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Tasks and Chilling

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Day 192 in my ambling toward the Magic Kingdom to meet up with Mickey (7 months and 27 days to go)

There is nothing quite as delightful as sleeping in on a Monday morning of vacation.  I had that pleasure this morning.

Today’s plan is to take care of business and to thoroughly enjoy NOT going out into the cold day.

Shower…check.  Breakfast…check.  Write bills for the month…check.  Relax and watch a Disney movie with  a sugar-free pumpkin flavored coffee…check.  (I watched Bears on one of the movie channels.  So  good!)  What a blissful day!  Still to come: get our 2014 taxes together, do some laundry, and prepare a delicious, nutritious dinner for my man and me.  Oh, yeah, and one more cup of piping-hot coffee in front of the TV with my feet up.  (Take that , sore toe!)

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Shining Light into the Darkness

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Day 191 in my seeking to be a healthier me when I meet Mickey (7 months and 28 days to go)

As an obese overeater, I have learned some very self-destructive behaviors.  I learned early on to isolate myself, so that I could hide my poor eating habits.  Alone, I could binge on my sugary treats to my heart’s content.  Only my heart was never content, and I was always filled with self-loathing after I binged.

Now looking back I can see how strange that must sound.  When your drug of choice is food (sugar and salty carbs in particular), it should be pretty obvious that you are going to gain weight and people who see you will pretty much be aware of your drug of choice.  But at the time I felt I had to hide my poor eating habits from the public at large.  (Excuse the pun.)

So part of my strategy, to break out of old patterns, is to become more sociable, to bring what I have hidden in darkness, out into the light.  It’s a terrifying process, but it is a healthy process.

So today I got up and went to church.  I worshipped the God that loves me and sees the beauty in me that I cannot truly yet see myself, and I visited with some other church family members.  It was wonderful to share and to listen to these dear ladies share with me.  There was First Communion today, and 12 fourth and fifth graders took their First Communion with their families.  Beautiful!  They used chalices that they had painted themselves and shared their cup with their family.  (My favorite chalice was the one with the Cubs symbol on one side and a cross on the other side. LOL)  BTW: I passed up the amazing looking cake that was there to celebrate with the kids today.  Victory!

Then rather than going home and holing up for the rest of the day, I went and visited with my dear sister-friend, Joan.  She is a bit homebound because of health issues and winter-itis.  I had a wonderful, long visit Jo.  We chatted about everything.  She is my barefoot friend.  The kind of friend that you can share anything with.  Nothing is off limits.  We’ve been through Curves together.  We’ve been to Overeaters Anonymous together.  We have seen so much together.  She has seen me at my best and at my worst, and she loves me just the same.  She is a living, breathing example of the love of God in my life.  I came home feeling very blessed.

That’s it for today, dear readers.  I pray that all is well with you and yours, and that you are able to spend time with the living God who loves you today.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Spending Some QT

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Day 190 in my quest to be a better me when I meet Mickey

My Valentine is taking me out for dinner tonight, so today’s plan is to not overdo it.  I plan to make the best choices possible.  It is a holiday, so I will thoroughly enjoy our date.  BUT I won’t use it as an excuse to overeat.  Instead I want to concentrate on my man, our conversation, and just our quality time together.  A simple enough plan for a simple enough me on a simple enough date.

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Happy VD!

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Day 189 in my journey to meet Mickey

Today is all about VD.

What?  I only mean Valentine’s Day.  My Valentine has been conscripted to spend tomorrow night and Sunday night housesitting. So tonight I made him the meal that helped him to fall in love with me.  Meatloaf, baked potato, and lots of fresh veggies with his favorite, Ranch dip.  Seriously, he LOVES my meatloaf.  🙂

I have adapted my recipe as follows: I now use 90% lean ground beef, onion, garlic, reduced-sugar catsup, yellow mustard, one egg, salt, pepper and moistened whole grain bread.  It is such a satisfying meal on a cold winter’s night.

Tonight is all about pampering my main squeeze.  (I made sure to run out and pick up a card for him for tomorrow morning.)  He still makes my heart pitty-patter.  He is the love of my life, second only to Jesus.  🙂

I am wishing you love for this holiday.  And if you don’t have a Valentine this year, then treat yourself special.  After all if we are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, then we’d better learn to love ourselves, right?  Happy VD!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Walking the Walk

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Day 188 in my walk towards my main mouse Mickey  (8 months and 1 day to go!)

If you been following my blog lately, then you know what a tough time I’ve had walking.  My toe is definitely on the mend, but it is happening slowly.  My plan for today was to research a reasonable walking plan, so I can get started again.  I am on vacation next week, (Woo Hoo!) which I think is a great time to get started.  I can go to the Lake Bluff Health and Fitness Club, or I can just walk out my front door and take a brisk walk.

My thanks go to the Mayo Clinic again for this do-able plan:

Week     Walking Schedule (time, # of days a week)      Weekly Total

1                15 minutes, 2 days                                                         30 minutes

2                15 minutes, 3 days                                                         45 minutes

3                20 minutes, 3 days                                                         60 minutes

4                 25 minutes, 3 days                                                        75 minutes

5 & 6        30 minutes, 3 days                                                        90 minutes

7 & 8        30 minutes, 4 days                                                      120 minutes

9 & 10     30 minutes, 5 days                                                      150 minutes

Looks pretty good, right?  So on Monday I will begin.  Although I may take my toe on a brief pre-walk this weekend to see how it does.

