It's raining this morning, and this past weekend I found myself back in the habit of starting the morning with a pot of tea to warm up. Herbal tea, as I'm decaffeinated, and I'm using the Good Earth original blend that is sweet and spicy. Yum. And I discovered something even more yummy, a scoop of Lean and a tiny drizzle of Raw Agave turns this regular cup of tea into a lovely steaming serving of Chai Tea! I just brewed the tea as usual, poured myself a 14 oz mug, and on a whim stirred in the scoop of Lean. It was fine just like that, but adding a tiny bit of sweet really enriched the flavours. I love it when I follow my instincts and it pays off! So I'm happy to have a way to use my Lean in the morning that is warm and easy and yummy. I don't do so well starting every day with hot cereal, the grain seems to set me up for eating later in the evening so I try to keep that down to a once a week treat. Also, yesterday after my new hot breakfast, when I was hungry around 11:30 I made my green smoothie so I would still get in my greens early - important for me to do in order to curb evening cravings. And speaking of evening, what an off food day yesterday! My honey is home sick, on the couch, and as far as he's concerned there is nothing here for him to eat. So I set off to get him some Won Ton soup because that is something I think is wonderful for sore throats. BUT, the Chinese restaurant was closed for lunch and I ended up at the grocery store. They had chow mein and bbq pork at the deli so that was his lunch, and on the way to check out a bag of Spicy Thai Kettle Chips jumped into my basket. So my lunch was a little bit of his chow mein, two bites of pork, and six shakes of Cheat. Then later I had a bowl of my lovely spicy ginger chips, and for dinner finished up the rest of the bag (okay, not a huge bag but not the smallest either.) Crazy bad eating on my part and about 7 I was hungry for real food. I threw a black bean burger in the microwave and once hot I diced it up and topped it with left over slaw from Dr. Fuhrman's recipe (1/2 cup shredded raw cabbage, 1/2 cup shredded raw beets, 1/2 cup shredded raw carrots, 1 up shredded apple, 1/4 cup raisins) and a drizzle each of organic catchup (no HFCS) and mustard. Very delicious, I will do that again. Oh, and of course some Cheat on it too.
I don't know if I have been battling a bug or grief or the change of the season, but this morning I feel more myself and ready to get back to business. The 3 pounds from my LA trip are gone this morning, and it feels good to know I have a date to walk at the gym this evening so I won't miss my aerobic exercise even though it's wet out. It works out great, I call in to CNI's six o'clock conference call to hear the latest testimonies, then head to the gym at 6:30 for an hour of chatting while we walk. I keep the number for the calls posted on the front of the blog, but in case you missed it there are calls every Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday at 6pm PST where you can hear about the products, the business and from people who are losing weight. Very inspirational.
Okay, time to start a great week! This is the week for a new low, I can feel it :)
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Loose Jeans
Time has just flown by these past two weeks. I was in LA staying with my Mother after her hip surgery when I realized that one, it was October and that two, it was the 8th and I was suppose to be doing my monthly CNI update. I had my camera but not the right work out clothes and I hadn't weighed myself - which wouldn't have mattered anyway since it was the wrong scale. I was half way home the next day driving up highway 5 on that mindless stretch between LA and the Bay Area when my Mom called to say I had forgotten my bag of pans. I had taken them down to make big batches of soup so I could leave her a freezer full of healthy meals. No biggie, I can live without them for a while. But upon arriving home the list of things forgotten had grown to include my camera, ipod, magic bullet and all the accessories (which you know I use every day)and a stack of DVD's. Grrrr. Okay, I can use my blender to make my green smoothies, which is probably the most important thing, and I have another soup pan too. I have been walking at the gym with a friend so even though I miss the ipod for working around the house, I can listen to CD's other ways. Poor Kaylee is the only one missing out because I still find it hard to walk with only my thoughts for company. Mom is going to send the ipod to me on Wednesday when she has a ride to get a padded envelope for mailing it, so I won't have to wait too long to have that back. Everything else will have to wait for my next trip south. I'm hoping I can coordinate that trip with a CNI event since I missed the last one.
So anyway.... we are having our first storm of the season, and I got up this morning and put on JEANS, and they were LOOSE! I expected it, but still, it feels so good. I spent some time yesterday packing away shorts and pulling out sweaters and jeans. Not that I expect to be able to use the shorts next summer. Think of the fun I will have getting rid of them next spring and looking through the smaller sizes I have packed away in the garage. Fun, fun, fun :)
There are so many things to write about this post will probably seem rather scattered, but for those who know me - well, this is not unusual! Also not unusual is that I always head back to the food, so lets just go there now. My week with Mom was good, and I cooked everyday. We started each day with oatmeal & fruit, then lunch was a variety of things; tomatoes stuffed with garbanzo spread, left over dirty rice, dirty potato salad with cauliflower & bean sprouts, and one day she took me out to Rubios - a nice little mexican grill where I had a lovely burrito bowl with a decadent chipotle sauce - and more left overs. Dinners were lentil soup, pot roast (mostly veggies), Mac n Cheese (half and half sharp cheddar and veggie shreds), ginger carrot soup (divine), the a fore mentioned dirty rice and a 2nd rice dish using a sauce packet she had received in her LA Times for Kung Pow Chicken (I used edamame instead of the chicken.) When I left she had about a dozen containers in the freezer and left overs in the fridge, so mission accomplished - she is stocked up on veggies.
