word wrecker

Goal Post #14 Last summer Nic's mom said “I like how you’ve been doing things gently” and the word dovetailed perfectly with showing myself kindness. Being gentle means listening to my body. Pushing myself, but not so hard I get discouraged. Sometimes it means agonizingly slow visible progress but surprisingly quick achievements in areas I didn’t anticipate. (The day I moved our super heavy coffee table by myself without thinking about it was pretty cool.) Sometime in August, my weight loss stalled and hovered around 30 pounds down for ten weeks. That was more discouraging than expected. After all, this process is about getting healthier and that part was still happening. Maybe I was so close to my goal that failing to see it get any closer week after week seemed like a cruel joke. Speaking of jokes, I was so discouraged I actually took one of those online “metabolism type” tests. With my goal only three pounds away, I wasn’t sure if they could help but thought it was wort

Goal Post #13 My parents are part of the baby-boomer generation. This group included flower children, making us xennials flower grandchildren. We have gained many good things from the holistic, natural branch of this movement along with frankly, a lot of nonsense. Earlier in this blog I talked about lemon juice and apple cider vinegar helping control my heartburn and how artificial sweeteners cause my blood sugar to plummet. There is no way for me to know if this is widely true for most people or just true for me. Anecdotal evidence is a story about how something worked for some one and not a replacement for multiple medical studies proving something true for lots of people. Sorting through stories to figure out what works for you while listening to established medical findings is part of everyone's health journey. After all, I don't want to be paying big pharma any more than is absolutely necessary. I also don't intend to suffer needlessly from an aliment tha

Goal Post #12 y oga, part 2 In July, I joined a group of women for revolution - 31 days of yoga . We were spread all over the world, so it was a virtual gathering. We'd all tackle the same video practice each day then discuss how it went and encourage each other to keep it up. Having made so much progress practicing yoga again consistently , I didn't expect the challenge to be esp ecially demanding. HA! It was much harder than I imagined. The freedom of doing my own poses in my own time made following someone else a chore. The instructor's name is Adriene and I groaned or complained at her more once. Plus I missed being outside in summer weather. Practicing in a park during my lunch breaks definitely helped with the second problem. Some of my most successful sessions were during lunchtime because it was the best of both worlds. Exercising outside can get exciting in work clothes with ants, sudden breezes and heat, but for me it was better than a cramped room. Fu

Goal Post #11 Early this past summer Nic and I decided to get serious about eating less meat. We'll probably never be vegetarians, but eating more vegetable products in general is better for our bodies and hopefully the planet. To get started, I bought a bunch of cheap veggie burgers from Aldi to pre-cook and crumble over salads the next day for lunch. This was a fantastic idea and helped cut down on lunch costs without sacrificing protein intake. For dinner we wanted higher quality so began taste-testing meatless burgers and sausages. After all, it was summer and we love to grill. Right up front I'm going to admit we never found a satisfying meatless alternative to any sausage you eat on a bun. Moving on to burgers. Nic's favorite meatless burger is the FieldBurger because of the texture, salt content and how satisfied he feels after eating. My favorites are Dr. Prager's mushroom risotto and kale burgers for flavor, flavor and flavor. Both of us like th

Goal Post #10 i t’s working!   In March the weather got warm enough to go on regular bike rides again and I returned to measuring body fat weekly (down 2% since September)! Still enjoying all the food Around the beginning of April, I crossed the twenty pound threshold. For the first time in years I weighed less than the number on my driver's license. Can I just say how incredible that felt? When I stepped on the scale that morning I honestly didn't believe it- then the endorphins kicked in and I was super excited all day. Twenty pounds is a noticeable amount and people started asking what I’d been doing. Adding all the changes up in my head, it was quite a list, so I usually awkwardly answered “yoga.” Awkwardly because it wasn’t the whole story but the whole story looks something like this: 60 second plank every morning 5-15mins yoga every morning and longer on weekends lemon/cayenne pepper water every morning 15mins before eating walk 10-20 mins each day

Goal Post #9 y oga, part 1 not yoga, but super fun In February I added 5-15 mins of morning yoga and reinstated daily 1 min planks. Now they are a regular part of my exercise routine, I'm not sure how I went without planks. The difference in my core is pretty incredible. A morning workout playlist has been helpful to psych myself up while providing a way to mark time without having to watch a clock. The same actions don't follow a particular song but it's nice to know if I'm almost late for work or have an extra five minutes to play with. Sometimes I mix it up by dancing through the first song, planking and starting yoga in the second. It just depends on the amount of time. The following yoga sequences are listed longest to shortest because they’re all basically the same moves in the same order, I just add or subtract elements as time allows. bouldering! 15 min routine:   Cat cow Dancing cat (7 reps each side) Cat cow again Extended child’s

Goal Post #8 Dancing is my favorite way to move. I love to dance. I love dancing. With zero training and minor skill, I’m certain it isn’t interesting to watch; but turn on some music, give me some space, and I can dance for half an hour without stopping. Very few indoor activities make me happier. When alone while putting tables and chairs away at work , I sneak in some dancing . There’s more and more space to move, to fill that space with movement, my movements, to fill that space with me. If someone walked in, of course I'd be startled and a bit uncomfortable but not really that embarrassed. How do I know this? Once I was alone in the kitchen at a party, presumably to get wine, but in reality dancing my heart out to Ophelia by the Lumineers. By the way, could someone please choreograph and produce a ballet based on this album? It is beyond my skill set annd I desperately want to see that! Back to the party. The stairs were open and very close so I knew I’d hear i

Goal Post #7 Last January I stopped drinking alcohol on work-nights and cut out both coffee and milk completely.  By the end of the month I’d lost five more pounds. Primarily this is because I'd finally started meeting my calorie goal - but that was much easier to do because even one glass of wine a night adds up. Those extra calories vanished from my day with almost zero effort. Before that, between heartburn and stomach upset, my digestive system was a wreck. Stomach issues had become so frequent both of my sisters (who are nurses) asked if I had some kind of disorder. Before going to the doctor and possibly being misdiagnosed, I tried looking for the culprit in my diet. Having no idea what food product was keeping my body in a daily state of gastrointestinal stress, I started with two primary suspects, coffee and milk. Things got better immediately. If cutting these items out hadn't helped, other foods, one at a time, would have been cut to try and determine what w