My Diet, Health and Fitness

Seriously, we’ve all probably heard that old saw from our mothers. "Drink 8 glasses of water a day and you’ll lose weight." I always had a lot of questions about that - first of all, what is a glass? 8 Ounces? 16? How do you know when you’ve had 8 glasses worth?

So I found a better way and it’s darned simple. Only drink water with your meals. No pop, no juice, no milk. Just a glass of nice ice cold water. Right out of the gate, you’re getting 3 full glasses a day which is bound to be better than zero. Also, all those other beverages are throwing calories at you. For example, get a pop at a restaurant with free refills, and let’s crunch the numbers:

The average 16 oz. pop - about 200 calories (!)

Now add two refills (pretty average if you’re sitting relaxing with friends and chatting while the friendly waitress refills your glass. Mindless eating or drinking is always dangerous!) Suddenly you just took in 600 calories and you haven’t eaten a thing yet!

Worse still you’re going to be dehydrated because that pop acts as a diuretic, meaning you’re more likely to want another one because you’re thirsty! Switching to water means you’ll drink less, feel more satisfied and also cut your calories This is one of those great mindless changes that results in an effortless health improvement. I’ve also found that drinking more water seems to reduce my headaches. Apparently I wasn’t just migraine prone - I was also running around dehydrated and didn’t know it. Try it for yourself!

With winter still dragging on, I’m having a hard time (ok, an EXCRUCIATING time) getting myself up in the morning. My bedroom is on the west side of the house, and with no sunlight in the morning it’s just awful trying to drag myself up from the depths of dreamland. I read an article that said you should do 20 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning, before you eat, to jump start your metabolism. Sounds great in theory but I just can’t seem to get moving - it’s dark, it’s cold, and my warm snuggly bed is so nice…

I’ve always had a problem getting up in the morning. Yup, I have a clock, and it has a snooze alarm which I hit WAY too frequently. I often work until the wee hours of the morning (freelance writing sometimes makes for really weird and tight deadlines) Maybe I’ll try moving the clock further away?

Well, after the Pancakes from a spray can a few weeks back, today we get what is arguably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard of.

Cheeseburger In A Can

I mean, the GOOD thing about this is, that now I am completely put off from eating cheeseburgers. This can only be a help to my dieting efforts (which are stalled. Not gaining, not losing - don’t you just HATE the doldrums?) It’s just ODD, the idea that you could stuff a cheeseburger in a can, take it out, and still want to eat it. I guarantee it would not look anything like the picture - lettuce? Tomato? Don’t make me laugh - in the future, we get all our vitamins and minerals from PILLS, citizen! No need to ingest anything remotely healthy.

Just imagine how squishy the bun would be when it came out of the can. Ewwww. Has anyone out there ever eaten one of these? What’s the most disgusting “in a can/packet/bottle” food you’ve run into? My close second runner up was at Sam’s Club today - it was “Cappuccino Juice”. I have no idea what it actually was, but it looked exactly like it had been drained out of my septic system. Anyway - I’m interested to hear your nominations for most disgusting packaged food product. Maybe it ought to be a contest…

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Well I saw this post and it really resonated with me. Since I live in Ohio (and it has been so cold here the last few days I think the squirrels have frozen. Seriously, I haven’t seen any.) exercising indoors during the winter when I can’t afford expensive equipment is always a challenge.

I especially liked the idea of housework being part of my exercise routine. Honestly just running up and downstairs to get the phone - why do people always call the office when I’m upstairs, and call my home when I’m downstairs? - can be a real aerobic workout! I’d like to add a couple ideas of my own, also.

11. Doing your housework the hard way? Add another level to it by turning on some loud, dance-able music and boogie out while you’re running that vacuum. You’d be surprised how much fun it is!

12. Running errands? Park at the far end of the parking lot and hustle your butt to the door of the store. The cold works as a great incentive to move and you’re getting in a mini-walk at the same time.

13. When was the last time you cleaned your garage/basement/attic? If you have one, this is a great time of year to get ready for spring by moving all those heavy boxes (strength training), getting the clutter thrown out, and of course running up and down all those stairs (yay for cardio!). Just remember to not make it a ten hour marathon - set yourself a goal of 30 minutes or so a day and you’ll be getting an area cleaned and decluttered while you’re burning some calories!

Remember, when you get right down to it, exercise isn’t about a gym membership or a fancy sweat suit or even the latest equipment. It’s about getting off your butt and moving! And you can do that any time of year.

Read the original post here - Tips for Exercising in Crappy Weather

I ran into a great article over at Losing It - Getting Fit today that I really thought hit the nail on the head. As I’ve said in previous posts, I really think for me that dieting is about attitude, and a combination of exercise and fitness rather than some “trick” or “system”.  Here’s my take on this really fantastic article - 3 Bad Diet Mistakes To Avoid At All Cost.

You can boil all three of these tips down to one basic problem: perfectionism. When you try to be perfect, it’s easy to throw your hands in the air and give up. “Oh great, I just ate two bites of donut - now my whole diet is screwed, I should just give up!” Nothing could be further from the truth - the important thing is to KEEP TRYING, and to get back on the horse if you fall off. There is no perfect diet and no perfect dieter! And setting those unattainable goals is perfectionism too; “I’m going to lose 5 pounds every week or else I won’t do it at all!”

In the real world, none of us are perfect and we shouldn’t try to be! Give yourself permission to screw up from time to time,  and when you do, get back on track. Remember, for this to work, you’re not going to be able to live in a bubble where you never have another piece of chocolate cake, so learn moderation and especially acceptance and peace with yourself!

*blink blink*

What is that noise? My head swims with the incessant blaring of the alarm clock. Instinctively I reach over and slap the button on top that lets me go back to my happy place.. I was having such a warm and wonderful dream. I slip back down into the warm, friendly arms of the morning snooze…

MEOW! MEOW!

What is that? What? Who? Whatheheck…

Oh - it’s Sunshine the cat. So named because she rises with the sun and heard the alarm go off. It is now officially time to feed her breakfast and she is not having any more of this snooze alarm crap. When I don’t rocket out of bed she digs in her front feet and extends her claws, just a little - to show that she IS the boss in this relationship, and to remind me that I promised to get up on time and feed her every day.

I crawl out of bed, shuffle to the food dish and throw some food at it. Most of it lands in the bowl. I try to get back in bed. “Honey, weren’t you supposed to get up early?” pipes up my fella. He also is sunshiney in the morning. He doesn’t understand that I want, no I REQUIRE twelve hours of sleep.

I grumble, I pout, and then I get dressed. As I do I review the picture I had last night as I drifted off to sleep - I would pop out of bread do a half hour of cardio, eat that sensible breakfast and as I swallowed my vitamins I would enjoy the sunrise.

Fat. Freakin. Chance.

Well, maybe tomorrow I’ll do better