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My healthy-living blog |
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My "health kick," as I affectionately refer to it, started on the first day of spring in March 2009. I'm not sure where the motivation came from, but something in my life needed to change. I had modest goals. I wanted to control my stress and stay healthy during a very busy period at work. I decided that I needed to offset the stressors by eating better, reforming my sleep patterns, and making more time for outdoor activity. I had small successes and those motivated me to make further changes. By the first day of fall, I was at a healthy weight, I was exercising about 5 days each week, and I felt great. Over the holidays, I neglected the exercise, and my sleep habits got out of whack, but I kept up the healthy eating (mostly). It made me realize that my old habits are much more strongly engrained than the new habits. So, this is the place where I'll keep myself honest and accountable and participate in spidey  's "Healthy Living Blogring"  |
| Last night, I made an amazing sweet and sour stir fry for dinner. I’ve been trying to increase my veggie consumption, and since I like stir fries, this seems to be a good way to go. The sauce was probably more sugar than I needed in a single meal, but if it gets me to eat a plate full of veggies then I’m calling it a win. The sauce was adapted from The Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on your Man in the Kitchen. The cookbook is all about sneaky healthy stuff into dishes in a way that picky eaters won’t notice. It was a Christmas present from my Mom who knows I’m a picky eater. Anyway, I made the sauce with Splenda brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, ground ginger, cayenne pepper, 2.5 oz of pureed sweet potato, and pomegranate juice. Sounds weird, right? Well, it tasted really good. I used too much cayenne so it had a lot of kick, but the sweet and spicy were great together. The stir fry included a zucchini, about 3 oz of carefully trimmed chicken, half a red bell pepper, half a green bell pepper, diced onion and a heap of packaged broccoli slaw (which is always excellent in stir-fry). It was extremely filling. Okay, I said I would write down some goals. I’ve thought about this, and I’ve decided to post goals that I hope to work on between now and the first of spring. 1. Try at least one new recipe and one new activity (type of exercise) each month because variety is good. 2. Try to eat between 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. 3. Exercise at least 5 days per week (to include a minimum of 2 cardio and 2 strength workouts.) 4. Drink a least 4 big glasses (> 12oz) of water everyday. I should probably try to cut back on soda and dark chocolate, but first I’d have to actually track how much I’m consuming and the idea of that scares me. Besides, if I’m eating fruits and vegetables and drinking lots of water then it should follow that I’ll be eating less chocolate and drinking less soda. I guess I just do better with goals of what I should eat than goals around limiting certain foods. At this point, I’m not trying to lose weight, but I would like to lean out a bit more and decrease my percentage body fat. I’m the classic “apple” and carry most of my fat around the middle and I know that puts me at an increased risk for diabetes, and cardiac issues so I want to improve my waist to hip ratio if that’s possible. Last night I did a kettlebell workout (strength training), so tonight I’ll use the treadmill. Before the holidays I was doing intervals of walking and running on the treadmill and had worked up to where I was completing 5 miles in about 57 minutes. I’m not even trying to match that now. My left shin has been bothering me, so I’m sticking to a low impact walk and I’m varying the incline to up the intensity. Tuesday night I walked for an hour and went about 4.6 miles. I’ll do another hour tonight. Then again . . . maybe I'll take the night off. |
| Sex is a good place to start. You know it's going to come up eventually anyway so lets just throw it out there in the first entry and see where it takes us. In a Ladies' Home Journal Poll, women were asked "Which would you rather have, great sex, or a great body?" 63% picked a "smokin' figure" over a "sizzling" sex life. I guess that puts me in the minority because I would have voted for great sex everyday of the week and twice on Sundays. You've gotta love Sundays.  I truly believe that there is nothing like a little sizzle in the sex life to make a woman feel smokin' hot no matter what her shape may be. The "great body" is an elusive, air-brushed ideal. Women tend to get hung up on every little imperfection and look at themselves as a collection of all these flawed parts. If my ass were higher, if my abs were flatter, if the little doggies would sit up and bark . . . it's all crap though because no one ever seems to be satisfied with the body they have. It's never "great" enough. But great sex? That's were the satisfaction kicks in. I don't think I've ever layed basking in the post coital glow and thought "You know, that would have been even better without the back fat." But I digress. My point, as I'm sure you've guessed, is that this isn't about vanity. My wellness goals are about enhancing my quality of life. At least they would be if I had any written down. I guess my first goal is to set some goals. |
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