Tag Archives: Nutrition

Running on Decaf…

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Hop in the time machine with me! Let’s navigate back again all the way to second grade and lets watch for a moment.  There I sit at the kitchen table, grumpy and groggy, sad, not wanting to go to school.  This is the year I cut my hair at school, lied about it, got into trouble for it.  I refuse to eat breakfast and it is the morning of the CTBS test, this is the standardized testing for the state.  This is the morning I get a small Peter Rabbit mug full of the blood of life, coffee.

Wayne’s World wavy lines, fast forward…. by the end of high school I would drink a cup before school, take one with me, and continue to fill my coffee mug throughout the day from the faculty pot.  I was downing something like 17 cups a day.  Water… what does that mean I existed on coffee and caffeine free diet coke.  I was forced off coffee, or moreover caffeine when I had my nervous breakdown and went into treatment for my depression in the hospital.  Caffeine is a drug and I was abusing it.

I had a coffee pot next to my bed when I lived with my now ex husband, there was pretty much constantly coffee available I drank it he didn’t.  He was into Mountain Dew and Southern Comfort.  When I saw the bad habits and behavioral patterns emerging that reminded me of how I was back in high school I went off coffee again, cold turkey.

So now I am a real adult, not that I wasn’t when I was married, but seriously I was still a child, I was still too young.  I live in the big city, I know I LOVE coffee.  I have used coffee as a crutch since I moved here.  When I would stay up for 2 or 3 days at a time working nights and trying to have some kind of life, swapping shifts to make social events, I would drink coffee like no one should.  I enjoy the flavor, the subtle differences in different blends, I enjoy savoring a cup of coffee.

Coffee cupI was bringing a mug (5cup home-brewed pot) with me every day to work in the morning, when you get up at 3am to work a 10 hour shift, plus prep time for your shift, and then have someone who isn’t quite on time EVER that is your relief it turns into a 10.5 hour day 5 times a week, coffee seems like it should be a part of the day.  I recently decided, about the time I gave up gluten and my stomach was being so horrible, that perhaps that much coffee was not a good idea.  I have been cutting back my coffee consumption significantly.  No more caffeine, and also no coffee until I have had a liter of water in the morning.  It is supposed to be really good for your skin to have water first thing in the morning, Can’t hurt to start the day with water right?

Have I noticed a change in the no caffeine role in my life yet?  Well, truth is I still have had a bit of caffeine here and there.  There is a small pack of 7.5 ounce cans of coke zero in my work fridge for the simple reason that on occasion my headaches are bad enough that I need the caffeine to make the pills work better.  I want to not be dependent on the caffeine, and while I know a decaf Americano still has a small amount of caffeine in it, I am certain that it is significantly less than what the quad shot tall had.  I still plan on drinking coffee, but only in moderation, not every day.  Like I said I enjoy the flavor, and that is what I am going to focus on, enjoying the flavor of the coffee, sipping not gulping, swirling not chugging.

Is it realistic to think I will never have caffeine, absolutely not, I do not live in a world of absolutes.  I want to go long enough without a significant amount of it in my system that I can feel what kind of effect it has on my body.  So here I sit with my decaf Americano with heavy cream. YUM!

Quitting Weight Watchers

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So since July I have been doing Weight Watchers.  I have done as I promised myself, I gave into the plan.  I followed the weird math, I did the plan as it was intended.  I didn’t use my weekly points, I used my weekly points.  I used all, I used some, I worked out a lot, I worked out a little.  I ate my target daily points, I ate less than my target points and here I sit, fluxing the same 15 lbs up and down.

Now there is something to be said about staying close to the same weight for a long period of time after having regained a bunch of weight, however I am not happy with this.  I wrote, I believe last time, maybe the time before, about how I am switching to VERY low carb, and gluten-free eating.  I would love to continue my Weight Watchers membership to get the meetings and the weigh in’s (I prefer to weigh in on someone else’s scale that doesn’t move around as opposed to mine that gets tossed in the closet after I weigh) however almost $50.00 a month is not worth getting on the scale 4 times.  I will miss seeing the excitement and progress others are making on their journeys, and I haven’t told anyone goodbye or why I am leaving.  I know my leader will be sad to see me go, but it isn’t working for me.

