Oh well

I managed to do the milk, water or tea thing for 27 days. Then I had a relative that was dying in the hospital and my best laid plans flew out the window. It was too inconvenient to stick to the plan, and just days after she died I had to go out of town for a week on business. I thought I'd start again on Nov. 1 but I didn't, and now the holidays are upon us.

So far so good but it's been a long day.

I'm almost through the 2nd day with the milk, tea, & water project. Yesterday I just had water. Today I had milk and tonight I had tea. And even though I was dreading drinking tea without sugar, it actually tasted really good compared to the blandness of water and milk. I find my meals a lot less enjoyable without soda. Hopefully I'll get used to it before I get too discouraged.

The only downside is the horrific headache I've had all day, which may be caffeine withdrawal, or from the argument my boyfriend and I had yesterday that ruined the whole weekend. He's actually mocking my efforts to give up soda and my struggles with the combo meals at fast food places, where it actually costs more to get the meal without soda. Ridiculous.

A new committment

My diet downfall is soda and sugary sport's drinks. I don't even like the sports drinks but my bf buys them and since I'm the one in the apt. all the time I'm the one drinking them.
So last night I decided to do some behavior modification and for one year only drink water, milk and unsweetened tea, in that order. I'm hoping that making that change will lead to me losing 50 lbs. in a year. Wish me luck.

I just signed up for Tagfoot. http://ping.fm/lfV6m Come see all my links and comments and my wishlist.

Want to join ping.fm too? Go to http://www.ping.fm.Use the code 'legendofping' and you could have the luxury of posting to all your blogs in one fell swoop like I do. Way more efficient than doing it one by one.

I'm not sure what 'ping my default' means but I guess I'll find out when I hit send.

The week sure went by quick. I had a lot more planned but didn't have the energy to do it. My hands are still sore from woodcarving, and so I've had to lay off the knitting and crocheting. I'm looking forward to the weekend. My daughter may visit. We'll see.

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How to Quit Soda Pop

compliments of Google. http://www.wikihow.com/Quit-Soda-Pop

Soda is killing me

Lately I've been really cracking down on my soda consumption. I need to plan ahead and take special drinks because everyone else is going to be guzzling alchohol or cola and if I don't plan ahead I'll have limited options to have a healthy drink. I find my resolve disappears halfway through Sat. on those weekend events on a hot spring day. Then I will grab any soda someone offers me. It's not their fault. I have to learn to say no thank you.

I could use a little encouragement.

Fitness is not something I will ever give up on, even though I seem to be failing in the process. My top half should be fixable. Sometimes I think below the waist is too far gone to ever reclaim. I am now officially shaped like a pyramid. Hopefully the juggling will help, especially at the rate I am dropping things on the ground and bending over to pick them up. Also, if I can ever get the hoop to stay around my waist, that should help. Partly, because of aging my skin is losing it's elasticity and that isn't helping any either. But mostly it's the need to change my lifestyle from an inactive one to an active one, which means less TV and way less computer sitting. I'm just tired of spending so much time on the battle of the bulge.

The weather makes it easy to get out there.

Today I belly danced and juggled and hooped and it's only 11 AM so maybe I'll exercise more later.

Exercise Inspiration is everywhere

If this couple can get out and do their walking, so can I.

Hooping

I feel like I'm constantly starting over with my fitness goals. Recently I had a yeast infection and just as that was clearing up I got a miserable cold. I'm still really congested but as the weather is nicer I started working with my hoop again. Here is a photo I took yesterday.

Free Martian Smoothie Recipe

Today I dubbed this a martian smoothie.
Raw and fresh are my new nutritional goal.

Martian Smoothie

1/4 C apple/grape juice
3 ice cubes
1 medium banana
1 generous handful of spinach
1/3 of a fresh apple
Opt. handful of raisins

Blend until you like the texture.
Yes, it is lumpy. That is the fibery goodness.

And it is sweet and delicious even if it takes some time to get used to the color. I promise.

Finally

Yesterday I weighed myself after breakfast (always before I weighed myself before so it wouldn't be too depressing). Well, even after breakfast, I had lost 4 pounds! I was stoked! Finally a bit of progress.

A Small Victory

Today I made the best smoothie yet. It was about 1/4 cup of apple/grape juice, a banana, 3 ice cubes, 1/2 apple, and a big handful of spinach. Even though it was still bright green, I didn't freak out about it this time. And I measured right for once and made exactly one glass. The only thing I might possibly do differently is peel the apple first.

