…trying to live healthily 10/05

I know, I know. I have really not been that great at keeping up with the whole “keeping you updated on my diet” thing. Well, to tell you the truth, I have stuck to the not eating a whole lot of sweets thing, but that is it. I haven’t kept up with planning my meals. I eat lean cuisines for lunch, but that is it. I have noticed my legs slimming down a tad. Hopefully I am not imagining that. And Tim says he sees it too.

I know what you are thinking. “He is your husband, of course he is going to tell you that”. Well, anyone who has known my husband for a minute (maybe longer than that) will know that he wouldn’t do that. He is definitely not mean about it, very sweet actually. But he is going to tell me the truth. Which means so much more to me.

Anyway, I have also not been able to walk/jog much either. One week it rained continuously. The next I was so swamped with homework I couldn’t get out of the house. Hopefully soon I will figure out this whole schedule thing.

I’ll keep you updated as much as I can.

…trying to live healthily 9/29

I think a lot of people try at this and fail. Darn my parents for not deciding to eat/live healthily until AFTER I moved out. Of course, my brother is a health nut and in incredible shape, so I really can’t blame them.

Anyway, I am a slim person, but that does NOT mean that I am healthy. Honestly, if I did not have a really good metabolism, I would most likely be severely obese. So, what I do have is all jiggle. And I just recently had to move up a pant size. I kind of had a break down a couple of weeks ago when I couldn’t fit into any of my pants w/o them being tight. It scared the crap out of Tim!

I have decided to try to live a healthy lifestyle. I am walking one mile a couple of times a week (hopefully three or four) and am eating healthier. I have cut sodas mostly from my diet. I have also cut back on sweets MAJORLY! I am talking, I used to each three or four bite sized Snickers or Milky Ways like three or four times a day. No joke. That is 12 to 16 bite sized chocolate candies every day. So, I have cut that out. I have maybe one or two of those chocolates now a day. I have substituted it with things like pistachios, celery with peanut butter and raisins, carrots. And I am not struggling at all! I was the first week, but am good now

To keep me accountable, I am going to try to post daily on here what my diet and exercise consists of that day. I am not a proactive person (which I hate), so hopefully this will be the change of that too. It won’t be anything drastic, so if you are a health nut and are in incredible shape (like my little brother), don’t judge me! But if you do have suggestions, please let me know!

Today’s diet consists of:

Breakfast: 1 cup Cheerios, 1 cup Fat Free Skim Milk, 1 Banana

Snack 1: celery with peanut butter and raisins

Lunch: Lean Cuisine Chicken Ranch Club (yum!)

Snack 2: 12 small carrots

Dinner: Don’t know yet. Maybe salmon.

Drink at least 64 ounces of water.

This afternoon I will walk one mile with my dogs.

So that is my day. Like I said, I will try to keep this posted as often as I can.

How are you living healthily?

homemade butta

Today is a much better day. Sorry for being so down in the dumps yesterday!

Today is a rainy day. And kind of chilly. I went to the Farmer’s Market this morning with my friend, Mary. It was loads of fun. And I think I ate the most delicious doughnut ever! Oh my goodness. It was homemade. I also bought some flowers, blueberry jam, and jalapeno & cheese bread. I found my weakness is the booths that have no one looking at their items. I feel sorry for them, meander over, and usually end up buying something! Dang my tenderheartedness!

After the Farmer’s Market, we went to Mary’s house. She pulled out some butter that was in a mason jar. I asked if she bought it and she said that she made it. Really? She showed me the stuff she made it with and sent me home with a mason jar of my own and the ingredients (organic whipping cream).

When I got home, I poured the whipping cream, along with some cinnamon, into the mason jar. I was told to shake it for a really long time. So shake I did! After 10 minutes the substance inside still did not look like butter. So I kept shaking it. After 15 minutes I declared that I would never do this again. After 20, I gave up. Tim said that it was still spreadable, so we could use it. But still. I love the idea of homemade stuff, but I think I am not too cut out for that!

Have you ever made homemade butter? Or anything else homemade?

Ethiopia: Food

I am falling behind on telling you about my trip to Ethiopia. Sorry!

Next, I’ll tell you about the food. To be honest, there were some things we just could not eat. Any fruits or vegetables that would have to be washed we could not eat (because we could not drink their water, and the food would have been washed with their water). We ate in a lot of restaurants. There were some that were really good, and some…not so great. The restaurant in our hotel was actually my favorite, when it had electricity.

