Monthly Archives: January 2011

One thing I have learned about myself is if I want to eat healthy, I have to plan out my meals.  Each week I make a dinner menu based on what meats or fish I have in the freezer and at my weekly grocery store trip, I buy whatever I need for veggies or sides to go with those meals.  I also need to have an idea each morning of what I will eat for my other meals.  I have found this is what works best for until…well a wrench gets thrown into things like yesterday.

What started the downhill spiral was hubby working from home.  That ALWAYS throws me off because I feel like I have to be DOING something constantly.  He is like his mother…he can’t sit still during the day for any amount of time.  He has to be DOING something…cleaning, stuff in the yard, painting, etc.  I am WAY different.  I tend to do things in spurts but everything STILL gets done.  But you wouldn’t think that by the way he talks.  So, that just started my day off wrong and it went downhill from there.

I made myself a decent breakfast (whole wheat English Muffin with almond butter and a couple kiwis).  As I sat down to eat it, he appeared and asked why I didn’t make him anything.  Ummm, because I’m not a mind reader and you DIDN’T ASK ME TO!  It’s bad enough that almost everyday my 3 year old appears and wants to hijack my breakfast…now I had him hovering too.

We had planned to hit Best Buy yesterday because my laptop was falling apart and he wanted to finally get his outdoor speakers.  I wanted to go at lunch time but NOOOOO…he had to “work.”  I put that in quotes because he had already walked around the house like 4 times saying he didn’t feel like doing anything and then he went to take a shower.  Yeah, he was working hard.  So I asked him if he could log off at a decent time so we weren’t eating dinner late.  We also has rough weather on the way too and I didn’t want to get stuck in that.  But he hemmed and hawed and said he couldn’t guaratee anything.  So now I was annoyed.  I threw some laundry in and played with my 3 year old.  I lost track of time so my plans for lunch went out the window.  I heated up some leftover chicken but I didn’t end up eating much before I had to go pick up my older daughter from school.

So, I went and got my daughter and when we got home we did her homeowrk together.  By that time I was STARVING and THAT was when hubby-dear decided it was time to go to BestBuy and we had to go NOW because the bad weather was on the way.  So, I quickly cut up an apple, threw it in a bag and off we went.

Now naturally, this trip to Best Buy did NOT turn out the way I wanted it too.  Fist of all, the traffic geting there was nuts.  It took us twice as long as it normally does.  When I got there, I found someone to help me and told her what I wa looking for.  She recommended a certain laptop.  It was a bit more than I wanted to spend but we decided to go for it anyway.  Well, they didn’t have that one…and neither did any of the stores close by.  And they didn’t know when they would be getting more in.  Lovely.  So, she points out another option…cheaper but it still had most of what I was looking for.  Perfect.  Guess what?  They didn’t have that either.  One of the stores nearby had one but it was getting late and I REALLY needed a replacement.  So hubby points out another one.  It’s smaller than what I wanted but the internal parts were the same as the one I originally wanted.  And it was much cheaper.  OK, we’ll try this again.  There was one on the floor that had the setup done…anti-virus added, junk taken off, etc., which was $70.  So off she went to see if they had a bare bones one.  Guess what?  Yup, you guessed it…they didn’t.  Well, they did have 3 more according to the computer but she couldn’t find them and she was guessing they all had the setup done too.  OK, fine, this computer is cheaper so I’ll take the setup.  She took the conputer off to the front while we went to get hubby’s speakers.  Luckily THAT only took 5 minutes compared to the almost an hour it took to find a damn computer.  So, we took those to the front, checked out and off we went.

