This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here
I thought it was going to be hard to get back up to 10,000 steps a day now that I’m not walking and taking the bus as part of my commute.
I think I was wrong! I had one meeting outside of our office yesterday and it was fairly close and I managed to walk over 8,000 steps. We’ll see if I can replicate that today.
I think that means if I go for a short walk at lunch time I’ll be able to hit my goal most days – and by short I mean 30 minutes. That’s totally doable and I can’t wait to see if it helps!
Oh, and on my quest to see how what my food choices “cost” me…I was craving a scone from the coffee shop and I know it’s not a good idea for a whole lot of reasons…so I got up and made hot scones for breakfast this morning. YUM! And Because I used stuff from the pantry, I’m not counting it as an extra cost, but calorie-wise it was less than half the calories of a scone from the coffee shop! And it was only about 20 calories more than the oatmeal I usually have for breakfast…must remind myself to keep making smart choices! It will be interesting to see what my week looks like when I’m done!
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Friday, November 05, 2010
Redefining busy...
If you asked me recently how we've been, I'll probably say good, busy, but good. And I think we're busy. Really busy. And I keep looking at the busy and thinking that after the summer is over, after Thanksgiving, after Hallowe'en, after Christmas, maybe it won't be so busy.
But I think I'm wrong.
I think that we're not actually busy. We're just living life. And I need to adjust my expectations.
It's just life. We don't do crazy extra curricular activities - J isn't doing any additional organized activities outside of daycare - they do lots of physical play and go for lots of walks and there's a early childhood music teacher who comes once a week. I'd like to put her in swimming lessons after Christmas, but that's it. After I pick her up from daycare, we come home, play, have dinner, a bath, and story time and then she goes to bed. On the weekends we try to limit activities to one per day (ideally one per weekend) and we keep to her nap schedule as much as possible.
Since I started looking at it as our life and not as our busy life, it's been a much easier life to live! We are pretty much happy. We live in a neighbourhood we like that is close (enough) to both of our jobs and to J's daycare. We see our family quite frequently. We visit with friends at least once a week. We live in a beautiful city in a great country.
We're pretty blessed and once I remove busy from the equation, it's a lot easier to savour those blessings and if the dishes don't get done tonight because we're playing with puzzles, well, that's okay. They'll be there tomorrow and while I'm elbows deep in soap suds, I'll have the memories of the puzzle playing giggles to entertain me.
Busy, you are banned from our house!
But I think I'm wrong.
I think that we're not actually busy. We're just living life. And I need to adjust my expectations.
It's just life. We don't do crazy extra curricular activities - J isn't doing any additional organized activities outside of daycare - they do lots of physical play and go for lots of walks and there's a early childhood music teacher who comes once a week. I'd like to put her in swimming lessons after Christmas, but that's it. After I pick her up from daycare, we come home, play, have dinner, a bath, and story time and then she goes to bed. On the weekends we try to limit activities to one per day (ideally one per weekend) and we keep to her nap schedule as much as possible.
Since I started looking at it as our life and not as our busy life, it's been a much easier life to live! We are pretty much happy. We live in a neighbourhood we like that is close (enough) to both of our jobs and to J's daycare. We see our family quite frequently. We visit with friends at least once a week. We live in a beautiful city in a great country.
We're pretty blessed and once I remove busy from the equation, it's a lot easier to savour those blessings and if the dishes don't get done tonight because we're playing with puzzles, well, that's okay. They'll be there tomorrow and while I'm elbows deep in soap suds, I'll have the memories of the puzzle playing giggles to entertain me.
Busy, you are banned from our house!
The cost of unhealthy living
This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here
Every once in a while, I stop and take a bit of an inventory of what's happening in my life related to my health – how much am I exercising, what kind of exercise am I doing, what’s my diet like, what are my sleep patterns like, what's my stress level – and readjust it.
There’s all kinds of talk in the media about the cost of unhealthy living and the strain it is putting (and will put in the future) on our health care system…we’ve all seen it – more diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, rates of obesity – the list is endless.
Right now I know I need to eat better – I'm much better than I was this summer, but there's still room for improvement. We started creating a weekly meal plan, including snacks, and I'm pretty good at sticking to it if we remember to print it and post it in the kitchen – I know I need to do some other exercise besides yoga and I know I need more sleep. Stress is pretty good right now.
