Planning the Perfect Plate

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and as in all eating endeavors lately I have made a plan.  I have divided my dinner into 3 categories, I am calling them The Good, The Bad and The Expendable.

The Good

1. Turkey -- I only like white meat turkey and have no interest in the skin, so the star of the show is definitely in the good column for me.

2.  Salad -- We are starting with a lovely fall salad of greens, heirloom tomatoes, pears and pomegranate with a homemade pear balsamic dressing.

3.  Veggies -- All our veggies come to the table healthy.  I have a niece with a dairy allergy so no butter or milk in the mashed potatoes, nothing but olive oil & herbs on the roasted squash and brussel sprouts and carrots.

The Bad

1.  Stuffing -- My mom makes the best stuffing in the world (said most people on Thanksgiving).  She makes half in the bird and mixes it with some made in a casserole dish giving it a nice balance of moist and not-greasy, but it is still not even close to healthy.

2.  Gravy -- Speaking of grease....and deliciousness.  I only eat gravy once or twice a year.  I'm having it (see what I'm skipping instead).

3.  Pie -- Homemade pumpkin pie with a delicious homemade crust.  Yep, not skipping it.

The Expendable

1.  Rolls -- I love bread as much as the next gal, but I would rather have a little more stuffing than a roll & butter.  Speaking of...

2.  Butter -- Mom's gravy is so good I skip the butter on my potatoes and just do gravy and pepper.

3.  Ice Cream -- A little dollop of whipped cream on my pie is fine, save the ice cream for the kids!

I figure if my plate has more of the Good and less of the Bad I will be in good shape come Friday!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ho Ho Holiday Temptations

When I started my path to a healthier lifestyle in July, I set a realistic goal for myself for that month. I knew my birthday and a cruise vacation would be too tempting to result in any significant weight loss.  My goal was not to gain any weight in July and in the end I lost 3 pounds that month.  I set some rules, especially for the vacation that I tried to stick to and in that same vein I present my goals for not gaining weight over the holidays:

1. Not Every Day is a Holiday: For me the holiday season runs from Thanksgiving through the 2nd week of January when I host a big dinner party for my friends, but not every day of those 7 weeks is a holiday.  On the normal days I need to follow normal rules about diet and exercise.

2. Not Every Meal is Special: On those days when there is a celebration or gathering there is no reason to blow the whole day.  Isolate the special meal and truly make it special by eating normally for the other meals of the day.

3.  No Treats Alone: I have blogged about living alone and I do, but during the holidays I spend a  lot of time with my family.  There is no excuse to eat treats alone.  That piece of pie, homemade cookie or box of delicious chocolates will be even sweeter with conversation and shared declarations of how truly tasty it is.  This makes you accountable for what you eat and makes it less about the food and more about the celebration.

4.  Gym 3X a Week (at least):  No excuses!

5.  Hydrate: Drinking water is the easiest of my habits to break and hydration is key for staying healthy and feeling full.

I feel confident in myself that if I stick to these 5 rules I will find the number on the scale to my satisfaction come January 13th!

GOALLLLL!!!!!

You may recall from the early days of this blog that I set a specific goal at the beginning of July as part of a long distance challenge.  I wasn't cut out for the long distance challenge really, but I did try to stick to the plan to achieve the goal.  The goal was a specific # of pounds on the scale by the Friday before Thanksgiving.

I am happy to report that with 1 week to go I have passed my goal weight by over a pound!  This was not a small amount of pounds either, as a coworker told me "this is a really big deal!"  I want to thank all of you that have been so supportive the past 4 months, who have gone on walks with me, eaten healthier in my presence and encouraged me, it has been an awesome 16 weeks.

I wish this meant I was done, but it does not, there are a lot more pounds to lose, but as we head into the holidays my goals are going to shift to maintenance until after New Years.  Tune in next week for my plan to not gain weight over the holidays!

Speed vs. Endurance

Speed v Endurance is the classic Tortoise and the Hare analogy, but does slow & steady always win the race? 

When I began swimming as exercise about 10 weeks ago I had neither speed nor endurance. I could swim 10 lengths of the pool (250 m) in a little under 30 minutes.  Pathetic.

Within a month I had built up both speed and endurance and could swim 30 lengths of the pool (750 m) in 30 minutes.  I was happy there for awhile and decided my next goal was increasing my endurance, swimming more lengths at the same pace and soon I could do 40 lengths in 40 minutes and can now do 60 lengths in 60 minutes.  While my time per length is the same I am keeping pace over a longer time span showing both cardio and muscle endurance.

My new challenge is to increase speed.  This week I shaved 2 minutes off my 40 length swim, doing 40 lengths in 38 minutes.  According to Fitbit that really upped my calorie burn, that little time savings pushed my cardio level up a notch.

This same formula can be applied to any cardio workout, but balancing speed and endurance is key to a sustainable workout plan.  I have 3 pool days a week, right now I am going to focus 2 of them on increasing speed (primarily because they are week days when I truly have less time to spend in the pool) and my weekend swim will focus on endurance when I can spend 60 minutes in the pool.

I would like to swim a mile in under an hour (I know that sounds crazy to you runners, but try it some time) by the end of November.  How do you balance speed and endurance in your cardio workout?

40 Days of Org Update

So I grossly underestimated how long 40 Days of Org was going to take.  It will certainly go long past 40 Days, but I also underestimated how fun it would be.  I have enjoyed unburdening myself and while I have become lighter, it has been a pleasure to make my surroundings lighter as well.

Here is a before and after view of a wall in my bedroom as an example.  Now like all good "before" pics, I took it at the absolute worst:

You can see 2 tall bookcases (one of which I had already unloaded the books from but instead of actually removing it, I just shoved other stuff on it...oy!).  I eventually got rid of both tall bookcases and replaced them with a wider, but shorter one from another room.  This is the result:

Same wall, but it is now much more open and clean.  I am going to hang something in the white space, but for now I am enjoying the brightness.  It also makes the space easier to clean, better access to the floor for sweeping and less to dust on the bookcase.

I am happy to report that after finally switching over my closet to winter clothes, I am officially done with the bedroom ORG.  Also done is the bathroom and living room leaving me just the hall and kitchen, both big projects but perfectly timed to go into the holidays.

Small Victories

First of all, my apologies for the lag time between posts.  This is a particularly crazy time at work and I am reading War & Peace, spare time is slim.

I needed to post today though to report something of note:  I bought NO Halloween candy this year, none.  Not a single bag.

Now before you accuse me of being some child-hating non-American, I don't get trick or treaters in my 3rd floor apartment with the security doors.  Every bag of Halloween candy I have ever bought has been for me.

Last year, as the Boston Red Sox marched towards the World Series Championship, I had lots of baseball-watching gatherings in October and for each I bought a big bag of Halloween candy.  I probably bought 10 or 12 bags last year.  This year...NONE.