Stress!

I was just reading an article on how stress is a leading cause of obesity and I can really see why based on the elements in my own life lately. While I haven't 'gained' weight, because it is still always on my mind, I haven't lost a pound in the last four months either. The stress levels in our house right now are huge. Another big kill for stress is relationships. Luckily my relationship with my husband is strong and hard to break (considering all the stress our marriages has gone through over the past 25 years our bond has to be made of steel). When it comes to weight though, stress releases hormones in the system that increase desire to eat, and destroy the metabolism all at the same time. They say this current generation is the fattest ever, and considering the stress levels in our fast-paced society it isn't hard to see why.


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Time is the Enemy

I'm not talking about age, I'm talking about time as in enough time in the day. Everything is so rushed that it is hard at times to concentrate on not only preparing well-balanced, good meals as opposed to the quick stop at McD's, but to even 'think' about what you are putting in your mouth at all.

Have you had that happen? I'm sure you have. Just about everyone has at least at some point. A time where you just know you are hungry, or it is time to eat, and you grab anything and shove it in because you are in a hurry and you don't even think about it.
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Another problem with that is you actually have a tendancy at those times to forget you even ate.

How many times, be honest now, have you sat down to eat a meal, and I am talking about when you really finally get to sit down, say at dinner, and while you are grabbing spoonfuls of potatoes, or a big slab of meat, you say "I haven't eatten anything all day". Sometimes that may well be true (not a good thing either for different reasons) but a whole lot of the time it isn't. You just simply forgot that little single serving bag of chips you grabbed at the checkout counter, or the toast and butter you hurried out the door with that morning.

Time can really sabotage a good diet plan.

Be careful to take the time every time you grab someting to notice it, think about it, and log it into your memory.

Sciatic Pain is a in the Butt!

Over the winter I combated several injuries. One due to working out to hard at a really high weight, I knew I was doing it (or rather over-doing it) but I couldn't stop myself, lol. Another from a farm-related accident, oh well, it happens. And yet one more that just defied explaination. How exactly you can dislocate your elbow IN YOUR SLEEP is kind of beyond me, but I did it... then again a couple years ago I sprained my ankle just by rolling it in bed... yeah, for some people the one place they can feel is safe is in bed... lol, not me. And don't get any funny ideas about how it happened either, the injuries never happen during 'that'. LOL

Everything is much better now except for ONE. I still have a horrible case of psciatica (think I spelled that right, not sure). OH man it is bad. I just can't get rid of it. I don't really know how. I've read so many articles. They all seem to have a different approach to it, but they all agree on one thing... it takes TIME. UGH

It's really hard to exercise with this problem. Now some articles say exercise is good for it even if it hurts... but the nagging fear that it could do more damage (read above where I said I knew I was doing the wrong thing back at the beginning but couldn't stop myself) I'm afraid that I'll make the problem worse instead of better.

I'm no real stranger to long-term injury. A few years ago I had a horrible bout with a heal spur. It took months for it to go away and the pain was horrible. The difference was I KNEW what a heal spur was, what created it, and even how it happened, so I was able to understand the healing process.

I don't really understand psciatica. I have little clues and ideas about it, but I am not completely sure what exactly causes it, how it heals, how long it will take, or most of all, what I did exactly to bring it on.

I've always had a bad back (mostly due to heavy weight problems) and I've always worked hard to makesure I didn't do 'stupid' things to throw it out, but I've never had THIS problem before. Before if I threw my back out, I knew how to rest, treat it, even if it meant going to the doctor for pills, it would get better and I'd be on my way again. This pain is weird, it isn't as incapacitating as throwing out your back. I can still move around, do all my normal things... just accompanied by a lot of pain. I think it's worse really though. I mean while throwing out your back leaves you laid up for days, even weeks, this just nags at you for months on end.

If anyone has ever had psciatica (please excuse the misspelling if it's not right, lol, it's a funky word). Let me know what you did, or didn't do, lol. And if it got better for you.

Attack of the Midnight Munchies!

