Graze Box Review

Maybe you've seen the Facebook ad for them, popping up in your feed incessantly because one of your friends liked the page.  Maybe you looked at the NatureBox and the all-seeing Google and Facebook collaborated and popped like searches in your feed.  Maybe you've never heard of Graze at all.  Well, now you're in luck.  I have heard of Graze and have received my (free!) box in the mail yesterday.

 Here is the Graze box.  It fits in the mail box...fairly smallish.  I placed the CD there for a comparison.  Well I received an interesting assortment. I will review them all individually.

Dark Rocky Road
Ingredients: 

pecan

dark chocolate buttons (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla) 50% Cacao

cranberries (cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil)

My Thoughts:  I'm not a dark chocolate fan so that aside, these were really good.  I'd recommend them, even if I only ate the cranberry and pecans.  The inner packaging says they have a best by date of April 1, 2014.  It isn't more or less good than the nut mixes I buy locally especially since I take care to avoid dark chocolate.  Like I said I would recommend them but for my money I would have to take a pass.

Chili and Lime Pistachios
Ingredients:
pistachios, salt, natural chili and lime flavors

My Thoughts:  LOVE THEM!  These are absolutely delicious!  The chili and lime compliment the flavor of the pistachios perfectly.  I would have been happy with an entire box filled with them.  It is going to be hard to go back to Wonderful's plain salted pistachios (I can't find the cracked pepper ones anymore).  I HIGHLY recommend these.

Bonnie Wee Oatbakes
Ingredients:

cheese and chive oatbakes (55%) (oatmeal (64%) , cheese powder (8%) (suitable for vegetarians), olive oil, salt, chives (contains gluten)

red onion marmalade (45%):  (red onions (52%), white wine vinegar, muscovado sugar, sugar, balsamic vinegar, black pepper)

My Thoughts: Disgusting!  Okay, that's being a bit overly critical.  They weren't that bad.  I did somewhat like the red onion marmalade.  I absolutely abhorred the cheese and chive oatbakes.  They were bland with little flavor.  The best part about eating them was the red onion marmalade.  After one, I was satisfied not to try any more.  I don't think I would recommend this.  One of my coworker's loved it while everyone else agreed with me, so I would have to say it is an acquired taste.  

Summer Berry Flapjack

Ingredients:

rolled oats (41%)

margarine (vegetable oils, water, salt)

demerera sugar

golden syrup

infused cranberries (11%) (sugar, cranberries, natural strawberry flavor, natural raspberry flavor, citric acid, sunflower oil, elderberry juice concentrate)

cranberries (sugar, cranberries, sunflower oil) (contains gluten)  

My Thoughts:  Delicious!  Unfortunately they had a no-no ingredient of mine that I didn't realize until after I partook in one of them:  margarine.  I avoid vegetable oil mixtures like the plague and was disappointed that they couldn't find another type of oil (olive, coconut, sunflower, etc) to cook with.  After reading that ingredient I couldn't bring myself to eat more.  If you aren't particular about eating margarine, then I would highly recommend them because they are absolutely divine!

Now here is the big question.  Would I order these again?  Since we are able to go on the site and pick and choose what we like or don't like and trash the things we never want to receive again, I would say yes, I would order again with a box tailored to my own preferences.  The only thing I absolutely didn't like was the oatbakes.  Everything else was pretty damn good. 

Beware!  SHAMELESS PLUG 

If you would like to try a Graze box for FREE....By all means go HERE and enter friendcode:  VD7QTMDCP.

It's free so you have nothing to lose!  My advice is to go through, look at the ingredients and pick and choose what you wouldn't mind receiving prior to having the box shipped.  You can't decide exactly what you want in it but you can come very close to getting what you want.

Pescetarian for the New Year!

I decided to go pescetarian for the new year.  What's a pescetarian?  A vegetarian that also eats fish.  It's not too complicated.  I still eat eggs even though I don't eat chicken and I absolutely love cheese and still add milk/cream to my recipes...becoming vegan will be difficult so I'm taking baby steps.  I went vegan all at once back in 2012 and got sick, sick, SICK.  Seriously, I ended up with bronchitis which even with medicine, hardly cleared up until I started eating meat again.  I tried again...got bronchitis again.  Apparently my body was detoxing in overdrive because of my sudden switch so I'm going easy on myself this go around.

