I finished reading The Dash Diet for Weight Loss. This book was very informative and has some great ideas, but I really don't think counting servings, measuring serving size and trying to tabulate total calories both consumed and disposed of each day is up my alley. I think that would create anxiety for me, and I know from experience that if I create unsolicited anxiety it just sets things in a vicious cycle and I'd be more apt to fail when all is said and done. That being said, suggestions about food tracking, keeping a log of what you are eating, when and why, I believe has a lot of merit. I think I've got that one in the bag with this blog I've created. People are reading this in North and South America, Europe, Russia and most recently even South Korea so I feel compelled to stick to my convictions and succeed, much like in Orwell's 1984, Big Brother was watching - you, the readers of this blog, are my 'Big Brother' watching over me, and let's face it, if I'm not living up to expectations - there's no point in you continuing to read these entries. The news in this day and age is full of negativity and destruction - the Colin Firth Diet Club is a happy story, with a happy and albeit successful ending. We are in the first chapters of the journey still, but keep tuned because a positive and happy ending is imminent!
Meal planning is another thing that I've already been doing that is mentioned in the book. Every week I make sure I plan out our dinner meals and lunches for the kids. This is a very useful tool! Pick out a variety of meals you want to have during the week and adjust your grocery list accordingly. Not only will you end up with more 'good' food items, but you will know how much of certain perishable items you need thereby not allowing for food waste. I find I'm also getting better at planning meals around using some of the food I already have on hand and incorporating it into the week to lessen food waste. Leftovers, are my new best friend - make extra at dinnertime so you can have the leftovers for lunch the next day! These days I am spending most of my time at the grocery store in the produce section! Remember when I started this incentive program and I spent a record 2 1/2 hours in the grocery store - most of it in the centre isles reading nutritional labels on everything! You know what? - no nutrition labels on produce!!! Easy peasy lemon squeasy! Just think how much time is saved now if most of my time is spent in the produce section? Grocery shopping is no longer the bane of my existence, but a true pleasure!
The Dash Diet also provides a chapter on staving off cravings. One of the most powerful triggers for snacking/gorging on unhealthy food choices is television. Not surprising when we are bombarded with commercials and advertisements for all the fast food restaurants and prepackaged items (those ones that come with nutrition labels!). This was relevant to me, not so much in that I was duped by ads to order a greasy pizza or send John out to pick up a burger and fries from McDonald's - but I realized that I've developed a habit of snacking in front of the television in the evenings. I've also found that I'm not particularly hungry at this time, I've just subconsciously over time fallen prey to a bad habit linking watching television to food in hand. Well, if when doing your meal planning, you don't add the snack foods to your list, you will be less likely to purchase them. If you don't have them on hand when the 'craving' hits, you won't eat it! Trust me it works! And it doesn't hurt to have someone in your corner who won't act as your Enabler! That is, when I'm desperate for a chocolate bar or bag of chips and ask John to go to the store for me - he says no to me, refusing to be my Enabler. OK, sometimes, admittedly, this kind of pisses me off, but after I appease my blood sugars with a handful of blueberries or cashews, I'm quickly over it. Something else mentioned in the book to stave off cravings is to keep your hands busy - I'm going to begin working on this one. When watching TV, I'll maybe fold laundry, work on Christmas cards - perhaps take up knitting? Or hey, I can do squats or sit-ups!
On Wednesday while at the grocery store I took my blood pressure again and the results were 140/90, 135/87, 131/84, 126/92 and 131/87. So we've been a little up and down since last time but still on the right track downward. I love the variety of foods available in the produce section at Fortino's! Those small eggplants I bought the previous week were not there last week, but instead I discovered golden beets! So I bought some regular (red) beets and a couple of the golden ones too! Together, they brought back visions of the gorgeous sunsets in Costa Rica!
Thursday, I weighed in at Curves at a record 145.5 lbs! Yeah for me! We had our parent/teacher interviews at the school and I'm pleased to report that all 3 kids had stellar reviews! I have to give a shout out to Jake's French teacher - she was doing a unit on robots and the kids were learning body parts and built their own robots using recyclable materials. Jake and his friends came up with the idea to have a robot wedding and Mme. Palumbo ran with the idea and made a lesson out of it. The kids were thrilled! I witnessed the matrimonial ceremony this morning. Congrats to Stan (Jake & Ellis's robot) and Ginger (Sam's robot).
