Jill’s Blog

random rants and raves

The new wiki has been taking a lot of time and attention recently. That’s a good thing because it means we’re having a lot more participation and a lot of stuff being added. The down-side is that I haven’t been as good about eating, exercising, or writing things down. But today is a new day. I can either choose to let a few days’ lapse to derail me for the next 6 months, or I can just let it go, pick up today, and move on. So, for once, I’m just going to forgive myself and move on.

breakfast: cereal with milk

lunch: half a grilled cheese sandwich and some onion rings (ugh— and I don’t even feel good about it, so double ugh)

Today has been one of those days where I hardly feel like I have time to eat. But even on those days, I’m assured, it’s in my best interest to eat to keep my metabolism from deciding to take a vacation. After all, I’m a woman approaching my mid-30s— my metabolism needs all the encouragement it can get

I went to work out with my trainer last night. While I was doing some horribly painful triceps exercise, I looked in the mirror, and I realized that I don’t like this current stage. You know when you’re trying to grow out your hair, and you reach that stage where it just seems like it would be so much easier to just cut it off? You can’t imagine that it will ever be long enough, but it’s too long to be considered stylishly short. Well, that’s the stage of getting in shape that I’m at. I looked at myself in the mirror, and I could see muscles underneath all the fat, but still, there’s the fat. Ugh. Should I just go home and forget the whole thing? But, dear readers, I perservere on. I’m hoping in another month, there will be less fat, more muscle and I’ll feel more enthusiastic about my emerging healthy body.

The good news is I’m definitely getting stronger. I was able to actually sit up on the weight bench last night without feeling like a turtle that had been dropped on her back. So, that was encouraging…

Anyway, on to today’s list of food and exercise.

breakfast: oatmeal with flax seed, milk

lunch: gazpacho, cheese sandwich

snack:

dinner:

snack:

exercise:

I didn’t manage to post what I ate yesterday, but I think I remember it all

breakfast: yogurt with blueberries and strawberries and granola (a shocking surprise, I know, since that’s what I eat almost every morning)

snack: handful of pretzels

lunch: gazpacho and cheese sandwich

snack: handful of nuts

dinner: Taco Bell 7 layer burrito and Mexican pizza with no meat (what can I say? sometimes you just have to have Taco Bell)

snack: small piece of birthday cake (it’s almost gone, thank goodness)

exercise: about 30 minutes of swimming, including carrying the 30 lb. child around in the water for about 15 minutes; 8 Minutes in the Morning— crunches and shoulder lifts

It turns out I did, in fact, order the 8 Minutes in the Morning to Flatter Abs, but it came as a bunch of cards, instead of a book, so I haven’t taken the time to look at it yet. Also, I couldn’t help myself, and I weighed this morning. I THINK, although it’s difficult to tell with our crazy scale, that I may actually have lost a couple of pounds… very exciting I think I’m definitely looking thinner, and clothes seem to be fitting better, so that’s the real measure, isn’t it? Well, it is for me. Are any of you trying to lose weight? Do you have any goals you’d like to share? I’d love to feel like someone out there is sharing in this with me— misery loves company, you know

On to today’s food.

breakfast: oatmeal with flax seed, blueberries, strawberries, and a little milk (I ran out of granola. Plus, I read somewhere recently that flax seed is supposed to really help eliminate belly fat. So, bring on the flax seed— it beats sit ups. I think it probably actually helps stabilize blood sugars, and insulin is largely responsible for belly fat. Plus, the fiber is supposed to help clear any, um, blockages that might be causing bloating.)

lunch: We made a special outing today to have lunch with Dad. Panera’s had a special coupon for a free child’s meal, so we decided to go there. First, before I tell you what I had to eat, I want to tell you how pleased I am with their children’s meal choices. They have organic American cheese on their grilled cheese sandwiches, natural peanut butter on their pb&j, and they serve their sandwiches with Stonyfield Farm yogurt tubes as a side and Horizon organic milk to drink. So, much better than fries and a soft drink. Anyway, George (my hubby) got a Greek salad, and I got a Mediterranean veggie sandwich, and we split them. So, that wasn’t too horrible for eating out.