I discovered black bean burgers at Buffalo Wild Wings and they became an instant favorite.  Then disaster hit!  I ended up getting food poisoning at a local grocery store's deli (national chain that shall remain nameless).  I should have known better but I've had their tuna subs before.  This go around was probably as typical as you're going to get I suppose.  After almost 24 hours of waves of nausea not to mention the whole, "I can't keep water down" shtick, I went to the doctor who confirmed that I had gastroenteritis most likely caused by food poisoning and gave me some anti-nausea medicine, the kind that dissolve on your tongue as I couldn't drink water.  It worked.  I was finally able to eat, albeit it was cream of shrimp soup followed by two oranges.  I felt like I could fly over the moon after the oranges which let me know my blood sugar was especially low.  Today is the first day I could see my veins since last Thursday so I am confident I am sufficiently hydrated.

The good news is I lost some weight!  Prior to this I was trying out the whole eating within an 8 hour period, fasting 16 hours thing...almost two weeks and I lost 2 pounds.  Then the food poisoning.  I lost an additional two pounds.  I'm sitting at 156 even now.  I figure I will probably gain the last two pounds back but so far despite being back on my eating schedule, I seem to be holding steady.  My waist at the belly button went down 1 whole inch (31 now, woohoo!).  Yes I am celebrating a bit.  I am back to where I was (weight-wise) in May 2013.  My doctor was impressed with my weight loss from December 18th (when I went for the chest wall inflammation).  I lost six pounds according to her scale.

Well, what have I been doing lately?  I got back to the gym for the first time today!  I've been doing small workouts at home but it felt good to work up a sweat at the gym.  My husband wouldn't let me dive right in so we did some modified strength training to accommodate my inflammation issues and worked on stretching more.  He's also showing me the proper way to run by showing my the technique and form.  Apparently I'm a natural.

I've also been cooking.  Now generally I don't like to cook.  I do like to eat and I love good and beautiful food.  I'm also an artist so I should be able to do a little something but I like to keep things simple.  Steam, foil bake, boil...anything that doesn't fit within those confines remains uncooked.  Well becoming a pescetarian challenged my limited abilities.  First off, developing a love affair with black bean burgers meant shelling out $7.99 + tax to Buffalo Wild Wings ($3.73 with the $5 off survey coupon).  That just seems so fiscally irresponsible I just had to find a recipe.

The Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burger from Allrecipes.com is great easy and tastes DIVINE!  In my opinion when it is done fresh...not when it is reheated in a microwave as I am forced to do at work. 

So I am good for the week on that.  The recipe made five huge patties.  I bought some chipotle cheddar cheese (yes I know, terrible but I don't care...) to eat with them.

My Quiche...isn't it lovely?

Then I decided to make a quiche.  I LOVE QUICHE.  Emphasis on L-O-V-E.  The thing is I had never made it before.  This go around it was About.com to the rescue.  I was struggling with the whole "crust" thing when I noticed the low-carb option in google for a Crustless Quiche.  I bought some evaporated milk and a deep dish 9" pie pan along with some other niceties that I won't have to buy again for awhile and made a broccoli, spinach and cheese quiche.  I threw some diced onions and green peppers and blue cheese in for good measure.  I followed the recipe to the letter.  The results were simply divine.  The kids weren't thrilled and hubby didn't try it but who cares?  More for me.  Since quiche tastes good cold as well I don't have to do the whole "microwaving" thing.  I absolutely abhor microwaves but that's a post for another day.

What's my next recipe?  I'm thinking Kale chips :-). Or Zesty Kale Chips...  Oh and a Crustless Smoked Salmon Quiche...

Last thing...I can see my results!

August versus January

 The left picture was August 24, 2013.  The right picture was January 13, 2014.  I started working out in October.  That's roughly four months, 9 pounds and several inches.  Can you see the difference?  Even my face lost weight.  There's the case of the disappearing boobage but I guess that can't be helped as long as it is taking belly fat with it.  Now I need to work on muscle definition.

Remember back in October when I said I needed help giving up Zaxby's?  I haven't had Zaxby's in months!

