Claustrophobic! Please don't make me track everything!

One of my goals in our health journey is to find a way that we can make progress & have successes without tracking every single morsel that we eat!

I feel so claustrophobic!  I've done this in the past & I think that is why those programs have not worked for me long term.  I get scared.  Then I want to cheat & not want to capture everything.  Then I want to really cheat & have a day where I don't track & I binge...

I am committed to getting healthy so I am open to trying a tracking method if it gets right down to it.  But I will go kicking & screaming (meaning, to the best of my knowledge I have tried every other option known to man!).

We've been really cutting back processes foods & upping the fruits &  veggies.

I'm trying to find the balance between being open-minded & also learning from what has & has not worked in the past.  I'm also looking for balance in being healthy & it not consuming my every waking thought.

Check Out: Life in the Green Room

Deep Fried Bacon?

Why does Deep Fried Bacon sound (& Look) so Good??

So I have mentioned sustainability a few times recently.  To me that is the key for us to figure out.  My next challenge is to NOT unnecessarily temp myself.  There will be lots of times in real life that we will be at events or hosting events with lots of unhealthy foods.  Got it!

I just don't want to feel like I am missing out on things along the way.

So, I am not sure I can watch any of the cooking channels anymore.  This is such a bummer, b/c it is one of the only channels Jackson & I agree on!  (We do not have the same tastes in television!)

We had one of the cooking channels on the other day & it was featuring deep fried bacon.  It looks so delicious!  After, I was craving deep fried anything.  So I think one of my goals will be to limit the amount of temptation (or food porn) I watch.  No sense making things harder !

Check Out: Life in the Green Room

Week 1: Off to a Great Start!!

One week in & we have not given up yet!

This is progress!

Jackson & I both lost a few pounds which is great.  It feels good to see progress.

We didn't work out as much as we wanted to this week.  The real key to our success was the planning.  It was tedious, but we mapped out our meals and planned enough left over for me to take for lunch.  We also spent a few hours last Sunday prepping meals & snacks.  NOT Glamorous work, but it helped us stay on track!

The one thing I will note, excitedly, is that I felt great all week.  My stomach was much better then the usual.  Funny what happens when you don't eat a bunch of processes foods!  It's also worth noting that I was not hungry at all during the week.

Now that we have started we need to keep it going!

I've heard the first steps are the hardest and you can build momentum from there.

I hope so!!

Check Out: Life in the Green Room

I am so Sore!!

Part of the plan to get healthy is to workout.  But I am so sore!  ha!
Friday morning I dragged Jackson to the gym & I went to the 6AM Les Mills body pump class.  I have attended this class regularly earlier in the year.  April got away from me & I did not attend the class since early April.  After missing for only one month, I have lost it!!

I went really light on the weight b/c I knew I had missed a month.  Still by the third song my legs (quads & IT bands) were completely quivering.
Saturday morning when I woke up I almost fell out of bed b/c my whole body was sore.
Sunday morning, I am doing better but my triceps are still totally sore.  

I plan to take the class again this week, so hopefully I can work my way back up to being the 'good sore.'  Good sore to me is you know you had a great workout, but you can still function :)

How do you measure sore??

http://www.lesmills.com/ 

Check out Life in the Green Room:

Learning How to Be Healthy in a Busy World!!

OK!

I know it's been awhile since I have posted anything, but I am going to get back out there!

A lot has changed in the last 6 years or so.
I have moved to Chicago, and I am now engaged!

Our wedding is in a year and we have one crazy year planned.  We are in the process of buying a house, planning a wedding, & trying to have a life.....  Oh, and one more thing, I'd love to get healthy before the wedding!

I'd like to lose some weight to increase my energy and confidence and overall I want to feel better!!  So just adding one more minor thing to the pile, no big deal :)

So my plan over the next year is to talk to you about what works, what doesn't work, what we are trying etc.  My fiance & I differ in about all philosophies of weight loss, so there will be some good debates!

Most important for me is to find a system that does not make me feel claustrophobic (the thought of writing down everything I eat makes me want to poke myself in the eye).

We welcome all & any comments and want to learn together on our journey to health while keeping our sanity!

Hope you can join us!
Heather

"Because She Can" by Bridie Clark - Book Review

"Because She Can" is a fiction book that is a very easy & enjoyable read. I would recommend it to anyone who is going to a beach or pool this summer. This book's heroine lives in NYC and works in the publishing industry. She has a good job (although low paying), but her career is not moving along as fast as she would like. Who cant relate to either their career not progressing as they imagined or their pay is less than they deserve?

Anyway, one fateful evening when she wanted to stay in, wearing her sweats, her best friend drug her out. There she met the man of her dreams & he connected her with her dream job... Good thing she left her apartment that night........... or was it?

Although her man was picture-perfect on paper, there was never a true spark. Also, her new job gave her every opportunity a gal early in a publishing career could want, with one small caviate. Her boss is really the devil disguised as a publishing genious. Her job and boyfried situation are nearly all she can take.

During the whole book you are rooting for the heroine to come through and get her life in order.

And, as with any great summer read, you will not be dissappointed.
Great, fast read, with a character that is easy to relate to, regardless of the industry you work in.

Case of the Missing Bike

As kids with a lot of pent up energy, this was the moment we’d been waiting for. The road trip was finally over; AT LAST Dad had taken our bikes down. We were camping, a Green family tradition. As soon as our camper was parked we would harass Dad for the bikes - - we were not about to stick around to help set up camp.

This particular weekend we were camping in the Allegheny mountains of PA. It was a gorgeous late afternoon on Friday when we arrived. We snatched our biked and were off. Dad called out to Josh, youngest sibling (at the time), “don’t follow those kids up the mountain.” You see, his bike didn’t have brakes; it was a 12” bike that had training wheels. Josh having no fear, completely disregarded this warning.

Jeremy & I were off to the races with some of our cousins. We wanted to make it up the hill as fast as possible b/c then we could barrel down the hill at an unsafe speed.

Josh had been following us, but none of us even knew. Not that it would occur to us to check on him. Poor Josh is following us up the mountain but with his tiny bike, he could not keep up. After a bit – he gave up – and decided to turn around to go back to camp.

As soon as he turned the bike around he knew he was in real trouble. With no brakes, the pedals were rotating uncontrollably. He put his legs straight out to the sides. Then realizing this was a lost cause, he abandoned this strategy and just dove off the bike as it continued sailing down the mountain.

Josh is a little battered and bruised but mostly traumatized b/c he had to go back to camp w/ no bike. As a kid this is truly detrimental.

Josh sobs his story and Dad doesn’t believe him – “What do you mean, you LOST your bike?” Dad realizes the implications here – with no bike, Josh will be bugging him and my Mom all weekend.

When the ‘older’ kids get back to camp, they are updated on this issue.

We establish and send out a search & rescue crew for the bike. We look for like an hour, then reconvene at camp. What a mystery? The bike could not have vanished…. We feel confident no one would steal this ‘no-brake’ ‘hand-me-down’ bike, but…….

The rescue mission is sent out for Round 2. This time, another friendly camper is chatting with Dad. He mentions he saw a run-away bike earlier and points Dad in the right direction.

The bike is found!! It had fallen into a sizable ditch and had sunk to the botton of all of the brush and leaves in the ditch. We pulled it out – good as new.

Thankfully, by the time the camp fire was roaring and the s’mores were cooking, the bike was saved, and therefore, so was the weekend. Josh did not attempt to ride up the mountain again………at least not this weekend.