So many diets = So much confusion

In high school my favorite teacher was a vegetarian and the first vegetarian that I personally knew. I have dabbled in the veggie life off & on a few times over the years. I just laugh at people when they ask me about protein and I ask them if they ever heard of beans, eggs or tofu. ♥♡♥ Then years ago one of my son's made a comment about how he didn't like many veggies but he did like fruit, so he would rather be a fruitarian. Well low and behold, when I goggled the word to see if such a thing really existed. I found tons of "raw food" sites. Those sites came in handy for the many, many years I lived with no kitchen at all. Every shopping trip was sooo easy, and it was fun to watch the cashier's face when she had to weigh & ring up all my produce. ♥♡♥ I have tried Weight Watchers, T.O.P.S., and a couple other calorie counting diets..all for a short time. I either get bored, to lazy to bother with the healthy stuff, or to poor to pay for healthy stuff, or my living situation doesn't allow me a kitchen of my own to do what I want, whenever I want. So at this moment I have ended up weighing over twice as much as I did when I got married & started having my kids. I can't call it "baby fat" anymore because myb baby is 16 & 1/2. Can't really blame it on the sugar-addicted ex anymore either, because well he has been an ex for 16 years, and doesn't buy my food now. ♥♡♥  Now it's 2014, and I turn 50 in March. I don't wanna live with family members forever which means someday getting my own place (wish I could snap fingers and all medical & disabilty issues were done). That would mean staying healthy and taking care of myself. ♥♡♥ Over the years I have heard of different low-carb diets, but it wasn't until this year that I was really really honestly ready to try them myself. Course like any diet, someone will ask "how can you live without.....?" As if whatever you ain't eating at the moment is the most important food in the world. Believe me everyone is different and you can't please everyone at the same time. Heck I have 7 kids and there was no pleasing all 7, most of the time either.Seeing as the LC diets, are still pretty new to me, it has been interesting to read the debates online about how much carbs a person really does "need". That need is different if you are diabetic, a pro-bodybuilder, or just the average joe. Basically I am beginning to think that people are so addicted to any life-long habit that they claim it as a "need". I don't care if that addicted habit is coffee, cigarettes, or carbs. Habits are made & habits can be broken

Where did the time go?

I just realized this morning, that it's been a few months since I posted on here. Figure it's time to let everyone know what's new.

http://yoyoliving.wordpress.com/

I started a new (health/fitness)blog on wordpress...the link is above. So if you still want to keep up with my diet, what I am doing for exercise, and whatever else I find interesting online that's health related; wordpress is the place to go(for now..LOL). I am also trying to figure out how to make a seperate page on facebook for my yoyoliving blog. So do a search on facebook for~~yoyoliving and you might find me there.

I like Greek Yogurt & need to get back into yoga..and sometimes life (and my mood) goes up & down just like a yo-yo; so it seemed like a fitting name for a blog.

Right now its 2am and I am throwing my diet out the window for this morning, as I am having hot chocolate & microwave popcorn. It's 24 degrees outside and I wanted some sorta "comfort food".

I joined Weight Watchers

A lady that works here started a WW group last month, but I didn't join until after the New Year. I officially started out weighing 174.6 at my 1st meeting and the last Tuesday (for my 2nd meeting) I was down 2.8 pounds weighing in at 171.8.

Last week I bought the WW "Ultimate 3-Month Tracker" book and so far have been doing pretty good about tracking everything I eat; which for me is a BIG accomplishment in itself.
I have never been a person to keep a schedule for ANYTHING. Usually I give-up after a day of trying to change a habit.
Luckily the little tracker book fits into the pocket of my uniform apron so I can carry it with me at all times even at work. It helps to be able to immediately write what I eat on my breaks instead of waiting till I get home. My tracker helps me stop & think about what I really want to eat at work as my cafeteria doesn't have the best options.

I have found a site that will calculate points for me, and seeing as I am on a 3-day weekend right now, I will make a list of all my favorite foods from the cafeteria menu and keep it inside the tracker book, so I can make better chooses when I go back to work.
1thing I love about this new "PointsPlus Program" that WW recently changed to is the fact that fresh fruit & most veggies are ZERO points. So if I ever use up my points in a day but still get hungry later; then I can still eat without having to worry about adding to many points. So far that hasn't really been a problem though.

The Biggest Loser

Season 11 started last night--seeing as I dont own a TV, I have to wait until the morning after to watch it on my laptop on hulu. I just finished watching it and ..WOW, this season is sure different then last season. This is the first season I have watched where they had couples/teams. The show has had couples before but I just never watched them.

1 guy started off weighing 507 pounds and another guy admitted that when he watched the past shows he would sit home and judge the contestants when they took off their shirts. Ever since I was little I have also caught myself judging people (in 1 way or another) because of their weight. I can admit that is a hypercritical way of thinking as my diet & excerise level lately is no better then the people on the show. I can come up with as many excuses as the people on the TV show for why I am fat and unable to keep weight off. The biggest reason is...I eat to much & move to little.

