What’s a .4 weight gain when I am having so much fun???

Welcome to week 46!!!

Yes, you read that right, I gained .4# this week.  Funny thing is, the day before my weigh in, I was down 2#.  But on Monday night, less than 24hrs before my weigh in, I made the brilliant decision to eat at Panda Express. Seriously!  I was craving Panda Express.  One should NEVER eat Chinese of any sort the day before a weigh in.  And you certainly shouldn’t eat fast food Chinese!  It’s all good.

Last weekend, my husband and I went out of town for the night to go snow boarding in Sun Valley.  We had so much fun!  That place is a HUGE resort, but not a great place for snow boarders.  But just getting in the snow and playing with my husband is always a good time.  It’s a great way for us to exercise and reconnect.  The chair lift rides give us lots of quiet time to talk and catch up.   Sometime during this trip, we were talking about changes in me.  I had mentioned that I miss volunteering for the different organizations I used to volunteer for.  But at the same time, I quit volunteering so I could focus on me and focus on getting healthier.  Then my husband said, “I am proud of you for the changes you have made.  You may not be volunteering but you have made a big difference in your life and the life of our family.”

It dawned on me.  I spent so much time volunteering and giving of myself that I never really took care of myself.  In the end, that is what burned me out.  I have always been told that in order to be a caregiver you have to be cared for yourself.  I thought I was taking care of that, but I guess I wasn’t.  And with all of the volunteer work I used to do, I stopped being there for my family.  That’s not good either.  Anyway, I have made this change in me; and in changing me, I have changed my family.  That is so worth it!

I wonder how many of you out there reading my blog remember to really take time to take care of yourself.  How many of you moms out there are constantly taking care of your family/children/volunteer work before you take care of yourself?  We need to remember that WE come first then we can help those around us. Its like the instructions on a plane.   You know, the flight attendant’s little speech about all of the safety stuff on the plane? They get to the part about the oxygen masks that fall from the overhead bins.  They tell us to secure our masks first, then take care of the child’s.  The same goes for exercising, food, relaxing.  We need to take care of US first; then we can help the others.  If we are failing and becoming ill because we are always taking care of the needs of others before our own, we will never really be able to help them, will we?

So, your mission this week, should you choose to accept it, is to find the time to take care of YOU first, then see to the needs of your family, friends, volunteer activities. Make a date with yourself and keep it. What should you do???  Go for a walk.  Go for a run.  Read a great book.  Cook an amazing meal that YOU will love and tell the kids that if they don’t like it, they can make their own PB&J sandwiches!  Get a massage. Whatever..just do something for YOU!

Getting in the Activity Points

Today is quite the day in Boise, Idaho!  SNOWMAGEDON!!!!!   We have been praying and doing sacrifices to the snow gods for months now. Our little local ski hill Bogus Basin hasn’t even opened yet because it has been DRY!  As a matter of fact, they have planned a party for this evening called “Louder for Powder” to appease the snow gods and hope to get some snow. Well, today is the day!!!  I woke up to beautiful fluffy snow on the ground and it is STILL falling!

Last night before I went to bed, my husband said, “Martha, what are you going to do on your day off?”  I said, “Well, since I can’t run right now (thanks to my knee which I had a orthopedic doctor appointment for), I am going to find some kind of work out to do. I don’t know what, but I’ll find something.”

The snow gods heard me!!!!!!

     

I got all dressed up in my “work out gear”….leggings, boarding jacket, hat, snow boots, gloves, and got my tunes and headed out the door.  I shoveled my drive way, the side walk between my house and the neighbor’s, and the neighbors drive and sidewalk.  It was an hour of shoveling heavy snow!  This was worth 5 Activity Points!  A great upper body workout, deep knee bends and a cardio workout.   When I was done, there was another inch on the ground again. I guess I will be doing this again later today.  And if Snowmagedon keeps at it, I will be doing this for a couple of days!

So, my friends, how are YOU getting your activity points in?  It doesn’t have to be going to the gym. You don’t have to go for a run.  Heck, you don’t even have to lift weights if you don’t want to.  But you DO have to get it in!!!!!  30 minutes a day at least!  Move your body. It will keep your attitude good and keep you focused on the goal at hand, which is getting healthy…inside and out!  So in the words of one of my favorite songs…

“You got to move it  move it!  You got to move it!”

