October 29, 2011 snowstorm

I'm blogging from Whole Foods in Hadley, MA. It's day two of no electricity or heat. Yesterday was a challenge at the grocery store where no meat was for sale. Aside from a lousy cup of coffee at noon, I didn't eat anything all day, so I worked up an appetite by late afternoon. Fortunately I cooked and pulverized chicken two days earlier, so I made chicken salad at 5 pm.

At Whole foods today, pork sausage was added to the hot self-serve while I was in line. I have a couple sausages and eggs, grilled onions and orange peppers, a bit of broccoli and a nice tall bottle of Italian Sparkling Mineral Water. Oh and some butternut squash soup. I'm not as hungry as all that and have already abandoned half of my plate and am focusing on the soup.

Yesterday I was in a panic about what to eat and I guess it carried over to today, causing me to pile my plate bigger than usual. All my choices are on program and I don't overeat anymore, so the worse of this is that I wasted money. I don't like to waste money either, but when one is in a panic state of mind this happens sometimes.

Looking at the photos makes it easier to understand my state of mind. I wasn't crazy, the situation was insane. I'll post my photos of all those empty shelves yesterday at the grocery store, but I can't do this from my iPad or iPhone. I'll add them when I can get to a desktop (note: on 11/17/11 I added the photos to top and bottoms of this page).

I'm happy to report I did not indulge in the package items or baked goods I saw fill everyone else's grocery carts. Just for a moment, a fear filled me and I thought "I'll starve to death if I don't eat that stuff, that's all there is to eat. Just a bananna or avacado or... No, they have beef jerky. I won't starve!" I bought bought a pack of beef jerky to suffice my fears. I never even cracked the package open.

10/29/11 Snow storm photos: The stores didn't have food after the power was out 24 hours.

October 31, 2011

One of the things about this program I continue to marvel at is how easy it is to eat out. I look at the menu options and see all the things I can't eat. I used to only see what I couldn't eat or feel guilty because I ate those options. That isn't the case today.  If I look at a menu and don't see something I want to eat, I move along to another place. When I was in NYC last week, I was traveling with a vegetarian and it was nice that we were both on the same page with finding a menu that met both of our needs. It wasn't an issue that one of us didn't see something we wanted to eat, we both agreed to keep going until we found the right place to eat. And there are tons of places that serve the kind of food we both wanted.

It's amazing how accommodating places are when I order something not quite on their menu. There's a deli near where I work that I've been having lunch at for over a decade. I order sandwiches without the bread and they make me a beautiful plate. I go to Dunkin Donuts and order a large coffee with extra milk, and no sugar, with a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich - without the bread. Once in a while they have a new server and I have to explain my drill..."charge me for a sandwich combo, they don't discount this, and let the cook know the sandwich is without the bread." The cook and I have it worked out that she'll put the cheese in between the meat and egg, so it doesn't stick to the cardboard they place it in.

Pannikin Coffee & Tea, Encinitas, CA

When I first started this program I gave up coffee. It was easier to give up coffee than to try and drink it without sugar. Three months later, while on vacation in California, I had breakfast with a friend at my favorite breakfast place in southern California, the Pannikin, where they make the best Café au lait. They make froth like nobody else. I ordered my breakfast and a Café au lait, had a great visit with my friend, ordered a second cup and visited for another hour. From then on, I've been drinking my coffee without sugar.

I remember a few weeks into this journey when I was in a grocery store and suddenly I was seeing things differently. I  saw baked goods in a different way. I didn't feel the need to have them, I appreciated how beautiful they looked. I'd never understood people who saw food in this way until then. That's not to say I never want baked goodies, but the moment comes and goes. I know this has to do with the work Julie does and I'm happy to have this now a part of my life.

Pannikin Coffee & Tea

This new view of food is best understood by this analogy: I don't feel the need to eat the beautiful pastry or pizza or whatever the food is, anymore than I would want to eat a beautiful flower or leaf. I appreciate it's beauty for what it is and I move on.

My dreams, well that's something different. I have had a few dreams about eating foods that are not on my current program. A few nights ago I had a dream in which I told Julie and the group that I ate chocolate chip cookies. The dream was so real, that after I woke up and started brushing my teeth, I found myself trying to remember when I ate the cookies. It took a few minutes before I realized I hadn't eaten cookies, it was only in my dream.

Tonight I'm going to see Julie for a refresher and I'm looking forward to it. I go to these refreshers to help me stay strong on the program and to learn more. I've had great success with this program and I want to stay strong on this course. I haven't gone off course, except in my dreams, since I started the end of January 2011. No scale. No sugar. No exception.

How about you? How's your program going?

Do you have any recipes or  would you like to share your weight loss stories? To become a regular contributor to this blog, add a comment at the bottom of any post with your email and request to be added as a contributor. I moderate comments, so your details will not publish when you make this request.

