Change

Monday, September 03, 2012

Life is such a journey! I have been spending lots of time visiting with my middle daughter. She is such an excellent example of eating healthily. Once upon a time when the kids were little we only ate from our organic garden and all bread was made at home. Gradually over time, as I started to work more, my diet choices suffered and were not always the best. We still ate from our garden but other foods crept into our lives. Think ores and microwave popcorn and just run of the mill basic JUNK food.
My daughter started me thinking when she said that she felt so fortunate that in her formative years she was exposed to such good food and eating habits. Wow I DID used to have very good eating habits and food choices! What in the world happened!!! Then I decided it would be counter productive to try and figure out all of that! I guess the SHORT story would be LIFE happened! The great part about that is that I can change it back to the way it was before I got side tracked!
ENTER the vita mix blender and green smoothies, trips to the Whole Foods store to supplement what we don't have growing, lots of green veggies, fruits, seeds, nuts and spending a little more time in the kitchen. EXIT the white carbs, processed foods, meats, frozen healthy choice meals and sugar.
Ahhhh I really am returning to my old ways and I am ecstatic!

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Green Beans

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

These days I am out in the garden ALOT! Today I realized that the some of the green beans were going to be in danger of becoming chicken food if I didn't address them ASAP. As I pulled up some of the more mature plants an image of my Mom floated in front of my eyes. She grew up during the depression in a small town in southeastern Massachusetts. Like many families in that era the backyard garden and chicken coop was common. My Mom tells of eating greens beans and carrots everyday for lunch and dinner. She ate so many of them that she came to HATE them and when she became an adult never ate them AGAIN!
My Grandfather was the Secretary of the YMCA and in those days the Y was quite a bit different. Middleboro was a town located along the tracks and many a hungry men simply travelled around looking for work. As a result many stayed at the Y. HUNGER there was common place. One day she convinced my Grandmother that they really should SHARE the bounty and even offered to pick and cook them so that those hungry people could have some FOOD! She thought she was pulling the wool over her mother's eyes but I think they were just helping her learn the importance of helping others less fortunate. The funny thing is, today I too, will share the bounty as my husband and I bring our extra vegetables to the senior citizen complex in our town.
Life's circle just continues..........

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Oh DEAR the UGLY TRUTH

Monday, July 16, 2012

Last week I had ONE Green Light Day! What happened? That is a very good question! It was not my exercise because I managed to keep that up - water aerobics 5 times last week. (Since I am being truthful my ST and my Pilates were not as good). Anyway it all had to do with stress and how I handle or in this case DID NOT handle it! I am not going to beat myself up because that will be counter productive! I will just move on.

Things to work on this week!
1. Maintaining calorie range and drink your water
2. Eat plenty of veggies
3. Do your ST 3 times a week and Pilates 3 times a week
4. Do water aerobics 4 times a week
5. Meditate Meditate Meditate


Clearly I need a plan for when I want to STRESS EAT!

1. Drink some water
2. Meditate
3. Keep the popcorn and pizza out of the house. Find another place for DH's oreos.
4. Spark instead of eat
5. A little more planning couldn't hurt and don't forget the garden!
6. If all else fails REMOVE yourself from the HOUSE! Some how it is harder to eat when you are outside or in the pool swimming!


Stay tuned I am really hoping for the beginning of a GREEN LIGHT STREAK!

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Green Light Yellow Light Red Light

Friday, June 29, 2012

So I have to admit fellow Sparkers that I am rather archaic when it comes to all the different technology we have today. I have a I MAC (that I can kind of use) and I text on my cell which is NOT a Smart phone and that is the extent of my knowledge. I have a Facebook page but I can't really figure out how to use it and I keep wishing that the Facebook page could work as easily as the SparkPeople site does!
What I do have and use regularly is an old fashion leather date book that has a calendar and journal pages in it. I have been working so hard to lose weight and inches but so far I have been stymied! I might have lost a pound or two but considering my effort it has been a dismal response. In part that is why I am so excited about the 5% Summer Challenge. Feeling like you are part of a TEAM trying to achieve what a times feels like the unattainable is a WONDERFUL THING!
This brings me back to my blog title - Green Light Yellow Light Red Light ! In order to understand why I have NOT been losing inches and pounds I have come up with a kind of grading that I assign at the end of my day. If I have been able to achieve drinking my water, maintaining my exercise objectives and eating within my calorie range I award myself a GREEN dot. A Yellow dot is given when I feel I did not give 100% to meeting my objectives and a Red dot when I did not met my expectations at all.
I started this system June 1st and it has really opened my eyes. It has taken me almost the whole month to string together 7 consecutive GREEN LIGHT days. As part of my accountability promise to myself I will step on the scale tomorrow and will announce what I hope will be a falling number.
The best part about this is that if I succeed I win and if I don't - I still win because all my s will continue to support me - many offering encouragement and advice that will allow me to keep on ! Stayed tuned!

Sal

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Sal's Simply Superb Sensational Saturday : )

Saturday, June 23, 2012

I thought our heat wave would break during the night and since the house was cool I turned off the AC before I went to bed. I woke up at 4:30 am absolutely drenched - the bedroom was stifling and the air outside still hot and humid. I tried for 30 minutes to go back to sleep and finally gave up at 5 am.
I had been feeling a little under the weather lately and had put off doing my normal chores so I had some catching up to do. By 3:45 pm I had accomplished the following:
Vacuumed, dusted, washed the floors, cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom, did 3 loads of laundry folded and put away, went to water aerobics at 8 am, did my ST 30 minutes and Pilates 25 minutes, took out the kitchen scraps to the hens and weeded the front garden for 2 1/2 hours!
I feel !
On top of accomplishing all my to do list TODAY is the FIRST Day of the 5% Summer Challenge!
GO

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