Archery

I love archery. I love the apparent contradictions that are actually enhancements, because form without power and visa versa would be nothing in this sport. But holding so much kinetic energy in your hands, and relaxing into good posture in order to release that energy accurately enough to propel your arrow into the center of the target, well, its exhilarating.

Lunch today was so yummy; sauteed red onion and yellow squash. Onions and squash just go together, becoming sweeter as they soften together in the pan, and complimenting each other to become something better. I did use a little olive oil so the onions would slowly caramelize and get super sweet - an important element of this dish - but it's okay because I had my Cheat to sprinkle on once it was all in my bowl. I think that of all the cool things I've heard about Cheat, to me the most important aspect is that it targets macro nutrients to pass calories through and out of the body and not the micro nutrients. So I'm not so worried about the olive oil in lunch today, I figure that's what the Cheat is targeting and leaving all the wonderful nutrition for the fuel my body needs.

I'm planning on another salad this afternoon before going to walk and then a Lean shake for dinner after walking; that worked really well yesterday. And I think that's when the Lean works most efficiently, right after you exercise and your body is looking for those amino acids to repair muscles and build lean tissue after you've broken some down. No temptation to snack last night either - hoo rah!

Back to shooting and blogging

It felt so good to get my bow back in my hands and shoot ten ends for a total of 30 arrows yesterday. Amazing how much shooting incorporates muscles from legs, back, arms and even my feet! Doing something we love for exercise is so important. When I go treadmill walking it's with a friend and we chatter away for the 50 minutes we are walking, and when I shoot it's just me and the target - very zen and a great way to practice internal focus. Speaking of which, I am back to keeping my food & exercise journal updated on PEERtrainer so check out that link over on the right if you want to see today's thoughts on "mind set" and how that helps me.

I realized last night that walking so late in the day (6:30) really revs up my appetite at night, so today I will have a snack before walking instead of dinner and a Lean shake after I get home so I'm not tempted to snack. I mean how sad is that to want to snack while watching Biggest Loser??? Crazy.

It feels good to get some focus back after the Holidays, and I realize now how much I missed both shooting and blogging. It's scary how quickly I succumbed to the pity pool and gave up the very things that make me feel good.

Time to go shoot!

Happy New Year

It's a new year and I'm glad to be back posting and ready to track my progress again. Those of you who know me personally realize I still struggle through the holiday season, but I am done with that and ready to make another weight loss dent. I plan to be in Vegas competing at the NFAA archery tournament over the weekend of 2/19-2/20 and I want to show up leaner and more fit than I have in recent years. So for the next six weeks I will be here chronicling that challenge to myself, posting as much as possible, and arriving lighter and leaner at the end of that short time.

My plan of attack is ... to just use the Core4 products consistently, including using one Lean shake a day for a meal replacement Monday thru Friday. I am lucky to have a gym buddy and we will walk 2 treadmill miles several times a week, and at home I will practice shooting my bow in the driveway each day. I'll throw in some push ups too because I think that really helped at the National Senior Games this past summer, building my upper body strength. Okay, and I love that my 'old lady' arms are toning up nicely. And that's about it. Eating for nutrition most of the time, using the Core4 products, and listening in to the CNI calls each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday since they are announcing something new.

6:00pm PST each Mon, Tues & Weds at 212-990-8000, enter pin 2644# - Call & listen in on the announcements for the new product and the excitement of the new year.


A quick recap of the last two months since posting. I used the products through the holiday season and haven't gained any weight despite my efforts to consume mass quantities of chips, chocolate and cookies. I did walk several times each week, and most days had a green smoothie with a scoop of Lean. Last week we stopped at Chevy's for an early dinner in the bar on our way home from the movies (and buttered popcorn sprinkled with Cheat)and I noticed I could feel bones between me and the barstool. Bones, through my deluxe padding, so funny! So the products continue to work, and I am ready to work too, cutting out the extraneous comfort food I indulged in over the holidays and working my way back towards "normal" so I can reap their best benefits.

I would love for you to join me. If nothing else, please visit my website and sign up for free (big orange link at top of page) and browse around. Then click on the Learn More link under that to see the quick product reviews. CNI will be the Facebook of health and weight loss as they continue to add to their website, including work outs, recipes and testimonials.

Thanks for checking in with me, give me a call with questions or just to chat.

Happy New Year!

Fall is finally here

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 :)

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.

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!

Ignite!

It's been a week of comfort food as September tends to be a stressful month for me, but I used my Core4 consistently except for one day and I am ready to move on. Despite pizza, macaroni & cheese, cookies and ice cream, pasta and even a corned beef & fontina cheese panini I am only 1.5 pounds heavier than my lowest number and I am sure that by using the Core4 ignite program that will be gone this weekend and then some. More detrimental than all of the comfort food I indulged in over the past week, it is probably the amount of time I have spent in front of the computer and my lack of movement that has contributed to the gain. Even though I have been taking my half hour walk most days, just skipping one day last week, that doesn't compensate for 8 hours of facebook farming each day. Grief is a long and strange road but I am working through it!

So this week I am following the ignite program using the Core4 products; basically I am using the Lean shake more often as a meal replacement, and watching my calories. It's a nine day program and I'll finish up while away from home, which is no biggie since I know how easy it is to use 'on the road.'

I'm heading down to Southern California on Friday and staying with my Mom a week after her hip surgery. While I am there I'm attending a Core4 Seminar in Carlsbad at CNI headquarters and meeting up with some team members & friends while there, so it's going to be a busy week of planning and traveling. I plan on making lots of healthy dishes for my Mom and leaving her a freezer full of soups before heading home, so that will be good for me staying focused on nutrition. She also lives on that hill that I have journaled about before so I know I will be getting a work out each day along with my little dog Kaylee; can't leave for a week and not take her!

And the good news is that Mom is upgrading her internet connection so I will be able to post from down there and stay in touch with my support group.

Off to the showers, that Accelerate really makes the sweat pour out after exercising; it's a great feeling to know my body is working to flush out impurities and burn calories. AND I wore skinnier walking pants this morning :)