Encouragement From My Past Self

This week I am working on putting together my Nuts and Bolts series.  Part of my process has been to think back to the early days of weight loss and the tools I found most useful.  I rediscovered a few posts I wrote for a blog that didn't get off the ground a few years ago.  Those posts, from January 2009, are a great reminder of what I was feeling a few months into the journey.  Below is one of those posts. I hope you enjoy this little trip in the, not so, Way Back Machine.

Unexpected Motivation

So my husband and I have been losing weight together on Weight Watchers since the end of August and as I was telling someone last night our names would be in literature with a * after them. *Results Not Typical. Losing weight has been a wonderful gift to give myself everyday since we started. I feel like I have reached a point where I can finally see results in myself. People have been telling me that I look different for awhile but I can finally see it for myself when I look in the mirror. We have been mastering eating within our points and exploring how to make the foods we love healthy and delicious. I cook he cleans and we get better every day! 

For Christmas we "exchanged" pedometers and I think it was just the thing I needed to catapult me to the next level. I find myself keeping close tabs on the numbers of steps I have taken throughout the day. Last weekend we were out and about on Sunday and I got up to over 9300 steps. I was so excited because it had been a busy day but I hadn't built in any specific exercise. At home I have figured out that due to the rectangular layout of our house I can go from one end to the other five or six times and get 300 steps in just a few minutes - during a commercial break no less. The more I find ways to build steps into my day the more I am motivated to look for even more. 

I have been working in the same building for two and a half years and for the first time it occurred to me that while we only occupy the ground floor there are 5 flights of stairs that I have easy access to when ever I want. So Monday I was having a rough time focusing and decided to go get a little exercise in to help my brain. Up those stairs I trot! I was breathing heavily by the time I got to the top but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. On the way down I stopped on the parking garage level and did a lap around the small garage. Back at my desk I felt pretty pleased. The next day I popped my lean cuisine into the microwave and rather than standing there for 4 and a half minutes watching it spin around slowly I popped out to the stairs again. This time I went up and did a couple of laps in the parking lot and was back before the microwave finished. How cool is that? Well I think it is cool. 

Today I saw that it wasn't raining so I grabbed my iPod and scooted out the door. I was so excited to be getting out to walk around the neighborhood (we have recently been snow bound so I think I am still recovering from cabin fever). It was cold and damp but I kept a comfortable brisk pace and due to a misjudgment in my route I covered just over a mile! I was sad to have to go back even though it had begun raining again. I have this energy bursting out of me and it feels incredible. 

For the past couple of years I have had to deal with minor to moderate SAD in the winter so it is such a relief to be motivated to do anything let alone go charging up and down 5 flights of stairs on a whim. I do think my pedometer is helping because it is a concrete gauge that I am getting up and moving more. The more I move the more I move it is a wondrous feeling that I never thought I would have. I just pray that this is the beginning of something I will get to experience for a long time to come.

If you would like the read the other posts there are a few more at http://roseslittleblog.blogspot.com/

Post Vacation Reality Check

Last week we went on a family vacation.  It was a lot of fun relaxing and spending time with my extended family.  I tried to make healthy choices for my meals and get outside and play often.  Still when I stepped on the scale the morning after getting home I was greeted with a higher number than when I left.  AARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!  I stomped out of the bathroom, grumbling as I unpacked my suitcase but then I stopped.  Here again is a moment to get stuck or keep moving forward.  So I gained weight.  Part of it was due to eating more salt than I am used to so a few days of rehydrating should help.  I also had allowed myself to get a killer sunburn on my legs and they were very swollen while my body recovered from the abuse.  I had some additional swelling from a killer fall (while jogging on a hiking trail) resulting in a very large and colorful bruise on my hip.  That on top of drinking more alcohol than usual, sampling an array of sweets, and yes I gained some weight.  So it is what it is.  I tried deconstructing my week to see where I fell off the rails but I really feel like I did quite well over all.  My husband and I made sure to supply the house with colorful fruits and veggies for snacking and most days I had as close to my normal breakfast as possible.  In the evenings I tried to eat lightly and have a small amount of dessert if not skip it all together.  I really feel comfortable with the choices I made. 