Back before I started on this new journey I used to have a terrible time with eating in the middle of the night. Not just eating when I stayed up late, but waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep until I ate something. I had pretty much kicked that habit until these last two weeks.

All the stress I think has me falling back into that old habit. I still make myself count the calories, and add them to the next day's intack limit, BUT it makes getting through the next day just that much harder to stay in bounds. UGH.

If the constant bombardment of things going wrong would just stop, maybe that would too, but since life has a way of always finding new ways to aggravate us (me lol) I think getting the tendancy to eat in the middle of the night when I'm stressed under control is a better solution than waiting for things to not be stressful. :)

Can't Get Rid of the Hunger

I wrote up a huge post yesterday about the difficulty i was having the day before, just eating like crazy, and then lost the post when I tried to post it.

The other day I just couldn't stop myself. For the first time in the 9 months I've been doing this new lifestyle I was completely out of control.

I really don't know why it was. Maybe all the stress. I suppose it's not really that big of a thing. I usually give myself one day a month to eat what I want, without restraint. It was more of a mental thing because I didn't 'allow' this, I just kept losing control. Thankfully yesterday was back on track, and today seems to be, so maybe it was just a 'it happens' type thing.

I was a little afraid to go near a scale yesterday morning though, lol. Luckily it wasn't a weigh in day. I'm going to have to deal with whatever fallout there might be from that day on Wednesday though.

The picture above, which I tried to put on my disappearing post yesterday too is a litter of barn kittens, I just got a kick out of how the mom is a gray tabby and 4 of the babies look just like her, and then she has one 'oddball'. We call him garfield. LOL

Got That Chocolate Craving?

Do you crave chocolate? I know I do. There are a lot of people that really crave it all the time, but I mostly just need a chocolate fix during 'that time' of the month. Still, it's been something I've avoided since starting my new lifestyle here.

Yesterday I just needed it.

I decided to look while I was at the store and see if I couldn't come up with an alternative to the high calorie sugar packed chocolate foods. I've tried chocolate flavored Yoplait Whipped yogurts in the past. That doesn't do it for me. I'm not fond of the super whipped type of yogurt (tastes too much like fluffy air to me) and the actual taste of chocolate in those just isn't enough to satisfy my needs when I get hit with those cravings. Not too mention they are rather high in calories as yogurts go. Of course, actual candy is out. Even if you only eat the very very small amount you might be able to squeeze into a daily calorie allowance it's loaded with sugar. Same with cakes, cookies, and cereals that are chocolate flavored... so I wasn't sure what I was going to do about this need for chocolate until I was picking up some of the sugar free jello I usually get.

I make that a couple times a week as a desert and for ten calories a serving (you can eat the whole danged prepared package for only 40 calories if you really want) it's a good no sugar snack that tastes just sinful enough to make a sweet tooth happy. Up until yesterday I really had't looked at the puddings. I mean, puddings are just out, you know? But I happened to glance at them, longingly as I saw the chocolate box and realized the puddings too have a fat free/sugar free offering. Hum.. maybe. I read the back and made a quick consideration. One serving (4 to a box) is about 80 calories prepared with skim milk. Hey, that's not too bad. Really, it's even less than most light yogurts and it's CHOCOLATE.

Okay, I decided to pick up two boxes. When I got home, after having a nice dinner of steamed Tilipia (not sure if I spelled that right, but it's a DECLICOUS fish) and asparagus, I opened the package of pudding. I went to get the milk out of the fridge and as I stood there contemplating the idea of 80 calories for about a 1/2 cup of pudding I started to think (always dangerous I admit that)... if I made the pudding with water instead of milk it would only be 25 calories for the same amount (according to the package, unprepared chocolate pudding is 25 calories per serving). I put the milk back and decided to give the idea a try.

What could happen?

It would suck and I had wasted an 85 cent package of pudding.

I still had one package left to make it the right way. I poured 2 cups of cold water into a bowl and mixed in the pudding. Okay, it's NOT pudding. It gets a degree of thick, but it's more like soupy chocolate. It works for me! LOL It still tastes fine. Not as creamy, true, but it tastes like CHOCOLATE, and it's only 25 calories. I could eat two servings and still only be eating 50 calories and have a really really nice satisfying way to curb that chocolate craving when I need it. Heck I could really splurge and eat the whole thing for only 100 calories (the same as a light yoplait). I didn't though. I split the box (50 calories) and gave the other half to my son.

