Sunday, January 31, 2010

diet/fitness horoscopes & personality quiz

After weighing myself yesterday and having the scale tell me that I weigh 165#...I was not to happy with that. So today I went online and have been searching for a bunch of diet type stuff,
because my son graduates in 18 weeks and I plan on going home in smaller clothes.


Healthy Eating Horoscopes
-- By Leanne Beattie, Health & Fitness Writer
Pisces: February 20 – March 20
The Pisces sign is naturally drawn to the arts and this applies to cooking as well. A meal becomes a work of art in your hands. Food has to taste good and look good in your book, so you give each meal a little flourish to make it extra special. You love to show off your cooking skills and nothing makes you happier than hosting a dinner party. The more the merrier in your opinion! You appreciate the mystical side of life, and that comes across as deep gratitude. Your heart is genuinely filled with appreciation every time you sit down to eat, so take a little time before each meal to be thankful. You'll also enjoy sharing your blessings by volunteering at a food bank or community garden so that you can help others who aren't as fortunate.


Healthy Fitness Horoscopes
Pisces: February 20 – March 20
The Pisces sign is naturally drawn to arts like music and dance. This opens up lots of fun fitness possibilities. Why not take salsa lessons with your partner or hip hop dance classes with a group of your friends? Nothing compares to an evening of dancing—it’s fun and burns tons of calories! Even if it takes you a while to pick up the steps, you'll have so much fun that it won't matter. You sometimes feel frustrated with the limitations of the human body—you don’t like to be told you can’t do something! Push your fitness to the limit by learning new, exciting skills like downhill skiing, tennis or golf. You believe that there’s more to the world than what you see with your naked eyes. Your heart is genuinely filled with love and appreciation. Tune in to your mystical side by taking yoga and meditation classes.
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Now below is my results from a dieting personality quiz I just took today...some I agree with & some I don't.

FAST FUELER PERSONALITY:
Convenience is everything - and it's a problem. You tend to be on the go a lot and have a no-nonsense but inconsistent approach to health and fitness. The rational side knows about good nutrition and how it helps you get more done. But eating right all the time is a real hassle, especially when you just want to know what tastes good! Moreover, you prefer to eat when hungry but your busy schedule makes it difficult. Relatively speaking, it is also likely you have less weight to lose compared to most.
Fast Fuelers as a general rule tend to get caught up in what they're doing and sometimes forget to eat. A skipped breakfast or lunch is a recipe for trouble, usually ending up in an evening or late night calorie load-up. Fast Fuelers do not necessarily eat a lot of fast food, but your hectic day can lead to unhealthy food because a trip home or the grocery store just isn't convenient.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Retake control of your diet with meal planning, convenience, and more consistency. Spacing out smaller, more frequent meals will keep your energy reserves stable and avoid the highs and lows of "grab and go" meals and late night snacking. You need to structure good nutrition into your day (like other appointments) to avoid the compromising situations that cause you to skip meals or hit the drive thru. You are likely an excellent do-it-yourselfer in other areas of your life. Plan and pack ahead. Use that advantage of discipline and determination to stick to a real plan!SparkPeople's structured meal plans match your caloric needs and take the guesswork out of healthy food choices. Our searchable 10,000-food database makes it easy to plan ahead and keep track of calorie levels, overall nutrition and your weight loss progress. Choose from our plans or mix and match your own. Our food planning, tracking and calendar tools help you control your eating habits without using up a lot of valuable time or brainpower. They bring stability to your diet, using your rational side to plan ahead and stay consistent.

GOOD TIPS FOR FAST FUELERS:
Pack your lunch or have someone pack for you so it's there when you need it.
Have and use plenty of disposable resealable containers of different sizes.
Batch-cook food on Sunday for the rest of the week
Make a point to have more fresh fruit and vegetables within arm's reach.
Try cutting the intake of coffee and soda in half or substituting with green tea.
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CARB CRAZY PERSONALITY:

This person has an unbalanced diet heavy on starches. You tend to eat a menu loaded with your favorites; this all too often means high fat, high carbs and high calories! Odds are also high that you're not getting the recommended amount of vegetables, fruit and fiber in your diet. In fact, less than 15% of Americans eat the recommended number of fruits and vegetable servings each day. This is more than just an unbalanced diet - it's unhealthy! When you're not carb loading or under the sweet spell of the three H's (i.e., Hostess, Hershey, and Haagen-Daz!), you probably have the salty C's crashing down on you (i.e., Chips, Cheetos, and Chex Mix). The trouble with your unbalanced diet is that your energy and blood sugar can be all over the place and induce cravings and crashes. It can make you moody, irritable and can cause some difficulty in concentration.


WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You have probably found that once you start on a path to better eating and good health it is easy to stick with. That is, until a special event - like a vacation or holiday - and its rich foods knock you off course. It's tough to get back on track, but you know you can because you have done it before. The key is making more consistent healthy choices and stop the yo-yo dieting. You need to know more about the choices you make and how to re-channel those cravings. By tracking what you eat, you can see patterns, plan ahead for danger zones, and start using some smart healthy substitutions.Eating well is about making good choices, adding some balance and taking control of what you eat. It is a simple equation: to lose weight, more calories in means more calories have to come out through activity and exercise. Our food tracker analyzes the distribution of your calories, so you get real-time feedback on how balanced or unbalanced your diet is. Too many calories from any major food source can throw up some flags and point you in the right direction for making simple changes.

Knowing is half the battle. Would you eat one less donut if you knew it meant an extra two miles on the running track to get rid of those 400 calories? SparkPeople has an extensive Nutrition Resource Center that educates you on good fitness and nutrition options and strategies. Plus you'll learn a lot with our food tracker, menu plans, and supportive online community.

GOOD TIPS FOR THE CARB & CALORIE CRAZED
Give your refrigerator and cupboard a complete makeover. Toss out the temptations!
Take a list of food items heavy on proteins, fruits and vegetables to the grocery store.
Replace fried snacks and chips with baked snacks like pretzels.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

my food delivery


Wow, I got 2 baskets, 1 box of tomatoes, plastic bag with 5 loaves of bread & granola which is on top.
Brenda can have the grapefruit and some of the tomatoes, cuz I have so many tomatoes I doubt I will use them all before they spoil. I need to figure out what to do with the fresh asparugas that I got.
Guess I'll be having lots of tomato juice (my own version of V-8), homemade pasta sauce, and salads this week.


volunteers putting food into everyone's baskets. We had 25
orders this time.


Amy got this program started up here this
month. She is checking all the baskets to make sure nobody is missing anything.



Had to put my produce into a box to take home.
The mini cucumbers & mini squash are down in bottom of the box.
But oh yeah...I am signing up for this delivery next time too. Food will be delivered every other Saturday.
~*~EDIT~*~
Almost forgot:
I weighed myself while I was at the rec center today on their NEW scales:
I weighed 165#.....AARRRGGGGGGG where the hell did that # come from?

Friday, January 29, 2010

Health Related-Happiness Award

Now I already did a "Happy Award" blog sorta ~ I have read tons of other people's blogs where they posted the "happy award". Now I will have 2.
But on this blog, I'll try to see if I can list 10 things that all have to do with food, nutrition, fitness or just health in general and they are in no special order.
#1 Bountiful Baskets (my food delivery starts tomorrow)
#2 smoothies in a Oster blender & homemade juice from a Breville juicer
#3 yoga
#4 hiking~my next camp-out at Indian Gardens is March 27th
#5 Line Dancing
#6 The Biggest Loser TV Show (I check it online sometimes cuz I don't own a TV)
#7 Hummus~I love this stuff!
#8 Ayurveda(trying to figure it all out)
#9 Tazo Tea ~just started this within the last year.
#10 Workout DVD's (can do these in the privacy of my own room, so it don't matter how silly I look)
Now to complete my acceptance of this Happy 101 award, I must pass it on. I could choose 10 people as the rules clearly stated or I could make my own rules. This is my blog after all. Shouldn't I be able to do things my way?So,If you're reading this blog right now and you've not received the Happy 101 award, consider yourself officially nominated by Sunni-Day. Then remember to pass the happiness along by sharing 10 things that make you happy.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bountiful Baskets

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it
I'm about to lose control and I think I like it
LOL

Actually I'm excited because a lady here at the canyon has arranged for a program called "Bountiful Baskets" to deliver fresh produce up to my area twice a month. My first delivery will be this Saturday.
Its so nice to know that I don't have to wait and see if I get a weekend day off work and than hope that my friend Brenda is going to Flagstaff in order to go grocery shopping.
Now I can get yummy fresh produce delivered to me...well I just have to go over to the rec center to pick it up. WOW! I wish they had this when I first got to the canyon. Wow! I can't wait...this is almost feels like a kid waiting for christmas.

Now I have no idea how big a "case of tomatoes" is, so this might be the one & only time I get those.I may also need some new ideas to use up all the tomatoes also...I need to search for recipes online and then save them all in notepad, cuz I have a real good feeling I will surely need them.

What I'm getting is below
Basket Type: Conventional *(not all sure what will be in this)*

Add case of Round Tomatoes from Mexico? (20# box):
Add 1 per BasketGranola - Bountiful Baskets blend (2# bag; oats, honey, canola oil, cashews, dates, pineapple, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, sesame seed, vanilla, almond flavor):
Add 9-Grain Sandwich Bread - 5 Pack?:

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Comfort Food

I see or hear the term "comfort food" often and wondered ~what the actual heck is comfort food really....so I looked it up online.

~Comfort foods are familiar, simple foods that are usually home-cooked or eaten at informal restaurants. They are foods that are often emotionally significant to a person or group of people and are sometimes related to pleasant memories of childhood.~

Now according to Wikipedia:
Favorite home-made comfort foods in the US include chocolate cake, meatloaf, fluffernutters, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, (or twice-baked potato), applesauce, fried chicken, chicken soup, pizza, peanut butter, ice cream, bacon, chicken and dumplings, eggs, and hash browns, tomato soup & grilled cheese, buffalo wings, nachos, beets, and potato skins. Many creative mixes of foods have emerged that people term as comfort foods.

