Celiac blood test results are… Inconclusive!  Next stop…. Gastroenterologist! That’s assuming I can get an appointment…

I leave you with this cute slide scan from what I can only guess from the date on the slide is Easter 1980.  I’m on the left, my sister, S on the right.  Her blog is 6skinnyfeet.

Did mom actually put lipstick on us for this or is that colored chapstick/lipgloss, or is it just a trick of the image? Curious.

Things I learned from eliminating all dairy so far:

• Eliminating anything dairy related is really really hard.  Butter, cream, milk are only the beginning.  There’s stuff like whey and casein in lots of stuff.
• I don’t think I’m lactose intolerant. My symptoms have not gone away, but I’ll stick it out the two weeks.  Supposedly lactose intolerance symptoms can last 2 hours to 2 days.  Looking forward to a big glass of milk and some PIZZA.
• Soy yogurt is more like low sugar pudding.  And expensive! And not low cal! 160 calories in 6oz!  At least it was edible
• Most margarines have milk derivatives (whey) in them.  Nucoa margarine does not!
• Trader Darwin’s (Joe’s) Vanilla Soy protein powder is icky and chalky.  I just don’t think I like soy protein powders period.
• MRM Egg White Protein powder is fine, but it would be awesome without so much stevia in it. Let me add my own sweetener!
• Blue Diamond Vanilla Almond Breeze (milk) is YUM.  Makes great smoothies.  I can even drink it straight, which can’t be said for soy milk.
• Trader Joe’s Soy Mozzarella cheese is good melted on pasta.  I didn’t care for it cold from the package though.
• Asian food is a safe bet to usually be lactose-free. Asians have a way higher percentage of the population that are lactose intolerant.
• Good dark chocolate has NO DAIRY!

One more week to go.  No results back from the Celiac test yet.

Carry on!  Mooooooooo!

image courtesy of http://www.freefoto.com/

I’ve been ignoring this poor little blog! Started a new routine today, some serious strength training. I got “The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess” and started the first workout today. My health eating has been going well and with adding some more protein for the strength training, I think I have a handle on it for now.

Stats!

Age: 34
Height: 5′ 7″
Weight: 221
Hips: 51″
Waist: 41″

Stage 1, Workout A
Warmup: 5 min ergometer

A: Squat: 2 sets: (Body Weight) BWx15, BWx15 (with wooden dowel)
B1: Pushup: 45 degrees, 2 sets: 8, 6
B2: Seated Row: 2 sets: 30#x15, 45#x15
C1: Step-Ups (Bench about 8″ high): 2 sets: 16#x15, 16#x15
C2: Prone Jackknife: 2 sets: 6,8

Cardio: None. Could barely walk. Princess Jellylegs!
Stretching: Lots. No walking involved!

Comments:

Squat: A lot harder than I thought going in. I was never getting thighs parallel to the floor in group fitness classes. 15 plain old squats with decent form made me huff and puff. I’m going to wait a while to try it with the barbell in the safety rack as I don’t have enough flexibility in my arms and shoulders to hold the bar on my back. (I’ll probably try dumbbell squats first). I did one set with a long wooden dowel I found in the weight room and did some extra stretching with that later. My left side is much worse due to a frozen shoulder I had a few years ago that I never quite got all the range of motion back from.

Pushup: Done at about 45 degree angle on the counter. Someday I’ll make it to the floor. I can do about 1/2 of one on the floor with my knees down Its so much harder when you’re over weight, that’s a lot of pounds to push up!

Seated Row: Yup. Not terribly exciting. Need to try next weight up next time.

Step-Ups: Not much to say here either except my legs were feeling like jelly at the end

Prone Jackknife: I’m sure I gave the boys a good show. I had drug the step for the stepups over to the uncrowded end of the weight room and pulled out a squishy mat and a ball. I couldn’t get my shins on the ball but I got plenty of workout with my thighs on it. I also had to use my fists (on the squishy mat) because of the ganglion cysts in my wrists. I can’t bend them to an appropriate angle to have hands flat on the mat (same with pushups). I thought it would be much more painful on my hands than it was! Yippee!

I wish there was a step in the Cardio Room, then I wouldn’t feel so stupid doing the jackknifes in the weight room. There’s not much room to maneuver, but I figured since there were already swiss balls in the room, it was ok.

I go to a community rec center that has a large weight room with free weights, a zillion weight machines, benches, smith machine, and a safety rack. It also has a few swiss balls and small mats. The cardio room has a bunch of different cardio machines, free weights, stretching area.

Today I was the only female in there the whole 45 min I was there. At least there were no grunting/spitting/dropping weight men there tonight.

We’ll see how sore I am tomorrow!

Lovely weekend in Vancouver, BC before a business conference. I rented a bike from Spokes. Great place, good prices and right next to the park. I had soooo much fun I forgot to turn my Forerunner on until a 1/4 way through. The Giant Revive comfort bike was great. The seawall around Stanley park is mostly level, so it is an easy ride for anyone. The bike trail is also separated for the most part from the pedestrian trail and the bike trail is one way (counter clockwise) around the park so you don’t have to worry about oncoming bike traffic. Spokes gave me a helmet and a lock so I could stop and lock up the bike if needed.

