1.  Allergies.  They zap your energy.  March is typically a terrible month for me, something is blooming that gives me migraines and the only answer to those is drugs and sleep.  I’m really trying to stay on top of it this year by taking my daily allergy meds and it has helped, but the last 3 or so days have gotten almost unbearable.  What to do?

2.  Supplements – I have gotten out of the habit of taking my daily vitamin regime.  I recently replaced my regime with a multivitamin (man, that is less expensive than what I was doing before), but I still supplement that with a few things that support weight loss and good skin (cause you know I’m all about good skin!):  Coenzyme Q-10, L-Carnitine, B-vitamin complex, Selenium.  I must get back on that routine – tomorrow.

3.  Dehydration – very simple, too much coffee, not enough water.  I feel like my body is running on coffee rather than its own energy – this cannot be good.

4.  Lack of exercise – lack of exercise produces a person who doesn’t want to exercise.  Simple as that.  I bought a passel of plants yesterday, tomorrow I vow to get them into the ground.  Probably not as good as a jog down the road, but surely better than sitting on my butt here in the office.

Anything else you can think of that might be bringing me down – or better yet might bring me back up again?  I am really looking forward to a weekend of sleeping in and big afternoon naps, but I really think that isn’t going to solve the problem.

Image:  Matteo Di Nicola, via sxc.hu

Post from: Blisstree

Lacking on Energy? I am.

Image used with permission from OK! Magazine.

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Carnie Wilson’s Weight Loss Struggles Featured in OK! Magazine

These are the garment features and benefits from Yummie Tummie:

• Secret minimizing panel shapes entire waistline
from the bust to the hips, visibly taking off inches
• Firm control microfiber panel comfortably smooth’s and naturally wicks moisture away
• Made with sleek yarns that do not cling
• Exclusive dual fabric strategy provides a modern look and full coverage that stays in place
• Extra long design does not roll up over your belly and is great for layering over or tucking into pants and skirts

If this does what it says, it will be an awesome thing.  This is on my list for the next time I have a few bucks to spend on fashion.  These are available at shopintuition.com and at hipundies.com, from $58-62. 

Have you tried Yummie Tummie’s yet?  If so, please let me know.  I am dying to find out how you like it.

Post from: Blisstree

Is Your Tummie Yummie?

*big sigh*

One of my dearest friends has been really into this Self Challenge for the past couple of go-rounds.  I’m sure she is going to do it this year as well, even though I haven’t heard about it yet.  I have signed up the last two years, and have just signed up for 2008.  Can I get into it?  Maybe – I’m sure going to give it a whirl.  I keep gaining weight – I can feel it and it doesn’t feel good, Ill tell you that much.

This is what it’s all about:

Step 1:  Sign up at Self.com.  You can then enter all of your horrid vital statistics.

Step 2:  Check in.  They will provide you with weekly challenge workouts and an eat-right plan suited for you.  You can track your progress in eating and exercise, download workout videos (cool!) and some other neat interactive stuff.

Step 3:  Get and Give Support.  There is a buddy list function there, and you can chat, send messages, upload photos and even blog.

Step 4:  See Results.  All of these interactive tools do some of the detail work for you so you can keep track of things. 

You can find me at ccjones over there – if you are doing this, please come be my friend.  If anyone needs support here, it is good ol me!

Post from: Blisstree

Trying out the Self Challenge – Year 3

Some of the things that I am concerned about as a mother is not passing on my horrific food habits on to my kids.  Sadly, that doesn’t always work.  But one thing that is really important to me is to teach them to eat breakfast every morning.  I am pretty firm in my belief that it is very important to give your metabolism a kick start after overnight starvation.  I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that breakfasts are served in the schools now – I loved it Monday morning when I woke up tremendously late, but sometimes I am pretty sure that when I feed my kids breakfast at home, and there is a delicious treat being served at school, they are eating twice.  Ugh. 

So what’s the solution?  I think it is to serve a good, tasty and maybe even fun breakfast at home.  I love my heart shaped pancake maker, and my kids just love cherry smoothies (CherryPharm is totally delish) – mix up some cherry juice with some plain yogurt, add a half of a banana, some frozen blueberries and a teaspoon of honey.  It’s one of their favorite meals.

