Phinally have Photoshop

Yes, got this and will be doing more with photos, but Photoshop although phantastic is not that super easy to pick up.

Uh, plus have gained some weight - but this is goos as now will creatively work to get off the weight.

So easy to put it on!

Out It Goes!

any tastily tempting treats that is.

Sure you may eat some delights from a table feast on Thanksgiving day but it is the leftovers and eating those for days on end that can add up to unwanted calories.

We made a delectable apple pie. And it tasted good. I ate a portion and some vanilla ice cream (bought in pint size only). Then I went back for a smaller portion.

That is when alarm bells go off.

You had a portion and there you stand 'checking in' on how that tasty pie is doing all by itself in that lonely kitchen. You go to visit it and helpfully arrange the edges of the last slice cutting, making sure they are even and eating the trimmings.

STOP!!!

Just throw it out. Did this and it works.

If you are a problem eater keeping any food that you know will cause you to overindulge - don't keep it.

If it is there - throw it out.

Out went the remainder of the pint of ice cream.

Gone. No more temptation.

PUT IT IN THE WASTE BIN OR YOU WILL ADVERTISE WHERE YOUR WAIST HAS BEEN!

This is especially true of fatty/fried/sweet foods.

Putting discipline in the feastivities brings much better results.

Last year we did an absurd idea which seemed like such a good idea at the time: we made a Thanksgiving Feast on Thanksgiving Day and then made another one that same Saturday. We had double feasts in four days.

Amazingly, it may have been my idea. We cannot remember. One minute the idea was uttered, the next minute we were chopping, baking, roasting, simmering. Then stuffing, gorging and overeating. There was no stopping this - like a rampant mob foraging on a melee of eating crimes we let loose and loosened our belts.

AND we (Hubby and me and my sis who was involved) come from families with diabetes type 2, obesity (my side of the family) and bad lifestyle habits.

Not this year: Out It Goes and Out It Went!

Overeating is bad for your health

With all sorts of celebrations coming up we normally start to fantasize about all the goodies we will eat with abandon - just this once...

"Just this once" can do your health in.

Stuffing down fatty foods (red meats, fried foods, the greasies) can actually clog your arteries and precipitate heart disease instantly.

Stuffing down the sweet stuff can put your pancreas into overdrive and put you right in Type 2 Diabetes (if you have the propensity for it).

Stuffing down anything stuffs out a paunch. Overeating overstretches your stomach. It maximizes the capacity you are able to hold and want. A beer belly could also be called an 'overeater's belly'.

So, enjoy but don't overeat.

A Flax um Maxim

Yes, that is intended to rhyme.

Imagine something as simple as inexpensive little brown seeds that can really change your life as a menopausal woman.

I have read about these and even posted about this of how I included a spoonful that I chewed almost daily.

Well, I discovered that putting them (1 tablespoon) in a super duper powered blender on high (I use an Osterizer blender) crushes them where you then can drink it. This was so good to drink as I mixed it with berries, almonds, bananas, etc...

It became a DAILY habit instead of a few times a week...

AND ladies,

let me tell ya...

I was actually at one point searching out my lingerie collection, much to my Husband's and my surprise.

These little brown seeds (get the brown ones) will make you younger all over (insert leering wink here).

Also do not forget to have a quality fat: a good olive oil, avocado - a small amount daily.

And some water daily - I aim for 6 glasses a day.

You need moisture (oils) and hydration (water) in your system.

I tell ya, if somehow it was just me and some younger stud stranded on a deserted island I would immediately start an all out search for a flax plant to procure the seeds - then take care of the shelter and water and food. It is that important of an item.

Brown flax seeds - they are great - and far more natural than any nasty hormone made from horse urine creams.

But remember! as always you use caution even with something natural - I would not take more than two tablespoons a day maximum - and you might go ahead and check with your Doctor about taking them.

Never overdo even a natural food substance.

Sugar Control Patrol

Yes, I made red velvet cupcakes using an old southern recipe for the big blogparty and those were real (a lot of the food I make for the QChocolate blog is actually fake).

They were also real sweet - this was good though. It showed how much I have lowered my sweetness threshold. I also remained quite disciplined - no sneaky tastes of the finished product until time to actually eat my portion.

This is again where portion control or controlled portions come in.

I had half a cupcake with minimal icing (scraped most of it off) with 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream - AFTER a meal.

Then foisted off the leftovers on friends, family, neighbors and passers-by.