From my own personal childhood, I remember fluffernutters, Mom's homemade chicken soup, Some Mexicali Casserole (from the old Betty Crocker cookbooks~mom's favorite cookbook) Grandma's Beef Stew, Gram's Red applesauce (she left the peelings on when she made applesauce)Dad's Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Tomato slices inside, Dad's breakfast of homefries with onions,peppers & sliced hotdogs (maybe cheese too), or a fried egg sandwich.

I just realized that I don't eat the things I loved as a kid anymore. Guess I need to come up with a new list of comfort foods.
Hmmmm, while the weather gave us a break from the snow, I went up to the general store today to restock groceries before our next snowfall (which should be Tuesday night).
The thing I was dieing for was hummus. Hmmm can hummus be a comfort food? Hummus is something I just started eating 3 years ago and now when I get it from the store I become an addict and have to eat the whole thing up in 1-2 days.

~~*If you want to see pics of the snow here, go to my other blog which is listed on my profile page*~~

Saturday, January 16, 2010

blah

Last night I went to bed real early, so of course I woke up super early but it still took me quite awhile to get up out of bed. When I did get up and looked at the time; it was about 4:15am. I still felt tired even though I probably got my normal amount of sleep. I also noticed that my fingers were sore & stiff making it very hard to type this.

Today the Lion's Club is having a sale at the school (which I had told my manager that I would help set-up yesterday but I just wasn't in the mood to go anywhere...so I stayed home all day). I'm still not in the mood to go anywhere, so I haven't even gone up to see what the Lion's Club is selling. That might be a good thing too, because I need to save money for my trip in June.

We have no new snow yet, so I can't blame it on the weather. Some people online have told me that I might have a gluten allergy and all the carbs & salt might be the cause of my "blah"mood & sore fingers.I thought that was a bit interesting...as a kid, I couldn't eat much salt because I got nosebleeds EVERYTIME. and now if I have to much popcorn or salted nuts then my lips puff up and feel real wierd. But I never thought of salt as affecting my fingers. I had Rheumatic Fever as a kid, so I assumed that when my fingers or elbows hurt it was from that.

But a gluten allergy???? Oh yeah, I'm sure the clinic here would really think I was nuts if I mentioned that. Seems they already think I'm nuts or imagining things when I mention headaches or any problems with my eyes.
Besides if I ain't said it before....I love carbs. Geez, how long could I go without gluten? No pasta would be pretty easy but no bread, bagels or crackers would be TOUGH! Sure I can go a week, maybe 2 weeks without any bread or crackers...but after that????


Guess maybe its time to do a search for "gluten allergy" online.

Friday, January 15, 2010

I need carb-control

I got up real early today and just seemed to have the munchies for every carb-loaded item I could find in my room. So I had ritz crackers with hummus, a blueberry bagel and microwave popcorn.

I realized that I have always liked breads/pastries, rice, most crackers, cereals,and sometimes pasta & baked potato. I'm no chemist or doctor but I know that somehow carbs turn into sugar. Now seeing as my dad takes diabetic pills and to many relatives take insulin shots twice a day, and a couple times while I was pregnant I had to test myblood sugar daily for a few months (only as a pre-caution thing). I really need to get a grip on my carb-cravings.

There is no sense in bragging or feeling smug for not buying sugar, if the other stuffI do buy turns into sugar. And no I don't buy fake sweeteners either as they ALL taste disgusting and will give me a stomache ache. I also don't buy agave, maple syrup or rice syrup,or honey or anything else to sweeten my cereal & coffee.

I need to eat less carbs and I'm not a fan of the atkins diet either. I don't plan on buyingan item just because it might have "low-carb" on its label either. Seeing low-carb on a label just tells me that they took the carbs out and loaded it up with something I don't want, like sugar or salt.

~*and just my luck, the Maswik cafeteria is now selling pizza in the Maswik Pizza Pub*~

Monday, January 11, 2010

My weekend

Brenda and I went to Flagstaff on Saturday, to see the "Avatar" movie. Neither of us had any popcorn & soda during the movie. Who says you can't watch a movie without food?

Afterwards, we went to Olive Garden to eat...first time I have ever eaten there. Brenda surprised me by getting the minestrone soup. We both had eggplant parmesan. Tasted good, in fact I got stuffed even though it didn't look like alot on the plate (especially for the price).

Later we went to Fry's cuz we both needed groceries. I stocked up on some produce...almost got enough bananas & tomatoes for a small army. But this morning I'm enjoying a smoothie...plain soymilk, couple bananas, and chocolate protein powder.
Hooray, Avocados were also on sale...so I will add them to my salad before I go to work later today.

If you want to read about the rest of our trip home...its on my other blog here on blogger.