About a year and a half ago, I lost 15 pounds. Didn't mean to, I was just trying to eat better after the health crash, so my body would have one less thing to fight. I've had several people ask me how I did it, and how I maintain my weight.
The book I based and continue to base my diet on is Eat to Live. Notice I used the word 'base.' I like this meal plan for several reasons, but I do tweak it. What I like about it:
It's simple. No measuring, don't have to worry about 5 snacks a day, or eating every 2-3 hours. Not my style. Eat three meals a day, as much of you want of most foods, because the foods are so good for you.
Nutritionally, it makes a lot of sense to me. The text was written with an eye towards disease prevention and regression. Nothing outrageous or outlandish about the program, one doesn't even need to take a boatload of supplements.
I am LDS (Mormon) and we have been given health code guidelines. This is the first eating plan that falls pretty much in line with those guidelines. My guess is no matter what religion, one can tweak it for their guidelines as well.
How I tweak: I do eat meat/dairy occasionally. I have dessert every so often, now that I am at my goal weight. One can have one big dessert say every 2-4 weeks, or one could have a small treat every couple of days. (Chocolate truffles anyone?)
My husband has been on this basic plan for several months now and has lost 20 pounds. Without much extra exercise.
So, what do I eat? This post is to answer that question. I highly rec the book to anyone, it is mostly research which can be quite motivating, and then you get to the guidelines.
So, here goes! Breakfast, which I rotate according to my mood:
1. Oatmeal (from whole oats, not processed) cooked with some water in the microwave. My husband likes his cooked the old fashioned way on the stove. And yes, he cooks his own as the microwave doesn't seem good enough for him, lol. Told you I like things simple. To the oatmeal I add Costco frozen berries (strawberry/blueberry/raspberry blend, but a cup of whatever fruit you have on hand will work, too), a small handful of walnuts (great for Omega 3s), and a titch of vegan butter or brown sugar if I am in the mood. We are just talking a titch!
2. Berry smoothie and nut butter: In a decent blender, mix 1/2 c. rice or soy or almond milk, 1/2 c. water, 3/4 c. frozen berries, and a handful of fresh or frozen greens. You can add a banana or an ounce of fruit juice or a T of fruit juice concentrate if you want added sweetness. Blueberry pomegranate juice is really good, and good for you. The nut butter? I love almond butter, and I eat it (2 tsp) right off the spoon. Decadence! My husband likes his spread on sprouted grain bread. We only eat sprouted or sourdough bread these days. It's delicious and filling and gluten sensitivities don't seem to be an issue with it. BTW, to freeze greens: We buy ours at Costco or Trader Joe's, buying spinach or kale (baby or regular), or other mixes, say with mustard greens, then throw in gallon ziploc bags and freeze. Wash and dry before freezing as needed. The greens freeze in a dry manner, vs. buying the store type of frozen greens, which are often soggy.
3. Chocolate smoothie: I buy Spirutein chocolate shake mix and add a banana and 2 tsp. nut butter. I may get away from this one, as the spirutein is made with soy protein isolates, and I have read that this is not the best for folks. Better to eat soy in more whole food forms, such as edamame, tofu, soy milk, etc ...
So, tht is all for now Will write more later with my lunch and dinner parts of the plan.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
Passing Time
Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." A popular phrase, oft quoted, and with good reason.
Today, I read this quote on FaceBook: "Be the gift you bring."
The gift you bring. Hmmm ... what are my gifts? I've been thinking about this a bit lately, as I have been reading Carol Tuttle's Dressing Your Truth: Discover Your Personal Beauty Profile. In my retirement from university, I have used color/fashion/typing as a pleasant distraction when I don't feel like 'doing.'
In this book, Carol talks about 4 distinct energy types, and how we each lead with one main type. Type 1 is the animated, bright woman. Type 2 is the soft, subtle woman. Type 3 is the rich, dynamic woman. And type 4 is the bold, striking woman. (The same categories apply to men, and these energies can be seen nearly from birth.)
She says we will know our type innately. I read the book, and I am not so sure I know my type. Or, I think I am sure, and then find some detail that seems contradictory. The cool thing I like in thinking about these types is that she is adamant we honor the gift(s) we bring according to type, to show that to the world. The symmetry and authenticity of that pleases me!
So I think on my gifts, hard to find beneath the blanket of fibro fog and a very changed lifestyle. I know I can be helpful, sweet and thoughtful. I can be dynamic for awhile. I can be bossy, and sometimes struggle with delivering direct messages if I perceive they will not be received well. I can research stuff on the computer for quite awhile ... I don't like projects, but I love being choir director and being in shows in musical theater. Are those things projects of a kind?
