Little by little

Little by little we continue our journey to be healthier holistically. We have both kept off roughly 35 pounds that we lost a little of 12 months ago. We will begin to post more regularly our trials and tribulations with becoming healthier, making better food choices, and understanding the food chain and the concept of consumer education as it affects our wallets, food choices, and waistlines.

Enjoy the remainder and 2012. Be safe, blessed, and thankful for what you have.

Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there! We have a lot to be thankful for this year including: each other, our family, and friends. Thanksgiving this year was fairly painless and actually enjoyable especially when compared to last year's. I will keep this post short. I made Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves and friends. I was able to keep things healthier by making almost every dish from scratch (with the exception of the cranberry orange relish, pumpkin butter, and stuffing). Enjoy pictures from our wonderful day as we wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!

Farmer's Market Run

I made my customary weekly trip to my local farmer's market today to pick up our local provision of produce. I believe that I may have almost enough produce to cover one of two of the Thanksgiving fixings I plan to prepare next week. We are trying to get back to being healthy cien por ciento or in English 100%. We realize as we make strides forward in our health and eating, we sometimes slowly stunt our own progress or simply just get off track. Luckily we have both maintained the weight loss for more than a year and hope to be able to soon add additional pounds to records for the amount of weight lost. So without delay, I am off to my kitchen to begin whipping up some wonderful and wholesome dishes!

Long Lasting Cold

Today is Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 and I am proud to say that the cold I have been under is finally letting up. I am also proud to say that it (the cold) is no longer running my life. I am functioning at about 85% capacity today which is better than how I was functioning, yesterday, the day before that, and so on... I can say that I have not figured out which approach is better for fighting a cold or helping it progress quicker and move on. Eating your way through a cold or starving yourself through a cold. Last Wednesday and Thursday during the pinnacle of my cold I was ravenous constantly. I ate, and ate, and ate, and rested, and slept, just to get up and eat more. A few days later, I got on the scale and I was shocked that I had actually lost 3 pounds. Could that be right or was the weight loss from all the mucus and runny crap coming out of my nose and mouth? 

I can honestly say that I have yet to figure out what works best but I did decide to limit my dairy intake until the cold completely passes me by. I have read that diary products in general create some level of mucus in the body in general. I would like to limit any dietary habits or behaviors that may allow this cold to prolong itself. 

The short-term plan is simple (for this week). Continue to drink plenty of fluids, get plenty of rest, eat balanced meals, and limit stress. I am pretty sure these efforts will help convince my cold to go find another home- far far away from me but we will see. Til then.

A New Post May Be Coming Soon...

Yes, today is Friday, September 28th. The month of September has flown by just like most of this year thus far. As the title states, I will be starting a new blog soon to go along with the other blogs I currently haphazardly manage. Why am I added another blog? Well I want to be able to focus on the wonderful joys of good food, good company, and good eats (both locally and possibly internationally). I want to be able to feature many of the wonderful outings we have with our friends, and together as a couple. I am also culinary trained and make weekly succulent gourmet dishes and would like to show case some of my skills. With that stated, the state of my union is doing well today. This has been the first week of my training schedule and I believe (or rather know) that next week will be an even more demanding training week. But it is now or never to launch another blog. When I have the details available, I will share them in a posting. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend :-) 

September 11th

Today, Tuesday, September 11th is definitely a day to remember and honor those who lost their lives... I remember parts of that day clearly. It was also a Tuesday. That morning I was at work in a meeting with my supervisor as she talked about planning a conference in the Washington, DC metro area. As she talked she mentioned that maybe she should hold off her plans for a bit because of what had happened. She realized by my lack of reaction, that I did not know what was going on. She actually suggested I go to our big conference room and see for myself and I did. I was shocked. I was not sure if the world, our world was coming to an end (like America is under attack) or what. I watched for a few minutes, completely stunned. I to promptly called a few family members and friends to inform them (if they had not already heard) what was going on in New York. A few had not heard. That night I was teaching, the first night of a night session and my students alarmed me with their level of apathy (or maybe they were in shock). I actually informed them early on that I would be letting them out earlier in light of what had happened earlier that day and that I too (like many other Americans) wanted to rush home and hear the president's address to the nation.

Anyways that was a really surreal day, not to be repeated but definitely to be remembered.

Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe Labor Day Weekend. It has been close to 3 weeks since my surgery. And I am almost ready to get back into shape. The last time I exercised was the day before surgery. Per doctor's orders I needed to recover before I could begin exercising again. Normally one to two weeks is sufficient for recovery but I stumped my own recovery a few times by over doing it some days which set me back a few days each time... I am now finally feeling better and have healed considerably and I am almost ready to begin exercising again. I plan to start slow (probably with the treadmill) and gradually increase the level of difficulty and the amount of exercise. I will write soon with more details when I have them. Take care and have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend.