Nutrition for Black Women - My Thoughts

The entire nutrition standard needs to be revamped to take into account a Black woman's specific dietary needs.  No, I will not sugarcoat it or make it palatable for those who want to whine about reinforcing "differences" between the races.  Let's be realistic.  The entire medical system is built around the societal standard of Caucasians.  Take BMI for example.  According to that I would have to weigh between 120 and 135 to be considered healthy at my height of 5'3", but realistically if I weighed that little I would look like I was a walking skeleton.  So let's reevaluate this.  Does BMI truly reflect the dietary/nutrition needs of everyone?  I can vehemently state NO!  With all of the dietitions, nutritionists, personal trainers, doctors, and health educators in the Black community, why hasn't more research been done to address this obvious discrepancy?  Before I go off on my tirade let me define some things:

BMI stands for Body Mass Index.  Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height.  According to the CDC, BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems (CDC).  Why is it used?  Calculating BMI is apparently the best method at this point for "population assessment of overweight and obesity."  It only requires your height and weight and can be measured by anyone. The use of BMI allows people to compare their own weight status to that of the general population.

There goes the "itch" right there.  The "general population."  What's that supposed to mean?  Obviously it doesn't mean everyone because those words in and of themselves do not seem to indicate everyone.  If they meant everyone, then they would say "everyone."  I think general population in this sense is more accurately defined as a situation in which an area or segment of the population is known for doing something but everyone isn't referred to because the generalization doesn't exactly apply to everyone.  For example saying "everyone in the South drinks iced tea" is a statement that isn't entirely true.  Some people don't because they are allergic or don't like it, etc.  However making the statement that the general population of the South (or better yet a specific Southern state) drinks iced tea would be a statement that can be proven through checking the statistics regarding sweet tea sales in relation to the population of the "South" or state in question.  So in summary; general population refers to most of a population.  I think that determining which population you are discussing is far more relevant to understanding its usage.  So who exactly does the term general population refer to in most medical scenarios and instances?  You guessed it if you said primarily Caucasians.  This goes for blood pressure, glucose levels, hemoglobin, and other forms of health measurements used to determine good health.


When the CDC uses the term "general population" they are accounting for those for whom the BMI would not apply.  It doesn't surprise me that myself and other Black women have difficulty relating to the BMI chart.  It simply doesn't apply to a lot of Black women; however, without any other forms of measurement, it's something we have to deal with until we ourselves create a measurement system more indicative of our dietary and nutritional needs.

Here is the standard of measurement for BMI (this table is from the CDC website):

Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5 – 24.9	Normal
25.0 – 29.9	Overweight
30.0 and Above	Obese

At my current weight of 159 pounds and my current height of 5'3" I fit in the 25.0 - 29.9 Overweight category.

"Your BMI is 28.2, indicating your weight is in the Overweight category for adults of your height.

For your height, a normal weight range would be from 104 to 141 pounds.
People who are overweight or obese are at higher risk for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol."

Hmm.  Once when talking with a relatively plump white lady several months ago, I was very surprised to find out I weighed more than she did although we were the same height.  She weighed 135 pounds and was lamenting how she desired to be 110 again.  She was floored when I told her my weight was over 160 pounds and noted I didn't look bigger than her.  She surmised that I must be mostly muscle and since I was not working out at that time, leading a sedentary lifestyle, and eating whatever I wanted in copious quantities, I could easily attest that this was not the case.  When I pointed these things out, she jumped to her next conclusion that some people just carry their weight differently than others.  I agree with that but this was just not the case.  She could quite easily fit into the BMI standard.  I could not and probably never will which suits me just fine.  The anorexic physique does not appeal to me.

Whenever I get a physical I'm fine on everything except my iron levels.  They have been low since I was a child and it is difficult for me to maintain them at what is supposedly "normal" even with proper diet and iron supplements.  I have found that I am not the only Black woman who has this issue and always wondered if there was something more to be considered.  I experienced some difficulty as a child with it to the point of hospitalization but as an adult I never experienced the adverse effects of too low iron (red blood cells/hemoglobin).  On my physical I was just below where I needed to be and refused to eat liver (yuck!) or take the cow pills that are iron supplements.  My doctor just shrugged and kept stepping.  She has found out the hard way the end results of trying to convince me to do things her way.  Generally I just find out why I'm feeling a certain way from her and find my own remedies.  I was feeling extremely stressed out and overly anxious while in graduate school.  She suggested Lexapro...I found that passionflower pills from the local natural foods store were simply divine.  Just be mindful not to take two of them like the directions say!  It relaxes you A LOT.  I usually don't show up to the doctor unless something is wrong.  Amazingly enough I haven't been sick in months which is unusual for me.  Sinus infections and bronchitis are the banes of my life.