Friday was a day off school for the kids and we had our first snowfall of the season - not enough to stick, but enough for the kids to get excited! My friend Andrea alerted me to the fact that Colin Firth would be featured on an episode of Inside the Actor's Studio at 10 pm! Luckily I checked my Facebook messages about 15 minutes beforehand and was able to view this wonderful spectacle! This show was shot just hours after Colin received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! One of my favourite Colin Firth moments is at the end of Bridget Jones' Diary when upon reading an excerpt from Bridget's diary, Mark (Colin) leaves her apartment and Bridget fears that he has read something unfavourable. She then runs after him in her knickers and eventually finds him exiting a store where he has just purchased a new diary for her to commemorate their new beginning. This is one of the most romantic movie scenes ever! The way Colin's character envelopes her in his trench coat to keep her warm and loved, together with the gesture of the diary and the beautiful snow falling around them on a secluded English street....ahhh...is the stuff dreams are made of! But this scene doesn't hold a candle to the look in Colin's eyes when he introduces his lovely and beautiful wife Livia in the audience during his interview with James Lipton. Livia Firth is one luckily lady! When Colin was asked what his favourite curse word was, he responded with the Italian word "stronzo" meaning 'floating piece of shit'. Livia is Italian so Colin speaks both English and Italian. He stated in the interview that his role of Jamie in Love Actually (my favourite movie!) had a resemblance to real life. In the movie he learned Portuguese for love, and in real life he learned Italian, for his wife.
On Saturday I made porcupine meatballs for dinner with a low fat tomato soup and realized afterwards that this is yet another recipe that shouldn't be messed with. I should have used the regular kind, although the taste wasn't really affected. I served this with some mashed potatoes and steamed red & golden beets and the way the red beets bled through onto the golden beets truly did resemble the hues of a sunset!
After dinner I went off with a couple of my Irish friends to kick up my heels at a Ceili in Kitchener. This was my first time, and I was shocked at how exhausted I was! What a workout! Surprisingly, I did know quite a few of the dances from my adult classes, and Maureen, the caller, was easy to learn the steps from. I particularly enjoyed The Rakes of Mallow, but suffered a little vertigo after dancing Peeler and the Goat! At first I was a little turned off from the acute body odour coming from men for the most part, but by the end of the night as we were dancing the Kerry Reel, I hadn't a care in the world. I also felt like I danced off a few pounds!
Yesterday we met some of my aunts and cousins and their kids in Toronto for an early Christmas brunch. I tried to behave myself amidst the choices proffered from the buffet and allowed myself one small piece of French bread, salad, squash, rice and a thin slice of roast beef (no salt added!). For dessert I opted for a couple slices of watermelon, one bite worth of cheesecake and a chocolate covered marshmallow and honeydew melon. Then we drove home and I had to head off to soccer. Two new teams were added so I was moved to one of the new ones and now I have a pink jersey! I was hoping for pink, and even donned my pink sports bra in anticipation and lo and behold - we are pink!!
Today I worked in Kristen's class and then headed off to Curves. After all the dancing I did on Saturday night and soccer yesterday I had high hopes of reaching my next goal of the Colin Firth Diet Club. But, was disappointed as I had climbed back up to 145.75 lbs. Could it be the wheat back in the diet, the Doritos I splurged on in a moment of weakness? I think next week I'll try another 3 wheat-free days. I have also bought skim milk in addition to the 1% milk to see if my family notices a difference and so far there have been no complaints.
After the kids got home from school we went to the grocery store. I promised them all a treat if they were helpful and put the groceries away when we got home. A trip to the grocery store with the kids has become somewhat of a game. The kids are in competition with each other to find and retrieve items from my list before the others return with their items. I was utterly stunned this afternoon, when after delegating the 2 red peppers and 2 yellow peppers to Kristen, she said she was going to get 3 red peppers and 2 yellow peppers! She actually asked me to give her slices of red peppers for her school lunches! Who was this child before me, and what did she do with my daughter??? I never thought I'd see the day one of my kids would convert and ask me to buy a vegetable for their lunches! I even almost had Jacob picking out the brussel sprouts, but he didn't want to actually touch them with his bare hands so he tried to use the bag, as you would to pick up doggy doo-doo, (stronzo?), so I took over. Then we wandered to the pharmaceutical area and I told the kids I was going to test my blood pressure. They had never seen the machine before and were rather intrigued. Of course they all wanted to have a go with it after me. My numbers today were 150/78, 133/81, 131/84, 130/81, and 134/89. Well that's improvement, right? I mean, the diastolic is looking much better as 78 is the lowest score I've had yet - so thank goodness my efforts are coming through for me! The systolic numbers may have been higher as I had my eyes closed and could hear Matthew saying "Mommy, Jacob just put a box of cookies and ice cream in the cart!" - that's enough to raise it these days! By the way, all three kids had excellent blood pressure! I'm glad they took an interest in it because it will show them how important it is to take care of your body.
And now , I must bid you all adieu and head off to bed dreaming of that first snowfall and Colin standing before me, with that look in his eye.....
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