Diet & Exercise

Two of my least favorite words are DIET & EXERCISE.  Here again, it's simply a mind set boiling down to choices I make.  I can chose!  My recent upgrade in the healthier living department has produced plenty of challenges.  I adore bread, pasta and mostly heavily carb loaded meals.  They make me happy or so I thought till I started living with terrible pain in the form of Trigeminal Neuralgia and being diagnosed as basically borderline diabetic.  Not saying bread and yummy carbs made me ill ~ most likely it boils down to my lack of self control in eating balanced meals and an extreme lack of exercise tho I do run after 4 little ones all day long which I really think should count for something?! Right?
When I met Dr. Jason Bradley, my current doc who is walking me thru the process of these life style changes I had no idea what all he was going to put me thru.  Not only did he say I need to take a break from grains, he said I have to watch calories (something I have NEVER done) and exercise.  UGGGH!! He took lots of tests (including 8 whole tubes of blood) and figured out what was good for my body and what was not.  Right off the top he eliminated corn, peas, peanuts, pork and garlic, that last one just about put me over the edge - I eat (well ate) garlic in everything.  Some of the foods I will probably never eat again (the first 4 are on my severe list).  I do have a huge list of foods I can eat in abundance, most fruits, lots of veggies, beef, turkey, fish etc. and hey I can eat cocoa!  So life is good!  One of my first responses was despair at the items I couldn't eat but somewhere along the way I decided to rule the list instead of letting the list rule me.  In other words, find ways to deliciousness despite my limitations.
One of my favorite concoctions is my daily lunchtime smoothie which has high greens content and is super yummy.  I am blessed to have a Vitamix which makes the best smoothies EVER hands down!  Plus it is filling and comes in at about 100 calories more or less.
Here is the recipe:

• 2-3  c baby spinach (depends how "green" you are ;) 
• 1/2 c frozen whole strawberries
• 1/2 c frozen pineapple chunks
• 1/3 c frozen blackberries
• 1/4 c pomegranite seeds
• 1 c water

My trusty Vitamix and my yummy lunch!

Secondly Dr. Bradley gave me a fabulous 4 minute exercise program to follow, Tabatas.  Haven't heard of them?  I hadn't either. Basically you exercise in 20 second time segments then rest 10 seconds, doing that for a total of 8 cycles, making a grand total of 4 minutes of our precious time but having the same effect, if done correctly, as a 20-30 run!  I can do that.  There is not a lot written on line about Tabatas the way he explained them to me, but, his program is working.  I did find a fabulous timer on line that I pinned and use in my sessions. I usually do a combination of jumping jacks, running in place and half pushups and trust me, the 4 minute part is fab but I usually feel like I am going to die at the end but man is it adrenalin rush to actually realize that not only can I cross an item of my should do list but I feel great afterwards too once the heart rate slows down ;)  

 The particular timer that I use is this one :   http://tabatatimer.com/ 

You can get it as an app for your phone but since my phone isn't that smart I just exercise by my computer.

On down this particular link on the right hand side is an encouraging paragraph about choosing exercise and how doing something is better then doing nothing!

Lastly Dr. Bradley introduced me to http://www.loseit.com/.  It is a free fabulous way to track eating and exercise, charting weight loss and helping you set goals.  Check it out!  

My conclusion is that my attitude and how well I use the tools God has blessed me with will make the biggest impact on my viewpoint of my two "favorite" words.