Thank You

What was I saying about this Thanksgiving in my former blog, that I was going to be thankful for everything...Monday I came down with that stinking flu when I was working, Tuesday I used a day of sick leave, Wednesday I worked all day feeling sicker than a dog, Thanksgiving Thursday I had  another splitting headache that didn't want to go away, and the coughing just made my head and chest feel like they were going to explode, and luckily I had this day off,  and today is Black Friday I have to work it because it's one of the busiest money making days of the year.  I was up most of the night with this frigen deep coughing, and at least my migraine type headache is finally gone this morning, but  my chest cavity hurts like the dickin's!  I can't get sick like this in my eighty's.  It will surely be my demise... How does our older generation  handle this?  Even that dang flu shot did nothing for me on this one, and it had the H1N1 also included in it.  I just hope to get through the day with cough meds,  and fortunately Saturday and Sunday are my regular days off  so I can shake this thing with lots of rest...

Remember when I said we were invited to our friends house for Thanksgiving?  We were planning on cooking together and then eating our meal together but I had to cancel and stayed in bed  most of the day.  She bagged a meal up for my husband and myself,  and  her husband delivered it to our doorstep!  Everything tasted so good, and my dear friend even made my pumpkin pie, and cheesecake with Xylitol!  My husband's pumpkin pie, and cheesecake had regular sugar in it, and it tasted exactly the same as mine. My friend is pretty surprised by this new fact.  Since she was recently diagnosed with Diabetes  and is  loosing weight too.   I've  turned her on to using Xylitol.  I may not be thankful for this flubug but out of everything that's happened this week, I am thankful for our friendship that began in 1979 when I first moved to the islands by myself.  She's pulled me up, and I have pulled her up many times in the past.  Have a great day!

Products That Support Our Digestive Track, Also Support Our Skin, Hair, and Nails

Yesterday, a few days before Thanksgiving... Tuesday morning:  I wake up and off to work I go only hours later do I start feeling  tired, and aches begin in my joints.  By the end of the day I drive home, crawl into bed SICK!  Close to dinnertime, I wake up and eat a chic salad, drink some hot tea, call in sick for the following day, and then hit the sack again, it's 9:00 p.m.  My husband had this while I was visiting the mainland over a week ago, and those pesty germs must have lingered on.   We both had our flu shot for this year a little over a month ago too!  So what gives... 

We were invited  to spend Thanksgiving with our friends, and now I'm  home waiting to call them.  They're off work soon, and I'll let them know not to expect us for dinner.  My kitchen duties were to make the ice cream (BFC), and I was going to make sweet potato yams with apricots (Not BFC). 

It seems my appetite is still  pretty in tack, and I  ate breakfast this morning, a piece of Alvarado toast,  two eggs, and coffee.  Today's lunch was a nice Blackberry Salad with mozzarella, chick pea, cucumbers, orange sweet peppers, and purple onion.  Note:  Blackberry's are loaded full of antioxidants, and are a good source of fiber!  Over the weekend I went shopping in our local health food store, where I can get most anything (Mana Foods in Paia) and I walked out with an arsenal of products that contain live Probiotics, and Bioactive Enzymes, and  Omega 3.   These products are designed to help our bodies digestive track, skin, hair, and nails.  Barleen's was voted #1 best product of the year for FISH OIL.   The little clerk saw me reading the label and asked me if I wanted to try it.  She gave me a clean, plastic spoon and let me try the Mango Peach,  Chocolate Raspberry, and the Pina Coloda.  It's the best fish oil I've ever had, and the only fish oil I've ever had!   Disguised with Xylitol, and these amazing flavors  (the C.R. was too sweet) make it tasty.   I got two different flavors (smaller bottles), and take 2 tsp a day in my Fage yogurt or Protein Shake!   It's expensive stuff 17.95 for the small bottles, and about 23 -25.00 for the larger bottle.  I'm also sold on the Raw Protein Formula from Garden of Life.  It contains  Live Probiotics and Bioactive Enzymes, and has an ingredient called Chlorella, single cell green sea algae that bonds the toxins and assist the body in flushing out heavy metals, pesticides, and chemicals. Value: 0/3=1 scoop. Well enough science talk, my brain hurts, but  mostly when I cough...   Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving - 4th Thursday in November observed as a legal holiday for giving thanks for divine goodness
I'm going to be thankful this holiday season for staying on track, and being good to myself.  I'm also thankful for you ladies who know how to reach out into cyberspace with great words of wisdom, and who appreciate this road we are traveling on together, even when we are experiencing our highs and our lows.  I like this definition of Thanksgiving and throughout the holidays I want to really be thankful to God for all He has given me.  I'm going to count my blessings everyday as a prelude to making my New Year's resolution (since I rarely stick with them anyways).  I want to be thankful in good and bad times, for my family and friends, and for all the times the loop to loops come and  really take their toll.  I want to live in the moment, and be free from all the holiday wear and tear, and just partake in His divine goodness.   Have a great Thanksgiving everyone with your family and friends!  Cheers to our special sisterhood!

