Weight loss tip # 932

Well...at least anything you know is bad for you...

Lesson's learned this week...

• The hardest thing to do was getting my shoes on to work out.
•  Now that my shoes are on,  I just need to move onto the treadmill or to a dvd workout video.
•  If you're gonna hop up on a treadmill you've not used in a while, you'd best dust it off before you do a George Jetson off the back of it!  We won't go into the ugliness of that one...
• Making the adjustment to vegetarianism isn't as difficult as I thought it would be.
• If you haven't watched Vegucated yet, take the time some time this weekend to stream it from Amazon Prime or Netflicks, I'm telling ya, it's worth the watch!
• Trying to get The Wonder One to understand where I'm coming from on the aforementioned topic is much more difficult....*sigh*
• It feels good to be back to monitoring what I'm eating and doing.  I don't feel so wayward and lost. I'm feeling good about having direction again.
• Before the end of the year I bought a calendar/diary to track my blood sugar and other things I wanted to keep track of.  I'm finding it so very helpful.  I'm so glad I did it.  It's just a matter of not letting that New Year's Glow wear off, lol.
• Normally (or should I say it used to be?) I didn't care for any other soups other than tomato or cream based soups.  Well the cream based soups are WAY higher in calories it would stand to reason due to the cream, right? Right.  Soooo, I saw at the store this week that Progresso had their soups on sale so I thought I would give a few vegetable (non-cream based) soups that sounded yummy a try.  I have to say....one can so far that I've tried had 4 points and was quite good.  So you can expect a review on that product in the future.  Given that it's winter, soup is a nice way to stay warm and fill up.  This particular line is a nice way to do it and watch your points easily enough.
• We go to a store called Giant Eagle (much like Kroger or HEB or any other chain grocer) and like any chain grocer can have it's pricey items and it's discounted items.  In our neighborhood we also have an ALDI's which is a growing discount grocer.  Much of what they carry is off brand (which when we go to GE, we buy the store brand anyway) or no brand at a much (what we've been brain washed to believe anyway) discounted price.  We bounce back and forth between the stores because it's to our advantage to do so because ALDI's produce is WAY cheaper than anyone else's (before I forget, ALDI is a baby company of Trader Joe's.)  Anyway, moving on, produce is cheaper at ALDI than at GE as are a few other items yet I've been taking note that not all items are cheaper.  Now this is not to say that ALDI is more expensive, it's not.  I've just noticed that ALDI is priced the same as the other stores I go to.  Which was a HUGE eye opener to me.  So, keep your eyes peeled cheerleaders, if you're needing to stay on budget and only shop at one store, it may be wise to bounce a little bit.  I'm lucky in that the stores I shop are literally blocks from my house, so I'm not wasting gas running around looking for the best deal.  I find a good balance of what I need between the two stores.

Blasting in my ears right now...

Yeah I know it got a bit over played, but it's a catchy tune and well, let's face it, if it gets me moving, who cares how over played it is?  Right?

I love will.i.am and it's good to see Brit back on the scene happy and healthy and doing her thing.

Now I say we move!  Let's go!

Thursday Review

Today I wanted to give you a glimpse into what I consider a life saver for me. 

I get bored quite easily and search almost daily for ways to entertain myself and my taste buds.  This handy dandy contraption has been my go to and my life saver!

All I can say is what won’t it do?

The one thing I find that I do with it the most is make smoothies.  I buy an abundance of frozen fruit (being that it's the dead of winter, I miss my summer fruits, buying it frozen is the next best thing and it's just as good for you) and use it along with a cup of skim milk (the cup of skim milk is 2 points, the frozen fruit is zero points) and sometimes I’ll throw in a ½ cup of O.J. (2 points) and voila! I have this!

When I’m working long shifts I’ll blend in protein powder and leave out the O.J. (the protein powder…the one I use anyway is 1 or 2 points, it’s been a while since I’ve used it) and it will last the whole day. 

It cleans up like a dream, except for the occasional strawberry that wants to be a pain in the butt, then you just need to assemble the whole thing add in a little water and a drop or two of your dish detergent and blend it all up, then rinse.

For me, given the price (I got mine through QVC) I felt it was a steal.  It shreds ice in no time flat and can handle anything you want to blend up.  When going to write this, I noticed that they now offer regular blender options, which wasn’t available when I was making this purchase last year.  Should this one ever give up the ghost, I’ll be looking into one of those!

All of this yummyness and just FOUR points!!!

I hope that if you’re looking for a new smoothie maker/blender you find this review helpful!

A friend reminded me of this...

So as I go through this process I just need to remember to keep my head screwed on straight and know that it's for my health and not for the numbers.  Thanks Des.

Here's a little tip from your old pal...

When having to have a fasting lab draw...

Make sure that you actually REMEMBER that you're going to be getting it done one and two, don't try to wait too late in the day to compensate for the time (meaning if the last time you ate was around 11pm...remember that fudge?) and you're trying to hold off eating because of the fasting lab draw (fasting labs need to be done after a fasting of 10 - 12 hours of no eating) .... just reschedule.

Yeah, dumbass me, forgot last night that I was having the labs done today so I had my fudge last night.  While wonderful and delicious then, I'm paying for it now, lol.  So I've conceded defeat for this day, I've not given up the battle.  I'll just start my fast again tonight and make sure to not eat after 8pm.

Now to make sure that The Wonder One doesn't tempt me! lol

So it’s Wednesday

As can be expected, I’ve not gained….nor lost any weight in a day.

YaY!

Lol, however, I will say that The Wonder One and I last night finished off the last of his decadent fudge.  There wasn’t much after having filled five tins to be sent to the far reaches of where they need to go and he looks at me and says “You know, we should just go ahead and eat it all tonight, that way it’s done.”  Of course I let him twist my arm into it (ouch ouch ouch)  and we did as we watched Hugh Jackman in Wolverine *sighhhhhh* .  It was definitely a guilty pleasure to be enjoyed.  Which I did, knowing it would be a lonnngggg time before I’d be doing it again, which I can live with.

Today, I’m going to the lab to have blood drawn because next week I go back to the doctor for a follow up regarding my diabetes.

When this all started what I wanted was to get healthy.  If I lost weight and got slimmer in the process, well then, yay me!  But back then when I weighed in at my most (286 lbs) I was having to inject 80 units of insulin a day as well as take a plethora of oral medications.  Well, after having lost the weight I have, even with putting some of it back on, I’m down to 26 units of insulin a day! YAY me!  Being a type  II diabetic means a few things for me.  Getting the weight off means that I can possibly get off the medications, but I have to get the weight off first.  It’s a daily struggle, that being said, I have bad weeks.  There are times when I don’t take my meds at all. I’m working on that along with my weight.  It’s all a process.  

I will have considered myself successful if I can get to a manageable weight (note I said manageable?) that I can maintain for the rest of my life and be drug free from all of my diabetes medication at the same time.  

This is truly about getting healthy, whether I like it or not.