So back to the topic at hand.  Why do we as Black women, not have our own standard?  You may ask, "What about Black men?"  Well they are included by extension but I'm going to focus on Black women because from what I can see, we are the most unhealthiest.

I see it when I'm out and about EVERY DAY.  Did being grossly overweight become a standard and no one told me?  According to the CDC, 54.2% of Black women 20 years and over are obese.  Not fat.  Not chubby.  Not "just a lil" overweight.  OBESE!  I don't view this as bad news.  I view this as something that really needs to grab the coattails of the Black American conscious and come to the forefront of our focus.

When men talk out about this, many women immediately call them misogynistic and accuse them of looking for reasons to check out women of other races.  I found one brother on YouTube (Jarreau) that made me laugh so hard regarding his take on overweight Black women specifically Christian Black women.  Am I wrong for laughing?  Probably.  Is he wrong for pointing it out?  Not in the least.  Check him out.  I made the mistake of taking a sip of water just as he made the statement, "Why y'all eating so much?"  GOLD.  I came across another article on the Merc80.com website called "Curves Not Cul-De-Sacs."  Another article that made me laugh because to me IT IS SO TRUE!  I'd be remiss if I didn't take a certain cavalier attitude with my weight especially when a nice big butt accompanied it.  I'm still trying to save it while pursuing my weight loss endeavors.  It's my best ASS-et.  Good food (usually and more aptly junk food) made me feel great.  Chocolate cake donuts were the best.  If I felt stressed, sweets always put me back on the up and up.  He's not off the mark in the least.  He generally reiterates my feelings on the matter: 

Culturally speaking, yes, we like ‘em with a little more “meat on the bones”.  But the meat should be tender, not fatty.  If I can see the muscle striations on the meat, that means the fat is gone.  For many of you, I do not see meat, I see fat.  And we’re not talking “thick”, chubby, or “out of shape”.  We’re talking OBESE.

Now his take on men is one I don't necessarily agree with but I am looking at it from a woman's perspective.  He stated:  Do men need to lose weight too?  Yes.  But at the end of the day, a man’s size and weight are hardly ever a major issue to his attractiveness.  In fact, the larger he is the more manly he appears to be."

This statement made me kind of view his whole article in another light that went from mostly positive to, "so you saying Black women with a little meat on their bones aren't attractive."  I had to stop myself from spiraling into that vat of cynicism and reread what he wrote at the top in bold (see above).

I am mindful of weight because I know that thyroid issues run in my family and sets me up for hypo/hyperthyroidism in the future.  Before I assume that someone eats too much I always think to myself about whether they have a thyroid issue that they are unaware of or some other health issue.  Those are also factors, other than food, that can exist and cause us to be overweight.

Am I overweight?  According to the CDC BMI calculator I am.  Visually I do not look overweight.  I go by how I feel.  I didn't look overweight at my heaviest (165) but I felt terrible, slow and sluggish.  My knees hurt badly and walking short distances felt like running a marathon.  Down six pounds I feel like I can jump over the moon.  A great deal of that weight came off my mid section and arms for which I am very grateful and I am encouraged to keep going with the great progress I've seen in just three months.  I had set my goal weight at 145 but would be happy at 150.  When I weighed around that weight before (along with good diet and exercise), I felt phenomenal.  Yes, the CDC BMI calculator still considered me overweight but I felt great.  Isn't that what's most important? 

On my bucket list for the future:  Pick the brain of those Black men/women in the health and nutrition fields about their take on more specialized calculations for the Black community.

That is all.

Fitness Thoughts and November Challenge!

I worked out alone this morning.  My hubby wanted a break even after I told him I wouldn't complain, whine, or give him the evil eye for working me so hard.  I trekked to the gym alone.  I don't work twice as hard without him there.  Yes, I did get through the workouts but I didn't give myself that extra push that he would.  I need that extra push.

I've zoned in on my obliques.  Up until my mid to late twenties, they were a non-factor.  They never put on fat and I never worked them.  Then all of a sudden they just popped up.  This picture from two years ago tells the tale.  The black check shows some oblique action...I'm not completely contrapposto, I'm mostly straight.  I was starting to get a little belly action too as indicated by the red check.  I remember I was around 152 pounds then.  I am ten pounds heavier now and you wouldn't think it would make so much of a difference...but it does as you can see.  I think 145 is a good weight for me so 17.5 pounds left to go!

