Spin me right round....

Ok,
It's my crazy busy time at work, getting all of my programs in order for the summer. But I'm still alive and reading blogs!

In the News Lately:
1. I moved to the 2nd level of the Shred today! LOVE IT! I took it back down to my 3lb weights for day one, but I can tell that I am going to want my six pounders for some of the exercises. I really like this level, it's more interesting to me, although VERY TOUGH!

2. I am going to Savannah Georgia in 3 weeks!!!!! I am going to visit my best friend, with our other best friend!!! I've never been to the South and I am super excited.

3. I bought new running shoes last week, from THE BEST STORE EVER! Awesome awesome store. And after 500 miles, on my old running shoes, these new shoes feel AMAZING!

Good Bye Splenda...

It’s been real…err…fake and full of chemicals. I just got finished reading “In Defense of Food…An Eater’s Manifesto.”
What a super good book. Some of the concepts in the book, weren’t new or earth shattering, but they are good reminders. Eat slowly, eat a meal, eat away from your desk or coffee table, eat with people, eat food with less than five ingredients.

What I did find fascinating was the statistics about the affects of the Western diet on cultures. And how much it costs to have Diabetes!

I’ve always had a love affair with fake sweeteners. My mom always had Sweet n’ Low in our pantry. I loved to use it on my cereal as a kid, even though my Dad never wanted me to eat it. I think the beauty (and disgustingness) of fake sweeteners is that they are so damn sweet. You can use a little , for no calories, and get as much sweetness as like 10 tablespoons of sugar. I like exaggeration today, ok I like exaggeration every day.
The point is, fake sugar has always been poison of choice. I’ve been thinking about cutting splenda out of my Diet for a while. Pretty much since I started reading healthy living blogs. Really though, what drove it home for me was In Defense of Food.
How can I claim that I want to be as healthy as possible, but dump white chemicals that are made to taste like sugar in my coffee and over my grapefruit?
So I am saying goodbye to all the pink, yellow and blue packets of sweetness.

I bought agave nectar this week at the grocery store, I’ve wanted to try it for a while, and we are finally out of honey. It coincided well with saying sayonara to splenda.

Happy New Year!

photo via:veer.com

Isnt' that a delightfully tacky new years crown?

I know it's a little early to talk about the New Year...but I've already been thinking about resolutions....

Is anyone good at keeping their New Year’s Resolutions? I’m not. In fact, I usually forget what they were by um…February. But, I always think about them…what would I like to do better, what would I like to accomplish, etc.

Well this year, I am giving myself 2 New Year’s resolutions.
1) Become as much of a locovore as possible. How do you even spell that word? Localvore? Locavore? Anyway. I would like to buy, eat, recreate, etc as locally as possible. Now, we all know the dilemma about fresh produce in the winter, and let’s face it, while I live in a hugely agricultural valley…we don’t really produce much in the winter. But California does….and hey, that is only two states over…so that is better than Mexico right? Anyway, this resolution also extends to patronizing small local businesses and restaurants, instead of chains. Now…this won’t always be possible, like when my Inlaws want to eat at Red Robin for my father-in-law’s bday. I’ve also been thinking about my gym membership, which has been sorely under utilized since I started doing morning walks with the dog, as well as using the employee workout room, but when my “contract” is up in July, not continuing and joining the small, locally owned gym that is 1 block from my subdivision. Then I could walk there! How much more local can you get? Plus….it’s 13 dollars a month cheaper!
2) The second is to read 3 books per month. This is actually quite easy for me. I am a voracious reader, but I let me self read fluff books. It’s not that I WANT to read text books or anything, but now that I’m out of school…I’ve decided that while I am going to read 3 books a month, 1 of them has to be non fiction.
3) Ok, I lied 3 resolutions. My third resolution is that I am going to make a mini set of resolutions each month. Little things that I want to accomplish or do. I got the idea from Kim over at www.elasticwaist.com and I actually started doing it in October.

I didn’t share about my mini resolutions, because…given my track record with resolutions, I didn’t want to fail miserably semi-publicly, on my blog. I would say that I’ve been about 60% successful with my monthly resolutions. I write them down on little index cards and keep them at my office.

Do you want to know what I’m working on this month? It was sort of a back to basics month for me.
1) read 2 non fiction books (Which is where I got the idea for my 2009 resolution)
2) Drink 2 nalgene bottles of water a day at work.( I was really good about this, but got in the bad habit of not drinking enough H20.)
3) Check blogs/internet at designated times throughout my work day. (for example 8am for 10 mins, 11 am for 10 mins, and 3pm for 10 mins. )
4) Do a lunchtime “sweat break” 4x a week. 2 cardio, 2 toning.

I’m doing really well on 1-3. As far as my “sweat break” I’ve done pretty well. Last week the weather was just too nice to not go outside on my lunch hour, so I took 30 minute walks that week…..

I’m going to wait to reveal my January resolutions till the new year….ooh the suspense...I can’t take it! J Stay warm.

Intuition

And it is Friday. Tomorrow is my 5k! The first that I have participated in since I was in sixth grade. Wow. I'm looking forward to it, I think our plan is to mostly walk. Maybe a little bit of jogging mixed in there.

So, I've been keeping up with my blog reading. Wow, there are just so many out there. Something i've recently stumbled upon are blogs about intuitive eating. I want to eat intuitively, not out of emotion. I want to eat when I am hungry and quit when I am full. I've also decided that I am "anti-diet." Yet "pro health and body and fitness." I want to be as good to my body as possible. Right now, I am at the point where weight loss is going to happen. I was so un-good to my body for so long, that, I can't but not lose weight. And nothing is off limits, if I want to eat nothing but full fat mayonaise, I am going to. But I like reduced fat mayonaise, and 100 calorie cakes. They aren't diet, they are just tiny. Hello portion control, I don't believe we have ever met.

Anyway, It's all very interesting.
My husband is out of town this weekend, and I want to make sure that I use this as a chance to cook myself healthy meals, and not just rely on fast food or cereal to get me through. Here are somethings that I want to buy:
Whole Grain Cereal
Brown Rice
Whole grain Waffles
frozen fruit
spinach
Whole Wheat pasta
and some other stuff.
I need some fresh veggies and fresh fruit as well
oooh! maybe some whole wheat english muffins, for peanut butter and bananas.
yummy.
I want to buy what my body wants.

In the past few weeks, I've really been paying attention to how different foods make me feel. I have noticed that when I eat a good balance of fresh, non processed foods, I feel better and not as bogged down. I don't deprive myself though ,sometimes a girl just needs a little Kraft Macaroni and Cheese!