MOTIVATON

Staying on a plateau for the past three weeks can lead to throwing in the towel.  In my case it's made me even more determined to tighten up the reigns, and get a fresh outlook on what I have to do to go the distance.  I've only just begun, and the BFC is working for me, but now I need to add in more exercise!

While visiting my family for the past seven days in San Diego I have come back to my life here with a renewed energy, positive frame of mind, and ready to lose this extra baggage.  I spent the last day of my trip looking through all our family photo albums trying to find a fat picture of myself.  I wasn't overweight, not ever!  So how did I gain fifty pounds of unhealthy lard?   A little more than ten years ago I was the Head Coach for Age Group Swimming and I wasn't that overweight.   After I quit coaching  my fat really started to compound,  around age forty six.  Of course that's it, I wasn't swimming anymore, and I stopped  exercising, except for an occasional stroll with my dogs or my friend. 

What I found out when I was coaching kids to swim and compete were a lot of useful teachings.  The hardest by far was how  I  would  learn  to  impart "motivation".   Just how did I get sixty five kids interested in competition, and diving off the blocks in Speedo's, (admittedly boys were harder to convince)?  How did those kids come to practice five days a week to swim laps for a few hours while staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool, and then attend a swim meet  held every Saturday?   Everyday I had to shake things up!  I had to make things interesting,  teach  them new skills, and  make it fun!   I was constantly thinking up new games related to fun, and  more importantly I had to keep the kids interested so they could  better their swimming skills without them becoming bored of the hard work it took to become the best they could be!

MOTIVATION!  It's one of the hardest things to personally have, and to give to someone else, unless a light goes on, a spark is lit, and it ignites a fire!   C'mon BFC light my fire!

Vacationing In My Hometown

I'm staying in San Diego for seven days, in the  house I moved out of when I was 19 years old.  My bedroom is still warm and cozy, and I found a few familiar things still left in the dresser drawers.  My Mom wants to know what I want to do with these things.  She's had them over 36 years stored away in about the same condition as I had left them.  A few ribbons from my gymnastic and swimming days, a pink and blue dinosaur from a high school boyfriend, and of course pictures from all the fun days we had in our youth.  I'm not much for keeping things, and I think I may just clear some of the things out, but I'll keep the pictures for sure, and not look back at the rest.   My home has our son's things packed away in Rubbermaid containers piled sky high in his closet.  He moved out and onto college over five years ago.  It's great to be back in my childhood home, and I love visiting with my Mom and Dad.  My son flew down for his two days off from San Francisco, and has already gone home.  My brother took me to the old lake near our home, and we fed the ducks and geese some bread today.  It's still nice to have my memories of jogging around the lake with our family dog, Rusty. He would run ahead (no leash laws back then) and he would flush out the rabbits, and then he would circle back to check up on me, and then off he would run.  Those days seemed a lot less complicated.

My Mom thinks I eat too much, but she and my Dad don't eat much anymore.  They get full fast.  They can go hours without eating anything, and I'm having a hard time with that.  We have lots of yogurt in the house, but I looked at it, and it has 11 grams of sugar.  Staying at 15 grams or below of sugar is hard when it's not planned ahead of time!  We usually grab something while we are out, and I am trying to make the best choices I can.  Tonight we ate dinner over at the Soup Plantation.  My favorite place ever!  I ate fresh veges, great salads, french onion soup, and some chili.  I  had to get a very small bowl of frozen yogurt that probably  wasn't the best thing but I am not perfect,  and also on vacation!  Yesterday we drove to La Jolla to see the seals, and we found the Burger Lounge that Jorge Cruise recommended.  My Mom and I split the Grass fed beef burger, and a great tasting salad.    The hardest thing I've found so far was eating good on the flight over on Sunday.  I signed up for the vegetarian meal, and was offered a Turkey Sandwich or Pasta with Chicken.  I ate a turkey sandwich from Starbucks at the airport so I got the pasta (1/2 cup), and  threw my chocolate cake away.  By the time I flew in and weighed myself the next day I had gained 3 lbs.  Now I have at least gone back to my weight of 171lb.  Flying home this coming Sunday. I've been reading all your blogs and happy to hear about your weight loss!   Take Care...

Home Away From Home

Sunday I'm flying off to my home town of San Diego to visit my folks.  I should be packing my one carry-on right now since this trip will be a short one.  Seven days total  and I'm sitting here typing away  a new blog to my buds.  My hubby is staying home with our three dogs, and one cat so they will be well fed and not terribly lonely.    It's pretty expensive for a round trip ticket to the mainland,  and this is why  I don't get back as often as I'd like to.  A few years ago I did make it back for a two week vacation, and had a great time visiting with everyone.  I called everyone before I flew in,   and met up with  my  roommates from my college days, we ate dinner out, and caught up after so many years of being apart.  It was great seeing everyone again, and time is never an issue with relationships that have formed a beautiful link from the past, and will continue into the future.