The first morning of the trip a group of us went outlet shopping.  I had the best time popping in and out of the clothing stores.  My family has been taking this trip every other year for about 18 years.  During that time I have spent many a shopping day picking through the slim selection of double and triple extra large items.  This year I combed the racks for bargains not sizes.  I scored cute clothes left and right and not only were the sizes lacking X's quite a few of them were mediums!  I still have to pinch myself when I think that there are medium sized clothes in my closet.  I almost get a little teary eyed.


The day of the hike was another highlight of the week.  Growing up my parents tried to take us kids hiking several times during the summer.  I would always feel nervous anticipating being winded, tired, hot and generally uncomfortable.  Now when I set out on a hike I feel excited to see new scenery, breath fresh air, and feel my body move the way it is supposed to.  This hike did not disappoint.  The trail was easy and the views were so pretty.  I hiked the first half with my son on my back and didn't even notice the extra weight.  At the turn around point I knew that I could have gone on much further but we were not prepared for more than a few miles.  It is such a liberating feeling to get out in nature and work my body only to finish and feel good instead of pain and discomfort.  


(Well that is actually a little bit of a fib: see at the end of the hike we were on a wide flat dirt path and I asked my sister if she wanted to jog back to the car with me.  We started down the trail and after a short distance I caught my toe on a rock and went down in a spectacular fashion. My shirt and pants were coated in fine dust and my hands and arms were a bit skinned.  I also smacked my left hip really good and could feel it stiffen up right away.  I shook it off and was mostly okay but it was a little jarring and the bruise to my hip was pretty stunning two days later.  I also found out that from a couple hundred feet behind us my dad saw me go down and immediately asked "where are that boy's parents, you shouldn't run on a hiking trail."  Thanks Dad.)


This week my goal is to recover from my vacation injuries and get my body back to normal.  I have no desire to erase my vacation, just to use it as a way to celebrate my success and continue to learn as I move forward.  At the end of the day getting away from it all and being with people I love will always be the most important part of the trip.




Photo Gallery:

Delicious whole grain waffles my dad made.
He asked if they were good enough to make it into the blog.
Yep they sure were!

The craziest, most painful sunburn ever!

A view from the trail along the Deshutes River in central Oregon.

I Forgive Me (and you)

Sometimes we just need to hear it from someone else before we can say it to ourselves.  I forgive you.  Whatever it is that happened that has caused you to stop treating yourself in a healthy way, I forgive you.


The other day in a moment of midday weakness I ate more ice cream than I intended.  It doesn't matter if it was a bite more or a carton more.  After I caught myself and put it away I had a choice to make, do I let this moment derail me for the rest of the day, week or month OR do I forgive my indiscretion and take back the control that I just lost?


I frequently hear people lamenting their ability to loose weight and get healthy.  The common refrain is, "I'll just start again (day of the week)" or "I am waiting until after (life event)."  I have learned that starting again has to be immediate.  If I shrug my shoulders and adopt a 'who cares' attitude I am the one who has to deal with it later.  I do make mistakes - regularly.  Success isn't never failing it is never getting back up and continuing.  When I accept my short comings, take a deep breath, and figure out how to move forward, then, I really feel like a winner.


The afternoon with the ice cream I had to first get involved with a task that would keep both my brain and hands occupied.  I find myself drawn to overeating most often when I am bored or tired.  Those times can lead me to wallowing both emotionally and physically.  Activity is my best cure for wallowing.  If I get up and engage in something I usually perk up and stop fixating on what is in my fridge.  Once I have perked up it is easier to plan the rest of my day around my slip up.  Additionally if I stop and think about it I often haven't messed up that badly.  I also never punish myself by skipping dinner and only eating carrot sticks for the rest of the day.  Self punishment isn't going to help me achieve my long term goals anymore than letting myself wallow.


Don't wait to be good to yourself and don't use your slips as proof that you are incapable of changing your situation.  Take those moments as an opportunity to learn, grow, and be victorious over whatever obstacles you might be facing.  You have what it takes to get where you want to go, so, start now.

