julia

I went to Curves yesterday. And I went walking this morning. I didn’t want to. But I had already told myself that not wanting to wasn’t an excuse I could use.  And I couldn’t come up with anything else.  And, as usual, when I ended up enjoying it.  I remembered how I like going to curves and chatting with friends. And Nan was there - bonus. (she’s an amazing older lady who always keeps tabs with my life and makes me feel special. And she’s got an amazing attitude towards life). And when I went walking I remembered how I like to walk - its me time where I can think and dream about whatever I want, and just appreciate how wonderful the world (and my life) is.

So I just  arranged to start walking tomorrow night with a friend who lives a few streets away. I met her through another friend, and we’ve gotten together to do a few things.  I’m hoping we start walking almost every night, and long distances.  I used to walk with my friend for up to 2 hours at a time.  Lots of amazing things to do and see in the neighbourhood, many different walks.  I was in a walking group for a while too (they met at the donut store!) and hopefully can remember some of those walks too.

I feel I need to start doing serious walking and moving.  I mostly work from home, and spend so much of my life sitting down.  My legs and feet often go numb.  My circulation is bad.  And my feet sometimes swell.  I don’t tend to sit ergonomically, I am really bad about that.  And I can turn off the pain signals so I don’t even notice sometimes.  I have repetitive stress injury from using the mouse too much and the only thing that has helped is going to curves and building up my muscles.  I need to start moving more - unplugging from the machine.

Hopefully I’ll start walking with Virginia and significantly add to my mobility time.

I’m a firm believer in exercise.  My  77 year old neighbour walks 5 miles/5 times a week (and I’ve walked with her, its power walking in less than 2 hours, up really steep hills).  She doesn’t take any medicines. She looks amazing. And I’ve gone out to dinner with her, she eats more than I do and drinks moderate wine!).  To her, her walking is her job.  she has weekends off. But spends 2 hours 5 days a week, plus 1 hour gym time 3 days/week.

Sounds like so much time. But our bodies need to more and stay active to function and stay alive.

I went for a walk before breakfast.  And felt a bit sick after breakfast, I might be reacting to something.  Perhaps too much garlic.  I am a fructose-mal absorber and have issues with food, and its hard to figure out what sets me off.  Yesterday I had stuff I don’t usually eat - veggie burger/ onion bun from the farmers market/ onions/.  Onions are also on my list of ‘probably not’. I have a few things that I can’t eat at all (anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup which is just about all commercial breads, most junk food, and most processed foods in the USA, its not found in other countries). I also can’t eat apples, or drink most juices.  I can drink very diluted blueberry/pomegrade juice. But too much makes me ill too.

I really should do a week or so of eating really mild and stuff I know I can handle.  I should also walk all the time, go to curves, and do all the other things I should do.   And I shouldn’t be sitting on the computer so much….

should/should/shouldn’t.  My problem isn’t lack of knowledge…

When I don’t post it’s ’cause I haven’t been doing good things to post about.

Thursday was a wash, I didn’t make it to curves, bought cheese at the grocery store, and had a bottle of wine and dinner at least 2 1/2 times. Friday was similar. Saturday, not so much different.  I did the healthrider each day for at least 100 times.

But I really need to get moving. I have been spending far too much time at my computer.  I need to incorporate HOURS away from it,  the more I sit, the more I want to sit, etc…

So from now on, back to no eating at the computer. And limit non-work things.  I used to take computer free days, I should go back to that.

move, move, move.  Get up and dance. While I still can.

I’ve gone to 2 farmer’s markets in the last two days. Yesterday morning I went to the market on Victory (in Pasadena, CA, there are 4 markets/week in town, so far I have only been to two, the largest on Saturday and yesterday).  The market had about 10 stalls, I recognized some from the Saturday market. I was able to get eggs - 18 for $4.50. Brown large.  I also bought 3 bags for $5 - one bag had 3 corns, 1 had 4 vine ripened tomoatoes, the other bag had 2 large red peppers. What a deal!   This market is in the morning- 8:30-1.

Today I went to the farmer’s Market in Sierra Madre, which is actually walking distance from my house (I’m lucky, I have 2 farmer’s markets in walking distance!).  This market goes in the afternoon to evening, so they were just gearing up.  There was live music.  I was looking for hard cheese and I found something - smoked goat cheese.  Not sure how well it will go in my eggs.  I also bought some berries - blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.    And I got a head of lettuce (red leaf $1 for a HUGE one) and some Brussels sprouts.  I hadn’t seen those at the market yet, so I pounced on them. I now have  lots of food, more than I usually have.  Now to get cooking!

I didn’t make it to curves today, I had an early meeting.  I did a few minutes on the health rider. I should get on it again.  And Curves tomorrow. Perhaps a walk tonight. But I”m soooooo tired.  Drove to work and back and its about 80 miles through LA traffic….  Nap, then walk…

I did both my exercise things today - went to curves this AM and went for a walk before dinner. Its been too long since I’ve walked, and I’m supposed to be doing it every day.  Tomorrow I need to walk before breakfast.