Sometimes the people that should be on your side get in the way the most.

Today when we got home my boyfriend put all his crap in my belly dancing space. When I asked him to help me put it away he made some excuses about 'well this goes outside' and 'I don't know where to put that'. Well where was it before we took it with us today? So I shoved it aside into the dead center of the hallway and I did my dance practice anyway. He can trip over it when he goes to work tomorrow. Is that passive aggression on his part or what? He complimented me two nights ago for cleaning the space, and now this? Plus my practice wasn't much fun because I was mad by then.

That's the same thing that happened to the counter space I cleared. He set his Christmas cooking stuff there and it's still there. And he wonders why we never have a clean house.

I did a lot of schlepping of stuff at the archery workshop today, so I got some exercise that way. But my knees were not happy tonight. Basically I want to dance like the Pussy Cat Dolls and I look more like a lame St.Bernard.

Belly dancing, yoga and jumping rope

Yesterday I cleared a 6x6' square in my living room for yoga, bellydancing and stretching. I used it last night and today and it made a world of difference. Each day I'll clear a bit more out of there until I have a bigger dance space again. I took some photos to celebrate.

Today I went outside and got the local rugrats involved in some jumproping. I was just the spinner. I don't think my knees can handle jumping on sidewalks. But it was good to be part of getting kids to exercise. I wasn't sure if they'd even know how to jump rope, but to my surprise they knew rhymes and everything.

Daily walk

A photo I took today.

My ankle seems to have healed and my pinched nerve isn't hurting nearly so much so I was able to take my daily walk for the first time in days. And this Sunday is archery so I know I'll get plenty of exercise on that day.
My back feels stiff and my hip joints hurt when I was walking. That just shows how quickly I go downhill when I have to lay off of walking for a few days.

Also I heard that we need sunshine on our retinas each day. It produces seratonin, a mood stabilizer. So I need to make sure I get out in the sun 30 min. a day from now on. Word.

Day 2

Today was Day 2 of my 'change your eating' project inspired by Montel Williams.
Today's smoothie was 1/2 cup of fruit juice, 1 banana, 1 apple, and a handful of spinach. The color is disturbing, and I still have to eat regular food with it. It takes 21 days to form a new habit, so hopefully it will grow on me. My bf took one drink and said it was too 'chewy' for him. But that is rather the point...unlike a juicer that removes fiber, the blender method leaves in all the fiber, and we all need more fiber. And yes, it is very filling. The look of it is disturbing, so I need to put it in an opaque class with a lid.

Well ouch

Two days ago I woke up with a pinched nerve in my shoulder area. That sure put the kibosh into working out. I've been married to the heating pad all day. Oh well, at least I'm taking the time to learn about making vegetable and fruit smoothies ala montel. Putting the fruit in with the vegetables in the blender masks the flavors of the greens. I even like it.

And just when I had all this motivation

Day before yesterday I was cleaning house and my ankle started hurting for no apparent reason. So this is my third day of hobbling around. Unthwarted, I'm still working on upper body exercises until my ankle feels better.

Fitness on the cheap.

This is the time of year when the big fitness corporations spend millions of dollars trying to get us to join a gym. I firmly believe that you don't need to belong to a gym to get fit. Save that money for a trip to Europe or something. I have heard more people than I can count say they joined a gym, went two or three times, didn't like being the only fat person there, didn't like being stared at, didn't like the fact that everytime they arrived the place was crowded with lines to get on their favorite equipment, didn't like the men trying to pick them up and so on.

Now if you have a passion, like belly dancing, or fixed gear bicycles, by all means invest your money there. But once you have a vocabulary of dance steps, or a functional bike, you don't have to keep spending on more and more accessories.

And the beauty of it is people are always getting out of those things, so you can buy used equipment, videos, costume bits and all kinds of things used either on craigs list, freecycle, local yard sales, dance studio swap meets and so on. I got a great set of used silver toned finger cymbals for less than half the new price because the dancer decided she liked the bronze color better. Keep your measurements and your tape measure handy so you can snap up those great deals.
And remember if you have skills like sewing, you can trade services for goods sometimes. It doesn't hurt to ask.

I used some of my Christmas money to buy a new frisbee with a California surfer girl on it. My boyfriend promised to toss a frisbee with me from time to time. So yay, another cheap way to work out! My local park has a frisbee golf course as well.