When The Going Gets Tough

Than I guess the tough should get moving... And that is what we plan to do.

Update: It has been almost a week (6 days) since my surgery and so far so good. I am recovering and still in the time frame in which I must abstain from physical exercise, so no Zumba or Tae Bo for me for another week or two. I am beginning to heal nicely and have made a point to focus on recovery as opposed to rushing myself into doing fifty-odd things at one time.

Going forward: I will continue to focus on my healing  and remain calm, cool, and collected. I will post another update once their is something to report. My diet is good in the meantime. Lots of fruits and vegetables while limiting and at times avoiding all together excess sugar, starch, processed and fried foods.

Role Model

We are still moving in the right direction but just not at the fast as I had hoped for (like roaring full speed ahead type pace). I am pretty much holding at the same weight range (plus a  2 pound weight gain). I have had a lot on my mind lately, but I have no intentions of looking back or going back to old bad habits that allowed me to balloon up to 334! So going forward, I continue to exercise and make better food choices.

There is a quote I saw recently that best describes my plight and struggle to get into better shape and loose the weight holistically and once and for all. The quote is so perfect for my on-going and seemingly failing endeavor that I will end this blog post with it. It is so befitting and ironic all wrapped into one quote. Take care and I will keep you updated on what is coming next.


If you can't be a good example, then you'll have to be a horrible warning
by  Catherine Aird

We are always moving...

In the right direction I hope. I am still struggling but I feel that I am getting my head out of the fog... The slightly cooler weather has helped tremendously. I will keep on keeping on in the meantime. I know things will look up. They have to look up. I have a number of things in the works and hopefully we will know how they will pan out in the near future. Right now, I am looking forward to a wonderful week after having a pretty good weekend. It was relaxing (mentally and physically). Hopefully as this week shapes up I will have more goodness to share and to spread. I just want to end this posting on a positive note. Love is great and it does make the world go around or at least it can keep you warmer on a chilly day!

The Saga of Blue

If it was not already apparent from my last post, I am blue and have been this way for about a month now. I have vehemently tried to shake the blues but I just cannot seem to do so successfully. So my cure for the blues is not a cure for my waist line: which is to bake. Being a baker all sorts of recipes and ideas come to mind when I think of comfort foods, foods that I have been taught are cure-alls for the blues, especially winter-blues. The crook on the right-hand side of my neck is probably not helping my want-to-feel-good-cause either! I cannot seem to shake it either, it (the crook in my neck) has been with me all day :-(

I have not weighed-in as often over the last few weeks but I have held my ground at 40 pounds of weight lost. I need to figure out how to get my head back in the game. The sooner I can do that (get back into gear) to sooner more weight will begin to come off. I have also kept my exercise routine moving in the right direction with 5 to 6 workouts a week. Am I happy where I am (with my weight and short term and long term goals)? Absolutely not!! But I am trying to show gratitude and humbleness to keep me from slipping all the way down to the beginning (and gaining back 40 pounds).

Below are some of the recent pics of items I have created (to help overcome the blues or to feed it one in hopes it will become full and go away)!   Enjoy!

Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Shavings

Hasselback Potatoes

July is finally here

July is finally here and so is the heat. In my neck of the woods we had triple digit temperature over the weekend. I decided not to weigh in last Saturday (June 23rd) as I had been feeling a little blue. I did not want a bad reading to effect short term nor long term goals. Sometimes it is okay to take a day off from exercising (especially when my knees tell me too). I have sense had a chance to begin the regrouping process (just emotionally and mentally). The task at hand still seems daunting (to loose between 60 to 80 additional pounds) but I have also some success (I have lost exactly 40 pounds) under my belt that should comfort me in this great endeavor. 


Current weight: 294
Previous weight: 295


We will talk about short term goals and recipes later in the week. Til then, I hope you will stay cool and out of any extreme heat. 

Sunday, June 10th weigh-in

Here are my beginning stats as of my weigh-in (on Sunday, June 10th)



Current weight: 295
Previous weight: 296
My current short-term goal is to loose 7 pounds and get below 290 by the end of June which will give me two weeks to do so.




