A Final post

As I mentioned last week I will be moving on from this blog. I thought I would run it until the end of January, but have decided to make this my last post. I will continue to challenge myself, strive for better overall health, both mentally and physically since they do go hand and hand. Since this was really only one aspect of my life I am looking forward to blogging about all of them. I have started a new blog called The Reinvention of Woman. It seems to say all that I am trying to do in my life right now, Reinvent. I am hopeful that 2010 is going to be a great year for me both fitness/health wise and everything in-between.
With that said-This last week has been a decent week, aside from a slight foot injury that has since recovered for the most part. I have been eating better, drinking more water, have once again given up red meat, and am not sure I have actually eaten any meat yet this year. Hmmm
I am going back to my chicken and aquarium (as my friend called it today) way of eating. I have been reading a lot of new books on healthy clean eating and looking forward to some of the great recipes. I have started and stopped my beginner running, and will start again when my foot is 100%. I have been doing my weight training and tracking it religiously for the last week, getting into stretching again and focusing on how my body feels as a whole and what it needs.
I will continue to try and look forward and appreciate all that my body does for me and how hard it works to keep me breathing. For that I think it deserves a lot of respect.
I will continue to post on my progress from time to time on my new blog, and I just know I will get to where I want to be by my next birthday! I will also keep telling myself that.
With all that said, I say good bye to my couple readers. I will leave this blog up until the end of January. I can now be found at- http://thereinventionofwoman.blogspot.com

Stats since blog started:
Pounds lost 33
Sizes 3 and several inches


Wishes for great health always,
The Certifiable Dieter

A lot about nothing

I never make New Year resolutions, I think we should want to be good to ourselves all year long, not just in January. Did you know if you were needing extra income you could make some good commissions at just about any gym this month. This is the highest sales time for gym memberships that don't get used, supplement stores like GNC see a huge boost this month as well. You can find all kinds of deals on used exercise equipment on Craig's List and even better deals if you wait six months and buy the new stuff that people got sick of using as a drying rack or a place for their coats three days after they got it. People spend insane amounts of money on good intentions. If I only had a product for the insane intentions...hmmm
I have seen more people out running and walking on my regular path the last few days and I don't think it is my imagination, I think they are the resoluter's. I am sure they will fade as fast as they appear. Slow and steady wins the race, right? If that is the case than I should have come in first place a year ago.

I would really like to say I did my best to ward off those unwanted holiday pounds, but I didn't. I read a really good article about how our bodies process foods. Our bodies are not made to eat processed foods, it doesn't know how to handle it and causes overload sensory issues. Just eating a handful of golf fish crackers freaks your body out. It is better to have real butter and real sugar than chemically made products, but people still drink Diet Coke and eat margarine. Aspartame gets into every tissue in your body and never ever leaves, it can cause really bad damage more than if you had one can with real sugar. With that said, I don't eat sugar, I use Agave and Stevia and so far no bad reports that it will kill me soon or damage my organs and tissues. It also doesn't spike insulin levels in our bodies. As for the margarine, I heard you can leave it in the sun and it won't melt, kind of freaky to think about. So why do we stay away from the natural things our ancestors had been eating for years? Is it convience? The next great thing? I had decided to go back to fruits, vegtables and grains with some added protien and see how different I feel after a month. With that said, I did have that handful of goldfish crackers this last weekend. I was never off the diet of grains, fruits and veggies, I have just been the greatest of slackers this holiday season.

I got to thinking about this blog. What does it do for me? Nothing. Not many people read it, I don't feel accountable to it, I feel stuck on one subject and want a place that showcases all my crazy, not just my diet crazy. I feel the need to be reinvented and that is what I am planning on doing. I think at the end of January I will have my new blog going and say good bye to my Monday's here. 2010 is a big year and I think it is going to be a great year, I want a place I can talk about all that is going on, complain, whine, be crazy and just be all over the board if I want. I was in hopes that this blog would be a guiding force of some kind and that just didn't happen. I think weight loss and being healthy in general is a struggle, but so is everyday life. I think I have said I have no and I mean NO intentions of going into my forties with the way I lived in my thirties, and I am close to hitting that milestone and I am going to make damn sure I go in with a bang.

I will be working on taking off Christmas/New Year poundage this week. I may have mentioned that I thought of taking up running. I have done small jaunts and I do fine but am not sure how my knee will hold up, but it feels really good when I stop. The endorphins are amazing. Roller blading, Tennis and Golf are just a few of the "Yes I wills" before forty.

My fingers are crossed and my shoes are laced for a good five pound loss this week!