Having just had major surgery, Mom would head off to bed each night between 8&9, leaving me in front of the TV just half a dozen steps from the pantry where there were stacks of jars of Peanut Butter and a box of graham crackers. This is why I keep a clean kitchen, if it's there I eat it. So everynight after a day of healthy food and using product, I would snack. Oh, and there was a tin of wonderful little whole grain cookies that I inhaled (and replaced and inhaled again) as well as a glass jar of halloween pumpkins that was short a few when I left. So still a stress eater, and finally home and on my scale I am up 3 pounds. Of course the large fries and orange cream malt that I had for lunch from CJ's on the way home didn't help, or the small veggie pizza I ordered for dinner the next night because I was alone. But as usual after indulging so much I was ready to jump back on the health wagon and yesterday I started Dr. Fuhrman's 5 day cleanse (tons of fruit & greens, nothing processed) in conjunction with my Core4 products and the first pound was gone this morning. I'm sure walking hard at the gym helped too and I expect to see a new low next Monday after a super healthy week. Oh, and one of my Peertrainer buddies caught me online and we are going PB free for a month. I'm also going to stay away from the rest of the nuts during that time, sticking to seeds for my fat, and her online support will be another motivator for me.
So, my kitchen is full of berries, greens and seeds, and last night when I wanted to snack it was wonderful to pull out a big crunchy carrot to gnaw on during my show - I so love it when I can feel good about my food choices and I'm looking forward to hitting the gym again tonight too.
I decided to not stress about the whole camera thing, or missing my monthly picture update. Maybe when my honey gets back from his road trip we'll use his camera to take a 'jeans' picture instead :)
One last thing. I was dusting in the bedroom this morning when I came across a jewelry box that had a bracelet and ring in it that I use to wear all the time. I slipped them on, and I am still enjoying the feeling they gave me. Like I was myself again, like I could remember who I was. Loose jeans, boots and jewelry - and curly hair! I've been making my own shampoo and letting my hair dry into natural curls instead of blowing it dry ... where has this girl been? How did I lose her in the first place? Well, life happened, that's how I lost her. But I am getting her back, and it feels so good.
So anyway.... we are having our first storm of the season, and I got up this morning and put on JEANS, and they were LOOSE! I expected it, but still, it feels so good. I spent some time yesterday packing away shorts and pulling out sweaters and jeans. Not that I expect to be able to use the shorts next summer. Think of the fun I will have getting rid of them next spring and looking through the smaller sizes I have packed away in the garage. Fun, fun, fun :)
There are so many things to write about this post will probably seem rather scattered, but for those who know me - well, this is not unusual! Also not unusual is that I always head back to the food, so lets just go there now. My week with Mom was good, and I cooked everyday. We started each day with oatmeal & fruit, then lunch was a variety of things; tomatoes stuffed with garbanzo spread, left over dirty rice, dirty potato salad with cauliflower & bean sprouts, and one day she took me out to Rubios - a nice little mexican grill where I had a lovely burrito bowl with a decadent chipotle sauce - and more left overs. Dinners were lentil soup, pot roast (mostly veggies), Mac n Cheese (half and half sharp cheddar and veggie shreds), ginger carrot soup (divine), the a fore mentioned dirty rice and a 2nd rice dish using a sauce packet she had received in her LA Times for Kung Pow Chicken (I used edamame instead of the chicken.) When I left she had about a dozen containers in the freezer and left overs in the fridge, so mission accomplished - she is stocked up on veggies.
Having just had major surgery, Mom would head off to bed each night between 8&9, leaving me in front of the TV just half a dozen steps from the pantry where there were stacks of jars of Peanut Butter and a box of graham crackers. This is why I keep a clean kitchen, if it's there I eat it. So everynight after a day of healthy food and using product, I would snack. Oh, and there was a tin of wonderful little whole grain cookies that I inhaled (and replaced and inhaled again) as well as a glass jar of halloween pumpkins that was short a few when I left. So still a stress eater, and finally home and on my scale I am up 3 pounds. Of course the large fries and orange cream malt that I had for lunch from CJ's on the way home didn't help, or the small veggie pizza I ordered for dinner the next night because I was alone. But as usual after indulging so much I was ready to jump back on the health wagon and yesterday I started Dr. Fuhrman's 5 day cleanse (tons of fruit & greens, nothing processed) in conjunction with my Core4 products and the first pound was gone this morning. I'm sure walking hard at the gym helped too and I expect to see a new low next Monday after a super healthy week. Oh, and one of my Peertrainer buddies caught me online and we are going PB free for a month. I'm also going to stay away from the rest of the nuts during that time, sticking to seeds for my fat, and her online support will be another motivator for me.