Week 45…”Free your mind, and the rest will follow” ~ En Vogue

“Free your mind, and the rest will follow.” ~ En Vogue. Not only is that one of my favorite songs that happens to be on my running list and on my iPod ever since I started training for my first marathon in 2006, but it was the quote written on the board of my Weight Watcher’s meeting today!

Free your mind!!!  Today we talked about Power Spaces.  What does your environment look like?  How does it help you on your journey?  And how does your environment play a part in your mind…or well being?

This is one of the subjects that Bill Phillips addresses in his book Transformation.  It’s one of the steps you gotta follow. Clean out and organize the spaces in your life.  It could be your kitchen or the specific spaces in your kitchen (like the fridge). When you open up the fridge, do you see all the junk food first, or is it a safe place to go to for healthy food choices?  Are the cabinets in your kitchen organized so that cooking is more efficient and fun?  What about the bedroom? Is it clean, warm and peaceful ready for a good nights sleep or is it cluttered preventing your mind from shutting off?

I know I always think better when my spaces are peaceful and clutter free.  I love cooking in a kitchen that is clean and organized.  I love sleeping in a bedroom that has everything all put away.  I love that feeling of zen.

The same can be said of relationships in your life.  Do you have relationships that are drama laden?  Do you have relationships that keep taking a toll on you emotionally or constantly have you stressed. This is keeping your mind occupied and worried.  So what exactly are you getting from these relationships that make them so valuable and worth keeping around? Seriously?   Maybe it’s time to let go of some relationships and free up your mind to think of other things.

What I have found in the last 45 weeks is that when I free up mind, the rest will follow.  That means when I take care of life and remove the obstacles and free up my emotions to flow and release myself from the stresses that I had,then my weight started to fall off too!  It made it easier to shed the extra pounds. By releasing my worries, I released my excess weight.  Perfect!

So this week I will ask you the same question that was asked of us in the meeting today.  When you are faced with a choice, whether it is about food to eat, actions to take, purchases to make, friends to hang out with ask yourself this question:  “Does it contribute to or inhibit my well being?”   I love that term “well being“!  This isn’t about weight loss; it’s about a healthy life style. It’s about my being well in all areas of my life!

I wrote that question on my Weight Watchers weight record chart.  I am also writing this on my goals board and will keep this question in my car as well.  It’s something to keep in mind every where I go and with every decision I make.  It will help me keep my mind free and clear!

With that said, today was  a big day on the scale!  I released 4.2# for a total of 51.2#!!!!!  I received my 50# charm today!

   

A new MUST EAT in downtown Palo Alto, California! LYFE Kitchen!!!

As soon as my husband and I start planning a trip to San Francisco, the first thing we start doing is planning where we are going to eat!  San Francisco has AMAZING restaurants from all different cultures and you really need to spend some time in these places. Our usual favorites are The Stinking Rose, House of Nan King, Tony’s Napoletana, and our guilty pleasure:  The Ghiradelli Factory for hot fudge sundaes.  Those are all in downtown San Fran; I didn’t even mention some of our favorites in the surrounding cities in the Bay Area.  Let’s face it, the place is packed with MUST EATs, and I’m sure if you talk to some of your friends, they will all have some of their own restaurants to add to this list.

Back in March I joined the Transformation Community on line and started attending weekly webinars on making a healthy lifestyle change.  At the beginning of every webinar, there was a commerical for LYFE Kitchen. (LYFE stands for Love Your Food Everyday.) The way I understood it,  it was to be a restaurant that focused on bringing delicious, healthy foods to the everyday American.  It was going to be fast, convenient, reasonably priced, family friendly, and in a relaxing setting.  The CEO was a former McDonald’s CEO.  Famous Chef’s were creating the menus.  And eventually they were going to be selling these wonderful meals in the super markets!  I was sold!  The only problem was, I lived in Boise and LYFE Kitchen was being built-in downtown Palo Alto, California!  Okay, it really wasn’t that much of a problem, as my husband travels to the Bay Area once a month and I get to go there occasional, especially since I started working for the same company as my husband!  So every week, I watched this commercial and every week I got more and more excited! It was supposed to be done by the summer of 2011, and I had my first trip back to the area in September 2011.  We drove to downtown Palo Alto and it wasn’t open…yet!  As a matter of fact, it was supposed to open the next week!  I missed it by a week!!!  My heart about broke, but I told my friends about it, and they went for me!    They told me it was amazing!!!