Because they are in a drought (spelling?) they can only afford to give half the city electricity for half the day, and the other half of the city electricity for the other half of the day. The half of the city we were in rarely had electricity at night. A lot of places had generators, but our hotel was pretty large so the generator could not keep everything up and running. So, every night for dinner, the first question always was, “grill?”. If there was no grill, our choices diminished substantially. We were left to (and grateful for!) soup, salad (which we couldn’t eat), and spaghetti. They actually have some pretty good spaghetti.

Just to be safe a lot of times (b/c apparently I can be a picky eater at times) I would just order a toasted cheese sandwich. Or as we call it in the states, a grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, I could only have this when there was electricity, but it was so good One funny moment that happened was the fourth or fifth time I had ordered the toasted cheese sandwich, I randomly ended up with a cheese burger. I just thought it was funny, and illustrated very well how inconsistent things are there. You just kind of have to go with the flow.

Ask just about any  (I say just about just in case there is that one Ethiopian with whom this does not apply) Ethiopian what their favorite food is, and they will instantly tell you injera. Injera is a type of bread that comes with pretty much all of their meals. It is kind of like a spongy, sour, flat bread. They will use injera instead of forks. They will just pick up their food with a piece of injera and eat it all. Some times we would see pieces delivered to tables that was bigger than a large pizza. Personally, I did not enjoy, nor did anyone else on my team I don’t think. But Ethiopians sure do love it!

There was also something called a “coffee ceremony”. This usually happens when guests are over. The guests will be served 3 cups of coffee and popcorn. I was kind of nervous about this because I am NOT a coffee drinker, but knew I couldn’t really say no. Well, they were gracious and only served one cup of coffee, which was the size of what we would consider to be a shot at Starbucks. At one of the ceremonies the caffeine actually had kind of a bad effect on me. I hardly ever drink/eat things with caffeine…besides chocolate. So, when I had two cups of strong coffee with LOTS of sugar in them, I got a little wild. I sang someone’s name over and over. I actually recruited two guys to sing with me. (Pretty sure there is a video out there of that one). I was all over the place. Thankfully, my new friends just thought I was funny, and not crazy…hopefully.

Eating Healthy

I have decided I need to stop avoiding my blog. As I believe I have mentioned before, I love to read other blogs but don’t always love to blog. So, if there is anyone still reading (haven’t I said that before…) thank you!!

I have decided…since my jeans are getting a little too snug… that I need to start eating healthy. I told my half asleep husband this morning that I am putting us on a diet!

It turns out, my wonderful younger brother is actually a health nut. So I just asked him to whip up a diet plan for me. I got it today. It doesn’t look too bad. I am actually excited about hopefully getting healthy.

He told me to go over to Women’s Health Magazine to learn some cooking tips and recipes. There are also a lot of exercises (not that I will do many of them on there too that are great.

So, hopefully I will report back to ya and let you know how things are going.

Oh, and btw, I had written a post a long time ago about not drinking soft drinks anymore but drink more water. Well, I don’t totally not (sorry for the double negative!) drink soft drinks anymore, but i am down to about 4 or 5 a week. I think that is pretty stinkin good for me at least! Usually it is either a Diet Coke or a Sprite. Mostly, I drink water.

Here is an example of my diet plan Josh sent over to me:

Sample Daily Eating Plan 1
Breakfast:
Oatmeal with a Heaping Tablespoon of Peanut Butter and a banana ( all in a bowl together)
Morning Snack:
Whatever Fruit or Vegetable you like and a cup of low fat yogurt
Lunch:
Salad with as much vegetables that you want in it with some type of lean meat (chicken, tuna, most any fish) and a small serving of shredded cheese
I throw lettuce, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, avocado sometimes, and spicy peppers sometimes all in mine.  I don’t use dressing but you can use as much oil and balsamic vinegar you want, or any type of light dressing but watch the amount you use.
Afternoon Snack:
As many celery sticks as you want with 2 tbsp of peanut butter on them.
Dinner:
Any lean meat with some steamed vegetables
6 oz Chicken Breast
Steamed Broccoli
Sample Daily Eating Plan 2
Breakfast:
1 Egg Fried on 2 pieces of whole wheat toast and any tomatoes or lettuce or onions or peppers you want and a piece of cheese
Small glass of juice
Morning Snack:
Handful of unsalted almonds and Large Apple or Orange
Lunch:
Sandwich on whole wheat toast with turkey, roast beef, or ham and as many vegetables as you want on it and any mustard or light dressing.
Afternoon Snack:
Small serving of cottage cheese and whatever fruit and veggie you want
Dinner:
Whole wheat pasta with chicken and a red sauce or garlic and olive oil sauce
The garlic and olive oil sauce can be made by just putting some olive oil and minced garlic in a pan together and throwing the noodles and chicken in there with them after you have cooked the noodles and chicken and just letting it finish in there for a few minutes.