So, my kitchen is full of berries, greens and seeds, and last night when I wanted to snack it was wonderful to pull out a big crunchy carrot to gnaw on during my show - I so love it when I can feel good about my food choices and I'm looking forward to hitting the gym again tonight too.
I decided to not stress about the whole camera thing, or missing my monthly picture update. Maybe when my honey gets back from his road trip we'll use his camera to take a 'jeans' picture instead :)
One last thing. I was dusting in the bedroom this morning when I came across a jewelry box that had a bracelet and ring in it that I use to wear all the time. I slipped them on, and I am still enjoying the feeling they gave me. Like I was myself again, like I could remember who I was. Loose jeans, boots and jewelry - and curly hair! I've been making my own shampoo and letting my hair dry into natural curls instead of blowing it dry ... where has this girl been? How did I lose her in the first place? Well, life happened, that's how I lost her. But I am getting her back, and it feels so good.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Muscles, muscles, muscles
A friend and neighbor is looking forward to an upcoming cruise, and in preparation asked me to join her in working out at the local gym. Perfect timing, I thought, to give me an exercise boost while following the Ignite program (call me for details) and preparing for my trip South. What I forgot about is how fast I build muscle :)
I love working out in the gym, ready to click the up arrow to increase my speed and incline on the treadmill, first to add another weight to the machines that sit in rows ready to welcome out sweaty butts. But this translates to more muscle damage and the subsequent repair mechanism that our body uses to build muscle - of which Lean is a great supporter. So while my goal this week was to use the Ignite program to lose some pounds, instead I am building more muscle in those places not normally exercised; when is the last time you used an Abdominal Crunch machine in a gym? OMG, I hurt in places I forgot I had. Because of a repetitive motion back injury I haven't worked out with weights in years, but I am getting better and it felt so great to be back in the gym...so of course I am going gung ho while all the time my brain is saying to slow down.
We can't help but notice the difference in our strength and recovery as we work out each night, comparing soreness and capability. It's fun walking next to each other on the treadmill and matching our clicks as we challenge ourselves and each other. I tried walking with the same determination out on the sidewalks this morning as I took Kaylee for our daily jaunt and I just couldn't do it. Incline aside, without the treadmill to keep me going at a brisk pace I found myself slacking off and had to keep mentally reminding myself to pick it up again. Tonight is our last night working out together before I head down to LA, and I will miss our visits next week. Because it's not just the intensity of the workout that is good for me, but also the chatter and laughter that she brings to the evening; food for the soul is just as important as nutrients to feed the body.
Speaking of food, I am really loving my Lean kiwi shakes. I quarter up a kiwi, skin and all (lots of micro nutrients there) and add 2oz of a liquid superfood, a scoop of Lean, and cover with cold filtered water from the fridge. A minute blending in my magic bullet and I have a cold, light, frothy, sweet drink that is very satisfying after my morning walk. And do I love knowing that the Lean is promoting lean tissue? You bet.
So while once again I may not see the pounds shedding off, I am excited about taking my measurements again on the 8th to see what changes my denser, smaller muscles are making in my body shape!
I love working out in the gym, ready to click the up arrow to increase my speed and incline on the treadmill, first to add another weight to the machines that sit in rows ready to welcome out sweaty butts. But this translates to more muscle damage and the subsequent repair mechanism that our body uses to build muscle - of which Lean is a great supporter. So while my goal this week was to use the Ignite program to lose some pounds, instead I am building more muscle in those places not normally exercised; when is the last time you used an Abdominal Crunch machine in a gym? OMG, I hurt in places I forgot I had. Because of a repetitive motion back injury I haven't worked out with weights in years, but I am getting better and it felt so great to be back in the gym...so of course I am going gung ho while all the time my brain is saying to slow down.
We can't help but notice the difference in our strength and recovery as we work out each night, comparing soreness and capability. It's fun walking next to each other on the treadmill and matching our clicks as we challenge ourselves and each other. I tried walking with the same determination out on the sidewalks this morning as I took Kaylee for our daily jaunt and I just couldn't do it. Incline aside, without the treadmill to keep me going at a brisk pace I found myself slacking off and had to keep mentally reminding myself to pick it up again. Tonight is our last night working out together before I head down to LA, and I will miss our visits next week. Because it's not just the intensity of the workout that is good for me, but also the chatter and laughter that she brings to the evening; food for the soul is just as important as nutrients to feed the body.
Speaking of food, I am really loving my Lean kiwi shakes. I quarter up a kiwi, skin and all (lots of micro nutrients there) and add 2oz of a liquid superfood, a scoop of Lean, and cover with cold filtered water from the fridge. A minute blending in my magic bullet and I have a cold, light, frothy, sweet drink that is very satisfying after my morning walk. And do I love knowing that the Lean is promoting lean tissue? You bet.
So while once again I may not see the pounds shedding off, I am excited about taking my measurements again on the 8th to see what changes my denser, smaller muscles are making in my body shape!
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