I am even thinking now of trying it using double the water for a chocolate drink next time. Sort of like the old 'yoohoo' you could buy (basically chocolate water) but much less calories per glass. So if you really crave chocolate and don't want a whole lot of calories, and better yet, no fat or sugar... give it a try. I am really happy with my little discovery.

Time Really Does Fly

So much is going on here at my place that time is just flying by. Old injuries from last fall/winter are healing well, although the back/hip one still gives me trouble, it's not nearly as bad as it had been. A recent fall threatened to re-injure my elbow (yes, yes, I'm a clutz, tripped on a palette unloading hay), and it hurt like it was going to be bad for a day, but then, thankfully went away. That would have sucked becasue that elbow injury last winter was horrible. My mother-in-law has cancer and is going through chemo. She lives an hour and a half away so I can't be of much help to her, but her two daughters that live up in the area don't do a thing at all, leaving all the errands, doctor's trips, and daily care of my MIL to my husband. Luckily he works up in that area so it's not like he has to go from here to there all the time, but it DOES mean he's not here hardly at all right now. It's been hard because this is one of THE most busy times on a farm--spring--new babies. As you can see in the picture, I've been busy, and things are 'jumpin' here with new babies arriving constantly. Doing all the chores, and kidding by myself has been difficult, but I keep telling myself 'this too shall pass', and it will. I'm getting close!!! I am only 9 pounds away from my second goal of 100 pounds lost. I'm WEARING JEANS... A couple weeks ago I was FINALLY able to fit back into a pair of jeans I hadn't been able to wear in over EIGHT years! Rummaging through my closet thurned up 2 more pair, and I haven't worn sweatpants since!!! Oh what a joy such a simple thing is, to be able to wear jeans again. I have also found I can fit into several pairs of dress pants that I hadn't been able to wear in years. So, suffice it to say that although it has been falling off slower than it did in the first few months (lost 75 pounds in 4 months at the start) it HAS been coming off, usually 1 - 2 pounds a week, which although I'd love to have kept up the pace of earlier, I'm thrilled with anyway, and actually know it's safer. I had gone through an almost 2 month plateau and didn't even have my cycle at the time (actually thought I might even be pregnant, went to the doctor and everything, lol--huge sigh of relief wasn't that, haha). The doctor did say that it was probably due to the huge/fast weight loss of those first four months, and that I should just keep doing what I was doing and it would start up again, but I should be more careful and try to take it slower. So I kept at it, and it did finally jump start again, and yes, on it's own gone slower, I'm still doing what I was before. You know though, back a month or so ago I would have complained a lot about going slower, but since I can fit into these jeans, and dress pants, and am daily finding other things I can once again wear, and I'm feeling GREAT about myself and the way things are--while I still want to get to my final goal--I'm fine with it going slowly. :)

Daily Workouts

Well, although Annie in my picture up there looks like it's her that gets the workout while she plays in my spare room (gotta love the bottle babies that pic is actually from last year when I had 4 --- yes 4 bottle babies in the house) it's really me who gets the work out with these guys. I didn't even bother with an excercise 'routine' today. I did feet. Trimming a goat's feet requires dexterity, strength, timing, and prayers that you won't cut off their entire hoof (or one of your fingers). Actually the ones I usually expect to give me trouble, and put my back out of commission were perfect angels today, and the ones that are usually no trouble at all decided to put on a rodeo on the grooming stand. I'm going to ache tomorrow in ways no exercise workout could possibly cause. Hey, for the record, farming is great exercise, anyone want a free 'spa' membership? All you have to do is muck out stalls, cart around 60# hay bales, fight off hungry goats with a loaded grain bucket, and tackle wiggly kids as they attempt to squirm out of your grasp while you try to do any number of fun things like tattooing (added bonus, you will look like you have green gloves on all week from the ink). Apply inside.

