Weeks 47 & 48 for Jess, plus some health news

5/8 - Sunday
5/9 - 30 Day Shred DVD, Level 1
5/10
5/11 - Shred It with Weights DVD - Level 1
5/12
5/13 - Biggest Winner Cardio Kickbox DVD
5/14 - 1/2 hour yard work (digging and wood chopping)
5/15 - Sunday
5/16 - Shred It with Weights DVD - Level 2
5/17
5/18 - 30 Day Shred, Level 3
5/19 - 30 Day Shred, Level 2
5/20

5/21 - Ripped in 30, Level 1

A couple of fairly good weeks, but I learned recently that I need to step up my game, because I've been diagnosed with high cholesterol. It's not much of a shock, because it runs on both sides of my family. I was kind of expecting it actually, and now that I'm thirty and my doctor's testing me for it, surprise! there it is.

So, now I have a medical reason to work out not just a few times a week, but almost every day. And now instead of just eating to keep my weight normal (which I've done successfully for the past two years), I need to eat to keep my weight normal and I need to eat for heart health. Bye-bye oh luscious buttered popcorn that I used to save my calories for! :D

Seriously, it's not so bad. In fact, it's kind of nice not to wonder exactly how much eating healthily and working out should matter to me. Or what method exactly I should be embracing. Now I know, and it's pretty cut-and-dried. And, honestly, there are worse things than clarity.

And, hey, now those ten pounds I've thought about losing for the past two years? They're not vanity pounds anymore! They're I-don't-want-to-take-drugs-unless-I-absolutely-have-to pounds.

So, we'll see. Hopefully the uber-clean-eating-and-sufficient-exercise works. If not, at least, by God's grace, we have good health insurance.

-Jess

neat blog

I recently found this blog, Eat Like Me. It's a nutritionist who photographs and blogs her meals every day. From what I can tell, she's more about healthy food and healthy portion sizes than counting calories. And her food actually looks good! And she's a mom.

Anyway, I've enjoyed flipping through it. On the main page is only little excerpts from each post, but if you go to one of the posts itself, you can flip from post to post easily. 

Just linking because I thought some of you might enjoy it too. It's giving me lunch and breakfast ideas, for sure!

-Jess

Midweek, Gardening, Bye Nursing

Monday- 2 mile walk with Luke

Tuesday-3 miles walking, belly portion of BBT Prevention DVD

Wednesday- 45 minutes on the bike: about 10 miles and 350 calories burned.

Thursday- No official exercise, but I worked outside for quite some time. I planted three cuttings in my flower beds, weeded, and cut off a few branches from our gigantic oak tree so that wehn people park in front of our house, the tree doesn't brush their car. Also, I cleaned the shower with vigor!

I went to a MOPS meeting today that was all about gardening. The guest speaker writes for the Houston Chronicle and has been gardening in Houston for over 40 years! I really wanted to beg her to let me be an apprentice. :)

On a bright note too, I have had more than a week solid of good eating days, including my birthday party day where a very yummy cake and delicious ice cream were present. (I ate some, enjoyed it thoruoghly, but didn't gorge myself. Every time I eat something and it doesn't eat me back is a gift and I am trying to always be thankful.

Lastly, I stopped nursing Luke October 5th (my birthday). He just turned two and it was time. I was emotional about it and so was he, but we made it through. Since stopping nursing (which was only 2x a day), I have not felt the great urge to eat like I used to. Maybe my hormones are changing? Maybe it really did take a lot of extra calories to keep producing?

Oh, and Bob Harpers strength DVD arrives any minute by UPS. I am almost Giddy!

Cheat Day

6 weeks on the NWSNWF plan. Today I'm eating chocolate silk pie from Marie Callender's. And oh my, I am enjoying it! I'll be back to my usual plan tomorrow, but I think the occasional cheat day is going to be important to my long term success.

By the way, I haven't been posting much about karate because I've been doing a lot of teaching. Which is interesting to me, but probably not particularly interesting to you. :)

an education

Did you know that there's protein in swiss chard? Seriously!  There're ten grams of protein in 3 cups (uncooked) of swiss chard. I never would have guessed that.

I'm learning so much now that I'm tracking my food. I honestly didn't know that vegetables could have that much protein. Mushrooms have a lot too.

Okay. I'm done. I just wanted to share my amazement. 10 grams of protein! In CHARD. Chard, people.

-Jess

p.s. quick recipe: heat 1 tsp. sesame oil in skillet. Add 3 cups chopped Swiss chard. Sauté till wilted. Add one egg and scramble together w/ chard. Turn off heat and stir in a small can of mushrooms. Add soy sauce to taste. Enjoy! V. yummy, filling and (apparently) filled with protein*. Go figure!

*And not just because of the egg. There's actually more protein in the chard than in the egg. Seriously: so weird. 

This is Emily, checking in :)

I've definitely changed my focus lately, but I think that it is overall a good thing for me and our family. I'm going to karate twice a week. Originally I was planning on this being something I did with/for Jonathan, but it turns out that he's not really ready to do it. And I discovered that I like it and don't want to stop. Although it can be difficult to get there twice a week, I do enjoy it when I'm there and it really helps me to have steady, regular exercise outside of my home.