Update: I was out of town last weekend for my graduation!!! I did not weigh in last week because I did not have a scale available. I was actually able to do a pretty good job and stick to a fairly healthy diet. I did make a few exceptions but I was able to lay off the sweets (other than in small moderations). There were two problems I faced and plan to do a better job of the next time I have to go out of time for any length of time: 1)Thursday (travel day 1) I ate only fruit the entire day!!! Not a good thing for the body. Our flight did not leave until 5:35 p.m. and I should have made a bigger attempt to eat a real meal besides a huge fruit salad. Once we got into our destination around 1 a.m. (eastern time) I ate a few more pieces of fruit. The next day I did better. I was able to get in some fruit, protein, vegetables, and grains. 2) Saturday I started the day off with a hand full of nuts (cashews) before rushing off to the convention center for graduation. I wanted more to eat, but I had finished the fruit I carried with me the day before and we were pressed for time. I made sure I downed plenty of water each day as Arizona is an extremely hot state in June (it felt like we were in a giant oven all the time), which of course goes without saying... Refreshments were provided after the graduation ceremony and it included greasier than normal finger foods which I could have done without. I made a point to eat some because we had close to a two hour drive (back to Phoenix) and I wanted to get on the road. We also visited See's candy shop and I sampled a few treats but I displayed real restraint because the samples at the shop were the only sweets I ate until after I returned home (four months ago I would have devoured the sample there and would have then returned to the hotel room to begin devouring some of the treats. Hell I would have bought more candies solely for the purpose of eating them pre return flight home).


This week's Goals: Get back on track and try to loose at least two to three pounds this week. This past week (June 11 through 16) I felt sluggish a bit more than normal but I attribute it to jet lag, aging, and being overweight (which means it simply takes longer to recover).  Today is Saturday, June 16th and I am finally starting to feel better. 

June 2nd weigh-in

Here are my beginning stats as of my weigh-in (on Saturday, May 12th)



Current weight: 296
Previous weight: 295
My current short-term goal is to loose 15 to 20 pounds over the next month.


Reflection: Yes, I gained another pound. And yes, I can admit what I did right and wrong over this past week. Will I continue a slow and down hill spiral? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!! So below is a breakdown of what I did right and wrong over the week.


Right: Continued to eat lots of fruits and veggies. 


Wrong: My body appears to be okay with some animal by-products like milk, small trace amounts of butter, and a little half-and half for my coffee. What my body does not seem to like is when I added lean protein (skinless chicken, turkey, and fish) to the mix. We grilled out last weekend (for Memorial Day) and we had more meat throughout the week as a result. Most weeks, we may consume two to three meals a week with lean protein (not counting our two to three dine-out meals). 


*****To give you a better understanding of our meal system (or habits): We try to eat anywhere from 5 to 6 times a day. For us that normally consists of a fresh fruit salad for breakfast, a snack, a balanced lunch, a snack, dinner, and an evening snack. So out of six meals a day times seven days a week, we eat about 42 times. We keep fast food consumption to a percentage just like processed foods. We try and eat 70 to 80 percent of our diet from fruits and vegetables, legumes of course, and grains. We try and limit fast food meals to 10% of meals and processed food items to 15 to 20 percent. I will explain our system in greater detail soon enough. *******


I also only exercised 5 times over 7 days. I have had some knee issues (my left knee) and on both mornings (of the days I chose to opt-out of exercise for the day) I was awakened to throbbing knee pains. Could I have taken an Advil and toughed it out? Most likely. I figured my knee really needed the time to rest and felt like I was heeding my body's warning. 

Memorial Day Weekend Stats

Here are my beginning stats as of my weigh-in (on Saturday, May 25th)



Current weight: 295
Previous weight: 294.4
My current short-term goal is to loose 15 to 20 pounds over the next month.


Conclusion: This week was a good week. Even though I gained half a pound, I am still optimistic. We went out to eat a few times this weekend which is normal because we stay on our healthier eating habits throughout the week. However the restaurant selections where a bit hardier than our normal fair. What we did to try to and limit some of the damage is the following (we have pretty much made this part of our eating out routine): We eat half the meal in the restaurant (normally I draw a line and separate the plate visually before I begin to eat). If we are still hungry, then we eat the remainder when we arrive home. This allows for: A) Another small meal at a later time or B) Allows our body the chance to begin processing the first half of the meal before we eat the second half. 


I have noticed that for example when you down all 1,200 calories at one time, your body has a lot of work to do: just to try and digest the amount of food and calories. When we give our body a break (even if it is only an hour or so until we get home) we have a better chance of digesting the food and calories better. 


Can I do better: Yes
Will I do better: Yes

Stats based on May 19th

Here are my beginning stats as of my weigh-in (on Saturday, May 19th)



Current weight: 294.4
Previous weight: 300
My current short-term goal is to loose 15 to 20 pounds over the next month. I did loose roughly 5 and a half pounds. 


I plan to continue doing what I am doing which involves plenty of exercise. Right now I am still on my Zumba crave so I make a point to do at least one Zumba DVD workout daily or roughly six times a week. 