snack: 4 crackers w/peanut butter

dinner: veggie burger with cheese

snack: the rest of the birthday cake (thank goodness there are no more birthdays until October); fat free refried beans with a tortilla and salsa

exercise: one hour of upper and lower body work with personal trainer; 30 minutes aerobic intervals (my trainer has me doing the method based on Bill Phillip’s “Fit For Life”, which really is an excellent program).

So, it’s flooding here in Houston. Fortunately, it’s not flooding HERE, and if the low will move off as predicted, hopefully it won’t approach the levels of Tropical Storm Allison.

It’s also my 4th child’s 4th birthday. He’s having a good day so far, in spite of the rain. We gave him one of his presents before his party, so he spent some time for a while this morning playing his Dora Plug n Play game with his brothers and sister. There’s a new Backyardigans on this morning, so that’s a big thrill.

Now, onto the food…

I’m doing well so far with the 3 Hour Diet, and I did do my 8 Minutes in the Morning today. We’ll see how the rest of the day goes.

breakfast: yogurt and granola

lunch: cheese sandwich, gazpacho

snack: nuts

dinner: macaroni and cheese, yellow squash with onions, tomatoes with basil and balsamic vinegar, one small piece of birthday cake (really, just one)

snack: 2 tsp. peanut butter, handful of pretzels (I came close to making it 3 hours before bedtime, but the one year old decided he was going to take over an hour to go to sleep, so I think it will be more like 2 hours until I go to bed.)

exercise: 8 Minutes in the Morning exercise, chest and shoulders; I didn’t make it to the gym tonight because I have a splitting headache, plus birthday and weather interfered with the original plans

Tags

diet houston flooding

I’ve decided that I’m taking one day a week off from reporting or even recording what I eat. I think I need to do this to keep from becoming fixated on the topic of food. So, yesterday I took the day off. You can guess what I ate, if you like, but I don’t know whether I’ll confirm or deny

I did get my Jorge Cruise books in the mail yesterday: 8 Minutes in the Morning
and 3 Hour Diet

I briefly read through the 3 Hour Diet, and I’m going to start that slowly. The first thing I’m going to do is get in the habit of eating breakfast first thing and then eating every 3 hours after that and to stop eating 3 hours before I go to bed. In a couple of weeks I’ll worry more about WHAT I’m eating at those times. I’ll continue reporting what I’m eating here, of course.

Speaking of what I’m eating… here’s today’s list of meals.

breakfast: eggs with cheese, coffee

lunch: salad (lettuce, broccoli, cheese, sunflower seeds with blue cheese), 3 slices of beets, a spoonful of tortellini salad, one breadstick, and one cinnamon stick (we were at Chuck E. Cheese celebrating Father’s Day/my son’s birthday)— hey, I could have eaten pizza, so it could have been worse.

afternoon snack: one ounce cheese, handful of pretzels

dinner: eggs (we have a lot of them in refrigerator and more coming from the farm tomorrow, so I’m trying to use them up) and three biscuits

exercise: Does skeeball count? How about the spider stomp? I will be starting the 8 minutes in the Morning tomorrow, plus I’m going to try to make it to the gym, so that should get me back on track.

So, hopefully, I’ll start seeing significant results soon. I’ll keep you informed.

tags:

diet jorge cruise 8 minutes in the morning 3 hour diet exercise

Not much time to write today, so here goes.

breakfast: yogurt, granola, blueberries

lunch: Nutrisystem minestrone

dinner: pasta casserole with whole wheat pasta, spaghetti sauce, and cheese; bread; 2 servings of strawberry shortcake

exercise: 20 minutes yoga

Weighing is just frustrating me, so I need to do that less often. Our scale is crazy, anyway, so perhaps I’ll just weigh twice a week when I go to the gym.