That after all is what this whole process is about. Finding what works for you, not what works for everyone else.  I can’t sit here and say, oh such and such worked for Emma and blah blah worked for Joe, because when it comes to these things, I am not them I am myself.  I have never been one to follow the crowd, actually that is something I pride myself on.  I may have my f2fpack, but I never run with the pack.  I follow my own drum and listen to what my body tells me is right.  I did far too much damage to my body when I was young by not eating enough thinking that was the only way.  Now with the wealth of knowledge available to me I know there are hundreds of ways to do things and I need to find what works for me.

I do know that tracking is the answer, however I think that tracking calories isn’t my answer. That led to a very dangerous world for me.  I know that when I track calories I become so hyper-focused on tracking every crumb and every morsel that it becomes a sickness.  I start to lose my grip on reality after a while.  It didn’t happen luckily when I was tracking points as much, but it was still there.  I think somewhere in my mind I just want so badly to succeed that I cannot let anything go.

I know that it takes time to get where I am going, and like everything worth doing it is worth doing well, and the right way.  So I bump along, wondering how anyone ever loses weight working full-time (50 hours a week minimum), squeezing in working out, and trying to maintain a relationship with loved ones, and friends.  It truly is no wonder I feel like I can’t ever catch up sometimes.

I find my center as I close my eyes, my bedtime is my time.  It is the commitment I make to myself.  It is the way I show myself respect, to let myself have rest.  When someone asks me how much sleep I got the night before I like to be able to answer 7 or 8 hours. I could take time from that to keep up with everyone else… but it is not worth the expense. I am doing what I need to do for me… and in the end, no one else can do this for me, or do it like me.

Cleaning House

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So in getting myself set up for success I am slowly cleaning all the crap out of my pantry.  I am coming to terms with the fact that I am better for listening to my body.  Fighting the transition is silly, embracing the change is the only logical and rational thing to do.  As I dump boxes of Fiber One bars into a Target bag, and throw 100 calorie packs, and 2-point weight watchers bars into bags to give away I am faced with a dilemma.

Is it better to throw this stuff out, or give it away? I sent some of my Weight Watchers products to new homes already.  Friends that I know like the products, but won’t likely over indulge in them.  I have some bars left in my car back in the trunk where I can’t just grab one peel it and shove it into my mouth without thinking about the consequences.

I bring bags of my stuff to the office, spread them out on the snack table and watch and people snatch things from it like it were a magical wonderland! Skittles, Special K Crackers, granola things, reduced fat peanut butter, cookies, all dumped there sitting there like a treasure trove.  All the things that I adore, all the things that I like because they came from my home.

The torture only lasts about a day or so per bag, In general free food won’t last long in my office.  I purged the pantry of the jar of biscoff cookie spread today… it is still sitting on the table… no one knows what to do with it… if noone eats it or takes it by tomorrow I will throw it away.  Am I doing the wrong thing by bringing these things to my office?  I can’t donate open packages to a food shelf so my other option really is to just throw them out.

I feel like I am feeding/enabling people to binge on food by bringing all of this stuff to the office.  I know there is one gentleman who works for us who can use the food, and always asks if it is okay for him to take an extra one for later.  He knows where all the free meals in the city are, he has had a hard life.  I feel for him, he is why I bring the food here… but I wonder if on some level I am not trying to make everyone else fat?  I know that isn’t my intention… but could it be??

I guess in the end I know I am doing what is best for me, and that is something I keep doing.  I am not going to force anyone to eat the snacks on the table, and I am content to toss them in the dumpster at the end of the day.  I am slowly setting up my home environment for success as things change.  Next step is to finish setting my work environment up.  I dug out my extra Brita pitcher, that will be coming here to work this week.  I don’t like the taste of city tap water, and my Bobble Bottle is great, but once it’s empty I have no cold water left.

I guess the phrase adapt or die comes to mind when I think about where I am on my path right now.  I certainly don’t want to go back to feeling like I did when I was 430 pounds, and I certainly know I don’t want to feel like crap.  So we put our heads down and push through and find the upside.  Bacon and dippy eggs for breakfast with a side of asparagus? Sounds like a silver lining to me!