We're All Big Losers

Okay, before you get the wrong impression (lol) it's not a only lost one pound thread... I did my mid-week weigh in this morning, and after a few weeks 'stuck' at 255 I FINALLY broke that plateau and lost FOUR pounds!!!

Okay, so I'm sure you're asking what I'm belly-aching about, and what the 'one measly pound' title is all about: I'll tell you. I'm ONE POUND.. ONE MEASLY POUND away from my second goal (and half way point to final goal)! Why does it always seem to happen like that. My first goal was to lose 50 pounds... when I weighed in right before that, I was ONE pound away from it, and it took me all week to get rid of that last little pound so i could finally say I'd made my first goal, and lost 50 pounds.

Now here I am, straining to touch that 100 pound mark... it's been slow the last few months--winter, some injuries, etc, but I've been happily going on just feeling good about myself and how much better I feel, and how I can fit into clothes I hadn't been able to wear in years... but aaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhh when I weighed in this morning I was like, omg, I lost four pounds... but eek, why couldn't I have gotten that final pound so I could say YAY, I made my second goal, and I've lost ONE HUNDRED POUNDS!!!

Oh well, lol, next week. :) I read the article on here about the biggest loser and how we can learn lessons from the show. That is my all time favorite show, and I loved the points the article made. It's so true. I think that's why I love the show so much, it validates what I'm going through, and gives me strength seeing what they go through, and that it's not just 'me'. Just like this fabulous place, it helps to know that others stuggle with the same issues, and we can hold each other up through the good, the bad, and the ugly days, and cry and rejoice with each other over the highs and lows of our emotional and physical journies. So hugs to you all, and we're all great BIG LOSERS!!! :)

No Time To Blow My Diet

This day started out on a bad note and kept getting worse. First off, the other day I got a high speed Internet connection--yay--but my husband wasn't home to hook up the router and get his laptop on it. No problem, he bought a router while at work, and brought it home with him last night. First thing this morning we hooked it all up and----it didn't work.

So, several hours online with tech support from the Internet company trying to help us set up the router and laptop and---nothing. Now, through the years of computer operation, I've learned one thing, I'm sure the same lesson anyone who has dealt with any type of computer over the years has learned, they are a pain in the butt--but this was areal hair puller. So, the final idea the tech support had was return the router. Perhaps it was faulty.

Sigh. Okay, we returned the router.

While in the store at the checkout counter we hear an announcement for the personwith the Chevy Silverado license plate (something somthing something and a letter). I look at my hubby. Is that us? He shrugged. Neither of us knew the plate number of our truck because we'd only had it ONE MONTH.

There should be a law against anything bad happening to a brand new automoble. There had to be a hundred Chevy Silverado's out there. This is farm country, everyone owns trucks, and that is top choice around here. He looked at me and said, hope the truck didn't get hit. I gave him a wry, yeah right look, but something inside me said, you better go look. So I slid past him as he waited in line and walked out of the store.

Halfway down the parking aisle I saw it. Oh boy, he was NOT going to be happy. I headed back inside and went to the service desk. I said did you just page the owner of the Chevy Silverado, the lady said yes and motioned for a customer standing there who proceeded to proclaim she'd seen who hit our truck. Now of all the bad things, I have to say I'm very thankful that there are kind people still willing to help a stranger in this world. After all, so many people would have seen the accident and just said to themselves, wow, that sucks and kept going. The lady proceeded to give me the license plate number and make and color of the car that hit us. She said she saw them stop after they hit the truck, look at the damage, and then high-tail it out of there. So the cashier behind the service desk called the police, gave them all the info the nice witness got and they came out. While filling out the report, a call came over the radio. The officer answered and spoke a moment, then looked at us, asked us to move up to an empty area of the lot to wait for the person in the other vehicle. The cops had tracked her down and she was on her way back to the parking lot.

