(I'm not such a) Tough Mudder!

So, yesterday I participated in the Philadelphia Tough Mudder!  (Go, ME!)

And I have to admit, I use the phrase participate very loosely.  I only made it 1 mile!  I had to pack it in really early because of my knee.  I twisted it on Thursday, climbing this:

So it's not like I'm just a total wimp.

All in all, it was a good experience.  I learned a lot.  I had fun.  I spent some time with dear friends (who spent much more time with each other, because they actually finished).

I had a lot of trouble with my asthma in the humidity yesterday, which is new for me, and I think related to the pneumonia I had over the winter.

I made the first obstacle with no trouble, but by the time I got to the second one, my knee was already starting to protest the uneven ground and I couldn't adjust my brace because of all the mud on it.  So, rather than risking a serious injury, or preventing the boys from finishing, I bowed out gracefully and waited for them to finish.

They had a blast and now we all know the things we need to be better prepared for to do it next year.

I also noticed that I was, by far, the heaviest girl I saw all day who was a participant.  In a way, I'm proud of that, of the fact that despite my size, I tried anyway.  But mostly, I'm sad.  I'm sad that more bigger girls don't just get out there and try.  And closer to my heart, I'm sad that I let someone I should have been able to trust, affect me, my health and my self-worth in as negative a way as I have in the last few years.

But every day is new day, and a new chance to make a change, and change I will!  I'm already less lonely and more social than I've been in ages.  I'm spending time with more people who are better influences on me and I'm already seeing the positive impact on my health. (and my waistline!)  I'm eating better and keeping up around the house.  I'm getting art projects finished.

And most importantly, I'm really, truly happy for the first time in a long while!

The weather is turning colder.

This is my favorite season, without a doubt! It's cool enough to work on my bigger projects, like finishing my quilt tops and maybe starting a big afghan project. It's apple picking season, which means homemade apple sauce, and pumpkins are just around the corner for jack o'lanterns and pumpkin butter! A friend has baby #2 due in a couple weeks and another friend is having a Halloween wedding!

With all of the cold weather cooking I like to do, you guys are gonna have to stay on my butt about eating right. And I'll probably need some extra nagging to make sure that I stay active as it starts to be too cold to ride my bike. That's right! Free license to be a pain in my ass! What more could you ask for!?!?

It's been tricky to balance Carl's lowered carb eating with my hypoglycemia, but we're doing pretty good. I've been eating a lot of rice and couscous because they're quick to whip up on the side of an otherwise low carb meal. Carl's heartburn is greatly improved and he's lost about 10 lbs.

We're feeling pretty good about things right now, especially as we, just yesterday polished off the end of the first big ol' pot of winter chili! (It was chili verde and it was awesome!)

Wish us luck as we transition from wild, unpredictable PA summer weather into freezing, unpredictable PA winter. I'll enjoy the fall either way, I'm just not sure about the effect on my waistline.

Craziness.

I've not had much free time due to family commitments lately, between the nephew's doctor appointments and birthdays and so on, but we're still plugging along on the "Get Healthy" plan.

I've been doing really good at staying away from dairy and watching my portions. Carl has started eating low-carb. Which, by the way, it's a blast balancing a low-carb diet with a dairy-free hypoglycemic diet. I need carbs, he shouldn't have them. Cheese is an awesome option for him, but I can't have it. It's like grocery shopping for two separate households! I don't know how Lisa does it without losing her mind.

Right now, we're cooking a protein and a veggie, then I'm having a quick carb side, like veggie pasta or whole grain something while he has either a second portion of the veggie or a second veggie. It seems to be working pretty well now that it's starting to be a routine.

For snacks, we hide his cheese in a drawer in the fridge and we hide my crackers and pretzels in a cupboard that up until now wasn't really being used for anything. Again, so far so good.