Now I just have to finish the cabinet purge, get the community snack table cleared and I will be in the clear :D

Excitement

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So what makes my little bradycardic heart go pitter patter? When I find something new and

Lemon Plum, ripening

Lemon Plum, ripening

fun at the grocery store! Anything from a new product on the shelves or a new recipe I get excited! However it seems rare-er and rare-er these days that I find new fruits and veggies these days that I have never seen or heard of before.

This week I nearly lept over a few people to learn what this pictured fruit was.  More than the “Next great potato chip flavor” from Lays, or the latest new burger combo from Burger King I am googling to learn about this fruit!  I cannot wait to feel the flesh burst under my teeth and the juices flow into my mouth.  Perhaps it is more that I miss summer, and the juicy fruits and wealth of produce that it brings.  The wait to try this fruit is killing me!

I have had so much underwhelming produce lately it nearly breaks my heart.  The other night I ate some starchy bananas, that left my tongue sore. My grapes have been small and sour, my apples are mediocre and the ones I like, expensive.  I spend more money buying the better apples so that I will enjoy them, the Opal apples the Lady Alice apples even honey crisp apples, but they just aren’t up to snuff.  Strawberries and blueberries are okay, but not as good as can be, the quality is just so hit and miss with them.

I am ready for summer, farmers markets, the warm sunshine on my skin.  I am ready for the smell of fresh tomatoes, and … dirt. I am hopeful perhaps some of my friends with larger kitchen space will share their spaces this summer and let me come cook for them.  Let me amaze them with me culinary capabilities to wow everyone.  *shruggs*

Have you tried anything new lately? Is there something in season that I shouldn’t miss?  Do you have a favorite produce gem this time of year that I should be trying?  Frozen and canned seems to be the way to go in the winter… but I am Freezer Burnt here in Minnesota.

And Really Bad Eggs, or Not!

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So I have been bringing my food to work for a while, and not too long ago I had a disastrous experience with some eggs at work.  I made eggcups, where you prebake the eggs in muffin tins and just reheat them.  I filled the eggs with spinach and ham and all kinds of good things that I love in my eggs.  I was excited to have something great for breakfast at work… The first day I brought them… was the last day I brought them.  I spent the day nauseated.  I didn’t want to think about eating for days after.  I was indeed sick.  There was a myriad of things that contributed to my sicknedd I am sure, but the entire batch went into the garbage faster than I could imagine.

The past few weeks I have been wanting eggs for breakfast, I bought a few of those frozen breakfast bowl things from Jimmy Dean.  I had coupons from the paper, but Oh My they are waaay too expensive to make that any kind of realistic option to sustain.  I tried the turkey sausage one, which was really *meh* at best and the Ham Bowl.  *insert ham dance*  Now we all know how happy ham makes me… for some ungodly reason ham is like a food of the gods to me… it sings a happy song… (no muppets were harmed in the making of my breakfast, or my infamous pink fuzzy hat)

So this morning I decided to take my hand back at making an eggmug again.  I filled my Pyrex bowl with eggbeaters and a slice of ham (ham ham ham ham ham ham!!!!!) and a smattering of pepper and spices before I left the house and once things here at work settled down I got my bowl out and nuked it.

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While I am not going to win any awards for creativity with my breakfast today, no veggies in it lunch is just lettuce and asorted veggies, I get my hammy eggs for breakfast packed full of protein, and it was a whole lot cheaper than the near $3.00 that Jimmy Dean wanted to sock me for yesterday, and I know what is in my breakfast.  So far it is sitting just fine in my tummy and that makes me a happy camper.  Maybe my eggy mornings can make a return afterall!

One Breath, Because It’s Hard!

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Let’s be honest, my head is still swimming, or moreover my heart is still in overwhelm from Saturday.  The #OBOS events always hit me right in the chest.  I think it is because I let myself be vulnerable, because it is a necessary part of getting to the root of why I became 400+ pounds.  I think it is also crucial to helping others along the way.  So that being said, once again the topics covered hit right a bit too close to home, which of course were just what I needed.

Jen started out the morning having us close our eyes and raise our hands if we had felt recently that our journey was overwhelming or hard etc.  With my eyes closed, (but wanting to peek to know for sure) she assure us that we all had our hands raised.  I always secretly don’t want to raise my hand just to be “That Asshole”.  The point of the exercise isn’t about raising your hand anyway, it is about knowing that we are all there together, and I get that.  We all struggle, whether it is with motivation, or finding time to *whatever*.