This recipe for a tropical fruit parfait comes from the vitaminwater folks and looks quite tasty too:

1 cup coarsely chopped fresh pineapple

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup low-fat banana yogurt

1 tbsp. rolled oats

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 tbsp. sliced almonds

in small bowl, combine pineapple with cinnamon.  evenly spoon into 2 tall glasses or to-go cups. evenly top with yogurt and oats, and then with strawberries, and almonds. Serve immediately. Pair with vitaminwater: energy to jumpstart your morning and hydrate your skin!!

So, along with my kids, breakfast is important to me too.  My usual breakfast is a bowl of low sugar instant oatmeal (apples and cinnamon – yum).  But I like a good smoothie or a parfait just like the rest of them.

For more information on National Breakfast week, check out the links here and here and here.

Post from: Blisstree

National Breakfast Week

So I have had my eye on eDiets most recently.  I have watched this company for quite a few years now, and they are always so tempting to join, but really over the last year, they have gotten almost irresistible.  They have every diet known to man just about, and they are always up on the current dieting “trends” – isn’t that sad that we have dieting trends??  Currently their featured diets are:

• eDiets.com Weight Loss Diet
• Atkins Diet (check)
• Winter Diet (huh?)
• Glycemic Diet (probably the one I am most interested in)
• Mediterranean Diet
• Slim Fast Optima Diet
• Trim Kids

Mind boggling, no?  There are so many choices.  Which one is right?  Years ago I went on a diet with some of my fellow church goers that was based on the Bible.  Basically it said to really listen to your body, it will tell you when and what to eat.  The Atkins diet wants you to eat like “early man” – meat, veggies, nuts and berries.  To me, these two concepts sort of merge.  I think that these things were put on the earth for us to eat, and that is what we are supposed to be eating.  I don’t know, its a big ol rat race.  What I do know is that I need not have too many choices, it works better for me for someone to tell me exactly what to do. 

I got a horoscope in my email box this morning, it said this:

LEO – The Boss (July 23 – Aug 22)
Very organized. Need order in their lives – like being in control. Like boundaries. Tend to take over everything.  Bossy. Like to help  Others. Social and outgoing.  Extroverted. Generous, warm-hearted. Sensitive. Creative energy. Full of themselves. Loving. Doing the right thing is important to Leos. Attractive.

The part that caught me was the “Like Boundaries.” That has crept up all day for me, and it is creeping up again.  I think I need boundaries, I certainly do in the food department.  Darn it. 

Post from: Blisstree

eDiets on the Brain

1. I have cut WAY back on my smoking. I was planning on quitting totally while in NYC, but I didn’t. What I did do was successfully wean myself from a pack and a half down to <10 cigs a day. And I think I can wean off further. Say a prayer.

2. I have been exercising. One good thing about life in the big city is that you walk a lot. I didn’t walk as much as I had hoped to, but certainly more than I do in a day here. I am very sedentary, and walk to the barn and to the kitchen and bathroom and back to my computer. Yep, that’s about it. I exercised yesterday though, and will do so again tonight. While watching those skinny bitches on Lipstick Jungle. Day two of habit forming. I can do this!

3. That’s about it. I have found myself wanting to eat more – and even made a convenience store trip for a danish – something I NEVER do, and mustn’t do again. And I am going to wash this dieting negativity out of my system and do the best I can. Will weigh in the morning, as I know I gained a few pounds in NYC. So much good food – and we ate it – tons of it. *sigh*

This picture is from the ribbon cutting ceremony at Fashion Week, with the skinny bitches from Lipstick Jungle. Believe it or not, the teeeeny little face closest to the backdrop behind the barricade, is me. I am famous. Brooke Shields is inspirational to me, because I know she has to work to stay THAT skinny. She truly blew my mind, she looked so amazing. Maybe someday – just for a minute.

Post from: Blisstree

Christina Week 6 – On a better track

2.  Feel guilty for not spending proper time with the kids, so when you’re not obsessively working, you are taking care of them.

3.  *Forget* to take care of you.

4.  Buy quick and easy snacks and meals.  They are always great for you.

5.  Don’t plan ahead for success.  Fate will get you there.

6.  Stay up late every night and get up early every morning.  The more you are awake the more calories you are burning, right?