More pictures from the ride on Flickr.

Some new healthy food I tried last week..

Wasa Oat Crispbread - 60 calories, 2g fiber. Very dry, I would never eat these by themselves, but great with some Light Laughing Cow cheese (regular or garlic/herb) which makes a total of a 95 calorie snack! Also great with some roasted garlic hummus. Just thinking about it makes me hungry

Orange varieties: Cara Cara pink navels (inside they look but DON’T taste like grapefruit) and blood oranges (dark red!). I like these better than regular oranges and they taste more berry-orange than orange. Too bad their growing season is short.

Baked Turkey Meatballs - I had never made meatballs before, but I had just bought 1.5 lbs of ground turkey from Trader Joes. I cobbled together a few recipes from the internet. I would definately use half the onion next time and some garlic (which I forgot)

Baked Turkey Meatballs
Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
meatballs:

• 1.5 lbs ground turkey
• 1 onion, minced (I would half this, they came out way too onion-y)
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp garlic (I forgot this when I made them!)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (plain)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten

meatball coating:

• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

Mix meatball ingredients well with you hands. Keep some warm water running if your meat is really cold, I ended up with frozen fingers.

From into balls about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Roll in coating. Place on parchment paper in pan.

Bake at 400F for 20 min, or until done inside.

Eat or freeze! Great with some marinara or by themselves.

I tried to get the nutritional information out of my MacGourmet software but it didn’t have ground turkey! I need to make these again and take some pictures and figure out the nutritional info.

I got a little excited when I heard last week that Starbucks would now have a sugar-free mocha syrup. You can now order a non-fat no-whip sugar free mocha just as a “Skinny Mocha”, which frankly saves a lot of verbiage that the baristas have to hear over the noise of the store. Unfortunately their sugar-free mocha syrup tastes icky to me. Even putting in my usually cinnamon doesn’t mask the aftertaste. I’m not sure what sweetener they’re using. It doesn’t taste like Splenda to me. I think I’ll stick to plain old hot tea and a mocha with regular syrup occasionally.

• Lost 21 pounds including (Chart below. It looks like I petered out about May)
  • -3.5 inches on my hips
  • -3.5 inches on my waist
  • -1 inch on my chest
• Took Aerobics classes most of the year
  • Dance ‘n Fit - Dancing aerobics and a little resistance band work.
  • Boot Camp - much better, no thinking involved, lots of weight work but bad on my knees.
• Started running
  • Ran a 5k race in June
  • Ran 79.87 miles in 2007
• Took 5 or so loads of stuff to Goodwill, still lots of stuff to purge
• Paid off all credit cards
• Doubled student loan payments for 1/4 of the year

That’s it! Not too bad for lazy old me. 2008 will be better than ever!

Updated 1/3/08 with prettier chart from Excel

Here they are. Just doing some of this should help me lose more weight. I did much better on the exercise front in 2007, so 2008 is all about incorporating the eating right.

• Track food eaten and calories. Always!!
  • I order a journal from Laura at Starling Fitness. I start on Jan 1, 2008! I’ll try and write a review.
• Drink more water
  • and less soda. I’m doing well so far at keeping away from the non-diet stuff (except the occasional Dr. Pepper)
• Eat fewer refined carbs
  • Eat more un-refined carbs, meaning whole grains and lots of fiber
• Eat more, but smaller meals
  • This really seems to help me not feel hungry and no low blood sugar meltdowns
• Eat a lot more vegetables
  • Find new ways to cook the ones I like
  • Explore more vegetables
• Eat more lean protein
• Eat less fat (I’m looking at you, butter!)
• Eat less sugar and sweets (that includes you, chocolate!)
  • also try not to eat fake sweeteners (This will be hard)
• Take daily multi-vitamins
• Eat more fruit. I have done fairly well with this is 2007. There are more fruits I like than vegetables
• Eat less processed stuff
• Cook more (also hard, involve the part I hate more… the cleaning up)
• Grow some food (may be difficult, I live in an apartment with no balcony, just a front area open to wandering neighbors and animals)

A brand new blog! I need somewhere to track and monitor my path to personal improvement. This will cover…

Health and Fitness
No diets… lifestyle changes! Diets don’t work. Permanent life long changes in the way I eat and exercise. I started this a bit in 2007, I managed to lose 20 pounds. I have another 80 to lose and that takes daily dedication on the eating and exercising fronts.

Organization and Purging
Finding ways to manage my lazy and pack rack tendencies. This will also be a daily battle. I did get rid of multiple car loads of things in 2007, but I have a lot to go.

Finances
Keeping my finances in check and keeping up with my current savings and retirement funds. In 2007 I paid off all my credit cards and started an emergency fund, which is now at $5000. I need to look into getting a Roth IRA and other investment vehicles.

Hopefully keeping track and making goals will help me accomplish a few things that need doing!
I could spend days planning or whining about what I should be doing… I just need to do it. “Make it so!”