Sitting in my bathrobe the first hour I am up giving advice to women on fashion and color, and sometimes, to my great pleasure, even talking life - Is that a gift?
This morning, an unplanned hour, still in my bathrobe, letting darling son use my computer. I read a few more bits of the Tuttle book as he uploads pics from his latest trip - to Alaska - and we talk sporadically and he shows me pics and the time goes easily, even if I am a tad anxious to get back to my FB friends before showering. (I told you it was a pleasant distraction - oops, I mean diversion?)
Listening to my two sons as they talk easily of said trip and look together at the now uploaded pics. What a priceless gift to be witness to these conversations.
Finally showering, as same darling son has asked me to give him a ride to a couple of places. More talk, a rarity with this son. Alaska may have changed him. Our conversation is changing me ever so slightly. I feel the joy only a mother can feel when a child shares part of his heart. Our conversation is more adult and open than ever.
I think I am a type 4. The type 4 gift is simply our presence, just being there. Seems what I have been doing this morning.
But then there is a part of me that wants to fly, and laugh, and just be more myself. To just be. More. Something has been hiding or unknowingly put aside on a shelf. What is it?
Personality gets squashed, morphed, affected. A comment, a word, an event. It doesn't take much to put us on the path. Expectations of those around us. I remember when I was first married, my husband's brother commented, "S sort of just says what she thinks, doesn't she?" Well, first, I would never say anything if I thought it would intentionally hurt someone. I expect people to know I mean well. I've lived long enough now to know that is not always the case ... I am also learning not to lose any sleep over it. Still, at the time, the comment surprised me. No one had ever commented on it before.
The past few days, I have been letting myself be 'more' in my interactions. Well, more and less. More of myself, less afraid or hesitant to speak up and have fun, and sometimes even saying less, listening more. Just being. And that feels good. What does it mean in terms of my type and how I should dress? I'm not sure.
But I do know that as I re-read this post, there is latent judgment, judgment I am trying to put in it's proper place. The judging that sitting in my bathrobe for an hour is somehow 'wrong.' Judging that fashion is not a truly worthwhile endeavor, even as a hobby.
I sense my decisions shouldn't be about judgment, but should - no could - be based on conscious decisions I make about what I want my days to look and feel like. And that's a bit of what happened this morning. I chose to sit by my son as he uploaded his pics, not knowing beforehand that would lead to conversation, but grateful for it. I chose to give him a ride without much notice and let whatever the rest of the day could look like wait.
These judgments lead me back to my childhood. I loved to dance and sing - wanted to be an actress - but then high school happened and I was smart and everyone said go into engineering, you'll make lots of money. So I started on that path, and switched to the 'safe' degree of history after a year because it gave me options - and I hated engineering. I repeated that pattern as the kids got into school. I had just finished my first community theater show after a 12 year break, had even started commercial work, and what did I do? Woke up one morning and signed up for grad school. Guess some habits die hard.
Where did these messages come from? Maybe from having a dysfunctional type 4 stepfather, who grounded me if I got Bs on my report card. School and good grades were my safety net. Or maybe from having a later single working mother, who did her best, but I knew college would be very difficult to pay for if I didn't have the grades to get scholarships. Oh ye of little faith! Turns out the government ended up paying for every dime as my birth father had been killed in the military.
There were other messages, too. Don't be too happy or excited for your accomplishments, it will sound like bragging. No matter how much you might know, there is nothing like common sense. The last one was my own message to myself, I always envied people with common sense. I felt I had so little, though people seemed to put me in positions of authority.
Play down compliments on your appearance. That one came from several events, not the least of which was inappropriate comments from a teenage boy when I was just a young girl. Thank goodness it never went further than that. My extended family told me he wasn't quite right in the head. Sheesh. (That last bit was really hard to write. I don't say that for sympathy, though goodness knows what women go through growing up can be life altering. Only to use it as a an example in teaching.)
So we're not alone in this, are we ladies? And maybe knowing one's energy type is just another box for me. But I'm not going to apologize for the idea of it, especially about being aware of one's gifts to the world. I'd like to use it as a reference point for growth and added quality to my life.
Today, I read this quote on FaceBook: "Be the gift you bring."
The gift you bring. Hmmm ... what are my gifts? I've been thinking about this a bit lately, as I have been reading Carol Tuttle's Dressing Your Truth: Discover Your Personal Beauty Profile. In my retirement from university, I have used color/fashion/typing as a pleasant distraction when I don't feel like 'doing.'