I entered in all my diet today, and it looks like its about 1500 calories. That’s about what I shoot for. And then I go over with wine, and nibbling at night. Sometimes it seems I have dinner a few times.  So I’m cutting that out. No wine during the week. Except tomorrow ’cause I’m going out. heh.

I am going to need to get eggs tomorrow, I’m going to go check out the farmer’s market  that I haven’t been to before.  If they don’t have eggs I’ll have to think of what else I would eat for breakfast….

Food Log

Exercise Log

I don’t know why my post from last dinner (and the food journal) came up as the 27th, I’m guessing its set in a different time zone than I live on.  I wanted to see how much my breakfast was in calories, so I posted it for the 28th (tomorrow). Confused? Me too.

Anyhow I had my typical breakfast today - 2 scrambled eggs with milk and garlic and basil and spinach (lots of spinach) over toasted rolls.  Its about 400 calories but very high in fat.  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.  Eggy/cheese/spinach mushy stuff over crispy bread.

I started making bread last night and will make some rolls later. I need to think of other breakfast ideas too, not sure if I can always get eggs at a farmer’s market.  I can always stop by Grand Central Market in LA. Its open every day and has just about everything. Haven’t been there in a while, so that will be fun.

I’m going to go do physical labour - clean the garage.

I had a typical dinner tonight. I often eat very similar foods.  I fill 1/2 my plate with salad, 1/4 with fruit, and 1/4 with the special of the day (often cheese or pesto tortellini, or a quiche, sometimes a soup) . The salad is about a cup or more of mixed greens, plus red pepper, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, feta cheese, and sometimes green onions and other things.  I don’t use dressing.

The fruit was about 4 strawberries a few blueberries and a few raspberries.

The tortellini was left over from last night and I microwaved it and added  shredded cheese.

I also had a piece of corn on the cob with butter and salt which was totally delicious!

And I had a few glasses of Chianti red wine.

Food Log

Been a long time since I’ve been here.  But I’m starting a new ‘food lifestyle’ and wanted to blog about it.  I’ve decided to only buy food from farmer’s market’s for a month.  I’m doing this for several reasons - to challenge myself, to eat better, to plan better, and to be easier on the environment.  Farmers markets around here can only sell food produced within 100 miles, its a law in LA county.  So I’m going to be eating local this month.  I’m not going to stop myself from eating out, which I rarely do anyhow. And I am going to use food I already bought, like flour, lentils, pasta, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, etc. And I still have some foods like potatoes and cheese tortellinis.

So today I went to the largest local market.  I got (in order of buying, easiest for me to remember) - Rosemary garlic bread, a chocolate muffin, onion sprouts,  basket of blueberries, raspberries & strawberries, 2 bags baby spinach, 1 bag spicy salad greens, 1 bunch green onions, 3 avocados, 1 bunch asparagus, 1 head garlic, 2 red peppers, 4 ears of corn and a small container of feta cheese.   (Btw, I cook for myself only but I’ll be sharing the corn today with my housemate & his friend).

I didn’t find bread rolls, so I am going to make those.  Yeast/flour/water/sugar/salt, and I’ll freeze them after the first rise and I shape them, so I can cook them fresh each day I want them.  Its really hard to find bread that is only those ingredients, and when you do it costs so much its ridiculous.  Making bread takes about 10 minutes of real work, wait an hour or two for rising, and then baking time.  And if you cook something saucy to put on the bread you don’t notice the absence of fattening butter.

Speaking of butter, I only have 1 1/2 sticks, not sure if that will last me the month, I’ve never rationed my butter before.  Its funny, my ancestors would have all rationed it.  And I have no idea how much I use, I just buy more when its low.  My housemate is lactose intolerant so he doesn’t touch it.   So, we’ll have to keep track of the butter. Perhaps its even available at the farmer’s market.

There are 4 farmer’s markets in my town (Pasadena) each week - Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  There is a Wednesday market in Sierra Madre, and a very large on Friday night one in Monrovia (with lots of craft booths and bands) .  And probably at least 100 other farmers markets within a 50 mile drive.  It will be fun to explore them. I’ve only been to 1 of the 4 markets in Pasadena.

I also want to keep up my exercise regime for the next 30 days.  I’ve gotten slack…  My goals are to walk every day in my neighborhood (35 minutes up and down steep hills), Curves 3 times /week, and extra walking or ‘fitness rider’ on non-curves days.  The fitness rider is an exercise machine that you do crunch-like things, and is very effective.  When its actually used. *grin*.

I can’t record my weight ’cause I don’t have a scale, but I can track my inches - 40 at waist, 24 thigh.  Day 1 of 30.

Good news this week, the biposy was negative and not cancerous.  So I have to give up my excuse for Starbucks.

I have to run but I wanted people to know.

Well, I think I may have found a motivator.

I went to the dentist for routine work and they ended up doing a biopsy.  It could be nothing, but it bothered the dentist enough to check.

Given that I have already had cancer, this is a bit scary.  So I need to get as healthy as possible ASAP. Just in case.