I made homemade ketchup and some coarse ground mustard as well as making sure we're well stocked with salad dressings. I made a huge pot of meat sauce so I have something handy for my pasta and he's got something different to throw on his eggs for breakfast.

I have to saw that I'm really impressed how quickly he adapted to having a scramble egg wrap for breakfast from the peanut butter and honey that he's used to. He tells me his heartburn is almost gone and he's seems like he's starting to lose a bit of weight.

We're going to have a ton of bumps in the road I'm sure, but it seems as if we've finally found the right path! Wish us luck!

Quarantine? Really?

So, apparently, we were exposed to MRSA. If you don't already know, MRSA is an incredibly antibiotic-resistant variety of Staph.

So far, neither of us seems to be infected, but we're still waiting to hear about the lab work to see if we're carrying it, and potentially contagious in spite of not actually getting sick. We spent the weekend in more or less of a quarantine - we were allowed out of the house, but no hugging anybody, and no close contact with small children, elderly, diabetics, pregnant women, or people with compromised immune systems.

Needless to say, my plans to go to Maryland for the weekend to visit my friend who's 6 months pregnant and her family got cancelled. We had to miss my grandmother's birthday party, and Carl couldn't go to his gaming group because they have 2 diabetics in the group.

On the plus-side, this is the closest to caught up that our laundry has been since the fire (we've been slowly rewashing everything his mom washed, because it turns out I'm allergic to her detergent) and I got a ton of sewing done and Carl got some writing in. We also spent quite a bit of quality lazy-time together.

All things considered, it turned out to not be such a bad weekend.

WooHOo!

We've been making all kinds of stuff! Tonight I threw together a jar of basic Adobo and a fantastic vinagrette with Olive Oil, Basalmic Vinegar and Penzey's Green Goddess dressing mixture. Carl's been learning to make all kinds of things on the grill.

I'm thinking of making Iced Tea with my Lemon Balm to see how it turns out.

We've been making crazy pasta salads with grilled chicken. The other day we make one with mandarin oranges, water chestnuts and shredded Swiss Chard from the garden. For the dressing, rice vinegar, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil seasoned with garlic, ginger and crushed red pepper, and a generous sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

Tonight we had one with a bell pepper from the garden, roasted pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries and we used the vinagrette with the Penzey's seasoning. And the star of both salads was the wonderful chicken breast Carl grilled for us.

I'll be making more trail mix this week and possibly some granola bars on Saturday, if it's not way too hot to be boiling honey.

I'll keep you posted with more recipes as I have them.

Pluggin' along.

I made 80 miles on my bike for June! I was aiming for 100, but I'll take it. I'll try for 100 again this month. This time I know that I need to take a couple significant rides other than the trip to work to get there.

Carl still hasn't gotten into the habit of running, even though he keeps saying he wants to. I've even offered to go with him and give it a shot. Any ideas how to motivate him???

I got a tip from Me You Health about using cucumber to flavor water and I'll tell you what, I'm completely in love with it! Super easy, just drop a few slices in your glass and let it sit a minute.

I feel like I may have lost a bit more, but I haven't been near a scale to check. I'll have to weigh in at my mom's in the morning. Unless I'm not remembering correctly when I think that she has a scale.

I have a bike ride planned with my mom in the morning, so I'm gonna keep this short.

A few thoughts on Getting Healthy!

The Daily Challenge at MeYou Health is built around this idea. Health.com slideshows devoted to it. I was doing it by myself because the bigger goals seemed to intimidating. What am I talking about?

Small Actions. Baby Steps. Mini-goals.

Call them whatever you want, but time and time again, it's been found that this is the best way to make a big change in your life. With weight loss, they may not give you the most immediate results, but they're going to be the things that you stick with.

Swaps are the easiest baby step to take. Here are some that have worked really well for us.