A Beginning

I would like to begin my blog as I begin my day, with breakfast.

Growing up we frequently had a box of flavored instant oatmeal in the pantry next to the cold cereal. I remember choosing it often in the winter and making it in the microwave. My favorite flavor was strawberries and cream and I am pretty sure I would make 2 or 3 packets at a time. As an adult I didn't buy instant oatmeal very often but I didn't cook it from scratch either. I didn't find the instant packets to be very filling and once I started paying attention to the nutrition labels I found the volume I wanted to consume to be full was 2 or 3 times the volume I wanted to consume calorie wise. I didn't cook it from scratch because it seemed like a much more involved process than I wanted to engage in and more than that I envisioned the results to be bland and unappetizing.

As I have been losing weight I have found myself revisiting foods that I had previously written off. Part of the joy in this process has come from discovering that I do like many things I thought I didn't, I just needed to cook them differently. When my son was born I read and was told by several people that oatmeal was a good food for nursing moms. I immediately went out and bought a package of oatmeal cookies. I knew the packaged cookies didn't contain the amount of oats I would get from a simple bowl of oatmeal so I had to move on to the grain in its more wholesome form. Initially I cooked the old fashioned variety just as the recipe on the package suggests; on the stove with water. This did not last long since the simple recipe does yield the results I had envisioned previously, bland and boring oatmeal. The good news was it turned out to be a quick and easy breakfast food that my husband was willing to make too. I was motivated to find ways to like oatmeal because it was good for me and benefited my son so in the following weeks we added the standard raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar. I wanted to up the protein a bit and tried cooking the oats in half fat free milk and half water. The milk made the oats creamier and I don't think I have used only water since then, I frequently will cook them in only milk and alternate between cow and soy milk for variety.

I was delighted to discover that oatmeal really is a great platform for other flavors and textures. Here are some of the things that I regularly combine with my oats:

Cinnamon
Vanilla Extract (a small amount - about 1/4 of a teaspoon)
Apple sauce or slices
Frozen Berries
Fresh Berries
Raisin or any other dried fruit
Chopped nuts - pecans and walnuts are my favorite especially toasted first
Flax Meal

I haven't tried bananas because I don't really like them but if you do I bet it would be tasty.

One morning I was playing with ideas for getting more protein into my breakfast and stirred in a blob of peanut butter. This was not good. The texture was gluey, the smell was odd and it tasted more savory (think Thai food) than I want for breakfast. My advice is to skip the nut butter and grab a boiled egg if you want more protein with your oatmeal.

All of these are fun, quick and easy for an everyday breakfast and changing the added ingredients keeps it from becoming boring. Oatmeal is also a great special occation or holiday treat too. One morning I posted on Facebook that I was stirring Pumpkin Pie Spice into my breakfast and was rewarded with a link to a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal on The Good Life Eats blog. Thank you to Rainy Day Gal for pointing me to what has become my absolute favorite breakfast.

The Good Life Eats version of Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal was adapted from a previous recipe. I have in turn adapted it again to suit my taste and style. I have modified the original recipe from individual ramekins to one casserole dish for simplicity sake but it is fun to do single portions as well. Please try it, play with it, and adapt it to suit your life.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

adapted from The Good Life Eats posted 9/11/09

• 1 cup old fashioned oats (not quick cook)
• 1 Tbs whole flax seeds (optional)
• 2 1/2 Tbs brown sugar, packed (or 1 1/2 Tbs of Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp butter, softened (or Smart Balance butter alternative)
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup milk (cow or soy)

Topping:

• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
• 2 tsp butter, softened (or Smart Balance)
• 1 Tbs brown sugar (stick to the regular brown sugar here for the texture)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. In an oven-safe casserole dish, combine the pumpkin, milk and butter. Fold the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture and place into the oven for 10 minutes. While the oatmeal is baking, mix the topping. After 10 minutes spread the topping evenly over the casserole and return to the oven for an additional 7 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Toss a few dried cranberries or raisins on top for some added texture and sweetness. Serves 2-4.