Other than that, I'm focusing on eating well according to my new game plan (no white flour, white sugar, or caffeine, basically no processed stuff). I still miss brownies, and I still think that it is worth it. :)

We're starting homeschooling next Tuesday, officially, although Jonathan asked to "do school" this morning and so of course we did! :) I'm spending this last week trying to get all my ducks in a row so I feel ready to start. (I don't. Feel ready. At all. Ack.)

As far as continuing to post here...maybe I'll post the kinds of things we're doing in karate? Last class we spent 30 minutes working on proper form for push-ups. Oh. My. Word. I am SO SORE!! I wasn't doing push-ups (because of wrist/shoulder pain) so I was holding various forms of plank and OUCH!!!!!!!

Another interesting part of karate for me: making some changes in the higher level forms. Because of my shoulder, there are some motions that I just can't do. And Fr. David has talked with me about making changes that accommodate the injury, while still honoring the intention of the form. It is a fun and interesting challenge, coming up with alternative ways to do them.

Ok, quiet time is about over and I need to make a phone call...this is Emily, checking out! ;)

snacks

Katie, my favorite go-to snacks are fruits and veg - just whatever we had in our CSA basket this week. And as for portable, apples and citrus transport pretty well, and soft fruits can be washed and bagged or put in a tupperware. Cucumber slices and carrots carry well in baggies.  I pretty much only cook for meals. Snacks are more likely to be a wash-and-chop affair!  

I also really like almonds and sunflower seeds, and the kids dig Trader Joe's dried bananas and dried mango and sesame seed crepes (Katie P introduced me to those!), though the last does have a fair amount of sugar and is processed - but very portable and has a fair amount of protein.  Oh! And hard-boiled eggs! The kids like them and I do too. If you boil them with salt in the water they're great right out of the shell.

And - not portable - my favorite snacky snack is popcorn. I air pop it and add melted butter, salt (you can get popcorn salt that's finely ground so it sticks better) and grated Parmesan cheese. Soooo good. And not high calorie if you go light on the butter.

Hope it helps, and I'm looking forward to read the others' suggestions!

Personal Training with Jackie + pull-ups

Yesterday. Looks like it might be just one workout this week for me - yipes! All I can say is our heat wave just did a number on me. I felt awful all week: eyes dry, headaches, ick. I don't do heat well.

But I ate well this week, so that's good. I feel like I'm still learning what "normal" eating is like for my non-pregnant, non-nursing self. I didn't know much about nutrition until I got pregnant and started researching it, and now (this month? next?) it's been a year since I stopped nursing. So, six years of learning about nutrition while nursing and/or pregnant, and now a year of learning how to feed just me. I'm getting there. But I'm still amazed at how different what my body needs is from what my mind (and mouth) want. It's said over and over again, but our culture (particularly advertisements) lead me to expect that I should be eating so much more than I really should. As I try to put the principles I've learned into practice, I'm finding it odd and hard, and I'm surprised that I'm surprised at that.  I guess what I'm really getting at is that this is the first time I've really taken this knowledge ("calories in < or =" calories">It's just really weird, realizing that everything they say about our eating culture is true. (And, when you think about how our culture simultaneously idolizes skinniness, it begins to look downright S&M. Unhealthy on both extremes at the same time.)

Hope this is okay to share. It's just been on my mind a lot as I've been working on learning how to feed myself when no one else is literally sucking calories out of me! (Now, figuratively sucking energy - that we can talk about!) 

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

This Week and Snack ideas

This week was good as far as workouts were concerned. Eating went well most days, although having birthday cake from Luke's birthday around was not helpful. For my birthday, I think a trip to get frozen yogurt will be a better idea.

Monday: Prevention BBT with weights- adding the weights makes it comparable to the Shred I think.

Tuesday: Biked 1 hr!

Wednesday: biked 35 minutes

Thursday: nothing

Friday: Walked 2 miles with Luke, 2 parts of Prevention DVD, worked outside

I have a question. I am trying to do more made from scratch type of snacks and stay away from processed foods. Do you all have any favorite snacks that are also portable? Eating Well had this nice snack mix which would work if I added some nuts to the mix for protein. I have a go to breakfast and a few go to snacks (string cheese, whole wheat tortilla, trail mix), but I am looking for something different.

Hope everyone is doing well. It is the first week of school for all the kids in our area, so I am assuming some of you have had a busy week!

Not exactly exercise related...

But since we've been discussing some food and weight issues here too, I thought I'd share. I just finished 30 days of not consuming white sugar, white flour, or caffeine (except for two days while camping - those s'mores were delicious!) If you're interested, you can read about it on my regular blog here. The surprising and un-looked-for bonus was a 5.5lb weight loss, even though I was not exercising much. I think that I've likely found a solution that works for my particular body, and that is really exciting.