This summer I took a look at the cost of some of my unhealthy choices. The cost to me right now, not to me (or the health care system) in the future. And wow, was it motivation! I had slipped into some unhealthy habits that I'm blaming partly on the somewhat unstable daycare situation we were in, some mini-crises we were dealing with as a family, and job uncertainty. And that resulted in some stress eating and more lunches out at work than I would like. So I spent a week tracking what I was eating and this is what I discovered:
In seven days I ate an extra 4500 calories (YUCK!) and it cost me close to $30. An annual habit like that would have me packing on the pounds and would cost me over $1500. Granted, I don't normally eat that way, but this was a slip up that needed correcting and looking at it from a cost perspective really opened my eyes and helped me change the bad habits I was starting to form.
Even though I'm trying my best to eat from the crazy diet right now, there are still ways to make choices that might not be the best choices. Now that plain dairy (ie not cheese or sour cream), flour, and sugar have been added again, most baking is okay. Potato chips (as long as I read the ingredients) are okay...there are many ways to make poor choices even when following a somewhat restrictive diet.
I had planned to do a cost experiment again this week, but I've been under the weather and home all week, so the opportunity to make poor choices at work was completely taken away. I expect to be back at work on Monday, so starting Sunday I'm going to track a week's worth of food to what the extra cost is…
I’m thinking I'm down to more like $5 – $10 a week, and hopefully only a few hundred calories but we'll see...I'd like it to be no calories and less than $5 if at all possible!
Every once in a while, I stop and take a bit of an inventory of what's happening in my life related to my health – how much am I exercising, what kind of exercise am I doing, what’s my diet like, what are my sleep patterns like, what's my stress level – and readjust it.
There’s all kinds of talk in the media about the cost of unhealthy living and the strain it is putting (and will put in the future) on our health care system…we’ve all seen it – more diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, rates of obesity – the list is endless.
Right now I know I need to eat better – I'm much better than I was this summer, but there's still room for improvement. We started creating a weekly meal plan, including snacks, and I'm pretty good at sticking to it if we remember to print it and post it in the kitchen – I know I need to do some other exercise besides yoga and I know I need more sleep. Stress is pretty good right now.
This summer I took a look at the cost of some of my unhealthy choices. The cost to me right now, not to me (or the health care system) in the future. And wow, was it motivation! I had slipped into some unhealthy habits that I'm blaming partly on the somewhat unstable daycare situation we were in, some mini-crises we were dealing with as a family, and job uncertainty. And that resulted in some stress eating and more lunches out at work than I would like. So I spent a week tracking what I was eating and this is what I discovered:
In seven days I ate an extra 4500 calories (YUCK!) and it cost me close to $30. An annual habit like that would have me packing on the pounds and would cost me over $1500. Granted, I don't normally eat that way, but this was a slip up that needed correcting and looking at it from a cost perspective really opened my eyes and helped me change the bad habits I was starting to form.
Even though I'm trying my best to eat from the crazy diet right now, there are still ways to make choices that might not be the best choices. Now that plain dairy (ie not cheese or sour cream), flour, and sugar have been added again, most baking is okay. Potato chips (as long as I read the ingredients) are okay...there are many ways to make poor choices even when following a somewhat restrictive diet.
I had planned to do a cost experiment again this week, but I've been under the weather and home all week, so the opportunity to make poor choices at work was completely taken away. I expect to be back at work on Monday, so starting Sunday I'm going to track a week's worth of food to what the extra cost is…
I’m thinking I'm down to more like $5 – $10 a week, and hopefully only a few hundred calories but we'll see...I'd like it to be no calories and less than $5 if at all possible!
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Bah Humbug to Fall Flus...
Like every kid, J brought germs home from daycare. We all fought the good fight and J and Alex managed to keep the germs at bay. Well, Alex did. J developed a gross cough, but the doctor says it's just that, a gross cough. Keep her hydrated. Run the humidifier. Use VapoRub. And wait it out.
I thought I'd succeeded in beating it too. Until Sunday night. When my entire body started to ache and I began to cough violently. And woke up yesterday with a sore throat. And stayed home yesterday. And today.