Today’s food

breakfast: apple cinnamon oatmeal, 1/2 cup of milk (I probably should have added some nuts or something with more protein to the oatmeal)

lunch: leftovers from last night

dinner: I will be eating out tonight, but I’m going to try my best to be good and to bring home leftovers— I’ll let you know how that goes.

Well, here’s the damage. We went to Italian, so I knew there would be the white pasta issue, but I did pick a dish that had a light sauce and grilled vegetables, and yes, I did bring home half. I did eat 1 1/2 rolls— I was doing well and only eating one, but you know how that goes. I also had a salad. It did have dressing, but they’re kind of stingy with their dressing, so it wasn’t the usual restaurant dressing soup.

exercise: 20 minutes of Stott pilates (I record this each morning off the Lime network. It comes on insanely early— like 5:30. I like pilates because it always looks easy, but it’s not. And the show I record is not ridiculous about reps, so it’s challenging but doesn’t make me want to cry by the time I’m done.

Went to the pool with the kids and actually swam for probably 15-20 minutes, so that was a little bonus exercise.

Well, no weight loss yet, but that doesn’t really surprise me. After all, I’m really working on exercising, so my trainer has warned me that the initial change may not come on the scale. I do, however, have a pair of pants picked out to use as a measure of progress. I’m hoping planning (words are very important when you’re trying to lose weight— there’s a big difference between “hoping” and “planning”) to fit into them by August. It’s totally a reasonable goal. I can put them on and zip them now, but I would never wear them out of the house. It would be great if they were big by August.

So, anyway, here’s today’s progress.

breakfast: plain yogurt with a handful of blueberries and a sprinkling of granola with dried cranberries and pecans

lunch: One of the leftover meals from our brief stab at NutriSystem (the foods not horrible, but way too chemically laden for me)— This one was parmesan broccoli noodles. Also, had some of the leftover coleslaw from last night.

dinner: chile relleno casserole w/zucchini and corn added in; zucchini and tomatoes with parmesan and basil

evening snack: half a peanut butter sandwich

exercise: working out with trainer tonight, so that will be about 15 minutes of aerobics combined with an hour of weights

Okay, so I’m trying to lose weight and get in better shape. So, I was thinking if I had to write down what I was eating and what exercise I had done where anyone in the world could read it, that might be a level of accountability that I could use. So, look for regular updates on whether I’m losing weight (or at least inches).

My starting weight is 192— ugh. Just writing that is disturbing. I wear either a size 16 or 14. I’d like to wear a size 8 or 10. Honestly, I don’t really care what I weigh. I’m more concerned about what size I can fit into.

So, here’s what I’ve eaten today. I’ll edit this throughout the day as the day goes along.

breakfast: half a grapefruit (this looks like I’ve been good, but really I should have eaten more. Eating this little for breakfast does nothing to help rev up my metabolism for the rest of the day.)

morning snack: handful of nuts and a cup of green tea

lunch: mexican quiche made with eggs, cream, veggie sausage, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and cheese in a crust (yes, I know it’s really rich, but it ought to be low on the glycemic index, and it’s made with good, healthy ingredients— organic vegetables, raw cream, farm raised eggs— we’ll see if I can lose weight eating meals like this periodically)

afternoon snack: 1 oz. cheese

supper: veggie burger, homemade coleslaw (with apple cider vinegar), sliced tomatoes

evening snack: 1/2 peanut butter sandwich

exercise: about 20 minutes of Stotts pilates

I just ordered Jorge Cruise’s “Eight Minutes in the Morning”, “Eight Minutes in the Morning to Flatter Abs”, and “Three Hour Diet”. I was very disappointed the first time I realized that the three hour diet didn’t mean that you only had to diet for three hours. I was hoping to be at least a size 12 by this afternoon