This is my fourth day with no sweets. I feel much more in control. I am not constantly thinking about finding something sweet to eat. Yesterday I did not get hungry or have cravings. I hope I am through the worst of it.
For a split second this morning I had a thought that went something like this, "Huh, I wish I could have just one piece of candy..." but there is no such thing as "just one," so the thought was fleeting and I went on about my day.
I have not been lifting weights. Since I started working with my triathlete coach I have been swimming, biking, or running 6 days a week, with a little core strength training thrown in for good measure. This morning on the way to work I committed to adding the strength training back in. I don't like the fact that I am getting soft, again. Strength training works, plain and simple.
A blog where we can discuss our goals regarding health, fitness, food and general wellness. This should be a fun space where we congratulate each other for a job well done, plan fitness activities to do together, and ask for extra support when we need it. Advice is good - but only when asked for! Feel free to post as much or as little as you like according to your own goals.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Sugar
Roberta. Remember how I used to finish the Christmas box of candy before noon? Well, in the last couple of years, I have had several streaks of a few weeks with no sugar at all. (Why, you might ask, not just one long streak? Too long a story.) Anyhow, I have found that the second day is only half as hard as the first day, and so on until in a week or two sugarless is a habit. And each new streak is easier to start, after just one cold turkey success of a month or so.
Hey--50 million Americans have quit smoking!
Onward and upward! Keep warm
Hey--50 million Americans have quit smoking!
Onward and upward! Keep warm
Sugar is my Nemesis
Sugar has a terrible grip on me and I am getting very frustrated with it.
I have noticed myself, over the last month, maybe two, eating more sweets. I am not having any problem avoiding wheat, so my sweets don't come in the form of cakes, cookies and pies. They come in the form of Hershey bars, hard candy, and ice cream.
I feel very good about every other aspect of my health care regime. I have a healthy diet, I exercise regularly, I get plenty of sleep, I drink a lot of water...and I eat candy. The sweets have got to stop.
When Jack and I were in Belgium we picked up a few boxes of locally made chocolates. Oh my, yes they are good. Yesterday morning there were two pieces left in one of the boxes. I ate them with my coffee. Delicious. But that was it. As soon as I popped them in my mouth I declared that that was that. No more sweets.
Then all day long all I thought about was sugar. It is an addiction. I know it is and it pisses me off. I barely made it through the day without going totally nuts.
Everything I read says that the exception to the rule about sugar is 85% cocoa dark chocolate, so I will allow myself up to one serving a day of that. Otherwise, sweets are off limits.
I need to do this. I need to stop eating sugar. It is the last piece of the puzzle that I need to put into place.
I just want to yell at the top of my lungs, HELP!!!!!! Why, oh why, does sugar have such a powerful grip? I guess I should be thankful that this is my only real addiction, but I want it gone and I want it gone now!!
By the way, I am not consuming any artificial sweeteners, so I feel good about that. I also don't sweeten any of my food with sugar. It might sound silly to say this, but all of the sugar I am eating comes in the form of sweets so I don't have to alter how I am cooking, shopping, etc... in order to avoid sugar. I just have to stop eating candy and ice cream. Should be easy enough. Should be...
I have noticed myself, over the last month, maybe two, eating more sweets. I am not having any problem avoiding wheat, so my sweets don't come in the form of cakes, cookies and pies. They come in the form of Hershey bars, hard candy, and ice cream.
I feel very good about every other aspect of my health care regime. I have a healthy diet, I exercise regularly, I get plenty of sleep, I drink a lot of water...and I eat candy. The sweets have got to stop.
When Jack and I were in Belgium we picked up a few boxes of locally made chocolates. Oh my, yes they are good. Yesterday morning there were two pieces left in one of the boxes. I ate them with my coffee. Delicious. But that was it. As soon as I popped them in my mouth I declared that that was that. No more sweets.