Good thing I did because that very evening went to an informal get together and had half a beer (alcohol has to be strictly portioned also).

Whoops. What does alcohol do? It lowers your inhibitions. Your food inhibitions. I came home just hoping to find an errant cupcake in the kitchen. None to be found so I just fervently scraped the cupcake pan. Fortunately there was just the slightest spoonful left.

That is why I don't keep desserts in the home - way tempting. Ya really do have to patrol your home making sure a dessert has not snuck in or been brought in or has been left in after a party.

Fitness goals were accomplished for this week.

New fitness goals:

ab work: floor and pull ins
more upper body
bring up the rear with some bum exercises

An Eating Maxim

Seems like if you get really busy and grab quick items to eat and let even the most modest exercise go by the wayside you just slide right into lax habits.

You learn or reinforce quickly:

THE MORE YOU EAT THE MORE YOU WANT TO EAT


and


THE LESS YOU EXERCISE THE LESS YOU WANT TO EXERCISE


You realize that and then have to start reversing these physical fitness maxims or you will be maximus!

Did achieve all my fitness goals from last post (did not make the brussels sprouts though) but then just got busy and let my barest minimum exercise just slide by.

Well, it is time to dust off and run and catch up with that wayward wagon and hop right back on.


Goals today:

drink water

do some upper body work and some squats and arabesques

Have lentil soup for dinner

That should be an easy hop aboard the wagon schedule.

And do some extra exercise for any GWTW food items I might want to indulge in this weekend for the big blog gala ball - am so excited!

The Banquet Effect

A syndrome in eating that is so sneaky and persistent you almost don't know it is happening - and you do not have to be at a banquet for this to happen!

Banquet Effect: (noun) vast amounts of tasty, desirable, ready made, easily available food for an extended amount of time. People eat more food when this situation presents itself. And they keep going back and then you get into grazing.

I am always on the look out for an interloper (naughty food) to invade the kitchen. There are certain items we just don't keep in the cupboard so as not to be tempted.

An innocent ice cream habit got me right into this syndrome and I did not realize it was happening.

Hubby got an ice cream maker and I made sure he understood we would do this once in a rare while.

Well this ice cream hobby seems to be happening every weekend.

He is even doing the lowest sugar amounts possible, tweaking recipes with different fruit combination. The pure banana ice cream was very delish and the sugar was less then half called for. So it was good for us ice cream - an even better reason to partake.

Last weekend I had my half cup portion and that was it - done, finished.

Later that day it was still in the freezer. I was perplexed, why had he not given it away, or hidden it (even in the car) or as a last resort poured down the drain.

There it sat.

I kept coming back into the kitchen to 'check on it'. Making sure it was ok - comfortable - not too cold or too hot.

Went away again and then I realize - I have got to have some of that low sugar banana creamy cold ice cream.

OK, but just a half cup portion. I had a half cup portion. Then a little later another few bites.

Finally I just got the container of creamy banana ice cream and ate it. Wow. It was good though.

That is amazing how that can happen but I realized I had broken one of the strictest rules of eating right:

DON'T KEEP TEMPTING FOODS AROUND AFTER YOU HAVE HAD YOUR SERVING - THAT BECOMES A BANQUET.

I noticed that sort of eating made me more lenient this week. A chocolate square here, three on one day and then it all culminated with Hubby making lower fat/fruit sweetened ice cream this past weekend.

I had some and stopped. It had to stop.

I could feel the weight on me from just the past week. Even though it was not that much at all.

WHEN YOU ARE MENOPAUSAL YOUR BODY PUTS ON POUNDS VERY EASILY AND RELEASES FAT VERY RELUCTANTLY.

I learned that lesson a while back. And ya, my jeans are tight.

Once you notice a pattern of unhealthy eating you have to jump right back into the healthy eating immediately. I could have kept on eating and eating and said "I'll start Monday."
I know that does not happen.

So got back on track and worked out yesterday.

Fitness goals:

water 6 glasses - done
bum buster workout - done (lots of squats and arabesques)
biceps buster workout - done (lots of reps with different weights)
cardio: 25 mins. with HITS and squats added in (double duty workout).


Fitness goals:

Watch out for sugar! Do not let this just haplessly sneak in.

Drink more water 6 glasses

Make a veggie pot - a big pot of veggies to have for snacking...
mmmm I can almost taste those brussels sprouts.

Keep up the biceps buster workout
Some more ab pull ins, pelvic floor pull ups
Some yoga stretching
free form cardio if the opportunity presents itself