Russia1513's Blog

We've all been at plateaus.  We've all been in a place where we want to surge ahead and are dangling over precipices.  I surmounted a plateau two months ago, and I'm happy to be where I am weight wise, but most people are never happy with 90% perfection - they want that last 10%, and I'm no different. 

I've decided FINALLY to switch to fat free milk.  Big deal you say?  Okay.  While getting my calcium in my cereal and coffee, and possibly being able to have a little MORE milk (which isn't bad for someone my age), I"m going to LOSE 5 grams of fat daily.  The big deal in that is this: I'm going to be dropping 378 calories of FAT weekly.  Cumulatively that's 1512 fat cals per month.  But isn't that  just shy of half a pound?  Why YES, it is.  I want calcium, and I love flavor, but for the sake of shedding another half pound of difficult-to-burn-off calories, I'm willing to make the sacrifice.  Sure, I might sneak a handful of single serve coffee creamers from the cafeteria and throw one in per day (1G fat) just to give my coffee body and a little flavor, but I'm betting I won't always remember to grab them, and the overall effects will be positive.  Simple.  Change ONE thing, watch the results.  I've done this before, and I know it works.  This one will take at least two months to really be detectable; I'm not looking for instant results, but the habit will be a good one, PLUS, I get to have some more natural calcium in my diet. 

What's the ONE THING you can change?

Making use of all Gods gifts as we discover new ways to sustain ourselves and use up the gifts in ways that leaves almost no waste.  As I opened a squash to bake it's flesh in Gods natural 'wrapper', sprinkled with cinnamon and salt, butter and sugar, I took the seeds out and toasted them in the oven --  what did it create?  A way to get more use from one item.  

As I sat there with the oven baking my squash, I sat long enough to pick each seed out of the muck that holds it suspended inside the fruit, I thought about the 4 inch plant this tiny seed came from.  As I amassed a pile of squash seeds, I dried the slimyness of each one with paper towel, washed them, dried again and sprinkled with salt, I toasted them in the oven for 10 minutes at 350.  While they baked, I stood there in front of the oven, thinking about the enormous leaves the plant grew, to collect and channel the energy from the sun, into tentacles that branched out and fruited into  twenty-one 8-12 lb squashes. Stored through the winter.  Do we really throw away those seeds?  How about the muck?  That could have gone into the compost heap, but Ed said "No, don't go that far!"  I could and have.

In a time when we have energy that we're willing to throw out, or use up, you think about what kind of steward you are of your own resources.  This kind of thought process is what makes you aware of what your footprint in the world is.  The simple act of saving what you won't use for awhile, and using up all your resources is what makes you aware, and self-aware, and respectful of the gifts cast your way.

I took those toasted seeds, chopped them into small bits, and threw in a couple tablespoons full into about a cup of the peanut butter cookie batter, and when I made peanut butter cookies with all natural peanut butter, a smidge of butter and one of crisco, raisins, and ground flax seed, I created an awesome use of 100 calorie treats with FIBER power - this is the kind of naughty treat you can justify with such a clever use of an often overlooked ingredient that most mothers got used to tossing out with the trash WHEN they opened them.  You can bet your GRANDMOTHER saved those seeds!!  >:  I respect my grandmothers ways. Take THAT Martha Stewart!!

CONGRATZ TO MEEEEEE!!  My goal weight has been reached.  Now it's time for only 5 more, if I can manage it.  I think at this point, I'll just stay with the plan I have and see if I can squeeze those 5 more, and if I can't I'm gonna go to mainenance and keep up my fitness regiment.  It feels SO good.  I was looking in the mirror while talking to my sister and I thought WOW, you really have come a long way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmGbgT9gUN8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psa06Qx0utA

 BWEG :)))

Suffering from thoracic pain and I'm 46, is this something to worry about?

I am two years into a desk job, and my thoracic pain is worse than it ever was - am I about to suffer badly and can anyone tell me that I need a doctor soon to look at this issue?  I'm trying to build back strength, and I need to know if that will help, or if I should have her run an Xray of my tspine?  It'll cost me $20 for the referral and a check up, and an XRAY.  And if nothing else, maybe some PT.  I might as well COST my insurance, right?  Any kind of advice would be appreciated.

  http://www.djsteveboy.com/1day25k.html  This dude makes these AMAZING techno music mixes for any fitness level, and this one is the first in a series for c25k, which I am currently NOT doing, but is HOT, kick-ass, sexy, slinky, groovy housemusic.  This one makes you want to put your gym clothes on and go do something.  This stuff is lifechanging, and seriously, if you don't have a portable MP3 player, and a source to download, this stuff IS FREE!!!!  Every so often, drop a couple bucks in the till and keep the costs down for him.

I miss having $ enough  for decent FOOD!  I'm in a food rut, and need more income so I can eat a little better. I'm getting sick of the same ole food, but on a budget it really restricts.   But on the lighter side, I got into a pair of 11 Butterfly jeans (pictured) and have NO MUFFIN TOP, so that's good.  In fact, they're beginning to slip a little on my hips, so that means PERMANENT TENS are on the horizon.  My diet is still geared for a goal of 137, so even though my goal weights been reached at 140, I can still work at this and get into a size 10.  Not that numbers really count in this game. 

Joe's been depressed for many years, and he's finally at a point where he's somewhat interested in DOING something about it. 

So, I'm walking with Joe at 4pm.  Going to beast on this, cuz Joe's tall, and I'm going to give him the technophones when I want to walk FASTER - keeping up with my son is going to be remarkable if he's listening to 140bpm music!!  And I'm going to bring the handweights too, and switch those off.  Im looking forward to it, and even though it's rainy right now at 10am, I think it's going to stay cool enough to go even with the spatter outdoors.  Right now is a crucial day for him.  He's looking FORWARD to this.  Plus, he's found a new passion for techno sound, and if I can match the joy of walking, and the beats, he might actually find a reason to get up off his butt!!  Joe is depressed.  The St Johns Wort only touches it for him. I think that a little x3week exercise thing for him would improve his mood just a little more.  I notice that his face isn't as DARK when I speak to him, he actually LOOKS at me.  I did tell him to increase his dose from 1200mg to 1800mg daily. 

Sugar, Fiber, Protein, Carbs - each of these has 4 calories per gram.  FAT has 9 calories per gram.  So the question is: why would you bother putting FAT calories in your body?  And I'm not talking about the good fats, like those found in nuts, seeds, and avocados.  We need those kinds of fats.  I'm talking about BUTTER, and the fats found in MEAT and EGGS,  and CHEEZITS and things like that: the BAD FATS.

People, if you're trying to lose weight, or you're at a standstill in your progress, please don't eat these things.  Why would you eat something that is twice as hard to work off than anything else?  Try to find a way to eliminate or MINIMIZE them. I understand better than anyone that sometimes it's JUST UNAVOIDABLE, and it's going to happen that you just have to eat them. But for goodness sake, go through your food logs and find out where that fat is and try to figure out a way to get rid of it.  If we're fat, why are we eating FAT??