Finally, my turn came!  We planned another trip for me.  The very first restaurant that made the agenda was LYFE, everything else got planned around it!  I was so excited I could hardly stand myself. Finally when the day arrived, my friend Christina and I kept saying, “Tonight’s the night!  LYFE!!!”  I couldn’t wait for the work day to end!  I had been Facebooking LYFE for a while now. I had been looking through the menus and browsing the pictures, and I couldn’t even begin to decide what to eat!

Finally, we walked up to the restaurant, and Christina and I posed for a picture!  This was my Mecca!  As we took the picture, one of the managers kinda joked around, “That had better find its way to Facebook.”  Boy, he had no idea who he was dealing with!  I couldn’t contain my excitement and I just started telling him how excited I was to finally be there and how long I had waited for this place to open and then how long I had to wait to finally make it there!  He treated us like royalty!  The whole restaurant did!  And my friend (who had been then a couple of times now) told me that they ALWAYS treat people like this there.  Everyone is always made to feel welcome, appreciated and special.  Not just their first time, but every time!  (Have I mentioned lately that my passion is customer service??  Ya.  So this royal treatment was going a very long way in my book!)

When we walked into LYFE, the energy in the restaurant was beautiful and peaceful.  There was a nice size crowd, it was decorated with comfortable couches and or love seats and chairs.  The space was open.  Everyone was smiling and laughing.  There is a beautiful herb garden growing there by the register/ordering area.  The kitchen is open and you can see them cooking.  There are inspiring quotes printed on the walls.  The whole place just makes you want to take a deep breath and really in-joy “LYFE”.   It completely resonated with everything I have focused on for the last 44 weeks!  I was home!

   

How do you go to a restaurant you  have been so excited to visit when you know you are only going to eat there once (at least for this trip)? How do you choose what to eat?  Everything looks so good!  Even the fresh squeezed orange juice looked amazing, but for dinner?  How do you choose?  Well at some point, you just have to.  Since I am extremely picky about my fish tacos, I figured I would jump in and try those. My husband picked a good ol’ stand by, Cheeseburger. Christina ordered the Salmon and a bowl of Corn Chowder.  Then there was the issue of dessert!  OH MY! We ordered Banana Rum Dairy-free Cheesecake and the Chocolate Volcano Cake.  Tracy and I had beers. (Don’t ask me which flavor, but when I told the nice man who helped us asked what kind of beer I normally drank, he suggested this one.  It was very yummy!)  We were handed a pager type thing and went to find a comfy couch and table to sit and visit and wait.   Our little pager thing had the number 4 on it, but more importantly it said, “LYFE is Calling.”  Yes, indeed it is!  Are you going to pick up and answer when LYFE calls or are you just gonna let it pass you by?

See what I mean? This place is amazing!!!

    

  

The food was truly delicious!  My fish tacos were to die for!  The salmon was very tasty!  My husband thoroughly enjoyed his burger.  But more importantly, my husband ate his Kale salad!!!!  Okay, so usually when my husband hears “health food” he kinda of shrinks and hides.  He crosses his fingers that there is something he will be able to eat and usually has a back up plan for the ride home (which burger, taco, or sandwich joint can he hit on the way home to fill his belly?)  I’m sure that was probably on  his mind when we made plans for LYFE.  Instead, what I heard was, “That was really good!  I really enjoyed myself and I would go back there any time!”  That is high praise from my non-healthy eating husband!  There truly is something for everyone on the menu!