In this book, Carol talks about 4 distinct energy types, and how we each lead with one main type. Type 1 is the animated, bright woman. Type 2 is the soft, subtle woman. Type 3 is the rich, dynamic woman. And type 4 is the bold, striking woman. (The same categories apply to men, and these energies can be seen nearly from birth.)
She says we will know our type innately. I read the book, and I am not so sure I know my type. Or, I think I am sure, and then find some detail that seems contradictory. The cool thing I like in thinking about these types is that she is adamant we honor the gift(s) we bring according to type, to show that to the world. The symmetry and authenticity of that pleases me!
So I think on my gifts, hard to find beneath the blanket of fibro fog and a very changed lifestyle. I know I can be helpful, sweet and thoughtful. I can be dynamic for awhile. I can be bossy, and sometimes struggle with delivering direct messages if I perceive they will not be received well. I can research stuff on the computer for quite awhile ... I don't like projects, but I love being choir director and being in shows in musical theater. Are those things projects of a kind?
Sitting in my bathrobe the first hour I am up giving advice to women on fashion and color, and sometimes, to my great pleasure, even talking life - Is that a gift?
This morning, an unplanned hour, still in my bathrobe, letting darling son use my computer. I read a few more bits of the Tuttle book as he uploads pics from his latest trip - to Alaska - and we talk sporadically and he shows me pics and the time goes easily, even if I am a tad anxious to get back to my FB friends before showering. (I told you it was a pleasant distraction - oops, I mean diversion?)
Listening to my two sons as they talk easily of said trip and look together at the now uploaded pics. What a priceless gift to be witness to these conversations.
Finally showering, as same darling son has asked me to give him a ride to a couple of places. More talk, a rarity with this son. Alaska may have changed him. Our conversation is changing me ever so slightly. I feel the joy only a mother can feel when a child shares part of his heart. Our conversation is more adult and open than ever.
I think I am a type 4. The type 4 gift is simply our presence, just being there. Seems what I have been doing this morning.
But then there is a part of me that wants to fly, and laugh, and just be more myself. To just be. More. Something has been hiding or unknowingly put aside on a shelf. What is it?
Personality gets squashed, morphed, affected. A comment, a word, an event. It doesn't take much to put us on the path. Expectations of those around us. I remember when I was first married, my husband's brother commented, "S sort of just says what she thinks, doesn't she?" Well, first, I would never say anything if I thought it would intentionally hurt someone. I expect people to know I mean well. I've lived long enough now to know that is not always the case ... I am also learning not to lose any sleep over it. Still, at the time, the comment surprised me. No one had ever commented on it before.
The past few days, I have been letting myself be 'more' in my interactions. Well, more and less. More of myself, less afraid or hesitant to speak up and have fun, and sometimes even saying less, listening more. Just being. And that feels good. What does it mean in terms of my type and how I should dress? I'm not sure.
But I do know that as I re-read this post, there is latent judgment, judgment I am trying to put in it's proper place. The judging that sitting in my bathrobe for an hour is somehow 'wrong.' Judging that fashion is not a truly worthwhile endeavor, even as a hobby.
I sense my decisions shouldn't be about judgment, but should - no could - be based on conscious decisions I make about what I want my days to look and feel like. And that's a bit of what happened this morning. I chose to sit by my son as he uploaded his pics, not knowing beforehand that would lead to conversation, but grateful for it. I chose to give him a ride without much notice and let whatever the rest of the day could look like wait.
These judgments lead me back to my childhood. I loved to dance and sing - wanted to be an actress - but then high school happened and I was smart and everyone said go into engineering, you'll make lots of money. So I started on that path, and switched to the 'safe' degree of history after a year because it gave me options - and I hated engineering. I repeated that pattern as the kids got into school. I had just finished my first community theater show after a 12 year break, had even started commercial work, and what did I do? Woke up one morning and signed up for grad school. Guess some habits die hard.
Where did these messages come from? Maybe from having a dysfunctional type 4 stepfather, who grounded me if I got Bs on my report card. School and good grades were my safety net. Or maybe from having a later single working mother, who did her best, but I knew college would be very difficult to pay for if I didn't have the grades to get scholarships. Oh ye of little faith! Turns out the government ended up paying for every dime as my birth father had been killed in the military.
There were other messages, too. Don't be too happy or excited for your accomplishments, it will sound like bragging. No matter how much you might know, there is nothing like common sense. The last one was my own message to myself, I always envied people with common sense. I felt I had so little, though people seemed to put me in positions of authority.
Play down compliments on your appearance. That one came from several events, not the least of which was inappropriate comments from a teenage boy when I was just a young girl. Thank goodness it never went further than that. My extended family told me he wasn't quite right in the head. Sheesh. (That last bit was really hard to write. I don't say that for sympathy, though goodness knows what women go through growing up can be life altering. Only to use it as a an example in teaching.)
