes. Turn rounds over. Grill 1 minute. Transfer to baking sheet with well-grilled side up. This side of the dough becomes the surface that will hold the toppings.

Repeat with the remaining 2 dough rounds. Sprinkle each with 1/4 of mozzarella and Parmesan. Top each with 1/4 of sausage, peppers and onion, then with 1/4 of goat cheese, tomatoes and green onions. Drizzle each with 1 1/2 teaspoons vinaigrette.

Using large metal spatula, return 2 pizzas to grill. Grill until cheeses melt and dough is cooked through and browned, using tongs to rotate pizzas for Transfer to plates. Repeat grilling for remaining 2 pizzas.

Finding Happiness in the Small Stuff

I set a goal for myself of 5 miles at a 6 minute pace.  I am no where near hitting that goal.  I am so far away from that goal, that I had to start setting smaller goals...in the hopes that someday...in the far away future...I'll be able to run 6 minute miles.  I have doubts that this goal is attainable.  I have doubts that this was even a reasonable request to ask of my 36 year old body.  I have not give up my original goal...but  I am finding happiness in being able to meet my smaller goals.

Goal 1 - Run 5 miles at an 8 minute pace.

Goal 2 - Run 3 miles at a 7 minute pace.

Goal 3 - Run 1 mile at a 6 minute pace.

Goal 4 - Get to level 14 at Group Ride.

Goal 1 ~ Today I finally was willing to run on the treadmill for 40 minutes.  It seems like an eternity, being stuck indoors, running in place, but I did it.  I would love to put Reed in the jogging stroller and run with him, but he's so happy going to the gym, and I'd rather run when Scott can push him.  My IT band started hurting 4 1/2 miles in...but I knew I could run with the pain for another 1/2 a mile.  I felt great when I finished and am hoping my IT band will be willing and able to work with me doing this again next week.

Goal 2 ~ I also accomplished 7 minute miles for 3 miles this week.  This was not as much fun as running 5 miles at 8 minute pace...in fact I was gagging for the last 1/2 mile.  I was so happy to be off the treadmill at the end, that I kind of thought about laying flat on the floor and resting.  My body was working hard and was ready to be done.  My abs are rocking now...but it was hard work to get there. 

In fact, running as much as I have been, I've been enjoying the benefits of burning calories faster than I can intake them!  I even ate a piece of Konditori cake this week.  It took my 3 days, and it's my first sugar I've had since the beginning of Lent, but I needed to eat extra calories and that sounded like the most fabulous choice.

Goal 3 ~ I keep meaning to get to the gym early enough on a Tuesday or a Thursday to get one mile in before Group Ride...but I have yet to get that done!  I realize that 6 minutes is not that much time to schedule in, so I am pretty sure I'm still scared to do an actually 6 minute mile.

Goal 4 ~  This one is kind of a hit and a miss.  I did get to Level 14 and I did maintain it and I did keep going back to it...but that was the first 20 minutes of class...and after that, I just couldn't recover enough to get that high again.

I was pretty disappointed since I've slowly been working my way up the levels of the bike at Group Ride.  I didn't understand why going from Level 12 to Level 14 was such a staggering difference.  I asked the instructor what he thought and he asked me how much I weighed.  Since working out so hard has kept me below 110 pounds right now, I was not the least embarrassed to tell him.  And then he pretty much said he was impressed I was even able to move the pedals at Level 14.  According to him, I don't weigh enough and to keep working at it, but not to be discouraged.  So there was a little compliment and then a bigger challenge all in one.  Since I'm really getting into Group Ride...and almost to the point of being willing to buy the $80 shoes to wear during it...I'm accepting the challenge!

Two small goals down...two more to go.  And I'm still waiting to decide what my next running speed goals will be.  In fact today, I'm just hoping my knee lets me walk on it tomorrow.

Easter Bunny Cake

This year Sawyer took the cake decorating very seriously....Reed took the tasting of frosting, cake and candy very seriously.

Sawyer has become quite the expert in cake decorating.  Reed is good at breaking cake while trying to push the frosting on it.

The ears are tricky, because it's frosting cut cake...but I assured Sawyer it didn't need to be perfect since it will be covered with coconut.  After that she was a little messier with her frosting of the cake...Reed stayed consistently messy.