• Iced Tea instead of Diet Coke (Carl)
• Whole Grain/Whole Wheat/High Protein Pasta instead of Semolina Pasta
• Pita Chips instead of Potato Chips (mine)
• Edy's Fruit Bars instead of Ice Cream
• Seltzer/Homemade Sodas instead of Mass Produced Soda
• Trail Mix instead of Junk Food
• Jayone Rice Rolls or Ryvita Fruit and Nut instead of Cookies
• Kashi Cereals instead of High Carb/Low Protein Options (mine)
• Almond Milk instead of Cow's Milk (mine)

Little stuff. When we crave crispy, we eat crispy. When we want pasta we eat pasta. If I want milk, I drink milk. We just make the smarter choice.

Carl is walking and doing more and more of the really nearby (within a few blocks) errands. I'm riding my bike to do the ones that are a little further (Up to 5 mile round trip). We drive if it's too far to walk/ride or if it involves hauling something home, like the case of seltzer I bought last night.

We've both opted to completely ignore the numbers. I look out of curiosity and because Lyam is diabetic and I like to have an idea of carb counts for him, and because I need to make sure I get enough protein at breakfast, but that's it. The only number we're concerning ourselves with is our respective pants sizes.

We don't count carbs. We don't count calories, points or fat. We don't weigh ourselves. We don't even own a scale. We promised not to drive if we don't need to. We promised that every time we light the grill, we're going to add a vegetable too. We promised to support each other and to help each other make smarter eating decisions. And he promised to let me buy new bras and underwear if I can get below 200 lbs.

I'm beginning to see that he's losing weight (in fact, he just told me he's wearing shorts he couldn't fit in 2 weeks ago!). When my Grandma wanted me to weigh myself the other day, I discovered that along with a pants size, I had dropped 16 lbs!

And the best part is, by making swaps instead of sacrifices, the only thing I miss is cheese, and since I've become quite lactose intolerant, there's not a lot I can do with that one, except have 1 or 2 slices of swiss on a sandwich when I can't take the craving anymore. If I have more dairy than that or anything and creamier, I get too sick and it's not worth it.

Screw the numbers. Start small. Eat Smart. Do more. Lose weight. Get happy.

Don't dwell on the numbers. If you do the right thing, the numbers will follow.

Make little changes. Don't say, I'm never going to have pasta again. Instead, say "I'll have pasta less often and when I do it will be whole grain (or veggie pasta, whatever works for you)"

Make smarter food choices. If you have a fast food craving, don't make yourself suffer, get the kids meal. 20 years ago, that was the value meal anyway at most places. Plus, you get free toy!

Get off your ass! Park a row further from the building at work. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk the long way around the building. All that little stuff adds up!

The inches/pounds/sizes will come off. Have faith in that. It may take a little longer before you see results, but you won't give up before you see them like you would on a crazy diet.

The happy happens all by itself. And it multiplies every time someone says you look thinner. Or that what you're doing must be so hard (and you know it isn't!)

One more time!

Screw the numbers. Start small. Eat Smart. Do more. Lose weight. Get happy.

Check-In. And I thought I was inconsistent.

The biggest downside, to me anyway about dairy-free, believe it or not isn't the fact that it's somewhat more pricey than the regular dairy options. It's not even the fact that in order to get dairy-free you often have to go vegan, or gluten-free. Or sometimes even, gluten-free, fat free, sugarfree, flavor-free.

What never fails to piss me off is the completely random and inconsistent ways that grocery stores seem to stock the dairy-free options. Sure, put them in the organic or natural section, I expect that. Put them in the Vegan section, I can even deal with that. Even better, put them in the same cooler as the organic dairy, I can deal with that. But when they're randomly intermingled with the organic "regular" dairy, it makes me want to cry.

Why is it so difficult to put the dairy-free/vegan all on one or two shelves at the top or bottom of the door and fill the rest with organic dairy? Why do should I have to sort through organic cheeses and spreads to get to the one tub of Better Than Cream Cheese at the back? Why is organic ice cream stocked between rows of dairy-free and vegan desserts? I stock shelves as a large part of my job. It's not like it's hard to put the Daiya shreds up or down one shelf.

