Body Clutter

Online crops (3) last weekend, one this weekend...the house looks more like a junkyard than a human abode now! LOL.  I was able to get DH's car dug out today (from under the snow), but not mine - just didn't have it in me, and who shovels in the middle of the night? - so I might as well use tomorrow to cure some of what ails this place!  Part of that will be staying OFF (okay, who am I kidding...LIMITING) time on the comp. Already finished the review due tomorrow, no major deadlines coming up that I can think of..wish me luck!!

Anyone ever read FlyLady's (www.flylady.net) book Body Clutter? FlyLady is the big housecleaning guru of the internet (who also has a radio show now).  I've heard of Body Clutter being a kind of applying-housecleaning-principals-to-your-body/health kind of philosophy, but don't know much more about it. Would love to hear from anyone who's seen it.

Happy Tu B'Shevat!

OT: a freebie for digital scrapbookers

Do you use PhotoShop to create scrapbook designs? If so, check out the new digital freebies at www.ScrapLovers.com ... here's a link to their very first one ever, a set of brushes:

http://www.scraplovers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2231

LMK if you use them!

A Benefit of Weighing..a Lot! LOL

This morning, I am faced with prospect of shoveling snow. Said snow is of such a height that when I tried to open the screen door this morning, I encountered resistance from all the snow piled up against it. I imagine I can squeeze out, but I'm NOT looking forward to it. One of the only chores my husband ENJOYED around here was shoveling snow - strange creature that he is.  But note that past tense -- post-heart attack, he is never again for as long as he lives ALLOWED to shovel show. 

*sigh*

So, now it's my job.

I'm going to skip all the snow and winter hating stuff I could tell you and instead focus on the bright side.  I weight 220 pounds! Know what that means?  According to the calorie control council, whatever that is (www.caloriecontrol.org), I burn 594 calories an hour shoveling show at a moderate pace.  Any little 120-pounders heading out to the same chore this morning? Only 323 an hour for them.

Yes, I realize I NEED it more too...but hey, I'll take a victory where I can get it!  LOL.

Gearing up for Snow

Oh, nuts.  6 inches of snow predicted for tomorrow afternoon.  Tomorrow is the weekend! Family time!  Who wants to be stuck shoveling snow?  *sigh*

My husband, whose favorite chore in the house is shoveling snow (I kid you not!), was told by his cardiologists NEVER to do it again.  I, who hate snow, cold, winter wear and just about everything associated with it (plus have a healthy phobia of slipping and falling on icy or wet slick surfaces), am now stuck with the job.  Burn calories, sure. But at the expense of my back and my customary good nature?  ARGH.

Guess the gym will have to be an EARLy visit tomorrow, huh?  I have a few bucks here to pay for babysitting if I want to go to the gym this morning...but I really don't!  The babies were up ALL night with stomach gas (what DID we feed them??), and I just don't want to drag the kids out of the house. But we'll see how I feel in a couple of hours, I guess. It's just so much easier when he's home to watch them while I work out, you know?

Quit Digging your Grave with a Knife and Fork

I think that NPR saved me from a munchkin and a creamy cup of coffee this morning!

On my way back from my son's speech therapy session, I debated taking the short way home...or the long way, which includes passing (or stopping at!) a drive-through Dunkin' Donuts.  I used to stop fairly regularly for doughnuts there (obviously before beginning the path we're on now!) and I had just about convinced myself to stop - I was going to get THREE munchkins, a jelly one for me and then one each for the babies, plus a light-n-sweet coffee.

As I was heading to the junction where one way brought me to Dunkin' Donuts and the other brought me safely home, I turned on the radio. The Diane Rehm Show (www.drshow.org) was on, and her guest was speaking. He sounded like a commercial for Weight Watchers or something - there I was, 300 pounds, and my doctor told me that if I didn't change my ways I was living in the last decade of my life, and then he described that decade for me... - of course, he had turned around his life and had test scores like a teenager now.