Wish me luck, my peeps.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

 

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February Payday

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Day 187 in my journey to meet up with Mickey

Six months ago I began this pilgrimage to better health so I can enjoy our Walt Disney World vacation in October of this year.  (8 months and 2 days to go!)  Today was once again payday; it was time to step on the scale.  I am only weighing myself once a month, because although I do want to lose weight, I mostly want to live a healthier lifestyle period.  Things have slowed way down this month.  I chalk it up to:

  1. winter (I’ve been told that from Stone-Age times we are programmed to hold on to our fat in the winter months, which means I’m hoping for more progress in spring/summer/autumn months)
  2. 59 years of age
  3. my body adjusting to a completely different lifestyle
  4. my difficulty walking because of my sore toe

Even with all of that working against me, I lost another pound this month.  (I took a pound of butter out of the refrigerator to see what that feels like, and frankly, I’m glad this month’s pound is gone.)  So now I’m down 38 pounds.  I’ll take it.  I do feel a lot better than I did 6 months ago.  Even if I am making SLOW progress, it’s still progress, right?

Meet you at the Kingdom!

 

 

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Two-part Plan

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Day 186 in my trek toward Mickey

Today’s plan was twofold:

  1. To go back to see my podiatrist.  He  ripped a silk drain out of my toe.  Ouch!   But it seems that it is healing nicely after my “procedure” last week.  I am so ready for it to heal so I can get back to walking without so much pain.
  2. To meet with Shelly ( a sister-friend from church) and brainstorm ideas for our women’s retreat in April.  We met at Panera.  (I had a plain skim latte and a yogurt parfait.  So good!)  After talking through the retreat, I left excited about this opportunity for God to accomplish great things.

So that was today.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

BTW: Cathy–I couldn’t stop thinking about you today at Panera.  Sure do miss you!  Looking forward to being together in September!

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Investigating Mayo Clinic Diabetes Diet

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Day 185 in my researching my way to a healthier me for meeting Mickey in the Magic Kingdom (8 months and 4 days to go!)

My plan for today was to start reading Mayo Clinic Diabetes Diet.  (OK, nobody panic.  I am not diabetic; however, I am pre-diabetic, so the time for action is NOW.)  The book was delivered to my work place yesterday.  I began reading it as I ate my lunch.  I made it through two chapters while I ate.  In my Day 182 blog, I listed the 5 habits this diet wants you to add:

  1. Eat a healthy breakfast.
  2. Eat vegetables and fruits.
  3. Eat whole grains.
  4. Eat healthy fats.
  5. Move!  30 minutes or more every day.

It sounds so sensible.  And what I like about it, so far, is that it doesn’t claim to be a quick fix.  It promises to be a lifestyle change, a way to live the rest of your life in a healthier manner.

I dig it because I want to be well on my way to a healthier me when I shake Mickey’s hand at the Magic Kingdom in October.  Maybe he’ll even give me a hug!  Gosh, I LOVE Walt Disney World!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

BTW: I do not have unrealistic expectations.  I just want to be moving in a direction that I can be happy about when I get to Florida.  Then after the trip, I’ll pick another goal and continue this journey.  AND more about this diet to come.  🙂

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Making a Menu of Meals

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Day 184 in my planning for my meeting with Mickey at the Magic Kingdom in October (8 months and 5 days to go!)

Today my plan is to write out my menu for the week and prepare my shopping list.  I’m going to do it a little differently this time.  In order to add more steps into my daily routine, I am going to organize my list by days and stop off every day after work to pick up the ingredients for that evening’s meal.

I found a cookbook on my shelf with quick and easy meals for diabetics.  I am pre-diabetic, but I am trying to avoid full blown diabetes so I will pick some recipes from this cookbook this week.

That’s the plan, man.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Accepting the Challenges

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Day 183 in my challenges as I try to change before meeting Mickey in October (8 months and 6 days to go)

I have made a habit out of hiding behind my weight.  I would participate in some activities; however, I would, in general, try to avoid leadership positions.  But I am taking a huge first step to turn that around.  I have volunteered to lead our Women’s Retreat at church in April.  I have two distinct feelings about this.  (1) I am excited at the thought of experiencing this retreat with our ladies.  It’s called Cafe Chocolat.  It will be a study on the extravagant grace of God.  AND (2) I am absolutely terrified at the prospect of “the buck stopping here.”  I am asking women to pay $35 for fellowship, worship, Bible study and lunch.  This will inevitable drive me to my knees in prayer.  “Help, me, Jesus!

My plan for today was to get a complete overview of the retreat by re-reading all the materials.  And then to start formulating plans to implement the retreat.  So I did.  It took me approximately four hours to get through it all.  I came away (1) excited and (2) overwhelmed.  but mostly excited.  This will be a wonderful retreat if the women will embrace it, AND we get chocolate.  Just a little, but enough to feel a bit pampered.  (And I hope to find good sugar-free chocolate for those of us who are avoiding the white stuff.)

So here’s to the new me: the person who welcomes the challenges that God sends my way and even thanks Him for those challenges.  🙂

Meet you at the Kingdom!