Winter Blues

I know that lack of sun effects everyone differently. Some love it others complain about it but I think (though I am not a doctor) I need it badly. How I act & motivation about life are so dramatic when it comes to the weather. I am extreme about it. In the summer I just want to go & go. I have no issues eating healthy & I am just a happier person. My cousin is the opposite. She is better in the winter & gets depressed in the summer. I am taking Vit. D & 5HTP. Nothing seems to help right now.

I am not a big believer in Astrology though about 6 years ago I was researching it. I do find it interesting. I am a Pisces. All about the water! Seeing water makes me calm & relaxed. When I went to Turkiye last summer I was in total peace out in the ocean just floating. My friend thought it was funny. She didn't believe how happy it made me until she saw for herself.




"Individuals born when the Sun was in this sign are considered Pisceans. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun is in Pisces roughly from February 20 to March 20, ending on the moment of vernal equinox by definition."

Need I say more. The words Sun & Tropical jump out to me! Either way since I am going on and on. I really feel the weather effects my mood, eating & exercising on the extreme level.



My husband is back which means less time at the computer & may have to do Zumba in front of him. Something I have never done. Maybe I will kick him downstairs to his "mans cave" so I can workout upstairs.

I printed out 3 calendars for February that I trying to map out my workouts for. I signed up for 2 challenges. Marcelle's & Sly's and I am still working on how I will fit it all in a day but I will. I see no day of rest for the entire month. I see 85 min. a day of exercise, 300 sit ups a week. If anything I will stay busy & have no time to snack!!!

I keep track of my exercise on Daily Mile. Truly feel like I am alone on there this week. Where is everyone?

On a last note I am starving when I get home. I eat breakfast at 7 & my lunch is 11:30. I do not get off until 3:15. Nights that I have errands to run I get home even later. It results in lots of mindless snacking. I do yogurt or oatmeal for breakfast, fruit or salad & almonds for lunch. What would be a good snack to eat to get me through until dinner?

Need to get that scale moving some more. I want the 15 pounds off & now.

Week ends with a total of 8 workouts, walking 25km, exercising 8 hrs. & 58 min., burning 4065 calories!

Growing up without a cell phone

I know this is a weight loss blog but my grandma sent me this & I just had to share it. Gave me a laugh & laughing is good for your health so that makes it OK that I post here, right?lol!


BROUGHT TO YOU BY SERGES BARBER SHOP !
Growing Up Without a Cell Phone

If you are 40, or older, you might think this is hilarious When I was a
kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about
how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking
twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH
ways. yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in
hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how
hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look
around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean,
compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it,
but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to
know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves,
in the card catalog!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with
a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in
the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10
cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a
matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick
our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal
music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ
would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no
CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape
and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone
rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone
and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house,
you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be
out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror...
not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah,
right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had
no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss,
your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't
know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like
'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square!
You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple
levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never
win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster
until you died! Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was
on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off
your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!!
Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on
Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK
for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we
had to use the stove! Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh,
no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside...
you were doing chores!

14)And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you
hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at
the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the
dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first
place! See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have
got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted
five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

15) And you idiots, don't you know the brim on a cap is to protect your
eyes from the sun, if the manufacturer wanted it in the back they would
have put it there!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd
(Send this to someone you'd like to make smile)

Mondays are going to be hard.....

I am so tired on Mondays. The kids at school take everything I have out of me. I wanted to go to Zumba tonight but I made the mistake of sitting down & it was all over. Can not & will not let this happen next month. It will be ALL OR ALL. Here is why.....

I rejoined Marcelle's Online group & love the challenges that she is giving us!! Right now we are keeping track of our workouts. I do that anyways on Daily mile but I thought I would share my week stats here.

Monday 17th ~ Sunday 23rd
11 workouts
burned 5374 calories
walked 31km.
worked out for a total of 10 hrs. & 52 min.

I have decided for the month to take on Sly's challenge & Marcelle's. Now I am not sure how smart this idea is. I am working on mapping it out as I will be exercising 7 days a week. So on that note I am taking this week easy as it is my last week before February. By easy I mean I am not "pregaming" before my dog walk tonight but I will burn a minimum of 3500 calories this week!

For those of you who may want to know what "pregaming" in Sarah's world it is simply that I exercise to get my heart rate up before another exercise. I try and "pregame" before all dog walks & Zumba.

My husband is coming home a week early & even though it will be nice now is not the time. I wanted to get my first week on Feb. figured out without having to worry about him. Oh well.

Does anyone know of a good program to use on the computer to make a chart. I will be needing one.

Weekly Weigh In

I sure haven't written one of these blogs in a long time. I have been so frustrated that the scale hasn't moved that I didn't even want to deal with the weigh in's anymore. On that note I am happy to report a loss of 1.6 pounds!!! Proof has been emailed to my friend Marcelle! Now to just keep going! That is the important part!



I am 1.6 pounds away from my next goal picture of a loss of 50 pounds. I have 15.6 pounds to lose to hit my goal. As I look at myself I am not sure that will be enough. That being said I can begin to see how this can turn into a dangerous game for some people. When is it really enough. Are we really happy with our bodies ever? Will the number ever be low enough? I know right now I am far from it being dangerous. I could probably stand to lose even more then the 15 pds. I have left.