Mary took over the conference just after that, and the topic she first brought up was, “Is being healthy hard?” Well, yeah! Duh! If it was easy there wouldn’t be the multi billion dollar pharmaceutical industry that exists, and the search for the magic-cure-all pill wouldn’t be happening.

This made me think about how we define healthy though.  Is healthy, the right weight, is it being fit, is it being off medications, is it fitting nicely in a box, or a certain definition?  It isn’t the same for everyone.  So it becomes very important for you to define your health your own way, and plan your goals and strategies the right way.

Mary started speaking about how sometimes our ideas and situations change, and that sometime the changes we make that are intended to be lasting changes aren’t always lasting changes.  For example, I joined the YWCA, it was awesome when I started out.  Since my new job started however it is not as convenient for me to work out there.  The hours are less convenient and I started using that as an excuse.  So my change to working out several days a week was no longer a part of my life.  This change didn’t last. Do I view this as a failure?  No Way!  This is a setback.

See, life is fluid, this is why all those checklists in magazines and 10-step’s to the perfect life type things don’t work out for any kind of long-term success.  You have to be prepared to be flexible and change your plans as life throws you a curveball.

Mary touched on a lot of things that I have come to on my own, but I have this problem… see I, like many of you I imagine, have these amazing moments of clarity and then they just pass, and I forget, or think perhaps they aren’t as great as I think they are.

Some examples of this are, Keeping an eye on “Your Bottom” line.  This is mostly about maintaining weight, but also pertains to when you are stuck in a plateau.  If you get comfortable in a place you become complacent.  Think oh it’s okay I am staying within these 2-lbs so it isn’t a big deal.  My lifestyle is changing and I am not.

I JUST went through this, I started my new job, and I wasn’t going to the gym because I was just plain exhausted, but I was eating the same.  The scale creeps around, and before you know it things are headed in a bad direction FAST.  You always need to be pushing the envelope, not necessarily to lose weight, but keep your eyes on the prize at all times.

Remember setbacks are going to happen, this is a part of life! They happen to everyone! Everyone falls, get back up, keep moving forward. You need to be prepared for this.  Remember everything takes practice which means that everything that you are doing is practice! So be prepared with a backup plan, know what tools you like, and what tools in your arsenal work best for you and use them.  Also be on the lookout for new things to try.

Did you read that…

Everyone falls, get back up. Keep moving forward. Falling is not failure. Failure is giving up, not getting up.

These words are a gift to you.  Let them sink in.  You need to remember them.

Another important thing to remember is that it is important when trying to do anything, whether it is lose weight or run a marathon, that you have to be doing it for the right reasons.  The right reason for me isn’t the right reason for you, and if you aren’t doing it for the right reasons you aren’t going to find lasting success.  That class reunion that you want to look awesome for, what happens when you go, and no one cares that you lost all that weight from when you were 15?  What happens after you break up with that girlfriend that had been making you go to the gym or train for that 5k?  Was the reason that you wanted whatever it was yours or theirs?  You can’t do it for someone else, you can only do it for yourself.  Looking back on my life, I WISH someone could have stopped me before I got to the point in my life where I knew I was going to die.

There were so many dark days in my life where I was so miserable, depressed, in so much pain, and I thought I was at rock bottom, and I just kept going down.  There are also so many people in my life who I see, and I want to push to rock bottom so that I can help build them back up, and make them want to save their own lives.  Sadly all I can do is offer a hand up when the time is right and hope that I can inspire them by doing what I need to and want to for my own reasons.  I got a taste of what I like to call the good life and I know what I want now.

Nike says “there is no finish line.” Which I totally agree with.  When it comes to things like living a healthy active life there will ALWAYS be something to do, try or achieve, however this brings up a great point… when there is no finish something is not a race which means it is perfectly acceptable to go at your own pace!  While at times I feel as thought I am sprinting towards my own goals, there are other times where I feel as thought I am sitting still on the track and lately I feel as thought I have turned around and am headed in the wrong direction altogether I need to be reminded that this isn’t a race.  The path I am on may have a loop or two but if I keep moving forward I will make progress.  Baby steps are still steps, I just need to keep making them.