I have decided to add more oblique workouts.  Technically I'm not supposed to do crunches or any "crunch-like" movement per my doctor due to a hernia.  I've been doing side crunches anyway.  Bad, I know.  I did a google search to find some good oblique exercises.  This ONE has some gems!  I will double check with the hubby to get his thoughts...he may have a variation that works better.  I've found that whenever I find something I think is great, he has a better version of it.

Okay enough chitchat about obliques. I decided to enter the Black Women Losing Weight November Challenge!  So the deal is for you to give up all bad stuff like soda, sweets, and simple carbs.  Done and done!

Here are the guidelines:

• No Soda – That includes diet soda. Already done.
• No Fast Food  Zaxby's...gonna work on it.
• No Alcohol  Easy enough...I don't drink it.
• No White Bread – Easy enough...I never ate it.
• No White Sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup I've been avoiding this for years (trying to)
• No Store Bought Juice – I guess Naked Juice is out.
• Any packaged foods you eat should have less than 12 grams of sugar per serving. I do this already...
• No Sugary Snacks –  First thing I did three weeks ago.
• No Pasta I love pasta but it was easy to give up...will continue.
• You can have artificial sweeteners in moderation – Don't use them...I don't even use the natural ones like agave and honey. 
  

This should be easy.  The challenge is to keep that up through Thanksgiving and even I don't know if I can resist my Mama's red velvet cake and sweet potato pie!  I am partaking in a Naked Juice Smoothie today (Green Machine) as I had a coupon.  Without thinking I had went and asked my boss if he liked Naked juice (he's into fitness and natural eating too) and the look on his face was beyond priceless (***DEAD***).  When I realized my folly it took me a minute or two to stop laughing before explaining I meant the juice.  I had asked him if he liked it to see if he wanted to get a coupon...perhaps I should have thought that through more.  He was like, "I knew what you meant." (wink, wink) So yeah, no Naked juice at work or anywhere else for that matter.  Goes right up there with, "Oh, your husband works you out?"  This question almost immediately follows my casual comment of "I work out with my husband."  Everybody has a dirty mind these days!

Here is a coupon for $1 off on a 15.2 ounce bottle of Naked Juice.  I don't know how long they are going to have the promotion for so get it while it's hot (and naked).  What an unfortunate name.

Back to the challenge.  I will definitely work on giving up Zaxby's, the very last fast food frontier I have to cross.  Those grilled chicken sandwiches are so good.  I don't even get fries or onion rings.  I get celery with a water to drink.  I had their Blue Zalad with Mediterranean dressing and grilled blackened chicken yesterday.  I have to stay away from that place.  I've been good about giving up the sweets otherwise.

Rather than wait until November, I'm starting today. 

Fitness Thoughts

I love reading on the treadmill or elliptical at the gym.  It seems to make the seconds and minutes zoom by therefore increasing my actual productivity more so than music and the subtitles to CNN/ESPN.  The thing is the books I desire to read are paperbacks which do not want to stay open on their own accord.  Nerveracking.  So I decided to save that reading for more stationary times and pulled out the only hardback book I own with large print that doesn't have anything to do with art, crochet, or knitting: Chef MD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine by John La Puma, M.D.  I got this for a great deal at Food Lion in their book bin.  What's sad about that is this Food Lion is right next door to Books-A-Million that I have never bought a book from.  Any who, I've had it for over a year and hadn't actually cracked it open.  The only reason I even had it readily available is that it managed to escape my trip to 2nd and Charles last weekend.

First things first, this man loves food.  I mean seriously.  I am going to steal his television tagline of, "The fountain of youth starts in the kitchen."  He shared that doctors aren't really taught about nutrition in medical school which I already knew thanks to Michael Baisden.  A woman was on his show once talking about how she changed her diet not at the behest of her doctor but of an older gentleman at the grocery store who suggested she cut out meat and dairy from her diet to see if it helped her high blood pressure and diabetes.  She said that within six months both her blood pressure and glucose levels had stabilized and eventually she no longer needed medication to control them.  This encouraged her to find out more about nutrition.  This stuck with me because she was adamant in her insistence that diet was the most important part of beating the main disease culprits that are the bane of the Black community.  Now that this guy has already confirmed what I've heard before, I'm definitely getting into his book now.