Then all day long all I thought about was sugar. It is an addiction. I know it is and it pisses me off. I barely made it through the day without going totally nuts.
Everything I read says that the exception to the rule about sugar is 85% cocoa dark chocolate, so I will allow myself up to one serving a day of that. Otherwise, sweets are off limits.
I need to do this. I need to stop eating sugar. It is the last piece of the puzzle that I need to put into place.
I just want to yell at the top of my lungs, HELP!!!!!! Why, oh why, does sugar have such a powerful grip? I guess I should be thankful that this is my only real addiction, but I want it gone and I want it gone now!!
By the way, I am not consuming any artificial sweeteners, so I feel good about that. I also don't sweeten any of my food with sugar. It might sound silly to say this, but all of the sugar I am eating comes in the form of sweets so I don't have to alter how I am cooking, shopping, etc... in order to avoid sugar. I just have to stop eating candy and ice cream. Should be easy enough. Should be...
Monday, February 10, 2014
On the road again! (can't wait to be back on the road again!)
The last few months have been interesting from an exercise point-of-view; running on the treadmill at the local 24-Hour Fitness. I get there at 5:15 with the same old crowd most mornings, and run continuously at a 5.4 to 6 mph pace. It's interesting, because when I was previously running on the road, I just couldn't go for more than a few minutes before having to walk. Having a speedometer in front of me helped me keep a pace, and the heart-rate monitor helped as well, so in the gym I can easily run for an hour.
This morning it was a balmy 54 degrees, and was hardly raining at all, so I decided to get back out on the road. Put the headlamp on, put on my fast running shoes, and ran the 10K Moraga Way loop. Beat my previous best time by about 13 minutes; and Strava says I did my personal best 1 mile, 2 mile, 5k and 10k times -- the 5k in under half an hour, and the 10k in 1 hour 6 minutes. There are some big hills on this route, too!
Unfortunately, the "fast shoes" were super hard on my feet; big blister on the ball of me left foot and lots of blood on the toes of the right one...don't know if it's the harder shoes or the harder ground. Going back to the clunky Columbia shoes next time!
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!
Jack and I came home to about 8 inches of snow on the ground after being in Europe for 11 days. I guess I know what my exercise will be today. There is no sign of a thaw coming any time soon and we are due for more snow tomorrow, so I guess we are getting the snow shovels out. I also have a swim scheduled for today.
The trip to Europe was great!! I learned a lot about the remote control industry and our product, since there was often nothing to do while sitting at our booth other than read our catalog and ask questions. At first, the competition seemed a little overwhelming, but as I spent more time wandering around section 7A of the Toy Fair and came to realize that practically all of our competitors in the world (except for really cheap Chinese knock offs) were in the room, I began to get a handle on where we stand in the world of electronic speed controls. As it turns out, we are in a pretty good position.
While we were in Nuremberg we spent most of our time either at the Toy Fair or at meetings/meals involved with work. Jack got to spend a lot more time wandering around than I did, but even with all the work I got to get out and about a bit. We spent one afternoon doing a walking tour of the coliseum and the Nazi Party rally grounds, which was quite interesting. Our hotel was a small guest house in a little town about 30 minutes from Nuremberg, so we got to get a taste of rural Germany while we were there. On our way to Belgium we stopped for a couple of hours in Rothenburg, beautiful and charming!! The last few days of our trip were in Belgium, first in a small town close to Antwerp, to visit a distributor and then we had a couple days of vacation which we spent in Brugge. All in all, it was a great trip but, as always, it's good to be home.
Not surprisingly, I gained a few pounds while we were gone. Late meals, a few too many beers and glasses of wine, Belgian chocolates, not enough sleep, and too little exercise all added up. I will be getting back into my program today. I am glad for that!! At least I can still get my jeans on (barely)!!