One super alarming statistic that I heard during the event was that if you do not act on a new idea or concept within 48 hours there is a 50% chance that you will NEVER act on it.  This wasn’t surprising, as much as alarming… and I suppose it is very true.  This is why it was SO IMPORTANT that I act on switching my gym before I just decide to keep sitting around of going and using the hours as an excuse to not go!  When I first joined the gym in 2009 it was also an ACT NOW moment.  I drove past, and thought… I should probably check that out sometime… pulled a U-turn and headed back.  Enough waiting… if life has tought me nothing more it is that time is precious and it shouldn’t be wasted.  If you want something you MUST go after it… and don’t wait!

There was a bit of talk about setting goals, and knowing what goals actually are.  I personally really like the idea of setting up “S.M.A.R.T.” Goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely)  and I think that is what Mary was trying to get at in her discussion about pushing for deeper goals that allow you to form strategies with them. For example, I want to be healthy is an extremely vague goal.  However I want to get off of my blood pressure medicine by losing 15 pounds is a much more specific measurable goal.  With those things you can then formulate a plan of attack with diet and exercise.  Make lists of a few things to try, keep trying, and you will make progress on these goals and before you know it your goals become a reality!

Sometimes you have to learn to accept that your lifestyle isn’t going to match what your goals are, and something has to change.  Each situation you are in presents an opportunity for you to learn something.  You always have the opportunity to take something away from a situation, and it is your job to figure out what you are going to take away from it.  Sometimes it is very easy to spot what you are taking away from an interaction or situation.  Every interaction with a person or people can teardown or create a new level to your relationship, so be sure that you are doing all you can be, be present in that moment to foster what you want from that relationship, and this includes the relationship you have with yourself.  Don’t treat yourself poorly!

You need to acknowledge your feeling, learn to see them, feel them and lost of all how important it is to accept them.  It is perfectly okay and acceptable to feel sadness, or frustration, even regret is an acceptable emotion, everything you feel is okay as long as you let yourself feel it!  You know what is not okay?  Letting yourself eat these feelings,

Smart Choices

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So Monday night I had the pleasure of dining out at a restaurant I don’t often frequent. Olive Garden Dun Dun Dun…..  Talk about walking into a caloric nightmare right?  Never ending-anything are not words a dieting person should be around!  Surrounded by bread sticks galore, cheesy sauces, and an appetizer list that is fried item after fried item it used to be very tricky to navigate the landscape of their menu.  It was much easier to just avoid this place!

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the calorie content of each item was listed on the menu!  Plain as day but unobtrusive, it made the selections of my dinner items much easier than pulling out my listings of food that I would have pre-printed out looked up before hand. As we all evaluated our options I looked at things I had ordered in the past, and was pleased to see that some of my favorite items were on the lower calorie end of the spectrum!  The mushroom appetizer that I would often make my meal of was a great choice!  The general consensus was that having the nutrition info on the menu was AWESOME! It won’t dissuade you from ordering something that you want, if you want it.  However it can guide you towards a better choice if you are looking for one.

Personally I went with something middle of the road caloricly speaking.  I opted for the Parmesan Crusted Tilapia.  I don’t often eat fish, other than sushi so I figured this would be a nice choice, it was buttery and delicious!  I looked at my choices of salad or soup, and seeing the stats on their salad, with the dressing I knew I wanted soup.  Not to mention I am a soup fanatic!  (I can’t wait to get home to my freezer full of homemade soup!)

I looked at the dessert menu, just to see what the caloric counts were, and oh my god, seeing just how many calories (920!) were in the Zeppoli was enough to deter me! Those little pillows of heaven, which I have never had at Olive Garden, but have had many times made from scratch called to me, but not so loudly that I couldn’t send them packing!

So as the changes to restaurant menus continue I am pleased to see people being receptive to them.  I know there is and was much apprehension about it however I think if people aren’t ordering the super-high calorie items off the menu’s simply because they are seeing the cold hard facts about the item then maybe there will be a shift to more development of healthy flavorful lower calorie foods.

