Eat Right! Get Your Superfoods!

I know I've run this before, but it bears repeating. The following is from Denise Austin. She runs it pretty regularly herself so it must really be worth reading again.

And trying.

On Sunday morning this past weekend I made my own fruit smoothies. I purchased a bag of frozen mixed mixed berries - red raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries - and dumped them in a blender with a large container of plain yogurt (next time I'm going to try vanilla for just a little different flavor combination). Then I added just a little Splenda, which you could do to taste. Hit the button and Viola! smoothies for about 4 days. I divided the pitcher into 4 smaller containers and froze three and ate one. Very good! And simple. I thawed a second one out and ate it yesterday morning before work. So, minimal chemicals or preservatives. Just good, honest, wholesome foods. The same thing would cost about twice as much if you buy the Yoplait brand - and it's the same thing. I know, because I have them in the freezer as well. You can't tell the difference. Save money, eat well, and KNOW what you're putting in your body. Sounds like a winner to me. But here, let Denise tell you.

Looking for a way to get even more bang for your nutritional buck? Try these "superfoods"! They're loaded with essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to help you feel great, and they even help fight disease! Incorporate them into your diet today!

Almonds: A source of "good" fat, almonds can help your heart by lowering bad cholesterol!

Berries: They're jammed with vitamins - particularly vitamin C - but new research has found these sweet little sensations to be ace disease fighters too, helping to prevent bladder infections and even cancers, among other illnesses.

Broccoli: Folate, vitamin C, calcium - broccoli is packed with all these awesome nutrients. Now researchers think it might also fight cancer!

Avocado: The large number of calories in a serving of avocado is totally worth it! This source of healthy fat contains a ton of vitamin K and potassium and is also associated with lower cholesterol and even the prevention of breast cancer!

Salmon: Low in calories, easy to prepare, and amazingly good for you - what's not to love about salmon? And the omega-3 fatty acids in salmon are great for your heart!
Olive oil: Another good fat! Besides making your food incredibly tasty, olive oil can also protect you from heart disease.

Green tea: So much research has touted the benefits of green tea, it's hard to know where to begin! But here's a sample: A Japanese study in 2006 showed that green tea lowered the risk of death from all causes. How's that for a superfood?

Eat well, live long, and have a wonderful day my friends!

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

How does your garden grow?






Might be a little tough to see, but there's a ton of greens in there! I told you all we were trying our first cold crops and here some of them are! We did the rest from seed in our flower beds (hoping to keep the animals at bay) and the little seedlings are sprouting up all over! Expect more pictures as they get bigger and become more recognizable.

I'll let you know when it's time to harvest!

The Stark Reality

Before I start, let me start by apologizing for any visuals this blog creates.

I stayed in a hotel four days this week. You all know what hotel bathrooms are like. You throw back the shower curtain and there you are, in all your "glory", in the mirror opposite the tub. One day, instead of hurriedly wrapping the towel around me, I stopped and looked.

I took inventory.

I decided that I wasn't all that bad for a 44 year old. ( and no, I don't enjoy looking at myself "that way").

Let's face it, I'm not rocking any washboard, six-pack abs and the back of my thighs look like a cottage cheese dieters' paradise, but there are some good things.

My legs may never run a marathon. But they're going to walk a 5K in two weeks for charity and they can run as far as friend in need when necessary. My arms still have a little flab between the shoulders and elbows but they are strong enough to give good hugs and hold on to those I love. My shoulders slope some but they have borne the weight of the world on more than one occasion and held the tears of friends' eyes. My back is a little crooked but it is strong and straight enough to stand up for what I believe is right.

So, I may never weigh 120 pounds again but that's OK. I'm at a healthy weight and a lot closer to 120 than I used to be. I've dropped a lot of weight and given my heart a chance. I'm making healthier choices more often than not and giving my body a chance to be it's best.

I'm taking care of me. So what if I'm a little soft around the middle? I am loved. Just the way I am

And that's alright with me.

That's not to say I'm giving up on trying to be even better, but that's all gravy at this point.

No, I'm not perfect. But I'm not bad either.

And neither are you. Wherever you are in your journey.

Pilates

Trying something new!

I attended my first Pilates class last night. A friend gave me 10 sessions as a "thank you" for a favor I did for her. She needn't have done anything, but was it was a very nice gesture and I was glad for the new exercise.

New exercises are always good things.

Now, I've done Pilates DVDs in the past. I like Denise Austin's standing Pilates in particular. But that is nothing when compared to using all the machines! The instructor had most everything on the lowest setting for me and they were still very challenging.

They say you should change your routine up every 6 weeks or so. So, here I go. I'll keep you posted!

We Are What We Eat

I remember this as being sort of a "catch phrase" in the 70s. I also think a lot of folks pooh poohed it as a bunch of hippie nonsense.