Anyway, okay, an hour delay later and we got back home, plugged in the new router--sigh--yep, you guessed it. Still didn't work. So, he brought his laptop into my office and hard plugged into the internet. That worked, but it sort of defeats the purpose of having a wireless laptop. And now, I'm having keyboard issues. No particular key, but any of them seem to occassionally skip as I type, and I have to constantly correct as I type. I'm not going to ask if it could get any worse. On an upnote--yes, I can find a silver lining in anything--

I sure couldn't 'blow' my diet today. I've been too busy running around, and trying to get things working to eat hardly anything.

I Had a Dream

I had to know this was coming. It's happened before on diets. Maybe I figured that since this isn't a 'diet' it's a lifestyle, and I've been doing it for three months now, that I might have 'dodged the bullet'... but no.

I had a dream last night.

A dream of Hostess Cupcakes, midnight snack raids, and all those delicious sales at the supermarket, you know the ones, Hostess products 2 boxes for five bucks, or whatever, lol. I woke up very early this morning, I went to bed kind of early last night, and I had to sit up on the edge of the bed and think for a moment... did I actually eat a cupcake? No that would be impossible unless I'd actually gotten up, got dressed, and drove 30 miles to the closes all night store because we don't have any of that stuff in the house. So no... whew... it was a dream.

Sleepy Diet

Something very few people really consider as an important aspect of their diet is sleep.

Most of us know that sleep is important to us health wise, but it's overlooked as something that effects our metabolism and ability to lose, or maintain weight. If you are not getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night, your body thinks you are in a famine and have to 'work harder, and longer' to find food.

Whenever your body thinks there is a famine related problem going on (and mentally telling yourself that's not the case does not trick it into believing you) it puts a halt on expending the body's fat reserves.

The effect: slow metabolism, no weight loss, and depending on what you're actually eating, possibly even weight gain.

Get your sleep, get healthy.

Fast Weight Loss Secret?

I got an idea for this post from the search engine words someone used to click on here. The words were

"Easiest way to lose weight over forty"

Okay, here's the simple, if not pleasant answer:

There is no EASY way to lose weight. All the promises and statements put out by pharmaceutical companies aside, it just doesn't work that way. Fact is, if you DO lose it 'easy' by taking drugs, or other means, it is probably going to come back.

Why?

The answer to that is simple too. YOU haven't changed a thing. You haven't learned, or re-trained your body to do things 'right'. So you go right back to the same old, same old, and the weight comes piling back on--usually, as it happens, with added friends (more pounds).

The myth, however, is that it's HARDER after forty.

No matter what the 'facts' presented, it just isn't really true. The body works much the same at 40, 50, and beyond as it ever did. It's just plain HARD to lose weight no matter what age. If that weren't true then there would be no 20 year olds with weight problems. No teens that weight over 300 pounds... etc...

If losing weight were easier for younger people, they wouldn't be in weight loss programs online or otherwise. They want to lose weight too, and their complaints are the same as any of us 'old foggies' are.

It's HARD to lose weight. What makes it hard is the fact that we have developed or learned bad habits through our lives, regardless of if it started in our youth, or as we got older, and now we have to retrain those processes to do it healthy.

It's HARD because it's NOT fast. We're an impatient bunch. Often we just say, the heck with it, when the pounds don't fly off and disappear in a week, or a month, or even two... not really fair to your body. It probably didn't get there in a week, or a month, or even two... it's a life long process, and it's not something you do and then stop doing once you reach a 'goal'. That's why 'diets' fail.

Diets are something you stop.

Well, if you stop, and go back to eating the way you did before you began the 'diet'... guess what--yep, it all comes back (with those pesky friends).

There is no easy, there is only healthy and fit, and learning a new lifestyle that works for you, and your body.

Novel's in Print

Okay, I know this isn't on the subject of weight loss but I'm excited about it anyway. My novels Hell's Own, and Big Money are now available in either print, or ebook versions!!!

Click on the cover of Hell's Own, or Big Money to visit their websites.

Or click here to visit the Hell's Own website

Click here to visit Big Money's website

New WebSite

I have a new google page on the subject of weight loss and health over 40. Primarily at the moment it's a lead in to here on the blog but I hope to update it some more with other interesting articles and videos and such I find along the way too, so stop by once in awhile and see what's up on that page too. Click here to visit.