One of the other things I was excited about was getting to visit with the CEO, Mike Roberts.  He was there working and visiting with the guests and when I asked if I could get a picture with him, he was very sweet and willing. I HAD to ask him, “How does a previous McDonald’s CEO from McDonald’s to LYFE?”  He was more than willing to share the story with me!   He has a passion for bringing  healthy food to the American Public. He wants it accessible to everyone.  He wants the children to love it as much as the parents. He wants the plates to be filled and our tummies to be happy.   When I asked him what it would take to open a LYFE in Boise, he said, “Give me a minute.”  I thought he literally meant a minute to think it over, but what he really meant was to give him time to make  LYFE perfect at its current location.  (Yes, it takes me a while to “get” things.)  We continued to talk.  He was gracious enough to listen to my healthy lifestyle changes and accomplishments, but he was genuinely happy for me because this is what LYFE is about!

So I think I will give Mike about a “minute”, but I am not letting this one go!  LYFE needs to be opened here in Boise!  We have the best market for it.  Boise has that same downtown Palo Alto feel (with less money maybe), but it is certainly getting there.  Downtown Boise has that outdoor living, be alive, live life to the fullest vibe!  It’s perfect for LYFE and LYFE is perfect for Boise!   And since Mike has made many trips to Boise to purchase fries for McDonald’s and he has some contacts here, I have hope!

Anyway, dinner at LYFE was so amazing, that before we left that night, we decided we would visit for breakfast the next morning!  Fresh squeezed orange juice that tasted like Florida!  As soon as I took my first sip, I had visions of Florida sunrises and I could smell the sweet winter orange blossoms!  It was heaven! (It really did taste like it was fresh from the Groves; the kind we had when we used to live in Florida.)  Tracy had the whole wheat pancakes topped with greek yogurt and fresh berries and served with real maple syrup. I had a delicious egg white breakfast burrito with a side of fresh fruit that was so sweet!  Tracy said it was the best whole wheat pancakes he has ever had! Again, high praise from someone who shrinks from healthy food.  It was perfect!

  

It was a bitter-sweet moment when we walked out of the restaurant that morning.  I resolved to make it back to Palo Alto soon so I could eat there again.

But on Sunday as we finished our hike in Muir Woods, we were hungry and Tracy asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner before we got on the plane to fly back home.  “If I told you I wanted to stop at LYFE for the 3rd time in 3 days would you think it was over kill?”   His reply, “No, I was going to suggest the same thing!”

And that is exactly what we did!  We rushed back to our car, drove as fast as we could over the windy mountain roads, rushed through the traffic to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, darted through the cars on the high way to Palo Alto and made a bee line for our new favorite restaurant!!!!   There are no pictures from dinner that night because I was just too hungry to take them, but I guarantee you my taste buds sang with every bite! Oh ya..and you MUST have the strawberry lemonade when you visit!!!

So there you have it. The new MUST EAT in the bay area!!!!  Put it on your list, and don’t forget it.  Get there an in-joy LYFE!

So much to say about week 44…may require a couple of posts….

Week 44 found me trying to ease back into exercise from the muscle tear.  I don’t sit still very easily and I completely miss running!  And I find that without a normal training routine, I find it harder to keep my eating in check.  Exercise does so much for me (well for anyone really). It is a mood regulator and keeps you focused on a healthy lifestyle.

So I went to a pole dance class and I went to belly dancing last week before I headed out-of-town for a 4 day trip to the Bay area (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, San Francisco).  My leg is feeling a bit better, but I think I need to see an orthopedic surgeon/doctor to have him check it out.   As the swelling went down in the tear, there is a new issue at the back of my knee with popping when I walk.  Just want to be safe and have it checked out.  No worries.

Like, I said my husband and I went out-of-town last week.  We travelled to a place that is filled with amazing food and lots of walking.  I tried to use the “lots of walking” to justify some of my eating choices, but in reality, I don’t think I did enough walking to justify all of it. However, not ALL of my eating choices were bad.   Some of them were very, VERY good!

Thursday:

On the way out the door to catch the plane:  Bowl of Kashi Cereal with banana.

On the plane, the little ginger snaps they give you.

Lunch:  a piece of white pizza and a salad.

Snack:  Pumpkin bread and large chai late from Starbucks

Dinner:  A fruity adult beverage, garlic fries, and a burger with pineapple and avocado.