And while we're talking about it, why does it seem like the dairy-free stuff is always randomly in and out of stock? Do they order by hand? (Ok, at Sign of the Bear, they do. But they're also way more organized than grocery stores I'm talking about.)

For the longest time, I was convinced that nobody but Sign of the Bear carried Better Than Cream Cheese. Now it seems that (at least our local) Wegman's has an over abundance of it, crammed in the back of the bottom shelf in the last cooler in the natural/organic section. They carried Tofutti Cuties in Key Lime and All Vanilla forever. Tonight I go, all they have is the classic vanilla with chocolate wafers. No sign that they ever even carried the others.

My Giant doesn't have any Soy Yogurt and hardly any natural, organic, dairy-free or Vegan options, even though the next closest Giant to us has an entire organic/natural market in the back and several other Giants in our area have an organic aisle. Nevermind, my closest Giant is on the opposite side of a city park from WEGMANS!!

This is a huge change for me and I'm trying to be good. I really am. Why are the grocery stores making it so damn hard!?!?! You wouldn't randomly change your regular ice cream flavors. Sure they add new and get rid of poor sellers, but the dairy-free stuff seems like it changes from week to week sometimes.

The regular dairy cheeses are always neatly organized, excepting when there's an amazing sale, why is the dairy-free/Vegan/Organic always a huge mish-mash that looks like there was a total free-for-all battle in the cooler?

Come on, be nice to those of us who need/choose to eat a little differently.

Check-in. Healthier Choices.

I've lost nearly a pants size!

We're learning a lot about ourselves through this whole get healthy process. Here's the highlights!

• I feel like a little kid when I'm flying down a hill on my bike!
• If we have Edy's Fruit Bars or Whole Fruit Bars in the freezer, they're nearly always our first choice when we go for a snack.
• The fruit bars have also cut down on Carl's ice cream cravings, while making giving up dairy easier for me.
• Keeping chocolate in the house, but somewhere that's a pain to get to, has cut down on chocolate binges for both of us, and has almost completely eliminated my urges to buy a candy bar at the check-out.
• Pita chips have solved my issue with not being able to substitute crunchy for crispy.
• The 5 mile round trip to work on my bike seems to be what I need to be able to sleep well.
• I have a lot of fun battling traffic on my bike. Although I still walk it across the 22 interchange on my way to work.

All in all, I think that we're making a lot of change for the better and Carl is even starting to make plans for what he's going to do to make up for the fact that he can't really bike to work even if he wanted to.

Check-In. Go figure.

I was up this morning with plenty of time to walk to work. I was keeping an eye on the weather and it seemed like the rain was holding off. I decided that I was going to spend a little more time on the internet and then ride my bike.

I got my bag together and headed out and I think it actually started raining during the time it took for me to walk away from the laptop and out the front door. And it kept raining. The whole time that I was on my way to work.

From the water thrown off the tires, I basically looked like I fell ass first into a puddle. I do take a change of clothes with me, but I was so soaked that my soggy underwear was starting to soak through my dress pants after I changed.

BLarg! Guess I'll be walking some of the days this week.

Check-In. Slacker!

Alright, so I've been really slackerly about posting. For about a week.

Here's the run down.

Eating has been really sloppy, but with a family picnic and the resultant leftovers, that one's tough to avoid. At least with my family.

I've found that in very small quantities, I can tolerate Swiss and Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese relatively well. But it needs to be a very small quantity and I can tell from how my belly feels that I cheated. Honestly, it's worth it every now and then because I'm practically going through withdrawal here. I didn't mind giving up milk, butter or ice cream, but not having cheese has been crazy tough.

I bought a bike on Thursday! I made the potentially stupid decision make my first ride my Trip to Work yesterday and it actually turned out great! I got there in about half the time compared to walking!