And I'm starting to feel better. I'll probably stay home tomorrow just to be sure, but I have some work I can do from home, so maybe I'll feel productive.
Because for the last three days all I've done is sleep in, drink lots of water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, drop J off at daycare, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, sleep, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, pick J up from daycare, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey and lie on the couch while J watches Raffi, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey and wait for Alex to come home, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, go to bed early. I've had a few quiet moments to do some work (ugh, budgets were due yesterday) and blog.
Oh, and can I just say, my awe at the great job stay-at-home-parents and single parents do has increased tenfold? I have no idea how these people ever get their immune systems happy if they get sick. I've been fortunate that daycare is close enough to home that it makes total sense for me to take J even if I'm not going to work (daycare is literally three and a half minutes from my office) and I know that even though Alex is working wacky hours, he'll be home after 7:30 or so if J wakes up or is still up or whatever so that I can sleep.
Just a little blogging:
I thought I'd succeeded in beating it too. Until Sunday night. When my entire body started to ache and I began to cough violently. And woke up yesterday with a sore throat. And stayed home yesterday. And today.
And I'm starting to feel better. I'll probably stay home tomorrow just to be sure, but I have some work I can do from home, so maybe I'll feel productive.
Because for the last three days all I've done is sleep in, drink lots of water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, drop J off at daycare, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, sleep, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, pick J up from daycare, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey and lie on the couch while J watches Raffi, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey and wait for Alex to come home, drink more water, tea, and hot lemon and honey, go to bed early. I've had a few quiet moments to do some work (ugh, budgets were due yesterday) and blog.
Oh, and can I just say, my awe at the great job stay-at-home-parents and single parents do has increased tenfold? I have no idea how these people ever get their immune systems happy if they get sick. I've been fortunate that daycare is close enough to home that it makes total sense for me to take J even if I'm not going to work (daycare is literally three and a half minutes from my office) and I know that even though Alex is working wacky hours, he'll be home after 7:30 or so if J wakes up or is still up or whatever so that I can sleep.
Just a little blogging:
- Items 3 -11 and 12 of the get rid of 101 things in 1001 days challenge
- My pedometer came back
- And I made some cupcakes with the kit from Maggie for a baby shower
- I finally wrote about October's book for The Great Book Challenge and did a Teaser Tuesday post for the first time in a while
34. Make cupcakes with the cupcake kit from Maggie
Remember this? Maggie had a giveaway and I won a super cute cupcake kit. SUPER CUTE.
I didn't forget, I just haven't had time to make cupcakes (or when I have had time, I haven't had enough people around to eat 24 cupcakes!)
So, this weekend I hosted a shower for my cousin Harmony and I figured that would be the perfect time to use the kit.
They were sooooo good! I used Martha Stewart's recipes for the cupcakes and the icing.
Tasty!
Thanks Maggie! Everyone thought these were so cute (and we're a little sad we can't find them north of the 49th)
I didn't forget, I just haven't had time to make cupcakes (or when I have had time, I haven't had enough people around to eat 24 cupcakes!)
So, this weekend I hosted a shower for my cousin Harmony and I figured that would be the perfect time to use the kit.
They were sooooo good! I used Martha Stewart's recipes for the cupcakes and the icing.
Tasty!
Thanks Maggie! Everyone thought these were so cute (and we're a little sad we can't find them north of the 49th)
36.9 and 36.10 Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes with Billy's Vanilla Buttercream
For Harmony's shower, I made Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes with Billy's Vanilla Buttercream. I had thought I'd do half Vanilla and half Billy's Chocolate Buttercream, but as I decided it was enough to make the vanilla and use two colours.
This recipes makes 30 cupcakes and since I was using my cupcake kit from Maggie which had 24 cases and birds, I decided I'd make small cupcakes with the rest of the batter for the little girls at the party (HA! They wanted huge cupcakes, but the little ones definitely didn't go to waste)
J helped me out by licking the batters clean of icing (and then asking for "mo' peeze")
Oh such pretty cupcakes papers!
And the icing was perfect!
I love the birds!
J calls little cupcakes "babycakes" and these little babycakes were perfect! It took a heck of a lot of food colouring to get the icing orange though! See my spider plate peeking through? I got it as a shower gift three years ago and haven't really ever used it...