I beg to differ.

Earlier this year I started doing some research on breast cancer. Not because I have it, but because I am a woman and the possibility always exists in the back of my mind. I do have some of the risk factors so I am ever vigilant.

One thing I did was to follow a blog. Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin was diagnosed in the fall of 2009 with Triple Negative breast cancer. She chronicled her journey. Some posts were tearful, some joyous.

Her treatments completed, and successfully, she changed some of her focus to prevention. Many of these posts relate to the foods we eat.

So it got me to thinking - always a dangerous thing! - about what all we ingest around here. Because I believe there is a lot of truth to the research.

I don't think our bodies were ever intended to process all the chemicals and preservatives and other ingredients with names that read like alphabet soup. They were meant to use as fuel those things that we can grow.

Of course, the new buzzword for all this is "organic". We have a new little store in town and his specialty is organic spices.

Spices, you say.

Aren't those already natural?

One would think, but go read a label. There's tons of stuff in there that you can't pronounce. Most of it says "added to keep it free flowing." Slick Rick's says "shake it to wake it." Free flowing once again.

So, at our last "family meeting" - which is really any time the two of us are in the same room - we decided to start working our way towards organic. I'm going to try to grow my first "cold crop" - lettuces and such. Peppers and tomatoes I've got down pretty well. And we're starting to read labels more. We'll get back to cooking more foods from fresher ingredients and doing things from scratch.

Because let's face it. All those ingredients are added to foods to give them longer shelf lives and add to our convenience. We can grab out of the pantry or freezer something that is meant to sit for a year and cook it in a matter of minutes. Fits our busy lives and schedules, right?

So what are you going to do with all that "extra" time you are creating? Cram more meetings or activities in? Or will you be spending it in a doctor's office. Attached to tubes and wires and receiving treatments? Or could you be enjoying some quality, healthy family time?

Now, I know there are plenty of people that smoke and eat junk and never get a cancer cell. Alternately, there are those who have lived a clean life and still get sick. I wouldn't wish cancer on anyone. But if there is solid research that indicates that something as simple changing our eating habits can really help prevent even the possibility, why wouldn't you think about it?

I hope to borrow from her blog over the next few weeks and start sharing that research.

I'll start with her last one: Watercress. Eat it.

http://jengriffinblog.blogspot.com/

Another New Thing!

What a week!

Yoplait has done it again - Splitz. Three new dessert flavors masking all the goodness of yogurt.

I had the Rainbow Sherbet yesterday at lunch and will have the Strawberry Sundae this morning. I'm probably going to skip the banana split. Not a fan in real life and so many yogurts have Strawberry Banana flavors and I just don't care for those. Banana yogurt just seems wrong somehow.

It took a long time for me to like yogurt. Matter of fact, it took being desperately hungry on a long flight one time for me to even try it. I was looking at a "snack box" for breakfast and there was very little in there I was interested in. But the yogurt was Yoplait Custard Style. No fruit on the bottom that had to be chewed. No runny melted ice cream looking yogurt. Good solid yogurt that I thought I could at least tolerate if it just slid down my throat and didn't require any actual eating.

Turns out it was good. Very good, in fact.

Which goes to show you that sometimes you just gotta step out of that comfort zone and give something new a whirl.

So, now I eat a lot of yogurt. Mostly Yoplait. I still don't really care for the ones that have real fruit that you stir up. I like the thick kinds that are more dessert-like than yogurt-like.

So, a growing girl can never get enough calcium. I take the supplements but it's always always always better if you can get your nutrition from foods.

So, add it to you grocery list this week and see what you think.

And have a great weekend. Should be a good one so get outside and get moving - and easy on those football snacks. :)

A New Thing

Always on the lookout for new, healthy things to share with you all.

I think I hit the jackpot on this one.

I've talked in the past about my limited likes of fruits and vegetables. I've talked about how much I like V8 Fusion - a full serving of fruits and vegetables in one glass. We've also discussed the benefits of green tea. Which I like, but hot, not cold.

V8 has put it all together. They've mixed the V8 Fusion, which tastes like fruit juice, with green tea. Awesome! (Cold even!)

There were 3 flavors at the store the other day and we bought a couple of each. I've had the Pomegranate Blueberry and the Pineapple Mango. Both are excellent. Small, portable bottles so there's no excuse not to grab one on the go.

Give your body something new to love.

No Harm, No Foul

I spent a week in New York and came back less than a pound heavier than when I left.

Folks, I consider that a moral victory. Rarely can you say that a vacation did not significantly add to your waistline.

Here's the problem. I should have lost weight given all the walking we did.

Miles and miles of walking. One day I managed to take an hour to get to a pizza place that ended up being only about 4 blocks from where we started. Lesson learned on at adventure - don't trust a subway map if you're above ground. It doesn't show all the streets - only the ones it needs to.