 

Friday:

Breakfast:  Kashi Bar and Water

Lunch:  Pho

Snack:  Large Skinny Chai Late

Dinner:  Fish Tacos, beer, and  dessert of 1/2 banana rum non dairy cheese cake and 1/2 volcano chocolate cake from LYFE (healthy foods with some yumminess)..this restaurant will have its own blog entry!

 

Saturday:

Breakfast:  Back to LYFE to have breakfast burrito with egg whites and fresh fruit and fresh squeezed orange juice!

Snacks:  We toured Jelly Belly Factory..need I say more?  Lots of Jelly Bean Testing with 3 tiny bites of fudge testing.  (SUGAR HEADACHE!!!!!!)

Lunch:  In-n-out cheese burger and fries (BAD BAD BAD)

Dinner:  Way too much pizza at Tony Napoletana and a huge Stella Beer.

 

Sunday:

Breakfast at Holiday Inn Express breakfast bar:  Scrambled Eggs, Sausage with a bit of syrup on it, blue berry muffin and half of Tracy’s blue berry muffin and a small glass of orange juice.

Lunch…more early dinner:  Back to LYFE for nonfried chicken with winter squash and collard greens and  bowl of sweet potato soup with fresh strawberry lemonade.

Snack/dinner on plane:   Heart smart park of almond butter, wheat crackers, apple sauce, oatmeal bar and jam..and I had a snack back of snack cracker  mix.

 

Now that I look at it, I don’t think I did all that bad in my food choices really.  It could have been much worse.  We did walk everywhere in San Fran.  We walked back and forth to work from the  hotel.  I walked to lunch.  We parked our cars and had to walk to the restaurants.  Once in downtown San Fran, we kept our car parked at the hotel and walked to our restaurants and bars.  We did all that walking at the Jelly Belly Tour.  Sunday we did probably close to 5 or 6 miles of hiking/walking.  1 mile of the hiking was up hill and power hiking and 1 miles of it was down and running.  We worked up a sweat on that hike and got our heart rates up.   So all in all not too bad.  And truthfully, I gained .4# this week.    I really should see a nice loss next week.  But in the mean time I will focus on the good things and not focus on a gain.

I also decided to buy a 3 month tracker to keep in my purse to keep track of my points.  I think I need the change-up  and the tactile writing.  I think it will also help with journaling my running too. I need to keep a runners journal to keep track of my training; I figured the point tracker could double as that as well.

So I have to say, that the hiking my husband and I did was at Muir Woods National Monument home to beautiful huge Red Wood trees!  I love it there!  There is so much beautiful energy generated by this gorgeous ancient forest!  You just have to experience it for yourself!  This time we decided to take a hike from the floor of the forest up the mountain and through changing climates to see the Pacific Ocean Overlook.  It was a mile UP with hundreds of stairs.  The last half mile was serious power hiking; we were in a hurry.  The view was gorgeous!  Then we decided to run down the mile hike.  That was so much fun.  I felt so much joy!  I felt like a child just running through the forest without a care in the world!

    

Later, once we were done running and just enjoying the walk back,  hand in hand, I started to cry.  My husband noticed. “Martha, what are you crying about now?” he asked.  My reply:  “A year ago, I could not have even imaged hiking up that trail much less running down it and  laughing and feeling so free!  My life has changed so much!”

It’s true it has!  You know what else happened over the weekend?  My husband and I had plans to go out on the town in San Francisco on Saturday night, and I bought a dress for the occasion.  It was a short tunic type dress and I wasn’t sure what he would think about it. But as usual, I put thought into every outfit I buy and put together, from the under garments to the jewelry I am going to wear.  (It is worth noting that I didn’t used to give this much thought to it, but since losing weight, I really LOVE dressing!)  Anyway, when I was all dressed, my husband said the words that every woman longs to hear.. “OH.  MY.  GAWD!!!!  You look ***** AMAZING!!!!!”  Then he proceeded to pout because he didn’t have anything near as nice to wear (he is truly a geek and if I don’t buy him and pack him something nice, he will wear t-shirts with geek sayings on them).   All night long, he couldn’t stop telling me how much he just wanted to walk around town and show me off.  Then he said, “Martha, you really have changed so much and I am so very proud of you!”

I may have gained .4# this week, but the NSV’s were HUGE!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!! Welcome to Week 43!