Sawyer carefully sprinkled the cake with coconut...making sure not to put too much on any one spot.

Reed figured out that you could just dump out your bowl onto the cake and Mommy will fill it back up again.

Sawyer was forced to compromise her ear decorating when Reed forced the red coconut flat into the ears.

Sawyer tried to fluff it back up...while Reed tried to smooch even more red coconut on.

Sawyer took the face decorating seriously, while Reed took the trying every color of Dot very seriously.

Sawyer is so proud of her work, while Reed is so disappointed that there is no more candy to eat.

Happy Easter!

The dreaded ITBS

Trainer Joe is my most favorite person right now! When I went to ask him what he thought my training should look like to run faster for longer, he gave me some good ideas but then we stumbled upon the bane of my running existence. My iliotibial band. I damaged it in high school and it loves to flare up when I push myself too hard. It tightens up and won't let loose. It hurts so much that sometimes it's hard to walk up my stairs.

All those problems may be gone, or at least I'm hoping they are gone. Joe showed me a stretching device that works on your IT band! It's amazing and when I ran my 3 miles at 7:30 minute pace I had no pain! Now that I've been stretching my IT band, I have no more excuses for slacking off. Scott just did 6 miles at an 8 minute pace, and so I need to get in better shape fast or I may never keep up with him when we run outside this summer!

Reading on the iPad

Happiness is finally reading books again on a full page.  I have been reading on my iPhone for a year now, and I have enjoyed how easy it is to get books and read them whenever and wherever I want, but until I started reading them on my iPad, I had no idea how much harder it really is to read on your iPhone.  It's nice but not nice at the same time.  The iPad is fabulous and I was even able read in the sun...so I didn't have a problem with glare.

On the Divinity of Second Chances was a pretty good book.  It was about a dysfunctional family where each person was able to come to terms with what was causing them issues and deal with it in the way that worked best for themselves.  This is so important, something that I've really come to terms with myself.  It's hard to change your attitude about things when you've been stuck in a rut for so long.  Once you do make the decision to make the best of what you have and go forward, you really can see amazing things happen.  For me, when I decided to change my outlook, my business not only picked up, but is so busy that I have had to bring on instructors that I didn't think I would need.  My relationship with my husband and kids has always been good, but when I started making time to be with people who I didn't see since I went thru my post partum, I realized that I had neglected a whole part of my life that was just waiting for me to come back and welcomed me with open arms.   For me, just like most people, when I'm depressed I gain weight, but once I made the decision to take care of myself that changed.  I started working out 5 days a week, and not only saw my weight drop down to my ideal and my body fat get down in the teens again, but I love love love it!  I am good at running, and I enjoy it and the endorphins that I get from it just makes it so much better.

 

 I think one of the most important parts of this book had to do with accepting people for who they are and accepting them into your life in the capacity that you are both happy with.  The husband and wife thought their marriage was over.  They had no relationship at all with their son.  One of their daughters was not living up to her full potiential.  Everything seemed to be irreconcilable. And yet it wasn't.  They didn't know if they were really ready to give each other a second chance.  But once someone takes a firm grip on taking care of themselves, it seemed that the other issues just worked themselves out.  They were all willing to see that life was not going to be the same but they needed to accept that if it was going to work, they had to let it be what it was going to be.   Life changes, and even though you are ready for things to be different, sometimes it doesn't always work out the way that you plan.  I think the books shows that you need to do a good job of accepting people for who they are, and be happy to have them in your life, in a way that works best for everyone.  So many positives can come from just accepting change and giving people a second chance.  I've found this to be so true and have found that I am so much happier just accepting people for who they are and not expecting anything more from them.  Actually that includes everyone but my husband and children.  From them I expect only their best.  I do believe that from them, I would be doing them a disservice to not help them live life to the fullest, and that includes trying their best in everything that they do.

The Colorado Kid was not a typical Stephen King novel.  It was good, and entertaining but did not keep me up all night, scared to death and needing to know how it ends so I don't have to keep one eye open while I try to sleep.  It's very mellow and very calm and much  more of a mystery than anything else.  I liked it, and it was a nice easy read.  And it's given me a taste for King, which means I'm going to have to research and find one of his scary books I haven't read yet!