I couldn't listen to the show and go to Dunkin' Donuts at the same time.  Diane Ream and her guest, who turned out to be Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (http://www.arkansas.gov/governor/) , were interesting enough to win out. Score one for me!  Turns out the former 300-pound gov. now weighs 175, and is now crusading to change the way our health care system works (more money for preventative tests, for instance).  He's recently written a book, called Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork.  Maybe next time I'm on my way to a heart-clogging 'treat,' I'll detour to the library or a book store to see what it's all about.  (I found a chapter excerpt online here, for anyone interested in checking it out:  {{note: the length of the link is messing up my extrapounds display, so I'm splitting the link - put it back together to get to the site (you'll nave to copy and past - sorry!) ]}}}

http://www.twbookmark.com/books/94/0446578061/

chapter_excerpt20501.html )

Thanks, Diane, Mike & NJ Public Radio!

Jump Rope for Heart

I did Jump Rope for Heart when I was in high school, then forgot about it until I saw a post about it on an online community I'm part of. The site owner's daughter is participating in it, and gosh darned if they're not allowed to go door to door at all anymore..yet have major fundraising goals.  Apparently, the new way to solicit donations is through the internet.

If you've read my blog, you know my (35 year old) husband had a heart attack - big shocker! - the day before Thanksgiving last year.  Thankfully, he's alive and doing well, but we are SO aware that things could have gone a different way.  His problem is heavily genetic, and for lots of the questions we had and still have, the answer we get is, "we don't know that" -- or my favorite, "Well, that's the 64,000 dollar question!"  It's a little scary. 

Now that we have this very personal experience with the matter, though, I can't help but notice everything the American Heart Association does.  Like Jump Rope for Heart.  And we want to support their work.  I donated the minimum online amount to Kassie Zahn's Jump Rope for Heart campaign, & if you have a minute and are so inclined, will you consider doing the same?  Her website for the cause is {{note: I'm chopping the link in half here because it's goofing up my extrapounds display...put it together to get to the right place!

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/

donorPledge.asp?ievent=123239&lis=

1&kntae123239=E1581E28EDEB47E6B81C9FBF1C46ED4E&supId=118510415 .

You can find out more about it by visiting the website I first found this information at, which is www.scrappingwithstyle.com . Click on 'friendly community,' then scroll down to the non-scrapbook-related forum.  It's one of the first topics on the list.

Thanks for 'listening'.  I'm sitting here right now wishing lifelong heart-health to everyone who cares enough to set up shop here at extrapounds.com for a while.

Appetite! Cravings! TTOM on its way!!!

Arrrrgh.  What exactly IS it about TTOM that triples my appetite for about a week beforehand?  I could eat a cow, a loaf of buttery garlic bread, a pizza and an entire fruit orchard for BREAKFAST today. Yikes!  The appetite has been sneaking up on me for a couple of days, but I didn't actually notice it till last night when dh asked, oh so tactfully, as I was proclaiming my starvation for the fourth time that night, head ducked into the fridge as I rooted around for ANYTHING solid to munch...."Is it your time of the month or something?"  Ah..the light went on. At least forewarned is forearmed, right?  So I'm watching SO carefully today exactly what comes out of that fridge and goes down the hatch...but ugh, hate the hunger.

At least I've got a lot to keep me busy today, and I don't have to leave the house for anything. I mixed up two deadlines last night, so had to hoof it to get something in this morning that I thought was due Monday (it was Monday's article I'd sent in last night..oops)...which makes this afternoon the time to try to complete the article I thought I was going to be doing this morning.  Fun, fun!

But right now..lunchtime.  DH was kind enough to leave me a serving of last night's dinner -- chicken breast 'mojo', swiss chard and corn niblets.  Glad I'm definitely getting in some good protein for lunch..sometime I skip it by accident..that should help with teh appetite. HAVE to get to the gym tonight..working out helps keep me less hungry, too.

Wish me luck!

Mini background

So I've titled my blog 'gettin' there' as if I'm not in much of a hurry..and I suppose in a way I'm not, and shouldn't even be. As long as the scale keeps reading lower and my waistline keeps receding, I've got the deal.

The truth is, I've lost quite a bit of weight over the last couple of years without even trying. I know it sounds too good to be true - but it wasn't like it was NO work, I DID have kids in that time! LOL.  It's just that because I was so overweight, instead of gaining weight after the pregnancy, I came out of each lower...plus, having kids made me watch what I put in the house and into their mouths, so there was a trickle-down to what I was eating, too. Plus, I'd gained nearly 40 pounds in the ONE YEAR that I lived in Wisconsin - depression and a few other things like FRIED CHEESE CURDS, CULVERS FROZEN CUSTARD and the like!  I got married four years ago, at my highest weight ever - and without 'dieting' per se, I'm basically around my pre-Wisconsin weight now.