By the way, Google pages are free, and easy to make for anyone interested in putting up a web page online and not having the real time, or even technical abiity to start their own site. It's WIYSIWYG (which means 'What You See Is What You Get') which makes it simple and fast. NO donwloading of big programs, it's all done right on the browser screen. Pretty cool. I've built quite a few pages, and websites using various methogs and this one is nice for a quick and easy solution to putting a page online.

The Great Water Debate

On some of the weight loss forums I belong too one subject frequently comes up--how much water is necessary to drink, and --- and here's the big question -- does it HAVE to be just plain water?

I am not an expert. I can only say what does or does not work for me. I feel like my dieting is successful thus far, and what I can say is that on past 'diets' I've always adhered to the premise that you need to drink as much water as you can stomach, and ONLY water, not tea, coffee, pop, etc. The real reason being that you are attempting to clean out the impurities from your system, flush your kidneys, and all that, and while all of the liquids we drink during the day, and even the liquids contained in foods we eat if they are not 'pure water' are only adding impurities into our system in addition to the water so it's not really cleaning out.

Now I said that was in the past.

If I were to be truthful, I STILL believe the above. The BEST water is PLAIN water.

It really DOES flush out the system, clean out the kidneys, and does it better because you aren't putting more impurities in there while trying to clear it all out.

However, lately I've been really slack in the water department. I still try to drink 8 - 12 oz a day of just plain water, but sometimes I even fall short on that. Where in past diets, and even in the beginning of this 'lifestyle' change, I drank upwards of 64 oz of water a day--yes a gallon or MORE a day of just plain water, and I believe it's a good idea, it just isn't happening lately.

My weight loss hasn't really suffered. I'm still losing weight. So... if the question only pertains to is it necessary to drink only PURE water to lose weight, my answer would be no. Lots of fluids YES, but it doesn't have to be water.

It's said that caffeinated products increase your appetite, so even if you do not drink pure water stay away from caffeinated products... um, well it doesn't work that way for me. I drink tons of coffee and it still has the same effect.

However, it's a good idea -- in my opinion to clean your system out periodically. How often you do it is up to you, and when doing that, I STILL maintain that PURE water is the way to go


PS-this would have been posted yesterday, I had it all typed up, but my brand new wonderful high-speed server went down and stayed down all day today as well until now when they graciously gave me a dial-up number (ick).

Then it would seem that this post just wasn't meant to be, because Blogger didn't let me post it just a minute ago. Here's crossing my fingers for this time.

Feel free to jump in and comment on any posts, and what you think on the subjects.

Welcome

Hi, and welcome.

My name is Tami, and I am over 40. Right smack in the middle of my 40's to be exact, until June when I start to go over that hump and turn 46. In the last nine months I've lost over 105 pounds. No I didn't have a baby. In fact, to lose that much it would have had to be a small adult. It was all thanks to a common sense way of learning to live healthier.

Notice I didn't say diet.

Let's consider 'diet' to be a dirty word from now on. Diets don't work. Changing the way you think and eat for a lifetime works.

I still have a ways to go. Yes, I had let myself get pretty big. I'll give you an idea of how far I've come and how far I have to go with the following illustration.

I'm right in the middle of where I need to/want to be. I know now though that it IS possible. There are good days and bad days. The trick is not to let a bad day destroy your entire goal by giving up. You're human, and you'll have bad days. Get up, brush off your butt, and get back on the horse, so to speak.

One more thing I know is that the comon idea that losing weight over 40 (pre-menopausal, or in menopause) is impossible is a MYTH. It's no harder, and no easier than it ever was.

One thing that is not a myth is that it's harder for women in general to lose weight than it is for men. Sad fact, (for women anyway), but true. That doesn't make it impossible, that just means you can't judge your progress by the progress made by any men you know trying to lose weight too.

Everyone has their own body clock, and regardless of the complex science involved in what we know about weight loss, your body will react in its own way, in its own time, and sometimes not in accordance with 'what we know'. Once you accept that, and learn to enjoy the process as much as the 'goal', you're on your way to a healthier, happier life, and to being FIT AND FABULOUS in your FORTIES.