This time I'm going to hang out, and visit my Dad  (who recently retired), and my Mom who plays a mean game of Bridge with her friends, and is always on the go to watch a new Play in town.   My brother,  Uncle and a few cousins also live nearby and I want to get together with them as well.  It will be nice to get off this "Rock" for awhile, and not have to get up in the morning at 4:00am to rush off to work...

Jorge Cruise is always putting pictures of the places he's eating out in town on his F.B. site, and just recently he has mentioned a place called the Burger Lounge in Hillcrest.  The beef  comes from grass fed cows, and the salads look so ono (means good in Hawaiian).  Another one of his F.B. pictures shows a Farmer's Market also in Hillcrest that I'm going to track down and pay a visit too.  No tourist attractions like Sea World, Wild Animal Park, and the S.D. Zoo this time around.   I've been on a Plateau for the past few weeks now, and I think I need this change of venue to shake things up.  I want to keep making good choices so I can keep my Mom and Dad in the loop on current  health  issues!  Usually I approach vacations as a time to go all nuts,  and eat  three huge meals a day at the finest San Diego restaurants in town.  Maui has very few restaurants to chose from, where you're not paying an arm and a leg for a healthy meal.  I'm bringing back some Kona coffee and Mac Nuts for everyone.   I better get to packing, and doing some cleaning up around here today before I go.   So keep reaching to become fit and healthy, and be the inspiration in your household!

What's The Hurry

HURRY \    vb:  go or cause to go with haste. n: extreme haste. 

Today I got word that my best friend is battling  Kidney Stones, and has been in quite a lot of pain since last Thursday.  She was having this problem a few months ago, and went to the  Emergency  Center because she was in so much pain.  She was given pain killers, and her Doctor gave her antibiotics for an infection that had also developed.  My friend was told to go home, and that she would pass the stone probably without her knowing it since it was small.  Her weight last year was 250lb. I noticed she had been eating a little less and  losing weight so fast every time we caught up over the weekend for our  breakfast outings.  She said the other day that her weight was 209lb.  I know her sister was taking a weight loss drug last year, and she had lost so much weight, and then in less than  a few months had gained it all back,  due to a stressful event in her life.  Now I'm wondering if my friend chose  that path so she could lose weight faster.

I don't believe in weight loss drugs because I've tried a few different ones,   the longest time was a week in my younger years, and I noticed my eye would  get this little annoying twitch in it, and even this little change in my body would let me know that it was not a good thing for me personally to take weight loss drugs.    Doesn't sound like much, but I have always tried to do things naturally, and  I've tried to keep a balance even when I was literally overeating.  Too much protein, veges, starches were found on my plate in abundance, and this is why I needed to get my health back in line by following The Belly Fat Cure Book.  Jorge Cruise has written his best seller to bring a balanced way to eat and lose weight safely, but through misinterpreting it's contents can also due a lot of harm. 

When you eat large amounts of animal protein and saturated fats, and do not eat whole grains, vegetables, and fresh fruits, there is no fiber to bind all of the toxins and fat together to be eliminated from your body.  You will eventually do an incredible amount of harm to yourself.  Your poor kidneys are in serious jeopardy of developing stones, aging prematurely, and failing altogether. The kidneys must work  twice as hard to break down protein and remove waste. Diabetics are in even worse trouble with a high-protein diet because they are already at a higher risk of kidney disease to begin with.   Don't care about your kidneys and just want to lose weight?   Quoted from the book Skinny Bitch Page 40 

I've seen Jorge's Facebook fan page.  Some people have written things like: so we can't eat any fruit on the BFC and I'm really going to miss it;  and others describe their breakfast as having a plate piled sky high with bacon, eggs, and cheese... I think these people will blame their diet failures, or when they develop health issues  because they chose to stay ignorant.  They  haven't taken the time to really explore the pages in the BFC, and other health books.  Yes, FRUIT IS AN OPTION,  berries have the lowest natural sugars,  and Yes,  ANIMAL PROTEIN (eggs, bacon  are  okay,  but make the wisest choice!  I'm buying bacon now without Nitrates = preservatives, and it is not just salt, as someone thought.  Fresh vegetables are the best source for weight loss, when combined in meals, or eaten alone, and they do get your colon moving.  Remember to drink plenty of water this is also very important.  Walking 20 minutes a day moves the colon.  As we go on this journey to lose weight,  we also must go on it safely.   Don't be in such a hurry to loose 9 lb. in a week,  our bodies aren't designed to do this week after week for long periods of time.  Lose weight slowly, and learn what your body needs.  And when your emotions start to lead you by the hand this is another story!