I'd make these again...the cupcakes and icing together used an entire pound of butter and I think if I made them again, I'd only make half of the icing. I seriously had way too much (and didn't think to freeze the extra until it had made its way into Alex and the garbage...)
YUMMY! Way to go on this recipe Martha!
This recipes makes 30 cupcakes and since I was using my cupcake kit from Maggie which had 24 cases and birds, I decided I'd make small cupcakes with the rest of the batter for the little girls at the party (HA! They wanted huge cupcakes, but the little ones definitely didn't go to waste)
J helped me out by licking the batters clean of icing (and then asking for "mo' peeze")
Oh such pretty cupcakes papers!
And the icing was perfect!
I love the birds!
J calls little cupcakes "babycakes" and these little babycakes were perfect! It took a heck of a lot of food colouring to get the icing orange though! See my spider plate peeking through? I got it as a shower gift three years ago and haven't really ever used it...
I'd make these again...the cupcakes and icing together used an entire pound of butter and I think if I made them again, I'd only make half of the icing. I seriously had way too much (and didn't think to freeze the extra until it had made its way into Alex and the garbage...)
YUMMY! Way to go on this recipe Martha!
60. Host a baby shower
My cousin Harmony had a lovely little girl, Calista, a month ago, so I decided it was the perfect time to have a shower for them. It was mostly family and the two people who aren't technically family, really are. You know, the kind of family you choose.
Then we rearranged the furniture
Then the guests came (according to J the baby is "eating her Mommy nipple")
J and her cousin P had a blast together
J loved baby Callie
Lots of squishy kisses for baby!
Then we rearranged the furniture
Then the guests came (according to J the baby is "eating her Mommy nipple")
J and her cousin P had a blast together
J loved baby Callie
Lots of squishy kisses for baby!Return of the pedometer
This post was originally published at Get Fit Chicks. It may refer to posts on Get Fit Chicks that no longer exist. Please email me if you run into any of those and I will break the links. More information about the reposting is available here
Just over a year ago, I lamented the loss of my pedometer...I loved it. It was a great way for me to track whether I was getting enough exercise or not.
On Saturday, Alex took the car in to get the winter tires put on and when he was readjusting the seats after they were done, he found the missing pedometer! I can't wait to start using it again. I've been off work this week with some yucky germs my kid generously brought home from daycare and shared with me, so I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I think that since I started driving to work and since we moved offices, I'm way low on my 10,000 step target.
I'm going to readjust and try for 8,000 a day for the first week…otherwise, my body might just scream and yell at me. Gradual reentry, here I come!
Just over a year ago, I lamented the loss of my pedometer...I loved it. It was a great way for me to track whether I was getting enough exercise or not.
On Saturday, Alex took the car in to get the winter tires put on and when he was readjusting the seats after they were done, he found the missing pedometer! I can't wait to start using it again. I've been off work this week with some yucky germs my kid generously brought home from daycare and shared with me, so I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I think that since I started driving to work and since we moved offices, I'm way low on my 10,000 step target.
I'm going to readjust and try for 8,000 a day for the first week…otherwise, my body might just scream and yell at me. Gradual reentry, here I come!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
75. Write at least twice a week for Get Fit Chicks for a month
I did it! I managed to blog at least twice a week for the month of October (yeah, I know it's not over yet, but I already reached the goal)
I think I'll be able to keep up the regular posts...it's that thing about taking three week to make or break a habit!
You can catch my posts over at Get Fit Chicks starting on October 4.
I think I'll be able to keep up the regular posts...it's that thing about taking three week to make or break a habit!
You can catch my posts over at Get Fit Chicks starting on October 4.
98. Bake something yummy for someone special as a surprise
YUMMY!
I made something yummy for a bunch of special people for Thanksgiving...You can read about them here.
They were a surprise...no one knew they were coming. And they were so good. They would be super yummy warmed up a little (or straight from the warm pan) with a dollop of ice cream on top.
YUM!
Yay, two down, 99 to go...
I made something yummy for a bunch of special people for Thanksgiving...You can read about them here.
They were a surprise...no one knew they were coming. And they were so good. They would be super yummy warmed up a little (or straight from the warm pan) with a dollop of ice cream on top.
YUM!
Yay, two down, 99 to go...
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