The trip to Europe was great!! I learned a lot about the remote control industry and our product, since there was often nothing to do while sitting at our booth other than read our catalog and ask questions. At first, the competition seemed a little overwhelming, but as I spent more time wandering around section 7A of the Toy Fair and came to realize that practically all of our competitors in the world (except for really cheap Chinese knock offs) were in the room, I began to get a handle on where we stand in the world of electronic speed controls. As it turns out, we are in a pretty good position.
While we were in Nuremberg we spent most of our time either at the Toy Fair or at meetings/meals involved with work. Jack got to spend a lot more time wandering around than I did, but even with all the work I got to get out and about a bit. We spent one afternoon doing a walking tour of the coliseum and the Nazi Party rally grounds, which was quite interesting. Our hotel was a small guest house in a little town about 30 minutes from Nuremberg, so we got to get a taste of rural Germany while we were there. On our way to Belgium we stopped for a couple of hours in Rothenburg, beautiful and charming!! The last few days of our trip were in Belgium, first in a small town close to Antwerp, to visit a distributor and then we had a couple days of vacation which we spent in Brugge. All in all, it was a great trip but, as always, it's good to be home.
Not surprisingly, I gained a few pounds while we were gone. Late meals, a few too many beers and glasses of wine, Belgian chocolates, not enough sleep, and too little exercise all added up. I will be getting back into my program today. I am glad for that!! At least I can still get my jeans on (barely)!!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Kind of exciting
A few weeks ago we went down to San Diego to visit Millie and play cards. The next day I seemed to weigh too much, so I decided on some new eating rules: reasonable meals and no eating between meals. (Sugar and wheat and other fast carbs have been out for a while.) As a crutch for the first few days I used self hypnosis. It works for me.
Now the exciting part: after the first couple of days the new rules were dead easy--instant habit! I have not had a thing to eat, except at meals, for weeks, and it isn't a big deal. Almost like quitting cigarettes only faster. I am not trying to sell self hypnosis, but I do think that if a popcorn, chocolate, and nut eater can watch the Australian open with no snacks, the habit might be there for the forming for anybody.
Just saying.
Keep warm
Now the exciting part: after the first couple of days the new rules were dead easy--instant habit! I have not had a thing to eat, except at meals, for weeks, and it isn't a big deal. Almost like quitting cigarettes only faster. I am not trying to sell self hypnosis, but I do think that if a popcorn, chocolate, and nut eater can watch the Australian open with no snacks, the habit might be there for the forming for anybody.
Just saying.
Keep warm
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Dull dull dull
Kay and I have the least exciting exercise routine in the family. The gym is invariably pleasant,stress on invariably, and whacking the tennis ball is fun, and it adds up to 30 minutes some days and 90 minutes other days and nothing to talk about. We will enter times again if something changes.
So...it sounds like your new diet ideas, Roberta, are approaching George's old (and current, as far as I know) diet: meat and dairy and green stuff, no fast carbs, and damn few slow carbs,including fruit. Easy for me except for root veggies and fruit. I do not doubt that I am maintaining my weight on fruit, but is there any other reason not to eat it?
Old thought for today: health habits are all about process! If results are obvious today, that's good, but it is not possible to DO results, and we can get pretty frustrated trying to. Sticking to a process or not is a success/failure thing and is never just frustrating. (I also have this new invention called the wheel, but I'm waiting for somebody to develop the axle before I bring it out.)
Keep warm
So...it sounds like your new diet ideas, Roberta, are approaching George's old (and current, as far as I know) diet: meat and dairy and green stuff, no fast carbs, and damn few slow carbs,including fruit. Easy for me except for root veggies and fruit. I do not doubt that I am maintaining my weight on fruit, but is there any other reason not to eat it?
Old thought for today: health habits are all about process! If results are obvious today, that's good, but it is not possible to DO results, and we can get pretty frustrated trying to. Sticking to a process or not is a success/failure thing and is never just frustrating. (I also have this new invention called the wheel, but I'm waiting for somebody to develop the axle before I bring it out.)
Keep warm
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