I had forgotten how much I love tearing down a great big hill! SO much fun. I also love how much more freedom I feel like I have compared to walking. I can get myself to and from work, without begging rides and I don't have to lose almost 2 hours of my day to do it! Plus, I have wiggle room in my mornings again.

I can tell I'm still not in good enough shape to haul things with me on the bike, but I'm getting places and fending for myself in traffic and it's great. I was surprised to find that while not particularly courteous, drivers in Allentown are much more bike-friendly than people in Whitehall. It's almost like hitting an invisible barrier coming into and out of the city.

I have people in the city waiting for me to finish crossing, waving me ahead of them for left turns, etc. In Whitehall, I got cut off and almost plowed into the side of some guys car yesterday, people ride your butt as if you've a car under the speed limit and so on. Of course, I only rode to and from work once. It could have all been a fluke.

Check-In. Day off.

Was kinda snacky today but I kept it basically to healthy stuff. Sprouts, trail mix, fruit bars, 2 oranges. We had sushi for dinner, I ate probably more than I should have but I stayed away from the spicy rolls, which saved me calories from the mayo at least.

I made homemade ketchup tonight, which makes me really happy. I walked to the health food store and bought more seeds for sprouting, gonna try broccoli and mung beans now. I'll probably do another batch of alfalfa, too, because now that I have the sprouting lids, I can use the lids with any of my tons of extra mason jars laying around.

So far so good, I think I've lost about 1/2 of a pants size so far. My pants are getting saggy in the butt, but I can't fit into a smaller size yet. I'm getting there, though and that makes me feel really good!

Check-In. Trail Mix!

Can't even remember what I had for breakfast today, so it can't have been that interesting. It may have been clementines, actually.

Clementines and honey wheat pretzels for lunch (11-7:30 is a tough shift for me, mealwise. It's over two meals.) and a candy bar for a snack.

More egg-spinach-meat sauce in a tortilla for dinner.

Made a ton of trail mix tonight for lunches.

I had a pomegranate fruit bar for a snack so I wouldn't pig out while I was making the trail mix, also.

Sprouts are doing really well, in another couple days we can really harvest them.

Gonna try to get a little more work done in the garden tomorrow night. I should have asparagus this year, if the roots took and held up over the winter. It'll be nice to find out.

If anyone wants any mint, with or without roots, let me know, I've got tons. Spearmint and a chocolate mint hybrid.

Check-In. Sprouts!

I have tiny sprouts in my Alfalfa jar. Actually, I stole one tonight. It was about 1/2" long and it was super tasty! Nothing beats growing it yourself.

Clementines and trail mix for snacks today. Not much of a lunch at work. Had scrambled eggs tops with meat sauce that also had spinach in it for breakfast and the same in a tortilla for a late supper.

Probably will eat like crap tomorrow because I work crappy hours (11-7:30). Gonna try to get over to the steps for our weekly check in tomorrow. Hopefully, I can shave a bit more off my time.

Need to get up a bit early tomorrow. I never changed after work tonight and managed to ruin my last pair of work pants. Oops.

Also, I've discovered that even though I like plain Almond milk, I really don't like the unsweetened vanilla, unless I take the time to sweeten it with agave nectar.

Check-In. Sprouting Progress.

Sausage Biscuit for breakfast. Trail Mix snack. Hot dog for lunch (I know, crappy!).

Pasta with meat sauce for dinner and I jazzed up the sauce with wilted fresh spinach and cayenne pepper! Pomegranate popsicle while dinner was cooking.

Trail mix to soothe my snack craving.

The sprout jars are mixed results so far. I have tiny little alfalfa sprouts starting! But the chia is a mess. I need to look into that a little more, because with the lids I have I can't get the chia drained. because it turns gel-ly in water, then I realized it might not need to be rinsed. I'll look into it more and start again. Or I'll buy other sprouting seeds.

Gonna have a second clementine to finish up my bedtime snack.

