!), and other items I enjoy or are on my wish list!
Since Sunday last week, I've lost 1 inch in my waist and 2 pounds. Whoop! Down 9 pounds since January 1 (when I started 2007 Taking Care and Improvement plan!). And that's without much (any...) exercise due to avoidance and laziness and then being congested for over a week now.
This morning, I put on my gardening clothes (2 old t-shirts, ripped and sloppy green plaid flannel long-sleeve shirt, too big sloppy pants, hat with brim) and pruned the roses, cut down dying and dead plants, picked up dead leaves, pulled weeds - and got in my exercise for the day: bending, sweating, breathing hard, pulling, clipping, stretching, kneeling, crawling...
After our usual Sunday morning "breakfast by Bill" (2 whole wheat pancakes with sugar-free blackberry jam, 2 scrambled eggs, 3 slices of red potato), I took the You: On A Diet shopping list (PDF) grocery shopping, read a lot of labels, and discovered that we eat pretty well but need some adjustments. I bought more fruit and different types of vegetables than usual. And bought items we don't usually eat: walnuts, almonds, semi-sweet chocolate chips, low-fat yogurt, etc.
There are a few items on the shopping list that I didn't know what they are, such as calamata olives (also: kalamata olives) [dark eggplant-colored Greek olives, usually packed in olive oil or vinegar]. And some items were just not found (such as unsweetened canned peaches), so I substituted as close as possible (canned peaches in pear juice).
I've read the first 3 or 4 chapters of You: On a Diet and am taking care to read the sidebar items and review each figure. In a playful way, the book explains the science of how our bodies digest and use food and how different foods affect our hormones and organs.
I am excited about feeling better physically and mentally by making some key changes to the foods I eat. I'm still not keen on the exercise part of it, but think that when I begin to feel better, I'll not find exercising to be such a sweaty, miserable burden.
This weekend I was seriously craving cheeseburgers and fries! But I thought long and hard about what is going into my intestines, so I ended up making baked potato fried (like oven-fried fries) and a burger on whole wheat bread. Actually, I'm not even sure if it was great (let's face it, I am a McDonald's addict) but I felt so proud for just trying to make my craving by a whole, good meal.
I loved what you said about being excited mentally for making changes... I feel that way too!!
Oh, Laurie! Cheeseburgers are a favorite!!! Sizzler has a delicious Mega Bacon Cheeseburger with fries that Bill and I frequently about once or twice a month. Those frequent visits are over now...
At home, we've been using whole wheat buns for a few years now and I now prefer them over white bread buns.
-Cheryl
I love kalamata olives! If they are too strong for your taste, you can chop them and a bunch to your spaghetti sauce or to yellow squash, zucchini and asparagus in a skillet with olive oil and basil ... that's it, I'm going shopping.
Chocolate chips? You'll have to explain THAT one! Sugarless jam but chocolate chips. Does... not... compute!
So what's in sugarless jam, anyway?
All olives are good. Try the garlic stuffed green olives...
Yes! Bittersweet chocolate chips with at least 70% cocoa (although I could find only 62% cocoa maximum)! And I've discovered that a few go a long way! There no danger (for me anyway) of being tempted to eat the entire bag - they're way too rich!
-Mom
Oh, and sugar-free jam is actually no-additional-sugar added jam - it's sweetened with one of the fake sugar products. The more industrious people can make their own jam without additives, but I'm not one of those!
-Mom