So, why, you ask, did I not drop all the unwanted pounds at which I've been chipping away?

Simple.

There was gelato at the wax museum. An Italian ice from a street vendor in Little Italy. An ice cream cone at Coney Island. A small, vanilla milkshake from McDonald's one night after sitting in record heat all day. Our post-theatre dinners at 11 and 10 PM were McDonald's chicken nuggets or fillet of fish sandwiches and fries.

Just about every rule I could break, I did. Every good habit I have, ignored. If not for all the walking who knows what would have happened!

I guess that one of the good things about vacations - you do things you wouldn't normally do, and that can be OK. I have returned to breakfasts of mini-wheats, whole grain breads at lunch and sugar free mousse for desserts.

In other words, I'm back on the wagon.

I'm still facing down about 6 pounds, but that's better than it was a few weeks ago.

I can do it. Being healthy doesn't mean not having fun. I'm not going to have any regrets. It's not the way I roll.

That also doesn't mean that I don't care. I know I have to be healthy in order to be able to take the next trip or do the things I want to do. There's give and take.

So, enjoy your life, but find some balance. If you want to eat something just remember the laws of physics: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Eating a cupcake may mean walking a little further or giving up something else later in the day (which is why planning is so important!) or passing up a second helping for a chance at a dessert later. Or just learning to love the taste of sugar free ice cream!

I also think this is a good time of year for fresh starts. The fall is always the start of a new school year and I think I look at it as a time for "newness" also. The summer was fun. We indulged. Life was disorderly. Whatever. Fall = structure. So, if you, like me, have slid a little lately then make that resolution early. Get back on track with a new month, a new season, a new goal.

Let's go for it!

Checking In

Well, it's been a couple of weeks. I have really struggled. I've only managed to lose about 3 of the 8 eight pounds I needed to - just to get back to where I'd left off before. No vanity pounds, there.

I never underestimate the effects of stress on your body. Sometimes it can assist you making bad decisions, but it also does produce actual biological changes - including weight gain.

I've really been under the gun since my last trip to get one job out the door and another one started before my next trip. I worked the last 3 weekends and late every night this week but I will be delivering a draft audit report tomorrow on my big job and the other big one started on Tuesday. I have a really good staff person who can work fairly independently in certain areas and she's been clicking right along while I worked on the other audit. That really has helped a lot.

I had wanted to be back down at my "fighting weight" before we left on vacation Saturday but it hasn't worked. Vacations are opportunities for bad habits to rear their ugly heads so I wanted to at least have a running start! I will say, though, most years we get a lot of exercise on this trip. One year we walked 10 miles just in one day! So, that helps offset some of the late night eating of fried foods.

Like everything else in life, this is journey. Even if you reach the end of one road you have to make a decision - turn left, turn right, or turn around. So it never really ends.

And that's good. That means there is always something else I can be doing to make myself a better me. A healthier me.

Which I hope, and HOPE!, starts with a little less work, a lot less stress, and a little more opportunity to focus on what all is important in my world.

Blamin' It On the Gummy Bears

They say the first step to solving a problem is to first admit you have one.

I love Gummy Bears.

There. I've said it.

I know there are no nutritional, redeeming values to Gummy Bears but they taste good, are fun to eat and make my mouth happy.

I'm also sentimental towards them. On our very first date Billy picked me up at my dorm at Hendrix with a teddy bear and a bag of Gummy Bears. And not just a convenience store bag either. This was one of those little white deli bags that he got from the candy counter on the third floor of Dillard's in North Little Rock.

In other words, he made an effort to get them for me.

I successfully, or so I thought, swore them off when I decided to take my insulin problem seriously. After all, if you're going to cut out sugar, Gummy Bears would seem to be an obvious choice.

I've done well for the last several years, even when Billy would bring them home and snack on them. And then it started.

And you know, once you start, it's hard to stop.

A couple of Bears turned into a few at a time. Which became a palmful. Which grew to a handful. Which morphed into "I can't get this fistful out of the bag without spilling a few!"

In other words, it got out of hand. Literally.

When Billy left last Sunday morning he left me with a full, unopened, bag. And not the little small bag either. The economy size.

So I ate them. A few when I'm come home to let the pack out. Few more at lunch. Again at dinner.

You get the picture.

Bag is empty now. Has been for several days. I won't be replacing it. And if Billy buys some I'll just have to say no. I did it for a long time. I can do it again.

No. Such a small word. Yet so powerful.

No, I will not sabotage myself and my successes.

No, I will not beat myself up for a bad choice.

No, I will not stop in the ongoing battle for a better me.

No, I will not love myself any less.

No, I will not let a setback have control of my progress.

Yes, I will go have a better day today.

And yes, I hope you do as well.