So we're not alone in this, are we ladies? And maybe knowing one's energy type is just another box for me. But I'm not going to apologize for the idea of it, especially about being aware of one's gifts to the world. I'd like to use it as a reference point for growth and added quality to my life.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Morning
Today is off the cuff. Today is unedited. Like so many of my days lately, it seems ...
I awake each morning, in more of a fog than I experienced a year ago. Or maybe it's because I'm in a new bed, sleeping with DH again. His bed is not nearly as comfortable as the double in the other room. Silly bed - we bought it to help sell our old home. It will go in the guest bedroom in the new place.
I lay there, trying to decide whether to slip back into sleep (I'm talented at that, especially anytime after 9 in the morning ...), or to get up. I decide to let my body relax, then make the decision. Hubs is getting ready to go to a work party with my son. He is always so patient with me in the mornings. We both struggle with sleep, he gets it. I am patient with him as well.
I feel my lips relax first. Over the past few days, I've been doing my TMJ exercises again, clucking my tongue whenever I think about it, and it seems to be helping. I can feel the confusion in the muscles as they search to find a new normal.
I consciously seek for the same feeling in my limbs. Just let it all go. Enjoy that relaxed feeling, even for a moment ... feel it, memorize it, it's what you're going for. The body will get there, if you are consistent with your exercises, I tell myself.
I feel I live half a life. Some nights I fall asleep by midnight, other nights, like last night, it's easily 4 or 5 a.m.. Very little rhyme or rhythm. I wonder if my body is only mirroring the way I run my days. Would things change if I showered first, no matter how I was feeling? Turned off all electronics by 9 p.m.? The beginning and end of days can set the tone, I know. But I'm not sure ... I feel my body is more in control of my schedule than I am. Silly body.
I remember my aunt, who also struggles with health issues. She says she has been getting up and vocalizing her blessings upon arising, out loud, even the simplest things. Because some days, even accomplishing simple things is a tremendous blessing. I think of our dear neighbor, who recently lost half his foot in a motorcycle accident. Truly, I have much to be grateful for. Though I've said this before - Suffering is not a contest.
I want to respond to my trials in an honourable way. I want to serve, and some days, like my aunt, I remind myself out loud how the various acts I do can be considered service, both for myself and others.
Could I seek the Lord's will more fully? Yes, the voice whispers. Be ready for the day, however you can. Then see where it takes you. I will lead you, will you follow?
One day at a time.
I awake each morning, in more of a fog than I experienced a year ago. Or maybe it's because I'm in a new bed, sleeping with DH again. His bed is not nearly as comfortable as the double in the other room. Silly bed - we bought it to help sell our old home. It will go in the guest bedroom in the new place.
I lay there, trying to decide whether to slip back into sleep (I'm talented at that, especially anytime after 9 in the morning ...), or to get up. I decide to let my body relax, then make the decision. Hubs is getting ready to go to a work party with my son. He is always so patient with me in the mornings. We both struggle with sleep, he gets it. I am patient with him as well.
I feel my lips relax first. Over the past few days, I've been doing my TMJ exercises again, clucking my tongue whenever I think about it, and it seems to be helping. I can feel the confusion in the muscles as they search to find a new normal.
I consciously seek for the same feeling in my limbs. Just let it all go. Enjoy that relaxed feeling, even for a moment ... feel it, memorize it, it's what you're going for. The body will get there, if you are consistent with your exercises, I tell myself.
I feel I live half a life. Some nights I fall asleep by midnight, other nights, like last night, it's easily 4 or 5 a.m.. Very little rhyme or rhythm. I wonder if my body is only mirroring the way I run my days. Would things change if I showered first, no matter how I was feeling? Turned off all electronics by 9 p.m.? The beginning and end of days can set the tone, I know. But I'm not sure ... I feel my body is more in control of my schedule than I am. Silly body.
I remember my aunt, who also struggles with health issues. She says she has been getting up and vocalizing her blessings upon arising, out loud, even the simplest things. Because some days, even accomplishing simple things is a tremendous blessing. I think of our dear neighbor, who recently lost half his foot in a motorcycle accident. Truly, I have much to be grateful for. Though I've said this before - Suffering is not a contest.
I want to respond to my trials in an honourable way. I want to serve, and some days, like my aunt, I remind myself out loud how the various acts I do can be considered service, both for myself and others.
Could I seek the Lord's will more fully? Yes, the voice whispers. Be ready for the day, however you can. Then see where it takes you. I will lead you, will you follow?
One day at a time.
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