October 25, 2011

I've stayed committed to my couch to 5K exercise routine and I'm quite pleased with myself. It helps that my friend Aime meets me at the gym and we do our routine together every other day and once over the weekend.

After our workout yesterday, I was complaining about being out of breathe and in a bit of foot pain and it suddenly I realized -- this is the way I used to feel all the time. Every day when I used to get into my car, my legs would feel stiff and my knees hurt. I was out of breathe just walking a short distance across campus. Now, I only feel this way for a short time after I exercise, It's a good kind of out-of-breathe and pain, both are temporary and are followed by an increase in energy that lasts the rest of the day and into the next. How quickly one forgets daily pain when it's gone. My knee and foot pain, once a 24 hour issue, is now minimal.

When I've mentioned the hot chocolate run to others, I often hear them say their knees won't allow them to run. I'm instantly grateful, that my knees seem to be happy with my running, as I have less knee pain than I did earlier this summer. I don't feel knee pain from jogging on the treadmill. I still feel knee pain when I walk downhill or down steps, but I'm not doing the strectching exercises the doctor suggested would resolve that. This is a good reminder to me that it's time to get back on those 5 minute stretches again.

Last night I bought 3 pairs of SmartWool Women's Outdoor Sport Lightweight Micro Socks at Dick's Sporting Goods. I first bought SmartWool socks while on vacation in California last March, because my regular socks were burning my feet in my sneakers. Now that walking and jogging are a part of my life, I needed to buy a few more pairs. I never would have believed I'd pay $14.99 for a pair of socks, but here we are. Comfort is priceless in my book.  That said, I will be looking online for more options.

I like grey or black, as they match my sneakers better, but they always seem to have these colors on the bottom and a different color on top. On site I found is Socks Addict, which I'll look around for less costly but same quality socks.

October 22, 2011

Yesterday I completed day two of the Couch-to-5K and today I walked the Whiting Street Reservoir in Holyoke, MA. It took me 1 1/2 hours to walk the full circle (3.9 miles). No doubt, my vacation in June this year to Alaska helped me achieve both these goals. I reconnected with the athlete within me once again. It's great to be connected this way again. Day one of c25k, on the treadmill, I sweated, I huffed, I puffed, and I kept going. Day two of c25k, I walked/jogged outside with Aime a the Holyoke Reservoir. I didn't sweat like I day on day one, so I'm guessing I worked myself harder on the treadmill than I did outdoors. But I didn't go uphill on the treadmill, so it's a win-win situation.

I'm on the right - June 2011 in Sitka, Alaska

Holyoke Reservoir, MA  (1 1/2 hour walk) 10/16/11

I signed up to run the Hot Chocolate Run, Dec. 4, 2011 in Northampton, MA. If you want to join me in this run, register on my hot chocolate run fundraising page. This will be my first run since I the early 1990's when I used do do 5K runs in southern California. I'm hoping to get my friends and family to join me in the run or that they'll do the walk. I'm also looking for a 5K event in Carlsbad, CA that will happen when I'm there for my vacation in March/April 2012.

I'm on a roll and it feels good!

October 16, 2011

In the seventies and eighties, I was a runner, but I haven't run in this century at all. That all changed yesterday when I started day one of a nine week app c25k.

The couch to 5k program starts you walking 5 minutes to warm up and then you spend the next 20 min. alternating from 90 seconds walking / 60 seconds running. I'm on the last day of a three-day conference in NYC, and smack in the middle of my conference, I started running at 7 am on the treadmill in Marriott Brooklyn, yesterday morning.

On my way to the train station, I turned around a few minutes from my house to go back for my exercise gear, so I would have the option to do them gym. I didn't know then that I would actually use the gym and I certainly didn't know I'd start couch25k. I downloaded the app last week, so I guess I have been moving inn this directly slowly, but moving none the less.

I took it slow, walking at 3.0 for the warm-up. When the running time came, I increased speed to 4.0. I watched the timer count backwards, and, one minute at a time, I found myself with sweat rolling off my reddened face, moving one foot and then the other to the beat of the treadmill. Thirty minutes passed. I was dizzy when I got off the treadmill, but elated I did it,

October 14, 2011

I'm overwhelmed with clothes. So overwhelmed, that it's hard to figure out what to wear each morning.

Sifting through my clothes

I have three closets in my bedroom, each filled with different sizes, starting with size 32 down to size 20. Size is relative, as something in a 20 fits perfect and some sized 22 pieces don't.

The far right closet has 42 of the 50 items I put in there four months ago to post on eBay. I did really well selling on eBay. I made over $75 and the few pieces that didn't sell I donated right away. I figure I have another easy $500 sitting in my closets. That's money I can use to buy new clothes as I continue dropping in size. Actually, I more likely stand to make $1,000 or more based on my recent inventory, but whose counting.