Good v. Evil

Even managing to be on my almost best behavior I gained some holiday weight. 1.5 pounds to be exact and every year it makes me mad. It is much harder to crave kale and white bean soup than say cheesecake cake with blueberries, especially when I bought a huge Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for my holiday guests. I woke up today hoping my husband had eaten the last of the great sour cream cinnamon breakfast cake that is given to us every year by a neighbor. Bless him, he did. I woke with the idea of steel cut flax oatmeal on the brain and that is what I had, but I am still wanting to eat all the glorious bad carbs that get in my path. I mean the bad carbs, white sugar, all the cookies and candies that were given to us, you name it. Every Monday I have brown rice cucumber rolls with extra ginger no wasabi. I think the girl at Whole Foods can set her watch to me walking in. Today I skipped it and am trying really had to reevaluate why I am still going in the same circle with no way out, buying semi healthy foods that make me crave more foods like it is one problem. I can't live like this forever, I can't continue to feel this way forever and I can't keep mentally beating myself up. I am a goal seeker, a person who likes to be challenged, competitive, but I keep failing at the same thing. What gives? I know it is me and no one else, it is not a medical condition, not pure laziness as I exercise daily, it's something I just don't know what. I know I refuse to enter my next birthday with the same set of issues. I need a competative work out buddy maybe that will help. I miss feeling comfortable in my own skin, I am not grossly overweight, but am just not comfortable with where or who I am with this extra baggage.
I am going to try and restore food balance to my fridge and body. Start taking my supplents again, the protien powder, no seconds until thirty minutes after my last bite, and come 2010, I am back off the beef.
Next year I will have a better attitude, I just know it. 2009 has not been a great year, but I don't think 2010 will be a great.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas week is all so full of last minute errands, cooking, baking and a lot of eating. With our weather mimicking that of early spring I have no excuses not to walk off my calories, I love a white Christmas, but am also really loving this great weather that I am sure will not be around long.
I have decided to up my walks a bit and start running. Something I said I would never do and couldn't understand why people loved it so much, that and biking. The bikers still drive me crazy and I don't understand the need to bike 20 miles a day, plus it kills my rear. After watching the Biggest Loser finale since that is all I watch of that show, and meeting someone who lost a lot of weight by adding running, I think I am ready to give it a go. I have a bad knee and some slight worries, but I will never know unless I try. I am not talking about doing the New York marathon or anything, just adding a mile or two by sprinting some. I have a treadmill I can test this out on, but hear it is never the same as the beaten path. For the purpose of safety I have gotten a running book basics and how to prevent injury. If I don't like it than I guess I just start swinging my arms more. Baby steps.
I won't be setting any goals this week other than what I strive for every week, I will enjoy the Holidays and the great food and company, and just try and pay attention to what and how much I am putting in my mouth. It is always good to eat dinner off a dessert/salad plate and that is one thing I will be doing for sure.

Have the Merriest Christmas!

I survived cookie baking 2009

It just so happens that I made ten dozen spritz cookies, and only ate three, that's it. Now, it is entirely possible that I could eat a few more in the days to come, but I didn't overload on cookies and sugar this year. I didn't have a hankering for any kind of chocolate so the fudge was not a problem, either. I think I am finally getting better at this whole be healthier thing!

I feel fairly confident that this time of year our metabolism simply stops. They just don't work...you can exercise and eat a lot of flax oatmeal and not lose a pound, just because it is the holiday season. What else could it be? I will admit we had a couple below zero days and I was so not in the mood to walk three miles so I only did one or one in a half. My bones were chilled, my face numb and my lips frozen quiet, it seemed only natural that I walk fast but less and reward myself we a white hot cocoa for getting the deed done. I am also completely aware that the cocoa had more calories than the walk burned, but in my head it all worked itself out just fine...until I weighed in. I didn't lose or gain and also wasn't expecting a loss. Disciplined or not-when it is that cold out it is all about comfort food and staying cozy. This week should pose a nice challenge with the truffle, spritz and other cookie and fudge making endeavors going on. I have stalked up on protein powder, steel cut flax oatmeal and other boring foods that should fill me up and stop the cookie dough eating and cookie baked sampling, or keep it to a minimum. It looks like it may be a nice week filled with 40's and a couple days of 50, so no reason now to haul on my walks. No schlepping for me this week, or so I tell myself now.
My goal is to evade the cookies, walk more, get my daily protein and by the grace of all things holy not gain any weight. I wondered if my neighbor's and friend's would notice if I just bought all these goodies, plopped them on a fancy plate and called it a day. I am guessing they would as would my husband who looks forward to his cookies every year. Not one of these people is watching their weight, how is this even fair? With grumpy determination I will move forward, with fingers crossed I will make it to next Monday without looking like Humpty Dumpty or feeling like him anyway.