But my husband - at 35 - had a heart attack the day before Thanksgiving last year. WHOA.  It's true he has a bad set of heart genes...but first of all, we didn't know HOW bad until after his heart attack, which was the first time he'd been told his grandpa had died at 40 of a heart attack...he knew about his grandma on the OTHER side, who was I believe in her 40's also...plus, we learned that even though he'd been told his cholesterol numbers were 'good' (he's been on lipitor for a few years), his 'good' cholesterol was about HALF what it should have been...and the doctor didn't see fit to tell him that.  (Idiot.)  So there ARE things to do for raising good cholesterol, and his has gone up 10 points since November, so you can't tell me it wasn't something easily fixed! (At least partially fixed..we'll see how high it goes.)  And with the changes we've made, the weight IS coming off, plus we're exercising now (me at the gym and him at cardiac rehab)..so now it just makes FUN to watch the scale, too. It's amazing what a few smallish changes can do.

We're seeing a dietician, but nothing's 'eat exactly this' or 'do exactly that' - all suggestions. Which is the way I like it...we can do this!  And good luck to everyone else doing it with us.  I'm wishing good, healthy lifestyles on all of us..and long, healthy lives to go with them.

Cheers!

The Pasta Diet and other useful advice

Finally, something in our email from my husband's friend Bob that has nothing to do with animal sex or big-boob guffaws...

The Pasta Diet

1) You walka past-a da bakery.
2) You walka past-a da candy store.
3) You walka past-a da Ice Cream shop.
4) You walka past-a da table and fridge.

And for those of us who watch what we eat, here's the final word on
nutrition and health.  It's a relief to know the truth after all the
conflicting medical studies:

1.  The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than
Americans.

2.  The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than
Americans.

3.  The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks
than Americans.

4.  The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and sufer fewer heart
attacks than Americans.

5.  The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausage and suffer
fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like.  Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Melting Away!

I *love* the beginning of a new eating plan.  For all that I've shunned diets as an adult, after a family lose-and-gain-back-more habit my parents put us through for as long as I can remember, I have tried a *few* times to lose weight as an adult.

One time, I was even successful.  I was measured for Rommy's bridesmaid's dress, and was told my extra size would make the dress cost $50 more than everyone else's.  Losing two sizes would make the dress only $20 more. Being a 16 would give me the same price. I insisted that the store order me the 16, and in about four months I fit the dress - which was to say, by the time it came in.  The store made me sign a waiver and everything.  They didn' t have as much faith in my sometimes parsimonious nature as I did.

How did I lose all that weight in so few months? Joined a gym.  LOVED the gym. Addicted.  Made me feel good, took away some appetite, gave me less time to eat -- without paying much attention to food, I melted away.

The beginning of a new eating plan is ALWAYS melt-away time. First of all, I tend to weight more - so weight comes off faster.  1% of body weight can be lost safely every week, 'they' say.  That means a 250 pound person can lose 10 pounds in a month - a 150 pounder, only 6.  Makes a difference over time.  Plus, I'm at the gym again.  Not sure how to keep the membership after 2/18, when it runs out..but we'll find a way.  After IMC's huge wake up call - like an air horn to the eardrum - we'll definitely find a way.

So I hit a new decade today! The two-teens...can't remember the last time I was there.  Thank you to Strive Fitness in Byram for the Strive system! I was already doing ok on cardio, but wow am I noticing the difference now that I'm building muscle to burn that chub away.

Next goal? In 7 more pounds I'll have lost 10% of my body weight since the 1st of January...and I *should* be able to do that since March.

The ONLY thing is..I really haven't bought much in the way of clothing for myself in the past 3-4 years, except for maternity stuff..and I was 3 sizes b igger that long ago.  My clothes look SO frumpy. Yikes. And I'm not sure when I *will* be able to get clothing into a budget again.  And that's not to mention IMC, who's looking like a skinny man already, and whose pants need to NOT fall down at work. MOM!! Where are you? We need you to take in ALL of our stuff!

:D