We left the plaza where Best Buy is and headed right into the bad weather.  And when I say bad weather I mean 50 mile an hour winds, rain and tornado warnings.  Traffic was a NIGHTMARE and it wasn’t even raining where we were yet.  We got to the University of Central Florida and hubby got the brilliant idea to cut through the campus to get home…right around 6…and UCF had cancelled classes after 6.  You can see where this is going.  Everyone and their mother was leaving the campus.  Great idea, dear.  As we left the campus, the rain started to come down.  Good thing we only live 5 minutes from the school.  We get home and our tornado sirens are going off at the nearby park and our weather radio is blaring in the house.  Lovely.  Plus, our dog HATES thunder and lightening so I expected to be cleaning up after her.  Well, for once, she behaved herself.  By now it was about 6:30 and I needed to start dinner and I was STARVING.  We didn’t eat until aftrer 7 and I, of course, ate too much because of the events of the day that led up to me being starving.  UGH UGH UGH!

So, today is a new day and I need a do over.  I am not beating myaelf up over yesterday.  I have my plan for today and I WILL stick to it….that’s all I can do.

I’m just going to come out and say it…I’m FAT.  My BMI falls into the obese category though I don’t believe BMI to be an accurate calculation for these things.  I was turned down for life insurance through my hubby’s employer and THAT my friends, was a wake up call.

I was thin my whole childhood.  My mom generally cooked healthy things.  We never had white bread and she didn’t buy many sweets or garbage cereals.  She tried to instill good eating habits in us and I think that’s part of the reason I stayed so thin…that and running track and having a high metabolism!  A bad breakup in high school caused me to become TOO skinny.  I look at my senior prom pictures and wonder how I didn’t see it then.  I went off to college and gained a bit TOO much but I lost a little and settled in at a comfortable, healthy weight for the next several years.  I worked retail right after college and stayed slim.  Then, I got an office job and the pounds started to pile on.  I lost 10 pounds before my wedding and stayed at the weight for a little while but a desk job and comfortable life took it’s toll.  And then I had 2 kids plus 4 miscarriages so that’s a total of 6 pregnancies.  I would have to lose 75 pounds to get to where I was when I got married and even THAT weight is considered overweight for my height BUT I was comfortable at that weight and I think I looked good.  My husband tells me he loves me the way I am but this is about ME.  It’s about ME not being happy with the way I look and ME not being healthy.  He could stand to lose a few pounds too and be more healthy but I figure I’ll tackle one thing at a time.

So, after the insurance wake up call, I am taking steps to become more healthy.  I am NOT going to call it a diet because that’s not really what it is…it’s a lifestyle change.  My goal is to become more healthy and STAY that way and a side effect of that will be to lose weight.

After several different ways of eating I am going to take an approach that mimics the old Weight Watchers Core plan.  It focuses on whole grains, fruits and veggies.  It pretty much follows the food pyramid which I will also use as an aid.  I had already made a lot of those changes but would still veer off track a little more than I should, especially on the weekends.  So, my goal is to have only ONE day a week where I get off track.  I firmly believe that if you deprive yourself of everything bad, you will only fail.  So, I will allow myself my one glass of wine a night, if I want it.  I’m going to ramp up my water intake and watch my portions.  I’m going to stay away from processed crap.

One thing I have learned over the years is if I try to change too much at once, I get frustrated and quit because I get overwhelmed.  They say you need to make things a habit and generally, it takes 21 days for that to happen.  So, tackling my eating will be my first step.  Once I get those habits firmly in place, I’ll add the exercise in.  Luckily, I have plenty of options for exercise.  I’m lucky to live in Florida where the weather is nice enough in the winter and early spring to walk outside.  We have a treadmill for when it’s too hot or rainy to walk outside.  I also have a Wii and the EA Active and we have Exercise On Demand on our cable system.  I get Self magazine which often has great toning exercises which need no equipment.  I have signed up at www.myfitnesspal.com and added the App to my Droid.  I’ll use that to track my eating, exercising and weight.  I have also added RunKeeper to my Droid to track my exercise.  I was even able to upgrade to RunKeeper Pro for free and that made it even better.

I have already lost 5 pounds with the small changes I have made already.  So, like I said, that leaves 75 pounds to lose.  I am going to allow myself a little treat for every 10 pounds lost though I haven’t decided what it will be.  And I’ll update here so you can all hold me accountable.  I need all the support I can get!