It's About That Time

Weekly or bi-weekly I will post my progress stats (which helps me as well with accountability). So let's start there:


So going forward here are my beginning stats as of my last weigh-in (this past Saturday, May 12th)
My current weight: 300
My weight a year ago this time: 334
My previous short-term goal was not met (which was to loose 15 to 20 pounds) but I did loose an additional 9 pounds and have kept it off.


Going forward I will discuss what works for us, what does not work for us, and the level(s) of difficulty regarding our new lifestyle changes, new eating habits, and new exercise regimes. 


I would also like to note that today is the first day since April 7th that I have had a cup of coffee. Well actually two days ago was my first sip of coffee (the sample serving cup at Trader Joe's). Which means I have actually gone almost 6 weeks or 39 days as of Wednesday without coffee.  It has been a nice and welcoming change for my body and mind. It is nice to know that  I could again go days, weeks, and possibly months without coffee (last Spring we did a cleanse in which I went over a month without coffee). Luckily I am not into adding sugar in my coffee, but I do need my half and half. I think I have stayed away so long because I did not crave it and I wanted to make sure when the time was right, I could re-introduce it to my system and limit the amount of added diary needed for me to consider my cup of coffee to be acceptable.


Just the other day I heard on the news and read an article or two claiming (yet again) the benefits of coffee drinking in regards to health. I can now fully appreciate the articles. While doing healthier eating, which we have made a permanent part of our lives going forward, I have noticed how peaceful my body has been. By peaceful I mean just how much calmer, even-tempered, easier going I have been and how much calmer my mind has been. The down side, which can also been considered a benefit is just how fast I produce zzzzs at night (fall asleep). The down side of this newly peaceful bodily resting rate means that I can pretty much take a nap at a moments notice, which could be a bad thing (under the wrong or dangerous circumstances like driving). 


I have noticed without coffee my body is more even-kill on emotions and energy, but with coffee I get those little extra burst of energy that keeps me going and less likely to fall asleep at a moments notice. With coffee my mind also races more which can be good for creativity and production but bad because I tend to loose a little bit of my focus.


Next time I will provide more details on our life-style changes and how we are fairing on a daily and weekly basis with our changes.

Valentine's Day (plus one day)

Valentine's Day is a wonderful day. At least the goal of the commercialized day is commercial and consumer driven (in response to being bombarded for weeks with constant advertisements). We  (my spouse and I) could have done better yesterday regarding our diet and exercise habits. But we also realized that we could have done much worse, as in years past.

So going forward here are my beginning stats
My current weight: 309
My weight a year ago this time: 334
My current small goal (short-term goal): To loose 15 to 20 pounds in 31 days (or by March 17th)
My ultimate goal range: To loose 90 to 120 pounds (I believe it is best for me to have a weight range versus just a number) therefore I looking to eventually reach the weight range of 244 to 214.
Ways I plan (or we) plan to accomplish said goals: 2 Zumba classes a week (I have noticed that I work harder in class than in the privacy of my own home with the curtains pulled tight). I plan to continue exercising out of class: with my Zumba dvds, treadmill walking, and just making a habit to move more.
I also plan to include food accountability to assist me in my goals
Timeline to complete the ultimate goal: 1 year and roughly 31 days (by March 17, 2013 which will be my 6th wedding anniversary).

I did it!! One of the hardest things I set out to do (the honesty factor and actually list out my real weight in real time). Adding my actual weight to this blog will hopefully bring positive, good vibes our way. Weight is a hard and tough issue to deal with in our society. Some (Americans) feel it is an individual choice to be overweight while others believe it may be a combination of things (advertising, accepted social culture like the drive thru, processed foods, etc.). I believe honest with myself and spouse will help me to reach my goals. I believe it is hard to reach goals when you cannot lay down the simple facts (like how much weight I need to lose versus my ideal weight versus any other fabrication of the truth).

More information will be coming your way sooner than later on the logistics! I must admit, I love, love logistics!!! I am a planner to the core, but let's see how well my attention to detail and timeline will pay off (rather reward us) for our estimated hard work and continued lifestyle changes.

I am ready.... Let's do this thing

Yes it is a new year, 2012. But more importantly, I am back, rested, focused, and prepared to keep this blog ticking.... I am ready to devote sufficient time to the up keep of this blog. Going forward I will post at least two posts a week with my updates, recipes, progress, setbacks, and my actual weight. Yes, I am going to go there and post my weight. I have nothing to hide and getting my weight out should be easier to do rather than keeping it a secret. I am on the right path (with my mindset, eating, and exercise goals) and putting the real numbers out there should only help me and hopefully help others by motivating them with my trails and errors and successes. This also meant to be informative, taking some of the guess work out of losing weight and getting in shape. So here goes to a new year, 2012. May be it as fabulous as you hoped for!!!