Last night I was able to burn 701 calories doing Zumba in the living room and a dog walk. Love those high numbers! Today I also got many compliments on my fruit from yesterday and some people even brought some today because of it! It's all a learning process!

An Inspired Lunch

My neighbor that I walk with is a health/exercise nut. She is like no one I know. On the weekends when we go to the gym calorie goal is 800 & we do not leave until we hit it. She goes to the gym 7 days a week & walks her dog 3 times a day not to mention all of the other motherly duties she does. Really I have no clue where she gets her energy. Might be the coffee she has to drink all day.

Anyways when we walk every night we talk about everything. I think about trying to eat like her but I am having trouble thinking about pretty much eating the same thing all the time. I love her discipline but I also want to enjoy life & have a bite of pizza without thinking I need to stay at the gym an extra 20 min. for it.

Her breakfast is the pretty close to what I eat. Lunch for her is a bowl of fruit everyday & that is it. So this is what I did.



My lunch for work. Of course all the other items where not inspired by my friend. Just the fruit! I had a serving of reduced fat wheat thins, 100 calorie pack of almonds, soy pudding & fruit (pineapple, apple, grapes & kiwi). I mixed the pudding in the with the fruit & it was yummy!! I think this might be something I can pull off for about 3 of the 5 days I am working. I do like to change it up every once and awhile.

We have had green grass for almost a week. Today it decided to rain & snow and hail. This is what it looked like when I got home. The wired looking lines are snow coming down (lovely photos coming off of a phone). Tonight's walk is going to be cold.



I joined Sly's challenge for February. I really need something to push me in the strength training area and I hope this helps. Now to actually do it & stick with it for a month. I really want tank top arms though. Tired of talking about. I need to act on it. I have goals to hit by the time I turn 30.

Weather Plays Into My Eating

I always knew that the weather played into our emotions, eating & daily habits. I really realized this today though. Yesterday the sun was out all day! I ate wonderfully & felt great about the day!! Today is another story. Fog all day. It is 2:15 in the afternoon and the fog is still bad. I feel blah. I want to just watch movies and eat. Instead I am doing laundry, mopping & cleaning my daughters room. Anything I can to keep from eating. I hate this feeling.

Yesterday ~ 730am

Today ~ All day

Here pictures of my breakfast & lunch from yesterday. Breakfast today was a piece of wheat bread with peanut butter & lunch was the same minus the cheese stick. Smoked Salmon on German bread (which I have no clue the calories), lettuce & lite Philadelphia chili cream cheese.

Breakfast is Yogurt, banana, pineapple, strawberry's, raisins, oats & organic pumpkin flax seed.



This is my latest gadget of fun!! I stick my Iphone in there & dance away well I make dinner. I am known to crank the music so high I don't even hear the phone or door bell. In fact my neighbor finds it funny to sneak up to the kitchen window & scare me (after I assume he laughs at my dancing). Either way I am so into my Zumba music I find that I do not snack well I make dinner anymore!



I finally broke down and bought myself a stability ball. I really need to work on my abs and arms & I hate using the machines at the gym. I noticed when I was a member at 24 hr. Fitness I hated the machines, at the Y I used them, now at the military gym I am back to no. I think a lot of it has to do with the people around me. I am still trying to "find my place" in the gym. If that makes sense. My husband left today for 3 weeks so if I do this everyday I hope he notices some difference.




I used to track my breakfast well I ate. That was when I went to work between 9-10. Now I leave the house at 7:20 & I am finding that I can not track in the computer before work like I used to. So now I will right it in here then transfer it.



Really trying to get out of the rut. I have maintained my current weight to long. I did try on a couple of things that I didn't feel comfortable enough to wear out (my friend says I am to critical of myself) & this morning they fit!! Guess maybe I am losing inches or toning or something!!

Calories burned last week were 4575, 9 workouts, 22 km for a total of 10hrs. & 21 min.

Sick Again

Hello blog land!!! Once again I have been MIA. To be honest right now I just feel like there are more important things in life then blogging. I am busy with work, running my daughter here and there & what not. Living next to friends also proves to keep a person busy. So much has happened not sure where to start.

Back in November my friend and I went to a Zumba Teacher Instruction class. We both left instructors. I won't really use my certificate here in Germany though. I can only work on post and when I can the room is taken. It was a fun weekend though & something I am glad I did. I had to go out of my comfort zone for this and would of been something I would never thought of doing 40+ pounds ago.





Zumba has really helped me break out of my shell and I love it!!! Right now I am working on my first song with my friend!!LOVE IT!!

Next my weight ticker on the side has been adjusted. As I get closer to the weight I would like to be at I do not think it is enough. So I have lowered my goal weight some more. Unfortunately with that the number to lose is higher again.

I have also been stuck when it comes to get the scale moving again. Well my bmi is now normal I refuse to let my body think this is where I am supposed to be at. I want to lose another 20 pounds and I guess it is something I will have to work hard for. Any suggestions? I have bought a stability ball though to sit on and do hand weights. My main focus right now is arms and stomach.

Today is my weigh in and I am down from last week (TOM WEEK) yet up an ounce from the week before that. With my birthday coming up in March I would like to lose 5 pounds by then. Normally I would think I could do it. Right now I am not to sure.

Off to take a nap. This cold is kicking my butt and I need my strength to go on a walk tonight!