This is only the second restaurant I have seen with the calorie content printed right on the menu.  The other one was a Ruby Tuesday, and I haven’t seen it at all Tuesday’s.  I look forward to this being rolled out as part of the reform package.  I think it is going to open a lot of eyes.

What do you think?  Have you come across many menu’s with calorie info right on them?  What do you think of them?  Do you support being an informed consumer?  I certainly like not having to go to the web to find out all the info all the time!

I Challenge You!

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So as those holiday months of nonstop eating have started, the end of year battle of the bulge that leads to all of those famous New Years resolutions.  Those resolutions that so many people make year after year to go to the gym more, to lose weight (but never making a measurable goal) are always going to be made.  How are you doing on last years resolutions, or commitments to yourself?

It is too early for me to be jumping on the New Year New You bandwagon, we aren’t even to Thanksgiving.  What I wanted to remind you of today is that so often during the holidays we pile our plates full of food with no regard to how things look.  Pile on a few slices of turkey, and a small scoop of this and a tablespoon of that.  Three bites of stuffing and just a taste of grandma’s corn and soon your plate becomes a sloppy mess.  Perhaps it is a bit of the fact that I am one of those people who dislikes my food to touch unless I decide that it should and I am mixing it in a certain proportion.

SaladNomsSo perhaps now is the best time to start a new habit.  Eat with your eyes first.  We have all heard, without a doubt, hundreds of times that you eat with your eyes first.  I know it takes time to make your plate look pretty.  It takes time to make your plate look good, set your table, and set the ambiance of your dining area.  Did you know that I think you are worth the time it takes to do those things?  So my challenge to you is the same one that I am undertaking for myself.  Make your food look good!

Take photos of your awesome plates of food, and perhaps share your recipes along the way!  How long are you willing to try to go?  One day? Twenty-four hours? 7, 14, 30-days? Part of what taking the time to make your food look better will do for you is allow you to connect with your food.  It allows all of your senses to become immersed in the experience of enjoying the meal.  It will help you feel more full and it will extend the length of time you deem as your meal time.

So no more sloppy plates! Think Top Chef, Iron Chef, and any of those cooking shows we all watch.  You are getting hunger satisfaction points for presentation! What do you say?  Give it a shot!

My food pictured above was a salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, peppers, banana peppers, onions, cucumbers, egg, blue cheese crumbles, Cholula hot sauce, and Gardein brand vegetarian chicken wings

Did The Orange Monster Get You Yet?

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Gossamer and Bugs Bunny in Hair-Raising Hare.

Monster On Your Back

So You made it through the last week at your office, resisting the brownies topped with candycorns. You avoided those mello-creme pumpkins right, because what exactly is that stuff?Did you run the Monster dash Saturday morning? 5k, Half-marathon, marathon? If you did I want you to give yourself a big high-5! I wished that any of the costumed 5k events in the twin cities had been on a Saturday this year because I would have loved to come out to do one of them. Sadly my job didn’t allow for switching around this weekend to get my run on. Did Saturday night prove to be harder? Did you party with friends and have a beer or two and then a slice of pizza? How about those tiny candy bars? Chips, popcorn, pretzels? I hope you managed to avoid those tricks!

So Sunday is upon us right? We are almost through this blasted sugar fueled holiday weekend right? What are you doing today to keep yourself from breaking into that candy for the trick-or-treaters. Are you refraining from buying candy at all? Have you waited until the last moment and are picking it up on the way home from work tomorrow? Are you going to be that one house on the block that gives our raisins? By the way, I loved your house as a kid! (Although I hear that sets you up to get egged which I don’t understand). I live in an apartment building, and since I moved here in 2005 not a single soul has knocked on my door. I have candy in the house, I almost always have candy in the house. Luckily I am not super into chocolate, it isn’t one of my trigger foods. I have had the same bag of Milky Way Simply Caramel bars for a while. They are about 100 calories a piece. I don’t have to feel guilty having a piece here or there as long as I am tracking what I eat.I also find it helpful to keep a copy of Hungry Girl’s Halloween candy guide 2011 around this time of year just incase I decide to indulge in a piece or two and know what I am in for. It isn’t a comprehensive list, and let’s be honest we aren’t really shoving that much candy into our mouths are we because we know just how long it takes to work off 100 calories in the gym! Remember once those kids are done ringing your doorbell on Monday night it is time to get rid of that candy if it truly is a temptation for you! There are a lot of options that don’t include making yourself a dumpster. You can cover the candy in dishsoap if you have to if that is the only way to keep you from eating it. There is also the ever popular take it to work which only increases the temptation to eat it there. You can also look around in your area for places to donate it! Locally there is a dentist buying kids candy for $1.00/pound, you can donate your candy there. Many homeless shelters, and women’s shelters will take that candy too, some schools might even take it. Another option is to donate it to our military. I know over the years I have sent countless bags of leftover candy that I collected to our troops overseas. Some is consumed but it is often distributed to people in the areas they are in to help form better relationships. Not a bad way to get rid of something you don’t really want around right?So I hope you all continue to be strong through the remainder of the kickoff of the “eating holidays” I make my return to the gym today for Week5 Day1 of #c25k today… first run since my 1mile victory. I am scared but not terrified. Should be an awesome thing to keep seeing my improvement.