The holidays are officially over!!!  Are you as excited about this as I am?  Don’t get me wrong, I had some amazing times in November and December!  I worked my fanny off at my job; had one heck of a roll fight over Thanksgiving, ran 2 Marathons in December, got to snorkel in Hawaii, got to visit with our best friend from Phoenix for 2 weeks, reconnected with a long-lost friend, and got to bring in the new year with some amazing friends I have made over the last couple of months!  It has been amazing!!!!  My life is full and very blessed!

With all of that said, I stood on the scale today and saw a gain of 2.4#.  They say the average person gains 5-7# over the holidays so I guess I did okay.  Weight Watchers was closed the week between Christmas and New Years so I haven’t weighed-in in 2 weeks, and I managed to gain 2.4# during that time.  It’s all good though.  I knew what to expect when I walked in, and I take full responsibility for those pounds.

Wanna know how I gained those pounds?  I’ll tell ya.  Way too many Blueberry Muffins from Maverick, too many diet cokes and not enough water, too much pizza, too much candy, and entirely too much alcohol (which included Jello shots) on New Year’s Eve.  Some of this was great, and the rest was me being lazy and a bit out of control.  Time to get the control back.

Last week, I went to the doctor because I was feeling some incredible pain in my left hamstring.  I managed to get a Class 2 tear and was told by the doctor that I need to take a week off of it.  This kind of news does not sit well with me.  I don’t like not being able to exercise.  I tried to take it easy, and I found myself feeling a hole begin to form in my psyche.   I did some retail therapy hoping this would help; I bought some really cute clothes. But that didn’t help.  I found myself slipping.  I started getting restless and my husband started to feel the negativity that was escaping from me.  I felt like I was going to eat my way through the house and maybe even eat the house while I was at it!  We went to the movies instead, but we got snack food and I ate all of that candy and diet coke.  It kept getting worse.  I decided I was going to exercise anyway. Sunday, I did wii Zumba and that helped a little bit.  But yesterday, I found myself fighting this again.  I tried to eat sensibly.  It wasn’t working.  I went to Zumba last night and thought that would help.  But instead, I came home and felt like I was going to eat myself out of house and home again!   I tried eating fruit and string cheese.  That didn’t help. I made a bowl of soup and an english muffin. That didn’t help.  Finally I had a bowl of ice cream with at least 2 servings in it.  That helped.

Then I realized…..I have been trying to fill a void.  That is when I realized I was feeling that hole again and was using food or shopping to try and take care of it.  Why do I/we do this?  I should have sat down and felt what I was feeling.  I probably should have come here and created a blog about how I was feeling; it might have prevented the eating I did last night.  But I didn’t.  I ate.  And now, I see what happened.

Now I have choices to  make. Do I beat myself up or do I learn from this and move on?  I choose to learn from this and move on!

Today at the meeting they discussed our New Years Goals.  And we discussed our belief system.  When I step on the scale and I see a gain, do I beat myself up or do I take responsibility, learn from my gain and move on?  I choose to move on?  Do I get upset because losing weight is going a bit slower now with my ups and downs or do I realize that I am in this for the long haul and I WILL reach my goal?  I choose the latter.

That is something else I realized this last week.  I NEED my meetings.  In December I believe I only made it to 2 meetings, and December was a very hard month for me (food wise).  This was a very valuable learning month for me. I NEED MY MEETINGS!  I am in this for life.  I can’t just decide to blow off my meetings; they are what keep me connected and moving forward.  I NEED that support!

Today at the meeting, one of my friends reached her 50# mark!  She started after me, caught up to me and we were staying pretty close and today she passed me!  I am so proud of her!  She had a heck of  a holiday season with a very sick kiddo and hospital stays.  And she managed to lose weight!  She is amazing!  And she is a great reminder to me to get back on track and get my food back in check!

So, my friends, there ya have it!  What are you doing this year to take care of you?  Did you set some goals?  It can be something small but life changing.  It can be something as simple as drinking more water, but it needs to be specific. How much water are you going to drink, and how are you going to get it in every day?  Give yourself a goal date to work towards keep track!  If it’s water, set that goal every day and renew that goal every day.  You can do this!

Here’s to a new year and continuing on this path of health!