Here are some nuggets he had that are just too good not to share.  For the folks who have to have their fix of fast food, grab a fistful of almonds within twenty minutes of ordering.  Apparently the antioxidants in the almonds begin to block the artery-stiffening and inflammatory effect of the saturated and trans fats in the fast food.  Bet you didn't know that.  I sure didn't.

Now I have been giving starches a hard time in my diet...this guy is working on redeeming them.  Apparently there are different types of starch and one of them is called resistant starch which can be your fat burning friend.  Eating more foods high in resistant starch cause you to burn more fat throughout the day because you use the fat before you can store it.  Examples of those are types of beans/legumes like lentils, peas, soybeans, and beans.  Since edamame is a form of soybean, those should count, right?  I love those things!  I do partake in the Vegetarian Ruprict from Moe's Southwest Grill.  I think it is mostly healthy with the black beans, grilled peppers, olives, cucumbers, pico de galo, and onions I get piled high on it.  Just ignore the super starchy tortilla chips and sodium laden cheese sauce they slather all over it.  That's why I eat those with a protein shake.  I am of the opinion that if you balance everything out (starch to protein ratio), you won't store it as fat.  This has a basis in some nutrition reading I did some time ago.  I am going to be on the lookout in this book to see what Dr. La Puma has to say about it.  Those Rupricts are hella hard to give up.

I'll give more little nuggets from this book as I go along.  I am reading and rereading for thorough understanding and memory.  Best of all, the darn thing stays open and flat while I work out.

Something else I have decided to do is to add green tea to my diet.  A cup in the morning, a cup after work and a cup before bed.  Decaffeinated, of course.  I have some organic green tea I just bought.  I read ahead in the ChefMD book to see what he thought about green tea and it seems I'm good to go!  Some things I learned:

Black tea, green tea, white tea, and oolong tea all come from the same plant.  They are all prepared differently which lends itself to the different tastes and health benefits (and apparently colors).

It helps protect you from having a heart attack and stroke and may help in delaying the onset of cancer.   I wonder if Lipton counts too.

Tea has no carbs, fat, protein, or calories...like water (bitter water, bleh!  I just tried some Honest Tea Green Tea and I honestly added a whole lemon to it to make it drinkable).  It does have catechins which are flavonoids (which are apparently good for you).  Green and white tea have more than black and oolong tea.  Black tea and oolong have their own types of flavonoids.
Flavonoid:  Usually colorful plant chemicals with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer effects; there are over five thousand of them.  They belong to the polyphenol family. 
Polyphenol:  Chemicals such as flavonoids and tannins, responsible for the coloring and protection of some plants and that fight heart disease and cancer.

A downside to this book is the need to constantly search for definitions because he just throws these words around willy nilly.  The upside is his index is pretty comprehensive and makes it easy to find the definitions of these obscure words he throws around.  I just added the definitions here to save you a Google search. 

Independent of this book, I read somewhere (the result of a Google search) that green tea contributed to fat burning which is what had initially peaked my interest in it.  Well, I'm going to start on Monday after I stock up on lemons.

No workout this weekend!  I'm a little achy (which is good) and I intend to work even harder next week.  Pain = progress.  I can visually see a difference around my middle but I have a long way to go still.  If it doesn't rain tomorrow I will take a few laps through the neighborhood and if it is raining I guess I'll attack my elliptical. 

Getting Back on Track with my Health

Let's face it, staying motivated to exercise isn't easy.  With work, school, kids, nagging bosses, meetings, and the plethora of other things we all have going on with cell phones and tablets attached to our hands, government shutdowns and the imminent end of the world as we know it, it's amazing we get much of anything done.  With all of the talk about health insurance, it is sure to make some contemplate the idea of preventive care (eating healthier and exercising) even more now, myself included.

Three weeks ago, I went to the local flea market.  I went initially to get out of the house away from the  hubby and kids.  That's necessary sometimes.  I decided to go by and see some old friends while I was there.  I used to sell at the flea market regularly and considered a lot of the vendors some of my favorite people.  Any who, I ran into Annette, a really nice woman from Trinidad and Tobago who was always my vending buddy.  After we chatted for a bit, she kind of cocked her head to the side and said, "You're looking a little chunky there around the middle.  Be careful, you're getting older and it will creep up on you."  Now I don't generally take too kindly to folks reminding me of my age, especially as I intend to stay 29 for several more years, but I was caught more off-guard by the "chunky" remark.  I was chunky?  Yes, I am getting older, and yes, I was aware my metabolism had slowed.  It had not slowed enough for me to not eat boxes of Twinkies (the Sweetest Comeback EVER!), a half-dozen chocolate cake donuts (every day after work for $2, can't beat it), and chug down Mountain Dew like it was the elixir of life and still have people say, "I wish I had your figure."  That happens quite a bit so no wonder I never realized I was "chunky"!