Change-up and Check Up

Well, we got back from our little vacation on Sunday afternoon. I have been running errands ever since, leaving little time to blog.

This week was different than those in the past have been. I have not been as motivated to workout, so I have been trying to be more generally active. This is partly due to my hips still being sore, and partly due to being tired. Instead of exercise DVD's, I have been cleaning and deep cleaning a lot more, plus working outside.

If I do work out inside, I need extra help, so I turn on a 20-25 min HGTV show (from Hulu) and practice my Jillian strength moves.

Eating has been going well the past few days (after a few ok or not-so-good days). I have realized that partly my good days have come because we are currently in the Dormition fast. I have not been eating dessert and it has made a big difference. Specifically, I have realized that granola bars, cookies, and chocolate are hard for me to eat in moderation. Do you all have any specific trigger foods? Do you stay away from them completely?

Last week, I met a major goal. This week, I had my first physical in a year and a half. My blood pressure was about 100/60 and I had a low resting heart rate. :) My weight was up from last week, but I think it was really a combination of water gain from some salty things I had eaten, and a really old scale.

Saturday: Walk up and down hills with stroller (loved this one)

Sunday: Nothing- drove home with 3 kids for 4 hours (that was enough)

Monday: Shred Level 2

Tuesday: Strength exercises for 20 minutes

Wed: 2 mile Walk with Luke in stroller, Strength exercises for 5 minutes

Thurs: Strength exercises for 5 minutes, 30 min heavy duty workoutdoors

Friday: Strength exercises for 20 minutes, LOTS of deep cleaning

doing well

Since getting to my parents, I been using their exercise bike for 45-50 minutes. Today marks day 3. I screwed up on the mileage when I last blogged. It is more around 15-16 miles, but the calorie countage was correct.

I have been feeling so much happier these last few days and more energized and am just loving exercising again. I am also happy because I did not gain any weight during all the traveling. Yay!!!

Maybe it's just me, but I find it easier to control my diet when I am exercising. I think it causes me to be more conscientious about my body and that is helpful in evaluating food choices. Exercising regularly also gives me the power to say 'yes' to splurges without guilt.

Which makes me think of your last post, Katie P--I used to struggle a lot with viewing food guiltily. I don't know if this would be helpful, but that is the main reason why I made it a goal to try to exercise everyday (though realistically, that means 6 times a week). I decided that if I exercised every day, I would then make the choice not to stress about what I ate. Not that I would let myself eat candybars and big macs everyday, but I have a lot of issues with dieting from my overweight highschool and early college days, and can't handle dieting anymore. I refuse to do it. Exercising every day gives me more wiggle room with food and, honestly, I think it makes me less hungry. Am I the only one with that experience? I think it is because when I exercise, I am more aware of how thirsty I am and drink so much more which then, naturally, fills the empty spaces in my belly. Anyhow, all this to say, I wonder if maybe giving yourself a little break from food tracking and just focusing on strengthening your body might be helpful.

Also in regards to bodily pains, I have found that doing Pilates or Yoga stretches as warm ups really helps. It helps reduce injuries and helps me be more aware of whether or not my muscle is hurt or just tight. If it is just tight, the stretching make my body feel well again. If it is an injury, I become more aware of it. Just a thought.

food journaling

I started food journaling again yesterday. I haven't done that since I was losing pregnancy weight, but it really was the tool that always helped me during those periods. And, since Christmas, I've been about five pounds heavier than I like being. 

Five pounds isn't much, I know, but it is the difference between some of my clothes fitting comfortably and all of my clothes fitting comfortably, and I like my clothes fitting comfortably. :) Anyway, enough to say: I know food journaling works for me, and I also know that now is an appropriate time for me to use that tool.

The fun thing is, this time, for the first time, I'm food journaling online. I remembered that once I tried to sign up with Sparkpeople to use their food journaling software, but they didn't let me because I made the mistake of telling them that I was nursing. Oops.

But, I'm not nursing now, so now I'm using their site. I gotta say, it's a ton of fun. For someone like me (and I'm not saying you should do it if it's not your thing, or not the sort of thing that's helpful to you), all the charts and keeping track make it into a game, and I'm really enjoying myself (must be that J). It's also really interesting, because you can do things like look at a pie chart of your daily calories by the food they came from. It really emphasizes how few calories most produce has!

I had to turn LOTS of options off when I signed up though. No, I don't want your emails. No, I don't want to join the message board. No, I don't want to measure my waist. No, I don't want to keep track of how many glasses of water I drink. No, I don't want you to plan a strength-training routine for me. But I was impressed by how many options there are, and how customizable the software is. You can even track non-weight-related goals, and I'm thinking of using that feature to keep track of my page count daily (writing-related goal).  (I should mention, for those who might be interested, you can turn off any of it you want to, so you could use, say, the goal-tracking part without using the calorie-counting or weight-tracking.)

Anyway, this seemed like an appropriate place to share this. I usually just keep track of exercise stuff here, but I thought I'd mention a food thing, since it really is the other half of the equation, at least for me.

-Jess