Hopefully I am on my way to changing that (except for yesterday). Whenever I am sitting home and feeling bored or just plain BLAH...I will have to watch re-runs of past "Biggest Loser" shows to get inspired again.

Desperate for a change

Strange how growing up that no doctor ever associated food having anything to do with how I felt. The only person who came close to thinking there was a connection between food & health was my dad, and he was a high school drop-out.

But I grew up with Rheumatic Fever & Scoliosis and my mother had epilepsy. Those health conditions were beyond anything my dad's knowledge. He just knew and always told us "You are what you eat, if you eat junk then you become junk".

Well the last few years I have become JUNK! I seem to have alot of little health issues that nobody has been able to pin-point to any real diagnosis. No matter what my concern or complaint is, I am told that it's nothing to worry about or just something caused from stress or general over-eating at some event/holiday.

Last year I started to look up Gluten free info to see if it had anything to do with all my stomach aches & bathroom issues. It probably did, but never really gave up wheat. Oh hell, grains seem to be my favorite thing to eat.

Last August, after having headaches for to long and finding it harder to read for long periods of time I finally went to Eye Masters and got bifocals. They have helped alot with the headaches.

This last Fall, I started getting an annoying itchy skin on my fingers..soon watery bumps appeared that I scratched until they burst open and became sores. Then I got bumps/welts on my arms, elbows and calves & heels and along jawline. I assume people must be starting to think I am a junkie because of my constent itching and all the wierd sores everywhere.

None of the health issues I had last year have really gone away, but thats cuz I never really changed my diet. I always wondered as a kid, why a cancer patient would continue to smoke or why a diabetic would eat sugary junk-food or why anyone taking medication for high blood pressure would add salt to their processed food that already had salt added into it. I figured if a Dr told you that your life depended on eating a certain way, that should be enough to change your diet.

Well seeing as no Dr has ever told me anything about a gluten free diet...that must be why I still buy to much bread,crackers and such. But why do I need to wait for a Dr, when I can read the info for myself online and become my own Dr? Shouldn't my own knowledge of my symptoms be enough. I should know my own body better then any Dr. Dr's don't know everything; and I already know that...if I believed everything a Dr told me just because they are "the professional" then I never woulda had 7 kids when every DR I saw had told me not to.

Diet Make-over

I just wanted to post 1 more picture of Maswik Cafe before it closes for renovations. We are all looking forward to seeing the new Make-over in April.

Went and looked back through a couple posts and realized I weighed 168# last Nov 20th & 176.6 couple days ago. So that's 8.6 pounds gained in 41 days, so roughly about every 4 & 1/2 days I have been gaining a pound.

I have been reading blogs & other online info about Gluten-free diets again...seems I was doing that last January too. But I may have even found a connection between gluten and the dry, itchy skin on my arms. WOW, never woulda guessed that gluten had anything to do with my annoying rash. Look up...dermatitis herpetiformis.

I went out to e-cafe today before getting pictures of the snow outside. I ate a salad, corn chowder, yogurt & coffee for lunch. I got the corn chowder just because it's cold outside and I wanted something hot that did not come with bread or french fries.
I should have gone up to the store to buy some apples or baby carrots to snack on tonight. Guess I will have to make a shopping list and do that tomorrow.

my list for tomorrow:
--------------------
check for grapes
apples
pears
broccoli
baby carrots
celery

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Well we will finally end this year with snow and the temp right now is -14, that's not a type-o it's 14 below 0 @4am by the time I left to catch the bus it was -24 and when I got to work it was -30 degrees outside...coldest I have ever seen it here.


The buses were late yesterday (12/30) because of our snowy weather. I ended up taking the employee shuttle at 6:30 and then having it get stuck at the rec center. While we waited for help, I went inside and stepped on the scale. 176.6#....YIKES!

Anyways the last couple months I have had a real annoying problem with dry itchy skin that is driving me crazy. I scratch so much that I end up digging sores on my arms. I have always believe that the best way to care for skin was from the inside-out. I also want to see if I can improve some bathroom issues.

So for 2011,
I will really, really try to drink more water,
Decrease my coffee intake
Take vitamins more often
Get in a routine of using Noxema & hand lotion & foot cream...at least 3 days a week
Drink smoothies on my day offs (when I have more time to make them and clean up afterwards)
Reread my raw food books & catch up with some of my foodie blogs
Use the tracker items more often on sparkpeople
Make a big salad at work to bring home, whenever I am to tired to cook later

I have a book: The Raw Food Detox Diet and need to really take the time to sit down and read it & commit myself to living by it.

A bus driver and her husband came into Yavapai for breakfast today. Chatted with Rick about his diet...he has now lost about 85-95#. Mostly from cutting out what he called 'JUNK'...mainly greasy fried-foods & flour. Alot of what he said made sense; so now I will have my manager, Bob and Rick both as inspiration this Winter.

http://www.greensmoothiequeen.com/ just a new site I found last night
http://veganhope.com/ an interesting lady who is losing weight and CURING her own diabetes
http://blissfulhope.wordpress.com/ site I found awhile ago & bookmarked & need to catch up on.