7.  Procrastinate – don’t go shopping when you run out of healthy food.  Eat the crap that’s been hanging out in your cupboards.  After all, people are starving in China. 

8.  Ignore those wonderful and motivating people in your life that get your mind going in the right direction.  Hang out with other procrastinators instead.

9.  Stay in your jammies half the day.  You will never know when your jeans are starting not to fit.

10.  Don’t even bother to start a food journal or write down your exercise plan, it will be a waste of your time.  You know what to eat and that you should exercise.

Does that give you a hint of how my Week 3 has gone?  If you want to stay fat as a rat, follow my lead.   *OMG* I have got to get it together!

Post from: Blisstree

The Secrets of my Non-Success

I am heading to Fashion Week in a couple of weeks, you would think that running around with a bunch of twig people would be inspirational, but no, I just think of every fashionista I know of that isn’t Twiggy and figure I’ll be ok.  They won’t hate me cause I’m fat – will they?  *sigh*  Noel is making me mildly wish I were ill (KIDDING – I know this flu going around has been truly awful – I hope you are doing better!), and Shannon has been talking about a book all day that I guess I need to look into.  Diet and weight issues are always around.  Why is this so hard for me and not for the rest of the world?  *Look around, Christina, you are not alone.  Quit feeling sorry for yourself.  Geesh.*

Are you a Twitterer?  Teri let me know of a neat Twitter application this week, TweetWhatYouEat, that you can use to keep a food diary (assuming you can find the site up without server errors, that is).  I did it for one day this week (ok, only two meals), but I am going to get back to it.  The times in my life I have succeeded in my food battle have been when I have been disciplined enough (ha ha) to keep a journal of what I eat.  I know I eat more than I think I do, and Twitter is available to me several places on my computers, and on my mobile phone.  I CAN do this.  28 days.  Habits.  Get into em.  Geez, if I would spend more time actually doing some of these things instead of thinking about how they will work in my life, I might actually get somewhere. 

Goals for this week (again. ugh.):

1. Exercise, dammit.  Ill be happy if I do it once.  But aim for three.
2. Keep weighing (at least I did this one last week.  It wasn’t pretty.
3. Write down, or twitter, your food!
4. And take those vitamins!

Back to basics again.  I’m leaving right now to take my father in law’s car back to him and I’m walking home. ~ 1 mile.  I can do this.

Post from: Blisstree

Week 2 – Christina – Uh, been a bad diet week

Well, I have had a decent first week. My goals for this week were to get back in the habit of taking my vitamins and other medications (glucophage, chantix), to get a little exercise, and to eat right. Well, almost 2 out of three ain’t bad, is it? Yeah, kinda bad.

I did wonderfully in the medication/veeta-vita-vegemin department. Not quite a habit yet, but at least I am remembering and getting my butt out of bed to take them when I forget. 21 more days to go til it becomes a habit. Eating this week was fairly good, practiced great portion control – until last night, at Project Runway time, I had a Chips Ahoy craving that just wouldnt go away (its coming up on that craving time of the month), and I succombed. Boo. Not great for diabetes and certainly not great for my gut. Ah well, back on the wagon today.

Exercise – well, that pretty much stunk. Unless you count bailing water out of the cabin of a boat? That was a pretty good workout, so Ill count one day of exercise in there. This is a really hard one for me – partially because I smoke, and exercise just isn’t fun, and partially because there is just no convenient time of the day to be sweaty. I would be thrilled if you had any advice on how to get in to an exercise routine. As I said before, I would honestly love to be a fitness maniac. I have sort of been there before, and it was. as Martha would say, A Good Thing.

Goals for this week: EXERCISE – work up a sweat 3 times minimum. Keep on working towards that vitamin habit. Start weighing again – its been awhile, and when its been awhile, I just don’t wanna do it at all. Work up a rewards plan with my hubby – 20 lbs lost, I need a reward. 40 lbs lost, I need a better reward. 60 lbs gone, gosh, I can’t imagine what I would deserve. Sadly, I have a new wardrobe already hanging in my closet. I’ll be thinking about it though…whatever works.

Have you started a new diet/exercise plan in the New Year? Tell me about it – I need some diet buddies.

Post from: Blisstree

Christina’s Week 1