The middle closet is a mixture of clothes that are too big and that clothes that fit. I need to move the items that are too big into the eBay closet, which will leave me with a nearly empty closet. I have new clothes a friend gave me that I can move into the empty space.
Some of them fit, others are too small.

I need to move the later into my third closet, which has hardly any clothes in there. They're the last of my smallest sizes, about 10 items, including a jacket that the same friend gave me that would have been perfect for my trip to Alaska in June, but it wouldn't zip. It zips now, so I can move it into my coat closet downstairs.

I'm on a roll and I look forward to selling all this excess and having a wardrobe of clothes that all fit.

Is it just me, or is all this just too convoluted?

October 13, 2011

I'll fill you in on my Julie-Journey at some time. Tonight though I am publishing my Wellness Vision. I have been itching to jog lately. I've had 3 or 4 chance encounters with two particular friends just as they're coming off their jog. With both friends I was inspired by their commitment, their glow and their smile!

So today I mentioned to one of them -- "I've got to start jogging." She gave me all the reasons why she jogs.

Then i saw the second friend, and I just blurted out to her "I've got to start jogging soon!" Well it turns out in addition to be on the faculty for Movement Science @ Westfield State, she is also a wellness coach.

So, not to miss an opportunity to coach -- she asked me WHEN -- I said either @ 6am or 9pm. She said, "Will you call me tonight @ 9pm?"

I felt her excitement and said "Sure!" So here is what we came up with. She asked -- Why is Wellness important to me? and to paint a picture of where I want my wellness to be in a year. She asked questions and I answered them. She then synthesized my thoughts into the following:

My wellness vision is to have a sustainable, committed lifestyle that enables me to have exercise as a regular part of my life. This is important to me because I want to be active, engaged, focused and able to fully live and be involved in my life and the lives of the people I love. I'm challenged by the behavior patterns that have sabotaged my ability to have a regular program and by the other significant commitments in my life.

I know that I am a creative and goal oriented person who has an ability to take initiative and I commit to this goal because it is important to me and through family support and a well thought out plan I can be successful.

October 12, 2011

I took notes about my weight loss journey earlier this week and I didn't have time to post to this blog, so I'm going to post them now.

9/30/11 

I watched this video of me that was created this time last year. OMG! It's one thing to see yourself in a photo, it's another to see a yourself video, even if only for  a few seconds.

I saw myself in another video with my back to the camera - wow - I really had no idea just how large I was. I'm glad I was looking at a video and not looking in a mirror.

Today, eight months into my weight loss journey, I can see how much my body has changed, but I also see that I am still obese. I feel good about the change in my size at at the same time and I am mindful of the being in this present present moment. In being present, I can accept my body size today, be proud of the progress I've made, and continue to be optimistic about the journey that is still ahead of me.

Last night I returned a couple of the blouses I bought a few weeks ago. My good friend Amie pointed out:

They're too long for your new body. In a few months when the lower part of your body catches up to your small shoulders, those tops are going to hang on you and make you look bigger.

I'm taking two more blouses back this week.

10/07/11

I heard some great comments about my weight loss this week. I was walking with my brother a few nights ago and I saw a woman turn towards us, turn away, and then turn back to us again.

"I thought I heard your voice, but when I turned around I realized it wasn't you. Then, I heard your voice again and turned to see that it is you! You look great!" my friend said to me.

Then she turned to my brother and said, "You must be so proud of your sister!"

"Yes I am" he beamed.

After walking my brother to his car, my friend and I walked for about 45 minutes. I'd been sitting at my desk all day and it felt great to expend some of the high energy I had at 7 pm. As we walked, she again commented on my weight...

"You look normal now" she said.

Normal works for me.

I took this photo of the chicken salad I made tonight and described how I make it below. I have a couple food videos to post one of these days. One video is how to make pizza Julie style. The other is on making a Julie style drink with vodka. I promise to post them by the end of October. Meanwhile, I have butternut squash roasting in the oven that I need to tend to. Enjoy my chicken salad recipe.

Chicken Salad

One of my favorite and easy-to-make meals is chicken salad. I cook two packages of chicken tenders or breasts in a pot of water and when the chicken cooled down, I put the chicken in a food processor. Salt and pepper to taste. I generally only add black pepper, but I like to mince garlic in it too.

Sometimes I add an onion to the food processor and mixed it in with the ground chicken. Other times I cut the onion by hand and add celery too. I put the covered dish full of chicken in the refrigerator and it's ready for a quick meal. I add mayo or yogurt to the portion I'm ready to eat or when I pack it in my lunch container.

It all makes a mess, but it's well worth it. Tonight I'm having chicken salad with pickles. Sometimes I have salad greens or eat celery along with it.

October 07, 2011