Snow day and some thinking

I woke up extremely early this morning.  Just couldn't seem to sleep/  I'm sure that later today I will fall asleep again.

We are getting snow this morning, it started late last night and is supposed to continue for the next few hours.  Today's pick from my kitchen window is a little snowy.

Lately it seems like I have been on a downward spiral again. I seem to get it together for a week then fall apart again. 9 years ago I lost 60 pounds relatively easily, I walked more, drank only water and coffee and didn't eat after 7pm. It worked awesome at that time. I have since then stayed under 200 pounds, as low as 162 and as high as 198 which is much better then my highest weight of 259. But it has been a constant yo-yo fr the last 9 years. I'm tired of it. When I first lost the 60 pounds I felt great I could do things again, stairs didn't hurt me, I could breath when I walked. I want to feel better again.

Things that I know about myself, I do not do well or like restrictive diets, I will not stop drinking my coffee/tea. I can increase my walking easily. Having worked with a dietitian for years for my daughter I know that my diet is healthy, not perfect but healthy, I eat too many unhealthy snacks, I love my Cheetos and cookies
So my wants are to stop losing and then gaining back these same 20 pounds. I want to drop them for good. I need to change my snacking in the evening, I can't just eat a handful of Cheetos, if I could it would be better but I can't seem to stop until the bag is empty. I know that I'm not even hungry it is just habit to sit and watch TV after I have put my youngest to bed and snack.
Now that I know my biggest want I need to figure out some realistic goals for me to work on.
I need to keep better track of what i am eating and drinking, including those darn Cheetos. So the goal will be to track all food and drinks.
I also need to make sure that I am working at increasing my steps count during the day. I will do this my tracking my steps every day and going for at least a walk around the block every day.
I also need to add some exercises back into my daily routine. I have found that if I don't do them first thing in the am they just don't get done. I need to change my am routine to include my video workout again. I was doing really well with it but then used the excuse that my son was sleeping in the family room (his choice) to not bother with it because I didn't want to wake him up. I need to, he has a bedroom to sleep in, he can move there. I can't use that as an excuse to not exercise anymore. So my next goal will be to add my video workout 5 times a week.
So my new goals for the next 30 days are.
#1 to track all food and drink when I eat or drink it#2 to meet or exceed my step count for the day 8000 steps right now#3 to add my video workouts 5 times a week ( Monday thru Friday weekends off)
In 30 days I will reevaluate my goals.

This morning I woke up a little early made coffee, checked my emails, Facebook and SparkPeople accounts.  It's a little overcast outside.  I saw a new recipe for banana muffins.  They are delish.

Here is the recipe, originally from Chocolate Covered Katie

Banana Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup mashed banana

2 tbsp milk of choice

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp white or cider vinegar

3 tbsp oil OR 1/4 cup nut butter (or 3 tbsp banana, for fat-free)

1 cup spelt, white, or oat flour (here's a flourless version)

1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp each: baking soda and baking powder

1/3 cup sugar, unrefined if desired

Directions

Whisk first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, and set aside for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F, and line a muffin tin. In a new bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients. Feel free to add 1/4 tsp cinnamon if you wish. Pour dry into wet, and stir until just evenly mixed. Portion into the muffin liners. Bake on the center rack, 19-20 minutes or until muffins have domed and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out mostly clean. Let cool. (I've found that if you loosely cover overnight-either on the counter or refrigerated-the liners then peel off easily, and flavor and texture are even better too!)

They disappeared pretty quick.

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National Homemade Cookie Day

Today is National Homemade Cookie Day.  I'm going to have to make some cookies with my youngest today.  She will want chocolate chip, I'm going to try and get her to agree to oatmeal chocolate chip.

Here is an old recipe that I got from my Mother-In-Law the year Hubby and I got married.  It was published in the Christmas Cookie Cookbook published by the First Baptist Church, in Amherst Nova Scotia.

Diane's Chocolate Chip Jumbles

1 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

3/4 cup White Sugar

1 egg

1 Tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup oatmeal

1 pkg chocolate chips

Nuts (if desired)

Cream together butter and sugars before adding egg, water and vanilla.  Sift together flour, soda, salt, and then add to creamed mixture.  Add oatmeal, chocolate chips and nuts.  Drop onto baking sheet.  Bake at 370F.   Yield 6-8 doz.

No baking time is given in this recipe but I have found that 8 to 12 minutes works in my oven.

It's also the first of October.  My simple goals for this month are

1. Increase my daily steps to 8000 a day by the end of the month.
2. Drink my water, 8 cups a day minimum
3. Spend 30 minutes less watching tv everyday

I'm in a daily challenge to post a picture of the cover of a favorite book on Facebook right now.  Today's book is

I read this book the first time way back when I was in junior high.  I have since read it a few more time. 