I fell off the wagon

Man oh man, I fell of the wagon (where did that saying come from?).

By 1:30pm today, I have had 2 Diet Cokes. Not 1, but 2. I suck.

I will say that there is a good thing from this little set back. I can feel the difference. No really, I can. I could taste the syrup (which, I always could, but this time my mind acknowledged it was there and I didn’t like it), I am on the verge of a headache, and my energy level feels weird.

Call me crazy, but I think falling off the wagon just may have been a good thing. I think I may even take out those Sunday exceptions!

We’ll see though…

No Sodas Update # 1

Eh…I have had to make an exception. No sodas is SO hard. So I have decided that on Sundays I can have one. Yeah, I know, I am weak. But I am feeling much better. I really can tell a difference. I mean, I was a little more tired at first, but not really anymore. And yes, this is the fourth day of the “no sodas” diet. So, there are not a lot of changes, but I can still feel some…

**Update: I have just been noticing how I don’t want to snack as much! Which is great. I still feel full from lunch and have no desire to eat any candy. And I have a whole container of chocolate sitting not even three feet from me! Yay for drinking water!

self discipline, please come to me…

Ok, I am starting a semi-diet. I know, that sounds like I am going to cheat. Which I may…

Starting today I am not going to drink any sodas. Oh, this will be hard. I drink a Diet Coke just about every day. It is not like I crave them, but they are so good if I haven’t had one in a while.

I heard on the radio the other day that the trainer from The Biggest Loser said the one thing you could do that is good for your health is to stop drinking soda. Especially Diet drinks (yikes!). Apparently the Diet drinks make your taste buds want sugar more. Great. So maybe that explains why I snack all day long.

I know that all of that is probably not new information for you, it isn’t for me either. But for some reason I actually listened to it that time.

I have been gaining a little weight in areas I would rather not. And I have also been dealing with headaches a little too frequently for the past year or so. I have heard a health care professional once say that the majority of the time when people have common headaches, all they need to do is drink more water.

So my solution to all of this: no more sodas, more water.

Lord help me.

Now I will be the first to tell you, I really do not hold much self discipline within myself. There is no excuse for that. I am 25 years old, it’s time to get over myself and push myself towards a goal.

So I will try to give you weekly updates on how I am doing and how I am feeling.

I asked my husband to hold me accountable and he smirked at me and made a face like, “yeah right”. I asked him why he did that and he said that I have asked him to do that before and when he did, I ignored him. Crap. So I told him to still please help me, and I would try to let him this time. Me oh my, self discipline, please come to me..

**No, I do not give myself as much credit as I should with the self discipline. I have completed goals before. But whatever.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For those of you who don’t know, I work at a radio station whose demographic of listeners is primarily women. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month we are going forth with a rather unusually campaign, especially in East Tennessee! We are asking the ladies of the Tri-Cities to send us their new and used bras. At the end of the month we are going to be connecting the bras and stringing them up in Downtown Kingsport. It has been so much fun so far to work on this campaign. You wouldn’t believe how many people are effected by Breast Cancer. Almost every time we talk to new people about this campaign, we have new people telling us how this disease has effected them and their loved ones.

I encourage you to learn all that you can about Breast Cancer. Learn how to do self exams monthly. Get your mammograms.

Also, our radio station was on the morning news today. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

From the Livesay family in Haiti

Honestly, I don’t think I could ever type out on here my genuine desire for you to be apart of the effort to help the people of Haiti. The need is real. The need is HUGE.

I saw a slide show HERE that shows more pictures of the damage (this slide show is shows Haitians pulling their dead children, mothers, & fathers from the waters; view it at your own discretion). And it makes me sad that the election is causing so many people to not know what is going on in Haiti.

The Livesay family wrote a post that I would like to share with you. They are there. They are seeing the need and the detestation. Read what they have to say HERE.

They write:

“If every person reading sent what it would cost to go out to eat, or approximately $30 – not only would it free them up to make some decisions about how to help in their community, but it would encourage them and it would be confirmation for them that they are not alone. If 700 readers sent $30 – the ministry would have 21K to work with in the next few weeks. The greatest effect we could all have – would be to donate the money immediately. Not tomorrow, not when you think of it this weekend – right now. PLEASE do it today. It is rally time.

Thank you. Your money will directly help victims of the storms in Haiti. I promise you that.”

Go HERE to make your donation. Continue to read the updates about what is going on at the Haiti Rescue Center HERE.