Happy Halloween!
Tigger2011

Pizza Par-Tay!

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So once upon a time in a land far far away, there was a girl who was often left off of the invite list for birthday parties, and social gatherings.  In fact there were people who went out of their way to univite her to parties where “everyone” was welcome.  Think things like school dances etc and you start to get the picture.   (Secret truth here in the trust tree, that girl was me).

As I got older I tried hosting my own parties, trouble was people would say yes and then back out and not show up leaving me all alone late into the night waiting.  It sucked.  Now I jump at the chance to hang out with my friends.  Wednesday night I had the opportunity to attend a girls night.  It was nothing formal, a few friends gathering for dinner.  A MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA DINNER!

HealthyPizzaToppings1Okay I am so lame but I get excited when it comes to things like this.  I love to cook.  I love mixing ingredients and coming up with fun unique flavor combinations to see how they work.  There was a plethora of options for toppings, everything from traditional Pizza Sauce from Trader Joes, to Franks Red Hot (which is the “sauce” I opted for) to pineapple and shredded chicken! Talk about awesome!
One of the things that I enjoy about the make your own pizza nights, whether you are having it as a party or in your own home is that everyone gets involved and everyone gets what they like!  For example I am not a big fan of bell peppers, so I don’t have to have them on my pizza.  I can however have a pineapple tomato and hot sauce pizza which was SO GOOD!  I made each of my tiny pizzas a little different.  Some chicken some veggies, all with hot sauce because well… I like my hot sauce.  I opted for only having three of the four portions of the sandwich thins that Jen put out for me because I knew that it would be enough for me.  I didn’t feel uncomfortable making or eating my food during the evening which is a huge step for me!

MyCreationYou eat with your eyes first, well how does it look?  I had a little bit of color splashed in there.  Some zucchini and spinach in there, pineapple olives.  YUM!

What I really enjoyed was how comfortable the whole night was.  For so much of my life food has been almost a shameful experience for me.  Even though I never truly ate to excess it was always something I never wanted to be involved in with people.  It was not a pleasant experience.  I don’t think or feel that I wanted to eat in secret, I just didn’t want to eat around others.  I didn’t want to be judged for my choices.  I didn’t want people thinking, oh this is what she is going to eat here and you know as soon as she leaves or we leave she is going to inhale some more.  Even as far back as childhood I remember making excuses not to have to eat around people.  So the fact that at no point during the evening did I get the urge to “run” from my food or hide the fact that I wanted to needed to eat it was a very big victory for me.

I see that I am growing and changing and I think it is a good sign for my future.  I know that there has got to be some psychological problem based in the fact that I wouldn’t eat in front of people but I am getting through it.  Everyone eats… unless you are sick… and that isn’t healthy. There is nothing wrong with properly fueling your body and that is one of the biggest reminders I got from having dinner with my friends last night.

Group1

Look at these Happy Ladies

So thank you Jen for being our host, and Ann, Jen, Kat and Mer for being a part of a great night for me!  each outing I have with any and all of you ladies helps shape my future self just a bit more and reminds me of how far I have come, how strong I am and can be.  It also reminds me that I can do anything I put my mind to.

You can view the whole slideshow from the party if you like!