So, I went home and stepped on the scale, which I immediately regretted.  165 pounds.  I hadn't been that heavy since my second pregnancy in which I went up to a whopping 171 pounds (immediately dropping to 140 post pregnancy).  In August 2012, I weighed 146 pounds, right at the start of a master's program.  I graduated in August 2013.  Here it was the end of September, and I weighed 165 pounds.  How did that happen?  Where did that come from?  Then I started looking at myself.  My arms were much rounder.  Why hadn't I noticed that?  I generally ignored my abs because after three kids and a stint with diastasis recti, there hadn't been any reason to pay them much attention.  My pre-baby abs were long gone.   They were seriously out to lunch now.  I had love handles!  I never had love handles in my life.  I love my butt...it took me nearly ten years to grow it, but it was the only asset, so to speak, I even liked about my body now.  My face was rounder and I noticed that my knees ached a lot.  Constantly, in fact.  This just wasn't going to work.

It didn't take me long to realize that I was holding my health as a ransom to my own self-esteem issues and love for chocolate everything (except ice cream).  Quite frankly I didn't want to have to weave through either one of those particular issues so I just opted to just take my health back with a vengeance.

My husband, a personal trainer, really got it that night for letting me get out of control.  Poor guy, he was damned either way.  He insisted I looked fine and just needed to tone.  "Stop being so hard on yourself, you can get that off easy.  Think about the people who are much bigger than you."  That's what I like about him.  Every time I start complaining, he always manages to bring up someone who is much worse than I am.  I must thank him for channeling my self-deprecating tendencies into feelings of regret and self-disdain at my own selfishness.  So I challenged him to help me get toned.

He began PMA Fitness Training a little over a year ago.  He slows down around this time of year with clients so he has time to devote to me (yay!).  We have four months left on our joint Gold's Gym membership, a membership we had neglected to use for nearly six months with him opting for Planet Fitness and me opting for Zaxby's.  So back to the gym for us...well first it was at home (for me) with an Arabic belly dancing video set on Youtube.  That was fun.  Then I hit the gym the following Saturday to present for a total of almost two weeks so far. My husband won't let me complain and I can appreciate that.  I want to sweat and I want to hurt.  Makes me feel productive.  I'm amazed how much wind I have retained over the months.  It took my knees a week to stop screaming at me and they actually feel lighter now.  I had Baker's cysts behind them for awhile so I already knew my propensity to gain water on the knees.

I work out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday supplemented with an elliptical at home and walks through the neighborhood.

I've lost 2.5 pounds and I feel awesome.  Let me backtrack a bit.  I changed my diet as well.  I eliminated all processed foods and sweets from my diet and I increased my water intake.  I've done this so many times before that I don't even go through the "sweets" withdrawal symptoms.  My body's probably like, here we go again.  I only eat lean chicken (all natural from 14 Carrot) and fish.  I had a love affair with kale eating it every day until I realized it was making me exhausted (did you know Kale could do that?).  I increased my protein intake tremendously.  I want to lose weight but I want to maintain muscle, preferably those in the gluteous maximus area.  I've never been much of a cook, not because I couldn't do it.  I had no desire to do it.  There's a difference.  We bought a steamer last year, and I think we made the most use out of it in these past two weeks than in the entire time we owned it.  I have a wok also...I'll have to work my way up to that.  Everything else is baked.  I also made homemade pizza, which the kids loved sans the red and green peppers I would throw on them.  Generally they don't mind eating right which makes this journey super easy for me.  In another month, I am going to throw in a fasting day as well.

There was some definite water weight loss.  My arms slimmed down and such.  This past weekend, I went back to the flea market and saw Annette again.  I thanked her for pointing out my "chunkiness" for without her observation, who knows how far I would have gone.  She conceded that she needed to work out as well and I gave her encouragement.  It's hard to get started but you don't want to stop once you get going.  She said to me, "Yeah, you don't look as bloated now, a little trimmer.  Keep it up."  And I will.