Stats from yesterday

Steps:14304

Active Minutes: 106

Stairs: 7

Water: 2

The parts for my RV have been bought.  Hubby thinks he will be able to get it done this weekend and then the RV will go to the muffler shop on Monday for the muffler.  It means not going to the lake this weekend unless we just go for the day but I’m okay with this.

My sleep last night was terrible.  Charlie my older dog, woke me up at 2am.  I got up and let him out thinking that he might need to go outside to do his business (polite way of saying use the toilet).  As he went out and came right back that wasn’t it at all.  He continued to cry or whimper for a while.  Thankfully my son arrived home at 2:30 from work and took him with him into the garage while he ate his dinner and played on his computer.  We have an office set up in the garage for my hubby and my son uses it late at night when he gets home from work so that he doesn’t wake the rest of us up.  The rest of the night I just couldn’t fall back to sleep until just before the alarm went off.  For the first time in forever I decided to let myself have an extra hour.

Today I am thinking about the following “What is the difference between exercise and activity?”  Exercise is activity that we do with the purpose of increasing our heart rate or building strength whereas activity is a normal part of our life, such as housework, yard work, taking the stairs instead of the elevator.  I realize that in my life right now I am way too sedentary and spend way too much time on my butt.  I need to add both more activity and start to add actual exercise to my day.  Looking at the last few weeks I realize that I ma getting zero actual exercise.  I am slowly increasing my steps over the whole week, not everyday for sure yet but at least my weekly totals are going up.

I also need to work on my sugar intake.  The last few days I have been really watching the how often I crave or want sugar or sweet foods.  Last night I was craving a chocolate bar, I almost got up and drove to the store for one.  I’m happy that I didn’t.  I did however go to the kitchen and make myself a strawberry/blueberry shortcake.  I know that adding a small piece of pound cake and 2 tablespoons of whipped cream was better then the KitKat bar.  It did satisfy me.

The end of one week and the begining of the next

Yesterday was a great day.  I got up early and went and finished a work project that I hate doing so now I know it is done and I know that I don't have to d it this week.  

Jamie and I tried out our new BBQ yesterday, we made a roast on the spit.  It was delish and the friends were awesome.  Jamie also made a cherry and an apple pie for dessert.  We have the apple with about half the sugar we would have normally used.  It was still great. It's almost gone but with 5 adults eating and 1 teenager and a kid, food went fast. 

My goal for this past week was for a total of 55,000 steps  and 50 flights of stairs.  All readings were from my Charge 2.
Day 1 update, managed a nice walk in the morning.
Day 3 update, Didn't manage to get as much walking in as I wanted, but I did have a 4 hour drive in the rain instead...
Day 4:  Seems I am about halfway to my goal for this week.  Not bad at all, hoping to add some numbers today to push me closer.
Day 5:  I'm going to need to really add some numbers today to make my goals. 
Day 6:  Well it looks like unless today is a banner day I will not make my goal for this week.  However as I am starting to understand more and more life happens.  My 4 hours drive yesterday could not be avoided and was unplanned.
Day 7:  So I ended the week with 45870 steps.  Not too bad but not my goal of 55000 steps.  I also wanted to do 50 flights of stairs, I made a total of 43 so just a little under my goal.

Steps
07/08: 6741
07/09: 7453
07/10: 6301
07/11: 5986
07/12: 6878
07/13: 4910
07/14: 7601
Weekly total: 45870

Stairs
07/08: 6
07/09: 3
07/10: 9
07/11: 5
07/12: 5
07/13: 5
07/14: 10
Weekly Total: 43

What I am pleased about is that with the exception of one day all my days had over 5000 steps which is huge for me as a month ago I was struggling to 5000 steps in on any day.

I am going to keep my goal the same for this week as last. So 55,000 steps for the week and 50 flights of stairs.  I am also going to track my water intake and my active minutes.  I do have a goal of at least 8 cups of water a day which I ma struggling of late to attain.  My active minutes I'm going to track just to see where I am starting from.  It's hard to make a goal when you don't know where you are.   All readings will be done using my Charge 2.

Steps / Stairs / Water / Active Minutes
07/15:
07/16:
07/17:
07/18:
07/19:
07/20:
07/21:

Weekly total: 

Today'sobjective to is to treat yourself the way you treat others

Boy am I ever glad that I treat others with respect and give everyone the benefit of the doubt.  But really what does this mean.  To me it means that while I would never expect someone else to help me when they are tired sic, hungry I often expect myself to keep going.  I need to learn to let myself have the break that I would give a friend.  

Yesterday was a long day.  I ended up driving north to get my middle child.  She is sic.  Seems like the stomach bug has hit.  Last night she finally was starting to look a bit better.

When I got home rather then go to work I hung out and help my hubby put the new bbq together.  Lots of fun (not).

  It's going to get used tonight.  We have a roast that we are going to do on the spit.