Also, I've walked to work every day for over a week now and my pants are fitting better to loose depending on the pair.

Check-In. Stomach Yuckies.

Had a good breakfast at Nick's Diner this morning with Dave. Splurged a bit and had pancakes and sausage. Also, had eggs scrambled with spinach, which needed a bit of salt, but were otherwise wonderful, in spite of the funny looks from the waitress. (She's a sweetie, I forgive her.) Edy's Fruit bar for a snack and then spent the afternoon dealing with a seemingly random upset stomach.

Light-ish dinner and then a nap. Had another Fruit Bar tonight,

I got a little bit of work done in my back yard, in between not feeling that great.

Also, I started a sprouting jar of Alfalfa last night, and I'm starting one with Chia tonight. (If you've never seen a sprouting jar, this is one of the ones I have.) I picked of 3" PVC 'T' joints to set my jars on to. They need to be upside down, but can't set on the lid because they need the air circulation. The directions recommend tipping them at about a 45 degree angle in a pot or bowl, but I'm gonna see if this works. I don't really have enough pots or bowls to forfeit them to propping up a Mason jar.

Also, yes, Chia as in Chia Pet. You can buy food quality seeds at most health food stores. They're pretty tasty, behave really strangely when you get them wet and have tons of vitamins and nutrients. Bonus! If you eat Chia gel (chia and water) before a work out, or add it to juice or more water and drink it, it helps you stay hydrated longer!

Let's see how it goes.

Check-In. Been awhile.

I've walked to work three days this week so far, which is every day, actually, since I had off for Easter on Sunday.

I cheated a bit on my no-dairy to eat some of Gramma's Homemade Peanut Roll Eggs, but it was totally worth it!

We went back to the MLK stairs on Monday night and I shaved about 6 more seconds off my time, 2:54.54! Carl kicked my ass and made it in 2:10.38. BOO!

Eating hasn't been exactly great this week again, but I've been snacking mostly one Edy's Real Fruit Popsicles and Popcorn, rather than anything really crappy. Drinking lots of water, tea, juice.

Also, I got pretty awful sunburn yesterday, so I had to invest in aloe gel and sunblock today.

Check-In. AAARRGHHH!

We started moving Lisa today. Short a person. During a Tornado watch. I'm gonna just leave it at that.

Check-In. More Chaos.

I had cheerios for breakfast yesterday. Can't remember what I had for a snack, probably Good N Plenty's with are at least fat free.

Primo's Italian Diablo, no cheese for lunch.

McDonalds Caesar Salad for dinner. And the rest of my Soy Cheese pizza for a snack later. At least I got some exercise on the playground.

I'm having a very had time sticking to a schedule because of helping Lisa move. They keep a schedule that's just different enough from mine that I'm up for a snack at their mealtimes, and vice versa. Also, they stay up later than I've been the last couple weeks.

Today I'm off to a pretty good start, cheerios for breakfast, and 30 minute walk and Health is Wealth Vegetarian, lactose-free spinach munchies for a snack. They're like pizza rolls, but with spinach instead of pepperoni. Oh, and they're awesome!

Check-In. Moving Chaos.

It's not even my move and I'm getting caught up in the chaos of it. I'm trying hard and I think I did pretty good at eating pretty well today.

Breakfast on the run was an Almond Croissant from Wegmans and Odwalla's Original Super Protein.

Jayone Rice Roll for a snack.

Almonds for a snack.

Tomato Pie and original Terra Chips for lunch.

Trail mix for a snack.

Wendy's Spicy Chicken for Dinner, which was crappy of me, but at least I stuck to the dairy free thing.

Cheerios for a snack.

Hungry again, and I think it's because I've been going since like 7:30 this morning and I'm not feeling well. When my body's trying hard to fight something off sometimes I get a huge appetite. The trick is finding something healthy to eat.

I managed to get about 15 minutes of Yoga in today, too.